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DPP #88 "Looney Tunes/ TCM review!!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·35m 39s·analyzed·Dec 10, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Don praises TCM/LT as Spooky's most impressive dual release with flowiest layout and deepest code to date.

Summary

Don visited Spooky Pinball headquarters to play Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes—two games sharing identical layouts but coded as completely separate experiences. Both games feature exceptional shot flow, innovative mechanisms (orbits, magnets, auger screws), deep rule sets with stackable modes, and represent a significant evolution in Spooky's design philosophy. Don praised the playfield quality, flipper responsiveness, and mechanical creativity, positioning these as standout releases in Spooky's catalog.

Key Claims

  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes share identical layouts but were coded by separate teams, resulting in distinctly different gameplay experiences

    high confidence · Don directly observed and played both machines at Spooky HQ; confirmed by Spooky staff (Bug, Corwin) on-site

  • The shared layout features four full-size flippers (two upper, two lower), four ramps, orbits, a center scoop feeding a subway system, and a VUK exit

    high confidence · Don provided detailed technical description of playfield geometry and mechanisms observed during three-hour play session

  • Spooky now handles playfield printing, clear-coating, LED board design, and lighting in-house rather than outsourcing

    high confidence · Don stated directly: 'They're doing everything in-house now... They're printing the play fields. They're clear-coding the play fields. They're lighting with their own graphic LED boards'

  • The layout achieves exceptional shot flow through angled stand-up targets and ramp design that feeds balls back into combos rather than dead-ending

    high confidence · Don and Bug demonstrated this in real-time; Don noted even missed ramps result in recoverable ball position

  • Looney Tunes features six cartoon episodes as modes (Duck Dodgers, Rabbit Season/Duck Season, Daffy Duck Robin Hood, Tweety Bird, Jekyll and Hyde, Opera Singer) with randomly assigned progression

    medium confidence · Don observed during play but notes code is still early; some audio assets not finalized

  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre implements a chainsaw-revving skill shot system where holding the launch button controls power strength, differing from Looney Tunes' button-timing approach

    high confidence · Don directly experienced and described both skill shot mechanics during play session

  • Both games feature stackable multiballs with modes for deep strategic play

    medium confidence · Don was told this by Spooky staff but did not fully experience it during limited play time

Notable Quotes

  • “This thing is the flowiest monster I've seen from Spooky Pinball, bar none. This is like an evolution of their code.”

    Don @ ~12:30 — Establishes TCM/LT as Spooky's peak design achievement; emphasizes shot flow as primary differentiator

  • “They play like two completely separate games... most people may not even pick up that the layout is actually identical”

    Don @ ~8:45 — Highlights Spooky's approach to maximizing code differentiation despite mechanical duplication; key differentiator between TCM and LT

  • “I believe I think they correct saying this is the greatest horror themed pinball machine ever made”

    Don @ ~27:00 — Don's assessment of TCM's standing in horror pinball category; strong endorsement despite reservations about gore intensity

  • “The inserts actually don't match either between one and the other... there's someone different on the art, there's someone different on the rules, someone different on the lights and inserts”

    Don @ ~7:30 — Explains Spooky's dual-release strategy: separate creative teams to justify identical layouts

  • “The code is deep here. This isn't just hit two, three targets, start a battle with a character, and then there's eight characters to battle... This is much deeper than that.”

    Don @ ~45:00 — Positions TCM/LT code complexity beyond typical mode-based games; establishes depth as key selling point

  • “There's a lot of that that's not even in here yet. And we do know with Spooky that even going back to Ultraman right now, they're still putting out code updates.”

    Don @ ~50:00 — Assurance of post-launch support and ongoing development; pattern validation from Spooky's track record

  • “It felt good for me to get a nice 50 million point score up there, especially in front of the guys that designed the dang game.”

    Don @ ~56:00 — Personal achievement milestone during factory visit; validates learning curve and accessibility of game design

Entities

DonpersonSpooky PinballcompanyBug EmerypersonSpooky LukepersonCorwinpersonMorganpersonTexas Chainsaw MassacregameLooney Tunesgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Spooky granted advance factory access to Don within 48 hours of public announcement/order opening, providing hands-on preview for content creator distribution

    high · Don: 'not 48 hours after the reveal, not 24 hours after the order gates opened for Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes from Spooky Pinball, they invited me down to their headquarters'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Spooky's design approach explicitly contrasts with Stern's build philosophy (solid but floaty flippers) and other manufacturers, positioning TCM/LT as superior for shot flow and mechanical innovation

    medium · Don: 'All Sterns seem to feel the same... Junkyard... they have floaty flippers... And this thing felt solid as well' and comparison to Hot Wheels showing Spooky prioritizes interesting mechanics over Stern's flipper feel

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky has shifted from complex upper playfield designs (Alice Cooper) to prioritizing shot flow, ball recovery, and repeatable ramp sequences that feed into each other

    high · Don noted: 'They've incorporated a lot of the feedback that they've gotten, and they've continuously improved' and praised 'the flowiest monster I've seen from Spooky Pinball, bar none'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky Pinball has vertically integrated production by moving playfield printing, clear-coating, and LED board manufacturing in-house rather than outsourcing

    high · Don stated: 'They're doing everything in-house now. They have control of everything. They're not farming things out and then having them come in. They're printing the play fields. They're clear-coding the play fields. They're lighting with their own graphic LED boards.'

  • $

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.107

0:00
now is the time buckle up everybody grab your carpet square get down pull the speaker stereo to your ears we're gonna go all through the gameplay impressions from texas chainsaw massacre and looney tunes for spooky pinball i just played them for three solid hours i got my views and reviews for you right now I am so very excited to be joining you here. Let's call this episode number 87 of this year of Don's Pinball Podcast. I had the great pleasure and the respectable extension of the olive branch tanned to me from the Spooky Pinball folks. Today, not 48 hours after the reveal, not 24 hours after the order gates opened for Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes from Spooky Pinball, they invited me down to their headquarters to go and play these games. These games just got unveiled and put on for sale yesterday and have already had a chance to play them. And I'm here to give you my first gameplay impression. So the day played out by me getting off of a night shift, driving three hours down to Benton, Wisconsin. And then I was able to get in there and I hung out for about three hours on the factory floor with these two games, with Spooky Luke, Corwin, Bug Emery, and Morgan. And very gracious they were for hosting myself and Monica. We went down there. I get to play these games. I can't. I'm so excited. I don't even know where to start here. Man, my brain is scattered from everything I have to absorb, you know, this whole time. But I'm going to get to it. And I'm going to start off by saying these games are good, man. These games shoot. These games shoot fantastically. There's no bricking of shots here. Spooky Pinball has continued to level up with every release that they have done. I'm going to get more into the details of that later. But I can just say right off the bat, I had a freaking blast playing these games. Now, I think the secret that I've been into what they do, I like the innovative approach they take to games. Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle looks amazing, right? Upper play fields, lots of scopes and everything. I like it. The shots, however, aren't the most forgiving, right? There's posts there that will reject, you know, and it's hard to dial in those shots.
2:31
But as they've gone on, they've incorporated a lot of the feedback that they've gotten, and they've continuously improved. one of their most recent releases, Halloween that was one of the ones that I had, I loved the theme a very moody, atmospheric game, but while it did have a good orbit shot and I loved the upper playfields and how they terraced upon each other it didn't quite have that flow that you get with certain other games, and that was something that people were asking for and listen to you, they did that was my little Yoda segue so this was hard to convey, just looking at the sizzle reel trailer that came out, and then even to the featurette, but these, being able to stand there over this game and play, you know, 10 to 15 games on each today, between myself, between Monica, between watching Bug blow it up, between watching Spooky Luke catch up, I'm kidding, brother, I'm kidding, it was great getting a sense for these shots. So, since these games both share a layout, you know, there was a sense on, okay, so, So if the layout is playable, which one do I want? Because there'd be no way to get both of them, obviously, right? Well, they took this approach of having a separate team code each different game. So there's someone different on the art, there's someone different on the rules, someone different on the lights and inserts and everything. The inserts actually don't match either between one and the other. So these do play, which was somewhat surprising to me. I wasn't expecting this. They play like two completely separate games. even layout aside, to the point that I think that if you went to an arcade that had both of these games, and one game was over on the one side and the other one was over on the other, and you were just kind of going around casually and you happened to play both of them, most people may not even pick up that the layout is actually identical with regards to the layout of the ramps and the wire forms and the targets and things. So how do I encapsulate the experience that I had today there with you guys? I've already said that I'm a fan of this layout. Let's go over it. What makes this layout so good? So the shots do fan out left to right, but this isn't a fan layout. There's ramps in the foreground. There's ramps in the background. The basics of this are it's a four-flipper game, four full-size flippers, two on the right, two on the left, two uppers, two lowers. And there's four ramps, two ramps right and left that are a little bit lower and two ramps that are left and right a little bit upper. There's orbits in between each ramp, and there is a habitrail wire form coming from each one. And then there is a center scoop in the back that feeds a subway. And underneath the lower left ramp, there's a drop target with another scoop under there. And that communicates with the subway system, and it all exits via a VUK that shoots into the left orbit. Now, the thing that's interesting, and here's where the secret sauce came in with this game as far as the layout, each one of these shots, and this was mentioned in the featurette, they feed a flipper. They set up another shot. They allow you to continue comboing these ramps. And in fact, there's multiple shots even from the upper flippers, you know, as opposed to, say, a recent release like 007 where that left upper flipper on the Cornerstone version of Bond, you know, you try to shoot over and get that henchman ramp. Sometimes you can shoot up and hit the tank target, but there's not a whole lot else that's quite really going on there. But here you can repeatedly hit ramps. And not only when you hit the ramp, it also sets it back up, whether it's going down to the lower flippers or feeding back to the upper flippers or feeding into an orbit, man. This thing is the flowiest monster I've seen from Spooky Pinball, bar none. This is like an evolution of their code. Moreover than that, and this was pointed out to me while I was playing today by Bug, a lot of the stand-up targets that they have where maybe in the past, if you were to hit these dead on, they would tend to send the ball straight down to the flippers, maybe kind of towards the middle or maybe brick or break the momentum. These are angled and engineered in such a way that they seem to feed more into the gameplay elements than just, you know, heading back down the flippers or something. So that's something I noticed, you know. I'm still learning the shots in this game, of course. I've only played it, you know, less than a dozen times on each one.

The TCM blood-drain grandfather mode dynamically reduces playable field area as blood depletes, forcing shot adjustment strategy

high confidence · Spooky staff removed glass to demonstrate this mode in detail to Don

  • Both games will receive ongoing code updates post-launch, similar to Halloween and Ultraman

    high confidence · Don stated based on Spooky's track record and conversation with staff

  • The playfield gloss and build quality approaches American Pinball's Hot Wheels in solidity but exceeds it in mechanical interest and shot variety

    medium confidence · Don's subjective assessment based on hands-on experience; comparison is opinion-based

  • “So if you were to take a game that was built solid like that with that type of... kind of graphic feedback with the inserts lighting up and running through the different LEDs, but put in mechanistically interesting mechanisms and load it with ramps that are throwing the balls all over the place that are repeatable with much more flow, that's what this game felt like.”

    Don @ ~20:00 — Direct comparison to Hot Wheels; establishes TCM/LT as superior in mechanical interest while matching build solidity

    • American Pinball
    company
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Zen Pinballcompany/platform
    Halloweengame
    Ultramangame
    Scooby-Doogame
    Rick and Mortygame
    Walking Deadgame
    Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castlegame
    Monicaperson
    Jason Knappperson
    Kerry Hardyperson
    Munstersgame
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    007/Bondgame

    market_signal: Spooky's playfield design emphasizes shot repeatability and combo building (orbit loops, ramp feeds, auto-fire sequences) as primary differentiator vs competitors focusing on unique toys/toys

    high · Don extensively detailed repeatable shot sequences: 'right upper flipper loop to the inner orbit, outer orbit, and then auto-firing right into the makeshift scoop that goes into the VUC and then back into the orbit' that can be executed 'three, four times, building up combos'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Spooky's creative team (Bug, Corwin, Morgan) demonstrate deep code knowledge and hands-on involvement in design mentoring, indicating organic development culture vs external vendor reliance

    medium · Don: 'Corwin Bug, bless his heart, he's taking me through, you know, levels and levels of code' explaining mechanics, suggesting in-house expertise rather than outsourced development

  • ?

    product_strategy: TCM and LT employ separate creative teams (art, rules, lights) to create distinctly different gameplay experiences despite mechanical duplication, maximizing perceived value differentiation

    high · Don directly observed: 'there's someone different on the art, there's someone different on the rules, someone different on the lights and inserts and everything' and noted 'they play like two completely separate games'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stand-up target engineering has been refined to angle balls toward gameplay elements rather than dead-ending to flippers, improving shot recovery and flow

    high · Don: 'a lot of the stand-up targets that they have where maybe in the past, if you were to hit these dead on, they would tend to send the ball straight down to the flippers... These are angled and engineered in such a way that they seem to feed more into the gameplay elements'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Both TCM and LT include unfinished code content and audio assets, with planned ongoing updates extending into the future consistent with Spooky's post-launch support pattern

    high · Don: 'There are some audio assets that are dropped out. They're not in there yet' and 'there was actually a code update that came through for TCM' during his visit; 'there's a lot of that that's not even in here yet'

  • ?

    product_concern: Playfield build quality and gloss now approaches/matches American Pinball's Hot Wheels benchmark for solidity while exceeding it in mechanical interest and shot complexity

    medium · Don: 'it almost looked like when you step up to American Pinball's Hot Wheels... I would say the gloss on the play field is absolutely top-notch' while noting TCM/LT offer more interesting mechanisms than Hot Wheels

  • ?

    licensing_signal: TCM's graphic horror aesthetic (blood, gore, chainsaw imagery) presents market segmentation challenge vs LT's broad casual appeal, despite both sharing mechanical foundation

    medium · Don: 'I think this is the game that would have the most broad basing appeal [LT]... if you want to put this in your pizza parlor and you don't want to scare the little children' vs TCM being 'dark, brutal disgusting gore ridden' with 'icebox with the girl... that is creepy AF'

    • 6:41
    But even when I didn't make it up a ramp, like, the ball would still be recoverable, which was nice. You know, at first this game played, a game I'm just referring to the layout in general, played a little bit on the harder side. I was draining balls at first until I kind of got the hang of how these shots are designed. And then from there, you almost kind of go into, you know, almost kind of like a yoga meditation pose mode where you can just send shots all around. And then the game was really open up. Bug was, of course, demonstrating this much better than I could. But as I went on playing, you know, by game three, game four, five, I really started to kind of get the hang of some of these shots. I can't remember every single shot from these games. I've got, you know, a dozen plays in each one. But I will say, off of that right upper flipper, there is a sweet sequence shot. So there's essentially a giant circumferential orbit around the entire back of the playfield, and there's also an inner orbit. It's a little bit tighter, goes around between the two ramps on the left, comes out between the two ramps on the right, feeds into that right upper flipper. So off of that right upper flipper, you can feed right into the inner orbit. it'll swing around, and then that kind of scoop area underneath that left lower ramp, this will make sense if you look at the play field photo, it'll drop down in there, and then that buck will send the ball back into the outer orbit, right back to that flipper, so you can then hit the inner orbit again. And then, you know, in Halloween, this is what it reminded me of, there's the butt pretzel shot, I think is what they called it, on the upper, upper play field for Halloween, and Ultraman as well. When you send the ball through that mini flipper through the spinner, and you keep the flipper raised, if it's going fast enough, it'll travel around, bounce off that flipper, and then do the other, you know, figure eight, the other half of the pretzel there, and then return to the flipper for a repeatable shot. This is one that spans the entirety of the play field. So once you get into this system here, the ball will buck around the main orbit, come to the right upper flipper, you can send it through the inner orbit, and then from there it careens directly into that scoop, back to the buck, and then comes back shooting around the orbit again. And you can do this three, four times, building up combos and things. If you don quite get it you can send it into the buck itself from the flipper or you can send it into one of the ramps where it feed back The whole thing feeds back on itself It a very magical setup that they have. But that's not all of the mechanisms that are in this game as far as, you know, gameplay-wise. The center door there that you see, it's an Acme crate on Looney Tunes, and it's the meat locker freezer door on TCM. There is actually a magnet right in front of there and they did show a bit of this in the trailer um but the magnet will grab the ball there and then it does this cool thing just like shadow uh where the ball would lock up onto the upper right of the play field there um the the ball will then after locking onto the magnet will drop down the magnet will fire and then fling the ball straight through into that scoop and that is the way that you start modes um in the games that's the way that you score um uh cash out jackpots. And in the case of Turner Classic Movies, TCM, it's actually a function as a way to start one of the multiballs. Similar to how the ball would get stuck on the magnet in front of Herman Munster with the sterns of the Munsters, and then you can hit that ball with a hurry up to initiate a two-ball multiball. That is here on TCM. Okay, let's break down each game. They both play very differently. This would be the weirdest double feature movie that you would go to. Yes, you're watching a movie, but the themes couldn't be more different. I'll start with Looney Tunes because that's the game that I played the first. I think this is the game that would have the most broad basing appeal as far as if you want to put this in your pizza parlor and you don't want to scare the little children, this would be the one to play. How do I review this layout? All I can say is that let's talk about how the gameplay is integrated. Now, the code is still a little bit early, and actually while I was there for the three hours, there was actually a code update that came through for TCM, and then they were able to update it. So they're working in real time here. I was able to get a good sense on the code. Mode-wise, this is a mode-driven game. I think there were about six different cartoon episodes that were in there. The gist of the story of Looney Tunes is that you're in the Acme factory, Taz has torn it up, and Bugs and Daffy are trying to assemble the old movie film canisters from the different episodes. And as you start each mode, they enter into a movie theater, and then they're watching the cartoon. The cartoon plays out through the rest of the mode, and each mode plays a little different. I need to play this a lot more to get a sense on exactly what the goals of each mode are, but it was fun to play it. The code still being a little rudimentary. There are some audio assets that are dropped out. They're not in there yet. Or there's a couple of little vocal fillers that were placed in, like the final cut is not in there yet, but some other sound bite was put in, and oftentimes they were quite hilarious, which I did enjoy. but in a sense the game plays mode based you shoot a couple of white shots just like Scooby Doo and then you can enter into the scoop and then that will start your mode your modes all have different ways of playing them you're trying to collect them all or what have you there's also a few ways to lock balls one of which is in this case not the meat grinder but the Acme Rocket auger screw, that worm drive screw that's on the left I don't think I finally got a sense on how that's actually activated, whether it's through stand-up targets or whatnot, but there is a diverter that pops up into the leftward wire form, and that feeds into there. You can see that in the trailer. The balls fall down there into the VUX system and then shoot back out. In this case, out the lower left scoop that's underneath that mechanism. But that is a fun mechanism there. I think once I understand the sequence of what I have to do to activate it, it'll be even more fun. But it is cool to shoot that ramp. It's very hittable. It's very findable, that left lower ramp, and it 180s right into that mechanism, that diverter It'll send it into the rocket. And it seemed like every time it happened, it was a fun little surprise that I get to see the ball in there as it's crawling forward. There's some integrative things that are done with that auger screw, though. So it doesn't just dump into there and meat grind its way through the rocket or the meat grinder with TCM. It could actually be held there, and another ball could feed you. And then while that ball is locked in there, you can shoot for extra points, and then slowly it'll make its way out and then go into a multi-ball situation and such. the sense that I got from both of these games I'll talk about the code probably at the end is the code is fairly deep and that's what I liked let me finish off with Looney Tunes by saying how does this game feel because that's one thing that people have been concerned about does it feel like a solid game all Sterns seem to feel the same JJPs they have floaty flippers essentially but they feel pretty solid Dutch Pinball makes games, well made one game that is solid as a rock And this thing felt solid as well. So I would say the gloss on the play field is absolutely top-notch. They're doing everything in-house now. They have control of everything. They're not farming things out and then having them come in. They're printing the play fields. They're clear-coding the play fields. They're lighting with their own graphic LED boards.
    13:45
    They've got their own boards that are running this now, and they're leveling up as they go through this process. But when I stepped up to the game, because of how the LEDs were shining through there, it almost looked like when you step up to American Pinball's Hot Wheels. And so I want to say that it kind of feels as solid as Hot Wheels does. The flippers feel very responsive, and the game shoots very well. Where this is a departure from Hot Wheels is this game does things that are very interesting, and that's one thing that's missing from Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels has good shots. It's a robustly built game. I haven't heard of any issues on location because of how solid it's built. the shots that are there are easy to hit. They're just not very interesting, right? And then, you know, you have a little Hot Wheel car on a wire that spins around a circle. I guess, you know, interesting. So if you were to take a game that was built solid like that with that type of, you know, kind of graphic feedback with the inserts lighting up and running through the different LEDs, but put in mechanistically interesting mechanisms and load it with ramps that are throwing the balls all over the place that are repeatable with much more flow, that's what this game felt like. All in the background of a game that's playing classic Looney Tunes cartoons.
    14:58
    And from what I'm told, the game is going to play someone like a Rick and Morty, where as you start the modes, they'll kind of randomly be assigned to you. So that's fun. Duck Dodgers was present.
    15:10
    What's the one where Rabbit Season, Duck Season was in there. Daffy Duck Robin Hood was in there. Tweety Bird, Jekyll and Hyde. Opera Singer, there was a lot. There was a lot that were in there. Um, some characters that may be missing or really any, any that could be, uh, considered as, uh, you know, racist, racial stereotypes. You may not find them in there, but, uh, I, I wasn't, you know, wanting for a character that wasn't there. Uh, the other locking mechanism in the back of the play field, this is what was sent out to all of us content folks. Well, three out of four of us anyway. Um, you know, Jason Knapp got the back of the play field. I got the, the ball lock hole mechanism. And then, uh, Kerry Hardy actually got the diverter that's back there. So I think this is controllable in game. I didn't quite get my head wrapped around that, and maybe the code hasn't progressed to a point where it's obvious to me yet. But there's a ball diverter there. There's four holes in that little upper area. I don't know if you can call it an upper play field. It's more of just like a lock mechanism in the back of the play field. But this diverter can move down through one of four positions. Balls lock up in there. This was interesting. I do want to talk about this mechanism real quick. So there is the Newton ball that sits adjacent to the right lower ramp. Again, this is going to make a lot more sense if you can pull up a picture of the play field and look at it. But as you hit this Newton ball, it will work its way qualifying up these numbered inserts, 1 through 5, 5 being ball lock. Once you get the whole thing qualified, then the ball lock mechanism is ready for this mechanism in the back of the play field. The way that you enter this is great. You have to enter from the rightward orbit. and as you do, you roll over a switch and there's a diverter which is essentially that back corner, the back right corner of the orbit that pops up quickly and allows the ball to go back into a VUC and then lock into that system. And then the whole system can shift and then release the balls. When it's time for multi-ball, they all feed into a habit trail which then dumps into the orbit and then down they come through the spinner. So that's that mechanism. I'll have to play it a lot more to get more of a sense on exactly how it's triggered, when it's done, but I'm told that these multiballs are stackable with other modes too, so that's where the strategy is going to come in. As you play this game, qualify the modes, qualify the locks, build up those locks, start that mode, and start that multiball, and then go nuts, right?
    17:24
    So that was the code, that was my experience playing Looney Tunes. Let's go over to TCM. Now, I watched the featurette, and it really kind of painted this game as a dark, brutal disgusting gore ridden horror masterpiece of a pinball machine this is I believe I think they correct saying this is the greatest horror themed pinball machine ever made But it not quite as like disgustingly brutal in its brutality and gore as I was somewhat led to believe just watching the featurette. Yeah, they didn't spare anything. They didn't hold anything back from the film. The film assets are there. This game is pretty creepy. And when I went from playing, you know, one or two games of Looney Tunes over to TCM, like it was a little bit like uneasy playing it just because it's got that vibe man it's very strong very much there's a world under this glass that you would not want to actually be in but it is fun to play around down in there um but when you're playing the game you're you're shooting shots you're shooting the ramps you're marveling at the powder coat of the wire forms uh you're trying to qualify the modes you're listening to the music and you're not so much paying attention to whatever's being depicted on the screen. So I did hear from some people that were a little bit standoffish when they heard about the graphic representation of the true-to-form art from the movie that was incorporated into the game. I will say that's probably not as brutal as you're maybe thinking, but for any fan of the franchise or fan of horror in general, this absolutely is fantastic.
    19:00
    Parts of it do feel like Walking Dead as far as the blood spattered on the mechanisms that are in there.
    19:08
    You know, I said I kind of got like a Rob Zombie vibe initially, just from the featurette, but not necessarily when I was playing it. This game is packed, of course, it shares the same layout, so the same ramps, the same mechanistic interactions with the baller there, but there's different sculpts and other character kind of interactions. You know, you've got Leatherface down there spinning around in the back. But the thing to remember here is that it was a separate coding team that worked on this. So some of the ways that the mechanisms like the magnet are integrated in TCM are different than what you're going to find on Looney Tunes. One of the skill shots that was activated with the action button on Looney Tunes is not in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It has a totally different novel system for doing skill shots. Now, both of these games do use a launch button. So the skill shots are done largely by timing, either watching the lit inserts and hitting the button to get to the insert of choice. which is generally the middle one. Where TCM is different is if you hold the launch button, it actually brings up a chainsaw that starts revving up and down corresponding to different strengths of that auto-fire. And so that will kind of – it took me a little bit to understand this. But as you watch the screen, you can see the inserts going up and down to the three positions of the skill shot. And when you find the one you want, you hold the button down and then wait and see how much power you want to put to that. If you full power it, generally you're going to probably hit that middle one. If you go a little bit weaker, you can hit the lower one. Each one had a different point value, so that was fun. There was also some secret skill shots in here too, I believe, and I didn't quite get how to achieve those, but perhaps they're done by holding a button when you shoot or some other mechanism. Regardless, they were both fun and interesting, but that's just an example of how these two games with the same launch mechanisms are implemented differently due to the fact that a different team worked with it. So it wasn't like they've kind of like copy-pasted the code from both of them, kind of like how I feel that playing Halloween and Ultraman are. These do departure quite a bit.
    21:11
    Mechanisms, there's under-flipper shots on both games. They both operate things a little bit differently. The icebox with the girl, I think it's Pam, that's stuck in there on the right side that pops up. That is creepy AF. I love that. I giggled every time that happened. That was quite interesting for me. the sound effects of like the slamming meat locker door or shooting up through there were different from Looney Tunes even though it's ostensibly like the same layout type of shot it's just that these games have such different feels to them the meat grinder man that's just brutal watching the balls go up there and fall into that auger and just grind through there you know with the picture of a bloody finger severed finger on top of the grill just chef's kiss man that was great.
    21:57
    The locking system works similarly but the implementation and the code is a little bit different. You hit the Newton ball, build up the numbers, the inserts and then all of a sudden you'll get the lock is lit and then you can shoot up there and lock balls up. They can drop. It's also, I've heard, stackable with the modes. I didn't get a whole lot of experience with that because I was just having fun, honestly, playing these repeatable shots that they have. The same right upper flipper loop to the inner orbit, outer orbit, and then auto-firing right into the makeshift scoop that goes into the VUC and then back into the orbit. That was fun, man. I was having fun, giggling to myself every time I did that. As I was playing more and more, you know, I got to game 7, 8, 9, I started to get the hang and the feel of that. And kind of that's what the guys were telling me. Now, they've known about this game for years. They've been working on it. They know every nuance in it. So it's a second language to them. For me, like three days ago, I didn't know these games existed. Two days ago, I knew what the themes were. One day ago, I knew what the featurette kind of features of it are, and then all of a sudden it's in front of me. And, you know, Corwin Bug, bless his heart, he's taking me through, you know, levels and levels of code, trying to explain like, you know, this shot and this shot and this shot will qualify this, and then you hit this, and then when you're in this mode, here's what's going on, and like my brain is spinning trying to process this because I'm still trying to get around, you know, where does this ramp go? Where does this ramp go? Why does that ramp go over there? How did that happen? So it's the kind of thing that I have to play it more and more until that'll start to sink in. But that takes me to the code for these games. The code is deep here. This isn't just hit two, three targets, start a battle with a character, and then there's eight characters to battle, and you go through them all. This is much deeper than that. I even got to see a few of the mini wizard modes that were starting. when you're playing Looney Tunes I'm not sure exactly what character you're playing other than you're just playing in the world of the Looney Tunes and having fun with the cartoon characters and watching the cartoons and giggling along with the jokes and some of the call outs which do have some little nuanced adult humor hidden in there that will fly right over the head of most impressionable youngsters but make the adults giggle a bit whereas over in TCM you're playing as one of the characters of the family so it's kind of fun how it starts out you shoot white shots, and this is how this game is a departure in tone. You shoot the white shots, and then it qualifies a mode. Maybe the mode is that you're in the shop, and you're trying to get the human character victims to buy things, and you're racking up some money. But all the time, when you're in that, I believe this was the shop mode, there's this kind of honky-tonk jukebox song that's playing in the background. And it's so unsettlingly creepy as it's playing, and it's absolutely perfect. Like something that would play on a forgotten jukebox in a dusty butcher shop on the side of some random no-name road in the middle of rural Texas. That's where you would hear that. And then stacked on top of that was then call-outs and sound effects and things, but all sprinkled on top of the background of just this really creepy kind of old country western honky-tonk music, man, punctuated by chainsaw noises. Man, the thing was great to play this. We were in a quiet environment. We've got the lights down low, and then it's just absorbed into this world. I'm looking at the play field right now, and I want to get back there and play it some more. What else can I tell you about this game? We did take the glass off of TCM just so he could show me through some of the cool modes. There's one in which you're playing as the grandfather character, which drains blood from victims. And as you're playing that mode, every insert on the game is blood red, right? And then as you're playing, every switch you hit is draining the blood from your victim. And as you're doing that, the color is fading from the top of the play field towards the bottom. As you do that, you want to keep your shots in that red area. You don't want to shoot up at the back of the play field anymore because you'll get penalized for that. And so you have like less and less areas to work with hitting switches as you're working through draining all your blood from your victim. And then when you finally drain it, you hit the scoop at the top and that's how you cash out your multiple. The innovation that's here that's driven with code and that has nothing to do with the mechanisms was great. And there's a lot of that. There's a lot of that that's not even in here yet.
    26:19
    And we do know with Spooky that even going back to Ultraman right now, they're still putting out code updates. We're still getting tons of code updates for Halloween. We're getting code updates for Scooby-Doo. So this game and Looney Tunes are going to be supported, cleared out into the future. So any concerns you had, the codes of these games are deep. The shots of this game are great I not bricking shots Now I still not a great pinball player so there are instances where I losing balls down the middle That happens But it didn feel unfair And as I played more and got more familiar with where the shots were feeding into, I was able to grab them with upper flippers and really keep it going to the point that I actually put up a number one place score on TCM when I was there. Now, I'm sure they've reset that a few times and done code updates, but it felt good for me to get a nice 50 million point score up there, especially in front of the guys that designed the dang game. So all thanks to the spooky crew. These guys are magnificent wizards, and this game impressed upon me that they've really leveled up, and the shots feel interesting. What else can I say about this? There's so much running through my head. I'm trying to get it all out. But yeah, I was down there for three hours. I put about 10 to 15 games on each one while I was there. and we took the glass off so you could kind of show me the modes and how things are working. They still have a few code things to work out, but they're doing it right now. Practical purpose things. This game is in production now. They've started production on this game. We are still waiting for live streams for final license or approval, I believe it is. TCM should be coming soon. With Looney Tunes, we're probably going to have to wait until the Council of Elders reconvenes after the holidays to give them final approval until we can see that. When are we going to see games in boxes? Not before January, for sure. January into February, probably. They said they're going to take their time with the first ones, getting them out. The first ones have already been announced for locations. IOR Canaan Madison will be getting one of the first TCMs. So if you're in the Madison area, that's probably where you can play it first. But otherwise, we should be seeing these things going out. Talking to the guys, they are looking at moving toward a situation where they can have multiple games in their catalog that they can go ahead and run simultaneously. When I was talking to other manufacturers, they run into problems when they have to pivot and retool an entire assembly line to switch from one title to another. Spooky Pinball does everything in-house. They manufacture their side armors, they print their decals, they print their play fields, their cabinets are built off-site but then is assembled on-site and finished. So they can pivot to different games at the same time. They've been concurrently making Total Nuclear Annihilation in concert with Scooby-Doo. And so going forward, that is something that they would like to do. So it sounds like as they're finishing up the final Scoobies, these are in production as well currently. So we're looking forward to that, especially as we go into the new year. They like to pick licenses that are going to be the best game of the year is what they're shooting for. they don't want to come out with the fifth best game of the year they want to come out with something if they're putting their work and their team behind it they want to try to get something magnificent and part of that is they want to get not only the license that we ask for but also all the assets to put in there assets for TCM include the entirety of the movie from what they're telling me I didn't see anything that was pulled or held back from this at all for Looney Tunes they've got full cartoon assets so you'll be able to see not just clips or not just animations pulled from the characters and then redone, similar to how Halloween was, the animations are the actual cartoons. When I got into a mode, I would giggle to myself and just say, cartoon time! And then I would try to trap up a ball so I could watch the cartoon, because they were great.
    30:12
    It's always hard to put a deposit down on a game if you haven't played it. I've played these, and I can say I have got an order for both of them. What can I say? That's what I did. I'm getting both of these, I like them both. My wife is loving Looney Tunes. I really, really like Looney Tunes. I do like TCM slightly more, but we're both satisfied with both of these. And they both play different enough that I think I can actually have both of them. I think they talked me into it. I think they sold me when I got to play it. But either way, you'll get a great shooting game. That shot of the inner orbit to the scoop, to the Vuck, to the outer orbit, back to the inner orbit again. That was as good as any shot on Foo Fighters as far as flow, repeatability, being able to send it up into the other ramps, other wire forms. The leftward lower wire form comes down to a 180, similar to how the right wire form on Labyrinth does. So the ball's coming down, it scoots back around up, drops out, and it's just flow time again. Man, where do you want to send that ball? Send it around. I found these orbits much easier to hit than the ones on Halloween, which was one of my things I didn't like about Halloween was it was hard to finish some of those modes because of how tight, particularly that right orbit was. I didn't run into that on this, and the right orbit is how you lock the shots into that upper field at the back, so that was fantastic. I feel like I just ran through all the thoughts in my mind from this game. I just played these, I just drove home, just had dinner, and I've been up all night. So if it seemed a little bit scattered, it may be because of that. As more time goes on, more will sink in, and I'll be able to give more of a nuanced feedback. and going over the next four to six weeks, we'll start to see these games on location, more people will be able to play them, and we'll get some streaming footage so we'll be able to make more of a decision. But from what the guys are telling me, sales are already brisk on both of these games, even in the market that we are on, and they are still supporting all the other games that they have. So I'm happy to support these guys however I can. Thank you so much for letting me come down to your factory and play your brand new games that you just drug out. I was able to share into that enthusiasm. These are fun. I want to play them again. I want to play them right now. I wanted to put Looney Tunes in my car and drive it home. That's how fun it was. I did like all four of these ramps. And for their collector's edition, which they've dropped the price about $80, the collector's edition includes a ton of things. The powder-coated armor that they're putting in here. The powder-coated coin door. The speaker panel. The speaker panel has one of those magnetic graphics on it as well now. They cut the speaker grills into custom shapes. Looney Tunes characters for Looney Tunes. State of Texas outline for TCM. The Texas folks are going to love that. They've direct printed on the back glasses. So these aren't Translate. These are back glasses. They're direct printed.
    33:06
    Decals around the periphery of the game. Art blades inside of it. What else? They powder-coated the habitrails, wire forms in the game, and the ramps, causing them to run a little bit smoother from what they're telling me from their testing, less clunk because they're not the polished stainless steel. They are actually powder-coated and a little bit slicker.
    33:25
    God, what else? All the assets that are in here, lighted buttons, the whole bit. There's magnetic accoutrement embellishments for the lockdown bar for the action button and on the coin door. For operators, they said that they can do a decal form if they're worried about people pulling off the magnets. So, I mean, you're getting a complete package. Shaker motors, knockers, you know, everything that you would seem to want to add to a game is already in here at that CE level. So check it out. Check them out. Get to play one. I'm sure these will be showing up at TPF for sure. So that may be most folks next time to really kind of mass market, get their hands on these games. But anybody that's looking at this and thinks, you know, this looks like a game for me. I just need a firsthand knowledge. I can tell you that it shoots well. It's not breaking shots. The gameplay was interesting. The code was deep. If that speaks to you, I think you could go ahead and order one of these with confidence. If you want to wait and play it and see if I'm right, that's fine too. Go check it out. But I think we're going to see more gameplay in a few weeks. I just wanted to get this out. My first impressions. I can't believe. I still think and I can't believe I played Looney Tunes. I played TCM. They both come with toppers too. I'll share some photos and things on the Facebook page. But let me know your thoughts. Let me know your questions. I'll try to do a live stream maybe later tonight. We can do some more interactions if you have any other questions that have come up. So check that. Make sure you're following the Facebook page at Don Pinball Podcast because that's where you will get notified that a live stream has decided to pop up. Jump on the Patreon. I just shared a bunch of images from today on there. It's $5 a month. Join for one month and just try it out, you know, and then you can cancel. No problem. But if you want some more and that's interesting to you, there you go. Otherwise, email me at donspinballpodcast at gmail.com and I will totally get back to you. Oh, my God. I can't believe I got to play the two brand new games the day after they were released. Oh, my God.
    35:14
    Big Daddy Don's Pinball Podcast at GBA.com to get back at me. Order T-shirts. Ask me for stickers. I'm doing giveaways all the time, man. Follow that Facebook page, dude. We're building up an awesome community. Thank you so much, Spooky Pinball. Happy to come down and help out ever again. I want to play these games some more. I want to play TCM some more. I want to frighten myself in my basement. Check them out.
    35:36
    Thanks, everybody.