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The Pinball Show Ep 147: Choppy Waters

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 39m·analyzed·Feb 13, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Stern Q2 production schedule, Jaws/Elvira runs, Spooky shipping delays resolved, AP's Barry Osler game rumor.

Summary

The Pinball Show Episode 147 covers major Stern Pinball production updates through Q2 2024, including Jaws Premium/Pro runs, Star Wars return in March, Elvira Premium in April, and accessory shipping delays. Additional discussion includes American Pinball's rumored Barry Osler-designed game debuting at Texas Pinball Festival, Spooky's character sculpt arrivals enabling Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes shipping, Chicago Gaming Company's Pulp Fiction production, and Venom code update 0.97 with new achievements and call-outs.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball will produce Star Wars Pro and Premium in March 2024, first production since August 2022

    high confidence · Zach Minney reports official Stern production timeline update directly from dealer communications

  • Stern has no plans to produce Star Wars in 2024 beyond the March run

    high confidence · Official Stern Pinball production schedule communicated to dealers

  • Jaws Pro will return in April 2024, with Jaws Premium likely extending into May

    high confidence · Official Stern Pinball production timeline to dealers

  • Elvira Premium is getting another run in late April 2024, with possibility of additional 2024 run

    high confidence · Stern Pinball official communication to dealers

  • American Pinball's next game is rumored to be based on a design by late pinball designer Barry Osler

    medium confidence · Craig Bobby reports rumors based on David Fix comments and industry sources, to debut at Texas Pinball Festival March 15-17

  • American Pinball's next game will feature live-action video like Galactic Tank Force and may have a food theme such as barbecue

    low confidence · Craig Bobby presents these as rumors without direct attribution to American Pinball official sources

  • Spooky Pinball received character sculpts (Tasmanian Devil for Looney Tunes, Leatherface for Texas Chainsaw Massacre) that were blocking production

    high confidence · Zach Minney reports direct knowledge of supply chain logjam resolution enabling imminent shipping

  • Stern Pinball will likely announce next Cornerstone game in late April and begin production in early May

    medium confidence · Zach Minney makes inference based on production schedule gaps and historical patterns

  • Venom code version 0.97 includes 29 new achievements and additional call-outs including some from Dwight Sullivan

Notable Quotes

  • “Theme matters. That's right. I'm just saying. The thing is, I'm not the only one just saying it. I think everyone's pretty much saying it.”

    Zach Minney @ ~28:00 — Commentary on how strong IP themes (like Jaws) drive continued sales and production sustainability

  • “I think they run it until... It's making enough that they can do the renewals and keep it. I think the one thing you'll start seeing them vaulting or retiring or putting into the vault and retiring titles once Spike 3 comes out.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~29:45 — Prediction about Stern's strategy for managing legacy Spike 2 titles as Spike 3 platform launches

  • “So I think, end of April, we'll see a May pro production, you know, LE production getting into June. But we'll have to wait and see.”

    Zach Minney @ ~45:00 — Inference-based prediction about Cornerstone announcement timing based on production schedule analysis

  • “For some reason, that man does a good job explaining rules for me to understand them... So now he knows more rules than I do, but at least I can remember the rules whenever he explains them.”

    Zach Minney (about Joel Engelberth) @ ~62:00 — Positive commentary on Stern's lead designer Joel Engelberth's ability to communicate game rules effectively via streaming

  • “The UV kit, that's what everybody wants, that UV kit. They started shipping some of them... But the Premium LE Kit, not even close to what I ordered.”

    Zach Minney @ ~56:00 — Indicates ongoing supply/demand imbalance with Stranger Things premium accessories

  • “I would anticipate Stern Pinball announcing their next Cornerstone game, because that's all you guys care about anyway, at the mid or end of April.”

    Zach Minney @ ~47:00 — Commentary on community obsession with Cornerstone announcements and prediction of timing

  • “Jaws Pros have been hitting all of the locations around the country and around the world. Have you played one yet, or are you still waiting? No, I haven't been able to get out there this weekend.”

Entities

Zach MinneypersonDennis CreaselpersonCraig BobbypersonStern PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyDavid FixpersonBarry OslerpersonSpooky PinballcompanyChicago Gaming Companycompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Joel Engelberth's rules explanation stream demonstrates Stern's commitment to educating player base on game mechanics and rules

    high · Zach and Dennis note Engelberth's effectiveness at explaining rules during livestream with programmer Elizabeth Geiske

  • ?

    leak_detection: American Pinball's next game details emerging through multiple sources (David Fix Pinball Profile interview comments, industry rumors) suggesting unannounced title nearing public reveal at Texas Pinball Festival

    medium · Craig Bobby presents rumors based on Fix's comments and industry sources; Barry Osler design and food theme remain unconfirmed but consistent across sources

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pinball discontinued TMNT accessories entirely with no future production planned, treating game discontinuation as permanent end of accessory support

    high · Official Stern communication to dealers reported by Zach Minney

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's strategy of multiple annual production runs of same titles (Star Wars, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Elvira) indicates commitment to keeping profitable legacy titles in rotation rather than releasing new Cornerstone titles

    medium · Zach notes one annual run per title in 2024 for legacy Spike 2 games; speculation that titles stay in production when generating sufficient sales/renewals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stranger Things accessories experienced extended delays (October→November→December→January→February shipping window) and premium kits still experiencing supply constraints

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.297

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching, The Pinball Show. This week on a juicy episode 147 of The Pinball Show, Dennis and I relay to you many Stern Pinball game and accessory production updates, as well as our guests on the timeline for the next Cornerstone launch. We talk spooky and CGC shipping games, American Pinball's big announcements, a recent pinball profile interview with Dave Fix, Jersey Jack trending, a lot of P3 production updates, and a very classic pinball market trends. Oh, and what a treat for official Pinball Show Club members. This week, the exclusive content segment is simply titled, Is Dave Fix and American Pinball Trying to Sue Me? Episode 147, There's a Reason This is the Pinball Show. Peace out. A-Town.
1:07
Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for the Pinball Show.
1:19
It's pinball with personality. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, it's the Pinball Show. Welcome back. We're in episode 147. I'm your host, Zach Minney, alongside Dennis Creasel. Dennis, how are you? I'm doing great. I feel excited. It's Super Bowl time. Of course, this is after the Super Bowl when they're listening. I was going to say, does your favorite team win? We, you know what? I insert if they did or didn't hear, and nothing's going to ruin this day. We're not going to have any weird last-minute news. There's not going to be any tortious interference. Oh, God. smooth. It's going to be smooth. Not going to get sued. Do you think that there will be an engagement tonight?

high confidence · Zach Minney reports specific code update details

  • Stern Pinball discontinued Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles accessories and will not produce additional toppers or art blades

    high confidence · Official Stern dealer communication reported by Zach Minney

    • Zach Minney / Dennis Creasel @ ~19:00 — Indicates Jaws Pro rollout to locations is underway and generating player interest

  • “They are producing some of the stainless classic Coindor, what we call SCs. They are producing some of those and mixing them into the first batch as well.”

    Zach Minney @ ~73:00 — Chicago Gaming Company production strategy for Pulp Fiction includes both SED and SC variants

    • Jaws (Stern Pinball)
    game
    Star Wars (Stern Pinball)game
    Elvira (Stern Pinball)game
    Godzilla Pro (Stern Pinball)game
    Jurassic Park Premium (Stern Pinball)game
    Joel Engelberthperson
    Elizabeth Geiskeperson
    Venom (Stern Pinball)game
    Looney Tunes (Spooky Pinball)game
    Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Spooky Pinball)game
    Pulp Fiction (Chicago Gaming Company)game
    Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Twippy Awardsevent
    Loser Kids Pinball Podcastmedia
    Spike 3product

    high · Zach documents multiple announced ship dates that slipped; current partial fulfillment of premium UV kit orders

  • ?

    product_strategy: Venom code 0.97 update adds 29 new achievements and character-specific call-outs (Dwight Sullivan) indicating ongoing post-release content additions

    high · Official code update release noted with specific achievement count and call-out examples

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern has no plans for new Cornerstone announcements at Texas Pinball Festival (March 15-17); next likely announcement window is late April based on production schedule gaps

    medium · Zach Minney's inference based on production timeline analysis and historical Cornerstone announcement patterns

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Pinball production schedule indicates concentration of releases in Q2 (March-April) with multiple concurrent runs of Jaws, Star Wars, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, and Elvira, suggesting deliberate inventory management strategy

    high · Official production timeline communicated to dealers showing coordinated multi-month rollout

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Barry Osler design for American Pinball's next game with food theme (barbecue/food truck) and live-action video component remains unconfirmed but consistently cited across multiple industry sources

    medium · Craig Bobby attributes rumors to Fix comments and industry sources; theme details (single level, food focus) presented as speculation

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern appears to be implementing location-first fulfillment strategy for new releases (Jaws Pro initial rollout to locations only) before consumer/collector shipments, mirroring Chicago Gaming Company approach

    medium · Zach notes initial Jaws Pro run went to locations, second run (April) will serve collectors; CGC explicitly prioritizing arcade operators for Pulp Fiction

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Spooky Pinball received missing character sculpts (Tasmanian Devil, Leatherface) that were blocking production of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes, clearing multi-month logjam

    high · Zach Minney reports specific resolution of supply chain bottleneck enabling imminent shipping of both titles

    • 2:06
    No. I do not think. Andy Reid comes out. He kneels down. The ring is in his mustache. He shakes it out.
    2:20
    He just reminds me of a walrus. I don't know why. I mean, that's the style he goes for. It works for him. You know what didn't work for me this last week, Dennis? What? Oh, my gosh. So, I'll lay the groundwork here.
    2:34
    I work hard, Dennis. I turned into George W. Yeah, I see that. I work hard. I wake up early. You feed the chickens. Feed the chickens. Do you have chickens? Have you thought about getting chickens? I visit with my goats.
    2:49
    You know what? My wife has. She wants to do the homestead thing, and I keep talking her out of it. We haven't pissed the neighbors off enough yet. I'm not sure that stinky chickens and goats are going to help. Yeah. But at some point, she'll buy that shit. Yeah, unfortunately. It'll happen. So I wake up early. I work a lot. I work so much that I get burnout. I really get burnout. And then at the end of the night, I just want to relax. You get that time. I don't know what time your wall is where you hit a wall, listener, and you're like, I don't care if there's a fire in this house. It would be lucky if I get out of this house. I'm just tired. I'm beat. I just want to lay in bed. I want to watch something stupid on television, and I want to scroll through my phone and not be bothered. Is it just me? No, I'm sure others have a – everyone has a breaking point. Usually here recently because of the cold weather, at that point for me, kids are taken care of. Everybody's settling down, going to bed. I am getting in my Speedos. I'm getting in my hot tub for a while with or without Nicole, sitting there for 15, 20 minutes, quick shower, get into bed. And at 930 at night, one of my children, I hear their cute little footsteps. They come down the stairs, come across the main living quarter. And they knock on our door. And usually I think, okay, somebody's vomited. Somebody shit their pants. The dogs are in a fight. They've thrown up when the kids threw up. Like it's usually a horror scene whenever they come down at night when they should be in bed. But instead, listener, I don't know if for those of you who have kids are accustomed to this happening. Oh, it would be the last time this happens for me. At 930, it might have been closer to 10 when they should have been asleep. we have our sweet innocent penelope she comes and says mom because she won't even address me she knows mom i i i've got a little homework to do still oh okay a little homework movies there's some spelling words because for some reason my youngest is incapable of retaining information in his fucking memory he can't learn spelling words for shit i could give him b b e e Ask him five times, he'll remember it, and then two minutes later, it's gone. But that's besides the point. Maybe I'm just burned out from studying spelling. So a little homework. I thought it was a little bit okay. She unfolds to us an entire project about the 13 colonies with trifold pamphlet that she has to create, with custom graphics and about five pages of study guide questions that have to be put into this project that is worth over 40% of your grade.
    5:48
    And it's due tomorrow at 9.45 at night. So was she not working on it before then? Absolutely not. She has been given two weeks in class in the evenings to complete this big project, and she comes the night before at 945.
    6:09
    Oh, how would you respond to such a requested assistance? I would have quoted Master Yoda. That is why you fail.
    6:24
    I have to think back because I don't got kids. So thinking back growing up. You'd be lucky you don't. getting help on homework was possible, but the expectation was I was doing it all the way up to that point. And I never would put a project off. So, because it's a panic if you do. So, I mean, that's kind of, yeah, it's tough because I would have, I would have had to lean towards why didn't you, especially once you've learned the truth about all the time and everything's like, well, you know, you need to learn to do, this is a learning experience. A learning experience. Okay. So, yeah, I would have, I mean, it would have, maybe helped a little bit in terms of like, okay, well, you just need to plug this here, this here, and it's going to look, it's not going to be a Zach Mini production. It's going to look pretty low rent. See, that's what Nicole, she's like, look, let's just get the shit done. Let's not argue because I'm like, are you standing in my presence right now requesting this of me at a quarter until 10? You guys do it for her. What in the hell are you thinking? And Nicole's like, because she was the student in school, was like let's get the shit done but i was like master class like no we're gonna do the best damn pamphlet known uh to the state of indiana uh but not not then and not there so that's why i get so upset because my expectations are so high so yeah we proceed to stay up until midnight later helping her find the answers to these and then we had to get up an hour early in the morning to complete it. It was a nightmare. I see all your pain there. Yeah, the worst thing ever. The moral of the story here is don't have children. So that was my last week fighting a child that's crying at 10 o'clock at night. I'm sorry. Because I raised my voice a little bit. It gets them all fired up. I'm sorry. Your youngest is yelling down the stairs, how do you spell B? Yeah, exactly. So yeah, that was my nightmare. Hopefully that listeners can relate as well. Well, I know even if they can't, they will be able to relate to the dulcet tones of Craig Bobby. Do you think Craig Bobby ever has to stay up late to do his top stories the night before? No, I'm sure education in Canada is like their health care. They've got it figured out, and that's why we just don't hear about it. Hello and welcome back to the Pinball Show's Top Stories. I'm Craig Bobby. Well, it's that hallowed time once again in the pinball community when everyone gathers around their computers or phones and watches with bated breath as the Twippy Awards are announced celebrating pinball's greatest achievements and accolades as voted on by you, the people, in this great pinball hobby of ours. Of course, this year the Twippies were mired in controversy and chaos as the Twippy Committee felt it best to step back, adjust, and revamp the longest-running pinball award show this year to make it more inclusive, less controversial, and believe it or not, more safe for various members of the Twippy Committee or those that were helping create these awards. As various members of the pinball community, and you know who you are, just got downright nasty leading into this year's Twippy Voting season. The result? Well, more controversy and chaos, but hey, sometimes you gotta tear it all down before you can build it up right. And I have no doubt that the committee will continue to tweak and massage these beloved community awards back to their former glory. So rather than do a live show at the yearly Texas Pinball Festival that had also turned from a well-rehearsed planned event to an almost too-bad-to-look-away production, this year the Twippy Committee went for a stripped-back approach and allowed Josh and Scott of the Loser Kids Pinball Podcast to run with a pre-recorded announcement show complete with special guests announcing various awards to the various pre-taped acceptance speeches from winners to Josh and Scott's own positive and relaxed take on the various awards and games up for those nominations. Yes, cleaner than a Zach Manning bidet-ed bunghole. Say what? The Loser Kids gave the Twippies a safe and sound landing pad to announce this year's Twippy winners without all the usual flash and fanfare, but also, thankfully, without all the usual drama and controversy that the Twippies were getting too bogged down with more and more every year. So bravo to the Twippies and bravo to the Loser Kids for stepping up and giving the community a positive and no-nonsense presentation of this year's Twippy Awards, most of which I know Zach and Dennis will share in detail here shortly. Speaking of safe and clean, we heard some more from American Pinball's fearless leader, David Fix, this past couple of weeks as he went on the record on the Pinball Profile podcast with Jeff Teolis to further dispel recent rumors that American pinball was up for sale and also to double down on American's somewhat unique take on the pinball market, offering primarily non-licensed or open-source intellectual property themes to create their previous and upcoming new wave of titles, the next of which is rumored to be shown or debuted at the Texas Pinball Festival from March 15th to the 17th. Now rumor has it, based on Fix's comments and others over recent months, that this next game by American Pinball is based on a design by the late great pinball designer Barry Osler, who was responsible for creating dozens of well-known pinball machines since the late 1970s through to the mid-90s. Games like Junkyard, Pinbot, Space Shuttle, Bride of Pinbot, Bad Cats, Cyclone, Comet, and Jungle Lord, just to name a few. And of course, with his most recent design effort under the Pinball Brothers with their offering of the Queen music-themed pinball. Now, not much else is known about America's Next Game other than it also contains live-action video like the company's recent game, Galactic Tank Force, GTF. It also has been rumored that the game is a single level and may have some sort of food theme, such as a barbecue or, less likely, food truck? I mean, that would be just crazy. And quickly, with just a few more smaller news items, it seems that those customers who have been patiently waiting for their Stern-made Stranger Things accessories, like the very cool UV lighting kit, Stranger Things topper, or Dice shooter rods, appear to be coming back in stock. Although, like well-known pinball distributor Flippin' Out Pinball recently noted on their Facebook page, not all back orders are going to be filled immediately, as pent-up demand is still exceeding supply for some of these Stranger Things accessories.
    13:05
    Chicago Pinball posted yet more production photos again for their newest Pulp Fiction pinball machine. With dozens of machines in various stages of production or in boxes ready to be shipped, rumors are bound that the highest trim level of these machines, complete with toppers, will be hitting the production line possibly later this spring or later this summer. And more production updates from Spooky Pinball as they announced this week that those character figures and sculpts that go on their latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Looney Tunes machines have finally arrived, breaking their supply chain logjam that had prevented final production of dozens of machines that should now be shipping early next week.
    13:44
    Okay, Zach and Dennis, that's all for this week. For the Pinball Show, I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side.
    13:54
    Well, Craig gave us a nice little smattering, a rundown of what we're going to be discussing today. You know what? I'm going to give Craig Bobby the grade of an A- here. Yeah, it didn't sound like he waited to the last minute to record it. He really prepped, planned, presented it well. He didn't give us any A-plus memorable zingers, per se, to put him over the top, but a very nicely done little job there, Craig. We are in the winter doldrums of announcements. The news is a little patchy, a little weak. I think for other shows, but not here at the Pinball Show, because we have— have stuff we've got a lot of production updates coming from stern pinball the king of pinball creation and manufacturing in this world last week was jaw's pros they're getting out on locations any still any any around you besides uh yes they have arrived we have them at two locations now sweet wonderful and then if you take a trip down to wichita someone's down there yeah then three if I expand my traveling radius to vast levels. That's right. Jaws pros have been hitting all of the locations around the country and around the world. Have you played one yet, or are you still waiting? No, I haven't been able to get out there this weekend. I haven't played much of it either. This is one time where I'm getting a little jealous because Joel Engelberth has been playing. My buddy Greg has been playing a lot, and they're coming back to me, hey, have you done this? I'm like, you asshole. No, I haven't because I don't have one. I don't have one yet. I'm waiting. My showroom one is with Joe Anglebirth.
    15:33
    But I shouldn't have to wait too much longer, Dennis, because this week, Joel's LEs should start shipping domestically. And I'm going to be opening one of those. I'm looking forward to that. And then later in this month of February, Joel's premiums will be rolling out. They'll roll out into March. But most of them, I think, in February here. I would guess they'll be online next week, honestly. No. I mean, they do have their new factories. And then in March, so here's the update to the production updates here. Some changes. March is going to roll around, listener, and we're going to get the return of Star Wars Pro and Premium games. Whoa, that's way earlier than the last go. Right. The last statement. Yeah, the last time they had made these was August of 2022.
    16:24
    This is almost a year and a half or so. Longer than I realized. Wow. And the game still sells well. So that's why you still see this older title continue. It's what they fix. Take notes. Theme matters. That's right.
    16:39
    I'm just saying. The thing is, I'm not the only one just saying it. I think everyone's pretty much saying it. Every single person. Yes. Pretty much everyone. For a couple. Yeah. And also to note, Stern Pinball does not plan on building any more Star Wars in 2024. So this is what Dennis and I have been talking about for months now. We'll see some of these older titles that will still stay in the catalog at Stern Pinball, but we'll get one run a year.
    17:07
    So do you think they will run it in 2025, or do you think maybe this ends up being the last call and we just don't know it? I think they run it in 2025. I think so, too. Kind of like Deadpool. I think they run it until... It's making enough that they can do the renewals and keep it. I think the one thing you'll start seeing them vaulting or retiring or putting into the vault and retiring titles once Spike 3 comes out, and they start really rolling on the catalog for Spike 3 games, you'll start seeing them slow down and then extinguish the production of some of these Spike 2s. You know, though, I'm wondering if the Spike 2 titles will be, depending on what they do with Spike 3, if it's not going to be fully backwards compatible and the Spike 3 boards could drive the Spike 2 games. Good thinking. I like that.
    17:55
    This is a little presumptuous, but hey, after hearing about American Pinball's backwards compatible board, I'm just, yeah, maybe. Coming soon. Also in March is going to be Godzilla Pro. We knew of that. But to note, they also do not plan on building any more Godzilla Pros in 2024. Finally caught up on those. And interesting enough, That was the one title that many of us dealers have been without for the last several months was Godzilla Pro. So I anticipate them making a pretty healthy batch of those if they do not plan on making more this year.
    18:28
    And then late March, we have Jurassic Park Premium, which we knew about. We didn't know what part of the month. Right now, we're looking at late March. And again, no more planned for 2024. Now, that's the one where T-Rex eat ball, yeah? Correct. And that one still sells very, very well. So much so that I have a decent amount of inventory. I still purchased additional inventory to plan for the remainder of the year. And then we've got what many have been waiting to hear. When are they going to make Jaws pros again? Because most, if not all, of the initial pros that went out this month go to locations, not to residential or to hobbyist-based collectors. I've lamented it for years. April comes, that's when we're going to get our Jaws Pro as well as Jaws Premium. So that's your second runs of Pro and Premium Jaws is coming in April. The Pros first, very likely, followed by the Premiums. So you may see Premiums drift into May. So I would guess Jaws Premiums towards the end of April. Also in late April, this is news, Elvira is going to get another run in April. Let's see if they stick with it. Elvira Premium coming late April. Ooh. So people were wondering when the second run of Jaws were going to come. There's that, as well as Elvira Premium getting another run in April. I honestly didn't think we'd see one so soon. And they haven't ruled out the possibility of another run in 2024 for Elvira, which kind of tells me that they like the sales of that game. They might not like building it, but they like the sales of it. Maybe they finally overcome whatever were those build struggles, Maybe they figured a different way that's making it less stressful or at least more predictable on getting a schedule. Because I just remember that it just kept all those orders were sitting and Elvira would be just pushed or just never announced. And it was weird. Yeah. I mean, real weird. If I were a betting man, I would say that we will not see Elvira premium produced again in 2024 past past April here. I wouldn't think so either. I think in case they have a couple of stinkers or something, they could throw it up there. What are the rumors, Zach? What's coming out? Because you know you can still buy Jaws LE anywhere. Well, not everywhere.
    20:52
    Not at Flippin' Out Pinball. No, not at Flippin' Out. No. Until you end up going on and saying, I got two available. Somebody else didn't pay. That one person from last episode, they did pay. They did pay.
    21:05
    That's a certified hit. Some of you people. Certified hit. All right. So we got Q2 stuff, Foo Fighters Pro, Venom Pro, and Premium. Another update. Jaws Premium is going to have another run in June. The third run is going to be this June. Oh, that's only like a month after the prior second run. Yeah. So that tells me they're getting a lot of orders for the Premium. No other additional updates to Q3, Q4. We do know at some point in Q4 there's going to be a Jaws Pro, that third run of Jaws Pro. Right. It would make sense. And then 2024, they still plan at some point to do The Mandalorian. They just haven't said when. And believe it or not, they do not plan on making any more Stranger Things Pro in 2024. Really? Yeah. I'm a little surprised about that. They actually have some available right now for dealers. Oh, okay. All right. So it's... There are some games that are inventoried at Stern right now that dealers can go out and buy. Almost like it's back in 2019 again. Hmm. But, yeah, so Stranger Things Pro likely running in 2025. I put a question mark on it on our schedule, Dennis, just because they haven't announced that it will in 2025. They've just said they have no plans on doing a batch of them this year. Okay. We look at all this, listener. Based on the production timeline info, I would anticipate Stern Pinball announcing their next Cornerstone game, because that's all you guys care about anyway, at the mid or end of April. and then subsequently starting production in early May. Just looking at the schedule and what they're building, that feels like the biggest gap that they could squeeze in a cornerstone. And then the third cornerstone being August, September as usual. So I don't think we see a Stern revealed cornerstone game at Texas Pinball Festival.
    22:59
    Have they ever revealed that, Texas? not in recent memory not in recent memory not in any that i've been at i've been at the last like eight hasn't it been like midwest gaming classic was always the weekend after and that's when they came out like black knight and that's when they came out with like that might be that might be i don't remember well enough on that so i don't even see it happening then i really don't but I mean, look, they're putting so much into, like, February is full of, this month is full of Jaws Premium, Jaws L.A., Stranger Things they're making again.
    23:36
    I think Premiums they've recently made. March, they're making Godzilla Pros. They're making Jurassic Park Premiums. They're making Star Wars Premium, Star Wars Pro, as well as other titles. And then April's pretty much fulling up, too, because they're doing the second run of Jaws Pro and Premium. They're doing Elvira Premium. So that's why I think, and then May right now on my schedule, there's going to be other titles there. It's just I don't have much there. Same with June. I don't have much. So I think end of April, we'll see a May pro production, you know, LE production getting into June. But we'll have to wait and see. Stern Pinball accessories updates. The bane of my existence. Stranger Things accessories have been shipping, Dennis. Mm-hmm. They announced them in, what, they were going to come in October, then they were going to come in November, then if we wait, they'll come in December before the new year, but then it didn't. And then they said, well, January. January, you know. Yeah, January is fine. They said Q1, and we were like, oh, shit, what does that mean? And then finally, February, they started shipping.
    24:42
    But they even advertised it You see this advertisement They been doing reels Get your Stranger Things accessories shipping now And that just makes my job harder because the Art Blades they shipped the armor they shipped, the toppers they've been shipping, Shooter Rod, that cool interactive. Yeah, don't forget Shooter Rod. They've been shipping. But the UV kit, that's what everybody wants, that UV kit. They started shipping some of them. They even fulfilled, I think, all of my Pro Kit order. But the Premium LE Kit, not even close to what I ordered. So, yeah, we still have some supply chain stuff that is delaying a little bit some of those Premium LE UV Kits. So those are coming slowly but surely. And they claim that this month, Dennis, they're also going to be running that Iron Maiden topper again, the Aces High topper. Yeah, I keep hearing that. I've had people order since like last year at this time. So hopefully that gets done. Stern in their recent update to dealers indicated that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles accessories are going wayside. Just like the game being discontinued, they're no longer making any of those accessories.
    25:58
    So whatever is out there Topper-wise or Artblade, whatever is out there is out there. That's all you get. That makes sense. So if you want a TMNT Topper, please, flippingoutpinball.com. Buy, buy, buy! This last week, Joel Engelberth streamed Joel's Pro with special guest, Joel's programmer, Elizabeth Geiske. Did you get a chance to tune into that? You didn't. I fell asleep. You know what? To be fair, I did too. I was watching in my bed, and I was so tired, and my kid wasn't asking me to do homework. So I was nodding off as well. I went and watched the rest of it. That's a good one. You guys got to go back. If you want to know how to play Joel's, that's the stream for you. They went through all of the rules, and it was very helpful. For some reason, I'll give Joel some credit, Dennis. For some reason, that man does a good job explaining rules for me to understand them. Yeah. I don't know how or what he does so special, but I think I'm on the same level as him as playing. So now he knows more rules than I do, but at least I can remember the rules whenever he explains them. For some reason, I don't know why. So there you go, Joel. Congratulations. You can teach an idiot how to play, Joel.
    27:17
    Dennis, did you see there's a new code for Stern? New code. No, I did not. No one cares. Well, some do. You know, there's a lot of Venom owners out there. And version 0.97 came out for Venom. And it was a big one. for the Pro Premium and Limited Edition models, contains new speech, and Insider Connected achievements include, I think there's like 29 achievements you can get now, additional achievements. So check those out. The call-outs even include like call-outs on what the next shot should be, whether it's Venom or the host telling you that. Sometimes they'll even argue about which shot to make. That's clever. Yes, and it will not be confusing to anyone. That's right. Absolutely not. And then just for fun, they sprinkle in some call-outs from Dwight Sullivan. Oh, hey, maybe, no, left ramp, maybe not. And then he'll argue with the hosts. Something is about to leave Benton, Wisconsin.
    28:13
    Spooky? Are they moving to Chicago? No, they're not. Rumors are, no. They received the character sculpts they've been waiting for so they can now start shipping Looney Tunes. I didn't know that was the holdup. That was the holdup. I think some of the sculpts, but the main central spinning Tasmanian Devil and Leatherface. So they can start shipping Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes, the first probably, I guess, ten of each title, if not Texas first. But some games are shipping Monday. Oh, okay. So if you're a famous rock star, look forward to getting your game soon. I wonder if Alice Cooper is getting one of these games.
    28:57
    I think that I may be getting one of these games. I'll have to check in. What? If so, Joel, get ready, buddy. He just started Jaws. Scare the shit out of those kids with the little Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I don't know if you can have TCM in the house. He's already telling me, like, well, you know, there might have to be a blanket that I drape over. There might need to be blankets. He had Elvira's boobs all up in his house a couple weeks ago, so he's fine. He's okay. Little Timmy.
    29:30
    We're going to learn something today. Those are boobs and those are brains. Welcome to Pinball. Oh, and if we're talking about shipping games, Chicago Gaming Company is – did we talk about this last – I don't think we did. Did we talk about them announcing that they were going to be shipping some Pulp Fiction essays? We talked a little bit about the production, about what the standard model, the Coindor, different – I can't keep them straight. We talked a little bit about them building them. Okay, yeah. and then they said, oh, they're going to ship by the end of next week and I think I even told you all like, nah, probably the week after. You said you didn't. You thought it would be a little later. And I was right. What a shock at CGC. So they do have some, SED is what they call the ones with the black coin door that can accept a dollar bill acceptor. We call them SEDs. SEDs dead, baby. SEDs dead.
    30:19
    So SED games and then a lot of people didn't know about this. They are producing some of the stainless classic Coindor, what we call SCs. They are producing some of those and mixing them into the first batch as well. Most of these games are focused on the locations, the arcades around the country, just like a lot of manufacturers have adopted that type of process. But, given that this isn't a Stern Pro, it's not like we've got to fulfill the whole world with a ton of locations. There are only, I don't know what the percentage would be that put in like a Jersey Jack or Chicago Gaming, a non-stern. How many just consistently put in every game that comes out or most other games. Maybe from CGC being, I would guess them being a little bit higher percentage wise going into arcades than the other manufacturers just because of durability and price. But nonetheless, still not as many as stern. So you'll still see some of these SEDs and SEs going to collectors as well. but the company has told us let's focus on getting them into arcades. So we are. So I think, uh, I think we're getting our first batch next week, next week or this week. Some are coming, but again, um, percentage wise out of all of the SES and LDS that flipping out pinball has on order, just for a, um, just for an example, not even, not even 10% of what we have on order are going to be shipped out next week or this week for us. Not even 5%. We're just getting a handful. We're not getting many. But nonetheless, you're going to be able to see them at locations around the country courtesy of Chicago Gaming Company and Flippin' Out Pinball, including the likes of Electric Bat Arcade. Have you heard of them? Oh, they're pretty famous. I think they've got a podcast. That's right. They've got a podcast. Rachel Bess and Kale Hernandez is down there. They've got one coming. If you guys want to play some Pulp Fiction. Make sure to head down there. As well as I think there's going to be one in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cincinnati. Arcade Legacy. Shout out to Arcade Legacy. I believe they're going to be having one. Some of our favorite people over in Nashville, Tennessee area. Game Galaxy. I believe you're going to be seeing a Pulp Fiction there. Talked about Electric Back. Oh, what about Ulic Store? Huh? Ulic Store up in Michigan. Monroe, Michigan. Go up there to play as well. Memphis is going to have one. Our buddy's down at Memphis. Louisville's going to have one, as well as a handful of others from flipping out pinball around the country. How many of those locations, percentage-wise, we talked about percentage putting in games, how many of those locations have American pinball games? Of the ones you just named? Maybe 25%. Oh, that's pretty high. Well, of the ones you named that are getting Pulp Fiction, I think those are larger entities, by and large, that may deal with that. I mean, in terms of our area, the only American pinball game we've ever had on location was Hot Wheels.
    33:23
    And it was – people were – like, it wasn't the most hated game in the lineup. It wasn't most hated? Well, like, for competitive reasons. Like, some people got really frustrated because the RPM targets were kind of OP, overpowered, versus everything else. But but and I think it did have some mechanical issues, but not compared to some other like they don't. They haven't routed spookies in a long time because of the failure. Right. So I think TNA was the last one and it broke a lot. So we don't get whereas we do get Chicago Gaming and JJP Games on location regularly.
    33:59
    I don't know. Not not very common around here. Well, I'm glad to hear of some recent news from American Pinball because we were having some hiccups from a distribution standpoint on tech stuff and getting help. Some people were having trouble getting a hold of American Pinball to help them. Some still are. But they've made attempts to beef that up in the next story we're going to discuss here. American Pinball, a lot of information in the last couple weeks, Dennis, that we've rode through the waves of. That's saying it nicely, right? It's been, we're in for some chop. We're in for some chop.
    34:38
    Maybe chop that barbecue up. I hear of a barbecue game coming soon from American Pinball and the late Barry Orsler. Brisket multi-ball.
    34:49
    I don't like barbecue with a lot of vinegar base in it. So you're not like a Carolina. I like vinegar sauces. They're some of my favorite. I'm not opposed to a thinner sauce, but not one that is filled with that vinegar. Now, I'd rather have a little heat and more mesquite. Now, are you just not a sauce fan? Do you prefer dry rubs and such so you don't have to have sauce on it at all? I'm a sauce guy, and I don't mind it being a dry rub presented to us and a sauce ourselves as the consumer. I think Texas, when I went to Heart 8 and stuff, it seems like I hated their sauces. And my understanding is that's not really the Texas style, whereas in Kansas City, sauce is a key part of the barbecue identity. Sure, sure. Okay. Well, I can understand, though, why you might be more of a don't like that acidity. Exactly, exactly. So I'm hungry for barbecue sauce. Maybe it will work. Barbecue sauce. So the last couple weeks here, they came out. I'm trying to think of the timeline because, boy, it's been a mess. Okay. The reason they're so prevalent in the news right now is because, in my opinion, there was a report, a rumored report of American Pinball, potentially, we talked about this last time, potentially looking to sell the company to somebody else, looking for a buyer, right? Yeah, I think I first heard about that or actually read it on Nap Arcade, I believe. Yes. And then we found out in App Arcade it was from Cale Hernandez. I got a text about it, and that was in Pinball Party. So that was four or five days prior to. All right. So we discussed it. I think we covered it well. Everybody covered it. All right. So we got that. But then, coincidentally, a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, which I think then led to this. But we'll talk about that more later, especially if you're in the Pinball Show membership club. But they wanted to come out, apparently. American Pinball wanted to come out and say, that is not true. That is not true. So they did a couple of things.
    36:53
    They launched a streaming channel so that they could show off their products as well as – I heard about this. I didn't see it. I actually had someone actually over with the EGP Patreon make mention of it that made it sound like the first stream had some issues. Well, yeah. But again, I didn't go back and check. So they did a couple of things. They launched a stream channel. to communicate and uh day fix recently went on jeff hills's pinball profile to discuss that this rumor is not true yeah yeah all right so if we talk about the stream channel they're going to be on i think every week uh streaming games they were like you know what what do we need to show off for the first presentation none of the hot wheels hot wheels well hey that's the one i've played the most Are you trying to sell Hot Wheels? I don't know. Is it in stock? No, I don't think so. Who knows why it was Hot Wheels. But they branded it as, hey, if we're going to get a little attention for this false rumor, let's really dig in deep. We're going to launch a stream channel, and we've got big announcements coming this Wednesday. Fucking big announcements. Tune in. And everybody was like, oh, sweet. We're going to tune in. So they tuned in. They saw Nirmal Vasani. He's a part owner of American Pinball. They saw Dave Fix, executive vice president of AP, Steve Bowden, game rules creator. And we met someone else new, which is one of their announcements, was they've added two new tech members on their team. That was the big announcement, Dennis. Two new tech people. Now, I've heard some people talk on Pinside, so right on Pinside, that there were some issues getting a hold of tech support folks. So that may be a big deal to some of the owners. But I think didn't they also, I had read, because again, I didn't watch the stream, that they also announced that they have a new board set. They have a new board set. So congratulations to Maurice and LTG, LTG of the Pinside fame. Pinside fame, yeah. He's SS Billiards up there in Minnesota, I believe. They're going to be the new tech members. They've been going through techs and different employees frequently over the last year or so. Let's hope that Maurice and LTG get it done for the community out there. But yes, Dennis, they also said, David Fick said, quote, in it for the long haul. And to show they're in it for the long haul, they announced proprietary boards going forward that they have spent, he made it a big deal, hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're really excited about these new boards that do have backwards compatibility. That was the other announcement. That was interesting. Is it announcement worthy?
    39:29
    Tech members and boards that are going to do the same thing as the last one? I think it would have made more sense to have announced the new board with a new game.
    39:38
    Again, it's a little different here, I think, because the backwards compatibility means it doesn't have to be that way. That is good, yeah. I mean, most people, bottom line, don't really care all that much what board is driving the game as long as it's well supported and all of that. From a content creator standpoint, I thought this was more interesting than the tech news. And I think part of that is because to me it was always very odd that American Pinball, owned by Ametron, a board manufacturer, didn't start with self-produced boards. Yeah. And I've seen people online make excuses about how with the timeline on getting Houdini out there, it made more sense for them to use a third-party product. And that might all be true, but I still just – like if you're spinning up a pinball company, I always thought it was to show off what they could do with their circuit boards. I wasn't going to say American Pinball was meant to be a loss leader, but I thought it was supposed to help advertise for Ametron's products that would power it, and that just didn't happen until now.
    40:41
    So in that regard, what value is American Pinball? If you go to Ametron's website and you look at their subsidiaries, American Pinball doesn't make any sense in the context of everything else that they've got. But it does make more sense if they actually have Ametron products in them. Mm-hmm. So in that regard, it actually now provides some value to Ametron because I don't believe it's making them any money. Yeah. But that's just my opinion. I was watching – it was a podcast. I was watching a stream. One of the past employees at American Pinball was in there, and he was like – their goal when he worked there, I think he was – oh, he was prior to – he was right at Hot Wheels. Prior to Hot Wheels. Maybe he was prior to Hot Wheels. But he said 1,000 games a year was their goal, and they never met it. I found that interesting. Now, whether or not that's true or not is coming from a past employee just reporting that. Who knows? But the backwards compatibility, I think, is going to be helpful for consumer competence moving forward. Perhaps. At the very least, though, it means you don't have to worry about, or at least they don't have to worry about, maintaining two different stockpiles of boards, one to keep all of the stuff that already exists running and then one for all their work going forward. But what's that mean for like, what were they using? P-Rock? Yeah. I think they were the last sizable entity. Oh. Well, I have to use sizable loosely since they didn't even make a thousand games a year, apparently. But, I mean, P-Rock at one point, or P3 Rock to be more specific to the version, was used at Haggis for Celts. Okay. Was used by Spooky for a few games, starting with TNA. And then they did a few. Spooky's like gone through more boards than anyone. I think they've had more boards than Stern. That's right. I'm not sure. Board boards over there. It sure feels, yeah. I think they've gone with four different iterations. And then AP, American Pinball. Those are the only ones I'm aware of commercially that use it. Besides, of course, Multimorphic, but that's a first-party board set for them. I wonder if they use P3 Rock on anything else. I mean, homebrewers, it's a big, it used to seem, again, this is all perception. A lot of people are going to fast.
    42:49
    It's shifted now. Yeah. Back when I first started, and I've never focused on homebrew. It's just not an area that I play in in the hobby. But it used to seem like most of the homebrewers went with something out of Multimorphic. I don't know that that's the case at this point. But honestly, I don't know if anyone has the statistics on it. Okay. But that's what I knew it for first was homebrew. And then a lot of companies started turning to it because, well, you know, if Scott Denise is developing a game and he developed it on P-Rock, Why would you want to go through this whole arduous conversion process? And instead, so in that regard, they did that. But I think what was happening, and again, Spooky could obviously advise, but this is all just Dennis's opinion. The Penhek board was what they were using up until that point. And I think there were always some struggles with pushing it to do what they want. Because again, Spooky came out, and then the LCDs and everything got really big. And there were just changes had to be made for technology reasons. And so I think it just made a lot of sense at that time for them to go ahead and use a third-party board set. But Spooky struggled with it. Remember, they had that huge memory leak issue on Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle, which I never understood. I always chalked it up to a spooky thing because I didn't hear anyone else saying they had memory leak problems using multimorphics boards. But they struggled for like a year, it seemed, trying to fix that. I remember, what was it, on Halloween or maybe the game before? Halloween was a different board set. It might have been the game before. I don't remember what it was, but there was one of the boards that if you update it wrong, you can break your machine. And I did that. I'm like, damn it. And I had to be sent out a new motherboard. What a pain. Board pains. Yeah, I'm trying to. I think Halloween was where they did a jump. I can't. I don't know. Does IPDB say it? I'm loading up the IPDB right now to see what they're saying. I can hear the fan. yes yes so because i thought rick and morty was the last of the p3 rock boards and that's unfortunately that's the last one that hype ipdb i love you so much but why are you never updated halloween's not in there we'll talk about that here soon ipdb being used as a reference and speaking of p3 rock and multimorphic a lot of updates that we'll be talking about later in the episode here regarding that company some exciting stuff but back to american pinball dennis there is a story brewing under all of this, behind the curtains for those who like to see sausage being made, right?
    45:24
    That's true. And we're going to focus this special coverage to our Patreon Club members. All you've got to do is go to patreon.com slash the pinball show to hear a segment that is so out of this world that we can't even make it up and we're just going to title this bonus content simply is dave fix an american pinball trying to sue me oh dennis is is dave fix trying to sue me what wow as we look at the timeline i can't wait to show you club members the timeline to what goes on behind the scenes and just how these things work out. How is Dave Fix and American Pinball trying to sue me? And then all of a sudden, within the same day, we got this announcement of a new stream and we got all of this other stuff going on. This is wonderful. Are they trying to sue me? I'll tell you exactly why. Based on information direct from Dave Fix, I think they're trying to sue me. But you can only hear that if you go to patreon.com slash the pinball show. And remember, you get access to our Discord. These individuals, I teased them this, what, last week in our Discord? Yes, you did. Now they get to hear the meat and potatoes of the story.
    46:53
    So go subscribe today. At the $10 level, get you access to all of the bonus content, access to the private Discord, as well as some other cool stuff. $25 Nordman level gets you the respect of the Nordman, number one. I mean, that's big enough. Gets you some swag. You can choose a topic in an upcoming episode. You also get to do our monthly happy hour hangout. That's always a blast. Or you can go to the $100 Screaming Goat Club membership, get your own nickname, get private discussions with Dennis and I on the drippiest juice in the industry, as well as a paywall polo coming onto the show, et cetera. Go sign up now, patreon.com slash the pinball show. You're going to want to hear this one. So we've got that. I almost wanted to jump into that. But we've got to keep talking about American pinball. Dave Fix also, so they did that stream to get out there ahead of things saying, hey, that rumor is false. They also wanted to note that they're moving forward. They got big plans. So Dave Fix went on Pinball Profile with Jeff Teolis. Did you listen to this? Absolutely not. I didn't figure. Okay, so I listened to it, and Dave Fix wanted to set the record straight. The rumor that American Pinball is looking for a buyer is false. You heard it here on the Pinball Show. Well, you heard it there. And then you heard it here to emphasize. Remember? Is Dave Fick trying to sue me? So the rumor is false. But they may have been looking for investors at one point.
    48:23
    What do investors do, Zach? They give you money. They buy things. They buy part of the business. They buy businesses. Yes.
    48:37
    Okay. I'm back. Okay. So, all right, maybe that didn't mean, you know, they were just looking for some friends that wanted to join in. That's all. So the rumor is false. Let's just – that is false. They're not looking for investors. Also in this interview, Dave Fick's still really pushing his idea of non-licensed games. Okay. This is why I didn't listen. That's right. Because I can't – I can't – Our last EGP. I cannot – I've heard so many of these interviews, and he has – I mean, kudos to him for staying the course. He's double, triple, quintuple, sextuple down. I think I skipped one of my upples in that list. And I'm just like, no one else does this. Even the – go on. Go on. Tell the people. So instead of being I thought at some point they just be like look they too expensive That not the type of money But everyone else does it Yeah but still if they made the argument we don want to spend money on that Spooky's done it since game two. Game two, a 300-run game. A new company, Barrels of Fun, came in and got a Jim Henson IP and is doing very well in sales. Barrels, you know what's in them? Fun and licenses.
    49:56
    Fun and licenses, that's what's in those barrels. Dave Fix, he had to dig down the toes of his cowboy boots and said, look, I'm digging in here. Have you looked at IMDB? He said, Jeff Tillis, let's go to the IMDB rankings. It doesn't even have Halloween on it. The top ten IMDB, there's three of them on here that are not licensed.
    50:21
    So there's your pudding and there's the proof. So much pudding proof. Yeah, Medieval Madness and Monster Bash and Attack on Titan. I used to reference this list as well because it's so horrifically outdated. Back in the 90s. Yeah, well, you look at it compared to – all right, let's run with that a little. This is – oh, I wish you hadn't brought this up. All right, let's run with this for a little bit. Let's look at that top ten. Here's the top ten list currently. I've got – because I was trying to find Halloween. That's right. I've got IPTV loaded up. Here are your top ten, according to them, in order. Twilight Zone, number one. Number two, Theater of Magic. Number three, Star Trek TNG. Number four, Medieval Madness. Number five, Scared Stiff. Number six, Indiana Jones, the good one. Number seven, Addams Family. Number eight, Monster Bash. Number nine, Whitewater. Number ten, Tales of the Arabian Nights. There's not a single game in that list newer than 1998. No, there's not.
    51:23
    Numbers don't lie, and neither do I, when it comes to talking about IPTV. At that point, down at number 26, you've got X-Men by Stern, which is still shown before any LCD Stern game. I'm going to keep scrolling. Where's the first LCD Stern game? Here's my point. No one updates it. And here's your counter reference. As flawed as it is as well, here is the current top ten solid state on Pennside. Number one, Godzilla. Number two, Stern's Jurassic Park. Number three, Medieval Madness. Number four, Attack from Mars. Number five, Deadpool. Number six, Iron Maiden. The good one, because there's a Stern Electronics one. Number seven, Elvira's House of Horrors. Number eight, Foo Fighters. Number nine, Lord of the Rings. Number ten, Monster Bash. So there are three games that are shared. Sure. And then there's the modern stuff. I found on IPDB.org, the first Stern LCD game that shows up in the top 100 is at 91. It's Aerosmith. so so this is not a reliable list no no i don't even it's either people don't vote in it anymore which is probably true because honestly who does because there's no discussion that happens ipdb is a reference resource it is not a place where people go and chit chat about games and second i don't even know what the methodology is on how any of that goes into play i'm sure there is one obviously that does it but it is a in my opinion let me just no you know just so it's real clear it's just my opinion maybe i'm wrong but that is a terrible argument i've just reviewed the rest of them listener i went through all 300 that they have listed and the only lcd stern that was listed was aerosmith thus i don't believe which was either the first or the second depending because Batman 66, with the delays and issues, a lot of people, the first one they played was Aerosmith. Yeah, so trying to make an argument using outdated information is about as piss-poor as it comes. But it could, like, if you didn't know Pinside existed, if you were Brendan Fraser and Encino Manning out of your icicle, and you were to look at IPDB, I could maybe understand where someone would look at this and go, oh, okay, well, I mean, yeah, Twilight Zone's the number one game, and Star Trek's number three, and Indiana Jones is number six, and Addams Family's number seven, Monster Bash is number eight. There ain't no Sterns in here, Roadshow. But other than that, they're original themes. Roadshow, hail Supreme here. Oh, God. These IPDP people got it down. Maybe, you know what, maybe that's what Dave Fix is actually looking at.
    54:06
    He's running a company based on this. Here's my problem, though. When you still look at this, there's a lot of license themes in this top ten on IPDB, so I still don't think it's a good argument at all. Including the number one. He also went on in that interview to express, look, here's how licensing works, plebes. He said, IP requires a lot of money. It requires a lot of money up front. Let's take, they use the example of like a million dollars, like a beetle license or something. He said, you'd have to give up front $750,000 out of a $1 million license, 750 out of pocket up front to sign on to them. Then you've got about 18, 36 months, whatever the agreement is, to bring this product to the marketplace. Then once you do bring it to the marketplace, there's another fee that you have to pay. And then on top of that, you have royalties for each machine that is sold. It's what he claims that people in the industry call, quote, dead money, end quote. We're talking about IPs in general. They're dead money.
    55:07
    A weird term, a weird term, just because it implies negativity, and a lot of people are just having great, successful pinball companies with this, quote, dead money.
    55:19
    So he's saying it's too expensive. I mean, that might be the right term. I don't know. I don't know anything about that. I've not heard it, but it could be. I'm not licensing, so I don't know. I'm just a dummy. I'm just a dummy with a microphone. But as you kind of touched on with that, so this money is dead money. But for some reason, Stern kills their money. Yeah, it makes a lot of money. JJP kills their money. You know, those old games that are looked at in that IPDB list that like Haggis and Chicago Gaming do. Those are licensed deals. That's dead money. Right. All right. So they murdered some money. I'm how the money dies. I'm upgrading as we go along. HomePen even has licenses. That's manslaughter money. Wow. They've manslaughtered some money right there. Every investment is then dead money. Well, I think this is all specific to licenses from how you've described it. I'm just saying just in general. So my point is, what successful pinball company in this modern era can we name that doesn't do licenses? That uses live money. Yeah, that has live money.
    56:21
    And then he said, look, guys, quote, we're a small company. He went on to say, quote, we only have two programmers. And what I wanted to bring up, Dennis and the listener, is I've heard this from David Fix before. I have too. That's why you didn't listen to the interview. We've only got two programs. At this point, that worked for a while. Oh, the underdog kind of thing. But for me at this point, this rhetoric, it's starting to be like an anti-selling point in my opinion. How so? Because it's like we're so small. We don't have any programmers to give you code. We don't have any techs to help. No, we're not cutting some slack. It sounds like you guys just aren't as good as everybody else. It sounds like you don't have the resources to make the games that you're charging the same amount for people who do have ten times the resources. So I think that helped whenever you are small and you're growing like a spooky pinball. Let's get behind them. Let's give them support so that in five years they will have the resources. He says, well, damn it, it's seven plus years, and they're still riding this. We're a small company. We only have two programs. Maybe there's a reason for that. And maybe if I'm buying a game, maybe I want one that came from a team of programmers rather than a couple. At this point, I don't think he should be pitching that as a selling point. He's showcasing it being a questionable part of the business, in my opinion. Okay. I mean, it's interesting. I don't actually fault the like using the we are a small company and I because I still feel spooky tries to do this like they're always we're just a boutique they're not leaning on it as much anymore well no because the difference is where I do think you are correct is spooky has shown a growth trajectory and we don't feel like we see that out of American pinball part of that is spooky is more transparent with their numbers so we saw them go from America's Most Haunted to Rob Zombie to ACNC. And while not every run has been larger than the prior run, we have seen overall, like if you were to plot all of those on a time graph and then you were to polynomial it, you would see that overall they have shown a positive growth. The company's gotten bigger. They may still want to identify as small in the grand scheme of pinball manufacturers, but we've seen them actually make progress bringing on more people, getting more space, all that sort of stuff. And the same feeling doesn't it feels more like to me and again, merely my opinion that American pinball has tread water for a long period of time. And I know for some people, it feels like American pinball treaded water for three games and then got worse after Hot Wheels.
    59:06
    So those are the perceptions that I think that they're running into. And that's where I think, you know, pointing out, I think it's OK to say if you only have a couple of programmers and stuff in a vacuum. It's just it's not like how much sympathy do you – if you're brand new, you get a lot of sympathy for being this upstart trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But after you've been at it for a few years and you're still struggling, it's – That doesn't do anything. No. It's not helping. Yeah, that's the issue. I don't think it's the size even. If they wanted to stay as a lean, mean, small company, I think that actually could be a pretty powerful selling point. But the problem remains – I mean HomePen has zero programmers.
    59:50
    I mean I'm just assuming given the state of their code. But they still have licenses somehow. I just – I don't get it. I will take the time to remind you, listener, because I have to do this every time that I talk positively about a product is I do sell for American Pinball. I, as in my company Flippin' Out Pinball, does sell. This isn't a flipping out pinball podcast per se. This is the pinball show. But I do speak. I am a representative of the product. So I have a vested interest. I want them to sell products. I want them to have good products to sell. Does any of this really help me speaking the truth about this? Probably not. If you want to hear more about that, go to our Patreon. Title is Day Fix and American Pinball Trying to Sue Me? So just remember that whenever you throw out those shill monikers every fucking week. All right. So, man, a lot of good discussion in the Patreon. Go to that.
    60:48
    TPF is advertising. I saw this on Nap Arcade, teasing that maybe there's going to be a new American Pinball game revealed at TPF Texas in March here. So maybe we see the next game. I hope it's licensed. I don't think it is. Well, maybe it'll be fun. I did go back and watch the second stream last week that they do this weekly stream in American Pinball. They introduced Ray from Interium location, as well as a new member that they're going to be working in sales. Ron. Ron Hallett Jr.? I don't think Ron Hallett Jr. They can't afford Ron Hallett Jr. He's a pin god.
    61:23
    He's, let's see, Ron, not Ron Hallett Jr. He's coming from Polycade and some other vending companies, so they have more in the Salesforce team. We were talking earlier about these big announcements that AP was jumping in front of. We've got big announcements with Sports System. We've got big announcements with adding tech people. Now in the second week, we've got big announcements. We've got another salesperson.
    61:45
    Here's what strikes me as odd. As an authorized dealer for American Pinball, I found these things out listening to podcasts or streams. We've not been given any correspondence business-wise, email, call. There's been no correspondence to any of this information. You would think the relevant people, you know, dealers, your dealer network should know about this stuff. Now, this, though, isn't something that's been exclusive to American Pinball. Nope. This is bad habits by many. I think I've heard a number of other companies. Absolutely. There have been complaints about that. I just find it interesting. For some reason, just feel like they just need to announce it on some content creator sites and that everyone consumes that stuff. You just usually look at the source and see what benefit the source has, maybe selfishly, for getting the information out there. I mean, when you're sending this info out to your business partners and distribution network, there's nothing sexy about that. We're informed. We can better inform the consumers. Yeah, but you could do both. Like a company could do both. That's not it. I'm just saying. Chris Franchi did message me and said that the lunchbox for the Signature Edition was actually different artwork than the one sold separately, which was nicer, he said. Okay, because I saw a lot of people online really complaining about that. But he had no explanation for the additional thermi. Well, does the thermos have different art? He didn't talk about that. He stayed clear of that. Is it different thermos if it's got different art? At least I think so. One had to deal with thermos. I think that counts. One had to deal with that. That's what it is. Let's talk about Jersey Jack. pinball? Do we have to? We should. Look, last episode, we put it behind the paywall. I know. That's why I'm tired. I'm tired of giving them so much attention. Just quickly, you've got to go listen to the exclusive content on Patreon as a club member to hear this, but very quickly, we talked about the driver board and we received then and since then, everything positive review-wise from the community about this new driver board. So if you have an older Jersey Jack game, people are raving about this thing.
    63:52
    It's kind of pricey to get another board and have to redo it if it's not really broken, but it plays a hell of a lot better. So you may want to on your Hobbits of the World, Pirates of the World, Wonkas, Dialed In, etc. I have seen a number of people since we did that Patreon episode report that it has really made a difference for them. Yeah, they are really liking it. I guess I need to buy one for my Wonka. Alright, and then we also covered Things I Like, Things I Don't about Elton John, a game that has been trending very significantly over the last couple of weeks.
    64:24
    And also go check out the Straight Down the Middle Flippin' Out Pinball. I did a – you probably didn't watch it, but I did a video. Listener, you probably watched it. Thank you. And if not, go watch it now. A video of both vertical orientation video and a regular horizontal 16.9 orientation of Elton John gameplay, a gameplay guide, and some real short-form media throughout the week. So that was a lot of fun too. I saw in the YouTube recommendations, but I saw both thumbnails, and I couldn't tell which one was which, so I didn't play either. One of them was oriented vertically just to get it. One of them had a hand holding a phone, Dennis. I couldn't. Shit. It was a phone for ants. It was so small in the thumbnail, I couldn't tell. But, yeah, things I like, things I don't. Things I love, you have to go listen to the details, but things I love included the shot layout, the moments. Oh, man, the moments. The shot layouts, eating crow on some of the shot layouts. I discussed that, as well as the code. maybe multi balls make sense in this game go listen to that because elton john is fantastic it is a fantastic game and one that will be in my collection undoubtedly until i beat it i see the light at the end of the tunnel it can be beaten and i like that like when someone gives you a tickle knowing you're close right it's not like it's everest or anything all right multi-morphic a lot of updates. Now I think we found this information they might have emailed it to people on Pennside but Multimorphic has come out Dennis with a ton of updates including production updates. It says reaching capacity of 10 machines per week late last year. They've expanded into an additional 5,000 square foot building I guess. New space is going to help further increase machine and production playfield capacity.
    66:14
    It'll pay immediate dividends, continue working through their build queue for final resistance playfields. They're filling batch six orders right now. They look forward to releasing their next major title. Yeah, they did a lot in the announcement on the product quality, which they talked about late last year. Remember, there was supposed to be another game to have come out from them, a first party title. Yeah, and then they had that open letter, and then people were like, holy. They did an announcement saying they were going to pause that because they were addressing some QC concerns that were raised. Really a lot in this open letter to multimorphic threat on Penn's side. And boy, they did. Like the ATX power supply that they were using is being upgraded to a highly rated gold certified ATX supply. All P3 owners will receive the updated supply for free. Wow, that's a lot. That's a lot, depending on how many P3s they've sold. I'm going to assume it's a decent number. Yeah, welded flipper and slingshot pivot brackets had inconsistent quality. So they're going to get free replacements for the lower playfield flippers and the slings. Jerry's becoming Oprah over here. You get a replacement. Some of the small bobbing coils, Dennis. Yeah. Nobody puts small bobbing coils in the corner. Now, it looks like those are going to be warranty swaps. They're not just going to send people coils. Well, that's still nice. Yeah. The first version of their industry. Why would you give people coils if they don't need them? Their end-of-stroke switches for the first version, small circuit boards, can fail occasionally due to functional tolerances with movements, yada, yada, yada. Too long, fell asleep. So new end-of-stroke boards for everyone, free. Free! Yep. Some of their high-stress 3D printed parts are being replaced. That was the big thing. Everybody was like, oh, these are like – I think that was the part that surprised a lot of people in the thread. I remember people sharing the photos and, you know, many people like me who have never owned it. I mean, I've seen photos underneath, but I've never looked that closely to be able to know what was up. I always just assume the parts are metal. So anyway, a lot of people got I remember there just it was almost that thread like broken to five tangents at points. And one of them were people talking about the different types of 3D printing and how this a lot of people sort of accused a lot of these parts of being what I would describe as hobbyist printed, like using the cheap printers that lots of people buy for their home to play around with. Yeah, like 2015 3D printers, yeah. Some of these high-stress 3D printed parts, they're being replaced by aluminum or injected molded parts. That's huge. Let's see. All P3 owners will receive a number of these updated parts for free, including the new aluminum flipper bats for the side target assemblies. Okay, cool. And then most of the remaining 3D printed design files will be available to download so you can print your own parts. Now I'm going to do one replacement. Let's see.
    69:06
    Updated assembly guidelines and QC processes. Thread, missing thread lockers. So that's going to be for their production line. Okay. Switching to palletized free shipping for heavier playfield modules. How were they shipped? I don't know. Do you recall? I don't. I didn't know that it was different. I got the boot before Heist was even out.
    69:33
    I mean, I remember some people I know who were our owners who talked about, like, sustaining some damage in the shipping, and that was the shipper's fault. But they never mentioned that – at least I don't remember them mentioning to me that it wasn't, like, on a pallet. Yeah, those are hefty. I would – well, I mean, they ship plenty of stuff, non-palletized companies do. I guess maybe it's just in terms of the modules. Yeah. Okay. So let's see. Is there anything else of note here?
    69:59
    No, I think it's just some of it's a standard sort of plug stuff, and some of it's just sort of talking about the, you know, the – it wasn't – I don't know how to characterize it. Okay. A little defensive maybe. You know, talking about the ticket submission rate and how it was the same level as with other pinball manufacturers. Where do we go to find the ticket submission rates for all these manufacturers? I think it would be interesting to do a study on that. Yeah, I don't know.
    70:28
    So it looks like Multimorphic is still kicking. Do you think they'll have a new game at TPF? I don't care.
    70:36
    I think they would try to because it's their big close show. We were able to play Final Resistance last TPF. That was the first time. Was that the only time? Yeah, but they couldn't produce it right away. So they basically did a soft relaunch. Do you remember? Like I did an interview on Loser Kids and they did a few other things to kind of, which I thought was the right decision, given that they didn't get the game out, the module out right away to try and do a relaunch. Now, of course, I don't think you can really bring hype back. We've had a lot of conversations about that. Like once the announcement happens, it just starts to bleed out. But at least they actually did try to put hype back in the box. Yeah, but they try to do something to at least remind people about the game and get them back into considering getting it, whereas I'm not sure everyone did that. Yeah, well. Like, let's see what happens with Pulp Fiction. Did they sell enough initially and people stay in, or has it— Pulp Fiction's still trending. Okay, well. It's still trending. Okay. There were some winners and losers on that big launch of titles last year around March, and the market shows what's still up and what's not. Well, I think we'll see a lot less of a bloodbath this time, just because we're not going to have every company under the sun dropping a new game in March. Well, speaking of bloodbath, the 2023 Twippies was held this last year.
    71:55
    So I'm guessing that this decision... Title fight match between Scott and Josh of Loser Kid Pinball.
    72:02
    I think this must have been, to me, last minute to decide to do a ceremony. because I didn't get much advance notice. I would have been more than happy, just like I did with Pinball Degenerates, to have plugged it on EGP, but we didn't know when we recorded last weekend, and that was seven days ago from when we're recording now. So it seemed pretty spur of the moment, but they did have guest presenters and stuff, so it was also organized. So I don't know. I think that because the Loser Kids, Josh Rupp and Scott Larson, have so much respect in the industry, they were able to get some acceptance speech turnarounds fairly quickly.
    72:44
    So I think that probably helped. And they said they were just going to present it almost like a regular episode that they have a Loser Kid Pinball podcast. But instead of just reading it in an article, they were going to just read them out loud for people. And they just so happen to do video podcasts now for Loser Kid. So just I think that's what it was. Well, I mean, they had like accepted speeches and stuff, too. So there was some there was some work behind it.
    73:14
    Consumption, consumption probably reflected that of low participation in general with the Twippies this year. So, you know, it was what it was for a lot of people. The Twippies are that could be dead. So I know there are some people that are and it's not surprising, given that we're talking a few months from when everything just kind of seismically changed. So there are some people I saw like comment on one of the loser kids, social media posts saying, you know, they they they appreciated that they were doing it, but that they weren't going to consume it, that they were they were still angry, either angry that it blew up or angry about the category changes or angry that the media stuff. Yeah yeah yeah Well almost like almost all of it was all about the media though some are at least that the origin point for a lot of it Some of it was just the frustration that it wasn a live ceremony And and you know I mean there was no real way to win that it was going to But there no reason why the Twippies can rebuild it over time Yeah I think people forget how I not going to say forgiving I don think that the right word Fickle But folks in this hobby I think it true in a lot of places seem to have fairly short memories.
    74:31
    Well, because most of them aren't. Bluntly, most people who would consume the Twippies aren't up for a Twippy for anything. So it doesn't really impact them in any meaningful way. If you feed people what they want, they don't care what's inside. Sure. There it is. Yeah, that's a much more succinct way of saying it than me. So, yeah, it was – you know what? I didn't watch last year's Twippies, and I didn't plan on watching this year's Twippies. I caught a little bit of it after it was aired. I caught a little bit. The Loser Kids, I love those guys. So I was like, yeah, I'll tune in and see how my baby's growing up here.
    75:08
    And I was appreciative to the Loser Kids. They opened up and said some kind words. about myself and the creation of the toy business stuff. So thank you to them for that. Love you guys. Appreciate that. And it was good seeing all the games. Basically it was just a stern fest. Foo fighters just want everything. And so that was cool to watch, I guess. Uh, and then the media thing, the, the controversial, like Chris coolers with Canadian podcast kind of fucking everything up. So then they took it away and it pissed everybody off. And then they brought it back as like a, just a one media thing. And, But if you've won before, you can't win again. Was the pinball show even eligible? I didn't know. I don't know. Because I won straight down the middle. So I think somebody said that it wasn't eligible. And I'm like, I'm sorry, Dennis, that sucks for you. So I don't know if it was or not. And twippy people don't worry about it either. It's not a big deal. So the media, Kerry Hardy won, which deservedly so. He's been working hard in media creation for many years now. And he was kind enough to say some nice words about Straight in the Middle, helping him out, get to where he's at. So thank you, Kerry Hardy, for that. So all in all, I think it was a, you know, I think the purpose was served of what they were trying to do there. It still wasn't like, I mean, I'm going to be honest. It just still sucked. It still sucked. But like it was, you know, at least they had people that were appreciative of like the awards and said thank you. So that was more than I can say about some of the stuff we've done. I'm like some other effort.
    76:46
    I can't. I mean, there's still people bitching and moaning. You still have Chris Coolers that was crying about it not being a big presentation. Coming from somebody who put together a fucking Facebook poll system that sucked ass, like probably the last person that should even open their fucking mouth, to be honest. But, you know, you're going to have people that bitch and moan and cry about anything. And he was one of them. So there's still people pitching and moaning. But in the words of a famous person that I don't know who said at this point, but one of my favorite quotes, you do you, boo-boo, regarding the Twippies. Do what you want with it. Still thought they should have all yelled at that shit and taken it out back.
    77:29
    You know who will never be taken out back? Bumblebee? Bumblebee, yes, the Screaming Goat Club members. such as Bobcat.
    77:41
    You can attack wives all you want. I will never take you out back and get rid of you. Oh, shoot that fucker! You're worth a lot here, Rodney.
    77:52
    And Bumblebee himself, Steve. Bumblebee! Yes. How would we... Look, we can't take him out back. We'd get none of the wonderful audio eargasms that we get in the biggest motion picture films in the world. We can't do that.
    78:09
    When there are bees around, do you kill bees, Dennis? No, no. You're not a bee killer. No, they're generally quite passive. Oh, quite passive. I don't know if I've ever been stung by any. Wasps, yes. Wasps, absolutely. So wasp you will kill? They serve no purpose. You are a stingist, my friend. They may very well serve a purpose. You are a stingist. As a child, I was stung multiple times. This is not an interesting story, but I'll tell it anyway. So I was a kid. So when I was a kid, I was in Arkansas.
    78:43
    Arkansas. I was down visiting my grandparents in Arkansas, and a yellow jacket got into my shirt. And at first I thought it was like a little plastic, like the little tags or the price tags and stuff. I thought it was like I was feeling something poking me, and I thought it was this tag or something. And it started to get worse. and then I looked under and I pulled my collar back and I looked down and I saw this, what looked to me like a bee in the shirt and I, you know, I'm like lifting and shaking the shirt and I'm just getting stung more and more. I stripped the shirt off and ran back to the house and my grandma had to put all these sting ointment stuff all over my chest from where it got me a lot. You swelled up? So, I mean, it was not like my face and stuff, but it was just, anyway, so yeah, So you're stingiest. You'll kill certain stinging things. Yeah, well, I've even gone out like, you know, I'll walk the trail system like in the summer around here. And I have had instances where I had a wasp land on my ear. And then I, you know, I didn't know what was I just felt something on my ear. And so I shoot it and it bit me, bit my ear. My ear was bleeding. Wow. It got in there. So you know what? Yeah. I'm done with wasps. I don't... I'm willing to do full-on waspicide. I'm almost at the point where I'd bring back DDT.
    80:12
    I'm almost to that level. I'm sorry about the eggshells being too thin for the baby birds. Don't spray it around your garden. You'll be fine.
    80:21
    What am I thinking of? Mantoba? No, what is that? The seed company. Mantoba? Monsanto. Oh, Monsanto. I've got to watch what I say here. You get Monsanto people after it. I don't discriminate. Anything fucking with me, I will kill.
    80:38
    But I don't care. Honeybees, bumblebees, I leave them alone. They've got to be smart enough not to mess with me. In fact, when I have bare spots in the yard, I don't plant grass. I plant clover, and then the bees can have it. Oh, jeez. Fucking hippie. Man, you've got to let the honey be free. I'm good with them, and I'll give them a benefit of a doubt. But them stupid-ass bumblebees that just keep on, like, chasing you. No, no. I will stay in my ground. Those are probably some form of a wasp that's after you. I will stay in my ground. Regular bees are very docile. And if they were to sting you, you know, they usually only get one sting and they die. I'm still trying to teach my child how to spell bee. It's B-E-E. I don't know. It sounds like. All right, well, now, when I was a whippersnapper, that's what, I still, obviously, I still remember this. we would have to take the spelling test home. The spelling, whatever, from school. And my mom would always take the list and then we would have to spell everything. She'd read the list and we'd have to spell everything. And anything we didn't spell right, I don't remember we had to write it 10 times or 20 times. We had to write it and we got tested again until we were perfect. At my last, that's what I do to my child. And my wife is like, they're not learning. I'm like, I'm going to learn them something. It's rote memorization, but that's what it takes for spelling. They're sight words. I mean, you can't sound them out. You've got to visually see what... Okay, where was I going with that? She'll appreciate it when they win the National Spelling Bee. Second grade spelling bee. I won with the word club, I believe. I believe it was club.
    82:11
    And you're like, could you use it in a sentence? That's right. And then they go, I pity the fool, said Clubber Lang. They're like, it's club. There's no other... Come on. Thank you again, Panther. P-A-N-T-H-E-R Thank you Panther Rob for supporting us As a Screaming Goat Club member Thank you so much I wouldn't dare try to take a Panther out back and fuck me up Kineticist Colin Can we call him the The Twip Assist too? He owns the Twip now I think he might want some distance from the Twippies for a year At this point He's like I already exported everything over Oh gosh the website stuff's got to be traumatic I read the summaries you sent out about all the work, and I was like, it would never have been worth it to me, which is why I don't do anything but pick up a microphone, which is the easiest thing you could possibly do in this hobby. You're a webmaster, Colin. The Falcon. Cock-a-doodle-caw. Thank you, Frank, for the ongoing support. You'd fly away if I tried to take you out back. Shaker motor. Thank you, Dave. I just seen Dave. You know what? Just got to see Dave last week. Really? How about that? Wow. Absolutely. So thank you again. I thanked you in person. I thank you again over the airwaves here. Thank you, Fox. I didn't get to see you, Fox.
    83:29
    Maybe I'll get to see him at TPF if I go. Fox, are you going to TPF? I'm not sure you're going to go. I don't know if I am or not. I haven't decided. It falls on my child's birthday. I've got a spring break the week after that. I don't know. If I did go, I'd see Mr. Bell, the pinball show's Bell, Charlie. Charlie, you're going to be there as well as maybe, thank you Charlie but maybe the dude, do you think the dude goes there? the dude I don't believe the dude did go last year yeah, I didn't think so but you know what, I have no idea if he's on the Patreon happy hour we should ask and also let's not forget that keeping wildlife an amphibious rodent for domestic within the city that ain't legal either what are you a fucking park ranger now no I'm just trying to you give a shit about the fucking marmot the dude abides I couldn't take the dude out back I might take the dude out back but it might be for a doobage it's not gonna be we'll be killing something back there oh man did you ever watch the Cheech and Chong movies as a kid I've seen one or two of them I think I don't know more than a couple but yeah I've seen some of them I'm not really into stoner films I'm not either generally but you know they were on and I'd heard about them I watched them when I smoked weed in the past alright a reminder all of you that have subscribed to our membership at the Nordman or the Screaming Goat Club level we've got a happy hour hangout coming up February 21st 8pm central Be there. Let's do it. I don't forget to post.
    85:20
    Remind him if you don't see it, at least by the day before. The date is set. It is on the calendar. I've given him the link. And this wouldn't be a show called the Pinball Show if we didn't have the one and only, the Pinball Market Trends. Let's go. The Pop Town of Techno World.
    85:38
    I like your style. We ain't got time, baby. Trending up this week is those games that are starting to ship, but they've yet to be fulfilled of all the orders. said this that well that's joel's pro training up as joel's pro training up as looney tunes texas chainsaw massacre labyrinth pulp fiction essays dennis you know why these are training up you always trend up the stuff you're selling no not now numbers don't lie i'm just here to report the fact whether it's in the positive light for american pinball or not but i'm reporting Because just numbers don't lie. At this point, when these ship, they will be worth as much as they are going to be, I think, in a while. Because people are still wanting them. They still have them on order. How do I jump the line? So, like right now, if I were to find a Jaws Pro to sell, somebody would very, very likely give me over MSRP new in box for a used one. Because people want them that bad. They'll pay that premium if they need to. And that's why, objectively, training up this week are those games that people are not going to get their hands on for quite some time, even if they have an order. Let's say you have a Looney Tunes on order. There's a good chance you're still not going to see it for months if you have a Labyrinth on order. Sure, we've got a lot coming at the end of February, but there are still some people that are going to be waiting until the summer or the fall to get theirs. Don't get me started on Pulp Fiction. How many emails were asked? Well, I see a Caesar shipping now. when's my elite coming to?
    87:11
    I got so many damn emails about Stranger Things, UV Kid. I had to post on Facebook, look, everybody, they're coming. I know they're announcing they're coming, but to be real with you, not all of them are coming yet. It takes some time. So you're going to see those objectively be trending up because they're at their top value right now. And then they're going to start fading as more start coming out. That's what we call market people. Also training up this week is Apple Vision Pro. What is this? Oh, my gosh. Moon goggles. What is it? Have you seen this thing? Yes. The kids love it. The peoples are tweaking and pinching things in the subway air. They're driving in their Tesla autopilot cars. They're going through graveyards and seeing zombies on their LCD screen. Come on. What is going on here? I think this is just going to increase susceptibility of being pinched in the future. Everybody's got their pinch down now. I'm going to walk up on somebody. Go ahead. Zoom in here. Apple Vision Pro is turning up. People are talking $3,500.
    88:20
    And back in my day, VR only cost like $500, $600. What happened? Yeah, but I mean, compared to a pinball machine, I mean, we're talking that's like almost a topper. and the reason I'm bringing this up we had one of our viewers listeners view I don't know what they were a consumer of some of the videos I've done and stuff send me a video of them playing playing their pinball machine and all of a sudden because I didn't know any different looked like they were just playing their pinball machine I was like another boring video from somebody sending me shit that I don't care about but then hovering to the side of it was a tracking stuck in place LCD monitor, what I thought was a monitor, playing a tutorial that I was giving as they were playing. But when they turned their head, it went with it. So I was like, holy shit. And they said, this is the Apple Vision Pro. I'm watching your video and it's floating above the play field as I'm playing. And I thought to myself, wow, the capabilities of this and pinball are pretty endless. You know, I brought you vertical cams. I've brought you the 4K WUG. I think I need to start working on an Apple Vision Pro VR tutorial gameplay video. What do you think? I think you'll enjoy the 60 views it gets. As people go up to their game and they have this Zach app, it will point to things on the play field and tell them what that is. And maybe I can pop up in their vision as well. Blow them a kiss.
    89:46
    Turning down this week is all the other VRs. No. trending down this week is gtf oh man some call this piling on i don't numbers don't lie i'm just reporting the facts here don't shoot the distributor trending down as gtf because for some reason i love the game but the the sales on the secondary market they're starting to drop now is what i'm worried when i have gtf le's in stock because they're in stock for what 11 000 i've seen the GTF LE's secondary market for in the eights now. Uh-oh. We're getting to like JJP territory here. Oh, no. So I've been starting to see those drop. And I will still hold true that GTF is a damn great game that people are missing. I think they're overly harsh to this game because of other situations and circumstances and launches and people running companies. Leave GTF alone. I'm going to Britney this bitch. Right now. Leave GTF alone.
    90:52
    Also trending down this week is Metallica. Why is that, Dennis? No one knows. We'll go to IPDB and it'll tell you. No, I don't want to go there anymore. It's made me sad. Metallica's trending down because as rumors continue to swirl about the possible Metallica game being re-envisioned for another cornerstone, maybe Spike 3 title from Stern Pinball, You're seeing some people getting a little antsy with their Metallicas and trying to dump them right now. It's not insider trading, people. It's just rumors. But I've seen Metallicas go up for sale quite a bit more in the last couple weeks than prior. So it's trending down. Also trending down this week, this is a public service announcement from your boy, Zach, here at the Pinball Show. I don't know if you're aware of this, Dennis, but I sure as hell know a lot of listeners aren't. Turning down this week is the cardboard that you are using between the head and the rails of a pinball machine when you are breaking down and transporting them. Now, I'm sure, Dennis, you've seen this, right? You've seen people try to put in between the head. When they fold the head down, they put cardboard in there because that protects the game from the head rubbing on the rails, right? Purportedly. You're wrong. People, you're wrong. Damn you for using cardboard. This is my public service announcement. If you heard this, you have no excuse to ever use cardboard again. Please, for the love of rails around the world, stop using cardboard. Contrary to popular belief, the cardboard actually Fs up the rails on a pinball machine. It just does. Usually powder coat. Stainless stuff, it's not too bad. It's going to have some minor abrasive scratching. But man, oh man, those powder coats. Take like a black stern standard wrinkle powder coat. You will get it rubbing down smoothness in those areas. And for many of you, maybe it's not a big deal. But whenever you do go look at it, because you're wearing down that, it turns a different shade of color. It's a smoother shade, so you see it. It is an imperfection that you see because of the use of cardboard. Same, I just got a powder coat. It was like an LE machine in for trade, and the person used cardboard. Wrapped Cocoon the hell out of this game. Packaged it very well, but because they used cardboard, there was rubbing down past the powder coat because of cardboard. Please, people, stop using cardboard. Are you going to identify a problem without a solution, Zach? No, I'm not that type of person. Go ahead, put a T-shirt in between it. Put a towel in between it. Put a mat in between it. anything, just don't use cardboard, please. That's your public service announcement from your boy Zach here at the Pinball Show. Also trending down this week, Dennis, I just had this happen. I can't do it. I'm calling this the waiter memory flex. You ever experienced this? The waiter memory flex. Oh, and they won't write things down? I hate this. I hate it. It's overrated. My wife and I, we took a lunch and this waiter comes up and they almost did the waiter memory flex where they started and me and my wife were picky we're like give us this but without this we don't want this we do want this and they said you know what i'm gonna write this down and i said to them i respect that i respect the waiter that writes down i do not respect the waiter that tries to flex with their memory because they always fuck it up they always get it wrong and it's a disrespect i think i believe that every waiter should write things down this waiter memory flex has got to end people i will not stand for it anymore and always make sure to reinforce that next time you go out to dinner if they're doing the waiter memory flex fuck their tip up i do you will not get as big a tip if you're doing the waiter memory flex because you're not going to remember it if you write down i will acknowledge it i will reinforce it and i will say you know what nicely done there waiter nicely done there waitress i appreciate that i'm getting old dennis things are making me mad and because of that i won't trim down anything else i won't pinball Bounty, same stuff, Radical, Congo, Terminator 2. Those are what we're looking for right now. And as always, I'm just here to report the facts, whether it's about a waiter, a pinball company, a new Apple product. Numbers don't lie, people, and neither will I on Pinball Market Trends.
    95:18
    Dennis, where can these people catch you? I can email eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com, but don't.
    95:26
    I don't feel like answering anything this week. Next couple weeks. Give you a couple weeks off. You can email us at thepinballshow at gmail.com Follow, like, and subscribe to all the socials as well. TPN we've got straight down the middle. Go follow, like, and subscribe to that YouTube series as well as Facebook's Instagrams. Flippin' Out Instagram. Subscribe to that. Follow that. That's fun stuff. And I always keep the most up-to-date Flippin' Out inventory used on Flippin' Out Facebook page, so go follow that. I don't do it on the website because we price things so damn low that it would be inefficient to take the time to put it on a website. Bye, bye, bye. When I buy my pinball shit, I buy from Flippin' Out. From toppers, sharpers, and radios, I've got it figured out. Flippin' Out, figured out. When I make a pinball, I think Flippin' Out. Flippin' Out, figured out. When I buy, buy, buy, I buy from Flippin' Out. Bye, bye, bye. Product showcase this week, GTF. No. Product showcase this week is going to be Jaws Pro. Jaws Pro because we still have openings for the second run of Jaws Pro. So sign up for one of those today. We also have many games in stock. Godzilla Premiums. We just added one more Elvira Blood Red Kiss. I was able to nab. We're able to stock up on Stranger Things. Basically everything. We've got a couple of Guardians left.
    96:52
    Oh, Star Wars. They announced that. That should be the product showcase. sign up for the pro or the premium they haven't made in a year and a half. They're going to make it here in March, and then they're not going to make it for the rest of the year. So go ahead and put your deposit to lock in a spot at flippingoutpinball.com. We added a lot of accessories as well, and those have been going really fast. Do you see these Stern pinball stools? They're a thing now. We've been selling those. Player mats, I've been getting Stranger Things. Accessories in, actually in stock. art blades and armor and different things like that. Godzilla art blades. Those things have been out of production for a long time for whatever reason. We finally got some of those back in stock as well as James Bond art blades, etc. Go have some fun. You only live once. Then you're going to be dead. So you might as well buy shit you want now. Zach, Z-A-C-H at fliptheletterinoutpinball.com or flippingoutpinball.com Flipping Out with Friends. Go check out Joel. He did Joel's last week. I don't know what's coming this week. maybe it'll be text chainsaw massacre of looney tunes maybe it'll be a talk show i don't know what happened last week on tpn we only had one since our last episode it was a triple jane episode called we play jaws and it blew b-l-u-e to continue our spelling who's doing that who's responsible for that feels like a tom thing all right teach these people something to children out there who are listening to this episode look you can't be putting off your homework projects. Thank you. All right? If you've waited to the last day to do your trifold pamphlet education on the 13 colonies, you know what? There's only one colony now.
    98:29
    I don't know. Rhode Island. Do the smallest one. Yeah, it's going to be obvious, but at least you'll turn something in. That's the true colony. And you'll learn something important. You got to get your stuff done early. And always practice safe pinball. And is Dave Fix trying to sue me? See you all in two weeks.
    98:49
    Outro Music