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DPP #192 "Biggest launch week ever!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·36m 56s·analyzed·Jun 2, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Harry Potter JJP launches Thursday; Predator hype-building frustrates community lacking release info.

Summary

Don discusses the imminent release week featuring Harry Potter (Jersey Jack) and continued teasing of Predator (Pinball Brothers). He expresses frustration with Predator's prolonged marketing campaign lacking concrete release dates and pricing, while detailing leaked game features. He also covers impressions from the European Pinball Championships in Austria, including positive updates on Dune's code improvements and his philosophy on collector's edition purchasing.

Key Claims

  • Predator features include interactive chopper with physical ball lock, minigun that spins and shoots balls, wrist blade gauntlet ramp, and lit apron with LED lights

    high confidence · Don cites leaked feature list from NAP Arcade that was shared in inbox and publicly posted

  • Harry Potter (JJP) will release Thursday with three trim levels: Arcade Edition ($10,000), Wizard Edition ($12,500), and Collector's Edition ($15,000)

    high confidence · Don states Jersey Jack directly communicated Thursday release date; prices confirmed for each tier

  • Harry Potter Collector's Edition will have unlimited production for limited time based on demand rather than fixed unit count

    medium confidence · Don references hearing this approach but notes it was 'rumored' vs confirmed, distinguishing from 'official' communication

  • Dune received code updates at European Pinball Championships; watermark removed, music retained, scenes improved, callouts increased

    high confidence · Don played updated version at Voklobruk and spoke directly with David Van Ass, game designer

  • Dune preliminary toppers should arrive soon; aftermarket topper and shooter rod still in development/approval phase

    medium confidence · David Van Ass told Don at show; qualification indicates uncertainty on timeline

  • Pinball Brothers' previous wide-body games: Alien (positive), Queen (negative), ABBA (fun but not good)

    high confidence · Don's direct experience and assessment of their catalog

  • RetroJango has NDA with Pinball Brothers and is 'absolutely excited' about Predator, promoting it hard

    high confidence · Don cites his 'buddy RetroJango' as having seen gameplay and promoting game

  • Dune plays better and flows more smoothly than Labyrinth; fewer shots requiring high accuracy

    high confidence · Don's direct gameplay comparison at European Championships

Notable Quotes

  • “I've gotten used to the daily teases now at this point that I don't ever want this game from Pinball Brothers to actually come out. I want another 12 weeks of teasers.”

    Don @ early in Predator discussion — Captures community frustration with prolonged Predator teasing campaign lacking concrete info

  • “We're playing the Predator DOS game right now because all I have is text, and I have to fill in everything else with my imagination.”

    Don @ Predator feature analysis — Uses gaming metaphor to express how leaked feature list without context is unhelpful

  • “Just show me the game, man. Show me the game. Or let me know when I'm going to know the game.”

    Don @ Predator discussion — Direct plea summarizing community desire for either game reveal or release date commitment

  • “I want to know, okay, on Thursday, I know Jersey Jack's releasing a game on Thursday. I've got that day off now. It's dedicated for Harry Potter.”

    Don @ Harry Potter discussion — Contrasts JJP's communication with Predator's lack thereof

  • “Six weeks ago, if the CEs were released, I would have had one, no problem. Now I've kind of completely come around 180 on it.”

    Don @ Harry Potter pricing discussion — Indicates sentiment shift regarding premium pricing and collector's edition value proposition

  • “So I might be okay just watching Harry Potter come out, watching Harry Potter enjoy around the world, go play it on location, and then maybe pick one up later if I decide it's compelling enough.”

    Don @ Harry Potter strategy discussion — Reflects changing consumer behavior: wait-and-see approach rather than day-one purchase

  • “I think that would be better shooting, more flowing game than Labyrinth was. Not as many shots required that high level of accuracy to get into.”

    Don @ Dune evaluation — Positive comparative assessment of Dune vs previous Barrels game

Entities

Predator PinballgameHarry Potter (Jersey Jack)gameDune (Barrels of Fun)gamePinball BrotherscompanyJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companyBarrels of FuncompanyDonpersonRetroJangopersonDavid Van Assperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball maintaining strong media relations; direct communication with podcast host, prizes for giveaways, planning post-launch media day strategy

    high · Don: 'JerseyJack does a pretty good job of communicating with me. I email back and forth. My buddy Ken... when I did my Avatar unboxing, he loaded me up with prizes for giveaways'

  • ?

    event_signal: European Pinball Championships in Voklobruk, Austria featured Dune debut/early showing; international venue provided opportunity for code testing before wider release

    high · Don attended, livestreamed, and played Dune with updated code at European Championships

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Broader community fatigue with three-tier pricing model; Don questions whether $2,500 premium for Wizard edition rad-cals vs arcade decals justifies cost; positioning value as diminishing

    medium · Don's skepticism about $2,500 upgrade: 'So $2,500 for Rad-Cal and probably Invisiglass and a shaker motor... I don't know if I'm excited about that one'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Dune positioned as superior to Labyrinth across playability metrics; fewer high-accuracy shots required, better overall flow per Don's direct comparison

    high · Don: 'I think my opinion stands that it is a better shooting, more flowing game than Labyrinth was. Not as many shots required that high level of accuracy'

  • $

    market_signal: Shift from day-one collector's edition purchases to wait-and-see strategy; Don planning to play at locations first, then potentially buy discounted used units later

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.111

0:00
well happy monday everybody don's pinball podcast back once again episode 192 we're back here for pinball release week and looks like it may be a double lots of stuff to cover now that will probably be outdated in four days and we see the full releases but hell let's do it anyway
0:30
It seems like I'm spending my entire time in recovery mode. It's like as soon as I get back in town, it's like I got to recover from that trip, try to record some content before we go right back out again. And that's what happened. Landed last night at O'Hare's airport. Last night, I think it was noon, but it was night for me. Had a crazy couple of days in Europe. I've picked up a lot of news and experience and a whole lot of fun stuff that I'm going to go over in excruciating detail over on the Patreon channel, actually, as a follow-up segment to this publicly available show. Thanks to everybody that went over there and joined last week. Just for fun, I figured I'd throw episode 191 on over there as a Patreon exclusive for all you homies over there. And it's really because I feel like I have to reward the 100 people or so that are over there just thirsty for content, man. So we threw that there. They'll be getting another show later today. And thanks to all the new people that have joined and emailed me and said, dude, the teaser worked, man. I love it over here. So fantastic. Thanks for that. And if you have any other comments about the show or content, you can always email me, donspinballpodcast at gmail.com. Let's get back into it. Predator. Did you guys know a Predator machine is coming out? I've gotten used to the daily teases now at this point that I don't ever want this game from Pinball Brothers to actually come out. I want another 12 weeks of teasers. I'm just used to waking up with my morning Diet Coke and flipping through and seeing what new distorted picture we're going to get of this game. More information continues to drop, except for the two most crucial pieces of information that we all need. This is not like NDA stuff. We need to know a date when we're going to actually know some hard information. I don't need a price. I don't know if I'm excited about this game or not. It sounds cool. I really like the concept of a pinball wide-body machine. I had fun playing Alien, so like a spiritual successor to that, done better now. Of course I'm excited about that. But if the thing is $15,000, I have zero interest. If it's $4,500, I'm going to go pick up two of them. So it's like I don't know how to gauge my interest or whatever. And they're driving me straight into Ant's appointment here. So we got – because we get daily teases, they're edging us hard. We got a whole other dump of information. Some showed up in my inbox yesterday. I guess some got leaked or given to Kaneda. It's all filtered down on NAP. This stuff moves instantaneously now. It seems like an email hits my inbox. It's already up on NAP. It's already everywhere else. So it doesn't matter who breaks the content now because it's all everywhere instantaneously. So there's a list of features. You can go check it out on NAP Arcade. I'm sure Kaneda's probably talked about it. I don't have a way to listen to that, but I can go through here on NAP Arcade and look at it. But I don't have any context to hang any of this on. right we know that it's a brutal jungle i don't know what that means wide body game i know what that means i know that pinball brothers has produced a wide body game before alien was fantastic queen was not abba was hilarious i have fun playing it but a good game it is not um and so like where are they at now they're on this hard downward trajectory i really want them to do well and i really want a good pinball machine to play like at the end of the day like That's what I want. And here's some information about the game. It's like, did you ever play Quark back in the day, like that text-based DOS adventure game? That's what we're playing with Predator. We're playing the Predator DOS game right now because all I have is text, and I have to fill in everything else with my imagination. Go to Open Door. I'm at Open Door. What do you want to do? Pull handle. It's a push door. Okay, push door. Syntax error. It's like, okay, I'm done with this. Forget Quark Zero. I'm out of here. What do we get? I mean, you can read through this list of things. brutal jungle war wide body. Okay. Takes place in a jungle. Not surprising. Three flippers. Fine. Interactive choppa with physical ball lock. If they have not just taken the ABBA helicopter and re-skinned it and stuck it in this game, I will be absolutely, completely surprised. Because this is going to be the ABBA chopper, right? Hopefully they didn't just stick the gobble hole all the way in the back with the VUK that's just going to shoot it back up there. Exactly the same. I think a military style helicopter at the edge of the play field that maybe balls could roll through a ramp through the chopper but then also a pin can come up to physically lock them in there is probably like if I was trying to build something that's not going to blow the entire budget on one mech but still have something fun, probably what I would do or have balls tumble off of the wire form into the chopper that can then be dumped out of the cargo bay or something, that's what I would expect if I was making something pinball designers are smarter than me so I'd expect something better than that but it would not be surprising if they just took the ABBA mechanism they already had and just reskinned the helicopter we're gonna find out when I don't know I don't know the rest of this stuff like I don't know what this means old painless minigun that spins and shoots balls with multi muzzle flasher what does that mean this shoots balls right so is this how it comes out of the chopper is there a comically large minigun on there like I don't have the context and know what this means. And that's frustrating for me because I don't know what to be excited about it or like, is this the weirdest mechanism ever? And then he gave me stuff like the diverted chopper ramp. Okay, that's probably going to knock balls into a chopper. A scorpion loop ramp. I don't know what that is. I don't know. Loop ramp, like, is it making a circle like a 360 like on Godzilla and Labyrinth and, you know, the biplane ramp that we've seen? Those are cool. I like those. Is it going to make a full 360 like Sonic the Hedgehog? Probably not. Is this just a 180 loop wire form metal ramp combo that we all kind of hate? Oh, that would suck. But, like, I don't know what this means. I don't know what Predator Icon cutout black stealth trims means. Does this mean that they got, you know, the laser cut armor? Like the same stuff I can order, you know, from Barcelona whenever I want from Cab Custom with the Predator logo on it? I get it. That's cool. I do like laser cut armor. I do like powder coats. So I guess that's what they're getting. what I still don't know is like other than soon when is this game actually coming out what's it's price going to be are these already built in boxes like ready to pick up probably not because I would have seen one in Voklobruk two days ago in Austria when I was at the European Pinball Championships when somebody could have just drove eight hours down and brought a damn game so we could all play it like how fun would that have been have a secret like predator room in the back that we could all like you know go into and play the game maybe with the lights out and just like infrared camera lights everywhere and you get to play the game under infrared light or you have to put on night vision goggles and there's a small light source and so you get to play the game early but it's in pitch blackness and you have to wear thermal goggles to kind of see what you're doing and it's a way to build some hype for the game before it comes out in a way that doesn't allow people to just snap photos on their phone and leak it all over the internet. How fun would that have been? You take like the most passionate people in all of pinball like who else would travel all the way to Austria? that doesn't live there to go play pinball. That would have been amazing. But I'm not a marketing guy, so what do I know? What do I know? Predator Pinball, I'm trying not to ride too hard on it, but I don't want to allow myself to get too excited about the game until I know when I'm going to see more. Because if this is going to be six more months of this, I mean, it probably won't be, but that's not terribly fun. So the sense I'm getting from just about everybody is, like, Quit teasing us and show us this game, damn it, already. Or give us a date so we know. What I don't want to do is be going about my daily duties of the day, which tends to be pretty busy, and then find out on my phone, oh, something released, and then I've got to rush back and go review this thing and get all the content together. I want to know, okay, on Thursday, I know Jersey Jack's releasing a game on Thursday. I've got that day off now. It's dedicated for Harry Potter. So when it hits, I can be there. I can absorb it. get my reactions out there, and then figure out, like, is this a game that's worth purchasing or not? Which trim level? Like, I'm prepared now for Harry Potter. So I feel like I got a good relationship coming up with this game from JJP. With Pinball Brothers, like, I don't know. It's like, you know, your ex is teasing you about custody. Like, maybe her and Brandon are going to go out of town for the weekend, you know, down to the sports casino, and you've got to watch little Brendan, you know, because you've got, like, baby duties or something. but you're not sure and she's just keeping you on the hook so you can't go make plans with Jennifer again for the second time. And she just got that weekend off work and she has access to the family's timeshare and your ex knows that and that why she dangling Brendan in front of you Anyway we all been through this several times I sure And so that kind of how I am with Predator Like I want to be excited about spending time with Brendan This went sideways hard. But I just don't know yet. So at this point, the only thing I can expect is more teases every day forever. So until I can know more about it, that's what I'll be going on with. I do know the impressions of the game are good. I know there's a lit-up apron. They did share that photo yesterday. I don't know what a yuan chi is, a yanta apron display. I have no idea what that means. But I did see pictures of what looks like some LED lights in the apron. So, I mean, that's better than a plastic apron. It's probably better than a metal apron. The starry apron from Big Lebowski was super cool, and I'm glad my game came with it. And if it didn't, I probably would have bought it, even though it was kind of expensive. Because interactive lights in an apron are a fun thing. We've seen Spooky Pinball doing some fun things with aprons. putting physical ball locks on aprons, putting tape recorders on aprons. So interactive, illuminated lights, I totally dig. There's a guy out in India. God, my brain is completely scrambled. Italy, same thing. This Italian gentleman I met over in Vaux-le-Brooke, he makes these laser cuts, backlit aprons for older games, and they look super cool. They're like €260, so by apron light-up standards, not bad a price. He was there at the show. So these look cool. I would totally dig some light-up aprons in games. Hopefully that's somewhere that we're going. I know we're definitely going there with Predator, so I dig that. A lot of things to like about this game. I just need to know when it's coming out, how much it's going to be. Anything else here? Wrist blade, gauntlet ramp. All right, what I'm seeing is camp attack ramp. Okay, so I'm seeing ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp, which I like. I love that. I like a lit apron. Okay, truck and rebel camp with exploding light show. I don't know what that means. fine. The minigun that shoots balls, the interactive chopper, are those one thing? Are those two things? I don't know. I want to know more. I want to know more at this point. We got some very fuzzy photos of the playfield that was shared with us.

“I had smuggled some packets from the U.S. over to Europe, so I had my mustard with me because mustard and pretzels go together.”

Don @ European Championships story — Personal anecdote showing community enthusiasm and international engagement

Ken
person
Stefanperson
European Pinball Championshipsevent
NAP Arcadeorganization
Kanedaperson
Avatar (Jersey Jack)game
Labyrinth (Barrels of Fun)game
Alien (Pinball Brothers)game
Alice in Wonderlandgame
Godfather (Stern)game
Big Lebowski (Stern)game
Godzillagame
Sonic the Hedgehoggame
Spooky Pinballcompany
Voklobruk, Austrialocation
Patreon (Don's)organization

high · Don: 'I might be okay just watching Harry Potter come out... and then maybe pick one up later if I decide it's compelling enough' and speculation about buying from players dumping machines after 50 plays

  • ?

    leak_detection: Predator feature list leaked to multiple outlets simultaneously (email, NAP, Kaneda); information flows instantaneously across community platforms

    high · Don: 'Some showed up in my inbox yesterday... It's all filtered down on NAP... This stuff moves instantaneously now. It seems like an email hits my inbox. It's already up on NAP. It's already everywhere else.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Distributor visibility into JJP games pre-release; games may already be in boxes going to distributors before public launch, enabling customer showroom play

    medium · Don: 'I have heard some tales that some of these games will be in boxes and already going out to distributors. Distributors may have already seen this game'

  • $

    market_signal: Predator's extended daily teasing campaign without release date or pricing creating community frustration rather than excitement; Don explicitly states he'd prefer actual game reveal or confirmed timeline

    high · Don: 'Quit teasing us and show us this game, damn it, already. Or give us a date so we know.' and 'I want to know, okay, on Thursday, I know Jersey Jack's releasing a game on Thursday. I've got that day off now.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Harry Potter cabinet art uses movie poster assets rather than custom illustrations; Don expects this was required for licensing compliance through committee approval process

    medium · Don: 'I didn't expect they would do a custom new take on Harry Potter. I think they probably had to play this pretty close to the book to get this done'

  • ?

    product_concern: Dune code updates measurably improve gameplay experience; watermark removed, music retained, scenes enhanced, callouts increased per Don's direct testing

    high · Don: 'the watermark was gone the music was still there the scenes looked a little better... I was starting to hear more of the callouts. So this code was definitely a fair bit better than what the code launched with for sure.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Dune toppers in phased rollout: preliminary toppers coming 'soon' with every game; aftermarket topper and shooter rod in development/licensing approval phase

    medium · David Van Ass told Don at European Championships: 'the preliminary toppers, should be out soon, the ones that come with every game' and aftermarket accessories 'still kind of... I don't know if they're still in development or they're still just pre-licensing approval'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don's personal philosophy on collector's edition purchasing has reversed 180 degrees in six weeks; now prefers arcade editions with aftermarket customization over premium tier pricing

    high · Don: 'Six weeks ago, if the CEs were released, I would have had one, no problem. Now I've kind of completely come around 180 on it' and preference for $7,500 arcade edition approach

    • 11:24
    Just show me the game, man. Show me the game. Or let me know when I'm going to know the game. I guess it's a take home. What I do know is the impressions from somebody that has seen it, seen some gameplay. And that's my buddy RetroJango. He's got himself an NDA with Pinball Brothers. He's absolutely excited about this game. He's promoting it hard. Mainly because I think he's just excited. Hopefully he's getting some cash on the deal. But he can't wait for this to come out and he's a very intense Predator fan. So I'm taking that this game is probably better than Queen. Probably better than ABBA. Hopefully it's better than Alien. And hopefully it's something that'll be cool. Will it be limited numbers? If you order one, when are you going to get it? What's the tariff situation going to be? There's so many questions before I can get fully invested in this. and when can I play it? That's really what I want to know. When can I get to play this game? Is it going to be at Expo? Is it going to be at TPF? Is it going to be six years from now? Is it never coming out? I have no idea at this point. I have no idea. But that is my impressions on where I am with the whole Predator situation. As it stands, who knows? We might get a release later today for all I know. I'm excited about it, though. I'm excited about it. And we'll see where this falls in the whole pantheon of the class of 2025 and see who comes out. on top. Good contender for this would be The Boy That Lived, Harry Potter. This game, which we finally got some art reveals, I wasn't sure exactly what I was seeing. This kind of dropped when I was on a road trip, of course, and I had tons of other things to be focusing on, but then when I finally saw it, I think what they had released was actually the wizard cabinet art. Okay, and art for one side of the cabinet and one side of the back box, that's all we've gotten. So everything we've seen from this game, we see the golden snitch Shooter Rod, which should be this collector's edition exclusive. I like it. I think that's fine. I'm not mad about it. What we saw was the Wizard edition. This is that middle tier game. And we saw the art. So looking at the art of this game, which is really the only thing we can comment on. It's the only thing they've released to us. It looks about what I would expect. You've got all the heroes. You've got the three children kind of right there center. It's not baby Harry, which is cool. It's not like the kid from the first game. It doesn't look like totally adult Harry. So it's kind of like somewhere in the mid-pack, which works. Which works. You know, it's not just full of just young children. And you got kind of all the heroes like stood up on one side of the cabinet facing towards the front. And then it's just like everybody's ready to launch a spell at Hagrid for some reason. Or like some like off-scene entity.
    13:53
    This looks, you know, the Harry Potter logo's right there. Hogwarts Castle's there. Blue Sky. All the characters. They look like they use movie poster assets. This is what I've expected. I didn't expect they would do a custom new take on Harry Potter. I think they probably had to play this pretty close to the book to get this done. And of all the other things and licensing hurdles and things you would have, at least the art would be something that you can kind of get through a committee in a reasonable fashion. I do like this border that they put on there. It's almost like a wood grain or filigree or something that kind of forms a border of the art. I wish that was carried over into the actual armor that went around the button the way that the art does.
    14:35
    And I could see a kind of deep red or maroon, maybe with some sparkles in it, powder coat for this. Everything in the Harry Potter universe seems to be anachronistic to the time. It's supposed to take place in modern times, but with ancient magical artifacts. So everything looks like it came off of a sailing ship from the 1700s. You know, all the bookcases and things are like hewn wood. Everything looks like a Victorian curio cabinet or writing desk, you know. So I could see it if the pinball machine itself looked like it was, you know, carved of ancient wood, you know, inlaid with, you know, unicorn feathers or some damn thing.
    15:14
    Or pegasus feathers, I guess. You know, unicorns just have the horn and the pegasus is the winged horse, you know. And sometimes you can flake the two. But whatever it is, I think that would be kind of cool. And I'm glad they didn't just go with just a wand as a shooter rod. It would feel terrible in the hand, you know. So it's cool they went with that Quidditch thing. I dig that. So we've seen that. We've seen the art. We've seen the back glass. And the back glass art, again, it looks like what I would expect. And now somewhere, I don't know if I was scrolling or whatever, but I happened across an image of a play field for Harry Potter. And I have no idea if this is from an old virtual title, if it was AI generated, or if somebody leaked and then disappeared, like the actual play field art. what I saw had the three main characters I can't, I don't think they were like the tiny little kid ones so maybe the same ones as the side of the cabinet they were right there between the flippers, kind of like right in the same spot that the Avatar character's on so like if that's what was released I would be like, this looks like about what I would expect, right I didn't see ramps and stuff it was just like a clip of art I don't even think it showed the whole play field but you know, there were, it looked like a pinball art infield layout style. There were inserts. There were looks like spots where ramps would mount. And then the three characters that were down there. And it kind of matched the same kind of art that we're seeing now on the side of the cabinet. So maybe something snuck out here. We'll find out here pretty soon. Now we're supposed to get the same play field on all three trim levels here. 10,000, 12,000 and 15,000. 12,500, 15,000 is the price spread of them. Arcade edition, wizard edition and collector's edition is what they're calling it. collector's edition is going to have an exclusive topper to it and it will probably have a visiglass a powder coat, all the other stuff that you can do yourself the exclusive thing to the collector's edition is probably going to be that shooter rod and that topper, unless they decide to throw in some cool Quidditch shin guards for the front legs so I can lust over those like I am with the golden lions from Godfather now we've been told one thing and we've been rumored another about the edition size for the CEs. We've heard that they'd be produced in unlimited quantities based on demand for a limited time. I dig that approach because there's no mad rush on them. There's no chance of them selling out and then you've got to pay a scalper $17,000 if you want to get one. Anybody that wants to pay MSRP and get one of these at launch can. I like that equality, that egalitarian way of distributing that. Now, as far as running in, getting one of these and speculating that you could flip it for $20,000 in a couple weeks, I don't play that game man because so far that's the type of thing that I choose wrong every time I have no idea you know what I think is going to hit ends up not and I think it's kind of pretty random you know six people could go up to a slot machine and one hits and the other ones are like man Debra over there is really good at slot machines and it's like that's not really part of it so you know unless you got some insider trading deal on it you know I don't know if there's really a way for me to participate at that level so I like the idea of anybody that wants one can get one at launch and then if it turns out to be something really cool that window has been closed and you have something that exclusive Otherwise if they make a thousand of them then you got to play that game on should I rush in should I not If they sell out maybe it be worth more If one of them is available at MSRP in a box somewhere, then none of them are going to go up in value. I don't know that I feel good in that situation. I want to feel good about buying a new machine and get home and have fun playing it, not feel like I made a horrible financial mistake. Or just having the possibility of that. That's just not fun for me. That's not the part of the hobby that I enjoy. Moving on, we've got a Wizard Edition, and I'm not sure exactly what comes with that. Someone had just dropped, I just read somewhere this morning that the art on the Wizard and the Arcade Edition is the same, and the CE will have exclusive art. Fine. I guess the Wizard Edition is going to have radcals instead of decals. But if the art is the same, eh, is that worth $2,500?
    19:15
    Probably not to me. I don't think I would necessarily make that leap. It's $1,400 for Butter Caverns from Spooky, but those are directly printed on the cabinet and clear-coated and do definitely feel better than a plastic Rad-Cal. So $2,500 for Rad-Cal and probably Invisiglass and a shaker motor that you can add later. And you're not going to get the good topper. You're going to get probably that two-stage plastic topper with the lights that will probably be available after market. I don't know if I'm excited about that one. So for me, and I've mentioned how I've been evolving on this over the last several weeks. Six weeks ago, if the CEs were released, I would have had one, no problem. Now I've kind of completely come around 180 on it, where if I do really like this game, I think just the plain edition, the arcade, and then I can boost it up a little bit with some powder coat and some acrylic art blades and call it a day, make my own topper, I think I might be fine there. But you know what I may be fine with? I may be fine with like a $7,500 arcade edition in three months or so when something else comes out, because that's been exactly the same pattern every time with every release as long as I've been following this hobby at this level. And looking around my game room, I don't really have any extra space for anything right now. It's not going to eat up more floor space. I'm not really ready to jettison a lot of the games that I do have right now that are still new, still are waiting for complete code, and still I haven't fully experienced and squeezed all of the juice out of that lemon. So I might be okay just watching Harry Potter come out, watching Harry Potter enjoy around the world, go play it on location, and then maybe pick one up later if I decide it's compelling enough that I still want to have it in the house.
    20:56
    I think I was kind of talking about maybe when this game is finally released, just putting a wanted post on Pinside for a collector's edition Harry Potter for $12,500, and I'll just put it up there and just have it wait until six weeks later the first person with 50 plays in the machine needs to dump it for something new. my ad will be the one that they grab and then I'll go pay cash and pick it up maybe I'll do that, I won't tell I won't be able to tell until again we get the release and thankfully our friends at Jersey Jack have told us that Thursday is the day that it's happening, so I'm excited about that, that's only a couple of days from now I got that day off it's going to be Harry Potter fun day we'll get some popcorn, we'll watch the movies we'll throw wands at each other or whatever the hell these kids do and I think that'll be probably how I'll spend most of my Thursday. We're all going to know about Harry Potter here pretty soon. I'm really excited about that. I've been checking my inbox. JerseyJack does a pretty good job of communicating with me. I email back and forth. My buddy Ken over there, when I did my Avatar unboxing, he loaded me up with prizes for giveaways. Fantastic. Thank you so much for doing that. I know you made a lot of people happy getting banners and translights and things. Some JerseyJack hats and things went out. That was super fun. We got good communication there and I haven't heard anything back about a media day for this game definitely nothing Thursday so you know probably not that I was singled out and not invited I think they just haven't announced anything when they released Avatar they didn't have anything for media right away either but Ken had mentioned that this was something that they were planning on doing so during the last game Avatar they were planning on doing a big media day and they did it after the game was officially released Then they sent out contacts to everybody and flew people out or whatever. I just drove on down because it's right down the street from me. You know, happy to do that again. So there may still be a plan for a media event for this game, and it may be just after the initial chaos of the first week that this game is out there and distributors are getting their allotments filled and everything. I have heard some tales that some of these games will be in boxes and already going out to distributors. Distributors may have already seen this game, which is kind of cool, because it would be fun if this game released and then people would call up their favorite distributor and would be told, hey, why don't you come down to the showroom? I got one right here. You can play it and then get your order in during this window of collector's edition availability. I think that would be amazing. And so hopefully that is what they're doing. More on that as I get it. Harry Potter, man, it's going to be out here. It's going to be out here pretty soon. I just got back from Vokalabruk where they had the European Pinball Championships. Everybody was having a fantastic time there. There was a lot of good food, too. It wasn't just hot dogs and pizza. There were schnitzel sandwiches, butter-filled pretzels, which I had not had before. That was fun. What I could not find was any mustard, and thankfully, I had smuggled some packets from the U.S. over to Europe, so I had my mustard with me because mustard and pretzels go together like green beans and potatoes or whatever, or whatever Forrest Gump used to say about Alabama and that chick that he sought after.
    24:04
    So we all had a great time there. It was a big tournament. I did a live stream. I did a walk of the show floor. Dune was there making its, I don't know if that was its European debut. I think that was one of the first games that are out there in Europe. There was one that went to Sweden and one that went to Voklobrook. David Van Ass was there as well, so I got to play Dune again. It was fun. Walking into the show, nobody was on Dune.
    24:27
    I mean, one person was on just like 75% of the games that were there. there weren't like lines and lines of people that you typically see at these pinball shows in the states which was kind of cool most of the people were there just like stuck to their tournament games and in their round areas so I was able to walk right up and there was an Alice in Wonderland with nobody on it and there was a Dune with like one dude on it and so I waited for him to be off and I was able to play Dune with the updated code the watermark was gone the music was still there the scenes looked a little better maybe there was kind of some more that were in there and I was starting to hear more of the callouts So this code was definitely a fair bit better than what the code launched with for sure. And that's kind of what David was telling me too.
    25:09
    He's got several code updates that are in the works. They're almost finalized. He even had some newer code, he said, with him, but there still may be some undiscovered bugs on there. He didn't want to pull the trigger on debuting brand new code for the public for the first time with the show. He didn't want to keep the game running and stuff. But I got to get another game on it, and I think my opinion stands that it is a better shooting, more flowing game than Labyrinth was. Not as many shots required that high level of accuracy to get into. That horseshoe, man. I know tournament players have no problems with it, but when that's how you start a mode that's frustrating to get up there sometimes, that just detracts. So this game doesn't feel like that at all. It feels like it does flow better. Go check it out. It'll be at probably every pinball show throughout the rest of the year now, at this point now that they're making some. But yeah, the code was better. So the code was better. The game looks the same as it did before. Still no topper. Waiting on that. Dave said those, at least the preliminary toppers, should be out soon, the ones that come with every game. And then there will be an aftermarket topper and an aftermarket shooter rod. Those are still kind of, I don't know if they're still in development or they're still just pre-licensing approval or whatever. But those aren't ready for release yet. But there'll be some kind of what I'm assuming is going to be a giant worm or something on top of the cabinet. So we'll wait to see that. Don, how was the show? It was mainly a pinball championship show. There were two vendor tables, I think, that were there. There were food. It took place in an ice hockey arena in this town of Vuklobruk in Austria at the footsteps of the Alps. It was warm. There was a supermarket across the parking lot.
    26:45
    And this was fun. I met Stefan from RS Pinball. He was the guy hosting and doing this whole thing. And he's like the main distributor guy, the main importer in Europe for just about every company. And then every other distributor kind of sub-distributes from him. So he's like the guy that everything passes through. So he's got everything. This was the first show where they had complete sets of games from every manufacturer. They had a complete set of games from JJP. Every single Jersey Jack pinball machine was all in one lineup to play, left to right. I mean, they didn't have like every CE limited edition, whatever. But like every one of their games were there and so you could go up and down the line if there's any games that you Were missing they were all right there. It was the first time I think this is a Bugs House And they had every single spooky pinball machine lined up from America's most haunted all the way to Evil Dead Domino was there Jetsons was there like all these hard games Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle Rob Zombie You know the rest every single one of their games was all on a line as well And like it was kind of impressive to see where I think they may have like one or two more games than Jersey Jack has done. Like, it was really impressive to stand there and, like, look at the whole chronology of this company and everything that they've put out from that little factory in Benton, you know. So, like, that was impressive seeing that. They had all the Pinball Brother games were there. Abba was there. And then I think it went down. I don't know. It's not a chance to get jumped back on it. They had every home-penned game there as well. Oh, I'm sorry. They were missing. They were missing Blues Brothers. I would have jumped on that. But they did have a spinal tap, which was down because, of course, it was. What a horrible game. Don't buy that. It's not even a game. It's just a boat anchor, man. It's got a ramp that you cannot hit with the geometry of the game. I don't care who you are. There's no way to get a ball up that ramp. And the other ramp is very difficult to get a ball up there with a float, actually make it through. It's not a fun game. It's not even a game. It's like not even a kinetic sculpture because at least those move and are interactive. This just sits there, man. I can't say enough bad things about Spinal Tap. I don't hate pinball, but I hate Spinal Tap, the game. I love the theme is great too. Oh, God, that game is awful. Thunderbirds, still probably their best release. It's got interesting mechanisms that are in it. It's got a rant that goes to nowhere, which is so pointless that I love it. And, you know, it's not a great game. It's not even a good game, but it is their best game. And it is one that I will come back to and play again. I don't care if I ever try to play Spinal Tap again. And Blues Brothers I probably would try again, but it's like one of those bootleg NES cartridges from back in the day that your cousin brought over. Like, oh, he plays Nintendo too. He's brought some of his games. Maybe you can trade them. And you're like, there's no way in hell I'm trading you the Contra for a freaking Dizzy's Egg Adventure from Codemasters. Get that crap the hell out. Don't even put it in my game. I don't want to get it dirty. That thing looks dirtier than you are, Jeffrey. Get out of here. I don't have a cousin, Jeffrey. I don't know why I threw that name out there.
    29:44
    But that's what it feels like. Like, I wouldn't, oh, God, it's just, it sucks. Like a little Tengen game from back in the day that doesn't work. Get out of here. The rest of the show, though, pretty awesome. I mentioned I saw the light-up apron guy was there selling some cool wares. Forget his name. I think he gave me a card. They did have a very impressive homebrew section. And this was fun because I go to TPF, I go to Expo, and, you know, the people that are regional with their homebrews, I see their games every show. They're great. I love them. They're getting better all the time. But, like, I've seen them. Like, they had stuff here that I had never seen because no one's going to put a homebrew cabinet in a shipping container and pay $4,000 to ship it to the U.S. or whatever it costs. So there was, like, a Rocky Horror pinball machine that was a, like, total retheme of Black Rose. But, like, they just used the cabinet and the play field as a shell. They moved around ramps. They removed that big wire form that comes down from the front. I think they added a lower play field. It's got totally new lights, totally new system, new rules and everything. That was very impressive seeing. I saw the best version of Terminator 2 I've ever seen. Instead of having mirror blades just on the inside, there was polished mirror side cabinets. It wasn't even side armor. It was like stainless steel with cutouts of the T-1000 and stuff, like a whole panel for the side of the cabinet. The cabinet was clad in stainless steel that was mirror-finished. This thing was amazing. You couldn't get close to it without putting fingerprints all over the damn thing. There was a topper that was the T-100. Yeah, the T-1000 was the liquid metal one. The T-100, you know, the original kind of Terminator guy. Anyway, his chrome head with glowing eyes would react to the switches in the game, and his head would move and pivot based on where the ball was at. As soon as the ball hits the shooter lane, his eyes are right down there looking at it. So creepy, man. It was fantastic. The guy that was there that made the totally restored Radical with the Radcals and everything that we saw auctioned off at Expo, he was there with not only another Radical, Radicaled, Radcaled Radical. He also had a Radcald and completely restored Elvira and the Party Monsters. That was like a special moment for me because this is like one of the games I used to play like 30 years ago. It's this little diner with my then-girlfriend. And like such a cool game to see completely just absolutely bonus restored. He had a couple restored. Adam's family is there too. Like the whole lineup was incredible. Check out the live stream. It's over on the Facebook page right now. I need to download that and put it on YouTube before Facebook deletes it. but it was a fun walk around showing off all the games that were at the Volkloberg European Pinball Championships this was a first for me I got up in addition to my spooky friends up on stage at a damn autograph table and not only that friends but people were bringing stuff up to me to get signed which was amazing dude people listened to me out there dude came up to me and he's like I bought a t-shirt from you man you shipped it out to me I was like fantastic this was crazy just as a personal aside just like a milestone moment for me in pinball broadcasting.
    32:52
    I had a homie watch the show, listen to the show. He saw me do the live stream. He was there at the show. He had gone over to the supermarket. He was watching the live stream, and he was like, oh, look, Don's covering the show. He must be doing that AI green screen thing or something. I was walking around. And then as I'm walking out of the show, he comes up, and he's like, oh, my God, you're actually here? Like, this was fun. This dude's from Belgium. him. He's over in Austria at this pinball show. He listens to this podcaster that lives in Wisconsin who just all of a sudden is also in this random little town in the middle of Austria. It was so fun. What a cool moment. We hung out for a while, got to meet everybody. I was traveling out there with the Spooky Crew. It was their first time in Europe. It was just a great time at this fun show. I think if you're in Europe, it's worth a trip to Vuklobruk. It took place at the end of May. The weather's warm. The Alps are right there. The meadows are all green the food is great like what a fun place and fun time to go to um now i don't know if this was your like sole reason to go to europe if it would necessarily be worth it say from the us or australia um but with everything else there is fun to do in europe absolutely it was worthwhile going out to this and i would totally go back out here again like i'm ready to go to europe right now okay it was so much fun i want to cover the entire trip in a separate podcast over on the Patreon right now, where I'm going to go down everything that myself and the Spooky Crew did, the hijinks that we got into, and I want to do it in a way that number one, will be entertaining as a tourer, you can hear about all the crazy stuff we did, but also as a source of inspiration, if you haven't been, or even if you've been before, I'm going to talk to you about a bunch of cool stuff that you can do over there that you wouldn't have otherwise known about. The original plan these guys had was, of course, to fly in, go to the show, stay for a couple days, fly back out, and would have missed so much, man. We ended up going to four countries. It was fantastic. All right, I'm going to end this show now because I'm fired up. I want to get into this trip report. It's going to be awesome. So, ladies and gentlemen, thanks again for joining me here to Hunt Spinball Podcast. This was number 192. We're going to keep at it. We got a kick-ass week coming. Harry Potter, for sure, is coming this week, which makes this probably the biggest week of pinball of the entire year. This thing's been rumored. I just saw. I pulled up. I was Googling around for AI images of play fields, and I found a post from Pinball Heaven, Gonzo's pinball flipperama, you know, associated with a distributor in the UK, a post from November 13th, 2020, with a picture of a virtual pinball layout for Harry Potter. And the caption reads, a stern Harry Potter pinball machine within the next couple of months? Here it here first. Like, this game's been rumored with photos, you know, conceptually designed and batted around for five years now, at least documented here, and probably earlier than that. And so it's finally coming out like this week. This is going to be the biggest pinball week of the year as far as announcements and releases. Everything is hanging on this. The potential for huge disappointment is there. If this thing comes out with cake toppers, two ramps, and no code, and muted voices, and muted video clips, it's going to be rode so hard straight to hell. And if this thing is even moderately decent, it's going to be a potential for the greatest pinball machine of all time. It was a killer theme with even a mediocre theme. This thing's going to rise on up there. A killer theme with a mediocre layout. This thing could be fantastically bananas. Speaking of bananas, what about Kong? I'll get to that next time.
    36:24
    Oh. Come to the end of another episode. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is where you can get at me. You know that. Patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast for the upcoming trip reports and more that's over there. Welcome, everybody. We're going to go over to the green room there. I'll see you there.
    36:40
    Have fun with this chiptune.