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Spooky Pinball Reveals Halloween

Cary Hardy·video·22m 14s·analyzed·Jul 6, 2021
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Cary Hardy breaks down Halloween's three-playfield layout, art, and tier editions; predicts strong sales.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides an in-depth technical analysis of Spooky Pinball's Halloween machine, praising its innovative three-tier playfield design, Jason Edmiston's artwork, and overall execution while noting minor cosmetic concerns. He discusses the game's layout, mechanics, pricing tiers, and production numbers (1,250 total units), predicting strong sales driven by theme popularity and Spooky's growing Fang Club membership. Hardy emphasizes that all tier models play identically with differences limited to aesthetics and accessories.

Key Claims

  • Spooky is making 1,250 total Halloween machines with no production limits per tier (Collector's/Bloodsucker/Standard)

    high confidence · Hardy states specific production number and tier structure during pricing discussion

  • All tier models of Halloween play identically; tier differences are purely aesthetic (armor, topper, cosmetics)

    high confidence · Hardy explicitly states 'The game is going to play the same for all tier models' and 'The game itself is going to be the same. There's going to be no changes to the game, no mechanisms removed'

  • Halloween features a three-playfield design that other manufacturers have not replicated or have not done in a very long time

    high confidence · Hardy: 'this is something that spooky has done that you're not seeing in other manufacturers you're not seeing a triple decker play field it not to my recollection i don't think another company has done this'

  • The topper knife is a full-size actual knife that cuts into the back box via a hole

    high confidence · Hardy: 'that's an actual knife i say actual knife meaning it's a full-size one and it actually is going into the cabinet guys there is a hole that has been cut in the top of this back box and the knife actually goes into it'

  • Spooky changed their power supply design; the fan is now nearly silent and only kicks on during heavy amperage draw (7-ball multiball)

    high confidence · Hardy: 'they have changed their power supply and how the fan works and the fact is basically they're saying that the fan is pretty much silent and the only time that it's going to even kick on is whenever the game is really pulling on the amperage'

  • Halloween was designed by multiple people at Spooky (3-4 designers), not a single designer

    high confidence · Hardy references information from Super Awesome Pinball Shows podcast noting 'it was designed by a multiple amount of people there in spooky' and 'upwards of three or four people total that all chipped in to design this game'

  • Orders begin Wednesday, July 7th at 9 a.m. Central; Fang Club members get first access

Notable Quotes

  • “this is something that spooky has done that you're not seeing in other manufacturers you're not seeing a triple decker play field”

    Cary Hardy@ 3:37 — Highlights Halloween's unique mechanical innovation vs. industry competition

  • “The game is going to play the same for all tier models, whether it be your standard, your bloodsucker, or your collector's edition. You're not going to miss anything on how the game plays.”

    Cary Hardy@ 7:30 — Clarifies Spooky's pricing strategy: all tiers are mechanically identical, differentiated only by aesthetics

  • “the theme doesn't call to me, and I believe that this game is going to really sell out. It will.”

    Cary Hardy@ 15:43 — Personal preference does not affect Hardy's market prediction; acknowledges theme appeal to target audience

  • “I think this is going to do very well for spooky. Their last game rick and morty did well for them and it's given them the ability to grow they've got a new building that's been coming out they have an even higher goal on how many machines they're going to make”

    Cary Hardy@ 20:26 — Context on Spooky's business momentum and expansion trajectory

  • “that's an actual knife i say actual knife meaning it's a full-size one and it actually is going into the cabinet guys there is a hole that has been cut in the top of this back box”

    Cary Hardy@ 2:56 — Technical clarification on topper mechanism; emphasizes commitment to immersive design

  • “if you want first dibs, if you can be quick enough, you still need to be a Fang Club member”

Entities

Spooky PinballcompanyCary HardypersonHalloweengameJason EdmistonpersonCharlie EmerypersonBugpersonChorus Barloffperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball experiencing growth trajectory: Rick and Morty commercial success enabled new building acquisition and increased production goals for future machines.

    high · Hardy: 'Their last game rick and morty did well for them and it's given them the ability to grow they've got a new building that's been coming out they have an even higher goal on how many machines they're going to make'

  • ?

    community_signal: Halloween's three-playfield design and immersive mechanics (animated knife topper, interactive RGB elements) demonstrate Spooky's focus on distinctive play experience and theme integration.

    high · Hardy emphasizes uniqueness: 'triple decker play field...spooky has done that you're not seeing in other manufacturers' and praises theme integration throughout playfield design

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Halloween prioritizes mechanical and visual uniqueness (three playfields, interactive topper, LED rim lighting) alongside theme fidelity. Minor quality control concerns exist (back panel aesthetics, LED rim eye comfort) but do not derail overall design vision.

    medium · Hardy appreciates uniqueness ('it's not your typical layout...really adds much more uniqueness') while noting minor cosmetic concerns ('I don't know if that's going to be difficult on the eyes over time')

  • $

    market_signal: Strong pre-order demand anticipated; Hardy believes Spooky Fang Club membership exceeds production capacity, predicting sell-out. Theme (Halloween) resonates strongly with target audience despite Hardy's personal indifference.

    medium · Hardy: 'I want to say that I think they've got more memberships to this club than games that they will be making' and 'I greatly underestimated the power of this theme' based on comment sentiment

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.067

0:00
judging solely going on what i'm reading on comments and stuff like that it would seem that i greatly underestimated the power of this theme what's up guys and welcome back to my channel where i talk and do everything pinball so if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below seems like my voices going out i might have been speaking too loudly too long yesterday i drank too much last night also so that could be a factor you know you've had a few too many when you lay in bed and then all of a sudden the room just it just starts spinning around and uh that's not good So what we're going to be doing in this video is going through Spooky's like two minute long, no it's only a minute and 25 second video, going over Halloween. It's going to go over my thoughts and feelings about it, and we're going to go over the shots and layout of this game, and just an all in all of how I feel about it. And I'm hoping to make this a short video. So let's just get started, and let's hit the play button on this trailer. All right, so straight off the bat, I want to let you guys know that my feelings on this art is that this is great. Jason, you've done tremendous work. This is like, I see a lot of good details.
1:32
And honestly, at first glance, if it did not show me the fact that this is Jason Edmiston, I'm hoping I said your name correctly right there, then I would have thought that this would have been Christopher Franchise because I see a great similarity here in the styles, at least on this. I'm not saying they're just alike, but at a quick glance of just this quick video, you could fool me. And that should be a compliment, nor an insult to both of these artists, that I felt that this art looks great.
2:15
Because I don't know this Jason guy. This is his first thing into the pinball world, art-wise. So this being his first work, by all means, if you get a chance to do more, go for it. and the topper i i thought i like the way this looks it's simple i say simple because of the mech involved it it does the job but look at it i mean it's you don't really get a good look at it right there very well if i can i can't rewind back on this one very well it sucks but uh i can rewind back you can see it in action you don't get to see the full thing a little bit how it goes but that's an actual knife i say actual knife meaning it's a full-size one and it actually is going into the cabinet guys there is a hole that has been cut in the top of this back box and the knife actually goes into it it's just so if you don't get the collector's edition that includes the topper then you're going to have like a little slip right there where the topper would go although frankly going to give you a little heads up on my feelings on this game you should get the collector's edition all right going forward so this is where we start seeing um shots and layout on what this game looks like so at first glance this is what you get introduced to and this is something that spooky has done that you're not seeing in other manufacturers you're not seeing a triple decker play field it not to my recollection i don't think another company has done this and if they have done this they have not done it in a very long time and but yeah so this is something that even my wife pointed out whenever i showed her the video she's like three play fields i'm like yeah i'm like yeah that's that's that's cool um so going shots and layout real quick because this is actually a good point to pause that video to show you what's going to happen so when you launch your ball out of the shooter lane it gets fed to the left most orbit right here. Yeah, you can see the mouse. Okay, good. So when you shoot out of the shooter lane up here, it feeds to the left orbit down to your flippers. Now the ramp right here, the left ramp, does a 180 and feeds down the wire form back to your end lane. The center ramp right here feeds up to your top play field up here. You'll see that in a bit. Your

high confidence · Hardy reads directly from game materials: 'they will begin taking orders Wednesday, July 7th, which is tomorrow at the time of this recording, at 9 a.m. Central'

  • Hardy believes Spooky has more Fang Club memberships than games they will produce, predicting Halloween will sell out

    medium confidence · Hardy: 'I want to say that I think they've got more memberships to this club than games that they will be making' and 'I believe that this game is going to really sell out'

    • Cary Hardy@ 18:44 — Explains Spooky's membership-based pre-order strategy and its competitive implications

  • “the fan is pretty much silent and the only time that it's going to even kick on is whenever the game is really pulling on the amperage which will probably only be during a seven ball multi-ball”

    Cary Hardy@ 19:49 — Technical improvement in machine noise/usability, addresses common operator/collector complaint vs. Stern machines

  • “My overall thoughts and feelings about Halloween Pinball from Spooky is that I really want to play this game. I will not be purchasing one.”

    Cary Hardy@ 15:29 — Hardy's personal stance: game quality vs. theme fit; establishes credibility by separating opinion from assessment

    • Christopher Franchi
    person
    Rick and Mortygame
    Super Awesome Pinball Showsorganization
    Fang Cluborganization
    This Week in Pinballorganization
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
    ?

    personnel_signal: Halloween designed by committee (3-4 designers at Spooky) rather than single designer. Credits list Chorus Barloff with question marks indicating distributed authorship.

    high · Hardy cites Super Awesome Pinball Shows podcast: 'it was designed by a multiple amount of people...upwards of three or four people total that all chipped in to design this game'

  • ?

    announcement: Halloween officially announced with specific production target (1,250 units), pre-order date (July 7 at 9 AM Central), and tier pricing details. Fang Club membership gates first access.

    high · Hardy reads official ordering information and dates from game materials; cites Super Awesome Pinball Shows and This Week in Pinball as sources

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky's tiered pricing (Standard/Bloodsucker/Collector's) maintains mechanical parity across all tiers; differentiation purely cosmetic (artwork, toppers, powder coating, graphics). No feature removal in lower tiers.

    high · Hardy explicitly states all tiers play identically; only aesthetic differences listed (orange plastic protectors, collector plaque, lighted topper, custom powder coat)

  • ?

    technology_signal: Halloween features redesigned power supply with silent-mode fan operation; fan only engages during heavy amperage draw (7-ball multiball). Represents response to industry pain point with loud Stern cooling systems.

    high · Hardy details new fan strategy: 'the fan is pretty much silent and the only time that it's going to even kick on is whenever the game is really pulling on the amperage' vs. Stern machines sounding like 'harrier jet taking off'

    • 4:51
    orbit right here behind this pumpkin this feeds to up here this play field and your orbit right here further most to the right loops around and feeds your left this is one giant loop right here all right so that's your main shots right there and then you have another one right here this is a ball lock mechanism right here on judith myers And then you have your three shots right here. These all feed to the subway and to your in lane, your left in lane. This is a cool little scenario right here when it comes to what going on is that these three hedges have you have Mike behind each one of them And it's going to be kind of like a whack-a-mole scenario. It's going to be like, which hedge is he behind? The game is going to basically reveal to you by him coming out, like, hey, I'm behind this hedge. So that's the scoop that you need to shoot for. If you shoot the wrong scoop, I believe that basically you just get your ball back. Like, here you go. try again basically but if you hit the correct mike myers scoop then the ball will be held down there in the in lane as i mentioned a previous video talking about underneath the play field that left in lane subway has a row of um opto sensors that will detect if the ball is there and stuff like that so it will be a ball locking mechanism trough like i believed it would be it's going to be a three ball multi-ball locking mechanism down there man my brain is not at it to this today guys i'm sorry um but so you're going to be shooting those to hit the correct mike myers and that will lock a ball i believe then you have your scoop obviously right here if you hit the scoop right here then you'll probably start a mode or do something there But mainly the other portion is that the upper playfield right here feeds this scoop. Because the ball drops down. If you don't keep it up on the flipper, it will drop down and the scoop will eject the ball. That's where the ball ejects from the upper playfield. Now there's another area on the upper playfield. Let me get up there once the video starts going here. That's awesome. So that's something I also want to mention is that when it comes to the tier models of this game for Spooky is that the game itself is going to be the same. There's going to be no changes to the game, no mechanisms removed or anything like that. The game is going to play the same for all tier models, whether it be your standard, your bloodsucker, or your collector's edition. You're not going to miss anything on how the game plays. All you're going to be missing when it comes to the upper tiers is aesthetics. like do you want it to look this certain way with your armor and the topper and all that we'll go over that in just a little bit let's go over more with the shots and layout here and you saw the orbit this is something that i don't know if i like um and i know why it's there but you've got this sheet of plexi over these targets and i know it's to keep the ball from jumping up and you know stuff like that i don't know it's one of those things where i had to see that really in person to get a good grip on it but just going on right now i don't know if i like this but i understand the purpose behind it so this is something interesting and i noticed this as well going from later on once we saw pictures is that right here on this image you have three inserts with leds behind it indicating how many balls that you have locked in that trough down below this section but going from the images this is going by images alone that we see from a top down view of what you're looking at when you're playing the game you cannot even see this furthest left insert due to the plastics that are right above it you can only see these two so it's probably something that was you know i don't know but like i said i'm just going by the images alone you may be able to see it while you're playing but just going by the images you cannot see this very furthest left insert due to the plastics this furthest insert i think you can actually see this one a little bit because this plastic right here doesn't reach down as low as the other one but you have these right here giving you the indications of tilt warnings left huh okay so when you're up here you have one two three four five different things to shoot for because i want to say you can actually shoot it back the way you came to exit the play field then you have your targets then you have your drop down target and if you get it past that i believe it feeds back into the game as well it doesn't go anywhere past that i don't i that's a that's one where i don't know for sure i don't think it's just a buck that shoots it right back to you i believe that feeds back into the lower play field and then you have a section right here that's got a drop down and that's all the way over to the far right so that should be feeding back into your shooter lane on the upper play field So once it goes up the ramp and reaches up here, the shot that you want to do basically is to do what they do right here. You hit it, keep your flipper up, and it will loop around and feed right back into here like they do. So that's basically if you want to make those particular shots, then do exactly how they show you in the video by just hitting it through that particular spinner. Hold your flipper bat up, and it will feed over there. Then you go over there. This little mech, this is that particular solenoid that I wasn't able to really determine what it did.
    11:02
    So you have a magnet up underneath this area right here that will hold the ball in position probably for a particular scenario that comes up on screen And the solenoid down below actually pulls down on this section right here, this pull-down bar. So you're going to see that happen.
    11:21
    Pulls down, ball goes back into play. I don't know how I feel about the LEDs yet when it comes to inside the game, going around the rim of all of these play fields. I don't know if that's going to be difficult on the eyes over time. May have no effect at all, but I don't know how I feel about that just yet. But it does look pretty cool. I'm like, all right, that's cool. Well, it's just, you know, I would assume if it didn't do well for the eyes, they wouldn't have it because they've been testing this game for a long time. And I think if there was irritation or issues with it, then they wouldn't have it on there. So I would like to assume that, yes, there should be no issues with those LEDs bothering you. I'm loving the way all of this looks. The game, it looks very entertaining to play. It's not a typical little layout. The bottom of the playfield looks pretty fan-ish, but due to the fact that you've got all this other stuff going on in the upper sections, the upper playfields, it really adds much more uniqueness to a pinball game. And I love unique layouts like this to where it's not your typical what you always see in a particular game kind of thing. So this is – it being very unique is a plus for me. The game looks great, guys. It does. It's still not a theme that speaks to me, but I believe for those of you out there that love Halloween movies, love horror movies in general, then I'd say this is a no-brainer for you guys out there. I think this is going to feed all of you Halloween fans without a doubt. this should be everything that you would want in a Halloween game. It looks like they've represented the world of Halloween underneath the glass. So I think that the theme goes very well with what they've done by building everything inside there. The toys and the little objects. I mean, yeah. Very good. Very good. I'm impressed, actually, because I did not know where this is going to go when it came to what we saw underneath the play field much speculation but wasn't sure how it's going to work all right so let's talk about something that i was mentioning earlier and that is the fact that you have three inserts right here remember and you can't even see the furthest one over to the left you can see this one but you can't even see this one so like i said i'm just going by the images alone on that and it's not a big deal really but I'm just something I noticed. So when it comes to what are you going to be getting on all the models of all your games, here is all that information right here. Feel free to pause the video to see all of that right now. For your Bloodsucker Edition, this is what you're going to be getting that's not going to be in your standard. Feel free to pause the video and get that information now.
    14:34
    I know you're not going to be able to see this very often, but this doesn't look good i mean from an aesthetic standpoint from this viewpoint it doesn't look very appealing i kind of wish there would be some sort of you know something covering this whole back area but like like i said it's going to be more than likely in a home environment up against the wall you're not going to see that but it's just for me i see that and i go man they couldn't have done something a little cleaner than that i mean but i'm nitpicking at this point i mean because look this isn't this is a at a non-zoomed up position and i i keep seeing this i don't know whatever but look at this this looks very good guys for those of you out there that are planning on getting this game uh i think you're going to be very happy with what you get. So my overall thoughts and feelings about Halloween Pinball from Spooky is that I really want to play this game. I will not be purchasing one. Like I said, the theme doesn't call to me, and I believe that this game is going to really sell out. It will. Now, I feel like I could easily underestimate this once again by stating that, oh, it won't sell out day one. But, I mean, it seems by what I'm seeing online that there are a lot of interest and they have gained a lot more of their club membership that they have online through their website that gives you first access to those games. And I want to say that I think they've got more memberships to this club than games that they will be making. They're going to be making a total of 1,250 of this Halloween game. The thing is collector editions Bloodsucker standards there no limitations to how many of those they going to make The only cutoff is the actual total amount of
    16:46
    And I believe if I was going to buy this game, it would be the Collector's Edition. Due to the fact that you get the topper and all the other nice little trims with it. Actually, I need to boot up to let you know what you will be getting on the Collector's Edition in comparison to the Bloodsucker Edition. Here's something interesting when it comes to the overall design and who did what aspect of this. You have game design, Chorus Barloff, and dot dot dot question mark. and the reason behind why they have it dot dot question mark is because it was designed by a multiple amount of people there in spooky um and uh this is some information that was uh given on the super awesome pinball shows podcast uh i'll put a link down below if you want to listen to that they go over a lot more details when it comes to this game they've got uh charlie and bug on there talking about it they had the artist as well jason and they go over many aspects in the makings of this game including the design and how basically there was upwards of three or four people total that all chipped in to design this game it was not done by one person so but here are all the who's who this information is available on this week in pinball I'll put a link in the description for all of this as well. Here's your price points for all of the editions of these games when it comes to the initial deposits and stuff like that. Feel free to pause the video for that. Right here it states, to order your Halloween Pinball Machine, you must visit this website. And they will begin taking orders Wednesday, July 7th, which is tomorrow at the time of this recording, at 9 a.m. Central. And then basically, if you want first dibs, if you can be quick enough, you still need to be a Fang Club member. And you can become one by clicking on the link on this website, and it will take you there, and you can become a member. So let's go over what you're going to be getting that's different on the collector's edition. You're going to be getting orange colors around your plastics, the orange color protectors. That's a different color in comparison to the other models. you'll be getting the interior graphics the knocker kit shaker box target decals interactive rgb powder coated to match the bill collector but it's going to be a different color as well it's going to be custom gold vein powder coat yeah you'll get the collector's edition numbered plaque as well as the custom interactive lighted license topper which is we've already seen right there something else to note on what they've done improvement wise spooky is that they have changed their power supply and how the fan works and the fact is basically they're saying that the fan is pretty much silent and the only time that it's going to even kick on is whenever the game is really pulling on the amperage which will probably only be during a seven ball multi-ball and while that's going you're not going to be able to hear a fan if it was running anyways due to all the chaos underneath the glass so that's a definite perk i would like to hear is that they have a power supply it doesn't sound like a harrier jet taking off like my teenage mutant turtles back here as well as you other stern owners out there with that very loud fan i think this is going to do very well for spooky uh their last game rick and morty did well for them and it's given them the ability to grow they've got a new building that's been coming out they have an even higher goal on how many machines they're going to make so that's good this is this is going to be good for them and i think this is actually going to be another stepping stone for them to continue to grow so after we get halloween as well as the other game that i will talk about in another video then it all comes down to what are they going to do next and it looks like everything that they're doing so far is trying to continuously improve and be better so by all means i'm rooting and cheering for you spooky i wish you the best i think this will do very well and i believe that's all i gotta say about halloween guys i know i've already been messaged uh in various different ways wanting to know what my thoughts and feelings about it were i've just been busy doing other stuff as including uh drinking too much last night so i am still drained and i'm not even sure if you guys noticed this but trust me i'm feeling it are you going to be purchasing yourself a halloween from spooky pinball if you are let me know which tier you're gonna be obtaining down below