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039 - Beetlejuice @ Pinball on Perry - 1st impressions

Punk Rock Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·53m 44s·analyzed·Mar 16, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.016

TL;DR

Podcast hosts rave about Beetlejuice as Spooky's best game; discuss modern pinball's golden age.

Summary

Stephanie and Mike from Punk Rock Pinball Podcast share first impressions of Beetlejuice after playing it at a tournament at Pinball on Perry in Attica, Indiana. They praise it as Spooky's best game overall and best-shooting game, comparing it favorably to Pokemon and Winchester, and discuss the broader landscape of modern pinball innovation. They also speculate about Spooky's next unannounced title.

Key Claims

  • Beetlejuice is Spooky Pinball's best game to date and best-shooting game by a significant margin.

    high confidence · Mike and Stephanie, hosts of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast, after playing Beetlejuice at Pinball on Perry tournament

  • Each successive Spooky game has been better than the previous one, from Halloween through Beetlejuice.

    medium confidence · Stephanie asserting a pattern in Spooky's game releases

  • Beetlejuice was produced in just under 1,000 units (980 something).

    high confidence · Mike discussing production numbers during Beetlejuice scarcity discussion

  • Winchester's layout is executed about five times better than Harry Potter's similar dynamic layout concept.

    medium confidence · Stephanie comparing Winchester and Harry Potter playfield design after playing both at Pinball on Perry

  • Spooky Pinball faces financial risk expanding production capacity; if the next game underperforms after capacity expansion, the company could go broke.

    medium confidence · Mike explaining why Spooky's conservative expansion approach makes sense given their one-game-per-year model

  • Pokemon, Winchester, and Beetlejuice represent three different design philosophies and are all excellent machines.

    high confidence · Both hosts discussing the variety and quality of recent releases from different manufacturers

  • Karl DeAngelo is a new designer working on Winchester for Barrels of Fun.

    high confidence · Mike identifying Karl DeAngelo as a brand new designer on the pinball scene

  • Beetlejuice is best played in a dark environment to see artwork colors and hear audio properly.

    medium confidence · Stephanie's playfield experience at Pinball on Perry tournament venue

  • Spooky sent down a Beetlejuice playfield as a raffle prize for the tournament at Pinball on Perry.

Notable Quotes

  • “I think it's right now my number one favorite one [Spooky game]. Like, you know, I like the Evil Dead a lot... but I've also come to decide... I don't like wide bodies.”

    Mike @ ~13:45 — Key design preference signal; indicates widebody format is a dealbreaker for some players despite game quality

  • “I think Beetlejuice is Spooky's best game. And as far as like the shooting it... I think it's their best like by a lot.”

    Stephanie @ ~22:15 — Clear endorsement establishing Beetlejuice's position in Spooky's catalog

  • “When I play Winchester properly at Pinball and Perry, I'm like, this is what Harry Potter was like trying to do. This is like a successful version of that, like a super successful version of that.”

    Stephanie @ ~35:30 — Competitive comparison between recent boutique releases; frames Winchester as superior execution of similar concept

  • “Every time you do that [facility expansion], it's a huge investment... they're not a huge company... if their next title somehow is a flop, like they might go broke.”

    Mike @ ~42:00 — Industry financial dynamics explanation; shows understanding of boutique manufacturer risk profile

  • “I think it's going to be Gremlins. I hope it is... not Goonies, I'm sorry. That's what I hope it is.”

    Mike @ ~52:30 — Speculation on next Spooky title; indicates host preferences and insider awareness of licensing discussions

  • “The good shooting best games today... smoke those 90s ballets. I'm sorry. They smoke them.”

    Mike @ ~65:00 — Assertion of modern pinball superiority over classic era; pushes back on nostalgia-driven thinking

  • “Toys and mechs are one thing, but I do think you have to have good artwork. Like you gotta have good artwork.”

    Mike @ ~31:00 — Design philosophy statement; establishes that artwork quality is foundational regardless of mechanical features

  • “If it's Goonies, we're on the list. We'll get on the list immediately... If it's Goonies, yeah, that's no brainer.”

Entities

BeetlejuicegameSpooky PinballcompanyStephaniepersonMikepersonWadepersonPinball on PerryvenueRyanpersonKarl DeAngeloperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Hosts played Beetlejuice at Pinball on Perry tournament and gave enthusiastic endorsements; Stephanie rated it her #1 Spooky game; Mike called it Spooky's best-shooting game by a significant margin.

    high · Multiple gameplay experiences during tournament; both hosts independently praised game mechanics and playfield flow

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts assert that current era represents pinball's golden age, surpassing 80s/90s nostalgia. Mike stated modern good-shooting games 'smoke' 90s games and pushed back against collectors stuck in nostalgia.

    high · Extended discussion comparing modern innovation to historical standards; hosts challenged nostalgia-driven thinking

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Three recent releases (Beetlejuice, Pokemon, Winchester) represent distinct design philosophies and all rank highly; hosts praised variety rather than homogeneity in current market.

    high · Detailed comparison of shooting mechanics, layout complexity, and artistic execution across three games

  • ?

    business_signal: Hosts discussed Spooky's conservative expansion strategy as financially prudent given one-game-per-year model; expansion without sustained demand could threaten company viability.

    medium · Mike explained risk calculus: if next game underperforms after capacity expansion, company could fail

  • ?

    collector_signal: Beetlejuice (980~ units) and Winchester (550 units) scarcity limits gameplay opportunity for general population; hosts noted difficulty maintaining excitement about games unavailable locally.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.161

0:00
Hello. Hi there. Welcome back to the Punk Rock Pinball Podcast, episode 39. I'm Stephanie. I'm Mike. This is the show. We're the hosts of the show. I know I always do this, I have to readjust my shoes. I had the beginning. That's just the thing. Okay, well, I'm glad you did that. If you're just hearing it on audio, you don't even know. Didn't even know. It's that silent. You're like a ninja. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any of those, thank you very much. Those numbers keep going up. The YouTube numbers are kind of like steady, but like some are way up and some are not way up on YouTube. On the audio side, it just keeps going up. Everyone's like bigger than the last. So thank you. Thank you for that. Thanks for listening. If you've left a nice review, thank you very much. If you like it and you haven't left a review, be nice if you would.
1:11
Do what you feel. But today we're going to talk about... Our big Saturday. Our big Saturday and we're going to talk about our experience on Beetlejuice, the pinball machine by Spooky. It was fun. The Like, I don't think we need to go into the inner details too many of Saturday. Well, the reason why we were playing Beetlejuice yesterday. Yes. I mean, we can give a brief overview. Yeah, we hosted a punk rock pinball tournament at Pinball and Perry in Attica, Indiana. Yep. Which we've talked about in the past. And if you haven't heard us talk about this specific location, it's a very, very special place. Yeah, super cool place. So, um, there's this tiny town called Attica, which I think maybe is about 45 minutes an hour west of Indianapolis, right near the Illinois border. It's about two hours from us. Yeah. And there is a fellow there named Wade who has an incredible collection of games. Like, real cool. Yeah, super great lineup, like, every Stern LE pretty much. I feel like every spooky, he has had every game that comes out. All the spookies because there's like two storefronts. There's like Pinball and Perry and then they call the other one Pop 2. That has a lot of older games but because he's got like from the spooky games he's got like Rick and Morty over at the other one. Is there Alice Cooper? I don't know if he has that one. I don't know. He probably did it one time. But in the main one he's got like all the all the spookies like well he doesn't have Texas Chainsaw Massacre but he's got Looney Tunes. the A Betelgeuse was the preferred arena, so everyone got to play it, although I never got to play it in the tournament. Huh. Isn't that weird? Yeah, I got on it. I didn't. The first time I played it was in between rounds, and it was cool. It's really cool. But we should also thank Spooky for sending down a... A shit ton of really cool prizes. Lots of really cool prizes. I think where there were spooky coffee mugs, I think Wade from Pinball and Perry got those. Spooky sent down a Beetlejuice playfield that we gave away. So that was super cool. That was so cool. So yeah, we raffled that off in between rounds four and five. And what a special treat that was. And I know Ryan coordinated that with Spooky, so thank you Ryan for being a really good friend and helping us coordinate that event and reaching out to Spooky on behalf of the event as well. That was just ridiculously special. Yeah, well, maybe we'll probably do another event there, maybe something around Pokemon or something. I would love to. April's getting pretty packed for us, so maybe something in May. I'm also really busy in May, playing some rock shows. We'll figure it out. We'll find something. We'll figure it out. And it was cool. We'd also had Megan there. She had, they were giving away free hot dogs. Yeah, they had free steamed hot dogs. We love a good hot dog steamer. So that was cool. It was just all around a very nice day. The weather was beautiful. And a bunch of friends came out from all over the place and we met a lot of new friends too. Yeah, super fun. And what's the guy's name, Thomas? Mm-hmm. Congratulations, Thomas, for winning. Jeremy won the playfield. Yep. Congratulations, guys. But let's get into Beetlejuice, the pinball machine. How did you like it? Okay, so I kind of went in with low expectations. This is my honest word. I know everybody loves Oh, my God. That is true. I know I said that a lot, but a lot of times when people love something, I don't. Okay. So I really just went in with like mid expectations, like is it really as fun or as great as everybody says it is. Okay. And I loved it. I thought it was really, really fun. I would like to play it in a quiet place where I can really hear everything because I feel like the Spookies are meant to be played that way. Yeah. I think a spooky is an ideal location for a spooky pinball machine is like in your house. In your basement in the dark. Or if you can put it on your first floor and put blackout curtains like it has to be dark so you can see all of the colors pop on the cool artwork. Yeah. Hear the sound. Yeah, that's I yeah, I want to like go to pinball on period like one o'clock in the morning. It'd be a little creepy, which would be perfect. I feel like Evil Dead would be more of an in the dark game. Both of them. It's like spookier than Beetlejuice. Yeah, but Beetlejuice is dark. It's kind of dark. But it, um, yeah, it was really fun. I got to the DAO mode. I only played it maybe three or four times. Yeah. But I want to play it again. Yeah. So to me, that's the measure of do I like a game? Is it the next day? Am I thinking about playing it? The answer is yes. I want to play it. How would you rank it among Spooky's other games? I think, well, I think it's right now my number one favorite one. Like, you know, I like the Evil Dead a lot, and I played that one yesterday too. But I've also come to decide, and this isn't a knock on Evil Dead, just in general, I don't like wide bodies. Yeah. Like, I don't like wide bodies. And I hope that when Spooky does Planet of the Apes, it's not a wide body.

high confidence · Mike and Stephanie discussing tournament prizes; Jeremy won the playfield

  • We are in a golden age of pinball with very innovative games being made today, surpassing the 80s and 90s era.

    medium confidence · Both hosts expressing this sentiment during closing discussion about modern pinball's trajectory

    • Both hosts @ ~49:00 — Indicates strong collector/distributor interest in Goonies as next Spooky title

  • “There's rumor that someone has Goonies and I don't know if it's them or if it's Barrels of Fun or if it's someone else.”

    Stephanie @ ~57:45 — Early rumor/speculation about unannounced Goonies game; multiple manufacturer possibilities mentioned

  • “I'm very excited... this is probably the golden age of pinball, even though people say it was the 80s... There's some really cool stuff, very innovative stuff happening.”

    Both hosts @ ~63:30 — Industry sentiment; frames current era as superior to historical peaks despite nostalgia-driven opinions

    • Winchester Mystery House
    game
    Pokemongame
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Evil Deadgame
    Harry Pottergame
    Dune Pinballgame
    Keith Elwinperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Gregperson
    Punk Rock Pinball Podcastorganization
    Jeremyperson
    Thomasperson
    Gooniesgame
    Gremlinsgame
    Planet of the Apesgame
    Attack from Marsgame
    Pop 2venue

    high · Hosts acknowledged limited copies go primarily to personal collections; expressed concern about lack of local access to both games

  • ?

    design_innovation: Winchester's dynamic playfield layout with mechanical ball diverter represents advanced design; Stephanie compared it favorably to Harry Potter's similar concept, claiming Winchester executes the concept five times better.

    medium · Stephanie detailed Winchester's tight shot spacing, multiple ball paths, and mechanical innovation after multiple plays

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Karl DeAngelo identified as new pinball designer on Winchester for Barrels of Fun; hosts expressed excitement about his future work with less production-limited titles.

    high · Mike highlighted DeAngelo as 'brand new designer' and expressed desire to see him work on higher-production themes

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Hosts speculated on Spooky's next unannounced game; Mike predicted Gremlins, Stephanie hoped for Goonies. Unverified rumor that someone has Goonies prototype, possibly Spooky or Barrels of Fun.

    low · Stephanie mentioned rumor about Goonies existence without confirming source; hosts expressed strong preference for Goonies over Gremlins

  • ?

    product_concern: Mike expressed strong dislike for widebody format despite game quality (e.g., Evil Dead); widebody design is dealbreaker for repeated play sessions despite mechanical/artistic excellence.

    high · Mike stated multiple times he no longer enjoys widebody games and wouldn't repeatedly play Evil Dead despite rating it highly

  • ?

    event_signal: Punk Rock Pinball hosted tournament at Pinball on Perry in Attica, Indiana; Spooky provided prizes including Beetlejuice playfield. Event successfully demonstrated new game to hosts and community.

    high · Detailed discussion of tournament logistics, prize coordination with Spooky, and venue experience

  • $

    market_signal: Beeteljuice rated as forgiving, accessible shooter compared to punishing games like John Wick or Fall of the Empire; similar accessibility to Pokemon; strong shot flow enables repeated play.

    high · Both hosts praised shot repeatability, ball save mechanics, and ability to hit intended shots 80% of the time

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Mike asserted that artwork quality is foundational regardless of toys/mechs; cited Star Trek as excellent shooter with poor playfield artwork as cautionary example.

    medium · Mike stated 'you gotta have good artwork' and used Star Trek's weak artwork as counterexample despite solid mechanics

    • 7:54
    Because we know they're working on Planet of the Apes. We all know they're working on it. Yeah, don't do a wide body on Planet of the Apes. And I've kind of come to, at least at this point in my pinball journey, I don't much care for a wide body either. I mean it's like great to look at and you can get so much, so many more things in it casa grande kupeca, vice presidente eleanor morales, Agent blond bat mould,
    8:40
    Burgundy paula 3D Winningень So that's what I'd like to start over and over. Yeah. And like Evil Dead is like super cool and everything in it is so cool. And the artwork is fantastic and the callouts are amazing and the modes are really cool. But yeah, I don't want to repeatedly play it just because of the widebodiness of the game, because it's a widebody. Yes. Yeah. I do like the game. I'm not, like I said, I'm not, not going to use it. It's great. I just think that I learned yesterday that I prefer to not play on wide body games. Me too. And Beetlejuice was awesome. I got a few modes going. I don't really know what I was doing, but I felt like the shots were all... whenever I wanted to try to hit a shot, I would say 80% of the time I was able to do it. Yeah, I missed a lot. So I'll go along with you and say, I think Beetlejuice is Spooky's best game. And as far as like the shooting it, like take everything else away. Take out the toys and the mechs and the call outs or what have you just for shooting it. I think it's their best like by a lot. Yeah. Like the flow, like you can really flow with the ramps. Almost like the almost like Pokemon a little bit. Mm hmm. The layout is quite a bit different, but like with the new Pokemon game and Beetlejuice in my limited time playing them. On each one, I've had at least a couple of balls where I get in a groove where I can like hit the left ramp and hit the right ramp, then hit the left ramp and hit the right ramp. You can like repeat that. It feels so good. Flow and I think it's a somewhat like forgiving game. It's not punishing like a John Wick or a Fall of the Empire or a Black Knight Sword of Rage. You know, it's a forgiving game. You can miss a shot and save the ball and Pokemon's the same way. I love the punishing games, but I also like a Tel 나� Şuptoş stimulating minibus 보시cus
    11:29
    We're going to be playing a little bit of the arcade, so we didn't get to really truly hear everything. The shaker motor is like juiced. You feel a shaker motor from 15 feet away. Yeah. And so that's cool. But it seems like the modes are cool. There's... it's... so much of it is like similar to Pokemon to me in terms of like the scoring and the shooting. Like you have to get the modes to get the money. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next week.
    12:28
    You have everything you need... To win $10,000! después de $70,000! Gerard P The whole time he playing that same ball Yeah he was just I mean he very competitive but it was very fun to watch But he did not come back to win. No, but he was ended up like at 130 million, I think. I think closer to 160. Well, he really scratched his way up there that last ball. And that was the highest scoring game of the day. I think so, because player three had like over like 190 ish and just had like a walk off. But you can score big if you like beat the modes. And like the it looked like the kind of in the final shots of a lot of the modes, there's like a big payoff if you beat the mode. Even if you get in them, and if you hit a lot of the mode shots, you can rack up the points. The shot to start the modes is not the easiest shot in the game. It's over pretty far on the right, so it's pretty far off the left flipper. I don't think you can backhand it, just trapped up on the right flipper. So it can be challenging, like kind of risky to go for the modes, but you have to get them to get the points. I'd say best shooting spooky game, best spooky game period. And I think everyone, if you go back, I think almost all of their games so far were better than the last one. It seems that way. Okay. At least if you go back to like Halloween, right, is okay. But the after Halloween was like Looney Tunes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, right? Great. And then those are better. Either one are better than Halloween. Then that's followed up by Evil Dead, which is great, which is better than Looney Tunes with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And now Beetlejuice. Device deこ returning, Comin, Canberra, We have to be the fifth or sixth next spooky game. We know it's out there. It's out there. So, but the next one, is it going to be better than Beetlejuice? I mean, if it's Goonies. If it's Goonies, we're on the list. We'll get on the list immediately. You probably should get on the list now, regardless. You should just get on the list. Get on the list. Your distributor, if your pinball distributor deals with spooky and you want me on your So, if you want to be on your list, you can email me. Mike at Life from the Rock Room.com, if you want me on your next spooky list. We'd love to be on the list. Let's get on that list. Let's get on the list. Let's go to the next spooky. Because if it's Goonies, yeah, that's no brainer. Gremlins? Meh. Game could be great though. Because, like, I don't care... Here's the thing, too, like, Evil Dead is a theme to me is like way, way, way cooler than Beetlejuice. Not me. I'm not saying for you. I'm saying for me. Okay. Just for me. But the Beetlejuice game is better. Yeah. And also, I'm not one to get all goofy about toys and mechs. If you listen to this show, you know. We just want a good shooter. I just want a good shooter. So like, yes, the toys and mechs in both those are awesome. And I applaud them for doing that. And they're incredible. If you're a toys and mechs person, Beetlejuice is like the best game ever maybe. It's gorgeous. One of the best ever. But it's also just a good shooter. It's a good shooter. Toys and mechs are one thing, but I do think you have to have good artwork. Like you gotta have good artwork. Otherwise, you know, you're playing that Star Trek. The old Stern Star Trek. Oh my God, it's a great shooter. Some of the worst artwork in pinball on the play field. But like awful artwork. Yeah. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Barry Oursler. We talked about the art before and like all of our favorite looking games like half of them we realized like oh Franchi did that. Monsters. Yeah, that's cool. Like one of the best looking games that we have that's Franchi. Evil Dead looks phenomenal. Beetlejuice, phenomenal. Yeah, guy knows his way around some colors and graphics. His art palette there, he's a master of that for sure. We would have to do like it might be fun to rank the best pinball artists ever but there would need to be some a research period yeah we can't just wing that I couldn't wing that not at all and I could probably wing like my favorite pinball designers like game designers yeah we know Borg's on top yeah he's up there you're Borg boy I'm Borg but then you have Keith Elwin with like Jaws is just such a triumph that But I like every other, I like like three or four Borgs better than my next favorite Elwin. But do you award it to the best? Probably a different conversation for a different episode. Yeah, probably. Because Jaws is the best. I mean, yeah. But Beetlejuice is also very good. I'd love to own one. I don't know if we'll ever get to own one. I don't know if we'll ever get to either, but I would love to have one. I think that would be really fun and I would like some private time with it. I'm sure Spooky would like to be able to make more. Yeah. And I'm sure they would like to have greater capacity to build more games more quickly. Probably. I would assume so. And I've seen some people comment, this is around the launch of Beetlejuice, like, This is pathetic. They just need to make more. They need to increase their capacity. And I'm pretty sure I think they have on YouTube the video where they show like all the facility upgrades they've done in like the last few years and it's substantial. And it's every time you do that, it's a huge investment. Yeah. And I've seen multiple people like with negative comments like like that individual and someone like that I don't think quite understands like the financial risk every time you expand for a company of that size. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they're not a huge company. Because if your next title doesn't do as much or more as the last one, you're talking about Spooky who does one machine per year.
    20:59
    So if their next one somehow is a flop, like they might go broke. You know, I don't know how many, if they expanded, let's say they upped it so they can make 2000 games a year instead of 1000. But then the next one only sells 1000. Are you broke now? Well, I don't know. I'd rather than make a thousand and not be broke. Yeah, it seems like they're kind of like expanding but conservative. responsibly You know cuz like Expanding too quickly and then having any kind of drawback in the demand for your product For any company of that size, I think is like a killer.
    21:38
    Yeah, it's like you're threading a needle. Yeah, so I get it. I get why and And then it's like, well, you should still make and sell more Beetlejuice, but then they'd be making Beetlejuice for two years. Yeah. Well, we want to see the next one. Everybody wants to see the next one. There's only so many resources. Yeah, I think that I get it. There's only how many did they make 750? Beetlejuice? Yeah. No, just under 1000. Okay. Yeah. Well, 980 something, I think. So, you know, like, I would assume probably a large portion of those are going right into personal collections.
    22:20
    And so it's just not a game that a lot of people are going to even have the opportunity to play. So I think that's why I didn't get like super excited about it, because I don't think anybody around here is going to get a Beetlejuice.
    22:33
    Greg and Champagne. He's going to have one. But we've never played Greg's house. We'll have to drive to Attica to play or up by Chicago. I think somebody has one or is getting one, one of the locations there. But there's not going to be one like less than an hour from here. So it is a little bit hard to get super hyped up and excited for a game that's like not going to be in your town. Yeah. But I wish it would be in our town. Yeah. I guess Troy has one over in Decatur. Yeah, that's true. We don't go to Troy's every day. No, he's an hour away. And it's an hour away. It's like an hour and ten minutes. So, yeah. So, anyways, it's awesome. I think someone should get one, hopefully. Hopefully Greg does get one and he just doesn't have room in his collection and wants to put it in the club for a little bit. Yeah, because I think he doesn't have room for toppers. We got lots of room for toppers. I think where he puts his games he can't put a topper on and ceilings at our place are 20 feet high. We should just loft a whole second floor. So after playing Beetlejuice, we loved it. We also played over there. So the hot kind of newest three games is Winchester, which again is another one's hard to get excited about because there's 550 of them or whatever. You got Winchester, you got Pokemon, which that's not going to be hard to find and play. Oh gosh, no. And then Beetlejuice, but we've loved all three of them. They're great. Yeah. And I would love to do like a whole episode talking through Winchester, but again, it's like there's 550 of these. So like odds are most of you listening aren't going to be able to play one. It's a bummer. But it is a magnificent pinball machine. That's when you want to play in a basement. It's great. Mm-hmm. And what is really cool to me is like, just how different Winchester, Pokemon and Beetlejuice, all three are like so totally different. Mm-hmm. How they feel to play and like they're all three incredible in different ways. I agree. Right? And I feel like each of those has done a really great job of integrating the IP into it. Yeah. Like for me, and I don't, I don't, I've knocked this game before. I don't want to knock it too hard. But when I play Winchester, I feel like this is how this is like what the Harry Potter The Winchester layout was like trying to be, I know it came out before Winchester, but it's like an ultra dynamic layout with all kinds of unique and inventive like ball paths. Yeah, yeah. Which Harry Potter does have. Yeah, totally. So does Winchester and it's executed about five times better in Winchester than it is in Harry Potter. Mic drop. I don't want to, I'm learning to like the Harry Potter machine better, but the first time I played Winchester properly at Pinball and Perry, I'm like, this is what Harry Potter was like trying to do.
    26:11
    This is like a successful version of that, like a super successful version of that. I'm not saying Harry Potter is a failure. No, I mean, they're cleaning them out. And they're selling like crazy. So people love the game.
    26:26
    So I don't want to poo-poo it, but like Winchester is that type of layout where it's like it's got the mech that changes which way the ball is going to go.
    26:37
    Super weird like you hit it here and it comes out over there and like some really tight like close shots and some far back shots and like just a billion shots on the thing and tons of different ways the ball can go And I think it just executed for that type of layout that feels to me like the best like complex like pinball layout that I played Well, it's certainly setting it like a new bar. Mm-hmm. I feel like all three of these machines are setting a new bar, Beetlejuice, Winchester, and Pokemon. Kind of for different reasons. For different reasons, but like, they're not, yeah, they're all pushing it in different ways, which is really exciting as a pinball player. It's like very exciting. This isn't the same old, same old. Yeah, because like you get on Winchester and you're like, man, I need to play this like 100 times to figure out, because I think there is a flow in there. But you need to shoot it a ton to find that flow. I was the same similar with Kong and like the Winchester layouts a little more complicated than Kong King Kong and then Pokemon is like ultra simple in its layout right it's kind of a nod to like Attack from Mars and Cactus Canyon but then it's doing really unique things with like the code mm-hmm you can catch all these guys and save them catch it catch all these critters In PickFix's
    28:43
    Tim Kitzrow, Barry Oursler, joshuaktumble Tim Kitzrow, Barry Oursler, The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Barry Oursler. It's kind of cool to see this variety of new stuff and it isn't just coming from a singular source. Yeah, it's not all just Stern. Three different companies, three different designers and one of which is a brand new designer, Karl DeAngelo on Winchester. So I'm mega excited to see what he does next at Barrels of Fun. Like maybe on a theme where they don't limit it to 550, you know? I get why Winchester was limited to that. Like who even knows what that is? And I don't know that they expected it to sell out in like minutes or hours as the way it did. So you've got like a new designer, Karl DeAngelo on the scene. You have Spooky who every game they make is better than the previous game they make. You have Stern just delivered Pokemon, which is like crazy amount of fun. And I'm really excited to see where the code goes on that. Because obviously sales figures, sales of that game have been tremendous. So you know there's going to be a lot of resources and investments into progressing the code of the Pokemon game. It's going to be awesome. So I think that game will take the pinball machine code, especially with the way it's connected to Insider, connected to places that we haven't seen yet in pinball. It's going to be exciting the next couple of years in pinball. And then you think about what they're learning with the Pokemon code and progressing and what they've learned with D&D.
    31:51
    And if the rumors are true that there's like a Keith Elwin fallout. Mike's gonna have a, he's gonna lose it. If there's a Keith Elwin fallout. Oh my god. Oh baby. Like, that could be something. That could be the game that you say pulls it all together. It could be. Because Keith Elwin can do an ultra dynamic layout. We also can do one with Flo.
    32:18
    I doubt Stern's gonna bring the toys and mechs in the spooky way. No. I mean they brought some cool ones to Pokemon. Pokemon has cool toys and mechs. But spooky, definitely like, they are ranked number one for... Cause if you're comparing Pokemon, Pokemon, Poke-mon, toys and mechs to Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice wins that. Hands down. Beetlejuice wins that. We are we doing prepare last we buckle Hold on hold on don't keep go You ask are we going back in time, Kendry Marston, beef sitting hell there is. I don't care how many toys Stern puts in the game, but if you care about that, like Pokemon they delivered on the toys. There's three really nicely sculpted, like custom designed toys in that game. Yeah. So they're there. So what do you think Spooky's going to do next? What do you really think it is? I think it's going to be Goonies. I hope it is. I mean, not Goonies, I'm sorry. That's what I hope it is. I think it's going to be Gremlins. The movie's stupid. It is a stupid movie.
    33:35
    I would still want to play the game. I'd rather they do Ghoulies. I think Gremlins would sell more. Probably. I think Gremlins would sell more. Ghoulies was like the rip-off Gremlins movie. I think there's going to be a new Gremlins movie next year. Not going to see it. We'll see it. We've seen all of them. Yeah, they're terrible. They're bad, but... They don't hold up. The guys are cool, though. You could still make a cool pinball machine out of it, even though the movies suck. The movies suck. I feel like there's nostalgia there for a terrible movie. Yeah, I mean, I had a little gizmo as a kid. Did you have a little gizmo? Probably. Yeah, we all did. I think my sister did. Yeah.
    34:17
    So I think you could, there's a great pinball machine there. The movies suck. I know there's a lot of nostalgia, and like, I'm sure it will be great. I'm just saying personally, like, Gremlins doesn't do it. I didn't really like Gremlins when I was a kid.
    34:30
    I liked the movie. I liked it as a kid, but the Gremlins movies, like one and two or however many, they suck. They're terrible. They're awful movies. Don't waste your time. Awful movies.
    34:45
    That said... I mean, maybe Goonies is a terrible movie, but I love it so much I can't see past it. It's better than Gremlins. Well, yeah. For all things AC and لل, I hope you enjoyed this industr決定ヽ Sentinel & General Principal Philip Callaway, Don volleyball coach, Richard Cosimo here,би unconditional Λet, Ms Coffey,VPN, radio. Hey, this is K maintaining a reputation for his amazing Israel. And then Papa Smurf. Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's something you could explore. Spooky. That one's free. First one's free. First idea's free. Next one we talk nickels and dimes. That's right. Like no one's thought of that. I mean, I'm excited. If it's Gremlins, I'm excited to see the machine. I'm excited no matter what. I'm super excited no matter what. I'm just saying that I don't like gremlins. No, me neither. Okay. But the machine could be great. The machine could be spectacular. Like it wouldn't stop me from wanting to get the machine. Well, I'd have to see it first. If it's killer. So you're saying you don't want to be on the list.
    36:27
    If it's gremlins, it doesn't do it for me. Wait till you see the machine. Wait till you see it. I guess you're right. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Because every spooky was better than the last. I know, but you know, Albert says... So if the Gremlins is better than Beetlejuice, you're going to want that. Yeah, if it really speaks to me. It will. It will have spooky speak. Maybe. It could. It might. That's new. That's innovative. That is innovative. So, yeah. Yeah, I do hope it's Goonies for the next... I do too. There's rumor that someone has Goonies and I don't know if it's them or if it's Barrels of Fun or if it's someone else. I would hope it would be like Spooky or Barrels of Fun. Yeah. Like a Karl DeAngelo Goonies. That could be something else. That would be amazing. Yeah. Because you also like, we also were playing some Dune again and you like that Dune. I do like that Dune. Yeah. And I don't like that. I, that whole property doesn't do anything for me. You don't like that movie at all. I like them. I know you do. I know. So there you go. So you could love just as much a gremlins game. Maybe. Because you're not into the modern Dune like at all. No. Because I've watched the movie. You watched the first one with me. I fell asleep partway and you're like, yeah, I don't like that. Too slow. And then I watched the second one and like I'm not watching it. And then, but you love the game. You said yesterday on the ride home, you might. I was saying I wanted to get a King Kong and you said you'd rather have a Dune, didn't you? I did. Yeah. Yeah, I did. So... Well, you can play King Kong over at Joe and Shelly's. CJ has one somewhere. But I'm saying like you don't like Dune. I know, but I like that Dune. You like that Dune. Right. It's kind of like there's something like really unnerving about it. The game? Yeah. Mark Dworden Dakin We're in for a treat either way.
    39:01
    And I actually think and you all know I'm a Stern shill. Today I'm a spooky shill. That's a spooky shill. I just got the spooky shirt thanks to Ryan. Yeah, thanks Ryan. This is the shirt that the spooky team wore at Pinball at the Beach. Yeah.
    39:17
    And you know, so I'm a Stern shill. Yeah. But I would rather Spookier Barrels have Goonies than Stern. I don't think Stern has it. I don't think they do either. Just because I know I feel like... They could bring back the pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, they... yeah. But I just, I know that the cost per unit made on a Stern like has to be slightly less than a Barrels or a Spooky. Has to be. Special thanks to my patrons... and of course, y'all.
    40:13
    It a flop Why Can I Make Lousing I hope they can survive financially doing that I don know anything about their finances But Stern is a bigger operation bigger overhead they need to hit margins I've got no problem with that. I mean, everybody's got to hit margins. Everyone's got to hit margins. But given that, for Goonies, I feel like it needs to have a lot of shit in it. You know what I mean? Like, Goonies, like, there needs to be a lot of this stuff.
    40:50
    I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully, we'll see later this year. I hope so. So, yeah, it'll be exciting. I'm very excited. I think you had said that last night on the car ride home, like,
    41:03
    this is probably the golden age of pinball, even though people say it was the 80s. Like, Or the 90s. Or the 90s or whatever. There's some really cool stuff, very innovative stuff happening. Which is exciting. Yeah. Yeah, I think, um, it's funny, I did say that, and it takes me back to when we played Milwaukee a month or so, a few weeks ago. Mm-hmm. And I was talking to a guy, he was really nice, but he kept saying like, yeah, man, those early 90s is like the glory days of pinball. And I was just said to him like, no, man, like today is today is you said that? Yeah. He's like, no way. Like the 90s were the best. I'm like, it's not close, man. Like the games today, the good shooting best games today, like smoke those 90s ballets. I'm sorry. They smoke them. Well, they should, though, like they have to have like they should be evolving. But many, many, many people think Well, it's kind of like many people listen to the same music they listened to in high school and so they're nostalgic for like what happened when they were you know coming of age and they don't explore beyond that and so they get stuck in there and like yeah and it's those same people like music sucks now yes and I know some of those people I'm friends with some of those people everybody knows those people anybody that's our age I guess like yeah music isn't good anymore and it's people that are like oh music sucks now I don't know what to do with it. But listen to like indie kind of punky indie poppy music like me and it's like there's never been more good music being made than there is right now.
    42:52
    Ever. Well, because it's so easy for people to get it out there. It's way easier to make it, it's way easier to put it out. You just have to look. You gotta dig. But like there's not a 90s game that competes with Jaws. There's not a 90s game that competes with Beetlejuice? No. There's not a 90s game that really even, and this isn't one of my favorite games, there's not a 90s game that hangs with Godzilla? Nuh-uh. There's not a 90s game that hangs like with Harry Potter? No, but let's also say we do love some of those 90s games. Yeah, we just ordered one, we just bought one. Yeah, we just bought Whirlwind. We just bought a Whirlwind. I'm gonna start Lawler Lane at the club. Yeah. And so I need a whirlwind. Yeah, don't come at me like I'm bashing the 90s games, but it's just, it's those guys that are like, that was the best time. And it's the same as the guys that haven't listened to new music since 1996. And saying that was and it wasn't the best time. It was a great time. But now is the best time. Well, it's funny, because yesterday I was playing with a guy who showed up at Pinball I'm Perry with his buddy is they had no intention of joining a tournament. They had no idea what was going on, but I talked him into it. And we were playing Jaws in our first game. And I was explaining to like I was signing in. I was like, Oh, and these new games where you see this little white rectangle, you can download an app. And if you're a nerd like me, you can kind of keep track of your scores and your stats and whatever. And he was like, that's so cool. It is so cool. Yeah, it's so cool. I couldn't do that in the 90s. Absolutely not. So yeah, I think it is the glory days right now. Yeah, and like the, even just for feel, like the modern Stern flippers and crispiness blows away everything that's preceded it. Like there is nothing, and the spooky ones are getting better. Like the Beetlejuice felt pretty crispy.
    45:00
    Jersey Jack ones are getting better like Elton John's pretty snappy. Harry Potter's pretty snappy. But it makes those the 90s ones even when you go and rebuild all the everything in there like they're mushy by comparison. It's fine. They're just different. And I'm not knocking those. We have we own a lot of those.
    45:20
    And we like them and I play them a lot. But like the new ones are Yamaha presents Best Game of Spin a www.inflamecity. channel www.inflamecity.com The And maybe then American Pinball enters the fray and they can make 100 games a week and maybe Jersey Jack gets to the point where they can manufacture at that level because pinball is so big and popular that there's the demand for thousands of pinball machines per year, tens of thousands. I love that dream world. Yeah. I love that dream world. It's not going to happen. No, it's not. But boy, that would be cool. It would be really neat. Because I would love to see what's up next for JJP, but they've got to build these Harry Potters. Yeah, when do you think they'll announce something new? I'm gonna guess in the fall. I'm gonna guess that too. I'm gonna guess like sometime around Expo. Mm-hmm. September, October-ish. That's gonna be my guess, just before Expo. And I think it will be, everyone's saying it's gonna be Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. Cool. By Steve Ritchie. That's cool, I like Steve Ritchie games. I was a Nintendo guy, not a Sega guy. That one does nothing for me. It does nothing. Like, it's not going to be one I'm going to be interested in buying. I'd like to play it. Who knows? You never know, Mike. You might play it and say, oh my God, I gotta have this. I may because I really like Elton John. Yeah. And I don't care for Elton John, particularly his music. You also like firepower. Right. And I'm saying, like, you just told me, like, there's an Elton John pinball machine coming on. We're not excited. But one day we might own an Elton John. I know I even said that the other day. It's good. It's great. Yeah. It's really fun. KJ was loving it yesterday. It's a good game. Probably the best Jersey Jack.
    47:59
    Might be. The top three Jersey Jacks are Elton John, Harry Potter, and Dialed In, and I don't know what order. Okay.
    48:09
    Just for, you know. Just so everyone knows. Just throw that in at the end of the episode. Just so everyone knows. The best three Jersey Jacks. The Easter Egg. It's the Easter Egg. Top three Jersey Jacks. Elton John, Harry Potter, Dialed In. Maybe in that order. I could flip up on Dialed In and Harry Potter. Okay. I don't know about you. I don't know. But yeah, we'll put that Easter Egg at the end of the episode. What's your favorite Jersey Jack? Let us know in the comments below. Let us know what your favorite spooky is too. Have you played the Beetlejuice? Do you want to play the Beetlejuice? Yeah. Do you love it? Do you want to play it? Are you curious about it? Are you Beetlejuice curious? You Beetle curious? Do you want to take Beetlejuice for a spin? I do. You should. I do too. I want to play it again. I want to play Pokemon again. I want to have like all of those right here. I want to have the Winchester right there. Yeah, Winchester, Beetlejuice, and Pokemon. And Jaws. Yeah, that's like kind of the perfect lineup. That'd be a hell of a lineup. God dang it. Damn it. We did try to get a Winchester. We tried to get a Winchester, like just hours, I was hours late. Probably a good thing. Yeah, it's fine. It's probably a good thing. It's fine. We'll get the next DeAngelo one, maybe. Maybe. See what he does. Goonies. Okay. This is 49 minutes. I think we've thoroughly covered our topic and more. Didn't know we were going to rank the best Jersey Jacks, but I went there. Well, you took us on an adventure. I went on an adventure. That's where the flow was taking you. Uh-huh. I was feeling the flow, just meandering around. Man, is it windy out. It's windy as hell. Our friends are still playing up at the Battle of the Rust Belt in the Quad Cities at Midwest Aleworks. I hope they, last I looked, I believe Joe and CJ were still hanging in there. I think Chris O'Brien was in still, too. So I hope they hang in there and get home before this nasty weather. It's fixing the snow up there. Yeah. I think it's going to snow much here, but it's looking like several inches up there. So I hope they get back home to us safely and as winners.
    50:27
    Bring home the metal boys. Yeah. I was going to talk about good shoes for a little bit, but I can do that next time. Oh, my God.
    50:37
    They make a difference. Shoes do make a difference. Yeah, we could have a whole episode on the right shoes for a long day of pinball. Yeah, that's true. We could. Let us know in the comments below if you want to hear an episode about shoes. And what your favorite shoes are. Uh-huh. Good shoes. Yeah. Essential. Yeah, I think you really feel better today, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, you got to have the right shoes. It's a long day on your feet. It's true. Not lying. And then we'll have an episode about how to turn $100 into $7. Mike did that yesterday. I did that yesterday. Cool magic trick. Cool magic trick involving Pokemon packs of cards.
    51:18
    Yeah, it was awesome. Like turn $100 into $7 in 15 minutes. I also have a poll. When you were, I want to know what other people are doing. When you are playing pinball, do you use your pointer finger, your middle finger, ... Or both fingers? How do you flip? Should have done this poll earlier in the episode, probably. Mmm... we can do it again. Can do it on the next episode. Which do you do? I'm a pointer, but I'm getting, like, really bad soreness in my thumbs? Mm-hmm. So, Mike said that I should probably be a double flipper. I don't know, what do you guys do? ... I'm not ready to... I'm not ready to trans... transition to gloves. Did you try the two fingers? I tried yesterday. How did it feel? Weird? I don't know if I did it the entire time. I need to tape my fingers together. KJ, I think, is the pointer finger guy. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'll tape my fingers and take Foo Fighters for a whirl. If you're still listening, let us know which fingers do you flip with. I do two fingers. I used to do just middle finger.
    52:30
    And then I gradually made it to the two finger, I'm a two finger flipper. I feel like when I just do the middle finger, it hurts. I feel like if you do one individual finger, which regardless if it's your pointer or your middle,
    52:46
    it's using smaller muscles in your thumb area. And if you use the both, it's engaging a larger muscle. I might do all of them. Just do your whole hand. Yeah, like put some mittens on. Mitten flippers? Yeah. Okay. And always flip both at the same time. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I've lost pinball game matches to two people that flip that way in my career. Sometimes I just can't help it. Yeah. I mean, I've played two people in my career that always do both flippers at the same time. Yeah. And I've lost the two of them. Yeah, it works. It did. If it works, it works. I'm not, I would never judge. No, flip how you flip. Yeah, you flip the way you feel. Yeah, flip with your heart. Toodle-oo. Bye.