Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

DPP #118 "Jaws bili, Wick coming, and some Blues"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·35m 25s·analyzed·Apr 27, 2024
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Don celebrates Jaws billion, reviews shark mod, criticizes Home Pin's Blues Brothers announcement

Summary

Don celebrates achieving a 1.045 billion point game on Jaws Premium and discusses the new code update featuring a 4th of July mode. He reviews the Interactive Pinball Sharky Ball Shark mod ($470), which adds an animated shark that captures balls and returns them via a sophisticated engineering system. He contrasts this with his own hobbyist mods like a KFC-themed Chum Bucket ($20). The episode pivots to criticism of Home Pin's Blues Brothers machine revealed at a Taiwan expo, which Don views as poorly conceived: overpriced ($5k), based on the barren Stern Stars layout, non-playable at the show, and problematic for offering open-source code that violates licensing agreements. He speculates about John Wick's imminent announcement and discusses sales success of Jaws vs. Godzilla.

Key Claims

  • Jaws code update with 4th of July mode dropped recently

    high confidence · Don mentions capturing the update live on YouTube during recording

  • Jaws is on par with Godzilla overall due to superior theme integration and assets despite less impressive mechanics

    medium confidence · Don's comparative analysis of five ranking categories (light, sound, theme, theme integration, gameplay)

  • Interactive Pinball's Sharky Ball mod costs $470 and includes custom control board and engineering

    high confidence · Don explicitly states pricing and components in mod review

  • Home Pin's Blues Brothers is based on Stern's Stars layout with minimal design effort

    high confidence · Don recognizes the Stars layout and criticizes the barren design

  • Home Pin claims to be targeting non-savvy pinball buyers at $5k price point while planning open-source code

    high confidence · Don references Home Pin's prior Aussie Pinball podcast statements and current positioning

  • John Wick announcement expected week of April 28 or first week of May based on Stern's typical cadence

    medium confidence · Don speculates based on typical Stern announcement patterns and timing cues

  • Jaws selling well and likely to stay in production indefinitely if sales continue

    medium confidence · Don reports distributor chatter about strong Jaws sales but notes Stern doesn't release official numbers

  • Barry O's Barbecue Challenge is being used by American Pinball as a proving ground at Interval Chicago

    high confidence · Don describes visiting the location and observing American Pinball's testing practices

Notable Quotes

  • “I didn't finish all the bounty hunts, so I didn't get to the 4th of July mode that just dropped. Did you see that? We got a brand new code update that just dropped yesterday for Jaws.”

    Don @ ~2:00-3:00 — Confirms fresh Jaws code update with new content mode

  • “You know, if you were to pick the five different categories in how we rank a pinball machine, light, sound, theme, theme integration, and gameplay, you know, they're all going to rank slightly different. Jaws is much better theme-wise and asset-wise.”

    Don @ ~5:30 — Articulates evaluation framework for comparing Jaws and Godzilla

  • “The quality of this mod is definitely there. So that's why I would put it up in kind of like the stumbler level of mod makers and not so much the kind of hobbyist mod makers like myself.”

    Don @ ~18:00 — Establishes quality tier distinction for Interactive Pinball's engineering work

  • “His concept is that he wants a game for you know around five thousand dollars is where he's going to bring this thing and he wants to market to people that aren't really savvy in pinball, which right off the bat, giant red flags there.”

    Don @ ~25:00 — Initial critique of Home Pin's market positioning and pricing strategy

  • “No sensible person will license a game, release it, and then say that the code is open to interpretation from anybody out there fresh from the sewer to go ahead and do whatever they want with.”

    Don @ ~30:00 — Core criticism of Home Pin's open-source code strategy as licensing violation risk

  • “Jaws is being a good seller i don't know if it'll hit godzilla levels uh kinetesis colin just did an article uh you know stating looking at where sales numbers have been uh but it's all based on kind of conjecture and you know third-party observations because stern doesn't release numbers”

    Don @ ~40:00 — Establishes that Stern financial data is speculative; only Pinside registrations provide market sampling

  • “I haven't seen anything I haven't seen any leaks nobody showed me the play field I haven't seen the art I don't know the concept I don't know for sure who's making it I don't even know for sure if that's the game that's coming out next week”

Entities

DonpersonJawsgameGodzillagameKeith ElwinpersonInteractive PinballcompanyTrent KennedypersonHome Pincompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Home Pin's strategic incoherence: targets non-savvy buyers at $5k price point while showcasing non-playable early prototype at Taiwan expo and planning Pinball Expo reveal; positioning conflicts with typical commercial launch practices

    high · Don's point-by-point analysis of contradictory positioning, show demo quality, and target audience mismatch

  • ?

    community_signal: Don signaling increased YouTube video production commitment to document mods, installations, and gameplay as community educational content despite labor intensity

    medium · Don explicitly commits to more YouTube content; mentions high engagement and feedback on Sharky Ball mod video

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Don uses Jaws as design benchmark for future game evaluation: preference for magnets, complexity, interactive upper playfields, and frenzied play over simplistic layouts (Sea Witch/Beatles model)

    medium · Don's stated criteria for John Wick purchase decision; explicitly rejects simplistic design patterns

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Keith Elwin's design approach emphasizes concurrent gameplay mechanics (bounty hunts running parallel to shot completion) refined from Maiden's pyramid upgrade model; layered depth over mechanical showiness

    medium · Don's analysis of bounty hunt system vs Godzilla's kaiju battles; praise for 'best integration' of concurrent goals

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Home Pin's open-source code proposal for Blues Brothers creates fundamental licensing violation risk with Blues Brothers IP holder; contradicts commercial publishing norms and appears legally indefensible

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.106

0:00
I'm coming in with some high energy right now. Your boy just had the best game on Jaws Premium ever. And I can't wait to get to it. We can't wait to get to it. Episode 118. We're going to go off in a positively exuberant energy mode here in a bit, man. I'm still flying high from it. Let's kick the music.
0:30
so we're gonna drop billion club that's where i'm at with jaws now holy garbage i had it must have been a 45 minute game 1 billion 45 million points i cleared it man and i love the the consistency of the scoring on the Stern machines where it's like machine to machine, you know, 300 million tends to be a fairly good game, you know, blowing it up, you get five or six and every now and then, you know, if I really like comes together, you know, the once in a lifetime games for me and my skill level, you clear a billion points. I've done it on Jaws now. I've done it on Rush before. I've done it on Godzilla. I don't think I came close on Elvira House of Horrors, but haven't quite got there yet. didn't get close on foo fighters man forget that noise but like of the billies i got godzilla that was like a watershed moment on rush man what a weird kind of game i'm sorry ray day man i still have trouble wrapping my head around what the rules of that game are i love the game i love the music i love the shots i had to get the premium because i had the extra wire form you know i dig the game no idea what i'm doing but like the world's the world's aligned there and I was able to clear a billy on that. But man, the game I just had on Jaws, I think I did just about everything there was to do in the game. I didn't finish all the bounty hunts, so I didn't get to the 4th of July mode that just dropped. Did you see that? We got a brand new code update that just dropped yesterday for Jaws. It happened right in the middle of me recording a YouTube video, so I just captured that. More on that in a bit, but I'm just feeling good about pinball. I want to gush on Jaws for a minute. You know, this game came out. It was released. this was the follow-up to Godzilla. We were expecting the Godzilla killer. It was going to be everything Godzilla had and even more. And what game could measure up to that impossibly high standard? So when we saw it, the orca didn't sink into the play field. We all heard about the Jaws ball-eating shark that didn't happen. We're thinking, what is all this? And then we get to play it. And I think on aggregate, this game is as good as Godzilla. And I'll explain that thusly. You know, if you were to pick the five different categories in how we rank a pinball machine, light, sound, theme, theme integration, and gameplay, you know, they're all going to rank slightly different. You know, Godzilla's got the mechanisms and it's got the more interesting layout. Code, though, I don't think quite approaches it. They're pretty neck and neck. But for sure, Jaws is much better theme-wise and asset-wise. Like, we care about the assets. that are in Jaws. We care about the call-outs. It's not just kind of random guys cutting quips. As much as I love the call-outs on Godzilla, the call-outs on Jaws mean a lot more because they're all from the film, man, like the film that we remember, not just kind of the series of old black-and-white kaiju movies from back in the day. So the theme makes up for the lack of a ship sinking into the playfield. So that's why I would say that they're on par. Also, I'm having a great time with this dang machine. I love Elwin and his ability to, you know, he's got a hand in the code and the layout and everything. We're just going to talk about Jaws here for a little bit. You know, the fact that you can start these modes, like the kaiju battles in Godzilla, where as you're playing and you're shooting the shots and collecting tanks and whatever, you also have like a monster battle that starts, and it's running kind of in the background concurrently with the rest of the gameplay that you're doing. And Jaws, the bounty hunts are what that is. So, like, when I start a game, I want to qualify a bounty hunt and get that in as soon as I can. Because then all the other shots I'm making, the pop bumper, the ramps, hitting the spinner, the chum bucket, the boat, like, they all start counting towards that other secondary goal at the same time. So I feel like I'm double dipping. And I love that. You know, all the way back in Maiden we saw that with, you know, just the pyramid of, you know, collecting the spinner shots and the spinners are upgraded. And when you shoot enough of the ramps, then the ramps are upgraded, you know. This is like the targets the same way. uh orbits you know so this is like the best integration i think i've seen of it you know we've got four sharks to choose from and they're more meaningful uh the kaiju battles were just kind of like who do you want to battle but there wasn't really a perk that came with completing it it was just like all right knock him off the list which one do you want to do next you know this is there's some strategery involved i love it i just i love this game um having some fun with the code update then i'm going to get into it a little bit more with the sharky ball mod because I also got that in there. You know what? Let's save the unpleasantness for the later half of this episode. Let's just go right into that. My homeboy, Trent Kennedy, interviewed him here on the show. He's from Interactive Pinball, maker of the upper echelon of pinball mods. Not like the 3D printed cool stuff that I make, but the things that require some engineering, some ingenuity, some wiring, making boards, that kind of stuff. There's the hobbyist mod maker like myself where you know i'm making stuff like i like you know i made a new chum bucket for jaws that is just blowing my mind it's so hilarious um i install it i got a billy point game so obviously it helps the gameplay as well i'll be able to share more about that in a little bit i'm approaching the final design for it and you know i'm not selling 300 mods this is like a 20 mod it's and and it's hilarious and i love it i want to talk more about that um in in in due time But you know there's us And then there's like the stumblers right And there's the electric playground people Like the folks that are actually putting Like engineering work you know into You know I can study and I can learn Things by watching YouTube but I can't learn Engineering to that level you know if you're a Mechanical engineer or an electrical engineer And your side job or your main job And this is your side job like you just come out With better stuff right and so He's very much in that sphere He's also This is the second mod from him I believe there may have been more, but that actually changed the gameplay a bit. I'm thinking of the Rick and Morty ramp. I'm thinking of things like the Black Knight sword that returns that, instead of the vertical up kicker that goes to the ramp back to the right flipper, it's like a whole, not really a wire form, it's a sword that the ball rolls down. It's really cool looking, and it returns the ball to the left flipper. I'm thinking of that mod that James Bond 007 has that somebody in Australia made where it's like an extra wire form and it alters the vertical up kicker there, well, the eject hole. Instead of ejecting across the play field towards the tank and sometimes it goes into the pop bumpers, this one goes up a wire form and returns it safely to the wire form going to the left flipper. So, you know, little training wheels, little cheating. But when it comes to Rick and Morty, what I like is that, you know, this was kind of a necessary mod. It altered the game in a way that made it much more fun. And I think it more aligned with the original intent of the creators. If the creators could have gone back and just aligned those shots a little bit better so they were a little bit more forgiving, I think they would have. And this kind of corrects that. So much in the same way, the Jaws Ball Shark Eater mod, which doesn't really have a name other than that, really adds probably what we know from Keith Owen himself. You said that they had an early design for a shark that would come up through the play field and gobble the ball and then disappear back in there. But they couldn't quite get it to work in the way that they wanted to. Now, we've dismissed that as like, okay, yeah, it was probably just a scoop that came up and was stupid. But what I'm thinking is the amount of engineering that would have been required to pull this off successfully at a level that they would have been proud of probably would have extended the build of materials farther than their allowances or tolerance allowed. And that may be more of what's true. I'm just speculating here. But the cost to implement a Jaws shark that comes up and successfully takes the ball in a way that's satisfying for gameplay, they may have had to get rid of the upper play field or something in order to stake within budget So they were like you know what rubber shark it works fine And I agree It great But you know this does add some interesting bits here So when I heard about this thing first off, you know, I'm thinking, okay, maybe it's a gimmicky kind of shark. He released the one for the Pro, which of course doesn't go up or down from the play field. It had black rubbers on the sides of the mouth. So it almost looked like, you know, someone who's wearing OJ Simpson's leather gloves was grabbing the shark from behind and like stretching his mouth open. And so this version's got white rubbers on there. It matches the skin color of the shark. It looks like it fits a lot more. It's not like somebody grabbing something behind and giving them a double fish hook, you know.

Don @ ~42:00 — Confirms zero public information on John Wick machine despite strong speculation about announcement timing

  • “If it's got some magnets, if it's got some frenzied play, I think I would be into it. If it's like Sea Witch or Beatles, I don't think I want a simplistic layout and then try to sell it on gameplay.”

    Don @ ~48:00 — Articulates personal design preferences for upcoming games (magnets, complexity > simplicity)

  • “American Pinball tends to use this arcade as kind of a proving ground for their games... a game that's broken in and playing some prototype code”

    Don @ ~54:00 — Reveals American Pinball's relationship with Interval Chicago as testing/tuning location

  • “I'm going to start kicking out more YouTube content because although it is a little bit more labor intensive it is fun you know when it's done right it's fun to support the hobby”

    Don @ ~21:00 — Signals increased YouTube video production focused on mods and gameplay documentation

    • Blues Brothers
    game
    Spinal Tapgame
    John Wickgame
    Barry O's Barbecue Challengegame
    American Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Interval Chicagovenue
    Pinball Expoevent
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Joeperson
    Las Vegas Pinball Museumvenue
    Pinsideplatform
    Kinetesis Colinperson
    Rick and Mortygame
    Black Knightgame
    James Bond 007game
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Aussie Pinball Podcastmedia
    Stern Starsgame

    high · Don's licensing contract analysis; comparison to impossibility of Stern open-sourcing Jaws IP modifications

  • $

    market_signal: Jaws generating strong distributor chatter and rapid sales velocity; no evidence of production slowdown despite Godzilla's prior success tier

    medium · Don reports distributor statements about rapid sell-through; anticipates extended production run if sales sustain

  • ?

    community_signal: Interactive Pinball (Trent Kennedy) represents talent/engineering capability at 'stumbler' professional tier distinct from hobbyist modding; complex mechanical/electrical engineering work with custom PCB design

    high · Don's tier taxonomy: hobby level vs stumbler vs professional; detailed engineering description of Sharky Ball mod

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Keith Elwin designed both Jaws and Godzilla; hands-on involvement in code, layout, and mechanical conception; shelved early shark-engulfment mechanic due to cost/tolerance constraints (speculative by Don)

    medium · Don's analysis of engineering tradeoffs; notes Elwin's multi-disciplinary design approach

  • $

    market_signal: Home Pin targeting $5k entry price point; Don counters with $3-5k used market availability (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Tales from the Crypt, Funhouse, High Speed, Black Knight 2000) offering superior games at lower risk

    high · Don's direct pricing comparison and used market recommendations; frames Home Pin as poor value proposition

  • ?

    product_strategy: Home Pin's Spinal Tap missed Pinball Expo deadline from prior year; now Blues Brothers announced for current Expo but shown as non-functional prototype; pattern suggests execution challenges or delayed timeline

    medium · Don notes prior Spinal Tap absence despite announcement; only 10 units reportedly distributed through single US distributor

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jaws received code update featuring new 4th of July mode, indicating ongoing post-release development and content expansion

    high · Don captured update live on YouTube; mentions new mode triggered mid-recording

  • ?

    rumor_hype: John Wick pinball machine widely anticipated but unconfirmed; no official leaks, playfield images, designer attribution, or manufacturer confirmation available as of episode recording

    low · Don explicitly states: 'I haven't seen any leaks nobody showed me the play field I haven't seen the art I don't know the concept'; speculation based only on timing patterns

    • 9:28
    So I did a YouTube video because I think that's the best way to capture this. And I went through every step of the install so you can kind of see all what you're getting. You know, with the premium and LE version, you know, the shark actually comes up and out of the play field. And if he's going to gobble the ball, you've got to add a subway, but there's this other extra mechanism that's in there. And so the way that this thing was engineered, you could tell, came from a professional mind. If Stern would have created something, it would have been probably something along the lines of this. It probably would have had, you know, ejection-molded plastics or, you know, air vacuum-molded plastic rather than 3D printed because of the volumes they'd be doing. but it's a way that it conveys a subway capturing funnel under the system, a subway to convey the ball back behind the back wall of the play field. There's a vertical up kicker in there with an integrated control board and a micro switch that sends the ball back up. This red snorkel, I'm calling it, that feeds back into the little loop that goes behind the back wall of the gameplay field. Then it feeds back into the right ramp. So that's fun. Okay, so people have been asking me, all right, Is this like cheating? Does it change the gameplay really? I would say, you know, shooting this thing, the shark's mouth isn't easy to hit every time, but I have been able to repeat it, so it's not completely awful. But essentially all it's doing is hitting, it's registering the hit as if you just smacked the rubber shark in the face.
    10:54
    Occasionally, if you get it right, he'll gobble it, and the red LED light like illuminates the ball as it's going down the throat. And from the perspective of a player, you can watch straight down the shark's throat. Like, it's not just a simple scoop that the ball just disappears in the gameplay. Like, you see it roll out back there. And then it returns to the wire form, which is a much safer shot. So, in a way, it does make the game slightly more forgiving because of the fact that, you know, a ball that just bounces off the shark could come straight down the middle. This one, a ball that goes directly at the shark and gets in the mouth is going to come back safely to the right flipper. So, in that way, yeah, it is pulling away from a little bit of the potential for difficulty. Not that it's like an easy shot or it makes it like a baby game. Now that being said, I still got a Billy on the game after I installed it. But it wasn't because of that. It wasn't because of that. It was because of the modes. It was because of the, you know, the fact that I was able to complete bounty hunts and get into the multiballs and keep them going. That's what really helped. The other thing is this time I decided to go ahead and sell my gear back to Quint, and that gave me like 250 million points. So that was like a quarter of the way there, right there. But I'm taking it, man. I'm taking it. It was amazing. So I did a video of the gameplay of this so you can see how it works in person. You know, is it for you? Is it not? That's an individualized decision. The quality of this mod is definitely there. So that's why I would put it up in kind of like the stumbler level of mod makers and not so much the kind of hobbyist mod makers like myself and some others. No denigration. That's just kind of where we're at. I'm not around, you know, making my own control boards and PCBs and all that business. You know, I need help when I need to alligator clip into something, you know, So I'm not going to go take on that myself and mess up with your UL listing or your machine and blow something up or melt down your house or something. You know, it's not going to happen with a chunk of PLA that looks like a chicken bucket. So also in that video, I did show one iteration of my chum bucket that I made. Okay, basically, I turned it into a bucket of chicken from KFC. It's blowing my damn mind with how silly this thing looks. I got the colonel sitting there with a red striped bucket with, like, legs and thighs sticking out the top. And, oh, God, I don't know, maybe I have a problem, but I think it's simultaneously hilarious, and it still functions just like the Chum Bucket does. So if you want a Goofy Bucket, get at me. I'm thinking like $20, and I'll send one of these out to you, $5 for shipping. We'll make it happen. People have reached out already and said, you know, they'd prefer a Popeye's one, so I got that cooking. But for sure this chicken will be available to anybody that wants one. If you can't afford it, email me, and I'll hook you up. Just if you really want to have it and you really can't afford it, that $20 is just going to put you over the edge. Your homie here has your back. And if you want some silliness in your machine, just let me know. I'll send out some stickers too and everything else. So, man, I'm having fun with JAWS. I had fun with the install of this mod. This mod is not cheap. It's $470. For that, you are getting, you know, essentially home-built parts, though they are of good quality. Like these are 100% infill kind of prints. you're really paying for his engineering you're paying for the control board you're paying for the LED that hooks up there but yeah I like this thing go check out the video it's on YouTube right now a lot of people have made their way over there and are enjoying it and I think I'm going to start kicking out more YouTube content because although it is a little bit more labor intensive it is fun you know when it's done right it's fun to support the hobby with more things out there to see and do of course give me your feedback and what you think on all that business. All right. What happened? Let me go back. There we go. All right. Back on the track. Let's transition now to some lameness.
    14:36
    Let's trigger something that gave everybody the blues this week. This was Home Pin showed up to this Taiwanese Expo with their next game. Okay, so they revealed this. Everybody has heard this by now. But, yeah, the guys from Home Pin, this Australian fellow who's got a company calls an australian company they build in taiwan they were in mainland china until mainland china went sideways and now they're in taiwan i don't denigrate him for that at all uh you know taiwan all day man um but i have a problem with uh with this game okay i don't even know where to even start with this so his concept is that he wants a game for you know around five thousand dollars is where he's going to bring this thing and he wants to market to people that aren't really savvy in pinball, which right off the bat, giant red flags there. But, you know, someone that has, you know, a downstairs and a pool table and some billiards and maybe, you know, an arcade game or two and wants a pinball machine but doesn't really know much about pinball machines but wants to spend $5,000 and not an extra $1,500 to get something brand new in box or, you know, anything from, you know, $3,000 to $5,000 that already exists and is amazing that's out there, you know, go pick up yourself a Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Tales from the Crypt or you've got to find some busted funhouse somewhere or High Speed or Black Knight 2000. If you want a game, man, games are out there for less than $5,000. Anyway, this thing, we saw the pictures of it. So he's doing Blues Brothers. And he's already come out last summer on the Aussie Pinball podcast where he was talking about, we have a movie license we're coming out with next. It's not going to have assets and things. That's how I'm bringing the price down. So don't expect an LCD screen or any assets, which honestly if he had an LCD screen in Blues Brothers it would probably just be playing the trailer over and over I digress God there's just so many points to this so the guy's bringing out this game, it's Blues Brothers the thing is completely barren he essentially took Stern Stars Stern Stars? Who did Stars? Stars which is a fairly barren layout I don't have a ton of time on it at all but it's got one pop bumper It's got, like, one sling up top, a couple slings down below, and essentially you play to goose up the spinner, and then it's all about hitting the spinner for points. So, you know, at first I'm like, he didn't put any thought into this design at all. And then I was like, oh, this is stars. Okay, then he put even less thought into it than I thought. It looks like even, you know, the shot draining out of the spinner doesn't even look like it's aligned in a way that it probably should be. Regardless, regardless, this game's overpriced for what it is already. let alone his choice to launch this thing as open source coding, which is fraught with difficulty. I will speak, okay, as somebody who has just started, not even coding, just programming a coding software that already exists and running headfirst into every brick wall This is not something to be taken on lightly by somebody that just casual into pinball Oh I pick up this game and maybe I code some stuff on my own No, no, no, no, no. That's not going to happen. The people that have the know-how to do this are deeply into pinball, and the type of people that he's already said he's not targeting or reaching out or trying to sell a machine to in the beginning. Like, this whole thing is bonkers. And so I think what it came down to, because I have a mind that works this way sometimes, like what's the angle that he's working? You know, no sensible person will license a game, release it, and then say that the code is open to interpretation from anybody out there fresh from the sewer to go ahead and do whatever they want with. What licensor would want their property handled in a way like that? Can Stern come out with JAWS and say, you know what, everybody have at it, add assets all you want, add your own callouts, put your own licensed music in there. Like, there's so much violations of a licensing contract inherent in that idea.
    18:37
    So I think what the idea is, this is just kind of a backdoor way around him making available, you know, a file of, you know, music and call-outs and things from the game and just saying it came out from somebody from the community or, you know, it just floats out there. And he's like, oh, look, what somebody made by accident. That's crazy. Here it is available on the Discord, which, by the way, is highly moderated. I don't know where to go with this, man. This guy's supposed to be at Pinball Expo marketing a game, ostensibly, from Taiwan from an Australian fellow. So there's going to be money involved in bringing a game to Chicago's Pinball Expo. And if you were going to go through all that trouble, wouldn't you want to market to the people that are going to be going to a Pinball Expo to begin with? Like, sure, there's some members of the general public that come out, and they like to play the free play machines and see all the new things. But, like, you know, who's taking games home from the show floor? Like, there are people that are there that know what they're seeing, know what they want, and they're picking it up. And that's precisely who he says he's not marketing to. And even if he was, we'd see right through all of this stuff to begin with, man. So, you know, where is he even going with this? So we'll see. I don't know. You know, Spinal Tap was supposed to be at Pinball Expo last year, and it was not, and Spinal Tap was supposed to be in existence now and is not. Although I did hear from Joe at Pinball Star, he's the worldwide U.S. distributor for HomePin, that there are 10 machines inbound to somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania, I think, where he's at. So if you really are just wanting to get a Spinal Tap, Joe's your guy. But those are the only publicly available machines I can think of that were actually commercially produced. there's that one kicking around I won't say anything bad about it I haven't been to the place yet but the Las Vegas Pinball Museum I guess they're calling it supposedly there's a prototype spinal tap on location there one person I've talked to that went out there the game was down so I don't know I can't really comment more maybe it's going every single day of the year and thrilling families and my friend just happened to go on the one day it was down but that's what I'd heard if you've been there recently comment down below I don't know, somewhere. And let me know if you've been there, either on the Discord or the Facebook page, or email me, or text me. People seem to be able to find me.
    20:58
    But this game was supposed to have been out now for a while, and just nothing. It was supposed to be at Expo and nothing. And so now we're hearing that Blues Brothers is going to be at Expo, and I'm anticipating we're not going to see it there. Well, maybe, well, maybe, well. I'll go over, I'll play it. Okay, I'll play the damn thing. But, eh? Well, I don't know, because at Taiwan, there's a big sign on the machine saying it's a non-playing early version and more to come. So this game is there, but, I mean, I don't even know if it was turned on, the lights even work. It's non-playable, which isn't always the best look, you know, unless you were, you know, an established company and you really wanted to come out and show what you were working on, although nobody does that, so why bring a game out that's non-functioning? You know, unless you're a homebrew maker and you just kind of want to show off what you got and get some tips and things. I can't think of a great reason for a commercial company to bring out a product that's not working to a place like a trade show where it's going to attract attention. You know, the people that go there are going to show photos, and then it's going to show up on NAP Arcade, and this is going to be the first look at this game and at this play field, and it's not even playable. Like, why even bring that, you know, unless you're, like, soliciting donations or GoFundMes or angel investors or what is even going on? So the whole thing is just Boggling of the brain And that's Home pit You need someone out there to make haggis look good And yeah So good on you there My Australian fellow Man what a week it's been Watching all that stuff So we'll see what develops We're on the cusp of John Wick If it's coming out next week Then Monday they'll probably talk to the distributors I'll do the distributor reveal video, and then Tuesday we'll get hopefully our sizzle reel, and order banks will open, and then we'll be into the age of the wick, which isn't a bad age to get into. We're in the age of Jaws right now if we're looking at periods of time based on Stern's releases. I'm having a great time swimming around with Jaws. Jaws is selling amazingly well from what I'm hearing because people are getting the games. They're anticipating their games coming. I'm hearing a lot of chatter about it. distributors are like you know getting the game in they're going right out so jaws is being a good seller i don't know if it'll hit godzilla levels uh kinetesis colin just did an article uh you know stating looking at where sales numbers have been uh but it's all based on kind of conjecture and you know third-party observations because stern doesn't release numbers they're not a publicly traded company they'll be holding to that jersey jack doesn't publicly release numbers they release uh you know edition sizes you know limited edition Jersey Jacks are limited to 5,000. Maybe 700 are made. But we have no way to know how much is actually out there. The only way we can really survey the market is by looking at Pinside on ratings, on people that have publicly said, I own this game, here I am. But that only gives you a section of the market. Tons of people own games that don't have them registered on Pinside. I think I'm even one of them, and I'm savvy about pinball. So, yeah. but from what we can gather Jaws good seller Godzilla great seller so that tells me that Jaws is likely to be in production for probably the next forever you know why would they retire this if it's selling that's fantastic what's John Wick going to do I have no idea I haven't seen anything I haven't seen any leaks nobody showed me the play field I haven't seen the art I don't know the concept I don't know for sure who's making it I don't even know for sure if that's the game that's coming out next week if at all. Still could be X-Men 97, could be Pokemon, for all I know. But I'm anticipating, as every week goes by and we don't hear something, it's even more likely that the next week is when we're going to get something. So I thought there was a chance that this week may have been the week. There's a much better chance that next week, starting Monday and Tuesday, will be the week. And then if nothing happens then, then it's even more likely that that first week of May is when we're going to see something. We're heading into summer, man. May is right around the corner. We're going to be there with a new cornerstone game. Is it going to be worthwhile, or is it going to be like a Deadpool or a Bond where, like, okay, it's fine, but I think I'll play it on location. I don't need to have it at the home. You know, what's going to make that determination? What am I going to see on this play field layout for this game that's only rumored to exist that I have no, you know, inception on what I'm going to see? What would make it a buy versus a bye-bye, right? What will it pass me by? So I suppose if I see some cool ramps, I like ramps, I want to see some interesting shots where it's not just Venom's fan layout, but ball going to interesting places. I want some sort of thing that I can see that I have to wonder, how do I get a ball up in there? What does that do? How do I qualify? Because that's what I like in pinball. when there's some sort of upper play area or some kind of plastic mechanism or something where I know that balls interact with it, but I have to kind of figure it out. That's what I want to see. So we'll wait and see. If it's got some of that, if it's got some magnets, if it's got some frenzied play, I think I would be into it. If it's like Sea Witch or Beatles, I don't think I want a simplistic layout and then try to sell it on gameplay. I want some interesting stuff to shoot. I want something like Jaws or, you know, like Stranger Things. There's magnets and cool stuff in there. You know, something interesting. Projectors. I really can't wait to see what they bring us because I have no idea what it's going to be. And it going to be a total surprise Speaking of surprises I was on a surprise visit to Chicago a couple days ago as I do and I ended up in Interium as one does because I tend to be in Chicago before 5 or 6 p when a lot of the other pinball places and bars open up. So Interium's kind of like my go-to. They open at 10.30, and then there's a whole mall that's there, too. There's a Lego store. I can go get some Garrett's popcorn.
    26:52
    So there's some fun stuff to do there. And they always have a ton of games, at least one of every American pinball game, which, you know, is fun to get into. So I was back there, and, you know, as soon as I walk in, I go up the stairs, turn the corner, and they're always changing their layout up, and the very first game in that prominent position right across from the Mater D lady was Barry O's Barbecue Challenge. So I sauntered on up. I lathered up with barbecue sauce, and I jumped back in, and this was around 11 a.m. or so, so it wasn't busy. You know, the games hadn't been played all day, So it was a very fresh game, which is a lot different than the games that we're playing at Texas Pinball Festival. Also, American Pinball tends to use this arcade as kind of a proving ground for their games. You know, so it wasn't something that just came out fresh out of the box and needs the flippers tightened and needs, you know, there's some lock nuts that are bouncing around and falling over the place. Where the heck did this washer on the play field come from? You know, it doesn't have that kind of stuff. So a game that's broken in and playing some prototype code as well. because I did see a couple of characters in there that I hadn't seen active before. There was a, you know, I don't know, some kind of slew-foot Sally lady and then some kind of firefighter guy who kept saying he was a sergeant. That was interesting.
    28:09
    But I got to play the game with fresh flippers was the thing. So I had no problems hitting the shots, no problems hitting the ramps. Even, you know, medium shots tended to, you know, fully transverse the ramp. I wasn't getting rejects like I was at TPF with, you know, the hot flippers in the game that's maybe not set up right. This game was leveled. The flippers were strong. I was able to hit the shots. I was having fun and engaging gameplay time on barbecue. I was putting balls into the little saucers to lock. My wife and I were playing two players, so she actually stole the balls during a multi-ball.
    28:43
    Although, I think you still get credit for them if you've locked them before under your character. But smashing the balls around, it was fun. It was fun. I will say I still have some issues with the plunger rods on the American Pinball games. They use that little old beehive style. And for some reason, I don't know if it's the games that I'm playing, they're just not oiled up at all. And I put a little drop of mineral oil on my shooter rods to make sure they're sliding good and not catching. But with the American Pinball games, I notice more often than not, especially with GTF, you try to get a little skill shot there, and there's just no way to dial it in because sometimes the shooter rod is catching and sometimes it's not. So it's just like, eh, it's a little frustrating. So I definitely got that with barbecue. I hear there's some hope of some new designs coming in later. But, yeah, I was having a good time playing the game. You know, the game felt fair. It felt balanced. I was able to hit shots, and the spinners weren't totally killing the balls on the ramp. So I wanted to put that out there. I think for the folks that are receiving barbecue, because barbecue is selling no matter what you hear. It's in boxes and going out, going out around the world, it turns out. So when they show up on locations I think we'll hear that This game's actually a fun pinball game Maybe the theme's not for you That's fair But it was playing a whole lot better Than it was playing at the Texas Pinball Festival So hopefully They'll bring some to a show That are broken in like this one is I know when I played it at MGC I was having problems because the games weren't level So they're really favoring the outlanes, it was hard to line up shots to get the balls out of the saucers because the game wasn't level. I could tell it wasn't.
    30:28
    So you've got to put some better playing ones out there. Maybe once they start getting out into some arcades, some locations, your buddy's house, you can go play it. You can then evaluate the game based on its merits when it's playing well. I guess is what I want to say. So I had a good time on BBQ. I went around the room, played some Banzai Run, played some Ninja Turts.
    30:49
    Did I jump in on anything else really. Pulp Fiction was there, but I'm hoping to have one of those soon, so I skipped it this time. Oh, you know, I went down over by the bowling alley area, and I got to play Stern's Elvis for the first time, and although the theme is just grating as all heck to me, I hate that 1950s sock-hot mentality, which is right in Elvis' wheelhouse. The shots were actually super fun, so I'm glad I got to play that. But yeah, so it was a good time at Interium, and I was about to head home, and then I get a call from Ron Lindeman over at American Pinball and he's there. Notice I'm in Chicago. And he invited me on by. My wife Monica had not been to American Pinball's facility. Dave was like, hey, why don't you just come on by for a visit? So we did. So surprise visit to American Pinball. Thank you so much for that. Thanks for walking me around your production facility. Love that place. It was a little more casual. This was after 4.35 o'clock, so most of the staff had gone home. So it was just me, Ron, Monica, and old David Fix wandering around the storehouse and checking everything out. So I can verify that there are absolutely barbecues being built. I saw a line of about 10 limited editions that will be going out, red powder coat and everything. They're boxed up, and there's shipping labels on them. So people are buying these games, and there's a shipment heading out to Germany that they showed me, and I can bear it. There was shipping labels on them. So those are going out. People are buying Hot Wheels still. People are buying Houdini. people are buying Galactic Tank Force, although I didn't see a ton of those ready to ship. Maybe I just was looking the wrong way. I did see that they still do have some signature editions, and at $16,000 for the signature edition, even as cool as that laticular back glass is with its 300 layers of graphics that Christopher Franchi did, I still think $16,000 is big-o outrageous of a price for that game, and that's probably why they're still in the factory there. But if you want to get one, it'll come with the lunchbox and I think the thermos as well. So there they are. Maybe we'll see a little bit of a holiday fire sale on those. Anybody that's been holding out and really wants that lenticular back glass, I talked to Dave because I tried to get one myself and he said the only way to get one is to actually buy the signature machine. So good on him for holding to that and keeping that exclusivity with the machine, although the lunchboxes are available. Well, I guess the lunchboxes were available, but it was the thermos that was going to be special. I don't know. Something got lost there. We'll see what's coming up with their next release because all rumors are pointing towards Expo to be the target date for the next drop from American Pinball. And I can't wait to see what that is because I've heard this rumor of the Whitewater 2, but the rumor is that that is off. But then Ryan is up with his next game or his first debut game from them, and it's supposed to be a license, which we've only really seen one license. far from American Pinball with Hot Wheels, although Houdini is more public domain, but kind of a license. So yeah, what are they going to make? Are they making Masters of the Universe? I have no idea. You know, I'm always looking around for clues, but I'm a little dense. I don't pick up on things, but I brought my bloodhound Monica with me, and you know, she's pretty good at sniffing out things, and she couldn't really find anything that they had left out. So they've got everything locked up pretty well, you know, before they walk folks around there. But yeah, it was good times. We'll see what happens. So all signs are pointing towards a fun summer of pinball, a new game from Stern Pinball for sure, and then a bunch of drops at Pinball Expo in the fall. And if there's one thing to be happy about that summer's coming to the end, it's because fall's coming up. And that is the season of Halloween, Halloween events, haunted houses, pumpkin spice, me getting my basic Uggs out and going all pumpkin spice chai, and then Pinball Expo, where we should get new games from, let's see, Dutch Pinball, maybe American Pinball. Stern will have another one by then. Jersey Jack might even have another one by then. Spooky Pinball probably is not going to have another one by then. But that's at least four solid games, plus or minus some Blues Brothers. Anything else, email me, dotspinballpodcastgmail.com. Let me know what we should talk about.
    34:59
    Y'all can find me also on Facebook or email me and request stuff. I got people still buying t-shirts. I got pinball mods. I got start buttons. I got all kinds of crap. Jump on the Patreon. I'll put more content up there. Listen to Don's Storytime, where I'm doing candid talks about games that I've owned. Why did I buy it? What happened to it? Do you still have it? Do you not? And other accessory things. So, it's a good time.