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Don's Pinball Podcast (patreon feed)·podcast_episode·37m 49s·analyzed·Apr 11, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Don shares MGC impressions, game reviews, and market observations on pricing and gameplay depth.

Summary

Don discusses his experience at MGC (Midwest Gaming Classic), sharing hands-on impressions of games like Ninja Eclipse, Barbecue, Elton John, and various Multimorphic P3 titles. He expresses mixed enthusiasm for most games based on gameplay depth and value proposition, notes supply constraints on limited editions, and reflects on his personal projects including custom flipper toppers and merchandise.

Key Claims

  • James Cameron's Avatar Limited Edition machines are almost sold out with only 100 units produced

    high confidence · Don reports conversation with Ron (sales director) and David Fix at MGC indicating 100 LE units nearly sold

  • Ninja Eclipse has received significant code updates since its Pinball Expo debut

    high confidence · Don states 'the code has been updated a lot since its debut at Pinball Expo' and notes new ally/god mechanics

  • Chris Turner is only looking at selling 100 Ninja Eclipse units

    high confidence · Don directly states 'Chris Turner's only looking at selling a hundred of these'

  • Jersey Jack Pinball's Elton John Collector's Edition is priced at $15,000

    high confidence · Don states 'Fun game, $15,000' regarding Jersey Jack's Elton John CE

  • Barbecue is available on secondary market for approximately $3,500

    medium confidence · Don notes 'If they show up, secondary for $3,500' regarding American Pinball's Barbecue

  • Ninja Eclipse base price is approximately $7,000

    high confidence · Don states '$7,000, go ahead and get yourself one if you want' regarding Ninja Eclipse pricing

  • Weird Al is a mediocre game despite Don loving the Weird Al license

    high confidence · Don states 'Weird Al is mediocre and I love the Weird Al license' regarding Multimorphic P3 title

  • Magic Girl is fatally flawed in design and plays poorly

    high confidence · Don states 'Magic Girl looks so beautiful and plays so awful and I just don't think that there's a way to salvage it. I think it's a fatally flawed design'

Notable Quotes

  • “I will say still, you know, I do enjoy shooting the game. It's fun, you know, but it doesn't have a level of complexity that I'm compelled to get one for sure.”

    Don @ ~08:00 — Summarizes Don's position on James Cameron's Avatar—fun but lacks depth to justify purchase

  • “Monica was like, yeah, this game's stupid and the meat's creepy.”

    Don @ ~11:00 — Feedback on Barbecue's theme and animations from another player

  • “The Cliffs of Insanity, the callouts from the game, the scenes from the movie that play on the LCD, those are fun, those are compelling, those are interesting. But anything that's really going on with the playfield, it's just not integrated very well, it's not very interesting.”

    Don @ ~25:00 — Critique of Multimorphic P3 integration—screen content works but playfield mechanics lack synergy

  • “I'm not going to not get Pulp Fiction because I'm going to Barbecue, right? I'm not going to not get John Wick because I'm going to Barbecue.”

    Don @ ~20:00 — Don's prioritization logic: American Pinball games won't cannibalize purchases of other manufacturers' games

  • “If I was a Bitcoin millionaire and I could just kind of have every new game that comes out just to have it for a while and then sell it for whatever I could get, sure.”

    Don @ ~35:00 — Observation on target market for high-priced games—wealthy collectors with buy-flip strategy

Entities

DonpersonDavid FixpersonRonpersonChris TurnerpersonMonicapersonEmmapersonMidwest Gaming Classic (MGC)eventNinja EclipsegameJames Cameron's Avatar (Limited Edition)game

Signals

  • $

    market_signal: Avatar LE reported as nearly sold out with only 100 units; manufacturers using scarcity as success metric with modest production targets (100-175 units)

    high · Don reports 'The Limited Edition James Cameron's Avatar (Limited Edition) machines or Elite editions are almost sold out whether they are, whether they're not. That's a hundred.' and notes Chris Turner targeting 100 Ninja Eclipse units

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple games criticized for lacking complexity or playfield integration despite thematic appeal, suggesting design/gameplay disconnect across platforms

    high · Don states Avatar lacks 'level of complexity' to compel purchase; Multimorphic games have LCD content that's fun but playfield 'not integrated very well'; Weird Al is 'mediocre'; Magic Girl is 'fatally flawed'

  • $

    market_signal: Significant gaps between Don's perceived value and asking prices; Elton John $15K vs perceived value ~$8.5K; games priced $5-10K above perceived enthusiasm level

    high · Don: 'My enthusiasm for Elton John is there...it's probably around $8,500 and it's $15,000 so I'm not getting one'; 'my enthusiasm for this machine is around $5,200 and the game is $10,000'

  • ?

    code_update: Ninja Eclipse received substantial code updates post-Expo adding ally/god mechanic system; indicates ongoing development and balancing

    high · Don: 'the code has been updated a lot since its debut at Pinball Expo' and describes new ally selection and leveling mechanics

  • ?

    collector_signal: Barbecue available on secondary market at ~$3,500, significantly below retail; suggests weak collector retention/demand

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.113

0:00
If you were afraid to die, I ain't scary no, no, but I'm a friend of lies, I'd rather be a zombie than Tom.
0:30
The end result was really worth it. This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteroportioned I'm a little bit of time. I'm going to talk about how my experience was at MGC. I'll talk about the eclipse and then feelings on pinball, whatever. It's just a kickback day. I've been working all day. I'm just going to hang out with you all and we'll just talk a little bit. I wasn't actually even researching at all about MGC. I didn't get a hotel room until the night before, but I went down Saturday and it was This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite proportering panel in backbox that is backlit during playemás Thanks for watching articles of Big M binding сотрудאני's name Harvard90357 , בא� val潇 Hogwarts, The Harvest Maybe Toryoke Profitectoppierno telescope, 25 counties at seattle castyect Demokrat工程 achepl almighty, Mayorofummer, Commig strike desiobook NS-"nL-"isation to post the из cosStop입니다 иов sl clients who install local Kin Что hate春場 estacade This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unint led by Jim This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite All these great names and positions are great either. So, talking with Ron, the sales director. Talking with David Ficks himself. I'm getting a sense that they're telling me that the Ellie's are almost sold out whether they are, whether they're not. That's a hundred. There's only a hundred of these limited editions. And so success for them, for Berrios Barbecue, maybe 175 to 200 games total. And then they will say, yeah, that was a success, we'll go on to our next game. So now, you know, if I was running a company, I would set loftier goals than that, but it's not my company. It's their clubhouse. This is what they're doing. I will say still, you know, I do enjoy shooting the game. It's fun, you know, but it doesn't have a level of complexity that I'm compelled to get one for sure. I think most people, that's where they're at with it. Monica was like, yeah, this game's stupid and the meat's creepy. I was watching the animations and the animations are complete amateur hours. The game is based on the classic classic and I hope that's just a placeholder but honestly how much effort are you going to put into animating a pig driving a hot rod launching over a bunch of school buses like I don't know it's it's whatever it's going to be hopefully cup heads coming out soon will have like a bonafide like actual finally a theme for pinball that will be The So yeah, that was strange, but it was fun hanging out with David Fix. What a character. I had fun hanging out with Ron. He had some kind of beer pong project that he was involved in. There's some kind of like video version of beer pong. It was kind of embarrassingly early to have that out. I participated in a tournament. Monica and I won our round and then we did not go back to finish. So it was just it was just bizarre. Just kind of bizarre. Hai se Deputy shooty. Harrison, Rich Bêche, Michael Vannus, Didierふsay, and David Varela. айте RPM ANNOUNCER undertakeuelaーレ expectüş בי walletaślę868xx Kréndś 아버 visualize:"锂 Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. RICH
Barbecue
game
Elton Johngame
American Pinballcompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Turner Pinballcompany
Multimorphiccompany
Haggis Pinballcompany
Barrels of Funcompany
Magic Girlgame
Alice in Wonderlandgame
Innovative Concepts (ICE)company

medium · Don notes Barbecue showing up 'secondary for $3,500' implying depreciation from launch pricing

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Multiple manufacturers adopting aggressive scarcity models; Ninja Eclipse ~100 units, Avatar LE 100 units; companies defining 'success' by low sales targets

    high · Don: 'Chris Turner's only looking at selling a hundred of these...a hundred is success for them'; describes Avatar LE at 100 units with plans for 175-200 total

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don indicates decreasing interest in American Pinball's recent output; notes 'I'm not excited about it anymore' despite acknowledging Barbecue is playable

    high · Don: 'I do like playing Barbecue, but...I'm not going to not get Pulp Fiction because I'm going to Barbecue' and 'I'm not excited about it anymore'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multimorphic P3 platform criticized for poor playfield-screen integration; LCD content compelling but decoupled from physical gameplay

    high · Don: 'The Cliffs of Insanity, the callouts...the scenes from the movie...those are fun, those are compelling...But anything that's really going on with the playfield, it's just not integrated very well'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Ninja Eclipse implements ally selection with god-based power scaling system; represents rules innovation in recent Turner Pinball design

    high · Don describes: 'you're able to pick...an ally...a commie ally that'll help you out...a god that bestows powers on you based on how you level them up'

  • ?

    event_signal: Ninja Eclipse well-received at MGC while Barbecue received poor reception; suggests venue-level sentiment divergence or experiential factors

    high · Don: 'good reception for Ninja Eclipse not a great reception for Barbecue not that you could reasonably expect there to be one'

  • $

    market_signal: Don articulates distinct purchasing strategies: operators buying Pro/Premium Stern plus mix of JJP/classic Ballys vs collectors targeting high-priced LEs

    medium · Don: 'If I'm operating a location, I'm looking at some Stern...maybe some Premium Edition, maybe...a Jersey Jack Pinball game just to mix things up and then some old Ballys'

  • ?

    business_signal: Don expresses uncertainty about Haggis Pinball's business model, facility costs, and production status; indicates low public visibility/communication

    medium · Don: 'Are they paying too much for their facilities?...I don't know...I haven't seen anything from the factory...I don't know, man'

    • 7:55
    Find this book at www. populationsystem.teach.wp.com ^^ On the screen size and video are printed to match the Iowa County State of cages. It is still a contin citizenship entry to establish. Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. Kent-M curves pane interes presently entered productive iosity Conse Shut up �� Knapp greedy Low videos Knapp Let's go Enjoy This week in pinball Johnny Pneumonic Black Water Kaneda Pinball Podcast Twippies Awards transliteelectronic So it was cool to see you know a good reception for ninja eclipse not a great reception for barbecue not that you could reasonably expect there to be one But playing a lot of ninja eclipse or ninja eclipse as we calling it you know I started to understand a little bit more of the modes Now the code has been updated a lot since its debut at Expo. So, you know, you're able to pick, you know, an ally, you know, a commie ally that'll help you out. You know, it's a god that bestows powers on you based on how you level them up. So, you know, not a bad game, um, $7,000, go ahead and get yourself one if you want.
    10:02
    You know, Stern Pro pricing is going to come in a little bit less than that and you could get a Mandalorian for cheaper, so, who's this game for? I don't know. Now Chris Turner's only looking at selling a hundred of these, so, you know, okay, fine. So it's their America's Most Haunted, so, you know, it's not going to sell great, but a hundred is success for them. This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic Out朝 Klein� Basket 정도 exacerbation הנdraw poison incarcerated Nığı proposed dere têm a pojaw正 This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unint The Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite proportering panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unintificant You know, you'll take that discount and there you go. So, I don't know. We'll see how that shakes out. But it seems unreasonable for me to think a distributor would balk at them discounting an open box product that was demoed at a show, right? I mean, call me out if I'm out of line here. What else was at the show? Jersey Jack was there. They had some games like Kingpin basically brought them. No, nobody from JJP was there. They did have a collector's edition Elton John. Fun game, $15,000, a lot of money. My enthusiasm for Elton John is there. It's a great game but it's probably around $8,500 and it's $15,000 so I'm not getting one. My daughter got to play it. I actually played a three-person game with Squirrel, myself and Emma and Emma just thought it was stupid as a preteen does. Morgan blew it up and she got like 56 million. Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. Closed Caption by The Closed Caption Project Team
    14:19
    Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. What else do we have going on? American Pinball talked about them. Barry O was there. Every other game was there. Whatever. I don't know. I'm not excited about it anymore. I do like playing barbecue, but again, even though it's 6,000 something, I'm not going to not get Pulp Fiction because I'm going to barbecue, right? I'm not going to not get John Wick because I've got to barbecue. So that's just kind of where it is with that. Not a bad game. If they show up, secondary Margaret for $3,500. Eh? Eh? Eh? Eh? And that's kind of where I'm at with it. Let's talk about Multimorphic's P3 system. I do like the technology. I don't like the gameplay for Jersey Jack Price's a third of a gameplay field. So here's the thing with the Multimorphic P3 that I've kind of come to now. Princess Bride is fun. Okay. Final Resistance is fun. Weird Al is mediocre and I love the Weird Al license. But it just is not a great game for me. Pick a abbey,
    16:03
    Play combosdenlyarcosa.com RO APP The Cliffs of Insanity, the callouts from the game, the scenes from the movie that play on the LCD, those are fun, those are compelling, those are interesting. But anything that's really going on with the playfield, it's just not integrated very well, it's not very interesting. That's not why the game is fun. So I don't know why you need to put it in this cabinet. The original idea was, okay, invest in this platform and then for $2500 to $3000 you can This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unint The Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic The game is a fun game, but I don't think it's fun because of the screen. I guess if I got gifted one, I would play it, but I don't want to spend any kind of actual pinball money on it. That's kind of where I land on it. Now, if they keep coming out with some licensed themes that are compelling, then maybe I could see it. I don't know. But it's like I've been saying, anybody that has one can give you five reasons why they love it, rival esa is a supervisor at T T P F acontec Morning after immediately i'm but here in google you know yet chipper klar essential they realize the a dealer about the principal she seeds one hundred aron a lot here and i a culley sells motorhomes an army's and then he picked up more than work Knapp Arcade David Van Es The pinball podcast is brought to you by the Pinball Podcast Network Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonicbrance, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite тебronamiliartext This Week in Pinball, John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite�
    20:49
    Um, and it didn't look very compelling to begin with. Magic Girl looks so beautiful and plays so awful and I just don't think that there's a way to salvage it. I think it's a fatally flawed design. Alice in Wonderland may be really cool, so I see why they want to do that. And maybe they're just hedging their bets with D.P.X. Um, I'm gonna start my own pinball company called D.P.P.X. Don's Pinball Podcast Extreme or, or exclusive or whatever that X stands for. So I should get some t-shirts printed up with D.P.P.X. on them. Page Contra, Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. I'm John Popadiuk, and I'll see you next week. Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. Clowning on the launch
    23:32
    This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unint This week's topic is the most popular topic in the game. The game doesn't look like complete garbage. It looks like it would be fun to play. It's not a theme that I'm looking to spend any kind of money towards. But I'll put $10 in it if I see it on location. And that's kind of where I'm at with it. I think my enthusiasm for this machine is around $5,200 and the game is $10,000. So it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And I don't think I'm alone. You know, if I was a Bitcoin millionaire and I could just kind of have every new game that comes out just to have it for a while and then sell it for whatever I could get, sure. And so maybe there's a hundred people in that market that can buy this game and then it'll be successful. Maybe that's who they're catering to. But, you know, if I'm operating a location, I'm looking at Stern Pros, maybe some premiums, maybe the odd LE, maybe, you know, a Jersey Jack game just to mix things up and then some old ballys. Hallmark explodes, Hallmarkações Tuesday Bell and Ciao, Hallmarkкольку NCAA Essay, Hallmark Turns to 38B pero eska y call me copyright around 19 people buying their ciel and award or all al skin griping packages of a tribal police and yeah you know i've had e any other appreciative strategy is not fun .
    25:56
    The Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Game of Thrones unint I'm at the quarter of four, remember the original plan was to buy the next four stern games, starting with foo fighters and just sell them as each one comes out and then at the end, I'll see what that cost me, was it worth it, just as an experiment and so far I'm on number three Jaws, I've got a buyer for it already, Jaws is looking amazing, it's pimped out in all of its powder coat, I just put in a rubber kit throughout the whole game, really recommend you do that if you've got a Jaws, putting blue posts on everything and then I printed some flipper toppers for it. This game is just so fun, man, and I'm going to miss it, but I may get another one down the road. But it's sold, so that brings this rolling cash ball to whatever is next from Stern. I hope it's not a total drag, and then I think after that I may take a little break from just buying every Stern that comes out. But it was a fun experiment, and so far I think it's kind of worked out. I've been having a lot of fun, and I've been able to stream the games, so that's fun. That's fun. So, you know, Dungeons & Dragons, is that a codename? Is that a real game? Who knows? Who's the new designer? Supposedly the last thing I heard was that John Wick was going to be a brand new designer for Stern. Maybe it's Elizabeth. We'll see. We should find out here probably before the end of the month. When I'm giving away this Jaws armor on April 30th, we're probably going to know what the new Stern machine is. So that's fun. So that'll be fun. JJP, what's going on? Maybe something at Expo or after. I don't think the fervor for Elton John's going to keep up. The CEs are being made right now and then the platinum editions will be run again and then that's probably going to be it for a while. I think demand is probably satiated. So what are we going to see next from them? Honestly, I have no idea. But it's probably going to be another game. It's going to be $12,000 to $15,000. And even if it's great, I still don't know that I would jump at that. Dutch Pinball, what's going on? DPX, DPPX.
    28:14
    I haven heard about when we supposed to see An Alice in Wonderland I don know if they going to run this concurrently with their next game Rumor to be back to the future We see Haven seen anything hide or hair or strong rumor speaking one way or another about what coming on with them. So I think they're in the kind of wait and see mode. American Pinball talked about them. Jersey Jack, Spooky Pinball. Won't see a new game at Expo. Maybe see a new game around the first of the year. When are we going to see Motorhead? I think they'll probably run it. I think they could do a run of 125 to 250 Motorhead games. Motorhead's a fun game and it's a good license and it's good music. It's, you know, not as complex as a barbecue but has such a better theme and some really engaging old school gameplay. I really like it. It had people playing it the entirety of MGC so I would like to see them bring that up as a boutique boutique. This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite [...]participal panel in backbox that is backlit during play laptime. The
    29:52
    Topic of this Week in Pinball mariáticas And we know history and behavior amo我知道 playing handler happy finished in the hömer 특 Prevention ważne From Backbox nuclei, Spinball dumbbelllord unpluguro for touchdown, SWE, flitte sigma Yukio Daichokdama, fanлон Argentzo fabulous priori, flitte sigma attachede, halpăpassene, biyingge beyannavae 38or20's comp fiancía, kja sepänrene Poll говорит 활협â, Millaropaka, rel wszystk normalizedasănë n nılpaÕ laptop, ebuñietndėifiodiesed, uaknčia, femxlly rali �nieridze, PCG TfOEpniĞėh ka ritual coercă unir consensusi îg 2004, queștă These Sanctim Consultation Co.,ilt, horđ aík legos Abdul- intelectual, oficialis nălza 2025A-計, We'll see what happens. Are they going to relocate to the U.S. where manufacturing is easier for pinball? Are they going to stay in Australia?
    30:44
    You know, what is the story behind Haggis? I would like to see a behind the music on what exactly went wrong. You know, are they paying too much for their facilities? Should they have started in a garage and built more organically? Or is everything completely fine and they just like to be quiet and make games? I don't know. I don't know, man. I know I've only seen one Centaur in box and I haven't seen anything from the factory. The WPPR is a production of WPPR.com. All guesttalk and all guests fueled Auf Over hakkade Super Bowlвон syntax parti peinece Funtime Entertainmentах encontடن Gucci Minaa Thank lumpah meine Framedubesijax', I did buy the pin armor set from Barrels of Fun so when I do travel with a game it'll be completely wrapped up and protected so I'm happy about that but that's kind of the news about what's going on here. I had a great time at MGC. I don't think I'm going to miss it next year. It's happening the same weekend so I'll go ahead and reserve that ahead of time. The eclipse was great. You know, I left MGC Sunday afternoon. We drove down to Champaign, Illinois. And then it was only another three hours down to where totality would be in the southern part of the state near Carbondale, Illinois was where we were heading. Now, by the time we got down, there was like 8 p.m. I stopped at a Wienerschnitzel in Illinois. It's the only one that's around in the Midwest. And then I'm like, okay, well, let's pull up Orbitz. Let's go find ourselves a hotel room. And there was nothing available. Kin carriagejäniter Hä Lotsykko k從 hoe Goilu mouseardon Teresa History sasla This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteregon Ateremony dolph serialized Employee drawing of C Decılly contestants for appear at nahi This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic Subtitles by the Amara.org community
    35:43
    I'm just exhausted and I get a joy out of just talking to people and letting you all know what's going on. So I've been working in the garage. I've got another project I'm working on, very excited about. It's going to be kind of a slow burn. Nothing really to reveal yet. I've had people reaching out. Somebody else wants to buy that t-shirt with the shooter rod. It's already sold but I think I have another shooter rod kicking around so we'll go ahead and do that. I think what I might do is offer a t-shirt and then also a bonus with it, whether it's some 3D printed LE plates or badge plates or some start buttons or apron cards or something fun. Flipper toppers I'm doing now too. I just made some for Jaws. They're pretty simple. They show some ocean waves on a blue background and they're red so it's like blood on the water for the lower flippers. I'm going to come up with a design for the upper flippers too, but if that's something you're into, reach out to me. I'll kick them your way. Closed Caption by The Closed Caption Project team
    37:08
    This Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball, Twippies Awards, transliteelectronic I'll jump back on here and let you guys know all about it. Alright, later everybody.