Well, hell yeah, brother. Turn it up. It's We Are Pinball, episode number 40 coming at you, courtesy of the Scorpions. Thank you so much for allowing us to use your transformative content in a content-licensed-free way, YouTube. It's Don. It's Cengiz. It's number 40. We're going to talk about some stuff. We got some topics, Patreon supporters, Patreon shows. It's Bedlam. It's nuts. I got shout-outs. Stop me if you heard this before. It's Don. Go ahead, Cengiz. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing great, my friend. I'm so happy. This is show number 40. When we started up, we should make about one show a month. And this month, we have the one-year anniversary. So it should probably be around show number 12, but this is number 40. Isn't that incredible? And that's just the regular shows. That's not counting the 40 Patreon shows we've made. Oh, yeah. Patreon shows on top of that, Donnie. You know, last Patreon show was fire, man. People just, people was so happy in there. And we did something really special in there. Let's just start out with that, Donnie. Yeah, man. Because when we recorded that Patreon show, this was a surprise for me also because you said that you wanted to sell some games. I was considering it, yeah. And I listed off, like, I had five games here, and I was like, I could see myself parting with a couple of these maybe. So let me, before I put them on Pinside, before I put them on Facebook, let me just give them out to the Patreon people to see if, you know, they would want first crack at something. You know, friends prices, good additions. So cool, Donny. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for doing that. So you were like, what people? I have these games for sale. You get the first offer, first opportunity. So you listed what? We talked, we talked. I mentioned five games, and four of them are sold, like right away. Yes! like what the hell so cool man so they came and got them man they're delivered they're like out of here cash is exchanged like i've got freed up some room i've got money for my house project like bed like i couldn't believe how well that worked and people got some damn deals let me tell you i mean donnie first of all it's so cool that you listed for our patreon people first that's for that it's so awesome second thing we have about 40 supporters on patreon and they were like they were just on it like Donkey Kong. So the first game you listed was Harry Potter. Oh yeah, the Harry Potter game. You know what? I couldn't stand that AI art and that dragon looking at me. I had to get it out of the house. I'm kidding. It was just a matter of changing priorities and while I had had the game for a couple of weeks and I love the game, it plays exceptionally well and the art for the CE grew on me i love the gold wire forms all that business i was taking a calculated risk here a bet i was saying i bet i could let this game go now use that money where i need it and later on down the road six eight months when thousands and thousands of these things have come out maybe i could circle back around and pick it up again slightly lower than the price that i got and yeah and the buyer got to absolutely jump the queue and like get a game like when it's hot right away just like i did a couple weeks ago. I don't think there's any problem with that. So that was an instant sale. That was cool. You're happy. The Patreon supporter is happy. The game is happy. It's on a new location. So congratulations to all of you. The next game on that list was Evil Dead, and that didn't take but five minutes. Evil Dead, you're lovely. Five freaking minutes. Boom. And I think I still undervalued it. Holy crap. with the topper and it got sold asap asap asap wow yeah and i've heard hell of these things going for like multiple multiple thousands above asking especially if it's the butter cabinet so um again calculated risk but i think with where the market's at when i pick this game up again i could probably find myself one for at least what i got for it so so yeah and uh the buyer's exceedingly happy is getting like a freaking game dude like right now too people still on the list he jumped the queue he got it also remember you were one of the earliest that got evil dead like early early this year right so you have had it some for some months you have played it i play yeah it's just six months or something man yeah i've been playing the hell out of this game and i don't get this man every time i'm ready to sell a game when i'm having like all right i'm gonna play it one more time before I box it up. It's always like the greatest game I've ever had on it. There's eight modes in this game. You pick your movie and then you play those four modes and it spills over to the other one. Yesterday, I was on Ball 1, finished, completed all four modes from Evil Dead 2. I'm over on Evil Dead 1. I'm still on Ball 1. I'm like, who is this guy playing pinball through my body here? This never happens. I could not drain. I could not lose. I was hitting shots. Man, I was like, why am I selling it? Why am I selling it, Jenkins? Well, you have some plans, and I'm so excited about those plans. So I fully support what you're doing. It's going to be awesome. So, Donnie, I love this story with, you know, giving the opportunity to our guys first, and they'd reach out like this in an instant. Like, Harry Potter is a brand-new game. We're still waiting here. A lot of people are waiting, and you give this opportunity to our WAP supporters, This is awesome. And on top of that, Evil Dead, dude, Evil Deads are listed for like $15,000 as of right now with the topper included, right? Sharing the love. So what a great story, man. Did you sell something else? Avatar also went. That was one I was considering. Now, that did not go above MSRP. But I got it for around what they're going for, a little bit less. I got my homie a deal because I'm the deal maker. and again yeah like i love that game but you know it's still the i was looking at the value that was sitting there how much i was playing it and i was like all right let's let's make it happen so yeah avatar is in a lovely new home on top of all this you were like you you called me and i was like danny what are you doing and you were like hey man i'm delivering these games that i just sold oh yeah so you sell them you deliver them i mean that's service right yeah dude give Some WAP t-shirts also? Yeah, they're on the way, man. Yeah, so like Avatar was going to a buyer in northeast Ohio, and he's like, I'll do this price, but you have to include shipping. I'm like, if we do that price, I will drop in your driveway tomorrow. And I did. I did. I threw this up. It's like road trip from Wisconsin. Let's go. Boom. Dropped it off. There you go, buddy. Wow, man. I'll make it happen. I'll make it happen. Yeah, make it happen, man. Yeah, this dude's karma. You set up this positive vibe. Look how it comes back to you. This is awesome. So congratulations for the all-new buyers, and congratulations to you, Don. Do you have some other games you want to sell? Let's see. Kong is sold. It's getting its makeover right now, and that will be going out. And then, honestly, Dungeons & Dragons is probably the only other one you could pry out of my hands right now. Okay. And I've seen that it's a D&D LE. I powder-coated the coin door and the speaker panel. The whole thing matches. It's loaded with my mods and things. And this is a game that MSRP was $13,000, and the cheapest I've seen them go is $11,000. I think one of them listed for slightly under $11,000. And I think that's kind of around where I'm at with it. So, I mean, let me know. Let me know. With all the mods included? Of course. Of course. Yeah? Yeah. I've got a few more projects I need to finish with it, but it's essentially ready. I still love the game. I would love to have this and let the code mature. When's that next code update coming? I know Stern is working on John Wick and X-Men. They delivered huge code updates. I played both of those games recently with the new code. And, yeah, yeah, I would call it improved. You know, I still don't think it's, like, where it needs to be. But I'm wondering if that sucks some energy away from, you know, getting the final two guys here in Dungeons & Dragons. I mean, Dungeons & Dragons, it came out with a better code than X-Men, so it didn't get the same kind of drop in value like X-Men did. but I feel like X-Men is getting positive vibes back. Yeah. I reviewed the X-Men on my YouTube channel, and I loved it. I'm a shots on layout guy. I'm an audio guy, and both in audio and shots on layout, wow, 10 out of 10. So I enjoy X-Men. But, yeah, it did get some hate at the beginning, just like X-Men got some hate by Avatar. Yeah. Avengers. Avengers. Wait, Avengers got some hate. Avatar got some hate. both games and i unboxed them and played them i was like these games are awesome man both games they shoot amazing if x-men shot the way that um avengers does though i think nobody would be complaining at all it's just a little bit of jank in a couple of spots and you know you can dial them in and then when they work it's fantastic but i think the problem was it was hard to deliver that playability consistently for a game and production on the line making 500 a week and all have them shoot without that rattle you know it happens it happens early in production it is what it is man and dear listener if you're thinking right now wow man some of these games done that don't just sold are so new wait till you found out what's going on and you will understand okay just give donnie some time you will fully understand what he's doing i fully support him it's going to be amazing. So that's that. Right, Donnie? There's going to be some room for some new games. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Cool. Cool. I want to give a shout-out to our sponsor of this show, Matt Pinball. There's some holes in this house. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jeff at Matt Pinball, friend of the show, he was here. And that show, I think still it's our number one listened show. We have had a lot of guests in here. We don't do interviews. We just have guest overs, and we have friendly conversations, right? It's so cool. Jump on the couch. Hang out. Yeah, the show with Jeff from Mad Pinball, it's crazy. So he's sponsoring us, and the way we do it is when you buy a game from Jeff from Mad Pinball, you just put on the comments, WAP, or you say, Donnie says hi, or Jenga says hi. and he will make sure that you will get an awesome WAP t-shirt with your purchase. If you buy Stern Games, you will get free shipping. And on top of that, if he has some used games, he will give some discount on that. On top of that, we are getting some insider info, how the new games are selling. Real cool for the channel. Yeah, I love that. On top of that, yesterday we talked with Jeff, and he told us that the upcoming spooky game, which is ready to be purchased right now. The interest lists are open. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You can jump in and you can all get on the list right now. So that's so awesome. I love it. On top of that, we started this for about a month ago and reached out to Jeff and we were like, does this work? Is there any interest? Do we have people that are using the WAP code? Are you happy sponsoring us? And the way he got back to us, it was amazing, man. He was so happy. It was so good. We got a complete list with all the people that use the WAP code. So thank you to all the buyers from Mad Pinball and using our WAP code, man. Donnie is on the way with T-shirt. We want to send WAP T-shirt, and we also want to put in the Mad Pinball logo, right? So that has been a little hold up for us. This is an exclusive, yeah, but they're printing and they're ready now. I will say, anybody that's waiting on their stuff, if you could email us at wearepinball69gmail.com, Let me know your shirt size, you know, because industry standard is extra large, and that's what you'll get. But, like, I've got every size. So if you're a little medium guy, a little welterweight like myself, fit and handsome and brawny, let me know, and I'll get you that custom size, homie. So just drop an email, and I'm ready to send out your bag of swag with whatever else I can squash in there too, man. I've got some cool stuff. Yeah, I know that they're getting some stickers. Sometimes they're getting some mods and stuff like that. It's so cool. Yeah. And the people that are getting our t they put them on They stand in their game room and really proudly show proudly represent our T I just getting touched Every time they do that it an incredible feeling So thanks, everybody, for the support. I think it's the best word to use, right, Donnie? Absolutely, 100%. It's just amazing, man. It's just the positivity, the love, the support. It's amazing. On top of that, we're getting, of course, we're also getting some small kickback. We don't want to hide anything from Matt Pinball. So we're so happy with everything. We have Patreon supporters. We have high-level supporters like Enzo. Enzo Ferrari at $50 a month. Isn't he cool, Donnie? Thank you, homie. Enzo, he's a great supporter. What a solid dude. We have got Antonio Banderas. Antonio. Antonio Murua. Oh, people. $50 supporter. It's amazing. I want to hang out with that guy again. Oh, man. I love the T-shirt. Anthony wears our T-shirt, our stickers, and everything. We love some Anthony. Yeah. Josh Cox, our high-level supporter, he has some personal stuff. So he's supporting us at premium level at $50. Thank you, Josh. We love you, buddy. We love you. It's beautiful. And that's still 10 months of Canada right there value. But every month, what a guy. What a freaking legend. What a guy. On top of that, something that's really cool, last month we lost some supporters, and it's so cool that they came back again. Isn't that cool, Donny? So a shout-out to the people that re-upped their support level. That's so awesome. That's awesome. On top of that, we got more support because, whoa, we got, I'm so bad with names, But Edwin Pitchoff, welcome to the team, Edwin. Welcome, sir. Thank you for the support, buddy. Hang out with me anytime. Let's go play some Pitch. We've got Jesse, man. Jesse Meade. Welcome, Jesse. Thank you for the support, buddy. Jesse. I'm going to run out of air horns right here. Luckily, we've got so many damn Patreon supporters that can heat me in air horn juice. It's just love, support, and positivity. And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, we got Patrick Ols on the team. I said, woohoo! Thank you for joining the WAP team, Patrick. This is just, I want to say this is too much, man. Daddy, isn't it? Right? It's incredible. But just when we thought it just couldn't get any better, we got DMC Nuggets in the house. Thank you for joining, Mr. Nuggets. I love these buttons, man. I mean, so much support. It's incredible. But we're also giving back, right, Donnie? We are doing more than one show a month. On the grind. This is number 40 in a year. And I think the after show, Patreon show, is like my favorite part. Because then, you know, we can just ditch the whole itinerary, just like hang back and talk about stuff. I love Donnie 2.0 in there. I love it. But our last patron show was a very spooky, heavy show. And there were some insider stuff from there. I mean, and people, they just enjoyed it. But our main show, number 39, people thought you were hilarious in there when you imitated Pimbal Brothers. I mean, the response. The ball will go through the orbit here and catch on the flip. Predator. And one more shot to multiball. But I drained. If no drain, the multiball will start there. It was the most positively received show we have ever done, show number 39. People were like, they love that show. The response, amazing, amazing, amazing. What have you heard back from Pinball Brothers about that? Because, you know, they've been contacting you constantly, right? Right? No, actually, since the release, I haven't heard from them. And I respect it if they don't want to talk to me anymore. but the day before we had a great conversation. They thanked me. Everything was perfect. After the show I wrote to them but they never wrote back. So I leave them alone. I respect it. But if they want to hit me up they're welcome any day. Anytime. Anytime. Time for Talking is done. Game launched now. It's Lutafisk time. I hope they're selling a lot of Predators. They have no time to respond because they're out there building like hundreds and thousands of games right now i'm imagining right not only keeping up with the abba demand but now they got predator on top of that holy crap man it's got about your abba you want you want an abba game so last time we talked about you wanted abba and predator do you still want those those two games how is it oh i want abba for sure predator i can wait on but i need i need pinball brothers to sponsor us and send me my review game of abba that I can just have and hold. I want to get all the avatars. I just don't want to pay actual money for it is the thing. As I said, they didn't answer my mail, but I still to this day think they should send me a Predator game for two months. Hello. I will ship it back after two months. Yeah. Yeah, right. I will ship it out. It will cost me $200. Let me do magic. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Just drive over the Malmo Bridge, right, Mon? Go grab one. Grab it. Yeah. Bridge. I can almost see that bridge over here, Donnie. So, I mean, how hard can it be? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they're selling so well, like hundreds of games a day. That's the only thing that makes sense. They don't want more help. That's it, man. Maybe that's it. They're swamped. Yeah. Yeah. You would kill them if they had even one more sale. It would be too much for them. Maybe they sold 9,000 games. Yeah. We don't know. Yeah. I mean, Harry Potter. Yeah. Congratulations. Good! Get to the Java! He doesn't say run. He says, Oh! That's so funny. I have a feeling it will change. Hey, we got a second gameplay video where he says, Stick around. And it's so bad again. I mean, come on. Say it the right way. Come on. Man, listen, at Expo, ABBA was one of my most played games at Expo, and probably because Metallica had a multi-hours long line, and you only got two balls on Alice. But ABBA was always there. Every time I walked by, I could walk up, play some avatars, play with the helicopter, and then move on. And that was fun for me. So I can't wait for Predator to be at Expo, hopefully. Hopefully. And not on two ball. Not like when Queen first came out. That was disappointing. Remember that? They dropped it to two ball to try to move it along. I remember Queen, yeah. Oh, my goodness. But was it – yeah, I think they said August they will start shipping Predators. That's what they said. That's close. We'll see what's happening. That's nice. Yeah. You know what else is shipping in August? What? The eighth Wonder Topper from the Electric Playground Pinball. I just got an email about that. Electric Playground, they do the aftermarket toppers, Big Lebowski. What the hell? I just bought one. Oh, Pulp Fiction. Yeah. It's a cool Twilight Zone topper. Anyway, they got a sub $800 Kong topper coming out, and they'll have an LE version with mirrored finishes if you want to match your LE. But it's also going to have a 10.5-inch LCD screen in there as well, and it's going to be playing some animations or something, but through an SD card you can put whatever video you want up there. So I can't wait to play me some Jenna Jameson up on my Kong topper. It's going to be freaking amazing. Can you see the animations up there? Can you see what that's all about? Yeah, you got one of them DMD clock things for your wall that plays the That's cool, they're cool I've seen them, they come in several different sizes Can you see what game this is from? Can the camera pick it up? That's hard for me, I gotta make it bigger to see that It looks mushy on the cam, man It cannot But that's cool, it plays like the classic animations from DMD eras I love it I've considered getting one at one point, they look cool you can use it on the wall you can use it as a topper on one of your games so and just put that games animations in and just enjoy that but it has got stern games and bell williams and sega and all sort of stuff where'd you pick that one up i saw um uh god not not well who was it it was somebody down in georgia a distributor was selling them he was at uh the southern fright gaming expo uh damn i forgot his name jason grindle i think i think that was okay but i i made a short 10 minute review video where i put the link and everything so you can go in and see the the facebook page and he's able to wear and he he sends it out with a sd card where it has got 30 000 files you can put it for arcade games you can put it for arcade but pornographic animations instead of that. You can put in 80... Yeah, so you can see a Tekken and Mortal Kombat guy's fucking and you can see all sorts of stuff. So fun. Now there's something I never knew I wanted until now. All those chicks from Neo Geo games. All those years. Fucking dick and all sorts of stuff. Very fun. You can put that on. Writing up Raiden and Reptile fan fiction. Well, I could finally see it in person. Oh, my God. The circle's complete. Yeah, it's animated, but it's fun, you know. But it has also clips from 80s, 90s movies, so you can also use it for that. But I was like, when you do stuff like that, you can have something on the background. But when I look at the camera, I cannot really see what game it is, but it's something. It needs to be a bit closer, but it is what it is, man. Whoa, I'm so happy about this. And special shout-out to the new Pinball League with the Pinball Studio in Savannah, Georgia. My homie Sterling, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, he's running this tournament down there. New rebrand as the Pinball Studio if you're in Savannah, Georgia region. Get down there and play some pinball. He's going to appear on the JBS show. Also front of the show, Jamie Burchill. What a cool guy. So I can't wait to check that out. So way to go, Sterling, on the new endeavor. That's cool. So, Donnie. Yeah, we're 20 minutes in. We've got to get to the main topic. Let's go, man. What's the main topic? All right. So this was suggested actually by a friend of the show, Spooky Luke, down there in Benton, Wisconsin. Oh, Spooky. There's been some talk going on about how the themes coming out currently are not as good as they used to be. And one of the things that these companies need to do is go back to having killer themes. And now here's me in 2025 taking a look around at just like the magical things that are coming out, what's rumored to come out, what's come out over the last 14 months or so. And I'm like, I think this era of games, this era of themes, is the best it's been in, like, at least a decade or so, right? So people are saying that we're getting bad themes right now? Yeah, like we need to go back to better themes. What are we doing? Stern Pinball costs too much. The themes are crap and stuff. And so I was like, well, pick a year. Pick a year in the past decade or so where the themes were better than they are now. So what I thought, we could go through year by year of what came out and judge and see is that year better than where we are now. What do you think? Okay. Do you want me to remember? Yeah, do you want me to recap just what came out this year and like the last part of last year, just where we're at, and then we'll compare it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, here's what we're comparing to. So 2025 games, just random list I picked off on Pinside. We got, of course, Predator, right? Oh, the best team ever. Like the best team ever. Harry Potter, another killer, killer theme. King Kong, hell of a game. It's an L-win, not tied to a specific movie, but come on. Great team, great team. We got Dune, killing it, two sequels. Oh, Dune is amazing. I love Dune. We got independent ones. Merlin's Arcade came out even. merlin's what you said independence day what merlin's arcade from turner pinball friend of the show oh yeah nice yeah uh game of the show portal came out this year right dungeon dragons we mentioned a hell of a departure for pinball the crossover at the table top gaming it's a big thing they got they got big name stars doing the voice call outs in that game uh yeah jaws 50th just came out jaws came out like a year ago this is a 2024 title but but but it's in the mix right yeah it's the 50th edition now avatar didn't make and ship until 2025 that's a huge one billion billion dollar franchise right yeah um and then and then going back just across the edge back in 2024 but games that really became relevant this year Metallica Remastered came out Alice Adventures in Wonderland with her trashy outfits X-Men, which is still getting worked up. ABBA was in the mix. X-Men is a great team, man. I know. X-Men is a great team. I know. It's not a bad team. Yeah, the game's getting better. The gen's getting fixed. The code's getting a rehab. I think that game, I played it recently. Team-wise, it's great. Are you kidding me? 2025? And there's still rumored stuff to come out. We're supposed to get another Star Wars title. Spooky's next title is about to drop. Evil Dead, that's 2025, right? They stopped shipping 2025. Evil Dead was announced in 2024 but shipped in 2025. So Evil Dead's in the mix now. You're telling me. Freaking Bruce Campbell, man. Oh, I love that theme. Which of these themes do you have a problem with that needed to be better? I'm just saying. Where we're at right now. All right, you said five years ago. Let's compare it with something like some years back. Oh, you're ready? You're ready for this? I'm ready. We're going to go through this year. You tell me if that sounds better than what we have right now. Okay, five years ago, 2020. Go down my list. Wait, wait. I'll start with Stern. Spooky Luke is right there. We're sitting with him right now. What up, Lukey? He's sitting on my shoulder. Great topic. 2020. Yeah, thanks, Luke. All right, so we got from Stern, Led Zeppelin. Yeah, great music. Okay, theme. Avengers Infinity Quest. Great theme. Heavy Metal. Who cares? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Great theme. I love it. That's Stern. From Spooky, we got Rick and Morty. That's a solid theme. Wait, that's a great theme. Yeah, yeah. And then that's kind of where it ends. The rest of the releases, the major releases I have, Heist for the P3, Hot Wheels. Who cares? Oh, stinker. Legends of Valhalla. well i'm from denmark for me that's a great theme for pinball it's not a great theme yeah right yeah yeah so you're telling me led zeppelin from jjp what did we get uh i don't think we got anything in 2020 in 2019 we had just gotten wonka and then uh i didn't write down 2021 i think this was right around the time that uh guns and roses was coming out like it was like right about to come out so there's some crossover so Wonka was actually listed as a 2019 title but yeah essentially that so come on you're telling me that we're not better now take the next year it doesn't work let's go back I want to go back 2019 now one year before that had some good themes this year in 2019 I still don't think it's as good as what we have now but we have Stranger Things from Stern great we are only talking about theme We're not talking about anything else. All right. Elvira House of Horrors. Great team. Yeah. Jurassic Park. Great team. That was a good Stern year. That was a good Stern year. We got Wonka. I think it's a good theme. I wish it was implemented in the game more, but yeah. Do you think Wonka is a great theme for pinball? I do, and I don't think the game is great. Okay. Okay. It's fair. All right. Black Knight Sword of Rage. So a pinball theme, right? Going back to the Black Knight theme. I mean, for nerds like us, it's greatness in a box. For location, it doesn't work. Nobody from the mainstream knows what Black Knight is. But for us, it's an amazing theme. And then we got Munsters. That's not a good theme for pinball. That's not a good theme for pinball. For me, it is personally, but not for pinball. And I didn't have a release from Spooky listed for 2019. So I don't know what happened with that. Oh, I think maybe Alice Cooper was the year before that, and then they haven't quite got to Rick and Morty, so I don't know if they had a major release in 2019. I think Alice Cooper was 2018, as I remember. Yeah, I kind of have it like it's listed in 2017, but I kind of think it was towards the tail, and maybe it was announced in 2017 and shipped in 2018. But anyway, that's 2019. Some good themes, but by volume, I still think we're better now. Yeah. I still think we're better now. All right, let's go back another time. It gets good. This gets good here in 2018. Top of the list. I kid you not. 2018, new releases, Thunderbirds from Home Pin. What the hell? The worst. Okay, so then we got a banger. This was Pirates of the Caribbean, JJP. Great theme. Iron Maiden from Stern. Oh, I love it. I love it. A little bit niche. A lot of people are like, I love the game. I hate the music. We love Iron Maiden. I cannot get enough of their music. I love it. Love Iron Maiden. Love Iron Maiden. Deadpool from Stern, which I would argue. Great theme. Great theme. About Marvel. Great theme. Yeah, yeah. Beatles came out also. Oh, trash theme. Well, I guess that Primus re-theme of Wonelli came out that year. No, no, no. And then we got the banger Oktoberfest. don't choke on your coffee there buddy oh my god I think they sold them in Germany and we have them I think we have Oktoberfest in one or two locations my brother loves Oktoberfest I think that game was a hate crime I don't think we sold that many of those and then I don't know if we count this but Monster Bash came out that year the redress from the reissue remake from CGC Monster Bash as a... You can use it as a theme on location because people will recognize it. Yeah. They all know the monster movies, but for all the pinball geeks, it's cool. It's not good as Dune and Predator and all. The big winners from 2018, Pirates of the Caribbean, Iron Maiden, Deadpool. Everything else, kind of mid. Right. We did get a banger of a year in 2017 where there were a lot more games released. These are all listed on Pinside as coming out. Do you have 2023? No. Oh, okay. Because, like, what was 2023? Don't you remember the March month where they just released, like, 11 games from all the companies at the same time? Oh, that's when we got Galactic Tank Force. That was amazing. Pulp Fiction came out that year, yeah. We got everything. Yeah, but, like, is that what people mean? Like, we need to go back to Galactic Tank Force and Pulp Fiction all launching on top of each other with, what was the Stern release that March? Who is saying this? I mean, Luke should be here. We need Luke on this channel. Who is saying that we're getting bad themes now? Who do you think is saying that? Who wants to will Top Gun into fruition? Just for the volleyball scene. Oh, Tameda. Yeah, yeah, our friend, our good friend. So he doesn't like the theme. So he has podcasts where he says that we have bad themes right now in 2025? That's what's being reported to me. Okay. No. We have banger themes, man. All right. I can bring up 2023 real quick. I want to ask you. Don't think about the game, shots and layout, blah, blah, blah. But think only theme, John Wick. Oh, yeah. I like that. I like that. Yes. I love it, man. What a great theme. What a great theme. Okay. Wow. You know what? You know what? 2023 was a frick of a year. You want me to run through it real quick? I got it up here. Yes. All right. Let's do 2023 themes. Looney Tunes, which, yep. Yes. Yep. Yes, it is. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for me, yes. For a lot of people, not really. But, Donnie, a lot of people are loving that theme. Yeah. I'm clouded by the layout, too, because, like, Elton John, terrible fucking theme. Great game. All comes together. I can't believe it. Right? I fully agree with you. Here's one that you would not like, Labyrinth. Oh, my God. How could they do that? With shots and layout, except the horseshoe, it's awesome. But that theme, oh, my God. It's a win for me because I love me some Muppets. I don't care how I get them. All right? I don't know. Jurassic Park 30th came out. I don't know if we can count that one. But Jurassic Park, great theme. Venom. Jurassic Park 30th, was that 23? Yeah, that was 23. Yeah, 30th anniversary, yeah. Venom, Venom, no. The game is better than the theme. I don't know the theme's not terrible. I actually know one guy that loves the theme, and he's on, oh, man, he makes pinball shows about tournaments. Hadi. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. He loves that theme, but I don't know anyone else. The whole idea of, like, venomized versions of other superheroes was fun. I did like that part. And I like, you know, picking my character and stuff. So, like, the theme of Venom allowed you to have that kind of stuff. I wish it would have had, like, a venomized Spider-Man in there. But Doppelganger was in there. Venomized Hulk. Ghost Rider came out with the topper. I mean, Venom is a whole vibe, you know. Like, you know, it's a very inexpensive game that you can derive joy from. Theme-wise, though, it's probably still, like, barely a B theme. It's probably a sea theme. It's a sea theme, yeah. Centaurs listed from Haggis. Remember them? Oh, Lord. Space Hunt, not a good theme, but a fun game. But like it said. We have to think about theme only. It's not a great theme for pinball. Oh, Jeff got Space Hunt in the U.S., man. So cool. Oh, no, that's awesome, yeah. And then the game, I think, really came together. It's fun to play. But as far as the theme, nobody knows that. This Punny Factory was 2023. Holy crap, man. This was the first game I ever streamed on location. So I've got to play. What's his name? What's his name from Punny Factory? That was Andrew McBain. Andrew McBain wrote to us. Pinball Adventures, yeah. Yes, he wrote to us, and he makes the game with that 3D in the middle of the play field. What was that? Oh, Elements, which is still TBD. Yeah, I haven't heard about what's going on with Elements recently. Last time he wrote to us for a month ago or something, we need to hit back, man. He was so – I don't know him, but he was so friendly, such a nice guy. He was like, Cengiz, this, this, and this. And he actually wrote in there that if you were interested, he wants to send us some pictures and information of his upcoming game. We got to get him on, man. He's fun to have around. I don't know him, but I really want to get to know him. And if you want to, you know, share the information of the upcoming game, share it, buddy. Andrew, homie. He was really nice. Open invitation, man. Come on, let's chat. Let us know what's going on. When I left off, he had a little workspace in Canada where he was producing games, had a small team, and they were running through these money factories. And the idea was that Elements was going to release. And then I think he's had some issues, like, having a consistent coder that, like, will stick around throughout a game. And so I don't know if that's what's holding things up. I don't know if there was a cabinet redesign. I did get to play Elements when it showed up at Expo two years ago. So I'd love to see where it's at now. I know the cabinet was – their cabinets are great. Like the wood they use is cool. The way that they put the speakers in and have the sound funnel through the top of the cabinet was neat. It was like that topper screen on Elements. It was nuts. So, yeah, I'd like to see where Elements is at now and, like, what their production process is and what's going on. just hit us back buddy just send an email again if you want to join the show you're welcome if you really want to share the upcoming game with us you're welcome if you want us to you know promote for you we will do it no trouble there but I'm a loose cannon I love Donnie I love Donnie he's filled with love I'm a loose cannon if you show us something that I don't like that is half baked or that is bad don't share it with me because I'll be honest so Now you're warned, okay You know how I am But if it's good, I will love it Bring the heat, man Bring the heat Galactic Tank Force as a theme In 2023 No, it doesn't work as a theme Intergalactic 1960s throwback Kind of theme Like if I just saw this back last and didn't know anything about the game Or nothing How excited would I be? I would say the hard world looks like 50s Okay, yeah, maybe early 60s Or like 50s, yeah. We'll have to, like, Franchi's probably like, you dumb bastards, that's 1957-inspired art from, and he could probably list all the things. Sure, buddy. But it's an okay theme. Like I would be intrigued to see what was there you know I think we were all excited about it hearing about it Pulp Fiction yeah I love that Oh come on That everything from the 90s, pop, it's just make them. Companies, they should just say 90 to 99. Just what was popular MTV generation, like put those in a pinball machine. So easy. And then they go out and make Labyrinth. What the hell, Donnie? Well, you know what else released in 2023? Godfather. Godfather. We disagree on this. I love the Godfather. I love everything Italiano. I love Enzo Ferrari. You know who I am. I love Italiano. I love all that. But not many people like it in a pinball machine. Okay, I'm doing my best to try to judge this on theme alone. Yeah. Yeah, theme alone. But, like, that theme doesn't get me excited to play the game because I'm like, what is this even going to be? Is this going to be just, like, velvet couches and lasagna dinners? Like, it's such a slow-moving drama, and I get that it's, you know, people know this movie. People know the theme. It's recognizable. So I guess that's probably why they made it. I'm sure if this wasn't Jersey Jackpinball, if this was, like, North Dakota Jackpinball, I don't think they would have been as enthusiastic about making this game. This was like them being indulgent with themselves, I think, because this is come on, come on. Yeah. That's very much of the culture. I mean, if I had a pinball company, again, mid-'80s to, yeah, all the 90s, I would only concentrate on that, nothing else. Yeah, like I want to get hyped to go on an adventure, right? Final Resistance was 2023? Yeah, man. All right, P3's best game? I mean, well, except for Portal. Final Resistance. It was the P3 module that Scott Danesi helped design, or did design, or at least did the music for. And they sold 24 of those games, and that's, theme-wise, a horrible thing. Oh, that's valid. That's valid. Yeah, as far as just the theme, like, if I put this Backglass and Galactic Tank Force's Backglass next to each other, not knowing anything about the games, like, which one would I be more interested in playing? Galactic Tank Force seems to pull me in better than Final Resistance's art does. Final Resistance, a better game of better games than Galactic Tank Force. The videos, they were like very... Do you remember the PC games of the 90s era where they started Command & Conquer? They had these in-between video clips, Red Alert 2 and stuff like that. Oh, God. The video clips of GTF was something like that, and I enjoyed it. Like the freaking Red Alert. Oh, my God. Yeah, don't you have Red Alert? You do? Absolutely. Yeah, my brother was huge into that. Foo Fighters. Remember when this was a rumor, when Foo Fighters, and like, how are you going to make a Foo Fighters game? And then, I don't know, in my head I was thinking, what if they did it like some kind of adventure with the Foo Fighters, and they did. Boom. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, these back classes, like, this was a great game. This game has a great layout. The code is approachable and understandable. The game owning it, I kind of got bored after 500 plays because it was just kind of the same code over and over again. But maybe that's what makes it a good game, that it's understandable and approachable to everybody. I think I had a fun upper play field. I'm talking about layout and stuff. I can't separate the theme from the game at this point. I've played it. Dude, this is how I do this. I unbox everything. I film it on YouTube, you know. I unbox Foo Fighters. I start playing it for 20 minutes, And I get one of the earliest that comes out from the factory, and I fly it home. I unbox it before the U.S. guys unbox it. Okay. Unbox it, play it, and it caught me right away from the get-go. I enjoyed Foo Fighters Pro. Like, it was so enjoyable. I think the first unboxing enjoyment was as high up there as I did with Godzilla. Yeah. And in between, I unboxed. You saw that video. So I unboxed Venom. I didn't enjoy it the first time I played it. It just didn't catch me. I played five, ten games, and that was it. The same happened to me with Jaws Pro. I unboxed it, one of the first games out of CERN, played it ten games, the pro version. It didn't catch me. I was the same way. I'm hearing you need to go Premier Melee on Jaws. Oh, 100%, yeah, for sure. It changes the gameplay so much. I remember my first time playing Foo Fighters. It was on location in Madison. I heard it just dropped. I got there. I think it was an LE. Which version? I think it was an LE. It was a premium LE. I had already decided I was going to order it anyway and just roll the dice and see if it's good. But I went out and played it. My first ball, I'm like, this game's good. This is a good game. Because you launch and the ball goes right into the circular orbit there to the upper flipper. There's so many paths available right there. The ball crosses over left to right. It's got an upper play field. It's fun. It's got spinners that are fun to hit. It's got an interactive bash toy that locks the ball with a magnet side, throws it around, throws it back. And the Ellie with the green armor, what do you think about that? I think it was fine. Oh, I love it. If you've got a UV light in your room, it totally glows. It's amazing. I got a premium, and I powdered it. The little overcharged whatever, the dead post, Like that was super fun every time the ball came up and popped back up. Oh, yeah, I haven't tried that. There were stand-up targets in the in-lane, so if you shat backwards, you could hit them. There was so much stuff that was fun in there. You know, nice little physical ball lock, pick a city, go to it, pick the music. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun. It was just a really great game. It's so important, Donnie, with these different types because we have Iron Maiden Limited Edition. I have played that game since like 2018. I love that LE. So a couple of years ago, like two years ago, for the first time, I played Iron Maiden Pro. Trash. Really? Yeah. The Pro was such a cheap, horrible, static, bad audio. The Pro version is just nothing compared to the LE. The LE is one of my – it's on my top ten list. The Pro, I don't want it. I don't want the Pro. I had myself a premium, and I think I pinwoofered it. And, yeah, it kicks ass with good sound. And I like the added little things. That's what I meant with draws. I like the tomb opening. I like the physical ball lock thing. I think that's fun. What else was on it? I mean, just that opening with the red, it opens up a gate and it has a red light. You shoot the ball underneath there. You shoot under the ramp. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, I love stuff like that. And the armor is beautiful. Everything is just next level. And the Pro was just nothing moves, just so static. It was just, it looked cheaper than a Data East game from 93 or something. Really? Yeah, the Pro version. that's what I mean with Jaws I only played Jaws Pro but when I see how much more the premium LE has got then I understand why people loves it that much absolutely like Gonzo made this point on Gonzo's pinball flipperama like as far as getting like premiums where you have all the features or pro and it's like premium is probably what the game was designed to be so premium is the complete full-featured game. And for me, that's what I want to play. I want to play the fully-featured game that was conceptually designed to be that. And then it looks like the pro, they look at where they can save money by removing some mechanisms to get that price down for the operator, which I get, but I just don't think you're getting the full, like, the spiritual essence of where that game was supposed to be. And it's probably more esoterical than it needs to be, and it's like, well, yeah, but is that worth the extra several thousand dollars? For most people probably not and honestly I don't know if it is anyway but for me as a purist I like having all the features I think Gonzo was right it is how Stern designers are designing, they're designing with the top level they do that first and when that's done then they start pulling out some stuff so they can sell it 3,000 or 6,000 like Kong you don't need a spider there, the magnet still works, you don't need a You can just have the ball just kick out until it qualifies. I just reviewed Kong Pro. What an amazing game. That was another game. The first time I played it, I was. You don't have the dangling thing, but who cares? Like $13,000, $7,000. I will buy a Kong Pro and Godzilla Pro instead of one Kong Elite. I think I do get frustrated on my gong because occasionally I'll backhand and it won't quite make it through the gong because there wasn't enough energy. But I know on a pro it would have rolled right in there and qualified my bow. You don't have that problem on the pro. You don't have those Kong arms falling down and going down straight down the middle of the play field. They don't really do anything. It's cool to see him move around, and I like that, but there's nothing with the ball. The physical ball lock is fun. I do like that. yes you really missed that on the pro because when you lock the ball on pro it's just ball locked and you're like nah yeah yeah and it feels empty to me when i see a pro with that whole train and wire forms missing and then it's just empty space there um with static but that ball mark it just it's a downer feeling on the pro man they should do something now do you know when you have bad six when you get an orgasm but it's not an orgasm what is like Have you tried that? Why did you do this with this chick? That's just how it feels when you're locked, you know? Nah, feeling. That's how it feels on Kong Pro. Now you know before you order from Jeff. Jesus, that's rough. All right, thank you for that visual, Jeff. We're going to dive into some stuff on the Patreon show. So, okay, and Bond 60th is also listed as a 2023 game. I love James Bond as a theme. Look at going from 2018 where the biggest themes were Pirates, Iron Maiden, and Deadpool to 2023 where we got Foo Fighters and Bond 60th and all those other games to now where it's like the quality of themes is just way more. Oh, we are getting amazing themes. Predator, Harry Potter, Kong, Dune, D&D, Avatar, Evil Dead. That's like seven just banger themes versus the three in 2018. It's been stepping up every year. So I think the argument that we can settle on, for me, is that the themes coming out 2025 where we are right now are better than they've been in years. Yes, yes, yes. We're getting made. I'm not talking about games, but themes. We're getting awesome themes. Harry Potter as a theme. That's expensive. I want to talk about this new Star Wars coming out. I want to do some speculation. Let's do that on Patreon. Do you want to do a Patreon show? Yeah, why not, man? Come on. I got 10 minutes. Okay, let's jump in there and then talk about the upcoming games because there are a lot of rumored games. So let's go and do that, Tony. All right. Let me get some music going. Oh, Scorpions would be a cool theme, man. Email us. We are pinball69 at gmail.com. If you've ordered a game and used the code WAP, email me and let me know what shirt size you want so I can get this stuff in the mail to you, the viewers, the listeners, the glisteners. All right, guys. We are pinball out. All right, man. That was episode 40 of WAP. Thank you, everybody, for joining us. Join us over on Patreon now. you members and you future members at patreon.com backslash we are pinball because we're going to talk about what i'm thinking may be happening with this star wars game that nobody else has talked about yet hint it has something to do with data east also we got upcoming guests from spooky pinball joining us get the details on that and get a chance to submit your questions to ask the spookster directly email us at we are pinball 69 at gmail.com and join the fun party over on Patreon at patreon.com backslash WeArePinball. Take care of yourself and go scratch your dog's bellies.