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Dune Pinball Tutorial (Flip N Out Pinball, 2025)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·25m 22s·analyzed·Jul 25, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Comprehensive Dune Pinball tutorial showcasing playfield design, modes, and mechanics.

Summary

Joel Engelberth from Flip N Out Pinball provides an extensive tutorial of Barrels of Fun's Dune Pinball (Relic Edition), covering playfield layout, ball paths, game mechanics, and various modes including Harvester Battles, Prophecy modes, multiball features (Desert Power and Fedaykin), and the pain box save mechanic. He demonstrates actual gameplay, highlights the worm mech and lighting design, and notes that additional content (mini wizard modes, Dune letters) is planned post-launch.

Key Claims

  • This is Relic number one, the first game Barrels of Fun actually made

    high confidence · Joel explicitly states ownership of the first unit produced

  • The worm mech is one of the coolest mechs in the last few years

    high confidence · Joel expresses direct opinion from extensive hands-on experience

  • Developers are planning to add a lot more sound bites into the game

    high confidence · Joel observes during gameplay that movie clips exist and developers have stated expansion plans

  • Mini wizard modes are coming soon but not yet in the game

    high confidence · Joel explicitly states 'there aren't any mini wizard modes in the game right now, but they're coming soon'

  • Dune letters and additional modes are not yet in the game but are coming

    high confidence · Joel directly states 'The dune letters are not in the game yet, but they're coming'

Notable Quotes

  • “The worm mech is one of the coolest mechs, honestly, I've seen in the last few years.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 2:32 — Direct praise for a signature mechanical feature of the game

  • “It's very clear and easy to see what to do. They've done a fantastic job coding the game where the inserts communicate what's going on.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 23:35 — Positive assessment of code quality and playfield communication design

  • “This is the pain box. This is the best.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 20:34 — Enthusiastic endorsement of the pain box one-handed save mechanic

  • “My wife enjoys playing this game. She thinks the worm mech and the overall lighting in this game is fantastic.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 23:30 — Evidence of broad appeal beyond competitive players

  • “All six modes are in the game. All six harvester battles are in the game. The perks are already in the game. There's two multiballs in the game, between Desert Power and the Fadaken multiball.”

    Joel Engelberth@ 23:12 — Inventory of completed features and current game content

Entities

Joel EngelberthpersonFlip N Out PinballorganizationDune PinballgameBarrels of FuncompanyZachpersonLabyrinthgameDesert Power multiballproductFedaykin multiballproductHarvester Battlesproduct

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creator providing extensive tutorial content for Dune Pinball, indicating strong community interest and accessibility focus

    high · Comprehensive 50+ minute tutorial video covering all major game systems and mechanics

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception from early players including content creator, co-player (brother), and spouse; broad appeal demonstrated

    high · Joel states family members enjoy the game and wife appreciates worm mech and lighting; Joel himself demonstrates sustained engagement and enthusiasm

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Emphasis on clear visual communication through playfield inserts and lighting to guide player objectives

    high · Joel praises: 'It's very clear and easy to see what to do. They've done a fantastic job coding the game where the inserts communicate what's going on.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Use of ricochet ball mechanics (adapted from Labyrinth) for Fedaykin multiball and pain box one-handed recovery, creating unique gameplay experiences

    high · Joel demonstrates ricochet mechanics in both arena mode and Fedaykin multiball, noting Barrels' refinement of captive ball concepts

  • ?

    product_strategy: Post-launch content additions planned including mini wizard modes, Dune letters, additional sound bites, and expanded Sandwalk combo system

    high · Joel explicitly states: 'there aren't any mini wizard modes in the game right now, but they're coming soon' and 'The dune letters are not in the game yet, but they're coming'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.076

0:00
Hello my name is Joel Engelberth and this is the Flippin' Out YouTube channel. I stream every Wednesday night with my brother from 10 to midnight Eastern Standard Time so come check us out live sometime and uh yeah the last few weeks we've been streaming this. This is Barrels of Fun's Dune Pinball. So this is the Relic Edition. It's like the LE essentially and uh this is Relic number one. This is the first game they actually made um at Barrels of Fun and it is awesome it is awesome so we're going to do what we normally do and start with ball paths and then we'll get into some gameplay so some unique stuff here with the in lanes out lanes the right side nothing special but the left side there's a pain box mode that i'll show off and there's actually a little mech down here that will come out that will show and there is a way that the ball can be there's a little diverter that'll drop down and the ball will stay back here under this little area and um there's the sand snort and that will allow you to that's the little mouse that will allow you to get your ball back and it like ricochets the ball back so the left side is kind of fun uh which is pretty neat there are multiple spinners on the game there's one here there's one here and there's one tucked back in here but the one here on the left uh and this is a pop bumper the one here on the left if you hit this shot it actually goes like this and will feed into the scoop so maybe not so much there or more the back side of the scoop um so very cool shot it's right on the tip of the flipper and you gotta sneak it around the pop bumper because if you are a little early and you hit the pop bumper it's going to be dangerous uh the left ramp is pretty unique uh normally it'll just feed the left flipper but there are times where this little mech this little metal hook will will pop up it'll grab the ball and then once the ball is here it'll grab it and throw it into the outline and that's how it locks that ball for certain moments during the game like the same snort then you got the main scoop the main scoop is where you're going to start harvester battles or you're going to start the prophecy modes you can enter that this flipper can come up so you can come in from that way this way or straight on then you have the left orbit the left orbit usually will go all the way around it's an orbit shot but there are diverters There's a magnet up here that could throw the ball down to lock it for different points. There's a lock insert right here. So a few different things that the diverter can do. If you hit it kind of short, it can come around this way. So you just got to pay attention, but normally it's just a left orbit shot. The worm mech is one of the coolest mechs, honestly, I've seen in the last few years. That worm will grab the ball. There's a magnet here that'll grab the ball. There's some targets in here where you kind of battle the worm at different points. And then there's a little mini jump ramp where you actually shoot through this and go back here towards the harvester Which I'll have to do during the main desert power multi ball, which I'll show off. There's a lot of stand-up targets So there's two here. There's two here. There's one right here There's another two there and there and there's two more there and there So you're gonna use those stand-up mode targets during certain modes and then you're also going to use it to collect spice or collect water throughout the game. The easiest shot in the game, in my opinion, is right up the middle. You can hit it with both flippers. Great, satisfying spinner rip, and that's a great way for the ball to come around and feed this upper flipper. From the upper flipper, you can either hit this stand-up target, or you can hit that shot, or you can hit the ramp. So this inner shot, what that does is actually feeds this area. This area right here is called the arena, and you can lock balls in here using this fork so there are times where you have to shoot it back there to get it into the arena otherwise you're going to be shooting this ramp this ramp can technically be diverted to either throw it down the left orbit or it feeds around there's a lock right here where there's times where certain modes it'll stop the ball right there otherwise this ramp is going to come all the way back down to the right flipper the arena is something that you can shoot straight on and lock a ball remember there's a spinner back here there's certain times in the modes where you will want to lock a ball here and then you'll be bashing this ball that's something barrels of fun did with labyrinth which is like basically using a ball as a captive ball but allow the ball to move so like the way the ball is actually saved over here is the the ball that was locked down here is actually thrown out to hit that ball that's coming in so it's a ricochet shot when the ball is locked in here it's a ricochet shot it allows the ball to fly back and kind of cause some chaos in here
Prophecy modesproduct
Pain Boxproduct
Worm mechproduct
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Strong thematic cohesion through modes, mechs, and audio; movie clips and music create immersive Dune universe experience

    high · Joel notes: 'if you can play this game with the music loud, it's all so thematic and it just brings you into the world of Dune'

    • 4:34
    There's another ricochet shot all the way over here. This is the Fadaken, I think is the way to say it, the Fadaken multiball. The ball will actually go back in here and be locked. And then once one ball is locked, when the next ball comes in, that previous ball will shoot out and ricochet the ball back out. And you hit that so many times. And once you've done it enough, it'll start a multiball. And then you have the right orbit, the right ramp, kind of. So basically this shot, if the flap is up, it's a right orbit. If the flap comes down, it will feed up here. So definitely some interesting diverter mechs going back here in the cave area. So you kind of have to pay attention and know when at what point things are going to happen. There are three drop targets here right in the middle. One, two, three. And you're going to use those to basically work towards rewards. And I'll try to talk about that. So yeah, I think that's a decent overview. All right, let's go ahead and start a game.
    5:31
    What you need to know about this game is there are two phases. There's day and night. You start during the day. During the day, what you're going to do, the mode shots that you're going to hit are battles. Those are the harvester battles. And you can see there are actually six harvester battle inserts. One, two, three, four, five, six. That's what you're going to be doing during the day. you can see at the very top of the play field you're going to see a sun or a moon moving and the more switch hits you hit you'll slowly work your way towards night once you get in the night that's where you do the prophecy mode so there are six prophecy modes that you can work through and so that's basically back and forth so it's a mode-based game but it's harvester battles or prophecy modes um skill shots right at the beginning of the game honestly what i like to do is I like to hold up the flipper and I like to try to short plunge to try to get right into a battle So let act like I did that Boom. And I'm right in a battle. There's a few other ones where you go up here and then shoot those things. But this is what I like doing because I like progression. When you're in a battle, you're going to see a yellow light and the yellow light is going to move. That is the ornithopter. You see it just moved and now it's over there. the way you destroy the harvester is you either destroy the ornithopter you bash the harvester enough or you bash the bad guys enough so the bad guys were the red shot right up the middle or i can hit the worm itself and work on the harvester health or i or i hit the ornithopter the blue lights are a lase gun and i will show that on on um the second one the lase gun is just So you basically, it's a one shot and just kills it. Once you've done enough damage though, that's where the yellow shot is lit. And this is where, this is the challenge. You got to hit the shot kind of perfect to get it all the way back and into the harvester. And it explodes. It's pretty cool. Once it explodes, any sort of Harkonnen that you've defeated, their water is left out on the playfield. So that's what this blue arrow is. So you want to collect the water. And then the light show is slowly working its way. and then you want to get your jackpot shot there at the worm.
    7:42
    So the harvester battles are a lot of that. As you get deeper into the game, there are more ornithopters or the harvester has more health or there are more harkening you have to defeat to get all the way to destroying it. Now that that's happened, you can look at the very top. You know, I'm probably more than, I'm probably 60% of the way towards working towards night. So let's actually talk about these. I can change these in the middle. So there's Sand Snork, Lays Gun, and Thumper. So let's actually do Sand Snork. So you basically hit the shot you want, and then you complete the other two drops. Sand Snork is now lit on the left ramp. It's going to throw the ball down here, and it's going to save that ball as a ball save for me. So you can build those up. So let's go ahead and get a Lays Gun. Boom, boom, boom. And now I have two Lays Guns. You can see those up there. Thumper, which is the other one, this is all about a playfield multiplier. So now I have two, and I'll show you how to use that playfield multiplier. Right now, let's talk about the fact that I rolled over this in lane when I hit the left ramp. That has lit my spinners. When the spinners are lit, that's how you put spice or water on the playfield. So you're going to see I have a mixture of spice and water all around the playfield. So when I hit those shots, that's how I'm going to collect the spice or the water that's out on the playfield. during the daytime you put spice out on the playfield during nighttime you're going to put water out on the playfield so if i go ahead and collect some of this so my come on there we go collected that spice i'm going to collect this little bit of spice and uh and water on this left shot there we go i locked the ball too because my my locks were lit uh if i want to put more out there what you want to do is you want to hit the left ramp or just start a mode you want to hit the left ramp but the reason you want to hit a left ramp is because i want to roll over that insert and that'll relight those so that i can put more spice water out there okay when you're in a mode you want to shoot the blue shots um so this mode's all about trying to get to the thumper so the blue shots are going to slowly work their way over there we go and it's going to end up on the thumper shot So let's grab that.
    10:00
    And then now I'm going to hit this shot. And that's me beating the mode or getting to a halfway point. And it gives you the option. Do you want to cash out right now or do we want to keep going? Of course we're going to keep going.
    10:11
    So now we're continuing along that scene. So I actually have to hit the worm. The worm's going to grab that ball.
    10:20
    Water and spice. Let's hit the worm. Every time I hit the worm, it's coming up a little bit. Spice, the more spice you have, it's in the upper right. Right now we have zero because we started a mode. The more spice you have, the more valuable your shots are during a mode. So you could build up a ton of spice before you start a mode if you really want that mode to be crazy valuable.
    10:45
    Water is your timer during the harvester modes. So this should be the last shot that I have to hit. there we go no it didn't register there it is stop the ball adds a ball once per desert power so every mode has different perks and the way you change what mode you're going to play before you start it is you hit an orbit so you can kind of select what mode you're going to do so i have actually changed back into day so i can hit the left ramp and that'll give me a busy Benny Jezerit award.
    11:24
    Actually, no. I'm still knight right now. So I can put more water on the playfield because I'm a knight and now it's transitioned into day. So now that I'm during day, my harvester battle is lit again. So let's go ahead and experience harvester battle number two.
    11:40
    So let me show you these Lays guns. Boom. Remember blue shots. So there are two Ornithopters now. so I could go ahead and try to kill one, which I missed. Let's get those Harkonnen soldiers. There are more Harkonnen soldiers at the worm, so I got those. Let's get that, but there's still one more Ornithopter or that, or I can hit a Laysgun shot. Boom. Laysgun just gets right through it, and now I have a chance to destroy the worm. So let's go ahead and do that.
    12:13
    There we go. Hit it back in there. Just got through Harvester Battle 2. What else is there that I can show you? Well, let's go ahead and show off the main multi-ball in the game.
    12:25
    Well, actually, I gotta collect water from the fallen soldiers, and then collect the jackpot for that harvester mode.
    12:36
    Okay so the main desert power multi the way that was lit by default was I hit the thumper Once I hit the thumper my light locks are lit over here on the left and right
    12:46
    There's ball two locked, and now that ball two's locked, we can actually start the multiball by hitting it into the arena.
    12:53
    So, what it does is it grabs the ball, and the mode will start when the worm gets all the way back there. But what you can do is you can bash this other ball in the arena, and it will increase the value of the jackpot shots for when I actually get into the multiball. Really cool light show here. I wish I could show it better on camera, but it's very hard to show, but it looks amazing in person.
    13:17
    So what's cool about this Desert Power multiball, it's one of the main battles in the game, is you're going to see some red shots and some yellow shots. The yellow shots is let's steer the worm. So that ball coming out actually told it to go left. So now that it's gone left, I have to hit jackpot shots. And these jackpot shots are worth 13 million because I increased the value. So remember, this is a multi-ball. So we have to keep steering it. We basically have to hit three. And then I got to get a ball. Remember, this is a multi-ball. I got to get a ball back in here and bash it around a bunch. You can see there's like a meter on screen. and once you've bashed it enough, that's how you get your super jackpot. And now we're back to the beginning. So let's actually get it to go right. You're going to see the red shots move right. So I need to hit three jackpot shots. So there's one.
    14:08
    And then this is the tough one. There we go. And then we got to get it into the arena. So remember, these balls are, this is a three ball multiball. Got to bash it a little bit.
    14:23
    Come on. Okay, and I'm going to actually tell you about the thumper. So once I've bashed it enough that it's broken down that power bar. There we go. That should be enough. I can get my jackpot shot by hitting it up there, but I'm going to hit the thumper. The thumper just made it a 3x playfield. So now when I get my jackpot shot... Come on.
    14:50
    Come on, there it is. That's worth three times the value. What's cool is it'll be 3x playfield until I hit the worm. Once I hit the worm, that will end the playfield multiplier. And I'm back to just normal multiple. So I'm going to go ahead and throw a ball into the ground. Wow. So let's train down to one ball. So I should be back in normal gameplay.
    15:16
    During that, there was enough switch hits that I've transitioned to knight. So I have a Vinny Jezzerit award over here to show off. and it'll allow me to do another mode. So right now, Awaken is lit. So let's actually change that mode. Let's change the mode, so I'm going to hit an Orbit, and so now it's on to Train. Let's do Train. Why not? I can actually get into the scoop, remember, by hitting that shot, the far left, and I'll fall into that. Stand with your back to the door. I can tell this is you by your footsteps, Gurney Halleck. There are movie clips in the game. They are planning on adding a lot more sound bites into the game.
    15:53
    Okay, this is kind of a two ball mode so step one you got to hit the arena And it's gonna grab that ball and then now I need to bash that captive ball I'm training. I'm bashing that captive ball
    16:08
    There we go, and then I have a ball lit on over here And this is the same thing do I want to cash out of the mode or do I want to keep going? So of course we're gonna keep going
    16:21
    So more bashing There we go. You can see that health bar essentially working its way down. And then I have a two ball thing. So hit the lit shot.
    16:33
    And then I got to get a ball back into the arena. But if I drained at any point, this mode would end. So now I'm back to bashing.
    16:42
    And then hit the lit shot. And then I got to get back in the training area. And hit the lit shot. And that is the end of the mode. So it lights a hurry up you're gonna see 160 million and you got to hit that hurry up shot as
    17:00
    Coming down there we go Now gurney will take out soldiers in a harvester battle. So that'll be less harvester battle shots I'll have to hit there aren't any mini wizard modes in the game right now, but they're coming soon So another multi ball I can show off is actually over here the Fadaken multi-ball. So you basically hit down the drop target and then you hit a ball back there. And it's going to grab that ball. And then watch the light meter. I just moved back today. If I hit in there again, it actually launches the other one out to shoot this ball out. So now I'm one shot away from starting that multi-ball. So let's go ahead and get this Benny Jezzerit Award.
    17:40
    And you know what? Let's go ahead and just show off Fadaken. But that's a multi-ball that you can bring into other parts of the game. so while you're in Fideken multiball what you want to do look at the light show hit the lights so hit it back into that shot and then you have a certain amount of time to get the other ball to also go into that shot if I can hit it there we go and it ricochets it out and it gave me another ball so you can keep adding balls to this uh and then the jackpot shot is here on the uh orbit. So it's a cool kind of an add-a-ball type multi-ball. I got a bunch of water up there in the middle that I should probably collect. There we go. But it's just that. Hit that, hit it back in while that battle's going on. So let's drain down to two.
    18:26
    Let me show off the other kind of other really cool things about this game. Sand snork. So if this ball was going towards the left out lane, watch. It's going to spit a ball and it's gonna ricochet there. So the one ball dies, but the ricochet ball is what spit out, which is really, really neat. Let's do one more harvester battle just for the heck of it. Just so you can see, things get more complicated. Now I'm curious about this gurney, because apparently gurney's supposed to defeat some of the harkonnen for me. So I see there three harkonnen right now So I curious where gurney gonna do his job and defeat some for me so there one there two let go for the worm there three my lase gun shot is right here and that just basically destroyed it allows me to go right into it there's some other there's some yellow shots here this deals with a like a combo type system where you can do the sandwalk combo that they're implementing more into the game. Let's go ahead and get this water. And then we'll cash out. I'm going to skip that one. All right. What I want to do is I want to show off the cane box. I want to show that off. Honestly, it's probably one of my favorite parts of the game. Basically, it's an outlane ball save that's lit over here on the left. So let's actually try this yellow shot. Yeah. Sandwalk value. So it's all about comboing these shots together. So there's one.
    19:57
    Pain box is lit on ball two. All right, let's try this again. There it is, straight into it. All right, let's wait for the ball save to end, and then I will show you the pain box.
    20:11
    Okay, this is how you light desert power multi-ball. You hit the drops, and you hit this enough, or the drop, you hit the pop, you hit it enough to light the locks over there. Let's get this Bene Gesserit Award. Oh, extra ball. Sick.
    20:25
    And I have another mode lit. So I want to show off the pain box, though. So let's go ahead, which may not be lit, though it's lit. Here it is. This is the pain box. This is the best. So do you see this thing popped out? It's holding my box. I have to put down one hand, so I have to do this with one hand. And the whole idea is you want to get to this flipper, and then from that flipper, remember, only one hand. You're moving one hand back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You want to hit the left ram. That's how you survive. So you've got to rely on dead bounces and bounces. Get it over on that right flipper, and if you do that, boom, you've proven yourself worthy, and you're back in the fight, which is such a cool thing, and it feels so deserved when you actually hit it. All right, let's do one more. Let's do Awaken.
    21:14
    Remember, you can change the modes by hitting the orbit. very thematic modes that's what i like about it a lot all right this one is all about hitting a shot and then hitting that shot again so let's hit that shot do you see how it's hit blue let's hit that shot again if i hit a different shot it's gonna change so now i gotta hit that other shot again so two shots in a row and then once you've hit two shots in a row you want to hit into the arena. Once you've hit into the arena, you're going to hit the scoop. And then basically the halfway point is on here, but I threw the ball and it didn't see it. There it goes. It'll stop the ball. Do you want to stop? No. No, we're not stopping. We're going to keep going all right so there's every new shot at this point this is to work through the poison come on every blue shot this left ramp is actually very easy to hit with a flipper and for whatever reason me throwing the ball as i miss it me throwing the ball see is i make it impossible apparently all right every lit shot remember there's no time limit here so play controlled hit every lit shot normally it's the the ramp that ends up being the one that that is the last shot i hit but oh boy there it goes and now that'll start a hurry up you're going to see that hurry up start coming down and you finish on the right and that right there is basically where the game is at right now. There's a lot more they're going to put into this game. All six modes are in the game. All six harvester battles are in the game. The perks are already in the game. There's two multiballs in the game, between Desert Power and the Fadaken multiball.
    23:20
    There's plenty here, but all these modes are not in the game yet. The dune letters are not in the game yet, but they're coming. And what I will tell you is, what's in the game, my brother and I are having a ton of fun with. My wife enjoys playing this game. She thinks the worm mech and the overall lighting in this game is fantastic. It's very clear and easy to see what to do. They've done a fantastic job coding the game where the inserts communicate what's going on. And if you can play this game with the music loud, it's all so thematic and it just brings you into the world of Dune. And it's a fantastic game. So hopefully that explained it somewhat well. If it did, leave me a like, subscribe, leave me a comment, anything like that. Hopefully you'll have a chance to find one of these and play one of these sooner than later, but I'm excited to see where this game ends up, because where it's already at is awesome, and it's only gonna end up in a better place. Oh yeah, I forgot! If you want to buy a game, if you don't have one of these on location, or if you've seen this and you enjoyed what I showed you and you want one of these for yourself, Boom, right there. Reach out to Zach at Bloomin' Out Fimble, and he will take care of you. I should have been saying that for a long time, but you know what? I remembered. So what is it? May thy blade chip and something something. May thy blade chip and the knife. I don't know. It's something. I didn't read the books. That's Jared. But, hey, have a good one. See you guys.
    24:56
    Thank you.