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DPP #155 "Expo recap!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·34m 22s·analyzed·Oct 22, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Expo 2025 recap: Metallica dominates, Alice impresses visually but disappoints gameplay-wise, homebrew section expands significantly.

Summary

Don recaps Expo 2025, declaring Metallica the game of the show due to massive popularity and enthusiasm, while critiquing Alice in Wonderland's gameplay despite excellent presentation. He discusses emerging manufacturers targeting casual markets (Wonderland Amusements' $800 pinball concept), homebrew innovations, and various vendor booths, with particular excitement about Spooky Pinball's future releases and homebrew rethemes.

Key Claims

  • Metallica was the game of the show, arriving only on Saturday but dominating play with two-machine setup.

    high confidence · Don's direct observation and recap of Expo 2025 floor dynamics over three days.

  • Alice in Wonderland sold out but gameplay is gated behind limited mode accessibility, with weak scoop ejection mechanics.

    high confidence · Don's hands-on play experience with detailed mechanical critique of upper playfield gatekeeping and low-flow eject.

  • Wonderland Amusements is targeting $800 consumer price point with flat-packed, China-manufactured pinball machines.

    high confidence · Don's direct conversation with Wonderland Amusements booth staff about their cabinet design and pricing strategy.

  • Homebrew section expanded significantly (3x machines, 9x talent compared to prior year) with innovations not yet seen in commercial pinball.

    high confidence · Don's direct comparison of this year's homebrew area to previous year's L-shaped wall setup.

  • Greatest Showman (Whirlwind retheme) won best of show for homebrew rethemes with exceptional polish and artistry.

    high confidence · Don's direct observation and award confirmation at Expo 2025.

  • Spooky Pinball's 13th machine announcement expected around December 16th with novel mechanics not seen before.

    medium confidence · Don's speculation on timing and description of hearing about unreleased machine features.

  • Tony Hawk homebrew machine demonstrated complete functionality with no reported issues; Don suggests commercial licensing should be pursued.

    high confidence · Don's observation of Electric Playground's Tony Hawk machine operating flawlessly throughout show.

  • Christopher Franchi (Spooky artist) was notably present and approachable throughout the expo.

    high confidence · Don's direct interaction with Franchi at Spooky Pinball booth.

Notable Quotes

  • “Everything feels better... It's like they took the Metallica layout but created an entirely new game out of it.”

    Don @ ~15:30 — Core assessment of why Metallica resonated as game of show despite using same layout as original.

  • “The game looks amazing... Gameplay-wise, it's okay. It's fun to play... There's just some things that really keep it from being like that A-level game.”

    Don @ ~28:45 — Balanced critique of Alice's presentation vs. gameplay disconnect; captures common collector sentiment.

  • “It feels like when you have a low-flow toilet... it doesn't have that satisfying whoosh, you know.”

    Don @ ~33:20 — Vivid description of Alice's scoop eject weakness; became memorable meme-worthy critique in community.

  • “There are things in that homebrew area that have never been done in commercial pinball. And they're like really fun things, too.”

    Don @ ~52:00 — Highlights homebrew section's role as innovation laboratory for commercial designers.

  • “I think it's really fun to play and has a lot of things that haven't been seen before... December 16th as an announcement... probably then, maybe a little sooner.”

    Don @ ~1:05:30 — Cryptic hint about Spooky 13 announcement timing and novel mechanics; high community interest signal.

  • “We're not the targeted demographic for this... Anybody that's into commercial pinball machines, tournament play... we're not that. But like everybody else in existence is in the other camp.”

    Don @ ~38:00 — Recognition that $800 casual consumer pinball targets non-enthusiast market; validates parallel ecosystem.

  • “Somebody pick up that license man... you could get them... some dudes would probably give you the rights just to give them like a year's worth of taco bell.”

    Don @ ~59:15 — Commercial licensing advocacy for Tony Hawk; implies relatively accessible professional athlete licensing deals.

Entities

Metallica (pinball machine)gameAlice in Wonderland (pinball machine)gameDonpersonWonderland AmusementscompanyDutch PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyChristopher FranchipersonPinball Brotherscompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: New casual consumer pinball manufacturer (Wonderland Amusements) targeting $800 price point with flat-pack, China-manufactured machines; targeting AtGames Legends 4K customer base; pursuing modular accessory ecosystem.

    high · Don had extensive conversation with Wonderland Amusements about design strategy, manufacturing, acrylic vs glass trade-offs, modular accessory business model; cabinet shown at Expo is ~80% scale prototype.

  • ?

    community_signal: Don provided detailed advisory feedback to Wonderland Amusements regarding acrylic vs. glass cost-benefit analysis, modular accessory strategy, and DIY upgradeability; early-stage manufacturer engagement suggests community role in product development.

    high · Don describes specific recommendations on acrylic packaging, shooter rod design accessibility, accessory ecosystem; notes 'their eyes are lighting up' and team actively received feedback as primary Expo value.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Pinball Brothers' ABBA machine underperformed with Don; described as 'lightweight' and not suitable for location play; Don redirects company toward Tony Hawk as better licensing target.

    medium · Don found ABBA music enjoyable but game felt light, musically niche, inappropriate for location; suggested Pinball Brothers abandon ABBA positioning and pursue Tony Hawk instead.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Alice in Wonderland's upper playfield is heavily gatekept behind mode access; only accessible via two specific modes; scoop eject deliberately turned down to prevent center drain, creating weak 'low-flow toilet' feel.

    high · Don played through game multiple times, attempted upper playfield access, noted scoop design flaw; attributed design choice to Dutch Pinball engineer (Melvin) prioritizing center drain prevention over playability.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.103

0:00
Are we ready to go? Hit it. I said are we ready to go? Hit it. 155 of these Don Pinball Podcast episodes for you. This is the Expo Recovery episode. I've just returned back home, and I'd like to recap all the fun and mayhem that occurred. Might have had a little bit more time with the games and such. So settle in, get your mocha, and let's do it.
0:30
I think we're ready now. What's up, everybody? Back to what appears to be a lot of people's, if not favorite podcast, at least entertaining. I know that for a fact because I heard it all throughout the weekend. So I said in my preview episode that the thing I was looking forward to the most was y'all, like everybody. And clearly that was the case. My voice is recovering from shouting for three days in a crowded expo hall. It just happens that the level of volume is so high that to compete with that and talk to the person next to you, you have to be at increased amplitude. And by day three, it just takes your voice. it's almost like I've been sitting at slot machines in Vegas at the pinball hall of fame for a week and just breathing like nothing but vape smoke and everything but we're back here man let's recap everything that came up I haven't even had time to check what nap arcades even been posting or anything show notes we don't need any show notes let's just go through now that we've had time now that we're back home everything is settled we've settled through sorted through all the swag that one has returned we'll just do the third person here one has returned from expo with and now let's get it let's start with the game of the show right right now i'm gonna call it metallica took this freaking thing like the game didn't even show up on the show floor until the last day until saturday and and just dominated all day long now you know alice's lines had waned they'd added the third machine right they took it out of whatever hotel room that third machine was hiding in and put it on the show floor but even then still the draw was amazing metallica They had two of them, right, the Premium and the LE. So let's just go over impressions on both of them. We know they were popular, and people are probably still waiting in line from Saturday to even get on the damn thing. Everybody was there just, like, blowing up Metallica. People were getting so angry in line, like, dude, okay, you don't have to try to put up a high score. Like, play and let's go, right? People were getting heated, but they were heated because of the excitement that they wanted to play this thing. So fortunately, because I'm the luckiest boy in the world, I got invited over to Stern on Thursday with a lot of the other media folks to go play some Metallica. Even then it was hard to get a couple games in. Just a vast amount of people that were there. The level of enthusiasm was high. The games were playing great. Playing them on the show floor, I got five or six games between the two versions. And my final game on the LE, I absolutely blew it up. People were watching. It was like absolutely a pinball moment. Talk about moments in pinball. That was me, like 1 a.m., Saturday night. I managed to find the poor man's liquor stash, and like an eager 13-year-old, I got into the liquor cabinet. I got a couple of brown rum drinks in, and man, I just remember being there, right? Head-banging to Master of Puppets as I'm playing Metallica, marveling at all the on-screen madness that's going on, hitting modes, hitting all of the multi-balls, and I ended up with nearly half a billion points on a game where they had deactivated the extra balls, cut the ball save to try to get the line moving more. Like, it was just rocking. Like, I felt awesome for a moment in pinball, man. That was a moment. Okay, so I said before, earlier, my first impressions of this game, you know, it's Metallica, right? The layout is the same. You know, essentially the goals are the same and everything, but everything looks better. I will say now, think of this as if they took the Metallica layout but created an entirely new game out of it. Everything feels better, you know. Even people with home-use only Metallica games that only have 100 plays on them still remark, like, something's different about this. Like, it's shooting faster or something. And I can only attribute it to the newer generation of coil mechs or whatever assemblies they're using. But, man, like, hitting the ramps so smooth, just right back to the in lane and, like, let's keep going, man. And the 1,000 new call-outs that are in this game, you know, like, James Hetfield's there just like, good job, brother, or whatever he says. You just, like, you feel it, right? You just feel it. Like, the back glass looks amazing on that LE. You know, with the lights on the expression cabinet lights, the expression back box lights, and just the music sounding as good as it does. Put an amplifier in this and, like, a quality subwoofer and some Kenwoods, and, dude, dude, this thing's going to be freaking rocking. I'm in freaking love with this game. You know, Metallica, I feel like their game had come out, you know, early, like, too early, where it really missed the new technology we have now, all of that has been repaired, man. Like, what a freaking game, dude. What a game. All right, so going into the game of the show, the thing everybody was excited to play was Alice in Wonderland. I got a final, I made peace with how I feel about Alice, right? Early on, everybody rushed in there. They sold out. Everybody was super enthusiastic about it. But there were some of us that were like, you know what? I mean, it looks fine, but the art's kind of weird. The video review they did didn't sell me on it. I will tell you this. They sold this game so incredibly short with the video footage that they released because seeing this thing in person, a lot of the criticisms I had about the art, I had to nitpick to even find them when I was there in person seeing the whole package. So they did not convey that well in the promotional information that they had released through their media folks, through the streams that they did. We know that gameplay stream was just awful. Gosh, they really sold this thing short. The game looks amazing. If we're grading A through B, A through F, whatever, yeah, it gets an A in presentation, man. Every single thing that Davey Stumbler did, every single thing that Lior did with these games is top-notch, the best that it can be done, the best in pinball. Best in class is what you're getting.
American Pinballcompany
Electric Playgroundcompany
Greatest Showman (pinball)game
Saw (pinball)game
Borderlands (pinball)game
Tony Hawk (pinball)game
Super Hoop (pinball)game
Tokyo Drift (pinball)game
ABBA (pinball)game
Pinball Expo 2025event
Missing Pin Companycompany
Bitroniccompany
Marco Specialtiescompany
Liorperson
Davey Stumblerperson
  • $

    market_signal: Homebrew section established as innovation laboratory driving commercial pinball design evolution; multiple Stern designers present observing homebrews with interest; appears to be formal pathway for ideas to reach manufacturers.

    high · Don describes 3x machine expansion, 9x talent increase YoY; notes Stern designers clustered around homebrews 'taking great interest'; Pokemon homebrew surrounded by 'dream team' of notable designers.

  • ?

    event_signal: Metallica arrived late (Saturday only) but dominated Expo floor with sustained, high-energy play; lines extended across convention center; game of show.

    high · Don observed lines competing with registration desk; described sustained enthusiasm throughout Saturday evening; multiple gameplay sessions with high scores.

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Tony Hawk homebrew machine demonstrates complete functionality and design feasibility; Don argues professional skateboarder licensing is attainable due to non-superstar status of talent; suggests commercial manufacturer should pursue license.

    medium · Don advocates licensing; argues skateboarders are 'gettable' vs. pop stars; describes pro skateboarders as accessible (some in vans, running deck companies); suggests taco bell equivalent could secure rights.

  • $

    market_signal: New manufacturers and vendors (Wonderland Amusements, Bitronic, Super Hoop makers) entering Expo indicates growing market interest and diversification; casual consumer segment emerging as distinct revenue opportunity.

    high · Don notes Wonderland Amusements' splintering from Arcade 1-Up; Bitronic's first appearance at major show; Spanish Super Hoop maker presence; reflects expanding ecosystem beyond traditional commercial/enthusiast split.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi (Spooky Pinball artist) notably visible and approachable throughout Expo; described as being 'everywhere' and engaging in extensive humor/discussion with Don; represents visible artist-to-community engagement.

    high · Don spent significant time with Franchi in tow; noted he was approachable 'this time' (comparative to prior appearances); extensive inside jokes and discussions; clear rapport.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Greatest Showman Whirlwind retheme won homebrew best-of-show via exceptional presentation polish and custom artwork; layered detail work by hired professional artists established new quality benchmark for hobby projects.

    high · Don identified Greatest Showman as exemplar of professional-grade presentation; described it as unrecognizable as Whirlwind despite layout reuse; noted Jeffrey Jones hired exquisite artists; Don aspires to match this standard.

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Spooky Pinball's 13th machine announcement expected ~December 16, with novel mechanics not previously seen in commercial pinball; unconfirmed but sourced from Don's conversations at Expo.

    medium · Don states 'I've been throwing around the date of December 16th as an announcement... probably then, maybe a little sooner, nothing official'; describes hearing about mechanics innovation from direct contact.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Alice in Wonderland sold out and generated initial high enthusiasm; follow-up critical assessment by major community voice (Don) reveals gameplay disconnects from presentation quality.

    high · Don contrasts initial retail success and promotional enthusiasm with measured hands-on critique; suggests buyers may be happy but acknowledges alternative preference for Metallica.

    • 6:27
    Playing this game, however, it's okay. It's fun. It's fun to play. The shots feel good. There's just some things that really keep it from being like that A-level game that really I think it could have been given just a couple of subtle changes here and there. That upper play field is in your face. It looks great. The stainless steel that's laser cut that's on the front there, almost like a tiara, like a garden gate, looks good in person. How does it play? I don't know. I never got up there. It turns out to get to that upper play field, there's no ramp you can hit to pop up there and play around with. There's not even a Vuck you can just shoot into like on Queen and get up there. It's not an upper play field like Foo Fighters or Jaws where it might be a little tight but it's easy to get up there and you can play around. It's only accessible through like two modes. This thing is totally gatekept. What the heck? It's taking up almost a sixth of the play field, and you can't even really get up there unless you're in the knave of heart mode or you paint the roses red, I'm sure they'll do a code adjustment and make it easier for casual people to just get up there. But, like, the couple of times that I played through this game, it was fun hitting the shots, right? Like, the modes were kind of, you know, interesting. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of design, but the plastic ramps felt good. You know, the other shot, the shot to the left that goes through the, you know, the white roses turning them red, that felt okay. I was able to hit it when I needed to hit it. The scoop was, you know, not difficult, but not easy. And that's your mode start. So you kind of want that to be an accessible, more accessible shot, especially when this game operates under, like, the Pulp Fiction rules, right, where when you hit the pop bumpers, it randomly goes through which mode you're going to play. So I was trying to play Name of Hearts, right, so I'm hitting the orbit, hitting the pop bumpers, waiting for it to randomly land on the mode I want, and then I tried for, like, five or six shots to get into the scoop to start that mode, and I couldn't do it, ended up hitting another orbit, and then it hit a pop bumper, and then now I'm on White Rabbit again, you know. It's like, come on, man, I'm wanting to play the upper play field, dang it. The other thing that was concerning was the eject strength from that scoop. If you watch some of the live stream videos, you'll see this. I used to like okay mode start on the scoop like hit it back let get to the flipper let go And the ball just kind of dribbles out of there very slowly rolls down the play field and then you start the mode It's like I kind of want a little more action than that. And it remarked, and I think it was Melvin from Dutch Pinball or DPX, that was like, well, we had to turn the coil way down because we didn't want the ball just kind of going down the middle. And I'm like, dude, did you design this thing so the scoop just shoots right down the middle? That sucks, man. it should solidly go to a flipper so you can, you know, start modes and things. Because it feels like when you have a low-flow toilet is what I compared it to, you know. Like when you flush and it's just like not like a satisfying, you know, whoosh, you know. I mean, it doesn't have to be, you know, as powerful as the ones on the airplane. But, like, it should be, you know, a nice, you know, let's get this mode started. Let's go, you know. Elvira does it great. You know, Looney Tunes does it great. You know, where the ball can come out with such velocity that if you allow it to dead flip, it'll bounce over the other flipper. You can catch it and start that mode. It just doesn't happen. You feel like this is a game you have to play with white gloves or something, like you're at a tea party. I don't want to rip this game up. It's not like I don't like it. The game's good. The game looks amazing. The shots feel good. Gameplay-wise, it's okay.
    9:43
    Labyrinth is okay as well. It's a cool themed environment to play in too. I think I'd rather play Labyrinth than Alice, but hey, that is what it is. I think anybody that bought Alice will be very happy with it and can tell you 10 reasons why they're super excited that they got it, and everybody else that didn't get one can do the same thing and tell you all the reasons that we're going over and getting a Metallica instead, man. I would say that if you've ordered a Metallica LE, you're probably feeling so much better than if you've got an Alice, but whatever, whatever. Alice sold out. Who cares what I think? It's a sales success. Good job, DPX. Let's see what your next game is. As a final word on how I'm feeling about Alice, because it's kind of like an older game that wasn't made 10 years ago but was made now, it reminds me a lot of the presentation and gameplay of the fun house remake that just came out from, uh, from the Euro pinball Corp, right. From Pedretti. Um, you know, fun house remastered or whatever they're calling it. It's fun. The 2.0 modes really add a lot, kind of help, you know, bring it more into the modern era. And it's fun. It looks really good with that Brian Allen art. I mean, presentation wide, it looks good shooting wise. It's fun to play enthusiasm wise. I don't have the enthusiasm to purchase a fun house. Come on. I don't think I'm alone there. That's how I feel about Alice. It looks great. It's fun to play. There's some things that would change on it. I mean, my level of enthusiasm doesn't match for sure. It doesn't match that price. And so I'm not purchasing one. And I'm not looking to try to find one on resale or trade for one. But it's cool. It's cool. I will say this. I have a personal arcade at home that I play with my family. I don't have a location. If I did have a location, I think my attitude would be totally different on this because it is a limited game. There's only 500. If you were the only arcade in town that had it, that would be a draw, I would think. So, yeah. And what Stumbler did with the lights, it's just amazing. I love it. I want to incorporate what he did in a future project of mine. So I was talking to him a bit about that. I'm excited about where we're going. Lior always does great work. And so there you go. That's how I feel about Alice. I will say I didn't see the glass lifted at all the entire three days that I was there. There was a steady line the entire time. But, man, when that show first opened, there was a line from the door to play Alice. The level of enthusiasm was super high. And then even though Metallica was all the way across the convention center, I think the line still started at the registration desk. It was nuts, man. It was nuts, you know, level of enthusiasm-wise. But game of show, I've got to give it to Metallica. But, Alice, not a bad game. Not for me. Not a bad game. There we go. What else? Let's continue with Alice for a minute because this took some people by surprise. So Wonderland Amusements was there with a three-quarter size empty cabinet it with a white rabbit on it and everybody was like what the hell is this right we just had an alice in wonderland game come out what is this so what this is is it seems like and i may be truncating the history here but i spent some time talking to the folks at the booth um this seems like uh some of the people that were involved with the arcade one-up design initially have left that company and dude if you want to talk about like internet drama and trolls and stuff go check out the arcade one-up people that are doing like online content there's all kinds of nuanced crazy drama going on in Arcade 1-Up. It's nuts, man. People run the entire spectrum. They think people in pinball are toxic. Take a look at the Arcade 1-Up folks. Jeez, it's deep, man. It's deep. Anyway, so these guys splintered off for, I'm sure, reasons. And then now they want to get into pinball. And they're kind of targeting the same segment that would have been interested in those At Games virtual pinball machines. So these guys are making an actual mechanical pinball machine with a goal to deliver a product at $800 to the consumer. which I know what you're saying. That's freaking impossible. Okay, take yourself out of the equation. I don't think we are necessarily the targeted demographic for this. Anybody that's into commercial pinball machines, tournament play on tournament machines and commercial machines or bringing commercial machines into the home, we're not that. We're not that. But like everybody else in existence is in the other camp, right? We're like a consumer product, you know, in the $800 range. I mean, that's a huge investment, right? let alone that $12,000 freaking commercial machine. Like, forget about it. So just like there are people in the arcade one-up community that want to have an arcade at home, but they don't want to buy a full-size machine, but they do like the ease of going to Walmart, going to Target, going to Costco, picking one of these things up, unwrapping it under the Christmas tree, and then modifying it. There's a whole host of modifications available for those arcade one-ups at home. People are upgrading, you know, the buttons and the joysticks. I forget, like, SuzoHap, I think, makes, you know, the competition things. You know, people are just, like, switching them out and upgrading to actual arcade controls. They're putting better screens in. They're putting lit-up marquees. I've added vinyl graphic displays around my screen for, like, the Mortal Kombat moves as an easy reference. People are making custom risers. They're making, you know, headers and things and toppers for their machines. Like, it's nuts. It's, like, really a cottage modification industry. And so these folks want to do the same thing with pinball. So what they had was an empty cabinet that was about, you know, close to it. I think 80% of the scale that they're looking to go for. They're going to scale the back box up a bit more, but the cabinet box was about that size. It feels about the same as the AtGames size virtual machine. So if you've seen those.
    15:03
    So what they're going to do is they're going to flat pack this thing. They're designing it to be made in China, and they'll export them here.
    15:11
    You know, they're going to budget engineer these things down. They're going to do their own windings and build their own mechanisms. So it's going to be probably like a Zazzle machine, but in a smaller form, smaller footprint, aimed at the home consumer. But I gave them a lot of tips on things that people could do to upgrade these things later and some things that would save them on their costs, right? Right now they have an acrylic in there instead of a glass, and they were saying, well, we're looking to get an actual glass in there, but it's going to add dimensions to the packing. We talked about that nuance, and I said, you know what, guys, look, find yourself a nice piece of acrylic, Like, pack that in with the game. Most consumers, 85% of them, are not going to care. They're going to think it's fine. It'll save you money. You don't have to worry about damage and breakage. But a modder could take that machine when they get it home and go to the local glass person, order a piece of glass and put it in there, and then that could be like their upgrade. And they're like, oh, what a great idea. I'm like, yeah, dude, bet. You know, release the dimensions for your shooter rod. Make it easily accessible so, like, people can mod and make their own and, you know, upgrade and switch and swap, and you guys could come out with lines of accessories later. That way you bring your bill of materials down so you have a base model, and then you can have accessories that you can sell as well that would help give you more, a diversified income stream and also give modders ways to play with their stuff. And their eyes are lighting up. They're like, okay, okay, we get it. They received a ton of feedback the whole time they were there. I think that's really the value of them being there. They were there with a game that wasn't even a game. They were there with a box. But they were there with a dream, and getting the feedback is what they really appreciated. So we'll see what comes from them in the future. this will be fun to have something at Costco that's not just a really bad virtual Star Wars machine like we had last Christmas so power to the consumer maybe this is what's going to turn open the door to somebody to get into getting a mouse around in their home at some point or something or buying one of my backlog of games when I'm done with it so I'm fine with it they're not competing and trying to knock someone else out of the market they're going for a completely different market that we're not necessarily in but it good it growing pinball and I think it reflects the fact that the interest is growing because they coming into the sphere so go them they were cool guys and they gave me a banana so what the heck man that awesome next to them uh the electric playground i finally got one of their uh brian allen alien hats man it was awesome uh everybody really dug their topper people loved that uh the tony hawk machine that they had there on site it ran the whole time no problems i didn't see it down at all um somebody pick up that license man somebody needs to reach out and just get that if that day if that game was refined and turned into a commercial product and got the licensing for the music and people were saying like there's no way you can get all the licenses for all the skaters and i'm like dude do you know skateboarders those professional skateboarders a lot of them probably live in vans right now or like you know running a running a skateboard deck company or something like you could get them they're they are gettable right it's not like they're all taylor swifts and you know justin bieber's now you know so i think you could totally get these dudes some dudes would probably give you the rights just to give them like a year's worth of taco bell or something like i know i would do it for that so so someone go for it because like hitting those shots super innovative man go check out the dri i think he was going around with a streaming rig doing streams of all the cool games that that is one that needs to be picked up um i'll blend into now the homebrew section i saw some cool stuff going on i saw um you know famous famous Pinball-famous designers from Stern clustered around a lot of the different homebrews, especially towards the end, late Saturday night, you know, taking great interest in the themes, how they were incorporated, pointing out this, that, and the other, including some very notable names on Pokemon, if I might add there, like a dream team of folks. So, you know, picture your favorite designers and your favorite, you know, producers of games. They were over there playing with great interest. So I think it's coming. But I really liked, dude, the homebrew area was such an expansion over what we had last year, when it was just like an L-shaped against the wall, you know, a bunch of machines. There were like three times as many machines there and nine times the talent. It was so impressive what was over there. People doing innovative things, the Borderlands machine with the lineal actuators that are making the whole playfield bob like a lowrider, just completely amazing stuff. And so hopefully that operates as a laboratory of sorts, where things and good ideas can be taken there and then brought into the commercial games to really make some standout stuff. Because there are things in that homebrew area that have never been done in commercial pinball. And they're like really fun things, too. So a lot of interest was generated over there. Man, Saw looked so good. And right next to it, the greatest showman, Jeffrey Jones. And team, fantastic, man. Two rethemes of Whirlwind, and you wouldn't even know it to look at them, man. So fantastic. So greatest showman, it just was dripping with polish, man. This thing took best of show for homebrew, deserved it. Well, at least for homebrew rethemes, not ground up. But absolutely deserved the accolades, dude. It looks amazing. The layout is whirlwind, so of course it works. But just all the little details put in there, it looks nothing like a whirlwind. If you didn't know, you wouldn't even tell, man. So just good levels of polish. He hired exquisite artists to generate the art and everything. I'm putting that as the measure that I want to attain. So, you know, when I fall short of it, I still have accomplished something. But, man, just the killer level of ingenuity and just the cool people that were over there, man. All the hours I spent over at the homebrew section, totally worth it. Like, it's now, like, one of my most favorite things now with these shows is checking out the homebrew section. TPF this year really kicked it off, and then Expo just blew it up, man. So I can't wait for the next big show to see, like, what people are bringing, dude. Super-duper awesome. What else do we got? We got ABBA. Abba I wasn't expecting to be blown away with I wasn't blown away with it I expected to not really dig the music I dug it a little bit more than I otherwise would have Money Money Money is a jam Fernando is just 70's kookiness and so I kind of like that the game feels very light though I mean just sliding it around that polished concrete it felt like a much lighter box this is not a JJP you could save this thing all day I don't know if you really get Abba bless you but this is one that's clearly a miss for me. I don't even know if I'd put it in a location. The Pinball Brothers people are super cool, man. I want them to grab a killer theme. Bro, go get Tony Hawk, dude. It's already done. It's already designed. Concept's already there. Just bring that in as a consumer product and we got it, dude. We got to go pay that guy a licensing fee and make that game. I will buy that game and I will shout out to everybody that they need to get that game. I want it that bad. It's so cool, man. It's so cool. Spooky Pinball, just killing it, man. They had all three of their games out there. Didn't have any problems the whole time. Occasionally in Looney Tunes it has to be power cycled. That's about all I saw, and I spent a lot of time over there with one Christopher Franchi in tow, man. That guy was everywhere and super approachable this time, man.
    22:05
    I can't even get into all the jokes and humor and discussions that we had, but just good times were had there. Pinball on the Beach, Spooky 13 will be out for play to the public, So I'll be down there for sure for that. Really excited about what's coming. I kind of have the sensation that it's really fun to play and has a lot of things that haven't been seen before. Just what I'm hearing, just what I'm hearing. And, you know, I've been throwing around the date of December 16th as an announcement. And, you know, it's probably then, maybe a little sooner, nothing official, but putting it out there for Spooky's 13th machine. American Pinball was right next door, and they were American Pinball. They had some $5 shirts For Oktoberfest They were selling XL only Of course I got one They were selling the lunch boxes for GTF In case you had missed out on that They actually had the dented ones for sale for $15 I had a buddy wanted one I went ahead and picked one up And I did also pick up a Barrios BBQ Challenge t-shirt Had to Awesome I didn't see any problems with their games going the whole time There's what they is The cool stuff the missing pin company was there with their leg bags uh this is you know i've talked about it here before they sent me a prototype they've upgraded me to one of the newer ones it's a uh a plush bag uh that you can it unrolls kind of like a felt you use to roll up switch blades but it's got pockets for each one of your pinball legs if you want to protect the powder coat when you roll it up for transportation it's got a place for balls place for uh your wrench a place for your leg bolts so it all goes in one package you don't have to struggle or miss anything i've got one i I love it. People were walking out the door with them. It shows specials. The colors are customizable. Check out the Missing Pin Company and get yourself a leg bag. Everybody needs at least one, especially if you move games around a lot. It's not something that you may use every single day, but every single time you use it, you're going to be glad you have it. I love that I have mine and can't wait to keep using it. So there you go. Also, Wes, not the worst-looking guy I've ever seen. I respect beards and pinball, and brother has one. So it was cool. Him and his wife were there. They had some custom-made clothes and everything. Spent a lot of time over at their booth. And yeah, man, I think we're going to see some good things coming from them. So look for them at a future show or find them on Facebook.
    24:17
    But Bitronic was there. I hadn't seen them like ever at all. And I've been to like every pinball show of the last two years. Bitronic made the Tokyo Drift game, which is their newer one. So they get some time to play on. And I heard great things about it from other people that have played it. I was so excited, though, to play the game that was right next to it, which was Super Hoop. Super fun is what it is, man. It was a basketball themed game Made by some folks in Spain Using English call outs The intonation is just off enough To make it like decidingly European So think of an American basketball theme Made for a European market By Europeans Using like American slang It's super fun It was a super fun game The whole gimmick to this game Is a scoop that shoots a ball up towards a backboard With a magnet on it That magnet grabs the ball And then lets go and it falls right into a basket And it's just satisfying every time. We've seen basketball pinball machines before, and they tend to use a ramp where you have to, like, ramp up and try to get the basket. But this is essentially when you do get it in there, it's a guaranteed basket every time. And, like, the magnet just grabs it, goes right in. There is an orbit that jumps over the rim where the magnet can grab the ball, too, so it's almost like bank shots. It was fun. There was a physical ball lock involved. Used a retention pin to let balls release for the multi-ball. you know not the most uh you know high-end machine i've ever seen but it was super fun gameplay and i'm glad i got to play it um i like what they did with the light up acrylics on the sides they were almost mimicking jersey jack hot rail effect um with acrylic buildings i like what they did there We saw Dutch Pinball Exclusive do the same thing with Alice in Wonderland and use that translucent plastic. Probably that was left over from the Papa Duke days because we've seen that in Circus Voltaire and such. But, yeah, super fun games. It was awesome to do that. Right next to it was the Pinball Lip Balm Company selling pinball-themed lip balm. I told them I'd shout them out. They gave me a free sample. Thank you so much for that. We all passed it around. We all got to use it. We all have – no, I'm kidding. We would get cold sores if we did that. But I didn't know pinball had its own lip balm-focused product, and yet it was there. Super fun to have that there, I suppose. Who else are we missing, right? Pinball Brothers. We talked about ABBA. That was a big one. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Stern booth was just killing it. Also, thanks to Stern for having that red plush carpet to walk around because three days on concrete, My poor cows were barking, man My dogs were definitely mooing So I'm glad they had that There were lines on every machine the whole time we were there The Stern Pop-Up Shop had some cool stuff Including, they had the Three disc vinyl set of the John Wick Music left over from Comic Con It's limited to $250 They did have some for sale at the show For $35, I picked up one for myself And two for a buddy, so Danny That's coming out to you I'm sure there's something else major that I'm missing. Maybe it'll come to me. Let's get back to y'all, dude. Everybody that came up was super awesome. I did have a couple of homemade mods on me. I had stickers. I had magnets. Everybody that came up left with something. We gave out some t-shirts. We sold some t-shirts. We hung out with Jeff at Mad Pinball. Shout out to him. Jeff at MadPinball.com. Go ahead and get yourself a machine, but don't look for no metallic LEs because they straight sold out. One of the best interactions I had was meeting the two folks, Don and Mad from the Bash Pinball Podcast. These guys launched just recently with a highly polished podcast that they've been dropping about pinball. And just like me, they're relatively newer to it. I feel like I'm almost elder statesman now, you know. Going through school, right, you start as a freshman. Everybody's above you. You feel like useless the whole time. And then you come back as a sophomore and all of a sudden there's like a junior to you for the first time, right? And you're like, oh, you know, I guess I did learn something over the last year because I have some things that I can teach the younger folks now. Oh, look at me. I'm moving up in rank. Same feeling here. I went over and I was like, oh, it's another Don the Pinball Podcaster. Fantastic. I know there was one out before I came and then isn't really active anymore, so I've been filling out the Don role. And now we've got a Junior Don, we've got Master Don, and we've got Promoted Don or Proto Don, and then, you know, Matt is homie. We spent a lot of time hanging out, talking live, talking podcasting, why we like pinball and stuff, and it was generally a good time. Also, he was party, personally, to me blowing up Metallica with no extra balls. The extra balls were turned off. I had gotten two, by the way. I would have got a billion points on Metallica, Ellie, at the show floor in front of, like, actual tournament players. I would have gotten up on the leaderboard if I had extra balls. That's how good a game I was playing. I'm glad he was there to win assists. But shout out to Don and Matt, dude. Solid guys. Ian from Nudge Magazine. No, it's not a Ted Nugent magazine like I first thought. Thanks to all of the pinball, the poor man's pinball tribe. Jeez, man. The folks from the pinball junk drawer. I made a list I was going to go through and give a personal shout out to everybody. I saw Aaron from Fast, Ernie from Trident Pinball. And then I was like, I would have like a million people listed on here. And then somebody would feel left out because the whole podcast would be me just thanking people. So I won't run through a whole list. Mitch Johns, what's up? Doug Port I can't go through because I'm going to forget one person Alec and Robin from the Electric Playground Bug and Jesse from Spooky Pinball Christopher Franchi it just keeps going on and on and on George Gomez, the other George Gomez who else there's so many people, Dan Yarrington Colin, everybody from the Media Mixer so much fun I didn't win the Venom Premium Door Prize I didn't win the Jersey Jack free game Oh, man, I was there for that, though. You know, I put in some raffle tickets. Jersey Jack was raffling off a game. They raffled it off on Saturday. You got your choice of, I think, a new in-box Godfather LE, Judd's and Rose's LE, or a Toy Story LE. And you pick your one. I was like, oh, dude, cool. I'm finally going to get a Toy Story. I'm feeling good about this. When they called the guy's name that had won, everybody turned and looked to the back of the crowd. And here's a guy standing with, like, a fold-up stool and his, like, toddler boy in his hands. And just, like, the look of, like, sheer, like, shock and joy on his face, like, just, oh my god, like, you could hear him, and just his face, like, I want a pinball machine, like, what, like, there couldn't have been, like, you know, like, a more deserving person to win a freaking free pinball machine, the last thing I need is a free pinball machine, I mean, come on, like, I'm blessed behind myself with an arcade, so this dude, I didn't get a chance to get his name or anything, but, like, he just, he was so happy, and, like, he had his kid in his arm, and he's, like, like, are you kidding me, like, I want a pinball machine, like, what the heck, like, so, I hope we can find out who that guy is, and he, like, comes on a podcast or something. He's like, I want all the information. I want to know where he's from. I want to know how long he's been on the machine. Which one did he pick? Like, I want to know all this stuff, dude. But it was super fun. Jack Winery was there. Ken Cromwell from Jersey Jack. Everybody was just, like, there hanging out for the whole thing. They were filming it. So hopefully they'll release a little promotional material so we can find out a little more about this dude that won because, like, he looked like the happiest guy ever. They had one of the world's bandiest cover bands playing Saturday night, and then we all sort of pack it up and like my voice was completely gone i will say this i i lost all track of time once i hit rum 30 and uh i'll cover more of like like the the intimate details and cool stuff that happened on the patreon follow-up to this where i can release things that i probably shouldn't be saying in public um but i remember ending the night playing diamond lady in one of the back rooms with ian from nudge and uh matt and don from Bash Pinball, and Ian was just so into Diamond Lady, more so than I've ever seen anybody into anything, more than a shark needs water. He was just trying to convince us, and we were sold, but he kept going on how Diamond Lady was the diamondest, ladiest game of all time, and how it rivaled Bond 60 in some of its shots, and just the nuance. It was the second pinball moment that I remember. I remember blowing up Metallica LE with people watching. And then I remember just like getting a crash course in Diamond Lady of all things, of all things. And then like at 2 a.m., the clock struck. They turned the lights up. They turned all the power off. And it's like all of a sudden like Expo's gone. Like it felt like it had just started. Three days of madness and mayhem. Hardly any sleep. More cool conversations than I can obviously list here. but gosh like what a time you know and like the lights are up and I slept for four hours and had to drive home my voice still hasn't recovered but I had such a fantastic time there like I got so much more to cover so many more stories and interactions and like personal things and like some drama that was going on like all this stuff I'm going to drop that in the Patreon podcast right now after I have another Diet Coke but like thanks for once again joining me here for Don's Pinball Podcast people like it I can say that officially now because people tell me that all weekend dude like we love what you do it's awesome and i'm like well i'm literally i'm just i have fun with pinball and so i do this and i talk about it because like i'm really having fun with it if this wasn't fun you know if i wasn't making a positive impact in something like i wouldn't do it i just i'd be going doing something else right would we go i would do like a tire rotation podcast or something you know um where i would talk medical stuff or you know theme parks or something but like this is it man this is it this is so much fun everybody here is super cool thanks for you listener and thanks to you joe the new the patreon member that just joined like 10 minutes ago man what's up anybody else that has ordered a t-shirt or ordered mods or ordered something they win the mail today so it's on its way if you want stuff you can always email me at don's pinball podcast at gmail.com that's where you find me also the facebook page the discord the youtube's got some content coming it's like there's so much stuff coming out there's so much stuff coming out the 3d lab is running non-stop the homebrew lab is in full effect so expect to see more from that soon otherwise dude i don't know like and subscribe whatever go be kind to your neighbor how about that go with yourself a pizza that would make me happy and keep being cool man more to come as i hear it later