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DPP #158 "Road to IAAPA! New Spooky soon?!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·34m 47s·analyzed·Nov 18, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

IAAPA prep: American Pinball inventory issues, JJP online leaderboards, Stern Metallica shipping, Spooky game release rumors.

Summary

Don discusses rumors and developments ahead of IAAPA 2024, covering American Pinball's inventory and Cuphead production delays, Jersey Jack's upcoming online leaderboard system, Stern's Metallica LE production, and speculation about a potential new Spooky Pinball release in November. He also reviews recent secondary market pricing and shares updates on X-Men's playfield issues and improvements.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball's parent company is holding back production investment until existing inventory (Barbecue, Galactic Tank Force, Houdini, Oktoberfest) is sold

    medium confidence · Don reports hearing from sources that the parent company is concerned about overstock and won't commit to ordering parts for Cuphead until current inventory moves

  • Cuphead is in completion phase with code being the primary blocker, not mechanical issues

    medium confidence · Don cites rumors that Cuphead is shootable and entering completion but code is holding it up; game was delayed from Expo and APA reveals

  • Jersey Jack Pinball will debut an online leaderboard/tracking system at IAAPA

    medium confidence · Don reports hearing JJP has something to show at IAAPA; speculates it's an online tracking system similar to Stern's Insider Connected

  • Metallica LE production is limited to 500 units total, likely split between export and domestic

    high confidence · Don states '500 they can build all of those in probably about two weeks' and expects only 300-350 domestic units

  • Spooky Pinball may release their game #13 in November or early December

    low confidence · NAP Arcade article mentioned new game in November; Don speculates Spooky release timing based on historical December patterns and new factory flexibility

  • X-Men has experienced playfield ball routing issues in the back orbit area that are improving with break-in and community fixes

    high confidence · Don reports personal experience with both Premium and LE units, confirms community fixes via slow-motion footage showing ball bouncing in orbit

  • Jaws is Don's frontrunner for 2024 Game of the Year over X-Men and Metallica Remastered

    high confidence · Don states 'I still think...it might actually be Jaws when all is said and done' due to no mechanical issues and consistent code delivery

Notable Quotes

  • “I look at this company kind of like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. It's like, you know, the decisions are made in there and products come out. But, like, as far as the inner workings, I have no idea how it all heads up.”

    Don @ ~5:30 — Expresses frustration with American Pinball's opacity and decision-making processes during inventory/Cuphead delays

  • “Mr. Cary Hardy, man, he put the heart in Hardy when he went hard on American Pinball on his YouTube channel. He just dropped the episode. It's 25 minutes long, just kind of filleting everything, man.”

    Don @ ~7:45 — References Carrie Hardy's critical video on American Pinball situation; indicates significant community coverage of the issue

  • “You don't want to show your game too early and then three months go by until you're finally ready for production and by then nobody cares. It's like wait to show your game until you're ready to show your game.”

    Don @ ~6:30 — Rationalizes Cuphead's delayed reveals as reasonable product strategy, though uncertainty remains about actual reasons

  • “If there's only 300, maybe 350 [domestic Metallica LEs], I don't think would surprise me here in the U.S. That's kind of something to be proud of there. I'm a lot prouder than the 1,000 Venom LEs that are still out there.”

    Don @ ~49:30 — Indicates constrained production as positive market signal; contrasts Metallica scarcity favorably with Venom oversupply

  • “If you've got your order in for an LE and, like, your deposit's paid and you're just waiting on it, yeah, it's a pretty good purchase pinball-wise. You know, none of these games are investments, of course, but, I mean, you know, if there's only 300, maybe 350.”

    Don @ ~50:15 — Cautiously suggests Metallica LE holds value due to limited production, though denies games are 'investments'

  • “The layout is the same. And the rules are essentially, you know, similar as far as, like, you know, modes and things. But the way it's all incorporated, the way it's all tied together, it's just, like, such a huge refreshing that I would consider this, yeah, I'd consider this a new game.”

    Don — Defends Metallica Remastered as substantively 'new' despite shared layout; uses Ferris wheel analogy to justify position

Entities

American PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companyStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyDonpersonCarrie HardypersonDennis Nordmanperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball's parent company withholding production investment until existing inventory clears; Cuphead delayed pending parts orders as inventory management strategy

    medium · Don reports parent company wants existing Barbecue/Galactic Tank Force/Houdini/Oktoberfest stock sold before committing to Cuphead production; inventory stash hypothesis

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball facing significant internal turmoil with Dennis Nordman dispute over game sequencing; Carrie Hardy produced 25-minute critical video

    high · Nordman revealed not under contract and wanted Yeti Zombie released before Barbecue; Carrie Hardy YouTube video labeled 'salacious' by Don; characterized as significant gossip in tight community

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don's perception of X-Men improving after initial frustration; attributes improvement to break-in, code updates, and community fixes; warming to gameplay after dismissing early

    high · Don documents sentiment shift from skepticism to optimism; credits community feedback and Stern fixes; notes personal gaming experience improving with continued play

  • ?

    competitive_signal: 2024 Game of the Year race tight between Jaws, X-Men, and Metallica Remastered; Jaws emerging as Don's favorite due to launch polish and consistent code delivery

    high · Don explicitly states 'I still think...it might actually be Jaws when all is said and done' citing no mechanical issues and strong code; positions X-Men and Metallica as close runners-up

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky Pinball game #13 potentially releasing in late November or early December contrary to expected Q1 2025 timeline; new factory flexibility enabling faster production cycles

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.104

0:00
Can you hear that? I think it's time for some podcasting. And by that specifically, I mean episode number 158 of me, Don's Pinball Podcast, and you're heading into Monday. Let's do an episode, lots of cover that's been coming out. Especially, like, are we going to be getting a new game drop in November? I can't believe people are even talking about that, Mr. Knapp.
0:30
Jason Knapp always keeping us on our toes, man. Here we are, heading into Monday, ready to get into the latter half of November, sliding into the holidays. I was at Walmart today, all the holiday music's going off. It's like, okay, is it over yet? Is it over yet? Not quite yet, but we're sliding into IAAPA, which is going to be kicking off this week down in Orlando, Florida. This is the International Amusement and Entertainment Expo, IAAPA. I always mess up that acronym. Basically, if you want to buy anything from a water slide to a bowling alley to outfit your entire arcade to Godzilla VR things to crocheted net outdoor play structure areas, whatever you need, it's going to be down there in central Orlando at the convention center. And it just so happens that I have decided to go ahead and show up on site. So that's going to be going on. We've got news and stuff about a lot of rumors and things dropping about American Pinball, man. It's like if you're American Pinball, your ears have got to be burning with everything that has dropped. We've got a little bit of Stern to talk about it. Also, rumors about a new game being released in November. There's two weeks left, man. That's like, what are you going to do, drop it on Thanksgiving? We're going to get to that. Let's start with this, though. This is kind of like what permutated across the week. What had happened was, this will be a focus on American pinball here. Our friends over there in Elk Grove Village, purveyors of barbecue, Houdini, Oktoberfest, you know them. You know them. It's kind of like, I look at this company kind of like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. It's like, you know, the decisions are made in there and products come out. But, like, as far as the inner workings, I have no idea how it all heads up. So what had happened, and this is on the heels of the Dennis Nordman reveal that came out on Pinside a few weeks ago, saying that, you know, contrary to the popular opinion dispensed by the company, he's actually not under contract. He wanted UConn Yeti to be the next game that came out. It got shelved in terms of deferred for barbecue for, I'm guessing, reasons, and then it was clear in the air. So there's a lot of confusion circulating about the company. And then, what hits Pinside, but another rant from, I don't know, some insider, saying that, hold up, Cuphead is having some trouble, having some difficulty on launch, apparently. From what I have heard from, I don't know if I call them sources or just, like, rumors in the wind, is that Cuphead is, you know, a shootable game, essentially, you know, entering that completion phase, but it's code and things that are holding it up. Game was going to be revealed at Expo, but it wasn't. Game was going to be revealed at APA, but not. and it was due to we really want to make a good showing and have the code up where it needs to be. So that was okay. I would buy that as an excuse. You don't want to show your game too early and then three months go by until you're finally ready for production and by then nobody cares. It's like wait to show your game until you're ready to show your game. So I was just like everybody else kind of waiting for that. What should happen? But now we're getting stories that it is some turmoil brewing. Okay, essentially, the parent company of American Pinball holds the money to put things into production. And essentially, they're looking around at a lot of unsold inventory, and they don't want to go ahead and put down payments on ordering parts and all these other things until said inventory, which is already in stock, is sold and out of the way. You know, they don't want to, you know, add all these barbecues and all these galactic tank forces sitting around on these Hot Wheels and all these Houdinis, and then all of a sudden you've got a bunch of cup heads and nothing's going anywhere, and the factory's all full and there's no room to walk around or whatever and it's all madness. Now, I'm hearing a lot of other things now from the fallout from this. If you want to get a good recap about the gist of what's going on, Mr. Cary Hardy, man, he put the heart in Hardy when he went hard on American Pinball on his YouTube channel. He just dropped the episode. It's 25 minutes long, just kind of filleting everything, man. And if it is true, it is some salacious stuff that's going on, man. and who doesn't love a lot of, I was going to say, pinball's gossip, girl, but I don't want to put that on Carrie. Regardless, it's quite thrilling, quite thrilling to soak all that in. From what I'm hearing from other people as a reaction to that is like, it's not quite the whole story. I myself have no idea. I'm munching popcorn in two hands watching this. I have no clue what's going to happen. But is it the case that American Pinball's new game is going to be held up until they can sell a ton of barbecues. I don't know what's going to happen. But that's the turmoil that's percolating there. So what I have been hearing, and again, none of this is concrete or anything, all whispers in the wind, right, is that they're going to have a showing at IAAPA. They're going to be there for sure. I did double-check this. So last year I was at the IAAPA Expo. It's not strictly a pinball or amusement game event. I mean, it's a huge event. I mean, it's the size of seven Costcos, like just massive. and the pinball was just a component of the overall arcade area, which was maybe 15% to 20% of the entire venue. So smashed down there against a wall was Portable American Pinball. They did have a showing there. One of their sales guys was there. I don't know if it's somebody that's still with the company or just happened to be there. Not somebody that I've seen recently when I've been over there. But they had a Galactic Tank Force of Alhalla, and I think an Oktoberfest, and they were just kind of up against the wall, and I'm like, oh, man, you guys coming off the heels of Expo where you have one of the largest booths there to go to just this little showing against the wall.
@ ~43:20

  • “I did cruise through Pinside, the marketplace...I was expecting to see just like bleeding deals everywhere...But I'm kind of not seeing too many of those.”

    Don @ ~54:45 — Reports secondary market NOT showing expected inventory dumps despite market downturn rumors; questions whether doom-and-gloom narrative is accurate

  • “Are people taking like jewels in their crown and just like putting them out there...Magic Girl, $40,000. Like, people are plucking jewels out of their crowns here.”

    Don @ ~58:30 — Expresses skepticism about secondary market pricing strategy; notes collectors listing games at unexpectedly high prices

  • “In a world where companies are pushing back their releases and pushing back their releases, looking at CGC, looking at American Pinball, it's refreshing [to see Spooky potentially releasing].”

    Don @ ~63:45 — Frames on-time/early releases as exceptional in current market climate marked by delays

  • “The games are breaking in. The code keeps getting better. I'm still very optimistic about this game being kind of awesome.”

    Don @ ~47:30 — Indicates X-Men improving through normal gameplay wear and code updates, reversing early skepticism

    • NAP Arcade
    company
    Raymond Davidsonperson
    Loser Kid Pinball Podcastorganization
    Metallica Remasteredgame
    X-Men: The Tyrant's Eyegame
    Jaws 50th Anniversarygame
    Cupheadgame
    Avatargame
    Insider Connectedproduct
    Barbecuegame
    IAAPA Expo 2024event
    Pinside Marketplaceplatform

    low · NAP Arcade article mentioned November release possibility; Don speculates Spooky's new factory allows departure from traditional December shutdown/January retool pattern

  • ?

    event_signal: IAAPA 2024 in Orlando will feature showcases from American Pinball, Jersey Jack, and Stern with potential new game reveals and inventory clearing sales

    high · Don confirmed attending in person; reports JJP has 'something to show'; Stern bringing Metallica/X-Men; JJP clearing inventory via $2,500 MSRP discounts on select titles

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market pricing defies downturn expectations; high-priced listings (Magic Girl $40k, various $10-12k games) suggest no major inventory dump occurring despite rumors

    medium · Don surveyed Pinside Marketplace and found fewer bleeding deals than expected; notes 60 games listed in one day but at relatively firm/high prices; questions whether market downturn is real

  • ?

    product_strategy: Cuphead delayed from Expo and APA reveals; scheduled for production but held pending inventory clearance and code completion

    medium · Don notes game was 'going to be revealed at Expo, but it wasn't. Game was going to be revealed at APA, but not' due to code readiness and inventory concerns

  • ?

    product_strategy: Metallica Remastered code updates revealing and fixing bugs from original 1990s code; improvements to insert flashing and other mechanical elements

    high · Raymond Davidson interview on Loser Kid Pinball; uncovered old bugs while adding new layers to Lyman's original code; fixes to inserts that weren't flashing correctly

  • ?

    product_concern: X-Men experiencing back orbit ball routing issues requiring break-in, community fixes, and continued Stern adjustments; improving over time but not launch-ready

    high · Don documents personal experience with both Premium and LE units; reports 80% consistency on LE vs. continuing issues on Premium; community slow-motion footage analysis of ball bouncing

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack Pinball developing online leaderboard/tracking system as stepping stone toward fuller Insider Connected-style integration across their catalog

    medium · Don reports hearing JJP will debut online tracking at IAAPA; speculates it's preliminary to more sophisticated Insider Connected competitor; not yet full achievement/integration system

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Metallica LE constrained to 500 units total with likely 300-350 domestic allocation; deliberate scarcity strategy contrasting with Venom oversupply

    high · Don states production limit and expresses pride in constraint vs. 1,000 Venom LEs still on market; interprets limited supply as positive purchase signal

    • 6:09
    I don't know. I guess they want to make a bigger showing this year. Fine. Fantastic. I want to see them there. But are they going to have something to show off? I heard that there will be something that's there. What is it going to be? I don't know. Is it going to be another round of discounts for some of their in-stock inventory? They wouldn't be the only company teasing that. JJP is teasing that more about that in a bit.
    6:29
    But what is it that they're going to have to show off there? if it's not Cuphead. So I don't know. The demographics of the people that attend the show are completely flipped from what you see in a TPF or a pinball expo in Chicago, where it's 95% just amusement enthusiast folks and a little bit, the other remaining would be industry. This is completely flipped. This is 95% industry people. They're buying games, buying machines for their hotel chains, their casinos, their water parks, whatever. And so because of that, there's not like tons of lines and things at the IAAPA. But if you were going to be there, really, instead of just showing off like, here's our games, let's just have a celebration and do T-shirt cannons and things, these are people that want to see like what's hot, what's coming out over the next year, what can I purchase now and have in six months all throughout the country. Like that's what they want. And so you would want to debut a new item. If you missed Expo and for the fan community, at least you'd bring it out for the industry and show them what you got. So we'll see what kind of showing they have. I'll be there in person because I can't wait to see what's actually going on. I mean, are we going to see a Cuphead? Probably not, but could we? Okay, I guess. I don't know, man. Honestly, I have no idea. But I can't wait to be there. Who will also be there with something to show. That's not a new game, but I've got a little bit more solid on this. It's Jersey Jack Pinball, of course. They'll be there showing off Avatar, their brand new game, the CE, which still hasn't left the factory yet. I was told it was supposed to be November. hasn't been yet. I've been teasing them. They've been teasing back to me. Though we don't have any hard confirmation. Maybe they're waiting for their little glass screens for the toppers. There's probably something holding it up. I would think sometime in the next three weeks I'll get the call to go down and pick up the game. But apparently they're going to be there showing off a new piece of tech. And this is their online component. Now it's no secret that Jersey Jack is looking at Insider Connected with probably rosy, jealous eyes and is wanting something similar for their system. For their whole gamut of games. I kind of do too because I like to get achievements. I like to track my scores. Online leaderboards are fun. I want it all, and I'm sure they want it all, and they want to bring that to me so we can play more of their machines and stuff So I guess they going to have something to show off there And it won be quite insider level but I think what they going to have is some sort of online leaderboard system something that when you play your games, you don't just take a picture of the screen and copy the QR code and then tweet your scores out into the Etherverse, but maybe have some sort of, I don't know if it will be the functionality of an app, but at least some kind of online tracking system. So you can go on there, log in, and say, oh, here's the games that I've played. Here was my scores. those things can be kind of fun, right? It's always better to have the instant feedback of the achievement type system where you get the bleep notification. But failing that, it is fun to have some sort of online tracker. I myself am a bit of a completionist when it comes to playing things or doing things or pursuing experiences. So one of my early goals in pinball was I wanted to play every Jersey Jack machine, right? So I was able to do that. The hardest one to get, of course, was Pirates of the Caribbean because there just weren't that many produced, let alone the ones that were produced are locked into people's basements, bolted to the floors. So trying to find one on location, a little dicey. I did find one at a bowling alley outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That's the one I played. And like, of all the places to find this game, like a nondescript bowling alley, and then it was in the bar of the bowling alley, like in the 21 and up over area, and then it's kind of hidden in the back where like a couple of games, and one of them, for some reason, was like this $25,000 at the time in Jersey Jack Pirates of the Caribbean just being hammered away on location. Like, what an ever-loving crap. Like, you would not expect to find that there. Shout out to Pinball Map. Thanks for pointing me towards the way. You know, but I was able to complete my set there. Of note, there's one in Central Florida as well. It's in a large arcade that's near the Pinball Lounge, but not quite that one. But it's in Ovioto in that area if you're looking for one on location. Otherwise, there's just not a ton of them. Game's super fun. But it was fun for me to track them all down. And so if I had an online system where I could go and see, okay, which game am I missing or, like, which version of game? Like, because it would be fun to just say that you played, you know, every Stern Spike 2, pro premium LEs, special editions, SLEs, and all that, and, like, have a way to track it. I do the same thing with roller coasters, theme parks, countries, girlfriends, all sorts of things and nonsense like that. So I think that would be fun. It's a great place to start and at least start troubleshooting, you know, and make sure the bugs are worked out for an online leaderboard system. moving towards that interconnectability that we want to see. I don't know what they'll call it, Jersey Jacks umbilical to the pinball sphere. Who knows what they'll call it? But, you know, obviously, you know, it's a competition in the space that is wholly owned, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stern Pinball right now. So it would be fun to see that. So I'm excited to go back there. Hopefully they have, you know, kind of the same size square footage on the show floor. It was super fun there last time because it was right after Elton John was released and lines were half hour plus at Expo. And then when you went down there, since it was all industry people, you could just walk right up and play Elton John for an hour if you wanted. It was great. It was fantastic. I want to do that again. IAPA is super cool. What else are we going to see there? They'll probably have all of their games. They'll be selling them. They had at least one version of each of their games there last time, except for Wizard of Oz I don't think was there. But according to the Napster from Nap Arcade, Guns N' Roses, Toy Story 4, and Godfather will all be there at a fairly steep discount I'm guessing this is going to be the limited edition not the top end collector's edition but $2,500 off of the MSRP which would bring those $12,000 games down to $9,500 is that right? that's a heck of a discount so I wonder if there's some inventory stashed somewhere notably absent was Elton John a game that people still can't seem to get enough of but as far as like TS4 that game's going for I mean I've seen it for 8 like kind of all over the place I've been seeing collector's editions for 10 a few sub 10 and that's a $15,000 game Godfather I've kind of been seeing that same thing Guns and Roses man yikes I think so okay if you were going to pay $2,500 off of MSRP and you were location I think Toy Story 4 would be the one to get to go-to, if anything. Although, I think you could just go over to Pinside and save yourself another $1,000, but maybe they'll cut you a volume discount deal or something. Anyway, I'm hoping that they're clearing out inventory for their next game to follow up with Avatar, which may be the big heavy hitter, the Harry Potter.
    13:08
    That's what we're looking forward to for Jersey Jack Pinball at IAAPA. I'm going to be there. Can't wait. It's going to be fun. I'm going to be scarfing down some Dippin' Dots, having a great time. Stern Pinball was there last year as well. What the heck was their new game there. It was a couple of games ago. I can't even think of it. I think it was actually Venom. It's been a year since Venom. Speaking of which, Venom accessories, still no hide or hair of those. Godzilla black and white accessories dropped.
    13:34
    They're just what we expected, so I don't know. Go get them if you want to get them. I've been seeing some Godzilla 70s. There's one new in box for $8,600 on Pinside right now. There are some Pinside deals out there. Stern, of course, hopefully will be showing off. Metallica, that's their newest release. So X-Men and Metallica probably going to own the show there. We'll see if they're moving any more units for them. I don't know if they'll have an LE down there though. They'll probably just have the the... what the heck does... oh god, I'm trying to keep all these terms straight in my head.
    14:08
    Premium. Premium edition. Metallica is probably what's going to be there. And all that is to say that that... I did happen to catch the Friday Live from Stern pinball and they are having the car having man words are really hard for me tonight you guys you gotta give me a slight break here uh but the le's are on the line they're being made i'm assuming uh because this tends to be the the trend is that the export additions are built first um so the le's have got 500 they can build all of those in probably about two weeks by now as of this recording november 17th and late in the evening they're probably already done with them well it's sunday so probably nobody's there but by monday morning uh probably they have been finished. So last week is probably when the exports went out, and so we should start seeing domestic shipping. This week is what I would expect, and then the first run of premiums will be now. They still haven't announced exactly when the second run of premiums will be, but with the heat of this game, man, I think this is a game that will probably be on the line for, I don't know, five years from now, man. We're going to see Metallicas everywhere. It's not Godzilla, but man, is it a better game than the original Metallica was. of note shout out want to shout the loser kids pinball podcast with friends out in utah there they had raymond davidson coder for metallica remastered head coder this time like his first head coding role and they went to it seemed like an hour conversation of all the nuance of metallica remastered things that i didn't even pick up on you know playing the game at a couple locations already by now so if you want to listen to just i mean it's right and it's loser kids like it's It's ear gravy, man. How could you not? But if you want to hear what the nuance and the differences are in the Metallica Remastered versus the OG one, that's a great podcast episode to listen to. It was fun hearing how he went into, you know, Lyman's code and kind of added some extra layers onto it. Actually uncovered some old bugs that have been in that code since it was made. You know, things like, you know, inserts that were supposed to flash certain colors or weren't even flashing at all. He went ahead and, you know, put in his new updated code and then found these bugs. Like, where did they come from? Turns out they were still in the old code from way back when and were just never sorted out. So it was cool to listen because you see the Metallica remastered. You know what's Spike 2. You know it's got the LCD screen. It's got the expression lights. It's got the UV ink in there. Mechanisms have been fine-tuned, you know, because they're, like, third or fourth generation now. But it was cool hearing, like, what happened with the code, you know, and how does this game play, like, as a new game. So I'm super excited even more about this game than I was previous to it. And, you know, people are saying, you know, this is not a new game, Don. This is still from Metallica. It's still the same layout. It's like, well, yes, the layout is the same. And the rules are essentially, you know, similar as far as, like, you know, modes and things. But the way it's all incorporated, the way it's all tied together, it's just, like, such a huge refreshing that I would consider this, yeah, I'd consider this a new game. So, you know, Ferris Rules have been around for 300 years. but there's newer ones you know newer ones that are a little bit faster a little more efficient uh use materials better maybe they don't capture the same old school feel as the other ones but they do have other things to offer and while it is technically the similar ride i wouldn say it the same ride and that how i feel about this ride down the lightning so let me know what you think I do have a premium build that I putting together right now Tonight I actually cranked out a shooter rod that I excited about Can't wait to show that off. I did put a little snippet on the YouTube channel. If you want to go check that out, Don's Pinball Podcast. I'm always just making stuff and having a good time with it. Speaking of having a good time with it, X-Men update, how's it shooting? So shooting fine, about the same as before. people are still looking into the little flap that's in the back, the little metal for the takeoff ramp, for the plastic ramp for the back of the orbit where the ball seems to bounce around in. Some of my folks out in Washington have been taking some slow-mo footage of the actual back of the orbit back there and they see how the ball is careening slightly hitting one wall then the other, losing some energy and so there's probably a way to buffer that with some sort of ball guide, ball rail adjustment. I will say on my games now. I've got a premium and I've got an LE. And the LE I've got shooting fairly consistently. I'm like 80% with the shooter rod and the auto launch of coming around as it should. And I'm getting there with the premium. So I will say if you've just unboxed one of these things, get down there and grind some games through it. Because now that I've had the games for a couple of weeks and I've put some more games through there, they are starting to break in a little bit. And I am starting to get less rejects. I'm getting the games dialed in more. So they are playing much better now. Even the premium, it was still a little stiff out of the box. Now it's starting to break in. Maybe I'm able to get those shots on either side of the Sentinel. Actually, I think a little better on my premium than my LEs. I need to go back to the LE and kind of readjust things again. Re-level, fix tilt, or tilt angle. God, words. Words are difficult. But we're going to get there. We're going to get there with it. So games are fun, shooting well, getting decorated right now, so still having some fun with X-Men. I'm kind of warming back up to it now. You know, initially this game kind of blew my socks off with everything that was in there, you know, all of the shots. It was a far cry from a Venom as far as like everything being in the back third of the play field and like the middle third and the bottom third just didn't have anything in there. Now I'm starting to appreciate more and more of what's in X-Men. I'm kind of coming back to it. That middle period about a week or so ago when I was kind of settling into like some of the ball rejects, getting frustrated with the shooter rod and stuff. Now that it's starting to work itself out, we've got some community fixes in there. Stern's working on some fixes. The games are breaking in now. They're getting a little bit older, and I've adjusted ball guides where they needed to be. The game's shooting a heck of a lot better now. Even where I'm able to get now consistent shots to the left side of that Sentinel head, which was one of the most frustrating parts about it when I first got the game with all the rejects and things. So game's breaking in. The code keeps getting better. I'm still very optimistic about this game being kind of awesome. But when it comes down to game of the year for this year, looking back now that we're in November, I still think, you know, all things considered, everything that came out, you know, we got Looney Tunes, we got TCM, Ninja Eclipses, and then Mix Somewhere, Barbecue. We love Barbecue. I think it might actually be Jaws when all is said and done, just because, like, there was no problem with any ball guides, with any launches. It was a little murky around the reel shooting up into it. Sometimes you have to fine-tune that a bit. But, like, for a game that came out with just tons of code and just keeps delivering, I don't think you can really compete with Jaws at this point. So that'll be fun. Moving back to Metallica, the first LEs off the line should be going international. They haven't released any numbers, but we got 500 total. I don't know what the breakdown is between exports and domestic. Is it 200, 300? You know, like 200 are going international, and then there's only going to be 300 domestic, man, I will say this. If you've got your order in for an LE and, like, your deposit's paid and you're just waiting on it, yeah, it's a pretty good purchase pinball-wise. You know, none of these games are investments, of course, but, I mean, you know, if there's only 300, maybe 350, I don't think would surprise me here in the U.S. That's kind of something to be proud of there. I'm a lot prouder than the 1,000 Venom LEs that are still out there. So I've been hearing from people that they've been seeing a lot of people kind of dumping games right now, which I don't think is a complete surprise, you know, given the kind of downturn of the market and everything. But people say, no, no, like people are dumping like entire arcades worth of games right now. And I'm like, man, are people just like packing up and moving? Like what's going on? So I did cruise through Pinside, the marketplace. I'm actually popped over there right now. And I was expecting to see just like bleeding deals everywhere, like, you know, Toy Story 4, 6,200 or best offer for the CE. But I'm kind of not seeing too many of those. is a Congo for $6,500. Just went up there. That's a cool game. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, LE, $9,200 or best offer. That's not like a killer deal.
    22:15
    Loaded Foo Fighters LE for $10,250. Again, not like a killer deal. Maybe it's got the topper. Royal Rumble, $4,100. Okay. Big Lebowski. Okay. Early Achiever Edition, number 146, one hour ago. Bend, Oregon. Now I would expect with all the doom and gloom that I've been hearing that this would be going for like $10,500. He's got listed at $12,800.
    22:37
    Firm. Firm even. This guy. What the hell is Dragon Fist? And why is it $11,000? Really nice Demolition Man, $3,600. So, you know, going through here, here's a Godzilla new in box, 70th anniversary, $8,900. Firm. And, you know, that's okay. This guy's probably a dealer. But, like, here's a Rick and Morty Bloodsucker with the Jerry Ramp mod. Guy listed it for $10,000. Like, I would expect $9,200 right now for something like this, if it was as gloomy as oh queen rhapsody edition 7800 can you believe okay who's this guy who's this guy right here stranger things limited edition 17 500 did something happen with the whole entire economy in the last 48 hours like i would not expect to be seeing things like that are you kidding me godzilla premium with mods nine thousand dollars that's more than what i sold mine for and that was like three months ago what the heck is going on here's one for 9800 so i'm not seeing these like bleeding deals that people are talking about kiss limited edition with pin stadiums even oh factory topper 16 975 what is happening are people taking like jewels in their crown and just like putting them out there um and these are all posted today so i mean there is a lot on the market here but i'm not seeing a lot of the market for like low prices here's some joker in Oakland, California. I kid, I kid. Magic Girl, $40,000.
    24:04
    Like, people are plucking jewels out of their crowns here. New in box John Wick LE. $11,990 or best offer. That is not the price that I would expect this thing to be selling for anytime soon for a John Wick new in box. New in box means not broken in. New in box means not dippled play field. New in box means no mods at all. Well, this is going to have Art Blades in it because it's LE. Okay, so it comes fairly loaded for $12,000 or best offer. I don't know. I would expect like $10,500 if it was just like strictly vanilla new in box. I don't know. Am I misreading the market? What's going on? Now, this is everything in the last day. Maybe if I went to the full market and took a look or I wish I could step back globally and see like how many games like are being listed for sale right now. This whole day or this whole first page here is all everything in the last day. So, yeah, 23 hours ago, and there's 60 games listed there on the front page of the Pinside Marketplace. So I guess maybe that is happening. What else is happening? Oh, let's go back to the NAP Arcade article that spurred me on to get on and start recording. It's talking about new game in November, which is where we are, which is not at all what I was expecting. I wasn't planning on seeing anything, anything until at least the last week of December. and that was going to be Spooky Pinball's number 13 because I think they're looking on the market, they're getting their game ready for release, and they're looking at their period. That's when they dropped Scooby-Doo. That's when they did their last two. It was in that December period so that they can shut down the factory, send everybody out for the holidays, retool, and then show up January 1 or January 2 and just go to work on the new game.
    25:50
    I don't think that's quite how they work anymore given that they have this new factory, this new line where they can kind of jump around with games on the line and just kind of go to wherever the most demand is and then that what goes on there So I don think it going to be a complete shutdown of the factory retool everything and then go back I think it just a matter of spooling production up going through and making sure everybody knows where to solder what QC to run when, and getting the play fields in and make sure they're off-gassed.
    26:18
    But, you know, NAPA is saying, like, maybe, like, November, it could be Spooky 13 released. What the heck? There's only two weeks left in November, of which, well, we have, let's see, We have next week, and then this year Thanksgiving takes place, that final week of November. So next week is IHAPA. So I guess they would want to release then because you wouldn't want to release your game like over Thanksgiving, would you? I would wait until at least Black Friday. So I guess we'll see. I haven't heard any rumblings out of Benton about them getting ready to launch just yet. I was thinking it was going to be December, like late December. But then I did hear some whispers back that you better move that game, that date up. So in a world where companies are pushing back their releases and pushing back their releases, looking at CGC, looking at American Pinball, it's refreshing to see a company that's like, no, we actually may be moving this up and getting this out even earlier. I can't wait to see what they got going. I've got some space and some room set aside, as crowded as it is down here, for Spooky 13. I can't wait to get my hands on it play it see what other people think about it talk about it I can't wait to talk about the reveal and all this is going on with it and apparently according to that it's coming sooner than I was thinking so get ready man get ready it's going to be fun alright what else we got I talked about Jersey Jack I did my shout outs we talked about the Pinside deals I think that's kind of about it go check out the Ray Day episode with Loser Kid all about Metallica it was really cool sitting and listening to that. In the car, I was on a long drive, and so it really was fun just to sit there and listen to all the nuance, how he went into the code, how he approached it, how the team works together, and how this really feels like, while it says remastered, it's kind of just completely redone, which I guess is what remastered even means. What else we got? Pinball Nerds Podcast. Orville Albert's been putting out a lot of content. Got two killer shows that came out recently. I'm going to have a hopeful opportunity to guest star on there as I did record my own 5 Rad and 1 Bad to a game that I played at Expo, sent it over there hopefully he'll hit that in the next show we'll see what happens with that We Are Pinball is another podcast that I started with my friend Genghis I wanted to have a format where it was more of a dialogue not just all the thoughts from the head of Don but also somebody who's objective in relation to me And not only that, but not just not in my region of the country, but not even on my continent, right? He's over in Europe. He's plugged in with his European market. I'm a home owner. I have routed a game before, but that's not like chiefly what I do. He very much, him and his brother, do route all over Copenhagen and Denmark. So like his perspective is just so much different than mine. So it's fun to compare notes, you know, talk about markets, see what works over there, what works over here. Super fun. So we've done over a dozen episodes now, and we launched a Patreon because when we finish recording, and sometimes an episode is an hour long, we'll sit there and still talk about other things that we're hearing, stuff that's going on, and more like just kind of like an after party. And I'm thinking, we're having so much fun with this. What are we going to do with this, right? So we started recording it, and we've got two episodes now behind that $5 Patreon wall. so if you're digging we are pinball which like legitimately people are because I get emails back like we love what you're doing so we're going to keep doing that new show will be coming here pretty soon from us from there but I have been taking like some of those conversations we've been having and sticking it behind the paywall so there's fun stuff back there it gives you a chance to support independent pinball media and also just to listen to more stuff during your commute it's all over there we're going to keep putting fun stuff over there so check it out just give my own self a shout out But shout out Genghis, too, because he puts in a lot of hard work with that. So that's kind of where we are right now. Sunday afternoon into the evening in pinball. X-Men, I'm warming back up to it. It was really hot on it initially, and then we had a little low, and we're like, how's this going to go? And now things are slowly getting worked out. Oh, I do have a new modification I did. I'll just talk about this for a second. So the little matrix in the middle of the field, the matrix of inserts on X-Men is not too dissimilar from what we saw with Avengers Infinity Quest. Essentially, there's three, six, seven, eight, eight inserts with two more for the to-come wizard modes right there in the middle on Charles Xavier's computer screen. Everything is just white, right? There's an LED board underneath, and it just lights all the inserts up white. As you finish the modes, boom, you get a little white light there. It's fine. It's fine. But then I saw people taking color gel inserts and putting them underneath the game in there to add different colors to each one of those. And I have to say, I was intrigued. And I haven't messed around with changing my insert colors or anything before. So, since I like to monkey around, I went and got myself some color gel inserts, carefully cut them out, masking taped them to the bottom of the play field, stuck the LED board back up there. And then, yeah, I was like, this is actually really super cool. I posted before and afters on the Facebook page for Don's Football Podcast. You can go check that out. But I thought, you know what? let me make a more definitive way to do this, you know, because these games, these aren't my personal games, right? The LE and the premium X-Men that I have, these are custom builds that are going to customers, right? I got the premium promised and deposit is in on that. I have the LED still available. But I was thinking I got to have more of a permanent fix here. So I 3D printed a bracket to hold these things, put it in there, and then it was so much easier to just slot it in, screw it in under the LED board, and, like, now it's there. and I thought, let's make this available to the masses because I have friends that I show this stuff off, especially on the Discord, and people are like, yeah, send that to me, man. So I went ahead and printed up some extra ones. So what I have is one gel cart cartridge, 3D printed, already ready to go. You unscrew four bolts or screws in the play field for the LED board underneath the game. Pull it back just enough to slide this in. Screw it back in place and you're done. Now, if you want to go and order color gel inserts from Amazon, you know, and then cut them out and masking tape them to the bottom of your play field and screw everything back in. You could totally do that and that's totally fine. People are selling pre-cut kits where you can just get a bunch of little plastic squares and go and tape them in if you want. But if you want a card that's 3D printed that already has everything in it and all you have to do is undo the screws, put it in, screw it down, I have them available. Email me at donsmobilepodcast at gmail.com to get one. $30 shipped in the U.S. to you. Plus, like, stickers and stuff, I always throw in extra stuff. Maybe I find a start button or something I'll throw in there too. So at the, at the risk of earning the ire of the entire pinball modding community, um, I made something fun and I'm making it available if you want it. You know, if you want to go the other route and, you know, cut out, uh, the gel insert yourself and order them from Amazon and then find somewhere to store these things, I'll help you out and I'll show you how I did it. If you want to do it that way, that's totally fine. But it is like a cool upgrade. Like, you know, I don't know if I would really necessarily mess around with changing the color of a single insert, but because it's so focal right there in the middle of the play field, you know, just looking I had, you know, I put it on the LE and then the premium next to it and it's like looking like side by side. It does add a whole lot just having that extra color in there, you know, just it's fun just watching the colors light up and then, you know, as you're going through picking modes, you know, the color insert is lighting up and going around the circle too. It's just kind of fun and I really dig it. So check out the photo. I put it up on the Don's Pinball Podcast Facebook page. You don't have to Google around. You can probably find it. But if you want one, just email me, man. We'll hook it up. Maybe you want some other little accessory or fun little thing that I made or a T-shirt or something. We can combine them. We'll combine shipping. No problem. We'll get you decked out with all the latest fun stuff. And that email address, once again, donspinballpodcast at gmail.com.
    34:22
    I can't wait for IAPA. This is going to be so much fun. I'm going to American Pinball first. I'm going to see, like, well, okay. I'm going to go to the Dippin' Dots first because I want to try the new new. But then we're going to be going over and I want to maybe Cuphead will be there. How amazingly crazy would that be? I'm going to record an after show for the Patreon here with a little bit more on kind of what I talked about a little bit at the top of the episode. So check that out. Shout out to everybody. Later.