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DPP #149 "Just having fun in Pinball! Enzo preview!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·20m 22s·analyzed·Sep 21, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Don celebrates pinball industry growth, Spooky's hiring of Franchi, and previews Enzo interview on X-Men/Avatar.

Summary

Don Garrison celebrates the explosive growth and content volume in the pinball industry, highlighting recent major releases (X-Men, Avatar) and Spooky Pinball's exclusive signing of artist Christopher Franchi. The episode features analysis of how Stern, Jersey Jack, and Spooky occupy distinct market niches, and includes a preview of an extended interview with Enzo about the new games. Don emphasizes that industry growth can sustain multiple manufacturers and expresses optimism about pinball's expanding audience and production capacity.

Key Claims

  • Christopher Franchi is now exclusively working for Spooky Pinball on the next 3-4 games in development

    high confidence · Direct statement: 'Christopher Franchi is now Team Spooky, like, officially. So like the next three to four games in development are going to be Chris Ferenczi artistified fiested festooned machines'

  • Spooky Pinball's next release is forecasted for December/January timeframe when no other major manufacturers are releasing games

    medium confidence · Don's prediction: 'I think it's going to be december i think it's gonna be december into january kind of in there the spooky sweet spot man when no one else is releasing games'

  • Stern Pinball has 90% of the commercial market share, with 70% of residential sales

    medium confidence · Enzo's statement: 'Stern have 90% of the market share and 70% of that is residential. The rest is commercial. now most of like 90 sorry 90 percent of the commercial product is theirs'

  • George Gomez took over Deadpool pinball design because the original designer was arrested

    medium confidence · Enzo quoting George Gomez: 'He told us some stuff that I didn't think he was going to talk about. He kind of mentioned the fact that he took over Deadpool because of the guy that was working on it got arrested.'

  • Spike 3 and Insider Connect will enable cross-location multiplayer gameplay (machines playing against each other)

    medium confidence · Enzo on George Gomez: 'I pushed a little bit about Spike 3 and Insider Connect, and I always had this idea that I'd love to be able to have my Shazard play against your Squirtle from Australia... George was like, that's where we're going.'

  • X-Men LE is shipping from Stern's factory this week (as of Friday recording date)

    high confidence · Don: 'they're supposed to be leaving the factory this week i'm recording this as of friday i haven't seen if stern has dropped their factory friday video yet but supposedly they're on the line'

  • Pulp Fiction LE orders are still unfulfilled months after initial delivery window; standard edition took a year

    high confidence · Don: 'The LE owners still still waiting we heard september still not seeing them so um... if i was i mean it took me a year just to get my standard edition'

Notable Quotes

  • “Christopher Franchi is now Team Spooky, like, officially. So like the next three to four games in development are going to be Chris Ferenczi artistified fiested festooned machines”

    Don Garrison @ ~13:30 — Announces major personnel move from Stern to Spooky Pinball with implications for next 3-4 games

  • “What a get, man, what a get. In spite of all this, John Wick contracts dropped the other day and I was rolling my eyes initially because lately they've been pretty hard to get. These two were truly limited to 200 and 300.”

    Don Garrison @ ~22:00 — Commentary on limited edition availability and scarcity of recent Stern releases

  • “Stern have 90% of the market share and 70% of that is residential. The rest is commercial. now most of like 90 sorry 90 percent of the commercial product is theirs”

    Enzo @ ~37:00 — Market share analysis showing Stern's dominance in both residential and commercial spaces

  • “He kind of mentioned the fact that he took over Deadpool because of the guy that was working on it got arrested.”

    Enzo @ ~33:00 — Reveals unexpected personnel disruption on Deadpool design project

  • “if you were to go objectively you know on a spreadsheet you know their game seems to be like the best put together of everything”

    Enzo (on Jersey Jack Avatar) @ ~44:00 — Technical assessment of Avatar's comprehensive quality across all design dimensions

  • “70% of their game sales from Stern are going into homes. But with Insider Connected and the data they can mine, 70% of the gameplay is on locations.”

    Enzo @ ~47:00 — Reveals data-driven insight into Stern's user base distribution and design implications

  • “spooky pinball is like we're only going to do a theme if we can do the hell out of the theme we want all of the assets we want a code update coming you know every other week it seems like”

    Enzo @ ~42:00 — Characterizes Spooky's design philosophy and post-release support model

Entities

Christopher FranchipersonDon GarrisonpersonEnzopersonGeorge GomezpersonSpooky PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companyX-Mengame

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: X-Men vs Avatar comparison is misleading; both games excellent but serve different purposes; complementary rather than directly competitive

    medium · Don and Enzo's extended discussion on different design philosophies and use cases for each game

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Three manufacturers (Stern, JJP, Spooky) occupy distinct market niches: Stern focuses on arcade-accessible gameplay with technology and commercial robustness; JJP pursues cinematic premium immersive experience; Spooky emphasizes theme fidelity and frequent code updates

    high · Extended discussion by Don and Enzo comparing manufacturer strategies, markets, and design philosophies

  • ?

    event_signal: Chicago Pinball Expo approaching; Pinball Olympics sold out; expected to feature playable X-Men units for community

    medium · Don: 'I hope that means we'll be playing one of these things unboxed in the flesh in Chicago's Pinball Expo, which is just a couple of weeks away, man. Pinball Olympics are sold out.'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern experiencing scarcity/limited availability on recent LE releases (John Wick contracts); rolling eyes at difficulty obtaining them

    medium · Don: 'John Wick contracts dropped the other day and I was rolling my eyes initially because lately they've been pretty hard to get. These two were easy and they were truly limited to 200 and 300.'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern maintains 90% market share with 70% residential/30% commercial split; 90% of commercial pinball market is Stern

    medium · Enzo's market analysis: 'Stern have 90% of the market share and 70% of that is residential'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.061

0:00
Hey up there, can you hear me in the booth? Are we ready? I will hit that drop and let's make the beat slop. Let's go.
0:09
Hi, hello everyone. Don Garrison here from Don's Pinball Adventure Journey podcast and episode. Plus, let me also be your lifestyle coach. You're in the fun and entertaining life of pinball. It's number 149. I'm just having so much fun with the pins.
0:30
the theme ladies and gentlemen of this episode is fun is look at all the fun that we're having currently in the fascinating and non-stop world of pinball it's like we've opened a new door here i was entertaining myself just fine during the summer plenty of things to play games to buy games ship games to try and play out new mods coming out stuff rumors to discuss and then all of a sudden fall hit us like like a sack of bricks it's barely started and here we are non-stop there's there's content and things everywhere i love the pinball podcast that's why i got into it because i was having so much fun listening to everybody's content. I want to put out some more. And we're getting so much of it right now, you guys. I'm, for the first time in a long time, I'm struggling to keep caught up. I mean, Retro Ralph is dropping stuff. Kayla's everywhere. George Gomez is stopping on everybody's doorstep and regaling us with awesome stories. All in, you know, a guise to push pinball, push the envelope, spread far the sphere of influence of the silver ball hobby, and bring even more people in for fun. And man, when that happens, as more people come into the fold, it's going to catalyze this reaction and it's going to keep growing more and more. We have a lot of pinball companies, right? People have been saying there's too many companies, man. Some of them need to fail. Some of them need to go. And that's only if we're steady state and not growing. If we are growing pinball, which I think pinball is growing as an industry, it's getting into more homes, more people are getting into it, more location play and all that, then the market can stomach all of this that's coming. Without growth, we were heading for a tipping point, right, where there's just going to be too many things in boxes. And while that would be good short term in terms of prices, in terms of innovation, it would totally kill it. And, like, that's, like, part of the main drive that I get from things. So just looking back at what's happened in just the last two weeks, we had two monster drops from Stern Pinball and Avatar with Jersey Jack Pinball. Everybody's been talking about those. We've been to the factories. We've gone and played them. It's been fantastic and exciting. New modifications are dropping. The 3D printers are running overtime, just trying to keep up. Just on the supply here.

  • “You've got an Aston Martin and I've got a Hyundai, and we're going to do a video and compare those on top gear they're completely different beasts”

    Enzo @ ~51:00 — Explains why X-Men vs Avatar comparisons are misleading due to different design philosophies

    • Avatar
    game
    Deadpoolgame
    John Wickgame
    Pulp Fiction LEgame
    Pinball Expo Chicagoevent
    Ken Cromwellperson
    Retro Ralphperson
    Kale (Cale Hernandez)person
    Orbital Albertperson
    We Are Pinballorganization
    District 1 Brewing Companyorganization
    Kerry Hardyperson
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi officially hired as exclusive artist for Spooky Pinball, affecting next 3-4 games in development

    high · Don's direct announcement: 'Christopher Franchi is now Team Spooky, like, officially. So like the next three to four games in development are going to be Chris Ferenczi artistified fiested festooned machines'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Original Deadpool pinball designer unavailable due to arrest; George Gomez took over design responsibility

    medium · Enzo: 'He kind of mentioned the fact that he took over Deadpool because of the guy that was working on it got arrested'

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky Pinball maintaining price point under $10k despite hiring premium artist and implementing frequent code updates

    medium · Enzo: 'spooky pinball... keeping the price under ten thousand dollars you know it's just it's great'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pulp Fiction LE orders severely delayed; standard edition took one year to fulfill; LE orders still unfulfilled months after September target

    high · Don: 'if i was i mean it took me a year just to get my standard edition the le owners still still waiting we heard september still not seeing them'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spike 3 and Insider Connected enabling cross-location multiplayer gameplay where machines can play against each other remotely

    medium · Enzo quoting George Gomez on Insider Connect cross-machine play: 'that's where we're going'

    • 3:03
    Shout out to Orbital Albert from the Pinball Nerds podcast. I can't even keep, even if he was the only podcaster out right now, you would still struggle to keep caught up with all the stuff that he's dropping. And the pinball junk drawer and what they got going on. And the newcomers to the hobby. So I'm just taking a moment to reflect and just look around and all the fun and exciting things that are happening. I'm not going to rehash X-Men and Avatar, this part of the episode. I've put all that out. Enzo and I talked for an hour, and that recording's been on Patreon now for a few days. I'm going to put a snippet of it at the end of this so everybody can kind of get in on it. And then if you want more, I mean, just load up your cafeteria tray, head on into the next room, find all this kitchen in the door. That's the door charge to a world of fun and excitement. We've got an hour-long conversation just discussing just all the nuance in these games. this morning, my buddy Jengis and I, we recorded episode 11 of We Are Pinball. So that's out there where we're talking even more about these new games that are coming out. And when it seems like my vision has been eclipsed by the X-Men, right? The Colossus and Wolverine and Cyclops, not Cyborg.
    4:10
    And Avatar, it's literally eclipse, eclipsing me. What else has been eclipsed is the fact that ABBA is sitting in boxes and is getting shipped somewhere. I'm assuming customers. I did meet a new friend of mine in Indiana who's happy to get an ABBA sent to him soon. I hope that means we'll be playing one of these things unboxed in the flesh in Chicago's Pinball Expo, which is just a couple of weeks away, man. Pinball Olympics are sold out. Man, fall's here. Fall's here, and we're having a good time with all the pinballs and everything that's going on. What else do we got? All right, so in the midst of all of that, if that's more than enough, and then Spooky Pinball's like, hold my root beer here. Hold my Benton Lemonade or Benton Moonshine. What are the guys? What do you guys got? What do you have out there?
    4:56
    Christopher Franchi is now Team Spooky, like, officially. So like the next three to four games in development are going to be Chris Ferenczi artistified fiested festooned machines The man that brought us Godfather The man that brought us the art from Munsters, which I absolutely love. The man that made Galactic Tank Force what it is, at least art-wise. And I'm still having to get this right. The 2,700 layers of lenticular art that are on the back glass for Galactic Tank Force, man.
    5:28
    It's like a Thanksgiving episode. I'm thankful for David Fix and for inviting me over to his cool factory and showing me his hot dog warmer. I am thankful for Stern Pinball and Zach of the Crew over there for inviting me there. And Ken Cromwell, Jewel in the Crown, for bringing me in, giving me some Jimmy Johns, and letting me play Avatar. I think the secret's out. I've got the X-Men LE coming. And I went. This is the Jersey Jack that got me back, man. The last Jersey Jack I had owned was Guns N' Roses, which just went out today. It'll be at District 1 Brewing Company in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. go check it out drop a dollar in there it's my version it's got a cool shooter rod i put on there it's a rose of course um you know and uh gun wouldn't gun really wasn't wouldn't fit with that um but that is out there more fun stuff coming in man on top of all that let's let's talk about this okay i'm all over the place here just so excited so excited so spooky pinball got chris they've been working with the dude the dudes have been helping with some of the other projects he helped it with uh with texas chainsaw massacre as far as a little bit of art design i think with some of the plastics. I never got the full depth and breath of what he had done there. But dude is in here on the ground floor. And what we saw with the stream recently and Kerry Hardy's awesome coverage of that is that Chris Franchi actually had a theme that he was passionate enough about that he'd approached Spooky Pinball and turns out like they were already kind of working on it. Or maybe he knew they were working on it and they got passionate about it or whatever. But like, I can't wait to see what the next passion play to come from them is. I think it's going to be december i think it's gonna be december into january kind of in there the spooky sweet spot man when no one else is releasing games there that's where they are i can't wait to see what it is is it going to be goonies gremlins national impugn's christmas vacation no idea and i'm glad i don't know what it is because i can't wait to be surprised or maybe like guys if you're listening you know you're a week away from releasing this thing whenever that period happens give me a call let me come on down when we play it i'll sign an nda for a week i can keep the lid on this thing for seven days and then we'll just completely blow it up. But man, what a get, man, what a get.
    7:28
    In spite of all this, John Wick contracts dropped the other day and I was rolling my eyes initially because lately they've been pretty hard to get. These two were easy and they were truly limited to 200 and 300. I got to come home and fire up the Wick LE, got the contracts. It's just super fun, man it's just super fun that we're having oh man so uh forecasting the next couple of weeks we'll have to see what's going on um i've been moving games out i've got space for uh x-men ali it's on the line now over at stern i was there i saw him so it's happening um they're supposed to be leaving the factory this week i'm recording this as of friday i haven't seen if stern has dropped their factory friday video yet but supposedly they're on the line and any second now. I'm waiting to get a call that I can head over to the warehouse, pick that thing up, and then we'll do a live unboxing on the YouTube page as we do, as we do. I can't wait for this game to get in the house just so I can hit that downtown subway ramp, the pretzel ramp, and then the Flintstones ramp. I don't even know which one I like better. And what's going to be great about those games finally leaving the factory is everybody else gets to play it too. And so I can make sure I'm not just inside my own head on how much fun it is, those shots are to make, but then it can't be in my own head because I've been there with Jason Knapp and Kale. We also were playing it. Scott Larson from Loser Kids Pinball Podcast. We all got to play it and like smiles on their faces. No problems with the drains. It wasn't just me, guys. It wasn't just me. The pro is loaded, you guys. What a time to be in pinball.
    8:58
    Yeah, so super fun. I'm going to go ahead and drop that Enzo conversation here for everybody to get in and listen to. I'll drop like 10 minutes or so of it. And then we'll see what the rest of the week is bringing. All right, guys, kick back. It's the weekend. Let's listen to some Enzo.
    9:15
    All right. We're live recording with my friend Enzo once again. Hello, buddy. What's going on, my Australian homie? Thank you for having me back. Pretty good, pretty chilled. It's 11.30 at night, nearly morning, so technically I'll be in the future. So what's going on with Australia at the moment? Because it seems like everybody out there is interviewing George Gomez. it's funny right because um i've been talking to george since like april and um we we finally the planets aligned because with us it was about getting me and getting gonzo in the uk and getting him in chicago all on the same and it just never worked out and you know he had the release of John Wick, then he had the release now of X-Men, and yeah, we had Ryan from Phantom 2 just sneak in there and go yeah you available I available He sniped you guys That was a great interview He sniped you just right in there So it been in the works for a while So this will be going up on your YouTube channel soon Yeah, so I'm Gonzo's Flipperama. So I do a lot of stuff there with Chris. So you'll see that in too. And just George, man, like honestly, he's just a – you can talk to him for hours and hours and hours. Like pinball Jesus, that guy, honestly. So as of this recording, you just finished that recording with him. so I haven't heard the interviewer yet. Any little teaser nuggets you want to drop? Any new info that you got out of him?
    10:41
    Well, look, he told us some stuff that I didn't think he was going to talk about. He kind of mentioned the fact that he took over Deadpool because of the guy that was working on it got arrested.
    10:57
    And then I pushed a little bit about Spike 3 and Insider Connect, and I always had this idea that I'd love to be able to have my Shazard play against your Squirtle from Australia. My Squirtle's a badass.
    11:10
    Oh, man. He just was like, George was like, that's where we're going. Dude, can you imagine? Yeah. Look, he's not shy of the politics. He's not shy of admitting faults, and he's not shy of praising everyone because it's one big old machine. It's not just one person.
    11:35
    And, yeah, what an interview. So you guys will hear that on there. So, yeah, a few little things he's given us, some information I'd never heard before. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to playing it back. Dude, I'm hyped to listen to this. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to really kind of push your industry forward and your company if you're not willing to objectively take a look at it you know, and say, look, guys, this just didn't work. Great idea. It didn't work. Let's pivot. Let's change it. So I get that sense from him, you know. I don't think he can slip some BS through him, yeah. He even acknowledged. He said, look, you're not going to be better if you don't make mistakes. So that's just how it is. But, yeah, man, awesome. Just, yeah, awesome. I can barely keep up this week, it seems like. You know, I was in Chicago for, like, overnight, and it seems like that was, like, a whole week. and then everything is dropping news is coming quick and fast spooky pinball's got an announcement that that's out today they already dropped that um so there'll be more to cover there uh the gist of that if you haven't heard they hired christopher franchi on as an exclusive now artist for spooky pinball yeah i mean that's boom i mean i've got his work sitting here behind me my monsters over here the black and white just yeah just awesome like the fact the way that he captures you know human figures in particular it's the best yeah he's he and you know what like let's talk about spooky for a second right let's a company that is like i swear every day is releasing a code update right like they back their products and they make a very interactive bang for buck machine and getting you know getting him on board um is yeah just that's game changer i mean it's kind of fun like we're finding like the the big three companies are kind of all just like slotting into their own little niches right in the pie right and then everybody else is fighting for the scraps you know but stern of course is dominating with their their technology the insider connected the pace of machines that they put out there uh jersey jack after visiting the factory talking with the guys like they're really positioning themselves as like what is the the best machine you know that we can make how can we make the sound better than everything else that's out there in the market how can we improve the graphic let's do radcals on our collectors let's you know include the topper and really push it and just have the whole package so if you were to go objectively you know on a spreadsheet you know their game seems to be like the best put together of everything yeah spooky pinball is like we're only going to do a theme if we can do the hell out of the theme we want all of the assets we want a code update coming you know every other week it seems like and uh nobody seems to be hitting any production stumbles you know um you know with the exception of you know maybe spooky but like if you ordered uh looney tunes today your build may be pushed back six months or so um but i'm not seeing anybody that's ordered a game and is waiting a year later and the game still ain't there hashtag pulp fiction le no sliding at cdc i mean their quality is great the game is amazing i rolled the thing the other day for the first time so like holy crap pulp fiction is great but like if i was i mean it took me a year just to get my standard edition the le owners still still waiting we heard september still not seeing them so um yeah i'd like to see the big three just killing it and this ad of you know getting frangie is exclusive now on art let's go man look it's a game changer i think you know we know that um i was really impressed with like the stuff that you put out being a jjp i mean it's very obvious that they are now really pushing themselves to be these boutique pinball, you know, immersive experience cinematic experience versus what Stern does with we got an IP and a cornerstone and we going to treat it like an arcade machine and we going to have fun with it and it going to be you know simple Anyone can use it. Anyone can play it.
    15:27
    And at the end of the day, if Stern have, you know, I was saying this to someone today. I was trying to explain to them. Stern have 90% of the market share and 70% of that is residential. The rest is commercial. now most of like 90 sorry 90 percent of the commercial product is theirs you don't really see jjps on a commercial product so their machines have to be built where they are a bit more robust and a bit simpler and a bit easier you know and not as loaded less mechanisms less toys because you know they are going into a commercial space as well right whereas jjp have this like Hollywood director's cut machine that is immersive, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I was talking to my wife yesterday, because Gumbaz has mentioned this a couple of times, 70% of their game sales from Stern are going into homes. But with Insider Connected and the data they can mine, 70% of the gameplay is on locations.
    16:26
    Yeah. So you've got to simultaneously now make a machine that's got deep enough ruleset and fun enough things in it that it's going to last at home and not be boring after three months. But it still has to be compelling and fun to play for the first 10% of the code that 70% of the people playing this game are going to experience on location. And so they're right in that wheelhouse. People have been reaching out to me like, Don, which is a better game? Come on, X-Men versus Avatar. Let's go. And it's like, all right. I broke it down a couple of different ways. But if you're asking me which machine is better, as far as speakers, graphics, finish, I give it to JJP with Avatar. as far as like which game is a better game that's completely subjective and we're going to argue over that as as we are as we do and you know people are there's team x-men there's team avatar and both people i think are right for them you know um i can say this though you know freaking both games are amazing so i don't think you can lose even if you just flip the coin you know you're gonna have a good game i think maybe um and this is a little bit of the issue at the moment where I think we're probably to blame a little bit in a sense because everyone's clickbaiting or everyone's doing X-Men versus Avatar, obviously because they came out at the same time, right? Absolutely. The fact is they're not the same thing, right? It's not apples for apples. And on paper, which is the better machine? It is Avatar, JJP. You just can't, you know, it's loaded, right? So it's like saying, oh, you've got an Aston Martin and I've got a Hyundai, and we're going to do a video and compare those on top gear they're completely different beasts um you know the which is the best game playing again subjective but a lot of people i've talked to prefer playing x-men just because they've had more fun on it you know they can just keep playing it over and over again you know it's it's but again it's subjective that doesn't mean that the next person is going to think that x-men's better it's kind of like this like um you could go out to a really nice stage production Broadway style show that's just you know immersive and has cool mechanisms on stage and a flying dragon and how they make that actor levitate for that song and like just have those moments right and then you can go to a Metallica concert and just be in the pit slashing around and just having like a blast but you know how do you say which experience was better you know they're just they're different uh they're complementary you can enjoy one and the other um one you know you may need a break between other one you can run right back in there and go over and over so yeah i think they're slotting in well and then you know spooky there with the theme immersion just overkill and just you know killing us with the kindness of powder coating every scrap of metal that's on that machine and keeping the price under ten thousand dollars you know it's just it's great i love this little little trilogy we got right now or this trinity of pinball amazingness um yeah i think i think what jtp have done with the production of the release, the little mini documentary, having the machines out for everyone to play, inviting everyone, setting the scene, setting the mood, getting everyone really immersed with the lighting.
    19:37
    You know, they know how to do it. I mean, hats off to them, right? They definitely know how to do it. And it's going to sell games. You know, it's a stunning game.
    19:46
    If you want to go ahead and hear the rest of that, it's over at the Patreon, five bucks gets you in the door. Why not, man? What else do you got going on? Hey, hit me with that music from the booth, y'all.
    19:57
    Here we are at the end of another episode. Thank you for gathering around. Please clean up your carpet squares and return your paste and your napkins over to the dustbin over there. Don't forget your homework. Have a good weekend, everybody. We'll be back when we hear some more. Where's my X-Men? I want to cut that box open. Downtown ramp, you guys. Downtown danger room. Can we get a danger room?
    20:19
    In the booth, you need a danger room?