We are live. I've got to go get another charger for this phone. Hold on a second. Guns and roses. Guns and roses. Little early everybody. Everybody doing All right, let me go see where How you guys doing? Trying to get a little Facebook going here as well. Okay. Little crooked. Needs to charge. It's going to be a little Let me see if there's a stand here somewhere. I know it's not the best shooter, but really when you look at Guns and Roses's display, it is the greatest use of a of a screen in a pinball machine ever. Like I no game has ever done as good of a Let's see. I think this should work. There we go. trying to like get this phone? You guys should just join on YouTube. Really do that. Okay. So, it's um it really is like Can you guys hear me? Okay. Sound okay? I'm not wearing the headset. So, I'm just going to like talk into this and I think it I think it should sound fine, but just want to let me Are we good? All right. Thank you for uh hanging with me for a little bit of a later start. I was taking Kill to soccer. He decided not to like kick the damn ball at all. Like he didn't want to be there. I'm going to just have to keep this here for Facebook. You guys going to have a side angle until I it charges. So, I would just go over to YouTube. We're on YouTube right now. It's It's like It's a better sound. It's a better angle. It's better everything. So just happy Saturday everybody. It is a beautiful day here today. Uh it is like a 75 and sunny. It is perfect. There is an October fest happening at the beach in Rowaden today. So we're going to go there later. And you know how I always feel pinball is a winter sport. So, like on a beautiful Saturday like today, like being out there is really like where you want to be. Um, look, I've um I I I've had like a a fun week with my birthday. A little physically taxing on my body. I think I've been partying a little too hard. Woke up this morning, like went out in the city last night, told me jazz steakhouse dinner. You You ever had those like steakhouse dinners where you wake up the next day, you're like, "What did I do to my body?" Like nothing feels good. Nothing. Like I don't understand why people how they can consistently eat like steakhouse meals. I I feel horrible. Like I would much rather go to like omocas and have like the best quality seafood one bite at a time. Sad boy. Brother, thank you. What's good, brother? Shout out to Walt for calling out that loser. imagine talking trash to more well-known people throughout the community with more of an input than he'll ever have. Absolutely hilarious. Um, I was very happy to hear Walt's video. Uh, it made me it made my day, if you will. I was it was it was hap I was happy to to just have people be on the right side of this whole thing. like it's it's it was a really weird thing that he did. And you know, I think what's really strange about it still to this day is Glenn, who I I don't have him blocked on Facebook or anything, like I don't even think Glenn reached out and and apologized yet for his comments. So really strange to sort of shoot yourself in the foot like that. And then um I think continue to say stuff about others is a is not really a smart approach. Uh I I've haven't really thought about it much since all the drama unfolded like a week ago. I've been more focused on the the show and talking about uh Star Wars and Big Bang Bar and we're going to talk all about that. I've got um Do you guys want to see uh It's just It's funny to me like people thinking, you know, the whole Big Bang Bar issue is is kind of hysterical right now because just going to go look at I think I have some more photos. Let's see. Uh let's see what this is. There's one. I got I got stuff I can't share yet, but this one's my favorite. This is going to be my new He's got fake photos. He doesn't know this is going to be my new um wallpaper on Facebook. But there you go. Um, we're going to talk about um all the games coming. Now, what I'm hearing lately is that uh Tales of the Arabian Knights will be out before the Big Bang Bar remake. So, towed in before Big Bang Barrett Gaming. Okay. So, that is what I'm hearing. I'm also hearing that um ah this weird angle and let me just try to like turn it upside down and all right let's try to do this a little crooked but it's better right all right I'm also hearing okay so let let's talk about it so we're gonna We're going to get Tales of the Arabian Knights from Pretty Gaming with Brian Allen is redoing the art package. Now, Brian Allen did the art package on the Funhouse remake. Funhouse was a game that never really had like the greatest art. I'm not sure you should ever You don't need to redo the art on Todden. You really don't need to redo the art on that game. It It is a stunning game. All you need to do is make toteen with uh CPR gold playfield so the inserts pop more and just brass plate everything and then add in auto plunger to the game because at the end of that game you have to sort of manually plunge when you get to the final battle which I kind of think is a little bit of the charm. Yeah, Hector. So, I mean, obviously they're not happy with me, but it's going to go towed in Big Bang Bar. They've got Circus Voltater. They've got Theater of Magic. And they've got Adam's family, which was like the big surprise is, you know, look, Rick at Planetary Very smart for swooping in and getting all these IPs. I'm just not really sure in in the current climate of pinball. The The problem with Padretti Games is unlike CGC, they do not make their remakes better than the originals. If you could see the what Melvin has done to Big Bang Bar, I mean, chrome plating all the metal on the game, adding so much cool stuff that like makes the game glow more and pop more and more colorful. um you know more light up arrows on ramps, more this more fluorescent like literally Melvin was gonna make the big bang bar like the best example of it ever and Padrey and Rick had the license and so you know Melvin handed off to them his prototype which is honestly what and they're not and I don't think they're going to do it. I I think they're going to go back because they don't because they don't get it. Like they they just want to like make it spec for spec identical. When Melvin was like, "Not only am I going to remake it, but I'm going to make it better than the original ever looked." Um Carrie, you know, it's like it's weird, right, that they're like Melvin Williams has nothing to do with like there that's not true. Like that's kind of a lie. like the game they're working on is built off of his prototype. Like I don't know why they're acting so KY about it. I also think everybody would have loved to have had DPX make an elevated version of Big Bang Bar versus Padre. You know, the problem with Padrei is just the the quality and they don't have the reputation and I don't know why. I It's weird, right? It's like aren't just like parts just screw the parts together the right way. What up, Franchie? How's everybody doing? Um, I haven't heard from from Luke over at Spooky. I hope I hope my show didn't upset didn't upset him at all. I didn't mean anything negative at all. I just trying to give them a little bit of advice. For those of you who saw like I think there's now kind of like a it's not a dimple gate. It's like a bulge gate going on on the Evil Dead thread now of this of like the length of the screws and is are they too long? Are they pushing through the playfield? And I all I was doing was just reporting on what I was reading and and just suggesting that uh you know just you got to always be cool and you got to always make sure that you know you don't threaten to leave Pinside if people are saying stupid stuff. I mean, again, if you want to if you want to go to a place where people say stupid stuff, then pinside is your huckleberry because there's no dumber place to like spend a lot of your life than on Pinside. I mean it like and the people there, it's funny like the the hyper users, I think they all uh have wasted a lot of years of their life with tens of thousands of posts. Um, yeah. You know, it's it's interesting, too. I saw my old friend Derek is back on Pinside. I sent him a text. I was just like, "Hey, man." Like, um, I just wanted to let you know that just every all the all that goes away if we just like connect. love you.
He stopped talking to me because um because of the of Trump being elected and I really took that I I really felt abandoned by one of my best friends over politics. And And if you know me and he knows me, everyone that knows me knows that I'm not some like Trump MAGA guy. I'm I'm very moderate, but I will vote with my family's best interest in mind, and I will vote with my wallet in mind. And I don't think it was fair to erase. What's that smell? Do you smell that, babe? Brenda, are you are you spraying something? I don't know. Maybe someone's gardening something weird. I'm just like all of a sudden smells terrible. Don't need to be MAGA to be anti-woke. Yeah, of course. It's not the septic. We don't have a septic tank. It's nice. We're I love that this house is on like the city's septic line, so there's no septic tank. We have propane in the backyard, which is nice. Um, and then um, yeah, there's like this woman when she renovated this house like did everything perfect. So, we had to do nothing. What's up guys on uh, Facebook? We got guys on YouTube. Um, all right. So, let's get back to the game. So Star Wars LA is shipping and you know I'm starting to see uh I'm starting to see I'm starting to see that No. Okay. So I'm just So Rob said that it didn't take it didn't take it as Luke saying the customer is wrong. Just dumbass. Yeah, I saw that. Um, I'm seeing the Star Wars Elise land in people's homes. And I look, I'm happy for anyone who buys this game. I'm happy you guys are going to lose $4,000 in just a couple months. And I'm happy to see that the Star Wars leases are not sold out. I'm happy. I'm happy that the majority of people don't consider that game to be special enough to spend that kind of money. I don't think Stern deserves to have a sellout of a game where that's the creative layer they're they're thinking is worthy of $13,000 in a pinball machine. Um I'm sure the game looks better in person. That's great. I can't wait to see one in person. I'll see it at automated. Hey Brenda,
what's that smell?
What? Where? That is like the most hideous.
Oh my god. We have this like rabbit rodent repellent. That's I It's It's atrocious. It's only supposed to be sprayed outside. They sprayed it in the garage. no, there's no pest control issue. We I I got like a rabbit repellent like uh a year ago cuz the rabbits would like were tearing up my lawn. You can't you know, you can't kill rabbits. And let me tell you, like it didn't work. They just hop right over it. Like whatever you spray it, they just hop over it. No, you're not allowed. You're not allowed to like trap rabbits here. It's like illegal. I um yeah, I just think Star Wars is going to come and go. I think it's going to be talked about as much as the old Star Wars game is talked about, which is not very often. And I think that it's just going to be a game where all right like well it's going to kill on location. It's Star Wars. It's an operator's dream. But I think it's not going to be this like sales hit for Stern. And I think that The Walking Dead remastered is also not going to be uh the sales hit for St. What's your favorite song mode on G&R? Um, you know, I I will say like I think my favorite when I play the game is um Out to Get Me. I really do. I love I love Out to Get Me. And then I think maybe um Civil War second. What I what I'm what I'm a little disappointed in the G&R code and I've said this is on some of the games like Nove like songs like November Rain. I just think they gave up like coding the light show midway through like there's no there's no magic at the end of November Rain in that outro. And there should be like they should have coded the lights to like dramatically sync up with the they didn't do any of it. Like I don't understand. And I mean, I get it. It's a 10-minute song. You're not going to get it to the end that often, but like November Rain starts cool, but then it just it's the same light show repeating throughout. Um, yeah. Um, so yeah, I think, look, I think Star Wars is going to move nothing for Stern. I think The Walking Dead remastered, if there's a price increase, is going to It's just going to be funny, man. Like I I look at it all and I look at it and I kind of want to laugh that Stern is going to raise the prices of their product when demand continues to decline. And it's going to get really interesting when um you know, I don't even think Pokemon is next at like as the cornerstone game. I I just I don't I don't know. I I can't put my finger on what it's it's Jack Danger's game. Um it's one of these things where like I feel like we do know like Fallout, Transformers, Pokemon, like whatever order they come in, it feels like those guesses are pretty accurate and we're going to And again, that just doesn't sound like what Stern needs. Like I think people would rather hear Super Mario Brothers Top Gun and Karate Kid, you know, or Die Hard Christmas Vacation and Ferris Buer's Day Off. I think people would rather hear Indiana Jones. I think people would rather hear um you know, GI Joe, whatever. Like He-Man. Like I mean it like stuff with nostalgic appeal. Demand drops raise prices. Yeah. Car. But it's like a weird decision, man. I think people are just like I think they're just kind of over it. I really do. I think people have lost the patience with losing the amount of money they're losing cuz like you know like the whole I mean like it was fun six years ago when Zach's bye bye was like the the joke right and it was like when Zach was telling everybody to buy like he wasn't wrong like back then you you really bought anything you kind of were good you were good it was like one of these hobbies where like you were good uh now the depreciation is is pretty um pretty significant and it's just the problem with the depreciation now it's so immediate whereas it used to take a much longer time and also you just never really lost three to $4,000 on any stern machine now it's like there's thousands of games that have significantly lost value and there's and there's also just like the unspoken thing that continues I think should be making everybody a little nervous is there just there's thousands of unsold games in boxes just piling up as inventory. And that always continues to be the the hidden or secret sort of thing that's going to even more pinball prices because those things have to end up somewhere. And these distros, I mean, I've already heard from very legit sources that distros will take 115 on the table for Star Wars. Do you want to know exactly what a DRO makes on Star Wars LE? Do you want Do you want to know the margin they made? Because I I was told exactly what the margin is. Um, now I'm trying to remember exactly what the number was because it's I believe distros on an LE are making $2,250 Fall of the Empire. Ajax, thank you. Fizzy, thank you for the $2, brother. Um, Ajax, Canada is the leader of the rebellion. Well, I did name my my son Cassian. So, like I it doesn't gang, it's it's not even a rebellion. Okay, so they make $2,400 on an LE. So, just think about that for a minute that there's $2,400 goes into the pocket of a DRO. I just just think about that. Why? Why? I mean, how many of these games are simply dropshipped from Chicago to the customer? Like drop shipped the deal, like the district gets an order, gets the address. That game's not going to all these distros and dealers. It's going from Chicago right to the customer. I mean, but you gota remember that's just the distro margin. Um, look, it look it'd be one thing if these things had like bulletproof warranties and you know what I'm saying? Like I I don't know. Like I I I've failed to see like the the problem is, you know, okay, you got to look at it like this. The issue really though, it it does become and I understand why they need to make money on these less. Like when you think about it, because the problem is let's say a district sells 10 LE's, right? That's $24,000 they make in profit. Okay? 24,000. Now they got to pay taxes on that. So, let's say, all right, they're going to net out with around like $14,000 in the pocket. Okay, $14,000 after those 10 LE are sold. But what about the, you know, when they buy directly from Stern? you know, all those premiums and pros, like to buy the premium from Stern, I'm sure they're shelling out like $8,000 on each premium or $8,500 to sell it for, you know, 9700, right? So all those unsold premiums they're sitting on, you can see how quickly, you know, just two unsold premiums, two unsold premiums would be something like $16,000 you gave Stern for the chance to maybe make back like3 to $4,000. That's the problem. That's the problem. No, it's like it really is difficult like you know when you think about it it's tough on these dros because you know they they like it it's all about cash flow and and as you know as you're making money over here you're losing money over here and everything that's sitting unsold is is lo and you know all those games sitting unsold that are depreciating in your warehouse may like they they never moved like you and and we know this all too well like there is a lot of games that dealers and dros were underwater on like they were underwater like literally like I spent you know I don't know what is it I gave a check for 10 five for John Wick Ali and I can't sell it and the market value on it now is like nine all those guns and roses you Yeah. So, it's not as like it's not as like easy as it looks, you know, like the good old days when dudes like Trent were just drop shipping like and and like every Ellie just sold out instantly and everything just moved. Like those are the good old days, you know? And I hope all those guys like saved all their money because the those gravy train days are over for for a lot of these distros you and they they know it. They But like I look in the end like I really don't care about dealers and dros making money. I would love to make money myself like getting you the game you want, right? I I mean if it makes you happy to buy from someone you like, that's how it should be. And in the end, like all the dealers or dros, they want the same thing we want. They want great games that hold value. They want that. Like I don't think anyone who's a dealer or dro is happy with the mediocrity that's sort of swept through the hobby recently and also with the high prices. They're not happy about these high prices. It means less customers. There There is no other way to um to look at all this. Like why? Like I'm gonna sell way more less if they're 105 than if they're 13 also count trading games selling again with nice profit. Well, yeah. I mean, RETROCENGO in the house. Yeah. No, totally. Like whenever I see like Zach lists something like um let me use an example something like a like a VML if Zach listed for like 8500. I'm just making up a price right now. I'm always like, damn, man. You know, you know, he bought it from that dude for like 7500 to 7,800 just to get rid of it, right? Just a credit towards another game probably or something like he's got to make money on it. And you know, and that's why like some of these trade-in dudes are just getting hosed and they don't want, you know, I mean, and these are some dudes who probably bought some of these games brand new, 13,000 and then trading it in for like 7,900, you know. Well, look, the the easiest way to avoid all this is just to wait until something checks all the boxes and keep it forever. I think that's really where a lot of people are at now. I think people are starting to see the um the forest for the trees in this hobby. I think a lot of people are happy with their games, you know. Look, and there's new people coming into the hobby the whole all the time. I I saw this dude um I I forget where it was. Maybe it was California or something. and he he put all these games in the basement of his wife's thrift shop and it looks awesome. I'm like I love seeing like surprising locations where people kind of create a little pin, you know, pinball um barcade or or arcade, if you will. It's a beautiful thing. It's like this thing is so cool, man. Like when I sometimes it's easy to get overly critical. Um you know, like Guns and Roses C, man. I mean, this thing's now like 10 10 G's. It It's incredible the amount of like the amount of assets in this game, the amount of creativity in this game, the amount of like cool factor of this game. And it's lost its demand. I get it doesn't shoot great. I get it. I get it. I get it. I mean, there's nothing I can do about that. There's nothing I can do about that. But it's still an absolute work of art. It really is. It's funny. Spooky can make Evil Dead for C for 10 and Sterns selling Elise for 13 doesn't make sense. Um well, you know the reason why Jesse is Stern's got, like I said on my show, they've got like hundreds of employees. They've got all of that square footage. They've got to pay that rent every month and they've got to feed all those people. I I heard they have something like 80 people that are just in the front office. I mean, you got to remember like, okay, so imagine you work in the front office of Stern and what do you think you make? I'm assuming most of these jobs are six figure jobs, right? I mean, what people working in pinball for 50 grand? I don't think so. Like, so you've it adds up like quickly. all the benefits, all the people, all the, you know, all the all the uh salaries you have to pay out. And so you need to you need to move thousands of games every every month to to make all that work. where Spooky Pinball, family-owned business, looks like there's about what, like 30 of them, maybe 30 total, maybe a little bit more in Benton, Wisconsin. I think their rent is $1 a month. The town basically pays them to stay there and loves the jobs they provide. They're in Benton, Wisconsin. You know, the average price of a home is probably $200,000, $300,000, right? I mean, this isn't like New York City. This isn't like Jersey Jack where he when he was in New Jersey, how expensive that rent was. I mean, money goes a long way there. Money doesn't go a long way uh in Chicago. It doesn't go a long way in other places. It definitely doesn't go a long way in Europe or Australia where these guys are spending like such a small fortune on every individual game. And when I see the prices in Australia still, I'm still just it baffles me like who who can even afford to drop like I mean everything's like $20,000 or more for one game, one pinball machine. Well, you know, look, in the end, it's funny to watch it all go down. I mean, I'm absolutely going to love going to Expo and seeing if there's any surprises. Uh, do you guys think Walking Dead's going to be at Expo? Do you think Stern's going to do what they did last time and sort of steal the thunder away from the cornerstone game with the remastered game the way they did with X-Men and Metallica Remastered? I I kind of feel like part of me feels like they're they would never do that to Star Wars and the other part of me feels like they might have to do that because Star Wars sales are not there and they just need they need to inject something exciting and new onto the line. I hope they do too. I mean, the the thing with Expo is like really right now there's no real reveals happening. Like, if you think about it, nothing's getting revealed there. I think we might see a teaser trailer for Back to the Future. So, that would be fun. Why not, right? We all know you're making it. We all know it's coming next year. I think Barry needs to put a date out there and and meet it. I worry about I worry about Back to the Future. I worry about Barry. I do. I worry that Dutch really doesn't have experience um with switching a line over efficiently, making multiple games, designing a game while the game's on the line. Like, I just worry about Dutch. I I don't think they're going to go away at all. I just I just worry about like you know that they have I mean Raz is next and you know I absolutely just I literally I've seen Melvin's Raza. I've seen the changes to it way. Do you see how cool the translite is? The topper is super cool. Like it is absolutely stunning. And I I don't I don't mean to take anything away from Alice because Alice is is also a beautiful game, but Raza is just so much more like comprehensively stunning and has more to shoot at. It has and he's fixed the stuff and I hope you know all signs are pointing to some really fun use of magnets that he's going to put into the game that J-pop was never ever to get able to work at the deep root level. So really, really neat game. And the thing about Roz is like you will see it on the line and you will be able to buy it next year. Killian, don't don't bang on the window, buddy. Hold on. I got I don't need a break. I don't need a broken window today. Just
Yeah. My um
my microphone.
Your microphone?
Yeah, the gold one.
I don't know.
It stopped working. So, we just got to get a new one.
No. No.
Yeah. It might have been You might have had to throw it out.
No.
I don't know. Let me see.
We didn't have to throw it out.
You did it?
Yeah. It's a pink one.
It stopped working. Dude, why do you need it?
Because mama,
I think that mic got thrown out, babe.
Cuz it stopped working.
Trying it.
Yes, I tried for weeks to charge it.
Oh my god. What? Let me get I will get you a new one because I
It was broken. Why are we Why would I hold on to a broken item like What did I do wrong? Broken mic. Threw it out.
This is um
You know, this is why when the weekday starts rude to him, wasn't it?
It was very rude of him. He didn't even consult you.
Yeah. You have to apologize to impress.
I'll get you a new one, buddy. He just said he misses his gold microphone. I mean, it's adorable.
It It's funny cuz like he literally hasn't used it in months and now it's everything. how we felt when we got through the lane. Oh my god. Did I throw it out? Hold on a second. Let me just look real quick. Oh, this is um this is going to be a thing this weekend. Now, this gold microphone. Um, how you guys doing? Do you guys feel like the energy levels of pinball? Like, you feel like we um I think what's going to happen is this. I think Beetlejuice is just going to be like a just going to blow everybody away. I I mean, I really do feel this way about Beetlejuice. I I feel like Franchie is going to crush it. I think they're going to like I think they're going to drop what is going to be probably the most stunning pinball machine maybe ever. And I um I'm really looking forward to it and I think we need it. I think this hobby needs it. You know, like if you think about the games we've had recently, like Dune didn't blow everybody away. I I love the creativity in Dune. I do. I think the sound is absolutely incredible. Um I think they nailed they nailed it, but it's still Dune, right? And it doesn't have the same like I need to own this. Unless you love Dune, but if you love Dune, of course, you're very happy with that game. I would have loved to have had a new Tron right now. I would have loved it like if if Stern remastered Tron. I mean, it just would have been so good, you know, and I just think we're not going to get that. We're going to get Walking Dead. Um, King Kong, I mean, look how cool King Kong is now that that guy put in the the movie clips. Like it like it's almost like we all could tell something was missing from Kong and something was making Kong not special and it was the it was Stern cutting corners and not putting in the iconic Kong imagery. And I'm sorry but like the King Kong game looks not like King Kong should look. They should have they should have done more of like old New York City. It should have had that vibe and that feel and it should have been such a differently conceived game. And when you try to like make a game that's supposedly like paying homage to the old King Kong prototype and like this you've lost all of us. You lost the narrative. Like now you're now you're doing stuff for um for like for inside pinball like reasons, not what the IP deserves. If you want to sell to the masses, you have to accept that you are basically the Kmart of pinball. Damn, Franchie, don't don't tell us how you you really feel. Um, well, you know, franch's problem is like I don't know why they don't just go back to making things for the masses, things with mass appeal, but also priced to sell to the masses. You know, and this is where the the truth lies and all of what's just happened is the boutiques are the companies that should be selling games for $15,000, not the mass- prodduced company. It's the boutique watch makers that sell at the high price. It's the boutique car manufacturers that sell at the high price. It's the boutique wineries that sell at the high price. It's not the mass. Stern wants to be mass and high price. They want to be volume and command the most amount of money. I mean, a a Stern game fully loaded is $15,000 now, and it's about to get more expensive. and they will not survive trying to do both that and and everybody feels that because when you put a stern next to a game like this, it looks half the price. When you put a Harry Potter next to a King Kong, King Kong looks like a Tinker Toy. And I and I mean this when I say this. When you put Evil Dead next to King Kong, Evil Dead looks so much more expensive. Again, boutiques should be higher price, lower volume, instant instant collectible when you get it right. And that is what we're going to see. Stern just like Stern just like saw what everything was happening during the COVID secondhand market and just thought that they could adjust their entire business model to reflect that. And I really do feel like they just felt like these these customers are idiots and they'll just buy anything. Yeah. Jaws 50th like yeah like at $9500 like absolutely I think Jaws 50th is like a like a really good game. Like it really is. I mean it creatively I think there could have been a little bit more done. We all do. I mean that shark still looks like something I'd put in the bathtub with Killian that cost $3. Like you know come on. Like the fact that we all accept it the like I and I get it like they should have designed a better mech. The shark fin is also gang pathetic. Like it's a it's a sticker on a moving target. They couldn't design a fin to pop up from under the playfield and be so much cooler than that. But, you know, you guys have very very low very low expectations of what should be mechanically in these games these days. And, you know, it's not just Jaws. It Star Wars got nothing interesting mechanically in it. I mean, Harry Potter's not got any, you know, there's not like a lot of magic mechanically in Potter. There's I mean, it shoots beautifully. There wasn't a lot mechanically in Elton John. Shoots beautifully. Um, you know, shots are the new toys has kind of been the joke for the last like four years, but it's kind of true. Uh, King Kong, I don't know. Like, no, nothing really, right? Let's see what we got going on here. You will see a game firing on every cylinder with Spooky's next game. They even added cylinders to fire extra. Wow. See, this is why I love I love Francis. I love This is the kind of excitement I just don't get from John Borg when you look at Star Wars. When I look at Jack Danger, my boy over there, like he just kind of just like like I don't know. Stern just feels like no one over there is like completely like, "Oh, I can't wait to see what we're doing next." Like nobody's saying that over at Stern. Do you ever see George Gomez say that? You can't wait. like they're just kind of like we made a we you know we made what we think is a good game is kind of like the vibe over there. MMR Merlin has it all for a decent price. Um Medieval Madness is a is a phenomenal game and you know I mean I'm glad you guys are finally getting your Merlin trim versions. They'll probably make another version of it. Uh the CGC remakes as much as I don't like them as a company because of all their radio silence. I mean they make phenomenal games. I mean I'm you know I two things can happen two opposing things can be occurring at the same time that they are the worst with their customer service and they make what is maybe the best pinball in the world from a quality standpoint. But man, you know, you heard on my last show like look at this but look at this Cactus Canyon mod. Like Like what what a what a disaster it's turning out to be. give Pinball Brothers credit. They are excited about their games unlike Stern. Okay, so like Chance, just because you brought it up, of course they they're trying to get everybody into Predator. I I see them making content left and right. I see them, you know, really trying to get people excited about the game. I I don't know how you get people excited about Predator without Arnold. I just I I give them credit for trying. I don't even think they sold 300 units. So, like I don't know how you recover from that. And I as I've been just I don't know. I have no facts on any of what I'm about to say next, but I do think the Pinball brothers have to be in trouble with how bad Predator sales are. What's wrong with the Cactus Canyon upgrade? Have you guys Where you guys been? like the the damn like the thing is like manufactured wrong. The USB cable's too short. The bracket on the left side is not engineered right. The switch is not really working properly. People have to like disassemble it. The whole thing is like just a total it's a total quality control mess. And just go into the Cactus Canyon Owners Club thread and read all about people trying to fix this damn thing. People are trying to like like shave off metal to get it to fit right. Yeah, the USB is like way too tight. When you lift the playfield, it like gets so super tight that it it can disconnect and it's just again, you don't want anything to be plugged in with with without enough slack. It's just terrible. like it's like and they and instead of like instead of fixing it, they passed the headache on to the consumer and now and they knew what they were doing. And I it's just it's mindboggling. It's mindboggling. Yeah. I mean Yeah. Stern's hype is it's okay. I feel like that's like the vibe. Um, on my Facebook, I haven't Oh, sorry guys. I think I can unplug this now. I haven't been reading anything on Facebook. There we go. Spooky Luke, what's up, brother? Luke, I hope you know I love you, brother. My advice was just very simple. I think you guys, you know, is there an update, Luke, on the guy's like uh game? Was he able to show his bulges properly? Um I like and I and I said it earlier, Luke, if you just joined now, like it's um you know, Pinid's the worst place, but you know, as a manufacturer, we love that you guys are always hanging with with the crew and with the community, and that's half the reason why people love Spooky Pinball. Um, I can't wait to hang with Spooky at uh at Expo. I might have to mail something to the hotel cuz I got a gift for these guys. I'm going to mail it and put it under my name. When do we get to see Beetlejuice? Um, I don't know. That's not I maybe there might be a teaser at Expo. Uh, I I think my prediction will be accurate that Beetlejuice will be a will sell out in 9 minutes. 999 sold out in 9 minutes for $9,999. It's just going to happen. It's just going to be one of those games, man. I feel it. I feel it. Like Evil Dead. Look, Evil Deads are trading for like I think some people are buying Evil Deads with the topper, man. They're for like 15 grand, bro. And they're selling right away. It's not like they're not sitting. They're selling right away. I think I think everyone realizes that a lot of special stuff is coming out of Benton. And when I hear about like the stuff that Ben Heck is doing with the code on the game and stuff that's never been done before in games and video modes that are super funny, you know, you just feel like these guys are just like they get it. Like they get it. Like they they get what we want as grown men that want to have fun. We want personality in these games. We want fun mechs. We want to laugh. We want to be offended a little bit. Like they just get it. Like I feel like this company goes to the bar after work and they just, you know, like we're doing it. We're doing it. I feel like at Stern they're just anxious. Why aren't the orders where they used to be? How do we sell the Costco? Predator issue is the price and maybe reliability. No, Ajax. The predator issue is that Arnold's not in it. That's it. That's it. You can't make that movie without Arnold. He's like he's so omnipresent in it. Will Beetlejuice sales send Spooky light years into the galaxy? No, I think Spooky's got a strategy. Look, and look what Spooky's number one challenge will be is with great success and with extraordinary demand, the challenge for Spooky will be to not get greedy. That is it. as long as they stay true to their laurels and stay true to their promises to their customers. You know, when Luke said we might make an SLE one day of a game, he meant a future game. They're never making more Evil Deads. They're never making more Rick and Morties. They're never making more of anything that they made. Like, this is their strategy. Unlike Stern who will keep remaking everything to the point where like then nobody wants it. Spooky could sell another thousand well not maybe e easily another 500 Rick and Morties. Heck. And you know I know there was discussion that they were going to like redesign Rick and Morty and make it a better game with all that amazing code, but they didn't. Stern would have Stern really is, you know, has is is like again that just the pressure to have monthly volume going out the door has led them astray on what gave them that volume in the first place. And it it's been kind of sad to see like their inability to course correct. If Stern releases the right game, they will sell just like Metallica a new Batman remastered. Uh JC, I 100% agree with you. But the problem Stern is having now is they need to get to those great games now and they also need a strategy of like how they talk about these remastered games. And you know, I liked more of like the Jaws like we're only going to make it till the end of the year, then we're never making it again. Like we're going to make Metallica remastered, then we're putting it back in the vault for we're never making it again. They need to start baking in even just a feeling of exclusivity back in this stuff. Stern on. Stern on but broken at Costco yesterday. Shooter rod laying in the Oh, wow. That sucks. I mean, Lord of the Rings is a no-brainer. Why go back to an old game when a new one demonstrates how much you learn every time? Well, because they don't these games are not they're not Dave, they're not showcasing like all they know as a company. Like the older games are just better. Lord of the Rings is better than Star Wars. It's 21 years old. Star Wars came out 21 years after Lord of the Rings. And Lord of the Rings has way cooler mechs in it. Oh, you're talking Spooky. Well, yeah. I mean, Spooky's old games were like not not great. I mean, they'll be like, go look at like a Rob Zombie or like an Alice Cooper. I mean, Alice Cooper was better than Rob Zombie, but look, the Spooky's earlier games were were brickfests. There was just like posts everywhere. They were brickfest. They were tight shots. Uh they were not enjoyable to shoot. Evil Dead is a pleasure to shoot. Scooby-Doo is a a fun game to shoot. Um they've they've really gotten better at geometry and understanding, you know, like like Rick and Morty's one of the probably one of the worst. I I actually think Rick and Morty is worse than G&R when it comes to shot geometry. Like it's just terrible. So much so that someone had to mod a like what's that mod that the Jerry mod that like makes the ball pass through there easier because which is cheating. I mean it literally is cheating to add that into the game. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is also great. Okay. The Jerry Ramp. Any idea who has the Gremlins license? I would say Spooky Pinball does. Unless Franchie wants to say they don't. Uh, you know, Franchie putting that teaser on the box. Come on. Come on. How's everybody doing this Saturday? Sorry for the kids interrupting. Um, it happens. I mean, I love I mean, this is We're still going here with G&R concert. Like, it's crazy. Like, what's in that game? Is this November rain? What is this? Yeah, it's super cool. Um I just wish they would have synced up the light show at the end like like it. No, nothing synced up. It's just it's not lazy. Oh, I need to go to the gym today. I just feel a little like I need it. The steakhouse. Oh. Anyway, gang. Um, we're going to cut the show. I think this has been a fun one. Um, I want to thank everybody for your support. I saw um I think there was some dude on pinside being like, I don't know how to unsubscribe. Like if anyone wants to unsubscribe from Canadas Bitball podcast, just you email me and I will I will unsubscribe you. Um, we've had a lot of great banter on the chats recently. We've I think the shows have been really fun. I don't understand. I think there's a lot of people, the Stern Army people are just I think very threatened by my show. I don't I don't understand that. Some Some dude on Pinsai was complaining and and saying that my shows are an hour long and I don't understand that. My podcasts are 20 minutes long at most. I haven't done an hour podcast in years. I don't think any pinball podcast should be an hour or more. I understand why some people do that. I understand too that some people only do one every week or two and I guess if you add up all my shows but the reason why my shows are 20 minutes is I try to capture sort of like what's the latest news throughout the week whether it's code updates whether it's consumer problems with the game whether it's Cactus Canyon mods not going well you know like there's a lot of hours and time that goes into it. I also want to publicly here on my Saturday show apologize for incorrectly attributing something to Jason Knap that he did not say. Jason never said that I was sharing fake photos of Big Bang Bar. And I said that in my free show, which I deleted that comment from the show, so only people who heard it like first thing heard it. But Jason and I talked um and I mis misread or I I attributed it to him because I read something on Pinid where someone said that like even Jason Knap is saying Canad's photos are fake and I was like oh I should not have just taken again Pinsside at face value. I should have reached out to Jason and asked him or even just I was lazy like I didn't read his story fully and he never said it. So, sorry, Jason. You know, I love your site. I love your news. Uh, he won't post photos. He won't post my leak photos if I stick other people's faces all over them. But I love watermarking all my stuff with like Chris Turner and and Ralph and, you know, all of us, you know, Carrie. Like, I just think it's funny like Canada Canada leaks things in ways that should make you laugh. And I don't because again I think I think way too many people take this hobby way too seriously. And I think it's strange to me because look how cool that is, man. Like hold on a second. All right. I mean, I just Um, how you guys doing? I hope Spooky has Gremlins like I don't know. I I know Spooky's next few games are going to be phenomenal. Padre, I bet I bet I'm not on Padrey and Rick's holiday mailer list. I don't think I'm going to get the holiday card from those guys this year. It's funny. It's funny. I love Melvin. Melvin and I talk like every day and I I'm glad all the Alice toppers are going to go out and they're going out and Alice's are going out the door. Melvin's a an awesome dude. We need more dudes like Melvin and Pinball. Just more straight shooters that are super talented and know how to get stuff done. And the best thing that could happen to Back to the Future is if Melvin Williams gets more deeply involved with the game. He knows what he's doing. Like he does. Like he's You really got to see his Big Bang Bar remake. Like I It's just stunning. And so then he hands this like stunning remake to Pedretti who are like ignoring the enhancements he's making. What will you buy next? Uh Beetlejuice. Um, that is that is absolutely absolutely getting bought by Canada. I have the room waiting in the garage. I um, you know, but like when I go to Expo in a couple weeks, I'm I'm looking forward to jumping on everything. Like I would also just love for this guy making the homebrew version of Big Trouble and Little China to to just make two. and I will pay handsomely for it. I just I need that game. I need it. It's been my favorite. That and The Fifth Element are the two, you know, if if you ever want to make a homebrew game and I I mean I I'd pay tens of thousands of dollars just to have one. You know, Big Trouble in Little China and The Fifth Element. I I don't think I could ever get more excited about two pinball themes. And then third would be Akira and G1 Transformers. I mean, those are my dreams. Like G1 Transformers the movie, Akira, Big Trouble, and Little China, and The Fifth Element. I I just I just would love I would love those pins, you know, when I think of like John Wick or you know, Star Wars to me is just kind of like I don't know, you know, like the Mandalorian trailer just did nothing for me. The Mandalorian trailer just looks so WW, what would you put in an Akira playfield? I mean, come on, man. like you got to have Tetssuo on the throne and have like kind of like the Magneto multiball. Like he's got to be able to force grab the balls with his magnet powers. Um you then definitely have to have like all like Neotokyo under that glass and you need to have kind of like Tron. You need to have like the lights trailing like the bikes like moving around the plastic ramps so it feels like you're you're driving you know Canada's bike through the city and you know how they do the lighting effect like you could do that you could have the light move around and then the you know and playing that iconic song Canad theme would just be insane. Um, and then you also, you know, definitely could have like the the stuffed animal that comes to life as a bash toy. You know, that scene. Um, but yeah, and I think you could have Soul, the um, you know, the the weapon that fires down. I think you make that the topper. I think you make that the topper. And I think you have it shine a light down on the game. like just so much you could do. Um, but yeah, I think it's more about Neotokyo under glass and just really making it feel like you are in the Neotokyo world. And I don't know, you know, I just so when I when I when I look at Star Wars Gang, I really see it really just looks like a Costco toy. It looks like a $5,000 Costco game. And I I mean I I get it. Like it looks better in person. It just It just I'm talking about what's under that glass just looks cheap. Give John Wick another shot. Michael, why? I like I've played John Wick a bunch of times and I just I'm so underwhelmed by again like the stuff in it. Like I don't it just feels plasticky and I don't know like that car that pops out just seems cheap. I I don't I don't know. John Wick just and you're right like I haven't played it much but it just it I I it just doesn't click with me. I just want I kind of want to just like walk away from it. Everybody enjoy your Saturdays. Thank you for coming in later today. I Killian didn't even play. Like we went to soccer. He's like, "I don't want to play." And he just We ended up just sitting there watching the other kids play. Um but I'm really glad you guys come hang out every Saturday. More podcasts coming this week. And we're heading into October and Halloween month, which is a lot of fun in this town. This block goes crazy. Pete, thank you for the 5,000 stars, brother. I mean, always always comes through with the big star donation. We've got Pete on Facebook is always my man. And then we've got Sad Boy on YouTube who's always my guy. Between you two guys, you are the you are the most generous of of my live contributors. And I hope you know that your contributions go to Feeding the Belly of Brenda every Saturday night with amazing Chinese food, a bottle of sake. Um, and we've been watching this really great Japanese show. We I think we're on the last episode about a Japanese shoe maker that gets into making running shoes. You should watch it. It's an amazing show. I think it's called like So Sou or Sou, I forget the name. Um, it's on Netflix though if you just Google Japanese shoemaker. So good. It's so good. And you know, I love watching Japanese programming. Midnight Diner is obviously my favorite. The reason why I love watching Japanese and Korean shows is the um is the subtitles force you to watch. Like you can't dual screen. You're not distract. You're like you're in it. You're in it. And I think everything else, you know, we just always open up a second screen or you're just not paying full attention. So, have a great Saturday. We'll be back probably with more energy next weekend. I'm a little I'm not going to lie, I'm like not just hung over. I'm like full from that steakhouse meal. I just don't I feel off. I feel like I just want to take half of my stomach and just like throw it out because I'm just like h lobster, shrimp, oysters. Like it was great. Mac and cheese, lobster mac and cheese. Um you know what? We had crab meat. We had I had stuffed lobster with crab meat which was great. Butter on top of it. Then like a tomahawk steak. Like all the dish like and it was like oh my god. Anyway, guys, be good. We're going to shut down on Facebook first. And now I'm going to do that here. Guys, thank you. Thank you. We'll be back next week.