Welcome everybody, happy Friday, welcome to Canada's Pinball Podcast. Man, that theme song just gives me goosebumps and now we're hearing the latest rumor is that Stern's next machine is going to be John Borg, Indiana Hilton Jones. Let's start this show talking about this rumor because a year ago when I put up that picture of the cornerstone, right? And I was like, these are going to be the cornerstone games from Stern Pinball. It was Foo Fighters. It was Jaws. It was James Bond. And we had Indiana Hilton Jones on there. Now I heard like a while ago that John Borg was going to go back to Indiana Hilton Jones and make a brand new game. Now, here's the thing. Do we think this is going to happen? And I hope this happens. I mean, just when we thought, you know, we were going to write Stern off and Stern doesn't have big themes and everything's going to go Jersey Jack's way. If they make Indiana Hilton Jones, how many of you out there, is this a buy it now theme? I actually think Indiana Hilton Jones is even more popular than Back to the Future. And it just doesn't have a modern game that was good. The old Bally Williams game is a classic, right? The Mark Ritchie game, absolutely a classic pinball machine. And you know, Stearns are really cheap. I don't know how Stearns could ever make a game better than that Bally Williams game. But what we haven't had in the history of Indiana Hilton Jones machines, we haven't had a game in which Harrison Ford is actually in the game itself. Remember, it's not his likeness on the Translight, and it's a DMD era game, and are we going to get a modern Indiana Hilton Jones game? And if Stern's going to make Indiana Hilton Jones, wouldn't that be the first game you use Spike 3, right? Why does Stern always do this? They use the outdated platform with a juggernaut theme, because I'm hearing that Metallica is going to be the first game on Spike 3, and if so, Indiana Hilton Jones is next. That means it's going to be on the old hardware. Remember when Stern made Ghostbusters with the DMD screen, right? And then the next game was freaking LCD. They couldn't give us Ghostbusters with the new technology. And so John Borg, Indiana Hilton Jones. Now here's the thing, which Indiana Hilton Jones movie would it be? Everybody out there wants it to be Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? Just start with that movie. Make it just that movie. Don't make it the first three movies. Just make it Raiders of the Lost Ark. And then, hey, the next game can be Temple of Doom. And then after that, make a standalone game for The Last Crusade. When you have a juggernaut property like this, and they really are three separate movies, it's not one trilogy like The Lord of the Rings. It's a separate movie. Each one has a separate storyline, has a lot of different elements that are different, and the physical things you would want in the game would be too hard to do if you try to cram it all into one game. And so if you made those three movies separately, you would sell five to six thousand of each one. Like Stern could have chopped up Star Wars and they should have. They should have made A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi as three separate machines. Now here's the part where I'm starting to get a little bit nervous. Because what game do we think is coming out, right? The rumored game is D&D, Dungeons and Dragons. Now, here's the speculation that I'm going to put out there is that D&D does not stand for Dungeons and Dragons. D&D stands for Dial of Destiny, which is the last Indiana Hilton Jones movie. And now it sort of maybe makes sense. Maybe D&D was just codename for Dial of Destiny, Indiana Hilton Jones. And I can hear everybody out there crying and cringing if that's the Indiana Hilton Jones game we get. That would be the equivalent of making just Toy Story 4. So I really hope that Stern Pinball is not going to make Dial of Destiny, but they're going to go back and make the classic Raiders of the Lost Ark. And John Borg, he made an Indiana Hilton Jones game back in the day, and it wasn't very good. So will he come back and hit us with something much more spectacular? I'm a little worried over at Stern these days because they don't really have the engineering power anymore. Their head of engineering went over to Jersey Jack Pinball for a reason, and I heard he quit because he was not happy with the stuff that was going into Jaws Pinball. And all you have to do is look down at Jaws Pinball, look at the mechs in it, and then go look at a Bally Williams game and realize Stern is nowhere near putting the engineering magic into these games. Okay, so that's Indiana Hilton Jones. Is it going to be next? The other rumor I hearing now is that Metallica which will be the first game on Spike 3 you heard it here first from Canada Spinball Podcast might still be the original design It might not be a brand new design and it might have new artwork. I really don't know what's going on with this game. I've been hearing from reliable sources that it's an all new design and maybe it's just new artwork. So we shall see. I don't think we're going to see Metallica next though. I think Metallica is, Now we're hearing that Metallica might be at the end of the year. So if you own a Metallica, do you want to see the same design with new artwork and upgrade it to Spike 3 with LCD screen? So that would mean everybody who owns a Metallica right now, you should list your game for sale today. If they're going to recycle your design but just make it better. Because now you're going to have the one that's not desirable. And it sort of makes sense that Stern would just do that. because this is a Lyman Sheets game. The original game is phenomenal. They fell out of love with Dirty Donnie, so why not let Zombie Yeti make it even better? And Zombie Yeti's artwork is better than Dirty Donnie's, and then you're going to have an all-new Metallica. Now, it's going to get interesting, right, when George Gomez said that they're not going to redo LEs. They're not going to burn the old LE owners. So how are you going to re-release Metallica, George, and not have an Ellie version if it's an all-new artistic game? If it's the same design with different artwork, is that not burning the old Ellie owners of the game? I don't think George wanted to say that. I don't think that was ever Stern's strategy. But now he's going to have to hold true to his word. And we know Stern doesn't care about misleading us. They did it with The Walking Dead, and they can do it again. They told everybody the toppers for James Bond's 60th were exclusive to the 60th anniversary of the game. And then they released them for everybody. They also told everybody they were only going to make 500 of those toppers to sell them out instantly. And now they've made like 2,000 of them. So don't really believe a thing Stern says. All right, so we shall see. A lot of exciting stuff starting to brew. A lot of exciting rumors now about what's next from Stern Pinball. And this is why I keep telling everybody. Wait and see is the best approach because if you wanted a Jaws LE, trust me, you're going to be able to get one for less than $13,000 in a few months when the code is done. There's no point to rush and buy any of these games. Jaws premiums are going to instantly go down in value. And now we might be getting Indiana Hilton Jones, a far more popular theme than freaking Jaws. And I'm just going to say this. Jaws is not Keith Elwin's greatest design. It's not that spectacular to shoot. It's okay. It's not a bad game. It's not a bad game, but there's nothing in Jaws that is a wow. And I'm sorry, but at these prices, people, every game should be a wow, and I just don't see it. So speaking of wow, let's real quickly talk about Looney Tunes. I was watching the spooky stream. Bug finally shut up and just let us hear the game, and it was a really good stream. He did almost an hour of gameplay, and I will say this. Look, I keep making jokes. If you're a grown man, how can you be into Looney Tunes? But the game looks really good. the game looks really good now does looney tunes have the wow does it have something that the game does mechanically that's a wow i don't think so it's got a good layout it looks a lot of fun but nothing in it is like oh my gosh did John Youssi that did John Youssi it jump did John Youssi it teleport did John Youssi the magnet grab the ball did John Youssi it disappear it has a magnet but nothing in it is making anybody do backflips but that being said if you're a fan of looney tunes i think you're gonna love the game and the game looks like it's a lot of fun and the code in the game looks really awesome. You really are playing through the iconic Looney Tunes episodes you remember and you love, and I think they're doing it right. It's not a mess. I love the way it's linear. You're going through the episodes, and you're going through the iconic scenes in each episode, and I think it's perfectly presented in pinball form. I would like to see more of that in Jaws. I don't feel that way when I watch a Jaws stream. It's just jumping all over the place. I don't feel like starting from the beginning of the movie and culminating in the end and killing the shark. It just doesn't feel that way at all. It's all over the place. And I don't understand why people keep making excuses for this approach to pinball. I think it's chaotic. I don't think it's the way Jaws pinball should have been made. All right. What do I know about making games? Not much. What do I know about podcasting? The world's greatest pinball podcast. You're getting Canada on a Friday for the discounted price. Most of you at $5 a month. You know, you should be paying more. You know you want to double up to $10 a month and maybe even $30 a month and join the Omikase Club. Let's go get some Omikase, people. All right, so spooky pinball, really nice Looney Tunes. I don't really care about Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but if you're a fan of that movie, knock yourself out and go buy one. I would never buy both. I think that's pretty idiotic. All right, so what's next happening in the world of pinball? So David Fix is going around and confirming for people that the next game is a BBQ game. It is a barbecue game and it's going to be Barry O. I heard it even might be single level. And I'm just going to say this right now. If David Fix thinks in this current pinball market where we know that Matrix is coming Pulp Fiction is out there We know Back to the Future is coming Harry Potter is coming Jaws is out there Indiana Hilton Jones is around the corner. If he thinks he's going to march out with a Berrio-designed barbecue game and have any sales success, he's a fool. And I don't understand how this guy is making these decisions. And you know what he's telling people? he thinks that all the barbecue restaurants in America are going to buy this. I'm telling you right now, David Fix, they are not. They are not going to buy this game. It's the same way they thought everyone who collects Hot Wheels is going to buy Hot Wheels. No, they're not. People that collect Star Wars toys are not going to just buy Star Wars pinball. It doesn't work like that. You need to make something that the pinball buying community wants. If you go into a room as a pinball company leader, and you're like, our next game, our target audience, our barbecue restaurants in America, you should be fired. You should be fired. If you think that's going to sell and you think that's what people want, you should not have a job in pinball making decisions and playing with millions of dollars of other people's money. And that's where you're investing your time and your energy. And you're making games like that. When Pulp Fiction is out, they're not going to pay for your brisket and barbecue chicken burrito game, David Fix. I don't understand. I can't wait to see this game at TPF. If it is a barbecue game, it's going to be the laughingstock of the pinball world. Trust me, that's what it's going to be. All right, speaking of laughingstock, do you know Damien was asking people in January to pay in full for Centaur? What a joke, to pay in full for a game, and then the next week he's recapitalizing. I don't understand. I know you guys don't want me to talk about haggis and i'm not you know me i think american pinball and haggis they're like overcooked barbecue stick a fork in both of them because i think they might be done in 2024 i don't see a way forward for either of these companies with all the exciting stuff happening by companies that are executing so much better with such better themes all right let's go on to chicago gaming company i'm hearing that ryan white is no longer associated with cgc I don't have total confirmation, but I heard it from a birdie that Ryan White is no longer over there. Now, are people going to miss him? I don't think so. Like, he never really did much. I mean, I've known Ryan personally, and every time we talk, we have a good conversation. But, man, as a guy that should be out there celebrating CGC and its quality and communicating as the buyers are waiting like a year and a half for their games, they do nothing. They do absolutely nothing. I do more marketing for CGC. I don't even work for them. They have no presence on social media, and they haven't built a community around their stellar products, and I'm not surprised that Ryan's no longer over there. So that's not really big news. The big news is this. What's going on with the audio in Pulp Fiction? Because I keep reading that people, when they play the game, are not happy with the call-outs in the game. The call-outs are coming across all muffled, and when you crank the volume, they sound even worse. And then we get David Thiel coming in saying this is one of the best-sounding pinball machines he's ever worked on. So who's telling the truth? Who's right and who's wrong? I'm a little bit worried that maybe David is talking about the music, but the call-outs, if they're lifted from the movie, they might be a little bit distorted-sounding. So I don't know, but this is just something to look out for. If you get a chance to play Pulp Fiction or you have one, can you please crank it up and come to my Facebook page or hit me up on the Patreon chat and let us know what the callouts sound like. This shouldn't be something where there's like uncertainty, like either they sound good or they don't, right? Who's lying? I played it at Texas Pinball Festival and I did notice that the callouts did sound like crap. I didn't want to say anything. It was a loud show. I didn't know if that's why the game was sounding so poorly, but something about it didn't sound right. When you go over like an Elton John, it sounds amazing. When you go over to Jaws, it sounds amazing. The call outs in Jaws sound incredible. And then when you play Pulp Fiction, it sounds tinny. It sounds like this metallic distorted sort of voices and it doesn't sound good. So we'll see what happens. I mean, we should have an answer on this by this weekend because the games are out in the wild. All right, what else is going on in the world of pinball? We got people stealing IP and selling dust covers for pinball machines, stealing the artwork of Christopher Franchi and Zombie Yeti and selling you $50 dust covers. It's a blanket. Oh, you know, look, I don't want to get into this because people always accuse me of stealing the Kaneda IP. I'm just going to say this, there's so much happening in the world of modding and dust covers, and I think everybody needs to sort of like simmer down in this area. Like there's way too many mods. Everyone is starting to glue tacky stuff to their games Don do it Trust me Don do it A mod should simply enhance something that the company put into the game And I understand people want to mod stuff like that. For example, in Jaws Pro, right? That Jaws is just there in the middle of the game. And people are doing mods where Jaws is breaking through a shark cage. They're just making that Jaws figure look better. People did the same thing with Godzilla. If you take like the flat plastic and you make a sign that's more sculpted and you're making that piece better, I don't have a problem with that. I think where it gets stupid is when people start gluing like stuff all over the games that weren't in the game. That does not make it a world under glass. Like this is not a diorama, people. This isn't a middle school art project. It's an expensive pinball machine. And so that's where I think people go overboard. And I see people doing it with Jaws already. They're like gluing signs and they're gluing shark towers and all this stuff all over the game. And people did the same thing with Godzilla. They started putting like electrical wires and all these things. And then you look down at the game and you're blocking half of the ball paths in the game. And I know some of you are like, Kaneda, why do you care what people do with their machines? Well, where you have been? I've spent the last 10 years of my life telling you that I care about what you do with your money and what you do with your machines. and if I were you people, I would hold on to that money and make some purchases at the end of the year. Little back to the future news for everybody. We don't talk about it too much. There's probably gonna be three versions of Back to the Future. There will be an SLE, an LE and a Standard Edition and I hear the Standard Edition is most likely going to be unlimited. So Dutch Pinball's got this juggernaut license and they will be making it for the rest of their lives in standard format. And there will be a tremendous race to get some of those 88 super limited edition games. And as I've said before, Chris Coloris, the controversial figure from Canada's Pinball Podcast, will be offering up some of those exclusive games exclusively to his club members, to his controversial club members. So you heard it here first. I'm also going to be able to get you guys in on the super rare version of Alice in Wonderland. So if you ever wondered why you were a club member to the super controversial Chris Colores from Canada's Pinball Podcast, now you know why. I feel like I'm almost like a distributor now. I'm not getting any cut. I'm not getting any kickbacks. And we're going to have some fun. And we're going to have a good sort of party with Cointaker, Barry, and Canada. It's going to be amazing. We're going to be popping bottles of Cristal when those two games come out. All right, anything else happening in the world of pinball on this Friday? We've got the Princess Bride stream tomorrow. Is this game selling? Are more people going to buy it? Now that you know about Indiana Hilton Jones, are you going to write a check for $13,750? See, Jerry made a mistake with the collector's edition. No one's buying that one. Nobody's buying it. And he should have made it a kit that you could buy if you were an original P3 owner. And it's not too late, Jerry. But here's the thing, Jerry. It's kind of embarrassing that everyone's buying the middle tier. They're buying the LE. And, you know, that doesn't make any sense. Like, you've got to make collector's editions. The creme de la creme version of your machine should be the one that everybody wants. I don't know. Maybe everybody's looking at it like, I don't know, it's not worth $1,000 more for two plastic swords and some bronzed armor. It's also ironic that Jerry is now making a dedicated cabinet for a game like the Princess Bride because that goes against his whole philosophy that the cabinets are not supposed to be permanently dedicated to any one theme. But that's the problem with the Princess Bride collector's edition. So I can't wait to see this game tomorrow. Buffalo Pinball is going to stream it. I'm not sure what time they're going to stream it, but you best believe I will be watching it tomorrow with a glass of whiskey in hand. Everybody have a great Friday. Lots of exciting stuff happening in pinball. Just when we thought there was no pinball news, here we go. And we're covering the news, people, as it happens. You know, you can't wait a week or two to do a podcast in pinball because by the time you're talking about Haggis, we already talked about Haggis, and they've already failed at recapitalizing. You know, we're on to the next. Like, that's old news. Like, we're hitting it when it happens, everybody. This is the best $5 to $10 to $30 to $100 a month you can spend in pinball. Kaneda out. © BF-WATCH TV 2021