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The Pinball Show Ep 168: Dungeons & Dragons & What's Coming To Pinball In 2025

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 57m·analyzed·Jan 14, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.039

TL;DR

Stern's D&D: Tyrant's Eye analyzed; 2025 release roadmap detailed with praise for marketing approach and mechanical innovations.

Summary

The Pinball Show hosts Dennis and Zach discuss the newly revealed Stern Pinball game Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye, analyzing its design features, production schedule, voice cast, and market positioning. They also preview 2025 pinball releases and production timelines, including Godzilla, Metallica Remastered, Jaws, and X-Men variants across Q1-Q2, while touching on American Pinball restructuring and broader market trends.

Key Claims

  • D&D franchise generates $1 billion+ per year in revenue

    high confidence · Stern Pinball cited this figure as rationale for IP selection; direct quote from manufacturers' pitch to hosts

  • D&D: Tyrant's Eye features the most advanced mech Stern Pinball has ever created, with multiple patents filed for the dragon toy

    high confidence · Dennis and Zach discuss this claim; Dennis confirms 'I did hear something about some patents'

  • Limited Edition units reduced from 811 (Uncanny X-Men) to 740 (D&D)

    high confidence · Direct production data cited by hosts; both acknowledge 'Smart' decision

  • Stern Pinball producing Godzilla Premiums this week, D&D LE in late January, D&D Pro early-to-mid February, D&D Premium mid-to-late February

    high confidence · Detailed production schedule provided by hosts; consistent with Stern's announced timeline

  • Metallica Remastered Premiums are currently out of stock at most dealers and scarce in the market

    medium confidence · Zach states 'I'm out of them. A lot of other dealers are out of them. It's like a scarce product right now' — represents dealer perspective but not industry-wide confirmation

  • Brian Eddy designed first three-flipper Stern machine since The Shadow

    high confidence · Hosts confirm this as a significant design feature; Zach: 'This is the first for Stern Pinball. We've not seen him do that since The Shadow'

  • D&D game features player-controlled shield with shot-prepping capability

    high confidence · Detailed mechanical description; hosts emphasize novelty: 'Not enough people are talking about this. This is damn cool.'

  • Stern Pinball has transitioned from being known as a 'baron' company (minimal features) four years ago to being 'the toy mech company'

    medium confidence · Zach's opinion on strategic shift; acknowledges comparison to Led Zeppelin as pivot point example

Notable Quotes

  • “You're like Baby Duck trying to imprint or something... the psychoanalyst trick is always look between the eyes at about the brim of the nose, so it looks like you're paying attention.”

    Dennis @ ~0:05:30 — Humorous digression about eye contact during conversations; relates to hosts' personal dynamic but off-topic

  • “This is exactly what I've been preaching, I think, both of us, for the last couple of years. One prerecorded video, maybe one game, just satiate the individual, make them want more, and make them go out and play this thing. It was perfect.”

    Zach @ ~0:25:00 — Validates Stern's marketing approach for D&D launch; reflects broader industry debate over product presentation strategy

  • “The dragon stood out, right? Oh, yes. This thing is nuts. And they said, a lot of media people have said, that it looks even bigger in person.”

    Dennis/Zach @ ~0:35:45 — Emphasizes scale and visual impact of dragon mech as primary selling feature

  • “This thing seems loaded to me with toys and mechs, which, again, Dennis and listener, Stern Pinball has become the toy mech company.”

    Zach @ ~0:45:20 — Key strategic observation about Stern's competitive positioning vs. boutique manufacturers

  • “The term baron was associated with this company. Now, it is a 180, I think.”

    Zach @ ~0:47:00 — References historical criticism of Stern's sparse game design; notes dramatic philosophical shift

  • “This looks like a flowy game to me, Dennis.”

    Zach @ ~0:52:15 — Early assessment of game flow characteristics based on feature layout; predicts playability style

  • “A big old central toy that interacts with you, sells games... this is what we say.”

    Zach @ ~0:44:30 — Articulates market theory that prominent interactive toys drive game sales (Black Knight reference)

  • “I was usually a cleric. Of course you were. You were the fucking accountant. I'm not the accountant. I was a help-be-heal person.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyDungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's EyegameBrian EddypersonDwight SullivanpersonVincent ProstpersonChris VelascopersonMichael Dornperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball undergoing restructuring in 2025; mentioned without detail in production update context

    low · Zach mentions 'American pinball restructuring plans' in episode preview but no elaboration provided in main content

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Some pinball community blowback against D&D IP selection; hosts defend choice against criticism and validate with market data and designer passion

    medium · Zach: 'I admit, I was not excited about this theme. And I questioned it.' Stern Pinball provided rationale addressing skepticism. Hosts note 'some blowback' regarding theme choice.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Stern Pinball no price increase on D&D despite adding advanced mechanics and reduced LE production (811→740 units), suggesting margin focus and confidence in market demand

    medium · Zach notes: 'No pricing change this time around' and 'they did reduce the LE units from 811 on Uncanny X-Men to 740. Smart.' Suggests intentional scarcity strategy.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern Pinball demonstrating sustained commitment to complex mechanical toys and interactive features as competitive differentiation (dragon mech, player-controlled shield, gelatinous cube magnet)

    high · Zach: 'Stern Pinball has become the toy mech company... with toys and mechs' — hosts contrast with historical 'baron' criticism from four years ago, noting dramatic 180-degree shift

  • $

    market_signal: Metallica Remastered Premiums currently out of stock at dealer level with production not resuming until March, indicating supply constraint or deliberate scarcity management

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.353

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. Coming up on the Pinball Show, Dennis and I have got a hot one for you. You may even listen twice, I'm just saying. We dive into the new Stern Pinball release Dungeons and Dragons game, features, launch, sales, production, and more, as well as give you our predictions of what's to come in pinball in all of 2025. We also talk about American pinball restructuring plans, new games leaving manufacturers' factories all around the world, and pinball market trends. Official Pinball Show Club members are getting the goods this week. And speaking of predictions, I bet that we're going to add a ton of new members this week as our exclusive content is covering Slippin' Out Pinball's best and worst new in-box game sales for 2024. That's right. I present to you all of the games that can be purchased last year and where they rank in sales. All of this and more can only be found on the hobby's most popular pinball podcast. This is The Pinball Show.
1:20
pinball is a game of theory for some it's a passion and a lifestyle it's time for the pinball show it's pinball with personality the pinball show is now live episode 168 with Dennis Creasel and Zach Minney Dennis how are you today? I'm doing pretty well Zach I guess we're not live though well we were live to record it but they are hearing a recorded version, removing all of the questionable things. Speaking of questionable things, Zach, can you explain to me why we... Oh, my God!
1:59
What is... What? At this point, I think listeners are like, every episode, Dennis says something so off, and you have to beep the entirety of it. What is he talking about? What is he saying? Listener, these things are of unimportance. Don't, he just, Dennis knows every button. He has a control board like I have a mixer, and he can. There's a pot, and the pot must be stirred. Oh, and Dennis splashes it. There's your stirrer. Easy edit this time, though. I did it right at the start. Speaking of splashing, did you drink some soup over Snowmageddon? Oh, I did stock up in time, which was good because I cannot remember the last time I have seen this much snow in one event in Kansas.

The D&D product launch video was prerecorded, structured, only 16 minutes long, featuring one full game and partial second game

high confidence · Hosts provide detailed description of launch presentation format; both praise the approach

  • Voice cast includes Michael Dord (Worf), Kevin Smith, Gerard Way, Matthew Mercer, and Luke Gygax (son of D&D creator Gary Gygax)

    high confidence · Hosts read official cast list; Luke Gygax's relationship to Gary Gygax confirmed in content

    • Dennis/Zach @ ~0:33:45 — Personal anecdote about D&D character class choice; humorous but reveals hosts' actual gaming history

  • “Stern was talking about this to us. They were like, here's why we chose this particular IP, because some people are questioning it.”

    Zach @ ~0:27:30 — References direct communication with Stern regarding strategic IP selection rationale

  • “I love when a magnet holds a ball and you have to hit it out. That's a pinball, like that's perfect pinball stuff right there.”

    Dennis @ ~0:50:15 — Articulates design philosophy valuing interactive magnet mechanics as core pinball gameplay

    • Kevin Smith
    person
    Gerard Wayperson
    Matthew Mercerperson
    Luke Gygaxperson
    Gary Gygaxperson
    Dennis Creaselperson
    Zach Minneyperson
    American Pinballcompany
    Godzillagame
    Metallica Remasteredgame
    Jaws 50th Anniversarygame
    Uncanny X-Mengame
    The Pinball Showmedia
    Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
    The Shadowgame
    Black Knightgame
    Can't Conevent

    medium · Zach (dealer perspective): 'I'm out of them. A lot of other dealers are out of them. It's like a scarce product right now.' Production timeline shows March restart after inventory management.

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pinball deployed structured, prerecorded 16-minute product launch video with designer explanation and curated gameplay — marked departure from unstructured live streams

    high · Zach praises approach: 'This is exactly what I've been preaching... One prerecorded video, maybe one game, just satiate the individual, make them want more.' Both hosts confirm intentional presentation strategy.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Brian Eddy designing first three-flipper Stern machine since The Shadow, returning to classic layout philosophy; Vincent Prost bringing external D&D franchise art credibility to pinball design

    high · Hosts confirm Eddy as designer of three-flipper D&D layout and Prost as renowned D&D franchise artist; Eddy previously worked on Stranger Things, Venom, Indiana Jones

  • ?

    announcement: Stern Pinball officially revealed Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye with three tiers, advanced dragon mech, and novel player-controlled shield mechanic

    high · Official launch materials analyzed by hosts; factory media visits conducted; extended product video released

  • ?

    product_strategy: D&D game explicitly designed in three tiers with distinct artwork packages, back glass variants, and cabinet art differences; layout consistency across Pro/Premium/LE with feature differentiation

    high · Zach: 'three completely different packages throughout the Pro, Premium, and LE, different back glass, cabinet art, very cool stuff'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Pinball detailed 2025 Q1-Q2 release schedule: Godzilla Premium (week 1), D&D LE (late Jan), D&D Pro (early-mid Feb), D&D Premium (mid-late Feb), Metallica Remastered Premium (March), Godzilla Pro/Premium (March), Jaws Pro/Premium + X-Men Pro/Premium (April)

    high · Hosts provide granular production timeline sourced from Stern Pinball communications

  • ?

    technology_signal: Advanced magnet mechanics with two-stage system on gelatinous cube; player-controlled shield with shot-prepping feature represent novel interactive mechanic implementations at Stern

    high · Hosts detail: 'gelatinous cube with a two-stage magnet' and 'player-controlled shield, with a shot-prepping feature' — both marked as industry-leading innovation

  • ?

    licensing_signal: D&D franchise selected for multi-generational appeal spanning Gen X through Gen Z, with both classic and modern content integration; $1B+ annual franchise value cited as strategic rationale

    high · Direct quote from Stern Pinball pitch to hosts explaining IP selection criteria and market sizing

    • 2:53
    It's been at least a decade since we had anything comparable to this. But I think even then it wasn't as bad. It flowed all the way through to Indiana. We got hit as well. We had one round and then a subsequent round days later, and we were snowed in here. You were snowed in at your place. How much did you get? Do you know, like, what your city's official tally was? I think it was like a foot. I mean, I don't know. It was. Yeah, we were just over 13 inches. Yeah. Wow. That's deep. It is. That is deep. And then we got another six inches.
    3:23
    Listener, stop. Just stop. Let's be mature. Their heads are not in the gutter. Well, I know the ones. So, I was going to ask you, though. All of this snow. So what do you do when cooped up in a drift-covered house there in Kansas? Maybe curl up by the old fireplace, sip some hot choccy, reminisce about an old flame, catch up on some steamy romance novels. Give yourself a couple of soft tickles, if you know what I mean. I shoveled three times because I would get too tired. I had been off work, Zach, for a week and a half. I hadn't worked since Christmas. Sure. I might have forgot how to work. You forgot how to shave? You had a big old beard? No, I was pretty scraggly with it. Where I work, they never close. They hadn't closed since 2014. They do not close for weather. It's been 84 years. I'm like, it's been 84 years of snow. And I was like, all right, I got to shovel. But I'm waiting on Sunday because the snow is coming down as of Saturday and then Sunday. And they keep pushing it back. And so it's like the snow is probably going to stop at 9 p.m. And I'm like, I'm looking out the window, Zach. You know, I don't got my hot choccy. I don't got my soup. I don't got my Harlequin romance novels or whatever you were asking about. I'm not any of that. I'm looking out the window, and I see that it is deep. Like, damn. And I'm like, I don't know if I can do this very fast. Because normally I would just shovel out before driving. I do it in the morning while the car warms up. And I'm like, but that's for like an inch. This is a lot of inches. I don't shovel. I just plow through that shit. And I had stocked up on apples. I had my cashews, and I had my other stuff. But now I'm basically down to tater tots and chicky nuggets. Yes. Do you have ketchup still? I do. Yes, I stocked up on ketchup, too. But the frozen pizzas are gone. Oh, man. Yeah, no. Again, I might still have some fish that I could fry. Oh, I thought you were going to say fish sticks. I love fish sticks. I hate sticks. What? But what did you do, Zach? You know what I did? I caught up on some TV. I watched a new series. It's not even a new series. I watched a series about the history of Nintendo. It's called Playing with Power. It was narrated by Sean Astin on Amazon. It was really good. I loved it. It was like a five-part series. I didn't realize Nintendo goes all the way back to like the late 1800s or something. Nuts. With playing cards. Yeah. So that's what I did. I watched that, and I went to a rodeo, but that's a whole other episode. Yeah. You got to a rodeo in the snow. Speaking of Buck and Bronco, Stern Pinball reveals Dungeons and Dragons, the Tyrant's Eye, since we've last spoken, and we'll talk about that. But first, let's jump into some production updates over there at Stern Pinball. The last couple of weeks, I don't think they've really been building a whole hell of a lot as they've been going through their annual inventory. So they've been doing that. The next couple of weeks, listener, we're going to get Godzilla premiums this coming week. How about that? Those things don't stop selling. And then they're going to go into the Dungeons & Dragons LE model. They're doing the LE model first again. Okay. They're going to do that again. And then in February, early February, we're going to see D&D Pro units early to mid-month. And then mid to late February, we're going to see the Dungeons & Dragons premiums roll off the line. Then in March, to close out Q1, we've got Metallica Remastered Premiums going back on the line and Godzilla Pro and Premium Models. Again? Wow.
    7:07
    Man, everybody needs Metallica Premiums like now. I'm out of them. A lot of other dealers are out of them. It's like a scarce product right now. So waiting until March, I would hope that they consider running them before March. But we'll have to wait and see. April is coming along, and we get Jaws Pro and Premiums, as well as another run of Uncanny X-Men Pro and Premiums. Yay. Okay, let's jump into, can we jump into the new game? I guess we could. Now, a lot of people have reviewed it here in media. Everyone but us has talked about it, so we should go quick. People are waiting. They've got to hear the pinball shows take an analysis on it. Do we really have to be the center of it all?
    7:52
    Depends on who you ask. All right, Dungeons and Dragons, the Tyrant's Eye. Why'd they have to add the tyrant's eye? Because there's a story to it. I get that, but just for more... And the dragon's eyes are... Look into the eyes of the dragon and despair.
    8:07
    I'll destroy you. I'll consign you to oblivion. Game designers, Brian Eddy, you know, the guy that did Stranger Things, The Mandalorian, Venom. Shadow, The Shot from Mars, The Madness. Those things. Indiana Jones, rules. lead artist Vincent Prost now I've not heard of that name a lot of people haven't but a lot of people have because he's a renowned Dungeons and Dragons franchise artist he's done a lot of Magic the Gathering stuff yeah he did a lot in the mid 2000s like early mid 2000s and all that but he's done stuff for I think he's done things for like television shows and stuff as well Oh, cool. And it's my understanding that this Vincent Prost, he and lead programmer Dwight Sullivan, came up with the storyline of the Tyrant's Eye. That's right. They added the eye. That's right. The beholder. Is it the beholder? You know, I don't know if the eye is the beholder or if it's supposed to be the actual eye of the dragon itself. It could be. I don't know. We'll have to ask Dwight. What tyrant is this that you're referring to? And what's wrong with their eye? He shouldn't stare. It's interesting that it's one eye that they're focused on, not the tyrant's eyes. I don't want to throw my wife, Nicole, under the bus here. Because that's where Dave fixes it.
    9:31
    Sorry. I love you, Dave. I'm just, because you used the thing, it's not. But I'm going to here. I'm so sorry, Nicole. But this is, maybe this is, I don't think this is inappropriate.
    9:44
    This is not as bad. Well, I know. This is not good. But, man, it's funny. She always has this thing about funerals. She breaks out at funerals. Who doesn't, right? I told her that's not a good excuse to not go. But she has this thing. She gets really nervous when somebody has a lazy eye or, I don't know, a stigmata. I don't know what you call it. What do you call it? What's the medical thing for lazy eye or just a messed up eye or something? Whenever it wanders, right? She has a weird thing. She's like, I feel so rude, but I don't know where to look. But I don't understand the funeral thing. She said she'd think that people at the funeral have a disproportionate likelihood of having lazy eyes.
    10:25
    No, every time there's a funeral, she's like, I just can't go. I'm so weird about this thing. They freak me out. And I'm like, bullshit. Nobody likes them. Like, this is the way it is. Your ass is going. But no, the lazy eye, she doesn't know where to look. And I always feel bad for her. And so anybody out there with a lazy eye, email us at thepinballshowatgmail.com. Help Nicole out. Where should she look? Because if I had one, like, why are we going to hide it? People have lazy eyes. They're weird eyes. Where should you look if you're tired inside? This can't really be a thing, though.
    10:58
    Where do you look? That's the eye. The eye is not, like, literally floating away from their head. One, they're not looking at you. Do you look at that one? I don't need to stare into the pupil. What if both are looking away? We're not bonding here. I told her, here's the trick. You're like Baby Duck trying to imprint or something. I did the psychoanalyst trick. Psychoanalyst trick is always look between the eyes at about the brim of the nose, so it looks like you're paying attention, you know, that kind of thing.
    11:27
    I'm so sorry, Nicole. She's going to kill me. Lead programmer is Dwight Sullivan, as we said. He's done Star Wars, Monsters, TMNT, The Mandalorian, Venom, et cetera.
    11:37
    Indiana Jones. No, he didn't do that. Music. Chris Velasco. He's an acclaimed composer known for epic scores such as God of War and Mass Effect. He's my favorite musician on the Citadel. Okay. If you play Mass Effect, you'd get it. I don't. Voice talent. This is a big one. This is huge. And you don't normally care at all about voice talent, so I wondered how you would feel about this. But I still don't care much, but I know it's... This is like the best voice cast of Star Trek. Next gen. I heard you on EGP. I heard everybody... Huge. These names are so big in D&D. We've got the likes of Michael Dorn, who did Worf on Star Trek Next Gen. Today is a good day to die. He voices the dragon. Rar. It's a good day to rar. Look at my eye. It is my eye. I am a tyrant. The person I knew everybody's downplaying, which is Kevin Smith from Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob. No one cares. Jersey Girls. Marats. The director. Yeah, Kevin Smith. Chris. Dogma. Chris Pernosky. I don't know who that is. A Critical Role person. Brendan Small. He's the rock star. I'm sure I'd recognize the voice he did if I knew which character it was from Metal Oc... Metal Occapist. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Metal... Metal Occapist. Metal... How is it pronounced? I think you looked at the eye that's looking at you. Metal Occapist. Not the one that's wondering. It's not like you should turn your head and be like, hey, over here. I don't know. Anyway, I watched a few of them. I didn't regularly consistently watch it, but it was pretty entertaining. Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance and the Umbrella Academy. He's a songwriter and singer. Matthew Mercer. That's a big name to a lot of nerds. I know him a lot. Yeah, he's done a number of anime, but I know him for some video game work. Critical Role. I mean, he's an actor. Laura Staley. It's time. Critical Role. Marisha Ray from Critical Role and other stuff and Luke Gygax oh yeah Gygax his dad invented Mr. Gygax D&D Gary Gygax and in fact Gary Gygax has a cameo in the 2000 version year 2000 Dungeons and Dragons I think he's one of the wizards in the council of wizards were you ever into Dungeons and Dragons I am I played it. I wasn't huge into it because I didn't know very many people that were. A friend of mine really, really liked it. But, you know, when I was a kid. You were no Dungeon Master. No, I was a DM. I did some DMing, but only with, like, really small groups. Like a nerd.
    14:23
    Yeah. Well, you know, there's been some blowback from some pinball people. That's why I'm doing it. Which is interesting because I don't know where pinball people thought that pinball was cool. Exactly. We're all nerds. Bro, you're hanging out in an arcade. It only goes so far. But then again, I heard some D&D people throwing some nerd shade towards us pinball people. Wait a minute. Look, this is going to lead to a nerd-table war. None of us should be measuring dicks here, I assure you. No, anyway. But anyway, so yeah, Gary Gajax. Measuring wands. He created Dungeons & Dragons, the actual tabletop game. But you said, I remember when I was a kid and Dungeons and Dragons was sort of like getting known because it was, I don't know. I don't remember when exactly he invented D&D itself because he was big into gaming and stuff all the way back in the 60s. I think D&D came out in the earlier mid 80s. There was a there was a cartoon that was Dungeons and Dragons theme. But there was this whole, it's probably just American thing, but there's this whole like, oh, no, it's Satan, like a satanic, a satanic cult thing. And so there was like a lot of pressure to not play that game from some people. I was never told that, but I knew people who were like, oh, wait, that's demonic. I'm not supposed to play it.
    15:40
    See, when I was a kid, I was doing quest-based stuff too. One of my favorites was we titled it Journey to Touch the Gelatinous Boob.
    15:52
    That's what I was trying to do as a kid. I was trying to figure out how to touch boobs, man. So I didn't, I don't know, I didn't do that. And not to say, look, this is the role that I play here on the show, guys. In no way am I trying to disrespect one of my best buddies, Dennis Creasle. Don't need the emails. Just, it's a shtick thing. So it's all cool. I'm nerdy. I would probably just edit it all out. Oh, one of those things again? I would. Sweet puppies!
    16:19
    No pricing change this time around, and there are three Cornerstone models for the Dungeons & Dragons Tyrant's Eye. the Pro, the Premium, and Limited Edition. They did reduce the LE units from 811 on Uncanny X-Men to 740. Smart. Mm. And they did, they talked about the quiet and improved power supply that they added. And that's already been in games. I know. Seth Davis mentioned it. Let's talk about the product launch itself. We had a teaser. We had a trailer, photos, extended product video of it with the creators, live gameplay video. It wasn't a stream, but it was launched as a live thing, but it was a prerecorded video, only 16 minutes in length. I think they only played like one game.
    17:07
    Kind of. They did one game, and then they started another one to show the gelatinous cube multiball. And I've got to say, some blowback about that. All of those people are wrong. It was perfect. I liked that it was short. I liked that Dwight was explaining it. And I get different people going to be like, I only want to see the game. I don't want to hear someone talk. And then there are others like, because it was prerecorded and it was structured and the guy who was playing was trapping up. And he was hitting shots. Yes. It was just, I really thought that that was how I wanted it presented at first. Because part of it is going to be me being a little biased as a content creator. It's much easier for me to have it like that. It's getting explained. I know what's going on. I'm seeing some shots. I'm seeing some of the key modes. Here's a two-hour live stream. I have to jump around. Oh, wait, I got to skip the first 30 minutes because I couldn't get the audio to work right. And, you know, it's just a mess otherwise. That's just me. I give them so much praise. This is exactly what I've been preaching, I think, both of us, for the last couple of years. One prerecorded video, maybe one game, just satiate the individual, make them want more, and make them go out and play this thing. It was perfect. Nicely done, Dwight and Eddie and whoever's decision that was. Yeah, I liked it. Dealers and media also visited the factory to play this game. So there's a lot of media out there that talked about their experiences. Did you go and visit? I did not. I did not either. I was too busy taking orders.
    18:39
    Yeah, it's busy, man. I was in snow. It's been a decent release here. And that was when I was just supposed to get back to work. So I could not extend my vacation further. That was when you were doing a couple of soft tickles. Now, you're a bop and slap kind of guy, aren't you?
    18:56
    So, if we're talking about the choice of this theme and IP, you know, I admit, I was not excited about this theme. And I questioned it. I did. You haven't cast Magic Missile. You don't know what it's like. Oh, I've cast plenty of Magic Missile. I'm sure you do.
    19:14
    So, the core relevance, Stern was talking about this to us. They were like, here's why we chose this particular IP, because some people are questioning it. They said the core relevance is multi-generational. Gen X audiences, millennials, Gen Z, and it even can skew newer too. This is nostalgic for the people in our base group of people we want to aim for, but it also bleeds into newer generations as well. It was important for them to include classic and modern content to fit both of those. And they indicated that D&D is a $1 billion plus per year franchise.
    19:58
    That's huge. That is huge. And if we're talking about passion, they said it helps that this IP has been a dream theme project for Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan. And it was a good creative opportunity. D&D provides an opportunity to create within a world that is about creation and fun. And some of the principles of D&D blend very well with the elements of pinball. So what are the objectives and storyline of this game? Well, the dragon queen Tiamat. I'm going to struggle here. Is hatching a plan to rise again. Triggering the war of dragons with Xanathar, Balinor, and Samastar. Who's the master?
    20:45
    He sounds like the quirky one. The way you said it reminded me of one of my favorite kung fu movies.
    20:57
    It's Fist of the Dragon, right? I don't know. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, I don't. I'm double checking real quick. Yeah. So, the last dragon. Oh, the last dragon. Yeah, have you ever seen it? No, I don't. That's dragon.
    21:18
    Where there is the guy, his name is Shownuff. He is the Shogun of Harlem. It's a great movie. It's great. It's a 1985 martial arts movie. And Shownuff. And when he goes, he'd fight people. He'd be like, who's the master? Shownuff. Oh, that's great. I'm going to watch it. It's so good. It's going on the list. That would be a good theme. It's going on the list. So this is all fighting for power. Play as a chosen member of the Dragon Shield Guild. Trying to stop them. You guys realize how nerdy this sounds, right? Choose an adventurer from the Paladin, Wizard, Cleric, and Rogue with the opportunity to unlock the Ranger, Barbarian, and Bard through game progress. Who's this Bard?
    22:09
    That's who I'm interested in. Featuring... It's Chris Pine. Chris Pine's got to be the bard. Okay. He's just the con artist. Okay. Featuring iconic enemies, including a red dragon. Oh, that's just the formal name. A red dragon. Gelatinous cube. Mimic. Samister. Samaster. Delish. What the hell? Xanathar. You don't want that in your gum, ladies and gentlemen. It's cancer. Wasn't that a hit ABBA song?
    22:38
    I thought it was in gum. Or it's like in Diet Cokes. Isn't that the one you don't want to drink? Xanathar? Xanathar the Beholder. And Owlbear, a fan favorite. Forgotten Realms locations include those in Faerun, such as Arabella and Westgate. Oh, I'm getting really Avatar vibes here.
    22:59
    Our game has a new but familiar story with three different story endings. And then there's a dungeon map that changes every Sunday. The artwork, there's three completely different. packages throughout the Pro, Premium, and LE, different back glass, cabinet art, very cool stuff. If we're talking about the features of this game, Dennis, the Premium LE layout and features, main features, three flippers from Brian Eddy. This is the first for Stern Pinball. We've not seen him do that since The Shadow.
    23:28
    Zero pop bumpers. That's a Brian Eddy thing. Three ramps, one buck, a repeatable upper loop, a lift ramp, and then more specific mechs and toys, a complex interactive wrath, the relentless Dragon Mech Bash Toy, which is the most advanced mech that they've ever done at Storm Pinball, with multiple patents filed. Did you know that? I did hear something about some patents. Yeah. And this dragon, there's like this eight-ball multi-ball in the premium LE, and the dragon is shooting pinballs at you, trying to aim straight down the middle and into the outlanes, which is why you're battling, because they're just going to keep coming at you. these pinballs. And you have a shield. We'll talk about the shield in a minute. But that's why that's there. Because you're trying to block wrath from his wrath of pinballs going down the drain. There's a player-controlled shield, speaking of, with a shot-prepping feature.
    24:23
    Not enough people are talking about this. This is damn cool. So, not only is it like a post that pops up between the flippers, listening, that stops the ball from being drained, but it is shaped and designed in a that you play or control it so you can control when it comes up and such. But if it's just resting on the flipper and the shield and a shot is taken via said flipper, it preps that shot. So it has a higher accuracy to make the right ramp and the left orbit, depending on which flipper you're using. Dennis, that is smart. Mm-hmm. We've got a Dennis favorite slash joke, gelatinous cube with a two-stage magnet. We've got a dungeon playfield pop-up scoop in the Premium LE, a mimic slash treasure chest kick-out staging the upper flipper, an opto-spinner leading to a vuck, critical hip captive ball. Under the flipper, quote, hidden temple shot, an orbit, quote, narrow path, end quote, loop, which also feeds the dragon. I don't really know how that works as well. So if we're looking at all the Premium LE features, the dragon stood out, right? Oh, yes. This thing is nuts. And they said, a lot of media people have said, that it looks even bigger in person.
    25:38
    So the screen takes off a couple inches. Do you think it's the most, they're saying it's the most advanced mech they've ever done at Serm Pinball?
    25:50
    Um, I guess. I mean, the LE Premium Ghostbusters Slimer flew around a lot. The Jurassic Park picked up the ball, that T-Rex. Yeah. Chomped on it. It did chomp. You know, there was chomp action. So I don't know. Maybe this is just a big girthy mech that everybody's talking about this mech, and it's that damn cool. I wonder. I guess this is what Keith Elwin was talking about.
    26:16
    I'm thinking. Yeah. Could be. Yeah. I thought it was kind of interesting. So the dragons, the wrath, the relentless. Yes. But they have that when you're playing the game, you are battling Tiamat. Or Tiamat. I've heard it both ways. I don't even know what that is, but I believe. I think in Dungeons and Dragons it's a chromatic dragon.
    26:36
    Oh, like an armored dragon? No, like different colors. Oh. Like, think a Hydra. It had multiple heads, and each one was a color. Like, it had a red one. I thought King Ghidorah was gold.
    26:49
    Think kind of King Ghidorah, but instead it's Dungeons and Dragons, and it's a dragon, and so it's got, like, a green head and a red head and a black head, and I don't remember. I'll watch out for them redheads. I don't know. Because I think they set this. This is set in the Forgotten Realms world. So there are different worlds in Dungeons & Dragons. And the people I play with. Like a Marvel multiverse? Well, kind of. But like how they have different planets.
    27:15
    Like, so I don't. I'm really confused. Anyway, I think the, I think Forgotten Realms is like in the, in Toril is like the world. I mostly, the people I played with, we did Dragonlance as our setting. so that was on Kryn, so it was a different world with different stuff.
    27:32
    So what kind of shield did you... Am I cool yet? What kind of shield did you have? Did you have armor? I cast Ratic Missile. I was usually a cleric.
    27:43
    Of course you were. You were the fucking accountant. I'm not the accountant. I was a help-be-heal person. When I hear cleric, I think of like... A clerk.
    27:54
    You take the inventory... Guys, we got 12 errors left. It's going to be totally nerdy, but I'm going to do it anyway. Please do. There's an event. There's a tabletop gaming event we have in Kansas City called Can't Con. It starts with a spell with a K. Watch the pronunciation there. Yeah, you have to. That's why I'm emphasizing it very carefully. And so one year, Tony and I went, because Tony had gone several years, and I went one time. And we did a one-off campaign in Dungeons & Dragons. And I don't remember what – I don't know if I actually played a cleric there. I might have done some other – I don't remember what I played. I remember Tony's character because he had, like, the super low-intelligence barbarian type with a Russian accent. He would actually do the accent. He was struggling the other episode doing an Austrian accent. Because someone emailed in with six paragraphs and he didn't look at it. We were all trying to do an Austrian hate accent. It's impossible. The person asked for a southern, U.S. southern Arnold Schwarzenegger, which does not exist. And poor Dennis, they didn't edit any of it. It turned into like a Crimean region accent. Anyway, so he would go along and just get into all sorts of trouble because the guy had super low intelligence. So he played him that way. So if you offended him, he immediately started to fight. Yes. Speaking of, does anybody get so worked up in these D&D things that fights ensue? Like is this a do people get pissed off You know I it I actually seen videos of people playing Magic the Gathering have that happen Okay, so we get some hotheads in Magic, huh? Oh, sure. Oh. Oh, you also get people busted for cheating in it. They used to have, like, bum fights on YouTube. I want to see D&D fights or nerd fights. That would be awesome.
    29:44
    Or, like, if they had those little wands that shoot the little flash paper. that's some Harry Potter stuff I want to enter this world this sounds cool so of all of that the Wrath of Relentless looks awesome I can't wait to play this game because of it that is a big enough central figure toy that will help sell games guaranteed the same way that the topper on Black Knight sells games I don't want to be a broken record or a broken scroll device or whatever the hell. But this is what we say. A big old central toy that interacts with you, sells games, and then a couple other toys. This thing seems loaded to me with toys and mechs, which, again, Dennis and listener, Stern Pinball has become the toy mech company. They're the ones that are putting the most cool stuff in these games, in my opinion.
    30:45
    No? You have to admit, between this and going back to Led Zeppelin, there's a lot of a fill in there. Led Zeppelin, that's a painful one to bring up.
    31:01
    They were known four years ago for not including anything on their game. The term baron was associated with this company. Now, it is a 180, I think. I love that you were teasing about the gelatinous cube And it was here It was, it was here all along And it's cool The gelatinous cube was inside all of us We just didn't know it Why haven't we used magnets like this before? This is so smart You use the top and the bottom part of the magnets to science Well, because you have to consider the shot from both ways And a lot of times it's just easier to let the magnet be under the playfield That's what I think I love when a magnet holds a ball and you have to hit it out. That's a pinball, like that's perfect pinball stuff right there. Yeah, but you're a big fan of magnets. Oh, I love magnets. Should be in every single game. The player-controlled shield is awesome. My favorite, honestly, I haven't played this yet, and everybody's turning their noses up at, not even paying the due respect that the kick-out deserves. That whole mimic treasure chest kick-out, First off, the shot looks cool as shit. It's like the far left, probably first half of the play field. But you hit it in there, and it kicks it like Bond, but it actually has somewhere to go. And it stages that upper flipper. That is so cool seeing that kick it up there. And I can almost bet that if they wanted to coat it, they could catch the gelatinous cube magnet, could probably catch it as he gets kicked up there to slowly feed that upper flipper. This looks like a flowy game to me, Dennis. Yeah, it looks pretty smooth without clearly deviating away from the fan layout that Brian Eddy's recently been sticking with. Sure. And I'll say flow. I want to modify that.
    32:56
    Flowy. I think that a layout can be flowy without the game being flowy Because I think the rules and this theme will prevent a lot of flow. I think this is more journey-based, more stop-and-go kind of stuff, if I had to guess. It could be. I mean, when they were showing, they had to activate for, like, the gelatinous cube to actually be in play. Otherwise, you know, there was this flow. Those shots just fed right back to the flipper and that sort of thing. So, yeah, it will come down to what rules are active and such. A lift ramp. There's multiple shots on this game. It looks like a last- So I had one shot. The game is one shot. It just looks so much fun to shoot to me. There's some things I don't understand. Like the under the flipper shot, I guess that's just they get a switch in there and it knows. Don had an under the flipper shot. Yeah.
    33:48
    This looks more Star Trek-y to me. Yeah, Star Trek had the under the flipper back into the shooter lane shot. And this one just stays on the play field. But I always liked F shots, utilizing space. Otherwise, they wouldn't. And then I don't know what this narrow path orbit loop is, but it also feeds the dragon. So I guess whenever balls are getting drained and flying out during that multiple, you have to Bram Stoker Dracula missed ball, get that ball back into play or load it up. Think TMNT, premium LE listener, where it shoots it up the ramp to the back of the van. It has to preload those. So that's, I guess, where this feeding the dragon. but I didn't know it was a dedicated shot, though. An orbit, narrow path loop. I don't know what that is.
    34:36
    I think people will like how it shoots. I don't know if it'll... I don't know if it's going to set the world on fire as a layout, but it's definitely different enough that it's not feeling super cookie-cutter, but it also does not look particularly weird. Does that make sense? Sure. To me, it looks... It feels based on some other things so that it should be, I think, a good playing experience without getting too cute for its own good. For me, it looks like the best and most interesting layout that we have seen from Brian, Eddie, Wallace, or Pimble. I would agree. And that is a breath of fresh air. It's interesting because the Premium LE, of course, on Venom had all those state changes, but they sacrificed so much in the pro, which lost all its soul because of that. And here you don't. In fact, I've already heard multiple people say they're really intrigued about this game because while it may not have been on their radar, they look at the Pro and they already feel like, you know what, I don't feel like I'm going to give up too much. I'm going to give up a lot of the cool effect, but the game still seems to be there, and a lot of people did not feel that with Venom. That is a good point. On the Pro model of Dungeons & Dragons, you only lose a couple of things. You don't get the Dungeon Scoop, which I didn't even really mention it that much in the LE Premium Features. Scoop pops up in the play field. You hit it in there. So you lose that, whoop-dee. And then, in my opinion, this is huge, but a lot of people, pinball players, don't mind it, where you still get the dragon, and the dragon even moves. It's not like a Jurassic Park T-Rex on a pro. It doesn't move. It still goes up and down, but it does not move left or right, and it doesn't shoot pinballs at you. Right. So you lose, basically lose the patented toy. Yeah. You just get a moving bash toy. A lot of people are saying what you're talking about. Like the Pro, man, the Pro is a great value. They didn't really, and I agree, it is. But, oh, man, you get mad when I say this, but if you're spending $7,000, I mean. $7,000 is a lot of money. Well, it's an extra couple payments. It's a lot. It's a lot, especially if you're going to wonder how well it will retain value, and it won't. The problem is, I always tell people this with Jurassic Park, like, if you're spending this much money, and this is one of the coolest mechs in all of pinball creation.
    36:58
    You're playing that mech. That's the thing, man. It depends on what the buyers experience, what they're going for. Absolutely, yeah. The journey and the rules and being in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Then you're going to have the dragon. Well, the toy is incredibly cool, but if their main thing is that they like the idea of progressing the characters and all that, I could see where they're like, you know what, I'd rather save a couple thousand dollars. That's two, you know, that's a couple thousand dollars I can hold for the next L-Wing. You know, there's all sorts of locks. Or comp players that don't want to be in the way a lot. Well, yeah, comp players, yeah. They don't want to shoot and die in a train, fairly.
    37:36
    They turn off all the toys anyway. Oh! That's right. Like, they would want, you know, some of them, they'll turn off anything that's a ball lock. They want a virtual ball lock. And then the LE on this game, of course, is going to have the same features as LEs typically do a certain pinball such as the expression speaker lighting system with the D insert and upgraded sound. Mirrored back glass, this time you get a little logo sparkle effect. Reflective foil cabinet, art package, limited numbers, red, dragon red powder coat trim package, shaker motor, anti-reflective glass, etc. We don't know much, well, we should know a lot about the rules and code, but without playing it for an extended period of time, I'm sorry Dwight, nobody's going to understand what the hell's going on. Maybe like a handful of people, but I just don't know. We do know that there's a one epic-ass multi-ball dragon battle. That's, like, one of the big things of this game. You also have a pin save feature. Do you not understand what this is? Yeah, it's like the continuation of the Venom setup. So it'll actually let you save in here and remember progress. So, like, where you're at in your campaign, you can go and pick that back up. That's pretty cool. You can level up players. You can unlock players.
    38:44
    There's, like, six wizard modes, if not more. three different game endings. That's got to be a first. No, that's not a first. It's not a first. The dungeon crawl thing's a first. That's awesome. Yeah, the dungeon crawl. It's like every Sunday you get your different map and yeah, it's cool. It mixes up some things for you. Music, sound, callouts. From what we've heard through gameplay, the callouts are fantastic and there are a bunch of them. There are over 11,000, I think, different callouts. That's insane. I thought I heard... Oh, I forgot to mention, Elizabeth Gieske, she's on modes. So she's doing coding and programming too. And I think that is an awesome addition to this team on this project because she's become very renowned for the Jaws rule and code set. Yeah, I like that set. That's a good set. Animation display, that I haven't seen enough. It looks very board game-y to me, so I don't know. sales and production. Well, they're not building it yet, but soon. They're not shipping it yet. So how are Ellie... They're in their little accounting mode right now. That's true. I can say that Ellie's sales are extremely strong. This game will sell out. This model will sell out. Unlike, you know, we had questions as the last couple of releases, not counting the remastered series, but Uncanny X-Men hasn't sold out. John Wick. John Wick sold through Venom hasn't sold out Joel sold out but yeah the LE sales what I'm seeing over at Flippin Out Pinball Distribution our LE sales are by far the most and then really good pro and premium sales too thus far they have surpassed John Wick sales and right up there I think with Uncanny sales so good stuff thus far There are continued delays, Seth was saying On some supply chain items though In general Particularly from China But like for this game, the dragons Limited dragons So that may cause an impact To game availability So we'll see Hopefully they can get all the LEs out But hopefully they can Don't have to delay the premium That's what we're hoping The creators of this game, Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan visited the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. Yeah. So they talked about a lot of things. Go listen to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. They've been killing it right now. Dwight Sullivan said this is, quote, by far, went on to say, his most ambitious game that he's ever done.
    41:27
    Is that a saying? I mean, probably every time you do something, it's going to be a little... Well, maybe not historically, but I mean, here I think you have some objective measures, such as the advancement on pin safe. because we've seen, you know, he's been playing with this leveling ever since Turtles. Oh, yeah. But there was a huge leap forward with Venom, and now you've got not just the progressing characters, but you've got this massive amount of additional stuff regarding the campaign and the progress on that in there. And, of course, I think Mando is in there somewhere, too. I'm seeing a lot of evolution from Mandalorian and from Venom. Like Mandalorian, the whole store thing, and you save up things, and you can buy and upgrade. And they got that here, too, with, like, you buy your plus two chain mail or whatever. And then you see it on your character and stuff like that. And then with the Venom, you see all the save progress, the leveling up kind of stuff. I'm glad they went back to modes, though. I missed that from Venom. I really did. They talked about the code shipping date or state. It was like .80 if they had to release it right this second. but they hope to be a little bit higher on that. Paul, oh, Dwight wanted to give some shout-outs. Paul Schmackit.
    42:49
    Semaster. No, it wasn't Semaster. Paul Schmackit, a shout-out from Dwight for being detrimental to the animation and to the UI. They even added like... Detrimental.
    43:00
    Oh. That's bad. Sorry. Not detrimental. Being essential. You good with that one? I mean, I don't know, Diddy. I don't remember this part of the interview, so I don't remember the actual word. Shout out to Paul for almost ruining animation. Sorry, Dwight. And you're fucked up if that was your word, but I think it might have been my word. They even added five to seven outside artists to assist after depleting their whole art team at Stern. So there's a lot of, you know, Dwight goes for that. He talks about it. It's not about death sometimes. It's about breadth of rules. He wants to create a world. So they needed a lot of artists. He gave a shout-out to Corey Stupp for putting all the monsters in the game. Corey's like his right-hand man in his programming team. And then we had mentioned Elizabeth doing mode code. That's what I call that. I can just imagine she walked in and she's like, you know what? With Venom, we didn't have modes. Can I do modes? And Dwight's like, go ahead. If you want to add modes, you can add modes. It's a journey.
    44:01
    David Sullivan. Shout-out to Dwight Stump. This is his first game as a full-time Stern employee. Fellow programmer David Sullivan. And then they just talked about all hands on deck with this game. They got input even from the mechanical engineers on other teams. Like, everybody lent a hand to making this kind of a new evolution into Pinball. That was Dungeons & Dragons, everybody. Okay, overall, I'm surprised by the game and the reaction. I'm not surprised by the reaction to the game. But the theme, man, the theme sent me on a, I just questioned. And then we seen it, and I was like, oh, okay, well, wow. This is better than I ever could have imagined this thing. You know, I didn't know what to expect with, when they announced they were doing Dungeons & Dragons, I figured it'd be based on the game, not off of the movie. And the movie with Chris Pine actually didn't do all that well at the box office, so that made even more sense, though. sometimes with the terminations they don't have, you know, they can't sit on it that long anyway. But the thing about D&D is there's so many people that are into it. When I saw the voice cast that was involved, I'm like, this is because so many people love D&D. All those critical role voices do voices for the Legend of Mox Machina anime on Prime. Like, I don't know if you've seen the Legend of Mox Machina. It's had three seasons. It's just the critical role campaigns they do. but animated. Animated form, yeah. Yeah, and they may change up some stuff. But it's the same voice cast. Critical Role, Tony on Eclectic Gamers has spoken about this before because he actually watches it. It at one time was the largest Twitch channel on Twitch. It's a massive, massive fan. So we're going to talk about something that appeals both to old school pinball collectors with money all the way up to a modern generation which is lapping this stuff up. It actually is really, really smart without it being tied to some major mega movie, TV, or band. And so I think that ability to bring in all of those cast of characters because they love this stuff so much, this will be Brian Eddy's most successful game at Stern. That's what I think. Yeah, I could definitely say. Mandalorian's a lot. I know. Yeah, I could see it. But Mandalorian, a lot of people just – the biggest thing that – I would have said Stranger Things has probably, in my opinion, been his best game until this point. But it didn't start very popular, and it feels pretty derivative layout-wise to some of his past work. This does not, not to his past work. and given this depth, again, that was my big thing with Venom was I was really interested in where Dwight was going with this ability and the characters and such, but it lends itself so much better to Dungeons & Dragons. And now with the additions with the dungeons and stuff, they are taking their pinball first and foremost, but they're taking some of those key RPG elements and incorporating them and a lot of people, even if they are not into tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, they've played role-playing video games. So this stuff is going to feel really, really familiar. And role-playing video games is from the most popular. There's a reason why people keep asking, when is the sequel to Skyrim coming out?
    47:25
    Yeah, and from an industry and company perspective, we needed a hit from the Eddie and Solo and T. Yeah, and with your comments about what you've seen vis-a-vis the Uncanny X-Men, Yeah. That's what's interesting to me because I heard a lot of people being like, you know, Jack Danger, is he the second coming of Keith Elwin, even though Keith Elwin still lives, so it's kind of weird to say, you know, sort of thing. And now it's like, well, if Brian and Dwight can put out a game that's seen by the public as on par with Uncanny X-Men, in fact, given some of the struggles of Uncanny X-Men, I'm wondering if this one's going to plunge right and come out above .8 code, it might actually ultimately do better. I don't know, because again, we're dealing with very, very famous franchises on both of them. A lot of uncanny. Sure, but the game just came out and people haven't been able to share their on-hand experience. So we have to see. Well, the other interesting thing, listeners, that sales-wise, I've seen other companies do this, but not recently by Stern.
    48:32
    The sales of this game, we have seen a lot more newer people, newer pinball buyers come into the scene because of D&D. In addition to that, a lot of female buyers as well, whether they've been in the hobby or out. We have seen a nice, decent uptick in new pinball buyers and female buyers.
    48:55
    And it's been interesting to see some of the other not typical to pinball channels covering this game release. Oh, yeah. I noticed on YouTube and stuff. Yeah. D&D people, like, they've got, it's a massive community, and they are paying attention to this. And beyond what we've seen with most usual Stern games, which is, yeah, you get your IGN coverage, and you'll have a bunch of people comment going, what, $7,000? And that's pretty much as far as it goes. Mm-hmm. I'm interested to see something like this reminds me of what we could see with Pokemon.
    49:24
    Yes. Because you've got another gaming institution. Pokemon will do better. Sure. But, yes, it could be a sign of how it's going. It's interesting to have huge IPs in the gaming world and see what the crossover will be with pinball. Because, like, what was I listening to? Triple Dream. And they had Retro Ralph. And he was a big arcade guy, big YouTube arcade guy. And he even talked about, like, for whatever reason, never really thinking pinball was a thing. Even, and then he went to Chicago Expo a couple years ago. Even then, he didn't think until he dove into, like, Godzilla or something. And he was like, holy shit. Look what I've been missing. And sold all of his arcades into pinball. So, a lot of these gamer types from different genres of gaming, if they find pinball, it's very interesting. That's all. All right. We're talking about new code over at Stern Pinball. Metallica V.95. They threw back those classic spinner sound effects. People were like, no, give us our... I guess they changed it, and people liked the original Metallica spinner sound. So they added those back. They also added a blackened wizard mode, a multi-ball wizard mode. They added a new self-destruct button by completing the five hardwired inserts when hardwired is already qualified and essentially just spots a shot for that hurry up. they've added a new mystery award animation to more faithfully match the original Metallica game. And then additional tweakage, bondage, and fixing. Oh, and after our last episode, I did go and check. My Jaws was on .90. Okay. I did. I kept turning it off before he finished downloading. But .98 is what it's at. Well, now it is because I made it update. But it didn't get the update. Oh, I see. When I would play it, it was taking so long to download. Sometimes my Wi-Fi doesn't like. to be cooperative. Mine was doing that this weekend on WIC. I couldn't get it. It's like, ah, my Wi-Fi's down. Okay, forget it. WIC, still playing on old code, sorry.
    51:27
    Last episode of the Pinball Show, we had some really good feedback on the exclusive content for those club members. We did the worst in 2024, the Pinball Show Awards. And I admit, Zach, I don't think I followed the assignments in the way that you were hoping because I kind of turned it into a roast. did a Roaster 2024, but people laughed it up. For those that were disappointed that it was not so much like the positive ones, but just much more like me going on in an extended rant about every game that came out, I apologize. He was at first a Dungeon Master, now he wants to be a Roast Master. Yeah.
    52:07
    I do like roasts. I do too. Most people can't take it. We almost did one year, we almost did, it was for the Pinball Awards. I think it was the second year of the Pinball Awards. We were going to do a roast and have I told this publicly? I don't think so. I even scripted it all out. I wrote an entire roast segment, a routine if you will. And just to be fair, I reached out to a couple manufacturers and said, hey, maybe you review this and i won't say who reviewed each manufacturer but the stern was okay with it and even i was like you sure because this one's important i don't want this uh and what manufacturer came back and was like i don't think this is in your best interest and then ultimately greg talked me out of it too because he was like why like what's like these are great but man just let's you know i i had actually that that's it's so funny that you bring that back up because uh there was one point where i had actually kind of loosely outlined a a roast routine for uh to do at a pinball convention oh yeah see i don't i never i never suggested it i was just like when i was to randomly be asked i've got one in my back pocket that was always always our goal of the third year doing the twippies when we did the second year live at tpf third year we wanted to do that and then we didn't end up hosting. But, man, that would have been fun. But back to the exclusive content. So we got the good feedback from that last. So thank you for all the new members. But this week, exclusively for the Pinball Show Club members, we have, I'm going to go through for those interested in sales and actual hearing what's successful, what's not. They're going to be very interested. Yeah. I'm going to go through the flipping out accounting, and I'm going to list in chronological order all of the games, at least most all of the games in 2024. And I'm going to let you know which sold the best all the way down in order from what sold the worst. And some of these, I know, Dennis, you will be surprised. Number four will surprise me. One, two, three. Nope. Number four will not surprise. Well, it did. Number four might not surprise me. Here's one thing. Out of all of the games, there's probably 30 different games that you can buy. Out of all of them, number four was not released in 2024, nor was it released in 2023.
    54:45
    It's an older product slash game than that, and still in 2024 sold in the fourth spot. So go check that out at patreon.com slash the pinball show sign up. You can do the minimum. Just sign up as an official club member. It's $10 a month. It helps us out here at the show. And you get access to our Discord channel. And then if you bump up to the Nordman level at $25, you get even more stuff where you're doing a happy hour hangout, which this month is the 22nd. So here in a couple weeks at 8 p.m. Central. So January 28th. But you can be part of the happy hour hangout. You can ask questions at the show. You can get a decal. And then the Screaming Goat Club members, oh, man, Dennis. They get their own nickname. We had a couple new ones. They get dedicated access with interactions with us, you know, confidentially. They get to hear some cool stuff there if they want to. They get their own paywall polo and much more.
    55:45
    So go sign up, patreon.com slash pinball show. And e-mails, after you listen to that, e-mails at the pinball show at gmail.com. Let us know, or you can pop it in the Discord. let's discuss what was most interesting to you. And keep in mind, each distributor is going to be different. So a great seller for me might not be a good seller for somebody and vice versa. But still, you know, I think this is an interesting lineup of sales numbers.
    56:13
    American Pinball, Dennis. More layoffs. Dun, dun, dun. Yeah, I read about this. Everyone did. J-Fist has exited the building.
    56:23
    Oh, man. Where are we going to get our content? Is it too soon? I'm sorry. I mean, who didn't? Who could have seen this coming? I still feel bad. I don't want to predict it for three years, but it finally happened. It does suck. So for all of those affected, I'm sorry to hear that. This sucks. But it doesn't mean that American Pinball is done. It doesn't mean they're over. Dave Fix did email all dealers. Dave Fix was the vice president of the company, I think. I don't remember his exact title. I think it was a VP, but it had some other words inside it. Yeah, general manager, something like that. But he emailed dealers and said, look, 2025 should be very exciting for American Pinball. Game 7 is poised for release. This is the best game ever designed and produced by American Pinball. Been one of his greatest privileges. Personal highlight of his to collaborate with the licensor and all this stuff. They put their heart and soul into this project. And with a touch of sadness, I'm announcing that after the past exciting four years, ownership and I have decided not to renew contract continuation.
    57:30
    Oh, boy. So they're restructuring. We've heard that before. Yeah, but most of the staff's gone, right? I think most everybody's gone. Had already talked about, like, Ryan's gone, right, and Steve's gone. I think so. So, and in that interview, if we think back, so do the Wayne's World, and we think back, the code and the rules and where they were is what Dave said was why the game wasn't out yet. So them trying to bring on assembly line workers, because we've seen the ads. Yeah, now hiring. To build the game, but the rules aren't very far along. Who's going to buy it? Because who's going to finish it? They don't have their rules, Scoobers. Steve's gone. And they don't. And, and I've seen this, I can't take credit for this because I'm thinking it up, but I've seen the discussions on Pinside. The question is, without the designer of the game there to show these new workers how to build it, how confident are we? Like, are the instructions already there? Are they going to know how to install the wiring harness and, you know, everything else and how to tweak it so that the ramps work right? and everything that comes into taking these workers that typically get trained by people on how to build a specific game and the person who knows how to do it doesn work there anymore Or are they bringing them all back I mean did Dennis Norman really do that I don know I don know I mean, I've heard from, like, Eric Menier has mentioned going and working with the line workers and helping out and stuff. And Keith Elwin and others. I was just trying to point out that they do that. They engage with the line teams. Maybe they'll hire him back on temporarily. I don't know. Maybe. But, again, then if they're, like, going to bring, like, Ryan and Steve and them back, for example, why were they let go in the first place?
    59:21
    None of it I understand. I do know. I get why they waited until at this point for Dave because they clearly have made the decision, let's just run the contract out and then not re-up. Mm-hmm. Because he – I got into it on one of the discords. I got into a discussion with someone who was asking about this. So – because they're like, well, Dave was a contractor? Like, no, no, no, no. You know, every employee technically has an employee contract. High ups often get a custom one, but sometimes they have a time period. I used to work for an executive director who had an annual contract. So every year they could choose not. Yeah, it was surprisingly short.
    59:58
    But, you know, he had his golden parachute provisions in that, and he got certain perks that didn't extend to regular employees, and that was all baked into his employment contract. But every year it got reviewed and re-upped. Wow. And that's how they did it. And they didn't announce anyone new. No, and that's why I don't have high confidence right now, because typically this had been a known, like in theory, the owners should have known that they weren't going to renew Dave for months at this point. And so where's the new guy? I don't know. I know that there's an individual named Ron over there. He's, I guess, elevated from just sales position to a, I guess, like a lead sales marketing director. thing. Okay. I know that there's him. There's probably a couple people putting the games together. Besides that, I don't know who's... Who's the lady from... the engineer from Bally Williams? I think she's gone. Zofia, right? She's gone. Gone? Yeah. I don't know. But here's the other interesting thing. So we don't know. Only time will tell.
    61:00
    There was an email to dealers that talked about the upcoming run of a new model of GTF. GTF! Really? WTF? Maybe that's what they're gearing up for. It's not Cuphead. It's for GTF, which in theory, they probably do have all of the instructions on how to build. They're making a GTF Classic, I think, which is like, I think, cheaper, $1,000 cheaper than the Deluxe or something. I don't know. They do plan on... This is in their dealer letter. GTF has multiple code updates coming with some being small bug fixes, some new modes, and even the addition of score bit. So they're still trying to push ahead. But a GTF Classic? This feels very Ripley edition to me. I hope most distributors aren't sitting on the older models because who's going to pick it? Who's going to pick it? I've got one left. You had one of the old Aliens as well, and it took forever to sell. It took a long time. You remember the lost? I've got one queen left. Please. I wonder if that was our number four in the exclusive content. It was not. All right. Just jacked them all in the news because Avatar the Battle for Pandora, the CE games are on the line, and they're starting to ship domestically this month. They're coming. And speaking of what's shipping this month, CGC, we talked about that last episode of Pulp Fiction LEs, supposed to ship early this year, starting to ship domestically, and they have. We received a batch of them. I opened up one of them. Oh, man, what a game. It's just, damn it, CGC.
    62:43
    But that's just a small portion. They're going to keep running them from month upon month. I think they did round out 300 already of the 1,000. So that's pretty good, 30% maybe of what, yeah, so all right. Barrels of Fun, they rolled out the barrel with a 2024 retrospective on their social media. They talked about just some of the accomplishments they've made since they've started this company. They've built over 750 Labyrinth Games and even more in the last weeks of the year. They've shipped their first 100 games by February 21, 2024. They shipped 270 games by June 14 of the year, 400 games by August, 500 games by September. And then on their first year anniversary, they had shipped 559 games. And I got to say, to me, that is very impressive. They've grown from a team of just two people a couple years ago to over 25 employees, not including the contractors they have. They're currently planning three to five years ahead in facilities and intellectual properties with a vision that extends into the next decade. The planning process is dynamic, and it hopefully allows them to remain agile in the short term while staying aligned with long-term goals. And in 10 years, their 10-year plan, they envision their company to be synonymous with creating interactive worlds under glass known for unique features and iconic themes. They aim to lead the industry in innovation while fostering a strong community and maintaining an unwavering commitment to quality, creativity, and excellence. They don't want to be the biggest dentist. They just want to do the best damn job that can be done for their customers. Well, I'll be interested to see what they bring to the innovation table on their next game. I know, right? I do like the talk here. I like the speech. But it is interesting that they say, we don't want to be the biggest, but we want to provide the biggest. Like, we want to be the best. Yeah, we don't want to be the biggest. We want to be the best.
    64:49
    Hmm. Okay. Well, bring it, barrels. Let's see it. Bring it. Okay. Now is the time that people have been waiting for. Last episode on 167 of the Pinball Show, we did the Pinball Show Awards. And kind of a retrospective into the entirety of 2024. We reviewed month by month what happened in the world of pinball. Then we gave our awards for best and worst of what we've seen in 2024. And we teased that you and I are going to go over 2025 and give our predictions to this year. Yes, we were very teasing. Tickle, tickle. Stern Pinball. Let's start with them. What do we think is going to happen? What do we predict is going to happen? They're going to stay in business. We're going to see a spike three, right? Yes. Bigger, faster, stronger is what everybody says. And quieter.
    65:35
    And more quiet. I do think we're talking with that. We're talking about bigger. We're going to see a bigger LCD screen. If we're talking faster, we're going to see faster processing. We're going to feel it maybe. And then stronger, stronger flippers, right? I don't know if the flippers will be any stronger. Well, I don't know. I needed to find something for stronger. Stronger magnets. When do you think we see Spike 3? Do you think it will be the next rumored Elwin in the spring? What I would say is my prediction will be it will be Elwin's next game. Whenever that is, he will be the first Spike 3. I think it's the next Cornerstone. You don't want to use the Spike 3 as a selling point for maybe a less popular than Keith Elwin type of product? No.
    66:26
    Most people aren't going to care about the Spike system. Most buyers don't know about the Spike system. So we want to start a new operating system, and we want you to get everybody in line for it, and we know that that's going to be done with a Keith Owen. They have never, in my view, it's going to be whatever the new feature that it allows them, like if it's a bigger display or sharper graphics, that's going to be the thing. I don't even think there's going to be a marketing strategy. Let's emphasize Spike 3 to get people to buy a new game. I just don't think that's it. I don't remember doing it with spike two or spike one. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be a huge change. I really don't.
    67:01
    I think maybe a bigger display, an extended display, if you will. But besides that, I don't think we really get any change to the shaping or size of the machine. I think they want them all to still line up, and they've got their own style. I think they're going to stick with that.
    67:21
    I don't see anything. I don't think we're going to feel it as much as we do just the standard progression of gaming in general, if that makes sense. Yeah. I think this is going to feel more like the jump from White Star to Sam than it will feel from Spike 1 to Spike 2. Okay. Yeah.
    67:41
    I think we've heard a lot about what game's next from Keith Elwin. The big rumor's King Kong, and I don't see any reason to argue with it. Yeah, I don't either. I do. I'm going to say this, though. I predict that we're going to have Rick Nagel back on lead programming. I think Elizabeth Gieske did a lot of the Jaws stuff. Yes. I know that she's on D&D now. I don't think she splits her time. So I think we're going to see a full-blown Rick Nagel back. We had him in Jaws. Don't get me wrong. But I think we've got him back. Yeah, in the buoy. Yes, in the strongest form here on King Kong.
    68:19
    What other predictions? And I really think they'll do a remastered. Yes, but I think it'll be in the fall, much like Metallica. I think that's when we can start expecting it. And, in fact, I think historically that's kind of when a lot of the vaults dropped. And they may, if they do have Ghostbusters. Yeah, I think it's Ghostbusters. That's been the tease.
    68:39
    It's a smart one to do. I saw, that's where I, NAP, full credit. Yes. The NAP article, he had somebody, he said anonymous, which was interesting. see something in one of their thing like stern's reels or their shorts of what was on the line or what all they've built in 2024 and everything was made sense for 2024 except for one thing and it was a slimer mech now we have not seen that for years so why would they have a batch a Slimer, Max. So, NAP reporting, he thinks we may see a Ghostbusters. And, I mean, that definitely makes sense. It does. I know that a couple years ago, they were asking dealers what we thought about if that would make sense.
    69:31
    So, that feels... And, man, it could not hit at a better time. That will be a fantastic seller, just like Metallica. Man, it'll be huge, especially if they do the LCD. Holy shit.
    69:44
    If they do do that, I could see them, if they have everything ready for like a Ghostbusters, I could see them launching that kind of like they did after Uncanny, if they find a game that isn't as successful. Because when they did that with Metallica, it felt like they kind of took a little bit away from Uncanny. But since Uncanny was pushed up so much and it needs some breathing room for code, But in retrospect, it does make sense to take some weight off of that product. But I see them utilizing this remastered in a sense as well. So they may shift around when we see a remastered. But, yeah, that'd be the guess that I have. Do you think we'll see a price increase in 2025? When the Spike 3 launches, yes. I do, too. And we're on the same page here. I still... My thought is for the Cornerstones, it's going to be Elwynn and then it's going to be Borg.
    70:43
    There's a rumor that he was working on Indiana Jones and that got scrapped. Yeah, but I don't think it just got scrapped, so he's had time. If there was a Pokemon, I don't think Borg would do it. That feels like a Jack Danger game. It does, but I'm not expecting Pokemon this year. I don't know what else we might see. Borg, they like giving music. We haven't had a music pin in a while, have we? Not since Foo Fighters, I believe. Foo Fighters, yeah.
    71:08
    Not Kenny Metallica, of course. Maybe we do get, like, a Journey by Borg. That would probably do very, very well. Does he like Journey?
    71:18
    Borg's an 80s guy. Borg likes anything. He'll karaoke anything. This is crazy, Tom. Silver chair. All right, so maybe those are some predictions and things to come. Jersey Jack pinball. There's a social media picture. Oh, my gosh. Right before the end of the year. And then one is the last time. They chose to repost it. It was a caption of founder Jack Ranieri standing in front of licensing examples of Willy Wonka, The Wizard of Oz, and Harry Potter. They shared it and said at the end of the year, they said, quote, sometimes all of your dreams do come true, end of quote. Was that the same quote that was done right before they dropped Godfather? but had that same photo because I think that photo is what preceded Godfather. My boy. What have they done to my Potter?
    72:10
    My Weasley. I'm going to make you a wizard you can't refuse. Yeah, this is, I don't think it's such a bold prediction to say that I think Harry Potter's coming. I mean, ever since Kamikau mentioned they got it, we've known. Remember, it's just like, fuck it. They got it. I didn't. The only thing that surprises me is that it has not been out yet, because they've had plenty of time.
    72:41
    Plenty of time. Who knows? They've had some really questionable licenses. Avatar made more sense of the license, but Godfather was a weird pick. I still think Harry Potter can be a botched product. No.
    72:56
    There are scenarios. No. There are scenarios. I mean, it won't matter. This is going to be Jersey Jack's best seller since Guns N' Roses. I'm saying that I could see a certain scenario that it turns out like a toy story where people are like, no, no way. But I will say it would be pretty damn hard not to have great sales. You'd have to botch it so bad. and I think they'll be okay. There will be, no matter how botched it is, sales from people that cannot stop themselves from buying Harry Potter. That's me. That's exactly who you're talking about. And I tip my hat to you, Zach, for being willing on this podcast to admit such fundamental weakness. Oh, absolutely. I want to be weak wizard all day long. That's why I'm doing this hobby. I want Harry Potter pinball. Here's the thing. I think Jersey Jack knows that people are that weak, and thus, I don't think they're trying to make a bad game. I'm just saying they know that there will be a certain base amount of sales that are guaranteed. Here is the prediction that I want to ask you about it. Okay. Let's assume it comes out this year, which I think we both agree we think it's coming out this year. I would guess, yeah, March or so. I am going to guess that there is a price increase with it because of the weakness that they know people will be unable to do it. I want to know what you think about that because here's the scenario I want to paint. I do not think it will be this extreme. But what if the 12 and 15,000 models are changed to 15 and 20? Oh, my.
    74:36
    I think the only way you see something like that is if they bring back a standard edition. because they're not going to jump to only a two-model system and tend to go up that high. What if it's a one-off and they just do it for Harry Potter and say, you know, because we're doing the movies, the licensing costs and all that, that's what was necessary? I don't think theme alone would do that. No, I don't care if it did. I'm just saying that that's what they say.
    75:05
    I don't see it. Okay. I don't see it, thankfully. But I'll say this, that of all the companies, they're the hardest to read because they make decisions sometimes that I'm – I have scabs on my head from scratching so much. I just don't – what? Huh? They're doing – so at any given time, I don't know what the hell they're thinking. But they always manage to figure it out. So I don't know. But I just, I would like to think that after they take a look back at recent sales with the games and products they've had, they know better than to increase the price.
    75:50
    They just, they know better, right? I would think so with any other game, but with Harry Potter. They know their man. And they want us, you know, I think post Guns N' Roses, I don't think anything has done what they wanted it to do sales wise. I don't think Avatar has. I think people came around on Elton John, but I still don't think it met what they thought it would. They could get away with making an even higher model, but I don't think they will. All right, let me ask you a different scenario. They should. What if they price increase, but only the collector's edition? So it's 12 and 20.
    76:26
    Oh, man. I think that they would add. You know you're getting the 20. I just, if they keep it at their 1,000 CE, I still see, before doing that, I still see them saying, we're going to do an ultimate edition with 100 units at 25 or 20. I see that more than I see them touching their current. And if they do a price increase, as you were talking about, I'm not ruling that out, but if they did that, I would see them saying, but we're also going to have a standard edition for 10,000. I don't think they're doing a standard. They might want to get, look what they're doing. Hold up. Look what they're doing with Pinball XP. They want to get games into whatever reason. That's not even their idea, I don't think. But, and that might just be to move games. But, you know. No, I don't. I just think they're done with it. My final prediction for Jersey Jack is that Harry Potter is the only game this year. They don't need two. They just do one under the plans that they're going to be building it the whole time. Yeah, because look how long it's taken them to build Avatar, to be fair. I know, I know, but. Geez, I don't know why they're taking so long. But I also predict that this is going to be an Eric Menier game. And as I've been saying for the last year plus, I think it's going to be based off the actual films of Harry Potter. That's what I've been hearing. Not the illustrations.
    77:45
    And I agree. It'll be Eric. I just couldn't imagine them giving it to anyone else. I wish you wouldn't have said that because now I'm worried.
    77:53
    I felt so good whenever you were against that. Well, the reason why I'm like, let Mark Seiden do it. But Mark just had his game. It better not be just the novels. Jesus. What? No. All my spies tell me that it's the movies. You know what I find interesting? I'm not sure they're going to have as many character likenesses as we've come to expect from Jersey Jack. I find it interesting they did a little switcheroo on coders in the teens where Avatar we've seen Keith Johnson. I don't know if we... Well, ultimately, Keith Johnson is going to be in every game because he's the one that leads. He's the veteran software programmer's thing. So we'll see him. I think this will be more a Joe Katz thing, which is welcomed for me because I like Joe Katz stuff. I don't know if there's going to be enough multiball then, but okay. We'll see. You know what I have to say about all this?
    78:45
    People should get on to flip it. This is a dirty old plug, and I'm fine with saying it because I've got to make a living.
    78:53
    Now is when you need to. Come on. If you haven't got on the list, the interested list of flipping out pinball for a rumored Harry Potter, King Kong? Come on! Pokemon?
    79:04
    Get yourself a spot, dog. Coin Taker has spots. No, she doesn't! I've asked her. She said she's all out. She's fresh out.
    79:15
    All the hell out. No, I'm sure she does. But, you know. Eh, you know. Get yourself a spot, dog. I like that. Spooky pinball.
    79:25
    Just build an evil bed. Yeah, so they're not going to... Yeah. We'll still probably see something at the end of the year. They try to get everything out. So November comes along?
    79:36
    I don't know. A lot of people saying Goonies. They've been, you know, the rumor is they've got some killer licenses coming out. I don't think it's Goonies. Oh. People saying Beetlejuice? I think it's Beetlejuice. You think it's Beetlejuice? I do. I'm okay with that. Let's do that. Spooky, you're listening. If you've got Beetlejuice, let's make that happen Oh my god Are you a Beetlejuice fan?
    80:06
    Yeah, I mean, I like the first movie I haven't seen the second movie But I think that's part of the reason why It's fresh on everyone's mind Because it did get a second movie Yeah, I watched the first one a number of times Do you think they'll do a horror theme maybe? Is Beetlejuice enough spooky? I guess that's kind of Yes, it's completely, perfectly enough spooky That's perfectly spooky. Goonies is not spooky at all. No, I mean, here's one-eyed Willie. So you're trying to, you know, pirates and stuff. But now everyone's going to say, why don't you just do skeleton crew instead? It's like a good Goonies. Sloth's kind of spooky.
    80:41
    I was honestly always scared of the maw more. My baby. That's how sloth looks. Maw, I'm bad. I think because I had seen Throw Mama from the Train, I mean, that's always what I thought of with that actress. I was really scared of her. She seemed like she smoked a lot of cigs. My apologies if she didn't. Well, actually, no. I think she had an illness that had affected her looks. She didn't have a lazy eye, though. Just that we're talking about rumors of Beetlejuice or Goonies, if either one of those, then, yeah, sign me up. Barrels of Fun Pinball, we talked about them. I think we'll see a release in, I don't know, March. I think, look, here's what I was saying, too. I think we're coming up to another one of those everything compounded into a release for all these manufacturers again in the spring like we've seen a couple years ago where everybody was ready to announce a product we're going to see that logjam again and it makes me so happy it's exciting, exciting times and I think people will be more conscientious of it and they'll try to spread a little bit but I still think these manufacturers are going to try to beat everybody to the punch. We're going to see some February marches, maybe April to stretch it, but they don't want to stretch it too far. I think we're going to see another big year. I think you're right, but I think it's going to be a bloodbath. I mean, we saw some games in 2023 because there was that really crowded first three months of the year. That's what I think it's going to be again. And you had winners, and then you had losers like Godfather and Galactic Tank Force and stuff. And people are still feeling it. And this, I think, is going to be a lower sale year than 2024. I totally disagree with you. I think it will be. I think 2025 is going to be ginormous.
    82:36
    Ginormous. And economic indicators do not give me confidence in that. Sales numbers don't give me the suggestion that it's slowing down any time. We'll see what tariffs do. Well, that'll be a big one. We will see. So, Barrels of Fun, I think March. Now, I saw a recent shout-out to Nap Arcade again. He found M.N. Pimble on Pinside, who he claims is pretty accurate with some of their predictions, saying Dune. Oh, really? Dune! I haven't heard any rumors on Barrels, so I didn't have any. Yeah, I had neither. I do. Dune. Dune would be smart. I was doing hopeful wishing on the recent Straight Down the Middle. You guys have to check that out. Predictions. and I was saying Superman just because George Gomez said that there was a manufacturer that's locked up some agreements with DC and if DC's going to come out with anything they'd probably either take a swing at Batman or Superman and Batman's been done a couple times so I felt like we were due for Superman and you know I haven't heard DC rumblings from anybody else so just you know again not even a rumor just wishful thinking, I thought, man, maybe Superman. But Dune? Do you think Dune does well? It could. Especially with their level of immersion that they demonstrated on Labyrinth. That's a good point. Again, it's a cult classic with the book, but it did have a very successful two-part movie series that came out. And, of course, we've got the whole Dune Prophecy show that's going on as well.
    84:12
    But, you know, I don't know if they end up getting the rights to do the modern Dune movie. I think they probably could. Is there enough nostalgia for the original movie? The David Lynch one? I think that's too... Yeah, that feels like regular trolling. There is a lot of nostalgia. It's like a cult classic. However, it deviates so much from the story. It's weird because I know Dune book fans who hate that movie because of what it did to the source material. Oh, okay. But the new movie was much more faithful to the source material. While still having a certain set of deviations, especially regarding Paul's relationship with the Fremen. If this is true, and our predictions and guesses on Spooky's next one, we could be seeing a lot of sandworms in 2025. That's true. And, you know, which one wins? Does the highly nostalgic Beetlejuice Sandworm win, or does Shai Hulud defend the Golden Throne and eat it? What a headline there. That would be if all the people leaving Spooky to form barrels of fun and both of them have, they're battling their worms. Here's what, if they do Dune, what I want is I want there to be a mode where the thumper is going on the display. Thump, thump, thump. You need to hit the switches when it's not thumping to convey that you're shooting without rhythm. And can the shaker do the thump? Sure. Oh, so cool. And if you shoot with rhythm, then the worm eats you. You lose. That's not cool. All right. I'm so stoked. And we haven't even got through all these yet. Okay. I'm excited. Chicago Gaming Company. We know what they're going to do. They're just going to do MMR. They're going to claim they're going to do MMR. And they're also going to claim that they're going to send out the kits for. Yeah, for Cactus. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't see an MMR come off that production line this year. Wouldn't surprise me at all. I don't think we'll see it. I just don't know. Sorry. We wouldn't, but it wouldn't surprise me. Nope. I just don't think so. I think they're still be struggling to make pulps. Pedretti Gaming, any predictions there? We did see a social media teaser graphic. I don't know if you saw this. I did not. It was a picture, and it said, the caption read, 2025 is going to be magic, dot, dot, dot. And the graphic. Harry Potter. They got Potter. The book version versus J.J.P.'s movie version. Man, how big of a blow would that be?
    86:40
    And they'd be like, damn it. Two different licensors. What the fuck? Mom, can we get Harry Potter? We have Harry Potter at home in the dreaded version.
    86:52
    The graphic showed, get this, the graphic showed fireworks coming from circus canyons. I feel like this is that, remember in the past we did the stuff on? You got circus canyons, the fireworks. Oh, yeah. And inside is just thick. ice sculptures, winos, germs.
    87:13
    Germs? German smirks. Of course. A teddy ruxpin wearing mascara, an old lady with kid and play hair, a magic carpet, eleven bizarre tents, an arcade machine, an arcade fortune teller, an evil carnival teddy bear prize, chasing a child, a distant ferris wheel, and an anthropomorphic hot dog holding some balloons.
    87:41
    And I'm not joking. That's what was in this picture from the early gaming. Yes. Oh, wow. Yeah. So people are saying. I have no guess.
    87:52
    Is that an original theme, then? Because none of that. When you had, like, the circus and the fortune teller, I started to think, oh, wow, the Tom Hanks classic big. I would buy that in a heartbeat. You did the top bit. It would sell. It really would. But when you said a hot dog holding balloons, I'm like, never mind. Get yourself a spot though Like made up thing So a lot of people when they heard it going to be magic they thought boom theater magic That it But then they were like well hold the phone here I see a magic carpet So then they were thinking maybe Tales of Arabian Nights. But then they see all the bizarre tents. And they thought Killer Clowns from Outer Space. We would have heard spooky crying about how they lost the license because they already saw it. So we didn't hear that. The Bizarre Tents, some people were saying, well, that's Circus Voltaire. Is that Tales also still with the tents? It could be Tales. Because there's the tents. The harem. Yeah, that's where the harem is. But I was thinking Circus Voltaire because you had all of those tents, the circus tents. So it could be that. And then all of J-Pop's games merged. Exactly. So it's a, I don't know what they're teasing. What are the fireworks?
    89:05
    I'm trying to think what game has the fireworks. Was that Circus Voltaire? What do we need to think more along the lines of, like, Cyclone and Hurricane and stuff? Oh, Dennis, no. I mean, like, Ferris Wheels and Circus and Carnies and... I want to sell games, though. But then, yeah, the Teddy Bear Prize thing makes me think Carnival Cir... Well, that's Carnival. I don't know. So, I'm still... My guess, my prediction is Tales of Arabian Nights. What's the hot dog and the balloons? I don't know The hot dog has absolutely nothing to do with Tales of the Arabian Nights There are no hot dogs in the store I think they were just throwing different pictures just to see what Something tells me Tales of the Arabian Nights Well, there were fireworks on the back glass of Cyclone So something tells me Cyclone And another reason I'm thinking Totem is because Remember when Pedretti was They partnered up with somebody to do these 2.0 kits, right?
    90:04
    They did Funhouse as a kit I think they even did Whirlwind with Suey. I don't think it's Whirlwind. But they also did a kit, I believe, or they were going to, for Totem. Remember that? Mirko was going to sell it or something. I do not remember this. Yeah. So there was something there, and they kind of went nowhere because nobody bought it. So that tells me that if they were already sticking their foot into the genie's lamp, maybe we see more of that. Because there's nothing more magical than rubbing the lamp of a genie and being granted three wishes. Maybe one of those wishes was the anthropomorphic hot dog holding some balloons.
    90:42
    I mean, maybe, but I don't know. Comet, cyclone, and hurricane, they have these elements that you're talking about.
    90:52
    Fireworks, ants, creepy clowns. I just don't know which one might have a hot dog and balloons. Regardless, again, as a reminder, if we're talking rumored Beetlejuice or Goonies, Barrels of Fun to Dune, MMR, get yourself a spot, dog. We're flipping out pinball. Bye-bye-bye. Oh, my gosh. It's all going to be applied. It has to be. Man, I've got to get through 2025.
    91:18
    Pinball Brothers. What about them? ABBA 2? The return of Mamma Mia? All they do are ABBAs and maybe a new version of Alien. Shit, I know. It's going to be the cat version. What's that? Jinxy? What's that cat say? Jinx. Yeah, jinx.
    91:36
    Pinball Brothers, I've heard, I think I just want this to be true, so that's why I'm regurgitating it here. I think it was a Canadian pinball podcast that said something about Predator, and I was like, wait a minute. Nobody's going to get Predator. There's no way. That would be a big old license. Predator would be a good one for spooking. that would be a good one for spooky but do you think anybody touches predator with its history yes I do too most of this hobby doesn't even remember skitby I don't I can't predict that just because it just feels too big of a theme it does feel too big honestly pinball brothers I want to say they're going to pick something that they alone because they're European will think is big because it's big in Europe But they got Queen. That was a big license. Yeah, which is a European band. I know, but. It just happened to be big everywhere. And then they followed up with ABBA, which, yeah, is well-known in the United States, but was bigger in Europe. They tried to do an Austrian accent and a British accent together. Why not FIFA? No, we don't want that. They're going to take, like, 80% of the income. I don't know what Pinball Brothers is doing. American Pinball.
    92:51
    Cuphead. Do you think Cuphead comes out? That's a good prediction. No I think it will I'm predicting it does I think they're too far in I'm probably wrong because my fear is that it's going to come out but it's going to come out in an unfinished state and never be finished a last hurrah to sell parts I didn't predict anywhere there but with the talk about the GTF Classic now I'm thinking that's why I'm saying no to Cuphead but they will turn out the GTF Classics because they know how to build them I also predict that they may shift more to alternative goals. I mean, we already talked about Polycade, arcade manufacturing. Yeah, but I think they, I think they, I don't know. I'm going to go ahead and say by the end of this year, American Pinball as a name is not operating, period. Maybe Ametron rolls the Multicade stuff in under Ametron. They'd probably make the American Arcade or something.
    93:50
    I don't know. It feels shaky right now. Speaking of shaky, Dutch Pinball. Well, so for Dutch, are we talking Dutch Pinball or are we talking TVX? Alice's Advances in Wonderland. Do you think they'll build all of them this year?
    94:06
    No. I don't think they'll have all of them completed by the end of the year. I don't. Do you think they launch back to the future? I think it might be more of back to the drawing board. Really? I just don't know a company that can hold a license for that long without producing something. And that's why I'm going to say I do think they reveal a Back to the Future this year. I don't think they do, but I think it gets revealed. I don't, unless they get a partnership with somebody. I just, they know that they can't make that many games. Why don't you make them a pinball field for them? I don't, God, the game's going to be in purgatory for years. Turner Pinball. Do you think we'll get a new game reveal from them? I do, but I think it won't be licensed. I agree. I think they just need to build upon what they've started and start creating just a good operating system and just continue upon the quality of their builds. That way, maybe by game three or four, if they're still around, then they have a stronger, you know, stronger platform to be able to really do some damage with numbers and production. I have no clue. If they went ninja theme the first time around, what do you think they'd go the second time around? Well, now they do, I believe, have the licenses, like the themes, as part of their purchase of the Deep Root stuff. Okay, so maybe we see one of those? We could see them rely on one of those pieces, though. We might see, like, the John Norris 8-Ball Deluxe revival thing that was going on or something like that. What about if the Canary and the Coalmine return to the roots of Uconn? Possibly. He's free. He's available, to my knowledge. So maybe he wants to finish up there. What else did they have? I mean, Rey Mysterio? They're not going to do that. Food truck? Some of those were fairly far along. What, La Lucha? Or what, La Luchadora? There's that. I mentioned some of the Norris thing. The Gladiator with the Hydra. Rising Axel. Oh, no. Surely not. I need to sell some more shirts, though. They would do that. It would help me kind of spur a season. My son still wears that shirt.
    96:22
    Oh, man. Are we missing anybody in our predictions? A few. Pinball Adventures. Oh, okay. Pinball Adventures. I think we will see another game out of them in 25. Quote-unquote game. Yeah. How do you define game? Well, they had a few concepts that were in play and in development, but my understanding from – because, actually, I've had a few emails from the owner-operator of it. And they, you know – I forgot about that. So as to not get overwhelmed, they kept everything as been at their capacity. Like, they've been able to make it work because they build very small numbers, and it's a very small team. But there was a lot of risk of burnout and such, So I think that that's why we saw them being really quiet in 24. But I think in 25 they moved forward with one of their various consoles. I think they got like three that are kind of in various states of play. Really? Yeah. Wow. Okay. So I think we'll see something there. I also think we will hear about a new license from HomePen in 25. Oh, my gosh. I forget about all these people. Yeah, because it's been Blues Brothers. It's been Blues Brothers for like a year now. So it's time for something new. Don't know if they'll be ready to – I don't think it will necessarily be finalized and being shipped to buyers, but I think they'll have another game. Ruin another license. I think they'll have another license. Some people will be frustrated that they got, yes. I'm going to predict in 2025 I'm still not going to give a fuck. How about that? That's fine. Who else? But the world cares. I don't think they do. They kind of do. I've got Turner in here. What about any of the other European ones like Hexapinball, Space Hunt? We do not care about your mannequins. That is the number one, please have Joel stream this on the Flippin' Out Channel game that you refuse to let him stream. Hexa Pimble. I don't speak French. I'll find a translator. How do we get a game? I don't know. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't great either. We got to say thank you to people. Thank you for a good 2025 upcoming, Rodney. You're one of our Screaming Goat Club members.
    98:26
    You're a bobcat. And we very much appreciate all of the support this year. Oh, shoot that fucker! Thank you, Steve. The bumblebee.
    98:35
    Scream it, shout it, sting it. Thank you. Rob, thank you. Kidding. He's a little kitty. He's a kitty kitty.
    98:44
    Frank, thank you, Frank. I went to a... I don't know why I was thinking this. I guess animals. I went to a rodeo.
    98:53
    And... Have you ever been to a rodeo? Yes. Man. That's a violent thing. It is very. So cool. There's something wrong with humans. We like America's Funniest Home Videos because people get hurt.
    99:09
    And subconsciously, we kind of want people to get hurt in rodeos. I don't know why. There's something wrong with us. It's like watching the car crash in NASCAR. We're like primates. What are we throwing shit next? What are we devolving into? It's like, step on it. No, don't. Not in front of the kids. I don't know what's wrong with this. And how violent the bulls, like, how do they get them to buck around the rope? The rope on their back end, right? Yeah. Their hindquarters. I'd be bucking around, too. Have you seen how violently their testicles flail around? I'd be swollen for a week, Dennis.
    99:48
    You all are rolling your eyes right now. I'm just telling you. Look how violently they're swinging around. You tell me you wouldn't feel that. All right, back to Falcon. Do falcons have testicles?
    100:03
    They're not mammals. Oh, do only mammals have testicles? Is that how that works? You know what? You're teaching me something. Is that true? I have no clue. Oh, my God. I just thought every male thing had testicles.
    100:17
    Oh, my God. Do eagles have testicles? I'm going to Google that shit, and I'm never going to return from that Alice's wormhole. Oh, wow. Actually, no. Birds do as well. Yes! They're, no, they're called gonads. Well, that's the same thing. Are they internalized like ovaries or something? Yes, they're deep in the abdominal cavity. They never drop. Poor falcons. You can only see them after you remove their other organs.
    100:49
    However, only mammals have a scrotum. So maybe that's a better way to describe it. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm thinking external scrotum. Yeah, birds. Fish have gonads. What? I also have gonads, too, yeah. Fish? I couldn't imagine a fish with, like, a dong.
    101:08
    I do have fish now. Did I tell you that? No. My son, we got him set up with a goldfish thing, fancy, like, goldfish, like, orandas. And, yeah, they're cool. But he doesn't have a weenus, but he did jizz everywhere. This is not, I guess this is scientific, ejaculate. But so we got the new female fish, and that was like a week after we got the male fish. And the female fish, because of the stress and transport, because they come from like Thailand or something, they're special fish.
    101:42
    And because of the trip, they, when we, this is all legal, people. This isn't like illegal Thailand. Why can't you just get like normal goldfish? Why do they have to be weird? I think they were bred in like North Carolina or something, so it's all legit. But when we dropped her in after acclimating her, some of the fish heads out there, they know what I'm talking about. She released a lot of eggs everywhere because of the stress. A hundred just eggs everywhere. And once they touch something, they stick. And then he gets all excited and he tries to fertilize these eggs. But I felt really sad for him because I'm like, they don't get to have sex.
    102:17
    Like, there's no pleasure there. It's just, he just juices on them and hopes that something happens. But talk about dirty water. Water changes for a whole week there. See? I'm like a scientist, Dennis, in my hobbies. Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Dave, for not being an animal.
    102:38
    Shake your head. Okay. And thank you, Joe, for being the fox over here. I know foxes get nuts. Charlie, you know what? When this episode started, the listener, I was like, what are we going to, what's the shtick going to be for the Screaming Goat Club members? I would have never thought we were going to do this, but hell, who cares? We've given up at this point. But we are a podcast, so that's good.
    103:05
    The Fox, Charlie, thank you for ringing my bells. William, the dude, the dude abides, and he gets himself a spotted dog.
    103:20
    Fucking Santana. That creep can roll, man. Yeah, but he's a pervert, dude. I paid six months of Chino for exposing himself to an eight-year-old.
    103:32
    Josh. Please tell me a rooster has balls. Because he's got a couple of scropes. He's got scropes everywhere. He's got a head full of scropes.
    103:41
    I want my scrope to be bright red like that. It's one poison ivy experience away. cold be like, she'd be like, sweetie, you've got to go get that checked out. Like an ingrown hair or something that is taking a really bad turn. Josh, I just can't get over the dangler. But thank you for being here.
    104:02
    I'm going to rock out with my cock out. And John. Oh, man. Speaking of scrotes, you've got to have a big sack to smell the way he does. There's something about an aqua-belly man. Dennis, the musk is overwhelming. The musk. It's overwhelming.
    104:23
    It doesn't even smell like woods or anything. I don't even know where that smell comes from. Like a combination of pine and wet dog.
    104:33
    Happy birthday. Oh, how sweet. That's very, very nice of you. Aqua Velva? You shouldn't have. I'm going to actually sneak. I'm going to go. Can you buy Aqua Velva at Walmart? I can only be obtained through Thailand. Yeah, trades. You have to find a dealer. I wonder if Aqua Velva, if they still sell it, I want to buy some and then wear it and just see what Nicole says. Of course they still sell it. Do they? Yeah. At, like, stores? Or is it, like, an Amazon thing? Well, I mean, I assume so. I don't usually go and look at stores. You can order off Amazon, though. You can order. Even Musk. They still sell Musk. You can order humans off Amazon. That's the shit.
    105:32
    It's about $3 a bottle. Of course it is. For a three and a half ounce. It's a 91 cents a fluid ounce if you want to get Aqua Velva Musk from Amazon. I bet the cost ratio is pretty high, though, on getting lucky. Now, that's some of the more premium. Like Aqua Velva, the classic ice blue, you can get for like 71 cents an ounce. You have to pay an extra 20 cents an ounce if you want Musk. What about Tricolor?
    105:57
    Ooh, that black bottle. Hmm. Yep. The Pinball Show at gmail.com. Email us some of these. I need to know some of these smells. And you know what? You can ship them to us, too. And I will wear them proudly at the pinball shows. The next conventions, we're just going to smell like old-ass man.
    106:21
    Oh, that's greatness. Hop on Discord as an official club member, and let's talk about all of the stinky stinks of pinball.
    106:31
    I'm sorry. I let it as of an hour. I was like, because I see all this ice sport aqua velvet in the musk. And then one of them recommended it from Clubman. Lust Ray. Oh, Lust Ray. Lust Ray Blue Spice. Only one squirt, though. As a precautionary warning.
    106:52
    And a reminder, the next pinball show, Happy Hour Hangout Live, is January 22nd at 8 p.m. Central. And we can't end this show. We ended it last week without it. We need it this week. Timbo Market Trends. The Bobtown Techno War.
    107:10
    I like your style, dude. Do we need it? Musky edition. Musky testicle edition. Turning up this week is gonads.
    107:20
    The inverted tongue. Turning up this week is Dungeons and Dragons. That's the low-hanging stroke. LEs are selling wonderfully. Well, and they will sell out. I think we used to have two or three spots. Two or three spots, maybe. I don't know if overseas. Overseas will probably accept all of their allocations. But Dungeons & Dragons are selling very well. Keep in mind that dealers don't know what they're going to get in the pro run. So don't know if we're going to get any extra besides the location people. So get yourself a premium, SpotDog. And also training up this week is Metallica Remastered. You know why? No. Because they're, like, selling out everywhere. Nobody's got any of the premiums left. I mean, the LEs even are still holding strong. They're selling used more than MSRP, so that's a great sign. But the premiums backordered until March.
    108:13
    Man, even the premiums are going to retain value? What is going on? But unfortunately, trending down this week, Scooby-Doo. Uh-oh.
    108:23
    Yeah. Sadly, for whatever reason. It's probably that they're going to make 4,000 of them or something. It was a big run. It was a lot of games, dude.
    108:36
    That's been the number one trade-in over the last quarter. The Scooby-Doo's. We probably traded in at least six in the last quarter. They're down on the secondary market. This is for a CE, the top edition. Down in the 7,000s now. You can snag a like new one for $7,500. And that originally is like a Closer to $10,000 game So that is very much trending down But still a cool game Beautiful and one of the best themes ever To be created for pinball But numbers don't lie I'm just here to report the facts Also trending down this week You knew it was coming people And here it is at your doorstep Slime Ghostbusters trending down Stern pinball Look these things remember the last couple of years, even before pandemic, these things were topping off LEs at like $18,000. It was nuts. Now, the LEs are still high, though. So, they're probably trending down just as much as everything else is. But it's really the premiums and pros. Now that there's like this whisper of a possible remastered edition, you're seeing prices drop steadily. Pros? You can snag a nice Pro around $7,000. Never. Historically, for probably four plus years, have they been down to $7,000 for a used Pro. Premiums? Down in the $9,000. That thing hasn't been sub $10,000 since before the pandemic. So all of these games coming down now that there's just a little bitty of Ghostbusters with an LCD screen. You better sell that shit. Hurry up. You know it gets real when I've considered selling my alley. Should I do this?
    110:27
    Yeah. But if I do and then they don't come out, I'll just fine. Kick myself. No, you won't. I'll put a... We'll help you afford that $25,000, Harry Potter. I'll put a rope right around my waist and tighten it real tight.
    110:44
    Saving bucks saves two. The deal of the week. Buy, buy, buy! The deal of the week this week for flipping out pinball is American Pinball's Houdini Deluxe. Can't seem to get rid of that damn thing. Took it in on trade. Think I might lose some money on this one. That's okay. It's all right. So much so that I'm going to slash the price of that thing from like $5,500 all the way down to $5,199. Buy, buy, buy! This isn't the classic. This is deluxe. Loaded down. I think it's only got a couple hundred plays. I almost kept it because I still like Houdini. But I can't keep them all. $5,199. Bye, bye, bye. And get yourself a spot, dog. At Pinball Bounty, I still would like to have a con go.
    111:27
    I'm not, like, yearning for one, but, you know, wouldn't mind having one. But until then, as always. Oh, you know what else is on Pinball Bounty? I'm adding it now. I said it on the street on a little episode. I want home use only seconds. I didn't stutter, listener. Oh, no, no. If you've got an immaculate Sega game, reach out to your man, Zang. The Pinball Show at gmail.com. Yeah, I'm talking Space Jam. I got Space Jam. But yeah, I'm talking the X-Files. I'm really talking Independence Day. Y'all got a home use only Independence Day there? Apollo 13?
    112:03
    I'm salivating just thinking about it. Lost in Space. Yeah, I'm okay without that. Jurassic Park Lost World. Ooh. X-Files. I've done X-Files, but wouldn't find it. South Park? Ooh, wouldn't mind one of them. Most of those are going to be branded Stern, aren't they? I think those were Segas. I thought they were a split between the two. Kind of like Maverick. It's like both that and East, I think, mostly, and then also Sega. It could be. You know what? Give me a homies-only Star Wars trilogy. Yeah, that's fine. Talk shit about it all you want. But that and Independence Day, kind of top of my charts. What about Waterworld? Oh, wait, that's Scott Lee. That's Scott Lee. God, Lord. I'd take a Stargate. You give me a homies-only Stargate and a Nightmare on Elm Street? Shoot the Pyramid. That's fine. I'll shoot the Pyramid all day long. Maybe Lost in Space. I don't know. Twister? What about Batman Forever and the ramps that you can never get up? Or Baywatch? Oh, yeah. Baywatch, Polar 13. Goldeneye? Yeah, Goldeneye with a shoot-the-satellite-dish.
    113:13
    Vibra Night Driving? I don't want that. Yeah, well, you get the cool... Harley, I don't want that. Starship Troopers, you don't like that one, though. I don't like that one. You know what I want, Dennis?
    113:24
    Godzilla? No, a Batman Forever. I mentioned that one, but you can't ever get up the ramps on it. I don't care. I'll juice up them coils. Give me a Batman Forever. Like, I'm talking primo, baby. I want that thing. I want to lick that sugar. Come on. So, there you go. Pimple down. You want to get paid? Give me some saggers. And as always, I'm just here to report the facts To love on the Segas Because numbers don't lie, neither do I On Pinball Marketing Trends Dennis, where can people catch you? And email me at CollectedGamersPodcast at gmail.com Very wonderful, the Pinball Show at gmail.com Email us, follow us on Facebook And TikTok, Discord, all of that stuff Straight down the middle A video series I do on YouTube We just released 2024 Pinball Review The Best and the Worst Go check that out. And just dropped is 2025's Pinball Sneak Peek. Rumors, secrets, and predictions.
    114:22
    And we have a this or that coming up towards the end of the month. Can you believe it? I saw lots of submissions. Shout out to the sponsor of this show. Exclusively, it's Flippin' Out Pinball.
    114:44
    The product showcase this week is Dungeons & Dragons. A couple of LEs left. And those first run premiums. I still have some spots there as well. If you've got a location, I can still probably get you into the first run pros. Email me quick. Let's get that done. Metallica Remastered Premiums. Taking pre-orders on K&E X-Men. We've got all the models. John Wick. Godzilla. Jaws. Jurassic Park. Labyrinth, Pulp Fictions, Avatars, Elton John's, Edel Dead Pre-Order, Black Knight Sword of Rage, Pros, Beatles, Gold, James Bond, Strangers.
    115:23
    I've been listening to this listener. There's got to be one or five of them that you're like, ooh, I would like to have that. Let's make it happen. Remember, it doesn't matter who you bought from in the past. In 2025, you know, get flipping out pinball a chance. Let's switch it up a little bit and get yourself a what was I saying? Get yourself a spot dog. Thank you. Get yourself a spot dog. for all the interested lists. So dumb. Remember all the vaulted games, too? Elvira, Foo Fighters, Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Avengers. Once they're gone, they're gone, people. Buy, buy, buy! Oh, the trade-in program? Get yourself a trade-in. You trade a game in, I'll give you something new. Easy peasy, baby. Flippin' Out with Friends. Joe Engelbert did a live reaction discussion stream. Go check that out, as well as a first impressions video on Dungeons & Dragons. You can find that at the YouTube channel. Flippin' Out Pinball. This week, Joe's going to be streaming the Beatles. Yeah Which one would you be?
    116:19
    I don't know George You so are George Like this hippie in your own world Oh and a teaser everybody Right now patreon.com slash the pinball show Remember go sign up if you haven't already So you can have that exclusive content This week where we're going to be talking about The best sellers of 2024 all the way down And this isn't just The new games no no this is all the games that you can buy, I want to be talking about some ranking of what was the most popular in new and box sales, all the way down the line of what stunk up my inbox for it. So go listen to that now. All right, Dennis, teach these people something. Who knows what magic lurks in the hearts of men? The TM that knows. And always practice safe pinball and ditch yourself. That's not dog. Let's finish this. Took you a little extra time. Had to say bye to Dominic. My little dungeon master is leaving. He's going back to college.
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    He's not so little anymore, but... No. Man. And he'll always be small to you. I hate when he leaves. It's so depressing. Like the week afterwards, I'll be just down. You'll be devastated. You need to throw yourself in work. You got to bury those feelings. Bury them down. Or option number two. You really shouldn't feel bad. Why would you? There's no reason for you to feel. Don't feel. Yeah.