DPP #28 "GTF is coming! Pulp Fiction change of heart! Listen now dude!!!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·19m 6s·analyzed·Mar 19, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

GTF Wednesday release hype + Pulp Fiction FOMO reassessment + Southern Fried Expo announcement.

Summary

Don discusses the imminent Wednesday release of Galactic Tank Force (GTF) by American Pinball, analyzing leaked playfield images and speculating on pricing ($7k-$13k depending on trim), production numbers (possibly only 150 tank versions), and availability. He also reconsiders Pulp Fiction after initially missing the LE deposit, concluding the standard edition offers the same gameplay without the topper premium, reducing his FOMO. Finally, he announces attendance at Southern Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta in July.

Key Claims

GTF will be released on Wednesday (4 days from episode recording) with pricing likely $7k standard, $8-8.5k deluxe, $12-13k tank version
medium confidence · Don speculates based on American Pinball's typical pricing model and market comparables; explicitly acknowledged as speculation ('I'm trying to break these down. I don't know for sure')
Only 150 tank versions of GTF may be produced with full package (tank treads, LEDs, turret)
medium confidence · Don states 'I'm hearing that there may only be 150 tanks that are made' from distributor rumors; emphasized as unconfirmed
Distributors may be limited to only 1-2 tank versions per distributor despite customer lists of 3-4 people
low confidence · Don speculates based on rumors from distributors; explicitly framed as uncertain
Pulp Fiction LE and standard edition share identical gameplay, callouts, sound, voice clips, music, flippers, and art
high confidence · Don states as established fact that differences are cosmetic (topper, mirror blades, shaker motor, chrome speaker grill, Bad Mother Flipper emblem)
Pulp Fiction LE is sold out; standard edition available at ~$7,999-$8,000 with LE priced ~$9,500-$9,900 with shipping
high confidence · Don cites specific prices he has 'just checked' on pinball retailers; references $500 deposits available
GTF features LED stripe lights 'almost identical' to Penn Stadium lighting, purple-tinted playfield, multiple Vuks launching into wire forms, potential ship mech that fires balls
medium confidence · Don analyzes leaked playfield photos from Naps Arcade and Canada sources; acknowledges 'potato quality' image limitations and speculation about unseen mechanisms

Notable Quotes

“Galactic Motherfreaking Tank Force, right? This is a game that we just learned will be released on Wednesday. That is in four days from now”
Don @ ~02:30 — Opening statement establishing episode's primary focus and GTF's imminent release timing
“I'm hearing that there may only be 150 tanks that are made the full package with those tank treads with the LEDs around them.”
Don @ ~04:15 — Key rumor about GTF tank variant scarcity; introduces FOMO element and production uncertainty
“Because there's an unlimited version of this, or a version that's not limited in edition size and sold out, a standard edition of Pulp Fiction is available. And that standard edition trim level looks to have exactly the same play field and hopefully exactly the same call-outs”
Don @ ~22:30 — Turning point in Don's Pulp Fiction sentiment; recognizes availability of equivalent gameplay without LE premium
“The game, I'm going to watch the feature rep before I make any kind of decisions. But just to recap, here's the differences between the standard edition and the limited edition, which is sold out of Pulp Fiction.”
Don @ ~24:45 — Indicates Don's methodical re-evaluation process; defers final purchase decision pending more information
“I want that topper to get a twippy just for toppers because that thing looks amazing. So that something I would miss out on. But at this point the decision I would have to make is do I want to go in on this game or do I not. The decision to get a limited edition is not even part of the equation anymore.”
Don @ ~28:30 — Explicit sentiment shift: topper FOMO overcome by standard edition availability; reframes purchasing decision away from LE scarcity
“I'm not as down in the dumps that I was. I'm just definitely dismissive about that price tag because that's not something that I think I could get and then move fairly quickly.”
Don @ ~30:15 — Reveals secondary market resale calculation concerns; skepticism about Bond 60th and premium topper ROI
“So maybe on my topper game, my topper FOMO is not as strong as it otherwise could be.”

Entities

Donperson American Pinballcompany Galactic Tank Forcegame Pulp Fictiongame Texas Pinball FestivaleventNaps Arcadeorganization

Signals

?
product_concern: GTF availability concerns: only 150 tank versions rumored; distributors may receive 1-2 units despite customer demand; FOMO on premium trim level
medium · Don: 'I'm speculating that... only 150 tanks... distributors may be limited to only a few per distributor... If a distributor has a list of some people with... three or four on there that want tanks, maybe they only might have one... Are you going to be able to get a tank?'
?
design_philosophy: American Pinball emphasizes LED lighting rigs (Penn Stadium-style) and kinetic toy mechanisms (Vuks firing into wire forms, ship firing balls); visual spectacle as differentiator
medium · Don praises 'kinetic activity' and visual appeal: 'I think this is one of the games that... [the leak cycle] has actually been building excitement... that thing's going to glow and pop in person, especially if it's cycling through different colors'
?
event_signal: Don announces confirmed travel to Southern Fried Gaming Expo (Atlanta, July 28-30 or 29-30) with family and truck; plans prize pack distribution similar to Midwest Gaming Classic model
high · Don: 'i have booked and confirmed travel that i am going in july to the southern fried gaming expo in atlanta georgia... from what i've been reading about this show it seems to be a hit similar to the midwest gaming classic in milwaukee'
?
leak_detection: Multiple GTF playfield images have leaked over 3-4 weeks before official release; described as 'slow build' of excitement via unofficial channels
high · Don: 'this has been, there's been a lot of launches this month... this has probably been one of the weirdest ones though, because of all the leaks that keep happening. So we've seen the play field. We've seen the accoutrement. We've seen the giant tank device.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.057

0:00

get ready and get comfy on this saturday don spinball podcast is back flexing and in effect for episode number 28 i can't believe it i've got some comments today on two specific games in particular one of them is a tank the other one well it's pulp fiction i've got some new thoughts now that i've had time to let everything settle in so get cozy hit back in that share. Grab yourself a warm, frothy drink because it's cold in the Midwest today. Here we go.

0:39

There will be no hard slam sound today, folks, because I'm trying out something new. I got myself a new mixer, a portable one I want to try out. It's by Zoom. It's the PodTrack P4. And so I know it sounds a little different in my headphones. I don't know what this is going to sound like in the final mix. So this will be a test episode. Let me know what you think, everybody. Also, while I'm begging you for your feedback, what do you think of that new 45-second ad that I dropped for Spotify? I got approached there to do that. I think if a thousand people listen to that ad, I make about $10. So just something fun I wanted to try and skip by it if you don't like it. Or hey, listen to it on repeat, man. You do you, boo. But today, I want to get into a couple of thoughts here. Let's start with Galactic Motherfreaking Tank Force, right? This is a game that we just learned will be released on Wednesday. That is in four days from now and just a few days before the Galactic Texas Pinball Festival right out there in Frisco. The huge event, you know, that one that's going to have eight brand new games out to play, plus a ton of stuff and dealer deals, show prices for games. Maybe you'll even be able to play a weird owl or two. So with that coming up, again, this has been, there's been a lot of launches this month. I'm not going to lie. There's been, this has probably been one of the weirdest ones though, because of all the leaks that keep happening. So we've seen the play field. We've seen the accoutrement. We've seen the giant tank device. We're starting to get rumors that are solidifying a bit more. I think the company might've finally decided on which way to go with this thing. I'm hearing that there may only be 150 tanks that are made the full package with those tank treads with the LEDs around them. Now, does that mean that the full down topper turret is only available on the tank? We're going to know on Wednesday. I've also heard from some distributors that they may be limited to only a few per distributor. So if a distributor has a list of some people with, you know, three or four on there that want tanks, maybe they only might have one. I don't know. The dealers are going to get a call Monday, and then we're going to get drops on Wednesday, and I'm speculating that between Monday and Wednesday, there'll probably be a little more solidified rumors, so we'll have a way to know about this. What we don't know for sure, what price. What we don't know for sure, how many trim levels, and then how many numbers are within each one of those. American Pinball does things a little different, a little more bill-to-order. I don't think they're going to build 3,000 machines and then go try to sell these things and maintain that inventory. When are these things going to be made? Is this going to be like Chicago Gaming Company where you order now and pick up six months from now? We don't know any of that yet. But what we do have is pictures of the play fields. Nap Arcade has access to one right now. Canada also released this one, which is where I first saw it. So credit where credit is due, sir. Looking at this play field, it finally gives you a better idea of what's going on. Now, because they've been slowly having these images leak, We've got potato quality photos, one of which is fairly good, but it's lit up with these pin stadium type lights that American Pinball has put into this game. So it's very purple. So seeing the play field actually here stood up, and I don't know where this was taken at, but it is out on NAP Arcade. You can check it out right now.

6:28

Otherwise, spinner over the left orbit. I can't tell if there's one over the right or not. And there is that one plastic ramp that boosts up into this whole system. Who knows where it goes? Looks like the plastic ramp makes a U-turn at this pixelated potato photo and into that left wire form to return to the left flipper. Okay, there's a quick tour. What's going on below the flippers? Who the heck knows? We won't know until the shirt is lifted up on the bottom of this apron. Whoa, that was soaked full of innuendo. So Galactic Tank Force, how much is this going to be? Well, let's see. Standard editions of American Pinball go for what? Around $7,000, give or take, in this market. What is the standard edition going to have, though? They usually do a deluxe edition, is what they call, what other people would call their limited or premium level. And then there's going to be this tank level. So I'm trying to break these down. I don't know for sure. I do see that American Pinball has been paying attention to Penn Stadium because there are LED stripe lights, which look almost identical to the Penn Stadium lights in this violet picture. And boy, oh boy, are they lighting up that playfield. I bet this thing's going to glow and pop in person, especially if it's cycling through different colors, especially if there's some black light fluorescent inks used in the playfield. So I'm excited to see that. I think this is one of the games that, well, I think because of the announcement and this leak business has been going on for so long, it's actually been building excitement for the actual release. With Pulp Fiction, it was like, all of a sudden, hey, here it is. It's confirmed here. Here you go. Godfather was the same way. We're going to release everything here. There weren't any leaks of the play field early on. Foo Fighters didn't have any leaks of the play field early on. This one, we've been able to do a slow build throughout this whole cycle for the last three or four weeks. So that is interesting. So are we looking at the standard edition, not going to have these fancy lights on it, maybe not as much of the mechanisms? Are they going to go more for the flat plastic route? And then the deluxe will come with the images and the 3D sculpts and these lights. And then the tank version is just going to add exterior accoutrement, like those tank treads with the LEDs and the turret on top. Will the traditional back box have a turret? Will it have a topper? These are all things that I don't know. what about price are we looking at a standard around 7 000 a deluxe around maybe 83 8500 and a tank version of which there may only be 150 of going from between 12 000 to 13 000 we'll find out if i'm right and see what the prices end up being can we do that can do i was playing around with this device and the sound pads forgive me listeners um but those are some of my preliminary thoughts, given what I have to work with here with Galactic Tank Force, where's the FOMO meter on this? Are you going to be able to get a tank? If you want a tank, does your name already have to be on a distributor list? If they're only going to get one, maybe two, when are you going to expect to get these? When are they going to be built? All that hopefully will be revealed over the next week And will this thing be there to play It got to be if they releasing all the information on Wednesday Get some of these things on location Get some of these things out so we can play them Do a live stream. I wanna know what the different colors are. I wanna know all about this new lighting rig they have set up. I can't tell if there's interior art blades or not from these photos, but I'm a little more excited, actually, looking at this play field. There's a lot more detail on the play field than what you can see in these pixelated images that are found online. So all that and more to come. There's my speculation. At this point, let's see if I was close on the price. Let's see if I was close on the build. I think in the last show, I did mention that, are they going to build only 200 of these Supreme-level tank editions? And it seems like I may be right if they're only around 150. So go me. What else do we got? I've been still thinking about Pulp Fiction. It's been banging around in my head. I haven't brought myself to watch the straight-down-the-middle featurette on it just because I was so butthurt that I missed out on dropping my deposit for the limited edition. But I had some thoughts today. And those thoughts were, you know, if I'm really sad about missing out on this game because of the gameplay, well, then I'm in luck. Because there's an unlimited version of this, or a version that's not limited in edition size and sold out, a standard edition of Pulp Fiction is available. And that standard edition trim level looks to have exactly the same play field and hopefully exactly the same call-outs, exactly the same sound and the same voice clips and the same music, same flippers, same art, same coin door. So really, I think it's more of a one machine, one that comes with embellishments for $1,500 more and then the more standard one, but you're still getting the game. If I still want this game, I can still get this game. So my FOMO heart, my icy FOMO heart has melted slightly. so right now limited edition priced around $9,500 I've seen $9,900 with shipping included so the price has been around there roughly $1,500 to $1,800 more than the $8,000 standard edition or $79.99 of which you can get right now for I've seen as low as a $500 deposit when are those going to be made though I know we were hearing October was that for the limited editions were October, maybe because you have to wait to get that topper. Maybe they have to get the topper parts in, get them built. And then in October is when they're expecting to start building those and releasing them with the toppers. Whereas the standard edition, which is really the game without the topper, that may just go into production sooner. I'm still a little unclear on that. So if anybody knows, email your boy or post on the Facebook page. But for $79.99, I can get the same game right now with just walking up and getting it, man. You know, no pain scalper prices, no waiting for flips. Yes, I won't have that topper. Maybe somebody will create a topper, or maybe I can put it in the part of my room that has a lower ceiling and can't accommodate a topper to begin with. The game, I'm going to watch the feature rep before I make any kind of decisions. But just to recap, here's the differences between the standard edition and the limited edition, which is sold out of Pulp Fiction. okay starting at the bottom mirror blades mirror blades right now i just checked again 90 on pinball life online i've installed these myself on my godzilla it didn't take a whole lot of time fairly straightforward so i don't see that as like you know outside of the realm of being able to get that so mirror blades 90 bucks and they're yours shaker motors now i've put in the stern spike 2 shaker motor systems um spike 2 or spike 3 what are they on uh they're about 109 is what i've been paying when I've been able to pick them up at shows or order them online. Fairly easy to put in, especially if the games come pre-drilled for the whole. So don't be afraid of adding shaker motors. I've added two now. Godzilla's got one. Elvira's got one. That's not preclusive, right? So if I can get the standard edition, 200 bucks, I've got the mirror blades and I've got the same shaker motor. What can't I get? The bad mother flipper emblem that goes down between the flippers on the apron, right? Okay. So I could 3d model, print something up and paint it. It won't be the same, but I could still get that same look. There's a chrome speaker grill that goes over the speaker cover between the back glass on the back box cabinet and the play field. So that I would miss out on unless somebody makes an aftermarket part. That's not huge to me. The huge thing is the topper. That's where the bulk of this $1,500 is probably going to. Animated topper. I could see something recreated in acrylics. Sure, it won't be the same. The topper does look amazing for Pulp Fiction. I want that topper to get a twippy just for toppers because that thing looks amazing So that something I wouldn miss out on But at this point the decision I would have to make is do I want to go in on this game or do I not The decision to get a limited edition is not even part of the equation anymore So I don even have to think about that But I can still get the game. And when you're playing the game and you're listening to the call outs and you're listening to the clips from the show and you're listening to the music and enjoying the gameplay itself, that topper is irrelevant. I'm just going to say it. So I'm feeling a little better now. I'm not as down in the dumps that I was. um you know there's that opportunistic part of me that misses well if i would have put my le deposit down easily i could turn that into 500 or a thousand extra dollars just by selling my deposit will that bear out in the market i mean once people get their hands on this are there going to be some unforeseen issues hard to say because we've seen everything in the game and the game looks like it has that nice classic play and after playing bond 60th i've learned to appreciate that a bit more than i was i'm not as dismissive of bond 60th for the gameplay i'm just definitely dismissive about that price tag because that's not something that I think I could get and then move fairly quickly because I think other people are hesitant. So also the Bond topper looked pretty with the LEDs. I don't think it was worth the price. Honestly, if I had a Bond 60, if it didn't come with that topper, I really don't think I would notice all that much. So maybe on my topper game, my topper FOMO is not as strong as it otherwise could be. So I'm in a better spot now. I'm going to wait and see with Pulp Fiction. At this point, I need to free up some room in my game room. The game that I was thinking about today would be my Guns N' Roses Limited Edition, the one that has the extra acrylic topper, the chaser lights that I added on there, the Mezel Mod Monkey lights that go behind the topper. I put the undercab and back box lights that the CE comes with. I put in the Limited Edition foil art blades on the LE. I've got plastics in there and i even got leor's shooter rods so it's modded fairly well i've been looking at the price for uh guns and roses les and right now there's a smoking deal in san francisco somebody just put up on uh the pinball marketplace buy and sell on facebook eight thousand dollars he's asking for this thing and he has the leor mods he has a spattering of other mods uh the signs that go on the ramps are there eight grand uh which is a little disheartening to me i was hoping to get like 10.5 for mine. I'm sure I wouldn't get anywhere near 10.5. 9,800 I'd be ecstatic with. I think in this market, 9,000, 9,200 for the mods. It does have all the lights. It's got about 400 plays. I opened the thing brand new. I think that would be reasonable, especially if somebody didn't have to pay shipping, if I could just drop it off in the Chicago area. If you're interested, email me. We can talk about price. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com or Nance Pinball Podcast on Facebook or even find the Discord. I'll leave a link there. So hit me with some thoughts. What are your guys' thoughts for Saturday night? We're gearing up for Texas Pinball Festival. Wednesday will be the release for Galactic Tank Force. We're going to know a lot more information about this. And then we need to find out more information about Pulp Fiction. I think I'll know more once I watch that featurette. I'll let you know my thoughts. We're going to know a lot more once people are playing it at Texas Pinball festival oh and one other thing i'd like to add i have booked and confirmed travel that i am going in july to the southern fried gaming expo in atlanta georgia uh i believe it's uh july 29 30th 28th 20th 30th that friday saturday sunday from what i've been reading about this show it seems to be a hit similar to the midwest gaming classic in milwaukee so i'll be going down there in july bringing the fam, bringing the truck. So if I see something I have my heart set on, like say a nicely restored or good condition Williams diner, I may take that guy back with me. And the prize packs that I gave away at the show were such a hit. I'm going to do it again. I'll bring more shirts and more prize packs. I'll walk around with them in my backpack. If you see me, give a holler. I'll drop another code phrase on a podcast right before. So if you listen, you get to win and then you need to indulge me with a selfie for the facebook page for my own self-promotion so that's all i got for this episode i'll be back here later let me know what you think of this new mixer did you even notice um you know does it sound okay if it does this is going to be my new road dog hit it i love to take this guy on the road because it is smaller than my other mixer shout out to zoom for making this little device i'm going to upload this and And then I'm going to go listen back tonight while I'm eating a Caesar salad wrap. And I'm going to see if I like the sound quality. Hit me up, you guys. I love all the feedback I get. I did a live stream. It's still up there on the Facebook page. It went for an hour. We talked about a lot of stuff, including my new Elvira. Have a good night.