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DPP #80 "Rumor round up!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·30m 37s·analyzed·Nov 6, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

DPP #80: Rumor roundup covering Fifth Element, Jaws, Princess Bride, and shipping delays ahead of IAAPA.

Summary

Don discusses Episode 80 of his podcast in a sprawling rumor roundup ahead of IAAPA conference. Major topics include new game announcements and rumors (Barrels of Fun's Fifth Element, Stern's Jaws, Pinball Brothers' unnamed European rock act, Multimorphic's Centaur shipping), mod ecosystem developments (Electric Playground's new Twitch show), and manufacturer production capacity concerns. Don also sells a modded Rush LE and provides shipping/delivery timeline speculation for several upcoming machines.

Key Claims

  • Barrels of Fun has sold through half of their Labyrinth production run, with direct sales now closed and units available only through distributors

    high confidence · Don Garrison, based on recent sales data and distributor availability

  • Fifth Element is the strongest rumor for Barrels of Fun's next game after Labyrinth

    medium confidence · Don citing Paris Pinball Addict as rumor source

  • Stern has capacity to release another game in December if they choose, but January is smarter timing for Jaws

    medium confidence · Don's speculation based on production forecasting and current release schedule

  • Jaws will feature either three or four flippers, including possible multiple upper flippers on the right side

    low confidence · Don citing rumor mill sources; specific flipper configuration unconfirmed

  • Jaws will feature yellow/orange buoys that drop beneath the playfield, likely as part of a dropping mechanism similar to Godzilla's building drop

    low confidence · Don's speculation and rumors about barrel mechanics

  • Jaws is expected to be a movie poster license (similar to James Bond) rather than a full character/dialogue license

    medium confidence · Don citing consistent rumors over years

  • Pinball Brothers' next game will be a European rock act, and the company was upset about this leak

    medium confidence · Don citing rumor sources; company reaction noted

  • Multimorphic's Centaur is expected to enter production in December with Oblivion editions being bolted together

    medium confidence · Don citing Jason Knapp and Haggis Pinball sources

  • International air freight for Centaur delivery costs $1,200-$1,500+ on top of $20,000 machine price; slow boat option available every two months

    medium confidence · Don citing freight quotes and shipping container logistics

Notable Quotes

  • “Labyrinth is half sold through. Fifth Element may be coming from them next.”

    Don Garrison @ mid-episode — Confirms significant production milestone for Barrels of Fun's debut title and hints at their second game's strong rumor status

  • “If they're putting out 10 games a month, we're not going to see a game for another year for sure... If they're able to get production up to a brisk pace to where they're putting out 50, 100 games a month... then we could see something.”

    Don Garrison @ mid-episode — Articulates production capacity bottleneck as key constraint on Barrels of Fun's announcement timeline

  • “When we hear things like that, they tend to bear out. I think Jaws is probably going to be coming out next.”

    Don Garrison @ mid-episode — Expresses confidence in Jaws rumors based on consistency across multiple sources and Don's historical accuracy track record

  • “This is just a redo of a classic 80s title. It does look pretty, though. So I don't know. I don't know where I'm at.”

    Don Garrison @ late-episode — Mixed sentiment on Centaur's value proposition given $20,000+ price point and substantial shipping delays

  • “That's not such a great feeling, right? We're seeing it for sure with Pulp Fiction right now.”

    Don Garrison @ late-episode — Notes emerging pattern of customer dissatisfaction with long wait-to-payment cycles dampening excitement for pre-ordered machines

  • “I think it's a little bit unfair to call it... if it's just a movie poster license or a lunchbox license, that it's going to equal a bad game.”

    Don Garrison @ mid-episode — Defends concept of limited-asset licenses as viable for quality gameplay, citing Godzilla and Jurassic Park as precedent

  • “The babe. You remind me it's the babe. What babe? Babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Do you? You do.”

    Don Garrison @ mid-episode — Quotes Labyrinth film in appreciative context of game's audio design and soundtrack integration

Entities

Don GarrisonpersonParis Pinball AddictpersonDavey StumblerpersonRobinpersonThe Electric PlaygroundcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyLabyrinthgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth has sold through 50% of inventory; direct sales closed, now distribution-only

    high · Don stated 'Their labyrinths are sold half through now. The only place you can get them is from distributors right now. Their direct sales are done.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Fifth Element rumored as Barrels of Fun's next game; Princess Bride also persistent rumor from unconfirmed source

    medium · Paris Pinball Addict breaking rumors; Don cautious about Princess Bride attribution given multiple new manufacturers

  • ?

    machine_intel: Stern Jaws rumored to feature 3-4 flippers, yellow barrel drop mechanic similar to Godzilla's playfield lowering, and possible movie poster license

    low · Multiple rumor sources mentioned by Don; flipper configurations and mechanics are speculative based on 'what I'm hearing'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Barrels of Fun's production pace (estimated 10-100 games/month) will determine when Fifth Element announcement occurs; slow pace delays reveal

    high · Don stated: 'If they're putting out 10 games a month, we're not going to see a game for another year for sure... If they're able to get production up to a brisk pace...then we could see something.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Don selling modded Rush LE at $12,050 (same price as new unmodded) to provide community value rather than flip for profit; tactic to build goodwill

    high · Don stated he set price at vanilla new-in-box pricing with $100 discount offer for podcast listeners despite extensive mods

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.092

0:00
welcome back we are gearing up for don's pinball podcast episode number 80 we are back in town in wisconsin we are getting ready for an action-packed week and a preamble to the iapa conference coming up later next week so get in your seat get your popcorn now jump out of your seat because we're going wild love that goosey drop sound what's up everybody episode number 80 can you believe it we are growing by leaps and bounds every week, it seems like. And I couldn't be happier to share some time every week, and multiple times a week even, with y'all, who else we are going to spend this Monday with, this dreary Monday, this blustery Monday in central Wisconsin. We're going to spend with Mr. Stumbler himself, Davey, and Robin from the Electric Playground, because they are launching their own show on Twitch. So Stumbler, right? The guy with the Godzilla Tokyo Neon mod. the light-up atomic Godzilla that's set in the world of Pinball on Fire, plus Robin from the Electric Playground, purveyors of acrylic toppers, including the Twilight Zone one with the rolling marble, which is fantastic, and also the forthwith here now released Godzilla topper with the cool UFO that goes up and down. These guys are collaborating on a bi-weekly video cast all about mods and such, and the first episode is tonight, 5 p.m. Eastern, on Twitch, so they sent me an email and said, hey, buddy, why don't you shout this out? And you know, I'll be tuning in because if you are live on Twitch, you can also interact with comments and things. So, you know, I love the mods, obviously. I mean, each one of my machines is modded to my aesthetic, right? You know, I try to do the look, you know, change the graphics when we need to, but at least do the powder coat and add the shakers and all that stuff. And, you know, mods come in a couple of different types, right? There's the non-functional but silly ones, like the duck that I have, I got from Pinball Life, I have in Iron Maiden over there. Iron Maiden doesn't need to have a duck in it, but it does. And people ask me, well, some people, Don, why do you have a duck in your Iron Maiden? And I'm like, yes, absolutely, it's right there. So, you know, that's not like a quality of life mod, that's just something silly that's fun to put in Pinball. You know, but other things, a shaker motor with that force feedback, the knocker, the actual knocker, you know, instead of that weird squelch that comes to the speakers. You know, lane guides up to the things that improve the gameplay, like the diverter on top of the Godzilla building that sends the balls to the flipper instead of straight down the middle. I like that because I can catch them and then make them bounce around. You know, so I'm into these things. I like to keep my eye on what the mod market is doing. And these two guys are out there just killing it with the things that they're putting out there. And so they've got another web show. It'll be on Twitch, and it sounds like they'll repeat on YouTube as well. So check that out if you're around 5 p.m. Central Time on Twitch with The Electric Playground. It's called In Before the Lock. In Before the Lock, what you would see typically on a forum thread or something when it's about to go off the rails. Maybe that's what they're tying in. Maybe they're talking about locking balls and bucks. We don't know, but we're going to find out tonight. So I told them, you know, hell yeah, I'm not going to tune in, but I'll shout you out too. So check that out. Stumbler, man. He's the dude. In podcast-related news real quick before we jump into all the rumors and the speculation, I got an update last night. You know, I've been following, you know, my followers. I follow the followers on the Facebook page. I'm trying to get to 1,000. Mission 1,000 is underway. And, you know, I've been slowly taking up. Like, each day there's one or two more. You know, and we were up to the 680s, and I was just cautiously watching. Yesterday, I don't know what happened. The bus dropped off. 20 people just jumped out of nowhere following. We're up over 700 now. And, like, conceptually, I'm trying to wrap my brain around 700 people that are all like, yeah, I want to see what else this guy has to say. And so, you know, I don't think humbled is the word for it, man. But, you know, that's just amazing. And we're going to keep the steamroller of news and views and speculation going because we just finished up with Pinball Expo. It was fantastic. Everybody's got their Expo recaps out now. I'm going to IAPA, the International Amusement Park Entertainment Expo. It's down in Florida every year for the U.S. They have it in Europe. They just finished up the one in Vienna. So this is like where two worlds collide for me, right? You know, I come from the theme park hobby, you know, themed entertainment, right? You know, fantastic locations recreated and you go and play around in them and pay $7 for popcorn and a hot dog and you ride rides and have fun. So I have wanted to go to IAAPA for like 20 years now. You know, it's always in November.

  • Pulp Fiction units may not reach operators until April-June, with first operator machines potentially made last month

    low confidence · Don's anticipation based on distributor communication and production rumors

  • “If you don't have that Jaws music in there, there would be problems. So the theme has to be there.”

    Don Garrison @ mid-episode — Identifies iconic music as non-negotiable design element for movie-licensed pinball game despite limited character rights

    • Fifth Elementgame
    Princess Bridegame
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jawsgame
    Elwynncompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Back to the Futuregame
    Multimorphiccompany
    Haggis Pinballcompany
    Centaurgame
    Pulp Fictiongame
    Rush LEgame
    Jason Knappperson
    IO Arcadevenue
    Monica Garrisonperson
    Mad Pinballcompany
    IAAPAevent
  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Haggis Centaur (Multimorphic rebuild) requires $1,200-$1,500 air freight on top of $20,000 machine cost; slow boat alternative every 2 months via container shipping

    high · Don provided specific freight quotes and logistics detail from multiple sources; noted shipping container capacity requirements (60-80 games)

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Long wait-to-payment cycles (exemplified by Pulp Fiction delays from order to April-June delivery) causing excitement fatigue and customer frustration

    high · Don stated: 'This kind of leads me to the topic of waiting for games that you've ordered that are taking a while than having your excitement fizzle away by the time you have to pay for the dang thing. That's not such a great feeling, right?'

  • ?

    content_signal: Don's Pinball Podcast Episode 80 milestone with 700+ Facebook followers (up from 680s); significant community engagement and multi-weekly production cadence

    high · Don noted sudden 20-follower jump bringing total to 700+; describes podcast as generating daily new followers

  • ?

    community_signal: Electric Playground launching bi-weekly Twitch show 'In Before the Lock' with Davey Stumbler covering mods; growing aftermarket customization media presence

    high · Don announced and promoted show launching 5pm ET tonight on Twitch; interviewed Stumbler and Robin about acrylic toppers and mechanical mods

  • ?

    event_signal: Don securing IAAPA media access and attending Orlando convention Nov 13-15; intersection of theme park, arcade, and pinball industries

    high · Don stated: 'I got myself an industry connection now. I got myself a ticket, I got myself a badge, and I'm going to IAAPA next week... I'll be there on the 13th, 14th, 15th'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Don asserts that persistent rumors from multiple independent sources tend to materialize; using consistency as confidence indicator for Jaws and other rumored titles

    medium · Don stated: 'When we hear things like that, they tend to bear out. I think Jaws is probably going to be coming out next. It's been consistent on the rumor mill from everybody I've been hearing it from.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Don argues that limited-asset (movie poster/lunchbox) licenses do not necessarily produce inferior games if core theme/music/mechanics present; cites Godzilla and Jurassic Park precedent

    medium · Don stated: 'I think it's a little bit unfair to call it... if it's just a movie poster license or a lunchbox license, that it's going to equal a bad game.'

    • 4:52
    You know, you have to be, you know, some sort of connection to get into it because there's a trade show. This is where companies that make rides, that make dark rides, that make animatronics, that make sculpts, that make other Dippin' Dots flavors, all kinds of fun stuff. This is where they come every year for the U.S. to show their wares. This is where ride announcements come out every year. This is where theme park expansions come out. But it's also a place where family entertainment centers and arcade and operators also go to look at what's new, what's latest, what's greatest, what raw thrills got coming out. What kind of two-seater box in front of the screen do they have that I could put in my arcade or put in my indoor water park, my Great Wolf Lodge? It's going to attract people for Ticket Redemption and things. They're also there too. So this is like the Venn diagram of all of my theme park interests and roller coaster interests and entertainment, redemption, arcade, and pinball are diverging right there at the Orlando Convention Center in November. And I got myself an industry connection now. I got myself a ticket, I got myself a badge, and I'm going to IAAPA next week. And I can't believe, you know, first off, I'm very thankful that I was welcomed in and provided with media access. Also, grateful to my wife, Monica, for allowing me to just bail and head down there. I would bring her, but, you know, our daughter has school here. I don't want to take my daughter out of school to go to, you know, a sweaty roller coaster convention. But I will be down there for two days. It will be next week. I think I'll be there on the 13th, 14th, 15th, something like that. If you're going to be in the area, hit me up. Let's meet. Let's hang out. But I'm going to cover whatever is there in the world of pinball for sure, and then whatever new with redemption or gaming because that's also included in my sphere. And I'm hoping to be writing something new while I'm down there, and I'll get some news to break for the roller coaster side of things. I've been thinking of splintering off into a separate roller coaster podcast just because there's so much news that's out there, man. And I don't want to bore the pinball people with the coaster and monorail news, but I think it's relevant. So that may be something that's going on. Otherwise, in life here at District on Arcade, Rush Pinball LE. I got the LE of Rush. I've got it modded, shaker, knocker. It comes powder-coated, speaker upgrade, external audio, all sorts of fixes, the Ninja Scoop mod, everything, topper, shooter rod. Like, it's the start button, coin door magnet, everything's on there. And I've enjoyed it for the last year, and it's time to move it on. It was just listed on Pinsight as generating a crazy amount of interest. So I looked at what some new-in-box Rush LEs were selling for between $12,000 and $12,900, with one sale pending at So I put my price OBO right in that space of what the vanilla new in box rushes are going for Mine fully modded out with a topper on it and everything else And I have it listed at $1,205. Like the same price as what the new in box no mods, no nothing are going for. Just because I want to provide something cool for the community. I'm not looking to flip it for a ton of money. I'll put it out there and it's already generating a ton of interest. So if you have an interest, just as a courtesy to the listeners, of getting a Rush LE in fantastic shape, it's home use only. I bought it from a guy that took it out of the box, put 15 plays on it, and just had it as a trophy on the side of his game room. It was not played at all, but it's had the Ninja Scoop Protector since day one. This game is fantastic. Mention that you heard it on the podcast. I'll knock $100 off it. We can talk about shipping and how to get it to you, whatever. Just putting it out there, man. My emails are already blowing up about it. But if you want to go, it's still unsold. I don't have a firm offer yet that I've committed to, so get at it if you want to have a sweet piece of District Dawn Arcade here.
    8:36
    If you want to get a new in-box pinball machine or you're looking for something used, why not hit my friends up with Mad Pinball? We'll go ahead and get the sponsorship jingle out of the way here.
    8:52
    Because we're so thankful of what they're doing for me. Plus this thing slaps. It's my favorite part right here.
    9:28
    Pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball. Shout out to everybody that's been following for the Friday Night Live that came back this last week. I got some winners there. We got T-shirts going out. And my French tickler, Stern Pinball on offer, acceptable device rod is going out to a lucky winner. Luck, I guess, is subjective, but those will be going out today. Let's get to speculation on pinball, man. That's the fun part that I love doing. You know, what new games are coming out? We just got like seven different games dropped on us in the last month. But from what I'm hearing, it's not really about to slow down. I don't think we're going to have to wait until Texas Pinball Festival for the next huge deluge. There may be some stuff coming, and it may be sooner than you think. I don't have anything concrete on here. But, you know, Barrels of Fun just came out of the gate and has been blowing up, right? Their labyrinths are sold half through now. The only place you can get them is from distributors right now. Their direct sales are done. I don't have an update yet on production. I've got some emails out to barrels, and I'm sure they're in a frenzy of launch mode right now where every waking moment is a waking moment. There's no time to sleep for these guys. But as I hear back about production, I'll be able to share that with everybody. I was able to play Labyrinth again on location at IO Arcade. I think that's the first location in the U.S. that went live. They're down in Madison, Wisconsin. They tend to get things as soon as it comes out the factory. Boom, it's on the floor, either there or at Blue Moon. So I was able to play it again on location. and it's just, you lose a lot when you're in a loud arcade because you can't hear all those great songs and things. You know, I'm talking about the babe.
    10:59
    You remind me it's the babe. What babe? Babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Do you? You do. They're right. Remind me it's the babe. Man, I mean, that was just, it was so fun at that pizza party with Barrels of Fun where you had all the machines, you could really kind of hear them. Also, it wasn't that bad playing it on the floor either, but I can't wait to get this thing in my house. Maybe I can even kick it into the external sub and just make David Bowie thump down here. I won my game yesterday. We'll see when it's coming out. Now, there's already rumors out there, though, that there's not one but two more games in development with Barrels of Fun right now, which is not on itself surprising, but it was encouraging to hear that. So Paris Pinball Addict, he's been breaking and just pushing out these rumors with no holds or barred with this guy. So I can run through them real quick. The bleeding one, and this is probably what would be next, The strongest rumor I'm hearing is the fifth element, right? Bruce Willis, Mila Jovovich, you know, the guy, Chris Tucker, and the guy with the plastic on half of his head. I just watched this movie again. And it does take, it's interesting because, I mean, it's an original kind of sci-fi dystopian sort of future type movie that just exists in its own universe. And it wasn't just, you know, mined to the nth degree with, you know, sequels and world building and all that. Like if it came out today, that's probably what they would look at, like how to turn this into another huge franchise. It's just a standalone film that's just, you know, some people say it's our generation's Star Wars. I don't know if I'd go quite that far. But this thing's, you know, three steps ahead of 12 Monkeys and, like, an entire metric yard in front of Battlefield Earth. So, yeah, I could see a game taking place in this universe because there's so many iconic things to pull from it. I've already seen, like, you know, characters and sculpts. This would have to be a game that takes place in a dystopian cityscape. And, you know, it's not something that's coming from, like, a multimorphic where I could also see it working. It's coming from barrels, man, the theme integrators, right, the people that threw that LED at the back of the play field. So I'd like to see what they do with this. You know, if I was to give, you know, my top 100 themes, this would probably be in there. I don't think it would be in the top 50 for me, but I want to see what they have. I don't think, you know, originally, I don't think Labyrinth would have been in the top 50 either, and look how great that turned out. So we're hearing that. There's still this persistent rumor about Princess Bride somewhere. I don't know if it makes sense for Barrels to have had that leak out early, if that's going to be like the third game out from them. It would make sense, I suppose, if there's like another new company out. But, you know, I'm wary of new companies, you know, just given the track record over the last several years. Barrels seems to come with a pedigree, though, with the people that are behind it. So that lends a lot of credibility to them. So I had no issue putting down, you know, my deposit when that game was released, eventually. It was late in the day, but it got to me. I can't wait to get that game and play it. I love the ramps and everything that it has. Labyrinth is half sold through. Fifth Element may be coming from them next. What we're going to see as far as when an official announcement is going to come, we're going to have to see what their production is like. If they're putting out 10 games a month, we're not going to see a game for another year for sure. They're not going to want to put multiple games on their line if they're only cranking out 10 or so a month. That may be where they start, too.
    14:15
    But if they're able to get production up to a brisk pace to where they're putting out 50, 100 games a month, you know, that would be a 10-month build time to get through these 1,100 units or so. Yeah, then I think we could see something. So they might be somebody that, even at TPF, I don't expect to see something new released from them. But who knows? Let's see where their production goes. These are guys that have some familiarity with this process. So that's barrels of fun. That's where that's at. There was a lot of themes that were released and pushed out by Paris Pimpolatic. He is pretty much confirming a lot of the things we've already heard. We've heard about Jaws. Let's start with there. This is supposed to be Jaws. It's supposed to be Elwynn. It's supposed to be Stern. It's supposed to be Next. There's been rumors that it may actually be released or announced before the first of the year, which, I mean, at the rate that Stern is going, let's talk about them for a second. We had this gap in production that we've known about for November, this month that we're in right now. We've known about this for several months because they forecast to their distributors what their production schedule is going to look like over the next four, six, sometimes eight months out. And so we were thinking okay something going to drop And then that thing turned out to be a Stranger Things rerun right Fantastic We overjoyed about that It paid for I waiting for it to show up It be coming this month But they also released the Elvira Blood Red Kiss edition as well, which is on the production line last week and may be continuing into this week of that 500 run. So that's like two huge releases right at the same time. And we just got Jurassic Park 30th before that, and they're still making Venoms, And then there's still Deadpools that were on the line when I toured the factory. So these people have the capacity to release another game in December if they want to. I think Smart Money would put on January that we're going to see this. But I don't think we're going to have to wait until cheaply after to see Jaws. I think Jaws is probably going to be coming out next. It's been consistent on the rumor mill from everybody I've been hearing it from. And from my experience, when we hear things like that, they tend to bear out. A couple little nuggets I've heard. I've heard four flippers. I've heard three flippers on one side of the machine. so that could mean that there's multiple upper flippers on the right side. If we look at another L1 game with four flippers, Iron Maiden, there's a tiny flipper that's on the left around that inner orbit, and then there's a traditional right upper flipper and then the traditional bottom. I've heard things that there's going to be one flipper on the bottom left, two flippers on the bottom right, almost like one of them is a shark mouth or something, and then maybe a traditional upper playfield flipper. Who knows, but that's what I'm hearing. I'm also hearing that we're going to see some representation. from those yellow barrels in the game. These were the floating buoys that were attached to harpoons that they shot Jaws with so they could track him. And then, you know, the idea being that this thing is so buoyant that it would, you know, kind of shackle him to the surface. And then what do we see? We see the barrels just disappearing underneath, like just like telling us without showing us that this shark is immense and powerful, right? He's pulling these buoys down like they're nothing. So I'm hearing that on the play field there will be these orange or yellow buoys and they will drop beneath the play field somehow. So everything else would be speculation. I was thinking just, you know, off the bat, if I was designing this game, I would make those the pop bumpers, right? You know, a nest of three pop bumpers that are themed after the yellow barrels, right? Bam, bam, bam. You know, bash them around, they explode or whatever. You know, could it be that and then the whole assembly drops below the play field? Are these like a group of three barrel bash toys, you know, kind of in a diglet formation that you may bash and then, you know, the shark will take them down, opening up a shot through them. I think that's possible too. We've already seen a playfield lowering mech from L1 before with Godzilla. That building, I mean, that building was the thing that sold me on the game, like initially as soon as I played it, and then the shots really, you know, committed me after the fact. You know, but we may see them reuse that same mechanism to drop these barrels underneath, you know, once they've received enough bashes or something, or once the shark shows up, you know, then the barrels are gone, and then you're on a shark hunt, right, a roaming shot that you have to hit. You know, my mind's going kind of crazy with play-filled moments that you can do with this. One of the other consistent rumors we've heard over the years with Jaws is that this is going to be a movie poster license, right, where you're not getting, you know, the Richard Dreyfuss character and all the rights to use the likenesses of the characters with custom speech and such. In the game, really, you're limited to just whatever's on the movie poster, kind of like what we got with James Bond. But look where that game got us, okay. I think it's a little bit unfair to call it, you know, if it's just a movie poster license or a lunchbox license, that it's going to equal a bad game. Because honestly, when we take a look at Godzilla, right, and the assets that they got, they got clips of the rubber monsters. They got some screech sounds.
    18:49
    And they got some of the theme music from these movies. You know, but there's no, like, you know, real long character interactions, you know, outside of the zillions, you know, with that game. A goat makes an appearance. But there's not a lot of lore from Godzilla in there. There's rubber monsters. There's aliens, which were dubbed over. And then everything else is kind of original character call-outs. We've seen Elwynn with Jurassic Park, a game that you didn't really get any elements from the movie other than Nedry. It just took place in that universe. And the game is fantastic. It led to a 30th anniversary LE re-release. So I don't think that it necessarily means, you know, if you don't get custom call-outs from the characters, it's going to be a bad game. I think this is going to be a fun shark game that's going to shoot incredibly well for sure. I don't think anybody's in doubt of that.
    19:39
    I think you'd have to get, you know, the music. You know, if you didn't have that Jaws music in there, there would be problems. So the theme has to be there.
    19:47
    The fact that you're chasing a shark. And then, you know, assets from the movie, like a sculpt of the ship, I could see that being in there.
    19:53
    I would just hope that they could at least get, you know, clips from the film, even if you don't get the actual dialogue, because if they had to recreate just animations or something, you know, similar to how they did with Venom, I think that would detract. You know, that would be kind of lame. I want to see, you know, the actual clips from the film, maybe some sound effects, even if we don't get, you know, if they have to do original overdub voice actors or something. So that's my speculation on Jaws. All right, we talked about Fifth Element. Back to the Future is still a persistent rumor. My homeboy from Paris met him at the Expo. He came back with this again. We still don't know what companies got it. You know, we heard, you know, from Mr. Kapow that Jersey Jack had a Harry Potter license. We'll see what they do with that. I haven't heard much about that or from that space at all. I haven't heard much coming about, you know, what's next from Jersey Jack yet. I think that the trend is that a secret can't be held without company. So once we start hearing something fairly consistently from multiple sources, that'll be where it comes from. I love what they did with Elton John. So I'm looking forward to now, you know, what they're going to do from their next game. I think they've learned a lot from Toy Story, from Godfather's release, from its gameplay, and from the flipper strength that's in this Elton John game. I hope it sells well for them so we can see more of that type. But will we see Back to the Future from them? Will we see Stern do it? That I still, I'm not sure who's going to be doing this. This is another license that could be problematic given, you know, Christopher Lloyd, and, you know, was it Robert Zemeckis that was behind this, or was it Spielberg, you know, plus Michael J. Fox getting, like, those assets. So this may be another, like, you know, lunchbox world. But, I mean, is there a better world for that to be in? As long as the game plays well and there's elements from it, I could see it being a success.
    21:31
    But, of course, the more assets, the better. What else do we have? Pinball Brothers. So beans were spilled, man. Beans were spilled with Pinball Brothers with respect to their next game. The strong rumor that's coming from this, and it seems like the company was a little upset about this getting out, was that we have another European Rock act as their next game. I don't know exactly when we would expect to see that, but it seems to me like a move to bring out Queen with an alternate Translight, a move to come out with an Ellen Ripley edition of Alien and just kind of keep the production line chugging along a little bit more with those kind of bump releases. I can see that meaning they need just a little bit more time before they announce the next game, so I would say TPF by then would be a likely time that we're going to see something new coming from Pinball Brothers, and it may be a European music theme. In my heart of hearts, I would love to have Scorpions. I would love to have Rammstein. But, you know, teasing those online, I didn't get the feedback that I was close to what it was actually going to be. So who knows? Who knows? You know, Beatles, Oasis? Oh, that just came to me. What about an Oasis machine? Talk about a difficult license to work with. You've got two brothers who hate each other for decades now, and you'd have to have them come together for a machine. But what a machine that would be. Champagne Supernova Multiball. Can you imagine it? with the Chrome ramps that pinball brothers does. Um you know I I think I could see it I got no confirmation on whatever it is You know I can I can try to lean on my homeboy Paris Pinball Addict I been practicing my French on his Facebook page So we could see if we'll see some more from that. What else do we have? Oh, we've got some information that was just dropped by our homeboy, my friend and yours, Jason Knapp, Knapp Arcade, amongst our other friends, perennial favorite, Haggis Pinball, out of Australia. So Centaur is going to be in production and supposed to be either leaving the factory or being bolted together in December, which would be next month, which would be fantastic, which may mean that, gosh darn it, these guys may have accomplished their goal of getting through all of their Fathom builds by the end of the year. That's what they told us four or six months ago. So I haven't seen any confirmation of that being the case. I don't know if they still have more to make, but they're going to pivot and at least put some centaurs together. You know, it may be late New Year's Eve in the other side of the hemispheres when they're bolting one of these things together. But either way, I would love it so much for people that have ordered this game to actually get it bolted together. Now, the first hurdle for them is putting these things together and having, you know, these oblivion editions for their series ticket holders, of which how many actually are there out there. You know, these guys will have their game bolted together. But then you have to get it, right? And so, you know, most of the sales would be North America for sure, and then Europe after Australia. So this isn't a game you can put on a truck and drive across the ocean, right? So this has to go airlift freight, $1,200, $1,500. I've seen quotes even higher to fly this game to you on top of the already exorbitant $20,000 price for an Oblivion Edition. So for you ballers that really need to have this Centaur revisited, I'm down with the art. I think it looks fantastic. Haggis seems to have good build quality from the games that I've seen as far as how they're bolted together. Whether they're holding up, I've heard mixed responses. I'd like to hear more, but I think we need more people to get their games in order to say that. So Centaur, if you want to get it in a somewhat timely fashion, once it's actually built, which is the first turtle, it's going to be like $1,500 to get this thing flown to you. Or they can put it on the slow boat to the U.S. Sounds like they're using, oh gosh, what is it? Who's got the license for all those Valley Williams games? Planetary Pinball in Nevada? Either way, they say there will be a slow boat to the U.S. approximately every two months. Now, they need to have a full container, you know, take full advantage of that. I don't know if they would want to ship a half container. So you kind of have to wait for capacity to build up. You know, what do you have to have 60, 80 games or so to fill up a shipping container? And then, you know, it probably takes, you know, a week and a half or so to ship out. That's not all that long. But it may be, you know, are they going to be able to hit the production to fill these containers to get them on a boat? If it was going to be a two-month wait but would save you $1,500, that may be reasonable. But if you can get your game now or wait six months, then I think I would probably opt for the air freight. But gosh, it's still such an expensive game for what is really just a redo of a classic 80s title.
    25:59
    It does look pretty, though. So I don't know. I don't know where I'm at. This kind of leads me to the topic of waiting for games that you've ordered that are taking a while than having your excitement fizzle away by the time you have to pay for the dang thing. That's not such a great feeling, right? We're seeing it for sure with Pulp Fiction right now. You know, Pulp Fiction sold out, God, it seems like a year ago when that was released. And then, you know, I've heard that the first ones for operators may have been made last month. I haven't seen any confirmation that they've shown up on site yet. So, you know, who really knows? But I'm anticipating it may be April, May, June before I'm going to hear from my distributor, hey, your game is finally ready here and paid for it. And by then, we're going to have maybe back to the future Fifth Element, Jaws. We're going to have all these other games that we're excited about. And then it's like, oh, yeah, these hot new titles that we're all FOMO-ing about are out right now, but now I have to pay the $7,500 balance for my Pulp Fiction I ordered a year ago. It's not a great feeling sometimes to know that you are committed to buying this game years down the road. Fortunately for Pulp Fiction, it's not a terribly expensive game. This wasn't a $15,000 game that you ordered and then a year later it's going to be ready. Now, okay, where's the other $14,000 Lebowski? Where's my money Lebowski? That's not a fun situation for anybody. Especially if by that point your friend's already got one, you've been playing it on location, you're kind of like, okay, this is still a good game, but it's not new. So at least Pulp Fiction's got the price. Centaur, though, does not have that luxury. $20,000? Plus $1,500 to airship? if you want the Oblivion, the good edition with that leather jacket. You'll need more of that leather jacket to keep you warm at night. If you've waited a year and you're looking at fantastic new games from the New Jersey Jack with the strong flippers, Stern's going to have like eight games out that have come out in the meantime, plus like three re-releases.
    27:47
    A black and white Jurassic Park will probably be out by then. And you're going to have to go cough up your 18 grand or whatever to settle your balance with the folks on the other side of the world. So, I mean, that kind of sucks. I'm sort of in that situation right now with Pulp Fiction. Pulp is at least a good game. It's a classic. I think it's going to hold its playability, and it's cheaper. So I like that. So I'm happy waiting for that. It was a little rough waiting for Scooby. I ordered through a distributor. I didn't order direct. And so I was in kind of the later half of the build, so I had to wait for number 700 or so. And I was able to play it on location several times. When I finally got mine, I kind of already knew what I was getting into. I had seen it at shows by then. I don't know. That model is what it is.
    28:33
    But waiting, if it's like a year, two years even for a Centaur, my God, how are you going to be still passionate about that game purchase that far down the line? That kind of sucks. I'm hoping the same thing doesn't happen with Labyrinth. I did order direct, a pre-order direct from them. I hope that puts me kind of in a closer build time so I can get my game without having to wait two years. and then, you know, by then, so many other fantastic things have come out, and then I've got to settle my bill, you know, for a Labyrinth. Labyrinth is fun. I like all the pop-up characters that are in it. It's got a cool topper. I can't wait to get it home and play it. And I'm hoping that I'm earlier in the build so, like, I can sustain my exuberance for it and I'm not one of the guys that's like, okay, hey, here's a new in-box game, finally game, please get it. But I still think the award for that, though, is with Dutch Pinball due to all the legal troubles they had with Big Lebowski. But at least they delivered us a great game. Big Lebowski is a great game. Pulp Fiction is a great game.
    29:29
    Labyrinth is great. Centaur, we can go play Centaur right now. So I don't know, man. I kind of figure at this point, though, with Haggis, you kind of know what you're getting into then. So what else do we have? I think that's everything I had in my show notes for today. Thanks, everybody, for joining. Those Friday winners, your packages are on the way today. Thanks for spending Episode 80 here with Don's Pinball Podcast. If you're one of the two people left in the universe, that's not following the Facebook page, please do. Let's get up to 1,000, and then I'm just going to chillax, man. That will satisfy any stretch goal that I had going into this, and I'm continuing just to be humbled and happy for how this is going. I have it next week.
    30:11
    We'll be live from the show floor, so that's another good reason to follow the Facebook page because I drop Facebook lives, and I'm going to be at the show floor with IAPA. Do you want to see what the new popcorn-flavored Dippin' Dots review is? That's how you're going to do it. Any other news or speculation I get, I will drop immediately while I'm down there wandering the show floor, hopefully sucking down a Florida daiquiri. So thanks, everybody, for your constant assistance with this little project that I have. Later.