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DPP #74 "JJP next! Stranger Things out soon!

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·42m 40s·analyzed·Oct 7, 2023
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TL;DR

JJP reveal confirmed for Oct 19; Stern Stranger Things announced for holidays with upgraded mechanics.

Summary

Don's Pinball Podcast episode 74 covers major Expo announcements: Jersey Jack Pinball confirming a new game reveal on October 19th (speculated to be Elton John), Stern Pinball officially announcing Stranger Things Pro and Premium for holiday 2024, and multiple game reveals planned at Chicago Pinball Expo including Elements (Pinball Adventures), Labyrinth (Mystery Pinball Company), and others. Don also reviews the Venom LE, discusses upcoming accessories and reruns, and begins a personal top-5 games segment.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack Pinball will reveal a new game on October 19th at 8pm at Chicago Pinball Expo

    high confidence · Don directly states 'October 19th. That is the day. That is the reveal of Jersey Jack Pinball' after JJP dropped the announcement on Facebook with purple glitter graphic

  • The new JJP game is likely Elton John, not Harry Potter

    medium confidence · Don speculates: '95% it's Elton John' based on purple glitter spotlight graphic and the silhouetted machine reveal, estimating only 15% chance it's Harry Potter

  • Stern is rerunning Stranger Things toppers, art blades, UV kits, and shooter rods as built-to-order accessories

    high confidence · Don confirms 'they are rerunning all of the accessories' including 'not only the shooter rod, but Art Blades, UV kits, and toppers are being rerun, built to order'

  • Stranger Things Pro pricing at $6,900-$7,000 MSRP and Premium at $9,600-$9,700 MSRP

    high confidence · Don states 'we got the $6,900, $6,999, $7,000 pros and the $9,600, $9,700 premiums' and confirms dealers have this pricing

  • Stranger Things is shipping in November 2024

    high confidence · Don confirms 'come November when they're being run' and 'come December, you're going to have this game' based on Joel Engelbert interview on Flip N Out Pinball

  • The Stranger Things Premium telekinesis lock mechanism has been re-engineered for better reliability

    high confidence · Don reports from Joel Engelbert/Brian Eddy stream that the magnetic lock 'has been re-engineered to be a little bit More reliable, probably easier to adjust and dial in'

  • Four major game reveals are planned for Chicago Pinball Expo 2024

    high confidence · Don confirms at least Elements (Pinball Adventures), Labyrinth (Mystery Pinball Company), and JJP's new game, plus speculation about Spooky or others

  • Spooky Pinball has 200-300 Scooby-Doo CEs remaining to produce before moving to Bloodsucker and Standard editions

Notable Quotes

  • “October 19th. That is the day. That is the reveal of Jersey Jack Pinball number... Eight? Nine now?”

    Don @ ~0:00:45 — Major news announcement confirming JJP reveal date at Chicago Pinball Expo

  • “95% it's Elton John... I think this is probably what we're getting.”

    Don @ ~0:08:30 — Don's confidence assessment on the JJP title based on purple glitter graphic and speculation

  • “Big Daddy Stern kept everything under wraps until Tuesday and just released everything all at once with a flyer in their mailer.”

    Don @ ~0:12:00 — Describes Stern's surprise announcement strategy for Stranger Things rerun

  • “The premium plays so much better... I was really impressed seeing it. I knew it had that 180 ramp tilting bookcase mechanism. But seeing it in person, it was much bigger and a little beefier than what I pictured in my head.”

    Don @ ~0:35:15 — Don's hands-on gameplay assessment of Venom LE Premium vs. expectations

  • “You've got to see it in person, though. The pictures that I had seen... but like up close, there's all these cool little details, and man, that machine's going to be looking great.”

    Don @ ~0:42:00 — Emphasizes the in-person visual quality of Venom LE metallic foil artwork that photos/videos don't capture

  • “I wish Stern would use this quality of print with these metal foil and things and just put that on all of their machines... If it's like $50 More in material to print this, I kind of think you should just go ahead and do that.”

    Don @ ~0:44:30 — Don advocating for higher-quality art standards across Stern's product line

  • “The 180 ramp is in the place for two of the characters. It was Venom and Black Suit Spider-Man. And then what else surprised me about it... if you pick Gwenom, it tilts back into its far position where that 180 ramp is just a shoot-through.”

    Don @ ~0:38:00 — Describes character-based playfield variation mechanics in Venom LE

Entities

DonpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyChicago Pinball ExpoeventSpooky PinballcompanyPinball AdventurescompanyMystery Pinball CompanycompanyJason Knappperson

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Jersey Jack Pinball officially announces October 19th reveal date at Chicago Pinball Expo

    high · JJP dropped purple glitter graphic with date on Facebook; Don confirms 'This was just dropped on Facebook after some speculation'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Elton John strongly speculated as next JJP title based on visual clues; Harry Potter ruled out at ~85% confidence

    medium · Don states '95% it's Elton John' based on purple spotlight graphic; observes 'unless there was a spell that I'm missing' from Harry Potter lore; multiple community sources mentioning Elton John 'fifth hand'

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern officially announces Stranger Things Pro and Premium rerun for holiday 2024 with confirmed pricing and November shipping

    high · Don received official Stern mailer flyer; confirmed pricing $6,900-7,000 (Pro) and $9,600-9,700 (Premium); November shipping confirmed via Joel Engelbert interview

  • ?

    code_update: Stranger Things Premium re-engineered telekinesis lock mechanism and Demoman motor for improved reliability in rerun version

    high · Joel Engelbert/Brian Eddy stream interview documented that locks 'has been re-engineered to be a little bit more reliable, probably easier to adjust and dial in'

  • ?

    product_concern: Original Stranger Things Premium telekinesis lock was problematic/hit-or-miss; locations often turned it off; Demoman motor also addressed

    high · Don reports 'It was problematic, or it wasn't working the way that was intended. It was hit or miss. There was adjustments that needed to be made' and 'a lot of locations, if they did have this, ended up just turning that feature off'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.128

0:00
Hello everybody and welcome to Friday. It's Don's Pinball Podcast episode number 74. Probably the biggest show that I've done here recently. We've got an incredible amount of news to get to, including the reveal of the date of the New Jersey Jet Pinball Machine, and it's coming up sooner than we thought.
0:30
All right. October 19th. That is the day. That is the reveal of Jersey Jack's number. What are they up to? Eight? Nine now? This was just dropped on Facebook after some speculation that I was actually about to get into. And then they went ahead and blew it wide open. So we got a nice purple glitter graphic of a silhouetted pinball machine and the date, October 19th, which also coincides, I believe that is a Friday, no, Thursday at 8 p.m. at Chicago's Pinball Expo, which is when JJP had their reveal hour session or talky thing or seminar or whatever we're calling them. So I was going to talk about how my boy Jason Knapp has been speculating earlier this week that there would be four pinball reveals coming soon to the Expo coming up. And we knew about, first off, elements from Pinball Adventures. That's been revealed since Pinball Adventures has been a thing. What they just dropped recently on Instagram is some video of them actually going through one of the play fields, getting it ready to ship off to Expo. And it was loaded with a lot more than I was anticipating. Now, you know, I do talk to Pinball Adventures. I had seen some graphics of the play field, you know, unpopulated, just, you know, the actual graphic file. And so I could tell there was more to shoot and more shots and more things going on than Pinball and Punny Adventures. Oh, let's reset. That Punny Factory had. But what I wasn't expecting was things like upper play fields and bucks and some ramps and things. And that Infinity Mirror, which I had heard about, you know, on the file that I saw, it was just one big hole in the middle of the play field. So this actually showed the Infinity Mirror lit up, like going down to infinity into the cabinet. So I'm hyped for that, like 60% more than I was earlier in the week. So we knew about that. Mystery Pinball Company has done their reveal for their rumored Labyrinth game to be coming out. They also sent out a message this week saying that Friday at 9.30 p.m. at Expo, during a pizza party of all things, they're going to be revealing the game, and they'll have it there to play. So that is super exciting. And, you know, they've been dropping clues. They've been cataloged on Kineticist. They've been cataloged on Nap Arcade. The consensus is people are thinking it's Jim Anson's Labyrinth movie with the David Bowie. We will wait and see. I'm not convinced either way. But, yeah, it certainly wouldn't surprise me. So we're looking forward to that. And so then, you know, we were left with speculation. Okay, what were these two other companies going to be? And some of the accompaniment was that this would be a company we weren't expecting. So that made me think of Spooky Pinball. And they just had a live stream this week on which, while they were live streaming America's Most Haunted, they went ahead and revealed that they have about 200 to 300 more Scooby-Doo CEs to make. Then they get on to the Bloodsucker editions and then following that the Standard editions and then an empty line if they don't put something else out. So I was positing earlier, you know, a few months ago, that the next reveal from Spooky, I wasn't expecting to hear anything until Texas Pinball Festival in March, but mayhaps they may be, I don't know. I don't know, it's two weeks away. Two to 300 games, even if they're building 40 a week, that's 160 a month, that's still two to three months away. I think it'd still be a little early for that, but I was wondering. And then Jersey Jack. I'd also been speculating, as other people had, that as the production of the – what's their top end? They have a limited edition. Then there's that – is it a collector's edition with J.J.P. also? I think it is. The gold godfather, right? Those should be made. Those should be out. Those have been out. People have them. and so with the eclipse of that and sales for the limited edition drying up they're also going to be confronted with an empty line so Steve Ritchie is supposed to be next up the rumor I've been hearing is Elton John and now we got confirmation that they're revealing a game on October 19th at Expo huge news holy crap new JJP confirmed man we're two weeks away from Expo we're 13 days away from this reveal that they're having so that's going to drop Labyrinth will be there Elements will be there to play I don't know if we'll see something from Spooky or someone else. Turner, Tilt Bob, who knows, man? Pinball Adventures, Pinball Brothers is supposed to be announcing something. Something. No confirmation that it's a pinball machine.

high confidence · Don watched livestream where 'they have about 200 to 300 Scooby-Doo CEs to make. Then they get on to the Bloodsucker editions and then following that the Standard editions'

  • Venom LE Premium playfield is significantly more complete and features-rich than Pro version

    high confidence · Don played Venom LE for an hour at Blue Moon Bar and Grill and states 'the premium plays so much better' with larger, beefier 180-ramp tilting bookcase mechanism and Doppelganger addition

  • Stranger Things accessories: shooter rods $179 MSRP, art blades ~$89-99, UV kits $279, toppers $649

    high confidence · Don provides official MSRP pricing: 'shooter rods are going for $179 MSRP' and 'UV kits, $279' and 'toppers are still $649'

  • “Toppers were still in supply, but everything else has been sold right out. Art blades you probably could have got, but the UV kits, forget it, and the shooter rods, those have been sold out.”

    Don @ ~0:31:00 — Documents strong secondary market demand and sellout status of Stranger Things accessories

  • “I want to go through an actual more personal top 5... what are 5 games that mean something personally to me, given how it affected my life or was there during a certain time of development.”

    Don @ ~0:56:00 — Introduces personal gaming memory segment responding to community request

  • “They've got some girth to it, man. It's a girth tower. It dwarfs the bell tower that's right next to it.”

    Don @ ~0:36:30 — Describes the Venom LE 180-ramp bookcase mechanism's physical presence and scale

    • Steve Ritchie
    person
    Joel Engelbertperson
    Brian Eddyperson
    Jeremy Packerperson
    Jeffperson
    Colinperson
    Stranger Thingsgame
    Venom LEgame
    Elementsgame
    Labyrinthgame
    Blue Moon Bar and Grillvenue
    Mad Pinballcompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Dinergame
    Flip N Out Pinballpodcast
    Triple Drain Pinball Podcastpodcast
  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern maintains current MSRP for Stranger Things rerun (not premium pricing like Elvira House of Horrors premium at $10,500)

    high · Don states 'they are sticking to current MSRP prices, which I was extremely reassured' and contrasts with 'Elvira House of Horrors... premium price was $10,500' vs Stranger Things at $9,600-9,700

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern running built-to-order reruns of Stranger Things toppers ($649), art blades (~$89-99), UV kits ($279), and shooter rods ($179) in November 2024

    high · Don confirms 'they are rerunning all of the accessories' with official MSRP pricing; confirms availability through distributors including Mad Pinball

  • ?

    event_signal: Four major game reveals planned for Chicago Pinball Expo 2024: JJP mystery game (Oct 19), Elements, Labyrinth, and possibly others from Spooky/Pinball Brothers/American Pinball

    high · Don confirms Elements playable, Labyrinth revealing Friday 9:30pm, JJP at 8pm Thursday; speculation on Spooky/others based on Jason Knapp's earlier prediction of four reveals

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky Pinball has 200-300 Scooby-Doo CEs remaining before transitioning to Bloodsucker and Standard edition production

    high · Don watched Spooky livestream: 'they have about 200 to 300 Scooby-Doo CEs to make. Then they get on to the Bloodsucker editions and then following that the Standard editions'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Venom LE Premium playfield significantly more mechanically rich than Pro: features 180-ramp bookcase, Doppelganger mechanism, multiple playfield configurations via character selection

    high · Don's hour-long hands-on: 'the premium plays so much better... much bigger and a little beefier' with 'Doppelganger' and '180 ramp' providing depth; notes Gwen character allows pro-like fast play while others use bookcase

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venom LE uses character selection to vary playfield mechanics: Venom/Black Suit use 180-ramp bookcase; Gwenom plays pro-style with horseshoe; suggests design flexibility trade-off

    high · Don explains 'if you pick Gwenom, it tilts back into its far position where that 180 ramp is just a shoot-through, and then it plays just like the Pro with that horseshoe. So if you do like that fast and Frenzy play of the Pro, you can get it just by picking Gwen'

  • $

    market_signal: Strong secondary market demand for Stranger Things accessories: shooter rods listed at $300+ (vs $179 MSRP); UV kits and art blades completely sold out; significant FOMO resale activity

    high · Don reports Pinside seller asking $300 for shooter rod; notes 'Toppers were still in supply, but everything else has been sold right out. Art blades you probably could have got, but the UV kits, forget it, and the shooter rods, those have been sold out'

    • 4:52
    Maybe they'll just have an announcement of an announcement or something new that's coming, but they got something coming too. So this is getting set up to be much more robust than Expo was last year. This is almost reaching TPF this year's level of hype of releases of new games and such. So all that is exciting. I was going to talk about this kind of at the end, but then JJP done stirred the pot. So let's speculate here for a second. So Steve Ritchie is the one that's supposed to be up next. They have this other guy that made the Metroid pinball machine whose name escapes me because I have not played the Metroid pinball machine yet, but he's supposed to have a game. And what we've been hearing fairly consistently is Elton John every time people mention anything. We've heard word second, third, fourth, fifth hand that people that have played it said it shoots really well. so I mean that's reassuring to hear that but ultimately whether it shoots well or shoots not we're going to find out when we actually see the thing and put our hands on it so you can't always trust people that happen to get to these things early yet have information leak out but there is the speculation that maybe Elton John is just a codename for something else there was that drop a few months ago that Jersey Jack has the Harry Potter license don't even speculate or fight about it they got it, case closed, whatever And then, you know, does that mean that they actually have the Harry Potter license, like from the movies? Is it from the books? You know, is it going to have book assets, movie assets? Or is it going to go like the Hogwarts Legacy route, the game that came out that just kind of featured an adventure within that Harry Potter universe without any licensed characters per se? Who knows? You know, so, you know, what's the breakdown? 15% this is a Harry Potter game. You know, 95% it's Elton John. It's probably going to be Elton John. And then the graphic that was revealed with the silhouetted pinball machine on their Facebook page today, it just has like a spotlight of purple glitter coming down. So, you know, unless there was a spell that I'm missing from that lore, you know, unless Hagrid had a feather boa in that hut out in the woods, I think this is probably what we're getting. So there's as much confirmation as we're going to get. We'll probably start hearing more things now. People that have known and have been holding back, the lips will be loosened a bit. So I think we're going to get more confirmation of this. But, hey, that's pinball, man. Four new games at Expo. If you haven't got your tickets, get down there. Get your ticket. Go pick up. Even go just one day. I have on my pass. I'm going for the whole thing. I'm going to be hopefully doing the pinball Olympics because the ticket has been ordered. It's in my hand. Those got sent out this week. So if you haven't received yours, probably coming soon. Came from Pinball Life. I didn't know they were doing physical tickets, but yet here it is. I got my bus pass. I got my pinball Olympics ticket. I wonder if I can exchange this for a slice of Sbarro somewhere. Who knows? Well, there are some instructions. I haven't read them, though. Threw them right out. I'm kidding. I got them set somewhere. Excited about that. So Expo. We're hyped for Expo. Any other news this week? Only the best pinball news that I have personally been waiting for for, like, the last two years, and that is for the coming of this rumored Stranger Things rerun from Stern Pinball. And wouldn't you know it, it actually happened. Man, speculation has been building up to a crescendo over the weekend when I was thinking, like, man, this thing's coming. there's still Stranger Things toppers that are here and available who knows if they're going to be made again who knows if this game is going to be made again but I went and FOMO'd myself into a Stranger Things topper what the heck and then this thing came last weekend and we didn't hear anything about in our announcement, the dealers wouldn't hear anything so I was like, okay fine, it was supposed to be Tuesday and then Monday comes and then I was like, well surely they will let the distros know on Monday and then the rest of us will know the details on Tuesday and that didn't happen either, man And Big Daddy Stern kept everything under wraps until Tuesday and just released everything all at once with a flyer in their mailer for the Stern of the Union or whatever they call it. And right there, the flyer for Stranger Things Pro and Premium coming for the holidays. No word on price, no word on availability, no word on time, just coming for the holidays. And so I reached out to my distributors right away. Jeff, Mad Pinball, dude, what's up? When's this thing coming? How much is it? How much do I owe you? Do you still have me on a list? And he's like, man, I don't know any information yet either. We're all just finding out. And then, you know, a flurry of activity over the next few hours, and dealers were scrambling to get images up on the website and taking calls, I'm sure, were deluged. But we happened to find out we landed on prices for the Stranger Things. Now, fortunately, they are sticking to current MSRP prices, which I was extremely reassured, because for sure I thought this was going to go for $1,000 or $1,500 more, similar to how Elvira House of Horrors was when they released those premiums, and the premium price was $10,500, you know, not this $9,000, $7,000, $6,000, whatever. But no, we got the $6,900, $6,999, $7,000 pros and the $9,600, $9,700 premiums. Get them from your distributors or call over Jeff at Mad Pinball. I think he's still got some allotment. Everybody else is selling out. Everybody else has huge lines, days and years of waiting, but not Jeff. He's got it over there. We'll play his ad here in a little bit. But super, super duper, triple duper, you know, excited about that. So Stranger Things is coming. our buddy, your friend and mine, Joel Engelbert yeah, that's it, over at Triple Drain, they got a new show coming out here soon too, a new episode but he was on Flippin' Out With Friends with Brian Eddy for like an hour just like chatting going through more of the details for Stranger Things so we know the price we've heard that they're coming out in November when they're being run so that's next month, beginning of the month end of the month, I don't know are they going to do how they typically do with the pros early on and then the premiums. I didn't hear during that interview those sorts of specifics, but come December, you're going to have this game, whether you're an operator in a location or getting that sweet, sweet premium for home. But there was some cool little news and views and questions that were answered during that stream So watch the whole thing The two takeaways from it were of course there are some upgrades to the mechanisms for this game particularly the telekinesis lock on the premium, which I do not have any firsthand experience with because of how rare those premiums were. I've only played a premium maybe twice on location, and you always wonder if everything's even working or some places they even have it turned off. I never played like a well-run, oiled, you know, in-home unit. But apparently this telekinesis lock is against the back of the play field, kind of over the graphics where Eleven is levitating some orbs of light, and your balls will lock up there magnetically for the multi-ball, which sounds totes dope. But it was problematic, or it wasn't working the way that was intended. It was hit or miss. There was adjustments that needed to be made to really dial it in, and not everybody had that expertise to get it working. So a lot of locations, if they did have this, ended up just turning that feature off and just doing, you know, I don't know if it was a virtual ball lock or whatever it was. I don't think I played well enough to find out the few times that I've been getting my hands on a premium. But the word is that, you know, the magnets or the mechanisms or whatever has been re-engineered to be a little bit more reliable, probably easier to adjust and dial in is what I would think. Also, that Demogorgon motor that, you know, jumps around, there's a coil underneath them somewhere. I guess that was addressed too, so there'll be some better reliability. That I didn't hear really how that was failing, but always good to hear that things have been dialed up. Um, UV kits will be available, but they won't be coming with the machine. That will be a separate order. Um, but they are, oh, this was great. This was great to hear that they are rerunning all of the accessories. Um, some guy jumped on a pin side over the weekend and listed his a stranger things shooter rod for $300 and, or just offer. So I offered a 200, which I thought was reasonable, just got like a no thanks right away.
    12:32
    So maybe he already had better offers. He just let me know as a courtesy. So, you know, thanks, dude, for doing that. But we come to find out that, yes, not only the shooter rod, but Art Blades, UV kit, and toppers are being rerun, built to order, or built in quantities that can be ordered, and distributors are getting them. Those will be run in November, too. I've got confirmation of that. Toppers were still in supply, but everything else has been sold right out. Art blades you probably could have got, but the UV kits, forget it, and the shooter rods, those have been sold out. So shooter rods are going for $179 MSRP. The art blades, I think they were like $99, somewhere around there, $89, $99 if you want the stern art blades. UV kits and something else. UV kits are $279. There was something else I thought was $279 as well. Maybe I'm misremembering. But the UV kits, $279, you can get those. And the toppers are still $649. So, I mean, by top of our standards, it's not $1,200, right? So we've got to be happy about that. It's got that Infinity Mirror thing. We're going with kind of like an Infinity Mirror theme here for this show. It's the second time it's come up. What else do we got? I think that was most of what I have. So Demogorgon is going to function better. To that end, I wasn't really sure. But go check out the stream with Joel there and our buddy Eddie.
    13:46
    Eddie also looked like he made a surprise appearance in the Friday Factory video from Stern today. I happened to catch that, and they have the Venom LEs on the line, which actually will segue. I'm going to get into that next. Venom LEs are being made right now or somewhere into being completed because premiums have already been leaving the factory.
    14:05
    But, yeah, they were going through all the play testers, right? So they had all these Venom cabinets with the play fields, you know, sitting in the service positions, and they're going through checking switches and everything and just running the line of all these Venom LEs, all pretty, all lined up in a row. I don't know if they actually filmed these Factory Friday videos on Friday or just released on Friday. This could have been from a week ago. But Brian Eddy was out there with one of the technicians just kind of going over. They were playing with the doppelganger mechanism. I don't know if he was just doing it for show or actually showing how to QC the thing. But, yeah, that was interesting. So I, let's see, what am I getting to?
    14:41
    Right. I got to put my hands on a Venom LE yesterday. I was down in Madison at Blue Moon Bar and Grill. and these guys just have a great relation with their local distributor who I think runs to the Stern factory, doesn't wait for things to be delivered, just grabs these things off the line hot and fresh in the box and then starts dropping them at local locations and Blue Moon is one of those local locations that as soon as it's put together, it shows up on the floor. So they've got their Venom LE there. I was able to play it undisturbed for like an hour and put like 10 or 12 games through it. I was actually doing much better. This is my first time playing the premium LE playfield version of it. Up until now, I've played a couple of pros. And I will say first off that the premium plays so much better. I was really impressed seeing it. I knew it had that 180 ramp tilting bookcase mechanism. But seeing it in person, it was much bigger and a little beefier than what I pictured in my head. I was thinking it would just be this flimsy thing that would flop back and forth. But it's got some girth to it, man. It's a girth tower. It dwarfs the bell tower that's right next to it. I like the little ramp that comes in front of the bell tower. That's fun. Y'all know I like wire form ramps. Some people call them habit trails. I call them a good time is what I call them. But there was that. And then also I was impressed with that little up-down flap that's over on the side there, which would be the exit for the horseshoe on the pro. But there's actually like a metal ramp, too, that continues back that I never really got to appreciate before just from videos and images and such. so yeah, plus Doppelganger's there and he's a lot bigger than what I was thinking too and seems to be pretty beefy and he's got the three dangles underneath him similar to the Razorcrest on Mandalorian so with the addition of these things the game feels more complete more of like a solid game more of there's things to do other than just look for the lights on the playfield and shoot those lanes so that was interesting it was fun cycling through the characters and seeing the play field change. The 180 ramp is in place for two of the characters. It was Venom and Black Suit Spider-Man. And then what else surprised me about it, though, as far as layouts, was if you pick Gwenom, it tilts back into its far position where that 180 ramp is just a shoot-through, and then it plays just like the Pro with that horseshoe. So if you do like that fast and frenzy play of the Pro, you can get it just by picking Gwen. So that was fun. So you have pro gameplay in there With the addition of Doppelganger But you also can play around with the 180 ramp Which I really liked Something I really didn't enjoy all that much Was just that lock shot that you get with Eddie Brock Well not Eddie Brock Who's the guy Agent Venom You know the other guys you can pick The Agent Venom Plays the military music Anyway so that secondary position of the 180 ramp All it does is just it's got an opto in there, and then a pin comes up and just kind of holds a ball there for a second and releases it. And, you know, it's not the most exciting gameplay there. It just kind of goes up and locks and then releases. So, you know, that didn't impress me so much. I really like the 180 ramp. I like the Gwen shot. I like the flap on the ramp that's over on the other side, the other way that this play field changes. I kind of wish, you know, if I had a genie and felt like wasting wishes and something as trivial as pinball layouts, I would have had that shoot-through position maybe been the second position, the 180 ramp in the first position. Then that third position, have it go down underneath the play field into a subway shot or something, a subway that would then vuck up somewhere or shoot across the play field like Elvira House of Horrors does with that gargoyle belching out a ball, right? So I think that would have been cool, a little bit of a missed opportunity. I'm sure somebody thought of it because they're smarter than I am and then for budgets or maybe it just didn't work the way that I was thinking. But I thought it would be kind of cool if that third position just went into an interior subway, played a little scene, and then spit a ball out. That would have been kind of cool. Well, there we go. So let's talk about the art on Venom because when I posted my review, that was one thing that really jumped out. And I was like, hey, guys, this art on Venom LE is amazing. And people were saying, look, it's just Venom with words on it. What are you talking about, dude? Well, there was one guy that said that. Everybody else was like, yeah, you know, dude, it's legit. um so looking online on the computer um at the pictures and on videos yeah like that art package looks dope with venom and the font and then carnage on the other side you know plus the dripping rails uh with venom goo but in person you guys in person um the the the graphic print that they did um on the cabinet art you know you know they're doing that they've been doing like that metal foil kind of uh accent to it uh elvira 40th anniversary has it it looks phenomenal so this does too but it's like the whole thing is like has this blue green swirling metallic look to it and if you get it under some light you know or flip the the flashlight on your iphone if it's in a lineup check it out like it's glistening it's iridescent um it's got a tactile feel to it like if you feel the sides of the cabinet like you can tell the different uh the different inks and the different textures like have a raised texture to them so i don't know man i had my hands all over this cabinet, like just as much as I had on the Scooby-Doo butter cabinets, man. But I super like this graphic. You've got to see it in person, though. The pictures that I had seen, you know, the videos, you can see what the art looks like, but like up close, there's all these cool little details, and man, that machine's going to be looking great in anybody's game room. Now, gameplay-wise, it's still Venom. You know, it's a fan layout without any giant, you know, mechanism, no house back there to shoot or something. so this isn't the game that's going to dethrone Godzilla or Elvira House of Horrors it doesn't shoot as well as Iron Maiden but it is a fun game the code is what makes it engaging I will say the premium makes this more of a complete game and what I would like to see from Stern Pinball is limited editions of this caliber with regard to the art and I think we could thank Jeremy Packer for a lot of that Zombie Getty who did this art why the art itself looks good but the print and finish on it That's really what I want to get at. It looks so impressive, and you've got to see it in person. There's no way to appreciate it really in videos or photos, despite how I've tried. I know I'm gushing about this, but, like, it carries up into the back box art, too, on the sides. It's got that same look, that same finish. Oh, God, I'm into that metallic iridescence, man. And then, you know, the mirrored back glass, I mean, those look fantastic no matter where you go. What I wish and I already know why this can happen but I wish Stern would use this quality of print with these metal foil and things and just put that on all of their machines you know So every new Stern machine has the best cabinet art in the industry I have no idea what the build of material cost is between, you know, the traditional large format decal and this metallic finish, you know. If it's like $50 more in material to print this, I kind of think you should just go ahead and do that, man, because this looks cool. Or have it available as an option. where you can order your premium and say, oh, I'd like to pay the $50 to get the premium art upgrade. And to that, I can already tell the virtual Stern employee representative in my head is saying, there already is a way that you can pay to upgrade your art, Don. You just go and buy the limited edition, and that's probably as far as it would go. But, yeah, man, I wish I could get that art and get it in that LE finish. But do the LE finish on everything. But there's no way. I just don't see a way that that's going to happen. But any fledgling pinball companies that are out there, if you can look into this tech and see what they're doing to print these and have your graphics at least be the best in the industry, I think that's worthwhile, unless it's something like it's $1,000 to print this way or something. What else do I have to say about Venom? I'm up to level 50. I still haven't beaten Null yet. That speaks to my own terribleness of pinball.
    22:33
    I will say I am liking the code where I'm able to beat a mini boss and that stays saved, so at least I don't have to do that again. so it doesn't save your progress as like a linear progression you know when you reach a stage where you've completed something that's what gets saved and so i can't wait to get this thing at home so i could put another 100 games through it and actually you know get through and beat and all i'm very excited for my premium i just got invoiced today it's paid i sent that money over to my buddy uh jeff at mad pinball and now would be a good time to include them in our discussion man these guys over at mad are fantastic and their jingle man it'd be slapping Flipper's stuck and now I'm sad.
    23:14
    Play pinball with my dad. Need a pin, go man, pinball. Topper's mods ain't got a ball. Call 1-800-MAN-PIN-BALL.
    23:34
    Need four words that rhyme with all. Topper's mods ain't got a ball. So I have already heard from some distributors that they have eclipsed their sales for Stranger Things. They've sold out their initial allotment. Hopefully there will be some more, but I believe Jeff still got some. So go ahead and give him an email, jeffatmadpinball.com, and say, Hey, buddy, I listened to my homie Don. He said you may have machines left or toppers or accessories. It gets you something. He's selling Stern Shaker Motors now, too. No matter what game you got, get yourself a Shaker Motor. Your game already has the code in it for that. It adds a tactile feedback. I put Shaker Motors in all of my games. I love it. I was actually able to play Venom with the Shaker Motors since they come installed on the LEs. But for you pro and premium owners, man, get you one. It's an easy install and does add that tactile feedback, right? It just punctuates those moments. Like when you achieve and there's that rattle, I just love it. I love it. And you can dial it up and down if you're a little sensitive to it. But, you know, go check that out. He's got those now. So you don't have to, you know, go through other ulterior motives. Go through your buddies at Mad Pinball. Anyway, so I was reached out recently by the kineticist, Colin. Cool guy pushing this positivity in pinball, which, like, I love, man. I don't want bad times in pinball. I get bad times in everything else in my life. Come on. And people at work driving you nuts, customers that are hard to please, people that you're trying as hard as you can to please them, and they just fail despite your best intentions. It's all rough. But when you come down into your game room or you go out to the bar or arcade or something, that's some time to have fun. It's a social thing with friends. It brings the introverts out to the extrovert world. It's a good time. It's a fun time, and I support that. so he's planning on doing a big write up on what we like in pinball how to celebrate that and so he's taxed us with asking us, well first off run through your top 5 games and let me know what you think and so I took that to heart yeah, let's do that I decided to flip this a little bit rather than just go by the pin side top 5 or my personal top 5 I wanted to go through an actual more personal top 5 what are 5 games that mean something personally to me, given how it affected my life or was there during a certain time of development or something, and so identify that time and that memory with that machine. So I've compiled a list that I would like to share with everybody, and then hit me back with your thoughts. Do you have a machine that helps you reflect back to kind of a pivotal or tumultuous time in your life that means something to you? Let me know. Let's discuss that. I'm going to start number five with Diner, Williams Diner. This is a game. It's one of the classics. It's from that taxi era, a couple of ramps, and it takes place, of all things, in a diner.
    26:39
    Can we just take a moment and say pinball themes from that era were just wild? How about whitewater rafting? How about the taxi service? How about a mafia? How about a castle? How about just, I don't know, a tornado comes to town, and we'll have some spinning discs or something. Those are fun, man, those 80s, 90s games. So Diner for me, it's the call-outs, man. When I hear the call-outs, I'm taken right back to this laundromat in Guerneville, California in 1992 because I moved out there, living with my dad along the river, and money was tight. And so affording a washing machine and a dryer at home was something that was difficult, particularly electric because of the electrical costs and things. so we had a washing machine and we would wash the clothes and then we would put the clothes into you know big giant trash bags and then we'd go down the laundromat and then that's where we would dry the clothes right so we would always take like 60 to 90 minutes it was in a hippie town along the Russian River so like there was a store next door that was kind of just like a general goods store and they'd have like ice cream and stuff but it was like hippie ice cream made with like ice milk and crap so I remember just eating you know this this questionable non-dairy dessert and then you know they had a michael jackson's moonwalker as a stand-up arcade machine and then they had diner and so like that's what i would do with whatever extra quarters we had you know was try to get a frankfurter and a root beer you know just hit those shots and so those call outs man that i hear whenever i play diner even to this day you know takes me right back to that spot you know sunny afternoon uh with my dad smells like hot laundry you know eating hippie ice cream and playing diner you know so i'm still on the hunt at some point to get one of those into my house just kind of restore the entire crap out of it and you know maybe i'll put it in my laundry room just so i have that humidity to play with that i'm used to but that's number five that's williams diner and i like it to this day number two or number four we'll go in reverse order uh we'll go with fireball right who remembers this classic game with the spinning disc on it um you know older style uh older school kind of game i don't know if it was a solid state or if this was em back then um but i remember playing fireball again pinball memories with my dad this time i'm even younger we're living in los angeles uh we're at long beach um you know my mom would work nights at the hospital and then you know my dad was disabled so uh during the day we would just kind of do la stuff you know we would go to disneyland but instead of going into the park we would go to the hotel across the street because it was free to park at the hotel. And then we wouldn't go into the park because that costs money, but we could go around the hotel and there was waterfalls and things, you know, so we would go do that. On the way out, he would send me over to go punch the ticket machine for the parking lot because you got your first 30 minutes free. And then I would go over there and grab a ticket as if we just came in. So we got to leave and didn't have to pay for parking. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I guess that's, you know, frowned upon or whatever. But we would do stuff like that. and we would go walk the break walls down in Long Beach. You know, they jet out into the harbor. You can crawl around on the rocks. It's free to do. You crawl through a hole in the fence and go nuts jumping around these giant boulders out in the ocean. And, you know, there's crabs and things running around you can chase. You know, it's a fun time. And there was this little eatery there called Popeye's, of all things, not related to the character, just it was called Popeye's. And he'd go in there and get a beer and some nachos or something, and that's what we'd have for lunch. But they had a fireball was the thing. And so he took me over there, and that is like the earliest pinball memory I can have. where I wasn't just, you know, panic slapping buttons, you know, and then putting my greasy hands all over machines, but actually waiting for the ball to get towards the end of the flipper and then hit it so you can try to hit something. And I remember my dad saying, hey, come look at this machine. It's really cool. It's got the spinning disc in the middle. When the ball gets it, it does crazy stuff. You don't know where it's going to go. Like, it's kind of neat. It's something that the other ones don't have. And so that just, like, is the earliest memory I have with pinball where it kind of dawns on to me that, like, you know, There's something interesting about this machine that you don't find in other ones, you know, and there's some technique to this. It's not just random chance. So, you know, from then on, like, even to this day, like, when a ball's rolling down, I'm like, you know, let's wait for it, get the eighth of that flipper, and then we can get up and we can get that orbit or something. So, number four, we're going to go with Fireball for deep personal memories. Number three, let's fast forward about 15 years, and we're going to talk about Elvira and the Party Monsters. This is a game with some significance to myself and my wife. So let me set the stage. You're 19 years old. You're renting a room for $300 a month. You cannot afford a car. You can barely afford a bus pass. You've got a skateboard, and you've got a dream. And you're trying to get into one of the allied health programs at the local junior college with no guidance whatsoever. So you pick up, you finally wise up, and you pick up this job at a pizza restaurant. It still pays minimum wage, just like the job driving the forklift, just like the job changing the tires. But the difference is there's free food at this place. so 50% of your budget that has been going to food can now be freed up significantly. So I'm working at this pizza place. I go in there to drop my application off. I see this girl in a bandana working the register, found out her name was Monica, and just basically tormented her until she agreed to hang out with me, and she's now my wife. So that's that story. Across the parking lot from this pizza restaurant, this is Round Table Pizza in Santa Rosa, California, in the Cottingtown Mall area Pizza restaurant has been redone but it is still there The diner though that been gone for years Anyway at this diner across the street you know every now and then we go over there with some of the money that we had to buy something that wasn pizza that we could eat for lunch But they had two pinball machines there. One of them, I have no idea what the hell it was. It must have been something old and uninteresting.
    32:14
    The other one was Elvira and the Party Monsters. And so we would put quarters into this. I eventually leveled up to the level of delivery driver, so I got a pocket of change every day. so we put quarters in there and me and her would play Elvira and the Party Monsters make the little finger puppets jump up and down and that was fun for us it was what we would do during our break working 4pm to midnight every night the dang pizza restaurant staying late, closing the ovens and the scullery and the bathrooms at some point during that day we got a break from the hot kitchen and we got to go over and play Elvira and the Party Monsters so that's still that game too Like when I play that, like I'm back in that diner, right? I know they had crinkle cut fries. I used to get a grilled cheese sandwich because it was like three and a quarter for that and the fries. And then I had some change left over to play a couple games in Elvira when you have to go back to work. You know, so that was fun. So that is a game significant to me. Elvira and the Party Monsters. I've got Elvira House of Horrors now. I have definitely leveled up. And I'll start at the junior college. Man, I wish I would have had some guidance because I could have been in this spot 20 years ago. But that's that one. That was number three. Let's go with number four. Let's go a similar era, and let's go with Brian Eddy's Medieval Madness. All right, I don't have to explain this game to anybody. It's fantastic. Bash the Castle, it blows up. That is never not satisfying to do. There's trolls to hit. Merlin is in there. Tina Fey is in there. It's nuts, right? It's the whole package of a classic 90s game, the best version to come out of there as far as I'm concerned. So here's the thing. you know i i'm in university at this point you know after you know doing doing my allied health thing for a while and again i find myself fairly broke uh but i had a playstation and the playstation had pinball arcade and i remembered i loved pinball uh so i'd fire it up and then one of the games that you were able to download with like the bally williams or whatever collection was medieval madness and so that's the first place i really played this game i'm sure i came across it at some point in the 90s in antiquity but this is the first time when i played i'm like let me learn the rules of this game. Let me learn what you have to do. Let me blow up this castle. Holy garbage. This is fun, right? Of course it is. It's medieval madness, for Christ's sakes. So, it's a good game. I'm enjoying it. This led to me to then look around like, where could I find and play an actual one of these? And then I came across a free play pinball arcade in Conshohock in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, kind of close to where we were living at the time. And I went in there, we paid 16 bucks, and then we got to have free play. and it was nuts. There was all these games that had been playing virtually at home on the PlayStation, but here they are, the real ones, right? So I step on up to Medieval Madness, and I'm like, watch this. I know the rules. I know the shots. I'm going to blow this game up. Man, this place don't even never seen nobody like me. And then, boom, I'm draining like a champ, dude.
    35:04
    There was that learning curve that comes with moving from virtual, where everything is pretty standard and by the numbers, to an actual physical machine where this flipper is a little bit warmer. It's not going to shoot like the one you're used to. The shots are in different spots. This rubber's worn a little bit. It's tilted just a little bit in this way, so you have to account for that. But that was the game that got me into playing pinball in real life, kind of leading the resurgence. That just built until I'm here where I am today. So that was a pivotal moment. That was a pivotal game. Thank you, Brian Eddy, for being involved in that, and everybody else and all the engineers and everything who made that game. because that was of significance. Now, Totem, of course, was too. Attack from Mars is fantastic, but Medieval Madness was the one, and I think it's because that theme spoke to me more than anything else, and I would love to see a Masters of the Universe custom re-theme of Medieval Madness where you blow up Castle Grayskull and have Snake Mountain up there with the dragon on it. I mean, come on, Skeletor. Hey, man, shoot the shot. You know, save me.
    36:05
    You know, Beastman and Evil-Lyn can pop up as the trolls or something. I still think that's a great idea that I hope that somebody with more talent than me can run with. All right, the last one I want to talk about, pivotal games from my life. It's a recent acquisition, and it is sitting behind me, and it is The Big Lebowski. It absolutely is The Big Lebowski. It's the movie metamorphosized into a pinball machine, into one of the most well-built pinball machines I've ever ran my hands through, looked under the play field in. what it captures from everything we like about classic 90s Valley Williams games a theme that's absolutely perfect for me, maybe not for other people but I see a lot of my adult life in this theme, in these characters, in this game in these shots, in that bowling alley in that Folgers can there's key points in my life that are congruent with the plot points of the movie I'm not exactly, I've never had a weasel down my pants or anything, or a mormon, or drugs for that matter. But on a personal level, that movie spoke to me and it kind of capped off and said, you know what, childhood is over, it is adulthood now. But obviously we can still make silly, childish decisions, and so that is, for me, The Big Lebowski. So there's five games of significant for me. there's more but I just wanted to get five and just pick five that means something to me let me know what you think, holler back at me donspinballpodcast.gmail.com let me know what you think, post on the Facebook page for this episode that we're doing here and let me know your thoughts on it alright, so the other thing let's see, Colin wanted to know what do I love the most about pinball? So I was thinking, is it the satisfying shots that you get. When you hit them and they feel right, you shoot through those pop bumpers and make it into that ramp cleanly. Especially when the game is asking you, shoot the left ramp, get the Pharaoh's Treasure on Iron Maiden, and you hit it right through those pops and it's so satisfying. I mean, what's better than that, right?
    38:14
    I can tell you what's better than that. It's what I really like about pinball. And that's the community and the relationships that I have made. Sappy as that sounds, you knew it was coming. But it's real, man. I played pinball 15 minutes a day, an hour a day, sometimes longer from streaming some days not much at all um but i can tell you what i've been doing consistently every day and that's talking to people about it um you know it's a common theme uh you know we all love these machines similarly um and it gives us something to reach out about you know it's like if you're another pinball person like we already share like a connection right so the door's already open you know what else is going on in your life where do you live why don't you come by do you know any cool restaurants you know it's just like you know It turns strangers into friends, basically. Something that you get in the same fandoms of a band that people are super into. Not just like they like them, but really into them. And then you find that person and you're like, oh my god. Or I would find this with my coaster friends. We could talk about inside jokes from a theme park from 30 years ago that we all shared. And it's still funny and it's still stupid today. And it's the pinball relationships too. and what I'm finding out is that pinball has just a huge broad appeal so even people that are members of the general public GPs as we used to call them in the coaster world they know what pinball is maybe not that it exists at this level but they're interested in it and you're like hey here's what's going on here's what these things are I do a podcast about it how do you do a podcast about pinball what in the world do you talk about and I say well these are the things I talk about the machines that are coming out I talk about the rumor machines that are coming out. I talk about problems that are going on with machines that have come out. I talk about problems that have gone on with people involved in the hobby. Like, you know, there's so much to it, and they're kind of enraptured a bit. Like, really? You know, and it's not like, you know, like going nonstop on somebody about how, you know, the intricacies of planning a Disney World trip or something. Like, this has more broad appeal because people kind of relate to them, too. They're like, oh, hey, I kind of like pinball, too. My uncle had this game. Have you ever played it? And I'm like, well, yeah, here's more information about that. So that part of it I like. I like when I do a live stream unannounced. I turn it on, and then 10, 20 people are in there, and we're all engaged and talking. I did a live stream earlier in the week, and I just turned on the camera. It was on Tuesday when Stranger Things came out. And I ended up talking into the camera with everybody for two solid hours, and it felt like 20 minutes.
    40:48
    And we just kind of went from one topic to the next. I'm like, that's what I like about it. I like that this hobby is large and niche, yet still mainstream enough that there can be tournaments all over the place internationally. There's pinball events and conventions all over the country. Every region has one.
    41:10
    So no matter where you are, you can get involved to the same level. If you have 30 machines at home, you're just as welcome as somebody with no machines at home, and that's okay. hey, if you want to find a way to try to get one, people will help you out. We'll brainstorm ways to raise funds. We'll try to find a project machine and then help tell you how to build it up into a real one that you can then sell and flip and then buy something else. I met somebody in Louisville that started just buying decrepit, rotten games full of insects and just putting the time and the work in to restore them in a playable condition, selling them and then using the proceeds from that to buy another project. And each project stepped up a little bit more in cost until they were actually able to redo this Williams Diner. It was beautiful, man. And so that's what I like most. And I think that's kind of where Colin was going for it. So Colin, hopefully you can use this. Hopefully everybody that wanted a Stranger Things can now get one. If distributors you're talking to have sold out already, check with Jeff at Mad Pinball. I think he still has some, and the accessories are streaming out, man. I couldn't be happier about that.
    42:14
    Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. You can email me directly. go to facebook hit the like hit the follow man we're building followers uh we engage on there all the time i have like 10 different messenger uh conversations going like right now with people it's great um uh new merchandise and things are coming new designs are in the flux expo is going to be here in two weeks you guys can you believe it this is awesome stay pinball