Hey there happy humans, welcome to the end of the week, it's Friday, Factory Friday, if you speak stern languages. What's up? It's episode 122, action packed! Episode coming here to discuss a lot of things, some game reviews, some game previews, and some new gameplay reviews. Alright, it's a lot of gameplay reviews, let's go. It has been quite the game-packed pinball week that we've had. A lot of things have popped off. New game unboxing here at District Dawn to talk about. Pulp Fiction is in the house, and it's amazing. I'm going to talk all about that. I've got a couple of other older games here. We're venturing out and away from just the brand new new. Oh, speaking of brand new, a brand new Triple Threat podcast came out starring this guy and Orville Alberts and my friend Ryan Barry. We'll talk about that, too. All that and more. There's a fire show going on for Memorial Day in the pinball world. What's up? What's going on? Coast into your Friday. As of this recording, it's late in the afternoon. The workday is almost over, and you'll be driving yourself home and into a blissful weekend of some May Carl Weathers. Some May Carl Weathers. Now, if you're in Houston and the tornado's knocked out power, it's not going to be a very pleasant weekend indoors with the lack of AC. So, folks at Barrels of Fun, I hope you're having a good time and surviving, I guess. I got distracted there because I wanted to talk about the good time that I had watching the live stream from the factory from Barrels of Fun. I jumped in there live. David David Van Es walked us around the whole place, offered us some snacks. We got some carpet squares, and we got to watch virtually him traipse around the factory. We got some news nuggets from them. Now, they announced a build size maximum of 1,100 units for their game Barrels of Fun, which landed with a huge splash. I think everybody that's played it has really been impressed with the game, especially from a brand-new company bucking the trend of, you know, new company launches with questionable products. And so we're all very eager to see, you know, okay, what do you have that come up next? We know that they have a good relationship with the Jim Henson Company. Are they going to make us some Muppets pinball? Is Muppets Princess Bride coming out next? please somebody make it so we're in the wrong timeline otherwise that's not going to work but they told us that they have sold 750 games so you know they're going to build at least that many means that some are still available if you want to get in on it also 225 or so units have been produced or that's around where they're at build wise so a third of the way through their current sales and it's taken us what since uh since october was when it was released went into production sometime around January. And so here we are five months into the year, a third of the build done, which would give them reasonably, particularly if they are able to pick up the pace now that they've been working in this well-oiled factory. When are we going to get another game released from them? I wouldn't think before the end of the year, probably springtime next year. Texas Pinball Festival wouldn't be a bad time, particularly because they are a Texas company. Now, they're also coming out with other products. I'm going to do a quick review. I bought myself a set of pin armor. this is a canvas velcro accoutrement package to wrap up your pinball machine for travel they were debuting it at the texas pinball festival i get to try it out there i went home and dang it figured i needed to have it and as many as much as i move games in and out um it is a bit of a burden when you have to move a game you've got to take the legs off pick the thing up you got to wrap the thing in plastic make sure you don't use cardboard to put the bag box down on because it'll leave scuff marks you got to use a moving blanket and wrap it and all this business so this is uh you One canvas system with Velcro that wraps completely around the backbox. The backbox comes down, the thing straps with Velcro to the cabinet, so you don't have to worry about all that shrink wrap and everything and toe straps and all that business and little funky bits of angled cardboard so you don't scuff the edges like this. It alleviates that concern. And then the whole thing is draped in thick canvas, wraps all around it. And you get a separate bag for the legs and your hardware and your tools and everything. So it's a great system for moving a game. If you were taking a game to a show and you had powder-coated armor, I would say either the Missing Pins leg bag or this leg bag from Barrels of Fun is fun and it works. A couple of things I ran into, I tried to move a Jersey Jack game, and the backbox is wedge-shaped, so the backbox cover did not fit over it, so that was a drag. But as far as CERNs, Spookies, Tales from the Crypt, Data East worked fine for that. It retails for around $400, $440 or so. And if you're moving games a lot and you want to protect them, it is a much safer way to do it. So I enjoy it. I paid full price for this thing, and I've already used it a couple of times. I would like to recommend, when you stand the machine up, on the bottom, if they could add a rubberized protection or something to that so the canvas wouldn't tear as you're scooting the game around, I think that would be the way to put it up over the top. But I'm enjoying it, so it's out there. So shout out to Barrels of Fun. Thanks for walking us around the factory and taking us into your realm. Now, they have mentioned that they want to be a licensing company with multiple SKUs, multiple different products, not just pinball machines. And when you think about it, a pinball company that goes through the process of obtaining licenses and getting agreements and building relationships, why stop at just the pinball machine? You know, maybe especially with a theme like Labyrinth, I mean, there's whole Facebook fan groups composed of Labyrinth people cosplay. They go to midnight showings. They crochet little characters from the film. So if they would come out with a line of other displayable products, you know, statues, maquettes and things for all price ranges, I think that would be a way to really kind of make the company a little bit more robust and not cater directly to $10,000 pinball sales, but also a couple hundred dollar knickknacks and things for people that may want them. So not a bad idea. I'd like to see where they go in the future. I like that they have a relationship with the Jim Henson Company. Bring me some up. It's pinball. Somebody, somebody's got to be doing it. The rumor I've heard about that consistently has been Jersey Jack. We'll see. We'll see. But either way, with what they've done with the topper for Labyrinth, I would like to see Stantler and Waldorf up there. Someone do a Muppet show. Let's move into the main content of this episode I have laid out on my outline here. Let's just get to the John Wick. Let's get it out of the way. Bang, bang, shoot them up. Game's coming out. I've played the game. So I was able to live stream it. Just happened to be passing through right place, right time, which I always tend to insert myself into. And I was able to live stream pro on location at IO Pinball Arcade and Bar through a conjunction with Wisconsin Pinball. who operate the games there, shout out to Hilton, and was able to play and live stream my very first gameplay experience, which was awesome from a gameplay perspective. From a score perspective it was absolutely abysmal And you can check that out It on the YouTube channel Don Pinball Podcast on YouTube I going to move all the live streams I think over to there just because they get indexed a lot easier When I live stream on Facebook, the occasional live is okay, but then they just get buried. There's no easy way to find them. So I think for new game unboxings, we'll move over to YouTube. But go check that out. A lot of people have. My very first game ever on John Wick is now captured on YouTube in posterity. Played for about an hour. Played some multiple-player games. Got some footage of the car. and I was very impressed, I'll say. Watching the stream release and everything, I felt kind of a mid-range of exuberance towards this title just based on the assets that were released, just based on the one sheet, the little trailers and all that, which meant it looked like a good game, but Avengers is a good game, Deadpool is a good game, but I'm not overjoyed about I've got to get my hands on that as soon as I can any more than any other new pinball machine. I'd be excited to go play Blues Brothers for at least five minutes. Anyway, playing the game, standing in front of it, what impressed me was that the mechanisms that are in it were a lot larger than I was thinking. You know, when I saw the video footage of the car, the bash car, the car that bashes back, acts as a diverter on the Premium LE Edition, I was thinking it was going to be like Matchbox size, you know, or similar to that Dragon Tank from 007, which is, okay, like Hot Wheels size. And I was like, all right, you know, that's okay, but I'm not impressed that much, you know. So, you know, Shania Twain over here, you don't impress me much, car. But seeing it in person, it's like a larger die-cast looking car, double the size of a Hot Wheels vehicle, and even on the Pro, it's got some movement, and I don't think that was conveyed very well. So happy to say, and I was able to reveal this on the stream, that the car on the Pro, as being the major mech in the game, is interactive and fun. You know, it acts as a sling, kind of, like it bashes back, punches your ball in the face when it comes up there. So it's almost like a little demon car just hiding, or one of those trapdoor spiders. It's guarding its little lair, and as soon as you get close, it's like, get away. So that was fun. Is it the Drake building from Godzilla? No, of course not. But it was much more impressive playing it in person. This thing boils down to gameplay. The shots felt like butter, man. The center ramp, which seemed to be kind of the hardest shot of the game, wasn't as hard to successfully hit as the wave ramp in Jaws, so if that gives you some perspective. It was fun. I was able to rip it multiple times. I was also able to brick it multiple times. The orbits felt good. You know, the fan layout parts of this feel good. I like that there's that ramp on the lower left area in the same spot as Foo Fighters. And the wave ramp or 180 ramp in the upper right felt a lot better than I was thinking. I was thinking this was just going to be like some other Munster's 180 ramp, no big deal. But it was actually really smooth and fun to hit that. So it's got the little eject buck from James Bond. It's kind of a hodgepodge of what we've seen already assembled together, kind of like a best of modern Stern right now. without a super compelling theme, but the gameplay was fun. As far as picking up enemies and fighting them and lining up multiple ones and then carrying a multiball into a mode, I have not wrapped my head around any of that bit at all. But I will say the game shoots fun, the mechanisms were interesting, and actually, I'm actually looking forward to being able to try the little Altoids container that pops open and watch that little blood-o thing click open and close. I mean, it looks interesting. So I would say if my exuberance was around a 6 out of 10 before, it was like a 7.5 now, you know, not a rookie score. So, yeah, the game seems fun. Whether it's for you, especially in this market, what would reign to be seen. If you want to pick one up, they've been selling pretty well, actually. I was thinking after we saw what happened with Venom, I wasn't thinking that this thing was going to sell incredibly well. But from what I'm hearing from Jeff over at Mad Pinball, his LEs are selling out. Pros are selling out. They're going on location, and people are enjoying playing it. I'm also happy to report that I saw a lad that had already put Expression Lights in his John Wick Pro, and it looked amazing. It looked amazing. I think that's really the thing with this game, and hopefully string games going forward. You've really got to see them with the full features, including the Expression Lights, to really weigh in. A game like this, which is great in this kind of film noir, neon noir atmosphere, the lighting's going to be huge with that. and having those expression lights looked fantastic. So I've mentioned this before. There's nothing really proprietary to the expression lights as far as, like, game-specific, right? So whether you buy the Foo Fighter Edition, the Rush Edition, find an old Zeppelin set or the new John Wick or whatever, the bare components appear to be interchangeable and identical. And the only change is the art blade that comes with it. So these things function as light bars. They've got little areas cut out for the lights on, you know, the ArtBlades go over there. But if you remove them, it's just a whole light bar. So there's nothing really to stop you from going and picking up a set of Led Zeppelin Lights new in box that have never been used. Throw them in your John Wick Pro and then grab whatever off-the-market ArtBlade you want. Get your wife with her Cricut or get an X-Acto knife and, you know, take some Dramamine and sit there and cut out the little inserts or just cut the whole slice open. You know, honestly, just do that. throw the art blade on there and there you go man there you go you don't have to wait for the complete $795 MSRP retail price is what I'm guessing for the cabinet lights and the backbox expression light kits when they come out which may not be for 12 to 18 months I mean look at where we're at Foo Fighters kits have just come out and even though they were released can you find them anymore does anybody have them they sell out they're not restocked there's delays in production whatever get yourself a set of lights and throw them in your John Wick Pro or your premium, and I think that's not a bad way to go. It really seems to add a lot. So I'm excited to be able to try the premium and the LE hopefully sometime soon. Now, Factory Friday video dropped. The pros were still shown on the line. Now, whether that's true or whether that's just footage from the week and they just want to put something out on Instagram, I'm hearing that the LEs are going to be up next. So over the next two weeks, LEs will be in production. Are they going to make all 1,000? Have they only sold 400 to distributors? Will they hold some numbers back? I don't know that they ever officially release how many machines are made. I don't know if they're going to run through sales of all the 1,000, but they'll be in production, so we'll see those out hopefully soon. One thing that was pretty interesting, the Golden State Pinball Festival, which is going on this weekend, Lodi, California, hell of a town if you've ever been. I haven't been in about 20 years over in the foothills. I've got to say it feels like a step up from Fresno, but only just. Maybe it's gotten better in the last 20 years. I mean, it's been a while since I've been in Lodi. That notwithstanding, this looks like a fun, almost like early summer camp pinball festival. Big Quonset hut full of games. And then there's a campground or some such. And so people bring their campers. They bring machines outside And when the show closes for the day the party rages outside in the campground So that seems fun That something we don have in Chicago That something we don do in Texas So I think I might pencil this in for next year to go check this out Everybody I've been talking to that frequents this says, you know, this is one of the coolest shows to go to. And, and happy to report, there's a couple of John Wicks that are already set up there. Shout out NAP Arcade for getting that breaking story to me right before I recorded. Also, Funhaus is on display at the Golden Staple Ball Festival, so people can play these two new releases on site. What the heck was that? A little acid reflex. All right, so Funhaus. Let's talk about that for a second. You know, one of the classics, you know, not one of the great classics. It's not Tales of the Arabian Nights. I think that's the one that everybody's waiting on. I think if Tales of the Arabian Nights Limited Edition with a Brian Allen artwork was $99.99, I would have two of them already on pre-order. But it's Funhaus. So it comes in two flavors, a basic for $7,500, a tricked-out LE, midnight edition for $10,000. I don't know. I guess it seems to be going right for pinball these days. I am not terribly exuberant about this game to begin with. You know, it is one of the classics. I think I'd rather play Bad Cats. I think I'd rather play Whirlwind. So it's Funhaus. Rudy's creepy. I don't like to call us, even though the legendary Ed Boon voiced the call-outs of Rudy. Ed Boon heavily involved in the Mortal Kombat franchise over the year, of which I'm a huge fan, so there is that. But even with that, I just don't think the layout and the gameplay is that impressive. Maybe I just suck at it. But if you want yourself a funhouse, they're available brand new. They're still available used, too. There's something to be said about getting new components and a machine that doesn't smell like an old 70s bowling alley, so there's that. Midnight Edition, new artwork, looks fantastic, love it. It comes with some upgrades, LCDs, comes with a new 2.0 code. it comes with the option to purchase the forthcoming limited edition topper so I think if I was going to get this one I'd probably find a way to work a couple extra shifts and cop up the extra money to get the better looking R package because it does look fantastic but there it is so if you're a Funhaus fan and you want a new Unboxed one you can get one from Pedretti where are you going to get it? we don't really know yet this is the first official release from Pedretti however they have been making the games for Pinball Brothers So, you know, I don't see those being hard to get or, you know, in a haggis type situation where you order and your funds are, you know, lost into the billabong. So there's that. So if you want to get yourself one, go ahead and get yourself one. Distributors are listed on the site. And they're out there. And it happened. So I felt compelled to talk about it. Let's talk about Memorial Day coming up, the big unofficial start of summer in the United States where we usually get a three-day weekend. That's a bank holiday to you European folks. Well, American Pinball is having themselves a sale. Usually, this is a Memorial Day sale on, let's see, what are they usually? Cars, trucks, mattresses, and barbecues and outdoor patio equipment. So it makes sense that the company that just released barbecue would knock $500 off their in-stock merchandise for Memorial Day. Buy it now through the weekend. Save, save, save. Go get yourself some on anything except for, as it turns out, barbecue, their newest release. So for those of you Those two of you That were sitting around just waiting for a new inbox Octoberfest to be available Now is your chance man, shoot your shot And call your local American Pinball distributor Email jeff at madpinball.com Go get yourself in on the American Pinball train If that excites you I mean, it would suck if you had just bought BBQ I could probably just send the comment right there It would suck if you just bought BBQ And then could have got $500 off of it And it's their newest game And it's selling I was in the factory. I saw them boxed up. I saw them labeled ship to distributors. So it's sold through. I don't know if sold through. It's actual complete run, but enough. And the game is fun enough, but the game's no John Wick. There you go. But it's cool. American Pinball's done this before. I like to see companies teasing with these price drops, flirting with it. I think it's probably where the way the market is going. I still can't fault companies that are selling out of their games at full price. You know, if you sold out, then it was priced too low, and if you didn't sell out, it was priced too high, I guess is how the market breaks down. So if people are buying them, we're going to see these prices. I'll comment on them, and I'll go when it seems reasonable to me and the value is there. Price notwithstanding, without a price drop, I wouldn't mind seeing increased value put into these machines. I love what Spooky's been doing. They kept their price of the CEs the same from Scooby-Doo to Looney Tunes Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but they add even more value in there. Powder-coated ramps, powder-coated wire forms, a topper, magnet graphics now are involved, all this stuff. Only thing I'd like to see that I haven't seen yet is a custom shooter rod because these guys like the auto-launch buttons. Just putting that out there, I'm a fan of a firm grip on a rod. What else do we got? All right, let's just vary into a new review here. Pulp Fiction was unboxed. I unboxed it on Facebook, finally got this game. This game is heavy as heck. I've been playing it all week, and I am happy to report that I have some new takes on that. Oh, my God. So, Pulp Fiction. I got it in the house, right? And I knew this was going to happen. I knew this was going to happen, that when I play the game not in a busy arcade, not on a show floor, but actually get it home where I can play it in my solitude and hear the call-outs and everything, it was going to play much better. I'm happy to report that that is absolutely the case. But not only that, I'm impressed with how much better it plays and how much is in this game that I had no idea was in there before. I was pretty early on playing this. I didn't make it to Texas Pinball Festival that year in March when it came out. God, that was 2022. But I did play it in Chicago at Interium. It was one of the first locations to have it. I played it before flights, you know, coming and going from O'Hare, you know, and I was impressed with the game. You know, I was one of the guys that initially had the LE in the cart on launch day and then said, you know what, I don't know if it's just going to be for me. Maybe I shouldn't rush into it. Let me play it first. and then, of course, the LEs had sold out. But, you know, I was impressed with the gameplay enough, actually having gotten my hands on it, that, you know, last summer, June, I went ahead and put down a deposit, and I said, you know what, whenever this game is available, I'll have the money by then, and I'll go ahead and get it because it was a fun game, and that still holds true. So 11 months hence the deposit, I finally was able to pick up my game. I drove into Chicago, picked it up from one of the local warehouses, so I saved myself on some shipping, brought it home, and the thing is dang heavy, first off. and you see that on the live stream, I had to enlist some help to lift it up to get it up onto the stool to put the back legs on. Now, typically, you know, I can lift up these things. I did Lebowski myself. But this one, it was just like, you know, it was just better than throwing out a slip disc to go ahead and enlist some help. So the thing is well made. I put this equal with how Dutch does their cabinets man These things are thick plywood you know top shelf C fantastic You can tell they cabinet designers because this thing built incredibly well You know, Stern has a formula that works for them, but this is like, you know, two times the build quality of what I see with a typical Stern. Plus, unlike my Jaws, it wasn't full of sawdust, so that was cool. But playing the game, okay, of course you can hear the call-outs better, you can hear the music better, But I'm noticing like lighting effects and GI effects that I haven't seen before, little voice triggers, little gameplay elements, you know, lighting up the orbits to hit them to increase your miles per hour that you're driving to try to work towards an extra ball. All of that business has been phenomenal. What a great game this is. What a fantastic game this is. Now, that's not news to anybody, but I'm very happy to say that now that I have it, I really like it, man. I'm going to keep playing this thing. So that was fun. What else did I want to talk about? What else did I want to talk about? Unbox it. Okay. All right. All right. So that's all that business. I believe that's all of the new pinball business. Let's talk about the new pinball podcasting business. So this last week, it finally happened. I've been wanting to do a long-form discussion-type podcast with one to two other people. So it's not just me and my thoughts in the microphone, but, you know, a conversation that folks can listen into on. And it finally happened. I cobbled together the dream team, Orbital Albert from Pinball Nerds Podcast, Ryan Barry from Phantom Tilt Pinball. So while Kimba was sound asleep, we went ahead and recorded an hour's long worth of just dialogue among chums, international chums, so it's got that bent. So Albert's representing Canada. I'm representing the United States of Freedom Land, and Ryan's out there in Australia, which is just a huge part of pinball that I don't think gets enough recognition, and when it does, it's not seen in the best light, so I want to highlight that more. So we all come together to give our own perspectives on just what was going on in the news. The vision for this show is that, you know, a by fortnightly or try fortnightly, you know, maybe once a month every six weeks or so. We'll kind of get together and cover everything, you know, a little different bit of a flavor than we have on our own solo podcast shows. So that's interesting. So check it out. I put that up on this channel. It's also on Pinball Nerds and also on Phantom Tilt. Listen wherever you can find podcasts. Eventually it will spin off on its own thing. What are we calling it? Well, you know, much like pizza toppings, three bros can't agree on a name. I just threw out Semper Ball Syndicate. I think, I don't know, Ryan may have mentioned that or something. But the name is in flux. I've heard some terrible suggestions from the community, which I'm thankful for because they were making me laugh. I don't think we'll get away with calling it Pincessed Brothers. So shout out to you, disturbed individual who came up with that. I got three men and their balls, mediocre pinball news, which is pretty apt. and it may be a little bit too on the nose. So we'll see. Maybe we'll put up a poll or something. We'll go ahead and launch this thing. But it's fun. I'll do the whole bit. We'll get a logo with some T-shirts. We'll get some stickers out there with the giveaways. It'll be the whole bit. It's going to be super fun. So check that out. And we even, like, I woke up this morning, checked my email, and we've got a shout-out on Kineticist. So, hey, I guess it is real and it's happening. But really just a couple of guys hanging out, having a good time, talking some pinball, trying to make it interesting. and so we'll just help fill that void in your day, go into the weekend go check it out, nearly 600 of you already have in just 48 hours so that's amazing, so shout out to you, what's going on? Preview for the weekend, well, it's going to be more pinball, I'm deep in the lab on a secret project now that I can't wait to release, I'm probably about a week away from having a functional prototype that I can't wait to reveal to everybody, I'm having so much fun with it, so new mods are coming henceforth, next week I'll be in Chicago at least a couple of times. So, you know, I wasn't able to make that surprise appearance at Interium for that meetup, but that's because I was able to go and live stream John Wick. I mean, I had to make that decision. But I will be back. When I'm in Chicago, I'm usually at Interium because it's the place to be. Plus, it's at a mall. Plus, I can go get some Garrett popcorn while I'm there from said mall. And there's a Lego store. Like, this mall is really cool, you guys. There's a Peppa Pig play area, a big robust food court. Like, it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. Over there in Schaumburg at the Woodfield Mall. So I'll probably make an appearance there. I'll make an appearance at this other pinball manufacturer in Chicago, Stern Pinball. Maybe you've heard of them. Several of us have got the word. We've been invited down to the factory to play the brand-new game on site. So that's kind of cool, you know. I know there was a lot of blowback from these non-pinball content creation folks or whatever, whatever. I don't think I'll ever pride myself on being a curmudgeon when it comes to somebody else getting invited to things. I'm always happy to show up but it's not expected and you know just like with Travis and the triple drain don't blame these guys at all for getting the invitation going down to the public relations whatever and showing off the game to reach new audiences I don't think this is a zero sum game I think there's room for all of us to win so that was cool that being said I'm happy to be going down there so I think that's happening in the midweek and I'll report all about whatever I'm able to report on if they let us capture video and footage I'll go ahead and do that otherwise as we report back how it went and maybe this will be a blueprint for the future. A pinball flavored olive branch. That sounds terrible. That's been extended to us from big daddy Stern and the lovely folks that are there. I'm glad George has been doing the rounds too. I'm talking about, you know, just bluntly answering questions about what's been going on, you know, letting the drop that, you know, hunger games was a license that wasn't going well. So they just abandoned it. You know, it's cool to get these, you know, candid conversations, you know, and function as like a, producer and consumer paradigm dyad relationship as it were. So that's fun. So we'll look forward to that this week. We'll get more podcasts from hopefully other people. Are there any other drops coming up? I'm still giddy over John Wick. We're about to see the LEs come out. And then I can't wait to actually be in front of one of those with the expression lights to see how kick butt it is. And man, that art package on the LE is fantastic. The little gold leading effects on the back glass, I'm totally a fan. Also, Translite, Custom Pinball's got an awesome looking Translite he dropped, dude. Check that out. Otherwise, my boy Sterling, selling one on eBay. Go check it out anywhere you can, and switch Translites out to your heart's content. I've got a Don's Pinball Podcast Translite I throw on machines sometimes, just for fun. It's my machine. I'm going to have fun with it the way that I have fun with anything else. I'm going to go run and grab a Diet Coke and a quesadilla. You can email me at donspinballpodcastgmail.com. Give me some feedback. Let me know how terrible this is and how I'm going to improve, or just shower me with praise, because, like, I eat energy. I'll be getting around to Pinball Expos. July's coming up. We'll be at the Southern Pride Gaming. It's my first time there. I can't wait. Maybe they'll let me wrestle. Wouldn't that be amazing? Shout out to all the friends and fans, and all the cool people. Later.