I think we're ready. Let's do it. Coming up to you live from my face is Don's Pinball Podcast, episode number 231. Nothing can keep us down in the world of pinball. I'm exhausted, I'm fired up, I'm exhilarated, and I'm excited to share with you all the news and happenings in pinball for this week. It's March! Spank my donut and push me down in a dungeon-crawling car hole. How you doing, everybody? It's Don from Don's Pinball Podcast, and I can't be kept down by anything except my own mirth and my own obligations. But we're back here. We're back to talk about some pinball because there has been an incredible amount of things going on and happening, and I want to talk about them with you, my friends, my listeners. I appreciate you. Circus Voltaire, how can we not talk about this? American pinball, your friends and mine, East Palatine, Illinois' own star pupil. I forget the name of the street they live on there. Doesn't matter. Apparently, they're bringing Circus Voltaire to the masses. Now, pinball is a fun game. Pinball has been around for a while. Pinball had this peak in the 90s when all of us were children. Now we're older and we're buying our own machines and everything. We're thirsty for the nostalgia of the 90s. I was at American Eagle at the mall today with my teenage daughter and looking at the denim outfits they have for sale. It's stuff that Blossom would have wore in 1994, man. The 90s are back in a big way, so why not Circus Voltaire? now these Bally Williams titles and whatever have been rumored to have been coming out for a long time things like Theater of Magic of course we have Medieval Madness we got the Attack from Mars Cactus Canyon finally came out and there's always been rumors of other ones and Circus Voltaire would pop up this John Papadiuk game was it good because of him? was it good because of his team? there was Neon in there they put the dot mage display beneath the glass It had some innovations. It was a fun, interesting game, albeit a little creepy, kind of in that Funhouse Rudy vibe and Roadshow, man. I don't know. Maybe it's games with big faces I'm just not into. Regardless, this has been a title that's floated up but never really confirmed is ever being made. This is the closest that I've heard that this thing's actually coming out. We have American Pinball's new head honcho, Jan Michael Vincent, I think is his name. and wasn't he on Airwolf back in the day? It seems like he wants to bring out these Bally classics, these Bally Williams classics. Were they doing Centaur 2? What the heck were they doing? Apparently, they clarified that it is like a 90s game that they were doing. So, yeah, I guess it's this. So, I think this game has some relevance. Okay, first off. Second off, I don't think I'm a buyer of this game. Third off, I think I would play it, but I tend to play it when I find it on locations or whatever. the game trades at a higher end of value mainly because you know these things were built to be played and destroyed and very few of them survived into you know the modern times and an acceptable playable condition so if you got a pristine one yeah it's going to command some money but maybe not because it's like the be all end all of video gaming uh in pinball form speaking of video gaming and why i kind of stretch this topic a little bit circus voltaire was one of the games when I was getting re-interested in pinball as a later adult and I had the pinball arcade on the playstation probably three maybe four uh this was one of the games uh that came with uh the big bally williams download pack and I got to play it and I had never come across this game you know back when it was out in the 90s or whatever just didn't cross my path or if it did it didn't stand out enough for me to play it but I played this game virtually for quite a bit um it got really good at virtual medieval madness too by the way um you know and so it was kind of fun to you know put the the ball up on top of the ringmaster when he rises up you had a magnet there that was cool he was kind of a bobble head you could nudge the machine and get the ball to kind of sneak off into the wire form like it was neat and i think culturally it has that relevance because we saw similar mechanisms to the ringmaster's head surface recently like in dune William the Worm, he's got a little magnet-ish mechanism on there. It may not be exactly magnet, but the head rises up, drops in the wire form, a clear throwback to the Ringmaster. We even saw Uncanny's X-Men have a sentinel that rises from the playfield as a bash toy, not unlike our friend the creepy purple Ringmaster. So, yeah, I think the game has got some legs. I don't know if you were to put this in front of me alongside Beetlejuice, Dune, Winchester, all the others. I don't know if I would gravitate towards that unless I was nostalgic for it and wanted to put it in the lineup or something. So I don't think it's going to be a barn burner of a game should it come out. But, yeah, I mean, I'm on the side of I think this game deserves to be made. You know, and in a world and in a timeline that we live in that brought us Galactic Tank Force and their previous game, Berrio's Barbecue Challenge, I think we can all argue that Circles of Voltaire is a big step up. even though it's not a game that they themselves designed at least they're releasing a product that seems interesting so yeah i'm on team ap for this man go ahead and make them sell some 457 games or whatever will they have different trim levels are they going to go through that business are they going to dress it up with toppers is it going to have the weird kind of 90s purple picture frame accoutrement on the backbox who knows man we don't even have confirmation this is the game that's coming but a lot of people are talking people are talking about pinball let's give them something to talk about will we see the tpf i'm gonna put a maybe stamp on this so that's good that's good man yeah let's see what else we got uh matt deneman is an artist he made himself a book apparently called dungeon crawler carl i've got it in front of me here freaking pinball i made a post the other day that pinball was a gateway drug to like other hobbies and just this week like I'm in a Barnes & Noble that I haven't been in a bookstore like this in probably 15 years, mainly because they all went out of business. But I was in said bookstore, and I saw a huge display for none other than Dungeon Crawler Carl. This book and this property that I had not heard of, it's not even been a week, and then here I am confronted with it. Kineticist is telling me about it. Retro Ralph's talking about it. This is the next game that Barrels of Fun basically has confirmed at this point is coming out. Who knows? Who knows, really? But people say they love this book. They really love the audiobook. Man, I mentioned this briefly, and, like, people are inundating me with, Don, you need to go listen to this audiobook. Like, was this thing real, or did the Matrix just glitch, and all of a sudden like you know you just surrounded like you the main character and like yeah you haven known about this the whole time I will say this I interested in concepts like this Okay obviously this is a book series It's very popular at the moment. I would like us to get back to a point in pinball where licensed titles are coming out kind of in the same time frame that the popular show or whatever or book or property exists in. You know, we saw this. I did a live stream from Target on Facebook of all. things a couple of days ago talking about you know when jurassic park was coming out there was like a tie-in uh you know mcdonald's happy meal with toys and there was also a pinball machine the flintstones movie with the brian williams fred savage the guy from roseanne uh dan connor you know he played fred friendstone in there that game came out the same time the movie did you know give or take and you know we've seen this with johnny mnemonic of course the shadow and all of these movies generally were pretty terrible, although I do have a soft spot for the original Flintstones movie. But what we can say, though, is there's a clear trend on bad movies having pretty good games. Last Action Hero, really fun game, movie a little bit lackluster. Waterworld, another one. So I'd like to kind of get back to that. I know we're now in the driver's seat of the time of the nostalgia, the nostalgia, right? And I'm here for the nostalgia, man. I don't want to tin your stall's wires or anything. I like the idea that we're getting Jaws. Somebody should do E.T. There's Goonies Rumors. There's all this other business. I'm here for it, man. I think these will be good sellers. We instantly lock on like Jaws, man. Play the 8-bit video modes. I love that, man. I love that. But I think there can be room also for more contemporary titles, given like Hot Properties. And not just like, okay, another new Batman movie is coming out, although I wouldn't turn down a new Batman movie game, but something brand new. Dungeon Crawler Carl, right? While not a 10,000 seller, most likely, yeah, this could be fun, and I'm cautiously optimistic in anticipation of this. Let's read a passage randomly from Dungeon Crawler Carl. In addition to the two baby-killing achievements, I received several more, including multiple explosive-based achievements, rewarding me with several goblin boxes. We both got another bronze boss box. I also got a gold looter box for storing more than a ton of weight in my inventory. What in the world is this book? I can't wait to tear into it, man. Jason Knapp just posted he's like 40% of the way through this book in just a weekend. Man, I'm going to get on the dungeon crawler carol train because this just looks like good, stupid, silly fun. And it's stupid fun speculation that we didn't know we needed, yet here it is. So, Barrels, while I would prefer the last Starfighter, I want to see what Carl can do with Carl here. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited about that. In that same NAP article, as we were going to press here from the Don's Pinball Podcast worldwide headquarters, there was a mention of a patent filing. I love this man. And, you know, these guys are in this, what do they call it, competitive intelligence, you know, where they go in and they, like, stalk their competitors' companies. They're trying to dig out information. It's all this subterfuge, cloak and dagger. I dig it. But they use these skills in pinball. We find postings like this from Jersey Jack Pinball apparently for something called Jack in the Box, which is hilarious for a reason which I'm about to get into. You left coast people, you already know. You already know. You've seen the Ice Cube snack box and the other Long Beach area rappers have come out with meals at said Jack of the Box. But apparently it's some kind of interactive or downloadable, contentable, updatable, internetable, whatever. And we know that Jersey Jack has been working on some kind of competitor to the Stern Insider Connected. I'm here for it, man. I love to walk up to a game and log in and have that game mean something, especially if it's a game that I only play on location I track achievements Dungeon Crawler Carl loves achievements apparently as do I I love the beat bloops so I love the fact that Jersey Jack is working on this I think they have the resources to push through and bring this to fruition the name though it's just making me hungry for a Jumbo Jack for those of you that don't know mainly Midwesterners and East Coasters Jack in the Box is a fast food chain that is notoriously known all throughout the Southern California region. You'll find them in the desert southwest. I think they're even peaking into Texas and things. But essentially, this is a competitor to McDonald's. They're very tongue-in-cheek. They have a wide repertoire of different foods from burgers. It's essentially a burger place, but they've got tacos. They've got fajita pitas, and they are open until like 4 a.m. or later. So when you are drunk in Los Angeles, Jack in the Box is our Waffle House. If we want to go out and get some greasy food, drunk, and get into a fist fight, Jack in the Box is where we go. The Jumbo Jack, the Fajita Pita, the Egg Rolls, the Mini Tacos. Their onion rings are the best in the business. They're like breadcrumb tempura, man. They're amazing. Their shakes are made out of real ice cream. Like, there's a lot to love about Jack in the Box, especially if you're drunk and it's 4 a.m. and it's going to be open and it's going to be delicious and there's going to be a fist fight somewhere adjacent to the parking lot. That's just how it is. That's just how it is. So it's funny to me when I see Jersey Jack pinball coming out with something called Jack in the Box. I almost didn't want to even say anything because I want it to happen because I'm just going to be thinking about those onion rings every time I'm logging into a Jersey Jack game. That's amazing. We don't have that in the Midwest. I think Jack in the Box would do well anywhere. anywhere and i believe the same thing about the waffle house for that matter anyway but that was interesting and i read that and i just laughed man jack in the box go look it up um i was just out in seattle a year ago or so and came across a jack in the box and they they had this like snoop dog or ice cubes like munchie box and it was essentially two or three of every one of their fried appetizers all in one box and it's like if you were stoned drunk two three in the morning this thing would absolutely hit oh my goodness jack in the box bring it to me bring it to me baby all right what do we got let me talk about uh this this giant elephant that's like wrecking my back right now um as i've mentioned uh i have some friends that live up the street from me they also have a pinball company and i occasionally get in there and muck about sometimes i'm driving a forklift uh sometimes i'm playing in boxes making box forts um sometimes i'm modeling you know cool hula gear at the shows or whatever. But recently, I got the opportunity to go ahead and build myself one of these Beetlejuice machines. And, like, how do you turn that down, man? Like, someone like me loves pinball, wants to do as much as I can with it. I want to learn as much as I can. You know, I'm trying to do my own homebrew game. There things that I want to exist in the pinball world and I know no company is going to do it so I trying to do it but I need to level up my skills So when I got the momentary glimpse of an opportunity like these guys let their guard down just enough that they were like, yeah, why don't you grab a play field and throw some stuff on it? Boom. I'm building the Beetlejuice, man. I'm building the Beetlejuice. So here's the recap. Okay. My Beetlejuice game, the game play field, is now completely wired. which is amazing. Devastating. I still have to put on the ramps and the mechanisms and things, but, like, the wiring, the soldering, all that stuff is done. Today I was elbow deep in a cabinet finishing out the cabinet build. And, like, you look at these things, right? We all lift the playfields, own games at home, or operate them on location. You see all the wires that are routed everywhere, and you're like, okay, what a nice, you know, cable-routed snake nest this is. You know, but I want to go and check this one connection because I'm getting like a node board alert or something. Well, like I've now been in there and created this. And oh my goodness, is there a lot of work involved in this. I'm seeing like everybody that works at a pinball company is like, yeah, no crap, dude. Are you serious? But like I can internalize it now. And the funny part of this, after spending 10 hours today soldering, screwing, running wires, putting in cable spooling, and redoing it because I messed it up the first time, then redoing it again, and then finally fine-tuning everything and, like, burning my fingertips on the solders and getting the flipper triggers where they need to be and gapped correctly and all that business, I can now walk over to the games that are on the line in final inspection, and I'm actually able to pick out all the little areas that would be of concern that need to be checked now. Whereas before, you know, I see they have this checklist. They're going through the QC process, and I'm like, yeah, I mean, it looks like a pinball machine to me. Like, what are you even checking? And it's like this newfound knowledge has, like, opened my eyes. like putting on glasses for the first time and noticing every solder joint that's put on there, how the wire looming is run. And, like, it looks like it's a different beast now when I look at it. And I'm very excited about that Don, when's your game going to be done? Soon, I hope. I've got another two to three days of work I think I need to have on there. I want to give the hugest shout-out to my boy Tony, who, like, was my dog today. It was like building a pinball machine in tutorial mode because this guy was like at my elbow the whole time. Tom helped me put together the cabinet because he had some assembly in the cabinet too. And Seth for like hours and hours of help and leveling up my soldering skills. Y'all guys are awesome. And they do this every day. Like they're banging out like two games or so like personally every day. I watched it. Watched it. They're lapping me as I'm putting this thing together. So incredible things are happening. Personally, I've seen, you know, the 12 show games that were at Pinball at the Beach. There's another dozen or probably more that are going to TPF And I've seen a game today with a number played of like 52 or something So if that gives you an idea Now we're like maybe a month and a half or two months into this build That's where we're at That's where we're at 50 games plus easily another 30 or so Now these aren't built linearly So numbers can jump around a bit But that's where we're at man So Don, I'm number 524, where's my game? It's not ready yet. I can tell you that. The game's not ready yet, but they're getting into a good clip here. And the game's just fun, man. Nothing but great feedback from Pinball at the Beach. You know, Kanade is playing it. He's loving it. So whatever that is worth to you. TPF is two weeks away, two weeks and change. And so more people are going to be able to play it there. So I think the game's good, man. I think the game is good. Company's on a good trajectory. I'm getting to build it. And it's just super fun. And I can't wait for that to happen. So that's what I did today. Instead of podcasting earlier in the day, instead of doing a live stream, instead of making YouTube content, I had my butt in the factory, like, elbow deep, burning my fingers on a soldering iron, putting this game together with, like, a new, like, very deep love and respect for the people that actually work in this industry and make these games. It's incredible. That's incredible. Super fun. Let's take a – let's do this. Let's do this. because this was fun because right mixed in with that NAP Arcade article, we have some content for another Multimorphic Minute. Multimorphic Minute is one of my favorite segments where I can put a spotlight on the company that I'm most a fan of. I am the preeminent number one fanboy of the Multimorphic P3 system and all of their incredible licenses. I think they got the best licenses in the industry and I have some sad news to report sad news from the multi-morphic front this song is ridiculous I was getting my hopes all set for a brand new P3 multi-morphic game to debut at TPF, this is where it happens right this is where they had Princess Bride this is where they had Game of the Show Portal and then I was all ready to play whatever the heck they had next even if it's Dungeon Crawler Carl itself and sadly we heard the rumors have been confirmed by Multimorphic through their email that went out to all their super fans, which I had gotten earlier in the day as well, that there won't be a new Multimorphic P3 module game at the Texas Pinball Festival. Why even go? Cancel flights. Forget the hotel deposit. Just surrender it. What's the point of going if Multimorphic is not there with a brand-new P3 module to play? Oh, it's frustrating. Now, luckily, they still have the strength of Portal. And that's probably what's going on. I'm sure they have a new game in the works. Probably they could even reveal it. It may even be coded and everything. But it sounds like with the demand of Portal, and honestly, if you've got a P3 machine, order yourself a Portal, man. This is the killer app for the machine, man. If you're stuck or blessed to have one of these things, you've got to have the Portal game. And the Portal game is fun. It's got cool call-outs, cool mechanisms, best module they've done, most expensive module they've done, most Brad Brad Albright module that they've done. There it is. But, like, a hot little P3 tier runs down my face because we don't have a new game from them to look forward to at the ZPF booth. Sad, sad dawn, sad dawn, sad day. But I had to cover it. I had to include the Multimorphic Minute, and this has been it in its entirety. So shout out to all you heroes at Multimorphic. Pint-sized heroes making one-third of some of the best playfields available in pinball. So there you go. There you go. Give me your roses there, buddy. All right, what else we got? What else we got? What else we got? Don, talk about Retro Ralph. I did. I listened to the flip side, and I loved it. Don, talk about Hexamedia Day. This was super cool. I got myself an invite to the Media Day at Hex of Pinball. the pride of France, right? The Bordeaux region, south of France, pinball company, coming out with the Three Musketeers. And on March 20th, they're doing the media day out there in Bordeaux at this cool art factory. What do you call it Art display house art gallery There an art gallery out there And I looked at the photos online and absolutely there french art everywhere so this would be super clutch to go to you know walk on into this place fly out to france grab the rental car hit the cafe grab some food and then sips and nibbles walk around the art gallery and play some three musketeers i'm going to play as d'artagnan if that's possible i'm guessing it's like teenage mutant ninja turtles where you pick your musketeer uh pro tip there's actually four of them maybe you unlocked d'artagnan i don't know i'm excited to see what these guys have made and this game will simultaneously be debuting at the texas pinball festival on march 20th so i would have taken their invitation in a hot second just give me an excuse to get back to france hell yes i definitely would have been there but it looks like i'm going to be a tpf and the game is going to be there as well so that'll be super fun but it was cool man thanks for the media invite i i'm almost sad that it's debuting also at tpf because i really wanted an excuse to just fly out for the weekend like a weekend in france always sounds like a great idea for me and this would have been an excuse i probably could have got away with it so maybe next time guys but this will be fun so we got some confirmations of some new games at tpf we have still some rumors of some new games that are supposed to be there although i haven't heard it recently halo was being kicked around as maybe debuting at the show but maybe it's moving at the speed of cgc which means that won't be there so turner here's your golden opportunity buddy the pride of texas okay there's three texas companies now turner barrels of fun and multi morphic and two of those for sure will not have new games debuting turner man the spotlight is on you that turn up the rush because limelight is here for you sir walk into the limelight with a banger title your your your trilogy of completion and i think you've got yeah the floor is all yours buddy the floor is all yours yeah beetlejuice is amazing and it ain't for sale uh harry potter is amazing and if you want one you've already ordered one so what is there for us to walk in and get excited about and turner i think could be you it's you and three musketeers baby so like let's make some magic happen. Let's make some magic happen. What else do we got? What else do we got? Oh, I did the Multimorphic Minute. Pokemon Day. Oh, alright. Have you heard about this company, Stern Pinball? Apparently, they live in Elk Grove, Illinois and they're still making pinball machines. Can you believe it? We went 24 and a half minutes without mentioning Stern and we haven't dried up on content. What a time to be alive and in the pinball hobby. Stern, where you guys at? Oh, just dropping Pokemon? Just making that Pikachu box? You sell out your LEs in like 30 minutes? That was incredible. LEs are selling for $20,000, $25,000 on eBay for $40,000. That's $20,000 plus the eBay fees. Madness, man. That's what's going on. On a game that's technically not limited, what in the world, Don? How did you manage to get one? I have no idea other than my listeners are the coolest, most generous people on the planet. Thank you, guys. Really appreciate it. Yeah, Pokemon's coming. It's not out yet. which is a little weird because we did miss the, on the 27th, like my birthday day was also the birthday of Pokemon apparently 30 years ago. And this was super fun. So I was at a Sam's Club on my birthday. I had the day off. I wanted to go get a salad. The Sam's Club makes cool salads, you know. I'm still a Costco guy. Like I want to get the hot dog tattoo and everything. But, like, I dig a Sam's Club. I like their produce department. And it's fun to walk around and see what else they got. so I walk in the store and right at the checkout stand there's a dude with a pallet of Pokemon boxes right and he's handing out little slips to go and check out like if you want one of these you have to go pay for it come back with your receipt and you will receive this mystery box of whatever man and me I'm completely Pokemon the card game naive right and so I'm like well what is it and he's like well it's $38 and it's limit to per person and I'm like yeah that's cool but what is it well what it was was a collectible cardboard gift box right essentially the wrapper the thing came in and then like 10 booster packs for a card game card game whatever and i've been buying booster packs for like five bucks at the family dollar in maine just because i was bored so getting 10 of them for 38 plus there was like a one of nine chance of like a random pack in card as well for people that care about that thing now i just bought these cards at the family dollar or whatever like last week and I bought some card holders like those hard plastic slabs the top loaders they call them um you know and I'm just like taking these garbage cards that are worth nothing and like putting them in plastic and it's kind of cool you know I want to make a mod for this Pokemon machine I'm getting uh the Pokemon machine should have come with a card like a limited edition one for the apron it didn't so I'm going to rectify that I think everybody's going to do that I think that's cool man if there's a character you like maybe find that card you know rip packs or go buy one for 20 bucks and then put it in there and personalize it i think that's cool and it doesn't cost all that much money so that's kind of what i did and so like these things are selling out people are going nuts for them it's limited to per person i'm like okay so give me one so i bought one of these things went home giddily ripped open all the packs had a great time doing that found like an artist rare card apparently maybe it's worth about 100 bucks according to some Pokemon lore people. So it was kind of exciting. So I get it a little bit. I get it a little bit. You know, buying these things that are, you know, the rare pack-ins and stuff, you get some dopamine hit when you do it. Like, I get it. It's like slot machines and stuff. I'm not about to dive in with hundreds of thousands of dollars of money buying Pokemon cards or anything. I still don't even know how that even card game works, really. But, you know, I got caught up in it. It was Pokemon Day. I ordered this machine. The machine's going bonkers. Dopamine hits everywhere. This was super fun. Did you buy something for Pokemon Day? Why not? So I got to say, you know, it seemed like a really silly hobby to me. I mean, look at any hobby if you're not in it. Of course, it looks weird. But, you know, I did have fun participating in it. I did get a rare card that was fun. And so now I got something I can put on my apron. It's got foil and stuff. It's like a trainer. It's one of the girls. I think her name is Laney. I don't know who that is, but it's kind of cool. It's kind of cool to have that in there. So, yeah, man, what a couple weeks of pinball, right? You know, I'm moving back and forth across the country, trying to get my houses sold. New games are just jumping on us, going for stupid amounts of money. I'm turning around, I'm working, building my own game, for cripes sakes, like, at a commercial level. Like, where else can you do that? Where else can you do that? The wondrous state of Wisconsin, that's where it happens. I'll be coming to you live from the state of Wisconsin on the next Patreon, YouTube, or Facebook livestream. So be sure to follow all three. We have a great time there. Fun stuff is always around the corner. TPF will be here before we know it. And any other news or exclusive views I get, I will review to you. Of course, first on Patreon, and then again here. Thanks for joining. Be cool. Hug your family. I'll talk to you later.