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DPP #161 "EVIL DEAD success! IAAPA was amazing!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·43m 37s·analyzed·Nov 26, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Evil Dead near-sellout success validated; Spooky reaches new quality peak; X-Men fixes incoming.

Summary

Don discusses Evil Dead's massive launch success (612+ units sold in under a week of 888 total production), praising it as Spooky Pinball's pinnacle achievement with excellent gameplay, Franchi artwork, and innovative mechanics like the sculpted shotgun toy. He also covers IAAPA show highlights including X-Men production fixes and upcoming code updates.

Key Claims

  • Evil Dead sold approximately 612 units in under one week, leaving ~239 of 888 units unsold

    high confidence · Don tracked direct website availability and performed calculation: 888 total - 239 remaining = ~649 sold, though some distributor stock may exist separately

  • Evil Dead toppers outsold games at one point with 700+ toppers sold vs ~540 games

    medium confidence · Don cites Spooky Luke's statement about topper sales exceeding game sales at $1,400 price point

  • Evil Dead features a fully sculpted double-barrel shotgun with sculpted shells functioning like drop targets

    high confidence · Don detailed personal gameplay experience; mechanism described with left/right load sequence triggering multiball

  • X-Men Pro's shooter rod issue is being fixed via two-part kit shipping mid-December: reshaped inner lane guide and new plastic to prevent ball rattle

    high confidence · Don spoke with Stern representatives at IAAPA about the fix and observed corrected behavior on show floor X-Men machine

  • Christopher Franchi came to Spooky on contract basis due to passion for Evil Dead franchise before joining full-time

    high confidence · Don references Kerry Hardy interview with Franchi discussing how he approached them after hearing rumors

  • Evil Dead is Spooky Luke and Corwin Emery's fourth major design collaboration

    medium confidence · Don states this with slight uncertainty about whether TCM counts as one or two distinct designs

  • First public Evil Dead location play opportunity announced for Pinball on the Beach (Florida, Feb 5-7)

    high confidence · Don announced this as first confirmed public location, with Texas Pinball Festival in March as second

  • Evil Dead's build material cost likely exceeds the MSRP

    medium confidence · Don's assessment based on observed component quality and manufacturing complexity

Notable Quotes

  • “This is the pinnacle of Spooky...every game that comes out from Stern, whether it be John Wick, whether it be Venom, whether it be Jaws, right now we're referencing back to Godzilla. And Jaws is the first game I've seen from Stern that I could honestly say I prefer to Godzilla.”

    Don @ ~mid-episode — Establishes Evil Dead as Spooky's peak and reframes Stern's Godzilla as the new competitive benchmark game

  • “It seems like the topper is outselling the game. Spooky Luke was saying that when they sold 540 or so games, they had sold 700 of the toppers.”

    Don @ ~topper discussion — Remarkable market signal about accessory demand exceeding hardware demand at premium price point

  • “The fact that the build of materials is probably more than the MSRP. Holy crap.”

    Don @ ~manufacturing discussion — Indicates Spooky prioritizing component quality over margin, differentiating from competitors

  • “I'm not selling this game. This game is selling itself...without even playing it, without even seeing it in person, they can then ask about the purchase that they made.”

    Don @ ~sales discussion — Acknowledges theme-driven pre-purchase behavior unprecedented for Spooky; speaks to franchise power

  • “You can't compare the gameplay of a game like Rick and Morty to what they're cranking out with now.”

    Don @ ~legacy comparison — Confirms clear progression in Spooky's design capability from early successful titles

  • “So looking at this plastic topper, it looks like it really apes the same aesthetic there, but does it in a layered plastic feel...imagine just being in your house and all of a sudden just like chains are rattling and Cheryl's down in the basement there.”

    Don @ ~topper immersion discussion — Describes how premium topper extends theme immersion beyond playfield into home environment

Entities

Evil DeadgameSpooky PinballcompanyDonpersonChristopher FranchipersonSpooky LukepersonCorwin EmerypersonKerry Hardyperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball premium topper accessory sales exceeded game sales (700 toppers vs ~540 games sold), indicating strong high-end accessory market demand at $1,400 price point

    medium · Spooky Luke statement to Don regarding sales numbers at specific production checkpoint

  • ?

    community_signal: Spooky Luke and Corwin Emery conducting live Q&A via Kerry Hardy platform post-launch; timing allows customers to ask questions after pre-purchase without prior gameplay

    high · Don announced Q&A appearance scheduled for night of recording; acknowledged unprecedented nature of pre-purchase without hands-on experience

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Don's personal collection retention pattern (keeping Spooky games while selling Stern titles) signals confidence in Spooky quality and longevity vs competitors

    high · Don itemized: sold Jaws, X-Men, Elvira; has Metallica pre-sold; retained Scooby-Doo and TCM; not planning to sell Evil Dead

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball prioritizing component quality and build material cost potentially exceeding MSRP, differentiating from competitors on manufacturing standards

    medium · Don's assessment based on observed component quality: 'The fact that the build of materials is probably more than the MSRP'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball on the Beach (Florida, Feb 5-7) announced as first public Evil Dead gameplay location; Texas Pinball Festival in March expected to feature machines but availability uncertain

    high · Don announced both venues with caveat that March availability depends on ongoing production vs demand velocity

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.131

0:00
500 games. Like, on day one. Wasn't that ever-loving heck spooky? Let's go with Don's Pinball Podcast 161. It is the era of Evil Dead that is upon us. Can you believe the stranglehold that this game has taken in its just few short days of release to near sellout in this market? Also, we're back from my app, but we got tons of stuff to talk about. Let's do it.
0:30
what ash would have to say about all this oh indeed can you believe it now this game was Slightly rumored early on. Well, I mean, it's been rumored for about five years. This is the game that people have been asking Spooky Pinball to make for, well, for years, right? Beloved horror franchise from our beloved horror franchise producing pinball company. Match made in heaven. Makes perfect sense. As time has finally come, and I think it came at a great time. If this game would have came back when, you know, Rob Zombie was out, it would have looked good. It wouldn't have been as polished as what we're getting now. we're getting what people are calling people in the media, in the industry the pinnacle of spooky I would tend to agree I'm coming off the high of TCM and Looney Tunes, two games that I was raving about as soon as I got to play them, was invited shortly after launch to come down there and flip those games could not believe the flow that was coming out of Benton, Wisconsin and so I wanted to share that with everybody just so like, am I crazy or is this real and yeah yeah it's legit um those are definitely their best playing games um argument can be made for tna but as far as like a fully fleshed out multi-ramp game yeah dude both of them are great and i was all i was totally anticipating getting them both and then keeping the one i like and then getting the other one out of there but i can't still can't decide which one i like better right so i'm riding a spooky high and it's like all right guys man you came out with some fire you tell me that you're excited about what's coming out next and then boom they dropped it on us and and on me literally imagine walking into a room like schrodinger's cat like i have no idea what's in there open the door and i'm greeted with the side of this cabinet with that franchi art can we start there man they have their own in-house artists now i think i think passion seems to be the key theme that has run through this all right so you had christopher franchi who listening to the interview that he did with Kerry Hardy has loved Evil Dead longer than probably any other pinball artist out there. So much so that he actually came to them when he heard the rumor, the whisperings on the wind that Evil Dead was coming from Spooky Pinball and then got on there as a contract basis and now has stayed on because of the passion that he has for what they're doing and, and this is what I'm super excited about, the themes to come, man. I don't think the hits are going to stop coming. And then you got these two guys, right? Spooky Luke and Emory. This is their fourth design, I think they said. I don't know if that counts. TCM is one design or two.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM)
game
Looney Tunesgame
X-Mengame
Stern Pinballcompany
Godzillagame
Jawsgame
IAAPAevent
Jack Dangerperson
Metallicagame
Scooby-Doogame
John Wickgame
Mad Pinballcompany
Pinball on the Beachevent
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Ryan Daviesperson
  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Evil Dead topper production apparently outpacing game production; $1,400 premium accessory reaching premium attachment rate

    medium · Spooky Luke's statement to Don comparing topper vs game sales at 700 vs 540 units checkpoint

  • $

    market_signal: Evil Dead experiencing theme-driven pre-purchase phenomenon unprecedented for Spooky; 612+ units sold within week based primarily on IP and trailer without public gameplay availability

    high · Don noted: 'this game sold over 500 units based off of theme and launch trailer. Because no one's played this yet'

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi transition from industry work to Spooky Pinball on contract basis due to franchise passion, now integrated into company

    high · Don references Kerry Hardy interview where Franchi discussed approaching Spooky after hearing Evil Dead rumors

  • ?

    announcement: Evil Dead official launch with 888-unit production run; 612+ units sold in under one week

    high · Don tracked direct sales via website deposit system; performed calculation showing remaining inventory

  • ?

    product_concern: X-Men shooter rod issues resolved via two-part production fix (reshaped guide + plastic keeper); fix shipping mid-December to all owners

    high · Don observed fixed behavior on IAAPA floor machine and spoke with Stern representatives about technical solution

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Pinball planning significant post-launch code update for X-Men with new modes, callouts, and features; Jack Danger focused on post-release feature development

    high · Don cites Jack Danger's public statements about imminent code dump preparation during post-launch development phase

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Evil Dead establishing new competitive benchmark for boutique manufacturers; Stern's Godzilla being reframed as legacy standard rather than current peak

    high · Don explicitly states: 'Jaws is the first game I've seen from Stern that I could honestly say I prefer to Godzilla' and positions Evil Dead above all recent Stern releases

    • 3:26
    Taking what they've learned so far, learned from Halloween, learned from Scooby-Doo, I think there's a clear lineage there of them stepping up their game each time. Now they finally arrived at the ultimate of a passion project. I feel like I'm gushing here, but it's not just me. It's not just me. I liked this game when I played it, and I couldn't say anything about it, because I didn't want to be a jerk to the guys and ruin their launch. Now that it's out and other people are seeing what I have seen, I feel validated. I feel vindicated because it wasn't just me when I got to play this. Now, I released an episode a few days ago about my first impressions, and really that's all they were. I was in there for a brief amount of time. I was able to play about 10 or so games, code preliminary. I can't wait to play it again and see where it's at now.
    4:11
    But I wanted to rush home and record as much as I could remember. Now, when I recorded that, I didn't have any photos to reference back to. So this is my first time sitting down with high-res photos where I can actually, now that I've played it, it's sunk in a bit. I can kind of go over and see, like, what package is unveiled before us. And before I go any further, I bought this game. I threw down a deposit at about 10.20 a.m. while I was at the IAPA show floor. I had just finished up my turn on Avatar. I'm at the Jersey Jack pinball booth, and then I'm like, oh, crap, it's 10 a.m. Boom, popped open the app and went ahead and put my $2,000 deposit in. I'm getting me an Evil Dead, and because of how much fun I had with it, I probably was going to get it anyway. But now it looks like this game is heading towards sellout phase. As of this recording, I just checked on the website, if you try to order 300 Evil Dead deposits right now, they'll tell you that there's only 239 available. And I love that there's that little bug in the system so I can kind of track and see how they're selling. I call it transparency. Please, guys, don't change that. I love to watch and see what's going on. You know, but we're not even a week into the launch here, and we're under 250 units of the 888 that are left. This wasn't a 750 sell, right, where there would only be 250 after 500. That means they have sold, quick math here, around 612 of them have sold so far, leaving only the 239 that are left. Now, that may mean the, you know, sell through. I'm sure some distributors, you know, maybe they ordered 40 games and maybe they've only sold 20 of theirs. So they may still have allotment even when they're sold out directly from the website. But still, man, this is boding well. It's kind of going back to the old days when you got in on a game that was then unavailable and then you felt like you had something. It just made everything a little bit more special. So now that I've had time to come back with these high-res videos, I just wanted to kind of go through this again and give more concrete impressions, now that I have a reference photo to work off of. Now, at the time, I was having fun, and indeed, I played a couple of games of this like this, where the only things I was really focusing on was the shotgun and the sling flipper. It was just so much fun, right? So I don't know if this point has gotten through, but there's a double-barrel shotgun that you load. These aren't stand-up targets for the shells. These are sculpted shells inside of a sculpted shotgun. And they work similar to drop targets as far as, like, the catch mechanism and the release. So there's a left one and a right one, boom and stick, right? And so to get to the multi-ball, what you want to do is load the left shell, then load the right shell. Then they both pop out, and then you have to, with one ball, slam both of them into the barrel. And then that qualifies the multi-ball, and then it goes in the start. Or then you shoot and lock the ball, and then it goes into it. And so it's got a little bit of that Fathom throwback. I know there's a lot of Bally Williams-inspired mechs in here, the Deadite heads that pop up and block the ramps. But going back even farther, I was playing Fathom on my virtual pinball machine back in the old Haggis Halcyon days when that game was coming out. And there's a 1-2-3 drop target there. Old-school pinballers, you already know this, but me being new to it was kind of interesting. So, you know, you want to drop the drop targets. But if you drop them in order, 1-2-3, there's an extra bonus that's added. And so that was the first time when I really tried to hone in on that skill of not just hitting all the drops, but hit them in a precise, specific order. And that's what you can do with these shotguns. So how does this game shoot? It shoots accurately enough that I was able to replicate this, right? I was able to find those shots on that flipper to go ahead and hit the left, then hit the right. Then they both pop out, and then it's like one ball right at the middle. Boom. Boomstick is loaded. So satisfying. Like a couple of games, I just focused just on doing that. It was so much fun. Now, if you hit the left and then, you know, you mess up or something, or you hit the right one when you're supposed to hit the left, they'll both reset and come back out. When you're going to hit both of them in, if you hit only one, it'll reset until you get it right. So, like, it's there. Super fun, man. Super fun. And not like anybody else, this shotgun would have been a flat plastic, and it would have been two stand-up targets. Maybe they would have been drop targets with a paddle stand-up behind it. But, no, like fully sculpted shotgun shells that are in there, let alone the hand that's screaming around the play field, let alone the groovy drop targets. There's like another six that are in line standing up over there, let alone like everything else in this game, right? You guys have seen it. The extra flipper button for the sling flipper was super fun because whenever you hit the inner ramp there, the one with the flap that lifts, it's got a dead-eyed head blocking it. Whenever you do go in there, it's a relatively fast wire form return back to that sling area. But if you quickly move over and boom, catch it, oh, very satisfying. Game kind of stops for a second. You can take a breath and then drop that ball and hit it when you want. Or if you're in a multi-ball situation, you can stage on that flipper while still using the other flipper button behind there to continue the multi-ball. So, like, all kinds of cool opportunities for some neat stuff is what you can do. And you can also wait there until the hand's where you want it or, you know, wait and try to get a specific groovy drop target. Like, there's a lot of gameplay that's in this game packed into this wide body. You've seen the pictures. You've seen the nap arcade. but like playing through it it all worked it all worked you know dropping balls in the pop bumper nest was fun whenever the magnet would activate in the orbit that was fun um the buck to the extra little wire form that drops in the left wire form was fun the cabin is back there it's not really taking up real estate to the point that it's blocking the view of anything it's it's poised to sitting back there occasionally that porch swing will start going on its own super creepy dude i totally dig it and then you get the whole under play field area and i know nobody loves i don't think anybody's even in like with a lower play field um i will say this one plays uh fun it plays relatively fast i don't feel like i'm down there for a ton of time i legitimately maybe i'm the only one i enjoyed the lower play field on monsters i've been able to dial in my shots that are down there it's fun for what it is i don't want to play monsters without it, so maybe I'm a little biased to lower play fields. But this one here, with the two stand-up targets, the mini little orbit, and the single flipper, I think it works for what it is. You know, get down there, score some points, build up your bonus, play through whatever that mode is, and then you're done, and you're back to playing. You know, these guys know people don't like to dwell on lower play fields. You don't want to feel like it's a burden. So at least when I was playing it, it was fun. It was an event to get down there, because that flap's got to pop up to get you there. I also love the fact, and this is a tiny thing, but there's a small post with a little rubber ring on it just to the right of that lower play field flipper And so as the ball coming around that orbit it bounce right off of that over to the flipper You can catch it You can kind of stage your shots So while you down there there is skill to use It's not just flipping away like crazy. That worked great on Congo, but when I'm playing Family Guy or Shrek, it kind of sucks, right? That playfield's too far away. It's not super fun. So as far as lower playfields go, this is a very fun one. But I also do like the crab suit mech in Avatar. I think that's fun too because you can dial those shots. I do like the fact that this uses a bigger ball rather than the tiny little ball that's on some of the other games. So there you go. There's some of my impressions. Artwork, come on, man. Art's great both inside the cabinet, outside the cabinet, the back glass. Franchi killed it. He cared about this, and they were working with a licensor that allows them to have that latitude. Listening to the Kerry Hardy interview with Mr. I was going to call him George Franchi. Mr. Chris Rangy He talked about some other times where the studio would intercede a bit Into the vision of the artist Like some things with Beatles and such So it's nice that And I think this is really something that Spooky does well Is they work with licensors that are wanting to work with them Give them some latitude Not just let them have the lunchbox licenses And then there you go, that's all you're going to get Because you can't make a game with the baked in passion That they want to make and looking at this, it's just everywhere, man. The tape recorder. Somebody mentioned that this was 3D printed. I believe this is a full sculpt, too, with those reels, believe it or not. The double barrel shooter, man. There's so much in this game. And I've been saying this even before I could really talk about what this game was. The main thing is I just wanted to play it again. Guys, where could you play it? If you're in the Florida region, St. Petersburg Beach, the pinball on the beach is going on. I think it's the 5th or the 7th of February. Check the dates. But that's going to be the first public location that's been announced where you'll be able to get your hands on Evil Dead. Of course, in March will be the Texas Pinball Festival, which I'm sure there will be a ton of them there. Will there be any for sale by then is a question. I mean, we're a week into it. I've been watching the numbers, and I think, you know, we've got 500 sold in the first couple of days. Over the last day, I think 20 have come in with me just watching where the numbers are at there. Now, that may be because some of the distributors are getting caught up with the sales that they have bought to, so some people are going straight to the distributors. I know Jeff at Mad Pinball. You can email him at jeffatmadpinball.com. He's got some availability last I checked, so check in with him. I'm sure he could snag some more. And then you get a local dealer to help you out. Not that Spooky's hard to get a hold of for maintenance issues that come up.
    13:37
    But, man, just the pinnacle of where they're at. But I don't think this is going to be, as far as the company, as far as all time, where their peak is at. And for that, I am thankful. There was some mentioning that this was going to be a Godzilla-level game. And I think it's unfair to draw comparisons directly to that Stern game. It's not a wide body. It's got a completely different design philosophy. It's got different assets. It's a different game.
    14:05
    However, the point is, and this is what Kerry was making, I totally agree with him, that every game that comes out from Stern, whether it be John Wick, whether it be Venom, whether it be Jaws, right now we're referencing back to, okay, but compared to Godzilla, how is it? And Jaws is the first game I've seen from Stern that I could honestly say I prefer to Godzilla. Now that's a little bit subjective. But as far as game plan and what's in there, I think that game is better than Godzilla. I don't think anything they've released has been as good as Godzilla. So it's a good barometer, right? That was the game that just came out, It just killed.
    14:40
    And from a gameplay standpoint, I think they're neck and neck. I think Jaws gets the edge because of the theme is better than the theme of Godzilla. For sure. I don't think anybody can argue that. All right. So for Spooky Pinball, this will be the game where it comes out, kills it, right? You know, some of their last really super sellout games, you know, Halloween and Rick and Morty, you know, they sold out, right? They were their best games at the time. But, you know, you can't compare the gameplay of a game like Rick and Morty to what they're cranking out with now. So, obviously, gameplay-wise, I think this is it, especially when you look at theme immersion, if you're having fun playing the game, everything that is included. The fact that the build of materials is probably more than the MSRP. Holy crap. To that end, can we talk toppers? Now, I texted the guys. I was hoping they would send me over because I haven't seen this. The game does come with a topper, but it doesn't come with the topper, right?
    15:38
    And so I'm looking at what they just sent me here. Oh, dude, is that it? Nice. Okay. So originally I was thinking that this was going to come out with a topper similar to what we saw with Turner Classic Movies. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where it's like layered, you know, with the leather face up there, and you get a big ash with a chainsaw. The one that they just sent me, though, looks just like the aftermarket upgrade topper, although it's done with layered plastics. And it looks, yeah, it looks well.
    16:08
    Of course, it's not as, like, deeply themed as the three-dimensional one. Holy crap, man, did they go hard on that. So this was fun. I'll talk about the topper here for a second. It seems like the topper is outselling the game. I think Spooky Luke was on saying that they sold, you know, back when they had sold 540 or so games, you know, or Saturday. I don't know what we're calling it.
    16:29
    But it seems like they had sold 700 of the toppers. So they actually had, at least at one point, sold more of the aftermarket toppers than they have for the actual game. And for a $1,400 upgrade, my God, man, my God. So when I walked into the room, this is the topper that was up there. And it was in a pretty aggressive attract mode. So even as we were just standing there talking, RGBs are going off and like, I think her name's Cheryl? She just starts going nuts and rattling her freaking chains. It is completely a grotesque and terrifying device to have, let alone an arcade, in your damn house, man. What the heck? Which is kind of absolutely what they were going for. So yeah, it's the two floorboards, it's the chains, and it's her face there, and RGB, and screaming, and audio, and it interacts absolutely with the gameplay, but also like the attract mode is just one of the creepiest things. Since we've had the Ghostbusters screech that would just catch people off guard, like imagine just being in your house and all of a sudden just like chains are rattling and Cheryl's down in the basement there. Like, you know, spilling the theme out into your entire house and your room. So looking at this plastic topper, it looks like it really apes the same aesthetic there, but does it in a layered plastic feel.
    17:46
    Okay, yeah, so it looks good. I'll go post this up. I'll throw it on the Patreon real quick. And then I'm sure this will make its rounds and everything. All right. So Evil Dead. It came out. I can talk about it. How's it play? Because this game sold over 500 units based off of theme and launch trailer. Because no one's played this yet. No one's been able to play this yet. So the only question is, this is what I'm hearing from people. I bought this game. I hope it shoots well. Let me assuage your fears. Shoots well. Yeah, you know, nothing was bricking. I love Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. Some of those shots are so tight that it's hard for me to enjoy them at the level that I wish I could. This one, however, I mean, even me, world's averagest pinball player, occasionally I have amazing games, most of the time I have mediocre ones. I was able to load the shotgun relatively consistently and have fun doing it. I was able to hit all the ramps, you know, when I needed to hit a shot, when I needed to start a mode, when I needed to go play in the lower play field, I was able to do that. now will I be able to hit the deadites enough times to complete the mode before I drain every time no but none of the shots were unfair the center post is there, they said they added that just to give it some better playability, it was playing a little bit rough and fierce I guess initially if you don't like the center post go ahead and remove it, that's easy I love having that ability to swap in, swap those things out because I want to tailor my gameplay experience to my own level of play So I'm getting at least close to the same enjoyment that a top-level player, you know, would have or whatnot. And call it a handicap, if you will. Man, that sling flipper. That sling flipper is so fun. So fun. I love what they did with this game.
    19:30
    All right. Did I cover all my notes there? Gameplay, Spooky's Godzilla, Franchi interview on Cary Hardy. Tonight, the guys, Spooky Luke and Corwin Emery, will be on Cary Hardy once again for a live Q&A. So now that people have already purchased the game, you know, without even playing it, without even seeing it in person, they can then ask about the purchase that they made. Other people that are on the fence, get off that fence if you want one of these because they're selling pretty quick, but we'll be able to get some more information.
    19:57
    Maybe you're in a situation where you can't just turn and burn and buy a pinball machine, like most humans on earth.
    20:04
    So maybe you have a location that this could work on, and you maybe will go want to talk to them about getting – I've heard – I mean, I'm not selling this game. This game is selling itself. But I've talked to people that have said that run locations like this is going to be the first spooky we put out there. You know, how are they holding up? You know, and talking to people that have Looney Tunes and TCM on location, they've been running fairly well. I know mine have been running well. Minor little tweaks and break-in period aside, I'm not having any, you know, game-breaking issues. There were still some ongoing code issues early on with Looney Tunes where every now and then if the game was on for 10 or 12 hours, you'd have to power cycle it. But other than that, that's kind of where we're at, and code updates are still coming out.
    20:49
    And I think I could be a testament. I bought these two games, and I have not turned and sold them yet. I've sold Jaws. I've sold X-Men. I have a Metallica coming in that's already sold, but I haven't sold my Spookies yet. I still have Scooby-Doo, and I'm looking at probably selling John Wick before Scooby-Doo, and I did sell Elvira Blood Red Kiss. So, and I just like pinball, and I look at, you know, where's my top ten that I got to keep, and then, you know, whatever's left, that's what goes out. And so far, these guys haven't left my top ten. I was playing Scooby-Doo last night. I got nearly a GC on Velma last night, even after all this time, man. Like, games are fun, and I'm not looking at getting rid of them. So if that helps, I'm not doing this to sell you. I'm not doing this to shill you. Don't buy the thing if you don't want to buy it. What I am trying to do is impress upon you that if you were curious about, is it fun to play? How does it hold up? Are these guys going to be fly by night? I want to swage those fears based on my own personal experience and that what I putting forward to you guys All right so before we move on to kind of an IAPA recap what a crazy week it been down in Florida I just want to take a minute to thank, give some shout-outs here. First off, Sal, thanks for the email and the cool information and telling me you like the show. He's probably listening to this on his commute right now. So, Sal, what's going on, buddy? Your X-Men color insert gel mod is off to you. I shipped that off yesterday, so maybe it'll get there by Thanksgiving. If not, shortly thereafter, it'll be a little Black Friday present from me to you. Scott, you've got yours coming out there, too. And then for everybody else that ordered today, they're going out by the end of the day. I'd like to thank my Patreon producers, my producer council. These are folks that have joined at the $20 a month level. They are on my producer council. We have a special Discord. We chat and talk about all kinds of girly nonsense. but this list currently includes Mr. Chris Turner, Turner Pinball, shout out Mr. Danny Tapovich, running around Virginia Beach Death Save Pinball streaming, love your work dude, and I hope you get to enjoy your X-Men build you have coming soon, my homie from the Pacific Northwest, Doug Puerta, it's always fun to hang out at a show with this guy gives warm hugs and even better handshakes, Down South Pinball, bruh, let's go hang out at Epcot again sometime, Enzo I need to meet you in the flesh. My Australian brother will hang out. And then Scott, Shane told Scott to his friends. Shane told Scott to his friends, right? But these are my road dogs that have been down for life. I really appreciate the support. I'm starting to move those funds into some more production, some more fun stuff to do. And so it just kind of makes this whole thing possible and motivational, man. I love it. To the rest of the other 60 or so people on the Patreon, thank you so much for the support. I'll drop an after show here in a bit covering kind of like a more trip report narrative about everything that went on at IAAPA which is probably one of the greatest expo show events in the world as far as I'm concerned this is my second time going alright so let's move into transition if you will into some other regular pinball news so it was at IAAPA right Stern Booth it was exactly like it was last year there's 10 games there were Venoms there was a John Wick Jaws was notably absent, probably because they sold them all. Probably because it's a game that's selling itself, and they don't need to bring to IAPA. But as far as Venom, John Wick, was Avengers there? Avengers wasn't there. Two Metallica premiums were there, and then there was two other games. No Deadpool this year. I don't know, Phil and the rest of them. Probably Foo Fighters or something. But they brought five games each for both sides. Mainly pros, with the outside... Oh, X-Men was there too. With the premium being the Metallica. Hell of a game. I can't wait to get it here, play it, make it over. It's got on my short list to probably grab and hold for a little bit longer at some point there down the road. I guess premiums are supposed to be on the line from Stern, so I'll move that to you. Somebody on my Discord, I think, just got the alert there. LEs are showing up. People are unboxing them. They're loving them. Great. I did stop by and play X-Men. I was with my friend Ryan Davies. Shout out to Ryan. Thanks for housing me during my IPA trip. but he got to play tons of games for the very first time including X-Men which I think he dug we played Metallica 2 super fun I will say X-Men Pro was shooting amazingly off of the plunger so auto launch, shooter rod the new fix was actually on this device on this machine and I got to play around with it got to talk with the Stern guys about it I got to talk with another local operator affiliated with Little Shop of Games shout out to you guys But, yeah, ball was just firing around there just like Foo Fighters does, man, just not rattling, clear through to the wire form like there was no problems at all. So this is a two-part fix. The inner lane guide that sits underneath the outline gangway plastic, a little hockey stick shape of metal that's been reshaped slightly to allow, I don't know, more conducive clearance or some such to, you know, not let the bottle cream and carom as it goes up the shooter lane. So that will preserve that inertia heading up to the back. The big thing, though, is, you know, the ball is shooting up there so fast that it's gaining some air and then gaining some rattle. And so there's now a plastic, which I thought was probably going to be one of the big fixes, and it turns out it was, to just keep the ball down. Now, rush pinball, on its inner loop, would do the same thing. There was a switch back there that the ball would sometimes careen off of that upper flipper through that inner orbit at such a velocity that it would gain air and then it would skip right over that switch. And so somebody had released a mod where it's a new plastic that goes over that whole lane just to keep the ball down so that switch is registering. So that's what we're getting here, something similar.
    26:46
    These will be shipping out. Last I heard, contact your distributor or put in a ticket, but it seems distributor is probably the way to go. Mid-December, they'll be shipping out, and then everybody that's got an X-Men can get this kit, This two-piece kit, it shouldn't be too much trouble to install, with the only question being that plastic in that back right area. But, you know, once those are in, I think that will assuage most of the launcher issues that people are having. Maybe you've got to fine-tune your auto-launch forks or something. But other than that, that looks like the fix that we're getting. I can say after playing it several times and plunging a ton, yeah, it was, like, flawless every time. So problem solved, man. Let's get on to a huge code dump, which is rumored to be coming soon. Apparently Jack Danger himself was making mention of this. No doubt he is hard at work with the team getting that code ready, putting as much cool stuff in here as possible. It's the post-launch period now for X-Men. He threw everything he could in there, talking to the guy during development. Now the game is out, that energy then transfers into code, modes, fun moments, neat things to do, extra call-outs, all that kind of stuff. And so that's kind of where the energy is focused now. they were able to rush and get this game out and now some of the aftermarket fixes are right around the corner and then with new code I think we'll finally see this game blossom towards that 1.0 and then we can really fairly judge like where's this game going to end up long term shoot's fun, shoot's incredibly fun I like the shots better than Foo Fighters there's more verticality to it more mayhem on the premium I would like to see the finger implemented again more in the new code, I feel like the last code update took away a lot of my pinball fingering. And I want to get back there to finger slinging balls around the play field and give me some more time for innuendo jokes. So, that's the news from Stern Pinball. They're cranking, right? Sounds like we're still going to get these remastered remakes. Probably one a year on top of three cornerstones. I'm happy with that. Keep it coming, man. I can't wait to see what's next. That rumor is Dungeons and Dragons. At this point, I just want to sit back and see what this game even is.
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    It would have to be something completely spectacular for me to go day one. I know that's me saying it, but I've been successfully holding to it. I've downsized a couple of games. I've got a couple more that I want to get down to a more manageable level. It's hard to have all these games out here where they're hardly getting any play. I want to reduce, like a red wine reduction, my compendium of games here to something more manageable so I can spend some more meaningful time with everything. That being said, if it's amazing, we'll probably find a way to make it happen. But this one, I just want to sit back. I want to see what they do with Dungeons & Dragons. Knowing Stern, I'm not expecting a movie license. I'm not expecting big, well-named voices. I don't think they're going to be spending $14 million for Ariana Grande to voice the Witch of the Woods or any stuff like that. Or Dwayne the Rock Johnson to be the bugbear. But I want to see. Maybe this – dude, what if this game comes out? I don't know anything about it. I don't even know if that's even what's coming out. It's just a rumor. But what if it comes out and it's like an updated Swords of Fury, right? Just sorcery and weapons and lion mans. and it's just like a quirky shooter that's something interesting, not pedestrian, not fan layout, just like let's go explore this castle, let's do some quests. What even is this game? It's unique and that's kind of what I want to see. I want a castle to destroy or invade or some such. I want weird ball locks. I want a strange dragon that I can bash around. I want to collect spells and then use the action button to change the color of the play field. I want to make up posts pop up and change, you know, in a labyrinthine kind of fashion, the ball pass and things. That's what I would like to see. And so, you know, we'll see what they bring. But I can't wait, man. I'm still anticipating probably a January for that first Cornerstone release of 2025. We'll see what it brings and, you know, what they're able to do between TSR and the Wizards of the Coast or whoever the hell owns Dungeons and Dragons now. I can't even say those words without slurring them. Dungeons and Dragons. English is hard. Moving on to Jersey Jack Pinball. They, of course, were there with their huge wall display of $100,000 stacked about eight feet tall with five screens, five machines, and some interactivity. I spent some time on the live stream that I did on Facebook Live talking to one of the software guys. So a third-party company is handling this integration. and essentially what they've done is they found a new or whatever way to connect these games to the point of sale RFID or whatever kind of credit system that a professional arcade would use, card swipe or RFID tap to pay or whatever it is, to convey credits to your account or whatever. Now this isn't new, right? Ticket dispensers have been on pinball machines before. I don't know if it's something where an operator would say, you know, if you get a certain score, you get five tickets, you get a certain score, you get eight tickets or whatever it is. You know, but there's been ticket dispensers and things before. So I wonder if this will mean, you know, there'll be specific rewards for specific, like, mode completions. I'd like to see that more than just, all right, you get 10 million points, you get 10 tokens. If you get, you know, 100 million points, you get 16. You know, it's always terrible. You know, or bear paws if you're at the Great Wolf Lodge or whatever they are. I would like to see something where if you collect songs that's worth this amount of points, like Elton John you collect the glasses you get three tickets So there kind of like as you playing there also this other meta game that going on where you not only playing for points on the machine overall you not just playing for mode completion but you're also playing for tickets and credits to go get stuff in the shop. Maybe I want to hit 10 orbits in one game and I get 100 tokens or something. Or 100 credits or bear paws or whatever the ticketing system they happen to use. I'd like to see it go there. I would like to see online connectivity. I would like to see myself register online and then I can track the games that I've played. I'd like to go around to other places that have this system and then they would all talk to each other through a central app. I would like to have a way because there are cameras with this system on the playfield. There's a playfield camera. And then the big screen up there, we've seen that successfully especially that arcade down there in Kansas where every game has a big jumbo TV on top of it with a camera there. so everybody can see the gameplay. I love that. So they're taking that idea. Not that that's a revolutionary idea, but it's nice to see it packaged. But what if there was a way that I, as just general consumer, could go down to, say, my Dave and Buster's, go up to my Elton John Platinum Edition that they own, log into it, tag my Twitch account to it, and then live stream that camera's gameplay to my Twitch account out in the wild for just anybody. So anybody could just go out and stream to my Twitch channel. I go every Friday night to the local arcade place that has one of these systems. We're going to do Guns N' Roses today. I'm going to log in, activate my Twitch, and then I can personally have my content streamed online. How fun would that be? And so I mentioned all this to the software team that I was talking to, and they said, Don, those are absolutely ideas that we've had as well, and we're working on it. And not that it's absolutely coming, but, like, it's things that they have at least thought of too. So I think the more of us that kind of give them this feedback, the more we can kind of coax them in that direction. Because that would be fun, man. That would totally level the playing field, literally, amongst anybody of being able to just kind of go out on location, pay some money, and then you could stream yourself. You could be a streamer. You don't have to have a machine. You don't have to have the fancy camera rigs. You know, I had to have the computer, all the cameras, the microphones, make sure it's all working. Are there Wi-Fi problems? Just to get stuff to stream at home. Like, you know, some of the streams that are coming out are such high quality, but the work is like nearly a Hollywood production to get all those interfaces talking to each other and set up and all this business. So what if there was just an easier way for anybody to decide, heck, you know what? I want to save this game that I'm playing so I can go home and watch it later, so I can share it with my friends or what have you, or go home and edit it and start a YouTube content channel or something. I think that would be amazing. So, Don, what does all this cost? They told me $101,000 for a five-game system, five televisions, five cameras, all the connected cables and everything, the big metal truss that holds all this thing up, which is pretty big. Well, I guess you could probably get a thinner truss that you could mount to a wall, but this thing was set up like a tripod, so it would sit about three or four feet away from the wall. Yeah, it's gargantuan. And they tell me there's a topper for it, too. They didn't have it at the show floor, but apparently they have come up with some sort of topper system for this five-bank of games. $101,000. The games that they had, and it would be whatever currently is new and available with Jersey Jackets and everything except for Avatar CE, included an Avatar Limited Edition, an Elton John Platinum Edition. Those are the two bookends. And then you had a Godfather LE, Toy Story 4 LE, and a Guns N' Roses LE. So adding that together Checking pin side prices Which have actually tipped up recently Just looking I got, what did I get? $48,400 Of pinball machines Which leaves you about $51,000 In all the accoutrement And that is where I'm having trouble Seeing where the value is Now this display is definitely impressive You know, walking up the show floor It's cool to see the pinball XP system You know in all its glory. And, you know, if you were going to go buy a couple of Godzilla VR machines, you'd probably be in around $80,000 to $100,000 anyway. So I think that's kind of what they're marketing against. They're like, look at these Godzilla VRs that everybody's buying. This takes up the space of three of those. So maybe if it costs $2.5 the cost of that, that's where we'd come up with it. But I always look at something like, what would it cost for me to do this myself? Maybe I don't get the pinball XP system, but I get five Jersey Jack games. I go get five televisions, grab myself five Vizios, throw some decent webcams up there, and I think I'm well beneath. I think I could come in around $55,000, in all honesty, to come up with a system like this myself. Now, begs a couple of questions. Will they have this capabilities pinball XP system? Is this going to roll out to just anybody that has a Jersey Jack on location? Will it roll out to homes? If it does, I see that value creeping back even more. if this includes years of service and maintenance and everything, that may be where the numbers start to meet a little bit. Now, realistically, if you're a Dave & Buster's and you've got 60 locations across the U.S. and Canada and you want to put this in 15 of your locations and you only want to pay $65,000 for each one, I think there's some room to negotiate there. And that may be where it's coming. Hey, guys, you want to go ahead and get six of these? Bring that $100,000 down to around $68,000, $99,000. What do you think? 68,999. And that's probably what's happening in all pragmatism. I could be completely wrong. I have no idea. I have no insight into this other than my own speculation of what I would do if I was a location. But I love the road that they're going down, Jersey Jack. Keep walking down there. Pinball XP. Blow it up. Give me an app. Give me streaming capabilities. And that would be an industry-defining issue and point of difference that even CERN doesn't have with Insider Connected. I can't go to an Insider connected game and live stream my gameplay experience but if i could do that on location with a jjp game even if it was just one there i think that would be super fun you don't even need the television just put the camera up there on the topper and then log into your twitch account and then boom it goes right there youtube or whatsapp or whatever your kids are streaming now i think all that could work what else is going on with app american pinball i did stop by the booth there. David Fix was in there in the flesh in very good spirits. And I witnessed it myself. I saw some operators come by, caught up in the Fix magic, and left with a Hot Wheels and a barbecue. So somebody's buying these games. These games are being sold. Don, the rumor is that every barbecue is unsold, sitting in the warehouse, and they're not even going to be able to order parts for Cuphead until those are all sold. I can tell you the word from the man himself is that, I don't know where this stuff is coming from. I've reached out to media people. They don't seem to want me to have on to clear this up. We've had no problems selling through at least the limited edition Barrios Barbecue Challenges. Apparently they have four left. Now whether the rest are sitting at distributors, I don't know. I'm sure I need to take this with heavy grains of salt. Fortunately that was available in abundance at IAPA. But Cuphead is in production now. That's why they're not having people do factory tours right now. great cover story if it is and it's plausible as well so we'll see um apparently there was a cuphead at expo behind closed doors that i did not get an invitation to so i am salty about that man i want to be the guy i want to play the new stuff um so cuphead is in existence um they're planning for a january february release now is what they're saying and it's in production they're building it they've got the parts the parts have already been ordered paid i don't know if they were paid for but apparently they're there. So that's as much as I can verify myself. That's the word that I got from them when I asked them point-blank directly, what the hell's going on? Are you guys about to liquidate? What's happening? So there we go. I got to play barbecue with my friend Ryan for the first time.
    40:56
    Now, you know, Ryan's a fan of themed entertainment, as we all are, but I'm trying to push him into pinball, you know, and get him more involved in there because I think it's super fun. Yeah, his takeaway from Barry's Barbecue Challenge was less than Rosie. and I can see why. Because you have to be a pinball connoisseur to appreciate the nuance of the Berrio's Barbecue Challenge. Berrio's Barbecue Challenge is just a legendary game. I want the white label runs to be done. Let's blow it up. Pick somebody ridiculous in the fried food industry, and let's give them their own game. Let me play Mayor of Flavortown. Let's make this happen. I don't care who it is. Gordon Ramsay version, whatever. Just spin the wheel. So pick somebody super obnoxious that we can just kind of totally blow up into a huge characterization and let's please make that happen. I don't want barbecue to die, but I would have much rather had food truck had that come out. So bonus show will be starting here pretty soon. I'm going to throw that over on the Patreon. Patreon.com slash Don's Pinball Podcast is how you get in the door there. $5 will let you in, or you can pay $5 just for listening to an episode. I don't know why anybody would do that because you get a whole month of access to everything for the same $5. but somebody did. People are paying $5 and just buying one episode. They're like, I don't want to subscribe. I just want one and I'm done. So there you go. Let's see. I've got to drop a cliffhanger teaser. I have a fairly good idea, given my own perception and insight, whether or not Goonies Pinball is coming, and if it does, who is coming from. So I'll lead off with that on the Patreon episode. We're having a ton of fun over there, guys. I didn't want to turn into someone that's like, here's half the show, the other half is behind the paywall. but there's a lot of cool people over there behind the paywall and I mean I gotta go entertain them too man it's just a fair thing to do if you enjoy the content if I made your cappuccino soaked commute a little more enjoyable float $5 through the door float $20 and get yourself a shout out now let's just start doing that alright anything else email jeffatmadpinball.com if you want to get in on an evil dead or anything else on the line you want to get some pinball XP for your 5 Dave and Busters I'm sure they'll sell them to you too I think that was Everything I needed to cover for this moment. Look for more content to come. It's pinball, man. It's super exciting.
    43:12
    Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. Email me directly. Buy some clutter inserts for X-Men. Everybody else is. $30 will ship them to your door. I got some t-shirts and stuff with more to come with some new merch drops. Hopefully soon. All kinds of exciting things are happening in pinball.
    43:27
    So let's keep it going. Anything else? I think that's about it. Email Don. Hang on to Discord, Facebook, YouTube, whatever. Cap Custom. Later.