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DPP #240 "Transformers and Euro pinball!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·25m 46s·analyzed·May 13, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Transformers (LE) leaks early; Don surveys European pinball manufacturers' struggles and prospects.

Summary

Don discusses the leaked Transformers (LE) pinball machine, analyzing its playfield layout, toys, and design features based on leaked Stern Insider app assets. He then pivots to European pinball manufacturers, assessing the state of the market and expressing concerns about production capacity and game quality from companies like Dutch Pinball, Hexa, and Pinball Brothers, while praising European Pinball Corp and Tales of the Arabian Nights of the Arabian Nights. He also mentions a mysterious new Swiss startup with a Resident Evil license at premium pricing.

Key Claims

  • Transformers pinball leaked via Stern Insider Connected app before official reveal

    high confidence · Don: 'the Stern Insider app went ahead and dropped all the assets from this game'

  • Transformers uses Spike 3 cabinet with expression lights and features four major toys: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Grimlock, and Soundwave

    high confidence · Don analyzing leaked playfield images: 'Spike 3 Cabin, of course, comes loaded with expression lights... Optimus Prime back there in the corner...'

  • Tales of the Arabian Nights will be available in two trim levels with option to get Brian Allen artwork on the premium edition

    high confidence · Don: 'Andrea Pedretti cut loose with some information officially revealing that Tales of the Arabian Nights is coming in two trim levels... The top end edition is going to have the Brian Allen artwork'

  • Dutch Pinball has delivered only two games in 10 years, with toppers still pending for Alice in Wonderland

    high confidence · Don: 'Dutch Pinball, who's made two games now in 10 years... Tons of Alice's just got delivered, a coin taker. Where are the toppers'

  • A new Swiss startup company has obtained Resident Evil license and is pricing machines at $21,000-$27,000 before tariffs/shipping

    medium confidence · Don: 'This new startup company out of Switzerland... they nabbed the Resident Evil license from Capcom... The entry level price is like $21, 000, $22, 000, $23, 000, top end is $27, 000'

  • Transformers will be Stern's summer 2024 release in LE only with two color options at unchanged pricing

    high confidence · Don: 'So this is our summer release from Stern. Transformers. It's two colors. Transformers (LE). Pricing's unchanged.'

  • Transformers will be widely distributed to arcades and locations within weeks of release

    medium confidence · Don: 'this game's going to be everywhere in a couple of weeks... It'll be sitting right next to Pokemon, right next to Harry Potter.'

  • Lebowski is the best European pinball game produced to date despite being released 10 years ago

Notable Quotes

  • “I haven't even signed the NDA yet, let alone the ink being dry... then all of a sudden, boom, it looks like the Stern Insider app went ahead and dropped all the assets from this game.”

    Don @ early in episode — Captures the surprise leak of Transformers assets before official announcement

  • “This is like a teenager's bedroom just laden with toys everywhere and you're like stepping over everything. That's what this looks like. And that's what my bedroom looked like. And so I'm excited about this.”

    Don @ mid-episode — Expresses enthusiasm for Transformers' toy-heavy playfield design

  • “I think Europe deserves better. I think there's tears when it comes to these companies out here.”

    Don @ latter half of episode — Summarizes Don's critique of European manufacturers' output quality

  • “If you're announcing a price, show me what the dang game looks like. Otherwise, don't talk to me about price.”

    Don @ Resident Evil discussion — Criticizes the Swiss startup's pricing disclosure without showing gameplay or design

  • “The problem was a lot of people wanted it, but they wanted to have the classic Funhaus art. And that version was on like the subpar version, the entry level one, the kindergarten class one, the child's table version.”

    Don @ Funhouse discussion — Highlights customer frustration with classic art being relegated to lower-tier editions

  • “Lebowski came out as being probably the best game that's come out of Europe. And even to this date, with everything that I've seen, I'm still saying Lebowski is probably the best game that's come out.”

    Don @ Dutch Pinball assessment — Places Lebowski as the gold standard for European pinball production

  • “You can have it your way. This is Burger King. We'll do that.”

    Don @ European Pinball Corp customization discussion — Notes positive willingness of European Pinball Corp to accommodate custom builds

Entities

DonpersonKanedapersonAndrea PedrettipersonCengizpersonRyan DaviespersonStern PinballcompanyEuropean Pinball CorpcompanyPedretti Gamingcompany

Signals

  • ?

    leak_detection: Stern Insider Connected app leaked full Transformers assets (playfield image, translites, cabinet art) before official announcement, catching Don mid-grocery shopping

    high · Don: 'the Stern Insider app went ahead and dropped all the assets from this game... so I haven't even signed the NDA yet'

  • ?

    announcement: Transformers officially revealed as Stern's summer 2024 release in LE-only configuration with two color options; scheduled for wider announcement on the 20th

    high · Don: 'We're going to see them next week on the 20th. This game is coming out, get ready'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Transformers designed with heavy toy integration (Optimus Prime transforming, Megatron cannon, Grimlock, Soundwave with cassette) in similar playfield footprint as simpler Pokemon, targeting teenage demographic

    high · Don: 'this is straight up marketed at the teenager here. There's a lot going on here. It's like a teenager's bedroom just laden with toys everywhere'

  • ?

    product_concern: Don expresses concern about Transformers repeating X-Men's pattern of initial excitement followed by reliability/quality issues in production-line scale

    medium · Don: 'Is this going to be the clunk fest that X-Men was where the shots are really innovative... But is this reproducible on a line at scale?'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern planning rapid distribution of Transformers Pro models to arcades/venues; expected in central Florida and nationwide locations within weeks

    high · Don: 'They'll probably crank out a bunch of pros and get them out to everywhere... this game's going to be everywhere in a couple of weeks'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.077

0:00
Don's Pinball Podcast is coming back at you. I can't even go to the grocery store without pinball machines leaking out as I'm in the toy aisle and talk about all about the Transformers game. And then the main topic, what's going on with European pinball? Let's do it.
0:30
Who loves Pinball? I do. Man, snuck off to the store real quick, threw a 3D print on, getting ready to pack up Pokemon, going out to Colorado to a brand new buyer. Patreon member, how you doing, Josh? Be a cool guy. You get an extra drop there. And then what happens? I see Kaneda, of all people, goes live, pops up on my phone while I'm looking at stuff. And he's talking about a leak, and I'm like, dude, what leak? He's like, where you been, dog? And then sure enough, I look in the comments and boom, looks like Transformers has leaked. So I haven't even signed the NDA yet, let alone the ink being dry. That was going to come up later today, getting all hyped for the secret reveal, and then all of a sudden, boom, it looks like the Stern Insider app went ahead and dropped all the assets from this game. Thank you for that, really appreciate it. Wow, what a freaking game, dude. Dude, first initial impressions just seeing this thing. I'm sure you've all taken a look at it now. I got a good shot of the play field here on the LE. They are doing the purple and red thing again. It's cool. It's fine. You know, for an OEM powder coat, sure, sure, it works. Spike 3 Cabin, of course, comes loaded with expression lights flooding the play field. Those are always fun. But, dude, talk about Toy City here. I haven't even had a chance to really go over the entire layout yet, but all of a sudden, like, boom, Optimus Prime back there in the corner, you know he is going to transform. And looking at this now on my home desktop, not on my cell phone, I can see that there's a big cutout in the playfield right there for him. So these legs will probably drop down and the whole thing will cantilever forward and then you'll have a big truck there. Looks like there's at least one subway in this as well, that vertical up kickers to the right of Optimus Prime. Can you shoot in there? It's hard to tell from this overhead perspective, but it looks like that is actually a shot to the right of Otto's Prime. Let's go around the play field here and just take a look. Okay, two flippers at the bottom, and this looks to be a three-flipper game. I didn't see that on my cell phone, but take a look at this on your desktop when you get home. You got the single in-lane, single out-lanes. That's fine. No doubles, no borgination here. I'm sure we get a plunger shooter rod. I see it there. Shooter lane kicks up, and then looks like it goes into a very tasty orbit. There's a little jump ramp there. All right, so it doesn't look like this game's going to have a true orbit on it. It's going to have this horseshoe that goes around the giant Decepticon evil baddie in the back, Megatron. All right, interesting. All right, let's go left to right here. All right, so first shot, Grimlock over here on the left, the giant dinosaur guy. Hopefully he does something. Otherwise, it just looks like he's badass. That looks like a shoot through up into the wire form that's going to kick over by shockwave. And then just like King Kong, the ball is going to hit a rubber bumper and pop up that right orbit. That's a tasty shot. And that will perfectly set up the right upper flipper. I'm enjoying this layout much more already. I'm telling you, look at it on the desktop. I'm seeing details I didn't see before. So shooting, let's see, the plunge will go around Megatron, come straight down to the right flipper. Boom, from there, you can pop up into Grimlock. It'll get into that wire form, pop up, set up your shot for the right upper flipper, And you can go back into the whole mess there. When you look at this left ramp on the left, the left lower one, it's just a cacophony of metal flaps and diverters and such. I'm sure the ball's going to kick up here. There's probably a physical lock there. Mayhaps.

medium confidence · Don: 'Lebowski came out as being probably the best game that's come out of Europe. And even to this date, with everything that I've seen, I'm still saying Lebowski is probably the best game'

  • European Pinball Corp machines (via Pedretti and Pinball Brothers) are being produced and delivered despite quality/code concerns

    high confidence · Don: 'these people are building games... the games are being made. Same cannot be said for Dutch Pinball'

  • Tales of the Arabian Nights will be playable at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend

    high confidence · Don: 'Tales of the Arabian Nights is supposed to be on location at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend'

    • “Is it going to be like another X-Men where it's just kind of a spark and a quick fade? Or will this have some longstanding reliability within the fan community?”

    Don @ Transformers concerns — Expresses concern about Transformers' long-term viability given X-Men's legacy issues

  • “What the hell has to be in that game to make that sale go forward?”

    Don @ Resident Evil pricing discussion — Expresses skepticism about premium Resident Evil pricing without seeing the game

  • “These are people that have never made a pinball machine before... they nabbed the Resident Evil license from Capcom... From a country that I don't think has made pinball before, man. The Swiss.”

    Don @ Resident Evil mystery section — Highlights the unusual profile of the new Swiss manufacturer entering the market

    • Pinball Brothers
    company
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Hexa Pinballcompany
    Cointakercompany
    Transformers (LE)game
    Tales of the Arabian Nightsgame
    Resident Evil (pinball)game
    Funhouse (Remake)game
    Lebowskigame
    Alice in Wonderland (Dutch Pinball)game
    Predator (Pinball Brothers)game
    Space Huntgame
    Three Musketeersgame
    Pokemon (Stern)game
    Harry Potter (Stern)game
    Golden State Pinball Festivalevent
    Northwest Arcade Showevent
  • ?

    announcement: Tales of the Arabian Nights will be available in two trim levels with option to get classic artwork on premium edition; per-build customization available

    high · Don quoting Cengiz: 'You can get that if that's what you want... You can have it your way'

  • ?

    product_concern: Funhouse Midnight Edition topper still unavailable months after release; Dutch Pinball Alice toppers also pending; creates dissatisfaction among buyers

    high · Don: 'It's been a while since that game came out... now to have people waiting on an accessory this long, it's not like a Stern release'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: European Pinball Corp via Pedretti and Pinball Brothers continuing production and delivery despite low volume and code/gameplay concerns; contrasts with Dutch Pinball's minimal output

    high · Don: 'these people are building games. They might not be selling a ton of them... But the games are being made. Same cannot be said for Dutch Pinball'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: New Swiss startup company with unknown team obtained Resident Evil license from Capcom; extremely limited run (100 LE in 5 character variants); pricing $21k-$27k before tariffs; no game images released

    medium · Don: 'This new startup company out of Switzerland... these are people that have never made a pinball machine before... they nabbed the Resident Evil license'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don expresses frustration that European manufacturers are not meeting market potential despite decades of culture and resources; calls for stronger IP and deeper gameplay from Hexa, Pinball Brothers

    high · Don: 'I think Europe deserves better... this is a huge continent, a huge economy... they deserve better than what they've got'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Tales of the Arabian Nights confirmed for playable location at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend; Don attending to evaluate

    high · Don: 'Tales of the Arabian Nights is supposed to be on location at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend... flying out tomorrow morning'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Multiple new entrants and struggling existing European manufacturers creating fragmented, low-volume market; Stern maintaining dominance through rapid distribution and theme licensing

    high · Don's comprehensive survey of Dutch, Hexa, Pinball Brothers, and new Swiss startup alongside Stern's scale advantages

    • 4:02
    Now, hard to say, hard to say, hard to say exactly what's going to go on up in here, but I'm excited. All right, left to right. Next shot feeds the ramp. I don't know what this does. This looks to me like a quick 180 ramp, but I don't see from this perspective how it's going to serve or what it's going to go into, except just like catch air and fire into the wire form there to return to the left flipper. Interesting. Moving on, we've got a Newton ball there and a captive ball. Those are always fun. You know, rather than put a post there, rather than just put a target, give me a nice little silver ball that I can gleam a shot off of and have it register for something. That looks like fun. It looks like Optimus is not hittable at all from left flipper. Looks like this will be a right flipper shot up there to bash into his legs, chop him off at the knees. Can we call him Nancy Kerrigan at this point? And then he's going to kneel before me. Kneel, Optimus. He's smaller in scale than Megatron. Maybe that's just a perspective thing. All right, what do we got? So we got, we do have a ball lock. It is a scoop to the right of Optimist that can drop in and then also Vuck up into the wire form. Maybe that is how these balls will serve to fall in the subway and then shoot up there. How does that work though? If you shoot a ball into a scoop, it drops down into a subway into a Vuck, unless there's a diverter or something there. I'll have to see how that works. There is a plastic there with lock one, lock two, and then Transformers multi-ball is lit. All right, so there's your physical ball lock. Something to do with that. That subway system there. What else do we got? Looks like right upper flipper can shoot this. Can you hit? The geometry looks wonky here.
    5:33
    But it looks like you may be able to hit this orbit that goes around behind Optimus. I don't know what goes on back there. Does that feed into an orbit? That'd be kind of cool if it did. Does it fuck up or 180 up into this wire form system somehow? Waiting to see that. Did they powder coat these wire forms here on the LE? They don't look strictly just metal hearted. They don't look chrome. They look like silver powder coat. Anyway Autobot ramp What else do we got Going to the right Orbit around the giant Decepticon Bank of three targets You can shoot up into Megatron It looks like balls will lock inside of them I see a coil in the back Maybe it for diverter maybe not But if balls shoot out of this cannon that going to be straight fire Looking at the geometry though if balls were to come straight out of this cannon from Megatron draw on my imaginary line it looks like they would go straight down the middle So I don know Jury out on that What else do we got We got a Decepticon ramp on the right It goes through the back plate I love shots that do that It looks like it curves and serves the wire form which like this looks like a stacked wire form Looks like this would feed over to Shockwave somehow Drop in behind him And then what a weird little ramp this is Looks like some some some Papa Duke business or something where the ball will then feed to the right end lane Interesting Interesting All right This would be more fun if this was a video, but I'm just like talking through my first impressions.
    6:49
    Shockwave or Soundwave here. Cassette. I see a cassette insert. All right. I'm digging it. Okay. So, and then what is that next to him? This looks like what could be a pop bumper from the top. I'm almost certain it's a pop bumper. I'm going to call it a pop bumper. I don't, maybe it raises and lowers from the play field. I don't know. Again, this is a perspective thing, but looking at what looks like a pop bumper to the right by Soundwave there, It looks from this perspective to be flush, but it may just be a pop bumper. But wouldn't that be cool if the pop bumper could raise and lower? You could shoot across the top of it. That would be some innovation. Looks like you can close off the in lanes or the out lanes there with some movable posts. And there's Transformers, man. I got to say I'm not angry at the art. Absolutely looks like, is this comic book or toys? Or is this TV show? I want this to be TV show because I want some cool clips on there. I was looking at the inserts and Devastator has one here at the bottom right. This was the guy that you bought the Constructicons, right? Like those seven or eight little construction vehicles, you know, like a backhoe, a front-end loader and all that stuff. And then they would combine to form like one giant cool evil robot devastator. So I'm glad he got some feature billing here right here.
    8:02
    Yeah, oh, there's an up post too. All right. Weird. Okay, so off of Soundwave, can the ball ricochet up here? There's a post that'll probably hold a ball. I don't know. I want to see what's going on with this whole funky structure to the left upper side. This game looks neat. This game looks neat. I can see what people were saying when they said that this was going to be Stern's most mech-heavy, laden game, at least in a while. And yeah, I'm totally seeing that. It's weird that this is the same square footage of Pokemon with its five shots and a Meowth balloon. And look at all the fun stuff there is in here. There's like four big toys, a lot of things to interact with, some weird ball pass. Will it flow? I have to know. And I think I have to play to know because I don't even know what some of these shots even do here yet, which I am a fan of that. Now, is this going to be the clunk fest that X-Men was where the shots are really innovative and really exciting? And on your prototype game, you can dial them in and it shoots perfectly. But is this reproducible on a line at scale to deliver to people? I think that's where X-Men faltered. And so this looks like another toy-laden interesting layout game just like X-Men. So this one I got to play and then I got to play a production one too. So we'll see. I will say that I like this direction better than kind of where they were heading before. A theme like Pokemon can carry that simple layout. But this thing, this is straight up marketed at the teenager here. There's a lot going on here. It's like a teenager's bedroom just laden with toys everywhere and you're like stepping over everything. That's what this looks like. And that's what my bedroom looked like. And so I'm excited about this. I love that they got the Transformers that they picked.
    9:44
    If you were going to pick four, yeah, that's a good four to pick, man. One of the Dino Cons. Super interesting. So what do you guys think? What are we thinking about the art? I saw, I can't believe it's leaked on the inside of Connected app. So looking at the Translites, the Pro might be the best one of them all, man. You got all the characters there, Megatron on the right, Optimus Prime on the left, you got red T-molding, Decepticons are still on the right side, I bet Autobots are on the left. That looks fire, I can't see much of the cabinet here, I wonder if they've taken the full images down. I'm sure somebody would have captured them if they were up. We're going to see them next week on the 20th. This game is coming out, get ready. Premium looks good too, man. This is probably the one I would get if I do get one. I like the blue T-molding, I don't know that I would necessarily change that, I would just add some Spike 3 lights to it. And I can't wait to see what the cabinets look like. And then the LE, the LE looks okay. It's obviously like the start of the show. You got some cool characters that are on there. Soundwave up there on the left. Cool, cool. Decepticon insignia on the right side as it should be. And then you got this Aerobesh style, whatever the, whatever the transformer language is, embroidered. It looks like there's a monorail carved in here too. On the side armor. It's looking good. They're going to use the Spike 3 external lighting. I dig it. It does have a cool look to it. This is going to be the new hotness of the moment. Is it going to be like another X-Men where it's just kind of a spark and a quick fade? Or will this have some longstanding reliability within the fan community? We'll have to wait and see here. But I'm excited to get to play this next week. And I was just telling my buddy Ryan Davies down here in Florida, this game's going to be everywhere in a couple of weeks. I mean, it's going to be at the Northwest Arcade Show to play. This game probably is already on the line. If not, will be soon. They'll probably crank out a bunch of pros and get them out to everywhere. He lives in Central Florida where there's a ton of great arcades. A lot of them are pay one price, and this game absolutely is going to be everywhere. It'll be sitting right next to Pokemon, right next to Harry Potter. So no matter where you are, this game is going to be available to play very soon. And that's exciting. So this is our summer release from Stern. It's Transformers. It's two colors. It's LE. Pricing's unchanged. It is what it is. It leaked. I can't believe it. They got to be so mad right now. I can't imagine what's going on there today. I'm given this, but I don't know if NDAs are going to be a thing anymore, but I don't think I'm going to email them to ask right now. I don't know what kind of blowback I would get. The main topic here, we'll switch up to European Pinball. This was so exciting to me like two hours ago before this dropped, but let's talk about it anyway. Pedretti on the WAP Live that we did this morning. Myself and Jenkins, go check it out, the We Are Pinball YouTube channel. And soon to be up on the audio podcast channel was a long conversation and during which his good friend Andrea Pedretti cut loose with some information officially revealing that Tales of the Arabian Nights is coming in two trim levels. Didn't say the price is just yet, but it seemed to be like production was going to be starting soon. The top end edition is going to have the Brian Allen artwork. And this was a big thing for me So when Funhouse released I wasn in the market for Funhaus but there were people that did want a brand new version of this classic Bally Williams game from the 90s And so one of the problems was the Midnight Edition, which was like their top shelf edition, was the one that had the powder coat and the back glass and everything. And, you know, it was the more desirable version to have. The problem was a lot of people wanted it, but they wanted to have the classic Funhaus art. And that version was on like the subpar version, the entry level one, the kindergarten class one, the child's table version. And so they're like, dang it, I want the good version of the game, but I do like the classic art. Well, I confirmed through Genghis on the live stream that yes, you can get that if that's what you want. For Tales of the Arabian Nights, whatever the Aladdin's Carpet Edition or the Magic Lamp Edition or whatever they're going to call it, the one that will have the powder coat, the one that will have the good glass, the one that will have the mirrored back glass and all the kouturman and everything that's on it. You can get that with the original artwork if that's what you want. And I was like, that's cool. Or what if, like, because I'm difficult, what if I wanted the Brian Allen artwork on half of the cabinet, but the other cabinet I wanted to have, like, the classic look? And he said, you can have it your way. This is Burger King. We'll do that. So that was cool. So shout out to him for confirming that. If the holding point was, I just don't like the new art. I want the classic look, but I want a rebuilt game with a cool gold armor or whatever it's going to have. He'll work with you on that on your build. So that's cool. So that's good. That's good. That's good.
    14:19
    European Pinball Corp. I was pretty quick when I jumped on a Facebook post about Funhaus, the midnight edition release, when a guy was asking about where's the limited edition topper. And at first I was like, did they promise a topper with the top end edition and they haven't delivered it? Like that's a big problem if that's what's been going on. So I got this really angry post I put up there. And it turns out that I spoke a little bit too soon. I didn't understand all the details. The way it was worded was confusing me. What had happened? And I went back to the original release details for Funhaus. The original details state that there was going to be a topper released for the Midnight Edition only, but it would be released at a later date at a separate price. And what the guy was really asking was, has anybody heard of this being available yet? Because of course, this dude's been waiting. He wants it. Now that still does suck. I mean, it's been a while since that game came out. It didn't sell great to begin with. And now to have people waiting on an accessory this long, I mean, it's not like a Stern release. What are we doing? But it wasn't that they took people's money with the intention on it coming with it like what Dutch Pinball is doing right now. Dutch Pinball delivered a ton of games over to Cointaker, and they're still waiting on the toppers for that. So I think Europe deserves better. I think there's tears when it comes to these companies out here. When it comes to Pedretti and Euro Pinball Corp, you may have a problem with how Funhaus came out. You may have a problem with some of the assets that weren't in Predator from Pinball Brothers, which also builds out of Euro Corp. But what we can say, though, is that aside from the Midnight Edition topper, if you've ordered a game from one of these two companies, Pedretti and Pinball Brothers that utilize the Euro Pinball Corp Factory in Milan, Italy, you've been able to get your games at least. Like these people are building games. They might not be selling a ton of them. They may not be completely innovative so far. And they may leave us wanting something with regard to code or theme and version or whatever. But the games are being made. Same cannot be said for Dutch Pinball, who's made two games now in 10 years. And I know the legal troubles were, although caused by them, did mitigate a lot of that and did add to the time for Lebowski. Lebowski came out as being probably the best game that's come out of Europe. And even to this date, with everything that I've seen, I'm still saying Lebowski is probably the best game that's come out. And that's been 10 years. So I think Europe deserves better, deserves to push a little bit more out, especially for their folks that are out there. Like, listen, I'm a guy that loves Europe. I've been to, I don't know, eight European countries. You know, UK, Spain, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, which is probably my favorite country in Europe. If you haven't got lost in the woods in the Czech Republic, you have not lived, man. This is a state, and I'm not even talking about Prague. I haven't even been there. But the random day that I spent just touring around Lost in the Czech Republic's wilderness was one of the coolest days I ever had. Just happens upon castles and river towns, get to walk around. I was there with the spooky folks. It was super fun, man. And I can't wait to go back to Czech. Austria, Hungary, I've been to. Italy, right? Spain, Monaco. All right. So I love Europe. Europe is fun. I love exploring. It's like if Epcot was a real place. And every 60 miles, you're in a different country, different culture, different culinary history. There's cities in Europe that were ancient at the time that my own country was founded. So like that is mind-blowing. I mean, I go to places in America and California, gold rush cities, you know, the 1849, they were founded, you know, and it's like, man, this place is like ancient. Look at these mining ruins. And it's like Europe is like, hold my liter of beer, man. And, you know, we've got places, there's an amusement park that's been in continuous operation since the 1500s. Bakken, go check it out. It's in Denmark. And then Tivoli will probably open the season after that. So, like, these places are, like, ancient. So, I do love me some Europe. I think Europe deserves good pinball to be delivered to them. And I don't think they're quite yet being served right by these companies. Just going down my lich, we talked about Dutch. Tons of Alice's just got delivered, a coin taker. Where are the toppers and who's buying this game? And if you did buy this game and you're strucken now by how lackluster the code is and it's like, yeah, it's pretty, but it doesn't like to shoot well and you want to sell it. Who's going to buy an Alice when you're still waiting on the damn topper that was promised to you? And then does that early spot for Back to the Future transfer to you? Melvin made that promise. He's no longer with the company. What's even going on? I still haven't heard about what's happening there. You know, so that certainly sucks. But Dreddy we talked about. They seem to be one of the shining stars of Europe right now. Yes, Funhaus did not thrill us, you know, but it was a game. They did make them. They did deliver them. And aside from a topper that's still promised but not available, they're not scamming people out of money. So that's certainly cool. Tales of the Arabian Nights is supposed to be on location at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend And I going to be out there I flying out tomorrow morning so we check that out So there our shining star there in Milan Italy Euro Pinball Corp I just want to see them bring the heat. Speaking of heat, a lot of attention on world pinball right now. This new startup company out of Switzerland, they're going to manufacture in France somewhere. Are they in cahoots with manufacturing with Hexa, or are they not? These are people that have never made a pinball machine before. I don't know who they are, and they nabbed the Resident Evil license from Capcom, and they're coming out with 100 top shelf level editions, 20 in each of the five characters from the franchise, and then they'll have a standard version too. The entry level price is like $21,000, $22,000, $23,000, top end is $27,000, and that's not even bringing in tariffs and shipping. If you've got to pay a 25% tariff on a $27,000 pinball machine with some dude from Resident Evil in it, what the hell has to be in that game to make that sale go forward? I'm anxiously anticipating the release of this game or the reveal of this game or I'm refreshing Stern Insider Connected to see if images of Resident Evil drop on there as well because it seems to be the number one place for leaks now. But I can't wait to see what this game is. You've got my attention here asking for this much money for a game from people that have never made a game before. From a country that I don't think has made pinball before, man. The Swiss. Great country, though. Holy crap. Nearly the entire country is the Alps. I mean, aside from Basel and such.
    20:49
    But Bonn or whatever. Not Bonn. Bonn's in Germany. What's the big city that... Bern, Switzerland. I've been there. Stuck in traffic. It was okay. But the Alps, dude. The absolutely greatest place on the planet. Go check them out. My God, Zermatt, Switzerland. Google it right now. Image search. Take me back there. That place was amazing. So I can't wait to see what Resident Evil brings. Yeah, maybe this is going to be the greatest pinball machine of all time. It's certainly priced to be the greatest pinball machine of all time. And I'm a pinball enthusiast. I want to see it. I want to play it. Hell, I do not need an excuse to take my butt out to either France or Switzerland to go put hands on this thing. So when are we going to see it? I don't know. Have not heard. I know they're dropping little leaks. They're emailing people out details about the release. But when are we going to see it? That's what I want to know. And, you know, they're already talking about it. So they can't be under any kind of strict nondisclosure until a certain date from Capcom or they wouldn't be so liberal about this is how many we're making. This is what the price is going to be. If you're announcing a price, show me what the dang game looks like. Otherwise, don't talk to me about price. That doesn't make any dang sense. But this is these people's first go around with this. So we'll see. I know it's not going to be at the Austrian Pinball Championships that are going on this weekend as well out in Volklobrook, Austria, because we would have heard about it by now. But who knows? Who knows? Maybe we'll show up on day six of it or something. Hexa Pinball, France's Pride and Joy. La Hexagon is where they get their names because France is shaped like a hexagon. Space Hunt came out, had cool music. Like, certainly looked interesting, but I don't know that it was the most, you know, compelling gameplay-wise. But, you know, you come out with your first game, it works, fine, go on to your next one. That's where they kind of fumbled the ball a bit with his Three Musketeers. I know what they were going for. This is a French property, it's French literature, it perfectly fits our aesthetic. But what they didn't bring was a deep, compelling game loaded with gameplay, at least not yet. And so I don't know that order banks are essentially, you know, folding over with love for this game. I don't know where it's at. I know it's touring. There's one in the U.S. touring around. I was fortunate enough to get to play it. I'd like to see some more from them. But at this point in the game, I think if they really want to make their mark and not be known for these. Yeah, it's technically a pinball machine, but not terribly compelling. They really need to come with something cool, a license. It can be a French license, you know, hit us with Tin Tin, you know, go license the Belgian Smurfs or something, you know, bring us something European. I want a point of difference from this company, but I'm not impressed yet with what they've shown. And so I'm waiting to hear the flow back from that. Was this game at Pinfest in Allentown?
    23:32
    It's Pinfest, not Pantastic, right? I didn't hear any feedback at all from anybody there. Did the game actually make it there? I know there was some talk initially and maybe holding it back because the code really wasn't ready for primetime at all. Well, maybe that's what happened, but I figured I would have heard something else from it if it had gone out. So we'll see where the game shows up. Hopefully it comes with a bit more of a modicum of code there. Who's next? I think it's Pinball Brothers is the only other European pinball company worth talking about. There's those folks, Kestrel Pinball or something that were down in Spain. They made like the Tokyo Drift game and stuff. Interesting novelties, but not really anything ready for primetime competition here. Pinball Brothers has been making a go of it. I mean, they did get Alien across the finish line. They brought out Queen and Abba for some reason. They brought out Predator, but like really didn't give it the best chance of shining and getting through. They teased it forever and then dropped the game and then announced that they were ending production of it like before anybody had time to react. So do they have something compelling ready to go on the line? I think Pinball Brothers, this is your moment. Bring us a game worthy of keeping you guys in business. Or else I just don't know that it'll ever become much of anything. It seems kind of dire talking about Europe in this way. You know, this is a huge continent, a huge economy. People out there love games. You know, people want to get them. There's value-added tax is a big hurdle. There's import tariffs in the U.S. So it makes sense to have strong, independent, courageous, creative European pinball companies. Even just to serve the local population, I think they deserve better than what they've got. And what they've got so far is what they have.
    25:22
    I love me some pinball. I love me some Patreon support members. Patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast. Thanks, you guys. You're making your way in. I love it. We're going to reveal which Patreon member I'm taking with me to the media day for Transformers. Don't wait until the end of the month to go play to some pinball show. So, play you next week with Don at Stern and you get a factory tour and you get some top dogs and there'll be some Perillos and some hot and some pizza. It's going to be great.