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DPP #83 "The bird-brained episode!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·33m 32s·analyzed·Nov 24, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Don's Pinball Podcast #83 covers P3 games, Stern app launch, GTF pricing backlash, and Spooky's mystery game teasing.

Summary

Don discusses Thanksgiving-themed pinball news including the Multimorphic P3 platform's new downloadable games (Birdwatcher, Dungeon Door Master), Stern's new Insider Connected app launch, American Pinball's controversial $16,000 Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition bundle, and speculation about an unannounced Spooky Pinball game based on prototype parts being distributed to community figures.

Key Claims

  • Multimorphic P3 system allows purchase of one $11,000-$13,000 machine with swappable $3,500 modules instead of buying multiple full-priced games

    high confidence · Don discussing P3 economics and appeal to space-constrained collectors

  • Birdwatcher is a new downloadable P3 game priced at $149 that integrates with six different P3 modules and involves photographing birds that appear on the LCD screen

    high confidence · Don reviewing new P3 downloadable game released alongside episode

  • Dungeon Door Master is a tower defense-style P3 downloadable game priced at $199

    high confidence · Don discussing Buffalo Pinball stream coverage of the game

  • Stern Insider Connected app initially experienced server overload at launch due to mass simultaneous downloads across social media

    high confidence · Don's direct observation of app launch issues and recovery

  • American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition costs $16,000 for promotional items (posters, pint glass, thermos, lunchbox, signed apron) plus a lenticular translight

    high confidence · Don detailing the $16,000 bundle contents and criticizing the value proposition

  • Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition is limited to 200 units and has not yet been manufactured despite being announced

    high confidence · Don noting these are pre-orders for unmade machines with unclear delivery timeline

  • Spooky Pinball is distributing prototype parts of an unannounced game to community figures (Don, Cary Hardy, others) in a phased teaser campaign

    high confidence · Don's livestream discussion and receipt of prototype playfield component

  • Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo run is numbered to 1969 units to coincide with the show's 1969 debut year

    high confidence · Don explaining Spooky's production numbering strategy and UK distributor inventory

Notable Quotes

  • “I love the ingenuity behind this device... A way to integrate to either the virtual with the practical.”

    Don @ early in episode — Core positive take on P3 platform's modular innovation despite technical concerns

  • “They flew towards the sun, but they came short of that glory, dear listener. The $16,000 got you... a promotional banner, some art prints... a pint glass... a thermos... a lunchbox.”

    Don @ mid-episode GTF discussion — Sarcastic critique of GTF Signature Edition value; icarus metaphor for overreach

  • “When a signature comes on Elvira, it's something that's really cool... But when the signature comes from the design team for Galactic Tank Force, okay, but $6,000 though.”

    Don @ GTF signature discussion — Comparative framing of signature value; questions design team brand vs celebrity IP

  • “They announced this $16,000 wild upgrade at a time when the market is at the lowest point that I think it's been in about three years. What in the heck, man?”

    Don @ GTF market timing critique — Signals market timing concern; suggests poor business judgment relative to market conditions

  • “I think we're going to be getting close to their next game release. And I think that's why we're seeing these parts show up.”

    Don @ Spooky speculation section — Core thesis linking prototype distribution to imminent game announcement

  • “I started this project in January. We're not even through the entire first year yet, and I've already surpassed, like, every benchmark that I had set for myself for this. So thank you for listening.”

    Don @ Thanksgiving gratitude section — Personal milestone and community appreciation; context for show growth

  • “If you're shelling out this much money for this game that you have never played, when are you going to get it? Well, the answer to when you're going to get it is not even yet because these things haven't even been made.”

    Don @ GTF availability criticism — Highlights pre-order risk and production uncertainty for $16k machines

Entities

Multimorphic P3productBirdwatchergameDungeon Door MastergameStern Insider Connected appproductGalactic Tank ForcegameAmerican Pinball Inc.companySpooky PinballcompanyScooby-DoogameDon

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Galactic Tank Force appears to have slow market adoption despite being released; unclear production/distribution status; unclear when Signature Edition machines will actually be manufactured

    medium · Don: 'American Pinball... released Galactic Tank Force... it just been kind of slow to get going... Where are all these games? How come every arcade doesn't have a Galactic Tank Force in it? What's going on with production? Who the heck knows?... these things haven't even been made'

  • ?

    community_signal: Don announcing plans to conduct bi-monthly Patreon giveaways (starting December 15 with Godzilla pinball banner) to clear excess merchandise and reward community support

    high · Don: 'I was thinking maybe every two months, we just pick a random Patreon member. We give them something really cool... I think I would like to give away... a Godzilla pinball banner... on December 15th'

  • ?

    community_signal: Don's Pinball Podcast exceeded first-year benchmarks after launching in January; strong community engagement across live chat, Patreon, and social platforms

    high · Don: 'I started this project in January. We're not even through the entire first year yet, and I've already surpassed, like, every benchmark that I had set for myself'

  • $

    market_signal: Growing tension between premium pricing (three-tier Pro/Premium/LE models with $16k+ options) and actual market demand; observers questioning sustainability of markup structure during market downturn

    medium · Don's entire GTF Signature Edition critique frames pricing structure as disconnected from value delivery and market conditions

  • $

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.101

0:00
oh my god is it thanksgiving hey everybody what's going on let's get our christmas sweaters picked out because it's going to pick up tomorrow after the turkey is done and after the shopping commences it's going to be the post thanksgiving pre christmas holiday season and we're going to fit in a nice little episode of don's pinball podcast here to frost your cranberries let's say we're going to talk about a whole lot of news including the new deals that are coming up starting tomorrow. So get ready. Get hyped. Tell Uncle Mo to go talk his political nonsense in the other room. Let's grab some pie, dude, and kick back.
0:42
Gonna call this the Bird Brain episode. Given a bit of bird content that we have and not just of the turkey variety. You know, it was originally going to be America's mascot, the turkey, and it was because of, not Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin was really leaning into heavy that according to the lore of the United States because of the role that Turkey played in satiating the appetites of those early pioneers that showed up to a place where there were already people living. I digress. Let's get into more bird brain ideas. Bird brain idea number one comes in the form of the P3 multimorphic system. So yesterday, my wife's birthday, we were out scourging around the arcades in the Madison, Wisconsin region. as we're wont to do, right? And so, you know, hit up Pinball Map, see what's new, see what's out there. And I noticed that one of the local malls had a P3 multimorphic machine on public operations with Weird Al. And I was like, well, let's go and do this. This is a game that I don't have a ton of time on. I played it at Expo last year. I played it at Expo this year. You know, and it's a theme that, you know, really speaks to me. Love Weird Al, man. Always love the dude. So we roll up in there and we play this thing on location And it was playing great We didn't have any problems with it It was on the scan card So we bought a $15 card Got about 50 plays for that So heck of a deal And we sat there and put a couple games through there And I kind of This system man I love the ingenuity behind it And I think this is kind of like what I posted earlier People were asking, Don what do you think of this I love the ingenuity behind this device A way to integrate to either the virtual with the practical. And I get the appeal of buying one machine with replaceable units so you don't have to buy a $10,000 machine after $8,000 machine after a $16,000 machine. You can buy one, what, $11,000 to $13,000 machine and then get yourself $3,500 modules and switch in and out. So I get that appeal. If you've got a small amount of floor space and a big pinball appetite, this is a way to do it. The thing is just I don't understand this machine. Like, you know, if I need to work on this machine, I don't know how to disassemble it. I'd have to learn a whole new set of skills to do this. I appreciate that there is one on location. Find one on location near you and play it. For the P3 Multimorphic folks that I've talked to that own them, they can give you 100 reasons why they're happy they own it. And, you know, just like most things, people that don't own one can come up with an equally compelable list of reasons they don't own this machine. And, you know, peeking under the hood, there is a YouTube video of an operator that opened one of these up. And it's just loaded with servos that are going to need to be replaced at some point. And it's just kind of daunting to me, you know. You know, I've got a Venom in here. I've got a Foo Fighters in here. I can pack them up and get them on when I'm done with them and get something else new in. That's kind of how I do it, but I'm blessed with some basement room. So other burn-brained ideas, and this is a point of difference for the P3 Multimorphic. It's something that sets it apart. are downloadable games, right? So this machine really is a platform. And I do like this fact that you can, for a few hundred dollars, download content to play with your games. And there is a new game to play, and it is called Birdwatcher. So it is right on brand for this Birdbrain-themed episode. So Birdwatcher will set you back $149 to download this game to your multimorphic machine, to your P3. And it actually interacts with six different modules, Lexi Lightspeed, the Cannon Lagoon, Cosmic Cart Heist, Weird Al, Drained. Probably all ones, except for Drained, that every P3 Multimorphic person would own. So in this game, it changes that LCD screen to a play field of what looks like a nice cityscape with a park and a lot of bushes that are there. Out of those bushes, poorly rendered birds come flying out, and you try to hit them with your pinball machine or pinballs, not to destroy them, but to photograph them. and then they go into your file, and then you keep them there, I guess. And so as you're playing Lexi Lightspeed or Weird Al or whatever, you're also hitting birds. I don't think that there's the full integration of the actual game module in here, so it's not like you're playing heist plus birds. I think you're playing birds with, like, the heist shots tied into the bird gameplay, as it were. Something cool about this, with each different module, there is a specific bird locked or tagged to that module that you can collect. So it gives you a reason, I guess, to collect birds and then swap out a module and collect even more birds. So this is a bird game that exists for the P3 system. It's called Bird Watcher by Ian Harrower. Yeah, $1.49. That'll get you that. Also recently released was Dungeon Door Master. I'd heard about this. the folks at Buffalo Pinball did a stream on it. I think they were talking about the creator or something. This actually looks like a pretty fun little game. It's $199 and it functions kind of like a tower defense game where there's waves of enemies that come. You can kill them with your pinball which will work at first until they level up and get harder and then you start needing to recruit other allies to walk across this play field and battle these people. Then there's upgrades and after each round you exchange your money that you can collect as a hurry up after you defeat the last person to upgrade your door and play continues. You guys have played these type of tower defense games before. I like this kind of integration. This is fun. If I had one of these machines, I would consider going on something like this. Alas, I don't. But, all the same, it is out there, so go check out Dungeon Door Master. I'm sure if you've got a P3, you've probably already downloaded these things. But I wanted to bring special attention to Birdwatcher. What else do we have? Birdbrained ideas along that theme. Stern launched their Insider Connected app the other day. Did you? Everybody has seen this, I'm sure, by now. We knew it was coming, right? You know, the Stern Insider Connected QR code that lets you log in and track your progress, most importantly with Venom, across, you know, Stern's line of Spike 2 machines. So yeah, they finally do have an app now, so you don't have to go and find that screenshot that's dug into your phone. You don't have to go and, I put mine in my Apple wallet, seems to be the easiest way to get it. But now there will be an app that you can access that will pull you in there not only gets your qr code to log in but also as a quick reference to see you know what badges you've got what achievements you've got what your last scores were on whatever game what your top scores are like there's a lot of functionality that's in there it stumbled a bit out of the gate probably because you know this thing was blown up everywhere on the socials when it was launched and then everybody went to go download at the same time overloading the systems i've been in and out i'm not having any problems logging in or out but there were some hiccups there initially at the launch which you know i mean we all knew this was coming and everybody instantly did the same thing that I did, which is go and download it and try to get in at the same dang time. So probably this will be worked out going forward. And there is now a Stern Insider Connected app, which, you know, is one other easier way to get in there or just take your Insider Connected and put it into your Apple wallet. But I will say it is cool having, you know, quicker access to the functionality part of it. And I found myself sitting there and scrolling through to make sure like I've actually scanned in, you know, on every IC connected game and then been able to find out where I need all these achievements. I need to play a whole lot more Gardens of the Galaxy. I need to play a whole lot more Beatles and Munsters, those games being somewhat rare out in the wild, to play there. So Birdbrain Day continues. We saw... This is Galactic Tank Force We going to talk about Galactic Tank Force So GTF from American Pinball our friends yours and mine released Galactic Tank Force It seems like a year ago And it just been kind of I guess slow to get going I don't know. It's just kind of a stuttered rollout. You know, this was a game that was available in a few locations and still is.

Spooky Pinball likely to announce next game after current Scooby-Doo production completes, possibly in January after holiday retooling

medium confidence · Don's speculation based on production timeline and prototype distribution pattern

  • Pinball Brothers has an Alien Ripley edition available at $7,995 as a Black Friday deal

    medium confidence · Don mentioning Ripley edition pricing at end of episode, details cut off in transcript

  • “Maybe it's some component that goes underneath an upper play field or something or it's part of a subway. Or maybe it's new a handle system to carry your play field. I have no idea what this thing is.”

    Don @ prototype description — Shows genuine uncertainty; indicates Spooky's secrecy around game mechanics is working

    • person
    Ian Harrowerperson
    David Fixperson
    Cary Hardyperson
    Jeff (Mad Pinball)person
    Buffalo Pinballcompany
    Pinball Heaven UKcompany
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Jack Dangerperson
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Poor Man's Pinball Podcast Networkorganization
    IAAPA Expoevent

    market_signal: Don identifies current market as 'at the lowest point that I think it's been in about three years,' yet American Pinball announced premium $16,000 pricing tier simultaneously

    high · Don: 'they announced this $16,000 wild upgrade at a time when the market is at the lowest point that I think it's been in about three years. What in the heck, man?'

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball's $16,000 GTF Signature Edition heavily criticized as $6,000 markup for promotional material (posters, pint glass, thermos, signed apron) when base tank edition costs ~$11,000-$12,000

    high · Don's detailed breakdown: 'For an extra $6,000 or so got you the thermos... some sort of 3D back glass... signatures... I don't think quite there is a match between the cost of the $16,000 bundle with what you actually get'

  • ?

    announcement: Two new P3 downloadable games released: Birdwatcher ($149, bird photography mechanic) and Dungeon Door Master ($199, tower defense mechanics)

    high · Don: 'Birdwatcher will set you back $149... Dungeon Door Master... It's $199 and it functions kind of like a tower defense game'

  • ?

    announcement: Stern Insider Connected app officially launched with QR login, achievement tracking, leaderboards, and badge management for Spike 2 machines; initial server overload from social media attention

    high · Don: 'Stern launched their Insider Connected app the other day... they finally do have an app now... probably because this thing was blown up everywhere on the socials when it was launched and then everybody went to go download at the same time'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo production at approximately 1,800-1,900 units of planned 1,969 total, suggesting 200-400 machines remain; new game announcement likely by January after holiday retooling

    medium · Don analyzing numbering: 'they must have around 200 to 400 machines maybe left to build... If they getting ready to kind of come up with the end of the Scooby line here going into December they may shut down for the holidays retool and then start building a new game in January'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Spooky Pinball actively teasing unannounced game through phased prototype distribution to community figures; parts include sliding bookcase, 3D printed subway, and upper playfield component

    high · Don: 'They are sending out prototype parts of this new game to different people... They've seen the sliding bookcase... the 3D printed subway... Last night I got myself what I think could be a component of an upper play field'

    • 8:38
    You know, maybe that's because, you know, certain suppliers didn't receive their full allotment when they ordered them. And then we tried to strong arm into buying other games, you know, on the back end. that's here nor there we have a released trailer now for the signature edition now when this game launched uh they did have a price for their you know whatever limited edition with the the whole tank business and then their deluxe edition which is kind of like the functional form you would probably want and then there was a a subset of their limited edition the tank cabinets that they labeled their signature edition and from what i can recollect i think the tank editions were like $11,000, $12,000 or so around there. If you wanted the full tank, you know, limited whatever. And then the signature edition was going to be limited to only 200 units at a cost of $16,000, right? So automatically you're thinking, my God, this thing has to be gold-plated, the tank treads have to be real, this thing has to drive around my living room and deliver me drinks or something. I should be able to get into this cabinet and pilot it around my room. Well, they flew towards the sun, but they came short of that glory, dear listener. The $16,000 got you, among other things, a promotional banner, some art prints, something we humans call posters. It came with like a pint glass. It came with a thermos to a lunchbox. Now, I think the lunchbox came with the limited, but the signature edition for an extra $6,000 or so got you the thermos with it.
    10:04
    And then you got some sort of 3D back glass or trans light, and then some other nebulous things, signatures of the design team that put this game together. So that was a lot, and there were no details about this. When is this going to be available? Who is this going to be made for? If you're shelling out this much money for this game that you have never played, when are you going to get it? Well, the answer to when you're going to get it is not even yet because these things haven't even been made. They just dropped this trailer. The trailer is bonkers. I will say the production quality and the concept of the trailer, top shelf. Totally dig it. I love little Billy there or Bobby or whoever it is. I like dude, Moon Stalker, Duke Kaboom, Moon Drakeman, you know, the dude, the dude from the game. He's back, the actor, in full regalia, in a kitchen. It's kind of kitschy. It's kind of fun. He's a little stern with Billy, which I kind of dig.
    10:54
    But I don't think quite there is a match, a congruent match between the cost of the $16,000 bundle with what you actually get. Now, when I go buy Mortal Kombat, right, I could pay $69.99 for the game. I could pay $100 for the game and a steel book. I could pay $199 for the game and get the bust of Scorpion to stick on a countertop somewhere in my house and forget about it. You know, and that's kind of the spread, right? If you go big, you know, you get the little art print, you get the metal book, you get the bust of the character from the game or something. I think, you know, the $1,000 version of Halo came with like a helmet you could wear around or something. And that's probably like the biggest thing I've seen. This is $6,000 for what amounts to a pile of promotional material, and this killed me. When they showed the pint glass, which is a regulation-sized pint glass with a graphic logo for Galactic Tank Force, something that I'm sure a 4imprint can get to you, they claimed that it was a refillable pint glass that you got. And I get that that was probably a joke, but that was just hilarious. and as big of a joke as that I don't think it matches the big of a joke of the price of $16,000 for this now the game itself they say it comes with a diamond coated play field I'm not sure exactly what they mean by that I don't know if there's an extra coating that's on it or if just they're talking about the play field that's in every one of the games they took the sculpts that are in the game the droids the little scout probe guys, the little camera dudes that Anoya sends out that are in there and the tank, the 3D printed parts, right? Look like they're done with a filament printer. They've gone along and highlighted them with some glow-in-the-dark paint. Oh, they also advertised that there are Titan glow-in-the-dark bands, you know, all throughout this game, which, again, are available from Titan for pennies, man, and then just the labor to put them in. So, you know, I get that it's cool. I'm sure the look is great. But $6,000 for all this? Wait, there's more. They've also powder-coated the armor, the lock bar, and the legs, but not the speaker panel, not the coin door. You'd have to do that on your own. And then the 3D holographic or whatever, laticular translight or back glass, I'm still not sure exactly what this product is. People that have seen it says it's impressive. Is it a back glass that's laticular? Because I don't know that that technology exists. I think this may be a laticular translight that's placed in front of a piece of glass, and maybe that's how they've done it. That's what it looks like from the video. Like, this is just a laticular, which, you know, okay, I get it. I think I would take a mirrored black back glass over this if I was going for a top-end edition. But in other words, the tank cabinet is the same. This whole thing is bonkers. What am I missing? Someone please help me out. Why is it $6,000 for promotional material, some posters, and a refillable pint glass? What am I missing with this? If I did have the tank edition and I wanted to achieve this look, I would powder coat all the metal. I would take the sculpts out and my wife and some poster paint and deal with that. At the same time, I'd go and put all the Titan bands in, and I kind of think I'd have the exact same thing, sans the Translight back glass thing. The other thing you get is the apron signed in what appears to be silver Sharpie by every one of the design team. There's like 10 signatures on this thing, and it looks a little strange. Okay, if I was buying a pinball machine themed after the Chicago Bulls and it was signed by the entire team, I would think that was pretty cool. If I was buying a pinball machine from some dudes in Chicago, I don't know that I would put that much into their signatures personally. When a signature comes on Elvira, it's something that's really cool. When a signature comes on Foo Fighters of Jack Danger, it's kind of neat. But when the signature comes from the design team for Galactic Tank Force, okay, but $6,000 though. $6,000 is what you're paying for that. I don't understand what occurred in that meeting at that time that they came out. And to put the cherry on the top of this bird idea, to keep in theme, they announced this $16,000 wild upgrade at a time when the market is at the lowest point that I think it's been in about three years. What in the heck, man? And where are all these games? How come every arcade doesn't have a Galactic Tank Force in it? What's going on with production? Who the heck knows? There was one of these at the IAAPA Expo, and I think it's probably on its way to flipping out. I think he arranged a special deal or some sort of special arrangement with American Pinball to procure all of their show-used games. So maybe he's got some special turkey people on his list. Let's switch some gears here to some other non-bird-brained ideas here for a second.
    15:37
    Let's put on a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special here. and let's just talk and let's reflect and let's do the thing that you do at this time of year, which is to be thankful for everybody and everything that's been going on in your life or supporting you thus far. First off, for me, the feedback I receive from everybody that listens to the content, watches the live streams, reaches out, sends me stuff to review, and receives things that I send out. I'm so very thankful for each and every one of you, and I have to take a moment to thank y'all, right? Not just the folks on the Facebook page, not just the folks on the Patreon, you know, but the folks that are jumping in the chat every time I come up and come on, whatever I'm doing live. You know, when I'm repairing the brakes in my garage and I just want to chat some pinball, y'all are there, and that is amazing. I started this project in January. We're not even through the entire first year yet, and I've already surpassed, like, you know, every benchmark that I had set for myself for this. So thank you for listening, I guess is the thing. Thank you for letting me come in along your commute Or your run or your dog walk Or you out there on the riding mower The old zero turn you know the one I talking about And you out there cutting the grass and getting your brain soaked up with the latest in pinball rant slash news I just want to thank all the manufacturers of the games that we play. These hobbies can't exist without the manufacturers. The home brewers can't do it all on their own. So from the likes of Stern out there in Chicago and everybody else in Chicago, really, to the cool crew at Spooky Man. Did you see the live stream we did last night? They got prototype parts that are coming out. That was just fantastic. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for the crew at Jersey Jack Pinball for hanging out with me in IAAPA. Let me hang out the booth, play the heck out of your games, especially some Elton John. Man, I put a lot of games Elton John on there. I blew the game up once even. Had a great time with them. The game is cool, but more so than that, the people. Hanging out with Jack, talking to him about his game that his company is selling, Ken and the way that he's putting the marketing out for it and just the humans that are behind the scenes of all of this that goes on, we rant and rave about a weak flipper, where the hell is that code update all valid concerns but behind it all, there's real people that are doing this, and for that we're thankful what else we got, American Pinball first, thanks for everybody from David Fix through the 10 other people that have signed that apron on Galactic Tank Force for not only having a company that's putting games out,
    18:09
    ish, but also for organizing Pinball Expo, man. You know, Fix does a lot to get games there. You know, one of the ways we all got to play Pony Factory on the show floor was because it was sent to American Pinball, and they went and set it up for us and brought it to the show so it could be unveiled. You know, say what you want about the game, the price, the market, whatever it is. Thanks to the people behind it that made it possible. That was a heck of a fun weekend. IAAPA was like leagues beyond it, even, if you can imagine. But it wasn't just pinball, though. It was every sort of manner of themed entertainment enterprise that we have. Who else do we have on the list? We talked about the people. How about the mod makers? Let's pause and give a shout-out to the people that make those modifications for our games. Subdude, maker of the pinwoofer. Is this like the most popular universal modification for a pinball machine? Ask anybody that's got one pinwoofer, and they've got ten. They've got one in every one of their games, right? This guy's created his own audio platform, and man, it's got its adherence. I just put another one in Elvira House of Horrors right here for a customer.
    19:14
    So shout out to him. Shout out to Flip Mods, Rocket City Pinball, Duke Pinball, maker of Supreme Banners, of which I have some. Diddy, dude, the bro, man. Stumbler, you know who you are. And just everybody that's out there and being creative in this space. just to take... We all have the games that we get, and we're like, as soon as I get this game, I know what I'm doing. Whether it's pin stadiums you're putting in there, whether it's pin woofers, titan bands that you're throwing in there, everything. Thanks to everybody that's making this hobby as fun as it is for everybody. Thanks to the players. Thanks to the operators. Thanks to the tournament directors. The local tournament directors. That dude that's down there that's putting on that monthly tournament every month that you just get to show up for, pay your 20 bucks, have a couple beers or diet sodas, and play some pinball. Maybe you get some whoppers. Maybe you get some points. Maybe you get some drains. Maybe you get some house balls. But we're all having fun and on a consistent basis. So thanks so much for that. Also, I've got to give a huge shout-out to this show's sponsor, Mad Pinball.
    20:18
    I mean, come on. Come on. This, what I'm doing at this level, is not, I'm not able to do it without a partner like this, man. Email Jeff at Mad Pinball. Get you something.
    20:34
    You want a Black Friday deal? You want to put something under the tree? Call Jeff. He's got inventory.
    20:46
    I mean, come on. You want a topper? He's got toppers. Have some Godfather accessories. I believe they're in stock.
    21:00
    I do want to talk about the stream from last night. If you guys haven't checked it out, it's on YouTube. I streamed this on YouTube. Spooky Pinball has a brand new game coming out. And the conjecture of what this game is is all over the place. They're doing something super fun. They are sending out prototype parts of this new game to different people, different loudmouths in the pinball ephemer or diaspora out there, to unbox and review and leak like the next clue. And then collectively we're all kind of racking our brains as each part is revealed what's going on. We've seen the sliding bookcase come out. We saw the 3D printed subway that Cary Hardy got. Last night I got myself what I think could be a component of an upper play field. It's as thick as a play field. It's a small piece of it. It looks like it would go in the back of a play field, kind of an upper area, It could be a shelf you could stick balls up into and then they roll out or some such thing.
    21:59
    Maybe it's some component that goes underneath an upper play field or something or it's part of a subway. Or maybe it's new a handle system to carry your play field. I have no idea what this thing is, but I did reveal it on the stream. And not just that, but they sent the whole family here some lovely spooky merchandise. So that was fun. Speculating here-wise, and I talked about this on the stream last night. For those of you that got it, here's the gist. Pinball Heaven in the UK just took a big supply a big shipment of Scooby-Doo pinball machines and the run of Scooby-Doo was 1969 to coincide with the year that the show came out and when we when Scooby let's rewind, when Spooky Pinball is done building those 1969 they're going to have an empty line and they're going to need a retool and put another game on there and that's when we're going to get the next game from them so we're watching that, we're watching the Scooby builds because as they approach you know, that last few hundred, we're probably going to get a reveal around that time. So I saw a number in the 1800s that showed up in the UK. And so I asked, hey, buddy, are these all collector's editions that you got? And he said, no, no, these are all sorts of different editions. So it's like one big shipping container probably made it to Europe, and now these can be, you know, diaspored, dispersed, you know, throughout the region there, particularly in the UK, of all their different sizes and whatnot. So when Spooky does numbering, right, they don't just go sequential. You know, number one is a CE. When we're done with the CEs, then we start with that next build. We'll be the bloodsuckers, and the next build after that will be the standards. They do something like, well, we'll start building the CEs. We'll start numbering the bloodsuckers at, say, 1,600. We'll start numbering the standard ones at 1,800, and then we'll kind of go from there. And then whatever's left over, the numbers will get kind of adjusted or whatever. So this 1,800 number run can either be a CE, meaning they sold 1,800 of these things or at least built them, meaning we're just about done with the build, or it could have been the start of the Bloodsuckers started at 18, or the start of the Standard Editions are 18.
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    But they have to be around 1,400 or so for the CEs. So I guess what I'm trying to say is they must have around 200 to 400 machines maybe left to build, and so I think we are going to be getting close to their next game release. And I think that's why we're seeing these parts show up. Now, I thought initially they'd be sending out mass shipments all at once, and they'd be showing up with everybody. But it seems like they're doing a phased release, right? I started getting contacted like, hey, we got something coming for you a few weeks ago, and I was super excited. And then later on they started asking, hey, what size of stuff does your family wear? So I could tell it hadn't shipped yet or anything. And then it just shipped overnight the other day, and I got it yesterday. So I think what they're doing is timing these releases. Okay, we want this piece to come out in this order. And so I think as they're revealed more and more, I think NAP's going to be getting one. I think probably Kineticis is probably going to be getting one. I think as we go on, it's going to be more and more clear exactly what's coming up, and that's going to lead to a big reveal. Initially, I was forecasting it to be sometime in March with the Texas Pinball Festival, but I think we might see something sooner. If they getting ready to kind of come up with the end of the Scooby line here going into December they may shut down for the holidays retool and then start building a new game in January which is just what they did with Scooby Anyway I think we close It was fun doing that stream last night. Thank you so much for everybody that jumped in the chat and talked. I've got a whole load of things I need to collate and catalog so I can do some systematic giveaways of all this stuff. I've got too much pinball swag. I've got translates. I've got banners. I've got mod parts. I've got duplicates of things. I've got to get rid of this stuff. I'm going to have to clear house here by the end of the year. If you're listening, keep listening. Follow the Facebook page if you haven't because I jump on there for live streams. I like to do giveaways that way. The Patreon members are going to start getting a whole lot more new stuff. You haven't joined yet. Five bucks a month. Get in on that. What I'm thinking and I haven't really mentioned this officially yet, but why not do it now? I was thinking maybe every two months, we just pick a random Patreon member. We give them something really cool like a trans light, like a banner, like a mod, like a stack of t-shirts, like something. I've got too much stuff here and I need to enrich the community and I've got to find a way to do it. And what better way to reward those loyal people that follow at the $5 level on the Patreon but by doing a bi-monthly giveaway? I think that would be super fun. So get in on that. Maybe we'll do the first one next month, like sometime in the middle of the month. Like she's going to cheer you up mid-month there, maybe the 15th of December. Let's do something. Let's do something fun. What would you like? I think I have an official not a reprint not something that was cobbled together bootleg I'm talking about capital O official Godzilla pinball banner that I think I'd like to give away and I think I'd like to give it away on December 15th and I think I would like to just spin the wheel and pick a random Patreon subscriber and send it to them. What do you think? Five bucks will get you in on that? Well it just shows the support. It buys me a beer, buys me a couple games of Galactic Tank Force or Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. So you know If you dig it and you want to give back and you want a chance to win something super awesome, that's one way to do it. Right now there's under 40 people over there, so you stand a good chance of getting something. And maybe I'll just do that every couple of months until I can wither down all these translates and things that I got. Things that I pick up at shows, things I buy late at night when I have a moment of weakness, as I call it, and then I need to clear these things out. I can't keep everything. So maybe we'll do that. I think that'll be fun. Let's get to some other news here that just dropped. we know about the Ripley edition that was coming from Pinball Brothers. I'm going to tie this into a Black Friday deal segment because you can get a deal on a Ripley edition of the Alien Machine 7995. I don't know if that's delivered, but it's landed in the U.S. You don't have to pay the international shipping or customs or anything. But for a wide-body game, it's pretty loaded with Aliens and Aliens 2 code, like you can switch back and forth. If you've wanted one, now's not a bad time to get one, 7995. What they've done, though, is they finally got the ink dried on the contract to use Sigourney Weaver's likeness from Alien, and so they did reveal the actual Translight that will be on this game, which features her in her space helmet staring right at the Alien Queen,
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    and it looks a lot better than, you know, what they had to kind of cobble together to put up on the show floor because nothing was official yet. So it's officially official. Go check that out. Pinball Brothers is posting it all over social media right now. You know, so check that out. If you're interested in Alien, there's one available. Go get you one if you need to have one. It's $79.95. What else do we got for Black Friday deals? Titan Bands, right? They just announced this. There's like 10% to 20% off of their stock of stuff that's in stock. I just went on there and made a $20 purchase, and I got myself a whole sack of slings from the new translucent blue and translucent purple that they came out with. I put those on Venom. I think they look cool, especially on the slings because they kind of transluce the light. Similar to a clear sling would, but they're, like, colored. So, you know, if you want to go with a blue motif, a purple motif, heck, they even got hot pink. Go check it out. Comes in bands, too. so I picked up some in case my silicone bands start to rupture. I've got a stack of backups, so now is not a bad time to stock up on your Titan bands and get yourself an auto-applied discount. Also, though, and this is what I did, they have a set of nut drivers that are hollow, so they can go over longer bolts, and they're magnetic, and I've been wanting to get some. Well, they have some that they sell as a kit. They're $18 or something, so not a bad deal if you don't have one. But they have some other ones that they don't quite have a full set of. They don't have the quarter-inch, the smallest one, but they have the rest of them in stock. And they're selling these things for $2 each for a magnetic hollow nut driver. I bought a set of each other one they had, the 516s, the 3A's. What was the other one they had, the 916s or something? But go check those out. Those are only $2 right now while supplies last. I picked them up from Titan. I did flat rate shipping for $9.99. So there you go. If you need some bands, go and get you some. What other Black Friday deals do we have? of Leor from Art of Pinball over on the Little Shop of Games website. He's doing 10%, 20%, 30% off as a birthday discount, but we'll count it as Black Friday since we are kind of in that region now. So go check that out. This is off of in-stock previously released Leor mods. I'm talking about the ones for Iron Maiden if you want that Oracle, if you want that sandstone carving that goes in the back of the play field. I don't know that there was any Godzilla stuff that was still left up there, but search around the site. There's a whole lot of stuff there. The Lebowski toilet mod is not included in this discount, though, so put that out of your mind. But if you want to get yourself a Leor and you were waiting, you were on the fence, you wanted that sculpted lockdown bar accent for Godzilla, man, go for it. They're on sale right now. What else do we got? American Pinball, our friends, yours and mine, purveyors of Galactic Tank Force, and the Signature Edition. Now, dear listener, you cannot save money on the $16,000 Signature Edition. I think you would only lose money on that deal. But what you could save money on is a Legends of Valhalla. And I heard the rumors about this, and they came to fruition. So for the next few days, if you want to get yourself a Legends of Valhalla, they're knocking $400 off of that. I think I just heard back from a dealer about what that would sell for. Let me see if I can pop back in here. All right, $79.95, Legends of Valhalla. This is for that deluxe edition, which I think they're overburdened with stock. They're going to be running out of these. and then they're talking about making a classic addiction, which would have the skulls but replaced with plastics, which, I mean, that's not as bougie, man. So if you were on the fence on getting the bougie version of Legends of Valhalla, $79.95 from jeffatmadpinball.com, you can get that right now. Otherwise, I was perusing the Pinside space. I've seen Deluxe is listed for $86.95 from Kingpin, new in box. I saw there's a new in box right now on Pinside for $7,500, if you want to pick that one up. There's one $7,700 new in a box or best offer, so kind of offer low on that. Email Jeff to get one or get yourself a used one for $6,000. There's one of those on there. This game doesn't play terrible. I kind of like this game. I don't like this game enough to jump up and buy one right now, but there's worse games out there. I like it a lot better than Hot Wheels. I dare say this Legends of Valhalla may be my favorite American pinball game. So take that for what it is, and there you go. Kerry Hardy just put a YouTube video up. I was just watching it autoplay as I went live here to record, and he's talking all about the crazy deals and everything. So go check out Cherry Hardy's channel. He's recapping all the deals right now. He's probably got way more than I saw here. But, yeah, I think that will do it for our Birdbrain wrapped-up episode. Hopefully right now you're settled into that nice tryptophan coma, sitting on the couch watching football. Your buddy Don's going to be working tonight, but that's okay. We're going to find some pizza in this house somewhere for me, it's my Thanksgiving tradition I do pizza for Thanksgiving but you know thanks everybody for joining not for joining now but for joining on the live streams joining on the Facebook content joining on the YouTube comments joining out in meat space at the expos and things and coming up and hanging out everybody that interacted with this year and in the years going forward man this is all about you and I am thankful for it like subscribe do whatever donspinballpodcast.gmail.com is how you can email me order a t-shirt ask me for something if you want some stickers just hit me up man patreon members always get free stickers just for asking I've got all kinds of ideas of things we're going to do and man that giveaway is coming up I gotta go find a box to stick this Godzilla banner in it's going to a lucky patreon member next month man we won't miss that come on