if you can hear me. Probably not because I think I was muted. All right, let's go again. Welcome everybody to the Saturday show. We're starting it off right now. Your weekly talk show time. to hang out with the dawn.
Let me get my audio levels fixed here.
There we go. I got some reverb or something going on. All right, I think we're good. I think we're good. Let's get it started. What's up, everybody? Look at the jam-packed chat that we are having here. And for those people that are listening in the future from the past due to the recording, hello and apologies for any issues as we get the live kicked off. It happens. It happens. Um, as it happens, I just dropped a show last night. Was complete fire. I felt like I was in my my my party zone as it were. Uh, episode 203. So, go listen to that. Um, okay, enough stalling. We got Bug here in the chat. I want to get some info. I was talking to these guys last night. Um, trying to get some uh some numbers for where they are in production. Let me know the audio levels. I can turn them up, I can turn them down, I can do whatever you want. Dustin Alcox here. Uh, he was a finalist for the Stern plus one media day tour and just missed it. Dang it. Uh, but we're bringing Enzo with us and if I find out that I can bring a plus two or a plus seven, I'm going to go back and bring everybody else with me. Bug, what's up? It's Sunday. Hopefully, you're not building pinball machines. You need a day off, dude. All right. Shane says, "I need to turn it up." How about now? Is that better? It looks Dude, it looks solid on my end. All right. Johnny's got good sound. All right. Just let me know. I'll play with it. That's a hard thing about lives, right? Because, you know, I I I sound fine to me, but I'm in the room with me. I'm not out there on the internet. My sound bars look okay, but y'all give me the feedback there. Is Spooky Pinball poised to be the industry leader? Probably. Probably. What did any monster do to that table? I don't know what that means, Steve. Yeah, you know, camera wise, I don't know. I've got the settings where they should be nice and robust and then who knows what happens. All right. So, uh, Bug, you are building machines today. You are a I was going to say a menace, but, uh, I don't know. Uh, a a fine fellow for crafting those. Um, are you at number 500 yet? I I kind of think I saw somebody unbox a 520 or something in Europe. I just want everybody to get their Evil Dead, party with it, and then get on to the next game so we can play that one, too. I tried to get out of you guys um if the guns were leaving yet or if you guys are still ordering parts for those just so I could provide a community update. Dude, that's incredible. I knew you guys hit halfway um you know, recently with the Evil Dead production. I know they're screaming out of the factory. I think you guys mentioned doing 20 a week. So, man, I wish you guys could make a thousand games a week and then just have like five cornerstones a year. All right, we're not gonna we don't need to tug on Bug's coattails too much here, but I I I think I I think they're having a good year this year, and I think the next I don't know, five are poised to be pretty well awesome as well. I don't really have much prepared. I kind of laid it all out with a show last night. I figured we could just hang out and talk pinball. Um Bug, what did you have for dinner last night? Let's start with that. Let's see what the pinball people eat. Did you guys go out for a uh Saturday night? I saw um you guys did a ghost tour probably down in Galina and I saw that Mr. Franchie was around and damn it, I was working. It would have been fun to hang out with that guy. Shane, are you going to be able to actually import that gun to Australia? What is customs going to think at the border when they scan that thing? 24 games a week. My god. All right. Bug had brisket last night at a wedding. Very good. Brisket on the board in honor of Bies. I mean, you can't walk into Bies and not hear the brisket on the board. All right. So, 24 games a week, 100 a month. You're at 500. So, 600 in September, 700 in November. I forgot October. Let's give 800 to October. 88 miles an hour in December. New game. I dig it. On schedule. How about that? I want all 888 evil deads out there so that the price can finally maybe take a reasonable dip and then I can go get one again. That's my plan. Pinball machines are like stocks, right? It's like I short sold um Evil Dead. The price was absolutely near a zenith. I mean, who knows where it's going to end up, but um so I think I short sold it. I think I sold it high. like hoping that it's going to go down in price so I can pick it up again and make a little bit of margin there. I don't know how, but we're on schedule once again. Fantastic, man. Um, so this was the first game that was made like 100% in the new factory. It didn't start in the old one. Bug, can you imagine building Evil Dead at the old factory now? Like knowing what you know and like can you imagine like how much of a hurdle the QC would be? Because the uh the playfields were printed downstairs, taken upstairs to be populated, hand carried back downstairs into another building to be put into a cabinet where the cabinets were being assembled, and then QC could start. Oh my god, what a mess. I need some background music, guys. I brought Ganesha with me here. He's a new print. I'm digging it. Lord Ganesha, I found this file online. Had to make it. I feel like I'm doing preschool show and tell. But look, we're sponsored by Lord Ganesha. How awesome is he? Just going to chill right here next to my desk. I'm going to start selling Ganesha's. Oh, we can do this since we have Spooky here. My shoulders wouldn't be able to bear all the playfield carrying weight. Well, you carrying the weight of the pinball world as well. Uh, I've got a holiday graphic. I've been wanting to do one for Halloween and I just got the proofs in. I'm ordering the t-shirts now. So, for this spooky season, we're going with we're going with this right here. Give me your thoughts. Kick your thoughts on this graphic for those of you listening in the future. It's my it's my Beetlejuice Tim Burton inspired Dons's Pinball Podcast graphic that will be blazed across t-shirts. I got these stickers right now. Um, if you want one of these, uh, just send me an email, donspinballodcast.com. I'll drop one of these in an envelope, put a 59 cent stamp on it, and send it over to you. We should give away randomly a Lord Ganesha as well if you guys would be into that. Sorry, Wi-Fi off and on in foreign countries. Oh, down south. John Tombberlin, you sir are cruising currently. Where are you going? Labor Day Antonio Cruz. Dude, you're living it. um stuck at work. I think I've been working every day for the past four weeks. Um I've got three more days to work and then I got myself a week off to get caught up on projects. Um I got to get the home spiffed up. I didn't The home needs some spiffing. The home needs some spiffing and I've got some projects to do on the machines. On my lucky hand, can I snag what Expo? Absolutely. On my lucky hand, my Gotle wedge head. Uh, I've ordered replacement plastics and uh LEDs to completely go through and get the whole machine going. Um, I'm going to replace that 1970s uh uh lamp cord that they're using for the plug right now. The things looks dangerous, to be honest. So, we'll get that thing fired out. I want to finish uh my high visibility reflection uh material for Stranger Things. I have one ramp left to do, so that needs to get done. I have to solder some stuff on Star Trek and it'll be ready. Um, by the way, if you guys want a Star Trek the Next Generation, I have one. The plan was to pick it up from Mad Pinball and then uh list it out here and I'd get to work on it, make some mods, and sell it. So, if you want your Get Yourself one of Williams, we're probably one of the more more iconic but under the radar games. It's not quite as high-profile and high price as Adam's Family, Twilight Zone, but still pretty complex. Steve Ritchie design. And now that I've had it here and I've played it, I see a lot of where Elton John came from. Uh just based on Star Trek the Next Generation. Take a look at it. This might be old news to some people, but uh you know, you hit the button or you you squeeze the the phaser trigger or whatever. The ball races around that inclined wire form loop. Uh looks similar to how the balls launch in Elton John where they jump up that wire ramp. But then also that big looping ramp, the rocket man shot where it loops up around with the rope lights. Looks super cool. I think that's inspired by this as well. Definitely that left warp ramp, right, that we saw in the other Star Trek game. Probably originated here or maybe even with like No Fear prior to that or something. Everything's recycled, man. There's a ton of Elton John in Star Trek the Next Generation. Super cool. Um, and then we know our friend John Borg tends to do this thing, too. Uh, if you look at Guardians and Metallica, they're essentially like theme swaps. Um, so I'm wondering what we're going to see with Star Wars. Let's start with that. So, media day is on the 10th. Um, that's coming up in just under two weeks. Uh, I looked back at Kong and they had released that King Kong trailer um on like the 14th or 15th of April. We were all at Barrels of Fun playing Dune and then two days later was the media day. So, if they stick with the thing same thing, I think Monday, September 8th, they can release the full trailer, the George Gomez video, all of that business. And then on the 9th, dealers will be on site to play the game. And on the 10th is media day. That's probably how it's going to happen. I wonder if we'll get a teaser this next Friday, similar to how we saw the the shot from King Kong showing the gong there. I think we we may get like one playfield picture or something, but I'm thinking nothing's confirmed, but probably Monday is when the trailer will be released and then order banks will open. And I don't know, reaction seems to be a bit mixed for this Star Wars game. I'm hype on it because I mean I I'm one of the three people that like Richie Star Wars. Um but uh some other people are just thinking um they're kind of done with the theme. It's been done to death. What do you guys think? I was surprised the number of people who are saying that they're like not interested in this game at all. And somebody on the Discord had mentioned that the hype thread is even kind of dying down. And the game's not even revealed yet. So I don't I don't know how this going to do. I'm still going to get one though. I don't know if it's the camera resolution or my laptop. I mean, if the uh if my logos that are up here in the corner, if they're coming through high resolution, then it could be the camera. If everything is kind of grainy, then it may just be the whole system and setup that I have. Bugs, Selenial, man. He says, "I would have been interested in the prequels." Um, yeah. No, not so much. Not so much. I just want a good game and everything I love about Star Wars came from that OG trilogy. I think space politics, I think uh the racist trade federation people, I think every version of Anakin that they made is terrible. So, at the end of Return of the Jedi, when you see the Force Ghosts, they went back and put Hayden Christensen in for Darth Vader, right? David Pro or whoever. And that doesn't make any sense because, you know, it's old Obi-Wan like the age when he died. It's old Yoda, but then it's young Anakin. Like if they're going to put young Anakin in as a force ghost, shouldn't they put uh Obi-Wan as like you and McGregor? Like what what the heck are they doing? I agree. There's so much good content, Allan, in episodes in episodes four through six, especially a lot that weren't even used in this game recently here. So Bug has an opinion. He's wrong, but he's allowed to have his opinion, I guess, because this is still America. Oh man. Um, so yeah, I think that'll be fun. I'm excited to go and Enzo's coming with me. I'm going to reach out and see if I can bring another plus one to make it a plus two. And we'll we'll redraw again. Look, it could be worse. It could just be all Ewoks, like an all Ewok movie, which I don't think anybody wants that. Bug, what's going on in Benton this weekend? Uh, so when it comes to other companies, um, Big Bang Bar, let's let's chat about that a little bit. Uh, somebody said that Padre is involved in it. Um, I think we would all prefer for it to be CGC. Um, but in our hearts, we probably know it's going to be Pretty Pidgeetti that's making this game. I'm completely not interested in owning a Big Bang Bar. Um, I've played the game on my virtual machine. I think I've seen one in public before. It's an okay game, especially viewed in the context of the time, but modern day, I think there's going to be better options. Oh, dude, I'm missing the Benton Labor Day parade. That sucks. But I am glad that 250 Big Bang bars will be put out into the world because right now the only way to play it is to find one of these rare things because there just weren't that many made or pay 20 grand. And any way that people can play the game without having to shell out that much money, I bet it count as a win. Um it'll be fun to play this game. It shows when it shows up at arcades or something, you know, go put a couple plays on it. I don't think the game play is all that compelling. Uh, it is an a pretty interesting uh interesting choice of a theme. It's kind of alien with strippers. So, it's kind of kind of strange there, but I don't know. Is it better than CSI? Maybe. But I'm not I'm not so enthusiastic that I'm going to rush out and purchase one of these things for sure. Um, but I am glad that it's being made for people that do want to get one. Then they'll be happy. You know, I I I can celebrate that. Bug. So, the the Benton Labor Day parade, are they throwing candy out? But are you guys building any VPIN playfields to test out on Don's old VPIN? Ah, yeah. So, my virtual pinball machine is graduated. It's living in Benton now. It's living out my lifelong dream to move to Benton. Uh, my VPIN machine is down there and hopefully is being used as a resource and they're not just sitting there playing all the porn games that are on it. Although, we know that's probably happening. But I think the idea is to use it as an encyclopedia. Um because the VP pins, they have 1400 games in them. You can go through everything from em to modern games, all the B Williams games, all the classics that we loved and uh you know, play through the modes, the gameplay elements, the gameplay mechanisms, and and get some inspiration. you know, find out, you know, things like how did that couch shot exactly work, that lock, uh, for Simpsons Pinball Party. You just fire it up and kind of play it and see, oh, okay, I see what they did there. How can we improve on something similar to that? It would take us longer to figure that out than to just physically build one. I love it. Oh man. Uh, the pinball world. I'm excited to go play some games this afternoon. I've been playing a lot of Dungeons and Dragons again. I'm getting into it. I still like I was kind of marathoning it the other night before work and I still haven't got a trinket. So, I don't know what the deal is there. Are they just supposed to show up? Because I've been in the shop several times and and Naria a trinket has been found. And I got plenty of coin, man. My coin game is unlock. But what I haven't got is some dang trinkets. Oh, Hilton's here. What's up, man? Hilton, what's your uh what's your top earning game right now on location? I know you you got Elton John. Uh you got a Dune. You got a Labyrinth still. There's an Evil Dead there. I think there's a Scooby-Doo. Every Stern. Don't you have an Adams family or something, too? Hilton operates at the I Arcade in Madison, Wisconsin. Check it out if you're in town. Cool place to be. Everything's on coin drop and there's a full bar and other retro arcade machines. And there's like this bakery place like two doors down. And then there's like this uh this old vintage junk shop like three doors down where they got like old Transformers and Peewee Playhouse dolls and stuff. IO Arcade was the first place I got to play Godfather. Man, remember when that came out? remember when it was uh rumored that that was just the code name and then the game came out and I think I was driving to the airport and I stopped in and it was just me and Godfather and $10 and I think I spent nine. Evil Dead and Kong, man. Still, still how many times over did Evil Dead pay for itself now? My goodness. Digging the new hats. Well, thank you, Mr. Rampant Master. I've got these in. Um, I'm going to be putting in a subsequent order because I got to get some snapbacks because some people have some huge heads and never fit hats. And so these flex fits, while amazing, don't fit every single person. I dig them though, man. It's like the trucker mesh but fitted. Like, it's my jam. I usually rock the Columbia hats that I get from the uh Wisconsin Dell's Columbia outlet. Not quite yet paid off, dude. It's It's been like six months. because uh the game really started shipping like February and I know you got an early one. Um but man, dang it. Like that's like six months of earning and you nearly got a game paid off. That's killer, man. Hopefully uh your split isn't too bad at IO there. Like I would want to start a route, but I know they would want to do a split and with $10,000 games to put them on location and then you have to give, you know, 30 to 25 to 30% to the shop owner just for having it there hardly seems worth it at 75 cents, especially when adjusted for inflation. Um, games are cheaper to play now than they've been for like ever, right? you know, because it was a dollar back in, I don't know, 1995 and so that was basically like $2 now. So, I mean, while I don't want to pay more money, I'm surprised that uh like location games haven't gone to $2 a play because that seems to be like just to keep up with inflation, that seems to be where they need to be. But it seems like it seems difficult to sit there and pump in eight quarters per game. And it's just like a lot of coins, like a lot of physical coins. Pinball operating is not a business. It's a hobby. And we do it because love of pinball. All right. Yeah. Bless it. I think there probably was a time when you could actually make money on a game because when games were $2,500 and they're a dollar a play, you know, you could get a couple thousand plays in a few months, you know. But now at $10,000 and $1 a play, I mean that that's so it just it seems like such an uphill battle now. Brad says a nice thing here. We don't have to do a split pin routing. Locations realize the benefit of the traffic. That's the key thing. And I haven't found a real good location around here that would work for me. Um we do have a community college in town. There is a population here. We do have some big box retail. We have a lot of small taverns, like a lot of small bars where, you know, you may see one game in in about half of them have like one game, like a South Park that's beat to crap or like a NASCAR that's that's still functioning somehow. But it's like I couldn't put, you know, 10 games into Jimmy's Beaver Hut and expect to like make money and not just get games destroyed. 20 cents back in 1978. Yeah. Adjust that for inflation and see where we're at. I bet that's at least a $150. It seems to be that the way to do it would be to be a bar owner and operate your pins to keep people there but make the money on the alcohol. In 1992, thank you Hilton. The Adams family cost under 3K and when earned 1K per month, a four to six month payoff was normal in the 90s. Man, what happened? What hap? Is it the price of components? Is it the complexity of the games? Is it the labor costs that we're at now? Is it just inflation? Because there was miles and miles of wire in those old games. I' I've got the Star Trek right over here, man. It's nuts. Um the huge wire harnesses and everything. The way you have eight switches, they're all wired in series going to the backbox. These huge boards. And you know, you can put a Raspberry Pi in the back of a machine now and run a whole game off of that and a couple of daughter boards just to just to control the coils and the switches. It should be so much cheaper now. It It's definitely got to be easier to build. I had to go and receat every connector and every molex in that Star Trek the Next Generation testing things. I had to pull out every fuse and test them to find the two that were bad. And now you open up a Spike 3 cabinet and there's like this little credit card size board in there and then everything else is run off of controllers. We have 20 pins at a pizza joint and 10 at a barbecue place. Oh, nice. Allan went to a new coffee shop. Felt like a latte. They wanted 750 for it. Yeah, but we're still paying a dollar for pinball. And like, you know, as a consumer of playing pinball, I don't necessarily want to pay more per game. I think we're getting a steal at a dollar. What's up, Enzo? All right. Other Enzo's here. Enzo Lea, like lasagna, not leagy. Enzo mozzarella. Uh, the Australian contingent is here. I don't even know what time it is out there in sunny Perth. Guys, if you haven't gone to Australia, it's amazing. I'm going to look up the time here because it's currently 9:30 in the morning here in the US of Eagle Land and Perth says 10:30 p.m. All right, not too bad. This is a good time. I think if you're going to operate pinball, then own the bar and sell the beer. Yep. Yep. But then I guess um what saved pinball was 70% of them are going into homes now, right? whereas nearly everything was on location. But I look I don't want to own a bar. Then I have to be in a bar all the time. I don't want to do that. I want to talk to my camera from home and and play on my good games that aren't sticky with pint glasses. Allan, you've been to Perth, dude. Perth was fun. Um, you know, I always wanted to go to Australia and of course I was thinking I need to go to Sydney. And then the more you learn about Australia, like no, uh, Brisbane, Queensland is probably where you want to go. Uh, it's in the north, so it's more tropical. There's beaches and theme parks and koalas and all kinds of stuff and bin chickens and all that business. And I looked at Perth and I'm like, my god, why why would you go to Perth? It's all the way across the country. Um, what is there even to do there? I don't know much about it. Um, you know, everything you everything you see about Australia and like our concept of Australian culture, crocodile dundee, the bibongs, crocodiles and stuff is all like um Queensland, right? But then, dude, I went to Perth and it's like if uh Queensland, right, Brisbane, the north area, the coast, u surfers paradise, all that. If that's like Australia's Florida, which absolutely tracks, by the way, then Perth is like Australia's Los Angeles. It feels like Southern California, more of a dry climate. Uh there's also beaches. Um but it felt like parts of SoCal to me. Allan took an Air Singapore from New York to Singapore, then another flight to Perth. I can't say enough great things about Singapore either. Um this has been a fun travel year. In December, we were in Australia. And then in May, I went to Hong Kong. I went to um Singapore. I went to Delhi, India. Um and then again later on in May, I went to Austria with the Spooky Crew. Shout out. That was cool. Bug, you missed an awesome road trip, but you didn't miss a pinball show. I know you've gotten your fill of those, but dude, Singapore is like everything you want Las Vegas to be. Um, but it actually is uh clean, you know? It's not full of everybody's trailer park ants smoking in your face. Um, there's not trash everywhere. Like, it doesn't smell like funk. And there's like like James Bond style casinos with like high rollers playing Bakarat. Oh man. Dude, Hilton, you're in the Pacific Northwest, the PN Dub, my old stomping grounds. Um, well, I would say go check out some of my games in Bellingham, but that's pretty far north. Um, given this time of year, I would look up Enchanted Forest in near Salem, Oregon. It's one of my favorite little theme parks on the planet. Um, otherwise, you know, Seattle area stuff. Go find a Roundt Pizza. That's what you should do. John says, "I want to eventually turn my barn dough into a location." He's got a barn condo he built, but I don't want to open it to everyone. You have to pass a test to get in. The test changes every week. Sometimes a physical Yeah, you don't really want to do that. Oh man. Um, I lived in the Pacific Northwest. It It was Idaho, but it counts. It's in Pacific time zone, but we used to frequent going out to Seattle, going out to Portland. Uh, quick 5-h hour drive. Um, head on out and go do some fun stuff. And I like it. Um, I dig it out there. I dig the coastal vibe. I dig the redwoods. Um, I may be a little bit more Portland than I am Seattle, although Portland is is rug rough, man. Um, I was out there probably two years ago now with the Bellingham crew and we went to All right, there was two places. Um, some place called like Underground or Apocalypse or something. It's right by Voodoo Donuts. Um, you pretty much have to be homeless to fit in there. Uh, it was a cool spot. Aftershock or something. But Hilton, I got it. Stop what you're doing and go to Next Level in the Portland area. The greatest arcade. I mean, I love IO, but go to this place and check it out. Oh my god, it's amazing. You have to know about it. You have to already You've probably already been there. Hilton, did you go to Next Level? I thought in my head that this was just like, you know, kind of a bigish size location in the Portland area and it was probably going to be, you know, kind of hippie. Maybe they sell bagels or something. But it was like, if you're from Wisconsin, it was like House on the Rock but with pinball. They had everything. Like every machine is there. Every machine. There's techs running around keeping everything running. It's all a free play arcade. It's the size of a Costco and like they have everything. Okay. Um the Pinball Hall of Fame is like Pinball Museum where half the things are just exhibits, you know? You can't actually play them. Um but imagine if Pinball Hall of Fame was three times the size and the games worked and you could actually go there and have fun. Hilton, text me after you go and tell me I was right, that it is the greatest location in the country. They have a TCM and ED. Dude, they have dominoes. Uh they have uh Rick and Morty, uh Rob Zombie, America's Most Haunted. Like, this is the location I got to finally play a Domino's and it's working. Like they have they didn't have a TCM at the time. They did have a Looney Tunes. I'm gonna be a celebrity. I mean, brother. So, how is it that like Hilton gets involved and makes like Spooky's two best games? I know Evil Dead is getting all the fanfare, but like TCM for like those that know like like that's really our jam. That game is maniacal. Maybe you have to be the right type of person. I don't know. But but TCM is still my favorite spooky. Although, it's hard to argue Evil Dead though. The shots are so fun. The lower play field is fun. But just like just getting into TCM and playing and listening to the maniacal call outs, dude, I love it. And you get to put you get to put a young woman on a meat hook just for locking a ball. It's crazy. All right. John is being Karen on his Antonio Cruz ship. He went to the arcade and there's no pinball, so he's talking to the manager. John, that's the right thing to do. John, tell me about the the restaurant buffets. How's the food been? And what Antonio Cruz line are you on? Because I think Carnival has games in their arcade and Royal Caribbean May. I know Disney definitely does not. And that's usually where I can be found is on the Disney ships. They're expensive. Odd coincidence or just amazing rule set consultant? I think I think it's the sum of all the parts. I think uh the the crew that's there now, you know, you you guys are there on design, the QC and build quality is there and the rules are innovative. You know, like when there's a spooky code update, like something major is happening, and then we aren't seeing games that are forgotten, and we're seeing just like an ungodly amount of code and modes and things being put into these games. And I think that's why people are coming around now. Like, let's take another look at Spooky. Um, people are texting me now. The the hype is really building. Don, have you done the Margaritaville Antonio Cruz? I'm waiting for you, brother. Um, I don't know if I would subject the women to a Margaritavville Antonio Cruz, but um, you I'm down. [laughter] I've watched the videos. It's reportedly like the worst rated Antonio Cruz line. Um, it's it's like some some like super sketchy company is operating cruises and they license the Margaritaville name and uh I mean I've I've I've seen mixed things of course like the reputations they're just god awful. Uh but I've seen videos of people that have gone on them and and they managed to have a good time. We still have a polish run left on TCM. Maybe October. Hell yes, dude. Yeah. Um I still have TCM and Looney Tunes. I think those are my only two spookies right now. Scooby-Doo I I miss. I would like to get that again. Evil Dead I'm planning on getting again. Hi is building like crazy for the new game and I don't feel like I'm Win Schilling it. Um I think it's legitimate like I'm ordering one. Um but people are texting me now like you know Don how do I get on a list? Where should I get it from? And of course, sponsor of the show, Mad Pinball, and close personal homie, uh, Jeff McNamera, Jeff Jeff Cerna. Um, email jeffmadpinball.com. Email Corbin at madpinball.com. Both are super cool guys. We were just hanging out, um, last weekend in uh, in Cleveland. We did an event. They have a space hunt that we've been playing. Um, I'm excited to do some more work with Hexa in the future to get some more exposure to the French games. And uh they'll be having their theme reveal at Expo, so I'm excited about that. I hope it's My Little Pony. I hope somebody just runs with it and makes just a killer My Little Pony game. Um but we were out there. I brought them uh my Wipeout because they have a friend that's a snowboarder, really wants that game. So I traded that one in for some store credit. I picked up uh Next Generation. I've got it out here putting some polish on it and I think I might powder coat it. There's this cool coloranging uh powder that I've come across and I kind of think I want to do it. Make the whole thing like an iridescent rainbow. Um and then we'll we'll get uh we'll get Next Generation listed. I'm going to play through it though and get good at it. It's strange. Like I've played the the Next Generation several times at arcades and like I had an idea about everything that's in the game, but like something about having it at home where you really like learn it. It seems like a whole different game than than one I've ever played. And like I've been playing it since 93 off and on, you know, because I've always been a big fan of the show, but it just it hits different at home, man. I mean, you guys that have games at home, you get it. Bug, I mentioned that um once the new game's revealed, people could probably arrange to come down to the factory to be able to play it before, you know, it really gets out. And I was my thought was people could come and play it after it's revealed and then decide, you know, if they want to buy one. But honestly, I think they're all going to be sold out as soon as they're released. Dustin sent with a great question. Which games have been in my collection the longest? Um, I mean, going through games in order that I purchased them, uh, Batman Dark Knight came and went. Um, my next one after that, my Vpin, which is gone now. That was probably one of my longest lasting ones. But as far as like actual brick and mortar pinball machines, uh, Guns and Roses has come and gone. Godzilla was here for quite a bit. And then sometime around that time when I still owned Godzilla, I still own Guns and Roses, I picked up Star Wars. And I think that's the game that's been in my collection the longest. It's not earmarked to move anytime soon. I play it every week. Um, I still super dig it. And then, uh, TCM and Looney Tunes, probably the ones that have been here the longest. Um, Pope Fiction. Finally, it took me a while to get it, but yeah, I think in order of longest that I've had, uh, Star Wars is the GOAT, followed by TCM and Looney Tunes and Pulp Fiction, I think. Oh, Stranger Things I picked up when it was uh, remade. It was the first run of premiums as soon as they started remaking them. So, those are the four games I've had the longest. Hope it's snowing in November and guys bring the ice fishing huts to sleep outside Spooky headquarters night before. Oh my god, how fun would that be if we treated this like a like a GameStop? Um, Bug, can you do a midnight reveal for the next game or like open sales at midnight so we can all go down and camp out and then like you can open up the sales and we'll just do in-person sales. Trash can ninja buying the Costco Star Wars. Absolutely. I want to borrow it. I'll give you a couple hundred bucks to borrow your game for a bit. Kev's here. Okay, we can start now. He's late. Hi, Kev. Kev Shots. Shout out. So, Dustin, there you go. TCM, Looney Tunes, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, and Stranger Things are the ones that have been here the longest. Star Wars I think I picked up. It might have been still 2022. And you know, the games that have been here the longest are the ones that are probably staying. I'd get rid of everything else, but keep those. Maybe we can open up in-person sales at midnight with an eight hour NDA attached to it. Dude, that would be so fun. Can you imagine camping out in the snow um like it's a GameStop before a Call of Duty release or something? And then like if you get if you're there then you get to get your game guaranteed. And like you get to pick your own number or something. As long as it's something that somebody that already owns a machine doesn't hasn't already committed. Oh, bug. Dude, that's awesome. We should do it. I'll come down. Midnight sales. We're going to have a party in the parking lot waiting for the midnight drop. Kev, I've owned both of those games. Um Kev says his two pins that he's keeping forever. Tales from the Crypt and Alviv House of Horrors. First off, Kev, which trim level of House of Horrors do you have? I've had two and I I still haven't ruled out owning it a third time until 200 people show up. Dude, can you imagine the kind of party we would have if half the population of Benton showed up in line to go buy the new spooky game? We get the news out there. It would be like a like a Japanese release of a Dragon Quest game. I mean, I'm digging this idea. I'll bring a barbecue and make food. Speculation on Spooky's next game. Um, we know the themes that have been rumored. I know we're going to find out what it is, but I I think the only thing we can say for sure is it's sold out. Kevin has the premium. Yeah. So, I had the premium and I really wanted the 40th anniversary, but you all know how much it was for Alvivra. Uh, so I found a guy that would create art similar to the 40th anniversary and then I purchased um cabinet art and it came in the resolution wasn't good. So, I found another guy to do it and then I got it. It was pretty close and so I just wrapped my game um in 40th anniversary graphics and changed the T- molding to purple and uh I made my own 40th anniversary midnight sale. Great for Perth time. Oh, yeah. I'll bring Burma. We can do shots. Can you imagine the freaking party we could be having in Benton for a midnight launch? There's been no midnight launches in pinball. Nobody's been showing up camping out in front of a factory to purchase a game at launch just to be the first ones. I think we should do it. Maybe even if Spooky doesn't sanction it, we can all just go there anyway. I camped out legitimately for Nintendo Wii back in the day. Brought a tent out in front of a GameStop. Remember that? Man, those were some fun times. That must have been like like 2006 or something. Spooky Luke steak. Yeah, we have steaks on the grill, some hot dogs, some fruit salad. If you lose a digit to Frostbite, maybe you could put an ED or TCM. That That's a good point, Scotty. I I I agree. Not like a Nintendo Switch launch. Yeah. No, I mean, I can't stop anyone from showing up. That would be fun. No one's done this in pinball. The local media would be like, "What the hell is these people doing? Go send a remote truck out there." They do over the phone sales. That's not the same. I don't want an over the phone sale. I want to guarantee that I get one. I'm afraid of not getting one. I'm already FOMOing. I can set up my merch tent. If you haven't seen this yet, this is the new logo for Halloween that we're doing based on rumors and speculation in the pinball industry. I'm doing a Tim Burton inspired logo that'll be on t-shirts. I don't know if I'll do a hat, but I got stickers right now. And if you email me at donspinballodcastmail.com, tell me you want a sticker. I'll send you one. I got a stack of them just came in. It's awesome. So, knocking on Morgan's office door is one step better than phone. Yeah, that would be so fun, man. Uh, is there a spooky float in the uh parade? And if not, why not? All right, Kev loves a new logo. I Dude, I think it's great. Uh, shout out to Pinball Studio and his uh, his art generation skills for helping me out with that design. I think you'll see a lot more collaboration amongst folks in the the the pinball visual sphere so we can do more cross promotions and stuff. Pinball's super fun. I want to do more live events because I think that's something that's missing. I know we have the expose and everything, but it's not like there's like group meetups or something, group photos, um product tosses. I'd like to see some of that. You know, these things work with skateboarding. Like you'd have a skateboard demo where pros would show up to the skate park. All the kids would go there. We'd all skate together. And then you gather all the kids into one big group and you take product trucks, skateboards, and stuff and you toss them into the crowd and kids go nuts for it. Like we could do product tosses, get a bunch of um you know, elderly middle-aged guys together with knee replacements as we all scramble for stickers and hats like a bunch of school children. Hilton, go hiking. Have fun. Let me know what you think of Next Level and tell me tell me I ain't wrong. It's amazing. I super dig it. You know what? Let me see if this is the reason my camera's messed up. I think my I think I might have been zoomed in too much. Is that better? We're an hour in and now I think my camera finally looks like it's better. Get myself more centrally located. Oh, I do like that better. Every time I launch this thing, I've got to like configure everything again. The spooky midnight launch party. Um, I feel like I've been ignoring all the other companies. Jersey Jack is making Harry Potter's. We know that the game's awesome. I've had it. I would like to pick up another one. So, I think I saw the first arcade edition sold. I think my collector's edition was the first one to be sold um secondhand. That was That was pretty quick. I wasn't planning on selling it and then something came up. Look at how freaking sequency this is, man. I got shorts that match, too, man. This is a whole drip. Um, but uh I I'm glad that Harry Potter's selling as well as it is because I want a ton of wizard editions out there so I can go and pick one up um cheaper. Uh I think the JJP price drop is going to be a thing. I haven't seen a ton yet hit Pinside. I think people are still getting their games. But JJP, keep cranking them out, please. I want to own it again. I love that game. What was the game I was speculating yesterday that they would be making? Saturday Night Fever. What the hell was wrong with me? And then I have Godfather Part Two as another game that they would do. And Taxi Driver. That's wild. What a bunch of terrible ideas. Enzo, how's uh Evil Dead holding up? This is like this is a spooky live stream basically. Um I'm I hope they do Sonic. I hope Richie's on Sonic and it's going to be just like I mean his layout would have a third flipper. Um that ramp would they put the the warp ramp on the other side and do a mirror image so it wasn't just a direct copy of of Elton John? But no joke, like I'm playing Star Trek the Next Generation and you hit that warp ramp to lock balls in the board ship and it's in the exact same location as the piano on Elton John and there like the diverter is probably the same. Like he just took Star Trek the Next Generation and added bedazzled jewels to it. Hasn't missed a beat. Um, so I wonder if we would see Elton John with the uh hyperspace loop from Star Wars in Sonic the Hedgehog. If they could make the shot up to the hyperspace loop um like more accessible, I I'd be down. I think if they made that a wide plastic ramp so you can just put the ball up there when it's activated and freaking Sonic just goes zooming around collecting Chaos Emeralds and rings. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think they would hook me. I think they would definitely get me. All right, I'm on board with Sonic now. Sonic JJP, let's see it. So, um I had asked the guys, you know, when I when they were talking to me, um you know, if it would be like two years until their next game, and they they assured me that no, they're still planning on, you know, doing like their their next release like 10 to 14 months after the Harry Potter release. Um, so I guess by that point they're planning on uh sales to be somewhat caught up with Harry Potter so they can then switch to a new game and then probably go back to Potter. Should do a getaway loop for Sonic. I mean, yes. I mean, if Richie is on it, which I think he is. He was wearing the Sonic shoes at that expo. I'm dense. I didn't pick up on that. Uh, but somebody posted it and yeah, that makes sense. He's wearing like Sonic's red high tops. I'd be down for a Ganesha themed machine. Um, I didn't find any pinball when I was in India and I was kind of sad although I wasn't surprised. I'm sure it exists. I was just in Old Delhi and u not a ton of arcades down there in Old Delhi. A lot of street food though. The street food culture is pretty real. So, I made myself a ganesha. I found the file online and printed it, but I I did make it. All right, guys. I think we've hit everything. I think we're going to see Star Wars on the 8th of September. I think we may get another teaser photo Friday. And then it's going to be uh Mexico's Hard to Find Pinballs. Um but uh yeah the what was I going to say? Uh media day is the 10th. Dros will be there the day before playing the game and then uh it'll be in production towards the end of the month and then it'll be October. So I guess the first place that most people will get to play Star Wars will be Expo. Um and it'll probably be like brand spanking new pros and premiums that are being made and hitting the show floor. Uh people will have less if you're LE orderers. I think that's kind of the only reason to purchase one of these things, unless there's expression lights that come with it, but it's Star Wars. I do like that they're limiting the numbers more, so it'll be, you know, Star Wars was 1978 and they're doing 770 machines, I guess. I think the original Star Wars was 78, right? For some reason, I think they said it was 77. I thought I thought A New Hope was 78 and then 81 for Empire and then 84 for Jedi. I might be wrong. Who else is out there? Barrels of Fun. I want to Oh, I want to talk about Barrels of Fun. I want to play Dune again. Hilton, he's gone. But um the Dune game has had a lot of code updates since I've played it. Um, I'm hoping it's selling well for him because while I'm not a buyer at 116, um, I wouldn't mind paying 85 for it. Kevin, yes, I'll be at Expo with the topper booth. Be sure to come by. I can't wait to play Portal again. Me either. Me either, Enzo. Uh, is 50th anniversary Jaws in Demand? Yeah, it's selling really well according to the Pinball Show and other distributors. And why wouldn't it? Jaws itself is selling well. And so then you come out with the 50th anniversary and it's got a powder coat already on it and it's got a sparkle on the playfield and they even powder coated the the wire forms. So yeah, um I don't think the art's quite as good as probably the pro is my favorite, but it it's probably the best version of that game that you can get for the price of a premium. Um, so yeah, I think it is selling well and it seems like Stern has been doing anniversary editions each year with uh, you know, I mean, not counting things like Alvivra, but more recently, uh, Jaws 50th and then what was the anniversary they did last year? I'm totally blanking on it. Oh, uh, Godzilla, the 70th anniversary Godzilla. So, what would they do for next year? I think Star Wars 50th is probably going to be the one. So, you go ahead and make Star Wars this year, get them out there, 77, 80, and 83. Okay, that makes more sense. Um, you get Star Wars out there, and then next year you can announce, "Hey, we've got a 50th anniversary. We're making it only this year. Come get it." And then you sell a ton of them. Donna, I hear the run ends for Jaws 50th till the end of the year only. Yes, there's another run planned, I think, in September, and then there's a chance for one more run by the end of the year. Bug, thanks for hanging out, dude. really appreciate it and we love hearing the numbers. 25 games a week, 100 a month. Over 500 Evil Deads are done. They're out there. People are enjoying them. That's fantastic. So, I was set to purchase Nelton John Platinum and Jaws 50th, but played Harry Potter Wizard and John Wickle Ellie that were set up next to the games I wanted. Loved both and don't know the themes. Todd, you're not wrong. Like, I've owned John Wick. I've owned Harry Potter. I've owned Jaws. I have not owned Elton John, but I feel like I played it a fair bit. And I don't know that you would be wrong with any one of those. Um, especially adjusted for price. Now, new in box, um, John Wick can't compare to the rest. But with the price of John Wick now, it's a fun shooting game. It's a killer theme. It's not worth no $13,000 for the LE, but for what you can get it for, Yeah. Edmonton Multi-Table Foosball Club. Is that a thing? Well, fantastic. Good on you. And his Evil Dead's on route. That's awesome. Not sure I can wait for Star Wars 50th. I'm in a fortunate position that I get to purchase Star Wars, make it over. I'll probably sell it to the arcade again, and by the time it gets out there, the J the Star Wars 50th will be out and I can go pick that one up. If the game layout is good, the game layout is compelling. I'll probably buy the first one to have it and then I'll sell it and buy the next one. 7780 and 83 for Star Wars. All right, that make that makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking. So, what's new with the Edmonton Multi-Table Foosball Club? Um, do you have foosball podcasters? Every hobby has, you know, people similar to myself and everything else. Um, and they all have the same kind of personalities. You know, there's like the overbearing like total dbag. Uh, there's the overly shilly corporate entity and then there's a smattering of people in between. And it's so weird that like I' I've started searching since I've been in coasters, since I've been in this. Um, I started look just finding other hobbies, like things I'm like I'm not into or passionate about, but I just want to observe. There's a whole hobby around action figures, like buying G.I. Joe remades and reruns and and uh new interpretations of like old, you know, G.I. Joe figures, Transformers, all kinds of stuff. And they have these nuanced conversations. They have these nerd podcasts just like this, only instead of pinball, it's like a line of action figures behind. And instead of like ranting about how Stern has lost their way and is overcharging us and underdelivering it, they're they're they're talking about Hasbro and other companies that are making plastic toys that aren't quite up to the specifications that the community wants. Um I don't like this panone color that they're using for the flesh. I don't like the details and the articulations. Like it was wild as somebody that has no like knowledge on that level of something like action figures to watch people like just rail on the same types of arguments that we have. Um it's so funny to see like you just like copy and paste it. It's like a theme swap. Oh, I know what I wanted to ask Bug. Um I was speculating on games that they would make. He's not here anymore. And I was speculating that a dual theme of Flintstones and The Shining would be something I'd expect them to do. No, we have a YouTube channel. U but like there's retro gaming channels, but things that aren't even video game related. Here's another thing, another parallel universe. For some reason, I've been getting a lot of Facebook ads on my phone for slot machine toppers, like topper glass for slot machines that you can purchase. Um I think they're selling these um like for machines that have been retired, but they're parting them out. And you can buy the topper glass for um like like an Alvara pinball machine or a uh what else did I see? Willy Wonka had one. And they cost like a thousand bucks just like pinball toppers. And it's the topper glass and LEDs from a slot machine that I guess people buy and they put them in their their slot machine rooms. Are there people with like modern slot machine arcades at home? G Money asks, "With the new Tron movie coming out, I was really hoping the next Stern remake would be Tron, but I'm hearing it's going to be Walking Dead." I have heard the exact same thing. Um, I'm not mad about it. Walking Dead is a game that I've always really enjoyed. Now, personally, when I look at the market, I was speculating that Stranger Things should be run again. Monsters should be run again. I still think it should. Tron should be run again because the games that came out can be updated and they're still commanding high prices. So, there's demand out there. When I look at Walking Dead, I see a game that has a very compelling layout. It's fun to play on location. It would be nice to see it with the new system and LCD screen and assets and better art. Um, but I don't see it commanding those high prices like everything else we've seen redone. And and Roger Ramjet Shane, yes, you're correct. Um, so it was a weird pick for me. Um, although it was probably relatively easy to renew that license, put it into production. They know it will sell and maybe they don't need a game that sells 5,000 units, uh, but just need something that's going to be a moderately good seller, you know, until the next whatever. They know Pokemon is coming. They know Jaws is still selling well. They know they're dropping a new Star Wars. So why drop Tron on top of everything else? and cannibalize the market when you can put the Walking Dead remaster out, let it do moderately well while you have these other tentpole cornerstones, Pokemon Star Wars, like bookending the release of that game. So, I can see where that makes sense. And then when they drop their next John Wick or whatever, then they could turn around and put out Lord of the Rings remastered or um Tron Remastered. The other thing is it's up to Disney. Like we saw what Disney did here. Now they've uh they've kind of regionalized themselves in terms of licensing. And so for some reason the Disney European license command center has said that they're they're not looking to push a Star Wars product in the European market and it's just going to come out in like everywhere else. So maybe they went to Disney and they're like, "We'd really like to redo this Tron machine. We'll even incorporate the new movie if you'd like." and maybe they've decided, "We're not ready to do that yet. We're looking at doing it this year, you know, this other year, or that's just not in the cards right now. We're really pushing whatever the hell." And the thing is, I think Disney has like so many great themes for pinball. Not because I want to see Sleeping Beauty, not because I want to see The Little Mermaid, but because Disney's purchased everything over the last 10 years. So, if you want to do something Simpsons, Matt Graining universe, Disney owns it. If you want to do Muppets, Disney owns it outright, you know. Um, you'd probably have to consult with Jim Henson Company, but Disney is the license holder that that owns the property. They own the IP. Like, it's theirs. Um, so over time, like Disney just owns everything. And so, they need to share the love and um they need to like let the boutiques in there to grab grab some stuff. I want to see Nightmare Before Christmas. I don't think Stern would do it. I think Spooky would love to do it. I think it'd be a perfect match for them. I think there's other Disney themes I'd like to see Barrels of Fun take a crack at. I could rant about this for a while. How about Samurai Pizza Cats? I mean, I would play it, Enzo. I would play it. Depending on the numbers, there will be lots of Walking Dead available for a while. I love that. That's great for us. Make this game. Put it out there. Um, and then let me pick up one used down the road because there's a glut of them and they they've outpaced demand. Guys, I hope you have a pleasant Sunday. I'm gonna go nap because I'm currently working nights. I also got to find some food. So, I'm going to find some food. This was some fun pinball times. Um, if you'd like one of these stickers, go ahead and just email me donspinballodcast@gmail.com. Consider joining the Patreon. Five bucks. Maybe just join for a month and get a sticker sent to you. I'll also send you a sticker anyway, but go check it out. There's fun stuff on there. I'm taking a Patreon member to Stern to go play Star Wars in two weeks. Um, and you're entered into giveaways every single month on the Patreon. And when I hear cool breaking news, that is where I drop it. And also, you support all the fun and you know, you get into the Discord and stuff. Kev's going to email me. I'm going to get this out to you. From the land of Ganesha, this be dawn. Y'all be good to each other. All right. and we'll talk again soon.