Episode 25: Jurassic Park Review and another Top 5

TL;DR

Poor Man's Pinball reviews Jurassic Park with positive impressions across art, shots, animations, and rules.

Summary

Key Claims

• Jurassic Park playfield art is excellent but cabinet/backglass art is mediocre; should use just the logo like Nike/Apple/Domino's

  high confidence · Jon (host) on cabinet art quality; compares to iconic brand logos

• Jurassic Park has 11-12 shots on the playfield and is 'packed' with content

  high confidence · Drew discussing shot count and layout complexity

• Jurassic Park is primarily designed as a home game, not location/operator game

  high confidence · Jon stating opinion based on shot depth and exploration value

• Keith Elwin (designer) achieved 500 million points on T-Rex multiball alone with maxed difficulty at Garcade location

  high confidence · Drew referencing Keith Elwin's Facebook post about challenge-of-the-week multiball score

• Stern has significantly improved animation quality in recent three games (Shaq Attaq, Deadpool, Jurassic Park)

  high confidence · Jon and Drew discussing animation progression across recent Stern releases

• Jurassic Park movie clips were unavailable or prohibitively expensive for pinball licensing

  medium confidence · Jon speculation: 'either A, unattainable, or B, just super expensive' and Drew confirming 'It's always B'

• Alice Cooper (Spooky game) has no bumpers, which is unusual and noteworthy

  high confidence · Jon observation after playing Alice Cooper; asks listeners to confirm other bump-less games

• Harry Williams System 11 games from pre-1987 lack fuses on rectifiers and are fire hazards; Williams added fuses after 1987 fire incident

  high confidence · Drew explaining fireproofing/bulletproofing early System 11 machines like Jokers (1988)

• Jurassic Park shot difficulty is high enough to frustrate new/casual players after a few games

  medium confidence · Jon and Drew debating whether newbies would find certain shots too challenging; Jon got frustrated and 'bricked' frequently

Notable Quotes

• “You can remove all the words on that, and then you just show the logo. Boom. Yes. You know it's Domino's. You know it's Nike. You know it's Sherwin-Williams. Yes. Here, you know, we have Jurassic Park. Everyone knows that logo, dude. Just go with the logo. That's all I'm saying.”

  Jon @ ~20:00 — Core critique of Jurassic Park cabinet art design philosophy; using recognizable branding analogy

• “I think he was at perfection and then he added another shot or something you know but that's my own personal [preference]”

  Jon @ ~45:00 — Design philosophy critique suggesting over-design; implies Keith Elwin may have added one shot too many

• “Every shot's makeable. Yeah, for fucking Keith Elwin. I know. You designed it, bro. And you are Keith Elwin.”

  Jon and Drew (exchange) @ ~50:00 — Humorous commentary on designer vs casual player skill gap; implies Elwin's test standards exceed typical players

• “Keith Elwin needs to hire me. Some schlub to play the games. He's going to be like Jon Hey, why don't you try to make that shot. See if it's makeable. Yep. Doink. Nope, we got to rework that one.”

  Jon @ ~51:00 — Suggests Keith Elwin (Stern designer) may not adequately playtest difficulty curve with average players

• “This is definitely one of those that I would, yeah, it's a bring-me-home game.”

  Jon @ ~75:00 — High praise for home collector appeal; indicates strong personal purchasing intent

• “I thought Stern did a great job with this game. I think this is one of the first games from Stern in a few years...this is definitely one of those that I would...bring home. Two thumbs up.”

  Jon @ ~75:00 — Qualified positive assessment suggesting Jurassic Park represents quality improvement over recent Stern output

• “Because I'm fucking Keith Elwin. Every time you get Grand Champion.”

  Jon (proposal) @ ~62:00 — Humorous suggestion for Easter egg in Stern games; commentary on Elwin's skill level vs game difficulty

Entities

Signals

• ?

  community_signal: Keith Elwin publishing T-Rex multiball challenge on Facebook as community engagement/challenge-of-week content; indicates designer participation in social media community activities

  high · Drew: 'Did you see that Keith Elwin Facebook post about that multi-ball he had or whatever, and it was like the challenge of the week?...he had like 500 million points just on that multi-ball.'

• ~

  sentiment_shift: Pinside forum community demonstrates gatekeeping and judgmental behavior toward legitimate machine customization; hosts experience pushback for cosmetic LED modifications

  high · Jon: 'And that's about it for some of that toxic stuff on Pinside. You know, people get all up in your business and you're like, well, it's my game. I can do what I want...And so I learned about the machine while you're doing it...Relax, you purists out there.'

• ?

  product_concern: Jurassic Park shot complexity potentially excludes casual/new players after initial games; difficulty curve may create negative learning experience for arcade location play

  medium · Jon: 'for somebody who never plays pinball or plays very little pinball, you would probably walk up...However, after game five, they're going to be like, oh, fuck me. I don't know what the hell I'm doing.'

• ?

  design_philosophy: Designer playtest standards and actual player difficulty mismatch; Keith Elwin achieving 500M on T-Rex multiball demonstrates skill gap between designer and typical players

  high · Jon and Drew exchange: 'Every shot's makeable. Yeah, for fucking Keith Elwin. I know. You designed it, bro.' Keith Elwin achieved 500M on multiball alone while Jon struggled with shot execution.

• ?