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DPP #98 "I don't hate American Pinball!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·38m 24s·analyzed·Jan 27, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Don defends American Pinball's games but critiques business model, support, and distribution execution.

Summary

Don Garrison clarifies he doesn't hate American Pinball but criticizes their business decisions, distribution issues, and customer service gaps. He praises Galactic Tank Force's gameplay complexity and playfield quality while detailing technical problems and poor field support. Don also discusses CGC's Cactus Canyon production updates, announces Princess Bride hints, and proposes a commercial/home P3 module licensing model.

Key Claims

  • Galactic Tank Force has been in 'release' for nearly a year but has poor geographic distribution and few units in circulation despite Chicago concentration

    high confidence · Don's direct observation of arcade locations and PinballMap searches across multiple states; GTF was part of March Madness of pinball last year

  • American Pinball's $16,000 Signature Edition lacks proprietary differentiation from $10,000-$11,000 Tank Tread edition beyond signatures, glow bands, and bundled merchandise now available separately for $100-150

    high confidence · Don itemized the Signature Edition contents and verified current merchandise pricing on American Pinball's website

  • American Pinball's goal was to produce 300 games by end of year, which Don considers low compared to Spooky's quarterly capacity

    high confidence · David Fix mentioned this goal in a recent interview (possibly Loser Kid podcast); Don cited Spooky's production capability as comparison

  • American Pinball is for sale, confirmed through multiple sources and Kale's announcement on social media

    high confidence · Cale's confirmation mentioned by Don; received social media verification; no official company response within 48 hours

  • CGC (Chicago Gaming Company) factory produced Cactus Canyon units ready for shipment with location games coming before Limited Editions (possibly June start)

    medium confidence · Don referenced factory video from Map Arcade showing cabinets and playfields; Joe at Pinball Star indicated location machines first, LE later around June

  • American Pinball uses the same vendor for playfield clear-coating as Spooky Pinball, contributing to playfield quality

    medium confidence · David Fix mentioned during Dutch Pinball Museum tour; clarified by 'quick call to bug' that both use same vendor for clear-coat finishing

  • Galactic Tank Force has recurring mechanical issues including air balls over flippers, ball routing problems, and sticky plungers across multiple units

    high confidence · Don's personal play experience at Interium and reports from multiple players; in-person observation of screen/audio failures

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm cheerleading for American Pinball. I want a successful American Pinball.”

    Don Garrison @ ~2:00 — Core thesis statement clarifying Don's actual position despite criticism

  • “I have a friend who has a GTF, and it's been broken out of the box since day one, and nobody's getting back to him. He can't reach anybody from AP.”

    Don Garrison @ ~7:00 — Documents customer service failure at American Pinball; frames larger company responsiveness problem

  • “300 games, you know, Spooky Pinball can do that in three months, right? Like a quarter of the year they could get through that many games.”

    Don Garrison @ ~15:00 — Production capacity concern; highlights American Pinball underperformance relative to established manufacturer

  • “You can't get the thermos any other way... for a hundred and change you could get everything that comes with the signature edition save for the signatures... to ask five to six thousand dollars extra... that just seems... kind of gross.”

    Don Garrison @ ~20:00 — Core criticism of LE pricing strategy; documents markdown of exclusive items

  • “I sent him an email and I've heard nothing back. Maybe he's a busy guy. Maybe I mistyped it.”

    Don Garrison @ ~27:00 — References David Fix's promise of personal accessibility but actual non-responsiveness

  • “American Pinball is for sale... no official word from American Pinball, up or down... Just like social media posts should be right there. Hey, guys, this rumor is going around.”

    Don Garrison @ ~30:00 — Criticizes company communication strategy during major business event

  • “I want a robustly functioning American Pinball as a foil to every other company... increasing competition and increasing their brain space to bring us really cool games.”

    Don Garrison @ ~45:00 — Frames American Pinball's importance to competitive pinball ecosystem

  • “The game's on, but the screen is completely dark. The audio is completely not functioning... playing silent film version of GTF.”

Entities

Don GarrisonpersonAmerican PinballcompanyGalactic Tank ForcegameDavid FixpersonSteve BowdenpersonChristopher FranchipersonCactus Canyongame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball reported for sale through social media with no official company statement within 48 hours despite confirmed rumors

    high · Kale's announcement of sale on social media; Don's direct observation of 48-hour silence from American Pinball

  • ?

    community_signal: Princess Bride pinball announcement via flyer distribution; possible P3 module causing concern among non-P3 owners about platform exclusivity

    medium · Promotional flyers distributed with Pinball Life orders; Don's concern about P3-exclusive release limiting accessibility

  • ?

    operational_signal: American Pinball lacks formal support infrastructure; requires customers to reach out to executives personally for assistance; some customers report radio silence

    high · David Fix's personal number/email model; Don's unanswered email to Fix; friend's 'broken out of box' GTF with no response; social media escalation required for resolution

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball positioned as talented but organizationally dysfunctional; gap between game design quality and business/support execution

    high · Don's repeated framing of contradiction between game quality and 'weird decisions'; examples of brilliant mechanics undercut by distribution, support, pricing failures

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Food Truck game designated as non-American Pinball project despite rumored production; ownership/development structure unclear

    low · Steve Bowden's on-stream response 'that's not our game, so we're not going to talk about it'; Barry attribution uncertain

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.115

0:00
I'm Don Garrison, this is the 98th Don's Pinball Podcast, and I'm happy to announce that I don't hate American pinball.
0:10
We're gonna get into that, but if you love pinball like I love pinball, why don't you go and talk to my friend Jeff over at MadPinball.com. Email Jeff at MadPinball and tell him you won a game. I think he's got some Gardens of the Galaxy pros left. Go ahead and get you one. That's where the Don shops, except for Jaws Premium because it was sold out. But everything else has been coming from Mad Pinball. Go get your hookup today, and we'll keep the bills paid. Thank you so much for sponsoring the show, Mad. Really appreciate it. Nice to have a partner in the industry. Thanks for getting me these games in very expensive boxes. Well, expensive games in relatively normal-sized refrigerators, size boxes. All right, so moving on. So I got some comments about some recentness in my Facebook thread. There's one dude. He's like, Don, why do you hate American Pinball? And to that I say, sir, I do not hate American Pinball. I'm cheerleading for American Pinball. I want a successful American Pinball. I see weird decisions. We see weird decisions. A lot of talent, a lot of good game builds.
1:13
Quality is a bit of a spin of the roulette based on what I've heard. But I respect the ingenuity of the games. I have games that I really like. In fact, I actually do like Galactic Tank Force. Who called it Galactic Tank Flop? Shame on you. Go wash your mouth out with cinnamon, sir. Cinnamon challenge for you, Galactic Tank Flop. Now, the game is not yet in wide release from what I can see, and that's because I travel around to arcades all over the place. I talk to people that still haven't been able to play the machine yet. Sure, when you're around Chicago, you pop in Interium, you're at a media mixer, there's five machines lined up. We seem to have an overabundance of these things, But then you go look around your local arcade. Where are they? You check the pinball map. Where do you find one? You know, major cities seem to have one here or there. You know, Ace Goge out in L.A. will have them. Lid in Minneapolis will have them. Interium's got some. Logan's Arcade doesn't have one. I cannot find one Galactic Tank Force within the state of Wisconsin, which is weird because I think local to me, I think it was developed somewhere like 20 miles from my house. But where's the game at? What's going on? This is a game that's been in-release for nearly a year now.

  • One of American Pinball's game designers stated on livestream that playfield air-ball issues couldn't have been known/tested before manufacturing

    medium confidence · Don cited designer's livestream statement; criticized as insufficient testing methodology

    • Don Garrison @ ~55:00 — Documents flagship game failure at American Pinball's showcase location (Interium)

    Chicago Gaming Company
    company
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Interiumvenue
    Houdinigame
    Princess Bridegame
    Multimorphiccompany
    Mad Pinballcompany
    Joeperson
    Kaleperson
    Pinball Starcompany
    Plotnickperson
    Barryperson
    Pinball Lifecompany
  • $

    market_signal: CGC Cactus Canyon location machines entering production with June estimated shipping; Limited Editions follow later

    medium · Map Arcade factory video showing stacked cabinets and playfields ready for assembly; Joe at Pinball Star's timeline hint

  • ?

    community_signal: David Fix presented as accessible/responsive in public statements but unresponsive to direct inquiry in practice

    medium · Fix's stated 'call me' promise in interviews; Don's unanswered email; pattern of social media escalation required for responses

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball's $16,000 Signature Edition perceived as excessive value extraction; bundled exclusive merchandise now available separately for 1-2% of premium price

    high · Don's detailed itemization and website verification; thermos/lunchbox/glasses now $20-30 each; total alternative cost ~$100-150 vs $5,000-6,000 premium

  • ?

    product_concern: Flagship game (GTF) inoperable at American Pinball's own showcase location (Interium); screen and audio failures on newest title raises reliability questions

    high · Don's direct experience at Interium seeing dark screen, no audio functionality despite operational lights and playfield

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Galactic Tank Force has extremely limited field distribution despite year of release; concentrated in Chicago, absent from many major markets and Wisconsin entirely

    high · Don's extensive arcade travel; PinballMap searches; lack of unboxing videos; Flippin' Out operator reporting unfulfilled orders

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: American Pinball's 300-unit annual goal significantly underperforms peer manufacturers; Spooky reportedly produces 300 units per quarter

    medium · David Fix's stated goal in recent interview; Don's comparative analysis of Spooky production rates; year-end failure to meet 300-unit target

  • ?

    product_concern: Recurring mechanical issues with Galactic Tank Force including air balls, ball routing failures, sticky plungers, and screen/audio failures across multiple units

    high · Don's personal gameplay at Interium; multiple player reports of similar issues; designer acknowledgment on livestream that issues weren't anticipated

    • 2:27
    It was part of the March Madness of pinball that we had last year. We finally got confirmation that this Christopher Franchi illustrated game from Steve Bowden and all the Fix crew threw together,
    2:40
    recorded all this great footage for, and then this game was supposedly released, but then where is it? And then all throughout the year there's been these weird decisions, including like and i've been harping on this before but the sixteen thousand dollar uh signature edition i do have some problems with so um it's not that i dislike american pinball it's that i'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the business model it's it's not settling right with me and i'm inquisitive by nature i'm just trying to kind of sort things out you know what's going on man because these games represent a major investment of money for the end consumer and we We have to buy these games on faith that they're going to operate for us reasonably well. And when issues do arise, which they do, these are mechanical machines, very complex, very complicated, are we going to have some backup when it comes to something, you know, outside of the ordinary? If you need to replace a coil, a flipper, some rubbers, you should know how to do that yourself, of course. You know, if a wire comes unsoldered, it's not a bad idea to have some soldering skill. But if a board blows up or something just catastrophically is wrong or messed up from the factory to the point that it's not up to the end consumer to fix, are you going to be able to get that? And that's kind of the stuff that I hear back from people. I have a friend who has a GTF, and it's been broken out of the box since day one, and nobody's getting back to him. He can't reach anybody from AP. I've heard this from multiple places. I've heard other people tell me that they had to post social media before an executive from the company would then reach out and talk to them. And it's like, you know, I'm glad they did that. When I hear David Fix, the figurehead of the company, when he does do interviews, you know, he talks about like, hey, you know, if there's a problem, you know, people can call me my personal number. You know, look up my email address. Email me. I'll get right back to you. And that's good. I'm glad there's a pipeline to the top there. But I don't think it should be necessary for that. I think there should be a service department. You know, somebody, they're fielding emails, you know. They might not answer your phone right away, but if you email within, you know, a few business days, you get a reply back, you know, a ticket number. So you're somewhere in a queue. So when you call back again, you can reference, hey, I'm number 68429.
    4:56
    You know, my board is still smoking. What should I do? You know, what type of fire extinguisher should I use on it or whatever it is, you know. So little things like that just kind of undermine and undercut the brilliance that is in Galactic Tank Force. Let's stick with that for a moment. So GTF, and I was saying this earlier last year when I first started playing it, at Helicon, at the conferences and expos and things. You walk up to the game and, like, here is a game that's got everything that I like about pinball. I like to look at a pinball machine. I like ramps and rails, whether it's a train, a monorail, a roller coaster, a log flume, whatever. Pinball machine, I'm into it. Vehicles on tracks, I'm down with that. I like mechanisms. I like meat grinders. I like giant heads that eat balls. I like kickouts on Venom. I like pretty much everything in Tales of the Arabian Nights. When I see a machine that's got some complexity to it, my mind starts going and I'm thinking, what do I have to do to get the ball to that area? How do I get to this upper play field? How do I take advantage of this mechanism? How do I grind balls in this meat grinder? You know, whatever it is. That's fun for me. And so walking up to Galactic Tank Force, you're hit with the music. It's thumping. It's got a good sound system. Halfway decent, I would say. It's got great light show. They came up with what I think is a much better version of a Penn Stadium type light system. Now, the audio or the visual folks may look at the LEDs and say, well, these are inferior quality. These won't last as long. The Penn Stadium is the gold standard, blah, blah, blah. I get that. For me, though, and consumer, a noob when it comes to LED lighting, it looks cool, and it's mounted to the actual gameplay field and not to the sidewalls. You can lift that play field up, put it down. You don't have to remove the lights on and off. The magnet backing, sticky, isn't removing your art blades, all of that. So I dig that. I dig the lights. I dig the sound. Layout-wise, we've got metal ramps all over the place. We have multiple vertical up-kickers that also tee in there. There's a diverter. There's a ball storage system in the back There's two main ramps and a couple of Vucks that also get you up there And there's two magnets In the game, there's a pop bumper Nest, there's a fully 3D printed Vehicle there, that tank that you Can hit, there's stand up targets that could have Been drop targets, it would have been fun if it was Like pin bot where they drop down to the play field and you can Shoot through, but it's got The complexity there, it's got some absurdity There's a UFO target that goes back and forth like a shooting gallery with a stand-up target on it uh with a cow and a noose hanging there for reasons unknown um that's all cool man you know there's scenes that play out on the back screen there they're cringy you know plot nick takes a little bit to warm up and get used to but there's a lot put into that game uh to the point that you know yeah like this is a game like i should it should be a no-brainer walk up to it big space tank great lights. I love how they do the play fields. David Fix was even talking about that during that tour they had at Expo with the Dutch Pinball guys were there. Not from Dutch Pinball but the Dutch Pinball Museum. They have a great they videotaped the whole tour. I watched it on YouTube. It's awesome. Dave, they're talking about the play fields and stuff. How he off gases them and everything. He mentioned that he had his play fields done by the same guy that does Spooky Pinball's play fields. Which was a little confusing to me because I've been to Spooky's headquarters. I've seen their printer. They print their own playfields on site. So, quick call to bug. He cleared it up for me. So, it turns out they use the same vendor for clear coding. So, I guess what Spooky does is they're printing their playfields then they send them out for the clear coding, heat pressing, whatever kind of polishing and finishing that gets done. Insert pressing or whatever. It all sounded very proprietary to me. My brain couldn't handle it all.
    8:44
    But I think that's why, you know, these playfields seem to do, you know, fairly well because they use the same guy that Spooky using spooky play fields, it would be fantastic. Where's the ghosting? Where's the puddling? Where's the whatever? We don't have any problems with those. So this game should be a slam freaking dunk. But then there's these issues that cropped up with it. I've played Galactic Tank Forces where the balls, no matter how you hit them, were flying off the wire forms down across the plastics with Annoya on there or right down the drain, and then Annoya comes up on the screen chastising me for losing my balls and calling me a loser when it was her ramps that caused it. I was actually playing pretty good. Thank you very much, Sonya Blade. What the heck? You know, things like that. You know, the air balls that were flying over the flippers. You know one of the lead designers in a live stream talking about how you know there was no way that they could have known that was going to be a problem because they didn have a way to test that you know 100 times before it went into a box And it like that is absurd If it was a homebrew game you would have set up a little test rig you know to make sure that this wouldn be an issue If it was, you would have kind of mitigated it somehow, like with, say, drop targets instead of stand-up targets or whatever, whatever. But just all these little things, it's like they're standing in their own way. And, you know, this is a company that, I mean, they can make games. games do get made. They were a little bit cagey about the numbers. And then, you know, late into the year, we're like, okay, I'm noticing I'm not seeing a lot of unboxings. I'm noticing I'm not seeing a lot of these games on location. What in the heck is going on? And then, you know, Fix was on that interview just the last few months.
    10:16
    Was it Loser Kid? Where did he show up? But he had mentioned that his goal was to make 300 games by the end of the year. You know, like that was their goal. And I'm like, I said this on the last podcast, you know, 300 games, you know, Spooky Pinball can do that in three months, right? Like a quarter of the year they could get through that many games. Like, you're American pinball. You're in Chicago. You should be, you know, nothing gets spooky, but, you know, for the wherewithal on everything in the back catalog of games that you have and from what I've heard, you know, orders are out. Where are these games? Like, why are they churning out? Like, that just seemed weird to me that the whole year they still hadn't hit 300 games. And I don't think it was because of orders. You know, I've heard from Flippin' Out on the pinball show that, you know, there are orders in and he's like, where's my games? You know, he's got customers waiting for them. So it's little things like that that are frustrating to me because there is some greatness here in these games. When I look at GTF, I see a game like I should like, I should have that game down here and be playing it. But like it's decisions like that and it's decisions like the $16,000 Signature Edition. Now, the part I don't like about that is there wasn't really anything proprietarily different on the Signature Edition than the, what are they called, the Deluxe, you know, or the Limited Edition, the Tank Edition, whatever. You know, the Deluxe version is hovering around $8,000 to $9,000 range. The Tank Tread 1 was like $10,000 to $11,000. But then to ask $5,000 to $6,000 more for basically what is the $11,000 version, except it's got signatures on the apron, Titan Glow in the dark bands. They did a paint coat to the 3D printed molds. and also a laticular back glass and everything else, a banner, a poster that's not even framed, a pint glass that they say is refillable, the lunchbox with the exclusive thermos. Like you can't get the thermos any other way. And then you go to the website now and for $30 you can get the thermos with the lunchbox. You can get the refillable pint glass, the banners, the posters. They're all available for like $20 to $30 each. you know so for a hundred and change you could get everything that comes with the signature edition save for the signatures which what how does that really add value and so to ask five to six thousand dollars extra for what is amounting to you know a gift card to their merchandise shop and signatures and then titan bands which you can run out and do yourself that just seems it's just it's kind of gross you know like like to you know it's one thing you know you design this game you People criticize it. Well, where's your game? You go make a game. It's one thing to say that, but it's another thing when you're asking the public for $16,000, then you're opening the door wide open for criticism, and I think it's justified. And I just want to know what led to that decision. I had a question about some of the other game projects that were coming up, and TPF was coming, and David fixed himself forthright on saying, hey, just email me. Look me up. I communicate with the customers, and I sent him an email and I've heard nothing back. Maybe he's a busy guy. Maybe I mistyped it. I went on LinkedIn to try to verify that I had the right address and everything. It's just a series of strange, strange decisions. And then we had just heard through multiple sources, I've heard whispers, but it was confirmed coming out of Cale's mouth that American Pinball is for sale. And so this blew up, man. It was like it happened at the perfect time. I was going into work. I was working a night shift. I had a little bit of downtime, so it was just me and Facebook like, can you guys believe this? American Pinball is being sold. What's going on? We're now 48 hours or so later, and there's been no official word from American Pinball, up or down. So even if the company is for sale, if they're not ready to announce anything, just like social media posts should be right there. Hey, guys, this rumor is going around. Currently, we have long-term plans and no plans to sell at this time. but here, get yourself some footage of GTF or something.
    14:18
    Instead, one of the designers for their next game and Mr. Steve Bowden, they were on live streaming, which was cool, but they were live streaming a P3 game, which was a little strange. I would have thought they would have been live streaming maybe the Houdini's that they're building right now to build up some anticipation for them or something. So I jumped in on there hot off this rumor like, whoa, you guys are for sale? What's going on? you know are you liquidating the factory like is somebody buying this place you know american pinball i don't know that they really have anything proprietary to sell other than the license to print the games that they already have that seem to have hit a saturation point except for gtf and maybe some future builds but um you know if this company is just going to be like kind of liquidated can i show up and get a half build game and finish fix it myself you know finish it myself as a project like i'd like to get in on some of that i'd like to get in on one of those rotisseries that David Fix showed off during the expo tour. I'd like to go put on Plotnick's Fez. I don't know. They had a cool green screen there. I could totally use that. I'm trying to find this out. I'm mentioning, hey, what's up about the sale? Of course, Radio Silence there. I asked if Food Truck was coming up, and I think Steve said that, well, that's not our game, so we're not going to talk about it. Meaning, is that because it's Barry's game, or it's being done by a different team, or another company's building it? I don't know.
    15:35
    From what I understand, the next two The themes are unlicensed, and Barry's Food Truck was supposed to be the next one, and then Yukon Yeti after that. I don't know. But the whole thing is just weird. But I don't want to characterize it that I hate American pinball. I want a robustly functioning American pinball as a foil to every other company. So everybody's really increasing competition and increasing their brain space to bring us really cool games. I want to see Galactic Tank Force get to a final spot. So I was at Interium today, as one does. I found myself in Chicago again, so why not? And I decided after, you know, this last 48 hours, how it's been going, I want to get back on some GTF and just give it some more time now, you know, that I'm not in expo mode. You know, another new game hasn't just come out. You know, let's go play it. And still having the problem with, you know, the sticky plunger. I don't know if it just needs lubed or what's going on there. It just feels a little, like, not right in the hand. It's hard to get skill shots. It's not consistent. So I go up to play the game, and the game's on, but the screen is completely dark. The audio is completely not functioning. And so it's just like playing silent film version of GTF. All the lights are going, and the gameplay is there, and the code is there, but there's no call-outs. There's no score. So, you know, you shoot the ball into a VUC, and it just kind of sits there. And I know there's a scene playing out, but I have no indication of what's going on there. You know, I can't tell, you know, how many more hits the tank has to have or if I've beaten it or on the first tank or the last tank or whatever. and I was actually having a halfway decent game that should have been at least in the hundreds of millions of points but no way to really find that and I'm like, this is so American Pinball uses Interium because it's local to them it's accessible, a lot of people go through there they have their full lineup, every one of their games is there, so it's kind of like their little showcase, their little laboratory their own little plot mix lab where they can put games out and watch how they're holding up, change little things to them and see how they go, and to have their newest flagship game just there and not really working kind of sucks. You know, I've been there before where the game was just kind of like, you know, stuck in a mode where, you know, it wasn't registering the balls were draining, so the game was just going continuously. Or, you know, the game would start but, you know, just like wasn't kicking out a ball or something. Like just all these little things, like little opto issues maybe or, you know, but something like, you know, they should have a hotline or something. Hey, Steve, run up the street to Interior. go twist some screws on this that new code update that we released just for that location is having some bugs go check it out on the webcam or something it should be their showcase it was just disappointing to be there and have it just not 100% it just sucks because I could tell a lot of talented people were behind the construction of that game because of what's there looks good, what's there and works good, I feel like I'm ranting about American Pinball, I just wanted to clear that up I did go and play Houdini and Houdini is another game that's like super fun actually like it's a bit underrated uh plays a little bit like Alice Cooper because some of the the shots are a little bit tight but it's got some super cool things right like when I was a little youngster and I used to design roller coasters in my head I always had this concept for like um either a side friction or some kind of um a bobsled type coaster they could actually leave the track and then like land in a funnel and get back onto a track or something get airborne for a period of time like how could that safely happen and Houdini does it, man. He shoots the ball straight up to the back of the playfield into the trunk and then it shoots out into that funnel wire form. That's super cool and that was working and I like this game is pretty fun The LCD screen could be a little bit bigger Maybe the code could be expanded a little bit more and add a few more modes or something But you know what they have has good bones There's no way it shouldn't be successful except for just strange decisions that seem to come from whoever is there making these decisions.
    19:27
    I'll move on from that. So, AP, where are you at, guys? What's going on? Just give us an update, man. Who's running the social media out there? I'm talking to the Pinball Brothers all the time on the Facebook and stuff. You know, AP, jump out there.
    19:40
    Pulp Fiction is on the line. Did you guys see this from Map Arcade today? This is great. We got a video from CGC for the factory showing games. One game that was going into a box, but otherwise cabinets with stickers on them or the silk screens or whatever they're doing. That was great seeing those, just stacked cabinets ready for play fields to go into them. Other machines with play fields in them. I love it. They're going to start coming out with what frequency? Who knows? Did they take a year to get to this point? Maybe it's going to be another year to get another 30 games together. Who knows? Maybe. I don't know. But it's cool to see something going out. Thank you so much for putting a video out there that we can share around. So that's exciting. So I reached out to Joe at Pinball Star. That's who I got my deposit for my standard edition with. And he has heard that these will be the first location games to go out. These aren't the LEs. They're not the topper versions. and I think he was hinting something around June-ish or maybe I read that from someone else's post but I think he said the LEs would come later so later maybe this summer they might be kicking out the LEs are we going to get a rush of like 500 standard editions before then? he didn't tell me that I have a deposit coming in soon or a final balance due so I don't know that I'm getting it here imminently but that was encouraging to see that and I've been waiting for the day that we see the first pulps come out four locations and that seems to be coming soon and that will be the harbinger of like finally these games are actually in production. There wasn't a Cactus Canyon to be seen in the factory video. Maybe they were on the other side or behind the beaded curtain or something. But that was cool to see that. I do want to take a moment and try to bilk you guys for some more money. My lovely, amazing daughter, Emma, she's a friend of the show. She's been on here before. She is in Girl Scouts and she is a cadet now. And it is cookie season and we are taking pre-orders for cookies right now. this is how the troop the local troop here helps fund their activities for the rest of the year so if you want to get yourself some thin mints you want to get yourself some do-si-dos uh some toffee tandies some some lemon drops whatever the heck else they got um she's actually selling them on a website there's a website link i just put it up on the facebook page you can go there and click it and electronically order cookies and they'll be delivered to your house or maybe you don't want them for yourself but you want to help out you can also donate boxes directly from there and then what the girls do is they get these boxes together kind of at the end of their run and they go around to the EMS stations, the fire stations, the police stations, the first responders and heroes in town and they take these donated boxes and they leave them for them and their families. So if you don't want to have these things delivered to your house, that's fine. If you just want to buy some and have them delivered, the girls get the proceeds. They get to go do their events. They're doing their little slot car derby is coming up, their Pinewood Derby where the girls all made these little cars. I got to help Emma carve it out. She designed it. I got the woodworking equipment out. We made something really cool. That's going to go off tomorrow. But they go to the local zoos. They go to museums. They do a sleepover at the Mall of America where they get to go there and sleep in the Sea Life Aquarium. They bring their sleeping bags. It's the cutest damn thing I've ever seen. But the girls get to lay down there and sleep with the marine biologists and learn about all the fish and stuff. And the funding comes from events like this. So you don't have to feel obligated. But if you like some Thin Mints and you don't want to brave the cold weather to go out and get them out in front of the Walmart, you can order them from the link. It's digitalcookie.girlscouts.org backslash scout backslash Emma 711415. You know, just hit the rewind if you want that. Or just go to the Facebook page. There's a link there. I'll keep it up for a while. I'll put the link in the show notes for this episode. But, yeah, if you want to have a way to reach out and help, they're only five bucks a box, man, unless you want the gluten-free ones. Those are $6. You get an extra buck to get less gluten. That's how the world works now. But that would help her out. Shout out, Emma, for just an awesome cause. What else do we got? We got Princess Bride flyers are coming out. So the next little hint from this new machine, is it a machine? Is it a P3 module? Nothing's confirmed, but a lot of people have been saying it. So put stock in, whatever that means. People have been a little bit back and forth on the theme. If you haven't seen this movie, go see it so you can judge it. I love this movie. Watched it since I was a kid. it was a standard in our house and it was kind of like whenever Christmas Story comes on, at least for the first time it comes on in a while, you watch it Christmas Vacation when it comes on, you sit down and watch it Princess Bride, whenever it was on HBO Cinemax, whatever, we'd all sit down and watch it, right? Andre the Giant is in it Vizzini is in it Dabney Coleman is not in it you know, so go and watch this film, it's quite good I would love to see how this translates to pinball it's got kind of a almost like a Robin Hood Men in Tights vibe, maybe because Carrie Ewells was in both films.
    24:17
    But it's fun, it's adventure. Fred Savage was in it. The Grandfather was in it. I think he was a guy from Matlock or something, or some old show. Anyway, I'm rambling again. What is this, the Pinball Nerds podcast or something? Like, Orbital Albert out here. I'm so scattered. I haven't even had any gummies. I take that back. I had some Gushers. They were giving them out of samples at Costco. Look at me, man. I'm basically him. Jesus. So Princess Bride. But if you buy from Pinball Life, your order now includes a flyer for this game. It's got a silhouette. Nothing else has been revealed from the gameplay other than that photo that was shared out recently. So if this comes out with a P3 module, let down for me because I don't own a P3 and I don't have plans to get one anytime soon. If you've got a P3, though, man, this is amazing news for your new toy. And here's a little concept I was kicking around today in my drive back from Chicago.
    25:06
    So if you would remember, there was a fighting game that came out in arcades called Street Fighter 2, which then had a plethora of home versions.
    25:14
    So games would come out in the arcade, and it would be the commercial game that most people couldn't own, and if you did, you were fortunate. But you could go and play in the arcade, but you could also take that experience home. And it was like the Sega Genesis version or the Super Nintendo version or maybe like a Neo Geo version that came out if you want to get close to that arcade experience. So why don't we treat the P3 like that? Like P3 is the home console from Multimorphic that has modules of games that you can play in it. And the idea is you have, you know, one machine that you buy replaceable cartridges, in this case a third of the play field, that you can drop in and they have all the code and everything with it. Great. So why can't you have a commercially available one-off of the machine, say Weird Al and the Museum of Natural Hilarity, as just a standalone traditional pinball machine with inserts, throw a screen in there to replicate some of that interactivity that you get with the screen. Maybe don't do the whole laser thing, but make a commercial machine that just plays that really well. You don't have to worry about the modules or anything. It doesn't weigh 700 pounds, and there you go. And then you could also have the home version of that game if you own the P3, right? So this would be like if you were at home with your TurboGrafx-16 and you wanted to get Samurai Shodown for your TurboGrafx, you could get that, or you could just go buy the commercial stand-up arcade for Samurai Shodown, let's say. So how come for something like Final Resistance or something like Princess Bride, there can't be just a commercial machine for a location that doesn't want to mess around with the P3 and all of its intricacies and servos and all that. Just have a commercial version of the game and then also have a P3 home version of the game as well and kind of expand the market. Crazy idea, I know, but I love the Weird Al theme. I love this Princess Bride theme. Final Resistance was pretty fun when I played it. I don't know if I would buy Lexi Lightspeed. But what about taking a title and having a commercial version and then also having the home P3 version and treat the P3 like a home console? you know, so we could have, you know, the choice of doing that. I think I would be interested in getting a full-size dedicated Princess Bride cabinet with the art, with the topper, with the back glass, with all that, like traditional pinball because it's kind of like what I'm into.
    27:33
    And then you could also have the P3 too, so everybody is happy. I don't know that it would cost any much more in licensing because you're still licensing it for a unit. I don't know the intricacies of that, but what do you guys think of that idea? I think I kind of get the sense from people that I've talked to that the bro that's running Multimorphic would not be down with that idea at all. He would probably think that is a hot garbage idea, and he's really committed to making his machine as incredible as it is, as incredible as it can be. It's just it's not for me, and so I'm kind of bummed if I'm missing out on this license because of that reason that I've got to go seek it out at an expo or try to find the random location that's brave enough to put a P3 on location. So we'll see. We'll see. But it's just an idea I had. I wanted to get that out there. What else did I do today? So I was at Interium in Chicago, Schaumburg, Illinois. And so I was able to swing down and play some more Jaws. So I got some more thoughts. This time I spent some more time with the pro. It was the one closest to the door, so I just started there. And the pro is fun. Okay. This will be a little pro versus premium rundown here. Because I know there's people that have pros on orders. Other folks like me that got the premium on order And you LE people I ain even talking to you guys So the pro has great gameplay I was playing the pro you know I been getting into the mode where you bounty hunt the sharks you know pick which shark you want and then it's a matter of hitting the spinner so many times the chum bucket the ramps and then the pop bumper similar to how the battles on Godzilla go which is kind of cool you know you fight Abra you gotta spin the spinners or whatever so it's a super fun mode that feels just like the monster modes do in Godzilla it, which is great because those are really fun. I like it because each shark tends to be the same targets, just different amounts of times that you have to hit everything. So the gist is, you know, hit the flipper or spinner so many times, hit the pop bumper so many times, the chum bucket, the ramps, and then you spin the reel to reel the fish in and then you get whatever prize it unlocks. So that's really fun. I was playing that on the pro and it was identical to the premium version. The gameplay was solid. I got a 200 million point score. Like I had a good game. I got into a couple the multi-balls, you know, I was rescuing beach goers, I think, you know, I was hitting the ramp, the wave ramp, you can see it much easier on the Pro, you know, so that was fun. As I was playing a couple games on the Pro, what I noticed is that the Premium just has more things to do, not that the Pro doesn't have enough to do to have a successful fun game, because I had a really good 200 million point game, you know, it may be, it could have been a billion point game if I knew what I was doing and I hit the shots in the right sequence. But I went through a lot of the modes. I went through the bounty hunting of the sharks and I actually collected all the things and I'm spinning the reel to try to get them in and I'm dialing in the shots and like the game was really fun. The game was really fun on the Pro. The code is great. There's fun modes to do and we're only starting here. So it's only going to go up from here. So solid buy for the Pro. The Premium just has more stuff to do. You know, when you hit the wave ramp, you can then, oh, okay, let me see if I can trap up on the upper flipper. Let me see if I can get that ship's reel up there. Let me see if I can hit it a couple of times. Oh, cool, I was able to do that. Let me see if I can do that two times and then set it in the upper ramp. Oh, no, it drained. Let me get back up there. Whereas with the Pro, you shoot the wave ramp. It's fun, but then it just comes back to that little mini flipper. With the upper play field, you have that extra upper ramp that can go into the other super cool wire form that has that 180 at the end, throws it up that left lane, curves around, comes down through the spinner. Like, that was satisfying and elicited a giggle from me every time I did that on the premium. So that's what you're missing on the Pro. You also don't have the shark that pops up and, you know, the big flashing shark. Like, go shoot that. That's missing. And then, you know, the drop targets, I think, are more fun than just stand-up targets. Because, yeah, the inserts light up on the stand-up targets. But when they're actual bank of drop targets, you can visually look and see, like, how many you have left to hit before you clear the whole bracket. So Pro is super fun. Pro is going to be a great game. If you bought a Pro, you're going to be happy with it. It's got all the code, all the modes and everything in it. The Premium just has even more stuff to do. And so I'm super happy that I'm in on a Premium. If I had the chance right now to go and keep my deposit but change it to a Pro, I wouldn't do that. I'm very happy to stick with my Premium. I know a couple of LEs have come available. I don't think it's worthwhile for me to jump up to that level. But I'm mechanically minded, right? I'm like when you start Oregon Trail on the Apple IIe. you know and it's like you know you you pick the banker from boston or you could pick the farmer right if you pick the farmer you can repair your own wagon so you don't need all that money like that's kind of where i'm at i'm having fun being the farmer i can powder coat my own armor i can upgrade it i can add my shaker i can add invisiglass i can i can put in the plastics and switch out the uh the rubbers and do all that business that some people just will pay for the opportunity to not have to do that and they just have like the best version of the game day one with better graphics. I get it. Totally fine to do that. But for me, I'm in on that premium because part of what I want to do is get this game, strip it down, rebuild it even better and just have the same features of the LE without having to spend that money. That's kind of fun for me to do. I'm not the banker from Boston. I'm the farmer from Petoskey or wherever the heck he came from with Oregon Trail. But that's where I'm at. My ruling as of now, which is so preliminary with this game, is which version should you get? you should get one of them. This game is good. The code is good. Hunting Sharks is fun. The clips on the screen are great. Everybody gets the same clips. Everybody gets the same screen. What you get is you just get more on the premium. So it's not like, you know, this building, I have to wait for it to reset on the premium and it plays faster on the pro. No, no. The upper play field plays pretty fast either way. If you don't happen to catch it, it's essentially identical, right? But there's just more fun stuff to do on the premium, So I'm happy about that. So that's more of my kind of nuanced opinion on where Jaws is at now. What else is going on? District Dawn Arcade is dwindling, man. I'm down to seven games. Delivered Iron Maiden today. Shout out to Mark. Did you enjoy that game? It's one of the most beautiful builds I've done. So it went to a kick-ass home. I'm glad I got to enjoy it, and I'm glad I got it on to somebody else. I've been having a lot of people hit me up about these redone, pimped-out premiums I've been doing. To the point that they're wanting to get on a waiting list for my next ones. I think right now, Blood Red Kiss is not going anywhere. Lebowski's staying. My VP is staying. Star Wars, you're not getting my Star Wars. And then Stranger Things is brand new and looking fantabulous. Spooky Scooby-Doo has the topper on it and a butter cabinet. And I've got Stumbler Lanterns coming for it. So that's not going anywhere. And then there's Godzilla. My Godzilla is pimped. Capital P. Two pimp cups. up, man. It's powder-coated.
    34:28
    I even got the Wizard Mod magnet on the coin door. I didn't do the Chrome inserts, but I built myself a... I'm just... I'm turning over, looking at it away from the microphone.
    34:38
    I built my own shooter rod for it. It's got Stumbler's Atomic Godzilla. It's got the Tokyo Neon sign. It's got every one of Lior's mods. It's just... It's the best version of Godzilla. And if I had a game I would consider selling, probably it's that Godzilla. It's got the topper. I think my price on it would be $11,450 or best offer if I was on the prices right.
    35:02
    I say that because Godzilla premiums right now are selling for $9,500, which is essentially MSRP. The topper is $1,000. This thing's loaded with – it's got to have over $1,000 in mods in it. So to only ask $500 over for that, not too bad, not too bad. I don't know if I'm committed to selling it though or not, But I may entertain an offer because at some point I may decide I need some room. Just putting that out there. So right now, up on the block, as far as Don's premiums, I'm down to just my Godzilla, which would take some convincing to get me to sell. I'm always open to trades, though, and I am a reasonable man. Also, Jaws, I think by the time I get to summer, you know, by the time I think there's another Cornerstone release, I'll for sure be done with my upgrades. So if you're wanting to maybe get a Jaws Premium down the line with a lot of the LE upgrades and not have to do any of the work yourself and get a pretty fair market price for it, maybe get at me. Maybe I might be ready to sell it. Maybe Jaws is the greatest game ever built with the next two code updates that come out, and I'm never selling it. I don't know. That's possible too, but if you want to get in on it, that's not a bad way to do it. Otherwise, if you want some Elvira mods, I now have finished The Wall to the Crypt. I'm selling that on the Pinside store. Go check it out. Pin Don's Pinball Swag Barn, I think I called it. Or, you know, email me. Or, you know, if you're on the Patreon, holler at me. I'll hook you up outside of Pinside. So I'm down to seven games now in the arcade. And poor me, I only have Boohoo five on order, right? Don, which games are you getting next? Well, I'm getting Looney Tunes and TCM. And I think those are going to be coming out in the next few weeks. I talked to Bug today. And we're just waiting on the final sculpts to come in, get bolted in the games. because I think they have games that are otherwise ready to go right now. Just as soon as those couple of boxes of sculpts come in from Back Alley Creations or whoever was making them, they should be going into boxes and getting out. So more pinballs coming soon, man. It's not even pinball March yet. So I got those two coming in. There should be a labyrinth kicking around for me at some point. I'm hoping by the end of next month I'll get that one. Pulp Fictions are leaving the factory now. So, you know, I was saying 2025, and it may still be 2025, but at least the timer starts now. I think it's nice to see that things are moving, and then Jaws Premium is on its way.
    37:18
    So out of those, I think Looney Tunes will be a keeper for sure. TCM will probably stay here for at least a year. Jaws may come and go depending on the next Cornerstone release. Labyrinth, I'm getting a topper, man. I don't know that I'm going to be getting rid of Labyrinth anytime soon. And Pulp Fiction, who knows what's going to happen with Pulp Fiction. Maybe by the time that Pulp Fiction is ready to be delivered, the secondary price on the LEs may have dropped or something and may upgrade who knows we'll see what I can tell you is there will be more pinball machines this year what's coming up next from Stern what's the rumor I heard Raiders of the Lost Ark can you imagine Ark of the Covenant it's got everything in it it's got face melting Nazis I mean what else did you want you'll hear about all my thoughts as soon as it's revealed and even when the rumors are even stronger we got two more Stern games this year 2024 off the freaking hinges TPF will be here before we know it and I will be here to cover 98 episodes number 100 is coming up soon at this rate it might be this weekend let's see what happens everybody take care of yourself and others and buy some Girl Scout cookies man come on, later