Hello from Benton, Wisconsin. Don's Pinball Podcast here. Worldwide headquarters currently relocating. Thought we'd drop in here for a bit for a quick episode 215. Just hit some of the topics that are going on in the hobby. What exactly is a show game? And what's up with this midnight party? Streaming live from around the world, but somehow still in Wisconsin. How's everybody doing? Man, it's been a great last 24 hours. It's been hectic, man. I can't believe it. So I'll start off with the midnight party. Those spots filled up faster than a barrel that was pre-filled at the factory. It was crazy. So for the uninitiated, I decided maybe about four or five months ago, let me try to push and see if we can get a midnight release for pinball, right? Something that's never been done before. Something that we did back in the days of GameStop and the Nintendo Wii and a new Call of Duty game or something where we would stand in line at like four in the morning waiting for the store to open so we could be the first ones to get it. And then once they started getting tired of people waiting early in the morning, they bumped it to midnight. Now, games had a street date, you know, November 5th or whatever is when it would come out. So the soonest they could legally sell it, or without, you know, violating their terms, was midnight on that launch day. So that's where the midnight launch kind of came from. Never been done in pinball. Really not a reason to do it. I mean, you know, games aren't released in, like, in boxes ready to go. I mean, the last time we saw that was with Labyrinth at Expo. You know, so game deposits get available. But regardless of it being a ridiculous idea, I still thought it was a reason for a party and to do something bizarre. And in my mind, I'm thinking there'll be five of us on a frozen parking lot waiting for the stroke of midnight so we can go in and put our deposits down on the next spooky game. And that's really where it grew. And credit to the guys. Everybody over there at Spooky, Morgan included, thought, you know what? Let's freaking do this thing and just see how it goes, man. Let's throw it at the wall and see what happens. Now, my modest gathering of about five people expanded to 20 slots for what is the game of the year. It's not even revealed yet, and it's already pretty, pretty sold out. Never happened before in pinball. I can't believe the amount of hype there is for this game. I can see why. I mean, it's a theme that is hitting on all cylinders. It's nostalgia. It's been rumored forever. It's got all kinds of opportunities for crazy call-outs and fun mechanisms and a world to play in that we all remember. we want to go back to. How often do we get Tim Burton titles? Not often. And this is one of the greatest, one of his first. Now, Pee-wee's Big Adventure was the first. But, I mean, short of Edward Scissorhands, like, what are we doing here, man? This game looks amazing. It's the Halloween season. Everybody's in a fervor. Everybody's in a frenzy. You know, Stern Machines, we know what to expect. Winchester Mystery House knocked us off our socks. And, like, we're hungry for more of this. And we want to reward the industry that does that. So that brings us to Spooky. So I came up with this idea. Graciously, they gifted me 20 spots to distribute to people that could be randomly picked somehow to come here. Now, this isn't just, you know, enter this online and win something. I mean, you have to travel to Benton, Wisconsin with two weeks notice on a Thursday at midnight in the cold. So it's logistically difficult. So I wasn't expecting the onslaught that happened. So I wanted a fair way to distribute this, right? I didn't want to just get a bunch of raffle tickets out there and then sit there and spin a wheel for 30 minutes and then try to contact people, wait to hear back. Were they really serious about coming? I just wanted people that knew they had the time off work, they had the availability. Let's do this. So I thought I would just open up emails and I'll just take messages as they come in and I'll fill up slots as they come. But I didn't want to just pick a time, just email me after this time because people may set up bots or something. I want to make it semi-fair. So I was like, well, let me release a code word, and I'll do that at noon. And then everybody following the socials can see the word and just email that to me. That way I know it was at least after the time that they sent it. Boy, did they send them. I had 20 spots that were gone in less than 60 seconds. Less than 60 seconds. By 90 seconds in, I had nearly 70 entries for these spots. And people were reaching out. God, you guys, you guys, I love hearing from you, but I've heard from everybody I've ever met in pinball in the last three days. Don, do you have like one more spot left? Surely there's got to be a way you can get one. Remember when I bought you a waffle two years ago? I love you all, and I want to give you all a game, and I physically can't do it. I was able to secure myself one game by being here, but other than that, I can't get any for myself. I wanted like five or ten, man. I wanted to have deposits lined up so as people came in late to the party and something fell through, I could say, here, I got one for you. Don't even worry about it. But like the game is too popular. The game is too popular. So everybody's been contacted. There were a lot of people that did all the right things. They sent the email in two seconds. Like, you know, they may have been one of the fastest people to send it in. Didn't do anything wrong and still came in number 30, number 40, number 50. And it's just, I didn't do, I didn't play any favorites, man. I saw a lot of friends' names on those lists. And I like that sucks that I can include them But I went in order to be fair at the order they were received That how the slots filled Everybody replied back with the confirmation email saying yes I be there Super excited All kinds of expletives. Like people are losing their minds. So I know it sucks to miss out on something like this. And for the people that got in, they're just as excited about it. And so far, the response from Spooky itself has been great. So I'm hoping that we can build on this. This is a test. And then we can make this thing even bigger next year. get rides, a freaking circus tent, I'll be painting faces, who knows, man, we could turn this into an annual event that is just awesome, and it all started from here. So this all kicks off on Thursday, the 13th of November, which is the day before the reveal and the launch of Spooky Pinball's game, the third quarter mailing email address, third quarter report or something, Spooky just put out, anyway, this is the first place I've seen confirmed that they have a time, 10 a.m. Central Standard Time, on the website and by telephone that the remaining deposits, the remaining 50, 80, 60 games that they have left will be going on the website at that time. So that's your next opportunity. And hopefully by this point, everybody that's wanted one has got one except for like 60 people, and you guys can just saunter on into the website, ring up the phone, secure your deposit, and all is well. All right, that's what we're hoping on. So we got official confirmation there. So the 13th, we'll start off with a little bit of a house party in town. I know a place. And then, I don't know, maybe we light up some torches, Frankenstein style, at 11 p.m. We just march to the factory. And then we hang out there in the parking lot. They roll up the doors at midnight. And we can finally go in, drop our deposits, play the game, and then start reporting back. Okay, the way launch day is going to go is we'll be there at midnight doing the midnight deposits. and then around 10 a.m. everything should drop. The trailer will be available. The ordering banks will be open. The telephone lines are open. Go get them until they're gone. All right, so then we will see the full reveal of the game. And this trailer, I'm looking forward to it. I have not seen it. I've only seen the teaser like all of y'all. I have not seen what Flip N Out Pinball has done with regards to the cool trailer that they've been making for these games. I'm so excited about it. I think we may screen it at midnight at the house and then it should be available by the time the game launches at 10 a.m. Go look at it if you just needed to see it before you deposit, but man, I don't think there's a way to go wrong with this game. I've played it fairly extensively. I'm excited. I want it today. I want it today. That's how fun it is. So I think we live in a time with great pinball. This game will be at pinball at the beach in February, and then MGC is after that, TPF is after that, and then this game is just going to be out there. So what exactly is a show game? this was something that Spooky's done before where they went ahead and sold the games on the website they had them numbered and then they would show up to a show and maybe they would just bring in like four extra games just to set up at the booth and then they would hang them up for you know 10% off MSRP or 5% off and just to have something to show at the show and something that people could come up and walk away with you know and for a while that's kind of how it worked you know if you didn't want to get on the list for the game and wait six months two months twelve months whatever it is, depending on where you are in the lineup, you always had the opportunity to just rock up to a show and grab a game early on and just take it home with you at the end. You got a little bit of a discount generally, and in exchange for that, that game was beat on by everybody at the show for about 450 plays or something. So you weren't getting a pristine in-box game, but you were getting a game that had already been opened, had troubleshooted activities done to it, everything's been tightened. If anything was going to break or need adjustment right away, It had been adjusted. So it was kind of like a nice stress test for your game. You'd get it home and do well. When I wanted Halloween, well, it came after I wanted Rick and Morty, which absolutely sold out. And then Halloween sold out because I refused to join a fang club. Why am I going to pay $50 just to give them more money? Ridiculous. And then I found out I should have gave them the $50. I could have had one of these games. So I had been to TPF that year. I was my first year in pinball, like going to shows. And I played Godzilla for the first time. I really wanted one. I went to MGC in Milwaukee, which is an anime convention with a pinball problem. And I went in as soon as the doors opened and went right to the floor, right where I think it was either Tilt or Kingpin was setting up games. And I was like, Godzilla Premium. I want that. I have cash. Let's do this deal. And, of course, you know, this was 2002, 2001. And they said, you know, of course, these were pre-sold before the show even started. Are you crazy? You need to get on a year-long list to get a Godzilla. And they were like, we got Rush Premium. All right. You can't get Godzilla. You can get Rush Premium. So I walked around considering because I was into Rush. Ended up getting one down the road. But then Spooky's Booth was there. This was the first time that I got to talk to Bug and Luke that were there. I saw them at TPF. Didn't really know who they were. Got to play Halloween the first time. It charmed me because I like the theme a lot. And I like the gameplay of those little gates that would lift up behind the slings and the in-lanes. Super fun. So they had two for sale there. They had a butter cabinet and a regular. And I was like, oh, these were sold out. They're like, yes, here's some show games. We bring them just as demo games for the shows. And that's kind of how they exist. So it didn't seem like a big deal for me. I was like, okay, this exists outside of the continuity of the 1250 or whatever they did. These are demo games to come out and be beat on. Similar to how a video game would come out, but like Target would still have one set up there for you to demo, right? So these are demo games. You know, they're called show games. It's a demo game. Something to be drug around to shows, beat up on, and then you can get it for a little bit cheaper and then take it home with you. Fine. I get it. So I walked up with my debit card and went ahead and got myself a standard cabinet Halloween There wasn a number plate on it So when I had the game people would ask me Don what number did you get And I had to tell them no no this is just a demo game It been beat on at shows This one doesn actually have a number on it. So to me, it seemed like it lacked some of that authenticity of the actual numbered units. And so now these absolute units online are talking about how the show games will be the more limited, the more high valued ones, which it just doesn't make sense to me because in my mind, these are still like the demo games at Target, at Walmart, at GameStop, like the ones that you would go and beat up on and test out and then go get yourself a fresh one for your own collection at home. So I don't know. Is that a thing now? It seems like pinball has, of course, the landscape of it has changed, as it always does, over the last couple of years where maybe a demo show game is now seen in a new light as maybe something new and exclusive. I'm not really sure. I don't know where the numbers are at with show games. I don't know if they've all been allocated. I don't know if distributors still have some. So all the people emailing me talk to distributors about getting to a show and maybe getting a show game. All right. I don't know that we've heard official hard numbers. I don't even know if Spooky themselves knows how many they're going to make. It may be a thing that, you know, there'll be no more than 80. Maybe there's 40. You know, it just depends on what they're going to need for shows to have some demo games there for people to play. Seems like they're in an unwinnable situation because when they sell out all of their games, like with Evil Dead, and then they can just go enjoy a show without having to run a booth, people get mad that they don't have a booth with merchandise and things to sell. And then when they're thinking, well, okay, we can have some demo games again. We can do that. We did it with Rick and Morty, did it with Halloween. We can do that, and then we can bring games to shows and have booths, and now people are upset that they're making more games for some reason. For a game that's super sold out, going to be selling for $3,000 over MSRP anyway, and yet people are mad that more games are coming. I don't know that anybody will ever be perfectly happy. I know this. The game is good, and that's what I want. I was telling people to get on a list for months and months and months, and a lot of people listened to me, took that advice, and got in on them, so much so that by the time you got on a list, you may not have been in that allotment window, which kind of sucks. So what do we do now? Do we just call every distro and just put our name on a list a year ahead of time just so we know that we'll at least have one thing? I think that that may be where we're at. Speaking of flipping deposits on games, Winchester Mystery House has now showed up on Pinside. I've seen two postings for $5,5500 right around there in order to take over somebody's $2,000 deposit. Now, this is all company dependent. If you bought direct from barrels, they're not allowing you to transfer your deposit to somebody else. Of course, you can sell your game, but you'll have to take delivery of it first. And really, I don't know that that's that much of a stumbling block. I kind of like the free market on this. I think, you know what, if you got in on it and something came up, you know, divorce, I need money, my job changed, like any of those things can happen. It would be nice to have the ability to just transfer your deposit for that reason or no reason. Realistically, the only way you could do this is by just allowing anybody for any reason to transfer their deposit. They've decided not to do that. I don't know that it really hurts anything. I'll tell you this. There were a lot of scoffs, some scoff laws, sir, this morning or last night when this posting was making the rounds. and then it made the rounds again today with a sold on it. So did it go for 5,000? Did it go for 4,000? I don't know, but I will tell you this. If you weren't sure that you wanted this game at first, which is, okay, a reasonable measured approach, you know, let me see what this game is like first. Let me go play it at a show before I decide I want it. The cost for doing that seems to be about two to $3,000 right now. Now that is better than laying down the 11,006 for a game that ultimately you turn out, I get it. I play it 30 times and I hate it. I mean, you don't want to be in that position. So at least now you know Winchester. Solid game. I listen to Loser Kid. I listen to the designer talk about the game. I listen to WAP. You guys talked to David David Van Es for another hour about just the background, the process, and where this came from. Now I'm sure I want the game. And now I can buy this game in confidence. And my fee for doing that is $2,000 to $3,000 to somebody to flip it. You know what? Nobody, and it's got to be a man, But nobody is spending $3,000 over for this game that's not happy about it. What do I mean about that? If your level of enthusiasm for this game eclipses the cost that's out there, then that's an easy pick, man. You're going to get it, and you may front and say, yeah, you know, I paid too much for this thing. But really inside, if you're willing to spend $3,000 over to take over deposit on this game after seeing it at the show, you're happy. You're happy because there's no way you part with that much money if it's not going to make you happy. So these people are breathing a sigh of relief. Their anxiety has left their body. They're giddy. They know they're getting a game. And they know they're getting a game that they may have already played, watched gameplay videos of, listened to interviews and really believe in the product and where the code is going to end up. I mean, listen to Loser Kid and Carl talk about his modes he's putting in this game, 13 modes, 6 of them are in there right now. He went through talking about the gameplay in each of the modes. They all seem fun and interesting. So hopefully that does bear out. But this game looks and sounds like it's really freaking fun. And so for whoever bought that deposit and paid $2,000 over, $3,000 over, I can guarantee you they're having a good day today. Yes, they spent a lot of money, but that guy has to feel good about that because you don't lay down that much money if you're not going to get a return. And that guy's return is his anxiety is gone. He's going to get a game. His friends are going to come over and want to play with it, or it's going to end up on a location at some point. I'll tell you this other thing if this game maintains this level of hype or even somewhat similar to it then yes you may be purchasing this game secondhand at a markup But then when you decide nine months into it you want to get something else new and shiny and move it on, you're still going to get a premium for that game. And so you're still going to be able to recoup maybe 85, 90%, maybe 100% of what you put into it, depending on how killer this code actually turns up to be and how much the desire for the game sticks around. So there we go. I think that's a reasonable approach. I think that everybody's shaming flippers. I mean, I don't think anybody went into Winchester and bought six of them with the intention to flip them all. That comes with a lot of risk. I think this person that sold this game may really want it, but looking around says, you know what? I could really use an extra couple thousand dollars now more than this game. Let me go ahead and see what we can do. And we'll let the market do what the market does. Now, since I've recorded my last show, I think we saw that teaser for The Walking Dead, a game that just has like, what's the opposite of the Beetlejuice hype? That's what's going on with Walking Dead. And I think it's a bit undeserved. I was actually happy when I heard they were doing a remaster of this game. This is a game that I've never owned. I've always enjoyed it when I played it. It's absolutely grotesque looking when you look at it and it fits that theme. And it's fun to bash the little shed up there up the middle and the other little bash toy that's there. Now, I haven't played them enough to really appreciate the nuance between the Bicycle Girl ramp on the Pro and the Premium. I've played with the Crossbow at a show, but I don't have a hundred games on it to really know the nuance and the difference. And people, it seems like Black Knight Sword of Rage, this is where the Pro is actually the better version to get. That's not the version that's getting remastered. So we're getting something remastered. We don't know much about the gameplay itself. I've heard that it's coming with a full Spike 3 treatment, including the cabinet, which may include expression lights not just inside the cabinet, but also on the outside, maybe on the underneath, maybe behind. We'll have to see what that's going to show. We only have a couple of days. November 4th is when we're going to see the reveal on that, and then all will be explained. I do like the fact that the art will be refreshed because while I did enjoy the playfield art, the grotesque nature and take on it, I thought that the exterior cabinet art was pretty plain and kind of just photoshopped logos on there, and the backlash didn't do a whole lot for me. So I'd like to see what they do with a new approach to the art package for this game, what they do with the play field, how they make it one cohesive, nice package that really complements itself. And then that big screen, those speaker lights, I want to see what they do with this. So this is a game that I actually have a decent level of hype for as far as the game itself. Now, purchasing the game at the price they're asking right now, it's a very easy decision for me to say, I will wait on that right now. Beetlejuice is dropping. Winchester's out there. I'm okay with Walking Dead waiting now. And Stern, to their credit, can churn games out and get them out there. People can play them, and then I'll come up on the back end, and I'll pick one up when you're ready for something new. We'll just call it all rotate. Now, I talked to my distributor, Jeff at MadPinball.com. He's selling LEs, and he said, Don, I know the hype train isn't really on this, and while the LEs didn't immediately day one sell out, Like, people are purchasing full price $13,000 Walking Dead LEs. And you know what? Those people are probably going to be happy when their game comes because they already know the layout of this game. They know there's going to be refreshed art. There's going to be a bigger screen. Will it be comic art? Will it be PlayStation-era animations? Will it be reflective of the DMD? Will it have full show clips? We don't know. But it'll have an upgraded sound system, better, you know, it's going to look great. You know, so the people with money that, you know, aren't really bothered by the trials and tribulations of mortal humans here, they're going to get their games and they're going to be happy with them. Now, this game may not hold value just like every other LE that we've seen release. And then I'm giddy about the prospect of picking up an $8,500 or $9,000 Walking Dead remastered LE in 6, 9, 12 months from now. So you know what? I'm going to pencil myself in for that. And I think that's okay. hey, I'm way more excited about this than I'm excited about picking up a $9,500 Star Wars LE for sure because I don't think the gameplay is there. I do want to touch on this topic on a future show because there is a trend with pinball machine layouts of adding more than one function to each shot, right? And I think Star Wars, more than just the fan layout that it has, it's really showing how there's really only kind of one thing that can happen with each shot. Now, some shots do change. You know, the ramp goes up and down in the middle. But really, you're turning from a brick shot into a shot up a ramp, and then that's kind of it. You know, I'm talking about ramps that pop up, ramps that pop down into subways, ramps that turn into bash toys. You know, even that center shot on Venom had three different functionalities there with the premium. So I'm seeing a trend towards that. We saw this with the spinning pallet with Winchester Mystery House. We've seen it with Evil Dead. And I think Spooky has really latched onto this idea of, like, the transforming play field. So let's talk about that again in the future. Guys, Beetlejuice will be here before we know it. I'm excited about a midnight party that's going to be happening. What a housewarming party. I mean, I couldn't ask for anything more. Hashtag blessed, guys. Be cool. Have a fun Halloween, and we'll check back later. Coming up on a future show will be a multi-morphic moment, so be sure to be square and ready for that. Otherwise, Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is where I live. Patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast for all the up-to-date news and leaks as I hear them, and also some giveaways that we really need to get caught up with, man. Have a good Halloween, everybody. Be good to yourself and each other. Let's go play some dang pinballs.