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DPP #202 "Let's Space Hunt! BOF and Stern news"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·31m 9s·analyzed·Aug 26, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Hexa Pinball US expansion, King Kong topper launch, Barrels Dune updates, Stern Cornerstone teaser coming September.

Summary

Don discusses Hexa Pinball's North American expansion with Space Hunt arriving at US distributors (Mad Pinball, Pinball Star, Nitro Canada) and six units coming to Pinball Expo in October at $8,500-$10,500; announces King Kong third-party topper from Electric Playground launching at $749; covers Barrels of Fun Dune updates including approved video assets enabling faster code updates, a custom Dune-themed shooter rod, and a mysterious Pinball Circus cabinet spotted in their factory livestream; reports on Merlin's Arcade location placement and Stern's next Cornerstone announcement expected mid-September with all outstanding orders fulfilled by early September.

Key Claims

  • Hexa Pinball will have six Space Hunt machines at Pinball Expo October 2025 in Chicago, available for purchase at show floor prices ($8,500 standard, $9,995 elegance)

    high confidence · Don speaking from video conference with Hexa Pinball Antoine; facts checked and confirmed on air

  • Space Hunt MSRP in US is $9,000 standard and $10,500 elegance with liftgate delivery

    high confidence · Don provided fact-check correction on air after initial estimate

  • Hexa Pinball will reveal their second game's theme at Pinball Expo 2025

    high confidence · Don reported from his video conference with Hexa sales director Antoine

  • Dune video asset approvals are now complete, enabling faster code updates moving forward

    high confidence · Kerry Hardy livestream interview with David Van Ness at Barrels of Fun offices

  • Stern's next Cornerstone teaser will drop in mid-September (around September 15th), with all outstanding orders caught up by early September

    high confidence · Email from Stern to distributors, reportedly broken by NAP Arcade

  • Electric Playground King Kong topper will launch Tuesday morning at $749 with 100 units in first batch

    high confidence · Don speaking from advance media trailer release; retail launch confirmed for 11 AM ET next day

  • Goonies was the code name for Stranger Things during Stern development

    high confidence · Don explaining Stern's code-naming practice with verifiable example; can be seen stamped on playfield edge

Notable Quotes

  • “Space Hunt, total jam. So this is part of a bigger move now for Hexa Pinball...they're finally starting to expand and get their games to the U.S.”

    Don @ early segment — Frames Hexa's US market entry as significant industry development

  • “For $7.50, I know that's well below the cost of what the official Stern Topper is going to come out as. And I don't think we're going to have screen interactivity to this level.”

    Don @ Electric Playground topper segment — Positions third-party topper as competitive alternative to official Stern offering

  • “This thing is massive. It's a girthy shooter rod, man...I think if you're playing two-player, you could probably both launch at the same time and still have room for, like, a toddler's hand in there.”

    Don @ Dune shooter rod discussion — Humorously describes oversized Dune custom shooter rod; raises practical durability concerns

  • “I wasted no time in getting a deposit down and getting on a list for Stern Goonies. They definitely want to get it if they do that.”

    Don @ Stern news segment — Shows community enthusiasm for potential Goonies license despite acknowledging Goonies was code name for Stranger Things

  • “It is now quite confirmed through email to distributors today...that the next Stern Cornerstone will happen in the later half of September.”

    Don @ Stern news conclusion — Official confirmation of next major Stern announcement timing

Entities

Hexa PinballcompanyDonpersonAntoinepersonMad PinballcompanyPinball StarcompanyNitro CanadacompanyRob BurkepersonSpace Huntgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Hexa Pinball successfully securing North American distribution through three separate distributors (Mad Pinball, Pinball Star, Nitro Canada) and planning major Expo presence with six games signals growing manufacturer viability and market readiness

    high · Confirmed through Don's direct video conference with Hexa sales director; multiple distribution channels and event commitments

  • ?

    community_signal: Don's Top Topper contest at Expo with King Kong topper as prize and playfield giveaway for attendees demonstrates continued community participation focus

    high · Multiple promotional mentions from Don; contest details confirmed (Saturday 1-2 PM, homebrew area, free entry)

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo October 2025 shaping up with multiple manufacturer reveals (Hexa's second game theme, Barrels' potential topper reveal, Don's Top Topper contest with King Kong topper as prize)

    high · Multiple confirmations from Don's reporting and direct manufacturer communication

  • ?

    leak_detection: Haunted Attractions YouTuber spotted shipping label with 'Goonies' text, triggering community speculation that Goonies might be unreleased game, though strong evidence suggests it was Stranger Things development code name

    medium · Don reported YouTuber's claim and confirmed via playfield edge markings that Goonies was code name; explained Stern's code-naming practice with verifiable examples

  • $

    market_signal: Third-party topper market becoming competitive with Electric Playground offering screen-integrated King Kong topper at $749, below expected official Stern pricing with superior interactivity

Topics

Hexa Pinball North American expansionprimarySpace Hunt game availability and pricingprimaryThird-party King Kong topper launchprimaryBarrels of Fun Dune development progressprimaryStern Cornerstone announcement timingprimaryPinball Expo October 2025 expectationssecondaryPinball Circus revival/prototypesecondaryStern code-naming practices and Easter eggsmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Don is enthusiastic about Hexa's US expansion, excited for upcoming shows, and positive about new product releases (topper, Dune updates). Some moderate skepticism about Goonies rumor but framed as entertaining speculation. No significant negativity; tone is upbeat throughout.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.093

Well, hey there summer campers, how you all doing? It's Camp Counselor Don here, organizing all the activities for you guys. Gather around the flippers and the pinholes, because I've got some pinball nonsense to talk about. We're going to raid the girls' camp across the lake here in a little bit, but first, the music. Oh, the Denise-y sounds. Episode 202 here, man. We're going to keep steamrolling right on. Thanks for hanging around for 200-plus episodes, all of you that have been there from the beginning, including that one rando that reached out to me that went back and listened to the entire collection like in a binge. Holy crap. So much to talk about. Woke up this morning with the Ohio sun glinting off the lake of the choppy waters of Lake Erie over here. And I had a great video conference with none other than Hexa Pinball, Antoine himself, the sales director that's over there. Now, Hexa Pinball, as you will remember, last year wowed us with the sudden release of Space Hunt. And it's just jam of a song. Man, I've got to drop that in here. A total pop of a song. You play Ascarius, you're battling some kind of aliens or something. The game is the Jewel of France, and that is where it's been nearly this entire time. It made a brief appearance at Pinball Expo this last year, only because Rob Burke, doing Rob things, managed to get himself one of the first builds of this game and then brought it in so we could all play it. So the game looks amazing. Uh, play was a bit mixed, mainly good. Um, and I will say, uh, I've been able to play it again now because not only has Rob Burke in Ohio got one of these machines, but you know, in the entire country, there's one additional, uh, space hunt that I know of and it's in custody of mad pinball. Jeff's got it. Uh, me and him had been talking about trying to find a way to get this game into this country. Of course, we like playing new pinball. Uh, we were held up because of the fact that it was a new company and it wasn't quite UL listed, approved through the United States electrical criteria to be a commercial product, an endorsement that you need, an endorsement that requires about five figures of investment and requires you to send a sacrificial game to be evaluated and dissected. And for a company that's just starting out with, I don't know, maybe looking to make only 100 games, is it worth taking about a fifth of your profits in order to get a game out there? So it never didn't happen. But you could import a game as a prototype, and that is what happened. So eventually, MAD found a way to do it as well, and so they've got themselves a game. So last, what was it, Friday, I think it was, Thursday night, in Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, kind of right there, we had an event over at the Arcade on Detroit, downtown there, where Space Hunt was in appearance, and we were all able to play it, get some games on the damn thing, and yeah, I mean, Space Hunt, total jam. So this is part of a bigger move now for Hexa Pinball. It's been a year or so, probably a year and a half, that they've been around. And so they're finally starting to expand and get their games to the U.S. So we'll give them one of those. So in order to service that, they're reaching out, which is great. I reached out to them pretty early on as soon as they were kind of announced that they were a thing. And to their credit, they said, Don, if you're in the area, come by. We'd love to show this off. the first place the game was playable was last summer at one of the pinball events down there in the Bordeaux region of France. So the southern part of France, just north of the Pyrenees Mountains, which forms the border with Spain, is where these guys are located. Cool part of the country. And I was actually there that summer. We were in Barcelona. And try as I might, I could not build enough of a case to tear my family away from Barcelona and the beaches for about four hours to drive over to France to go to a dusty pinball show. to go play Space Hunt. So I was outvoted, so it didn't get to happen. But I've now played Space Hunt a couple of times, and the game is fun. The main thing is that now, in addition to Mad Pinball, Joe at Pinball Star and Nitro up there in Canada are now going to be North America distributors for Hexa to bring their games out, so that is awesome. So finally there will be some access, at least, for this game. I think the game runs. It's sub $10,000, and from what it sounds like, based on my conversation that I had this morning, we're going to have more games at Expo from Hex of Themselves. I think Hex of Themselves are actually going to be on site in Chicago, in Schaumburg, in October, with what sounds like six games. And I think those games will be channeled through Mad Pinball and available for purchase from the show Floor. I heard a number floated around. I think it's $8,500. I'll fact-check that and put that back out. Okay, going to drop the fact-check right here. So the MSRP, or the total price that you would pay in the U.S., if you wanted a brand-new game delivered to you, residential liftgate dropped off in your front entryway, parkway, driveway. There's two versions. There's an elegance version that's powder-coated, and then there's a standard. So standard would be $9,000. Elegance would run you $10,500. Liftgate, new in box, to your door. However, this price is getting even better. Standard Edition from the show floor, $8,500. Elegance, $99.95. So here's the situation. This will be some of the first commercially available now games, UL listed, approved, to come over here through the U.S., through a U.S. distributor, and they'll be available at the show. So this game, looking at the gamut of everything that's available right now, it's hard to pick this over an Evil Dead or a Kong Premium or what have you. You know, it's a good game, but it's not, it doesn't have that nostalgia theme with it, whatever. But if you're one of the guys that wants to have, like, the game nobody else is going to have on the block, and it's a game that actually does play well and is fun to play, the one ramp to get up to the upper play field, a little bit tighter than I would have liked, but nonetheless, absolutely a show game. You can get one of these, and from a show floor, at a show floor price, I kind of think that's kind of awesome, if for the right person, for the right person. So I'm going to be there playing the heck out of this thing. I would love to see, you know, kind of like that location that wants to really put a stamp on themselves. Like, come out here. We have things that nobody else has. That's who I think would probably be interested in something like this. So that was the first bit of news that we got through there. The second bit is like, you know, they are reaching out to media folks and stuff to get the word out there because they're doing well enough that they're going to continue to go. And what I got away from that conversation was that not only will we see, hopefully, six space hunts from HEXA on site, but they will also be revealing the theme of their follow-up game, which timing-wise, this makes sense. I think it's been about a year and a half or so since we first even heard of HEXA was a thing. They've got that first game that every company has to make out there. And actually, it looks great, especially the play field. There's like seven layers of lamination or something they said they put on it. this feels like one of the topper end playfields, you know, not, uh, you know, when you run your hand over and feel all the inserts of like a stern or something it was more kind of like a spooky type level where it just like you know solid And it kind of had the same kind of colors there It reminded me of a Total Nuclear Annihilation kind of because like same kind of color palette. So anyway, Hexa Pinball's games will be there. It sounds like we will see the reveal of their theme, which is supposed to be licensed, coming out at Expo. So that is awesome. And not only at Expo, but they're also planning on following up at TPF as well. and we know that's about six months or so away. So maybe by then, having released a theme, we might even actually see the new game at TPF. I love it when new games come out at shows. Remember Expo a couple of years ago when we had Labyrinth was just spontaneously released right there and we got to play that for the first time? And then Elton John was right there too. A game's theme that we definitely did not want and then we played it and we got angry because JJP made us really want a game that held Elton John's theme, right, and went on to be a freaking darling and even hold on to its value clear through the first year, which was fantastic. So what a great show. I can't wait to get back to that. So it looks like TPF is setting up to be an absolute banger. Spooky's new game will be out by then. And Expo, at least we'll get to play some more Space Hut. There was just the one game there, and it was a little bit difficult to find. Now there should be more. I can't wait for Expo, dude. I'm getting so hype on it. We've got another product that's about to launch as well. King Kong, I mentioned it earlier. It's got a third-party topper coming out from the electric playground, and they're set to release that. So I'm recording this, what is it, Monday night. So Tuesday morning, tomorrow, probably by the time you're hearing this, it's already out. They're going to release this thing and drop it tomorrow morning. The price is sub-$1,000. The price is sub-$900. The price is sub-$800 for this thing. I think they're going to launch it at around $749. There will be 100 of them in the first batch. They don't have a strict limit number on it, but they got themselves a King Kong topper. For those of you who have seen electric playground toppers, they use the stacked plastics kind of motif there to make a big, you know, kind of bulky, monstrous thing for the top of your machine. The big Lebowski topper, the Pulp Fiction topper, I've had both of those. I dig them. They're heavy. They're weighty. They're interactive. And so is this one. Stacked plastics of Kong. They've kind of released the silhouette already of what it looks like. It's Kong on a building fighting airplanes, which is fine. But they also included a billboard, which has a screen in it, which will come loaded with movie poster-ish type art that's been all original, of course, that's been released. All of this is controlled by an SD card, which you can pop out and apparently put whatever video you want in it and plug it back in. So I think there's going to be about 0.3 minutes until somebody puts something inappropriate up on one of these things. But whatever you want, leave it totally open. I dig that. And I saw the trailer. It was released to media late today. I got to see it. It's impressive. For $7.50, I know that's well below the cost of what the official Stern Topper is going to come out as. And I don't think we're going to have screen interactivity to this level. So it provides you with another option. You can go ahead and get a topper now for it. at a price that's good with some interactivity that you actually have a part in controlling. It does also plug into the little Y adapter that plugs into the spinner on the bottom of the play field that will actually run a spotlight, spotlighting a silhouette of Kong back on the wall behind the game. And there's some other illumination and everything. Go check out the trailer. It should be up on YouTube right now. This thing is going live at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, just tomorrow. So, yeah, go check it out. It'll be there. I'm excited about it. Another place you'll see that, hopefully, is on my Kong so I can show it off. And then I'll be bringing it to the topper contest. Don's Top Topper is what we're calling it. It's going to be at Expo. Bring your homebrew topper and enter this contest because we're going to have prizes. And so far, the top prize for the winner is going to be this King Kong topper just given to you for making something and bringing it in and impressing the public enough to vote on it. So everybody else, you know, the people that bring a topper, you get to enter, you get prizes. But everybody else just attending the event for walking over and voting and putting your phone number on the raffle ticket when you vote will enter you in a drawing to win a play field that will draw also at the time that all the winners are announced. It's going to be Saturday afternoon between 1 and 2 p.m. Exciting. It'll be over at the homebrew area, which is like one of the hottest areas of the show to go to anyway, because the stuff over there completely, completely mind blowing. So excited about that. I'm going to keep Win Schilling it. come and enter. There's no cost to enter. Just make something. Take some toys and put them on a piece of cardboard and enter it if you want. I really don't care. And it's up to the public to judge it. Make something cool and bring it on over there. It would be best if you brought it closer to Thursday if possible or send it with a friend who will be there. I'll accept it up until voting, but voting will start when the show starts and the show floor opens on Thursday. So let's get to it. I'm excited, man. It's coming up. It's going to be awesome. Alright, what else do we got? Some barrels of fun activity today. Spontaneously showed up with Mr. Kerry Hardy, Texas' favorite content creator. I guess we can call him that. Well, Jamie Burchill will probably fight him for it, so I guess they're somewhere in there. Regardless, he made his way over to the land of the other David in pinball. I'm not talking about the Fix. I'm talking about the David Van Es. And he did a live stream interview with him. It's up on his YouTube channel, so go check that out. They talked all about, of course, Dune. They talked about future planning for it and a little bit of the development, especially code-wise. Now, that is something that's been, you know, initially harped upon release. I was brought in early, right, like for launch day for Dune. Launch day was fostered upon us before I was even there on site. Seemed a little rushed, and so did the game because the call-outs were really not there. The video assets had the temporary watermark on there not approved yet. So there was some delays getting that approval process done. But apparently, approvals have been done for the most part, so now code updates can come more quickly. Now, people have been unboxing their Dunes. They've been leaving the factory. They've been on site. I was able to play it in May in Austria. I'd like to come back and play it again here locally. But from what people are telling me that are unboxing it, they are more impressed with what code is in there, the callouts that are in there, the musics that are in there, the more modes that are in there. So it should be a more robust game now at this point. So I would like to get back in there and check it out. A couple other things while they were sitting there in the office chatting. They did show off the shooter rod, the custom-sculpted shooter rod accessory that will be coming to Dune. Still haven't released or even unveiled what the topper is going to look like, and I don't see any imminent release for that unless they're sitting on it for Expo to build up some anticipation and really have something cool to show off. I'm down for it. I've got to imagine it's some kind of animatronic worm, and if you know me like you really know me, you know the animatronic worms are one of my jams. So I can't wait to see what they do with this. I'm totally a topper guy anyway. These things are ridiculous and overpriced, and I can't get enough of them. I can't help it. So they took, I guess there's a blade in this movie series or something, and so they were able to get an official prop replica or the official specs or something from the film, and then they were able to duplicate that into a sculpted shooter rod. Now I saw this thing, and of course I'd like to use it in person, but what I saw and I didn't get great close-up high-res images of it but I saw what looked like a buck antler sticking out of this machine by about 10 inches or so it was girthy and I was a little bit intimidated I got to say And if the Ninja Turtle Katana wasn taking your hip out I think this thing might This thing just might. So my hope is they use something more than just a standard shooter rod because, like, the lever action at the end of this thing by, you know, someone's drunk hip popping into it, I'm wondering how strong that resin is. So, yikes, man. It's big. It's girthy. I think if you're playing two-player, you could probably both launch at the same time and still have room for, like, a toddler's hand in there, man. This thing was large and in charge. So, you know, exciting to see how that works. Does it need a bigger spring? This thing is massive. It's a massive, girthy shooter rod, man. So absolutely interesting there. As they were panning around the room on this publicly available live stream, they caught a glimpse of an upright cabinet device in the corner of the room. and even panned back against it and lingered on it for just a moment. And what I saw, to my highly attuned and trained eye, looked suspiciously just like a certain pinball circus, upright pinball playing game, of which I think there were two prototypes made, one of which is in a private collection, I've heard, the other of which is in non-working condition at the Pinball Museum, a Hall of Fame in Vegas, legendary status. This is a multi-level fever dream of a pinball type machine in what looks like an oversized upright arcade cabinet. And it looks like there was one. I don't know if this is one of the original ones, if this is something that they're doing. I know there was a homebrew attempt at one point. I don't know if this is associated with that or how much I can talk about it. But for some reason, there's a pinball circus in this live stream. Go check it out. It's probably about three-quarters of the way through there. So hopefully we'll hear some more about that soon. But I am definitely intrigued. I may even be intrigued into this. And, you know, from what I've played of similar games of this style, it definitely does provide you with a vertically integrated pinball experience, I guess let's just say that. It's upper play field the game, essentially, is what this thing is. So an interesting novelty. And, I mean, as far as, you know, having something new to play in pinball, I'm glad it exists. So more to come on that at some point, but I wanted to break it because it was available in this publicly viewable live stream that was done from the factory. Otherwise, a factory tour concludes there in live stream phenomenon style. So go check that out. But I wasn't expecting to see some barrels of fun gravy drippings on my face. But we got them today. And, man, that is probably – that gets my award for the girthiest shooter rod, man. My banana can't even compete with that. All right, what else we got? Little news to catch up on. I saw a post from Ulex Arcade. This is over in Monroe, Michigan, at what appears to be, you know, like if Mjolnir was forged in the heart of a dying star, this arcade is forged in the heart of a dying mall. But they got a Merlin's Arcade on the way. So Turner's getting them out, and there'll be one there in kind of south-central Michigan, not too far from the Detroit area. Again, it's nice to have these games out in public and publicly available. Say what you want about, you know, it's overpriced, it's underpriced, it needs more mechs, it's got too many mechs. At least having it available, who can complain about paying a dollar or two to get some games on something? I love it, especially if you don't have to travel all that far. So more success for the pinball community, getting to play them some Merlin's Arcade. Fun game. Fun to rip that huge spinner that's back there. And the little talking animatronics are kind of cool. I don't know which version they're getting, though, other than they just announced that it's coming. So their top-end edition has, like, that, you know, triple plastic topper, and then it does have, like, their little minimatronics that turn and talk to each other, which is kind of neat. I guess the regular version just comes with flat plastic versions of that. I don't know. If I got the game, I'd want the good one, but, yeah, we'll see what shows up. Gameplay-wise, it plays fun. I mean, all right, so gameplay continues. Yeah, it shoots fine. There's just not a ton of shots that are there or, like, interesting ball-locking physically mechanisms. I know there is a physical one where it knocks the ball off the wire form, but it kind of disappears inside a barrel. Regardless, yeah, it plays fun and fast. It's Marlins Arcade. Go check it out. It'll be on location. Cost you a dollar. Who can yell at that? Who can be mad at that? What else have we got? Some late-breaking Stern news. So last night I had this little rumor fed to me that it was the whole old trope that we get every time there's a new game coming out where, like, the rumored title is actually the code name for it, and it's going to be something completely different out of nowhere, and our expectations are going to get subverted somehow. So that's what floated to me from a good friend, but I still think the preponderance of evidence weighs heavily against this, but apparently Star Wars is just a code name for what the new game is going to be. Ridiculous. Speaking of code names and names coming out, There was also a multi-minute long video live stream last night from that Haunted Attractions guy out in October that he posted on YouTube channel that, I don't know, for some reason we all saw it last night, and then we talked about it. But this guy had himself completely, 200% convinced that Stern Pinball is coming out with Goonies, and maybe that ties into the whole mythos of Star Wars being a codename for it. So this gentleman had come across a shipping label for a part with the word Goonies in it and then took that as the flaming smoking gun that Data and the rest were all going to have their game coming out of the Stern Pinball Factory soon. Now, I wasted no time in getting a deposit down and getting on a list for Stern Goonies. They definitely want to get it if they do that. I think that theme would work. How could it not? I personally think the movie even holds up today. As an adult, I've watched it again. It takes play as filmed in Astoria, Oregon. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but that Goonies house, the house that they're fighting to save, the house that the David statue gets knocked off and his mother's favorite part gets broken and glued back on upside down, isn't that the same house from Short Circuit, right? That Johnny Five robot comes alive after getting hit with lightning and that white guy playing the Indian guy, which probably wouldn't fly today. Remember that? I think it's the same house. I had it written down to go look that up today in my myriad of other crazy things I do on the Internet. But, yeah, somebody fact-checked that for me. Is the Goonies house the Short Circuit house? Because that would totally kind of make sense. It's probably been in other movies as well, too. A dude was totally convinced because he came across that label that said Goonies, definitely from Stern, and it definitely said Goonies. I'm not arguing that. But, as most of us know, Stern comes out with codenames in development for the games that they're working on. and the reason is because you know like treehouse was x-men let's say and chewy was uh venom and uh i forget what what they used for jaws um but uh but they did use jaws as a code word for jurassic park and it's because if the team is talking about the game back and forth during this 18 months to two to two and a half years of development um they don't want to just be talking about like jaws this jaws that maybe they're going to get overheard at the coffee restaurant and then word's going to get out. So they come up with code names to talk about. So, you know, during Venom's development, it was Chewy this, Chewy that. And then it's probably as far as the conversation went, because there's really not that much else in that game. Whoa! We're on fire tonight. But, you know, talking about Jaws and then making Jurassic Park, you know. Now, it was a little bit interesting that Jaws ended up being a future theme. But in this case, Goonies was the code word for Stranger Things right Which that kind of makes sense And I think it best to pick a code name that doesn really like have anything to do with the underlying license um you know i think you know calling it waffles would probably even give it away i think waffles was another code word for another one at some point i want to i want stern to come out with just a list of like games that released in the last six years and like what their code names were because i just think it's kind of funny uh but you can look at the edge of the play field as you lift it up And it will have the code name stamped in there. So go take your Stranger Things, lift it up. You'll see Goonies right there. You'll see Chewy. Someone look at Jaws and tell me what that was. And you'll see Jaws on Jurassic Park. Kind of fun. A little Easter egg thing to find. But dude was absolutely 200% convinced. And he had the smoking gun right there. And he was late breaking it. And, you know, they may very well have the Goonies license. And that might be coming out. Heck, that might be coming out next. And they called Goonies Star Wars for some reason. I don't know. But I will tell you this. It is now quite confirmed through email to distributors today, I think this was broken on NAP Arcade, that the next Stern Cornerstone will happen in the later half of September. Everybody's been predicting basically every Friday for the last couple weeks and the next three weeks is going to be the Friday that the teaser comes out for the next Cornerstone. So if we rewind about a year from where we are now, that's when X-Men was released, right? It was September of last year, early September, and then X-Men came out, and we all got to play it. And then hot on the heels of that was the Metallica remastered game, which went off like a complete nuclear annihilation bomb. Man, that game came out and just stole all of the oxygen out of the room, the oxygen that hadn't leaked out of the throat due to Rattlegate from X-Men, and it just stole the show at Pinball Expo. Man, if you were there and you wanted to play one of the two Metallica remasters that were on the floor, either the premium or that sweet limited edition, it was sometimes an hours-long wait or more. People were getting big mad in that line, too. People were waiting hours long, and they wanted to play it, because how could you not? The game was phenomenal. I even waited in it a couple times. And, you know, you drink, and then you get there and blow it up, and it's great. So, of course, people are getting on the game after waiting an hour, and they're trying to get the most out of those three balls that are there. They're really, like, playing well and trying to make it long. and people were getting mad in line like, you know, come on, hurry up. You're not trying to go for a grand champion score here. Let's keep the line moving. And it's like I get that it sucks to wait. I get that it sucks there's only two of these games on the show floor for everybody, and it didn't show up until later, like Friday night or Saturday morning, right? So it's like if you wanted to play it, there was no way around waiting hours to play it there. But, I mean, at the same time, the dude that's blowing the game up and taking 20 minutes also waited his hour, so is he not entitled to the skill that he has? What if he's not a very good player and he just happens to be consumed by riding the lightning and taking advantage of, like, actually having a good game? I had a fantastic game on the LE version of it when it's there, much better than I typically get. And, you know, I didn't even feel that pressure, man. I didn't even have it on me. It was probably because I had a shot or two before I got there. But, like, I was, like, in the zone having such a great time on Metallica. Oh, my God. That was one of the best moments of Expo for me. I was hanging out with Don and the other guy from the Bash Pinball Podcast. Meanwhile, where are these guys at, man? Bash, I need to be bashed some more. I need some more Bastion content. So come on, guys. Come on, come on. Get it out to us. So anyway, back to this email. It comes out saying that all orders and everything scheduled to be built in the month of September will be taken care of and caught up in the first couple of weeks. So any outstanding orders for any games, whatever's on the line, should be a pinball show here pretty soon to, like, remind us of what's being built, what's on the line right now. But everything will be caught up as of the first couple weeks of September, and then they're going to, in their words, rush headlong into the Cornerstone production. So I get that to mean, I don't know, around tax time, September 15th, we're going to finally get that teaser, get that release, and find out what the next Cornerstone game is. what does this do with timing for the rest of the year? Last year we had, of course, X-Men at around this time as the cornerstone, and that's what this new cornerstone is going to fill in, that nice spot there. But then right as X-Men was getting kicked off, we had the sudden release of Metallica Remastered, which stole all of the oxygen out of X-Men at that show, man. Like, yeah, at that point we've been playing X-Men for days. There was ten of them there in Stern's credit, right? So everybody got a chance to get as much X-Men as they wanted. I love that. But, man, Metallica was the belle of that ball, let me tell you. So it seems like we'll get the Cornerstone again in Cornerstone fashion at Expo with, like, hopefully ten machines of all trim levels. Try them all out. Try before you buy. Pay before you play. Get out of my way. Let me play the game. But it looks like we won't have a remaster drop right then to suck some oxygen out. Give this new title some room to breathe. and if it is Star Wars I think this is a game that would take up all the oxygen that would be around it anyway so I think that's a cool idea which would mean that we would get that remaster coming following that probably later in the month or after Expo and then fine I'm okay with that get these games into production and then we can all order them for Christmas and we'll be sitting there with our freaking Star Wars we'll be sitting there with our freaking remaster we'll be sitting there with a receipt for our deposit from Spooky's sold-out game, and then it'll be the new year, and we'll go on into Pinball at the Beach and TPF, and then we'll start this whole cycle on over again. What do you guys think? Are you having fun in pinball? Like, I can't get enough of this, man. This is awesome. I just dropped a Patreon episode for those of you who are addicted to the content and want some more. Dropped that last night recounting my entire experience with my brand-new game, 1993's own Bally Williams Star Trek The Next Generation. is now in my grips, under my control. And I fired the game up and it didn't work. So I spent about 48 hours going through the trials and tribulations of learning how to tech a Bally Williams game from that era. And I learned like a semester's worth of information in 48 hours. So thanks to everybody that reached out to help me out. Really appreciate that, Jenga. You're a saint. If you want to hear all about that, it's over on the Patreon now. As I hear more juicy, juicy rumor tidbits, I like to drop them and drip feed them into my Patreon folks there. I always said I didn't want to pull content from the main show and put it behind the paywall. But when you're looking at 100-plus people that are over there, we've got to give them what they want. We've got to give them what they want. It works as a virtual tip jar. Patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast. If you want to check out something a little cool, check out Don's Pinball Podcast.com. Brand new. Sterling's been working his ass off putting some neat stuff over there. I don't know what its final form will be, but it looks like it's actually working for now. So go check that out. If you've ordered anything, I'm getting orders caught up here pretty soon, so we should be good. And then maybe someday there will be a little juicy website to click into and order some Don Tent directly. Be cool. Episode 202 in the books. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is how you can get at me. Follow me on the Discord, the Facebook, the YouTube. We're doing weekly live streams. Sunday was amazing. So go check that out. Be cool to yourself and each other, and I'll let you know when I hear a little bit more. I guess I could time that a little bit better. How's your mom and them? Let's go get some breakfast tomorrow. Do you like bagels? I like bagels. See ya.
Electric Playgroundcompany
Kerry Hardyperson
David Van Nessperson
Barrels of Funcompany
Dunegame
King Konggame
Merlin's Arcadegame
Pinball Circusgame
Stern Pinballcompany
Stranger Thingsgame
Pinball Expoevent
Texas Pinball Festival (TPF)event

high · Electric Playground topper launch with advance media trailer; Don's direct comparison to official Stern topper pricing

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    announcement: Stern Pinball's next Cornerstone game announcement confirmed for mid-September (~September 15th) via distributor email; all outstanding orders to be fulfilled by early September

    high · Email to distributors reportedly broken by NAP Arcade; pattern matches previous Cornerstone timing (X-Men September previous year)

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    product_strategy: Custom Dune shooter rod based on official movie prop specifications; significantly oversized design raising practical durability/strength questions

    medium · Don's description of rod dimensions and material concerns; custom topper still unannounced

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    product_strategy: Hexa Pinball planning second game reveal at October Expo with potential gameplay demonstration at Texas Pinball Festival ~6 months later shows accelerated development and market entry strategy

    high · Direct statement from Hexa sales director to Don; timeline coordinates with show schedule

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    product_concern: Dune playfield described as premium quality with seven-layer lamination comparable to Spooky-level construction; video assets now approved enabling faster code iteration

    high · Don's direct playfield observation and Kerry Hardy livestream reporting approved assets enabling faster updates

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    technology_signal: Barrels of Fun factory livestream accidentally revealed Pinball Circus multi-level upright cabinet in development/restoration, suggesting possible revival or homebrew project activity

    low · Don spotted cabinet briefly in background of Kerry Hardy livestream; uncertain whether original prototype or new build; limited confirmation available