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DPP #186 "Dune gameplay review! Kong Reveal!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·54m 49s·analyzed·Apr 17, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Don plays Dune at Barrels of Fun, details its mechanics and production, discusses Kong reveal.

Summary

Don records DPP #186 after visiting Barrels of Fun in Houston to play the newly revealed Dune pinball machine and discusses the Kong (King Kong) reveal. Don provides detailed gameplay impressions of Dune, covering its layout, mechanical features (particularly the innovative sandworm toy mechanism), sound design, cabinet aesthetics, and production status. He also briefly discusses Kong's feature differentiation between Pro and Premium tiers, comparing it favorably to recent Stern releases like D&D and X-Men.

Key Claims

  • Dune is the best Dune pinball machine ever made

    high confidence · Don states 'I think this is the best Dune pinball machine I've ever seen. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The only one.' This is verifiable as a subjective opinion but also factually accurate since Dune is the first commercial Dune pinball machine.

  • Barrels of Fun secured the Dune license from Legendary Pictures before having any games to show

    high confidence · Don states: 'they actually got this license before they had any games to show they didn't even do labyrinth yet... Apparently, other people were looking at this too, but they chose to go with barrels for it.'

  • Dune's release was delayed/accelerated unplanned due to a distributor website going live early

    medium confidence · Don states: 'I've heard that maybe a distributor's website might have went live accidentally early, and then maybe they're trying to mitigate this.' This is speculation based on limited information.

  • Dune features atmospheric LED strip lighting on the cabinet top, similar to Penn Stadium LED systems

    high confidence · Don describes: 'These are LED strip lights Kind of like Penn Stadiums They're not quite as bright They're more atmospheric But they're kind of deflected down to the play field'

  • Dune's cabinet armor uses a sparkly gold glitter clear coat powder over a black base

    high confidence · Don states: 'That's a sparkly kind of gold glitter clear coat powder over a black base. And so it actually looked really good. The texture felt good. It didn't feel gritty.'

  • The sandworm toy mechanism can function in multiple ways: as a magnet trap, a Sarlacc pit sink-hole, a multi-ball launcher, and potentially as a bash toy

    high confidence · Don provides detailed mechanical breakdown: 'sometimes the ball will get stuck on the magnet... it will disappear slowly into like a sinkhole... the whole mechanism can rotate and rise... the ball can come off the magnet, roll into the wire form... physically you can hit balls into it.'

  • Dune's playfield layout is a spiritual successor to Labyrinth with more open shot entrances

Notable Quotes

  • “I think this is the best Dune pinball machine I've ever seen... It is all sorts of brown. I'll just come right off and say it.”

    Don @ ~3:00 — Sets the tone for the Dune review despite the aesthetic limitations of the brown color palette

  • “God, that worm eats the crap out of the ball. I did that like two or three times. And it was satisfying and seriously impressive Every time I saw it”

    Don @ ~8:00 — Emphasizes the satisfaction and mechanical quality of the signature sandworm toy feature

  • “It's like if you want a skateboard right it's like parents i just want give me a skateboard i want to learn how to skateboard... instead of that let's go get your aunt and your grandma and your older cousins... No that's not what i want to do i'm gonna suck at this”

    Don @ ~40:00 — Humorously illustrates Don's preference for unguided play time over structured media day presentations

  • “They were just like, they got two pretty big licenses right out the gate without anything to show for it at first. So that was cool.”

    Don @ ~37:00 — Highlights Barrels of Fun's confidence in securing major IP deals (Henson/Legendary) without needing to prove themselves with previous games first

  • “The whole playfield is hittable with the flippers, so don't worry about, you know, weak flippers or nothing. That's fine... the shots feel a little bit more open than they were on Labyrinth.”

    Don @ ~13:00 — Addresses playability and accessibility improvements over Labyrinth

  • “It looks just like a Zen pinball table... it was Star Wars Episode II pinball table at Costco or something on the Zen pinball virtual pinball table for $499. That's what I thought it was.”

    Don @ ~18:00 — Critiques the initial aesthetic impression despite the game's mechanical sophistication

  • “Oh, my God, I don't know if they're going to keep this in the final code, but when the balls kick out of that scoop, there's like, I swear, it's a Super Mario Brothers Mario jump sound.”

    Don — Notes an unusual placeholder sound effect in the pre-release code

Entities

DonpersonGeorge GomezpersonDunegameKing KonggameLabyrinthgameBarrels of Funcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Barrels of Fun production ramping with multiple Dune units at different manufacturing stages; approximately 30 Labyrinth units awaiting back glass indicates that production run concluded

    high · Don observes factory tour showing Dune units at various stages: 'one looked to be just about final... waiting for its play field... one is complete, ready for QC... still blank'

  • ?

    community_signal: Media day format feedback implemented: Barrels of Fun acknowledged criticism about structured presentation vs. freeplay preference and committed to changing future media day format (relevant for Kong follow-up)

    high · Don states: 'they took all this feedback and they're like we're going to implement that in the future going forward i'm like thank you' and 'Thankfully we can do this again in two days for Kong'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dune represents Barrels of Fun's continued 'world under glass' design philosophy with heavy sculptural work, atmospheric lighting, and mechanical toy integration similar to Labyrinth but with improved shot accessibility

    high · Don notes 'nary a flat plastic it seems like on this game' except slings, describes multi-layered cave system, pop-up forks, spinners, magnets, and atmospheric LED lighting creating immersive themed environment

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Legendary Pictures had separate approval process beyond initial character/voice licensing for marketing materials, potentially contributing to Dune's delayed reveal

    high · Don states: 'The licensor that has to approve the art, the sounds, the everything... There's still a team that has to sign off That it's ready to be marketed'

  • $

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.164

0:00
swinging back into chicago o'hare's great international airport it's don of the pinball don's pinball podcast episode number 186 has anything else going on today besides let's see i played dune com got revealed it was a pinball day everybody donnie Get over here I'm a little bit tired Having just landed Traveling around the world it seems like With my backpack Well the pinball world anyway Let's see the last four days Pintastic in Boston Swung through Orlando, Florida Just came in from Barrels of Fun out in Houston I'm here, I picked up George Gomez He's here with me, what's up buddy? What up, man? Hey, wait, is this, you don't look like the George Gomez that I ordered.
1:03
Nah. Oh, I think I got T-Mood George Gomez. I should have been suspicious when it was such a cut rate there that I got. This is George Gomez from Reno, the guy with the best name in pinball. What's going on? He's going to co-captain this with me. Hey, guys, what up, Donnie? Thanks for this opportunity. Yeah, man, yeah, man. So, like, all right, we're hanging out here. We're across the street from Stern Pinball. The media day is coming up in like 27 hours or something. We're recording this on a Tuesday. This was the day that not only were taxes due, but we got the Kong reveal. King Kong, the realness from Keith Elwin. God, I'm tired.
1:43
But not only that, I came from Barrels of Fun Pinball, where I got to play amongst ten other fine folks. I got to play Dune, the brownest game to ever brown in the name of brown. Doodoo Brown. I guess secondary to Labyrinth. It is all sorts of brown. I'll just come right off and say it. I think this is the best Dune pinball machine I've ever seen. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The only one. I thought maybe we'll start with that. Because as of now, there's only a couple of these things in existence.
2:15

high confidence · Don states: 'this feels like the spiritual successor to labyrinth as far as layout' and 'the shots feel a little bit more open than they were on Labyrinth... I was able to more consistently hit them and actually combo every now and then.'

  • Kong has five different toys between Pro and Premium tier versions

    high confidence · Don states: 'I heard between the Pro and Premium here there like five different toys that are different'

  • Dune was only given 20 minutes of play time during the media visit due to group format constraints

    high confidence · Don states: 'I got through about two games then it was like all right we got a break for lunch' and later 'I don't know i only have like 20 minutes with it' and 'i did go back and i played another seven or eight times'

  • There were approximately 30 Labyrinth machines in queue waiting for back glass installation, signaling the end of that production run

    high confidence · Don states: 'I went and saw the line. They've got like their last – there was like 30 labyrinths there that were just waiting for back glasses. So I think that's the end of that run.'

    • @ ~22:00

  • “The bass that was kicking out of this thing was good, man. When that thing's thumping, like, you really feel it... the fidelity of the sound was awesome i got jbls in the cabinet”

    Don / George Gomez @ ~26:00 — Confirms significant audio system upgrade from Labyrinth, attributed to JBL speakers and improved amplification

  • “Kong, that was the other game that came out today... It's every bit like a stern, right? It feels like, it feels like I've already played this game or I've played bits of this game in other places.”

    Don / George Gomez @ ~47:00 — First impression suggesting Kong as an evolution of existing Stern design patterns rather than revolutionary design

  • “I would have liked to have this game come out three weeks ago at TPF, where it would have been game of the show and would have stole a whole lot of attention”

    Don @ ~32:00 — Suggests strategic timing implications for the Texas Pinball Festival and Dune's market impact

    • Stern Pinballcompany
    Keith Elwinperson
    Johnny Crapperson
    Legendary Picturescompany
    Jim Henson Companycompany
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Dungeon & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eyegame
    X-Mengame
    Pintasticevent
    Davidperson
    Bowen Kerinsperson

    market_signal: Dune's planned Texas Pinball Festival launch opportunity missed due to licensing/code/production issues; would have had major competitive advantage as TPF 'game of the show' three weeks prior

    medium · Don speculates: 'I would have liked to have this game come out three weeks ago at TPF, where it would have been game of the show and would have stole a whole lot of attention'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Barrels of Fun secured major IP licenses (Legendary/Jim Henson) based on design vision and presentation alone, without existing games to demonstrate credibility, indicating strong early industry reputation or investor backing

    high · Don states: 'they actually got this license before they had any games to show they didn't even do labyrinth yet... Apparently, other people were looking at this too, but they chose to go with barrels for it'

  • ?

    announcement: Dune pinball officially revealed with full trailer release today; Kong King Kong also revealed same day after unplanned acceleration due to possible early distributor website leak

    high · Don states both games were revealed today (Tuesday) with Kong reveal coinciding with Dune's full trailer release following an early distributor website leak

  • ?

    product_strategy: Kong implements five different toys between Pro and Premium tiers; comparison to D&D and X-Men shows pattern of Pro models being heavily loaded with features, reducing Premium differentiation value

    high · George Gomez agrees Kong has feature separation, Don notes: 'The Pro was loaded there. The Pro was loaded in D&D' and discusses X-Men Pro's loaded features vs Premium advantages

  • ?

    product_strategy: Dune features cabinet side armor using sparkly gold glitter clear coat powder (more durable than Stern foil decals), Radcal acrylic side panels with iridescent underlayment, and upgraded audio system with JBL speakers

    high · Don describes upgrades: 'sparkly kind of gold glitter clear coat powder... plastic type material protecting the actual image... metal sheen... you could actually buff it right out' and 'JBLs in the cabinet'

  • ?

    product_concern: Dune's aesthetic consistency criticized as overly brown/muted ('the brownest game to ever brown in the name of brown'), limiting visual appeal despite mechanical quality

    high · Don's opening statement and repeated references to brown color palette: 'Doodoo Brown' and comparison to Labyrinth also being 'all sorts of brown'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Dune code incomplete at media visit with placeholder sound effects (Mario jump sounds for scoop kickouts) and voice callouts still awaiting final approval

    high · Don notes: 'a lot of the voice call outs have not been finally approved' and 'I swear, it's a Super Mario Brothers Mario jump sound' when scoop kicks out

  • ?

    technology_signal: Dune implements dual-monitor day/night cycle system (similar to Avatar theme) with atmospheric LED strip lighting at cabinet top (non-standard Spike 2 approach), representing cabinet-level innovation beyond playfield design

    high · Don describes: 'day-night cycle... when the lights kind of go low For the night time Everything kind of has more of a bluish hue' and 'LED strip lights Kind of like Penn Stadiums... more atmospheric'

    • I brought back some flyers so we can reference there. So, yeah, what do you think? You saw this trailer and everything, the teaser trailer yesterday. Today was the reveal of the full trailer. A little bit after we actually were playing it, it was funny. I was playing the game, and people were commenting. They're like, when the hell is this trailer coming out? We need some gameplay. And I'm like, hey, David, where's the trailer? We're sitting there eating quesadillas. He's like, I'm going to get that up as soon as we get back. It's up now. People have seen it. What we haven't seen is a whole lot of gameplay. I mean, I have because I played it, but you, Internet, are wondering. I did do a little Potato Cam live stream on my phone today. So it's on the Don's Pinball Podcast YouTube channel. Go check that out. It gives some first impressions and also some gameplay footage. Thankfully, got something out there. But I played Dune today. Ask me anything.
    3:05
    Wow. It's no Goonies. It's definitely not Goonies. Yeah, that was the other rumor of a licensed title they were going to bring to us. Somebody, I think, out there has this game. It's become legendary at this point. But it's brown. It is not Goonies. I've just never been into the series Never watched the new movies I know nothing about the power of spice Yeah, the allegory for Canadian booger sugar, I think Yeah, so I mean, like many other children of my era Or children of the sand I saw the original movie back in antiquity When that came out With Sting and everything And Baron Harkonnen And some giant slug thing and like a bald lady and then there was like some kind of Kleenex box that you put your hand in and it caused pain and then like have you gone back and watched that original Dune movie now? Like the whole movie is in voiceovers. It's like all in that dude's head. It's craziness. I tried to watch it like months ago and so then they revisited the desert planet themed freaking film that apparently inspired Star Wars and stuff too like Lucas harkened back to the Harkonnens, to the House Atreides, back on Arrakis. I thought this was going to be dropping all this Dune stuff.
    4:28
    So apparently it's got a lore. But, yeah, I haven't seen New Dune, haven't seen New Dune 2. You know what someone told me today? Someone told me that the second Dune movie that they released, it picks up right at the point in the first movie where everybody had fallen asleep.
    4:44
    No one's going to be falling asleep on this pinball, though. Regardless, regardless of that. Yeah, so I don't know, man. You're a fan of the silver ball. What do you think?
    4:54
    I like the layout. Yeah. It has some interesting aspects to it. Theme. I mean, theme integration, it's hard because I'm not into that theme. But definitely the idea with the ball, the worm eating the ball, can't beat that. God, that worm eats the crap out of the ball. I did that like two or three times. And it was satisfying and seriously impressive Every time I saw it So the main mechanism of this game I don't know if I would call it Tima quite But there's a giant There's a giant sandworm in this game There's actually two sandworms There's a sculpted one which looks really good And I'll speak to the sculpts here in a bit Because they're fantastic There's nary a flat plastic it seems like on this game Just on the slings everything else is sculpted But there is this Flat area in the back where there's a magnet and there's like two independent mechanisms back there that manipulate with the ball that can simulate a couple of different things, and I think there's even more stuff that they can do with it. So essentially this thing is like tennis ball can sized. It's a platform that raises up and down, just like Circus Voltaire, right, the Jester's hat, right. Now imagine if that magnet on the ringmaster's hat was also independent and could go up and down. So that's what this thing does. All right. So sometimes, right, when it's flat, the ball will get stuck on the magnet just like Circus Voltaire, but then it will disappear slowly into like a sinkhole, like the Sarlacc pit, right? So that's cool. And then it drops into a subway or something, kicks out the scoop. The other thing it can do is the whole mechanism can rotate and rise, and it rises up to the same level as the wire form, and then the ball can come off the magnet, roll into the wire form, just like Circus Voltaire. Okay. All right? Otherwise, as the worm's coming up, sometimes the ball goes down inside it as the worm's coming up. So that's kind of cool too. So there's some neat things that can be done with this, this big girthy worm structure. And then I think it can also function like a bash toy. Like it can come up and then physically you can hit balls into it. And I didn't see, I don't think that's coded in there yet, but there's potential for that too. So it's impressive. Like if you're playing this game and you happen upon being able to trigger this thing, it's kind of cool. When I was doing it, it goes into the, I don't know, sandworm multi-ball or something. You lock two balls and this thing activates. You get up on there and then it goes, it raises up like Circus Voltaire, rolls off on the wire form, the other two balls kick out. It's multi-ball time. But then there was like some other one where like you hit the action button, it starts a thumper and there's like a hurry up, and I think that's what grabs the ball and then pulls it like a sarlacc into it. Below the play field? Yeah. So those are the two ways I saw that interact. everything else in this game is all ball paths going all sorts of this way and that hither and yon um this feels like the spiritual successor to labyrinth as far as layout i will say like the first game i played on this um as i'm hitting the flippers i'm like i'm right back in labyrinth man let me hit uh what the hell's that guy's name jared no jared jareth jareth goblin king i'm jet I felt like I was fighting him again. I was waiting for the little, the fireys to pop their heads up. So the flippers feel just like Labyrinth. The whole play field is hittable with the flippers, so don't worry about, you know, weak flippers or nothing. That's fine. It's fine. The shots, though, they feel actually, and I'm thankful for this, the shots feel a little bit more open than they were on Labyrinth. Some of those ramp entrances seemed like they were just a little bit tight. You had to be a little more Bowen Cairns, a little less Don Garrison to be able to hit those consistently. This time, I was able to more consistently hit them and actually combo every now and then. So that was fun. So as a pinball machine, the layout was interesting. Lots of kind of changing ball paths and diverters in there, some ramp flaps that lift and lower. And it's kind of obscure. Look at the midfield on the left there where that thumper thing is. All you see is like this sculpted sand structure on top of there. You can't see what's going on underneath.
    8:57
    Underneath that, there is a pop bumper. and the pop bumper is tied to that thumper. So when it goes off, like the thumper thumps. Right, yeah, that's that girthy, dark-colored guy right there that thumps up and down suggestively. But you can shoot all around that pop bumper underneath there. So there's a spinner there. So you can rip that spinner and the ball will kind of careen around to the corner. You can also hit that left orbit there too. So what looks like on the pictures, like obstruction, that's really just like a themed plastic sculpt that's on top of the pop bumper. Okay. That bit right there. So that's cool. There's some kind of, I don't know, something that looks like the Game of Thrones throne thing back there in the back left. It's got a servo on it. It shakes and rattles.
    9:44
    I think it's, is it a harvester? I don't know what that thing is. I don't know the Dune lore, man. But that thing is back there. One other thing, though, that I don't think has been conveyed yet, although I haven't spent a lot of time with the trailer, is that Deep Root-esque screen in the back of the play field, just like they had on Labyrinth. It's back, and it's utilized a little bit more. So they have these, for some reason, these robotic dragonfly things that they fly around in. They call them ornithopters in the lore. But there's a mode where I guess you've got to bash these things. And so as it's flittering around the back of the screen there, the shots that you hit will line up with it, and you can damage these things, and that's how you progress through a mode. So it's kind of cool. They said it was like Pinball 2000 when there's like aliens back there and you aim for them and they explode. So it was doing that.
    10:32
    So there's that kind of stuff too. So I'm trying to give you a sense on what you wouldn't get just looking at that picture there. Because that looks like – honestly, when I first saw this, I was like this looks just like a Zen pinball table. You know, those ones that don't exist in reality but they have like the 3D animated, computer animated effects and stuff. It looked like one of them, you know, like it was a Star Wars Episode II pinball table at Costco or something on the Zen pinball virtual pinball table for $499. That's what I thought it was. But it actually – it worked pretty well.
    11:09
    It was interesting making the shots. I had no idea what I was doing. I don't know what these characters are. I have no connection to the theme at all. But the layout was fun. It was interesting. It wasn't just like, you know, seven shots and a fan layout with a bash toy in the back, right? So solid layout That cave system on the top right Is it one path through it or is it multiple So yeah it's like a multiple Leveled path thing There's a ramp that kicks up there And then it exits out like kind of mid range The flap can go up There's another diverter that's hidden in there you can't even see So sometimes the ball will come out Kind of launch and then fall into the orbit Other times it'll be directed to the lower area Other times you can shoot underneath it There's probably There's like four magnets in the game too So there's like magnets doing magnet-y stuff in there. So there's a Raptor pen, too, in the kind of mid part of the play field on the right there. You see like this little area you can shoot into? Yeah. There's a magnet underneath that. So when you get into that little area, it'll whip your ball back and forth like your Willow Smith and her weave. There's some of those forks that they had in Labyrinth. Pop up? Yeah, that pop up. So you can trap a ball in there and then bash it for bonuses and stuff. So, like, there's a lot of, like, barrels of fun-ish stuff in this game, and it seems like all the little things that I thought were clever with Labyrinth, there's, like, there's a little bit more. There's even more in this one. No, Labyrinth didn't have this atmospheric lighting system, did it? Yeah, no. No, it didn't. So this is new. So they've routed out the top part of the cabinet. It's not, like, deeper into the cabinet like the Stern Expression Light slots are. These are up at the top. These are LED strip lights Kind of like Penn Stadiums They're not quite as bright They're more atmospheric But they're kind of deflected down to the play field Which is nice And the game, much like Avatar Has a day-night cycle to it So I know it looks brown But there are some blues that are in there And then when the lights kind of go low For the night time Everything kind of has more of a bluish hue to it So it takes on a different look And I guess when you're shooting around the game You're collecting spice points during the day cycle and collecting water at night i guess that's a thing in dune i don't know i haven't seen the movie um you know but playing it like i was getting senses of like where they're going creatively with this game now right now as of today uh a lot of the voice call outs have not been finally approved they not they weren in the code so we were playing this game and it was just like music and that it There was no call or nothing There was two games One of them had a little bit of that in there, but the other one was just silent. It was just atmospheric music and sound effects. And, oh, my God, I don't know if they're going to keep this in the final code, but when the balls kick out of that scoop, there's like, I swear, it's a Super Mario Brothers Mario jump sound. Doink! Every time it went off, I was like, this is like a Mario game. Where is this? I don't know. Maybe that's the sound that a sandworm in heat makes that sound or something. I don't know. Maybe it's got a connection to Dune. But every time I heard it, it was like Mario jumping. So these are not shipping tomorrow? No, no. Now, I went and saw the line. They've got like their last – there was like 30 labyrinths there that were just waiting for back glasses. So I think that's the end of that run. And then there's Dunes in production right now. One of them looked to be just about final. Another one was waiting for its play field. And then each station had a play field. This one's complete, ready for QC. This one has all the mechs bolted onto it. This one is just getting its wire harnesses. This one is still blank. So they're spooling up. Now, yeah, this was a weird launch, though, because what I was led to believe was that we were coming there for media day. We were going to have to kind of keep quiet on what we saw. and later this week is when they were planning on going live, and then something happened, and I didn't hear the full story. But I've heard that maybe a distributor's website might have went live accidentally early, and then maybe they're trying to mitigate this. Maybe this company across the street had a new game coming out, and maybe the market's different right now. I know that I would have liked to, if I was making the decisions, I would have liked to have this game come out three weeks ago at TPF, where it would have been game of the show and would have stole a whole lot of attention and would have gathered some deposits even before Jack was talking about holding onto your dollars.
    15:44
    But it seems to me, based on what I was told, that there was a host of little issues. Everything wasn't in place. And I don't know of specifics, but maybe it was that the code wasn't quite where it needed to be. Maybe the game plays well but needs to be turned off and turned back on at the end of the final ball. I see that sometimes in new games, you know, because, like, the code just isn't quite there yet. And you don't want to show a game like that where you have to shut it off every time the game's over. So it could have been that. It could have been, like, one more sculpt that was waiting on final delivery, you know. So it's like, do we really want to show it like this?
    16:19
    The licensor that has to approve the art, the sounds, the everything. The legendary? Yeah, there's a separate process just for the marketing of the machine. So even if they signed off on every voice call out Likeness and everything And degree of ball polishing There's still a team that has to sign off That it's ready to be marketed And so that could have been what held it up So I don't think these guys are like Guys you guys are so stupid They should have done it three weeks ago I think there was a host of little reasons that kept them from doing it I think they would have liked to do that I think that's why when they were at the show And we were looking at who was going to be there And who's bringing what it's a to-be-announced for barrels of fun, right? At the last minute, they're like, ah, we'll bring some four labyrinths, right? They could have brought at least one prototype model. Yeah. So, yes, I think they would have loved to have brought the game that we played today there and started getting deposits and things, but it couldn't happen, and I don't think it was their fault, right? But it's, you know, that's pinball, pinball. You know what they say, pinball's easy, right? Yeah. Everyone can do it.
    17:25
    So, yeah. And what about sound? Did it sound good? Oh, my God, it sounds great. So the difference between Labyrinth and now is they have either a bigger amplifier or they now have a amplifier. But the bass that was kicking out of this thing was good, man. When that thing's thumping, like, you really feel it. You know, it sounded like, you know, the upgrade that you get when you put a pinwoofer and a stern, you know, when you go from those tinny little, like, $1.99 speakers it comes with, and then you actually put in, like, decent speakers and an amp and power it enough to push some current through there yeah the sound was really good like the fidelity of the sound was awesome i got jbls in the cabinet so that makes sense yeah and but those are all my sterns yeah but just playing like you got like okay there is bass here i can feel it i don't have to put my hand underneath the sub to see if it's on you know like with sterns sometimes i'm like is this thing even really on like this was thumping pretty good so the sound is really good uh they've gone around and upgraded all these little things right they added this atmospheric lighting they added the evergloss panels onto the side of the cabinet so we got to see one of these it's essentially it's a rad cow um but it does have like an underlayment of metallic whatever i don't know whether it's foil or whatever but the whole thing just has this iridescent sheen on like a rad cow base okay right so stern we're going to see tomorrow they got the foil decals right so the whole decal of the le has that sheen to it that looks really nice but it's still just a vinyl decal. These are Radcals, which is like a plexi type of acrylic material that's like underprinted. So there's like a layer, a small layer of plastic type material protecting the actual image, the actual art. And then there's like this metal sheen in there too. It looks boss. Okay. And from what they told me, if you scratch these things, you can kind of buff it right out because you have that plastic thickness that's over it, almost like a clear coat. Yeah. Now a clear coat, like a butter cabinet, that's direct printed with the automotive clear coat on it. You scratch that, it's scratched, man. But this, you could actually buff out. You could heat it up or hit it with a torch or something, and it'll kind of go away. So that's kind of nice. So it's a more durable covering. It's not just a foil decal like we get with Stern. So they did step it up there. And the art looks really good, especially on the cabinet. Johnny Crap did this. He did the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Edition. He's done other stuff with pinball as well. This looks really good. Oh, he did the art for Labyrinth. So one side of the cabinet is daytime, the other side is nighttime. You can't really see it in that flyer. They only show the one side. But it looked really good, especially the cabinet art looked fantastic. The back glass, I didn't hate it. It's kind of a collage of everybody that's in the film. Fine. But I like the scenes on the side of this cabinet. And we'll contrast this with Kong because they went in a completely three other different directions with Kong.
    20:24
    The other upgrade, the armor that's on this, I thought it was just that kind of crinkle cut powder coat that I see where it looks like the top coat is broken. But that's not what they did with this. That's not what they did with this. That's what they did with Halloween, like the crackly looking thing. Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it doesn't. This is a sparkly kind of gold glitter clear coat powder over a black base. And so it actually looked really good. The texture felt good. It didn't feel gritty. It didn't feel real glittery. It felt nice. It looked good in person. So powder coat, audio systems updated, the lights and the acrylics on the side. It's got the Thunder from Down Under Shaker Motor, which is just – it's a name. Does it shake? Yes. Yeah. And actually they're adding a functionality to Labyrinth now too, which never came with a shaker motor. And, oh, my God, you know, the one thing I forgot to look at was if there was two coin slots in this or just one. Can you see it on the image on the front? One coin slot. Oh, those bastards. I got to look at my pictures. I think I was so exhausted. So I flew in from – where did I fly in from? Orlando late at night. I landed at 1230 a.m. Actually today I landed in Houston at 1230 a.m. today. I went to the crappiest Ramada by the airport in Houston I could find. And then I went over to Barrels, and then I left there in the afternoon, flew here. It's 10 p.m. at night. I'm in Chicago.
    21:49
    I left Orlando and flew to Houston today, went to Barrels of Fun today, then flew to Chicago the same day. Yep. Okay, so forgive me if we wander a bit here. But that is my rundown of Labyrinth 2, Dune Boogaloo. Let's talk about these 20-minute playtimes. Yeah, so, God, that was frustrating, you know. And I don't know if it was anybody's fault. I'm just, like, so excited to play this game. Like, you know, I've been waiting. Like, we knew the game was coming out. I finally heard, okay, like, in a week I get to go play this game. I was hyped. I wanted to walk in not knowing what this was and then have the curtain pulled back. And it's like, oh, look, it is Dune. And then, like, they went ahead and dropped it early somehow, some way. So, okay, so I get in there and I'm like, all I want to do is just, like, lock myself away for like 40 minutes and just play this 10 times and get a sense on what's there and then have them talk to me and go through the stuff and um you know bless them you know we all meet we kind of hang out with chit chat we go to the conference room they play the trailer they talk about like working with legendary pictures and they actually got this license before they had any games to show they didn't even do labyrinth yet oh so they they nailed this license from Legendary based on just their presentation of this is what we want to do with the pinball machine. We don't have one to show you, but this is what our vision is and things. Apparently, other people were looking at this too, but they chose to go with barrels for it. That's commendable. They got Labyrinth from Henson. They got Dune from Legendary. These guys didn't go through the process of just making an original theme first just to get 100 games out there to have something to show off like a lot of companies do. They were just like, they got two pretty big licenses right out the gate without anything to show for it at first. So that was cool.
    23:39
    So we heard all that story and stuff, and then we did the tour around the factory. It was always fun. And then it was like, okay, finally now we get to go play. And then we're in there, and there's ten of us, right? So it's like two four-player games. One of the games they were setting up for streaming, so it's not like we could just jump in there and just grind through. Some people are very good players, so it takes a while to get through a four-person game so i got through about two games then it was like all right we got a break for lunch you know we're gonna go get mexican food it's gonna be great we'll be back in an hour and i'm like i got a flight pretty soon i've only got to play this game twice and now we're like going for lunch like can i skip can i just stay here and play this for an hour and then i'll be good you know i don't need to eat so then you know people are like don what do you think right and i'm like i don't know i only have like 20 minutes with it and people are like what they made you fly all the way down there and they only gave you 20 minutes i'm like oh god guys no no it's like i wait your turn so far i've only had like 20 minutes but we're gonna go back there and i did go back and i played another seven or eight times um you know i i cut back from lunch a little bit early they were accommodating there to try to get me in because i had to leave because i had an earlier flat i couldn't stay the full time um so that was but i was like ah okay so here's what it's like so so it's like if you want a skateboard right it's like parents i just want give me a skateboard i want to learn how to skateboard okay timmy it's christmas morning here's your skateboard and all timmy wants to do is just go out in the driveway and just start practicing and you know figure it out and the parents say no no instead of that let's go get your aunt and your grandma and your older cousins and we're going to take you to the skate park where all the good skateboarders are and we're going to let you try this thing out for your first time with all of us watching you like go timmy and it's like no that's not what i want to do i'm gonna suck at this this is gonna be awful this is so embarrassing i just wanted like i just want to go into like a quiet place by myself and just like get used to this right and so the hard thing is you know this whole team there they've been involved in this project for months and months probably over a year and like you know they've lived and breathed this thing like they know every in and out of it i have just seen this you know 12 hours ago and now it's in front of me like i need to digest stuff right uh one of the first things they did was they took um you know one of their one of their designers and uh he was just taking the whole group through the game like here's everything you know before we get to play it which is i get why they want to do that but since i've never played the damn thing i've got no context to hang what he's telling me to do yeah so it's like you might as well just be talking to the wall because none of it's sinking in i need to put a couple games through it okay that's what that shot's for now tell me what i'm supposed to do you know then it makes more sense so they took all this feedback and they're like we're going to implement that in the future going forward i'm like thank you that was good like if we could just walk in shake hands go put like two or three games through it then go to the conference room hear the story and then when we go back it's going to be more meaningful i think you understand what they're talking about now is that just because i'm too high strung for this maybe but it was like ah, it's in front of me and I just want, just, let me have it. Let me play the game. Johnny. I want to play. I want to play. So, uh, thankfully we can do this again in two days for Kong. Yeah. All right. Kong, that was the other game that came out today. Ooh, man. What do you think, man? Loving it. Yeah. Um, it's every bit like a stern, right? It feels like, it feels like I've already played this game or I've played bits of this game in other places. Yeah. But, like, this is the first conglomeration of all of these elements where they're at. What do you think? So I heard between the Pro and Premium here there like five different toys that are different Yeah I kind of like that A little separation So the last couple of releases we had X Dungeons Dragons the pros have been kind of loaded, right? Yeah. With D&D, you've got the gelatinous cube. You've got the full sculpted dragon. He even moves up and down. The only thing he lost was like that scoop. And the left and right movement of the dragon. I love all of that. So premium for me, for sure. But, like, you weren't really losing much, arguably, with the Pro on that case. On D&D? Yeah. And X-Men, I think you could argue that it's maybe a better gameplay experience without that wireform breaking, as cool as I think that is. And, like, that's what sold me on the game. It was frustrating when you're ready to start a mode, and you hit that shot, and then the wireform breaks, and you're like, but I made the shot. Why is my ball draining between my flippers now? Right down the middle. Yeah, this should be starting my mode, man. I want to go get Davenport, or what's his name, the guy with the red helmet. Juggernaut. Juggernaut, yeah.
    28:26
    So the Pro was loaded there. The Pro was loaded in D&D. The Jaws Pro was missing that upper play field. Everything felt like it was missing from up there. It didn't have the shark coming up and down to really signal, like, this is what's going on. No, empty. Yeah, so I think they're going back to that now. Let's add some value to the premium for those of us suckers. who go for the premium feel like we're really getting something. Yeah, I think you are with this. I mean, with the premium, you get that spider. I'd say just the plane magnet. The seizure spider. Yeah. That was the first thing that jumped out to me. Like, it was cool that we saw Kong in the back. I'm assuming by now, dear listener, you've watched this trailer a hundred times like I have, so I'm not going to go shot for shot through this thing. But, oh, there was some pessimistic dude that popped up in the comments talking about, like, that Kong is just a re-skinned Hulk figure from the Avengers machine.
    29:18
    critics everywhere the freaking seizure spider um so that was interesting that the the seizure spider was missing on the pro so that was one um the kong is just a static guy on there i don't know if the train car physical ball lock is a thing on the pro i need to look read through the matrix it was long i don't want to read through that thing i think the ball lock's still there okay okay like the physical like it lifts up yeah is it is it like a fully plastic train car or is It's just like a plastic train car.
    29:49
    We'll have to look at the – We'll have to find out. We're going to know. I love this little thing, like the biplane.
    29:57
    The biplane is like sculpted. Does the propeller spin or something? On the premium and the LE, yes. That is silly. Why? I don't think I would have noticed if that was just around plastic. More realism. I think it's cool. Realism. That's what I want in my giant monkey game is realism. It's flying around a non-existent Empire State Building. But in the – Diddy is already working printing one up right now, Diddy's Pinball Mods. He's probably putting Empire State Building in there. But I love, like, on the Pro, it's just like this little stacked plastic biplane. And, like, in the feature matrix, they list that as, like, a thematic stacked plastic biplane. It's like the tiniest little stupid toy. I mean, it's an improvement. I think an IMAID and it had a biplane. It was just a flat plastic. Yeah, yeah. So at least it's, what, two levels now. I mean, it's cool. It's cool. This shocked me, though. The Kong gong is just a plastic on the Pro. Did you see that? Yeah. How disappointing is that? No. Yeah. No bash toy. Yeah. So, like, that's something I could see them including even on the Pro. And it's like, all right, well, you're still getting some good gameplay on the Pro. Yeah, the monkey doesn't turn, but at least, you know, you don't get the biplane, but you get the Kong. So the fact that they took the gong out of there adds more value to the premium LE, I think. I agree. Yeah. Because it's this big shiny dangle right there, man. You've got to hit that. You've got to want that. What's the other thing? Let's see. Biplane, moving Kong, the gong, the spider, the seizure spider. There was one other thing that was missing. Let's see. Seizure spider, plane. We'll have to dig through it. Electronic Kong.
    31:31
    Gong. There's one more. Kong, gong, gong, gong. It looks like all the ball paths and wire forms are present. It's not like there was something missing there. We've seen that with, like, Avengers Infinity Quest. There's little bits of other games in here, though. It's got, like, that James Bond scoop on the right side that they reused for John Wick. It's back here again. Oh, I did like this. Look at this. We scroll down here.
    31:56
    Oh, wait. I got my laptop open for reference here. Where's my cursor? Use your fingers. All right. Sweepable drop targets are there on the Pro as well. Those aren't just stand-up targets, so that's kind of cool. with the hidden Gary Target behind it. I love the hidden Gary Target. God, what was I going to talk about, though? Something else. Oh, there it is, Empire State Building. Oh, okay. It's in the art. It's just covered with a thousand inserts. By God. Did they have any inserts left over? Speaking of inserts, it's ramp, straight up the middle.
    32:30
    That's cool. Are those lighted inserts or just lighted stickers? They'll be lit after I get a hold of them. Okay, I know what I was going to talk about. there's a cross field there's a uh a wire form that jets across left to right here scroll that up that guy right there above the uh upper right flipper um watching the videos like the ball careens down this wire form and then when it hits the end it looks like there's just like a metal that's angled like that deflects the ball right up into that orbit so then it rolls back down slowly that's kind of cool i gotta watch the trailer again but it looks like as the ball runs down there, it just like pops and falls on the upper side there so it then rolls back with gravity into that flipper. Shut up your shot up the side ramp here. Yeah, it's got that Elton John, Steve Ritchie style ramp right there.
    33:20
    And is that the biplane ramp, that wire form? Yeah, it's plastic to turn into a wire form up the top. And then is that shot up the middle, is that the one that goes to that wavy wire form that goes around? We'll find out. We'll get some news on time. So I like this, right? It seems like there's an inordinate amount of shots in there. I think it's still like seven or eight, which is pretty standard. Definitely not just the basic fan layout. I mean, there's a lot going on here. But there's a lot of interesting ball pass in here, kind of the hallmark of the Elwynn. This doesn't seem as open in the middle as Jaws does. It seems kind of as convoluted as a game like Avengers Infinity Quest, where there's just kind of like ramps and such going like this hither and yon. I do like the tram tracks there where the balls will roll down the physical ball lock. It's just like a two-rail wire form there, but it looks like railroad tracks, like the tram tracks. I think that's cool, and I think it's neat that the Kong hand can like block that ball temporarily. Now, he's not going to smash the balls or knock them off anywhere. That would be like some next-level stuff. There's no magnets in his paws. No Kong-y ball. Kong doesn't eat the ball. Here we go. No, but the seizure spider doesn't tap dance on it. I don't know how I feel about the spider. When I saw that, I was like, it's down. It's by the magnet. There it is. It's just like one green plastic spider on a tongue depressor. It just, like, tickles the top of your ball while it's stuck on the magnet there. I mean. The dinosaur there better. Oh, God, that would have been cool if it was, like, a little dino. Just like, I don't know. It's just a raptor from Jurassic Park Yeah, like it would be cool if it was a little dinosaur there And the magnet can grab the ball and then fling the ball somewhere I don't know, I don't think there's any ball flinging capability here from the trailer that I saw We'll find out soon here But yeah, you don't get a spider on the Pro Was that the one? No, we mentioned that Yeah They still call it the pit though, the magnet is still there Yeah What about this river on the left, is that in the Pro? Yeah, yeah, and the log jam above that upper left flipper there's that diverter that pops up it looks like from the play field it's like a log that's in the river that will send the ball over to your flipper there instead of going straight down the drain and then here let's go down to the apron there so go up a little bit, sorry, above the apron the out lane there on the left so what madness is going on there there's an in lane and then there's two out lanes one, two, roll over switch right there on the out lane It says leap of faith Must have some type of Oh okay yeah is that one of those I love that in Jaws That little rubber that was on the ride out lane Where it can pop over and jump That was satisfying every time it happened It's like oh my ball's gone nope Here we go So here we go That sounds stupid Leap of faith Alright And then we get all these targets and then you get to 8th Wonder of the World is the wizard mode apparently. There's 1, 2, 3 spiders.
    36:35
    Dinosaurs are in there. Spider pit. Island scenes. Climb complete. Oh, so you probably have to light up all the inserts and climb the building.
    36:46
    Interesting. Interesting. I like these little flaming monkeys on the slings. Those are going to be 3D sculpts, I think. Someone's going to make those. Yeah, for sure. I'm probably, if somebody doesn't, I'm going to be making those because those are cool. I need more flaming monkey skulls, wall sconces, torches.
    37:04
    I mean, overall, it looks like a great shooter. It's loaded with mechs. I think they were like, hey, what colors do you guys want to use in the play field? And they just said yes.
    37:15
    Every color of the rainbow spectrum. If I squint, it looks like Elvira House of Horrors because there's like all that purple in the middle, and the green. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, you squint there. What was the criticism of these zombie yeti games? If you're like 20 feet away, you can't tell one from the other. Because they all have the same kind of just everything everywhere all at once. Everyone's complaining but if you compare it to Godzilla, Godzilla had a busy play field as well. Now contrast this. There couldn't have been two different games today, Dune and Kong. I mean, you look at Dune and it's like here's a desert scene Here's like our characters are featured prominently And then like here's like a vibe And it seems like The image should be accompanied by just a low hum We're in the desert Don't run too fast The sandworms will come And this is like Kong is part of Xavier's School for Extraordinary Gentlemen It looks like Kong is an X-Men now Interesting what a code will be but something tells me it'll be pretty far along. So, like, apparently Jaws was done for, like, a long time. Like, Elwin, he seems to work pretty quick with his team. So quick, in fact, that when they were like, let's do an extra Bond, he was like, well, yeah, I'm done with that other game. I can work on it. And then, like, they just banged out Bond 60 and then just kept right on going with his next game. So, yeah, hopefully, I don't think this is a Venom situation. I don't think this is a Wick situation. I don't think this is an X-Men situation where, like, they're rushing this game to the finish line just to get it out the door and the code will come later. This thing's probably already, like, has more code than anything else. Look at, like, there was just a release from Stern that Jaws, WIC, and X-Men are still progressing towards 1.0 code. And I'm like, they're not even the same league. Like, yeah, Jaws isn't at 1.0 code yet, but Jaws' .9 is like, you know, WIC's 2.0, man. There's so much in there, all those extra modes and things, the 8-bit modes, the throwback stuff. If they do that with this, what if they came with a rudimentary rampage mode, right? Where Kong is destroying the building and the shots you make add damage to the building. You can play that as a mini-mode. That would be cool. Or something like Donkey Kong. I feel like I've seen this game before. Why am I thinking of Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure? Maybe just because it's jungle and a temple and a Kong and a plane. Yeah, and a shot up the middle, which is fine. Which is fine. Like, I like the idea of going to what has come before and, like, improve upon it, bring it in, use it in a new and creative way. I think that would be fun. Dune has this other physical kind of ball lock over at the mid-right side, which is a mirror image of the road trip multi-ball lock on Toy Story 4. Okay. Where you shoot in there and the ball kind of goes around. They get stored there and then released. There's the same kind of thing over on Dune. They say it comes from Radical. And I haven't played enough Radical to really pick up on that. But I saw that and I was like, that's Road Trip Ultima from Toy Story 4. It's just on the other side. It's got a little kickback in it so it works a little differently. But it's kind of fun. It almost looks exactly like the ball situation that's on Ghostbusters on the left side. Where like the four balls are in there and you can kind of knock them around. It's like that kind of little, you know. Like J-shape? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Candy cane shape. Yeah, it's the Dune candy cane, you know. Don't drop your candy cane in the sand. I thought up a great – okay, stupid – a stupid mod that I would like to do for Dune, and this is where I build myself like a little frame with 2x4s and some plywood and fill it up with like two inches of sand, and I put that down to stand in while I playing for like total theme immersion so I can play Dune while barefoot in the sand and feeling for worms with my toes What do you think Just put worms in there I think my cats will love it Yeah.
    41:14
    Okay, I just described a litter box. Don's, Pondball, Pigcat's litter box. But imagine playing Dune with like your finger, your toes in the sand.
    41:25
    I don't know. It makes sense to me. You know what? I already know what the topper for this is going to look like. It's got to be Kong on the Empire State Building It's going to look like the Godzilla topper With some stacked plastics Maybe they'll take the Kong sculpt Like the static one that comes with the pro And stick it up there And otherwise it'll be a bunch of plastics and stuff And it'll probably be the skull featuring prominently With a waterfall with a blue LED light And then maybe an Empire State Building in the back And as you're doing the damage to the building Or whatever is represented by the playfield It'll start lighting up as like a physical progression, but I don't think anything's moving up there. Biplane. They're going to be a biplane that's circling around. Oh, stop it. Like Hot Wheels? Yeah, just coming around. No.
    42:14
    It's probably going to be that. They're going to take the John Wick mechanism and just turn it 90 degrees so it's like spinning around. And charge $2,500. $2,499.
    42:26
    Get them while they're hot. Because how much was the Godzilla topper? That's $1,000. Foo Fighters was $2,000 That was ridiculous What was Venom? Was Venom $1,000? Oh my god Terrible $1,000 Tariffs $1,500 minimum Wasn't it $1,200 for John Wick? Or was John Wick $1,400?
    42:49
    We're paying a lot of money for stacked plastics and LEDs My god Alright Anyway, that's Kong It's Stern, it's Elwynn It's – LEs are sold out, so. So two pins, fully revealed today. Yeah. Trailer and hands-on experience. Yeah. You only can buy one. Yeah. You got to put your order in by midnight. Uh-huh. Which one are you getting? I've already ordered Kong Premium, so. Kong Premium it is. Same here. Yeah. What did you go through? Yeah. I emailed jeff at madpinball.com, and it said, homeboy, hook it up for me. Same. I like your mad pinball shirt there. Represent. Representing Jeff. Freaking Jeff. Listen to the Fresh Pinball podcast that Jeff and the Anjali Stark brothers do. It was awesome. You got a shout-out. Yeah, thank you, boys. Yeah, I got a shout-out, too. That was cool. I always love hearing myself. But, yeah, we got the George Gomez from Reno, the dude with the best name in pinball. The real George Gomez.
    43:44
    The RG. The RG, man. Okay, so, yeah, Kong's a winner. We're going to get it. Everybody's going to get it. I have heard that sales are already coming in for Labyrinth as well. It's $11,600.
    43:57
    It's essentially, I think what they did is they looked at a Sternelli, and they're like, that's $13,000. We have a better powder coat than they do. We got the Invisiglass Shaker Motor. We've got better side art than they do. We got a better sound system than they do. We still get the speaker lights. We're adding the lights around there too. But they're coming in like $2,000 less, $1,500 less. less than Stern. And it comes with a topper. Stern LEs don't come with a topper. So they're adding a lot of extra accoutrement in there. It won't make up for the fact that it's Dune if you have no connection to Dune.
    44:37
    If I was to go through the Excel spreadsheet on this thing, for me, the theme of Dune, it's fine, but I don't have any huge exuberance toward it. Not that I really do with King Kong either, except for the fact that King Kong does have a ride at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure that I ride every time I go there, and I love it. So I do have a little bit of that, but that's me personally. Now you, or hypothetical you, may really be into this Dune. Maybe you've actually seen the movies, which I haven't, and you're like, hell yes, I want to play me some Dune, and it's going to rank higher based on that. I will say Shots and Layouts, you can't even compare these Shots and Layouts because they're two different games. The thing that Dune had, It didn't have that verticality Half of this play field Is multi-leveled wire forms And things And I feel like I didn't get that much With Dune, it was a lot of surface level Run through the desert, get on the The worm, but then the worm would jump up And spit balls on the wire forms The wire forms were fun, there is that mountain In the back right, people are saying it gives Whitewater vibes Which is interesting I mean there's a mountain back there, so I think I see Where they're getting it You know, when I think Whitewater, I think that plastic roller coaster ramp, and that's definitely not in Dune. But, yeah, I think there are two games that I don't think they could be any more different than they are. Were there movie assets in Dune? Oh, there's so many movie assets in Dune. Okay. Yeah, like they got everything. And so I think it's hard for me to like – because I'm going to go in and play Kong in, I don't know, a day and a half, and it's going to have some pretty progressive code in it already. It's going to have call outs They got that guy from Impractical Jokers To do some voice overs So I'm going to hear that I'm going to see custom animations and things And so this is going to feel like a more Complete game as far as code wise Dune was still early because there weren't really Any call outs it was just music And then the scenes which were fine Oh I didn't Talk to you about this mode In Dune I don't know how much Dune lore you know but there's this mechanism where there's this thing that looks like a box of Kleenex and you stick your hand in it and it's supposed to be some kind of pain box and it's like a test of endurance you put your hand in this box and there's some kind of pain that's being created and if you flinch then you die or somebody shanks you in the neck with something so it's like you have to suffer through this thing in order to pass some trial so there's a cool little mechanism on the left out lane in Dune where this gate will drop, and when your ball is rolling down there, it will actually go into a little area with a coil that can kick your ball out and save it. But you have to pass this trial. So this little box pops up to the left end lane, and what you have to do is you have to stick your hand in the pain box, and you have to survive the trial, and if you do, you get your ball back. If not, you drain and die. So the way that they do this in the game is with you taking one hand and putting it on the action button. You have to hold the action button and not move your hand. That ball will then kick out And then with your remaining hand You have to hit this lit shot Which on the game I was playing it was always the left orbit So the ball will kick out into the play field And you have one free hand You can't move the other one If you move it you die And you have to reach back and forth between the flipper buttons And try to hit that shot And if you do then it saves you That's unique It's unique I can't think of any other way to integrate this Without causing grave genital harm of inserting something into a pinball machine, especially with the worms. So that was interesting. Now, I did this four times or so as I was playing. I triggered it and then drained out the left outlay, and then I got to try it. So it was neat. I failed every single time I tried to do it. But maybe with some practice and some dead bouncing, I could figure out how to cradle up and then get that shot. I'm sure it's really cool when you get it because then you get your ball back. Bonus points. Interesting, though, and I wanted to make sure I mentioned it. Because I thought that was kind of innovative. Now you can use either hand. You can use your gut, too, on the thing. But they have it coded where if you hit both buttons too quickly, like you're obviously cheating, it'll just kill you. So it's got to be like slapping back and forth with one hand. Some creativity. So that was interesting. So Stern's coming up. We'll talk about that after we get to play it. So fortunate. Thanks for inviting us. Thanks, Barrels of Fun, for inviting me out. That was awesome. Thanks for lunch. Thanks for the Coke Zeros I really do appreciate it Tomorrow We got some stuff Tomorrow we're going to go visit our friends In the small quaint town of Benton, Wisconsin And we're going to go get an Evil Dead update We're going to go walk around the factory We're going to go eat some snacks I don't know and we'll get some lunch and hang out Because we have a whole day here In Chicago until the Stern thing People are flying in today So we'll go and get a spooky pinball update I have reached out to my other friends in town my American pinball companies, my New Jersey pinball companies that have relocated here. And so far, I couldn't make anything happen, any kind of other magic this week. We'll see what happens. But we know that there's Harry Potter's the third game of the Trophathon. It's like Toyotathon, but with, like, ball troughs. What was that called?
    50:03
    Troph again. Troph Jam. Wave one. So, yeah, Troph Jam, the third phase of Troph Jam. I guess it will be Harry Potter and Predator.
    50:15
    Donnie! Don't catch a Predator, man. It was so funny. I talked to Jeff shortly after Dune launched, and he's like, well, we already got two sales right away, so it's already outperforming ABBA.
    50:31
    Poor ABBA. But come on, man, honestly. If Predator is an ABBA reskin, I'm going to reuse that chopper. Oh, gosh. Chopper. Jengis, please tell me some good news about that. Aliens are best game. I played it again in Boston at Pentastic, and while it's not stellar,
    50:52
    I think the Ripley version with the functional xenomorph grabbing the ball and eating it thing, it's an okay atmospheric kind of fun game. It's not terribly overpriced. It's not $13,000, and it's fun, but I wish each game was slightly better than that one, and they've been giving us the opposite of that. Queen was a big step down. ABBA was like two more steps down. I enjoyed Queen. Queen was better. My take, Queen was better than ABBA. I've had some of the worst pinball games of my life on Queen at shows. I think maybe it's not set up right. Flippers are weak or whatever. I played Queen at my friend's house. He's the only other guy I know that actually has an ABBA as well. And I had a great game on his Queen. I was hitting all the shots. He had it set up properly. It was a good... I was like, okay, so Queen's a little bit better. It's still weird how to take that back glass off. You've got to stick your fingers in their crotch holes. I don't know. That's a weird design. It's not the game for me, but I have had good games on Queen. I'd rather play Alien. Agree. ABBA, I'd rather play Queen. So if they make a Predator game where I would like to play ABBA more than I would like to play Predator, that's a fail, man. So, come on. We'll see what the third round of Trough Jam has to say for that. But we're going to Spooky. And it's going to be awesome. We've got our Spooky Boners. And we're going to go up there and hang out. So, it's going to be fun. In an interium tomorrow night? Maybe. Perhaps. Yes, I think so. Because we've got other folks coming in. True. We've got Don and Matt from the Bash Pinball Podcast. Listen to them if you're not. I think they have the best audio production in these pinball podcasts that we do. because they're both audio guys, right? And Don's hair is, like, phenomenal. It's, like, black and wavy. Is Kale coming in, too, from Electric Bat, the number one Twippy-winning podcast in the freaking world? Maybe. I think he's coming in. Yeah, Killer Rage time, that'd be sweet. I don't know if Ralph's swinging down. He is the Stern Shill, so he should be here. He said he's coming. Perfect. Watch his YouTube and podcast. We'll get some Ralph time. Doug from Cool Toy might be coming in. Vic VP, is he going to be here? I believe so. Colin? Colin. Is Colin? I still saw Colin today. Might be Colin. Is he crazy enough to fly here again, too? I've been seeing Colin all weekend. We were hanging out at Pintastic. We were hanging out at Barrels of Fun. It's like he's following me around the country, this Colin guy. He might need a rest. All right. Loser Kids, maybe? I think at least one of the Loser Kids will be here. And then I don't know if we'll get any Jamie Burchill time from the new JBS podcast. Go listen to that. That was a good podcast. That was freaking awesome. Did you hear the one with Genghis? Yes. Oh, Genghis. Jingo. Johnny. Oh, my God. Sounds like a cool, down-to-earth guy. So much fun. I think that's enough for now. I'm ready for some relaxation. But I think first I'm going to go to the 7-Eleven. So if you want to get one of these new games, do what I did. Email Jeff at MattPimple.com. He's selling both Dune. He's selling both Kong. I think the Ellies are probably gone already.
    54:00
    Get on the list if you want to get on the list. Harry Potter is around the corner at some point. Kongs are going to start coming out of the factory in May and I think we're going to start seeing some dunes trickle out and then that will increase in frequency anything else just want to thank you for letting me come out here being your plus one thanks for jumping on the podcast George Gomez alright as always be sure to email Don at Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com check out Don of the Magic over on YouTube check out the Don's Pinball Podcast YouTube channel for other live stream funness jump on the Patreon and be a bro and get some cool stuff. We're going to get Translight sent out at some point. Order yourself a t-shirt and while supplies last, get a free flyer from Doom. How about that? Right to your inbox. Later.