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The Great British Pinball Podcas Episode 25 - Is pinball in a panic?

The Great British Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 31m·analyzed·Jun 21, 2025
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Analysis

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TL;DR

Pinball industry struggles with launch execution quality across recent major releases despite strong game design.

Summary

Neil McCrae and Scott Rundell discuss whether the pinball industry is in panic mode following recent major game releases (Evil Dead, Kong, Dune, Harry Potter, Predator, I Ain't Got Time to Bleed). They analyze launch execution quality, licensing complications, marketing failures, and code issues, crediting Spooky for a flawless Evil Dead launch while criticizing other manufacturers for poor planning, leaked assets, and complacency in product release strategies.

Key Claims

  • Evil Dead by Spooky Pinball launched with no drama, no reliability issues, and no AI art

    high confidence · Neil explicitly congratulates Spooky: 'they launched Evil Dead. It's beautiful. It plays great. It's reliable. They've totally nailed it.'

  • Predator gameplay video was leaked by a distributor and was never meant to be publicly released at that stage

    high confidence · Daniel (Pinball Brothers CEO) stated on record that the gameplay video was 'never meant to come out' and was early indication to distributors only; Scott confirms 'it was under nda'

  • Pinball Brothers marketing person responsible for initial video leak (uploaded then unlisted instead of private) has faced backlash from the community

    high confidence · Neil notes the person has been 'taken to the chopping block' and 'feels like metaphorically at least...that whole tease thing has turned into farce'

  • Predator stand-up targets are improved over Alien's problematic versions which had metal that bent easily and snapped after hits

    high confidence · Scott details experience with Alien stand-up target revisions; Predator brochure includes 'super stand-up targets' tongue-in-cheek reference

  • Harry Potter artwork still has problems and did not come with proper film assets at launch

    high confidence · Neil: 'Even Harry Potter had problems, as you know, with the artwork. It still does, by the way.'

  • Evil Dead experienced a coil failure and blown MOSFET after heavy play but Spooky sent replacement parts within 48 hours

    high confidence · Neil reports: 'dropped them an email told them what happened they sent me...within two days from the us to the uk two days of priority delivery'

  • Stern's decision to use unlicensed Kong IP was driven by licensing difficulties with major licensors becoming increasingly difficult to work with

    medium confidence · Neil suggests: 'Stern went with their own unlicensed version of Kong...because working with these licensors is super difficult and getting more and more difficult'

Notable Quotes

  • “Is the pinball industry in a panic? Because we've had some amazing games released over the last, I don't know what, three months? Yeah. Big IPs, let's give it that.”

    Neil McCrae @ early in episode — Sets the episode's central question about industry stress and launch execution

  • “Complacency. It is the scariest word known to man. Complacency.”

    Neil McCrae @ mid-episode — Neil's core diagnosis of why manufacturers are failing on basic execution tasks

  • “The hard part about pinball is building the freaking game. Launching it should be like, it's here. You know?”

    Scott Rundell @ early-mid episode — Captures the core frustration: game design is solved, logistics/marketing should be straightforward

  • “once it's on the internet it can't be removed marketing genius that said somehow delete it no, it's like...once it's out there on the internet, it never ever ever goes away it's just impossible right so just don't do it”

    Neil McCrae @ mid-episode — Neil's philosophy on leak management: own it or prevent it, don't try to suppress it

  • “they didn't have to do that, they could have just sent the MOSFETs. I really appreciate them doing that. And literally, 24-hour turnaround. Sorry, 48-hour turnaround. It's hard to complain about that.”

    Neil McCrae @ discussing Evil Dead support — Praise for Spooky's customer support and contrast to other manufacturers' handling of issues

  • “if it's an original title it shouldn't be priced more expensive than an actual ip like predator or harry potter it shouldn't”

    Neil McCrae @ Kong pricing discussion — Community pushback on Kong's premium pricing despite lack of major IP license

  • “the playfield on it Jack Danger you're a fucking superstar mate that playfield will be I genuinely think it will be seen as an all time classic”

    Neil McCrae @ X-Men discussion — High praise for playfield design while criticizing code execution separately

Entities

Neil McCraepersonScott RundellpersonSpooky PinballcompanyEvil DeadgamePinball BrotherscompanyPredatorgameStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community resistance to Kong's premium pricing for unlicensed IP; Neil expresses hesitation about supporting non-IP games at $15k+ price points

    medium · Neil: 'I'm not going to sit there and put down 15 bags of sand on an original IP...it shouldn't be priced more expensive than an actual ip like predator or harry potter'

  • ?

    product_concern: Code quality lag on Kong/X-Men despite excellent playfield design; Jack Danger's public criticism and subsequent post deletion suggests tension between design and development teams

    high · Neil: 'very hard for me to defend it especially when Jack Danger himself has put out a post which then got somehow deleted'; suggests unresolved issues and poor communication

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern relying on same voice actor for call-outs across multiple games since Jurassic Park limiting variety and freshness; audience recognition of repetition indicates fatigue

    medium · Neil: 'you just hear him in everything now. Even one is like...it sounds almost identical to do this to fight Godzilla' suggesting audience fatigue with repetition

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Playfield design quality (Kong, X-Men) contrasts sharply with code execution issues, indicating design talent/resources are not matched by software development capability at Stern

    high · Neil repeatedly praises playfield 'Jack Danger you're a fucking superstar' but immediately transitions to 'it's hard for me to defend it [the code]'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Major licensing complications affecting multiple releases (Predator/Disney, Dune/Lionsgate, Harry Potter) causing asset delays and forcing manufacturers to launch with incomplete content

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.275

0:00
Welcome to the Great British Pinball Podcast, and here are your hosts Scott Rundell and Neil McRae. No! God!
0:54
Run! Get to the podcast! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's me, it's my amazing friend, the most hard-working person in pinball. I wouldn't say that. Scott Rundle, how are you, Scott? Hi, Neil, how are you doing, all right? Yeah, welcome to episode X of the Great British Pinball Podcast. I think it's 24, but I might be wrong for that. And if it's 24, we should really have a Keith or Sutherland impression here.
1:34
But I can't remember anything about 24 other than the ringtone that was on the Cisco phones. How are you, Scott? I'm good, man. Yeah, it's hot. I notice you've got a rather interesting background. Well, it's been selectively positioned so that it doesn't offend any, like, you know, Fox licensing or anything like that. Yeah, you know what? Scott, you don't want to release something before it's properly approved, do you?
2:02
Exactly that. Oh, my God. Imagine that. And unfortunately, we're going to start with, is the pinball industry in a panic? Because we've had some amazing games released over the last, I don't know what, three months? Yeah.
2:23
Big IPs, let's give it that. Yeah, big IPs. And actually, I'm going to start by saying a massive congratulations to Spooky Pinball. because they launched Evil Dead. It's beautiful. It plays great. It's reliable. They've totally nailed it.

X-Men playfield design by Jack Danger will be considered an all-time classic

medium confidence · Neil: 'the playfield on it Jack Danger you're a fucking superstar mate that playfield will be I genuinely think it will be seen as an all time classic'

  • Stern code quality on Kong/X-Men is difficult to defend currently and Jack Danger has publicly criticized it

    high confidence · Neil: 'it's hard for me to defend it right very hard for me to defend it especially when Jack Danger himself has put out a post which then got somehow deleted'

  • Stern relies on the same voice actor for call-outs across multiple games since at least Jurassic Park, limiting variation

    medium confidence · Neil suggests retiring the voice talent: 'I think the main guy that's doing the call-outs is the guy that they've been using since Jurassic Park...you just hear him in everything now'

  • “Stern, you need to retire that guy. I mean, he's amazing, but you just hear him in everything now.”

    Neil McCrae @ discussing voice talent — Critique of repetitive audio branding across multiple Stern titles

  • “I bought it. We found them! We found them! Quick! Quick!...I am your hero. Not everyone wears capes.”

    Scott Rundell (on pre-ordering Predator) @ Predator discussion — Self-deprecating humor about being first UK buyer; shows enthusiasm despite manufacturer issues

  • “I'd say the highest authority in the land...if she did, she'd go down to Sweden and blow those fuckers up”

    Neil McCrae @ Pinball Brothers/ABBA discussion — Reveals personal history with Pinball Brothers and frustration over lost ABBA theme opportunity

    • Kong
    game
    Uncanny X-Mengame
    Harry Pottergame
    Dunegame
    Jack Dangerperson
    Keith Elwinperson
    I Ain't Got Time to Bleedgame
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Aaronperson
    Danielperson
    Enzoperson
    Pinball Maporganization
    Lionsgatecompany
    Disney/20th Centurycompany

    high · Predator missing Arnold assets; Dune licensing awkwardness; Harry Potter artwork problems 'still does' have issues; suggests pattern of licenses not being sorted 'first'

  • $

    market_signal: Multiple manufacturers struggling with basic digital asset management (unlisting vs. private videos, leaked promotional materials) suggesting systemic complacency in marketing departments

    high · Pinball Brothers uploaded video unlisted instead of private; distributor leaked Predator gameplay video under NDA; Harry Potter had poor image leaks; Scott notes 'once it's on the internet it never ever ever goes away'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Spooky's customer support response (48-hour parts delivery from US to UK, extra components) contrasts sharply with other manufacturers, suggesting investment in support infrastructure

    high · Neil praises: 'dropped them an email told them what happened they sent me...within two days from the us to the uk two days of priority delivery...they sent me...a bag of MOSFETs that will last me for like 100 years'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Pinball Brothers marketing person who caused initial leak has faced community backlash and been 'taken to the chopping block' but second leak was distributor error

    high · Neil: 'the individual that was responsible for uploading the YouTube videos...being like taken to the chopping block'; 'that whole tease thing has turned into farce of the century'

  • ?

    product_concern: Evil Dead's only failure after 'unbelievably heavy play' was routine coil/MOSFET issue demonstrating Spooky's superior reliability standards vs. other manufacturers

    high · Neil: 'it has been unbelievably reliable for the amount of plays that it's had' and 'coils go...they're just perishable items' — treating this as normal maintenance not design failure

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's decision to use unlicensed Kong IP explicitly driven by licensing difficulties becoming 'more and more difficult' suggesting strategy shift away from licensed content

    medium · Neil: 'Stern went with their own unlicensed version of Kong...because working with these licensors is super difficult and getting more and more and more difficult'

    • 2:46
    And they've shown you it can be done, that you can launch a pinball machine with absolutely no drama and no AI art, for those that care about that.
    2:57
    Then we've had, in the last, I guess, I don't know, month, month and a half, We've had Kong. My Kong has arrived! Oh, there it is. Nice.
    3:10
    And I should go turn it on for the background. We've had Dune. Yes, from Bowels of Fun.
    3:20
    We've had... Harry Potter. J.J.P. And the Chamber of AI Ghosts. We'll go into that in a bit, I think. and we've had most last and maybe the least hopefully not least we've had I ain't got time to bleed although they seem to be bleeding money all over the place they've got a lot of challenges clearly I think basic planning seems to be one of them but basically There's a reason why, guys. We never get anybody coming, hey, can we come on your show? Because they wouldn't do it.
    4:10
    It's because I'm renowningly heated. I think it's fair that you would do a... I think you would definitely have Stern, but they probably wouldn't because they don't like me. And then we wouldn't get Barrels of Fun. No, we may get Barrels of Fun. actually. I've been Yeah, we haven't given them much stick. Well, they've done a good job. Yeah, they have done it well. We'll go into that slightly. I do want to give them some credit. It's you that doesn't like them now. Maybe. We see your colours. We see your spots, mate. But, Pimble Brothers, I like. You don't. I just, it's funny. I don't want to go into ancient history, but Google Neil McCrae and Pimble Brothers, you'll get the story as to why. I mean, find it hard to do business with such an organisation.
    5:04
    And the fact that they ruined my dream theme of ABBA. And I'm not going to lie, my mother does know about it.
    5:18
    The highest authority in the land. Does your mother know? If she did, she'd go down to Sweden and blow those fuckers up. anyway, my mum's even a bigger ABBA fan than I am so yeah, we've had a I'm trying to think, have we missed anyone I guess we should mention CGC and Medieval Madness because they seem to have come off the rails a little bit on that and we had Turner Pinball with Merlin's Magic Merlin's Arcade yeah, I feel like that's kind of almost ancient history I mean, actually a lot of I'll tell you what Pinball is really guilty for and everyone does it as soon as the release comes out what's the next one it's always about the next one it's like give me my next I've had my hit I need my next hit yeah it is it's like a bunch of crack addicts I swear to god it's mental I have to say I remember my heyday PC gaming waiting for the next video card yeah actually with a hope that it was we should also talk about that right Linus Tech Tips doing a bit on Dungeons and Dragons which there was good and bad in that video unfortunately yeah I always say oil your balls lubricate that play field WD-40 always have a can of what's that stuff that dust yeah, so look a great I mean it's kind of the topic right it's what panic how many chickens do I have to sacrifice for a pinball launch or a pinball thing to happen without some sort of kind of you know literally themselves in the freaking head.
    7:26
    It's insane. I mean, this is a tiny market. It's a tiny thing. The hard part about pinball is building the freaking game. Launching it should be like, it's here. You know? Yeah. I mean, I just, I kind of, I wonder if we're missing, I feel that we should reach out. Actually, look, marketing departments of all the pinball companies, we will give you a fair hearing on why things are the way they are. Right? You can come on. You can say your bit. We may ask one or two questions. A couple of hot seat questions, yeah. Just for clarity. But we are open to you to come and show why it is you fucked up the last pinball launch. Right? Let's just be honest about it. right? This happened, or we forgot this, or we were too busy doing that and we didn't think of this, right? It happens. I mean, there's a couple of things that I know had happened. So with Pinball Brothers,
    8:30
    they even admitted to it on a live stream. I can't remember if it was with Enzo or if it was with Jeff from Dirty Paws, one of the two, but Daniel, the CEO at Pinball Brothers, said that the marketing, well, let's just say the individual that was responsible for uploading the YouTube videos listed now being like taken to the chopping block well it feels like metaphorically as at least anyway from everyone's point of view god the witch hunt on that guy I feel sorry to be in I mean honestly that guy is like unemployed I mean he should keep it a secret because that whole tease thing has turned into farce of the century well I was going to say he listed the YouTube video he published sorry he uploaded it and then he put it unlisted he didn't set it to private instead of to unlisted and anyone who's anyone knows you can search through google and pick up unlisted items it is very easy if you know what you're doing like it doesn't take it's not a thought at all who would have thought that google search would make it easy to search and find shit i mean look you don't need ai to even help you on that i mean i don't understand this it does tell you unlisted items can still be viewed like by people who haven't been given the link i think you know, I'm going to use a word, Scott. It is the word of doom, because I've had to eradicate it in many of the organizations that I work with. Right.
    9:58
    Complacency. It is the scariest word known to man. Complacency. And I see a lot of complacency. And actually not, and let me just be fair about that. it's not in the um people wake up and say hey i'm going to be complacent today right it's not that of course they don't they want to wake up and do the best job that they can do sure but you've got to have an environment where i call it coaching challenge right there's and and you know i'm i did this after i'm a massive ierton senna fan right and he and he has this line where he says if there's a gap and you don't go for that gap you're no longer a racing driver right and um it's it's truth in everything if if you are if you're a product marketeer and you don't go for you know the biggest hit on launching your thing then you're no longer a product marketeer and i genuinely feel that the pinball industry, the thing that I do when I'm chilling out, relaxing, having fun,
    11:22
    is shooting. Actually, the thing I've almost got as much passion for pinball as I have for what I do in my day job.
    11:31
    And I kind of want to cry because it's like, how can there be so many issues? How can there be so much weird stuff? and Pinball's trying to say, hey, come into our cool place. And people are looking at us thinking, well, I don't need that, Trevor.
    11:49
    You know, it's just, I don't know, and I genuinely don't want to, again, I'm not trying to individually criticize anyone except maybe the PB guy who's in hiding again, along with the guy who designed ABBA. But I just can't help but feel in a world where it's so difficult for these guys right now. And the pressure must be on, right? And does that lead to some panic? Does it lead to some basic stuff just not being thought of? And you miss it.
    12:31
    Let's just start with Predator, right? Actually, I'm going to give some credit here. when I saw the playfield actually let me come back to that when I saw the playfield of Predator I was like actually this looks this has got potential right it's a wide body, it's rammed with stuff the art, Oric did the art you know really difficult to do the art when you don't have any assets but you know looking at that game, if someone didn't tell me what that game was and I looked at it I'd say Predator yeah it's touching the theme it smacks out at you right yeah and then they do the launch video which is leaked annoyingly so immediately they lose control of the narrative right and you know I'm on Pinside Pimble Info and I'm on about 20 WhatsApp chats where literally everyone was going what the actual fuck are they doing because they then put up they didn't put up a game so they think no no the gameplay video is worse because the gameplay video was leaked by a distributor so that was under nda so i found that on the podcast as well from daniel so he was very upset when that came out because he said that wasn't it wasn't the so no the gameplay video was never meant to be shown that's why everyone's like yeah absolutely 100 he's even said that it went on record and he said the gameplay video was never meant to come out and it's meant to come out now in a few days so for those that are watching this video depends when it comes up but we're recording as of the 20th so it should be in the next two days from now but basically his he said that that video was never meant to see the light of day it was an early indication to the distributors to say this is the type of game we're going to be doing and that was them trying to build more confidence back with the distributors to say, look, we've got this right this time. It's a good, you know, it's going to be a good game. That video was then leaked. And that's why it shows Arnold, which is why I'm kind of tongue in cheek, not showing his head, because he's not supposed to be at the moment.
    14:43
    First and foremost in the shots, he's supposed to be there in the distance and he's not supposed to say anything yet. And I suspect it's going to be just like Alien. They're working with Disney. they're going to go okay we need a bit we're going to get some money raised by selling the initial whatever it is 100 games and then they'll do a dutch edition or whatever they'll call it yeah it will be called the dutch edition let's face it it was called the ripley edition for aliens i wish i could do a dutch accent now it'll be funny though right because they are dutch people it's a double double whammy on that but yeah it's like dutch edition i'll have like Ajax on the back glass.
    15:25
    But basically, at that point, they'll have the call-out. So they're aiming to get call-outs. They're aiming to get his assets first and foremost in there. You know, look, I genuinely for a minute was tempted to put some money into this game.
    15:38
    I'm the only one that has in the UK. You have? I bought it. We found them! We found them! Quick! Yeah, I am. Look, I can do an Arnold impersonation if you want me to. It's like, get out! Run! so like from my point of view it's like i'm a massive predator fan and i i could care less if i'm not so i now cannot wait to release this podcast so that the world will build will pull on scott even more than it already does everyone already knows i was the first one to buy alien i had the prototype i have to be the guy that needs the charge here you have to be the sorry sorry the second I am your hero. Not everyone wears capes. Yeah. So from my perspective, David is literally retro arcades. What was he called? Retro arcades. Retro arcade specialists. Yeah. So David is literally, he has a small altar with the picture Scott there. And he goes, to be fair, and I can't give away numbers, right? He has had other people that are currently awaiting the official gameplay video and so they're because they're supposed to be official one he's laughing you're so mean but anyway without arnie so actually in the middle of it it's like you're in the middle of gaming and it comes up i joke because it is funny that bottom line of it is i'm going to focus on the positives here it is a good looking game I honestly think that I think the shots are good and they've listened to the market they've gone down fast hardware and I know fast hardware I'm building with fast hardware it really is worth the money hats off to Aaron for helping these guys along a path that they had so far failed on when I heard that bit of news I was thinking okay maybe things are changing yeah you know Ballywilliam mechs are going to be in there we're going to have like traditional basically stuff from pinball life i imagine right so it's going to be like the flipper mechs the drop targets they've got rid of their stand they even admitted right because this is the funny part enzo didn't have a fucking clue which made me laugh by the way no offense maybe you didn't have a fucking clue the stand-up targets in alien were the fucking worst i experienced them all the different versions i had the first prototype one which was an absolute joke the metal was so malleable that you could bend it with your finger it was like the target was basically bowing after the first hit and then the second one they still snapped they were crap and the third revision they kind of nailed it but at that point the damage was done they've admitted it and they've done a little tongue-in-cheek in the brochure where it says super stand-up targets in the in the brochure and enzo was like oh what's that does that mean it's got like some sort of special like you know uh meter built into it so that daniel is just sat they're all quickly going no no stop that it's not that my frustration when people i love look i build the internet um to help people get their message out but when we were building the internet none of us thought that as much anti-knowledge as knowledge would come out sure and this is one of my frustrations where you got a lot of people talking about pinball they just have no experience of it and that's a perfect example no again no disrespect but folks when you're when you're out there looking for your opinion and trying to gauge your opinion you know make sure you you spread better across a lot of content uh creators um i mean and listen to us last because i've hardly professed to be an expert but it's just like yeah we certainly we it's hard for us to you know scott i am an enthusiast without a doubt i live and breathe this shit we're here for the passion of it yeah i mean we'll come back to world cup shocker um in a minute and that's not me doing a sean connery impression that's that's literally what called it but um now so like fair play so the thing i don't get is is they managed to leak two things they leaked the release video because that came out before then they released the gameplay video i mean honest to god that guy if he hasn't well no that wasn't like look clarifying that that was that the second video leak was a distributor doing that not the marketer but even so scott if you know that the first one's gone right what do you do do you sit there and think oh i'll be back no you you fucking fix the second one right i i'm i'll give you this they obviously are in a very awkward situation with fox at the moment or let's say fox is disney 20th century i should call themselves now right yeah disney so disney go fucking hey disney but anyway at least they let them have it as an r-rated cabinet i was pretty although i did laugh right a quick tangent on that i did say to my wife i keep buying this scary looking shit and i've got a new belt newborn on the way i know i've got a literally dead bodies on the side of the cabinet you're gonna have to lock the door mate and i am i'm gonna traumatize my child but anyway like look i was gonna say where i've lost completely lost my train of thought on this the the fact is is that they are in a very awkward position licensing wise it's obviously obvious that they are i think they will get arnold in it it's just not yet and they do they have promised it and i just think i just wish and again we'll go we'll talk about the others soon because barrels of fun done something similar with June, right, in terms of, like, the awkwardness around Lionsgate. I just wish companies would just get their bloody assets sorted first and then release the game. Even Harry Potter had problems, as you know, with the artwork. It still does, by the way. I mean, look, I think...
    21:42
    If I go back to Kong for a minute, right? Sure. So, here we go, right? So, Evil Dead, Spooky Nailed It, right? Chris,
    21:55
    mate, you are... Evil Dead is one of my biggest Grail themes, right? And the artwork and the assets in it. Chris and the team around the artwork, the video stuff, the way... I mean, you guys just smashed it. I mean, really, really smashed it. The game looks stunning.
    22:19
    It's our most played game in the club. In fact, so much played it. We managed to break it, but... Nice. So, and again, I'm going to... I've given Spooky a load of shit in the past about reliability. You have, yeah. This game has been hammered. I mean, literally hammered. I was just wondering, what did break on it? What was the part that broke? So, I don't know the cause, because I wasn't there, but it looks like a coil got stuck, and it blew a MOSFET right Oh okay so you got a locked coil okay Yeah and look that a pinball thing Yeah it is a pinball thing every manufacturer so i not this isn a kind of punch in the kidney of spooky yeah in fact it very much the opposite i dropped them an email told them what happened they sent me and they literally almost within two days from the us to the uk two days of priority delivery wow yeah i mean i was I was amazed.
    23:14
    Two days, they sent me a new board so I can get the game up and running right away. They sent me the coil, which actually we've already replaced. I wasn't worried about the coil. Coils go... I've seen them as semi... They're just perishable items, right? Yeah, semi-perishable. Again, not that you have to replace them. They shouldn't break. They can.
    23:37
    That's the nature of pinball, right? Sure. And they sent me a bag of MOSFETs that will last me for like 100 years.
    23:45
    So, first of all, thank you for that. Thank you for sending that right away. The game, I don't know, I'm probably going to not get to the club until Thursday, so the game will be back next Thursday. But the great thing is I can take that board out, we've got the MOSFETs, we'll fix it, so we've got a spare board now, so we can swap it in and out. They didn't have to do that, they could have just sent the MOSFETs. I really appreciate them doing that. And literally, 24-hour turnaround. Sorry, 48-hour turnaround.
    24:13
    It's hard to complain about that. So we'll get the game back up and running. And I swear to God, it has been unbelievably reliable for the amount of plays that it's had.
    24:25
    And I've got a pretty good view of the plays because I've got Insider Connected and Scorbit on the Stern games. I've got Scorbit on just about every other one of my games. It's not on every game, but it's on enough of them that I know which ones are the other played ones and evil dead's been up there uh people have come to the club to play it um and actually there's a few people a bit not because they were going to come last weekend but we had to say sorry games down actually just on that pinball republic if you want to look at our game list our game list is now managed exclusively uh by pinball map so get the pinball map app and have a look at the latest games it'll always be up to date those guys do an epic job. If you're ever looking for pinball, get the Pinball Map app. It is absolutely amazing, and the guys there do a phenomenal job of keeping us all... Should I have a sponsored section at this point, Neil? Yeah, well, we could do, but these guys, again, I don't think they make any money out of it. They do for a lot, but if they do make any money, it's... I don't know how, but certainly, I'll happily wear some sort of weird suit and sing, Pinball Map, it's the map for pinball! And people will love it, right? We'll do a jingle, it'll be glorious. You're such a promoter of that. Anyway, so thank you to Spooky, right? So they did a great job on that, right? Yeah. And then the next guy, I'll mention Kong, right?
    25:54
    Keith has smashed it on Kong. It is such a good game. It is unbelievably good. Of course, everyone's seen that. McCree is such a fucking Stern shill. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Just, honestly, if you've seen the shit that I've given Stern when they haven't got it right all I can tell you is I am no shill but I will give credit where credit's due now the thing I'm going to give Stern a bit of credit for and they've had a kick in for this is so Stern went with their own unlicensed version of Kong sure original title who is the only apart from Spooky and Evil Dev right who is the only pinball company not to have some bizarre licensing bullshit on their big release this year it's Stern and this is just another reason why they went that route because working with these licensors is super difficult and getting more and more difficult I agree but theme sells and on no offense Kong does nothing for me I'm not going to sit there and put down 15 bags of sand on an original IP sorry it's just not it's not i think the price is ridiculous like if it's an original title it shouldn't be priced more expensive than an actual ip like predator or harry potter it shouldn't which okay and and look i've i kind of respect that view i don't agree with it but i respect that view and it's the same with when we come on uh uh harry harry harry painter sorry potter um that was an ai uh so Luke all I can say on Kong is so I got the game actually two weeks ago we had it at the league finals for London and South East the reason the place is a mess behind me because we're a big I've got games coming out of my ears at the moment, I need to get my shit together I've not been here to saw them but Luke's had a great weekend of pinball with the league three top games that people were raving about.
    28:05
    The one that got the most raves, right? Uncanny X-Men. And people are going to say, what? Yeah, I would be one of them.
    28:16
    Irrespective of what people think, right? What's going on with the whole thing around code, though, right? Let me come to that. In September, I said this was a brilliant game. It is a brilliant game. the playfield on it Jack Danger you're a fucking superstar mate that playfield will be I genuinely think it will be seen as an all time classic right now is it fair to say that Stern have not done a great job on code I think right now it's hard for me to defend it right very hard for me to defend it especially when Jack Danger himself has put out a post which then got somehow deleted yeah I don't know what the story with that is but if you put a poster like that deleting it man, all you're doing is magnifying the fact that it was there on the first place so marketing genius once it's on the internet it can't be removed marketing genius that said somehow delete it no, it's like and the Pimble Brothers have just felt the pain of that because I managed to record the trailer, they pulled the trailer I posted it on my YouTube I get hits on my YouTube once it's out there on the internet, I've been building the internet since 1991 and when you get something on the internet it never ever ever goes away it's just impossible right so just don't do it just figure out make a joke around it do what the guys um own it yeah it's a bit like wendy's burger right there's some someone posted something they made a joke out of it they're now like them and they changed social media because they're now the most watched social media channel in the world because they kind of just say it how it is right have you ever seen like flippin outs like reveals on his games they does yeah he actually yeah exactly mate um you probably really leaned into his like you know shill kind of like he gets cold or whatever it is and then he really leans into it but yeah look at the content there's two there's two he's really good at doing his videos as well yeah his videos honestly zach mate forget pinball go fucking get a job producing videos full time mate yeah um yeah honestly all the videos that you do i actually asked joel um who he uses to do his videos and joel said he thinks it's himself and i said wow that's the case and look i come i've worked in broadcast media um the quality you put out is that me you get a job anywhere seriously i'm not also one is trolley have you seen that the uh so i've been trying to buy one of them mate i tell you the only way i can get it is if I buy it from Zach and he ships it on a crate for me, which is not cheap, but actually if we, if people actually, if anyone's interested in a group buy on the, on the escalators, right. It's not very cool. Okay. Yeah. Escalators, right. Ping us. Cause maybe if we could get like three and on a pallet, it would be worth doing. Yeah. I'd probably be in for one of those.
    31:12
    It's probably a grand dollars, um, depending on timing for a pallet. Okay. Um, so, but if we split that three ways, if we get four of them on a pallet that starts to look not so much how much are they each though? I don't know, they're not cheap though let me tell you but they're beautiful I have looked at them with envious eyes many many times anyway let's move on so calm, stern, ok, it's not licensed the game is amazing, the top part of it where you're doing these combos between the two upper flippers man when you pull that move off you are giddy for days I mean literally oh my fucking god it is so cool the Kong movement is cool but they've got work to do on that no question about it so it's still early code the modes are hilarious they've got this mode where you have to plunge the ball to oblivion it's just very different very inventive very simple and hilarious fun and it just feels it's like a good game I think the music's probably not as good as it's not I would like a kind of it kind of feels very jungle-y which of course is the jungle game right but and it's not I mean it's beautifully produced and the sound quality is awesome as always but it's just I just feel that it's the bit that I would don't you think the call-outs fall a little flat?
    32:46
    I think there should be more humour in it personally Yeah, I mean, this is the problem, right? Actually, I was going to say this.
    32:53
    I think the main guy that's doing the call-outs is the guy that they've been using since Jurassic Park. Sure. Maybe even before.
    33:03
    Stern, you need to retire that guy. I mean, he's amazing, but you just hear him in everything now. Even one is like, it says blah, blah, blah to fight T-Rex. it sounds almost identical to do this to fight Godzilla it just I don't know I just think we need some fresh blood and variation nothing would be better than a bros scotsman doing call outs get to the choppa seriously I'm up for it man we'll record it until it's pristine um i bet alexis people would refuse to buy it i'm not buying that game that fucker mccrae's in it um it'd be worse than air um come on let's move on let's move on so it comes great um and um and then harry potter right harry potter yeah i have to say please, please, please if you get an image released of your game, if it's a leak or whatever, right this has happened with Star Wars, it's happened with Pirates, it's happened with so many games some low res stupid potato can, in fact it's not even a potato can, it's a bodged can, or it's like a piece that's copied off a phone from the 70s and people look at it and it just drives confusion and uncertainty, right? Here's my uncertainty. I looked at it and thought, God, this looks... I mean, I genuinely thought, what? I just couldn't figure it out. Yeah. Because it's a complex... Especially on this, it's a complex playfield.
    34:50
    Very, yeah. Finally, the playfield comes out, and I'm like, oh, this looks... I have to say, I was excited about the game. And I can't stand Harry... Yeah, I'm not a Harry Potter fan, that i can't stand it i think it's awful um if i'd love to do like a harry potter spinoff where i get beamed in with phaser banks and kill all the fuckers i watched all the movies again with the wife recently right we were basically i'll be honest with you it was initially it was like i'm getting june then we'll talk about june a bit so i don't want to go too far into it so i'll give my reasons later why i discounted it then it was going to be all harry potter and I was like the more I watched it the more I was like this is not Harry Potter don't get me wrong people will be like what the hell are you on about of course it's Harry Potter it's not your version of Harry Potter that's the problem it's not the film version either and it's because it's using film assets is why I think it's a bit like JGP come on they have this thing where they just go we can do RGB and they go RGB and they just go like rainbow everywhere rainbow you can get away with that in the first film you can get away with that in the second film by the time you've hit the fourth or fifth film the tone as you can look this up right if you look at the color palette for the movies it gets darker and darker and darker and darker to the point where it's basically blues and blacks but you know what's nuts about this yeah they're using that rainbow on godfather i know i don't kill a few people honestly please JGP make a game with no rainbows I dare you it's an easy code thing right it's literally they've got like a cheesy rainbow brackets code right and if all else fails call cheesy rainbow there's like a default bit of code it's like a handler oh shit we've missed something cheesy rainbow Do you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of, and people are going to get offended by this, but I could care less. If someone does a refurb of a game and they switch it from incandescence to LEDs, they do colored GIs. I fucking hate colored GIs with a passion. When you've got someone doing a Star Trek Next Generation that's full of blues and purples and it's saturating the play field and it's sucking the color out of the game, just use white. Just use white. Do you know what? if there was an option in JJP's code to just say turn off rainbow and just do white I would probably do it I really would I think everyone would even Bill Brandis he would do it too so the I mean Harry Potter I've always said was going to be difficult for whoever built it I have to give credit to Eric he obviously is a Harry Potter fan there's no doubt about it I'll let you finish but there's a pit where I found contention with that. Yeah, no, look, Harry Potter is brave for someone to take that on because it just means, for me, it's a terminal turn-off. I honestly can't stand it. I watched the first movie and literally wanted to pull my eyes out of my head. It was so bad.
    38:11
    Anything like, no, muggles, and I'm like, nah, sorry. And that's why, it's probably the same reason why I'm less an Avatar fan because it's got its own... When you've got this own language, I just think, nah, it's like it's just not It's not heavy language though, is it? It's not like you're learning Klingon or something. No, but it's it's, but actually that's part of the problem, it's not it's kind of half-assed in my view If you're going to do a language, then do a language, right? I don't know. I think it's more the slang and the slur that they use, the word muggle Maybe, I mean, look it just doesn't work for me but I looked at it and I thought, actually, hats off Eric I'm not sure anyone could have done anything as good. And I definitely don't think anyone could do anything better. Now, does that mean it's perfect? I mean, there aren't issues. I mean, the mech is incredible. That staircase is beautiful. Very, very well done. The upper playfield looks insanely fun. I mean, I wish we could have recorded this on Monday. In fact, I might make a quick addendum on Monday. I will be vacant. I'm playing it tomorrow. Maybe we'll be there. I don't know. We'll edit it in. Well, you'll be like Arnie. You'll just be on the back.
    39:29
    So, yeah, I'm going to film Pimble Heavens having a party. And he's invited everyone except Scott to his party.
    39:44
    I love it. It's basically, we're going to be in an unbelievable sweatshop for the weekend playing pinball. Yeah, 130 people. Three business units. The hottest weekend of the UK and we're rammed in this title. But anyway, fair play to Phil. He's pulled out a few games. Jack, Jack the Mangoriani. How do you spell his surname?
    40:06
    I'm not going to butcher it. Sorry, I don't mean any disrespect by that. But Jack is going to be there, and I'm going to be asking Jack the tough questions. Question number one. Here we go. If the playfields screw up, are you going to fix them?
    40:22
    Question number two. Are you going to shoot the idiot that put USB-C into the game? And not even the right USB-C. You can actually put a USB-C in that would make the game work brilliantly, but you cheaped out and bought crap. Question number three. Wait, wait, get back. Sorry. You mean like USB-C as in the port? What do you mean? Yes, so Jersey Jack, some genius who's also in hiding in the same place as the PB marketing director,
    40:51
    decided that using USB-C would be a good thing for connectivity. Oh, he's used that as the connectivity points instead of like Ethernet? Yes, instead of Ethernet. And this is the thing, right? And actually, look, USB-C is a great protocol, right? but you have USB-C for bozos right, i.e. your phone your Playstation, your Xbox it's got no latch mechanism so how's it going to stay secured?
    41:18
    well done Scott well done, even a software guy like Scott has figured it out right, a bit more hardware these days I'd say, there we go sorry, that was unfair but seriously right but USB-C has it has an enhancement to it for heavy duty ship. A military level enhancement. That would have cost a few quid more would have required brains to be engaged. Like Jersey Jack. No, we're not going to do this. It doesn't matter that Elton John's all over the planet. I've got a fucking error message as big as the moon on the front of it. No, we're just going to do it again and again and again and again. Because doing the same thing over and over that doesn't work is going to start working someday. no no no no no no honestly it pained me because i was the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing expecting a different outcome so luke i'm gonna ask him about that why why why why why in fact i'm gonna take an industrial usbc connector with me and i'm gonna give it them as a prize um and then and then number four or five and it's it is what we've just talked about for the love of god turn off casino mode on your games yeah more freaking rainbow no more slot machine bullshit let's hear the audio david teal the man is a genius i find out actually david he did the what my one of my earliest favorite video games winter games on the commodore 64 that had the most amazing music in it he did the music i couldn't believe it i was like what um so uh those are the those are the big questions and then finally um what's your next game after harry potter but you're not gonna ask him about the ai no because i i just for me i build ai platforms it's kind of my day i work with ai for a living right but i mean like for me i have no issue with using ai but for the love of god at least vet it yeah no i mean again lazy complacency scott complacency that's all about i mean i find myself conflicted because my wife draws play fields for people and then yeah it's her role in doing that has come way too late people sooner or later if not already be designing stuff with ai and yeah scott yeah Here's one truth, right? If you're a talented artist like Holly is, like, you know, all these people that are in pinball, right? Yeah. Honestly, they've got nothing to worry about. This is the thing. AI is only as good as the teaching that you give it, right? Sure, yeah. And until we get to quantum, it's not going to self-learn or self-improve. It's just going to mash things up. That's valid. but only when you have people who appreciate art for its nuance and for its subtleties and for its imperfections. Right. Because art is not perfect. That's the whole. Yeah. I mean, I in itself can be perfect, quote unquote. And I think the flaw with it, and if I may, this is the reason why I find the whole thing around AI with JJP a little bit disconcerting, is that they look to it and when that looks fine to me, objectively, they went, that's a pass. and the licensors looked at that and said that's a pass. You assume that they looked at it though. Well, they should have. Yeah, I'm unconvinced. You've seen examples, right, of the train where the windows are like, some of them are arched, some of them are square. The guy's got a funny hand, there's a guy with three eyes or something. Yeah, where the dragon... Look, I am... I use AI art for the posters for our tournaments at Pinball Republic, right? Sure. and add some bozo on facebook give me some shtick oh why aren't you paying a local artist to do that i was like uh i don't have any money to pay a local artist well why are you an ai because i've got a ai platform that i can use oh well you're ripping someone off no i'm not because i was never going to pay for it in the first place yeah you either just going to put up some bozo mccray drawing right It could have been super shit Or I can get AI to knock me up Hey we having our tournament It at Pinball Republic And it on I don know some crazy theme that I come up with right And then some guy emails me to the UK Open website. He says, I was going to come to your gig, but because you've used AI art, and unless you stop using AI art, I'm going to boycott it. My reply? Have a nice day. Honest to God. So, look, AI is everywhere, folks. So I run a big chunk. Actually, I do a lot of work with AI. My wife runs some of the biggest AI clusters in the world. It's everywhere, folks. It's too late. The genie is out of the bottle, right? And, look, are we trying to put people out of work? Are we trying to? No, we're not. This is technology, right? Let me tell you, though, one of the AI platforms I use has improved diagnostics in 14 hospitals such that they're able to diagnose patients in half the time they used it. So next time you've been in an accident and your wife or your loved one's in hospital and they've used AI and there's now twice as much of a chance that she survives or they survive because of AI, right?
    47:01
    It's a tool. you use it as a tool right yeah it's got downsides there's stuff that like the art is it's messed up on it hallucinates you get bad answers right it's not perfect but um you know those people that are beating it up are the same people that are like on their iphone um moaning that about jobs and wait a minute you know that iphone gets made in china completely automatically and millions of people building electronics out of jobs so i just you know yeah you can't you can't fight progress right i think my my point really was it it's just when i spend 15 grand on a game i don't expect to see those kind of glaring imperfections on the artwork so look if it no and look i agree with you on that i think if if zombie yeti you know drew a drew a picture of an x-men with three eyes we'd go fucking mental right yeah i shouldn't get a pass either right um and you know if if uh if pinball brothers draw arnie with no no head um you know they should be given a pass either frankly no absolutely and also look i get it and pinball art is a big thing for me pinball is art is very prevalent in pinball oh it's massive i mean it it's it you know you just look at the hundreds if not thousands of games that are out there yeah individual art and i'm looking around i got john wick looks beautiful attack from mars looks amazing they are on pulp fiction it's kind of retro and then you got um you know the kind of mix and stranger things you got medieval madness actually i got a special you know it's just art everywhere on it it's amazing right yeah um some of these are classic art like on jaws or godzilla some are completely new made up like Kong. You've got the stuff that Oryx done for Alien and other games including Predator, sorry. The work that the guys did on Labyrinth.
    49:04
    The stuff that they did on Galactic Tank Force was an amazing set of art. The work and the passion that's gone into it is huge. Elvira. just, you know, and I just so it annoys me not that they've used AI, but that they didn't use the same level of introspection that they would have used with human art, right? It just got waved through when clearly there was an issue. Now, we did hear about some delays with approvals with AI. We did. And I can't help but wonder if maybe that's Because I don't know if you've noticed, but on all the Harry Potter games, it's got display samples stamped all the fuck over it. I mean, it's on the thing at the top, it's somewhere at the bottom, it's on the actual playfield, on the back of the playfield, display sample.
    50:00
    Which I was kind of staggered by, so I can't help but think if we're going to get a revised art. What do you think? yeah well so Luke it looks like they've already fixed one of the AI issues in some of the games that are now going out I think there's another change happening to the wizard edition that's related to a character which is what I understand caused the delay luckily they didn't use that as I understand it on the collector's edition but I'd say I look at a collector's edition and, you know, I mean, the topper's awful. I don't know what smoke they were smoking. Man, that topper, honestly. It's the incorrect number of towers and the bloody windows are painted on like some loo roll nursery castle, basically.
    50:53
    It's got complacency written all over it. I realise that they think probably we don't want to put a heavy amount of weight on a topper because I'll give you an example, right? Bowels of Fun, they do the Henson puppets, right? And basically they are heavy.
    51:11
    I said to because I'm not surprised I had to sell it to make room for Predator. But basically, having that with the back box down, I was like that might actually rip the bloody top of the wood off. I think you have to have the topper off to transport it. So I think for transport reasons I get why JGP does that whole keep it lighter kind of option, but it's a collector's edition. Does it really matter? Well, stick another box on it. I mean, look, Evil Dead, it weighs a ton. I bet. It needs two people to lift it on the game. It comes in a separate box. It's doable, right? I mean, that's an upgraded topper. The topper that comes with it is just some flat plastic. Sure.
    51:52
    But, you know, look, it's got... In a game like that, with the scale of that IP and the money they must have invested, people say 5 million, I suspect it's closer to 10 overall.
    52:07
    Not just for the IP, but for all the effort around the IP, building the game, the code. They've got some significant numbers, though, to make their money back, then. They have to, but I think they will. Yeah, maybe. I think the game will sell. The problem is, and this kind of makes me chuckle, all the JGP fans giving me a kick because, oh, Stern could have done this. Stern would have knocked out everyone's game in a month rather than there would be people that are going to be waiting a year to get their game and if I think about the pulp fiction process where loads of people just bailed out on the game because it took so long in fact they were happy just to lose a grand because they wanted to buy something else because they just didn't want to wait for it I mean I was shocked to see that although I've done it myself Rick and Morty another spooky game not Halloween, the other version of Halloween. Ultra Man? Ultra Man. Yeah, I mean, I bailed on it because basically the feedback I got was... You dodged a bullet anyway. That game's worthless now. Yeah, I mean, it cost me a grand to bail out of it, but I was like, actually, I didn't have space for it. You would have lost more trying to sell it. Yeah, I got told by so many people that it was awful that I just decided to bail out of it. But, look, I think, I want to say congrats to JGP, because I think they've pulled off a success in spite of almost screwing it up themselves with, again, silly little things. I can't say that until I've played it, if I'm honest with you. I haven't played it either, but I think they've got enough people happy about it. Look, the thing that... So the only thing that worries me is the code looks boring. I mean, I got a lot of stick for this. In fact, I got a three-day... Oh, I said to my wife, right? We were taking the piss. We were watching the gameplay video. And we said, it's like, oh, look. Collector's Edition multi-ball. You drained the ball. Multi-ball. Drain multi-ball. Like, it just feels like there's a multi-ball for everything. You've got Golden Trio multi-ball. You've got fucking... What is it? The Deathstalkers multi-ball. you've got quidditch multiball and you're trying to get into a bloody mode and it and it's like then the movie clips are being overwritten by the multiball and it's literally like i tell you what it is exactly i know what it is now it's sensory overload that that game is designed for the ipad generation of kids that can't spend more than five seconds looking at something before they have to flick the screen so they are just going oh my god look at this look at this this this is going on oh by the way you've got 96 modes oh you just passed one oh there goes another it's like nah done I know you like it I know you praise it but holy god that is a mess to me I'm sorry the code so Luke I'm with you on the code right and it wouldn't be the first JGP game where they've done a great play field and ballsed up the code right Godfather Avatar just totally messed up on code right so one of the issues with the code is you have to hit a hard scoop to start a mode right?
    55:22
    Brain dead. Especially on a game like this. On Godzilla it's slightly different. Godzilla is a game I think more of a game aimed at pinball people. Harry Potter can't be that because it has to have a bigger sales audience. Here's the thing I noticed about the code. Actually I got kicked out of the I got moderated for three days out of the hype. Neil got banned from something? Oh my gosh! Yeah, I wasn't, but I think I was a bit marked about it because I was just stating exactly what I felt. And people said, oh, you're passive, was it? Passively, it doesn't really matter. I mean, the mods at Pinside have got a really hard job. Super respect to them. But what I posted was, so I watched, there was some person was streaming it. the guy and a girl and the guy went off to I don't know, have a dump or something and she's playing it and here's what I saw, right half an hour of general excitement and then another half hour of so what the fuck do I do now just like I get this I said to you this as well, I don't know why people like seeing 50 million lights on the playfield and then going, well that one does this bit and that one does that bit, I just want it to be simple, I'm sorry, I'm a simple guy, I'm a Bally Williams era guy I just wanted to say, green is a lock and yellow or red is a target shot and I need to shoot that, that's all I want I think, Luke I think I want a mix, I want a bit of both but here's what I definitely want I want a game that with my eyes and ears i can figure out what i need to do sure right and the other criticism i've got it and sorry mark i love you mark you're a great guy but honest to god it feels like you're given a powerpoint presentation where you're literally reading the freaking slides is that the callouts are absolutely horrifically annoying um i think that was really weird right because mark silk if I'm not mistaken, is the voice actor for the sorting hat for the toy range. Yes, and there's no sorting hat in the game. There's no sorting hat. So I'm just like, you've got Mark Silkin, you've obviously got asset rights, which they said they had full rights, but they chose not to make him do the sorting hat voice. Well, there's no Voldemort in it. Apparently, my daughter Jade is the biggest Harry Potter fan. So I've been sending her pictures of this, and the first thing she replied with is, where's Voldemort and the second thing is why does I can't remember he's one of the characters he's got to be in it surely no he's not the ginger heathed guy that's in it oh Ronald Weasley Ron she said what happened to Ron's face because his face yeah that's the AI buggery though that's what that was I think it is I noticed that right away as well I thought that was weird they took a there was a whole thread on some pinball forum that the guy went through and analysed a lot of the shenanigans around it. One of that is him on the... He's got the Quidditch cap on. That just looks weird. It just looks totally weird. But anyway, and then the other thing she said was, where's the Voldemort toy?
    58:45
    Well, there's no Voldemort toy, yeah, you'll get that. Yeah, but he's like the main guy. They chose the Deathstalker instead, which is kind of a bit more... It's one of his henchmen, right? Yeah, but it'd be like, I don't know, it'd be like having like Godzilla I kind of get it right because Voldemort Voldemort's not in there until the very end because it's all about Harry stopping him from you know basically materialising himself back because of course he's not truly dead but then he's kind of rebuilding himself and each film is about him finding different ways of materialising himself so to speak but like I think if you had him straight up there it would have been awkward I think it's probably better recognised in video and code if I'm honest I probably would disagree with that I honestly have no idea about it goes back to my thing, if you have Voldemort as a wizard mode, which I imagine you do, right, or it's coming and then suddenly it's got rainbow lights everywhere I'm sorry it just loses the impact and grandeur of the environment to me they seem to be afraid to do a bit of horror, and I know Harry Potter is not horror, but as it got older because the books were big and so the audience grew with it, right yeah, it does I mean, God, in the books, I think it's like Dumbledore gets hung. It doesn't get shown in the film because they decided not to do it. He gets hung. Literally, they tied him up on ropes and they hung him, and they killed him that way. And they didn't do that. They did a whole falling scene or whatever, like Die Hard style with Dumbledore in the movies. But it gets really dark in the books, and that's what I mean. It's like... If they did that in the movies, I might watch them if there was a bit more kind of... Oh, it does get more like people dying. like a ninja sword and starts hacking them all to death. Well, no, there's nothing like that. Okay, that's bollocks. But it does get more adult tone as you get into the later movies. My daughter said that. But, I mean, she looked at it and said, Grandad, sorry, Dad, you've got to buy that. And I'm like, eh. You can buy anything. No, I'm not going to buy it.
    60:48
    You'd probably get it like, have you bought Elton John yet? I can't even remember if you bought it. So, again, Luke, I have this thing. some people call it stupidity I call it principles you said you would never buy a JGP Direct but I thought you would buy one second hand and actually I nearly bought one I just don't believe in if someone lets you down like a company I just don't believe in giving them more money it's like why would you do that it just feels nuts to me Harry Potter I think I'm going to give Spooky 10 out of 10 for a launch. I'm going to give Harry Potter 7 out of 10.
    61:35
    Yeah. Based on what though? Go on, give me some pros and cons of that. My own opinion. I'm going to give Kong I'm going to give it 8 out of 10.
    61:49
    Because there's a couple of issues that people are having with the game. Okay, so no. give me some context then because i thought you were talking about like teasers and leaks and then release okay so yeah okay let me okay let me rephrase it for that then right i'm gonna give spooky 10 out of 10 i'm gonna give harry on that base i'm gonna give harry potter probably an eight that generous okay despite the whole like leaked playfield image showing through I'm going to give them an 8 out of 10. I think I have to give Stern a 9 out of 10. The only reason they're losing a point is I feel like I have to give them a 10 out of 10 for the launch because it went smoothly. It went smoothly, yeah. There was no big issues. The only thing I'll be honest with you is that it didn't live up to the hype in my book. I expected a bit more Godzilla, here we go, boom, this is the next big monster hit. I think what didn't help is that in the videos, and I can't remember which video it was, maybe it was behind the scenes or something, someone, whether it was Keith Elwynn or not, I don't want to speak out of turn, said, it's not the game we wanted to build, but it was the one we were assigned. Yeah, so I heard that as well, and I kind of grimaced when I heard that a little bit. There's nothing worse than having no passion behind something you'll make. I think also you have to be authentic, right? Absolutely, but it just feels like, I don't know, is he not doing monster themes then? Is he just being forced to do something because they told him to? That's a bit sad, really. Well, I don't know. I think if Keith really didn't want to do it, he wouldn't do it. Yeah, maybe. You'd have to ask him. I still feel that they did a top job on launch. On launch material, it's fine, right? It wasn't like X-Men.
    63:47
    X-Men was bad. Well, on launch. Yeah, mate, come on. Jack Danger dressed up in the costumes and couldn't hit a bloody anything. They were tired. You could tell they were tired. Yeah, you're right. That one video kind of did shoot them a bit in the head. I'm going to say for June, I'm going to say June was not good. I'm going to give them so I'll be honest with you, I'm giving them In fact, I'm not going to give them a score because the whole June launch has just bypassed me entirely. I know very little about the game. I've been honest with them and I've messaged them direct and I said they've mislaunched the game. I'll tell you why. That's the sense I get. I was going to buy it. I was committed order and I transferred my money. I said, no, it's just, sorry, David, I'm not buying it anymore. It's like the assets are not there and it's like you've had a month. and I'm sorry, it's absolutely a joke that as a pinball company, you've had a full month to sort this out and there's no material. The people who have received the game won't put any videos up because they said they'll get an NDA or whatever it is. They said they can't put it up because the assets haven't been approved. Even if you've bought the game? Yeah, that's what they do. They didn't put it up. Have you not noticed there's no live streams of the game or anything? Because anybody who has the game... That's why I missed it. Yeah, exactly. So look, in that case, it's a 0 out of 10. Yeah, it's an absolute bodgery. If you want to give someone stick for a bodge launch, it's barrels of fun. I'm sorry. I mean, I looked at some... There are some videos of mechs and stuff, right? The snake thing was quite cool, but it's very good. The worm for the God of God, Neil.
    65:30
    It's not Voldemort. I'm not... June's not... As you can tell, June's not another big idea. I can tell, yeah. But look, I... Snake. I think they did a decent job on Labyrinth.
    65:43
    June, it just feels like the whole thing's been like a... It's almost like being a dream. Yeah, it just feels like they've... They just didn't land it at all. I think you go back to your panic statement at the beginning of the show. Yeah, exactly. It was all about getting it out before Kong. Yeah. And Stern being Stern. This is Stern all over, by the way, because I know you love him, but every time some other company is about to come out and say, hey, we're about to release a game, they go you release everyone ignore that here's ours and it's like they do it every time they do everything i i am i don't think they do that at all i think they do i think i think well i think you could believe that but i believe it i think stern in this scenario and it's something that i applaud george gomez for george doesn't really care about the competition what he cares about is making sure he and his team do a great job yeah he's focused on him but I still think that goes back to my statement that they are absolutely doing it tactically if you think about, we go about panicking the industry right and people are worried about getting games out early, beating certain other releases and trying to vie for people's cash because it's more limited than ever we've got wars going on we're probably going to face world war three soon i the economy the economies in most countries are launching my missiles yeah exactly we won't go into politics here because it's way too much but anyway it's it we're now in a position where people are basically going you need to convince me there's more there's more supply than demand there's no question Yeah, absolutely.
    67:29
    But, Luke, this is why, you know, if you're a pinball company and put out 1,000 games a year, you know, you're more challenged to some respect on being able to do the big IPs, right?
    67:45
    And this is where Stern, you know, they've got a scale advantage. I don't think they take advantage of it enough, though.
    67:53
    So, Luke, I mean, I've got, you know, and this isn't to beat up on the game because I haven't played it. I've seen some videos of it, but it feels like it's just bypassed me entirely. I wanted to love Dune. I'm a massive Dune fan. I love the films. I think they're great. My wife was like, buy this. You can have this. I will let you have this because I want this game. And it's just so disappointing to me that out of all the, as you say, you get Evil Dead, all the assets are done, smooth transition, the game's out, gameplay's good, all good, hunky-dory, great. Show me where I need to pay. And is this NDA on Ships Games? Because they haven't- They got it literally slapped as a white like a transparent text that says assets to be approved or something like that And there no call out I mean Bond did that with Bond when they launched Bond And in fact there a Bond It goes back to why do pinball companies do this? Just don't release the game when it's ready. Sorry, right, I know. I agree. So the Bond, there's a Bond in a bowling alley near where I live here. And it's still running release code, which is awful. That's quite funny. You know what? This is the other thing. I offered, right, to take... What's the word? Bring a USB stick or something with them. No, I offered to adopt the game, right? Give me the keys. I'll come every now and again. I'll make sure it plays well. I'll put the latest code on it. I'll get it on the internet because it's got Insider King. They haven't even done that. And I said, I'll do it for nothing.
    69:23
    They said, oh, well, think about it. And I pinged them. We're still thinking about it. I pinged them, no reply. I'm like, what the actual... So, next time I have a gig at my house, we're going to have a guerrilla update. I did this once before.
    69:37
    We had to play Aerosmith in the League, and there was only one Aerosmith publicly you could play. It was running Ancient Code. So a bunch of us went in with a USB stick and a whole set of the default keys. We managed to open the game, put a USB stick in, reboot it, update the game, and then kind of get the game all back up and running perfectly.
    70:01
    We literally did it in 20 minutes whilst in the pub. It's good. And it was like we're standing around like it was kind of, I don't know,
    70:12
    a young... Like a seance? Yeah, literally, we're hiding this thing and we got the game updated. And actually it was great because the update code was fantastic. I think the last code release they did some massive improvement, as they often do. Right, so let's move on.
    70:33
    Predator, I'm going to give Predator one out of ten. Wow. And I'm giving it, and the one is purely for the artwork.
    70:47
    Because even though, trying to deliver a compelling art theme with no assets is, I mean, it just must have been so difficult. I think they totally, I think they balled this up when they started with the whole leaking process. You know, not leaking, but the... Teasing. Teasing bullshit, man. I just, I don't know, I don't know. That's the thing, right? Like, Retro Django, as in Djengis, was like... Oh, my God, Retro Bozo. Yeah, I know you don't like him.
    71:18
    I don't like him, he just talks rubbish. He doesn't listen to people, because he has this attitude of, If you're wrong, I don't care. This is me. This is that. And it starts going on about how, you know, Europe, it's their game. They can, like, you know, if it suffers because of tariffs in the U.S., well, it's our game anyway. Whatever. I don't care. But, like, it just is really. It's like a true master of business. Yeah, exactly. I just thought, to me, it's like, I didn't seem to understand the criticism. every time there was someone being like somewhat just positively critical saying can we stop with the teasers can you just release the game or can you confirm these elements that are missing or not because it's pissing people off and and then it's just like oh you know this is all the fun this is great it's building hype i'm getting all this positivity this is building hype i'll tell you what it wasn't building hype it was building anti-hype it was building it was building detestment That's what it was called. And basically, people were talking about it. I mean, this is the problem, right? If you're like Ferrari, you can do what they try to do, right? Sure. Because you know you're going to get a top-end, beautiful car that everybody's going to be jealous of, right? Yeah. And you're going to love driving it. It's going to sound amazing. Life is just going to be good, right? If you're Pinball Brothers, who are just coming out of the huge success of ABBA, the last thing that you're able to do is generate hype right, the only way you're going to generate hype is to answer the questions that people quite rightly have been shocked into having to ask because your last game was such a shitter right, is Arnie in the game, yes or freaking no, and actually if he's not in the game that's not the end of the world, but I just want to know, right I despair of the stupidity of trying to believe that you could use that approach and it would help you sell more games. There's no way that's helped them sell more games. It's almost like they're thinking, well, people will just commit on FOMO. But it's like those days are gone. So look, I am a massive, it's like Evil Dead. I'm torn.
    73:34
    I haven't had some reliability challenges with Spooky. I was like, I really want Evil Dead, but I don't know if I want to buy it. I've got the same thing with Pinball Brothers. I love Predator.
    73:46
    Again, anything with Arnie in it, sign me up, right? I love his movies. They're all great. Someone please get The Running Man and do a pinball machine.
    73:58
    I'll do the voices for Who Loves You and Who Do You Love? I forget his name. Killian, I think his name is. Is that the one where they say I buy that for a dollar? Yeah well No that's Robocop Oh yeah And actually someone should do a modern version of Robocop Actually the Data East version is awesome But the modern version Would be welcome But look I think art wise They clearly got limited funding To invest in this game So they're doing like a Pay as you go you'll buy a few and then they'll update it they've clearly got a plan for that, they've built the plan in so hopefully let's rate the game when you get to play it which I've heard, David is trying his damnedest to make sure he gets a showroom copy for Pinfest so that will be there at Pinfest I was going to ask you as well, there is a game I want your opinion on because I know Phil just signed off with Hexapinball, which is another company in the world of pinball like we need anymore.
    75:08
    Can you tell me what that game is like? I think it's just called Hex. I don't actually know the name of the game. I'm going to tell you, I've got no idea because it's not been at any of the shows I've been at.
    75:19
    But it will be at your show on Saturday, is what I'm saying. Oh, it will be? Oh, okay. So I'll have a play of it then. I'll look forward to it. It's always good to play a new pinball machine and put it through the ringer, as they say. and then Luke, very quickly because I know you're on time pressure I have to say it, World Cup Shocker so in case you're when you posted it I pissed myself laughing it was brilliant, so basically I bought probably the most horrendous World Cup Shocker I swear to god I've got cancer because of how fucking dirty that game was I bought this game cheap. I mean, cheap, cheap, right? And I kind of looked at it, and actually it played. This is a bizarre thing. The game actually played. I'm surprised because the wood was so worn in one area that there was no artwork left. It was just bare wood. I looked at it, and there was a couple of things. This is the thing when you buy. This guy sent me hundreds of photos, the guy I bought it off. I read it. It was cool. Yeah, he sold it at bargain basement prices. Yeah, he knew it was a shitter, right?
    76:36
    So, Luke, anyway, but I thought, hmm, actually, I think with a bit of novice, it'll be fine. What's that term they use in Only Fools and Horses? Trigger's broom. Trigger's broom, yeah. It's Trigger's broom at this point. So, basically, the game arrived, and I looked at it, and I was like... I think about it, actually. The only thing I've kept on the playfield, because you made me change almost everything, I think the only thing original are the lamp boards yeah so I honestly think that is the case I was trying to see would I get away with this game and my answer was if I put this game on site I will be guiltier than the most guilty hack operators on the planet because it was in such a state I phoned Scott and said hey Scott I know you said you're not doing anymore but you can fit one in just for me and Scott crazily said yes on this game I'm not even joking I've put in like 12 hour days on the weekends and then I can put in 12 or 6 hours in each evening so I am first of all I'm super grateful mate I appreciate that right and I know Holly's helped you and she's you know it's so funny because obviously she's in third trimester right so her tummy is getting kind of like big is the way you put it yeah yeah we're like trying to she helps me cut the decals right so we've got these like large graphic rulers that we use to help um trim the decal and her tummy kept pushing the ruler so i said stop pushing the ruler i'm not your tummy's pushing the ruler well look um thing is is so we had one issue the ramp we got new ramps from starship and one of was badly damaged. Massively damaged, yeah. A bit frustrating. Loads all apart. I mean, literally... No, I'll give you the list because I was building the bill of materials at lunchtime today. So you've had... I'm not joking. This is how everything you've had. You've had new posts. Yeah, I've done. Yeah, you've had new slingshot kickers. You've had rubbers, obviously bulbs, star posts, metal posts, ramps, plastics. cabinet decals leg plates new some new wiring by the way in some areas as well as switches I honestly think there's the only thing that's left from the original game on the playfield is the lamp boards and the lamp sockets and even some of the mini playfield if anyone's got a mini playfield it doesn't seem like anyone makes these which I was surprised didn't actually come with the playfield Oh, and the ball guides, but they are being reconditioned, to be fair. Yeah, the ball guides are being tarted up by Ant. Thank you, Ant. Nice bit of polishing job. Yeah, I mean, look, so if you want to see this in action, go to pinballinfo and look for World Cup Shocker.
    79:39
    Honestly, the job that's... This thing was dirty. And it was water-damaged. Yeah, there was a bit of water damage on it. A bit. Scott's used like nine tons of I'm not joking when I said to you when I initially sanded the corner of the back box it literally plumed like if this was like the last of us if you know the series or the game I would have been infected and I would have turned into one of those zombies flying around the room anyway the good news is it's looking awesome Scott's almost there I am on the final stretch and this game will eventually live in Pinball Republic and just putting it out there I didn't make it up, the CPR holes were missing I know, I mean I don't even I don't know why people argue shit like that when you're standing there in front of the damn thing I know what's there and what's not I'm looking at it going where's my hole Kirk could give you the aggro for that I gave him some aggro and said, mate, shut the fuck up.
    80:48
    We've done enough of these to know that these guys do a bit of a job on the map. It's not even limited to CPR. Mirko are guilty of it as well. I had it with Fish Girls. But even some new old stock games can be wrong, right? I've seen that. It's weird, though. I'm trying to understand the process. I genuinely, I tell you what, anybody who's in the pinball industry that makes playfields, I am genuinely interested on how you pilot the holes. and is it all by hand? Is it done by machinery? I'm trying to understand why some playfields have those So Stern used press, Williams used a press I thought it was just for the T-nuts but okay. No, I think they used press for all the homes so actually there's a video on my YouTube channel of the Stern factory go have a look at it because I took a good zoom of that but yeah, it's literally like a bed of needles pressing down on the and it goes and the one at Stern has been in the pinball industry for like 50 years Gottlieb used to own it and then Data East bought it and then obviously then Sega so in that instance then the needles sometimes get snapped and then that's why the hole's missing or something I'm just trying to sound right I think probably for Stern it's probably less of an issue because they own it but I mean I'm guessing Does CPR have a press like that? I don't know. Does Mirko? I would say Mirko has because he's roboticised just about everything. But the thing is, if I say it's Deadpool, they've got the CAD for Deadpool, so it's easy for them, right? In CPR's defence, they're having a back engineer. Yeah, they're like reverse engineering. I have to say, I've had three playfields done with CPR, and they've all had weird challenges like that. Some of them, like Meteor, I got a playfield from Meteor, and the flippers slash sling slash center post is completely off. Oh, wow. Fair play to Keith. Yeah, I was going to say. We've figured out something. It's not standard Meteor. This is slightly different. I was like, yeah, because we had no choice.
    83:07
    But actually, what Keith did made it play really well, so fair play to him. But yeah, so Luke Scott, huge thanks for World Cup Shocker. I can't wait to play it.
    83:17
    And hopefully the ramp, we're waiting for a ramp, a replacement ramp, hopefully that arrives soon. I've got a few other bits from Mirko for it as well. Sorry, Marco. Actually, a big shout-out to Marco. They shipped me some stuff very quickly last week. Yeah, I mean, I was going to say, you ordered your fair share of parts, and I ordered my fair share of parts to get this game up and going. but yeah i mean i think like it will obviously it'll be nice right it's i i think like my only um part i was upset about and i did i know you were you were like don't get hung up on it it was for me it was like the decals on one side just yeah it wasn't for me because they were damaged because it depends right a lot of people say in the industry if you've got crinkled or crumpled i should say decals you can iron it out to an extent the issue you get is when you're trying to pull out the crumple area you can risk basically what i call flecking i call it flecking i'm not sure what anyone else calls it but it's where uh particles of paint will lift up and attach because of the static to the vinyl as you're pulling it off even if you're wet applying it which i was doing and while you're trying to stretch stuff out you end up with flecking basically because the the paint gets lifted it's definitely not an issue um if your decals are find from the get-go because it's just apply swipe and done and done it's just when you've got damage or crumpled you know crumpled areas it really adds to the risk um but you know it is what it is as say i don't know if you got any response from pinball plans actually i haven't a chance to email but they came from pps i'm going to email them with the pictures i just i'm gonna i've been out of time i will email yeah um but look uh great job on it i can't wait to see it and again if you want to play it I will be at Pinball Republic at some point in the future getting hammered along with a load of other new games going to Pinball Republic have you got Dungeons and Dragons at Pinball Republic? it is at the moment yes it's there probably for another couple of weeks if you want to play it so yeah Dungeons and Dragons is there for the time being Evil Dead's there although it's not working until next week so if you plan to see Evil Dead don't go there before the 27th of June and new games going in there I got Doodle Bug which is an epic game I got UXM, I got Dirty Harry, I got Elvis I got Sopranos I got an amazing game a stunningly amazing game called Solar Fire I saw that, yeah got that from importing loads of games from the US it's a great thing about the tariffs have kind of shaken up shipping and there's a lot more underutilized bizarrely there's a lot more random underutilized space and if you know where to look you can grab a slot on a plane for really low money because it's empty but you've got to have your shit organized and I've got Cosmic Gunfight and Surfing Safari.
    86:35
    The other game I'm trying to find, folks, if you've got one... God, the name of it's gone out of my head.
    86:43
    Buffalo Cow... No, what is it? Hold on, hold on, hold on. I need to look this up because the name's gone out of my head. I'm interested. When you get those games on import, do you have to do much in terms of like changing the transformer out because i know like in in some of the like 80s and 90s all you have to do is change the pin and then you can obviously change it out to like 230 240 whatever you need it to be what do you do with the transformers on the really early ones like the ems and that the most so ems have usually got again you have to change the windings they're usually actually wired um they're usually already wired for it so um so uh So, and actually, I've managed to do all of them. The one game I haven't been able to do is Cleopatra. We're running off 110-volt transmitter because the transformer was hardwired. I've actually got the transformer for it. I just haven't had a chance to install it. Pretty much every other game. Because remember, during the doomsday of pinball, Europe was the only place you could play pinball legally because the U.S. banned it. Oh, yeah. So all the games would come to Europe first. So they've always had... They've always had... The ability to switch? Yeah. And actually, a modern game, you don't have to do anything, you just plug it in, basically.
    88:01
    Are you buying any modern stuff, like the Stern stuff from the US? I've imported a couple of modern Stern games, yes.
    88:09
    Are you all having to change out the boards? No. You've found another way. Okay. We won't go into that.
    88:17
    Yes. You know, Luke, if you're... I was surprised by region locking, to be honest with you. It's still a thing.
    88:27
    The only thing I know it's on right anymore is steering pinball machines. I saw you and Jack didn't do it, did they? No, not at all. None of the other manufacturers do it. Actually, so Pulp Fiction, when I imported that, you need a different plug. And actually, funnily enough, the only place I could get a Europe, the 220 volt was in the US. No one in Europe had them. So initially I nicked the one out of my Cactus Canyon just so I could play it. Right. And then when it arrived, put it back in Cactus Canyon. So, yeah, lots of new games coming to the club.
    89:03
    A couple of shout-outs coming up. We've got Pinberg in July that UK Open sponsors. We've got Papa 22, which is raising money for suicide awareness and Lyman Sheets Foundation and UK Open tickets go on sale the 1st of July. That's 10, 11 days, 10 days. Wow, yeah, sure.
    89:27
    And yeah, loads of other things going on in pinball. There's one in Pinfest we've got at the end of August and lots of stuff going on in pinball. Just a reminder, go visit venues.
    89:42
    Venues are fine and incredibly difficult. we're okay at Pinball Republic but there's moments where it gets tight so bring you and your five year mates around for five hours of pinball, cost you peanuts you'll have a great time and yeah awesome so with that in mind I know you're on the clock Scott I'm going to go work more on your game yeah that's it but no honestly go check out World Cup Shocker on, I'm going to call it that forever now. Why not? Yeah, I wonder if I could get a new back glass made. Well, it's a shocker.
    90:22
    But, yeah, all good. And, Luke, a great job. I mean, Luke, we've kind of had a bit of a laugh and been a bit critical, but, you know, industry's pulled off a lot in the last few months. You know, a lot of hard work, a lot of tears. Again, no one trying to do a bad job, but you know, if you're not, you know, if you're not going for that gap, then you're no longer a racing driver. Remember those great words of Ayrton Senna. And on that note, that would be a great pin. Ayrton Senna Formula One, that would be amazing.
    90:59
    Get the music from the Senna movie, which is, actually, I'm going to just plug this. If you haven't seen the movie Senna, I challenge you to watch it. It is an absolute, it's an amazing movie about the story of his career. Very well done. And the music in it is just out of this world. And on that note, we'll say get to the chopper, Scott. We've got to go. Exactly. Bye-bye, everybody. Goodbye. See you next time.