let's slide into episode number 199 for a quick take on what's happening inside the pinball world my world your world mcdonald's we'll talk about wienerschnitzel i don't know man let's just record i got no notes let's get at this I'm feeling good about this show. Joe Joe got them Betty Davis eyes, dude. I don't know if you've noticed that. It's been a wild couple of days. A week, actually. Back from Florida with the Epic Universe. I got so much Dawn of the Magic content to get caught up on. Wanted to come down here and hit record real quick while I steal myself a little moment to be down here with myself. Speaking of myself and my counterpart Retro Jango over there, we just uploaded the bomb interview. Two hours long. It wasn't even an interview. It was just us and the spooky pinball guys, Bug and Luke. You know them. We sat down for two complete hours with no itinerary at all and just talked pinball and life and madness. There was some sprinkling of some hot drops about their new forthcoming to be released game. We talked a little bit about some evil dead production and some of the issues that are baked in there. And it just goes on and on and on. And like I hit record, I sat down to talk to these guys. I looked down, boom, two hours gone. So the first hour is up publicly available on We Are Pinball. You can find it wherever you found this podcast, We Are Pinball, or the WAP acronym, which means nothing else besides We Are Pinball. The other half, we threw that as fodder to our Patreon supporters over on WAP. So we love you guys. Thanks for the support and everything. If you like the first free hour and you want some more of that just to give you something to do during your commute or your bubble bath with your candles, it's right over there, man. Reach in your couch cushions, grab your five bucks, try it out for a month, See what you think. See what you think. Special shout-out to Don's Pinball Podcast, Patreon members, because we got caught up with the giveaways, gave away an official Evil Dead Translite, and I happen to have a Wonka Playfield that we gave away as well on the livestream. This is what we did. So I have King Kong, the premium ding-dong, right, the Gold Kong edition. This game, I don't think it's understated. I think it's absolutely stated. I think this game's fun, fantastic, people dig it. I don't know that it will ever attain legendary status without a strong license connection, but hell if it ain't a good shooter and fun to play. So I'm making the golden banana edition of this thing. Made the whole thing over, just about done, and I'm looking at all this. What I did is I took the LE powder coat colors, the black matte on the outside, and then the shiny gold inside, and I flipped it, And I did gold over the whole thing with the shiny black underlayment, man. And I don't know. I didn't even know this until I put the whole thing together. But that gold just pops, man. I dig it. So I'm looking at this game. It's just about finished. I had one more mod I needed to complete just to hide that dang flagpole that's sitting out in the back left of the game. There's a hex post that's like six inches long with a little spotlight on top of it. I hated how that looked. It looked like one of the Southern California street lamps I grew up with. So I made a mod that's a stack of barrels that goes right over it, because barrels, monkeys, bananas, you get it, right? So it looks fun. I love that I put that in there. But then I'm looking at all these wire forms. They're shiny chrome. And I'm thinking, I got some of this gold left over. What would this game look like with powder-coated wire forms? Which has been on trend. It's been having a moment. This first came to mind when I saw somebody made the slasher edition of Halloween Collector's Edition from Spooky Pinball, where they took all of the metal out of the game, like the ramps, the wire forms. They took off that gold vein powder coat that it came with, did everything like shiny blood red. And it was a look, man. There's a lot of orange in that game. And the red, I don't know that it would be like my top complimentary choice, but damn it if it didn't make a statement. So that kind of put the idea in my head that that was something that's possible. And then we've seen Spooky go ahead and do that with their collector's editions. They've been powder coating the wire forms, started with Scooby-Doo, making them all kinds of crazy colors, and did that with Looney Tunes with the orange. I took that orange and did a purple and really made a contrast with it. So I've been having fun, you know, doing this. Jersey Jack has gone to the moon doing not a powder coat but a gold chrome to their wire forms, which is absolutely, like, the best thing you can do to these things, but it's, like, hundreds of dollars to do that versus, like, 40 bucks. You get me? So I powder-coated the rails in Kong gold to match the side rails. And, dude, I think it works. It changes the sound of the ball, too. It doesn't have, like, that nice pitch scree that you get on the metal wire forms. It's, like, a little bit subdued. And I dig it. I totally dig it. Oh, dude, this game is stellar. The whole thing matches. I love it. So while I was doing this, I took all the wire forms out. There's four of them. I left the ramps in place, screwed to the base play field. And then I had the glass off, and I was like, I got to do it. I got to turn this game on and play it without the wire forms just to see. I just got this opportunity. I did all the work. I took them out. Let me try it. I left the glass off because there are two quite strong vertical up kickers in the game, and I was honestly worried about shattering the glass if I were to put that on there. So, of course, I throw it back behind the gong where the big vertical up kicker is, sends the ball through that crescendoing wire form, and it shot the ball about two feet up in the air. And then the ball actually landed in the lower vertical up kicker, you know, for the Kong Temple. And then bounced up out of there and landed in the shooter lane. The auto launcher sent it back in the game and I knew I had discovered something magical. That was my first thought. My second thought was, I got to stream this. And so that's what I did. So over on YouTube right now, the Don's Pinball Podcast channel, you can watch a two-camera view live stream of Kong without the wire forms. balls shooting crazy two feet up in the air as you're playing it's nuts to the designer's credit that game plays remarkably well without the wire forms um all the shots still trigger try to think it was there anything that you couldn't do with it i don't think so i don't really think so um because i have the premium version it has the physical ball lock that still works because it's not attached to one of the wire forms um but the game the scoring uh The targets everything you trying to accomplish you can still accomplish without the wire forms because they have optos up on the ramps on the plastic part of the biplane ramp that actually triggers the shot and awards it And then the ball just kind of dribbles out on its own or goes wherever it wants to There some funny stuff that happens Anyway it was worthwhile doing I don't think it's worth just taking them out to experience it unless, like, you really want to check it out. But if you want to take them out and powder coat those wire forms, it's totally simple to do. And just reach out to me, donspinballpodcast.gmail.com. I'll give you instructions on how to do it. It was simple. I don't think it violates any warranties, but it probably violates a couple of the laws of nature. It was fantastic, man. It was super fantastic, dude. I totally dug it. All right, so we got some nuggets from the spooky interview. I've been spending quite a bit of time down there inventing with these guys. They've got a great layout down there, and we're having a lot of fun with it. So where we're at right now, because we'll stay on them for a moment before we get to Star Wars rumors or wherever the hell that is. Evil Dead is around 350-400, they're approaching their midpoint probably sometime in August they'll hit the midpoint of production now they have sped up their production as well even meeting or exceeding the standards that they had just a few weeks ago of hitting 20 or 25 a week I think they're doing a little bit more than that now so they're planning on getting all these games built probably by January if not shortly thereafter so there's the production update, production's going well Electric Bad just did an episode where Evil Dead was top earner again, and they've had no problems with it on location, and those people put their games through their damn paces. So if it's surviving there, bodes well for us. Mine is on its way to its new owner. I had so much fun with Evil Dead, but for it to be essentially the winner of this year as far as games that go up in value, I did not buy it as an investment. This is totally serendipitous. But with my upcoming home project that I'm very excited about, my need for some money, the fact I've had the game for months now, and the joy that I saw in the buyer's eyes, coupled with the fact that I know I can get one again for right around what I sold it for, at least. Yeah, maybe it'll come down to probably a hair, you know, but, you know, play in the markets, whatever. Someone's happy, I'm happy, everyone's happy with this game. The only other game in recent memory to do this was last year's winner, which would have been Metallica Remastered Limited Edition, which I think is still trading for around $13,000 or so, $13,000 to $14,000. So way to go there on that one. But, man, to the moon with freaking Evil Dead. The last one I can remember doing this was actually Pulp Fiction Limited Edition, but only before the Limited Editions actually were built and released. Remember, there was a point where people were selling their $1,000 deposits for $3,000 on Pinside because everybody had to have that topper and all that business. So as far as like investment game of the year, happens to also be a hell of a great player, I give it to Evil Dead. Let's talk about their new game. So I can't release the theme or any details about it, but I can speculate on what the market's going to be doing here. So we saw Evil Dead release, and we saw, you know, over half of them sold right away. In fact, they got to about 500 sold in short order over the first several weeks. And then everything kind of slowed down. I was watching the numbers because I wanted to see when this thing was going to sell out. And there was a lull there. This game released in November, where it was revealed in November. I was at IAAPA, in fact. That was the date that it happened. So then throughout the later part of November, December, January, about five or six games seemed to be selling each week. Sometimes they would hit ten or so. And then Pinball at the Beach happened in February, and that was the first time that the public really got a chance to play the game, which it was really on its way up. It was a rising title. And then when we got to March, the first day of the Texas Pinball Festival when people really got to play it, anybody that was on the fence and just wanted to play it first before they made a decision went and made that decision. Boom, they sold out. We hold the word from Jack Guarnieri, not one dollar out of your pocket until you see Harry Potter. And everybody said okay and ran over and bought Evil Dead. It was the funniest thing. And I was on the show floor when that happened too. I couldn't believe it. I didn't think the game was going to sell out that weekend. I was thinking, you know, maybe once they get back, you know, we head into the springtime or something, then maybe. And then all of a sudden I heard that Harry Potter had been revealed, and I thought people were just joking with me, but no, that happened in the room across the hall. And then I turn around, and, like, Franchi's drawing up this, you know, thanks for selling out the game. I'm like, a little premature for that, isn't it? And it turns out, no, like, that happened that same minute. Like, I'm facing one way, and one thing's happening. I'm facing the other way. Like, pinball history is being made around me. What a great show. I got to go back there again. What are we going to do this year? And then for the rest of the show, you could see people coming up to the booth. They played the game. They're like, all right, all right. I got to have one of these. How do I order? And they said, sorry, go talk to that guy over there because we're all out. And people were getting legitimately mad. And that continued in MGC. People were doing the same thing. So there's a lot of people that are a little upset. They're actually – they're FMO right now. They're afraid because they did miss out. You know, not the FOMO, but like the real MO. They're full of the mo right now. And so they're looking back at like, okay, if this happens again, I've got to get in on this next title. Now, I'm predicting, and this is just speculation. I've got nothing solid, no clairvoyance to know this. But I'm thinking that their next game that will be released, probably around November, will probably sell out fairly quickly. In fact, I would even venture to say that all the pieces are in place that could lead to a day one sellout. something that hasn't happened since the days of Halloween. I can tell you this. New game plays better than Halloween, so I'll give you that. All right. So what do we got? We got the spooky fanboys, right, who are going to be in on every spooky game no matter what. I'm probably one of those, so whatever. So we know we're in there. The casual people that kind of have an eye on spooky, maybe they've got a four- or five-pin collection. They want something that plays a little bit different. They like what they're doing. They like the value proposition of games under $10,000 for top-end editions. so I think they would definitely come in here, especially with what's happened with Evil Dead. Price value going up post-purchase, after sellout, all that business. And the distributors have seen this too because they've already opened the banks. I think Joe at Pinball Star was the first one to come out publicly and say, you want the game? Get it on the list with me. And then everybody else is like, oh, yeah, great idea. Let's do that. Me too. So the order banks are all open. I think because of the value proposition, The fact that the game comes out low price, probably, don't tell them I said this, probably a little bit lower than what they could probably get for it, and then the games have gone up in value once they sell out because they keep the numbers low, I think we'll see some speculators come in and pick up a deposit or two or three with the idea that once this thing does day one sell out, you can turn around and, you know, two extra money at least. All those factors combined is like the storm I see coming that it may not happen, but it seems favorable at least conceivable not inconceivable in the multi parlance of our times that we could see Day One sell out for whatever this new game is Aesthetic I love this This energy is going to be crazy around November I can't wait. The first place you'll be able to play it publicly will probably be Pinball at the Beach again in February. I think next month in August is when tickets go on sale. And while I don't know that it completely sold out last year, I think that definitely will sell out this year unless they expand the tickets. It was such a fun show. So it was a smaller venue, but still a ton of games, but less people per capita per game. So there weren't really lines. Maybe you would wait one person, maybe two on the newest Stern in the middle of the day. But that was about it. And then everybody's just kind of mingling, right? People aren't locked into a booth necessarily. JJP folks were there. Stern folks were there. Spooky folks were there. Vendors were there. But everybody's kind of mingling, just kind of hanging out. And you just casually talk to people that are pinball famous. Even Cary Hardy was there as a special guest. Amazing. Always fun to hang out with that guy. So that's coming up. That'll be the first time to publicly play it. I would say if it doesn't day one sell out, it's probably sold out by the time we get there. We'll wait and see what happens. We'll wait and see what happens. Speaking of Star Wars rumors, this is kind of all over the place. We're going to have another Stern release here in September, about seven, six weeks from now probably. And I'm only saying that because that's exactly what happened last year. X-Men released in that same window. And then we saw a remake come out like the month after because remember Metallica was brand new for Expo which was in October. So here we are again. I think they're going to keep the same release schedule only because they've done that with their last 8, 10, 12 releases. So what's this game going to be? We've been hearing Star Wars. And at first it was Episode 1 rumors, right? We got Star Wars Episodes 4, 5, and 6 with the exploding Death Star with the hyperspace ramp in the Star Wars premium that I love sitting right behind me. I'm not selling it. Fucking love it. So the idea was, okay, well, maybe they'll go back to the prequel trilogy. That hasn't been done since Pinball 2000, and it hasn't ever been done well. So, fine. The kids that grew up after, born after the Star Wars movies came out, they're like 30 years old now, they look back with reverence. People like me that were teenagers when those movies came out, and were fresh in the head from, like, Return of the Jedi releasing, were like, what the hell is this crap? what is a Jar Jar, why should I care I hope the sand opens up and swallows this whiny kid notwithstanding, that rumor then merged into you know what, they're actually doing classic trilogy again what in the actual heck and then we just got word through a code update to the app for Insider Connected that lo and behold if you didn't see this coming you're completely blind the Star Wars Home Edition will be making its Costco debut this year with Insider Connected a game and layout that I think I like better than the Jurassic Park Home Edition, to be quite honest. And I actually wouldn't mind picking up a heavy metal at some point because it used that same layout. I think Supreme may have as well, but that game's still like 80 grand. So then I heard that, and I'm like, well, are we just conflating things? Did someone hear, like, yes, there's going to be a Star Wars game this fall and conflated the Star Wars Home Edition with whatever this rumored on board release that's supposed to come out in September is going to be. So I'm not sure. Am I 50-50? I don't know. The people that I know on the Discord that seem to be somewhat connected to, like, you know, friends of a friend of a cousin who works at a thing or whatever are saying, no, Don, it is a Star Wars cornerstone and also a Star Wars home edition. And I'm like, but is it, though? Because I haven't heard anything concrete. I haven't seen any pictures or whatever. And I'm mucking the rake a little bit. I'm rake mucking. Muck raking, what do you call it? All the muck that's fit to rake, I think, was the Homer Simpson's website back in the day. So I don't know. I haven't heard anything concrete about this. I'll tell you what, though, since we're in the realm of rumors, Death Star Mechanism has my jimmies completely rustled. And, yeah, I think I would put that game right next to my other one. If a Star Wars game comes out, classic trilogy, with another Death Star Mechanism, and learning what they've learned from the past. I'm sure it's not going to be as hard to shoot it up in there. And then if John Borg is doing it, are we just going to see Rush, but instead of the magnet in the center for the time machine, it's going to be a Death Star? Oh, gosh, this thing could go sideways. Listen, I'm a casual observer. I'm along for the ride. I can't wait to see what this game is now. Please, please, let's get to September and see what we got. this will be game of the stern i guess for expo uh once we get to october where there'll be like you know 20 of them out there try every trim level um you know find the designer have them sign your translate or whatever but then i also believe uh we should see a remake as well and are we going to get double borg if it is walking dead dawn where's ghostbusters i want ghostbusters here's what i'm thinking and i haven't heard anything concrete about this this is like kind of just a rumor that I'm creating and putting out there. I think Stern is probably going to do a Ghostbusters remaster. That probably won't change the layout or something. Maybe it'll change some of the rules. It would be nice if it had a nice flipper gap, but then you'd have to go through and re-engineer a lot of the ball paths or whatever, which I think is doable. But is it doable enough that they would need to do it? I think it would sell regardless. I think they're going to do Ghostbusters. I just don't think they have any reason to do it now. or maybe they need a little bit more time or maybe they're still negotiating with the license or whatever. I think in that same vein, they know Lord of the Rings Remastered would absolutely sell 1,500 games, no problem. And so I don't think there's anything that's completely insurmountable in terms of licensing to get that game except for maybe assets. We'll have to see what they would get. But I think a Lord of the Rings Remastered with some cool code in it, some cool code update, give it a little bit more edge, build it in a bigger cabinet. If they could get some film footage, that would be amazing. So I think we'll still see those, but maybe not for one to two years. It sounds like Walking Dead is going to come out and be the remake for this year. I'm all down for that. It's a game that I've also kind of always liked but just never got around to trying to own it because there's always been something else better. But, man, that would be something. That would be something. That's where we're at in pinball right now. Jersey Jack is cranking out these Harry Potters. Mine has sold, and again, I need money for a project, and I've had plenty of willing buyers. So that was an easy thing to say, go ahead and do. We still haven't heard when they're supposed to do this cutoff for their collector's editions. Now, this was an unlimited game this time. The limited edition was 5,000. The collector's edition was unlimited by number, but was supposed to be limited by time, in which there was going to be a time frame where sales would close permanently. and once those orders were fulfilled, that's all the games that would be made. Now, games have been selling well. I don't think that's a secret. And personally if I was a shot caller at Jersey Jack Pinball I would just sit there and wait until the orders just quit coming in altogether and then give it another two weeks and then goose the public with a last call And then it would shut that off. And heck, you know, that might be a year from now before they do that. All that would be great for me as a former and possible future owner of Harry Potter, because the more machines that are out there, the more that price is going to come down and the more I can snag it again, man. because the game's fun. The game is fun. How are you going to cram seven movies worth of content into a game? Well, you do it through 30-second modes, and that's good, it's bad, it's whatever. I think that's the only fair way to do it. To me, this kind of stinks a bit like Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Any of you play that back in the day? This was an idea where they wanted to get every Mortal Kombat character all together in the same game, right? so there's like 57 characters or something and they're not going to sit there and code fatalities like two to three per person for like 50 people. So they came up with this idea where they would just do a dial of fatality. So as you hit random buttons, heads would go flying off, backs would go ripping out and people would explode and turn into dust and stuff. And it was just lackluster because nobody had a signature fatality. I think it was Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Maybe Mortal Kombat Gold. It was in that era there. So it feels a little bit like that. Like, okay, hey, guess what? While you're fighting that Death Eater, while you're trying to get the Quidditch multiball, you're also in the potions classroom chasing blue pixies for 30 seconds. Hit the red and green shots or red and gold shots, I guess, if you're even paying attention. So it's a little bit everything all at once everywhere. But to be honest, I can't think of a much better way to do that without narrowing the focus to just one or two films and doing a completely different game afterwards with the other ones. but with how this game is selling and the pace at which games are coming out from the factory, um, I kind of think it might be another 17 months until we see another release from JJP. They have told me, no, they're still planning on doing like their yearly or maybe every 10 month release. Um, but you know, are they going to run lines concomitantly? Are they going to switch back and forth? I guess we'll just have to wait and see what's happening from there. Where's the new release from American pinball Don? Don't you have any contacts over there? Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, I do have a sales contact over there. He's still gainfully employed. I checked in with him about a week ago or so. Just, hey, how you doing? How are the kids? How's everything going on? Got anything coming out soon maybe? Just trying to get a feel for what's going on. We're getting predatored. We're getting ABBA'd. Portal is forecasted and prophesied to be coming out sometime at the end of the second age of men. so where's the new release from American Pinball it has been, I just checked today 17 months since we saw the reveal of Berrio's Barbecue Challenge so there's that I don't think that's enough to stand on for 17 months Harry Potter could probably do that, sure Berrio's Barbecue Challenge, I don't think so where's this next game I have heard from an official source that it's still planned to be coming at some point I didn't hear any word on why it's delayed that's all in the realm of rumor but officially I did hear something that the plan is still to release this game now what that means I have no earthly clue the rumor I've heard is that the license holder would really like this game to be completely code complete and done and polished by the time it's released something that no machine ever does or at least hasn't done since the 80's when we had games that didn't even have Did CSI ever get final code in it or X-Files or anything? I think when they were out, that was it. So back in the day, that probably worked. I think the community could absorb a game that's about 80% of the way there, especially if it plays good, which it does. And then we'd be okay with code updates in the future. On the other hand, coming from a company that seems to be not the most engaging right now, they're not on the socials talking to us, it sure would be reassuring to know that your game was already code complete and you weren't thinking to wait one year, two year, 27 months, 60 months for a code update that never comes. Hashtag John Wick. I know Wick is getting better. Another code release just happened. I'm teasing the Wick, but I was kind of edged there for quite a while. Same with X-Men. And where's the other D&D modes? I want to unlock the other characters. Come on. Game's sitting behind me. I want to fire it up. Let's go. All right. so I think that's probably everything that we have to talk about at this moment thank you for joining me here for episode number 199 if you want to get yourself on a list for a forthcoming game jeff at madpinball.com boy I think he just got back from Japan like my happy place my god if you have any kind of inclination that you think you might want to go to Japan and you've never been please do yourself a favor and go and then email me back and tell me that Don was right this is the most magical place I've ever been to. It's nothing but fun everywhere you go. You don't need a strict itinerary. You don't need to speak the language. Just go have fun, man. It's a completely different cultural playground, and it's wild, man. It's wild. To that end, I've been five times, so if I want to get my new berries rustled, go into something new and exotic, I have to go to places like Delhi, India, which I just went to. So holy crap, man. Someone please save me. I'm looking to go into some more Southeast Asia countries just because I need that fix. But if you haven't been to Japan, get it on over there, man. Get it on over there. Jeff at MattBendBall.com I think he's coming back. He's got a list for the new Spook and every other title. And he gets used titles and things. We have a deal running with WAP where you get some t-shirts. I'm about to send out the last couple bit and get them caught up. So if you've ordered from Jeff and used the WAP code, your stuff is on its way this freaking week. Otherwise, if you guys have ordered anything, it should be on its way to you right now I think I'm finally caught up after the Florida trip, the Benton trip life in general trying to work to pay for all these things I think we're caught up again for the moment, check out the Pinball Studio if you're down in Savannah, Georgia with my buddy Sterling for his tournaments that he runs out there there's your tournament talk segment everybody else, be cool man I think you guys are rad let's hit that new cool outro music I found online Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is how you get at me. I've got a Discord. Ask me for a link. I'll get you in there. Follow the Facebook page. Check out the YouTube channel. Also, Don's Pinball Podcast for all kinds of wacky nonsense. And, dude, do yourself a favor and check out both the Patreon episode and the WAP episode of the Spooky Interview. It's fire. And then if you want to enter into monthly giveaways, and here's some bonus stuff periodically from me, patreon.com backslash donspinballpodcast. Let's go get some dinner. Thank you.