Heat. Heat. [music] Oh, [music] heat,
[music]
Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat.
Welcome everyone to In Before the Lock episode 32. You've got Rob and Davey Price. What's up Davey?
Rob. Hey man. How's it going? How's it going?
I'm excited man. I'm excited. You know why?
Why? I feel like we've released ourselves from the grip of overplanning this show. We're finally We're just fully winging it. We're out there.
Yeah. Fully winging it. You know, we've got the confidence to wing it. That's really what it boils down.
Well, we're we're AI is next. We are going to be replaced soon
for you guys. I'm sure it'll be way better. I'm sure it'll be way better. Um well, welcome back, guys. We're here for the first time in in two week span in a while. Uh, so that is exciting.
I know. More regular regular uh time frame, aren't we? Between shows, Rob.
We got a we got a we got a method down. GG. Giving us a shout out. What's up, method? Thank you for cheering us on. Uh, we we got a uh we got we aren't winging it completely. We do have a semi plan for this.
We did. We did.
Um, I hope our audio is good. Let us know if you can hear us. Okay.
Um, so we're going to talk about Pokemon. Uh we've got uh the Ellie's hot, baby. It's hot.
Yeah, it's gone. It's so hot. It's gone.
Gone. So hot. Ellie is back. Ellie's We called it. We right here on the show. We called it. [laughter]
Well, I was like, I'm out. I was like, I'm out. So maybe I didn't call it, but uh and then we're going to talk about
I got to say, I didn't expect the to go as quickly as it did. Like I knew there'd be a Pokémon collector contingent that were going to go for that game, but I didn't expect it to be as overwhelming as a lot of
Well, it takes a lot of things to make a game work, and just having that bonus factor of like speculation is is a huge plus for for a game to launch. So,
kudos to Stern uh for knocking it out of the park on the themes.
Uh sometimes sometimes not knocking it out of the park across the board, but at least on the themes, they're they're real good lately. Uh, but it's cool. I mean, I'm getting over my junkyardness. I'm definitely feeling FOMO for not being in on the LE. Uh, but I I can't wait to play it. I haven't haven't got
Yeah, you haven't shot it yet. I was I was about to ask you whether you'd shot it yet.
So, was it at um
I'm trying to remember what the last couple of shows were. Was it
Well, the Pinball at the Beach was not there. I think that was like out of timing by a couple weeks. And uh
I guess TPF will be like the first big show.
Yeah. Yeah. I think so. So Neil's played it, I think, at like one of those sort of gaming convention shows.
Okay. Everyone wants to know what Neil thinks. [laughter]
Yeah. I'm giving him a shout out, so he pops into the comments like, "Yeah, he only comes when you call his name three times."
Yes. Yes. [laughter]
Um,
what did he say? What did he say?
Uh, I think he said it was all right. I think he said it was all right.
Um, he also played Beetlejuice and said that was epic. Um, but then went on to complain about it being really easy. So, uh, yeah, [clears throat] I don't know.
Yeah, it takes I think, uh, I think old Kayman, uh, was waxing lyrical on how good Beetlejuice was in the last, uh, couple of days. So says my, uh, pinball WhatsApp group. So, yeah.
Oh, you're on a you're on a WhatsApp with with Kayman, huh?
No, not with Kayman. Just the just with other dudes who listen to him.
They fill me in on on what he's what he's what he has and hasn't been saying. Well, I like it when Canada is on like a a positive streak because it because it deserves to be it deserves to be positive about it. So, let's celebrate the positivity of the positivity.
Yeah. [laughter]
Okay. So, so uh we're I I was doing an agenda thing and I I got off that. So, we're going to talk about some mods for Pokemon. Dave and I are hacking away at some stuff. Maybe if we we catch catch the vibe, we'll talk about it. Um, I've been like I don't I'm not on the internet that much, but I am in two places talking about how much I've liked uh Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So, I'll tell you guys why. Uh, I'm I'm geeking out on that. And then we've got Mod World. Mod Mod World. Davey's got some fun stuff to share with us. And uh Yeah, man. So So like anything jumped out at you on Pokemon got you like excited early on? Yeah. Yeah. Uh in in terms of about the game which mods Yeah. loads, man. Loads. I mean, I I sort of um I I was excited for the game and then I was disappointed when I first saw it. I think um
I think a lot of people were like, "It looks simple. It, you know, it's not it just didn't it just didn't jump out at me. It looked like, you know, you mentioned the Junkyard reference. It looked like a sort of a rehash of older games. It's had the whirlpool, you know, that they'd used on the previous game uh Star Wars and um you know, it's straight out of Creature from the Black Lagoon as well in the same position just on the opposite side. So, there was a lot of reasons, I guess, as a pin head to dislike it. Um but then sort of, you know, you look at it a bit more, you realize they, you know, they kept it simple for a reason. It needed to be accessible. It needed to go into arcades and be picked up by young kids. Um, and you know, young kids are not pinheads. You know, they're not, you know, they don't know the history of pinball. I was at I was at a birthday like a 50th birthday um party on Saturday night and there was a youngish kid there, you know, going to uni and he was like, "Oh, pinball machine." I was like, "Have you ever seen one before?" And he's like, "No, this is the first time I've ever seen one in the flesh." And I was like, "Let's go up and have a look." And it was it was Ultimate uh, sorry, Uncanny X-Men. And he went up and he could not believe that it looked like it did, you know? really complex and all the light shows and all the ramps and everything cuz I think in most people's heads when they haven't seen pinball before it doesn't look like that you know it looks like I guess how they imagine it to look
yeah dirty and simple and flat maybe or whatever but
you know I think obviously pinball as a hobby has taken things sort of to the extreme because we always want more and more and more but actually as a you know as a as a as a group of people who are coming to pinball for the first time being kids and sort of, you know, young adults. Um, simpler is, I guess, better. You know, it's a it's a better entry point for these kinds of people. So,
well, it Well, it's interesting, too, cuz like, and someone said this to me recently, this wasn't my own thought, so whoever said that, thank you. But, uh,
but it was it was a real conversation. And they were talking about like Potter is geared towards kids and then Pokemon is maybe maybe a little bit different kids, but like Potter's the opposite of Pokemon from a complexity perspective. Now, maybe not from like a looks and a lights and a over the top, but if you think about a rules design, but but on the other hand, like Jersey Jack would never design a game like Pokemon. I don't I don't think so. It's like not surprising.
And and Eric Met was, you know, on it. I mean, I think Toy Story was definitely
way more simple than uh Potter Potter. So, I guess you can't say that entirely, but it is interesting to take two like games that are going to obviously sell high volume and attract home entertainment or or uh family entertainment centers, arcades.
Uh they're they just took a different approach.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, and actually from a you know, a mod making perspective, um I find Potter, you know, quite difficult. Uh you know, and and Beetlejuice exactly the same reason, right? when manufacturers throw everything at a game,
you know, there's not really a lot of opportunities because they've already done so well in like maxing out on the sculpts and, you know, maxing out on the light shows and filling every bit of available space with something. Um whereas when you look at a game like Pokémon, there's, you know, there's so many opportunities there to do stuff with. You know, there's the Pokeball itself, you know, making that a bit more dynamic and animated potentially. There's that, you know, I mean, this sign on the right there, you know, which is above the scoop in exactly the same position as the T.
Make it happen. [laughter]
Like literally, I had about three people send me screenshots of that area and go, "That looks familiar." So,
we had a guy we had a guy come by the shop the other day to pick up his Godzilla. He was in St. Louis and he was like, "Your your guy's stuff is really cool, but have you ever seen Stumbler stuff?" [laughter] Thanks, man. Thanks.
Thanks. Thanks. That makes me feel great. That was a bit like That was a bit like us sitting down for a roast dinner on Sunday night with my wife cooking. She doesn't usually cook and Ivy's like, "This is good, but it's not as good as our friend Fran's roast dinner." [laughter]
Like, sorry, man.
You'll never be as good as that. Like, you'll never be as good as that.
So, yeah, it's a good point. And I mean, like, obviously a lot of people wouldn't like that you're acknowledging that this stuff has room for more cuz they want it in there, but um I also this is this is a $7,000 machine potentially, right? Like it's not it's not even a 10 or 11 or 12. It's $7,000. So there's certainly some room there. Uh you can pay 13 if you want, of course, but uh
I hate those. [laughter] Do you uh do you uh Yeah. So, are anything jumping out at you like uh where you start?
Definitely. Where you started?
100% 100% the first thing that I'll be looking at myself, not a collaboration with you, which we'll get to in a sec. The first thing I'll look at myself is the sign for sure, 100%. Probably that bad boy right there.
Probably a Pokedex, I'm thinking.
Okay. um haven't fully decided yet. Um and I also need to sort of investigate exactly how ligious a Pokedex might be to stick there. Um in terms of Pokémon coming down hard on that.
Has there been any uh has there been any pre pre-legal chatter on on said topic? [snorts]
No. No, but there's there's there's a there's a mod thread that's opened up on Pinide and there's definitely some mods that have already been released for Pokémon, so we'll check those out in a sec.
Okay. Um, okay.
But, uh, but definitely there some kind of electricity for Pikachu as well would be really cool. Um, the Pokéball's awesome. I think, you know, somebody close to my heart's going to be looking at that. Um, there's a lot of stuff, man. So, um, and it's a weird one like from a from a, you know, from a business point of view. Um, you know, I sort of when when it so you sort of look at the timeline of release like people were keen on it, people were keen. it came out, everybody's like, "Oh," you know, all the pin heads were like, "Oh, is that it?" Right.
And I've sort of been monitoring the Pokémon thread and sort of keeping tabs on which modders have been like posting and stuff, right?
Yeah. Okay.
To try and sort of see who's kind of got their finger on the pulse of this one or not, right? And nobody's really I don't think I don't think Tom Da TD has posted in the thread or at least he didn't when I checked last week. Um, Ccades is nowhere to be seen. Um, nobody really seems to be on this. Now, I've been talking to Paul Jazzbuche in the background. He's as keen as I am. He thinks there's a real opportunity here. Um, particularly in terms of the fact that there's this sort of new market of people who will be going after this game. And I guess the question is how you how you how you get to those people cuz they're not going to be on pin side. They're not going to be on any of my mailing lists. How do you let them know that, you know, you've got this cool mod uh for the game? And that'll be an interesting one. Like it might be I don't know. Maybe we have to actually have to go into Pokemon.
Here's the key, Dave. Here's the key.
Tell me.
The mod has to be so obvious that you can't not have it.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, all I need to really do [laughter] Oh, okay.
No segway, bro. That was a good segway. So, so, so before Pokemon came out, and I think that Davey and I were one of probably a thousand people in the world having this exact same conversation, we were like, "We need to make a card dispenser. We need to kick cards out of the front of that bad boy." And the internet certainly validated our assumption. which means that there's probably a lot of mod makers working on this uh problem that we have uh as a as a pinball community. But we're we're kind of tinkering with it already, right? Like is that is that what's going on? Okay.
But I but but I think one thing that you've developed, Dave, I don't even know if you want to talk about that. I think we'll make our version better than than the others. [laughter]
100%.
So we're we're jumping ahead a little bit. So, like there's definitely been a lot of people talking about a card dispenser that goes on the front of uh the machine. And if you've ever owned a stern machine, you know that there's a a hole there for a coin door acceptor. Coin bill acceptor.
Yeah.
No, Bill coin bill acceptor.
Uh and most people use that for a speaker knob controller. At least a lot of people that mod, which you probably are since you're watching. And uh that's a great place to put a card dispenser and and uh
it's just the right size.
A dispenser uh that that kicks out a Pokemon card was just fun. It's just fun. And so our kind of overarching concept, isn't it, is tap into the game, work out when something cool happens in the game, like an extra ball or the replay feature or whatever, whatever it is, whatever we can get access to essentially, but some kind of event that is, you know, a celebratory event in the game and that kicks out a card at that point in time and does a little light show to alert the the player that the that the card's been kicked. out. So, essentially, it's sort of aimed at arcades. Uh, it's aimed at, you know, um, you know, in in a very similar vein as sort of redemption machines spitting out tickets and kind of that buzz that you get when, you know, the, you know, you've done something good, you get that payback um, of that card being being spat out. Um, now
I think I I think did I send you some photos of this pretty early on? I think I did.
Yeah. We you going to show the make world stuff?
I just want to prove to the world that we were talking about this before [laughter]
before Facebook told us to do it.
Before Facebook Okay. I can't I don't know. I'll find it later. What are we sharing anything? Are we even doing this? Are we
No, I mean like in general are we building this?
Are we Are we building it?
The mod. The mod.
Yeah. Yeah. The timeline thingy.
We So So just everyone knows like we're kind of playing around with this. If you want to encourage us in whatever way you want to do that, please do. But Davey's decided that he's going to show what he's been working on. All right. So, this is
this is our [clears throat] current uh design for the card dispenser. Um, [clears throat] and this is the place where the cards sit in this little sort of holder section here. And there's a wheel underneath the cards that has a a rubber band on it
that sort of grips the the bottom card and gets spat out the front here. So you can see sort of all the gearing and the servo motor here. Um, this servo motor will be connected to a some kind of uh patch into the game so that uh the servo motor gets triggered when the cool event happens like extra ball that turns this wheel card gets spat out the front and then there's going to be an edge lit neon uh LED strip around the inside here that will play a cool effect um as the card's coming out to let the customer know that there's a Pokémon card ready for them to pick up. Um, now this is a pretty standard sort of design for a card dispenser. It's how everybody sort of tends to do it. Now, I was sort of discussing this idea with my good friend Paul Jazzbuche, who's also a a, you know, he's in the toy business, so he's very familiar with things that operate like this. And you know there's you know he told me a great story and that I think Monopoly have a patent on like a a card dispenser being used in in games in toys. Um but they're not the only ones to do it. They just hold a particular patent for a particular design. But he said that the the most reliable um card dispenser that's available on the market is the Uno card dispenser. So why so why Julie went and bought one off Amazon, got it sent to me. And interesting, it's it's very similar to this design except it uses two wheels instead of one. So there's a couple of, you know, there's a couple of options here. Um, I've printed this out and done sort of some rudimentary testing. A lot more testing needs to be done. Um, I've got the light strips uh ready to go. Um, they all work like any normal addressable LED strip, so they'll all be fine. We've already built the connection into Stern Games to monitor um uh you know the light PCBs. You know, we've had a bit of a technical hurdle to overcome with Stern games in that it was quite difficult to patch into the big lamp circuit boards in the games. We've overcome that problem now. Um Rob and I have sort of worked through that in the last couple of months. So that's available now.
Yeah. So, [clears throat] the idea there is that like an event like lighting the extra ball might kick out a card. Something to where you if you've got this on your machine and you want to challenge your son or your daughter or your neighbor to do something specific to get a card that you can kind of like explain to them kind of how to to light this major event. Um, it could be related to something more simple than that, but I think that's what Dave has been building is just a way to uh trigger trigger this based on a major event in the game based on an insert. Right.
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And so this is this is the exact size of the uh build acceptor in the front of your coin door. I haven't built any of the fixings or anything like that yet. Um, but essentially this will just sort of screw it. You'll just remove that panel, screw this into the PL into place. uh connect the wiring up to the, you know, the extra ball lamp PCB that monitors that stuff and and away you go. Stick some Pokémon cards in and, you know, let your kids uh get a get a Pokémon card when they get an extra ball. Yeah, I got a uh I'll share a little photo that I had done about [clears throat] how that would screw in. And I think as far as how you can would configure it, if you want to have like a special card in there, it would really just be a bas about how many special cards you stack into that stack. So the stack could be uh 100 cards or 25 cards or whatever. But this is this is the back side of the coin door
uh on a stern. It actually has four screws there uh for the bill acceptor. And this would sit there and it it wouldn't conflict with anything that you have uh inside there. Um, and uh, yeah. So, so I think one one thing that's in this model is like a wheel for adjusting the kind of like the thickness for the car to go through. Are you are you working on that at all or did you take that out?
Yep. Yeah, I've taken it out for the moment. Um because I think sort of V1 I'll probably just hardcode the width of the card um rather than having like a wheel cuz um but yeah, I mean ideally you would have it so that it was you know because based on what Paul was saying and you know in the sense that they're quite finicky and I think I think the issues are that two cards get spat out instead of one. That's one of the issues.
And the other issue is that you just get a full jam. You know, like nothing comes out at all, even though there's cards in the system. So, you know, there's going to be various um mechanical things we'll have to put in place in order to avoid those issues. Um and and one of those will be a thickness card, but initially I'll try and remove as many variables as possible and just deal with Pokémon cards only. um deal with that thickness of card and then we can sort of you know change it change it after the fact uh to accept more different types of cards after that point.
So we're early on on this. Um I think sometimes we would Davey would have a wait list of some kind sign up for this but this is this is just kind of letting you the insiders our 14 amazing viewers right now uh in on in on it.
Everybody gets a free onee.
Yeah. Yeah. So, [laughter] no, uh, shipped it to directly from Dave. Um, but yeah, let us know. Let us know what you think. I mean, uh, I'm I'm excited for it. I think it's a great idea. It's a lot of fun.
That's a great idea.
Uh, and thank you for letting me be a part of it. Um, and uh, I will certainly
Well, it was your idea originally, Rob, wasn't it? So, I guess I guess you can take credit for that one.
Cool. So, so, so you got a couple things in the works. Uh for us, of course, we've talked about a topper. Um it's always I don't know like we've we we moved quickly on Kong and Star Wars and we're definitely not not in that position right now on Pokemon. Uh it's it's a little bit of a wait for the right idea to to come up and we just haven't got there yet. Um
but uh I got to play it first. Usually I've played it by now and that hasn't been the case. I [clears throat] mean it's, you know, and we haven't talked about this, but there's, you know, much, but the big risk with Pokemon is is Nintendo. You know, they are renowned as being extremely hot on protecting their IP. Um, you know, it's it's them and Guns and Roses who have got the reputation in the industry of like suing people for breach of copyright. Um, and you know, you know, I mentioned earlier that we've already got a Pokémon thread, uh, on Pinsside, uh, Pokemon mod thread on Pinsside, um, with some very early mods, the the usual sort of early mods that, you know, come out even before the game's like in the hands of first owner. Um, so I'll just quickly show that as well. Um, so it's created by our good friend Andy at Rocket City Pinball. Um, who usually creates these mod threads. Shout out Andy. Um, and he, uh, you know, of course, he did a poke poke ball for the start button, which was the obvious one. Um, great work by him as always. So, it'll be interesting to see whether because this is like this is like level one in terms of copyright breaches, right? like are Pokeballs going to be covered in, you know, and and you know that's I would say that that Pokeball there would be because that's like the Pokémon ball, isn't it? You know, it's it's the normal one,
but there's various other Poker Balls uh around as well, isn't there? There's Let's see if I Oh, yeah, there's this one. So, they call that the Master Ball. Um and you know, it's one of the other main poker balls that are available, but there's hundreds multiple hundreds of different types of Pokeballs. Um, all different colors. Um, it'd be interesting to know whether they're all covered, you know, under under copyright. Um, you know, or or whether it's just some of them. Um, but we've obviously got a lot of other um things here that are, you know, very much going to be in breach of copyright. You know, putting the Pokémon logo on something. You would imagine if anybody's going to get any heat from breaching copyright, it's going to be things like that. Um, again, uh, you know, a Pikachu shooter plate like that is going to be, you know, of course that's going to draw the attention of Nintendo, uh, for copyright breaches. So, um, you know, this is this is all the stuff that comes out, uh, very early on. Um, and it'll be interesting to see just how hot they are on this stuff because, you know, it's it's pinball. We're a lot smaller. um in terms of you know overall sales amount of money being made all that kind of stuff. So whether they are going to waste their time going after these people to send cease and desists I'm not sure but it'll be interesting and obviously that'll affect you a lot too won't it Rob in terms of like
Yeah. I mean, I think I think depending on your your mod business and whether you have your own website and how you promote your stuff, it's it's it's risky, right? If you're making videos and you're using the word Pokemon on your website and all that, it's one thing to to 3D print some stuff and uh you know, put it on put it on pins. I'm getting a little little bit of feedback all of a sudden. I don't know why that is. Um Okay. Can you hear me? Okay.
Yeah, I can hear you.
Okay. Okay. Good deal. Um so, yeah. So, we'll see. I don't know. If we get a good idea that isn't too infringing [laughter] infringement into a verb. That's [laughter] That's
uh Yeah. So, um Well, yeah. So, so Pokemon Ellie seems to be hot. I don't know if anyone's getting those prices, but it is fun to see a lot of excitement around the game. I think the excitement's kind of got got us beyond being old men uh negative about the theme and uh we're we're back into back into having fun [laughter] with it.
Good. Yeah. Should we should we talk about a few other um should we should we go into straight into mod world or
No, no. I want to talk about I want to talk about Texas Chainsaw Massacre for a bit. A Alec and I got to play TCM at a really cool bar called uh the Headless Bat here in St. Louis. It's actually the electric bat is in Arizona.
This is called the Headless Bat, but it's like a a metal themed uh No, no, they're not related. But uh I had not got to play TCM other than on the floor at a couple shows and I really really enjoyed it. I mean, I'm sure it's come a long way from a code perspective, but it's got it's got some really really fun shots. The audio is really fun. Um, and uh I also I I kind of wanted to talk about it because I I had heard saw a comment that said someone was like, "Uh, hey, Electric Playground, you guys should do a topper for it." And there was a comment in the thread that said, "Oh, well, uh, Bug, who is the the owner operator of of Spooky, I believe. Uh, that's his title, owner operator. Probably not." Um, but uh he was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna do a topper and a shooter rod if it sells out." And I thought that was kind of interesting to like dangle to the community that you're going to do a fancy fancy topper if you guys rally together to all buy set item.
How [laughter] many How many short are they on selling out?
But I like it too because it's like if you sell it out then you're like your incentive
Yeah.
Maybe is not the market's bigger, right?
Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense and it's a fun like milestone
and I mean I think I think a lot of us are like coming around on Spooky cuz they're putting out good games and I'm like I'm looking at some of these older titles, not that old but these titles and with a fresher light and it's really fun.
Same thing happened to Barrels, right? Like you know Winchester kind of gave them a shot of shot of adrenaline.
Um and then suddenly everyone was looking at June again and going oh that's actually really really fun. Um, so yeah, that's really interesting because um, so how do you I mean I know it I know it had some and look, I've only I've only played it on the floor of shows and stuff, so take that with a grain of salt. Um, but the word was that it did have some of the usual spooky sort of issues in terms of reliability, etc., etc. Um,
in in terms of like how it shoots,
um, I've had one game on it, so I can't really comment, but how would you compare it to Evil Dead?
Well, actually, it's got some like really cool ball movement that I just never took the time to appreciate cuz like when you're at a show, you're also waiting in line on the new games and you get to play it once. It's just kind of hard to to to, you know, you need five or six games to like really get a feel. It just got a lot more ball paths than I realized. Um, and I think that the sound integration is really interesting. I think I wrote it off because it was like I'm just not into that theme at all. So too, you know, but once you start to start to play it,
there's this intensity of the game. Like it's actually you feel at this anxiety because the sound feels as like it's building and you start to actually like feel like you're becoming a mass murderer because you you're making these sounds in the game. It's like people dying and it's just like
quick from a theme integration perspective. I think it was just really really intriguing to me. Yeah.
Yeah. Um quick question. How many beers had you had uh when you realized or started feeling like a national? [laughter]
Well, I played this game on that level
three different times
and my my beer consumption was different each time. [laughter]
But as far as acknowledging people,
it's kind of like playing Grand Theft Auto and then you like get in your car and you're driving. It's like there's there's something something going on there. I don't know if I want to admit that, but
uh really really cool theme integration.
Okay. [snorts] I mean, I love Spooky, man. You know, I've I've only ever wanted
them to be uh you know, the best spooky that they can possibly be, you know. I've always loved their games. Um they've not always hit the hit the mark, I feel. Um but it's just so awesome to see them like hitting full stride really, you know? I mean, Evil Dead is an incredible game. Um, an absolutely beautiful game as well. Um, and all reports are that Beetlejuice is, you know, that again. Um, so yeah, man. I'm I'm really excited because I, you know, I just think they're the most exciting manufacturer in the industry right now.
Yeah, Beetlejuice is awesome. The Juice is awesome. So, can't wait for everybody to get a chance on that. All right, man. You want to you want to do some mods?
Let's do it. You going to play the uh going to play the intro?
You know it, baby.
All right. Okie dokie.
What do we got today?
Yeah, it just hits so nice when you play that intro. Mods just much nicer when you do. So, the first first thing uh is
so you know pinball browser which is the bit of software that somebody wrote. I can't remember who. Um that uh enables you to get all of the and change all of the uh assets um on a Stern title on a Spike 2 title. So it means you can go into Iron Maiden um and uh like Neil McCrae who I'm that's the second time I mentioned him. So one more
Where's my sound effect? [laughter]
We need that air horn. I reckon the right right thing for that. Um, so Neil changed all of the uh music in Iron Maiden um because he doesn't like Iron Maiden music. Uh,
that was three. That was three.
Damn.
Where's the the magic? Where's the magic fairy? [laughter]
Yeah. And he changed it to like disco tunes cuz I think him and his wife like disco tunes and he called it disco maiden. So he used pinball browser to do that and it was an absolute travesty cuz why would you change Iron Maiden songs to to disco? I don't know. But he did. Um, and that bit of software enabled you to do it. Well, this week or you know this week and a bit more, somebody has just announced that they've done the same thing for JJP Games, which is very exciting.
Okay. Okay.
Um, we got I mean it's it's only on page two. It's got 47 up votes already. So, a lot of interest in this. Um, it's a it's a big mile.
Somebody's gonna go deep on a game with this. Yeah, I feel like we're going to see something interesting come of this.
Yeah. Yeah, we'll see something interesting. And what I So, you can see here it's a bit of software. I think it's written in Python for all the nerds out there. Um but uh
what's a what's a better example of this than you gave? Like um [snorts] well, one I I'll tell you is like there's a bar in uh Alabama that turned an Iron Maiden into a Beasty Boys game, but they did all the artwork on it and then they did the music. So, it was just like it's a it's a way to take your rethe project or your whatever project to like another level and you're saying this is the first time it's going to be available for a JJP game.
Exactly right. Yeah. Exactly right. And that Beasty Boys game is a really good example actually cuz it's not just a sort of like a you know I mean obviously as a as a pin pinball person you can sort of you know change whatever you want assetwise in the game. So you can change the video, you can change the music, sound effects as well, I believe. So all of the audio visual stuff you now have access to and you can change it all out. Um, and as a as you know, just a humble pinball person, you can change your game in that way. But I think the example you gave with Beasty Boys is a really um great example of people who have used it for some, you know, for for a grander sort of idea, which is a rethe project. And that's a really cool thing. Um, what I really love is that the first comment in response to this was Chinese democracy [laughter] off.
Was that Alec? Is that Alec that made that comment? I'm pretty sure. Pretty sure Alec upvoted that comment.
Okay, they're getting an upote. [laughter] Thank you very much. Yeah, up vote. Um,
look it up, kids. It sucks. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should. Yeah.
Um,
no politics here. Just talking about music. [laughter]
Yeah. So, that's uh Yeah. So, that's that's great. Um, it's in its infancy. It's probably got a lot of bugs. I think somebody was having some problems installing it or whatever, but a very cool milestone, you know. Um,
yeah.
And, you know, it's a it's a it's a great thing. So, well done. You know, people do this out of the kindness of their heart. It's free software. Um,
and this is just sounds. This is not rules or scoring, right?
Exactly. Right. Yeah. It's only the audio visual stuff. Um,
yeah.
Yeah. Rules and scoring. Whole another kettle of fish, I think. Um, I mean, it basically I think you take the game image and then it decrypts it. um and then gives you access to those assets and then you can then re-encrypt it back into the original
ISO whatever it is um with those new assets that you've stuck in there. So yeah, very cool thing, man.
Um now last week we did a massive rundown of all the mods that uh happened in 2025 and a couple that were in 2026 as well. Um, and we raced through everything uh in about an hour.
Is this your my is this your manacopa on leaving something out? Is that where this is going?
Yeah, it is, man. Yeah. [laughter] Very sorry to the pinball ModCo. Uh, who? Yeah. About a year ago.
Oh, yeah. Cuz this one's a monster. This is like
Yeah.
I got to Did Did I send you a video from uh from somebody on this? I'm I'm going to play.
I don't think so. Keep going. Keep going.
Yeah. So, you find that video. So, essentially, um Godzilla, the most modded pinball machine of all time. I don't think anybody would disagree with that. Um has a Mecha Godzilla in it that pretty much nobody's really done anything with. A couple of people had sort of put LEDs in the eyes and things like that, but nobody had really done anything. Um so, Pinball Modco is a fellow who has done a bunch of stuff. I think he worked on Wizard of Oz. I think he was working on Iron Maiden. He had some beef with uh Goya cuz I think he might have copied his flying monkey copied copied his flying monkey mod for Wizard of Oz. Um but anyway, I think I don't think anybody could say that he hasn't done an incredible job of this. Super complex, multiple servos, the head rotates, right? Like rotates continuously and has LEDs in the eyes. And so he's got like I can't remember what they're called, but essentially it's like a electronic swivel plate that still keeps all the electronics connected into the head of the Mecca. Um, and he's doing it all by taking like people send him their Mecca Godzilla and then he does the alterations to it and then sends it back to them. So it's a hugely laborious process for him to do this. Um, and and it's and it doesn't come cheap as well. That's the other thing. But um where did you go from?
I think this is the promo reel. You sent me like maybe the official promo reel on this. Okay, here we go. So you have to actually send it off to him. Is that what you're doing? Yeah. Okay. Which I mean for what it does it's it's worth it. And that's not that's not uh out of bounds for mod making. I mean that that's people do that sometimes.
I think he may also offer [music] cuz I think he has purchased some as well, but that's call as well.
[music]
Yeah. So, it's it's patched into loads of different switches. So, he responds to uh loads of different game events. You can see it's like three different servos running. One in the head, two in the hands. Uh two one each [music] in the hand. So, three in total. Um plus some very clever electronics as well in order to get his head to swivel continuously. Um he [music] should do his actions now, I think.
Yeah, I think this is probably I would have cut some out of that.
There we go.
There he goes. There he goes. Yeah. I mean, it's very cool. Um, he had some initial [music] hiccups when he was sending stuff out to people and the hands were breaking off in the mail and stuff. You know, you know, that's it. It's it's [music] it's part of the course. We've all been through that. You know, there's always a couple of hiccups early on. I think he's he's really come to the party to make sure that everybody's sorted out for all those things. Everybody seems very very happy with it now. Um, and you know, he's just done [music] a great job. So, very sorry that I didn't mention that on last week's show. It was a very big mod of last year, probably one of the bigger ones. Um, so I'm glad we got to cover it tonight.
Cool.
Right. Uh, okay. Now, one of your competitors, is that is that probably doing you a disservice calling Vincent Mods a
No, his stuff is awesome. And I think uh I think I don't know I how he does what he does is is beyond me. I mean he's doing it in small runs so he's spending a lot of time on each one but they're they're very incredible.
Quickly go to his [clears throat] web page because I might be able to So So this is probably his most famous one, isn't it? It's the Dungeons and Dragons. Um
Oh, I was sorry. I was thinking about Tim Proctor. Um
Proctor I mean he's incredible as well, man. Yeah.
So that comment was about Tim Proctor. This stuff is interesting though. I mean, I I I don't know him. I'm sure he's a great guy. I don't mean to speak negative. I think one feedback is like it seems like some of the ideas are regurgitated, but it's also a sweet spot, and we certainly have our sweet spot, too. So, uh I'm sure having this is pretty fantastic. Yeah. So, is he is he doing some mod stuff, too? Is that
Well, yeah, he's so So, he's he's done,
which I, you know, very [clears throat] negatively refer to as the obvious transition into action plate button covers. Um, and uh, you know, I think maybe he should think about doing them in resin.
That's
Yeah. It's like just the level of detail isn't there on that photo and it's not a super closeup.
No.
So, it's like I wouldn't want to see a super closeup.
Exactly. So, I would say without without being mean because like if you look at Okay, hang on. I know my video,
but it's also what what's the price, too? You know, it's like you can you can knock you can knock my man Don for doing a bunch of 3D printed stuff, but it's also not super expensive.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, I don't know what the price is, so we'll check that. But, I mean, look at that. That's that does have good detail, right?
That is resin printed.
So, I'm not sure why
why his work there looks so good. And it does, you know, I think I think that looks good. I think that looks really good. Um, and then I mean Christ, man. That's his that's his uh cover photo and you can see the print lines. I don't know, man. What's going on there? So,
well, there's a place there's a place for everything and certainly right there in your face is probably not the best place for deep print lines. Um,
no. And the first the first comment on his pinside paint. Anyway, let's not go in two-footed on this, but if I was him, I would I would go back to the drawing board on that and get them resin printed and get them painted better. Um, because his other work seems a lot more high quality than that. Um, so [clears throat] anyway, that's that. Let's move on. Uh, all right.
Davey made himself uncomfortable. [laughter]
I actually did. I actually [laughter] did. Yeah. I was like, I feel like I'm being too much of an [ __ ] I tried to save him on the price and it didn't work out either, [laughter] but moving on. Moving on.
Okay, so this one's come out of nowhere a little bit. So, this is the UK, this is the UK uh pinball forum, pinball info. Most people would never have heard of it. You know, it's very, you know, UK ccentric pinball forum. Uh, so my man Mozzy, who I've I've spoken to a little bit over the years, looks like he's just started sort of doing a few mod bits and pieces. So on the previous page, there was like a spider mod for for Kong where he's like essentially repurposed a spider that he's purchased online. Um, a lot of people done that, but here what he's done is he's uh he's created a moving Kong for King Kong Pro. So, on the pro version of the game in King Kong, King Kong doesn't move like he does on the premium and LE versions. The premium le versions, his arms move up and down. He moves back and forth and shakes and stuff and it's very cool. Um, but pro owners miss out on that. What Mozzy's done is recreated that servo movement, the three three servos, one for each arm, one for the body, um, in this control unit, which looks like a custom control unit as well. Um, and then has multiple switches attached to it um to trigger it in game. And uh now let me see if I can go full screen.
This is This is insane.
Like and it all fits in there. Holy cow. No, this is great.
Yeah. Hang on. Can you When I get the screen there, can John Youssi it?
Uh see that?
Yeah. Yeah, we got it. We got it.
Okay. [clears throat]
I'm just blown away. Sorry, I got distracted. So anyway, there it is. My video's my video is acting up, but you can see him moving back and forth and doing his thing.
That's cool.
Like cool, right? So, and look, man. I mean, this looks like
I mean, that's 3D printed. It's a bit It's a bit hard to tell from the photo. That could be 3D printed, but it also looks like
it could be metal as well. He's done a really really good job. This guy's come out of nowhere, man. So, you know, the only thing I'd say about it is the connections look a bit he's using those sort of those pin connections that are a little bit flaky. So, those could be improved. But outside of that, it's really impressive stuff, man. Particularly for somebody who's come out of nowhere. So, yeah, we we've been getting in touch with them cuz Paul's um Paul's doing a King Kong replacement. Um so, oh god, why is my video giving me [ __ ] Let me get rid of that. Um Paul's doing a King Kong replacement. So, it'd be great if that replacement was also available for the Pro and this would be a good way of making that happen. So, um I don't know. I don't know where those conversations are leading, but we're going to try and sort of pull him in and and work out what he wants to do with it.
Cool thing. Yeah, I know. I know.
I do know that website cuz I love their logo. I'm not on it actively.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. You need a logo. Yeah. Okay.
It's like a medieval madness kind of play, isn't it?
Yep. Oh, sorry. Uh oh. So the final thing, Rob, the final thing
was [clears throat] this.
This is a different kind of Mayaopa.
Yeah, we're going to go in two-footed again, man. This is part of our turning over a new leaf in 2026. We're doing less prep and more [ __ ] talking. Yeah,
so far. Anyway. [laughter]
Yeah, so far. That might all change when we decide that the pod's just gone downhill. Anyway, so last week we or I uh you know, we were talking about um a mod that had been released for the Harry Potter CE topper um which was a nice 3D printed sort of facade, I suppose, that goes over the exist
different than this one we're seeing right now.
Different than this one. And you spoke to those guys, didn't you?
I have. Yeah. He's a he's a great guy and he's overwhelmed in a good way. So, off to a good start.
Yeah.
Yeah. Y um and you know, they've done a great job. They've got it all packaged up and and nice and uh it's a it's a twoman team. I think uh two guys sort of just got talking and decided they were going to work together on a solution and they have sort of released that. They've got a mod thread on pin side. You can sign up for that.
Maybe a week after that. Um Oh, here we go. [laughter] We got a comment.
Yeah,
this guy this guy probably I would say based on that text he probably didn't buy it. [laughter]
Yeah, really.
Now is it 2 and 1/2 grand or is it three grand?
Well, it was No, the funny thing was it it was apparently advertised as 3500, but apparently that was a typo and it's actually 2500. So, we are reporters. We have to get our facts straight. And it was actually a bargain. You you essentially save a grand then. That's amazing. Incredible. Yeah.
Yeah. Of course, you could probably save yourself a little bit more if you um shopped on Amazon, but
So, tell us what we've learned about this.
Okay. So, I last week I mentioned that um somebody else had released um another uh topper replacement or mod, I suppose, for the topper. And it looked it looked it looked good. you know, when we sort of during the show, we sort of investigated the photos a bit more and it looked like there was some maybe sort of sketchy stuff around sort of the base, um, which I hadn't noticed before the show. So, it was, uh, you know,
the cracks were forming in real time. They were literally like
they [laughter] were you could see my face going redder and redder. Well, literally when we ended the show, cuz when when the show's over, there's like, you know, we can still keep talking. And Davey's like, I'm not thinking that. I should have shown that. [laughter]
Yeah.
He's literally getting red right now. You guys can see it in real time.
I mean, [laughter] it's since been suggested by people uh that it's actually a 3D puzzle that you can purchase on Amazon. Now, um there's been a couple of funny comments since, uh they released their video, which is, "Cool looking topper. How did you make it? It almost looks like a 3D puzzle." Uh [laughter] and then sure appears to be found on Amazon. Um uh and then the person from Perfection Pinball, uh who uh released the Topper said, "It's not a puzzle with puzzles spelled incorrectly." Not that we're pedantic like that. Um but he mentions it's hard cards stock, blah blah blah. Front side is high gloss. etc. from a high quality topper. So, uh yeah, and then everybody kind of backed off, I guess, because yeah, they're not as big an [ __ ] as we are. [laughter] Um but yeah, so
well, I think when we were talking about it, and look, I'm as with most people in this space, we appreciate you building and contributing, but I think as we talked about whether we wanted to cover this, it was just like it's a learning moment from a disclosure perspective. And I think that that was probably the big issue here was that not only was it not disclosed, but it does seem like it's still kind of not being properly disclosed, right? And you can you guys you can charge whatever you want for something, but like if you are going to charge that kind of money, then like disclosure seem seems really important. So
100%. Um,
yeah, I think that's the biggest issue. And, you know, nicely nicely described, Rob. Um, you know, you know, making making a topper out of a 3D puzzle is great, you know, like go for it. Um, you know, and I'm sure most people who who would see this, even if they knew it was a 3D puzzle, if they if they didn't have the time or the inclination to work out how to retrofit it to their topper, then having a custommade solution like this is perfect for them, you know, and they I'm sure a lot of people would be like, great, you know, let me [snorts] know how much it is. send the instructions and and you know I'll get that fitted because it's a you know the the benefit of these kind of companies who produce these things is they do so in bulk. So these can be purchased cheaper and of better quality than we can when we're producing like 100 units or 200 units. So I'm sure the quality level of that 3D puzzle is very very good. Um but you know people need to be aware of the fact that it is what it is and it you know hasn't been hand produced by them. Um because it's also doing a disservice to the people who have put in like you know a lot of work uh you know on the on that other topper replacement you know who have designed everything by hand and will potentially lose sales to these guys um who aren't being upfront about you know where they source the materials from. or maybe it's amazing. So, if anyone out there did buy this and they got it and they think it's worth $2,500, I we'd certainly like to be wrong. Um, but we'd also like to know if it is a 3D puzzle. I think it is. [laughter]
Seems like it is.
It seems like it is. It seems like it is.
Anyway, uh, so so is that it for mods or or are we That's way up. Okay,
that's it. Yeah. Should we should we wrap it up?
Let's do that. So, we got TPF coming up and we will miss you, Davey. Um,
yeah, I'm a bit upset about that, man. Um, but you're my man on the ground. I expect a, you know, a nice walk around um to, you know, doing the pin walk and and showing the various things there. I was going to send you a big cardboard cutout of myself, [laughter] uh, take around with you and impersonate my Australian.
I want one of those in general. So, please, please make that happen. So, do we have So, we don't really have uh any major announcements. Uh Pokemon will be now consumed by a mass audience and lots of comments on that and I'll certainly share with you guys what I think. I think we did we did an announcement that Hexa, which is uh done one game to date. Is that a French company? They are uh showing their game which has been rumored to be Three Musketeers I believe.
Yep, I believe so.
Um so, I saw some kind of announcement that that's going to be there. uh Hexa releasing a new game. Um and then we'll have Beetlejuice for a lot of people for the first time. Hopefully a little bit shorter lines on uh Winchester House. So yeah, man. We'll we'll miss you. But uh must have a TV cut out. [laughter] Let's build that instead of that Pokemon garbage.
Yeah. [laughter] And uh
I hear that I hear that licensing situation is a real doozy though on the on the Davy cutout, but
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We'll get past it.
We'll we'll talk uh we'll talk offline about what you owe me to carry [laughter] that around.
Yeah.
Nice. Nice. Yeah, man. So, it'll be fun. Um it's a it's a fun show.
Yeah.
I'll have a I'll have a little I'm doing a product announcement
um a day before TPF. Not say anything about it now. Um but hopefully we'll get a chance to speak about that on the next show. um back from TPF and you know I guess it'll be a TPF focused show, won't it? We'll talk about all of the different things that you saw and
um you know your impressions of the new games and we'll just do a full TPF rundown.
Yeah, I'll do maybe that's what we'll do. I'll do some video and then we can kind of talk talk through what I saw. And uh thank you everybody so much. Uh we are uh going to talk about the next show timing. So, we probably will be I don't know if we'll be back before TPF, but we'll be back sooner than normal. So,
let me Yeah, next show would be scheduled for the 16th. TPF's on the 21st, isn't it? Or the weekend of the 20th. So, 20th 21st, 22nd.
So, yeah, we might we might just leave for 3 weeks on the next one and then uh just do a postTF rundown.
Awesome. Well, everyone, thank you so much for being here and we will see you next time. Thanks.
All right, see you along. Bye.
[music]