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KONG - Gameplay and Live Reactions w/Dirtypool

Dirtypool Pinball·video·1h 1m·analyzed·Apr 17, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Live Kong gameplay reveal reaction with critical analysis of design, audio, and mechanical durability concerns.

Summary

Dirtypool hosts a live reaction stream to Stern's surprise Kong (King Kong Myth of Terror Island) gameplay reveal, featuring developer commentary from the Stern studio. The stream showcases positive gameplay impressions of the Premium model, with discussion of design choices, audio production concerns, mechanical durability questions (particularly the spider mechanism), and code completion status. Dirtypool provides critical audio engineering perspective on the voice recording process and overall game flow.

Key Claims

  • Stern lacks a dedicated voiceover director during Kong recording sessions; personnel involved (Thompson as sound/music supervisor, Keith Owen, Jody in marketing) are not trained voice directors

    high confidence · Dirtypool's detailed analysis of behind-the-scenes footage showing recording process without professional voice direction, contrasting with examples like Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park

  • Kong uses Spike 2 (not Spike 3) despite advanced animation capabilities

    high confidence · Joe (identified as unofficial manager/community member) confirms in chat when asked directly about Spike version

  • Kong's center playfield artwork color scheme is largely derived from unreleased Data East 1990 King Kong game

    high confidence · Joe confirms this information when design choices are questioned; credited as Data East 1990 reference

  • Kong will first appear in public at Pinball at the Zoo; Premium model shown in stream

    high confidence · Official confirmation from stream participants (Jack Danger, Joshua Henderson)

  • X-Men pinball is essentially abandoned after hardware failures with no final wizard mode released

    high confidence · Dirtypool's statement: 'Uncanny X-Men has been all but abandoned' with reference to widespread node board burnout issues affecting playability

  • Kong Spider mechanism may be durability risk if it breaks during play; unlike Jurassic Park's T-Rex, no workaround apparent

    medium confidence · Dirtypool raises concern about spider durability given D&D and X-Men mechanical failures; questions whether game can proceed if mechanism fails

  • Kong code is still incomplete; New York City modes have only one implemented with multiple planned

    high confidence · Developer confirmation during stream: 'confirmation that they're still working on the code for it' regarding NYC floor modes

  • D&D node board had power regulation issues requiring diagnostic menu workaround for left kickout

Notable Quotes

  • “There's not a single person on there that is an actual voiceover director... they're just having fun, which is great... but everyone's just so happy that they're involved in the recording process, they're not actually giving the talent direction to make best callouts they can.”

    Dirtypool @ ~3:30-4:20 — Core criticism of Kong's voice production methodology, establishing Dirtypool's professional audio expertise and identifying structural process gap at Stern

  • “I was lukewarm on it and stoked for Dune and now I'm just straight up stoked for both. This looks substantially better than what they were showing before.”

    Dirtypool @ ~35:00 — Sentiment reversal after gameplay reveal; demonstrates how live demonstration can shift community perception from skepticism to enthusiasm

  • “If that mech breaks from doing this cool jig dance, then that would be not not good. If there's no way of circumventing it. So hopefully there's some sort of I don't know system in there to allow it to not work.”

    Dirtypool @ ~18:30 — Identifies specific mechanical durability concern given industry track record; references structural lessons from D&D and X-Men failures

  • “I feel really bad for anybody who purchased an X-Men and is just sitting on an extremely large pinball paperweight.”

    Dirtypool @ ~24:00 — Characterizes X-Men as functionally abandoned; highlights community frustration with unresolved hardware issues and lack of code support

  • “These action moments, using the footage as like a color graded like background. That's a smart way of using a simple asset and getting a lot out of it... that's a smart way of using assets.”

    Dirtypool @ ~15:30 — Acknowledges effective animation optimization technique that balances limited resources with visual impact

  • “I don't know. There's still unfinished code in Jaws. There's no final wizard mode.”

    Dirtypool @ ~24:00 — Identifies pattern of incomplete code on recent Stern releases; signals systemic delivery issues beyond individual titles

  • “Keith's wire forms are awesome... the reason they put these curly cues and all these different shapes in the wire forms, it's to control the speed of the ball and delay its return to the flipper to give you a little bit more time.”

Entities

DirtypoolpersonKong (King Kong Myth of Terror Island)gameStern PinballcompanyJack DangerpersonKeith ElwinpersonRick NagelpersonJoshua HendersonpersonZombie Yeti

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pattern of incomplete code delivery across recent Stern releases (X-Men, Jaws, D&D) indicates systemic production challenges

    high · Multiple references: X-Men 'abandoned', Jaws 'no final wizard mode', D&D 'power issues', D&D described as 'incredibly stop and go' gameplay

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball at the Zoo selected as Kong's first public venue; Keith Elwin scheduled to attend for community engagement

    high · Stream confirmation: 'if you're going to Pinball at the Zoo, you can get your hands on this game... Keith will be there'

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern conducting live developer gameplay streams to build community engagement and transparency around Kong development

    high · Surprise live stream featuring development team demonstrating gameplay, answering chat questions, showing behind-the-scenes audio recording

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Kong playfield heavily inspired by unreleased Data East 1990 version; intentional homage to vintage design aesthetic

    high · Joe confirms: 'the center poster... the color scheme in general is from the unreleased King Kong that never made it to market... Data East 1990'

  • $

    market_signal: Competitor positioning: Dune (Spooky) and Kong (Stern) both generating strong collector interest; market capacity for multiple high-tier releases

    medium · Dirtypool approvals of both games indicate strong demand signal; comment about getting 'both Kong and Dune' suggests healthy collector spending

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:12
What's going on everybody? Welcome. We got a little bit of a surprise drop from Stern. It's going to be Kong time. Is it What do they think they're going to do? Is it going to be pre-recorded? Is it going to actually be live? They've been pretty criticized in the past for the quality of their like secret streams like this, but I don't know, man. I don't have a problem with it. I think that uh what is it? Jack got reamemed for dressing up in X-Men costumes and it's like this [ __ ] should be fun. Like it get off that. So anyways, well, we've got about what 7 minute 7 minutes before it kicks off, but I wanted to have a little chitty chat before it actually drops in. Say hi to everybody. What's up, roller coasters? How's it going? I've also fixed the stream a little bit. So, hopefully uh the Great Pyramid and any rewards should properly work. We can test some ass. Let's find out. Looking
1:14
good. Yeah, I agreed. As someone who has gotten into the world of streaming, uh it's uh it's not easy. It's not as simple as just sitting down and hitting go. I guess it is now,
1:29
but all right. What do we got? Got five minutes. I got the link already pulled up here. This is supposedly what it's going to be. So, we just have to hit refresh. I know, right?
1:44
Hey, Ron, Paul, thank you so much for the follow. I think we're set up for bath time. Should we do it? Let's give you a bath. Welcome to the cult of pinball. We're reacting to Kong Live. We're going to do that thing.

medium confidence · Community observation during stream: 'power for the left kickout is located in the diagnostic menu' suggesting design or manufacturing compromise

Dirtypool @ ~40:00 — Technical appreciation of Keith Elwin's playfield design expertise; demonstrates host's engineering knowledge

  • “I wish they could carry George Gomez's energy into these live streams. Like they look so bored to be playing pinball for like the most anticipated Stern game.”

    Dirtypool @ ~17:00 — Criticism of developer engagement/energy during official stream; unfavorable comparison to established leadership standard

    • person
    Uncanny X-Mengame
    D&D (Dungeons & Dragons)game
    Dunegame
    Jurassic Parkgame
    Data East 1990 King Konggame
    Jawsgame
    Pinball at the Zooevent
    George Gomezperson
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Harry Pottergame
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    ?

    personnel_signal: Stern voice recording process lacks professional voice direction; sessions focus on fun participation rather than performance optimization

    high · Dirtypool detailed analysis of behind-the-scenes footage: 'There's not a single person on there that is an actual voiceover director... they're not actually giving the talent direction to make best callouts'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Zombie Yeti confirmed as Stern art department head; raises questions about creative decision-making authority similar to knowledge base signal

    high · Stream reference: 'Mr. Zombie Yeti is hiding' during developer introduction; consistent with KB signal about his role in art decisions

  • ?

    announcement: Kong Premium model officially revealed in live stream with development team; first public appearance scheduled for Pinball at the Zoo

    high · Official Stern broadcast with Jack Danger, Rick Nagel, Joshua Henderson confirming Premium model playable at upcoming event

  • ?

    product_strategy: Kong code still incomplete at stream date; NYC mode implementation ongoing with multiple planned modes not yet implemented

    high · Developer statement: 'confirmation that they're still working on the code for it... Right now we just have uh one implemented. But the idea is every time you complete a floor of the building...'

  • ?

    product_concern: Spider mechanism durability risk identified; no apparent failsafe if mechanism breaks during play, unlike precedent set by Jurassic Park

    medium · Dirtypool raises specific concern: 'If that mech breaks from doing this cool jig dance, then that would be not not good... hopefully there's some sort of system in there to allow it to not work'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community perception of Kong dramatically improved after gameplay reveal; initial skepticism from teaser replaced by genuine enthusiasm

    high · Dirtypool's statement: 'I was lukewarm on it and stoked for Dune and now I'm just straight up stoked for both... This looks substantially better than what they were showing before'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Kong uses Spike 2 platform despite having animation capabilities that would justify Spike 3; represents potential underutilization of available technology

    high · Joe confirms Spike 2 in chat; earlier observation about 'stark lack of Spike 3 adoption on King Kong despite animation capabilities' from knowledge base aligns with stream confirmation

    • 1:58
    Look at that. It's bath time. [Music] We need to find someone who actually speaks enough Japanese to translate [Music] this. Where's your king? What's up, Sidi? I I don't know. Where is your king? Did you lose it?
    2:24
    Uh, dude, you can go live stream. There's no fighting. There's plenty of content for all. The internet is filled with it.
    2:34
    Uh, oh, look at that. We got to fix that one. That's right. Divisible error. Not yet. It starts in 5 minutes. We got a fiveminute countdown. You get to deal with me until then. I tell you what we did see though. Here we got five minutes. Let's talk about it.
    2:54
    Ro. So, man, I wish someone would invent video games. Remember yesterday? Remember yesterday when I said Stern didn't have any voiceover directors and that it showed in the broadcast? Well, here's a behind the scenes. Look at that. And we have it's four or three people involved. Is it like that 1930s like hello boys? Like that sort of thing. First voyage, first adventure. Keep it higher. Thompson, who's the sound and music both supervisor and probably sound effects designer for for the game. You know, Keith Owen, use your accent as your Yeah. Yeah. We don't have that anywhere else. And then what the [ __ ] we got over here? That's why we stole my New York angle. What the [ __ ] is it? All right. Quick, let's go across. Go. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Can you be a gorilla? I can try my hardest, baby. Can you be a gorilla? I give it to you. And Jody, who is their like marketing guy. So, here's the problem. There's not a single person on there that is an actual voiceover director. And uh you know, they're having a good time hanging out, and that's great. That it makes good behind the scenes footage, but uh it doesn't make for good call outs. Like, they're just having fun, which is great. There's no reason that these sessions shouldn't be fun. But, uh everyone's just so happy that they're involved in the recording process. They're not actually giving the talent direction to make best call outs they can. So, and again, like I've said in the past, like I come I've worked in that field for years and it's a problem. So, right, Divisible, you bring up a good point. If they're trying to go cheesy, but you hear them say the line, they're like, "Oh, just go with your own accent." It's like, man, you're you want to shape a character and then you want that character to to create moments around those lines. I've mentioned before Lord of the Rings is like a perfect example. I mean, like, for example, like think of Jurassic Park, right? When they show up, they're like, "Welcome to Jurassic Park." Right? If you see that on paper, right? You're just going to be like, "Welcome to Jurassic Park." Right? And just read the line. It's super boring. But look at the delivery when it's done in the movie. They're like, "Welcome to Jurassic Park." Like, it's a shaped moment, and that's that's what you want. You're trying to make these like iconic little snippets because they're going to be played over and over again. You're not just reading a script and uh it just it just shows here that they're reading and you know they got this that's a Shore 55 I believe the vintage microphone. That's like a $80 microphone which is fine. That's not really the point about being expensive or not. But if they're trying to go vintage, that's an okay mic to do that. But the processing in the game doesn't sound anything like that. It's just it's not the right mic for the situation. This is not a right environment for it. It's just super 55. Okay, there you go. I knew it was it was a 55. Uh I'm assuming you mean sure, not super, but uh there you go. Blue foam is super 55. By the way, Eminem retro works in audio as well. He works at Tas Cam. So there you
    5:58
    go. That's awesome. And I'm hoping that's the case because I've heard that the guy who did uh Godzilla is also on here. There we go. Yeah. So, I was right. It's the Sure 55. MM Retro knows more about mics than I do, but uh not by much. I would hope so. That's what they did for D and D. And D and D as even though I was critical of it before, man, that is so specific. Okay, so it's like a $160 microphone, but it's not the point. It's not the cost. Uh then there's nothing wrong with home recording. I've mentioned that too. Like whatever. That's great. There. You don't need to be in studios anymore. But you do need to get a good performance out of a person. That's that's the key. So all right, we're coming down to the line here. Let's see. They haven't posted anything yet. His fridge is open. Also, also check this out. I don't know if this counts, but uh you can see we you could see this earlier when we were talking about it as well, but check it out. Like there's Necto One back here. Is that like rumors confirmed that we're Stern's doing Ghostbusters as a remaster Easter egg? I don't think so. Probably
    7:12
    not. Uh okay. So, Godzilla guy is back. Let's take a look. King Kong Myth of Awesome. Okay, so that's fantastic. I didn't mean to cut that off. King Kong Myth of Terror Island brought to you by Stern Pinball. That's an exa that's an amazing example of both stylizing the audio and post afterwards to get that like radio effect. They're obviously playing some film clut film real like sound over it. Um but yeah, that's fine. That's I'm okay with that. like it at least it fits the style of what they're going for theoretically. Uh, all right.
    7:57
    Right now, your body's thirsty for more. That's a good idea. Here we go. It's live. Get out of here with that Gatorade time. So give your body what it's thirsty for. Gatorade is thirsty.
    8:19
    Park. Oh, well there you go. What's up? This is Brad. Thanks everybody for joining for joining too. We've got a we we're in we're in it deep right now. I don't care about their chat. Let's get rid of that.
    8:36
    Okay, I'm not hearing anything. Even though Jack Danger is hiding in an airplane eating a burrito or something. I think that's Jack, right? It's kind of hard to tell. He's so tiny. Yeah, right here. Let's full screen
    8:54
    it. That's hilarious. I'm in a plane. I'm in a tiny plane. Of course, they're advertising the LE. Let's see what version they actually go with.
    9:05
    It's danger. It's the danger by plane. That's true. You can tell because of the stash, right? All right. Good evening, guys. Welcome back to Stern Pinball. I'm Jack Danger, and tonight we have a very special treat for you. First off, let me get a number one in chat if you can hear me. And we all sound great and look beautiful. Um, bonis, I I I don't I can't speak French. Uh tonight we're going to be showing you a fun surprise stream of King Kong Myth of Terror Island with the dev team. Um and we're not going to waste any time. We're going to jump right into this. So folks, hang on. We're going to get it going. What's up, Outlaw? Let me make sure if the Let me know that the audio is going through good there. That sounds like their volume's a little low, but uh do it. Hopefully it is. I'm going to full screen it for most of it, too. I'm going to take the glass off and we're going to go over I'm just kidding. I'm here with uh Rick Nagel, lead coder. Joshua Henderson, second in command coder, helped me with some of the rules. Mr. Zombie Yeti is hiding. And we're just going to jump right in.
    10:11
    Folks, let me know if the music is too loud. Uh but yeah, I wonder if that's me and it's time for secret message. [Music] Smell King Kong to battle T-Rex. He doesn't need to take
    10:50
    [Music] Player two, you're up. internet. Thanks for hanging out tonight. Uh yeah, we'll take a look at that. Give me one second. I know this was uh last minute, but we got a a crack team here to show you what's going
    11:11
    on. I mean, first and foremost, like I'm so Yeah, there's they're super low here. Let me see if I can boost
    11:26
    it there. Here we can cheat it combo. Fix it in post. Carefully. All right, here we go. All right, that's a yellow card from Doo. Uh, one more of those and he's not allowed on stream for three streams. Let's try this. Sorry about that. I'm trying to fix their stream audio by G mode going or something.
    11:53
    Okay. I mean, awesome that it's a for flipper game. That's great that he's doing
    12:05
    [Music] that. Uh, it is. It's a diverter. It's a diverter underneath it. Yeah. I can't fix their delay, but I can fix their volume. Uh, [Music] cross the chasm. I mean, the music sounds good. The cell-shaded art bothers me a lot less than I thought it was going to. We need to solve this.
    12:37
    How will you scream in there? [Music] Super skill shot. Wow. I guess you actually have to have it all. [Music] Oh, that's cool. Oh, I love that the plunge goes up to that tiny flipper so you can immediately mash those drop targets. Absolutely, roller coasters. I totally agree.
    13:21
    excellent. The music package and sound design on this sounds awesome. I'm so happy to get to see
    13:30
    that. I don't know what that window sound is. I think that's them, not me. Yeah, right, Killer Cleave. I want to rip these shots, too. Seriously though, the audio package sounds amazing. God, where was this on like D and D and stuff?
    13:48
    Oh my god, as a sound person, no idea how like absolutely stoked I am that they actually nailed the music and sounds like it sounds like the animations are still not amazing. But I get that they're they have to do it all by themselves. We don't have anybody at video footage. It's very clear that they went with uh their own [ __ ] Oh, we got a center pose. Look at that. What? Center post multiball collected.
    14:21
    Trying to hit the soft part of the rocks. Two. Yeah, I'll roll it back in a minute. Depending if we can get it. What time code is this?
    14:47
    Why fighters? I hate fighters. Come collected. Big points, dude. This looks fun. This looks [ __ ] fun. Their teaser did not set it up and show off how good the flow and stuff is in this. Look at that. Even the under flipper action just from flipping and playing a
    15:12
    multiball. Yeah. All right. I'm on board. I was super skeptical after a fairly kind of like weak trailer to be honest. But uh I still think that that spider is going to shatter within like no time. I just there's no material on earth that could that's going to stand up to being smashed on top of a hard silver ball repeatedly. [Music] [Applause]
    15:46
    Super skill shot. So, here's a question. Why did they even bother to build up hype around this Brian Quinn guy when you he's not he's barely in any of these callouts? It's like all of this stuff is fine. It's like they did it just to try to like relate to the uh I don't know whatever generation likes whoever this Brian Quinn guy is. Also, if Brian Quinn's super famous and I don't know him, my bad. Please feel free to educate me. That's a good idea. Let's put the clown collar on. Yeah. Get you a clown collar. Get you a conller. Kongler. Hey, over here. There we [Music]
    16:43
    go. The drill plate of [Music] gun. Oh, I love that. these action moments, using the footage as like a color graded like background. That's a smart way of using a simple asset and getting a lot out of it. You know, all they have to do is animate a slow motion monkey swing and all of a sudden they're getting they're getting leverage out of it for for other uses. That's a smart way of using
    17:19
    assets. I don't know. That's a good question. There's been no information on what node board or I'm sorry, what spike version this is. And Joe, you're Joe's making a reference to the node 10 birds burning out on uh both Dungeons and Dragons and um Rush, right, Joe? Isn't that
    17:49
    Yeah. Okay. People watch Comedy Central still. Didn't the streaming wars replace that? What's up, Skullbox? How's it going, man? Thanks again for everybody showing up to hang out and check out the
    18:00
    stream. Feel like we are uh we're group talking. I'm so glad that this is not a stream where we talk about how scared and how terrible this game is because this [ __ ] looks
    18:16
    awesome, dude. Josh freaking annihilated that. Holy crap. Internet, if you have any questions, please drop them in chat. Also, if you're having some uh audio issues, we're working on that right now. So, Rick here, that means we're going to have to turn off in a second once they fix it. What What is the official title for Rick Nagel of Nagel Oil? Lead developer and CEO of Nagel Oil. I still think the playfield is too busy. like there's just it's so much going on. I imagine it's probably less of an issue once you're actually in it and familiar with it, but uh I don't know. It was nice seeing Dune kind of dial it back with a more minimal play field in terms of like just texture and color
    19:05
    everywhere. Yeah, we noticed on the D&D the power for the left kickout is located in the diagnostic menu and it's definitely a new UI. Totally different. Yeah, I'm so stoked for Dune. I would Dune was on the top of my list, but now uh I'm going to get both Kong and Dune, but holy crap. Uh you know, I was not excited for Kong up until about 5 minutes ago. Now I'm excited for Kong.
    19:34
    Yeah, this is the premium model, ladies and gentlemen. I don't know. Someone asked him in chat if it's bike 3. I don't think so. Joe said no. And Joe know Joe knows a [Music]
    19:51
    lot. People seem to not really like uh Infinity Quest, so it's not like his team has always hit it out of the park, but I don't know. Pretty much every other Elwing game is great.
    20:07
    Yeah, I agree. Threeos, I'm like super super excited to be involved in barrels of fun. Like that's uh yeah, I I'm I'm overjoyed to be diving into the barrels of fun ecosystem pinball world. Will there be a pro stream? Uh you'll just have to wait and see. We're full of all sorts of surprises, ladies and gentlemen.
    20:30
    Wait, so where are we seeing this game in public for the first time? Pinball at the zoo. Pinball at the zoo in Calazoo. I'm curious how far along the code is. It seems pretty far. Heck yeah. If you're going to pinball out the zoo, you can get your hands on this game. Uh get Keith to throw stuff at you or whatever. We got to get them to ask answer. Somebody asked them if it's free and if uh when it's actually going to be shipping. See if they answer that. A passing around of a large of bananas here at the studio the other day. Believe there's like an engineering cart packed to the guild. I wish they could carry George Gomez's energy into these live streams. Like they look so bored to be playing pinball for like the most anticipated Stern game in whatever since the last one. Let's face it, when you need a hero, you call someone who's been in a tight spot before. Like you got all three
    21:29
    [Music] lock Here's here's what I want to know. Here's a really important question. Right? So, since Kong uses his arm to block the ball, right? If that mech breaks, you're done. Right? On Jurassic Park, at least if the if the the T-Rex I almost called it dragon, if the T-Rex failed, you could shut it off from the game and still proceed and play the Yay. If that if that mech breaks from doing this cool jig dance, then that would be not not good. If there's no way of cir of circumventing it. So hopefully there's some sort of I don't know system in there to allow it to not work. That's a good question. I don't know. Is there a popup like solenoid that blocks it? You know, similar to I don't know D and D and a million other games at all. Joe's still really but hurt about the Node 10 thing. Joe, you don't even own a D and D or
    22:44
    Rush. May 11th, huh? June 7th. Is that the window or is that That's when they're building the [Music] LE's jackpot. [Music] Yeah. All right. So, there's another game. That's a good example, Brad. Hey, look. Let's talk about Kong and Dune. Thanks, Wisebot. We're literally watching. We're watching it right now. I almost said Dune. There we go. It's a good thing you got approval for a second pin, right? Divisible. This was a good time for that. What's up, Frisco Pinball? How's it
    23:21
    going? Let's go back screen. You guys don't need to see my husband bug.
    23:29
    Hey, that's a pretty like man, send a girl to Disney World and then get an extra pinball machine approval. Like that's some good business right there. Sense of urgency. Heck yeah. Killing you guys.
    23:42
    Solid eight. Looks like the skill shot is to send it into the spider and hit the targets based on the like inserts. I will say one good thing about there being so many inserts is that they can use the light to like really direct the play. Uh you know, you can see where you're supposed to be doing things based on the animation of all the uh Perfect. Oh, the inserts. So, we have every skill level represented here today, ladies and gentlemen.
    24:20
    What's up, Pendo? How's it going, brother? Thanks so much for the uh follow. As we do on the cult of pinball, you get a fresh bath. So, we're going to we're going to do our first live stream active bath. The wind up Kong is so good.
    24:59
    Thanks for the follow, my dude. I like the film projector stuff. It's a good way of hiding the uh kind of like I don't want to say poor quality of the animation, but it fits with the style. They throw the film filter on it and then they can get away with it not looking like 100% excellent excellent render. Thank you, Baznet. I'm going to chill with the bats. Remind me I owe you a bath in the future cuz we're watching Kong right now.
    25:26
    [Music] The wind up hit is so good. There he is. The
    25:38
    legend. If the uh action button is blinking blue, you can smack that for a few seconds of the log diverter to come up and feed it to the flipper. Collect it. [Music]
    25:53
    I He's distracted. Run. Double scoring. [Music] Take the wheel. Go. So, I don't know. I mean, I I love the kickback, too. It's just the speed of action on this. [Music] Well, whatever. That's fine. Sorry, Stern. They should have pre-bro. I don't know why they waited to go live last second. multiball collected. I meant to do that. I do love the speed at which the balls are like floating around. Like just the pace of the game seems really really good and consistent, you know, as opposed to like D and D which is like incredibly stop and go. I totally, man, my opinion's completely changed. I was lukewarm on it and stoked for Dune and now I'm just straight up stoked for both. This This looks substantially better than uh than what they were. I mean, I don't know if I want to say contender for dethroning uh Godzilla, but there looks like a lot going on here. That is fun. 2 1 Time's up. [Applause] [Music]
    27:28
    I have a feeling that the uh audio sync issue is because I have a render delay. So, I've moved that to me. So, hopefully the audio for the video should be better in sync. Let me know.
    27:49
    I wouldn't say it takes it out cuz we haven't seen a real like
    27:55
    Yeah, they're they're classic stern. Come on, man. Didn't Jack Danger is like infamous, not infamous, super famous for being an excellent streamer. I mean, come on. Dead flip is is amazing as it when it was active. How are they not able to set up a a non messed up stream?
    28:15
    Yeah, look at that. You can bounce back and forth between the upper flippers.
    28:24
    [Music] Amazing. How are you going to have a climbing [Music] building? Let's go across. Man, who wants to watch World of Warcraft? I mean, I'm sure there are people, but whatever. How are you going to go from pinball to World of Warcraft? I feel like look, they clearly have him climbing a building. I'm I'm really I'm really shocked that they didn't include uh a climbing a climbing thing like a the building like the most iconic. You got the airplane, but you're not going to include the giant building. Like, come on. Empire State Building should be like 100% in this. Stumbler Stumbler to the rescue, right?
    29:10
    Oh, come on, man. That should be a sculpture. [Music]
    29:20
    I mean, that's cool. Is lit for jackpot. Sucks being that lizard, man. No one likes a hole in their head.
    29:29
    Look at you go. Five. Looks like we're missing the last piece of the map. One. Time's up. Jedi jackpot is lit. Oh, my second. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, the echo was my fault. I love you. You can send all your hate mail to jack.danger sternpinball.com. Thank you. You heard him. Send that hate mail. Don't do that, man. Stern's trying to make games for everybody. Like, it's not like Stern wants us to hate their games. I feel so bad for the designers who work so hard on this and then we come on here and just start [ __ ] on it, which I'm guilty of, too. But I think Stern needs to be a little more receptive of some of the criticism about what could improve their games. They're living in a bubble when there's a lot of people that have some fair opinions about what should or shouldn't happen with the the direction that they're taking their games. Plunge mission. Yeah, the plunge is awesome. There's a lot of stuff to shoot for off of that. I also appreciate that you can fall back in there.
    30:27
    There was no room for oneway gate. Okay, we had to make a rule out of it. Can't fit a gate. That's a fair That's a fair criticism. You know, there's still unfinished code in Jaws. There's no final wizard mode. Everyone's favorite mode. You need stand up. Uncanny X-Men has been all but abandoned. It seems like I feel really bad for anybody who purchased an X-Men and is just sitting on a extremely large pinball paper weight. Invisible, don't you have one? Not to not to rub salt on there. making me happy. Sit down. Shut it down. I mean, it seems like the general feedback is really positive so far. I mean, what do you guys think from the game so far?
    31:27
    my plane attack. So yeah, folks, if you're going to be at Pinball at the Zoo, this will be his first public appearance. Uh I believe Keith will be there and you can tell them how much you love it. [Music] Yeah, I'm sure that's what kind of dudes coming up to him saying how much they love. Uh I agree. I agree with all of you. This is This looks like a This looks like a solid entrance. Like D and D and some of the other recent stars looked like maybe it'll be okay, but this looks undeniably fun. Not sure how I feel about that neon pink gradient as as the color selection there. I wonder if that's an homage to the original unreleased King Kong, though, cuz if you don't know, the center playfield artwork is uh center poster. Yeah. To a large degree, the color scheme in general is from the unreleased King Kong that never made it to market. So, knowing that, it makes it a much more interesting uh Yeah. Day of East 1990. That's right. Thanks, Joe. Nice. My unofficial manager Joe here.
    32:33
    Dude, that gong feels so good. Somebody Somebody asked them if they play tested the Spider, if they've ever had it break on any of the Pro models. really want to see if they're if they're going to dodge any of the kind of like long-term uh manufacturing issues, especially it's a fair question at this point after X-Men and after D and D. Don't spam them. Just ask it. Let's see if they dodge it. I mean, that's enough. That'll tell you what you need right there. If you ask them, hey, is the spider breaking? Is it going to, you know, have you test it a little more after Uncanny X-Men and after D and D? If they dodge the question, you got your answer. said something about quick quick silver. Assuming anybody's even paying attention to chat. I don't even know if they're do they know they're live streaming right now. Like there you go. There was that center post by the way. Just joined the streaming. This is the premium.
    33:36
    No, you're not. What's up, Borg Dog? How's it going, man? NW555. That's a lot. Thank you for the follow, my dude. Welcome to the cult of pinball. I got a lot of baths to give out later. Tub guy going to give you a bath. No, it is not spike 3. They I think they they confirmed it's spike 2.
    33:55
    Well, to be fair, they've been working on it for who knows how long. That's an interesting question. And I would love them to ask uh or answer how long Kong's actually been in development.
    34:16
    [Music] So Insecttopus was because Greg Parrots kept calling it that. I wonder if they got licensed music. This does sound like licensed music. Jokingly made that an Easter egg, which is fine. I mean it it fits. That's all that matters. Papa just make sure that this is gold. Gentlemen,
    34:42
    [Music] it's calm. [Music] On your starboard. I believe the Three Stooges have been an inspiration for King Kong from the day one. Even though King Kong came out, did King Kong come out before the Three Stages? The original Black and White. Oh, yeah. I learned so much about Yeah, it's super fast. It's great. I Keith's Keith's wire forms are awesome. Like, I realize that's such a kind of who gives a [ __ ] but the pacing at which the ball returns to the flipper is like just the right amount of uh like time. If you don't know, like the reason they put these curly cues and and all these different shapes in the wire forms, it's to it's to control the speed of the ball and delay its return to the flipper to give you a little bit more time, you know, from a buck to to what you're actually doing as many times as you can. So, in terms of pacing, this game looks wild. Like, that orbit's so cool. It comes down there and then immediately feeds that lane. Like, that's awesome.
    35:49
    Each consecutive shot he makes through there builds the value. The jackpot is collected at the cave. Yeah, look at this.
    35:59
    Wow, that shot looks disturbingly easy to hit. All right, he just shot. And of course, it's a spinner, dude. All right, I'll stop there. Praise Elwin. Nice. Praise Elwin for bringing the spinner back in style. Not enough games have spinners.
    36:15
    Yeah, I don't know. I think the IP there's enough people interested in Harry Potter that they're going to they're not going to have a problem selling their game. Uh, does the software lead in the background? I forget his name, but I hear I don't know. If I was Jersey Jack watching this, I would be like, "Yeah, well, that's a good game." It seems like it's a good game. Yeah, it's funny that was mentioned on Reddit uh the other day. I noticed um someone said that Dune didn't have any pop bumpers, but that's not true. There is a pop bumper on Dune. It's hiding underneath the thumper on the left. It's just got a bunch of like sculpted sand over it, which I think is kind of neat that there's a bunch of [ __ ] hiding the actual like uh mechanics of it, but also I'm wondering how much of a pain in the ass it's going to be to remove those to service them. We'll find out. We're missing two other pieces. [Music] That's a lot of dead spiders.
    37:24
    Double scoring. Double scoring. Are you guys in Stern Studio? We are. I had uh I had to dust off my gear for this internet, so I apologize for that echo stuff up front, but we're all good to go. Now, we're going to watch Josh um get a quintilion score. It's going to be fantastic. Yeah, Josh is uh Josh is quite good at calling pinball. Is there a gate on the plunger lane? Nope. Ball falls right back in there. No, I definitely did not forget about Godfather. I have I don't even own a JJ. You know, Elton John's an awesome game. Do we even know who's designing Harry Potter? Like, has any of that information been leaked? Alien. I don't have it. One way. Who am I though?
    38:08
    What? sneak in. You need to reactivate the skill shot. Each unique skill shot you get gives you a King Kong letter, so it's actually very useful. Josh, if you just did that on purpose, you're freaking fired. Yeah, totally. Totally intended. Yeah, I didn't know if they were going to slap Richie on it. Is that confirmed, Joe? Do you know for sure? Oh, sweet combo. Nice. Ow, man. That [ __ ] return targets and the ball orbits all the way around. You get the flipper and you shoot by plane wrench. You get the super sweet combo. I wonder what determines whether the Kong gong rejects your ball or accepts it. Thingosaurus here. Sure. Yeah. I mean, obviously the flow is going to look good when you've got someone just absolutely just nailing every shot, making it look so easy, but I feel like you could tune this. Why is it black and white? Interesting. Uh, I feel like you could tune this to be difficult during plan. Shooting uh shooting that ramp awards fire plan if it needed it. Uh, each spinner alternates sliding up to build that value. Is that why they made the screen the screen go black and white? Josh has completed all the climb arrows of level one. So now he Oh man, that would be I don't know. When's King Kong anniversary? Like are we close enough to it? [Music] Yeah, just put a node 10 board and everything. That should make it pretty difficult.
    39:37
    Oh, shut up. This doesn't involve you. It's making noise back here. It's like, play me. Don't watch King Kong. I'm selling you. I don't want to hear it. It's actually harder than you think going from your own playfield to someone else's.
    39:54
    So, the New York City modes, there's going to be a few of them. Right now we just have uh one implemented. But the idea is every time you complete a floor of the building that is lighting all the windows on a single floor, you will light a New York City event and you will get to choose either a mode or a permanent
    40:20
    port. All right. So, confirmation that they're still working on the code for it, but you know, no surprise
    40:34
    there. The light show for this is very good. I feel like that's something that is easily overlooked. If it's just if it's going good, you don't pay attention to it. But, uh, look, so there it's promoting, letting you know that you need to hit the spider shot for that moment. They're doing a lot of like directional sweeps with the lights.
    40:56
    Also, I'm curious how much uh outside illumination they have on it. For once, it doesn't look like the center of the playfield is like pitch black, but I don't know. Who knows? Who knows if that's uh if that's them putting spots lights on it. It's easy to make a playfield look pretty well lit when you just dump a bunch of light on it as we do here on Dirty Pool. By the way, if you're enjoying the stream, we stream a lot of games or we stream some games and try to get to the wizard modes a lot unsuccessfully. Come hang out.
    41:34
    Yeah, Ultram Man's light show is not great. I actually don't dislike Ultram Man. I like how weird it is. Um, Ultram Man's a spooky game. I believe one of their earliest games. When did when did Ultra Man come out in their release like schedule? Rick,
    41:52
    Josh, you're nuts. I don't think he's too worried about that. What if he never drains? Right. [Music] Hong move in attract mode. He will. Yes, he can pound the glass. Tell people, "Hey, play me.
    42:16
    That's funny. I wonder if pounding the glass is an intentional thing.
    42:24
    2. 2 million bananas is a reference to the original King Kong where it was 1 million bananas and we applied the inflation rate since 1989. It's It's a bad joke. There you go. There's a good example of the lighting telling you what to do. If you can't figure out that you need to shoot it right up the middle on that complete drop to light.
    42:45
    I mean, I guess that's one uh good thing about overpop populating your playfield with insert lights is that you can you can do that. Which question was it? The inflation for the for the amount of bananas? Really? That's the out of all the things that we're curious about on the game, that's the one that you wanted answered. Roller coasters. What the hell, man? Oh my god, that's just
    43:11
    Yes, Kong can knock on the glass. He does it uh right now. He does it for replays, but we have plans to put that in a track mode as well.
    43:23
    They're not making Back to the Future. That's Dutch, man. Dutch has the license for that. And they only have the Delorean. They can't They don't have any video footage. You think they're going to do a cell-shaded Delorean since they can't use any of the video footage? Who knows? Who knows?
    43:41
    Quick, let's get comed. I The [ __ ] is lit. I mean, it seems like they got 800 mil and they didn't crash the game yet. So, the code can't be that old or that unfinished. You would have imagined that they would have hit something that would have crashed the game if they hadn't uh with that amount of scoring. And it looks like they started what? They started multiple bows. They started like the main multiball. If they're selling this in like 11 or 13 days.
    44:19
    Oh my god. Is that true, Brad? I tell me that's not true. Is Dutch Pinball really an NFT company now? Say it ain't so. Please. Nobody Nobody needs that [Music] horseshit. Oh yeah, that's
    44:40
    okay. Were you really going to buy a Delorean anyways if they made a new one? And now do you want one now that you know it's an NFT company? You don't really get a Delorean. You just get a nonfgeable token of a
    45:01
    Delorean. Okay, I just want to play this game more now. I mean, I feel like there's not much else they can show. He gave up. Game is good.
    45:15
    He started Jeremy picking on him. Player four, you're up. That's true. Maybe the achievement stuff isn't integrated. They probably back I imagine that production wise the achievements are like the last thing that they put in. And that's fine by me. I don't as long as the pinball machine works. Personally, I don't really care about the achievements, especially if uh you know if the scoring's not finalized and stuff.
    45:42
    All right, this one's my favorite. That's There's no way that's true. [Music] Stern said that they weren't raising their costs. I don't believe that even a little bit. Oh, wait. Oh, duh. It's Aussie prices. That's why he put the kangaroo in front of it. My bad. My bad. What does that What's that translate to? I'm curious. I mean, is it dollar for dollar or are you guys getting screwed? Unfortunately.
    46:13
    Oh, nice. I'm going to fly back. I just hope I make it to the end of this without going broke. [Music] Yeah, it's like the greatest time in the world for pinball and these [ __ ] tariffs are just stomping all over it.
    46:35
    Yeah, Joe, it's for sure. I imagine that the that those would not the stability of the game is not worth the the achievements. Ask them. I bet they'll tell you the achievements are not fully integrated yet. That sounds like a question they would ask. Shut up a wise bot. Now's not the time. Okay, so as opposed to 9,17 objective is the climb. The climb, all those windows give you awards, perks, and like the New York City modes, clown letters. Uh you spell King Kong and you get to battle the T-Rex. The animations for the T-Rex battle aren't in yet, so I don't know if we want to show that, but the mode is there.
    47:16
    I love that spiral light show. That's great. [Music] It almost feels like he got the feeling of like an upper playfield or like secondary playfield vibe, but not like it's integrated into the primary playfield. So, it's like, you know, you have to you can use that little flipper to hit those these uh drop targets as if it was kind of like a secondary game objective, but yet that area of the playfield still acts as like a left orbit as well. So, that's pretty neat. Owen's design's design philosophy is uh that everything on the game should be fun. You know, he always trims the fat. He's mentioned that in interviews before and uh you know, it seems like we're seeing that in action here. This is the case with a kicking target. The punch back does not punch. It drops it into the scoop back there for an island lock. [Music]
    48:16
    Nick's used to playing with the banana flipper one. We have We can We can stream. We totally can.
    48:29
    Hope you like shooting the center ring cuz uh See if he's going to break a billion. Not him, but player two. Or are they on? Yeah, they got one more ball.
    48:52
    Get the extra ball. Get the extra ball. It's turned off. Still a cool animation, though.
    49:05
    Have we not seen it yet? Got aborted cuz he's playing it during that. I do not like that one. That one that one is not a good animation. Oh, the lighting for the city is just like weirdly cheap and not in a cool stylized way. There is a a big shift of style between, you know, this like realistic forest ultra
    49:26
    ultra boxes for the buildings. Dude, I'm telling you folks, get yourself a pair of banana flippers if you buy this thing. It is a fun game. Oh, for sure, man. Back and forth. Uh, that'll be fun. But that's a cool mode they could add. You know, get those ramps back and forth between those two flippers and build value. It's ridiculous. I see a lot of potential for them adding a lot of like interesting scoring modes and stuff that takes advantage of this kind of layout.
    49:54
    Ladies and gentlemen, I mean, put them in upside down and see what that does. [Music] I don't know. That's a good question. Let's see.
    50:09
    Shoot the treasure target. All right, I got the treasure target. Out of my way.
    50:20
    I love games that have a gate feed on the in lane. I think that's so awesome. I love it on Jaws and I'm so clearly he's a fan of it as well. It just gives you that like another chance to kind of rattle it through. That's a low low success chance but still feels exciting. That shot's really narrow. I don't think there's a diverter there. It's just a narrow shot under that ramp. You can see where this white arrow is. That's where that shot right here. I have three I have three pairs of full new old stock banana flippers. All right. We're not trading uh in chat right now. That goes up here and hits a ramp that feeds back down here and then drops on this flipper where they you then can hit this ramp up here. Back down here or can Yeah, he'll still win. Exactly. [Music]
    51:22
    Of course. Of course they had to have Kong eating the ball so that people would be like, "Yo, there's been a lot of criticism that Kong isn't uh isn't interacting with the ball with the animatronics, like grabbing it and throwing it." I think a lot of people wanted to see like a Frankenstein uh kind of thing, but uh I don't know. I'm glad that he's not like damaging the playfield like Frankenstein did. I mean, that was like welcome to pit ball land. Oh no. Pitted playfield 101. I'm more worried about the mech breaking and not capturing the ball on that ramp. As soon as that arm doesn't work, it's game over on that. Yeah, dude. You got to get you a worm anus. Get you a worm anus to eat your
    52:11
    All right. Oh, I thought he was going to break down. Unfortunate. Super skill shot. Look out for the rapids. Rapids.
    52:24
    [Music] Kong letter collected. And that's cool. I like the lava letters dropped. I wonder what collecting Kong letters actually does.
    52:38
    Rick, with the uh Kong moving around, did you program his like his movements and stuff? That was done by uh Mitch Pson. He's one of our systems programmers. Um put together an animation system to actually use the Blender as an animation program that the 3D animators use. They can actually use them like make the animations in 3D and then export them into the game and it can read those animations. Yeah, it'll read them out. That is back on the game and follow that's neat. That's probably uh that's amazing to kind of rig a monkey out and then somehow that's translating out to Oh, well there you go. Thank you for that. Oh no ads. That's not something we want right now.
    53:33
    [Music] Well, hopefully they wrap the stream in 2 minutes so we don't have to deal with 30 seconds worth of ad BS. I don't know. I don't know how long they're going to to play it for. I imagine just the one game. You guys can sign in the next game.
    53:57
    Well, to uh I forget whose point that was earlier, it it is a lot of people that are both very good at pinball and have been working on the game. If they don't have the shots down and how to save the ball in that particular one, I would be shocked.
    54:17
    Cross the chasm. Cross the That's cool. The all the mode selects island lock. This is full of course island lock mode and then it switches into like the real time of you dealing with the situation. That's neat. I like that.
    54:42
    There's an opening. Jump. Kong. Letter collected. K. Okay, [Music] we'll talk offline seeing you know quick.
    55:03
    Yeah, I don't know what else I don't know what else there is to say. The game looks neat. I think Stern did uh I think Stern did pretty good on this one. I still have worries about the mechs in it with the put a bunch of little Easter eggs himself in his arms and the spider having a longterm thing from I the spider isn't on the pro is it like I imagine you know if you're an operator you're not buying a premium you don't want to deal with repairing all this [ __ ] uh and is it going to get enough bang usage at home to cause damage so yeah no pro spider there you Let's go across. Yeah, that gong is so disappointing. Oh my Oh my lord, that gong. This plastic, you know, just archway of disappointment. [Music] Yeah. Heck yeah. I'd conk and jam. He's probably really good at like bongos and stuff. Hell yeah. trying to hit the I know that's not what you mean, but I bet Kong knows how to do it anyways. There's still a plane on the Pro. It's just like ultra cheesy plastics. It's not sculpted like it is on here. Let's see. Can you even see it well on the overhead? Cuz they said this is the premium, [Music] right? Looks like a spaz [Music]
    56:33
    7 that well. [Music] They are ex targets on the playfield. Hit each one of them twice. They'll start one. So Stern's still heading on their like normal release schedule. Uh what is it? Elizabeth Gy said that they try to aim for like one or one update a month.
    56:55
    You can imagine that the first month or two is probably going to be bug fixes and things that need to get like emergency fixed. I mean, look at look at what D and D did. Oh, by the way, there were ads running. Welcome back. Uh anyways, I was just saying like Elizabeth Gsky was saying that uh they try to do updates like about once a month and based on D&D is like update release schedule. I would imagine that they're going to do perform or not performance but hot fixes to take care of technical issues from me or from them like me.
    57:33
    Okay, don't scare me like that, man. You know how I feel about audio. I'm seeing now that giving out my email address was a terrible idea. Thank you, internet. Um, keep them coming, I guess.
    57:54
    Okay, so we can tell that they do have some playfield lights on there uh based on the game's GI shut off for the uh end of ball stuff and you can still clearly see the playfield still maybe dark. Um ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in. Um Keith, do you have any final words to I've been talking for days and days. I'm super tired, but thanks for tuning in. Uh, had a lot of fun making this game. It's a high energy, fast-paced, flow game. Uh, my favorite type. So, thanks for watching. Keep it flowy. All right, internet. I love you. Have a wonderful evening and, uh, we'll see you on the next one. He's like, I'm so tired and he's going to have to go on all these traveling
    58:42
    Well, oh, is that what it displayed? Oh, I'm sure X is probably the slang for their beta builds, for sure. Good catch, Joe. Good catch. So 0.80, man. That's earlier that's earlier code than I would have imagined,
    58:56
    but connecting my channels. Restream. What are you doing? Stop stop screwing around. Uh yeah, I don't know. I'm stoked. I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully you uh are too. I I hope you've enjoyed this experience. If uh this is new for me. I'm just trying to do some reaction stuff. People seem to enjoy it the last time that I like bitched a moan about a game. Uh but this one looks awesome and I'm happy to [ __ ] a mode that this looks like a really fun game that I can't wait to play personally. Um yeah, if you're getting out to uh any of the locations shows that they're going to have them on, uh [ __ ] hit me up. I want to know how it is. Um in the meantime, I will be trying to get more coverage of uh live footage of this game being played. And uh I'm assuming on Tilt will get one. That's uh Shane's location. That's where we play. That's our distributor. He's a super cool dude sometimes. Just kidding. Shane. Uh, and so I imagine he'll have one there soon. So I will look forward to streaming this as soon as I can when I get it. And uh, yeah, unless mine gets here before them. I doubt it. Going my way. Ah, what's up, Wizzy? You know what? It's bath time. We got a few baths to give out. Let's do them. It's bath time, everybody. Woo. Thanks for the follows for everybody that found the uh, stream and enjoyed it. If you want to see this guy gave that his son a bath, I hope.
    60:26
    [Music] on your teeth. You don't want to know. Uh yeah, welcome. You're a little late, Wizzy, if you wanted to see this stream because Stern just wrapped it up. Uh all right, bring it on, Wolf Man. We'll have a we'll have a a face off the the Kong off. Kong and Dong and [ __ ] right? Cuz then we were swapping letters on Dune and and Dune and Kong. It's okay, man, cuz I'm going to post this in just a second. You can watch it again, and I'm sure Stern will,
    61:02
    too. Uh, all right, that's it. I'll be streaming later for a little bit. I guess it's already five, so probably pretty soon. Um, but yeah, thank you everybody for hanging out. Uh, all praise of Great Pyramid. I'm glad Stern's making a cool game. Let's go raid somebody.