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DPP E5 "Venom Speculation!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·21m 27s·analyzed·Jan 12, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Venom speculation based on Brian Eddy's recent games; Rush mod project; Pinball Awards voting breakdown.

Summary

Don discusses upcoming Venom pinball rumors and speculation, analyzing designer Brian Eddy's recent work on Mandalorian and Stranger Things to forecast Venom's likely features. He also shares a 3D-printed mod project for Rush drumstick holders, announces a District 1 tournament in Wisconsin, and provides detailed voting commentary on the Pinball Awards, ultimately selecting Rush as game of the year.

Key Claims

  • Venom pinball is rumored to be designed by Brian Eddy

    medium confidence · Don gathered this from Pinside forum posts; acknowledges it's rumor-based speculation rather than official confirmation

  • Mandalorian prices have held steady at MSRP or slightly below since launch

    medium confidence · Don observed that used Mandalorian machines are still available at launch pricing, indicating weak secondary market appreciation

  • Stranger Things projector mapping may have longevity/reliability concerns

    low confidence · Don expresses uncertainty about projector finickiness, focus calibration, and ball impact durability; hasn't owned a premium version

  • Brian Eddy's recent games (Mandalorian, Stranger Things) feature plastic ramps that convert to metal wire forms in Premium/LE versions

    high confidence · Don directly compares the three-tier layouts of both games

  • Rush Limited Edition features mirrored black glass and foil cabinet art with steampunk gear armor

    high confidence · Direct observation and description of Rush LE design during Pinball Awards voting discussion

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm just going to hit, maybe I get this ramp, maybe I get that ramp, make the lights go off, you know, work on several different projects at the same time.”

    Don @ ~8:30 — Describes open-ended vs. strategic shooting gameplay philosophy; used to classify games like Godzilla vs. Mandalorian

  • “If a game is better than Mandalorian, it's a good game. If a game is worse than Mandalorian, it's not very good. So I'll kind of put Mando right in the middle for me.”

    Don @ ~22:15 — Establishes Mandalorian as Don's baseline/middle-tier game quality reference point; prediction tool for evaluating Venom

  • “Venom, a character that can go from human to symbiotic, interstellar, galactic beast, I think deserves a transforming play field.”

    Don @ ~25:45 — Speculation on Venom's design based on thematic potential; predicts transforming playfield similar to Stranger Things

  • “I just got a 3D printer... I've got them installed in my machine. I've got photos up on the Don's pinball podcast, web Facebook site.”

    Don @ ~28:00 — Demonstrates DIY customization trend in pinball community; shares custom drumstick holder mod designed in Tinkercad

  • “Baby, you're a song. What? And then it kicks in. Baby, you're a song... Rush does that too. They'll speak some lines from their songs.”

    Don @ ~50:00 — Explains Rush's callout design philosophy of integrating song lyrics before game callouts; why he prefers Rush callouts over Weird Al

  • “If you've got a rush and you're interested in, you know, trying to set these out for yourself and let me know kind of what you think, hit me up, donspinballpodcast.gmail.com”

    Don @ ~32:00 — Community engagement signal; offering to share 3D-printed mod designs with other Rush owners

Entities

VenomgameBrian EddypersonMandaloriangameStranger ThingsgameRushgameToy Story 4game

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Community participation in Pinball Awards voting; structured award categories influencing game industry recognition

    high · Don received voting form via SurveyMonkey; detailed discussion of category breakdown (art, toys/mechs, music, callouts, game of year) and voting rationale for each

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Tournament infrastructure developing in regional areas (Wisconsin District 1); Stern Translight prizes incentivizing participation

    medium · District 1 announced February Sunday tournament with 2p-5:30p schedule; potential Stern Translight prize from previous tournament history

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Speculation that Venom will feature dark color scheme (black/red/white), silver ramps, tilting playfield, vertical kickers, multiple spinners, and possibly transforming playfield mechanic

    low · Don extrapolates from Brian Eddy's recent work: 'i think we would get kind of you know a darker colored game... i'm hoping for a lot of silver ramps... will we get a tilting play field or some such'

  • $

    market_signal: Mandalorian secondary market showing weak appreciation; machines available at MSRP or slightly below since launch despite premium designer pedigree

    medium · Don observes: 'You can still pick them up. You can pick them up new in box, MSRP, maybe even a little bit less if you've got a motivated seller' and 'prices on this game have not really moved from where this game launched at'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Three-tier pricing model with feature distribution: plastic ramps (Pro) upgrade to metal wire forms (Premium/LE); motorized toys and playfield elements exclusive to higher tiers

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.064

0:00
What's up everybody? Welcome to Wednesday. It's Don's Pinball Podcast, Episode 5, coming to cheer up your midweek. This will be the Venom speculation episode, as it should be, Stern's next cornerstone. I also made a mod for a pinball machine, gonna talk about that. Got some more tournament news. And then there's voting for the pinball award, so I'm gonna address all of that and maybe a little bit more.
0:30
Oh, man, we're coming with a fire on a Wednesday. All right, so this episode. First off, Venom, right? So Bond, I think it's come, it's gone. We've played it. We've anticipated it. We've satiated it. We threw the balls at the rocket. That's fun. Let's go to the next game on the horizon, which the rumor is will be based on that Marvel character Venom, right? Now, we don't know yet which direction this is going to take. Is this going to be a pinball machine based on the recent films, the prior films, Venom number three, taking the Jersey Jack approach, or is this going to be comic book based, which would probably make licensing a heck of a lot easier, especially when you don't have to go spending that Tom Hardy money, am I right? so i was thinking man i i think i want to go in on this when it comes out because i'd love to unbox it i love to play it love to stream it um and so i was trying to look at news so you know i turned to pin side the big forum there and read through some posts and not a whole lot recent maybe just the last page but what i've been able to gather is that it is rumored that this game which is rumored to be venom is rumored to be designed by this guy brian eddie um i've played some of his games. I went through today and kind of looked back at the last few games he did, and the most recent one was Mandalorian. I mean, that just came out, right? The Star Wars-themed space western in the metal suit. So it's a fun game. I'll give my opinions on it. I'll also go over the different layouts from the different tier levels, because I think that's always fun. Looking back, he also did Stranger Things, so I thought that'd be fun to let's go back through this guy's last two games that he was involved with and see if we can forecast or speculate on what we're going to expect with venom when it comes out so flip it over to mandalorian um i've played this in arcades pin bars i've played it at expos it's a fine game you know everything is always subjective you know someone may love a game like my current infatuation with brush other people just don't get it you know because of that theme i think for me this game is okay it's fine i i play it i don't really want to own it it's a different kind of shooting game now again i'm still new at this but i've been able to break games down to a few different styles you know uh there's the big open layout ones where you can just kind of slap balls and things happen and then there's the other ones that are more uh strategy based more of like a kind of hunt and shoot and snipe. My first game, which was Stern's Dark Knight, that Batman game based on the second movie that came out, the Nolan film, great film. That was very much like very specific and strategic in its shootery, right? It was very much hit this target, then hit this ramp, and then hit this target, and then lock this ball, and then you can do this next specific thing, and then this next specific thing. It wasn't just, I'm just going to hit, maybe I get this ramp, maybe I get that ramp, make the lights go off, you know, work on several different projects at the same time. You know, Godzilla is a game like that where there's just so much going on that at the same time you can work on the Godzilla multiball and damage that building. You could also work on the shots so that you can hit the scoop and then go into the kaiju battles. At the same time, you're also building up tanks for the tank multiball and challenges and the jets and, you know, if you've played Godzilla for 20 minutes, like, you get it, you know. You can kind of, you know, see how the game develops. And then if you find yourself, hey, you know, I'm only two shots away from the multiple, maybe then you focus on that. But simultaneously, you're accomplishing several different tasks. Mandalorian is one where, you know, you really have to like cradle up, grab the ball. Okay, hit this ramp. I'm trying to get this point. I'm trying to earn this much best scar. I'm trying to unlock this specific attribute from the store. Like this game is like a role playing game more than it is just an arcade ball slapper, right? and so I gravitate more towards the Godzilla, multiple things going on at once. This game just plays a little bit slower for me, but again, it's a fun game. I like playing it. I like building up the best scar. I think the topper looks amazing. I think my bank account is happy I don't have this game, to be honest.
Weird Al Yankovic
game
Godzillagame
Donperson
Pinball Awardsevent
District 1organization
Dark Knightgame
Thingiverseorganization
Tinkercadproduct

high · Don compares Mandalorian and Stranger Things across tiers: 'pro version, you get plastic ramps... When you upgrade to the mid-tier and above, you do get the plastic ramps that turn into the metal wire forms'

  • ?

    product_concern: Stranger Things projector mapping feature may have reliability/longevity concerns; projection quality uncertain long-term

    low · Don states: 'I haven't really heard on longevity for that projector. Is it finicky? Does it go out? Does it have to be adjusted? Is it calibrated? Does the focus have to be dialed in with the balls slapping into it? I don't know.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Venom pinball game rumored to be designed by Brian Eddy based on Pinside forum discussion

    medium · Don explicitly states 'i've been able to gather is that it is rumored that this game which is rumored to be venom is rumored to be designed by this guy brian eddie' after reading Pinside posts

  • ?

    technology_signal: Growing DIY 3D printing customization trend in pinball community; community members creating mods and sharing designs

    medium · Don successfully designed and printed custom drumstick holders, shares design via Facebook, encourages others to request copies; notes existing drumstick holder designs on Thingiverse and plans to make other mods (Getty's bass guitar)

    • 4:48
    But going through the layouts here and what's available, you know, I'm a toy guy. I like mechanisms and such. The pro version, you get plastic ramps. It looks like there's two main ramps, and they're plastic all the way. When you upgrade to the mid-tier and above, you do get the plastic ramps that turn into the metal wire forms, which I more jibe with, right? Still, I saw a guy that was selling a Pro that he'd actually put the premium wire forms in, so it's definitely upgradable. Look at this it got the same red lights that Stern or Stern that Rush has You know you got that big Grogu in the back but unfortunately it doesn do anything I would have wished that for the Premium and the LEs he was actually more articulated There is a motorized mod available. I've heard mixed things about it. I heard it's great, but reliability or motor life may be limited. I don't have all the details there. You got that back little play area where there's that upper flipper, and instead of being midfield like most games, I mean, this one's thrown all the way up in the back by Mando's helmet, which for the pro, I mean, okay. When you upgrade, though, to the premium, then you get the whole extra play field that's up off of the standard play field. And it's got that tilting mechanism and an extra flipper. So for this version, I think if I was going to get it, premium or above would be the way to go,
    6:08
    especially because I think each game, I've played both versions. I think they play about the same as far as speed. You know, sometimes the pros with less moving parts, they tend to play a little faster. I know Godzilla definitely does. Mando, I haven't really noticed that. Now, professional Mando players, feel free to correct me. You know, I'm still relatively new, as I say. It looks like you do also, though, get a magnet at the base of Grogu there in the back upper corner. So that's great. Innovations, there's this little swingy flap underneath the Razorcrest.
    6:37
    Almost like the Razorcrest got us at a truck nuts. I don't know. I've heard people speculating on that. going up to the LE, what is it, add Art Blades and some armor. And, you know, that priceless Brian Eddy autograph, I mean, you know, who could put a price on that? Well, Pinside can, and so can the pinball market. And it looks like prices on this game have not really moved from where this game launched at. You can still pick them up. You can pick them up new in box, MSRP, maybe even a little bit less if you've got a motivated seller. So Mando's out there.
    7:07
    But, you know, as far as the pinball designer, he designed ramps there's mechanisms in here there's tilting play fields i mean there's things that i like so that's why i'm excited for venom so speculation i think we would get kind of you know a darker colored game i mean venom's essentially black and red with a little bit of white anyway as a motif i'm hoping for a lot of silver ramps i love those wire forms um will we get a tilting play field or some such we'll see um but i could definitely see at least some vertical up kickers and at least two ramps and probably more than one spinner since mando's got what two at least well with the swingers uh now there's two on that left shot there it looks like all right moving on stranger things this is a fun game i i uh recently won my 20 dollars at that tournament this last week on it so it's got a special place forever in my heart looking at stranger things it's a return of the plastic ramps so we're probably going to see these again. They do let you see the playfield art a little better. And depending on how the lighting is, I mean, on Tron, Tron has plastic ramps, but these things light up with those LEDs and glow and change different colors. So this definitely more of the classic with fan shaped layout. It's got the same red lights that Rush has too. Are we going to see the three-peat of Brian Eddy with these red dome lights? I like what he did with Stranger Things. The projectors, man. I mean, Canobie Lake Bark. I went up there and finally played a premium and I was blown away by the projection on the spinners and on the fold down. What is it supposed to be like a movie like a driving movie screen? I mean, that does fairly amazing. I love the Big Mac of the Demogorgon. I love putting that ball straight down. It's a gullet. So are we going to get are we going to get Stranger Things with a big Venom bash head? Maybe his mouth opens up and you get like a tongue ramp lowers um i don't know uh i think i think i'd be happy with any kind of large mechanism really doesn't take a ton to impress me but i would like that stranger things only has the two flippers at the bottom so that's the only thing so going from stranger things to venom it looks like brian added some extra flippers rotating play field but this also had a rotating mechanic i mean the screen folds down into a ramp i mean that's fantastic transforms the play field so So I'm excited for Venom based on the pedigree that I'm seeing from Stranger Things, from Mandalorian. I love that left ramp on Stranger Things. It goes up and then has a triangle orientation in that back left corner before coming down and returning to the left flipper. So that's fun. I think looking at Stranger Things, the Pro gives you the mechanisms, gives you the fold-down ramp. So you're getting most of the game there. But I'm telling you, man, those projections. Now, I haven't owned a premium, and I haven't really heard on longevity for that projector. Is it finicky? Does it go out? Does it have to be adjusted? Is it calibrated? Does the focus have to be dialed in with the balls slapping into it? I don't know. But I love that projection mapping, and I would love to see some more of that.
    10:07
    Stranger Things also has that transforming play field with the UV lights, where when you get into the upside down, all of a sudden everything is glowing UV. I mean, that changes the feel. That gives you that pinball moment that people talk about. And Venom, a character that can go from human to symbiotic, interstellar, galactic beast, I think deserves a transforming play field. So I'm very much anticipating Venom being fairly awesome.
    10:35
    For me personally going back to Mandalorian I would say Mandalorian is an okay game It okay I don have anything bad to say about it I don have anything to really cheer about personally like I do with Stranger Things But I would say if a game is better than Mandalorian, it's a good game. If a game is worse than Mandalorian, it's not very good. So I'll kind of put Mando right in the middle for me, you know. I like Star Wars. I like the theme. I think the game's a little slower paced for my mentation. So I don't own one. but I see how people could like it. I think that's perfectly okay. All right. Moving up to the limited edition. What a stranger things that, that purple powder coat pops, man. I don't care. I want, I want purple powder coat on every one of my machines. I love that look. Uh, art blades. Yeah, cool. Upside downy. Man, this is a pretty looking game. Stranger things, limited edition. Check it out on pin side. All right, let's move on and transition to our next topic. Guys, guys, I have made a mod. I made my own mod for Rush. It works for any version of it. All right, so I've seen people that have made the mod that holds the drumsticks and that plastic on the upper left side of the field. And I was playing around on Thingiverse. I just got a 3D printer. And if you look in Thingiverse or any of the other kind of 3D printer searching sites, compiling websites, you'll find some Rush drumstick holders. They're made out of some pretty flimsy plastic. They're only about 180 degrees, so they don't wrap all the way around the drumsticks. And when I tried to put my sticks in there, the thing broke every time. So I went in and I found, what was it called? Thinkercad. Like think, T-I-N-K-E-R-C-A-D. I searched for that. It's a free web-based program. It's a 3D modeling program. And they have pre-built shapes, and you can drag them into the play field, the workspace, work field. change their shape you know they're scaling there's rotation you can actually build an stl file that you can then put into your slicer program for your 3d printer and generate a 3d printing file so i started with that base uh design these are two two little holders that go on the screws on the upper left side plastic between the lights and they hold drumsticks and you can actually go on amazon has them you can buy the the same promark neil pert drumsticks that the drummer from Rush used or at least endorsed. There's a 747 Shirakashi Oak Pro Mark. I think they feel about 5A, though they don't have a size on them. Drumsticks. So, you know, I've got Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses, they took drumsticks and they made that whole ramp in the right upper side of the play field. So adding drumsticks to games, I mean, that's fantastic. So I went ahead and I played around. I found some gear shapes. I increased the size of the plastic that actually holds the sticks. So the things wouldn't just collapse or break if a ball hit them or, you know, you're just putting the sticks through and through trial and error, I got the right size and I've got them installed in my machine. I've got photos up on the Don's pinball podcast, web Facebook site. So you can check out pictures of those. They're green right now. It's just a filament. I was trying, but I think I made a few more modifications to it. That should make installation easier. And I think these can be pretty fricking boss. So if you've got a rush and you're interested in, you know, trying to set these out for yourself and let me know kind of what you think, hit me up, donspinballpodcast.gmail.com, or just message me through Facebook.
    14:09
    But I was very impressed with this, and just in the afternoon of tinkering around with the Tinkercad, I was able to learn it well enough to come up with a usable part that I printed from my machine. How fantastic is that? It's kind of opened my mind and doors to other things I could potentially add, like I could find a file for Getty's bass guitar and then throw a shape on there, put a hole in it for a screw, and build something that I can then put in my machine. That's fun for me. I can homebrew the whole thing. And if any of y'all want to get in on this, man, holler at your boy. I'll hook you up.
    14:41
    What's coming up next? February, District 1 has announced they are doing another pinball tournament. They're doing it on a Sunday this time, and they're looking at doing that going forward. So for all of my listeners in the Stevens Point region of Wisconsin, which is probably half of you right now, Sunday, 2-12. Show up at 2 p.m. That's when registration starts. Get some food. Looks like the kickoff time is scheduled for 5-30. And if the prize is from last time or anything to go off of, there could be another Stern Translight in your future if you win.
    15:12
    Shoot, maybe I can drop in a set of, you know, Rush Drums to Colders. I don't know. You know, let me see how it goes. I unfortunately due to pinball budgeting concerns signed up for a couple extra shifts and I'm not going to be in town when that tournament starts so I'm going to miss that but I will see if my wife Monica can make it by and go ahead and enter and represent the fam in the pinball tournament today I got the email voting in the pinball awards I guess these used to be called the pinball industry awards now being run by you know those crazy guys down in southern Indiana I got my form on SurveyMonkey I was able to vote and I picked some reasonable things uh of course I'm not listed as favorite podcaster but that's because I only five episodes in two more and I be ready for next year so I figured what I could do is just kind of go down the entries and kind of give my vote and my reasoning behind it So one of them was for art in general, but it looks like it was limited to art of the cabinets and the back glass for any pinball machine that was released this year. What did I give it to? I think I gave this one to Rush Ellie. Now, Toy Story 4 is also a contender. Multimorphics Weird Al Yankovic. love the dang theme man uh was also in it so when i looked at honestly the cabinet art if you look at the rush limited edition it's got that foil cabinet art and gosh it just pops uh toy story has that as well um however what toy story doesn't have is some sweet armor like rush has have you seen it go take a look at rush le and check out the armor it looks like a guitar body but made out of steampunk gears and it's kind of like got a dark matte finish man I love it and then want to talk about back glass that mirrored black glass on the limited edition rush sitting in my other room man popping popping I got to give it to that I like how they broke the art up into the cabinet and back glass as one category and then play field is another because as much as I love that cabinet the back glass of rush I don't think the play field quite makes it I love what they did with the theme integration and how they took you know little aspects from different albums different songs and put them all in there and then they took you know the comic book drawings of the faces and they're good but I don't think they could compete with Toy Story 4 so for the playfield artwork I gave it to Toy Story 4 and I did that well I mean they're using Pixar's art and Pixar's art is great so I think that's an easy give Toy Story 4 for the playfield art but when it comes to the cabinet in the back last i gave it to rush particularly the le and after i voted they actually gave you a chance to break down like which version uh are you considering for this so i was actually able to put the le so you know that was fun all right uh toys and mechs so i don't think i give this to toy story um mechanisms okay you got the doll head you get the ramp pop bumpers is that it that's it so i didn't give it the toy story i went uh i can't forget if i gave it to rush or i gave it to weird al uh weird al does have a lot of mechanisms they're only in that back part of the play field they do have those pop-up midfield things that are on the multimorphic p3 those uh what are they drop scoops they like elevate into scoops and there's like six of them and they can randomly come up or um you'll come up with different modes I honestly can't remember it was I was right on the border with Rush having the best uh toys and mechs I mean you obviously got the magnetic time machine tunnel in the back you've got that diverter that you can control that comes up and down two scoops I don't know if scoops are toys and mechanisms but I mean that was fun so I think I think I may have gave it to Weird Al just because there is more there um there's the u52 uh camera u62 uh video camera that they use with uh in the movie uhf that you can lock balls in you've got to get a win or at least a vote of me up for that all right music so music came down uh russian weird al uh hard to say man i mean god i love weird al no hate on weird al music for the game um i nod my head a lot more to rush than i do to Weird Al when I've played it. I've played a lot more Rush. Maybe that clouded my vision or flavored my sausage, whatever. Music, I'm going to give it to Rush. Callouts, I also gave to Rush. Have you played this game, particularly with the newer code? Their callouts are funny. They do something that I do, which is talk song lyrics.
    19:50
    Usually what will happen is we'll be driving and a song will come on the radio and just play the intro to the song before the words start and I'll just look over to my wife and I'll talk through some lyrics of the song. Baby, you're a song. What? And then it kicks in. Baby, you're a song. Or whatever the song is. So I do that and then Rush does that too. They'll speak some lines from their songs.
    20:15
    Can't pretend a stranger is a long-awaited friend. And then all of a sudden there'll just be a call out like a stranger is a long-awaited friend that owes you money or something like that. It's funny. These guys are funny and I like the integration of the call-outs that they have. I love the ones in Weird Al too, but I got to give it to Rush. So overall, I'm giving Rush as the game of the year, given everything that came out. I played just about everything that came out. I like a lot of the things that come out, but I think if I had to pick one to kind of take into my home to have for six months, I'd stick with Rush. It's still so deep. I haven't gotten close to a wizard mode. Love it. So I hope that was interesting for you. that'll wrap it up for me I hope you enjoyed this midweek episode and you questions comments be sure to send an email don's pinball podcast at gmail.com or reach out on the facebook page like subscribe if you can't subscribe to facebook anyway don's pinball podcast I've got posts up there all the time I've also started a discord and the link to join that is also up there on the facebook page eat your vegetables everybody