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Don after dark: Stern Visit Afterparty!

Don's Pinball Podcast (patreon feed)·podcast_episode·58m 27s·analyzed·May 24, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Stern factory after-party: exclusive tour, John Wick (Premium/LE) (Premium/LE) hands-on, licensing masterclass, industry insider access.

Summary

Don's A A Pinball Podcast hosted an after-party at a Chicago hotel following a Stern Pinball factory tour and exclusive John Wick (Premium/LE) (Premium/LE) hands-on session. The crew of ~24 invited content creators got rare behind-the-scenes access to Stern's facility, including the production floor, model factory, and prototyping areas. Notable highlights: confirmation that 'Waffles' was John Wick (Premium/LE) internal codename, a detailed licensing masterclass from George Gomez, John Wick (Premium/LE) (Premium/LE)'s immersive new features (shaker motor synced to gunshots, backbox expression lights), and enthusiastic first-player reactions to John Wick (Premium/LE) art quality and gameplay depth.

Key Claims

  • 'Waffles' was the internal development codename for John Wick; 'Goonies' was Stranger Things' codename

    high confidence · Dwight Sullivan revealed during factory tour; Don noted they saw 'Waffles' on wiring diagrams at Expo and initially thought it was Stranger Things

  • Stern's licensing process involves 111-step flowsheet with 24-month target timeline from concept to launch

    high confidence · George Gomez detailed in licensing masterclass; the flowchart was physically shown to attendees

  • 100% of game content (art, music, mechanics) requires licensor approval before release

    high confidence · George Gomez masterclass; directly referenced to counter conspiracy theories about political agendas in games

  • Stern walked away from Hunger Games licensing deal due to author demands (specifics not disclosed)

    medium confidence · George Gomez mentioned but explicitly asked not to discuss details; claim sourced from podcast conversation but redacted

  • John Wick (Premium/LE) (Premium/LE) features new shaker motor synced to gunshot events, backbox expression lights tied to on-screen gunshots, and incoming mission text-to-cell integration

    high confidence · Tim Sexton and Elliot Eismin demonstrated preliminary code; attendees saw live gameplay and lighting integration examples

  • Derek ('Nep') was hired by Stern after giving resume to George Gomez at October Expo tour; started 4 days before this event

    high confidence · Witnessed by Josh and Scott from Loser Kid Pinball; Derek was observed on the factory floor without name badge yet

  • Stern games ship to approximately 44 different countries, including Chile and the UK

    high confidence · Dwight Sullivan stated during tour of shipping/export area

  • There is internal disagreement at Stern about preferred Chicago-style pizza (Lou Malnati's vs. Giordano's vs. local alternatives); Keith Elwin and Mike Vinikour prefer non-deep-dish styles

    medium confidence · Observed during factory lunch event; anecdotal but specific employee reactions noted

Notable Quotes

  • “Waffles, it turns out, was the codename for John Wick. And I remember being at the Expo Tour, and everybody saw Waffles on the wiring diagram, and we're all thinking, oh, duh, that's Stranger Things. Stranger Things (Premium/LE) was Goonies for their codename.”

    Don @ early in tour recap — Major codename reveal; resolves community speculation about mysterious 'Waffles' references from Expo

  • “100% of everything in the game is approved by the licensor before it goes out. So any kind of conspiracy that Stern is having some kind of political agenda, only if they could get it through Lionsgate.”

    Retro Ralph (paraphrasing Gomez masterclass) @ during licensing discussion — Addresses community conspiracy theories; establishes tight licensor control over content

  • “The flow sheet, which I counted, had 111 steps and dates, like target dates... it basically took 24 months.”

    Don @ licensing masterclass recap — Concrete detail about Stern's development pipeline and approval process complexity

  • “We got to go back in there with their master model builders and look through this giant bin of shredded metal from parts of games that are coming out in the next 24 months or so.”

    Don @ model factory tour segment — Indicates 24-month pipeline visibility; models are actively being developed

  • “The case is really heavy... it's got springs on it so you can bash it from the front. The case opens up that other pathway. It looks like it's sculpted.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ gameplay/hands-on segment — Details about new John Wick Premium mechs; positive reception of physical design

  • “do we want to drop the new thing that they're introducing where the shaker motor is going to shake every time a gunshot happens on the screen, and then the speaker lights are going to blast like a strobe light effect.”

    Don @ John Wick Premium code walkthrough — New immersive feature announcement; tech integration innovation for Stern

  • “John Wick (Premium/LE) art in person is significantly more impressive than it is in the promotional photos. The back glass looks like a stained glass window and the sides have the foil.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyDonpersonGeorge GomezpersonGary SternpersonDwight SullivanpersonSeth DavispersonTim SextonpersonElliot Eismin

Signals

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Dwight Sullivan revealed Stern has doubled production capacity from baseline, moving from 'X' to '2X' units. Specific numbers not quantified but indicates significant scaling.

    high · Direct statement during tour: 'we started making X and now we make 2X'; factory floor observation of high production volume

  • ?

    product_strategy: John Wick LE received exclusive first-player access via content creator tour; LE art quality emphasized as superior to promotional materials; indicates premium tier positioning

    high · Retro Ralph noted 'LE art in person is significantly more impressive than promotional photos'; back glass compared to 'stained glass window' with foil applications

  • ?

    design_innovation: John Wick Premium introduces synchronized shaker motor (gunshots), backbox expression lights (on-screen action), and text-to-cell mission integration; represents new level of sensory immersion

    high · Tim Sexton demonstrated code showing 'shaker motor shaking every time gunshot happens, speaker lights blast like strobe effect'; Elliot Eismin walked through expression light integration

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Stern's licensing requires 100% approval of all game assets by licensor; 111-step approval flowsheet with 24-month timeline; indicates tight IP control and risk mitigation

    high · George Gomez masterclass; 'flow sheet had 111 steps and dates with target dates... basically took 24 months'; 'anything in the game is approved by licensor before it goes out'

  • ?

    leak_detection: 'Waffles' codename mystery from Expo wiring diagrams resolved as John Wick; attendees were confused because Stranger Things had used 'Goonies' codename

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.175

0:00
Oh, grab your sweater because it's about to get chilly in here. We're at the Hotel After Party from the Stern. Was there even a name for this event, Kale Rodriguez? There was not, and it's Hernandez. That's what it is. Uh-oh. This is unbelievable. We have, like, at least a third of the people that were invited on the show trip.
0:24
And how ashamed we should feel about it ourselves. This is like one of the traveling Wilburys of the pinball podcasting world, the highway men, if you will. We're going to make somebody's morning commute amazing. Jason, go ahead. Can I be George Harrison, please? Yes, yes. In the traveling Wilburys. Perfect. Yeah, you have to take your shoes off for that. But let's do it, Ralph. Who's here? I'm Don. I do Don's Pinball Podcast. Nobody cares. I'm Retro Ralph. I'm Don Don. So good to have you. You do YouTube content, correctly? I do. Yeah, it's fantastic, dude. Everybody like and subscribe. I'm Rachel Best, electric bat. The best Rachel. Kale Hernandez. Kale Rodriguez.
1:04
Erica from Erica's Pinball Journey. Erica's Pinball Journey with open arms. Keep on believing. A super horse, Jason Knapp from Knapp Arcade. So, and Ian over there, he's passed out already. All right, so. Waving doesn't work well in the podcast format. Welcome, everybody, to the universe of my podcast here. We put out amazing content consistently without any errors and it's just fantastic and everybody should like, subscribe and all that business. How did we all get here? Stern invited us for their new game they dropped today. Let's recap. How'd the day go? What do you guys think? The game didn't drop today, dude. No, but the LE did.
1:46
I think we're the first public players to get on an LE. That's fair. Which looks phenomenal. Man, that thing is beautiful. That back glass, I've never seen anything like it. The LE art in person is significantly more impressive than it is in the promotional photos. The back glass looks like a stained glass window and the sides have the foil. The side art has like the foil application to it. It looks pretty impressive in person. It's like the Jaws LE kind of shimmer. You can't like, unless if you see it in person, you can't really grasp it. Dude, like what stuck out to me, like I walk up to this thing and he's Rows of cabinets that they had because they're making all the import games right now. And like the flames, like the silver, shiny, shimmery flames on the candles, right?

Retro Ralph @ initial impressions segment — Positive reception of LE aesthetics; notes gap between promo and in-person quality

  • “If you can't be at least 75% as good as a Home Pin, I don't even want to mess with you... Home Pin is like the level that I measure everything against.”

    Rachel Best (Electric Bat) @ gameplay quality discussion — Community standard-setting; Home Pin used as baseline benchmark

  • “So you're an insider-connected shill, then, is what you're saying. Yeah, well, dude, I'll – a shill who receives nothing in compensation, yes.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ John Wick reception discussion — Humorous but pointed exchange about influencer authenticity and Insider Connected engagement

  • “They said the case is really heavy... When I finally played the premium, and it took me a couple months after I played the pro... I was like, one more game, one more game, one more game. Because the leveling up and all the additional mechs on the premium are addictive.”

    Jason Knapp @ Venom Premium comparison — Code and mechanical depth drive replay value; pro/premium tier difference matters significantly

    • person
    Derek ('Nep')person
    Retro Ralphperson
    Rachel Bestperson
    Cale Hernandezperson
    Jason Knappperson
    Ericaperson
    Joshperson
    Scottperson
    Ianperson
    Keith Elwinperson
    Mike Vinikourperson
    John Wick Premiumgame
    Venom (Premium/LE)game
    Stranger Thingsgame
    Hunger Gamesgame
    The Last Arcadevenue
    Electric Bat Arcadevenue

    high · Don's direct statement: 'Waffles was the codename for John Wick... everybody saw Waffles on the wiring diagram and thought it was Stranger Things. But Stranger Things was Goonies'

  • ?

    product_concern: Venom Pro received negative initial reception; Venom Premium with additional mechs (fast locks, changing diverters, rotating bookcase) significantly improved player engagement; suggests pro tier may be underselling games

    high · Jason Knapp: 'I didn't like it at first... then I had to do Insider Connected badges... oh yeah, this game slaps'; Rachel Best prefers Premium due to 'leveling up and additional mechs are addictive'

  • ?

    content_signal: Stern invited ~24 content creators for exclusive factory tour and hands-on session; carefully controlled information (some topics marked off-limits); indicates strategic influencer engagement

    high · Event structure: ~24 invited creators, curated factory tour with some 'no photo' zones, explicit instructions about Hunger Games discussion ('he said not to talk about it')

  • $

    market_signal: Insider Connected engagement (leaderboards, badges, missions, text-to-cell integration) appears critical to modern Stern game appeal; players without IC connection significantly less engaged

    high · Jason Knapp declined to play unconnected John Wick: 'I tried to log in... it wouldn't let me... I'm going somewhere else'; Rachel Best: 'We've been Insider Connected spoiled'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Derek hired by Stern after direct resume pitch to George Gomez at Expo; hired as engineer; fast-tracked recruitment indicates strong pipeline and interest from engineering talent

    high · Josh observed Derek give resume to Gomez at October Expo, now working at Stern 4 days before this event; Derek was observed on factory floor without name badge yet

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: John Wick Premium features incoming mission text-to-cell integration where players receive SMS missions to complete at participating venues; novel engagement mechanic not seen before in pinball

    medium · Don: 'The missions are coming, remember? Yeah, get texted on your cell phone, go play this'; Jason Knapp: 'how cool would it be that someone plays at home and they're like, I've got to get back to the bar because I'm going to be able to complete this mission'

  • ?

    community_signal: Home Pin is used by active players as quality/gameplay baseline ('75% as good as Home Pin'); indicates strong nostalgia factor and design legacy still influencing modern expectations

    medium · Rachel Best: 'If you can't be at least 75% as good as a Home Pin, I don't even want to mess with you... Home Pin is like the level that I measure everything against'

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Stern distributes to approximately 44 countries; LE units observed being packaged for Chile and UK; indicates global footprint and logistics complexity

    high · Dwight Sullivan: 'there's about 44 different countries, they said'; observation of games in export-ready boxes labeled for multiple international destinations

    • 2:34
    Phenomenal. Correct. You're editing out all this dead air, right? No, no, no. Get your edit button going. This day, what did it start with? We did a tour. We did a hell of a tour. Did you guys do the tour at Expo? No. So it was like 40% of what we saw today. Because you had groups of people going through there. It was nuts. It was like no photos anywhere. Here they were like, we will tell you if you can't take a photo. But other than that, just go nuts with it. And we went to the receiving dock. There's some losers that just walked in. We went to the Ark of the Covenant. Hey, come here and introduce yourselves, guys.
    3:17
    Josh from Loser Kid Pinball. Scott from Loser Kid Pinball. Star-studded affair is what we have going on here in room 205 at the Hilton Garden Inn, sponsored by Stern Pinball, who we are now happily to show for, whatever that means.
    3:34
    Oh, that's the wrong button. This is quite a production. So. What song was that? Oh, I think that was the one that I was doing. Was that Don Henley? Yeah, it was for like. Oh, this was the intro music for the Triple Vuck Boys That we were The one and done I don't know if that one's coming back Unfortunately It was very much of a time and place Oh wait, no, I think we were doing The Jokers This one Yeah, yeah
    4:19
    We're experimenting with music. Yeah, I'm feeling it. Here comes the Jackers. One, two, three. Here come the Jetsers. One, two, three. So it's kind of like, you know, that vibe there. Don, I feel like you kind of, like, went fast forward really quick, man. We've got to talk about the whole day. Sorry, yeah. You've got to start from the beginning, man. The alcohol has been involved, so. I feel like I should be the voice of reason for you right now. Also weed.
    4:44
    Yeah, I don't partake in that. Okay, so we did the tour. And what a phenomenal setup that they have there. We saw all the main hits from the Expo Tour that I saw, plus so much more. And it was much more casual because there were like 24 of us, and we're just being wandered around by Dwight Sullivan.
    5:03
    Waffles, it turns out, was the codename for John Wick. And I remember being at the Expo Tour, and everybody saw Waffles on the wiring diagram, and we're all thinking, oh, duh, that's Stranger Things. But Stranger Things was Goonies for their codename. So Waffles was just sitting there in front of us the whole time, and we didn't realize.
    5:19
    Pause for photos. Pause for effects. I would like to first say that their hospitality was really awesome. They treated us really well, and that stood out to me. Yeah, this wasn't just a cursory, hey, how you doing? I'm Gary Stern. Enjoy my factory. See you later. The dude hung out with us all day. And Seth, too. Yeah. Yeah, Seth Davis, solid dude. I'm sitting there just pitching him lines of themes he should be doing. So if Snoop Dogg comes out next, you're welcome, universe. No, they love it whenever you tell them what they should be doing. Let me tell you how you should run your pinball company.
    5:56
    Isn't that why they invited us here? I just want to subtly nudge in the right direction. The ship of Stern.
    6:06
    Can you repeat the question? So I was talking about how I gently mentioned, you know, we need to expand the music besides just dad rock and Snoop Dogg, Mr. Seth Davis. You guys should make that next, like right now. And I was nudging them in that direction. Nudge is a pinball magazine. Right. Oh, that was just it. That was it. That was it, yeah. That was not really a whole lot, too. Okay, I'm going to hand this microphone back to you. Don't overthink it. Thank you, Ian, for stopping by here.
    6:32
    Have we started the podcast yet? Yeah, we've been recording this all the time. Yeah, this is gold. It's like a real show.
    6:39
    So we're at the tour. I mean, God, let's do everything. They let us run our fingers over the stained glass back glass of the LEs that are getting exported to Chile. So that was awesome. And, like, yeah, they were just giving us kind of carte blanche there in the factory. So that was capital dope. They showed us how the sausage was made, you know. That's a very old school term, you know. But I don't know. There were probably people in the room that probably didn't know what he meant by that, I feel like. So the deal is sausage is delicious. But, like, you take minced. But I don't know if he said it right. I don't know if he said it. But you take minced up bits of gross meat, and if you see how it's made, you don't want it. And so they're showing us how the sausage gets made. That's how the whole hot dogs thing is. Isn't hot dogs made out of lips and assholes? Isn't that what they say? The good ones are, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Am I allowed to say that on the Don's Pinball Podcast? Oh, you can. Jason Knapp, you're royalty in the pinball podcasting sphere, so I will allow it. Now, it's a sin to put ketchup on a hot dog, so we had lunch. Ketchup's delicious. I know, but try to tell it not to Chicago people. They're like stuck on their celery salt. How much salt is in celery anyway? Let's Chicago style. That's a specific genre of dog. So they had some deep dish pizza for us and some Portillo's hot dogs, and I got ketchup, and I said, don't worry. This ketchup is for my pizza. It's not for the hot dogs, so don't come at me, Chicago people.
    7:57
    That was my best joke of the day. But I'm pumped. That's how I did the nudge thing. What was that? I put ketchup on a hot dog. Yes, yes. Did you guys get any of the cake? Yes. It was yellow cake? Lemon. That was the best. Kale and Rachel took it, and they ran off with it. So I didn't get a bite. I really did. We did do that.
    8:20
    You know what's funny, though? Okay, so I don't know if you guys noticed this. I've been here a couple times to Chicago, and there's actually like an internal war in Stern over the deep dish pizza. Okay. So we got Lou's, Lou Minotti's, which is like a Zach Sharp favorite. Awesome. But it's funny because Keith Owen walks in, and he's more of a Genoese kind of guy, and he kind of looks at the pizza, and it's just like his shoulders slump. Turns up his nose. Yeah, and he walked out.
    8:47
    Mike Vinicore said the same thing. He doesn't like that deep dish stuff. Yeah. Did anyone else, when we kept talking about Illuminati's, I thought it was like the Illuminati's pizza. That's the joke. That's what they're aiming for. That's intentional. Yeah, the earth, fire. Yep, flat earth pizza. I don't know. It tastes as good as chemtrails. We never walked on the moon pizza.
    9:15
    But then you got like Dwight over the corner and he's like, you know, Gino's pizza is the best. Not like Gino East, but there's also a Gio's, Giordani's. Yeah, it's like.
    9:29
    DiGiorno. We're going to spend the next three minutes. This is like trying to get a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. The rising crust oven pizza DiGiorno. That's the favorite here. I love me some DiGiorno. Let's get back to the tour. There's little Caesars here. Yeah. Let's get back to the tour before we lose any listeners.
    9:45
    I think it's too late. The coolest part was at the beginning when Dwight took us on the tour, and he did a very good job. And he said we were going to this certain area, and all you heard, Jack popped up and was like, excuse me? and then he ran off to clean up something. So we got behind the scenes. I think they were taking us to places they don't take usual tour group. Is that when they showed Pokemon? We weren't supposed to talk about that. It was right behind the Metallica vault. I kid, I kid, I kid. So we got to go into the model factory area. And that was cordoned off for the tour that was at Expo. But we get to go back in there with their master model builders and look through this giant bin of shredded metal from parts of games that are coming out in the next 24 months or so. So that was amazing. Stern All Access is not just online. We were the Stern All Access. Yeah, for sure. I felt like we were walking through a Factory Friday video.
    10:52
    Every Friday, how you see behind the scenes of the Stern Factory, that was like us jumping into the video. They were happy. they were, they were like, here's the decal part. People love watching decals, so why don't you guys go over here and watch these guys put decals on for a while.
    11:06
    That's cool. So it was cool when we were in that one part where they make those pieces, because I legit saw this, I guess you know him, Nep, or like he... Oh, Derek? Yeah, so he works there now at Stern, but I was on the Stern tour last year in October at Expo, and I saw this guy give his resume to George Gomez, like, shoot a shot, like, right there, and I was like, yo, this dude's bold, just gave his resume. He's like, yo, I'm finishing school. I'm an engineer. I want to work here. He gave his resume to George Gomez, and I shit you not, that guy is working there. He started four days ago. Congratulations to him, man. He's working there now, and I was like, what? This dude shot his shot, and we made it. Good for him, man. Good for him. Yeah, congrats, dude. So I just wanted to say that was a really cool story. Is he the guy that walked in? He didn't have a name badge yet. So Scott and I walked in, and a guy walked in with us, and she's like, okay, hold on. Are you guys guests? We're like, yeah. So they have like a little pad you sign in on. And this guy is like getting in and won the Stern Employees Letterman and the lady at the front is like, whoa, you? Stop. And they're like, he works here. She's like, oh, okay, well, go on in. I was like, this little lady was about to take him out. It's only been four days, so it's understandable.
    12:17
    Super cool. Happy for him. Yeah, no, for sure. That's awesome. How cool of a dude is George Gomez too, man? Any other points on the tour? Can we move on?
    12:28
    It's Factory Friday Like Kel was saying It was more intense But we did get to see the machine shop Like Eric was saying They said this was like hollowed ground The only place they didn't let us into There's a windowless Soundproof room Where they're testing the new mechanics For the new games And where the prototypes and stuff are Oh, you guys didn't go in there? No, no.
    12:55
    Jason, though, he's trying to get up. They have pinball boxes pushed up against that wall, and the top of that room is apparently open, so he's trying to climb up on there without getting caught. We're talking about drones, trying to get drones open. Man, it was insane. I stuck my selfie stick over the edge of the wall, so we're good.
    13:13
    It was cool, too, to see all the countries that the games get shipped to. There's about 44 different countries, they said. I didn't know the LEs were going to Chile. Is that what you said? Yeah, there was some to Chile. You have a better accent than I do. I'm talking about it like it's meat stew. You're talking about it like it's actual Chilean. Chile, Chile. Yeah, Santiago, there's some games going out there. There's games going to the U.K. It's not Germany.
    13:39
    There was a Star Wars comic premium new in the box going somewhere, and I'm like, I wanted to put that in my truck, man. Can you imagine? the best art package for like one of the greatest Stern games. I don't care what you people say. Star Wars Premium. Nah.
    13:55
    Not a Star Wars guy. I can't understand the rules. I play people in it and then they step up and they do all this weird shit and then all of a sudden there are like 20 multipliers on shots and I'm like, wait, what? Once you've blown up the Death Star like I have, the game will never leave your soul. And then later on the tour, Jack's like, dude, you guys missed the best thing of all. There was like a... God, what is it? A Supreme that was in a box somewhere. Oh, really? That's what he said, but then we couldn't find it when we went looking for it. That's how they finance the new building. They have Supremes sitting in the back that they secretly sell on eBay. Every month they sell it for the mortgage payment one Supreme per month As an aside getting a Spider Home Edition and converting that or re it into a Supreme I think it would be a good homebrew project I actually could see you doing that It's so ridiculous. I missed most of the tour because I was watching Don take selfies in front of every box, every mech, everything. It wasn't just a selfie, but it was like a skater boy sort of like street selfie, which was nice. I took a lot of pictures of him taking those selfies. You know, one out of 50 are gold, so I'd only need, like, two, and I'm good, man. So there should be some in the bunch there.
    15:11
    It was like one new kid on the block, all of the poses. I got a selfie with Gary Stern with his hand on my belly, so that was, like. Sometimes you didn't miss stuff, though, because there was one point where, like, Dwight's like, you're not allowed to ask me how many games we produce, right? And we're like, well, can you give us a ballpark? And he's like, yeah, for sure, actually here. we started making X and now we make a ton more thanks to what X plus more than X we started with X and now we're making 2X so it was like great he didn't quantify it more than X so less than greater than alright so the tour was fun the tour was magical we got to see all the LEs and premiums are in production right now cabinets galore the place is nuts and refrigerated appropriately And then we got into a little room with Gomez, right? For what seemed like at least a solid 90 minutes of PowerPoint licensing A to Z. Here's how it actually works. We got a master class in licensing and learned exactly how it all works. And it's a lot of work for them, for sure. My take-home point was that 100% of everything in the game is approved by the licensor before it goes out. So any kind of conspiracy that Stern is having some kind of political agenda, only if they could get it through Lionsgate. That's the only way that's going to happen. You missed one thing, though. I don't know if you remember this, but Dwight was so excited to show us the foam-making machine. So when you get a brand-new Stern in-box, he packages it with this foam and then, like, put it in this press with the plastic. And then the poor guy that's making these, Dwight flips around and knocks over, like, a six-foot-tall stack. And then he tries to start stacking them and knocks another stack over. So I got a picture of Dwight. He's picking these up, and the guy's like, just go. Just go. Where the hell was I at? He just apologized, so it was good. Lo siento, lo siento. We also found out that Stern throws their enemies into the vats of foam chemicals, so that's nice. Yeah, Jason, want to know if that's where the Joker was born? Because they've got these giant vat of chemicals. Where the hell was I at? I totally missed all this. I must have been in selfie heaven. You were taking a selfie. Okay. Let me take a selfie. You were posing. Yeah. Sorry, you didn't get your wrapping paper. Yeah, cut and wrap, cut and wrap.
    17:29
    All right, so that was fun. We did the whole tour. We got the master class in licensing, and I had to go pee for an hour that I was sitting in there. And we were going a three-hour solid at this point. I knew there was going to be a bathroom break at some point, but it never came. And then they brought us bottles of water, and I was like, bro.
    17:48
    Well, they were going to keep going after we did our master class, and finally Gary's like, okay, everyone, the bathroom's over here. Why didn't you take a break before? Thank you, Gare Bear.
    17:59
    A little prostate break there. Something wild is going on in the hallway here. Yeah, so then, like... It could just be people yelling at us about being too loud. Probably. I think there's, like, some kind of... Is it, like, midnight? What time is it? I don't know. Some kind of Pakistani wedding reception going on downstairs. Yeah. Everybody's in hell. Yeah, so... 1230. We should go crash that after this, man. Wouldn't that be cool? Let's keep this party going. He's got good food. Do you also love, like... So Gomez sets us down for the master class, right? And he's like, I welcome you into my home. So it was almost like the mafia Don, right? Right. Don't disrespect me, right? But they gave us a lot of information. They said that, you know, there were some of the stories that were pretty specific saying, please don't share this. But there was a lot of the stuff like you can take this, interpret it the way you want. Okay.
    18:47
    It's not like he gave us the next 10 titles. It was more of like, here's the process. You can see the detailed sheet. The flow sheet, which I counted, had 111 steps and dates, like target dates. That's for one machine starting. Yeah, yes. And it basically took 24 months. And so that was a good thing to see is that they actually have a very meticulous process. And definitely back to what you were saying, if people don't like the appearance or the assets in games, they really are dictated by the license. and he did share even more behind the scenes on them walking away from Hunger Games where apparently the author wanted the... He said not to talk about it. He said that was the one thing.
    19:39
    So they decided not to do the Hunger Games. There you go. Can I say that the loser... Do you know how to edit, Don? The loser kids look so cute in their matching shoes. And I would actually have to disagree about something, though. I don't want people to think they didn't tell me the next ten titles because then people will believe me more if they think I saw the next ten titles.
    19:59
    Yeah, so I can't believe they're actually doing the Lord of the Rings vault. That was amazing that they got all the tooling for the characters and everything. Ah, yeah, yeah.
    20:09
    So email Jeff at madpinball.com. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, no, we didn't see any future games, even though we're snooping around a little bit. No, nothing really popped up. What did pop off is following the master class in everything licensing, we got to play John Wick Premium with a pop-open Altoids case, which I'm happy to report was much more robust than what I was thinking. It's got springs on it so you can bash it from the front. The case opens up that other pathway. It looks like it's sculpted. It's not just actually like a little – it looked like a lipstick case or something. The case is heavy. They said the case is really heavy. Yeah, yeah. And then they split us up, so half of us got to go play some John Wick. The other half got to go into the secret new streaming lair around the corner. What did you think of that room? That's like the best man cave designed area. The showroom, they're calling it. The showroom, the showroom. It's made to look like a brewery. That was like the concept behind it.
    21:04
    Yeah, so this is what you've seen with the brick walls that they've been streaming from. But, yeah, it's a fully complete three-dimensional room with a whole bar set up. And the bar top is, like, lined with play fields that are underlit. So when that thing gets finished, it's going to look amazing. And then all the games are there for display. And Mr. Tim Sexton and Mr. Elliot Eisman. No. Yes? Yes. You are correct. Got it. They had a glass off LE and walked us through, like, some of the preliminary code that they had in this game and, like, what they're doing, the integration with the expression lights in the back box that are going to, like, follow along with, like, on-screen action of gunshots. I was just like, do we want to drop the new thing that they're introducing where the shaker motor is going to shake every time a gunshot happens on the screen, and then the speaker lights are going to blast like a strobe light effect. So it's like a gunshot. You feel it. You see the gunshot in the speakers, and then it's on the screen too. So it's very immersive. That was impressive. So this game, we've seen the layout. We've seen the shots. The game plays fast. It's fan-ish of a layout, but not as much as Venom. But what's really making this game stand out to me is the potential for this code and the integration with the lighting and the rest of the package, the rest of that Excel spreadsheet columns of everything, not just the shots and layout, but the theme. And I can't wait for the music. The missions are coming, remember? Yeah, get texted on your cell phone, go play this. That has the potential to be phenomenal, right?
    22:36
    Yeah, the contract thing is pretty cool. I was talking to Cale and Rachel. I'm like, how cool would it be that someone that's going to play that at your arcades at home and they're like, shit, I've got to get back to the bar because I'm going to be able to complete this mission. I think that's pretty cool. That's something I don't think we've seen before. And they didn't give us marching orders like, here, go show this game for us and we'll get you a discount or anything. The game's expensive. Don't buy it if you don't want to buy it. But the game was super fun. I played it all day. I mean, regarding the shill stuff too, I mean, look, if I'm going to be for sale, it's not for, like, a plane ticket. Like, give me a little more credit than that. I want some good stuff. Like, I'll sell myself, but come on, hook me up. So, like, I just genuinely like all pinball. I don't care. I'm not trying to be a hater. All pinball? Well, yeah, well, I'm not talking about that one that we played earlier. But for the most part, it was not a stern. For the most part, I enjoy all pinball. And so to talk about it positively is not shilling. It's just the way it is for me. Yeah, just being honest, I like the game. I was talking about Blues Brothers, by the way. You like Home Pin, right? That's everyone's favorite game, Home Pin? Home Pin is like the level that I measure everything against. That's my barometer. That's my yardstick. If you can't be at least 75% as good as a Home Pin, I don't even want to mess with you. I mean, the only position I will shill for is, I'm kidding, oh, my God, open source. Open source, more like open sores. Oh, no. Oh, Shanker multiball? Oh.
    24:10
    All right, so yeah. Good Lord. That just brought everything to a screeching halt. Thank you. Oh, syphilis and pinball finally together at last. All right. What do you guys think? You've been quiet over here.
    24:23
    About what, the game? Sure, yeah. You have an entire microphone for yourselves, and you're not talking. Oh, I was giving you guys some space. No, no. This is electric bad all the time. You guys are carrying this whole thing. Your voice is glorious. Why would you give us space? Thank you. Thank you, guys. The game is amazing. We actually received it on Tuesday, ours, and we set it up so all our folks could play it while we were gone. Because, you know, if we didn't get it Tuesday, you know, we had to fly out, and so we wouldn't have it on the floor until this weekend. Everybody really enjoyed it. There was no complaints. I mean, yeah, when people actually get their hands on this thing, I think they're going to be surprised.
    25:06
    Do you think the reception is going to be better than with Venom? That's like the nearest release I could kind of see similar to this one. It depends. I mean, look, if you're comparing it to Venom Pro, Wick blows the doors off of it. Absolutely. But I like Venom Premium, man. Like, you know, Venom got a bum rap because I think a lot of people played the Pro, and I'm going to be honest, like, of all the Stern recent pins, I'm just not a Venom Pro guy. But when I finally played the premium, and it took me a couple months after I played the pro, because you know the delays and everything else, I was like, one more game, one more game, one more game. Because the leveling up and all the additional mechs on the premium are addictive. Like, I'm an insider-connected junkie by far. Like, I just can't get enough of it. So you're an insider-connected shill, then, is what you're saying. Yeah, well, dude, I'll – a shill who receives nothing in compensation, yes. I mean, I think that speaks to, like, how much the code can improve a game. Because if you look even at Venom Premium, the layout looks fairly Spartan compared to, like, a Godzilla, you know. But, like, the code just, like, makes the whole entire game. You know, it's, like, super fun. I want to play another game. I want to keep leveling up. I want to, you know, beat Null, unlock other characters, and keep going.
    26:18
    So, yeah, I think, you know, hopefully we'll have... There's a lot of mechs in there. The whole play field changes with, like, at least three or four different mechs. So to say there's nothing, the pro, there's nothing. But the premium LE, there's some stuff in Venom. Fast locks, yeah, changing diverters, the rotating bookcase.
    26:37
    Wait a minute. When they did the Venom badges, that's when I actually learned to love Venom. I didn't like it at first. Like, I was like, okay, this game's fast and it's fan layout. But then I had to do the Insider Connected badges for Venom. I was like, oh, yeah, this game slaps. Yeah. We love our pro. We have a Venom pro. Oh, my bad. No, no, I like... Awkward quick?
    27:02
    I've legit had some good games on a Venom Pro. I wish you guys could afford to upgrade to the Venom. That would be nice.
    27:10
    Please, people, go to Electric Bat Arcade and drop some quarters in. Right. So they can afford to upgrade to Venom. A lot of it goes back to Insider Connected. People just love leveling up. And it's funny.
    27:22
    We were talking about it earlier today. You found a JAWS somewhere that wasn't connected, and you didn't even want to play it.
    27:35
    Okay, there was actually a John Wick. Also, he's got two mics in his face. Wait, the losers have two mics. Two mics, two mics. They're hoggers. Sorry, sorry. Mike Hoggers. The John Wick, there was one John Wick that I tried to log in at Stern, and it wouldn't let me log in. I'm like, I think I'm going to go somewhere else. Fair. This place sucks.
    27:54
    We've been Insider Connected spoiled. I'm sorry, IC. They kept saying IC all day. I like how it says Stern is a verified location. That's probably best.
    28:05
    But doesn't that seem a little bit like you verified yourself? So there's a conflict of interest right there. You know what? And the glass was off of at least half those games.
    28:16
    I got an amazing score on John Wick Ellie with the glass off. I didn't even cheat either. But you won't believe me. But, yeah, that was fun. Do the LE and the lights and the pop-pop and the shaker motor. Tim's showing us all the stuff, and Don just slowly puts his phone over the QR code later as he's pushing all these things inside the game. When you guys went to get food, I snuck back in there to go play the LE by myself. It was awesome. I was in there for like a half hour.
    28:43
    Also, Tim Sexton's mustache. Can we talk about that for a minute? Oh, yes. Impressive. Roger Sharp vibes. I was saying more of an assassin sort of vibe. We're distracted by all of a sudden. Well, I can't remember if we could talk about this or not. I'm guessing no. You want to pull a Scott and start talking? No, it's not bad. It's not. I can remember if he said don I have this weird rash What on earth What rash are you talking about Isopolis Did you guys see the billboard for Isopolis Yeah I took a picture of it What was that? I took a picture of it. Oh, my God. Is it still up there? Oh, yeah, there it is. I mean, George just mentioned it in an interview.
    29:28
    The Isopolis billboard? Yeah, no. No, not that. It's inspiring the next several games. I feel like I'm pretty good at this. Bring it, Richard or Ralph. There was a period of time where George was kind of talking about the future of Insider Connected and some things that they might want to do. And obviously, you know, that's all. I didn't know this. This was news to me. I didn't realize that all of that is hosted in Amazon, right? So they have to pay for server costs. And they were saying there may be add-on features in the future that may add value that will consume a lot more server resources. So, therefore, they might charge for those items. But they said there will always be a free component, which will probably look and feel like it does right now. But there might be some pay-for features later on, which I'm okay with if they're features that I think have value, right? So that was kind of – I didn't mean to touch your leg there, Rachel. It got weird for a second.
    30:25
    It's not that kind of party, right? That's for the hot tub. Is this okay? It was for emphasis. This explains why Ian with nudge is sitting in the corner watching us at least though. He's been low-key filming the whole time. Don, this is like – this is the person that hasn't been in the hobby as long, right? The thing that makes me furious, right, is that I feel like – and this isn't you guys because you guys are like – you have like a normal brain that works like a normal person. You haven't been in here long. But like it frustrates me when a game gets released. And at first I just played pinball. I bought a pinball machine. Didn't go on pin side. I didn't go on anything. That's healthy. And so I was naive to the world of pinball media. And then I'm trying to think of the one that first, when I started following it. It was probably, when I started following it more closely, it was probably Venom. And I was like, man, everyone hates this game. I was like, what's up with this? And most of the people that hated it hadn't even played it. And now I feel like I'm reliving it again with John Wick. And it's just weird to me because I feel like I have to put a lot of time on a game. for me to even determine whether I like it or not. So it's just, I don't know, I guess maybe that means I'm more into the hobby than I was a couple years ago, but it frustrates me. I don't know. It's just weird. Because I didn't know if I liked John Wick until I played it. Pinside hates you now, by the way. Well, I got nothing to lose. Fuck you, Pinside!
    31:53
    I love, get that on a T-shirt or bumper sticker, please. Absolutely. So maybe somebody's listening to this and is like on the fence on maybe going pro or LE or some such. So just review the new mechanisms that I got to play today. So the Blood Oath Marker, kind of cool. It pops open. It lights up just like on the video. What I was surprised by, though, it's like it's functioned by a coil, so it doesn't stay open because I guess if it held open, it would overheat or something. So it pops open for a bit and then shuts. And I'm like, dang it, I want you to stay open and show me those bloody thumbprints.
    32:26
    I don't know if anybody else knows that. If bloody thumbprints are your thing, then that's cool. That's a mod. You can put your own blood.
    32:34
    I'm, like, super into it. All right. For me personally, I played the Pro and the Premium LE, and the only thing that really jumped out at me on the Premium LE was when you go into the nightclub and the drop target pops up, and then it becomes like a captive ball almost. When they start a multi-ball, you start hitting the captive ball behind the drop target during multi-ball. It's kind of like a Denise-y lock. It's very much like the Kiss, you know, where Kiss has the entrance to the single-pop area. What do they call that in Kiss? The Kiss single-pop area. Yes.
    33:16
    I know what you're talking about. I don't know what we call it. I mean, that was really cool in the premium, but for me... I think it's the K-pop area. The cake-pop area? K-pop area. K-pop. Isn't that like three years ago? Okay. Yes, it's the small. You mean because kiss? Except for the K.
    33:34
    Every kiss because of the K. It's not strange young children singing pop songs. So not only that, but did you see that like the pop-up would drop down and then pop back up, knocking that ball backwards on its own sometimes? That section of the premium was awesome, but to be honest with you, I'm a pro guy. except for Venom Pro, which I despise with a burning passion. And I actually hate the electric bat because of this.
    34:02
    Beyond that, like nine-tenths of my collection at home is pros. I did the Godzilla, I mean, Jurassic Park eats the ball because dinosaur eating the ball is sick, and I have kids, and they like it. But beyond that, I have all pros. So, I mean, for me, Wick Pro is the way to go. but you know I mean to each their own obviously if you have enough disposable income and you don't care go premium and the LE is gorgeous so real talk from Jason the biggest idiots in the room right here because we're future LE owners baby hell yeah wait don't give it away yet we can edit it out I know we blew past this but it's Starchild that's the area on KISS is that Ace Frehley was he the Starchild I just reveal something. Oh, gosh. I thought it was cake pop. How old are you?
    34:57
    Sorry, Don. No, it's fine. Paul Stanley, Starchild. You're not going to be invited back. Gene Simmons is the demon. Yeah. Ace Frehley is Spaceman. Oh, that's right, with the silverish. And Peter Criss is the cat. I'm going to turn in my Kiss Army badge. Is anyone shocked that Don is buying an Ellie of anything? He's like the pimp of recent games. Did you see how pretty it is? He buys all three versions of every game and just leaves a couple of them in his basketball court. That's how he rolls. Indoor basketball court. Not out on his lawn. No, no. That's for plebeians. Come on.
    35:32
    I'm getting roasted here. So I won the door prize for the free LE for coming to this event. Yeah, right.
    35:39
    We all put our names in a bucket. Yeah. Oh, man. That's a different kind of party. Did you ever see The Grinch Stole Christmas? I'm going to digress for a second. Sure. You ever see The Grinch Stole Christmas? In the beginning of that movie. It's keys. You put the keys in the bucket. You said something different. I don't know what I said, but look. You watch The Grinch Stole Christmas, right? Pineapple key parties. Right. They're like panning around, and all of a sudden you see everyone at this party at the Grinch movie, and they're all putting their keys in the bucket. This is a freaking swingers party in a kid's movie. That was for designated drivers. Yeah.
    36:19
    What's your podcast rated, Don? Rated extreme for, yeah. X for extreme. It's generally family friendly. You know, you put it on so if Grandma's in the car or something, you know, it's all good. Grandma's key party. Oh.
    36:35
    Oh, no. Guilf. Oh, man, that's nasty. Jason Napslam. I'm just trying to talk about how the car does some more things on this game and then y'all are in key parties and I want to live more in your world because it's totally boring now I heard that before I can't confirm or deny that Arizona is like a super hardcore swinger state wait what? it is yeah the purple rocks thing Jason's like when can I come visit now Rachel's like why are you looking at me?
    37:13
    that's not me but We've established that's not this kind of party. What seems like a disproportionate number of swingers. There's this city north of me called Anthem. What's a normal proportion of swingers? Eight percent. There's just a lot of them in Arizona. I don't know why. Like right by my house, there's like a nudist colony. It's just so weird. Arizona can be weird. It's fine. Just get rid of it. When I got married. I'm interested, but I have to sell some things first. When I got married, I had to go meet with the Lutheran minister to have pre-marriage counseling because my parents told me I should do that. And I told him I worked in Woodcliffe Lake, New Jersey, and he's like, oh, I've heard there's a lot of swingers in Woodcliffe Lake. And I said, what? Dude, you're my pastor.
    38:02
    That's my swinger story. Okay. May they come confess a lot down there. I don't know. But I think that's kind of normal, right? Church is where you would find the... I guess. where you would find swingers. Speaking of the villages in Florida and, yeah, swinger communities, I will say that the desert, much like the woods, the farther you go into it, the more nuts you find. The same applies to the desert. There's some weird stuff out in the Arizona desert. Don, I've got to tell you a story. Let's go. Story time with Retro Ralph. So there's this. I just said earlier there was this nudist colony, right? That's legit. It's called Shangrula. That's what it's called. Shangrula. Sorry, I got it wrong. Shangri-la. I've been there. What is it called? Shangri-la. Yeah. So there it is. So my wife used to work at an urgent care, right? And you can tell, like there's a little screen, you know, HIPAA, whatever. But it tells you, like, what the person's there for. It said burns. So this lady comes in. My wife's in there. She's like, what's wrong? She says you're burnt. I don't see anything. And she goes, well, how was barbecue? She had an accent. She's like, I was barbecuing and I burnt my boobs. And she, like, lifts them up. Lovely. And her boobs were on the grill. Like, she didn't even know she was grilling her own boobs. Like, that's the kind of shit that happens in Arizona. And this on the day that Jason Knapp played his first game of Berrio's Barbecue Challenge. Oh. Now we're talking about. That's real, dude. That happened. I'm so upset about the boob grilling, not the game. Now we're talking about grilled titties. Oh, no. All right, we just made it into paywall territory. Their favorite game is barbecue. Sponsored by American Pinball. Oh, shout out to David's Pigs. I can't even talk. No, no, no. I'm not having any part of this.
    39:49
    Talk about a gobble hobble. I don't know if that's the kind of meat rotisserie we want to see on a pinball screen.
    40:00
    Are you editing this? Or are we just sitting here with like five minutes of dead air? No, I'll put it on the Patreon. They'll understand. This is, people, yeah. This is a little naughty. This is Dawn After Dark. I mean, I would totally pay for this. Dawn After Dark is a web series that I do for the Patreon where I'm a little bit more real. I might have to give you five bucks, and I don't pay for anything because I'm free. This is like this has progressed to dawn just before dawn.
    40:27
    Dawn before dawn. What freaking time is it right now? It's at 12.50 according to Retro Ralph there. But not in my home. My home is like 2 a.m. You're in that weird time zone that's an hour and ten minutes ahead.
    40:42
    And after the Portillo's and the pizza, we got on a bus without a stripper pole and went off to Logan Arcade where we had a rouchous evening. They gave us $10.25 each and a wristband that I'm now learning got me free drinks that I could have partaken in.
    40:59
    I bought Don a beer and I was like, here you go, man. And it was just all on Gary Stern. I'm just going to talk about how my night went I got to meet Gary Stern He hugged me and rubbed my belly I got to meet John Borg today I got to hang out with Keith Elwin Me and Jack Danger had like a moment It was a fun time Borg's a good dude I was playing like complete crap with Scott Larson Of the And just like playing just awful I played a four player game of Pulp Fiction With George Gomez his first time on it ever And I got like by far score four out of four. The lowest. The game that I own. That was terrible. I redeemed myself on Stranger Things when Jack Danger was watching. Obliterated the loser kid. That's good. For once. My best game of the night. Game one on John Wick Premium. I GC'd the game in Stern Headquarters. Come on. How can you not do better than that? I'll get a slow clap from at least one loser from this. At least one. I'm going to trash your moment because you saw this. We went to Interium. We played barbecue, and you saw that my high score number four was just above David Fix's score on barbecue. And that was one I put up yesterday. So, yeah. Okay, so we're confirming that your pinball skills are equal.
    42:22
    No, I'm biting my tongue. Yeah, that's probably good. The trip to Logan. Yeah. We are in the sex bus.
    42:32
    And what I mean, you know, it's like completely blacked out with neon lights. We're cruising down the interstate. Gary is next to us in a convertible with his hair blown back. Just keeping up. Yeah. Got the hair blow black and the sun is shining. You're looking at a brick on the pavement grinding. Gary Stern riding in the lane behind us. It was nuts, dude. It was great.
    42:57
    That was fantastic. I look over, I'm like, it's Bernie Sanders in a convertible. Who is this over here? I got a sweet picture. It was Jare Bear. I need to tell you about something.
    43:07
    He's been talking about puffing clouds. I need to tell you. Why is there so much smoke in my face? Why do I find mics in my face? Okay, so you just said Bernie Sanders, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the first time I ever met Gary Starks. You're Bernie Sanders. Now, keep in mind, the first time I ever met him, it was when Stranger Things came out. And I didn't even know pinball still existed. I was like, what the fuck? They still make that? This thing is so badass. So I went over and my buddy's like, we should totally interview this guy, right? And I was like, I don't even know who the fuck that guy is. And he, oh, that's great. I don't know if I should be saying. So I'm on a live stream and all my viewers are like, oh, interview him, interview him, interview him. And then someone said like holy shit it Barry Sanders Whatever you just said Barry Sanders And then someone else called them something else Oh they like no it Ric Flair And everyone all woo Like everyone in the chat going woo woo woo Where can people see this? Is it on YouTube? It's really, yeah, it's still there. Check it out, people. But it was just funny because, why are you taking off your, are you done with the podcast? John's like, shut the hell out. You just dropped the mic, I think. No, I wooed, and I knocked my headphone cable out. Anyways, but then I proceeded to embarrass myself because I was like, Gary, what do you think about Pinball FX3? And he's like, what the – why are you asking me about this? So I was like a total tool bag, and Gary's like, well, we do – does he ever – is there a term called terrestrial pinball? What the fuck does that even mean? I've never heard of that. It's on Earth. It's Earth pinball.
    44:37
    Okay, so he's like – so of course he said that. He's like, we deal with terrestrial pinball. Terrestrial pinball. And then I'm seeing people in the chat, and they're saying a bunch of shit. It just was totally terrible. And he actually remembered. Well, he said he did. He probably didn't. But when I said, like, what do you think about Pinball FX3, his whole body language was like, you're... He remembered his hatred for you? But wasn't there... There was a cool release that they did. Like, Stern did a pinball release virtual with, like, all their gate... No, all right, never mind. Wrong podcast. Right? They did a couple of them. They were good, though. The Farsight stuff was good, but then Farsight's dead in the water now. Farsight, that guy. Man, those dudes were really cool. They had an office on Big Bear, and they used to come and hang out with us at the Pinball Museum. The Farsight people? Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, super cool stuff. Dude, that thing was rocking. They had a game every – Zen – oh, good lord. The smoke.
    45:34
    You know, like, I like the Zen people, but, man, they're slow. So, like, Farsight was releasing a table every month, at least one, two, three tables every month. And I get that Zen has got fancy stuff in there, but, like, come on, man. Give me some Bally Williams. I want some Bally Williams. What's cool, they had every machine they made digital, they had the real copy. Because they tore them apart and scanned them. Absolutely.
    46:03
    We literally have to interrupt the podcast because Don's taking selfies of himself right now. As we're doing the podcast. Oh, he's live.
    46:10
    We're live streaming this Dawn After Dark episode to try to troll. The only thing I'm shilling is my own Patreon right now, which is where I'm going to have to put this because y'all can't behave. Who's up at 2 a.m. watching Dawn's live? Is there any viewers right now? Australia, that's who's up right now. We'll see who pops in. Are they on there? Not yet. I just went live. Give them a second. So you're telling me it's zero. It's zero right now, yeah. Give everyone time to come in. This is Dawn's virtual pinball. I'm going to go live. Let's do a live off and see how many people we can.
    46:41
    You don't want to go there. Man, I don't have the drawing power of the electric bat arcade. Well, also, we are two time zones behind, so we've got the advantage. Oh, that's bullshit. Oh, that's right. Competitive advantage.
    46:58
    I've only gone live like twice. I don't think we've ever done it. Come on. I'll delete this. This is solid. I'm going to get you back on track, Don. What was the next topic? Oh, Logan Arcade. Did you guys have a good time? Yeah. I played not one game at Logan Arcade. I was talking to Gary most of the time. Yeah. I played, for the most of the night, I was on a Venom Pro.
    47:24
    Having a great time. No, we played Bone Busters. We did. Oh, God. Bone Busters was amazing. Scott and I played Bone Busters. What was the basketball game? Shack Attack. Holy crap, I blew it up. We were on the Gottlieb. We played the Gottliebs tonight. At one point, my entire garage was filled with Gottliebs, and they never made it down to the real, like, nap arcade part, but I had only Gottliebs in my garage, like six Gottliebs at one time. Shout out to Wipeout. Yeah, Wipeout is underrated. I agreed.
    47:59
    Joker Poker is one of my all-time favorites. That's old Gottlieb, though. I think that was before Gottlieb jumped the shark. Oh, yeah. Joker poker is classic. Speaking of Joker poker and virtual pinball, I've got an ultra VP that's got adult games in it. And there's a Joker poker that's also overlaid with this old pornographic 1980s Laserdisc poker game. So as you play, every time you get 10,000 points, the person on screen loses an article of closing. It's like from some old Laserdisc. It's like Mahjong Joker poker. It's phenomenal. It's like the old text-based strip poker where they drew pictures of people out of text.
    48:44
    How often do you play this game, Don? You're playing it in college. You're like, come on. Adam Hagerstad has joined the chat. How often do you play this game? My daughter and I have been playing it. He's completely ignoring the question. Your wife has joined the chat? You played it with your daughter? She thinks it's hilarious. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What? By today's standards, it's completely tame. You know, it's like, and you've got to play, like, amazingly well to even see, like, somebody topless. Oh, this lady barely got taken. My daughter and I loved it. Gosh, she thinks it's... It's okay to show. It's just eight apostrophes. It's just so funny. The text, basically. You have to get, like, 90,000 points in order to see, like, anything. Come on, asterisk. I don't know what... Ian, see you later, buddy. Thanks for nudging. Nudge you later. I don't want to accept you. You're leaving me hanging right now. So we have gone to Logan Arcade. We had a good time. I got to play GTF and Pulp Fiction with Scott for the first time. Josh is just a sleepy.
    49:46
    What did you think of GTF? Okay, it kind of felt like a functional 80s. Wait, what? How did we get into this all of a sudden? Okay, so we played GTF. Oh, at Logan. We played GTF and we also played Pulp Fiction. But you'd never played the movie? No, I've been a hobbit. I've been in the Shire and not really getting out. My bad for shaming. I apologize. It's okay.
    50:14
    I'm not quite the Dr. Wizard that Don is. No, it's more of a, it feels like an 80s-style game, kind of like Genesis.
    50:25
    It's kind of like a Gottlieb vibe, but it actually had functional purpose. Those are some bad back glasses, man, Genesis. Yeah, no, it is. So it felt very different era of the other options, but it was functional, and I thought there were some things that were fun about it. The challenge is always going to be when you're buying a game, you're buying reliability. Well. You're comparing it against what else you can buy for that price, and so I had a good enough time on it. But we also played Pulp Fiction, and if I had to choose between the two, I probably would have bought Pulp Fiction. That is the correct decision. In terms of reliability. As someone who works on both of those games, Pulp Fiction, hands down. Pulp Fiction is rock solid.
    51:13
    CGC's problem is communication and speed. Their games are rock solid. So good. Rock solid. Yeah, when your development cycle is eight years or something. Watch for Twilight Zone. Twilight Zone is coming, man. twilight zone although what was it i just wrote recently someone told me actually i can't the next game coming out will surprise us no no but yeah yeah i can't tell you on this microphone but someone told me that the next cgc game is you would never guess it in 100 tries like so i don't know what does that mean it's like big bang bar or like something no no i think i i have no idea what it means you don't think that's disinformation and it's actually twilight zone. If you knew who told me, I'll tell you in a second. You can tell us. It's just us.
    52:00
    Order up. What do you think? Diner. Yeah, it's Diner. The second serving. Did you see in the comments where I shared the hard bodies?
    52:10
    Oh, wait a minute. Someone did a CGC hard bodies teaser. You've got to see this. Oh, it's going to blow your mind. I'm going to look it up right now, and it's not great for streaming. Let me be honest with you.
    52:25
    The secret game is Hardbody. What do you think it is, Don? It's just Hardbody. It's got to be. Absolutely.
    52:33
    What are you putting money on? Twilight Zone. If I was putting $5 down, yeah. It's going to be Medieval Madness because they've been promising it for decades. I asked him at IAPA, and he's like, yeah, before the year's out, there'll be another run. They keep saying every year. But it's going to be medieval madness at some point And then Wait until you see this hard bodies thing It is 1am here Oh shit here it is We're having a great time This is fun I'm glad we did this It's been a pleasure My mother turns 75 tomorrow Happy birthday retro mother So I'm going to head out You're going to Rhode Island Yeah anytime buddy Jason someone needs to tell you that the headphones are making you talk like 17,000 octaves higher than normal, but it's cool. You know who it is? My wife would tell me that because I'm loud. My wife is always like, why are you so loud? I'm like, I'm just enjoying myself. The Sultry Baritone. Are you Italian? I am not. I'm half Swedish, half British. I wonder which half. I posted a picture of him and I, and someone said we look like we're related. Actually, yeah. The office space dude. That office space dude is what I get all the time. All right, I'm going to go. Which office space? I love you. Thank you. Yeah. Don, you're the man. The main dude. The dude. I don't know. What's his name? Not the guy that's been burned down. No, not the stapler dude. Come on. I'm thinking of the office. You mean office space. It's my stapler guy. It's late. Good Lord. Did you know Swingline did not make a red stapler until that movie? Actually, I think they had discontinued it. And they brought it back. Oh, really? Yeah, they resurrected the red line stapler because guess who has a red swingline stapler? This guy. Oh, nice. You know they made a mint.
    54:21
    That's my stapler. But the tour was fun. I think the car does some fun stuff. I can't wait to see where the code goes with it. I think it's a solid release. It's not going to blow the doors off like Godzilla did, but what will?
    54:40
    But, yeah, I think it will finish better than Venom. We got it. Definitely play the game. Whoa. flexing soon. Come on. That's gold. Gold. So there you go. Especially because one of my best friends in pinball had a hard bodies, like this thing. Look at that. You heard it here. That's gold. What a silly game that is.
    55:06
    What's up? Confirm? No, it's not happening. It's confirmed. Yes, confirm. The art on that, and it's like featuring art by Brian Allen. poor guy oh lord and then we came back here and then we went back into Stern and we got to play John Wick some more until they finally kicked us out shout out to everybody at Stern Pinball y'all are some homies oh my gosh Retro Ralph is a cool dude everybody's so nice there Matt Arcade go like and subscribe to his stuff he's a solid guy it was a fun day well I guess you can subscribe to my Facebook page this was like summer camp but like all in one day we made some new relationships we made some new friends and the ending was yeah we talked on the messenger I probably talked to Josh more than you I'm a little less available than Josh is but Josh is the one who does all the social media stuff I just kind of show up and record I do the fun stuff cool all right the but the end end of this night was absolutely fabulous uh we basically broke in the stern and played pinball for what hour and a half or so um no but uh seriously uh we were with um who what roper roper almost called him grover that's cool too super he prefers to be called Super Grover. Right.
    56:38
    That's a monster at the end of the book. Yeah. Oh, my favorite when I was little. Let's go. Dream theme. Yeah, Grover.
    56:48
    I guess we're running out of steam here. We're just about up on an hour. This is going to be the best Dawn After Dark ever. Star studded.
    56:57
    Like the Skinamax Dawn? I got a whole new appreciation for Stern after being there today. And, like, now I feel like I live there. I was running around the factory floor after hours. I know where all the bathrooms are. I know where the Diet Coke is kept.
    57:11
    They really kind of trust us a lot more than they probably should have. That was great. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. It's beautiful. I'm coming back next time. Let's do it, man. Yeah, thank you to Stern for doing this. This was an absolute blast.
    57:26
    I'd say form your own opinion. John Wick is a really great game, and get the chance to play it before you just... You're telling me to think for myself? And make my own mind up and not read it on the internet? Come on, lady. You can't make money like that. You're a bunch of shills.
    57:41
    Wise words from Erica's pinball journey. All right, thanks, everybody. I hope you enjoy this. I don't think I'll release it on the public channel because it's just too fun, man. It was a little naughty. Yeah, yeah. No, that's exactly what I want. This is on brand. This is why people join the paywall for the awesomeness. And, you know, I'll give you all your cut and everything. Any last words before we sign off from this episode? I put my keys in that bowl. I put my keys in that bowl over there. What does that mean? Sorry, I pulled yours out, so you're going home with me. That's how it works, okay? This is Whoville rules. So you're saying I lost. Yeah, yeah. We can do it Phoenix style. Gotta run.
    58:23
    Have a good night. Later.