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DPP #248 "P3's and BOF Dreams"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·37m 59s·analyzed·Jul 26, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.023

TL;DR

BOF teases mystery music game; Multimorphic reveals DCC; Turner ships; Don gets P3 sponsorship.

Summary

Don discusses rapid-fire developments in pinball: Barrels of Fun's mysterious new music-themed game (teased as Bon Jovi but likely a smokescreen), the reveal of Dungeon Crawler Carl at Comic-Con, Turner Pinball shipping, and Don's new sponsorship with Kingpin Games to acquire a P3 system. Significant FOMO-driven speculation about BOF's next title, strategic marketing by smaller manufacturers, and growing enthusiasm for niche IP in pinball.

Key Claims

  • Barrels of Fun produced approximately 700 units of Dune against a planned 1,000-unit run, leaving ~238 games potentially unbuilt

    high confidence · Don speaking directly with David Van Es (Barrels of Fun founder); stated as confirmed conversation

  • Barrels of Fun closed their reserve membership club, suggesting new game announcement imminent

    high confidence · Don observing website status; 404 error on reserve membership URL noted

  • Turner Pinball is scheduled to ship on Tuesday with no reported production hiccups

    high confidence · Don received invoice for game with $450 shipping cost; stated to be in production now

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl and Ender's Game will go on sale Monday at noon CST/CDT

    high confidence · Don stating confirmed sale date; described as rumor-confirmed to official reveal

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl playfield was revealed during Matt Dineman's Comic-Con panel unexpectedly

    high confidence · Don witnessing real-time reveal while working in garage; described as surprise showing

  • John Borg is designing an Ozzy Osbourne game for Stern, expected 2027 release

    medium confidence · Don stating 'It sounds like John Borg doing an Ozzy game' and '2027' as expected timeline

  • Barrels of Fun has strong working relationship with Legendary Pictures and Jim Henson Company

    high confidence · Don stating 'David has made no secret that he loves and has a great working relationship with Legendary Pictures' and noting Labyrinth/Jim Henson connection

  • Winchester Mystery House games are selling for $20,000+ on secondary market

    medium confidence · Don referencing 'sold out at the 11-6 and they're going for $20,000' (11-6 likely a show)

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl book is a cultural phenomenon with merchandise, TV/movie/tabletop game adaptations in production

Notable Quotes

  • “Barrels is doing multiple levels of six-dimensional chess with our minds.”

    Don — Characterizing Barrels' marketing strategy of seeding false rumors (Bon Jovi) to generate buzz and community engagement

  • “What have you done for the people that have boughten 10 LEs from you and spent $250,000 with your company? Have you done anything special for them? And the answer is probably no.”

    [name withheld pending review] — Criticizing larger manufacturers like Stern for not rewarding loyal high-spend collectors vs. boutique makers like Barrels

  • “It's got to make economic sense, right? ...do they have a reserve of 300 plus games...? Probably not, which means they have to reorder.”

    Don — Analysis of Dune production economics explaining why Barrels likely won't restart production for remaining 238 units

  • “I want to see the ball trough and try to understand and wrap my head around the genius that's been put in this thing.”

    Don — Expressing intent to evaluate P3 system critically in home environment rather than at shows; acknowledging past skepticism

  • “Is it going to last 20 years or is this a flash in the pan right now? Whatever, but it's hot right now.”

    Don — Assessing Dungeon Crawler Carl cultural momentum while hedging on longevity of trend

  • “Like it's not even starting to unify around a certain theme here. Like it was Bon Jovi for four days. What a rollercoaster ride that has been.”

    Don — Summarizing the chaotic 4-5 day period of Barrels mystery game speculation before Bon Jovi rumor dissipated

  • “I knew they were going to launch. So I did have an inkling a heads up...I put one in just when everybody else would have had the opportunity to do that.”

    Don — Disclosing that Don received advance notice of Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti launch 24 hours before public reveal

  • “Like most everybody else, I had no idea about this thing until it became a pinball rumor. And then I sought it out.”

Entities

Barrels of FuncompanyDavid Van EspersonDungeon Crawler CarlgameEnder's GamegameMultimorphiccompanyTurner PinballcompanyYukon Yetigame

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Multimorphic revealed Dungeon Crawler Carl and Ender's Game playfields and titles at Comic-Con; sales begin Monday noon CST

    high · Don observed playfield during Matt Dineman's Comic-Con panel; confirmed sales opening Monday at noon

  • ?

    machine_intel: Barrels of Fun closing reserve membership club and announcing mystery music-themed game; likely Legendary Pictures-licensed title; multiple false rumors (Bon Jovi) used as strategic marketing smokescreen

    high · Website 404 on reserve membership; Don confirmed closure with David Van Ness; 4-5 days of intensive speculation; special VIP event Friday 4-6pm at Southern Fright Gaming Expo for reveal consideration

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Intense 4-5 day period of speculation about Barrels of Fun's next title with 20+ rumored themes; Bon Jovi dominated discourse before being identified as likely smokescreen

    high · Don states 'at least 20 different rumored titles'; Bon Jovi rumor from multiple sources; strategic disinformation theory credible given prior industry patterns

  • ?

    product_launch: Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti moving to production; Don's unit scheduled to ship Tuesday; early adopter positioning

    high · Don received invoice with $450 shipping; game in production now; anticipated truck departure Tuesday

  • ?

    business_signal: Barrels of Fun at full production capacity; Winchester builds causing scheduling delays (Sept→Oct/Nov); new game likely being launched to generate pre-order deposits for parts purchasing

    high · Don discussing with David Van Ness that 'their production shed is full'; speculating new game launch timing linked to cash flow needs for component ordering

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.025

0:01
Yes, yes, I'm going to stand up for this one, man, because I am fired up about some pinball. It has been an incredible last four to five days, and it just keeps going. It's going to go all the way into next weekend at Southern Fright Gaming Expo. What's the new Barrels of Fun game? Did you see Ender's game? Let's talk about it!
0:30
Who's getting Ender's Game, man, after seeing Dungeon Crawler Carl yesterday? Surprise release at Comic-Con. And then on top of that, we've had like four days of I've been going back and forth between is it Bon Jovi, is it a Muppets film, is it a Legendary Pictures property? The answer is yes to what? I'm not sure, but let's talk about all of that. I was at work a couple of days ago, and it seems like I was doing more internet sleuthing than I was doing actual working. Going through, it was nothing but like teaser, teaser, drop, teaser, rumor, teaser, drop. I was hearing that this game is actually a music pin that's coming out from Barrels of Fun. The game is at least going to be released sooner than I was planning. I was planning on an October release because it's going to take at this rate probably until the end of the year to get the Winchesters done. Why release a new game now? Maybe to get money to order parts so they're ready to go. Maybe there's a second line going. Maybe Houston is in the middle of a hiring boom. I don't know what else is going on. And then we were settled on it is going to be a music theme. And then we heard Bon Jovi and then we all went, oh, really? Because that makes complete sense because we've been seeing the dad rock bands come out. Our music rumors, we've been asking for Beastie Boys, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Insane Clown Posse, but what are we getting? We're getting Van Halen, we're getting David Lee Roth, we're getting The Piano Man, we're getting Elton John, we're getting all these old themes, Ozzy Osbourne's being done. I think it's complete fire, by the way. But it made sense to us when we heard Bon Jovi, because it's like, okay, here's an 80s act, 90s, he's still around doing shows. Yeah, very successful, but like what about the 90s? What about the 2000s? Like there's other stuff too. Where's Taylor Swift? Where's Michael Jackson? Where's all these other themes like we really get excited about? And so Bon Jovi made sense because it was initially disappointing. Now, I've gone through his back catalog more than just living on a prayer, you know, more than just like, I want it, the Dead or Alive song, you know, and like his stuff legitimately does slap, especially that 80s hair. Metal era Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet. My aunt back in the day, we were in L.A., and she was like, I'm dating Bon Jovi. And she probably wasn't wrong, but I never really pushed for confirmation, but it was reasonable. So yeah, okay, personal connection to Bon Jovi aside. Then it came out, almost as quickly as it came in, that that was a huge smoke screen just to throw us off the trail. And like, Barrels is doing multiple levels of six-dimensional chess with our minds. And like, they're getting congratulated on that. Meanwhile, nothing has come out from Barrels of Fun at all. I've been talking to David off and on the last couple of days. Just, not trying to pump him for information, but just like, hey, how are you? Did you see this? What's going on with this? Hey, just question, like, is Dune done? Is it coming back? It doesn't look like there's an immediate renewal of Dune. He did confirm that, yeah, there was planned to only be about 1,000 games. They made about 700 or got 700 sales. Those units are built now, so it leaves them about 238 or something machines left in the 1,000 build should they choose to do it. But it's got to make economic sense, right? I've got to imagine at this point they're probably out of Dune parts as far as, like, to throw it on the line and make complete games. I'm sure they've got parts for, you know, service if they need. But, you know, do they have a reserve of 300 plus games, you know, plus or minus some things that get broken in stock? Probably not, which means they have to reorder. And reordering 238 games worth of parts is a lot different than ordering 500 games worth of parts as far as price and, you know, individual commoditized unit skew inventory prices and stuff. So it probably costs more to do a run of 230 than it would cost per unit to do 500. So it's kind of like, you know, do they need to? And it sounds like they got games lined up. Like their production shed is full, so it's like finding time in a line now might be a problem. So while I'm sure they would like to turn and burn an extra 240 units, and while I think if they announced, like, here's another run of Dune and it's got extra sparkle in it, they could probably sell them out. Like they probably don't need to right now just because they have to get these other games going. And you don't want to take any more time away from Winchesters, man. Get them done. Those games are complicated. They're very pretty. People are waiting for them. They sold out at the 11-6 and they're going for $20,000. So that is what it is. That ship sailed. Get it out. But the next game could be put on the line as soon as possible. So I had been hearing October was going to be when the games were going to be finished with Winchester. It was September. It's probably October, which in pinball speak means November, December, if we're being honest. So I think launching a game now may make sense if they need pre-order deposits to order parts, get everything in-house, Because I don't think they make a lot of their things in-house. So the production can then transition. Maybe they start to build some games in October or so. And then as Winchester's petering out, this new game can ramp up. So what's the new theme really? I think is what everybody's wondering. And at this point I've heard at least 20 different rumored titles. So don't put any credence in really any one thing. Like it's not even starting to unify around a certain theme here. Like it was Bon Jovi for four days. What a rollercoaster ride that has been. So here's the thing. Barrels of Fun, we know they have relationships with Jim Henson Company, right? They got Labyrinth done, the Jim Henson Company, the people that call shots over there were very impressed with the work that they did. And we are screaming for The Muppet Show as a freaking pinball machine, Animal on Drums, come on, The Electric Mayhem. The Electric Mayhem just got a brand new ride at Walt Disney World at Hollywood Studios. They re-themed Rockin' Roller Coaster. Aerosmith is out, another pin theme. Muppets are in, I think a great pin theme. I want to see penguins causing mayhem in the play field. David knows this too. He's a theme park guy just like I am. And he's been watching Muppet Vision since 1989 like I have. It was the 4D attraction that was at the studios later at DCA. But we know it would work. It would work. So it's just a matter of who owns that license. Disney obviously bought everything from Jim Henson, Muppets related now, so that could be a threshold that needs to be crossed. We got Dark Crystal floating out there on the horizon. I don't know who owns that, but like if Labyrinth works, Dark Crystal could probably work to the same extent and everything. So that's one possibility. So put that in a sphere, like the Muppet sphere, right? The Henson sphere. Then we got this Bon Jovi rumor, which is just huge, and it seems like it'll be coming from multiple places. And any time I see that, I've got to lead a lot of credence to it. Now, that could have been strategic seeding, which is something I would probably do as a social engineer, experimenter, and slightly psychopathic personality. I'd probably seed sows of doubt around the community and just watch them all rally. So that was kind of fun. So let's put the Bon Jovi sphere in its own thing. His type pants, I like fluffy, long hair Bon Jovi. I think that's the one that I would want. Contemporary Bon Jovi, I know he came back in the 90s and he blew up again and he's great. He basically was like, not Creed, but what's another, just butt rock, just kind of butt rocky stuff. Like Matchbox 20 kind of Bon Jovi. I'm not so much in that era. I want the hair metal era of Bon Jovi. Dude was awesome. It looks like a Chris Jericho, right? So the Bon Jovi sphere, we'll put that here. Okay, what the title's probably coming from is this third sphere, okay? David has made no secret that he loves and has a great working relationship with Legendary Pictures, right? This is the movie production company responsible for all kinds of stuff. They had their hands in the Dark Knight saga. They had their hands in Minecraft. They're doing Enola Holmes with the girl from Stranger Things, right? Sherlock Holmes' granddaughter solving crimes. So they're into a lot. Dune, of course, Dune 1 and 2. Amongst others, like go on to Wikipedia and just put in legendary pictures and you'll get like a three-page list of like everything they had their fingers in. So just spin the wheel, man. There's a lot of good things in there. And so the title, if it is a movie title and not actually Mon Jovi, not something from the Muppet Sphere, it's something from this list. So Pacific Rim is in there and I never saw it, but I know people were hype on it. And I'm just not a kaiju guy. It's like anime to me. I like anime. I don't have anything against anime. But I don't have a Yu Yu Hakusho waifu. I couldn't name a character or anything. But if it's on Adult Swim late at night, I'll watch anime, dude. I liked Demon Scroll back in the day We used to wear that VHS tape out But like you know I not like you know a connoisseur of anime Like I not a connoisseur of kaiju and giant robots But you know if the stuff on you know I play it I just won't seek it out, right? But would Pacific Rim, as far as I know, giant, you know, human-made mechs fighting actual ancient creatures? That's kind of cool, man. You know, in, like, an Odyssey kind of way, in a Clash of the Titans kind of way. Like, yeah, like, I could get into that. Especially for a pinball machine, I think that could work. Giant Mechanical Toys and whatever. So that's come up as that could work. I think the 300 movie series is in there as well. Twilight, I think, was actually in there. And oh my god, can you imagine the Twilight Saga in pinball? I almost want it to happen. And I almost want to buy it almost as a joke, but not really a joke. Can you imagine?

high confidence · Don observing 'moms walking around in subtle crawler gear,' noting TV shows, movies, and tabletop RPGs being cast/developed

  • Barrels of Fun's production capacity is at full utilization and Winchester build completion is delayed to October/November timeframe

    high confidence · Don discussing production scheduling with David; 'their production shed is full' and timeline slippage from September to October/November

    • Don — Documenting how Dungeon Crawler Carl pinball announcement drove discovery/adoption of the book series by pinball community

  • “During Matt Deniman's panel profile, like he's showing off the game finally. And so we're all thinking like, oh, this dude...And then boom, like there's a play field for DCC. What in the absolute hell?”

    Don — Real-time discovery of Dungeon Crawler Carl playfield reveal at Comic-Con during Matt Dineman's panel

  • “Maybe Stern's too big to do this. Jersey Jack Pinball too big to be able to do this. But if you bought one of their games, you can go over there. Spooky Pinball does something similar.”

    Don — Comparing customer engagement strategies across manufacturers; noting boutique brands (Barrels, Spooky) execute VIP experiences better than majors

    • Matt Dineman
    person
    John Borgperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Donperson
    Christopherperson
    Kingpin Gamescompany
    Winchester Mystery Housegame
    Legendary Picturescompany
    Jim Henson Companycompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Southern Fright Gaming Expoevent
    Comic-Conevent
    Dunegame
    Labyrinthgame
    Ozzy Osbournegame
    P3product
  • $

    market_signal: Winchester Mystery House selling for ~$20,000 on secondary market; strong FOMO-driven demand; sold out at show

    medium · Don stating 'sold out at the 11-6 and they're going for $20,000'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Barrels Reserve Club membership closed; exclusive VIP event planned at Southern Fright Gaming Expo with private room 4-6pm Friday; strategic FOMO generation via reserve club benefits

    high · Website 404; private room rental; Kingpin Games pre-order interest list filling up; speculation about first-access ordering opportunities for reserve members

  • ?

    personnel_signal: John Borg designing Ozzy Osbourne pinball game for Stern; expected 2027 release; Borg's 37+ year career continued expansion

    medium · Don stating 'It sounds like John Borg's doing an Ozzy game' and '2027' timeline; follows historical pattern of Stern Comic-Con announcements

  • ?

    content_signal: Don securing sponsorship with Kingpin Games for P3 Multimorphic system access; enables critical home evaluation of P3 platform; partnership to facilitate content creation

    high · Don announcing new collaboration with Christopher at Kingpin Games; previous sponsorship gap noted; free t-shirt promotion offered to customers

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Community speculating about Barrels' mystery game theme; theories include: Muppets (Jim Henson Company connection), Bon Jovi (music IP), various Legendary Pictures properties (Pacific Rim, Dark Crystal, 300, Twilight)

    medium · Don laying out three theoretical spheres: Henson IP, Bon Jovi, and Legendary Pictures; multiple plausible licensing paths identified

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Dungeon Crawler Carl generating significant community enthusiasm despite initial uncertainty; book series cultural phenomenon status driving pinball interest; cross-media expansion accelerating (TV, film, TTRPG all in development)

    high · Don noting merchandise abundance, Kingpin Games interested list filling, Comic-Con panel prominence, cultural penetration ('moms walking around in subtle crawler gear')

  • ?

    business_signal: Analysis of Dune production economics: 700/1000 units sold; reordering 238 units less economical than initial 500+ run; Barrels unlikely to restart Dune production despite potential sellout if announced

    high · Don discussing cost per unit scaling with David Van Ness; 'do they have a reserve of 300 plus games...? Probably not, which means they have to reorder'; parts inventory strategy

    • 10:17
    What would that game even be? Just brooding teenagers. Oh, we need to rescue Renesmee. Oh, no, I'm Team Joshua, I'm Team Michael, or whatever the names were of the Spiegel Pyres and the werewolves and stuff. My daughter knows all of that stuff. She got into Twilight because, of course, she did. It would make about as much sense as a Titanic pinball machine. Okay, yeah, again, that movie sold billions of dollars just like Avatar did. But, like, what the hell would that even be? How do you make a sinking playfield?
    10:48
    I guess we'll have to ask a home pin how to do that. Anyway, so that's where we are with Barrels of Fun. So it's been like a marathon just trying to keep up with all this stuff, and I'm furiously checking my phone like I'm a teenager scrolling TikTok for sustenance. It was crazy, man. It was crazy. And that alone would be enough. That alone would fill a whole show. We'll talk about all of that. Southern Fry Gaming Expo's coming up. The rumor now is that this new game's going to be there. And coincidentally, Barrels closed the door on their reserve membership club. It's gone now. It was open all day Friday. It didn't close at noon, but it's closed now. You get a 404 if you try to go back to the website. So that's closed. So the members that are in, which is probably 1,000 people, are in now. They're doing an event at Sutherfright Gaming Expo from 4 to 6 p.m. They rented themselves a private room. So they're going to have all their games there for people to play. If you're a reserve member, you can go in there. This is a cool event. I dig this. They've been experimenting with this before at shows. They would have a labyrinth in a special labyrinth room at TPF. And if you were interested in buying one of them, they'd walk you over to a quiet room so you could actually hear the game and explore it and have them explain it to you. I think that's a great sales tactic. Like, hey, I'm interested in one of this. Come over here, man. Let's get off the show floor away from the crowds. Here. Here's some teas and crumpets. Some sips and nibbles for your lady. Here's a little lapel pin that you can have. Come play it. And then if you happen to be an owner, you've got a pin. You've got access to go in there and get some refreshments and stuff. And if you had the game at home, you weren't going to go over there and hog time on it. So it was just kind of a nice break to go in there, have some Powerade, have some tea cakes or something, and just kind of feel special because you bought something. Like a company doing something for their customers like that. I want to push that. Even if you didn't like Labyrinth, even if you don't like Barrels of Fun, you've got to like what they're doing for their customers. Like if you bought one of these things, you get to go into a special room. Maybe Stern's too big to do this. Maybe Jersey Jack's too big to be able to do this. But if you bought one of their games, you can go over there. But Spooky Pinball does something similar. They just take you over to Wild Pitch and you get to look at girls in G-strings while you eat mozzarella sticks, which also I'm equally into. So it's fun. So companies do things for your customers if they're buying these games, especially if there's somebody that's bought them over and over again. Here's one area that Kaneda has a real good point on. He's bringing it up like Stern Pinball. What have you done for the people that have boughten 10 LEs from you and spent $250,000 with your company? Have you done anything special for them? And the answer is probably no. And the reason probably is because they keep buying no matter what we do. So why bother? Anyway, maybe they're maybe maybe they're too big to care. I don't think that's the case. I think people over at Stern really are passionate about what they're doing. But like as a monolith, I don't think they can pivot and move like this. Regardless, I love that Barrels of Fun's doing this, if not just to show other companies what you should be doing. Turner Pinball, where's my special room in tea and crumpet cakes, man? At least bring some Costco hot dogs. I tease Chris. I tease Chris. I was hanging out at Expo with him, and he went to Culver's, and he got himself some onion rings, and he handed me one, and it was super cool of him to do. It was Culver's or Chick-fil-A or something. Either way, I either got a waffle fry or an onion ring, and it was like a special moment between me and him, so that's super cool. Should we pivot to Turner Pinball? Are we done with Barrels is Fun? Oh, one more thing with the Barrels. Okay, so they're doing this room from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday for their Barrels Reserve Club members, which are now closed. It's no small amount of effort to take yourself to Atlanta. I'm going, and I've got to get up early. I've got to go to Chicago. I've got to hop a flight. I've got to rent a car. It's a whole pain in the butt to get to this thing, and I'm going also because there's a roller coaster in the area that's closing, and I want to go ride it before it's done. So I'm going to Southern Fry Gaming Expo. So for the people that have put forward this Herculean effort to make it to the special room, it'd be cool if there was something extra, extra spicy for them. Like what if the Barrels Reserve Club members were the first people at this 4 to 6 p.m. meeting to be able to play the new game before it even gets released? Let's say that's the first time the public can see it. Let's say that's the public release. Let's say that as a Barrels Reserve Club member that put forward the effort to travel to Souther Fried Gaming Expo, you got to see the game on, let's say they reveal it like that afternoon or that evening. You get to see it, you get to play it, and then you get to say, hey, I would like to buy one of these. Let me place my deposit right now. And they say, okay, here you are, number one on the build list. Okay, who else would like one? Okay, you're number two on the build list. And then the 20 or so people that put the effort to show up to this thing have the opportunity to be the first 20 on the build list. So when this game goes into production, they're the first ones to get one. No waiting a whole year like with Winchester. How about that? And then even if the game does sell out right away and you come in as a Barrels Reserve club member exercising your benefit later, you're not put at the end of the queue. After all the everybody's already sellout games are made, then you get to get yours. You get to be first. I think that would be a baller power move. I think that would really put a lot of value and benefit in being part of the Barrels Cruise Club or whatever they call it, the Barrels Reserve, if you could do that. Now, I have no idea that they're doing that. I haven't heard of this from David. He's exceedingly tight-lipped when it comes to new games for me because he knows I can't keep a lid on anything.
    16:09
    So I don't have confirmation of that. But if that's the case, this is what it would look like. They didn't release the game on Friday when the Barrels thing was closing. They didn't release the game yesterday on Saturday, so if they don't release it Monday, then the next opportunity would be Wednesday because that's 48 hours before the show, and that's only because that's when they revealed Winchester's Mystery House was two days before Expo. So if none of that happens, maybe they drop it that Friday evening and they give Barrels Reserve members first crack before anyone knows what it is or that they're taking orders, they get to give the first order right there. I mean, that would be a great power move, and that would really add a lot of value to Barrels Reserve. And also, it would get some Barrels Reserve people to order out of the general fund and not exercise their benefit later on and keep the overall game number build low. So even if there's 1,000 people on the Barrels list, you know if the game drops, about half the people on the Barrels Reserve Club will go ahead and buy direct anyway or through their dealers. And so there's not going to be like 1,000 plus added on to the 700 or whatever that are released. So there we go. That's what I know. That's my speculation. Go hit up Wikipedia. Go hit up ChatGPT and check out some legendary picture stuff. Pivoting to Turner Pinball for a moment. I got invoiced for Yukon Yeti. I sent my invoice money. I sent my shipping money, $450.
    17:29
    And I'm hearing that the game, unless there are any hiccups, will go onto a truck on Tuesday and make its way to me. So I was like I was crack number one on putting a deposit in here. And I did get a tip off pre-launch that like here's what the game is going to be. You know, here's what we're launching tomorrow. What do you think? So I had I knew they were going to launch. So I did have an inkling a heads up. And then as soon as they launched on the live stream during the launch, I was actually talking about the game. And then while I was on the live, I sat there and said, I'm putting a deposit in right now. And then everybody got to see in real time that I put one in. So I put one in just when everybody else would have had the opportunity to do that. I did have a little bit of foresight in seeing the game the day before, so it did help me make a decision. But that put me at the front of the queue, so that is awesome. So my game is being made, so they're in production now. I have no idea about what frequency these games are going out, how many games are being made per week, if there's any early issues, if there's any whatevers. None of that I know, but as of now, the game should be shipping on Tuesday, so that's some cool news. His building is in production right now. He's building it. He's anticipating it to be done around TPF or just before then. That should really help out him with his production. I want to take a trip down there and go check out the campus and see exactly what sort of place this has. And it give us an idea on capacity and when other games are coming from Turner and all that business So there your Turner Minute There your Turner Minute We going to pivot again now to a Multimorphic Minute a Multimorphic Moment I going to call it because this is going to be a long one Because have you guys noticed that they have a new game coming out? This thing is everywhere, okay? We know that there's two titles that are coming out, okay? Dungeon Crawler Carl and Ender's Game are the titles that we were given from the rumor verse, okay? And Dungeon Crawler Carl, that's confirmed. It's revealed now. We're going to talk about it. So the games are planned to go on sale on Monday at noon Central Standard Time, Central Daylight Time, whichever we're in right now. So that's the first time that you can order them. Even if you call a distributor, they have an interested list, but they can't sell you one just yet. I have made no secret of my enjoyment of Dungeon Crawler Carl. And like most everybody else, I had no idea about this thing until it became a pinball rumor. And then I sought it out, and then I went on Amazon, and I picked up a book. Well, I went to Barnes & Noble and I picked the book up and I flipped through it and I'm like, this seems kind of cool. It's like a phenomenon. It was on an end cap. There was a lot of hype around it. And so then I went on to Amazon and got the book $10 cheaper. I got to my house the next day and I'm like, you know what? I'm on planes all the time. I want to read something. I haven't read a book in 20 years. Let me read this book. And it's good. It's good. I've nearly finished the first one. I'm in the last 10% of the book here. I got to go grind it out. But yeah, super fun concept, really cool guy in boxer shorts, a talking cat, and magical dungeon items, and a lot of swearing and a lot of social commentary. It's fun. It's a fun game. It's a fun game. It's a fun book series. Most people are doing the audiobook series. I want to read the actual books first, just for the challenge of it, and then I'll go back and listen to the audios. But yeah, like I'm set on this, and for the longest time we were hoping Barrels of Fun was bringing it out, So we could have a traditional full-flavored pinball machine with barrels glass and Evergloss barrels cabinet art decals and horizon environmental lights or whatever. And the thunder in the pants, shaker motor, all that business. You know, the full-featured game with the cool toppers, what we wanted, not what we got. It's coming from Multimorphic, which has been a bit dodgy as far as, like, themes and gameplay and meeting expectations in the past. I've made no secret about that, but damn if not the power of Carl is incredible. And I've also made no secret that I do enjoy legitimately the P3 games. I play them every chance I get, which is usually a TPF. I was fortunate to be able to travel and Portal was a theme. They get good themes. Weird Al, I love. Princess Bride, I love. Portal, I love. Dundercrawler, Carl, I love. Ender's Game, heck yeah, make a game out of that. I like this idea as themes. These are things you wouldn't see from the major companies necessarily, even though we're hoping Barrel's head, Dungeon Crawler Carl. Nevertheless, I'm hype on the P3 as it's fun to play. There's always been barriers in front of me to get one. And, you know, I'm resourceful. I'm scrappy. I'm always looking at ways like, can I get a used one? Can I borrow one? Can I go to a friend's house? Whatever. So in lieu of traveling around, I wanted to find a way to get a Dungeon Crawler Carl in my house. And I think I found a way to do that. And that is through the form of a brand new sponsorship, which I'm very happy to excitedly talk about. This is a collaboration that's been building and in the process for a while between myself and local homie Christopher over at Kingpin Games. He's a local Wisconsin guy. You've seen him around at shows like MGC. You've seen him down at Expo, I'm sure. He's got the big kingpin banners, dealer for all sorts of things, including now P3 Multimorphic. So I heard about this, and I reached out to him because sponsor of the show, Mad Pinball, my homies, info at madpinball.com, they do not carry P3 Multimorphic devices or treasures, and they have no intention on ever carrying any P3 mentionables or whatever. I don't even know if they even know the words P3. I'm talking about it. It's been repressed. There's been some issues. So I'm left without a sponsorship avenue to facilitate getting myself a P3. Well, I'm happy to say that that has been rectified. Christopher was overjoyed at the idea of collaborating because we're cool guys. I see him all the time. He's a local Wisconsin guy. He's over at Spooky all the time picking up games and stuff. And so now we have a way to work where through the P3 channel specifically I can receive sponsorship through him and I can finally finagle a way to get a P3 machine into my house which is hella awesome because I want to get this thing home because you know I've been critical about it. I'm fair. I want to give a fair evaluation of this thing, not at a show, not at a friend's house where I'm lingering for hours trying to play this thing. Dr. John, thank you so much for letting me come by in Australia and play the Princess Bride. That was super fun getting some time on a home environment to do that. But now I'll be able to evaluate a P3 multimodal system in my own home. I'll be able to take the glass off. I'll be able to lift up the screen cabinet thing or slide it out or however it works. I want to see the ball trough and try to understand and wrap my head around the genius that's been put in this thing. I always loved the concept. The execution was always a little wonky. And when you have games like Cannon Lagoon that are very simple, it's hard to come away with like, yeah, I need to spend five figures and get this in my house, you know. And while I love the Weird Al theme, the implementation of that I had problems with, you know, I didn't like how simple the graphics were. I didn't like the concept of like this museum of natural hilarity, which never existed anywhere in the Weird Al universe, was kind of cobbled together in a way to put his songs in there. I didn't like that I couldn't hear songs in their entirety. It was only during certain modes.
    24:34
    You know, Harvey the Wonder Hamster should have been like a very rare little thing that would pop up, not like every single game it happens. So the implementation just left me like a little sour, but I really wanted it to be good. I love Princess Bride. I love that as a movie. I love Portal. You know, I wish it was a standalone game just so it was a little bit cheaper because I'm not a man of unlimited funds over here. But I think through this partnership, this is going to work. So the way it works out is if you need P3 modules, P3 tube socks, or a P3 system, sales at kingpengames.net is the email address. He's taking an interested list right now for Dungeon Crawler Carl. And I think there is a lot of interest in Dungeon Crawler Carl. So if you want to be on an interested list for Dungeon Crawler Carl so you can buy one of these things or Ender's Game or whatever else or the tube socks, you can go ahead and do that at sales at kingpengames.net. Tell Chris I said what up. And if you do buy something through him with P3, let me know a t-shirt size and an address and I will ship you a Don Spinnball Podcast t-shirt. That's a free promotion that we're doing just because we all have a little fun. And I don't want you going out with your top half naked unless that's what you're into. So the fervor over Dungeon Crawler Carl I think is hitting fever pitch here, if not already, very soon. So Comic-Con is going on right now. Stern's got a booth there. Remember Stern did a booth with Ozzy Osbourne back when Venom was released? And we're like, where's the Ozzy game? Is Ozzy's voice in Venom all this stuff? Well, that's coming to fruition soon. It sounds like John Borg's doing an Ozzy game. Hell yes. I can't wait for that, man. But that's going to be 2027. Right now, of course, Matt Dinneman, the writer, the author, the creator of Dungeon Crawler Carl, worldwide phenomenon. What are the fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl? Are they crawlers? I think they're called crawlers. And I see why. Like, I go to Disney World and I'm seeing moms walking around in, like, subtle crawler gear. They have a t-shirt with little nods to Dundercrawler Carl. It's a total culture thing that's happening right now. Is it going to last 20 years or is this a flash in the pan right now? Whatever, but it's hot right now. All these books, the TV shows are being cast, the movies are being cast, the tabletop role-playing games are coming out. Everything is everything right now with Dundercrawler Carl. So of course there's a huge panel with Dinaman and probably the voice actors and stuff and everything else at Comic-Con. I'm out working in the garage framing up some walls and then I can come back and check my phone periodically And then boom, like there's a play field for DCC. What in the absolute hell? Like did it leak? What happened? During Matt Deniman's panel profile, like he's showing off the game finally. And so we're all thinking like, oh, this dude, remember this was the guy that said there was a pinball machine being made of his property. And then that kicked off this whole thing. So it's like, did this guy leak again? And, you know, his wherewithal over his own property is so much more powerful than a pinball company that's licensing it to make a product. So it's not like they can be mad. So the word came through Kerry Hardy that Jerry said that this was something planned. I don't know if I believe that, but this is something that happened, and the game looks awesome. Now, they're planning on still releasing on noon on the 27th, on Monday. That's totally fine, whatever.
    27:38
    Should he have released everything now? Yeah, it'd be great Saturday if it's all released, but I think, you know, Barrels should release their new game today. Stern should release their new game today. Spooky should release their new game today. Everybody should release sooner so I can see what it is for my own greedy personal purposes. But the game is out and people are going crazy. They're like, yes, I need to have this. These are people that have Dungeon Crawler Carl plush toys, T-shirts, UV prints, stuff they buy at Etsy, right? So of course, they're going to see a pinball machine and like, yes, I want to get one of those. And so reading in the comments, these are just like normal people, not pinball people, but just people that are like, Oh, man, if this thing is $2,000 to $3,000, they're going to sell 1,000 of them, right? And as a pinball person you look at that and you like my sweet summer child a pinball machine hasn been since hog years ago I think is the phrase A new pinball machine starts at like Well if you want like a Stern Pro or something used that nobody wants or like a Godfather CE is Other than that, you're talking about $10,000, $12,000, $5,000 if you want the fancy graphics and everything, $15,000 for a top-end Sonic, Back to the Future. Who the heck knows? These guys have no concept of how expensive pinball has gotten. So the crawler crowd is probably not going to be an adopter for something like this. And then to put it on the P3 as well, this isn't just a turnkey system. Like this is a whole universe you're buying into. This is complexity of levels that I haven't experienced yet, which is part of why I'm excited to have it so I can really learn this system. But like as a naive person that just wants to go in and have something fun to get hit with the price and then get hit later on with like, how do I service this thing? I don't have a soldering iron. What the heck do I do? What's a servo? What the heck's a servo? I don't know that. You can swap this thing out. It seems mind-boggling. And so that was exciting. And then the other comments were like, oh, what arcades is this going to be at? I want to go play it. And it's like, as of now, there's like six Multimorphics on location around the country. It's just not a game that you find at every Dave & Buster's, every Plus One Arcade, every Interium or whatever. So like it's like, oh, my sweet, sweet summer donut child. That's going to be a problem. But maybe this is the title that pushes through that and overcomes. We'll see. I will say that the profile of Multimorphic has just leveled up adequately. And so, you know, they got some new scrolls for spells and things now. Like I think the profile of them really has leveled up. And the notoriety is going to drive through Dungeon Crawler Carl, through this new community, and we're going to need to have something there to help these guys. There's going to be new people coming into pinball, or at least new interest because of this. So if I can help out by learning this system and help tech people online, then hey, that's just one more service I can offer. I'll buy a product of it. I get to have fun with it. I'm super duper excited about that. So throw Chris some love if you need yourself a P3. He's taking an interest list right now. I think dealers have gotten information about these games and everything already. And so Monday they'll be able to talk about it and actually be able to sell it. So if you want to get it, that's how you can get it. And he's the kind of guy that, you know, I bought my Winchester through him. And, you know, everybody else like sold him as fast as they could. He did, you know, keep an interested list of people and kind of went by that. So if you've dealt with him before, he'll treat you right. So, you know, cool guy. I've known him for a while. I've been to his house. Like, I know his family. And I run to him at shows all the time. Personable guy. So check it out. Check it out. Info at madpinball.com for pinball machines, for P3 machines and tube socks. Sales at kingpengames.net. Yes. Tell them I sent you. I'll give T-shirts to people if you email me. All right. So the game got revealed. And holy crap, man. That first image, that three-quarter isometric view that we got, that orthogonal kind of thing, showed off the entire game, especially the back of it. Just looking at it first, I'm like, is this Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle? And then my second thing was like this is another extended version of a game like Portal. So will this be available in a couple of trims, I guess. But this is going to be a $5,500 game when it releases unless you raise prices, which I mean, probably.
    31:56
    So, you know, we'll have to wait and see on that. But the game looks loaded, not even just by P3 standards. I mean, any game that looked like this initially, I would be super excited about. It's got the acrylic upper play field. We saw that work great with Portal. We saw it work great with Sonic the Hedgehog, so I'm okay with that. What the heck is this giant green circle thing in the middle? There's a swing arm on it. It looks like one of those prize redemption games, the little carousels and the four-person player games where you push the button and the lever arm swings out and tries to push a prize or a bunch of tickets into the slot. It looks like that, kind of like a carnival arcade sort of thing. It looks like it probably spins because I think I'm seeing bearings. And then later on in the day we got a couple more images. They're on Nap Arcade. They're on everywhere. Nap is where I saw them first, so shout out to Jason Nap.
    32:45
    It looks like, you know, it's the full screen that's down there with the P3 and everything, but this upper play field looks like there's more to it than we saw with Portal. And I was impressed with some of the effects that Portal was able to do with the lighting and everything. So, yeah, like this looks fun. I see Princess Donut over there. I see the safe room in the back. Like, I just want to see more now. I only have to wait until tomorrow, as of today, it's Sunday morning, so tomorrow we'll be able to check that out. This looks kind of awesome. And already the comments online, I'm seeing people saying, like, damn it, I think they got their money from me finally. Like, people that were, you know, firmly like, I know P3 exists, but I know I'm never going to have one, are now like, this is probably the one they're going to get me on. Damn it. So, this game looks fun. Looks like it's poised to be an absolute win for Multimorphic. It's going to raise their profile, which is probably exactly what they've been trying to do. Is he going to make, is he going to have the last laugh here, Mr. Jerry? He may, he may, if this game's cool. If the voice actors are in there and this thing's on point, it's hitting me at the right time, I think this is a very good fun thing. Especially for me, anybody that likes Dundercrawler Carl, which is just about everybody now. And so, it's expensive, it's expensive, but we know we have P3 friends in the community. Now there will probably be some more. And so make friends with your neighbors. Invite your friends over to come play your P3 system. Play some Dungeon Crawler Carl. Where is this going to leave Ender's Game? Right? So Ender's Game hasn't been officially revealed, but that's what we're being told, and it totally makes complete sense. So this is going to be a reskin of this exact game, so the same turntable mechanism that's on that acrylic, the same shot pass and layouts and everything and little flappy doors. But I guess it's going to be painted different. Like it looks like a castle dungeon wall in the back. So is Ender's Game going to have a castle dungeon wall that doesn't really fit that theme? Maybe they're going to theme and they're sculpted a little differently. I think that would be fun. But as far as like the layout will be the same. But it sounds like they went the spooky route and made a separate codes and rules team so the game will play different. I think that's cool. I have heard two things. I have heard people speculating that you'll be able to purchase the downloadable code for the other module. So if you buy Carl, you can purchase the Ender's Game data for like $700 and then load it on your machine and then swap it over. I think that's the easiest way to do it. I love being able to then swap between two games without changing a module. That's even better. But then I've also heard that the licensors wouldn't allow something like that, so you would have to purchase the other bindle. That's kind of a pain, especially if you'd have to purchase like two extended ones to do that. So those are things that are going to have to wait until Monday. So we still don't know all the information, but we've seen the layout. The layout looks really good and impressive, not even by multimorphic standards, but just by game standards, you know. I've heard World Under Glass batted around, you know, cringe term, but, like, I get it. Like, this looks like it. And just looking at it with the giant, you know, mech sculpt in the back reminding me of Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, one of my favorite aesthetically looking games. So, yeah, I'm excited. And throughout this new partnership, I finally found a way to make it work and get some support for the show and be able to live stream and give an honest, fair evaluation of this game. Because I've heard people that are having great experiences with their P3s. I've heard people with absolute abject horror stories. And I'm stuck in the middle. All I know is my own experiences. I know that I have fun when I go to shows and play these games. I know that I've taken questions that I've gotten from the community all the way to Jerry himself and the response has not been great and I heard that just his personality and so that's where we are. I want to have some objective information and experience on how this system is, how these games are to have at home, what maintenance is required. I want to learn as much as I can and then give that fair assessment and I'm able to do that. So shout out to Christopher over at Kingpin, my homie. We've been looking for a way to collaborate for a while, and I think this really makes sense now that he is just brand new onto the P3 train and my current distributor. It's just not going to happen. So sales at Kingpin.net, and we'll shout him out every show. Production-wise, I haven't really heard anything concrete. We'll probably be able to talk about that on Monday tomorrow. It's an exciting time for some pinball, so thanks for joining and being cool and hanging out with me. Let's see if we can go out with some little music here.
    37:15
    Oh, we'll bring that Denisey Heat. DonSpinballPodcast at gmail.com is how you get at me. Patreon.com, backslash.DonSpinballPodcast for all the live streams that have been going out with increasing ferocity. We've been having a lot of fun. I'll probably go live again here soon. I'll probably do a Patreon show with some extra special spicy information for everybody. So check that out. It's only $5. Get yourself in the door. And for you, I adore. What else do we got? Mention on Kingpin. Mention Mad Pinball. I think we're good. Be cool, everybody. If you want a t-shirt, go ahead and email me. If you can kick me $25 to cover the costs of shipping and everything, I will hook that up and print you a shirt. I'm building the studio. I'm going to go over on Patreon now. Y'all be cool, and we'll talk.