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DPP #20 "We have Foo Fighters! We have Galactic Tank Force! Elvira HOH ON THE LINE!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·17m 54s·analyzed·Feb 25, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Foo Fighters officially revealed as Stern Cornerstone; American Pinball confirms Galactic Tank Force; Stern monetizes LE serial numbers.

Summary

Don breaks major pinball news from LA: Stern's Foo Fighters (next Cornerstone) is officially revealed with teaser trailer and full reveal expected Tuesday; pros shipping in 1-2 weeks at $6,900, Elvira HOH Premium on line at $10,500; American Pinball confirms Galactic Tank Force as next game with loaded playfield; Stern introduces paid custom numbering ($500 standard, $1,000 for single-digit numbers). Don also reports gameplay issues with Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tour at West Hills location (flipper button mapping frustration) and details location pinball in LA.

Key Claims

  • Foo Fighters teaser trailer dropped today with 'All My Life' song and alien theme featuring Zombie Yeti artwork

    high confidence · Don states 'Today was the drop' and describes the trailer content directly; confirmed by official reveal

  • Foo Fighters full game reveal coming Tuesday early next week

    high confidence · Don cites 'good sources' confirming Tuesday reveal timing; aligns with announced schedule

  • Foo Fighters Pro units expected to ship in next 1-2 weeks, followed by LE (~1000 units at ~$13k), then Premium in 2-4 weeks through early April

    high confidence · Don references distribution contact and notes earlier Stern production schedule showing March opening week

  • Elvira House of Horrors Premium now on production line, shipping next week, priced at $10,500 (stepped above $10k threshold)

    high confidence · Don saw photo from production line; references Facebook post about payment emails going out

  • American Pinball officially confirmed Galactic Tank Force as next game via logo image

    high confidence · Don cites Kaneda sharing 'nice juicy image of a logo' that says Galactic Tank Force; describes as 'about as close to confirmation as you're probably going to get'

  • Galactic Tank Force has loaded playfield with more content than Scooby-Doo

    medium confidence · Don notes this is speculation from k-man's 'mysterious sources' but personal observation of American Pinball game quality supports plausibility

  • Stern now monetizing custom LE serial number requests: $500 for specific numbers, $1,000 for low numbers (2-9)

    medium confidence · Don presents as new policy passed via distribution contacts but notes 'I don't have any other details about how that works' or official confirmation

  • Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tour has flipper button mapping issues: bottom flippers on one button, mid/upper flippers on separate button, causing player confusion

    high confidence · Don describes direct gameplay experience at West Hills location and specific frustration with button layout requiring finger switching

Notable Quotes

  • “The, are you ready for it? The Foo Fighters. They are ready and they are coming out.”

    Don @ ~3:30 — Core announcement of Foo Fighters as next Stern Cornerstone game

  • “I was thinking, is this either going to be a music pin where we basically have some sort of layout some theming kind of light you know like like kind of like a rush was you know the call outs but it's basically just playing the songs as the modes of the game and the band or is this going to be some sort of themed adventure starring the band and that's what i was hoping for and man now that we've got this uh you know alien themed posters and zombie yeti's on the artwork... I think we're going to get a game where we're actually on an adventure with the band, you know, versus aliens”

    Don @ ~5:00 — Speculation on Foo Fighters game design direction based on theme indicators; confirms alien theme tie-in with Zombie Yeti artwork

  • “Holy garbage. I don't that that's an exclusive that I don't need to really ascertain to. But if you are so inclined, it's there for $502,000.”

    Don @ ~16:30 — Reaction to Stern's $500-$1,000 custom numbering monetization; shows skepticism/surprise at business practice

  • “if i can see like a loaded play field from american pinball this could be the game for them i mean there's a lot going for this christopher franchise repeatedly reportedly on the art he's done batman 66 among others monsters so um his art with this game sans drama i'm really excited and looking forward to what this reveal is going to be”

    Don @ ~12:00 — Positive speculation on American Pinball's next game based on perceived playfield density and Christopher Franchi artwork quality

  • “The lock bar was loose as all heck, and fumbling around with it I don't know if it just needs to be adjusted or tightened, but it had some considerable flop to that lock bar.”

    Don @ ~34:00 — Specific mechanical issue encountered on location Scooby-Doo machine

  • “There's three flipper buttons on each side. And there's five flippers in Weird Al, right? There's the two down at the bottom. And then there's those two mid flippers and then one on the upper play field. And the bottom flippers are on one button. And then the mid and upper flippers are on a separate button. So as I'm playing, I have to keep switching my fingers between the top buttons, the bottom buttons.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyFoo FightersgameAmerican PinballcompanyGalactic Tank ForcegameZombie YetipersonElvira House of HorrorsgameChristopher Franchiperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Foo Fighters full game reveal scheduled for Tuesday; major news cycle moment for Stern and pinball community with multiple announcements (Foo Fighters, Galactic Tank Force, Elvira shipping) converging in one week

    high · Don: 'they're going to get more information later in the week, like early this next week, like Tuesday, with a full game reveal... What a Friday this is. What a Friday for a news drop.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tour has problematic flipper button mapping (bottom flippers on one button, mid/upper on separate button) causing player confusion and missed shots

    high · Don gameplay report: 'There's three flipper buttons on each side... The bottom flippers are on one button. And then the mid and upper flippers are on a separate button. So as I'm playing, I have to keep switching my fingers... I found myself having to in a multi-bowl mode slap both buttons on each side like I'm a toddler'

  • $

    market_signal: Location pinball in Los Angeles more prevalent than expected; AYCE Gogi Korean BBQ chain operates 2 locations with 2-6 machines in front, ~20 in back bar, priced affordably at $0.50-$0.75; part of 'On Tilt' pinball operation

    high · Don: 'Not only is it real, there's actually two locations... The first Van Nuys location I went to... had a Scooby on location... the games $0.50 to $0.75 a piece... very high quality'

  • $

    market_signal: Elvira House of Horrors Premium on production line at $10,500 (above $10k threshold), shipping next week; represents step-up from previous Elvira pricing

    high · Don: 'This one, which has actually stepped out of the sub-$10,000 range for premium prices, is now going for $10,500. This is on the line now.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.054

0:00
Guys, there's been just so much news that has dropped today on this Friday, the last day of my trip in LA, and here I am sitting at the Courtyard Marriott at LAX, and I could not wait to bring this to you. So what do you say we drop in some music and kick a freaky episode on a Friday? Are you with me?
0:20
That's the intro music, which means another episode is up for you. This is episode number 20 of Don's Pinball Podcast, and it couldn't have come any sooner than it did. Today was the drop. Today we got news from Stern. We got the next Cornerstone, and it's going to be here sooner than we were planning on. But that's not it. American Pinball is in the realm with information coming out about their new machine that we can talk about. I can't wait. Also, there's a new game on the line. What? It's all going off today. Let's get to it.
0:54
And with a swing and a miss and a thump, there we go. Guys, this is it. This is today. This is today where we got a reveal trailer, a little teaser trailer from Stern Pinball for their rumored or heretofore before rumored game, Cornerstone, coming out next. The, are you ready for it? The Foo Fighters.
1:13
They are ready and they are coming out. And we got this great little teaser trailer cartoon with the All My Life song in it. And it was all the guys in a van. And so this is the game, if you remember, we were rumored to have our boy Zombie Yeti on the artwork for this, which makes sense because he has also done concert posters for the Foo Fighters. These concert posters, at least some of the ones that I've seen, feature an alien in disguise and he's kind of coming in and trying to slip in and hitchhike across the country or come to the concert or some dang thing. And there was some speculation that I had released and this has actually come to fruition. So I like the way that they think. I was thinking, is this either going to be a music pin where we basically have some sort of layout some theming kind of light you know like like kind of like a rush was you know the call outs but it's basically just playing the songs as the modes of the of the game and the band or is this going to be some sort of themed adventure starring the band and that's what i was hoping for and man now that we've got this uh you know alien themed posters and zombie yeti's on the artwork and he's done the alien themes and we got the foo fighters who also starred in some sort of horror film which i have still yet to see but they seem like these kind of you know really uh um you know interesting creative types, I think we're going to get a game where we're actually on an adventure with the band, you know, versus aliens or defending the earth from aliens, or somehow there's a cool alien with a fake mustache. So I can't wait for this game. We have confirmation now that that is the theme. And from what I hear now, the rumors are wild today. They're all over the place, but I'm hearing from good sources that we're going to get more information later in the week, like early this next week, like Tuesday, with a full game reveal. So I'm going through my notes here. Got the story. All right, so I did talk to one of my distribution pals, and I have heard that pros are expected to be released in the next one to two weeks. That's coming up. Now, earlier on, I think about 10 episodes ago, I got access to a Stern production schedule, and right there in March, there was a big opening week where nothing was listed, but that was for the next Stern Cornerstone. So that's probably going to notch in very well.

Don @ ~41:00 — Detailed technical complaint about Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tour flipper control mapping affecting gameplay experience

Kaneda
person
Jeffperson
Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tourgame
Multimorphiccompany
Scooby-Doogame
AYCE Gogievent
Donperson
Ryan Daviesperson
Rushgame
Jurassic Parkgame
The Mandaloriangame
?

community_signal: Christopher Franchi artwork reportedly on American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force; known for Batman '66 and monster-themed art; reinforces boutique manufacturer's design approach

medium · Don: 'christopher franchise repeatedly reportedly on the art he's done batman 66 among others monsters so um his art with this game sans drama i'm really excited'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern introduces monetized custom serial numbering for Limited Editions: $500 for specific numbers, $1,000 for low numbers (2-9)

    medium · Don: 'It looks like they will give you the opportunity to purchase that for 500 fat ones... if you want a low number... that can also be purchased for a song. If that song is $1,000'

  • ?

    announcement: American Pinball officially confirms Galactic Tank Force as next game via logo image; reveal trailer possibly coming this weekend or early next week

    high · Don: 'Kaneda did share us a nice juicy image of a logo that says Galactic Tank Force. About as close to confirmation as you're probably going to get at this point.'

  • ?

    announcement: Foo Fighters officially revealed as Stern's next Cornerstone game with teaser trailer featuring alien theme and Zombie Yeti artwork; full reveal scheduled for Tuesday

    high · Don describes official teaser trailer drop: 'Today was the drop. Today we got news from Stern. We got the next Cornerstone... The Foo Fighters. They are ready and they are coming out.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Scooby-Doo location unit at Van Nuys has mechanical issues: loose lock bar with considerable flop; weak auto-launcher requiring multiple attempts to clear horseshoe ramp

    high · Don: 'The lock bar was loose as all heck... had some considerable flop... the launcher... seemed a little weak. It would take a few times to flip through there... balls were stuck in the launch lane because it was a little bit weak'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Foo Fighters detailed release schedule: Pros shipping 1-2 weeks (~$6,900), LEs (~1000 units) at ~$13k following, Premiums in 2-4 weeks through early April

    high · Don cites distribution contact: 'pros are expected to be released in the next one to two weeks... the limited edition... probably going to be another 1000 in their edition size... Those will go out next because those... the high dollar purchasers, they want their game first. Then following that would be the premium.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multimorphic Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tour lacks tactile button differentiation (all buttons same shape/feel) and has code-fixable flipper mapping issues affecting competitive playability

    medium · Don: 'There's no tactile feel to the buttons themselves. They're all the same... so you can kind of just by feel know where you're at so that is frustrating... is there any way just in the code or in the settings to just put all the flippers on one side of the machine to the same button'

    • 3:23
    Following the pros being made the next one to two weeks, which makes sense for Stern Pinball, because what they do is they make these pros, right? These are the stripped down versions, the ones that are location friendly. There's less mechanisms to go wrong. They're a little bit cheaper. They're more geared toward the operator. What they want to do is get their new game, boom, on location as soon as possible. Get it out there, get people playing it, reviewing it, get feedback from it. Following that, the next few weeks would be the limited edition. So these are those top end models. They're probably going to be another 1000 in their edition size that they released. These usually come in at around the 13,000 mark where the pros are now 6,900 or so.
    4:01
    So those will go out next because those, you know, the high dollar purchasers, they want their game first. Then following that would be the premium. That's kind of like the machine for the rest of us. You know, either if you have, you know, location, you want a little bit of a higher and machine on, or you're a home operator and you want something, you know, one of the bells and whistles, but you don't really need all that polish that the limited edition commands. So those will all be coming up between I mean the next few weeks and early April from what I being told So if you want one I just saw a posting from Jeff at Mad Pinball He got spots for pros and premiums So if you're interested, jeff at madpinball.com, he can get it out to you or, you know, sign up on an interest list. And so at least your name is in there and you're in some sort of queue for when this thing is fully released early next week. So I've gone ahead and put my name out there. If this thing is amazing, I want to get it. I want to unbox it. I want to see if I can mod it. I want to throw some art blades on it, and I want to play the thing in my house.
    4:57
    Also from Stern Pinball, staying with them, because they have this amazing news day today, they shared a photo from the line. And Elvira, House of Horrors Premium, is on the line now this week. That means for everybody that's been waiting like six months to a year for them to run this game again, this game that's rumored to have a higher build of materials, and that's why it hasn't been run as much, This one, which has actually stepped out of the sub-$10,000 range for premium prices, is now going for $10,500. This is on the line now. I also heard from someone that posted on Facebook saying they got the email that it's time to pony up, boy. Pay your money because this game is coming out soon, like next week soon. Like new pinball day for everybody can be next week. Unboxing an Elvira Premium. Fan-flippin-tastic. What a Friday this is. What a Friday for a news drop.
    5:49
    That's not all. that I heard today also. American Pinball has released the teaser for their next game. It was basically saying that we have another game coming out. Here's our new logo. And by the way, here's some space stuff in the background, which ties in great to that rumored Galactic Tank Space Battle Force game. Well, I'm getting confirmation now. And our boy Kaneda did share us a nice juicy image of a logo that says Galactic Tank Force. About as close to confirmation as you're probably going to get at this point. rumored to have more information even maybe a reveal trailer coming like this weekend or like early next week man what did i say about march march was going to be pin march right all this was going to fall on us and here it's like blown in early it's like the pinball dog forgot to see a shadow winter's over and we're already into the pinball march madness time this is amazing so the rest of this is purely speculation but i've heard from k-man that he's there or he's his mysterious sources that he has that this play field is actually loaded now i'm going to talk about this a bit later but i was down today playing some american pinball games on location and getting a little bit more time with them and just appreciating the build quality that they have how responsive their games feel when you play them and so if i can see like a loaded play field from american pinball this could be the game for them i mean there's a lot going for this christopher franchise repeatedly reportedly on the art he's done batman 66 among others monsters so um his art with this game sans drama i'm really excited and looking forward to what this reveal is going to be so what do we have lined up we've got uh stern foo fighters with a full reveal coming early next week we've got this american pinball game floating in the ether about to come out ovira's on the line so that's going to be on box that's going to be in homes uh where's jersey jacking all this are we about to see like a third or fourth shoe drop and get some information from them are they really going through with godfather in the middle of this you know space theme and aliens versus food fighters and then what the heavy pasta dinner right before we have a marathon with a game i i mean i'm just here waiting to see uh you know what they bring us uh what else did i have about this let's see uh name confirmation canina release trailer soon this weekend i think that's it maybe this was a big one um reportedly maybe there's more in galactic tank force than in scooby-doo i'm the speculation i jury's out on that i'm gonna wait and see because there are a dang fine lot of sculpts in scooby and wouldn't you know i played my second game on location today i just appreciated all the sculpts that are in that game i have more to talk about on that there was one more little bit of information passed along to me uh regarding stern pinball and this is another, I guess you can call it a price increase. This is another pricing opportunity. I think up until now, if you had a good relationship with a distributor, you've been buying games for a while, you've been able to put in a humble request for a certain number in your edition size So for the limited editions from Stern they all numbered you know originally it was up to four or 500 Now they doing a per run But say you had already you know number 700 from another game and you bought this game you want its number to match and that little plastic plaque that comes with it. So you've been able to do that and say, you know, I have I have machine number 420 every release because I've got a good relationship and I've been buying games for them for eight years. Well, now it appears that they're going to monetize that ask. So if you want to have, you know, a specific number, you know, say I need to have 666, I need to have 420, I need to have 317. It looks like they will give you the opportunity to purchase that for 500 fat ones, just money in the bank there for Stern. I mean, you know, normally, these numbers are just randomly assigned, I imagine. But now you'll be able to pay for that opportunity. I don't have any other details about how that works. If you where you have to pre order that, or where you have to get your name on a distribution list to figure that out. But it was also passed along that if you want a low number, low number, I'm talking like two through nine, that can also be purchased for a song. If that song is $1,000, what's going on $1,000 to get your number below 10. I mean, if you're into those sorts of things, and you know, you got to have that machine, you've got to have that low number and you've got to get rid of the money that's burning a hole in your wallet, or your 401k, it appears that they will now be able to accommodate you at that rate. So holy garbage. I don't that that's an exclusive that I don't need to really ascertain to. But if you are so inclined, it's there for $502,000. I don't have any more details yet, but more to come. I'm sure if they come out and release that. So what have I been doing? So I've been hanging out in LA. I've and having a great time. Thanks so much, Ryan Davies and family, for hosting me. I swung through Super Nintendo World yesterday at Universal Studios Hollywood. Fantastic experience. I mean, from everything I was looking at, it was going to be kind of a smaller scale enterprising activity. But, man, I would love to see an entire theme park with this Nintendo, how they did it. So, in addition to that, on the way to the airport today, I stopped off and I played some location pinball. So, I did mention that the L.A. area seemed to be fairly devoid of pinball. Not quite the case, actually, as it turns out. Last time I was here, I did find a location on the pinball map, and it appeared to be a Korean barbecue place that also had pinball, which seemed like a strange mashup and was probably like a joke or something. Not only is it real, there's actually two locations, and I visited both of them today. This is A-Y-C-E Ace Gogi, G-O-G-I. It's a Korean barbecue restaurant, like full-service restaurant, like go in, wait to be seated. and then in the entry area there's between two and six pinball machines and then there's a bar in the back of both of these places where there's like another 20 machines located so uh they're in van eyes california the other one is in west hills i visited both and it looks like i don't know if the machines there belong to the korean barbecue part of the restaurant because there's also this sign that says on tilt like it's the the pinball of the version or business for this enterprise But I was able to go in there, and not only are the games $0.50 to $0.75 a piece, they're also very high quality. So the first Van Nuys location I went to, which was just a closer one to where we were at, had a Scooby on location, so I got to play this one. I think there's a little bit of adjustments needed with this machine. The lock bar was loose as all heck, and fumbling around with it, I don't know if it just needs to be adjusted or tightened, but it had some considerable flop to that lock bar. And also, I think this is probably an adjustment that can be made in the menu. But the launcher, because this game does have the auto launcher and the launch button. And then it goes up into a horseshoe ramp, kind of like Stern's Jurassic Park. It seemed a little weak. It would take a few times to flip through there. I did, once again, get the Captain Cutler multiball. And I noticed my two balls were stuck in the launch lane because it was a little bit weak and wasn't coming through there. So that probably just needs to be dialed and adjusted.
    12:59
    But it was fun to play the game again and see it again. and just see it in a lineup and how wide that body is. So, and I do like that color on the armor and everything, that green really pops. So in addition to that, what else did they have?
    13:14
    A lot of the newer Sterns, all limited edition versions. They had a Mando back there with the topper, limited edition. You got to play through that again. And then you know we had a great time I left some stickers there on the bar for people And then you know we still had some time So we went over to the West Hills location And I glad I did This location has a multi on location How many are those in the country that are open to the public to play? Like five? And so this one had Weird Al's Magical Mystery Tour, Museum of Natural Hilarity. And so I was able to play through it again and spend a little more time with it this time. Here, two, four. I have only played it at the expos and you know there's usually a line you know you gotta wait you know 10 minutes or so and then you get a chance to play it so I didn't get to play like five games through it and really get a feel for it I did now or you know what I did the ball seemed to be having problems getting stuck and then weren't able to be found by the ball search so a couple of games I just had to give up on and wait for the whole thing to reset but it gets a few more plays on it and I do like it I do appreciate the technology I think it's a fun game I think it's ruined by some frustrating things that don't need to exist. And I commented on this earlier with Multimorphic. There's three flipper buttons on each side. And there's five flippers in Weird Al, right? There's the two down at the bottom. And then there's those two mid flippers and then one on the upper play field. And the bottom flippers are on one button. And then the mid and upper flippers are on a separate button. So as I'm playing, I have to keep switching my fingers between the top buttons, the bottom buttons. I did get in a multi ball and then you know, it was just confusing to try to like switch back and forth It was almost like my flippers were reversed, you know, if you've ever played any games where Um, they do that to you and you know reverse your flipper So the right button controls the left flipper and just it misses with your brain and throws you off Well, that's how it was. I was actually missing balls because my fingers were just on a different button There's no tactile feel to the buttons themselves. They're all the same You know, there's not one that's convex and one that's concave so you can kind of just by feel know where you're at so that is frustrating is there any way just in the code or in the settings to just put all the flippers on one side of the machine to the same button is that possible because I found myself having to in a multi-bowl mode slap both buttons on each side like I'm a toddler you know just swatting away at pinball so that did detract from the experience it seems unnecessary I'm not sure of the reason for that but can somebody get on that and then I think if they can get on that if they can get the price where it needs to be and actually make these machines I think they'll have something. But at this point, it still seems like a concept that needs to still in like the test and adjust and prove phase. So if you could do that for me. Otherwise, what a fun game. What a great license. I would like to play it more. The modes are fun. I mean, I'm singing along with Harvey the Winsor hamster. So good game, really good game. Just some frustrating aspects to it. You can't get one. They're pretty expensive. And I don't know, is anybody else having these issues? I haven't really heard them from the home operators. Maybe this was just a location specific thing where these issues are cropping up maybe the code needs to be updated maybe there's bugs i don't know but um you know i'm still i want to play some more i want to see what's got the knees he's going to come out with with the multi-morphic machine but for for this one in particular it did play well when i was able to play it it's just there's just frustrating things i'd like them to get um on top of so mentioned uh this gogi korean barbecue place smelled fantastic in there by the way uh scooby's on site while i was at the west hills location they wielded this rain soaked box from spooky. So I think their other Scooby has arrived now too. So more Scoobies in the Los Angeles area, always a good thing and priced reasonable. I think there were 75 cents. So get yourself down there, get some Korean barbecue, play some pinball. What a fun place. Snack some stickers while I got them down there. Otherwise, man, I think that covers everything we had to get out to today. If you want to grab a Foo Fighters or at least get your name high on the want list in case Tuesday hits and you're like, you know what? I need to go on this. Hit my boy, Jeff at Jeff at mad pinball.com. He's got pros and premiums allotments for everybody. And thanks so much to Ryan Davies and family for hosting me. I do appreciate that.
    17:29
    There's episode 20 for everybody. I hope you're enjoying it, man. I love all the new listeners we've got. Just drop me your comments at the Don's pinball podcast, YouTube page, and email me directly at donspinballpodcast at gmail.com. I'm about to get back home tomorrow morning, and then shirts are going to be flying out the door. I've got more merchandise on the way, more of everything. There's a virtual tip jar. Hit me up, everybody. Later.