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Don's Pinball Podcast Sunday Livestream 8/17/25

Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)·video·1h 23m·analyzed·Aug 18, 2025
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Analysis

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TL;DR

Pinball industry talk: Predator crisis, Elwin rumors, Kong flops, Evil Dead thrives.

Summary

Don's Pinball Podcast livestream (8/17/25) covers several major industry topics: Pinball Brothers' surprise announcement of only 150 Predator units with production ending in December, speculation about Elwin potentially joining another manufacturer, assessments of recent releases (Kong Ellie LE underperformance, Evil Dead's market dominance, Harry Potter's continued strong sales), and discussion of Stern's Costco Star Wars home edition. The host expresses frustration with Pinball Brothers' lack of transparency and marketing strategy for Predator, and engages in speculation about industry personnel moves and mergers.

Key Claims

  • Pinball Brothers announced only 150 Predator units with production ceasing in December and price dropped to $12,000

    high confidence · Host (Don) states this as announced news from Pinball Brothers

  • Kong Ellie LE failed to sell out and is available at MSRP (~$10K), with a used unit already selling for $10,300 on Pinside

    high confidence · Host directly observes the market performance and secondary market data

  • Evil Dead was priced at $10,000 and now resells for $15,000-$17,000

    high confidence · Host states this from personal observation of market prices

  • Jersey Jack Pinball has released games every 10 months in recent years (Elton John, Avatar, Harry Potter within 12 months)

    high confidence · Host states production timeline, corroborated by chat mention of 40-50 units per week production

  • Harry Potter CE production numbers already exceed 2,000 units and production has not been cut off

    medium confidence · Host speculates based on market observation that if they hadn't cut production, CE sales must be strong

  • Pinball Brothers rejected Don's request to tour their facilities in Milan and Sweden around 2021-2022

    high confidence · Host recounts direct communication from Pinball Brothers telling him 'We don't know what you're even asking us. Don't email us again'

  • Pinball Brothers' previous games (Queen, ABBA) did not sell well

    medium confidence · Host states Queen was 'not a great seller' and ABBA was 'terrible'

  • Stern's Star Wars Costco home edition will be successful based on market demand

    medium confidence · Host predicts success based on Jurassic Park Costco precedent and Costco's profit-driven strategy

  • Elwin (game designer) is rumored to be joining either Jersey Jack, Pinball Brothers, or Barrels of Fun; some speculation he could be sole creative director of Pinball Brothers

Notable Quotes

  • “I still don't know what's going on with Pinball Brothers... production will cease in December and there's only 150... I don't know if that means there's only going to be 150 more of these or like 150 total.”

    Don (host)@ 2:45 — Articulates the core uncertainty around Predator production announcement

  • “They dropped the price to 12,000... still too high... nobody's played this thing. Like nobody's been able to play and stream and like talk about this game.”

    Don (host)@ 10:08 — Core criticism of Pinball Brothers' marketing failure for Predator

  • “Evil Dead was 10K. I will shout that till the end, man. 10K for a game completely loaded now worth 15 to 17. I've seen them going for 17.”

    Don (host)@ 15:07 — Establishes Evil Dead as market success story for comparison

  • “Elwin is the missing mythical pinball brother. I got to tighten my tin foil hat. Can you imagine?”

    Don (host)@ 18:04 — Speculates on wild conspiracy theory about Elwin joining Pinball Brothers as creative director

  • “If you walk up like most humans would do, put money in the machine thinking 'Okay, now I can pick to play Funhouse or Funhouse 2,' that's not going to work... Horrible. Horrible.”

    Don (host)@ 18:41 — Criticizes Pinball Brothers' Funhouse code usability problems

  • “Harry Potter, right? Even in the face of the lack of FOMO due to an unlimited run... it still ain't cut off production. CE numbers well over 2,000 already.”

    Don (host)@ 24:46 — Analyzes Harry Potter's continued sales strength despite no production limit

Entities

DonpersonPinball BrotherscompanyPredatorgameKong ElliegameEvil DeadgameStar Wars (Costco home edition)gameHarry Pottergame

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pinball Brothers cuts Predator production to 150 units, ends production December, reduces price to $12,000 (from ~$12K+ announced) despite game not being in market yet

    high · Host states 'they dropped the price to 12,000... production will cease in December and there's only 150'

  • $

    market_signal: Kong Ellie LE fails to sell out at MSRP, contradicting expected FOMO behavior; secondary market shows slow absorption with used units at $10,300

    high · Host: 'Kong Ellie did not sell out, is not going for $15,000. Available everywhere MSRP... New inbox Kong Ellie on pins just sold $10,300'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Pinball Brothers losing community trust through lack of transparency, poor communication, and unresponsiveness to industry figures

    high · Host recounts being told 'Don't email us again' and notes months of delays adding distributors to website

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Unverified rumors circulating about prominent Stern designer Elwin potentially joining Jersey Jack, Pinball Brothers, or Barrels of Fun; sourced from Australian distributor and community speculation

    low · Host: 'So I heard there was an Australian poster on Facebook, distributor over there, Mr. Pinball Australia, claiming that Elwin is going to Barrels of Fun'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Evil Dead and Harry Potter competing for game of the year recognition; Evil Dead gaining traction despite Harry Potter's strong sales and premium positioning

    high · Host asserts Evil Dead beats Harry Potter on 7 out of 10 quality categories despite Harry Potter's continued strong sales

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:21
Let's Let's go. That was fun. That David fixed Dragon gets me every time. What's up everybody? It's Ank here. Pinball Ugg about to dunk on all you nerds. How you doing? Let's do a Sunday live. So much stuff to talk about. So happy that we're ball back together. Quick audio check real quick. I think it's it looks good on my end. So I I think we'll go with it. Hello and welcome to the stream. Exciting times on this Sunday. Year of our lord. It's mid August, right? We got a home edition game in Costco. So when you get your hot dog in one hand, your chicken bake in the other, you can play some damn Star Wars. And that defy you to tell me that that is not a fun layout to play. Code may be a little lacking being it's a home version, but hell, man, it's super fun. Not only that, we got a cornerstone around the corner from uh Stern Pinball. It would be a great time to see a new game from American Pinball, but we've been saying that for I don't about eight months. So, there we go. We got that uh Predator news to talk about. I'm making toppers. I got a little review. Let me see. For this Star Wars uh what are we calling this expression light topper? The generic topper Stern just released. I got one for Star Wars here as part of an experiment. I want to check it out. I want to see what it was like. I called up Jeff at Mad Pinball, ordered me one. He got him. He has them in stock. Got it to me and I am I'm beyond impressed with it. I was on the fence on getting it, but I'll talk more about that when we come in. How you guys doing? It's Sunday. We're back. Uh work went late last night, a little hour late. Um but I figured we'd kick this off and start about We already got a ton of people in chat, right? So I think we should go the place I think I want to start and I was going to talk about this on the show. Uh I still don't know what's going up going on with Pinball Brothers. I've done some reaching out to them. So they dropped this kind of crazy bombshell out of nowhere that there's only 150 Predators and uh they're going to cut off production at the end of the year. done unboxing my Jaws 50th. Oh, nice. I gotta say, Jaws 50th, I'm sure it looks better in person. Um, the art's okay. I don't know. It looks nicer in person than my Kong Ellie. Facts. Absolutely. Facts. And I got some thoughts on that. So, Predator, right? So, they dropped this thing saying that this game's coming out. Um, production will cease in December and there's only 150. Now, I don't know if that means that they've been selling them this whole time because I know there's been a lot of interest, at least initially, before we found out all about the Arnold stuff. So, I don't know if that means that there's only going to be 150 more of these or like 150 total. And like either one would make sense to me. Reached out to Pinball Brothers. I've been on their socials and they haven't really confronted me on exactly what's going on with that. I'll talk about Predator later. I totally want to talk about Kong Elli. Let's keep up with the chat. Yeah. So, Kongle uh did not sell out, is not going for $15,000. Um, available everywhere MSRP, and I don't know if it'll be 10K by Christmas. The problem with the Kongle is they didn't really do anything special with it. I was there when they unveiled it to all of us at Stern. And the translate backlash, the mirrored backlash, and that art for Kong is the best part of it. that that would if you got a Ellie of Kong really that back glass is the crown of what you're receiving. Um the armor it might as well be on John Wick, right? And the art of the cabinet doesn't match at all. I think they went foil but they did the same graphics that were already on the lower tiers and they had that cool aesthetic of like that, you know, 1940s glamour of Hollywood or Manhattan or whatever. They should have carried that over to the cabinet and then it would have like screamed something cool. Um, I went ahead and reversed the colors on the armor uh for my Kong build, my premium build. Came out amazing. New inbox Kong Ellie on pins just sold $10,300. Phil, holy crap. It's not even Christmas and Kong Ellie is 10k. game's great, but really nothing was brought um for that LE, you know, other than, you know, the the $40 speakers, the speaker lights, and just a very boring powder coat on some the armor's okay. So, you know, the armor, it's that matte black, the same thing they did on John Wick. Kind of I mean, I guess, you know, I like the matte feel, but paying that price, I want something, you know, special. I want some sparkle in it. I want something where you're like, "This looks amazing." Venomle shouldn't have better armor than Kong. Um, and it was matte black and then with a gold shiny underlay. I took those colors and flipped it and did uh the Spanish gold color. So, it's kind of like the same kind of gold a weathered pirate coin would be, let's say, like Spanish to balloon kind of gold. And then I did shiny black underneath with sparkle. Mine sparkles. And damn it if it doesn't work. The gold on that cabinet. If we can Oh, I should have done that. Um, there you see it over there. I'll have to share some better pictures later. Let me fix my camera. Um, but it worked. Like the gold works and that looks more like what I would expect an LE to look like. Um, back glasses in the mail and it's going to be the best build. Also, you can just see you can just see the topper right over there. My banana basket crate topper is done. Um, I created this whole backstory for Kong because Kong didn't really have anything or at least the code doesn't have a story that's being conveyed to us. I know there's some people exploring this island. It's called Terror Island. There's a myth apparently. I don't know anything else about the story there. So, I created my own backstory of a lost tropical banana company, right? the Terror Island Banana Company that existed at some point on this island, had production going, mysteriously vanished all the people, left the works and things there. Um, and so I made a topper that kind of ties into that theme. Um, I had the hinges custom cut with the Terra Island Banana Company logo on there. I got the logo on the start button. I took the logo up to the banana crate. And so this is a wooden crate of bananas being gripped on either side by Kong himself with the logo right there in the center. And I filled the crate with lights that are interactive to the music or sound activated just like these monsters ones behind me.

low confidence · Host engages in extensive speculation with tinfoil hat commentary about Elwin leaving Stern

  • No pinball machine will ever feature Arnold Schwarzenegger due to licensing costs and restrictions

    medium confidence · Host asserts this as industry reality based on economics

  • “I think if you were to take 10 different categories... Evil Dead vested it on at least seven out of 10 of those, which is just phenomenal, man.”

    Don (host)@ 29:38 — Compares Evil Dead favorably to Harry Potter across multiple dimensions

  • “Spooky Luke's here. Hey, you're late.”

    Don (host)@ 26:54 — Spooky Luke joins the livestream conversation

    • Spooky Luke
    person
    Elwinperson
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Chris Turnerperson
    American Pinballcompany
    Multimorphiccompany
    ABBAgame
    Queengame
    Funhousegame
    Avatargame
    Elton Johngame
    Ken Cromwellperson
    Enzoperson
    JBSperson
    Mr. Pinball Australiaperson
    Barrels of Funcompany
  • ?

    product_concern: Funhouse remaster by Pinball Brothers exhibits poor code design (credits don't carry over between game modes) and questionable build quality compared to original

    high · Host: 'If you coin up for original Funhouse and then you reset the thing to switch to the other one, your credits are gone... Horrible'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball estimated at 40-50 units per week production capacity; better setup than American Pinball but significantly less than Stern

    medium · Chat participant states '40 to 50 production per week at JJP'; host confirms factory visit and assembly line efficiency

  • ?

    collector_signal: Evil Dead premium demand continues to drive secondary market prices up to $17K despite being originally $10K; Kong Ellie struggles to hold MSRP value

    high · Host: 'Evil Dead was 10K... now worth 15 to 17. I've seen them going for 17' vs Kong Ellie failing to sell out

  • ?

    machine_intel: Predator game has not been made publicly playable despite being announced; no units available for streaming or demo at shows; production status unclear

    high · Host: 'still nobody's played this thing. Like nobody's been able to play and stream and like talk about this game'

  • ?

    business_signal: Host questions how Pinball Brothers remains solvent given poor sales of Queen and ABBA, cutting Predator production, and recent price cuts

    medium · Host: 'I mean, in the last year, year and a half... they had Queen, not a great seller. ABBA, terrible. So my question is, how are they still a company'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Chat speculation about possible merger or consolidation involving Hagrus, Deeproot, Home Pin, Pinball Brothers with Elwin as creative director

    low · Host acknowledges chat suggestion: 'Haggus, Deeproot, Home Pin, and Pinball Brothers are merging a super pinball company with Keith Ellen as creative director'

  • ?

    content_signal: JBS conducting interviews with P3/Multimorphic team for The JBL Show; industry discussion of staffing and personnel moves becoming podcast content

    medium · Host: 'JBL's been killing it with the podcasts on the JBL show... he gets staffing too so he gets it'

    • 7:03
    Isn't that cool? So along with the game, they'll be flashing and changing colors. And then tied into the game's GI, I've got the insignia there. In fact, you can see it kind of strobing. Um, it looks cool. I should have brought it forefront here and shut it off more. Um, I think it was cool. I got a concept. Let me just complete this banana look. And damn it if it's not an aesthetic looking crate on there. It's about 11 and a half or 13 inches high. So, it's formidable. Fresh Jenis is here. How you doing, buddy? The electric playground topper. I've seen some uh some early art of it and I think we'll be we'll be sticking one up there as well. Um, and uh, I think there may be a chance for a prize at Expo this year. Hands up if you're going to Expo. If you're a creator or if you just want to make something stupid and enter into a topper contest, I'll be running a topper contest at Expo in the homebrew area. The plan is bring in your homemade topper just like I did two years ago. We'll have a place to display them. Everybody can come in and vote. If you vote in the topper contest, you're entered to win a playfield. So, that's cool. I got a Scooby-Doo Playfield and a Wonka kicking around. I don't know which one I'll pick yet. A random chance. Uh but you'll get one of those just for voting. You can enter and the way it should work out, details are are finalizing, but when you pick up your registration packet for Expo in Chicago, Shamberg, uh you'll get a blue or I don't know what color it's going to be yet. You'll get a raffle ticket that you can take over and you put it in the little bin of the topper you think is the best. And just by voting, you're entered to win a playfield. How cool is that? And then winners can get something cool, too. And I'm trying to get as much industry prizes as I can. Enzo, dude, come to the States this year. No expo for me this year. Sorry. Oh, I get teased by Albert every year that he's coming to expo and I get excited and then for one reason or another, something thwarts it.
    8:59
    Do you got to make it out if you can? I know you've driven to Wisconsin before. It's a hell of a show. It goes for three to four days. You can go tour the factories. No stern rage episode necessary. [laughter] And uh you can play everything, which is the best part because more than anything, I love playing new pinball, which is why I'm excited about Predator. I messaged again uh Pinball Brothers uh because they're talking about this uh $11,9.99. Now they dropped the price to 12,000. still too high, but they dropped the price. And that shipped from the Dubois, Pennsylvania site, which isn't all that far from Pittsburgh, kind of between Pittsburgh and Altuna. And so my question was, guys, you're you're going to send a mass of these machines to the the Pennsylvania location and they'll ship domestically from there. You have to pay for shipping domestic, but they're going to cover the tariffs and everything. I get that. Can I go to Pennsylvania to play the game? Is there one of these games in the US that I can at least go play? You know, cuz they're cutting off production. They're cutting off orders. They're cutting the price and still nobody's played this thing. Like nobody's been able to play and stream and like talk about this game. I don't care. Like like of course if you send me one, I will play it and happily enjoy it. I'll even ship it back. I'll pay for shipping if you want to get me one to stream. Um but give it to somebody. Some Jenz is across the Malmo Bridge over there in Copenhagen, Denmark. Throw one in a truck, drive it on over there, let him play the damn thing, and then, you know, take it back. Or or he's he's a dealer. Let give him a dealer copy. Let him stream it. Let him show it off. Let him put it on location. Show that it earns. You know, it's it's pro it could be a great game. Predator could be awesome. Okay. Queen Shot. Okay. I don't think there was any problems with the build quality. The game was boring. The game was dated. And so, you know, we don't want that. ABBA didn't shoot the best. Um, I don't know, qualitywise, question marks. It'd be really great if you want to sell 150 of these things. Get them out there. Chris Turner, I'm pointing to the San Antonio region right now. Chris Turner from Turner Pinball, took Ninja Clips to hella shows and let people play that thing. And he sold it Chuck Emery style, like America's Most Haunted style. drug that game around, said, "Play this game. Tell me what you think. I'm gonna go back to the lab. We're gonna implement improvements. I'm gonna bring it back again." And he sold him out that way. Where is the pinball brother? I thought they said it was going to be at Expo this year. I was at uh the European Pinball Championships in in May. That might have been a little early, but that would have been a great place to like bring your prototype and let some people play it. Get eyes on it, get cameras on it, get impressions out there because even if the code was early, you know, I could have played this thing and I could have said, you know, does feel solid in my hands. The flippers, they feel good, they feel bad. Um, you know, I think the bones are there for a good game. Get some buzz going. But yeah, like I I have no idea. Send one to Joe Teravino.
    12:18
    So, my thoughts are this game hasn't been made yet. They probably have a prototype they've cobbled together, but the production sample may not even be made yet. Um, so I don't know. Kong and DRD are not fun. Enzo, you were half right. No, you were totally 100% wrong. Kong and DD Kong and Dn D are fun, sir. Now, you may have had a rough night on Kong, and I get it, brother. I've been there. They are fun. Finesse flippers on Turners. Merlin Arcade needed innovation. I agree. I had fun playing with them. Excellent point.
    12:58
    Listen, um I've been uh I I've been trying to reach out to pinball brothers for about three years. You know, when I started this, I like to go to factories. I like to talk to people. Um there was concern at that time. If you go back to 2021 or so, Haggus was going on. People are like, I'm getting a little nervous about my money. So, I thought, well, since I travel all the time, maybe if I could peek my head into a factory and prove there's actually people working here, that would be good for the community to know. So, Pinball Brothers, I reached out to them. They just formed the Euro Pinball Corp. They're in Milan, Italy. I was going to Italy and I'm like, can I come by the factory and just take a tour, walk around. Um, I was planning to be in Sweden as well and I know their home offices are uh between Stockholm and uh what's it Goththingberg, right where I was going to be. And I'm like, let me swing by and just we can have a chat. I'll give you guys a t-shirt. Show me around the offices, you know, let me see what your production facility looks like and so I can tell people that, hey, this place is is real. Um, and all I got back was, "We don't know what you're even asking us. Don't email us again." Kind of weird, you know. Um, I'm not saying they had something to hide, but if they did, I kind of think it's how that's how I would respond if I was trying to hide stuff. Pats Arcade is telling me that a local pinball dealer or Pinball Brothers dealer is a new distributor and it's been months. It's been months and they still haven't added him on their website. Oh, brother. I think we're all very excited about the Predator license. And in our heads, that means something. What we saw initially with the release, you know, that always happens. you build up what you anticipate seeing and then you see the real thing. They don't jive and so it's that that anticip
    14:40
    you see what it actually is. And I think the problem is we got we hit that anticappointment and they teased us a bit because they released some footage they weren't supposed to release that had Arnold and then they had to go back and then we haven't really seen much. So, we've been just stuck in that ant disappointment area and it's like and and then you're asking for $14,000 US for this game and it's like what what are we talking about? Evil Dead was 10K. I will shout that till the end, man. 10K for a game completely loaded now worth 15 to 17. I've seen them going for 17. People that are just like, I don't want to mess around. I want it. Give it to me. $17,000. Every game's not going to do that. But that game was 10K. My god.
    15:27
    By the time you to launch a game and say they were away on summer vacation, well, that's maybe Europe for you. You know, their standard of living is high for a reason. I ain't going to fault anybody taking more vacation time. Lord knows I love it. But, you know, communicate, right? I think it's what it all comes down to. Um, so they haven't said their addition size on this. We know ABBA there was 800, you know, 500 of the whatevers and then they changed the cabinet graphic and called it 300 arrivals or whatever. Um,
    16:00
    so that's 800 total. So you would think Predator they would look at similar numbers and so I still don't know if they mean they only are taking another 150 and then whatever they've sold they've sold or if it's 150 total worldwide trying to make it more scarce. uh they dropped the price to 12. I think 10 they'd be selling 12 is better. Um but I think I've mentioned this before from my experience with the Pinball Brothers games. If I were to purchase one, that's something I would want to purchase at a show or purchase from a distributor that already had the game ready to go in a box. Um not one I would I would necessarily pre-order.
    16:43
    Yeah. I don't know. Um, I mean, in the last year, year and a half, you know, I mean, they had Queen, not a great seller. ABBA, terrible. So, my question is, how are they still a company or, you know, if they're still a design studio? I don't know how these people are still making money. Maybe I got it. The wheels in my brain were just turning. Guys, buckle up because I'm going to put it all together here for you. Okay. Um, something happened. We know that. Um, Pinball Brothers dropped the price of their game, cut production. It's not even out yet. Doesn't make any damn sense at all. Except for a fact, if we step back a little bit and look at the industry and take in the rumors and personnel shifts, what if the company that Elwin is leaving Stern for isn't Jersey Jack, but what if he is now sole creative director of the Pinball Brothers studio, and there is now some heavy Elwin fire about to come out. We know how fast this guy works. And so they want to put Elwin's game for Pinball Brothers in production in January. So they just want to clear their plate with Predator. Just get these things out of here, right? Sell them to whoever. Cut the price. Ship all these things to Pennsylvania. We don't care anymore because Pinball Brothers is bringing the Elwin Heat, which means it's not just solely run by one guy. Elwin is the missing mythical pinball brother. I got to tighten my tin foil hat. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? My buddy's Queen is always broken. So is Funhouse. Oh, that pains me. That pains me. Funhouse. I played this when it was released. District 1, my local place. Uh got one initially after launch and I was excited to go play New Code Funhouse and Classic Funhouse. It's it's clunk, man. Like when you go to play that game, you have to first off like reset the game to which version you want to play. Then insert your coins and then you can play. If you walk up like most humans would do, put money in the machine thinking, "Okay, now I can pick to play Funhouse or Funhouse 2," that's not going to work. Because if you coin up for original Funhouse and then you reset the thing to switch to the other one, your credits are gone. They don't carry over. Horrible. Horrible. So, uh, I heard there was an Australian poster on Facebook, distributor over there, Mr. Pinball Australia, claiming that Elwin is going to Barrels of Fun. So, at this point, I think we should just talk about L1 going to every company uh because it makes about as much sense. No, this is a personnel decision um that I don't I'm not privy to the the details. And even if it's true, I'll probably never know the details. It's the guy's personal business, so I'm not going to really speculate. But if it's running around rumor circles and not making any sense at all, I'm gonna seize on that because that's that's my kind of ridiculous. Haggus, Deeproot, Home Pin, and Pinball Brothers are merging a super pinball company with Keith Ellen as creative director. Joe, I mean, when you really are looking at it, does that not make complete perfect sense? My Funhouse is jank. Now, it didn't play as good as the original. Um, they did change some things. They put the pinball brothers targets in there instead of the OG ones. It's definitely not a This is Pidgeetti, but it's not a uh it's not a CGC production. And I don't even want CGC to make Funhouse. I don't even like Funhouse that much. It's okay. Um but like I want to see Tales of the Arabian Knights and not by Padretti. I want to see that by CGC, which I don't really because then it's going to take two years to get we're screwed. We either wait for an excellently built game or we get a game that's like I don't want to play a game that's built by butt. And I don't know anything that's come out of the Pretty Factory so far that hasn't had some butt to it. Elan has taken the George G spot of pinball adventures at this point. And how about how about Multimorphic ripping off Pinball Adventures of all companies coming out with Elements or Elemental when we already have a game Elements in the pipeline that's coming. I've played it. I've shed blood on the playfield of Elements.
    21:02
    And can I say that Elements is actually a complete pinball game? What? I love that. Uh who did the interview? JBS just did a whole thing with uh the P3 guys. always fun to hear from that team and the thought process behind their decisions. Um, and it's always fun for me to listen to them and just get validated in my own opinion that I've been told I'm wrong to have and then hear it from the actual people saying the same things I've been telling them.
    21:33
    Who else is here? I don't see Owen going to JJP until Richie retires. So, this guy makes like a game every year and if he goes to JJP, JJP doesn't release a game every year. I think there may have been there may have been like technically less than 12 months between like Elton and Avatar, but that's the only time I think we've seen that. And it's fine because their games obviously take a lot of time to code. The code comes out complete. They use tons of assets that are tied into their games. So, I get their cadence. I tell you what, I'm not expecting another JJP game for two years. The way that freaking Harry Potter's going. What you're not seeing, okay, Harry Potter obviously selling well. You're not seeing JJP saying where we're cutting off production at the end of the year. Order them now and we're cutting the prices. Not happening. We're seeing that happen with Predator. So, I think Predator unsurprisingly wasn't a big seller. The price was really high. The game might be really good. The game could be a blast to play, man. Throwing balls up with that little predator figurine, having them bounce up and down. All those ball paths, the gatling gun. Um, there are call outs in the game. It's not Arnold. No pinball machine made from now till Infinity is ever going to have Arnold because he's way too much. You wouldn't make any money on your machine. The the cost and the restrictions involved in that just not going to happen. So, if you have a choice between Predator with Arnold or no Predator or Predator without Arnold, no Predator, I mean, I would go I mean, I I think more pinball is more fun. The game might be great. We have no way to know that JJP has been releasing a game every 10 months the last few years. There was a gap between Toy Story 4 and Elton John. I think that was more than a year. Um, and I think it's been less than a year, definitely less than a year between Elton John, Avatar, and Harry Potter. That's kind of what they said they wanted to get to. Not necessarily two a year, but like two within a 12-month period. So, but um Avatar wasn't the seller that Harry Potter was, right? So, here's why I would love to have Kindergarten Cop Jenga here. Who is your daddy? What does he do? Be phenomenal. Um even if you made it in the style of Last Action Hero, like a kind of retro style game by Kindergarten Cop. Yeah, [laughter] the boys have a penis, girls have a vagina multiball. Oh my god. I think we can pretty definitively say they're not having a production number on the Harry Potter C is not affected FOMO. Right. Here's how you know. I mean, they're not releasing numbers, but here's how you know Harry Potter's selling. Well, the CE production still hasn't been cut off. All right. And if I was JJP, like as a CE owner, I wanted them to stop production immediately. So I had like a very limited number. But if I was JJP, I would not cut off the production of the CES until sales are like just down to a trickle. Then I would announce last call, get a little bit of a bump and then cut it off. Maximize those sales of those huge high dollar machines. Harry Potter, right? Even in the face of the lack of FOMO due to an unlimited run, in the face of $15,000 the top end of the market for price, in the face of AI controversy and Derby Dragon, in the face of a lackluster topper following up Elton John and Avatar, it still ain't cut off production. CE numbers well over 2,000 already. Would you be surprised if you found out that that was true? I don't think I would be. I ordered Harry Potter CE. Hope to get it in a few months. Um, I wish I still had mine. I was having a lot of fun with that game. Um, so I think I don't know. I might be in a kind of a good position now. I get into the game, got right back out of it for a home project to be announced here in the next couple months. Um, which I'm fine about. And then I may jump back in later once the prices come down because over 2,000 ZEs will be out there by that point. But um the game's great and I don't know that we'll see a precipitous drop. We're not gonna see 10 three pinside um Harry Potter CES like Kong. We're not going to see that. And the reason is the game's really good and really special. And I think people that are in on it and are getting it aren't going to be bored with it in a couple of months and then putting it back out there for the next shiny thing. What's a production per week for HPHJP? I don't know. I don't know, sir. I don't have any contacts at Jersey Jack anymore. Um, things were great when Ken was there, man. Ken, hell of a guy. I could email him. We'd talk. Um, I could I could find out things. He would help me out. He would take me into his cubicle, show me around the office. Like, I love that stuff. I want to see as much of the behind-the-scenes stuff as I can just to get into my head like exactly what's going on. And uh, not only is do I not have a contact there, I don't think they have a person in his position. Would you buy Avatar again? I would consider it. I would only want the CE because I love that topper. Um, you know, down the road an $1,000 Avatar CE. Maybe I want to play more Dune. I agree. Spooky Luke's here. Hey, you're late. I was late today, too, man. We just been going on. I think Evil Dead is considered a 24 game. A 20? What do you mean a 24? A $24,000 game? 40 to 50. Oh, Chris L says 40 to 50 production per week at JJP. That's quite a bit. I've been in their factory. Um, they're set up for production pretty well. Better than American Pinball. Um, you know, they don't have the the capacity and nobody has the capacity as Stern has. Um,
    27:29
    but they are they are set up for, you know, people to work at a station all day for 15 to 30 minutes doing their thing and then moving it on. So, I think they they have the potential to crank. I've never been there when the factory was like kicking off at full tilt. So, it's hard for me to judge, but I think the bones of what they have could lead to some production. 40 to 50 a day seems kind of high.
    27:58
    I'm tapped with Dune Enzo. So maybe Elwin is going as a designer to Jersey Jack really only has to make like one game every two to three years, but he's also going to be the new Ken Cromwell.
    28:10
    I'll just speculate everything about this guy. Um he's been a nice guy when I've talked to him. He's graciously posed for selfies at media events. Um I don't think he's leaving Stern. I'm just trying to think of what I would do if I was in his position. Um, you know, I don't know his contract. If it was coming up, I would leverage my position for a resigning bonus, but
    28:39
    oh, 24 game as game of the year. Yeah. Um, now of course the perennial game of the show is Portal. Um, but yeah, like I would I would put That's so crazy. Evil Dead right up against Harry Potter. Evil Dead did not have any AI art issues. Did not have a lackluster topper. Um has price that has only gone up. I think it's a game more in demand than Harry Potter is. Uh, so yeah, I think if you were just to break down 10 different categories, art, gameplay, ramps, um, price in the market, reception, fan service, um, look at the call outs in, uh, Evil Dead as Bruce Campbell just riffing on lines like like hundreds of pages of dialogue. Um, we got Mark Silk and he's not even doing the sorting hat voice on Harry Potter. So, Harry Potter, great game. But if you were to take 10 categories, I think you'd find out when all was said and done that Evil Dead vested it on at least seven out of 10 of those, which is just phenomenal, man. Phenomenal. Either way, he's cashing in. Yeah, he should. Somebody mentioned he might have a non-compete clause, and now there's a legal question on if those are even enforceable anymore. But as somebody that's dealt with contracts that I've had with non-competes in there, everything is negotiable. Okay? Nothing's like written in stone with a contract. You can have an ironclad written no compete clause and ultimately everything is up for negotiation. Um, if JJP wanted Elwin that bad, there's a price. And even if he had an ironclad no violation, uh, non-compete clause, they could buy him out. So everything everything is everything. Everything's negotiable. And then it comes down to do you want to pay to enforce it? And how would that look? How would that look? It would look terrible. So there'd be cost to pay if that were to happen. Just want to throw that out there because I heard it. Uh JBL's been killing it with the podcasts on the JBL show. Um so yeah, I think that'd come up on his show and he does staffing too so he gets it. When is the Costco version of Harry Potter coming out? Hopefully soon. How funny would it be? What would the JJP home edition look like? Is there another company? Let's assume Star Wars is going to be successful at Costco. I 100% think it will be. Um I was on the fence on if Jurassic Park would go. Obviously, it did. Costco's not going to run another product. They're not making money. Um so Star Wars is going to do fantastic. I'll tell you why. Um, before I bought my first pinball machine, um, which I bought in 2020, uh, it was Batman Dark Knight from Stern, George Gomez game. Um, the couple years prior to that, starting in 2018, I had graduated, had a little spending money, wanted some arcade fun at home, and I was buying arcade oneups. I was buying them from Costco. I was watching the prices when they would drop, which Costco products generally will do. They'll have sales. Um, that's when I picked up my Mortal Kombat. It was replete with the stool and the light up marquee. I loved it. If at that time they had come out with a Stern home edition at Costco, my eyes would have transfixed on it. I would have waited for a $500 price drop and I absolutely would have bought one. No question. No question. I would I'm the customer for that. Pinball fun at home. Yep. And with my level of naive regarding drop catches, code modes and all that, I would have enjoyed the hell out of the Star Wars game. And I wouldn't even the Jurassic Park. And I wouldn't have even known I was missing functioning coin mix. I wouldn't have known I was missing deep rule sets and codes and insider connected and all that business. I wouldn't even I wouldn't even have cared or minded. It wouldn't have registered. I just would have been having fun with that machine every single day.
    32:43
    So, um, so I see tons of people out there that are like that that are into, you know, I got a foosball table at home. I was thinking about a pool table. You know, pool tables will be more than pinball machines. Take up a lot more room, a lot heavier. You can only play one game. Barely any slings. There's no flippers, right? It's not talking to you, you know? So, when it comes to game room funness, just the ease of just going to Costco, putting it on your flatbed, rolling it out to the truck, and having the guys load it, simple, simple. I don't have to track down a distributor. I don't have to find some shady used games dealer that's going to take advantage of me. I don't have to worry like, is this game going to hold up? Costco has ironclad protections for electronics. Like, any problem at all, bring it back to the store, refund, no issues. Like, no issues. It's the best in the industry. And so, yeah, for me, like if I'm there and I'm looking at, you know, um $1,400 trampolines and uh you know, $16,000 side by sides, they sell new cars on the way out of the store. You know, there's there's big ticket items through Costco. Um yeah, and I could just could have put that on my cart and wheel it out there and use some of my Costco cash for it. 100% every time I would do that. Don't buy extreme gaming cabinets in Queensland. Great tip. Thank you, Shane. Holler, because five years of JJP, Ellen will get two games out, maybe, but he could also be the Ken Crom. I don't think that's going to happen. So, remember that that rumor a year ago about the Skeleton Crew Star Wars game coming from Stern? Um, I dropped the joke that I think Skeleton Crew is what they're referring to their design team now at Stern since Danger's off games and uh Elwin's leaving to go to Barrels of Fun. So, like they're down to a skeleton crew of designers now. Maybe that was the rumor all along. I should just start a uh a pinball conspiratorial channel. We'll just go deep into that. Stern is flat. Don't believe the controversy that Stern is round. They're flat. Stern is putting fluoride in their games. It would be interesting to track what percentage of Costco buyers to buy in the Stern. Yeah. And you know, people that are in the know, like us, they're looking at this $4,800 MSRP, people aren't going to be paying that. They're going to be paying less at Costco, but $4,800. And they're like, "Look, for 5,500 you can get a Star Wars Pro used." And while technically true, go look on Pinside. There's only six available right now nationwide, right? Is that person at the Tuscaloosa Costco gonna go on Pinsside, find out what Pinsite is, find out that there's a routed Star Wars pro in North Carolina for $5,200 or best offer, contact that person, send money through the internet to a stranger, figure out how to ship that thing to themselves with no warranty at all, and it's still going to be an extra thousand. Or you can have it today, shiny, new in box, no questions asked. Come on. Stern can hire Bugadai. Oh man, Elwin is going to barrels. Elwin's going to every company right now. Um, you know, remember that movie North? No, of course you don't. It had Elijah Wood before Lord of the Rings and he was like a uh a roaming orphan that would live with a bunch of different families like forest gumping his way around trying to pick the perfect family or whatever. That's what Ellen's doing right now. He's he's probably at Barrels this week. He was a pinball brothers last week. Pinball Brothers thinks they signed him. That's why they cut production of Predators so they can get them in on the next Elwen game from Pinball Brothers. He's probably just going around getting free dinners from all these factories and then he'll end up just going back and getting an extra hot dog added to his contract at Stern. It's probably what's happening. And call it Spooky Stern. Call it Sturky Pinball. Streaky pinball. Spooky stripe.
    36:43
    Stern can bug. Oh man. So, Skeleton Crew, maybe that was just thrown out there. Somebody said they were testing for leaks. Whatever. That's stupid. Um, I can't wait to see what the Star Wars game is. It's August 17th, and sometime in the next two to four weeks, there'll probably be a new Stern Cornerstone of Star Wars. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. I got Space fort right here. Boom. Star Wars. Star Wars. Yes. Yep. Spooky corner is over there. Spooky corner is over there. Star Wars corner is going to be right here. And I might even pick up the home edition for $2,200 clearance off the floor at Costco. Oh, I still haven't disactivated this Nightbot. I'm sorry, Kev. Shots.
    37:39
    Kev, apparently you type something in caps and the stupid Nightbot hates that.
    37:46
    Kev, I'm sorry. I have to deactivate Nightbot. First time I saw a Pro in the 7K range of Canadian pesos. Wow. Oh, Nightbot, you bastard. Canadian pesos. Um, also, why are we entertaining the fact that the Stern Pro is only a couple thousand dollars more than the home edition when the premium is the one you should get because the damn racetrack in that game is phenomenal. Also, what a stupid argument. Well, don't buy that home edition at Costco because for just thousands more, you can get a bigger game. Yeah, duh. you know. Yeah. Uh, you know, don't buy that uh well, what's a what's a cheap car? Don't buy that Ford Escort. They make Ford Escorts. For just $100,000 more, you you could get a better No. Of course. Of course. Don't buy that home edition because for just thousands of dollars more, you could go buy something on Pinside and it's bigger. Of course it's bigger. It's thousands of dollars more. And you know, you could go pay $48.99 for a Star Wars home edition right now. You could probably wait a couple weeks and it'll probably be $43.99 or $43.97 and then they'll be in the $3,000 range when they're ready to kind of close them out and move on at the end of the season. So, if you really want one, save your money and just watch. You know, as long as there's games on pallets, they're available. Once they start coming down, you'll be able to snag one. Got to be quick.
    39:34
    the home editions. I I think the lowest price I saw at a Costco for the Jurassic Park home edition was $2,000. And that's once like it's off the floor, they put it back in the corner. Every every Costco warehouse will have a back corner where their closeouts are and they just take a price tag and stick it on there and it's whatever price the the store manager decides to put on there. So, like just we get we need some money for it. Get it out of here, you know? And I saw one that was just $2,000. just take this floor model, get out, and you still get the warranty and everything on it. You could be an expedition for just $20,000 more. Why are you wasting your time going to your local amusement park when for only $6,000 more you could go to France? I mean, who is these stupid people going to their regional recreation locations when for just thousands of dollars more they could go somewhere better? Of course. That was such a weird argument.
    40:32
    Are they smaller than a standard machine? They are slightly smaller. Um the uh Playfield is the same size in scale. They're kind they're the same size as as like Beatles. They're the same size as Bond 60th. Like they're just like a smaller little little cabinet like a uh Total Nuclear Annihilation. Like it's still a fulls size pinball machine, you know? It's just not exactly the same size as a Spike 2 cabinet or a Jersey Jack. And it is about 120th of the weight of a P3 multimorphic. So the home edition of Stern games, the Stern Plus that they're doing now, weighs the same as a P3 does on the moon. True story. True facts.
    41:18
    For just thousands of dollars more, you could have something better. This is a weird argument. Um, you can go buy Okay, so instead of getting a home edition Star Wars, you could go get an Ultra Man right now for the same exact price. There's an argument. Would you pick up Foo Fighter Topper or Home Edition or a Home Edition machine? Yeah. No. No. Yeah, of course. Uh, here's the other thing. So, I got this uh Expression Where's my finger? This Expression Light topper uh for my Star Wars. I took R2 off for a little bit just because I wanted to check this out. It's fire. This thing is bright. And so, not only do you have the expression lights in the front, you've got these two flashers on top with LEDs going all around the circles. They're pretty bright as well. And then there is an LED strip facing up if you want to put that acrylic in there. I'm not getting the acrylic for this one. I'm going to redivise my R2 topper to integrate the lights that are on this and just have like the best of both worlds for under $3,500. But when I opened this thing, uh, the instructions specifically said that it can also be used on the Home Pin Plus version, the one at Costco. So, these Expression Light toppers, you can buy them and put them on the Costco machines now, too. And I like this as an option for $400, one quarter to oneird the price of an actual stern topper generally is, and you get a lot of light interaction. In fact, I think you there's some toppers that I think you're getting more interaction than on here.
    42:55
    Star Wars Home Pin or Blues Brothers. So, who I think somebody in Australia posted something about u Mike from Homepin is going to be at the show and Blues Brothers is going to be there and some Blues Brothers owner was like, "Yeah, this game is great. I I love that I have it." I've played Blues Brothers and it's it's a tragedy. It's just tragic. like it's not it's not a functional game. It's um it's somebody's homebrew and not even a good one. It's just like the the shot geometry is fatally flawed on that game and it is just not interesting or fun to play. Like there's no assets. I love the Blues Brothers as a license and if like there were like call outs and things from that game, I think it would add a lot even with as terrible as that layout is. How do you take stars and jank it up? There's stars out there that have been thrown off of Todd Tucky's roof that probably play better than Blues Brothers does from Home Pin.
    43:58
    Star Wars Home. Uh, what else we got? We love Food Fighters Topper. You should secretly put your topper in the local Costco and watch employees freak out. Yeah, I was thinking of like dropping some stickers off, but I don't want to get banned from Costco. Spinal Tap is worse than Blues Brothers. I had a lot more fun on Blues Brothers than I did with Spinal Tap. At least Blues Brothers was fun to play. Thunderbirds is fun to play. Um, Spinal Tap doesn't just doesn't work. All right. There's just ramps that the geometry doesn't work. I don't think there's any way to actually hit those shots. Bad. Bad. I played it at a show, but the coils were not overheating because the game was not turned on the entirety of the show because it was broken. I think it was still broken, but somebody turned it on anyway. But it wasn't even that the flippers lacked power. You could put the ball all the way to the back of the playfield with enough velocity. The geometry is fatally flawed for that game. It doesn't work. If it was my homebrew, I'd be wary to bring it to a show just because of how poorly it was it was shooting. So, Spinal Tap's absolutely the worst game that Homepin has made. Um, the best is the first one. Thunderbirds. I have fun playing Thunderbirds. Um I even had fun playing like shooting around Blues Brothers. It was frustrating because the shots just don't work
    45:23
    and it it's kind of a dumb game, but at least like I was having some I derived some fun with it. Spinal Tap was just sad. It made me hate pinball. No, I didn't hate pinball, but it just wasn't fun. So, um, a couple things I didn't get about this expression light topper that Stern is doing. It's only half the depth of the back box. So, I didn't know that. From pictures, it looks like it spans the entire length, you know, and then just has this kind of like form factor that I was thinking was pretty cool as like a base, you know, but it's only it's like a quarter of the size of a normal topper. From the front, it it does everything it should do. Um, but I was like, it came in this tiny little box and I was like, is this a kit? Do I put this together? Because I was expecting something that was like, you know, at least a full base that would go up there. There's only four screws that hold it in. I guess that's all the regular ones that do as well. It just doesn't reach all the way to the back of the cabinet, which does leave some room for modders to add some compliments to these things. And I think there's room for people to dress these things up.
    46:30
    Oh man, Blues Brothers is not fun. Um, but I'm having fun with the Expression Light Topper. Uh, I think it's only coded for a few games right now. Um, but it is coded for Star Wars. And I think the reason they came out with it coded for Star Wars with that acrylic is because they can sell them to people with the uh, home edition. In fact, there should be a packin like coupon order form to get the topper add-on in that box at the Costco for the Star Wars home edition.
    47:01
    All right. So, Punny Factory 100% better than Blues Brothers. 100% better than Spinal Tap. Punny Factory not not as good as ABBA. I'd put it right in there, though. Punny Factory is not the worst game ever made. Punny Factory versus Thunderbirds. I think that's that's on par. I think you get just about as much fun with either one.
    47:33
    Yeah. Yeah. I would I would say like you derive the same amount of enjoyment. I legitimately have fun playing Thunderbirds.
    47:42
    It still like lacks, you know, that which I crave from pinball, you know, but Punny Factory really only has kind of like one shot into that little ramp. Everything else is just like an orbit up to the top and just a ton of standup targets.
    47:59
    Do you think the Stern Expression speaker lights are worth it? Yes, absolutely.
    48:07
    So, um, yeah, I mean, I'm putting the light kit on everything. Um, I do like speaker light kits anyway. Um, thank you D and D. Um, but what I really like is the the integration with the game. That synchrony is really what you're buying. Um, the lights aren't any more impressive than anything else, but it's the code behind them that ties things in and makes them fun. Instead of just, you know, swirling with different colors or, you know, you can hit a button and program a different pattern. This is actually integrated with the game, which is fun. And on Star Wars, you can see it right there. Um, the patterns on the speaker lights match what the topper's doing, too. More or less.
    48:52
    Bunny Factory is a good bad game. Yeah, Thunderbirds is a a good bad game. Um, Blues Brothers and especially Spinal Tap are bad bad games. ABBA's even a fun bad game. I kind of want an ABBA. I kind of only want to pay $1,500 for it, but I kind of want one just because it's such a just a colossally bad idea.
    49:21
    John, do you know me down south pinball? What's up, Don? Good morning. So, are you in any Star Wars? I've got the space right here. I've got the space right here. Stranger Things needs a board fixed. I had it out on location and uh not location. I had it at a person was renting it from me. One of the boards went bad, so I've got it out of rotation right now in the shop around the corner getting ready for the board to go in there. You can just buy the node board and make your own. Jaws sonar motors cool with speaker lights. Yes. Like that's what I like. That's what I like. Pat, please educate me on how to make my own. Um that's a skill set I would love to develop.
    50:05
    But here's the thing. The the expression speaker lights are are only like 200 bucks. So, yeah, I could probably buy the board um and, you know, maybe save 50 to $80, but I don't mind I don't mind the 200 bucks for those. They're watch they're going to be 500 now. But if they can keep the price where it's at, I'm fine with that. That's an easy upgrade,
    50:31
    especially since you can buy the the LE Kenwood speakers for under 50 bucks.
    50:39
    Spike 3. I'm excited to see what they do with the sound. So, probably they're going to restructure the speaker lights because the Spike 3 cabinet's going to have better audio apparently and they're going to sell that upcharge audio kit. It'll come included on the LE and it'll be an aftermarket purchase for new Spike 3 systems. So, they'll probably restructure everything where you buy the lighting kit with the speakers as a whole thing. And then and then Pat, the other thing with that of making your own speaker lights and everything is if you want to upgrade the speakers, you might need new speaker panels and those come with the kits also. Otherwise, um you know, you got to go make your own. The angry alpaca is leaving to go to the beach. Go have fun, man. Go hit the beach. I'm about halfway through your show. You can buy the noteboard and make your own. It's the same note board for all accessories. Probably a generic top or two, probably. Oh, also when I put the expression topper on Star Wars, uh, the game did update node board 14. So, there must be a little board up in that, too.
    51:46
    So, I love that and I want to keep that in my hat because if I want to take advantage of certain features of a game and all I have to do is buy a node board and set some dip switches, I'm fine with that. Totally fine with that. Let's not make them try to lock us out there. Let's keep that available and kind of just between the homies. Between the homies here. How long have we been going? Oh god, I'm such a dork. So, uh, what I had done was I had the idea that I would record these lives and put them out as podcasts. Uh, I didn't hit record uh on my mixer here. So, we haven't been getting any of this. Hilton Jones is here. Awesome. Do not listen to second half. It's way worse.
    52:33
    Let's start recording now. How long have we been going for? Because that's how I was going to use the the time. There's probably a timer in here somewhere. I'm not going to mess it up and look for it. We'll just keep talking until we're bored.
    52:50
    The kit is a decent deal. Lights, node board, diffuser, wires, metal frame. Yeah, I think so. I think so. And if you're planning on upgrading your speakers anyway, you can buy the premium LE kit or whatever and then it comes with it. I love the Pinwer Powerwave amp. If we're talking about doing stuff yourself, okay. Um, what are those? Those fozy amps, FOSI. Um, I pick them up from Amazon. I put those in some games and they kick so much ass. Um, as good, I think, better than Pinwoer does for cheaper. The best thing about Pinwoer is it comes with an amp and it's kind of plug-andplay. Um, I don't think there's anything special about the speakers necessarily that he's doing unless like you get all the audio tweaks perfect or whatever. Uh, but, uh, putting a powered amp into your system and running that to the speakers is absolutely the sauce.
    53:48
    Uh, yes. Hilton Jones has asked me if I have seen a sneak peek of the new fun thing that Luke has. Talking about spooky Luke and spooky pinball. I guess it's it's spooky 30. Now, let's talk about them. So, there's a cool upgrade coming for Evil Dead. Um, and it is a it's not even a shooter rod, but it's like more fun than that. So, they're doing an auto launcher, and they've announced this uh molded around the actual shotgun handle, but it is uh it's not uh not just a plastic add-on. The dude is going whole hog on this and actually getting I don't know if he wants me spoiling this. Hopefully not. Um but the thing is going to be as accurate to an actual shotgun handle as possible. like not a plastic toy, uh not a diecast metal add-on, but like an actual grippy looks like somebody saw off a shotgun and stuck it out of your machine. It looks like it would absolutely take out grandma if she's not paying attention walking by. And I want that kind of danger in my game room. Pets Arcade, the metal frames don't come with the Ellie version. That's right, because Ellie already has those metal frames in it. So, um yeah, you got to make sure you get the upgraded uh speaker panels when you do that. Don't just leave the same ones in from the Pro. I've done that before and then I had to drill out the uh the metal grate there because it sucks, but then it's still not as big. Don, does the LE strip in the corner on your ceiling add any glare to the playfields? No, it doesn't. Um this camera picks up all kinds of bad glare and stuff. Um it's actually turned down a bit. The fun thing is there's a little bit of I think some UV in these lights um or something close enough to that spectrum that it causes things to fluores in the games. So like when I had Foo Fighters here, the thing was freaking glowing. When Scooby-Doo was here, like the the powder coat would just glow under this LED strip light. So these are um it's Cobb lighting. They're LEDs, but COB Cobb is how they they call this. It's it's the way that the light diffuses along. Um, so it's almost like a rope light of solid light. And these are exterior quality. Actually, these would go on the outside of a building or a brothel or strip club, so you could see it from like 100 miles away down the interstate in the middle of nowhere in Texas. I got these stripper lights for here. And if I turn them up full blast, I I put a dimmer on them because oh my god, if you put them up full blast, they will scorch your retinas, man. So, um, yeah, I put these on and anything that's fluorescent at all just fluoreses under these. It's crazy cool. And this this probably not picking it up here. Um, I got fluorescent crap all over the place, too. I don't have anything I can really show off here. This one's This rubber is not fluorescent, but it's cool, man. It's cool. Yeah. So, I got them on Amazon and I don't know. It's like uh 85 feet or something. It's something ridiculous. It's huge. Probably longer than that. And yeah, they were like 60 or 80 bucks, but oh my god. And then I I did go to the hardware store and buy a dimmer that you can put in line um with the plug and that allows them to dim down so it's not just burning retina all the time. Uh but they go in easy. Um they come with plastic clips that you can screw into your wall and then just press them on in there and it's great. And I got the blue because this is the color that I wanted, but I'm sure they make multiolor rainbow ones and an app you can play with. I don't usually like those. I like I can turn this on. It's blue. That's what I want. Great. Um, do not do what I did with my first set of these. I plugged them in and the whole spool was glowing this like otherworldly blue. It was great. But when it's wrapped up like that, it generates so much heat that they started to melt. So, as I went to unroll them later, I found out they had melted together. So, this is my second set. The melted set held up for a little bit and then eventually quit working. So, this is my second set. I've got a nine or 10 pin lineup right here. And I have the lights wrapping completely around like a full circle on the walls. So, it's a lot. Hilton, of course, I have parties at the compound. Why don't you ever come do a kick flip? I probably will later today. Uh, what else we got? Back to Beetlejuice versus Pokemon January battle. I mean, that's the rumor and so that's what we can report on. Um, I'll tell you this, one of those titles will be a day one sellout. The other one will be probably one of the bestselling pinballs ever made. Which means one of them, if you're lucky enough to get one and smart enough to be waiting at the right time, um you'll have a gem that will be sought after forever, and the other one is going to be absolutely everywhere and can be picked up anytime. And they're probably both going to be awesome. Hilton, you're invited. Come on over.
    58:38
    Yeah. So, it's it's totally in the corner of the room, these strip lights. And so, yeah, I'm not getting any glare on the playfield at all from them.
    58:50
    So, yeah, I think back to spooky. I'm sinking down in my seat. Back to spooky. I think that Evil Dead should be game of the year 100% with Harry Potter right behind it. I just think if you had 10 categories, Evil Dead would beat Harry Potter on at least seven of them. Um, obviously Harry Potter's a bigger theme. Um, but you know, putting franchise art up against the AI stuff like and Harry Potter looks good, but the AI detracts a lot, man. You know, and and I'm not talking, you know, Evil Dead's a 10 out of 10 and Harry Potter's a five out of 10. I mean, they're close, but I think I think Evil Dead on value, playability, depth of code, mechanisms. I think it's it's they're right there.
    59:43
    Love Beetlejuice. Never seen Pokemon, but Insider Connected makes it interesting. So, here was a thought I had, and I'm going to share this with you. Um, regarding themes, uh, because themes get thrown out there a lot. It's one of our favorite things to do. And so for a theme like Power Rangers, something that I have no interest in Power Rangers. I know of them, but like I was too old for them when they came out. So it was like it was silly for me as a teenager to be into Power Rangers. So if a Power Rangers pinball machine came out, I' i'd look at it and say, you know, this is like kids stuff that I'm not interested in, whatever. Except for the fact that what I do like is pinball. And so even though Power Rangers is a theme that I'm just kind of like it's like it's like the color beige, I just like have no real feelings about it. If it was in a pinball machine, I might actually own it just because I like pinball. And so it's Power Rangers, but it's still a pinball machine, right?
    60:47
    So, a theme can come out that's dog vomit, but the game could still be compelling and fun because it is still pinball, you know? So, you know, people say, you know, these themes are lame. Like a totally lame theme. Totally lame. Like so lame. Like uh like like pot roast at the nursing home that's been pureed. like just no spice, not attractive, not something I'd want to seek out. I still for the right price wouldn't mind having an ABBA because it is a pinball machine and I like pinball machines and that's such a stupid theme to pick and so lame that I almost want it because of that.
    61:35
    Pat, I agree. Pat's talking about, you know, people are kind of all over the place on this Beetlejuice rumor. Um, people are like, I hope, it's so funny. Um, and you know, they haven't revealed what the game is or anything, but people are saying, I hope it's not that because either I don't like it, or I hope it's not that because I like it so much that I'd be forced to buy it. And I think I'm seeing more of like, I'm forced to buy it than not. Um, which is funny. Uh, but you mentioned that you would rather have a good horror classic. Again, I think everybody involved can agree that horror classic classic horror monsters in a game from Spooky is what we want. And I think it's probably what they want, too. And so, if it's not happening, there's probably a reason for it. And I think as soon as it can happen, I think we would see it because how fun would that be? Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Mummy, Invisible Man, uh, Bride of Frankenstein, uh, like the big ones, right? Jackal and Hide, like these classic monsters. Throw them all in with like a creepy castle kind of black and white with like green and red highlights, creature from the Black Lagoon, like all those classic monsters and throw them in a game. Yeah, absolutely. Um, part of the reason I wanted to go to Epic Universe wasn't for just the Super Nintendo stuff, not the new Harry Potter stuff, even though they're phenomenal, but the classic monsters area that they built, the village of Darkmore that they created with the steakhouse ery, and it's it's all gothic inside. It's spelled like steak, like a wooden steak, but they sell steak and there's bars in there. And then like they have this great dark ride themed after uh Frankenstein. All the classic monsters are in it. It's phenomenal. Like that whole area is so good. That's such a great aesthetic. I want to take the spooky guys there and just like point their faces at everything in that land and say put this in a box of lights and I want it. Brad, I was just about to say Young Frankenstein absolutely would be good. You got Gene Wilder. Uh, you got Iiggore, you got everybody in there. It was made black and white on purpose for that aesthetic. One of my favorite games I have. It's right here. Monsters black and white. Franchie art. Franchie can do black and white monsters quite well. So that I want that. Elvivara does it great. Yeah. So I'd love to see Young Frankenstein.
    64:09
    Monster Bash. Great game. Um, kind of a kooky theme. It's, you know, monsters, but they made them fun and play instruments. I think just going a little bit darker, but bringing the adult humor into it, too. Perfect. Like Alvirro was great right there. I love the call outs in Alvara that that Tim Kurtzowl did, the NBA Jam guy. So good. It's pronounced Frankenstein. Fraa.
    64:38
    There's a lot of Mel Brooks that needs to be in pinball. Return of the Living Dead. Sure. Marshall, how you doing? Brad, young Frankenstein, buddy, you hit it. I would today would own it. Butter cabinet, upgraded topper, um, pitchfork, shooter rod, whatever. I want it all. Absolutely.
    65:05
    I think Nightmare Before Christmas would work, too. Okay, an hour and 10 minutes. All right, that's good. We've done our hour. Fantastic. So, yeah. Um, the rest of this year, this this year hasn't slowed down. It's been phenomenal the entire time. Every time it starts to slow a little bit, we get Jaws 50th, we get Predator, and we could talk about that forever. And we're, you know, we get who's on deck? Stern Cornerstone, uh, Stern Remake, Remaster, Spooky Game, um, and then Christmas, and then we get to Pokemon probably. Uh, oh, earlier point, when do I think the AC/DC remastered would be coming? Um, that would be a year from October essentially if rumors or whatever. If it's going to come out and it's going to come out after the next remaster we're expecting here in another month or so, that's when it would be according to my clairvoyance.
    66:09
    Chris, you love pinball? So do I. Been Buttthead. Yep, that would work. Um, the blob. I don't know what that would even be method. I don't know if you could do a machine on just the blob. I think you could have the blob as a component. It's just not X-Men. Enzo. Enzo likes X-Men. I I liked X-Men so much I bought two of them, an LE and a premium and I sold them both and I took a loss on the LE and I don't think I'll be buying that game again. Um, Avatar Evil Dead and Harry Potter more so Evil Dead for sure and definitely Harry Potter I would buy again. And I'm gambling that I could buy them again for the same or less than I sold them for. So, it's essentially just kind of rotating it out and then I'll rotate it back in.
    67:08
    I wanted to love X-Men. Um, I was kind of thinking they would have done because I saw what they did with Venom. Picking characters, leveling up, seeing what they're doing with D and D now. What they're doing with D and D, that's what I expected to see with X-Men. You could pick your X-Men, level them up, they gain abilities. Um, it would change the gameplay in compelling ways. And then the layout was very interesting. And so I thought that was a slam dunk. You know, we got uh Jack Danger, his novel approach to ball paths and mechanisms. Um, we've got uh uh comic book code, which doesn't put a lot of uh um boundaries around what they can do. They can kind of do whatever they want within the realm of the comics. Um and so I thought we were going to get leveling up, unlocking X-Men, um code that would be progressive that you could then play through the entire game, unlock people, start again. That's what I was expecting. And of course, that's not what we got. We got hit the two white shots and then pick a mode. and then hit the two white shots and pick a mode and then okay, now it's a little mini wizard and then you're back. You know,
    68:13
    this is fluoresing right now. I don't know if it's it's probably not coming through on this camera. Um, but this is uh some PLA I printed and the green is fluorescent and it looks pretty cool with the blue lights back there.
    68:27
    Right. So, Evil Dead top of market I think is right now. Um, everybody's waiting for this game. Uh, there's just about half of them, I think, are being produced right now. So, back when there was only like 250 of these things out there, everybody is waiting and people miss the boat and the fervor is high. The highest I've seen one go for was 17,000. Um, which is phenomenal for the person that flipped that game. Now, once all 800 are released, it's out there. It's not the newest game anymore. Um, I think we'll see the price come down, but I still think it's going to be a $12,000 game. I don't think it's going down past that used. And that's without the topper.
    69:08
    They trapped themselves into Days of the Future Past. Could have been just one mode, dude. Agreed, man. And I wish it was the old school cartoon. Paid my final invoice for 401 last week. Let's go, Jorge. Get your evil debt on. Um, and then their next game is probably going to be similar to where everybody wants it and we're like, where they at? Where they at with production? We all want Spooky to make 50 games a week and have four releases a year. [laughter] All right, Hilton Star. So, Star Wars in September. Yeah, next two to three weeks probably. Remake AC/DC or Walking Dead by Expo Time. New spooky end of the year. Yep. Yep. I got to make some room for Walking Dead, man. A Walking Dead remaster. A game I've always enjoyed the layout of, the gameplay style of, and I've always thought like at some point, pick one up. You know, you can get them relatively cheaper. You know, it's not like trying to get a Ghostbusters. Um, and then the rumors of the remake had me thinking like actually now I think I' I'd want to have that one for sure. And then if it's comic, it has like good animations like what they did with Metallica Remastered. Telling you, Drawn Together could be a funny adult pin as well. That would be homebrew territory because I don't think it'd be a big seller. Would be fun.
    70:34
    God, homebrew is so much work. Um, I've done everything I know how to do to my cabinet. I'm looking at it right now. Um, it needs to be wired and programmed and oh my god, I can build a cabinet. I can build a whitewood. Um, I can install mechanisms and flippers. Um, I've got the sound system in there working great. It's got a great amplifier. It's Bluetooth. I play all kinds of stuff through that game. But as far as like getting it to where you can push start and play something compelling, that's a lot of work. Um, I can definitely see how Saw came out so good because of the team that was behind it where everybody knew their part of it. music and art and layout and engineering and everything. That's why SA was so amazing. And then you look at something like uh Greatest Showman where it was like a twoerson team that did everything. It's like my god, the amount of work and skill put into Greatest Showman um is is just phenomenal that it came out of just a twoerson team versus like the talent you had on Saw.
    71:37
    And you know Saw is got more compelling code as a game. It's more compelling than Greatest Showman. Um, but I think as far as terms of just sheer effort, Greatest Showman probably takes it. The only thing the premium has on The Walking Dead with Wilds Walker bombs. I still don't know enough to tell you all what's different between the different versions of Walking Dead.
    72:00
    You know, a lot of people prefer the uh Stranger Things Pro as well. Um, I don't.
    72:08
    Hilton knows what's up. Yeah, Hilton always knows what's up. Whenever I'm like I I was I was thinking about buying a game recently and he like pretty much said, "Brother, don't do this." And I will value his opinion because dude knows
    72:25
    lots of people for Walking Dead Pro. So yeah. Um, I mean, when I talk about getting it, you know, it's a game that I think I could get I could play and really enjoy the heck out of, really spend some time with Walking Dead that I've never had gotten the chance to do. I've only played it on locations or at shows. Um, you know, and then sell it on and I think I could still get, you know, relatively good good price for it moving it on, especially once it's powder coated. And I wouldn't be getting like an LE. I would get I would get a premium.
    72:59
    But yeah, now when they remaster Walking Dead, if they do that, would they necessarily do a pro again as well, or would they do premium and LE like they did with Metallica, which is what I think they would do. I think they wouldn't even mess around with doing a pro. Uh I was uh considering getting I'll throw this out to everybody. Um Star Trek the Next Generation Color DMD, fair price. Um, I love the theme. So, what do would you what do you guys think about owning a Star Trek the Next Generation? I've never owned one. Premium has a ramp flap that goes up and down. Premium has crossbow in the apron. I've seen that. Me on both. They kill the shot feel. I get it. Premium has one more magnet. All right. You had me in on a pro until I heard the Premium has an extra magnet. [laughter] Is it like uh Guardians of the Galaxy where the the premium just has nothing of redeeming value? You know, it has one more one or two more magnets in the play field, but does that compellingly change the gameplay? I don't like the Groot arms. They keep it so I can't see what's going on. It still has plastic wire forms. Um, what else is in Guardians of the Galaxy Premium that wasn't in the Pro? 6K Max. Yeah, 6K max. That's about what I was looking to spend. Um, but he was saying there's opto issues.
    74:34
    You know, the game playfield looks pretty barren. I know there's a lot of cool toys around it and it's got the Richie ramp and stuff, but like are the is the code fun to play through?
    74:48
    Premium is okay, just not good geometry. Uh, okay. So, you like the shooting aspect of the the Pro over the Premium? Yeah. I mean, I think for me, um, an okay remaster is fine. There's going to be a lot of gameplay I'm going to get out of it because I I haven't I haven't been playing that game since it came out. You know, I'm sure, um, Hilton, you probably routed A Walking Dead probably more than once and are very familiar with the gameplay. I see. I'm not familiar with the gameplay. So, for me, it would be fun to get it and and and get to experience that because I haven't done that yet.
    75:23
    I got one coming in from Chris at Heep. Oh, dude, did you get that uh Star Trek Heep? I've heard good things about that. I haven't had Stern Star Trek and I didn't give it much thought until I played Enzo and he has either I don't know if he had an LE or premium but holy crap I didn't know it had all those features that it has in there. The the green laser starfield pattern or whatever. Phenomenal. Um I want them to remaster that game because I want a big screen on it. Yeah, I heard all the praise for Stern Star Trek and then uh you know, I played it on location a couple of times and it's like, okay, I don't think it's anything special. And then I played Enzo's version and I I finally I understand now.
    76:13
    See, so that's why I think I should have a chance to have Walking Dead and really spend five or six hundred games on it and because I I haven't done that. I've probably played it less than 30 times total,
    76:30
    you know. So, having, you know, Stern Star Trek at one point would be fun to have. Walking Dead would be fun to have. I don't think I need to have Led Zeppelin. Enzo was red, dude. Bill Moore. Um, send me some pictures of that when you get it because I want to see all what he did to it. Um because if I do pick one up, I want to see what I can do to budget copy whatever he did because dude's got good taste.
    77:06
    Skip Star Trek Next Generation Skip for Walking Dead. I mean, yeah, cuz it's still going to be like a $6,000 purchase, and I think I'd rather put that $6,000 towards like a remastered Walking Dead, but like part of me I think I just I'm in love with the idea of owning a Next Generation. Um, I've gotten to put time on them at arcades and it never grabbed me as something like I can't wait to get this one day. Oh, he might. Yeah, Enzo probably has the vault. That's probably what it was. You need Zingy Bingy. Okay, somebody please enlighten me.
    77:49
    This is a fun hangout. I'm glad we did this. It's uh it's been almost an hour and a half. I need to go find some food. Do we Do we not talk about anything? Um American Pinball. I sent a message out to my guy there. Haven't heard back. I don't want to bug the dude.
    78:10
    Uh, let me go through see if I got any any fun messages here now that people are awake.
    78:23
    So long as this price is fair, just grab the starting next generation sell in two months. That's all the time you'll need with it. All right, that's fair. Someone's asking me for a Discord link. Let me hook my boy up here. Yeah. So, I mean, I think it'd be fun to have. I think budget-wise, it's not a good decision for me at the moment because I think I could use that money to better purpose, even though it does look like a good one. All right, we're going to invite somebody to Discord, guys. Um, come by the Discord. We got a ton of people over there. It's super fun. If you're not into Discord, it's a very easy kind of, you know, chat forum to use. It's not as difficult to navigate as some of the legacy forums out there like a pinside. You know, of course, it doesn't have the depth and breadth of arguments that Pinsside would have, but it's more a place where you can kind of pop in just like this and catch up on chat. News travels very quickly through there, so you can pop in, get the day news, and pop out pretty easily. Um, I'll post a link up on the Facebook and then you guys can go join. Um, but it's it's really taken off. And so now that I've downloaded Discord, I've gotten to other people's Discords and it's real simple just with one app to just kind of bounce around through all the different little fandoms or whatever and just get caught up on everything really quickly, post things, um, send pictures and video. It's like easier to navigate than like an Instagram is, um, or a Tik Tok, I think.
    80:04
    Don't bring that game up on stream. My bad. It's one of the last games Python Angelo made. And what closed Capcom Pinball? You have to see it for yourself. Absolutely. Let's do it. So, I think um you know, I don't think a Star Trek is necessarily hard to get. And so I would love a remastered game, but I would love them to just do Star Trek the Next Generation again. I think, you know, if you were going to go to the original series, I think you could just as easily go to Next Generation um and have a compelling, fun game made modern. Um I'm glad it exists, but I kind of wish that uh it was made in the modern era with what we have with modern pinball.
    80:48
    Discord is like Slack for smaller forum style chats. Yeah. All right. So, we'll go check that out. Who else didn't we talk about? Uh, American Pinball. Um, the name is up for grabs. So, I almost bookmarked the domain just to have it. Um, I don't I still don't know what's going to happen with there. They have a finished game that just needed code and so yeah, I don't know. Um, the only thing is I've heard nothing official, just rumors that, you know, the licenser didn't want the game to come out till the code was complete. I think that's a terrible decision. I think get that thing 80% of the way there, get it out, get feedback, and then implement the final code or something. But I know if they launch up against Stern's games, Spooky's games, and Christmas, um, it's not going to be as whatever. Carrie Hardy ran down all the reasons on his uh latest video. I think it's posted by now. Cool. Final thoughts everybody.
    81:54
    Yeah, but there's a buy the American Pinball domain. There's so much fun things you can do with it. Yeah, but there's like a stigma attached to it. I don't know. So, let's see what we see. I will tell you this. Uh lately this week, the games that I've been playing in my game room of 15 games where I've got a ton of heavy hitters, I've been playing Monsters, Stern Star Wars Premium, and Pulp Fiction like just repeatedly. I'm in I'm in this mode right now. I I I turn on these three games and I put on my headphones and I just crank through and play those. Um I'm having a hell of a fun time with it. I'm still loving Star Wars Premium. So, that's what we're doing, guys. Thanks for hanging out. Be sure to leave comments. I'll post a link to the Discord on Facebook. So, go join up and sign if you haven't. And Scott Avery, I agree with you. I'll give you the last word. Star Wars is a must buy if it's episodes four, five, and six. Take care of yourself and each other. I'll talk to you later.