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DPP #200 "I hit 200 before Spike 3!!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·33m 55s·analyzed·Aug 9, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Ep 200: Spike 3 coming with Star Wars; Don pitches G1 Transformers concept and advocates rental normalization.

Summary

Don's 200th episode covers rumored upcoming Stern releases (Star Wars, Walking Dead Remastered, Pokémon, Transformers, AC/DC, Fallout) and discusses Spike 3 hardware arriving with Star Wars. He pitches an ideal G1 Transformers game design combining Godzilla layout with leveling systems. Don advocates normalizing pinball rental services and seeks advice on arcade multi-cade cabinets. Pinball Brothers shares production photos of Predator machines.

Key Claims

  • Spike 3 is finally coming with the next Star Wars release

    medium confidence · George Gomez confirmed on Loser Kids Pinball Podcast that Spike 3 is now here after being rumored since Venom

  • Star Wars is rumored to be designed by John Borg, his 'return to form' after missing the original Data East Star Wars

    medium confidence · Don discusses Borg's past and current Star Wars project; characterizes as Borg's long-desired opportunity

  • Spike 3 will include wireless headphone connectivity, sound upgrades, and screen upgrades

    medium confidence · NAP listed wireless headphones in Loser Kid interview; Don heard sound and screen upgrades kicked around

  • Screen prices have come down and Stern could add larger OLED screens with Spike 3

    medium confidence · Don notes leaked images showed bigger screens earlier in year and screen real estate is available in cabinet design

  • Spike 3 price increase is likely coming with the new hardware

    medium confidence · Kerry Hardy reported likely price upgrade with jump to Spike 3

  • Pinball Brothers has 45+ Predator cabinets in production at a factory

    high confidence · Pinball Brothers posted factory photo of empty Predator cabinets with decals applied but no internal components installed

  • Community workshop effect: companies have heard themes discussed in pinball community and started production on games they weren't planning

    medium confidence · Don claims to have 'good authority' that at least one game is now in production because of community feedback

  • Expression Light packages are all interchangeable regardless of which game's branding they have

    high confidence · Don states personal experience: 'All of the expression lighting packages are all the same and interchangeable. I've put Led Zeppelin lights and Foo Fighters and other sorts of – like the light bar is the same'

Notable Quotes

  • “I heard Transformers. I heard, what was the other remaster? ACDC, and then Fallout, which I've heard video game themes banted about for a couple of years now”

    Don @ ~08:00 — Summarizes his rumor roundup of upcoming Stern titles

  • “Generation 1 kept coming back to that cartoon, fitting right into the nostalgia. And then that got my wheels turning.”

    Don @ ~15:00 — Transition to his G1 Transformers game design pitch

  • “What if we took a game with a layout and an approach to the game design similar to Godzilla, right? Arguably one of the top ten... And then what if we took what we have learned... from the leveling system that started on Venom and that we're now seeing in D&D”

    Don @ ~17:00 — Core concept of his ideal Transformers game design combining proven mechanics

  • “I have on good authority that games that have been talked about in the community... weren't actually in production, even though they were rumored... companies are coming out with American Pinball's got Masters of the Universe... And at least one of them I know of is actively in production now because of comments from the crowd and the community.”

    Don @ ~30:00 — Claims community feedback directly influences manufacturer production decisions

  • “Spike 3 is now here, it's been rumored since like Venom or something to be come out like every game... I don't even know if Spike 3 is real anymore, it's all just conjecture”

    Don @ ~38:00 — Expresses skepticism about constant Spike 3 rumors despite apparent official confirmation

  • “I think we should normalize pinball rental services because myself, like a lot of people, I couldn't afford machines for the longest time and I used to dream about renting.”

    Don @ ~60:00 — Main advocacy point for community normalization of rental model

  • “All of the expression lighting packages are all the same and interchangeable... If you want to just pick up whatever Expression Light set you can get, throw it in your game, and then just throw some Art Blades over it and call it done, you can do that, and it'll work.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyDonpersonGeorge GomezpersonJohn BorgpersonKerry HardypersonPinball BrotherscompanyStar WarsgamePokémongame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Don advocates normalizing pinball rental services; community member in Wisconsin attempted rental business and was banned from Facebook buy/sell group

    high · Don shares story of Wisconsin collector offering $300/month rentals being attacked and banned; personally knows someone now renting D&D/Guns N' Roses; calls for normalization

  • ?

    community_signal: Community discussion/feedback about rumored games can influence manufacturer production decisions even if games weren't initially planned

    medium · Don claims to have 'good authority' that at least one game now in production due to community excitement; cites American Pinball's Masters of the Universe rumor as example

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Don proposes ideal G1 Transformers game combining Godzilla layout, D&D/Venom leveling systems, Autobot/Decepticon faction system, and cartoon/comic art direction

    medium · Extended pitch meeting segment detailing mechanics, shot selections, mode design, and wizard mode progression

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Brothers producing Predator in significant volume (45+ units confirmed in factory); paying customers before shipment

    high · Factory photos posted by Pinball Brothers; Don notes customers asked to pay full price before machines ship

  • $

    market_signal: Spike 3 price increase likely coming with new hardware generation

    medium · Kerry Hardy reported likely price upgrade with jump to Spike 3; Don expresses concern ('Nobody wants that')

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.102

0:00
Are you finally ready for Spike 3? You better prepare yourself because it seems like it's coming. Recap of my rumors, production updates, and all the fun pinball stuff that's fit to rake all that muck here on episode number 200 of Don's Pinball Podcast.
0:30
Destroying lives, destroying hearts, occupying your mind and your ear holes for another 25 to 27.3 minutes. We'll see what we have to do. Hi, everybody. Don here. I like pinball. I got a podcast. 200 of these. Thank you. I wish I had a hey-o sound effect ready. I'd like to follow up on the final, well, final, the most recent episode that I did. I dumped a bunch of rumors. Now, what I was doing was just trying to reflect everything that I'd heard. First, to my Patreon subscribers, shout out to you guys. You get rumors first when you hear them. And like anything, rumors can be somewhat true at some point and not further on. But to the best of my ability, that's what I was hearing. I wanted to share. and I'm glad I did because I think it spurred some good discussion. So shout out to Kerry Hardy. He showed up there on his live stream. Check him out anywhere you find live streams streaming. But we had a discussion about these six games that ran down last time. Most strongly rumored to probably be happening are the more recent forecasted ones, Star Wars, Walking Dead Remastered, Pokemon on the Periphery there. Then things get a little foggy. I heard Transformers. I heard, what was the other remaster? ACDC, and then Fallout, which I've heard video game themes banted about for a couple of years now, so I wasn't totally taken aback by that, and I think it can kind of work. What I'll say about the strongest rumors to likely occur, the recent ones there are, probably going to happen. Sounds like we're going to get some Spike 3 issue, which finally, although it's been creeping through in a bit with this next Star Wars release, and then Walking Dead's been a persistent rumor, we've talked that to death. Pokemon we've been talking about for it seems like four years. I want to talk about Transformers, though. I did come up with in my head another idea of really how this could go amazingly well, and that's as a result of the kind of rumor just getting out there and people discussing it. Kind of took me aback. Okay, Transformers, not my number one theme I'm jumping up and down that I want to see come out. You know, I like nostalgia. I like adventure. I like leveling up. games that have already been done. When I hear Transformers Pinball, I'm thinking about that George Gomez release from a decade or so ago. Great for the time, but in modern time, do I want another one of those? Not terribly well. I didn't think I wanted another X-Men, to be honest. I didn't know that we needed another Star Wars, but I'm hyped for that. So the discussion came out, and people pretty much had the same reaction. It was like a two-stage reaction to this rumor. and the first was ah transformers i don't really think i'm really into that my money is safe wallet whatever and then it was quickly followed up by you know but if they were gonna do it i really wish it would be generation one transformers the original cartoon 1980s or like the comic book version that could be really cool i think the movies well i'm sure they've made billions of dollars uh you know weren't burning up any of our uh you know netflix lists as far as like we can't wait to re-watch these and dress up as the characters and all that business. It was total schlock for the movie theater and for the time. Generated a lot of money. Ate mad at it. We got some good theme park rides out of there. But, like, we're not screaming for more movie Transformers in our pinball machine. But the people came around and said, you know what, though? Generation 1 kept coming back to that cartoon, fitting right into the nostalgia. And then that got my wheels turning. So whether or not this rumor, I mean, how is a rumor ever inaccurate, right? The only way this rumor is going to be inaccurate is if a year from now this game didn't come out. Then we'll know it's not real. But regardless if it's actually coming to fruition in this timeline that we live on or not, it spurred some good discussion that got me thinking. So picture this. Well, let's do a pitch meeting right now about a G1 Transformers and or comic machine. All right, so we're all gathered in the conference room. Let's say it's the Stars one or the Cheetah one or whatever. I'm not fancy enough for a PowerPoint. I'm just going to go right from the hip. So what if we took a game with a layout and an approach to the game design similar to Godzilla, right? Arguably one of the top ten. Everybody likes this game for the most part. What if we took that approach to a Transformers, right? And then what if we took what we have learned, we, as if I'm working for Stern, learned from the leveling system that started on Venom and that we're now seeing in D&D, the idea that a player through Insider Connected could log in, maintain progress, save that progress, and eventually work their way through the entirety of the game. I love that approach. I don't think it's right for every game, but I love it for the fact that, like on Venom, I was able to play through that whole thing. I'm having fun times with my campaigns in D&D right now to the point that even my wife is like, don't sell that game yet. This is still really fun and there's more to come. So we dump in that code, right? And the gist of the game is you're going to have shots and layout that, while more complex than Venom, don't take a lot of liberties with new innovative things we haven't seen before. Take what worked from, say, the right ramp from Godzilla. Take some of the left shot through the pops from Iron Maiden. Take, ooh, ooh, I get it, that right orbit to ramp on Jaws feels so damn good. The wave ramp, while it is satisfying to hit it, is not the most satisfying thing overall. So I would pick and choose some of the best elements from the games that have come out over the last 20 years. Maybe some little elements in there. Even, heck, that little sneaky path that, what's her name, the cat phasing girl or whatever from X-Men. You know, that little Kitty Pryde. That Kitty Pryde shot where the ball just rolls underneath the plastic and then shows up magically downfield. That's really fun. That's worked well every time I've played with it. And you can function both ways. So take those kind of stuff, right? Things that have worked before. Maybe throw a fast lock in. Maybe not two, just one, right? And then you approach this game, and we use some D&D ideology or some Venom ideology where you can pick your Autobot that you're going to play as, and each one can have – each of the Autobots can have their own little perk or whatever that goes along with it. We saw this in Star Wars where, like, some modes were awarded or something towards the progress depending on who you picked or whatever. All right, so we got that. All right, and then you've got three inserts there. There's three Decepticons to battle, right? You've got Starscream and, I don't know, Hedge Maze and one of the other ones or something. You've beat all three of those, and here's where it'll differ from Venom. You can play these characters and do these battles and get credit for it, and then when you log in again, if you choose to continue your progress, it'll stay lit towards the ultimate wizard mode, but you still have the ability to go back and battle them again, like, just for fun. I felt that when I got locked out of those battles, like say on Venom, I fought Lasher and I had a really good ball that first time and beat him. I never got to play him again until I went all the way through the game, beat Null, and then got to restart. So having that ability to go back into those modes would be fun. This is where the Godzilla can come in, where you hit the shots, you hit the scoop to qualify a mode, and then you can choose to go back and battle again if you want to or get a better score or something or unlock some perks. right so i think that's a way to fix that business and then after you beat the three decepticons you can go up against that battle with megatron megatron right and then that could be like a real high energy lights and action battle um you know maybe it takes you a couple of tries to get through it you have to level up so it's fewer and fewer shots to get through each phase of it and then boom you're the champion of the world right interspersed with these will be you know other little bonus events and things that can happen to help flesh it out but here the thing Once you successfully complete the game all the way through on Insider Connected you logged in you beat Megatron you get to start the game again over maybe saving your level progression, but this time you can pick one of three Decepticons to play, and you battle the Autobots for supremacy, ultimately taking out Optimus Prime for total destruction and annihilation of the Earth, right? And that could be like the ultimate, ultimate wizard mode if you play that far, if you logged in and logged enough games or whatever. I think that, with the graphics from either the cartoon show, which is probably what I would lean towards, or even comic book, would really sell me on the idea that I think I need to get a damn Transformers machine. Especially if you've got cool toys in there and stuff, too, and interesting mechanisms. I think that could be pretty fun. Tell me if you're excited. I got excited about this the other day. My name is Optimus Prime, right? Get the AllSpark and all that business. was the AllSpark came from the cartoons, I believe. I don't know. I think I only watched the first couple seasons just over and over again. But anyway, that got me excited, and that led directly from the discussions about this rumor, whether or not Veracity is real.

Don @ ~50:00 — Practical aftermarket hack/tip for Expression Light compatibility across games

  • “I haven't seen, like, some robust gameplay that's not just edited in there... I'd love to see Joel get one of these things... get one of these and just kind of go through it and like how is it”

    Don @ ~85:00 — Calls for independent streamer review of Predator before community purchase commitment

    • Transformers
    game
    Walking Dead Remasteredgame
    Spike 3product
    Godzillagame
    Venomgame
    Dungeons & Dragonsgame
    Jawsgame
    Iron Maidengame
    X-Mengame
    American Pinballcompany
    Predatorgame
    NAP Arcadeperson
    Perfect Storm Gamingorganization
    Loser Kids Pinball Podcastorganization
    ?

    product_concern: Predator game code and gameplay maturity unclear; Don expresses skepticism despite optimistic assessment and requests independent streamer review

    medium · Don notes 'I don't have a way to really know that' despite 'this game may actually be pretty good'; wants Joel or streamer to independently review code maturity

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spike 3 confirmed arriving with Star Wars; phased rollout of features across subsequent releases with cabinet and software upgrades

    medium · George Gomez confirmation via Loser Kids interview; Don notes phased exhibition approach with Expression Lights 2.0 and further upgrades coming

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Six upcoming Stern games rumored: Star Wars (confirmed), Walking Dead Remastered, Pokémon, Transformers, AC/DC, Fallout

    medium · Don presents these as his heard rumors; most recent forecasted ones (Star Wars/Walking Dead/Pokémon) characterized as 'probably going to happen'; others more speculative

  • ?

    technology_signal: Expression Lights packages are fully interchangeable across all games; themeing is cosmetic-only (stickers/art blades)

    high · Don shares personal experience: 'All of the expression lighting packages are all the same and interchangeable. I've put Led Zeppelin lights and Foo Fighters... only difference is that sticker'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spike 3 introduces wireless headphone connectivity, upgraded audio system (potential external amplifier), larger screen options, and Expression Lights 2.0

    medium · NAP Arcade mentioned wireless headphones; Don heard sound/screen upgrades kicked around; leaked images showed bigger screens earlier in year

    • 9:33
    The other thing, the other reason I'm happy we got this rumor out, especially Fallout and Transformers, is because I think this is a way to publicly workshop these ideas. I have on good authority that games that have been talked about in the community, The themes we've wanted to see weren't actually in production, even though they were rumored. You know, companies are coming out with American Pinball's got Masters of the Universe, for instance. That rumor persisted for a while. Who knows if that was really true or not? But regardless of that, companies have heard us talk about these themes and get excited about them and offer interesting ideas. And at least one of them I know of is actively in production now because of comments from the crowd and the community. Like, that's amazing. So, yeah, okay, we don't know for sure whether Transformers is on schedule to be coming out a year from now in March or whatever from Stern. But maybe they've had a meeting and thought about it, depending on the feedback that they've gotten. And maybe the feedback's been grossly terrible, and now they know they won't do that. Or maybe they hear some of this talk, and they're starting to think, like, well, what could we do? And honestly, if they went with it, comic or cartoon, I wouldn't be surprised. and I think it has a chance of being something really cool if some of these new gameplay innovations of leveling up systems, saving progress, unlocking items, if that becomes more of that type of video gamification of pinball, where it makes sense. And maybe there's no plans to do Fallout, but they would like to do one of these more recent video game licenses.
    11:06
    What's that one? Not Fallout. Fortnite that all the kids are playing. Some of these other games. Call of Duty has been really big for a long time. Call of Duty has a zombies version, whatever. Assassin's Creed, these sorts of things. I'm sure they've thought about picking these, and maybe hearing some of our reaction to something like Fallout, which has role-playing game elements in it to begin with, maybe spurred some conversations or will lead to something else. So I still think there's utility in, you know, I'm not out to, like, spread rumors like, I've got it, join my Patreon to get the exclusive access. This is just what I'm hearing, and that's where I tend to dump it first. Okay, just because I'm as excited as anybody else about Rumors, man. I love hearing them. Shout out to Nap for keeping us all, you know, what do you call Nap Arcade fans? Are we nappies? I don't know. That sounds like a, that's a diaper. I don't know if I terribly like that. But let's segue into the next big game from Stern. Rumored to be Star Wars, rumored to be John Borg, his return to form. I guess he wanted to do Star Wars back in the day, but Steve Ritchie got it instead. And so now he's like, all right, I've done Star Wars before in the Data East days. I want to bring it back and do it now and we did have some confirmation courtesy of Mr. George Gomez on the Loser Kids Pinball Podcast that Spike 3 is now here, it's been rumored since like Venom or something to be come out like every game, oh Jaws is going to be the launch of Spike 3 oh well for sure Kong will be oh I bet X-Men is going to be the debut of it, whatever, whatever it's been kicking around so much that I don't even know if Spike 3 is real anymore, it's all just conjecture But apparently it's coming. Now, we've seen bits and pieces of it before. The new power supply that Stern is using, which from what I hear is not actually a new power supply, just new to them. But it's quiet, and I totally dig that. I don't have to shut machines off now if they have that power supply in there because they're, you know, whirring off like a Harrier jet behind me. But the new menu system was also an upgrade that we've seen. And now we're starting to see some little bits about what will really be coming with this. Now, of course, the new software system probably will be imperceptibly different than what we're seeing now. I'm sure it will still be a node board type distribution. But I guess I'm getting into computer terms here. But the architecture is probably better or more powerful or faster or able to run more teraflops per nanominute. I think that's a term or whatever. So maybe that will translate into us being able to use things like wireless headphones, which NAP had listed there off the Loser Kid interview. Also, sound upgrades. I've heard that kicked around, as well as screen upgrades. Now, there were some reportedly leaked images that had come out earlier in the year that showed a bigger screen. We know there's more real estate on that speaker panel to make screens a little bit bigger. Screen prices have come drastically down. So at this point, yes, give us some OLED, you know, on a 12-inch monitor anyway. You know, why not throw that in there? And then we'd have to do a little speaker reconfiguration to make that work because it would squeeze out that speaker space. But we'll see what can happen. We saw elements from Pinball Adventures. Shout out to Andrew. He brought that game to Expo two years ago, and it had kind of this vertical slit of audio because of how he sideways mounted the speakers and then had it channel through this wooden channel. It came out the slit at the top. It had this gargantuan wooden topper on top of the game. but like all through that cabinet that sound came down in that manner so i think that could be you know certainly and tag related if i was to make up a term uh you know wished into into existence uh in addition to that there's also reported to be some sound upgrades as far as not just speakers but probably an amplifier i'm thinking at this point because stern's still like the one company is not doing a dedicated amplifier and so uh they mentioned that it would be on their higher trim levels, meaning this would be another accessory you could put into your pro if you wanted. So I dig that, man, especially on location, anything to make the audio package better, more richer, more fuller. I mean, we've been putting $400 pin blaster, pin stadium. No, what the heck? Pin woofer. My God, how did I not think of that? We've been putting these $400 amplifier driven sound upgrade systems into our games here for years now. And so maybe now we'll see some of that come, especially if, shout out to Kerry Hardy, just listen to you, he's calling, or not calling for, but reporting that likely there's going to be a price upgrade with the jump to Spike 3. Nobody wants that. I hope it's not true. We'll see what happens. But if you were going to add $500 to my game, but it came with a system similar to Pinwoofer, where there's an amplifier that I could put in there and some higher fidelity speakers, I still think $500 is a lot of money for an audio upgrade package. and you can just do it yourself much cheaper. But at least you would see that there was more sizzle in that steak coming from that company. So video upgrades, audio upgrades, and then we got the new power supply, the new user interface, as well as some things like connectivity to wireless headphones potentially. Still questions on how that's supposed to work on location because if you leave the Bluetooth open and anybody connects to it, will it kick people out? Are there going to be like 20 available audio channels of Bluetooth per connection per machine? so you can just take your headphones and go from one game to the next. We'll see. I would be happy, honestly, if they just did the JJP thing and put an external volume control and an audio jack just on every game, and that would be cool. And then Bluetooth connectivity for at least the home market and things. Then you could Bluetooth into the machine and play music. It would be problematic if it was on location. You can attach to the Bluetooth and start playing music through the machine of yourself, but we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. it sounds like we're going to see some of the, like the next iteration of the spike three on the next machine if the rumors hold true but then there be further cabinet upgrades to come with subsequent releases or whatever So I still think it going to be a phased exhibition or whatever Sounds like they're also going to Expression Lights 2.0. Fantastic. Love this idea. I love the interactivity of the Expression Lights. Every game should be available to have these things put in, but every one that I've added them to, it has implemented greatly in my enjoyment. I'm sad that X-Men didn't have it. I think it could have benefited from the extra light. But while completely cumbersome, I think the Penn Stadium lights do a great job of illumination, especially when you go through the tedious task of attaching them to flashers and things. Like that flasher effect is really cool. It just sucks that you've got to remove them every time you lift the play field. The magnets get weak. They peel off. I always happen to replace my Munsters.
    17:46
    Redouble stick glue it just so it will stay up. But the effect is great. So if we can see a little bit more of that kind of fidelity from Stern to approach more of kind of the blinding light you get from Hot Rails, I'm down for that. Especially if the option to put these in will be in more games and the availability to purchase these dang things will be available. Here's a little hidden tip. All of the expression lighting packages are all the same and interchangeable. I've put Led Zeppelin lights and Foo Fighters and other sorts of – like the light bar is the same. The interface is the same. The only difference is that sticker that goes on the outside. So if you want to just pick up whatever Expression Light set you can get, throw it in your game, and then just throw some Art Blades over it and call it done, you can do that, and it'll work. So I'd like to see what they have to do with, like, more of that and in more machines because tell me Metallica's not fun to play with the full Expression Light package, man. That LE is special for a reason.
    18:46
    Oh, man. But having a lot of fun, hanging out, viewing the forums, the Facebook groups and stuff. There's a pinball buy and sell site page on Facebook. I think I'm a member of 20 different ones of them. And I love to see stuff come up and then price police them to hell because that's what we do as internet denizens. So this guy comes on there and he's from Wisconsin, fellow Wisconsinite. And he's like, hey, guys, I've got a pinball collection. And I would consider renting out some of my games for $300 a month. If anybody's in the local, I think he was near Green Bay, that upper corner of the state. You know, if anybody's local there and wouldn't mind getting a machine for $300 for the month, here's where I am. And he immediately got attacked for some reason by the people in the group, mainly because they were saying this is a buy and sell page. And how dare you, sir, come in here offering to rent as if this is a common errands rent to own scam shop, sir? and then the guy subsequently got banned from the group, a group that exists just so we could all kind of compare what machines we have available and try to reach a larger audience in a way that doesn't cost anything. And then they banned this guy for like coming up with an idea of a service. So I wanted to come out here and stake my claim that I think we should normalize pinball rental services because myself, like a lot of people, I couldn't afford machines for the longest time and I used to dream about renting. Like, man, can you imagine if I could only rent a machine? And then to find out that somebody would have, say, a home collection of games that are all in exceptionally good condition, mods, powder-coated toppers and things, and, you know, I could pay a couple hundred dollars and then just have a game in my home for a month? Are you kidding me? I would have leapt at that. I would have changed a game out every month and just did that until I got to the point where I could afford one game and then two and then 17 or whatever the heck I am at now.
    20:45
    You know, so I think we should normalize this. Now, it's a difficult business to start. Like if this was your business was I rent pinball machines, difficult, right? Fraud with potential dangers, you know. You don't want to just put these in absolute strangers' homes, right? Here's my $10,000 game. You know, please don't let your cat have babies in it, right? You know, don't let your rabbit chew through the cords. Don't let your dog pee on the legs. So in the right setting, though, I think this could be a nice little, not like side hustle, but like side service for some of us that have grown these large arcades. I myself, I've routed Halloween before when I had it, and, you know, it was fun. Of course, you know, then it breaks. You've got to go down to the place, fix it up, and then, you know, people are spilling beers on it because it's the public. So lately we have a local pinball crew in my region. We have tournaments and things. and one of the guys reached out after I put the idea out there like, hey, anybody interested in renting a game that I have for $3.50 or something a month? And then I'll come, I'll deliver it, I'll service it. You don't have to do anything except show up and play and let me know when something breaks and I'll run right over and fix it. So I've had a guy take me up on that offer who was technically a stranger, but I know who he is now. Clean home, isn't full of cockroaches, all that business. So I think for the right person, like now that we have these pinball circles, people that love tournaments, and most people aren't crazy enough to actually purchase one of these things for their home, but they'd love to have one. And so maybe you're there with a collection, you have games, you're not playing every one of them every day. So maybe make a couple hundred dollars, help your friend out. They're going to be ecstatic with it. And then maybe when that topper comes out, you can use that $300 or $600 you got from renting your game for a month or two to kind of offset that cost of just sending money to Stern. So I think we should normalize pinball rentals for the right situation. So ask around your friends group. Now, if you've got a friends group and people own machines as well, you can do the swap. Hey, I'll take my Godzilla. I'll take your Wonka for a month, even swap, no money exchange, and then we'll do it again. I think that's totally fine to do. But for those folks that are in that situation where it's like I really don't want to dive off the cliff for $10,000, but I wouldn't mind playing D&D or Guns N' Roses or something for a month at home. That's kind of a way to do it. I just want to normalize it. Just throwing it out there to normalize it. I think that should be a totally fine thing to do. Let me know what you think. Would you guys be interested?
    23:16
    If I keep this up, I am building up a cadre of games. I wouldn't mind getting some to maybe put on location someday, but I'd rather buy them used and put them in a home. What do you guys think? Don's Pinball Podcast, gmail.com. Let me know. I have another assignment for you because I have been looking for the last year or so, not full time, but I've been keeping my eye out on these giant multi-cades, arcade machines that people are building. Have you seen these? Like, you know, the big MAME cabinets, right? I know a lot of us started. I know I did with arcade one-ups. They play a couple of games. You can mod them, but they're still tiny, three-quarter size or whatever. These new machines are completely gargantuan. They're like four feet wide. They have OLED screens in them, like 60 inches or something. Suzo hat buttons that are all lit with LEDs. They have digital marquees that can change. And they're beginning completely sophisticated.
    24:12
    Cabinets with drawers for light guns already in there. And you can play like House of the Dead and Street Fighter II and Big Buck Hunter and all these games and stuff. But it's daunting. Like it's a whole world unto itself. Like, for the pinball folks, the arcade and the arcade modding community is, like, probably even bigger than we are. I mean, by YouTube channels, definitely it is. And so, like, there's so many people making these elaborate cabinets, and the prices are so high. Like, they're the $6,000 to $8,000 range. Child's play compared to pinball.
    24:43
    But, you know, I don't know enough about these things, the computing power, and the software to know, like, what's a good one, which one should I avoid. I reach out to my friends there at the Perfect Storm Gaming YouTube streaming channel. They're all into this stuff. And I ask them, and they rattle off like six names and things. Oh, you need to go with Retro King Cabinets and avoid Arcade Viper. He's trash. I'm making these up, of course. But no shade to Arcade Raptor if you're out there, Arcade Viper. But, like, I just don't know enough about them to know, like, okay. Because if I get one, which I want one, they don't take up as much space as a pinball machine. they be a nice little aperitif you know when you going from one game to the next to just jump on like some Mortal Kombat in a huge cabinet you know but But if you have one of these things what do you think of it If you do have one and you know now what you wish you knew then what is it Let me know.
    25:36
    I had a conversation with Jason from Antigrum Retro, who I guess is a newer guy out on the case, and he's making machines that he purports, and he had me convinced that it's the best thing on wheels, man. so I'm trying to learn more about these before I jump into one because I don't want to go in and find out oh man I should have gotten this version because it comes with rumble capability and a dance pad that flips out and lasers that display all across your room or something so if you have one of these multi-cades or you know enough about them to know this is the one you want, don't get this let me know, holler at me donspinballpodcast at gmail.com man we're having a good time I'm out here in the sun of Ohio I'm here because I picked up some shifts to pay for a Harry Potter machine that I no longer own, but I'm still committed to the shifts, so here I am. It's been a good time, though. I did get some good theme park content for the other podcast I'll be doing, Dawn of the Magic, here shortly. So it's been a fun summertime. How has your summer been? I feel like I've been running nonstop, and there's still so much news and pinball views that have yet to be covered. A couple little tidbits here that I picked up, courtesy of NAP Arcade and Facebook. Pinball Brothers has been posting stuff fairly frequently, which I like. And finally, we got actually a picture, one picture, I think, from the factory of games in production. So what we got was essentially 45 or so cabinets, empty cabinets of Predator. The decals are on. Do they use decals or radcals? Whatever. The Predator machines are sitting there. No guts in them, but they do exist in a factory somewhere. I don't think it was AI, so that's good. I still say and maintain that this game may actually be pretty good. It's got the opportunity to do that. The problem is I just don't have a way to really know that. They share some close-up pictures of the sculpts, especially that, like, Jungle Cruise camp that's over there on the left, and, you know, they'll show little reels and things, but I haven't seen, like, some robust gameplay that's not just edited in there. and I don't think anybody objective has received this game and like gone over it you know I'd love to see Joel get one of these things um I'd love to see you know any streamer you know get one of these and just kind of go through it and like how is it how is the code is it baked in is it mature is it still preliminary what's the hold up um I know people have ordered this game and I know people have been asked to pay full price now before the game even ships which I'm leery of I think if I had put down a deposit on one of these, I'd be second-guessing maybe throwing out the full price if I still have no idea when these things are going to come out. And then I'm glad they did share a factory photo, but it's not a factory photo of play fields being put together and tested and QC'd and light shows going and making sure the code's working. It's simply just cabinets with stickers on them, which, no offense, I'm sure I have nothing but the best intentions for Pinball Brothers, but I can build a cabinet in my garage and decal it in a week, and I don't have any knowledge pertaining to the commercial production of machines, but I've done that. So I don't know, man. I'm excited to play this game. Absolutely has got the potential to be the greatest Pinball Brothers release. I mean, honestly, I think we could already say that. It does look at least as good or better than Aliens, so that makes it their best machine to begin with. I mentioned before that I was wondering what had happened to the Alien Queen topper that was supposed to be coming out for Alien. I know Lior was designing it. We saw it at Expo two years ago, and it's largely been MIA. So I thought about it the other day and went searching around, and Flippin' Out did come up, and they did list that they have the Alien Queen topper for Alien made by Lior in stock, ready to ship. $13.95, I think, was the price, which is probably, as far as toppers go, for a fully sculpted Lior topper. That's not bad. that's not a bad price for that. So I guess they finally did come out. They were just kind of like, I didn't see anything for like a year. And so I was thinking, you know, did these just get totally canceled? But apparently they are real. Um, I don't know that we've seen any topper for predator yet. I know Jenkins was rumoring there was going to be an articulated predator on top with like a shoulder mounted laser cannon, which sounded totally awesome. I'm sure we're not going to get that, but I know that is Lior still working with them or not? Who knows? We'll wait and see. I'm not ready to sandbag Predator completely yet. I know some people have kind of just written it off as soon as Arnold wasn't out there. I'm optimistic. I think it could be fun. I'm not in a position where I'm ordering one of those, but I would like to play one soon. Hell, anywhere. I'll travel to go play it. Just let me know where I can find one. If you hear about one or you yourself may be getting one, give your boy a holler. I'll come out and I want to come play it. I'll bring some popcorn or something. I'll bring the Diet Coke. It'll be amazing. The only other tidbit I had right now is Kong's on the line. So I will say one thing. If you do want to get yourself at least on one of these interested lists, Jeff at MadPinball.com is not a bad way to go because you can get on a list there, and then when the game is released, you'll receive an email saying, hey, just to let you know, if you want one right now, you can get it, and that way you're not left out. So email Jeff at MadPinball. Hey, just ask him how he's doing. Tell him how I'm doing, and tell him what game you may be interested in without any kind of heavy pressure that's on you, just so you're in a good spot just in case you want to go on one. That's great. People like King Kong. I enjoy the game. I think I've gotten my fill of it. It'll be going out to the 1UP Lounge in Bellingham, Washington. Go check that out. I'm almost done with the topper. I can't wait to unveil it. This thing's going to be absolutely sick. I'm going to bring one to Expo, too. And just as a reminder, I am doing a – or I'm helping to facilitate the homebrew topper competition at Pinball Expo. Ayo! So what this is shaping up to be is if you are a home crafter, hell, throw some action figures in an aluminum baking pan and drape some LED lights on it and bring it over and enter this contest, man. You may win. So what is shaping up to be is that I'll be distributing tickets to people that are attending Expo on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning, and they can go over to the, hopefully, a display wall of, like, too many toppers to even count, and then you can go and drop your ticket in a bucket and vote for the one that you like the best. We'll add them all up later and then we'll give out plaque prizes to the winners. And then what I thought, to encourage competition and to encourage votes, if you get one of these tickets and there may only be like the first 500 people that pick up their registration documents get one.
    32:12
    If you enter it, then after we pick a winner, I go through and pick all of the entries that came in and somebody that voted, they might just win a play field. How about that? People love play fields. So I thought, why not to encourage the voting and, you know, wander over and check out these cool toppers. You could even win your prize just for voting for one of these things. You could win a prize for entering. That's awesome. And I think I'm going to try to hit up the industry to see what else I can squeeze out of those guys as far as either prizes or recognition or tokens or selfies or some dang thing, man. So maybe we can have, like, an industry choice winner and a people's choice winner. and then one of the peoples can get themselves a play field and then go build their own thing. How about that? I think that would be fun. If you're interested in sponsoring prizes for this giveaway, Don's Pinball Podcast, gmail.com, get at me. I'll let everybody know who donated. I'll make a big deal about it. Maybe we can sit there and keep drawing people that voted and just give away prizes Saturday afternoon at Expo. I think that would be super fun, man. I can tell you this. The homebrew area is going to be completely lit and off the chain come Expo, late October 2025. Let's wrap it up.
    33:26
    So, I mean, Transformers could work, right? I mean, Godzilla, but instead of Kaiju, it's old school Transformers? Who wouldn't want that? I'd be all over that, I think. If enough people would be interested to make it worthwhile, that's what we ought to wait and see.
    33:41
    This rumor may be false right now, but maybe we can bring it into reality. Let me know. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com or over on the Patreon. Speak it to yourself.