Monster League Hockey | Artist Brad Albright | BONUS X

Bash Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·16m 7s·analyzed·Nov 14, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.018

TL;DR

Monster League Hockey wins Expo 2025 homebrew prize; Brad Albright emerges as in-demand pinball artist.

Summary

Bash A A Pinball Podcast bonus episode featuring interviews with Monster League Hockey homebrew creators (Glenn, Lonnie, Joe, Austin) and artist Brad Albright, recorded at Pinball Expo 2025. Monster League Hockey, a two-player head-to-head homebrew based on a modified Alvin G soccer cabinet, won Best in Show and may be developed into a production game. Brad Albright discusses his artwork on Monster League Hockey, Portal, and Winchester Mystery House, reflecting on his seven-year journey to break into professional pinball game art.

Key Claims

Monster League Hockey won Best in Show Homebrew at Pinball Expo 2025
high confidence · Host opening statement; confirmed by multiple team members
Monster League Hockey might turn into a production game if there's enough interest
medium confidence · Host: 'I'm hearing might actually turn into a production game if there's enough interest'
Brad Albright did artwork on Monster League Hockey, Multimorphic, and Winchester Mystery House
high confidence · Host introduction and Brad Albright own confirmation in interview
Monster League Hockey is a two-player head-to-head homebrew based on an Alvin G soccer cabinet
high confidence · Joe and Lonnie describe the original cabinet and modifications
Brad Albright chased the dream of doing a production game for seven years before Portal
high confidence · Brad Albright: 'I've been chasing the dream of doing a production game for like seven years. Okay. And then Portal was it for me.'
Monster League Hockey features six LCD screens and six flippers
high confidence · Glenn and Joe describe hardware: 'We got six flippers six LCD screens'
Playfield can be cut, printed, and cleared with UV coating in 48 hours
high confidence · Lonnie: 'you can actually cut, print, and clear a playfield and have it ready to install in like 48 hours'
Monster League Hockey team used FAST boards and Mission Pinball framework based on Python
high confidence · Austin: 'We're using fast boards' and 'Mission Pinball framework, which is based off of Python'
Winchester Mystery House is described as 'the game of the show' at Expo 2025 with exceptionally long lines
high confidence · Host: 'Everybody's talking about Winchester. We haven't even been able to play it yet because the lines have been so long.'

Notable Quotes

“I've been chasing the dream of doing a production game for like seven years. Okay. And then Portal was it for me.”
Brad Albright @ N/A — Brad Albright's career milestone moment working on Multimorphic Portal after years of pursuing professional pinball art
“It's weird and surreal. I'm generally pretty, like, humble and diplomatic. So I'm just trying to appreciate the moment, the weirdness of it, because I would never expect this kind of response.”
Brad Albright @ N/A — Brad Albright reflecting on unexpected success from having artwork on three major pinball machines
“We enjoy it. I like hanging out with my friends, you know, making pinball, making friends.”
Joe @ N/A — Core motivation of homebrew creators: community and collaboration over commercial goals
“The flipper to LCD ratio is one to one. We got six flippers six LCD screens.”
Glenn @ N/A — Technical highlight of Monster League Hockey's ambitious screen-to-playfield integration
“We had the opportunity for friends that made this. So it gave us a little bit of advantage. But if you want to use fast boards, there's a Slack channel for that.”
Austin @ N/A — Accessibility of homebrew resources and communities for aspiring pinball builders without prior experience
“Everybody on it was doing such incredible work that it's just a lightning in a bottle kind of thing.”
Brad Albright @ N/A — Description of Winchester Mystery House development as rare, synergistic team effort
“Winchester was a surprise gig that had a very short timeline for me. So I had like no time to overthink it. Go, go, go.”
Brad Albright @ N/A — Contrasts Brad's meticulous Portal experience with Winchester's rapid, high-pressure development
“The hobby can get a little toxic and cynical. The amount of goodwill that people have shown towards the title like an unknown is just amazing.”

Entities

Brad Albrightperson Glennperson Lonnieperson JoepersonAustinpersonJake Danzigperson

Signals

?
event_signal: Monster League Hockey wins Best in Show Homebrew at Chicago Pinball Expo 2025, generating significant buzz and potential production interest
high · Host: 'Monster League Hockey which won Best in Show Homebrew. Congrats, guys.' Confirmed by all four team members present at expo.
?
community_signal: Homebrew scene shows maturity with sophisticated two-player competitive cabinet, full LCD/screen integration, professional audio design, and potential path to production
high · Monster League Hockey features six LCD screens, six flippers, RGB post lighting, UV-printed playfield, Mission Pinball framework, and professional voice acting; host notes homebrew showcase has grown from 3-4 to 40+ games
?
personnel_signal: Brad Albright emerges as in-demand pinball artist after seven-year pursuit; artwork featured on three major titles (Portal, Winchester, Monster League Hockey) within a short timeframe
high · Brad Albright: 'I've been chasing the dream of doing a production game for like seven years'; host describes him as 'the artist on Winchester Mystery House, Portal, and Monster League Hockey, the incredible two-player homebrew'
?
design_innovation: Custom playfield printing technology enables 48-hour turnaround with UV direct-print technology and custom inserts, reducing production time dramatically
high · Lonnie: 'you can actually cut, print, and clear a playfield and have it ready to install in like 48 hours' with UV coating; enables hire-for-service custom playfield manufacturing
?
technology_signal: Mission Pinball framework (Python-based) and FAST boards becoming standard for accessible homebrew development; democratizing pinball creation with community support structures (Slack, Discord)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.011

0:00

Hi folks, this week we have a bonus episode for you. We just posted a video about Monster League Hockey on our YouTube channel and we also have an interview with artist Brad Alpera. which should be posted anytime now if not already. This episode is basically a podcast version of those videos so if you've seen those already this will be basically the same thing. But I recommend checking out the YouTube page if you also want to see what we're talking about and get a little more context. These interviews were recorded on the fly at Chicago Expo so excuse the background noise. First up we'll have Glenn, Lonnie, Joe, and Austin talking about their roles in creating Monster League Hockey which won Best in Show Homebrew. Congrats, guys. It was produced by Jake Danzig, and it's an incredibly fun two-player head-to-head homebrew that I'm hearing might actually turn into a production game if there's enough interest. After that is an interview with artist Brad Albright, recorded at his expo booth. He did the art on Monster League Hockey, Multimorphics Portal, as well as the show-stealing Winchester Mystery House. Next week, we'll have a new episode about Don's first pinball tournament and a video that goes along with it. Let's go! It looks amazing, Glenn. Can you tell us what your role was with this machine? Starting off, we did Saw last year. Jake asked me if I wanted to do the audio, and I said, well, who else is building the game? He goes, I don't know. I said, well, how about we just get the whole Saw team back together? So I did all the audio. The dream team. The dream team, that's right. I did all the audio. I wrote a lot of the calls. Jake wrote a lot of call-outs. Antoinette did call-outs. That's her with the hair. You see her walking around. I have two characters in the game. One is this guy, Francis. He's a Romanian three-horned goober, whatever that is. And then I also have like an announcer voice. Just generic, you know, ESPN hockey announcer guy. Cool. What can you tell us about the artwork on this thing? It looks amazing. This is Brad Albright. This is his third layout with art at the show. He did the Winchester Mystery House portal and now this. Oh, he's killing it. So this is basically Pinball Expo 2025, the Brad Albright edition. As a homebrew machine, what is original? This was an Alvin G soccer head-to-head game. We did not like the inserts. It had some interesting things about it. We put it together, original flippers, and the original flippers were weak. The game wasn't a lot of fun. We put brand new flippers in it and had the kind of Frankenstein to get them to work. The bottom of the playfield is absolutely slammed. There's no room under there. And so putting stronger flippers made the game faster, and that's what we stuck with. So, yeah, new inserts, all LED RGB lights. We got two large LCD screens as well as four small ones. So is the play field a brand new play field that you guys made or is it a reskin? So he printed it flat. So Lonnie with graphic dimensions printed it, sent it to us. And then we had to cut the bottom in the middle all the way across the middle play field so that it could fold a little bit. And then we have brackets on the side that keep it in that shape to keep that constant angle for both sides. But yeah, that's that. And he printed all the plastics. Brad did all the art. Yeah, that's the game. And so all the inserts are brand new, not repurposed from the original game. The original game had a lot of inserts that were weird shapes. Jake wanted to have more RGB lights. We also got RGB lighting in the posts that have like eight lights on each post so they can rotate. They can do really cool light shows visually. It really helps with the excitement of a hockey arena. We got multiple lights in these domes. And then you got like three different, four different screens, wait, six different screens. The flipper to LCD ratio is one to one We got six flippers six LCD screens I guess that a first That really cool You can see your side on the opposite side and then you also have additional screens on the left and right little mini screens Are we ready to play? Yeah, let's play it.

7:12

Austin, can you tell us what your role was with making Monster League hockey? I did the coding for the game, so I consulted with Glenn, and he came up with the initial layout of the rules, and then the group provided feedback. We modified what needed to be, and then I worked on getting the audio in and getting that coded in, and then the game rules and how that layers up. So would you say you're the hardest working of all of these folks? Top four. The last two weeks, yes. He had the most work to do. The code was the last thing he did. And you guys used the fast pinball system for this. We're using fast boards. That's what we used in a previous project, and it's great. I mean, we love them. I think that's what we would probably use in future projects, too. Cool. So from a coding perspective you also coded Saw right Yeah Did you have any experience before Saw coding a pinball machine Not in pinball machines In work outside of pinball work as software engineer so had experience in that But we wanted to utilize the Mission Pinball framework, which is based off of Python, because then it's also something where Eric that can do light shows can jump in without having software experience. So it's a little bit more user-friendly to have more of the group involved if they want to put their own stamp within the game. Gotcha, gotcha. That's really cool. So let's say someone who knows nothing about coding. Would you recommend making your own game? Absolutely. You know, we had the opportunity for friends that made this. So it gave us a little bit of advantage. But if you want to use fast boards, there's a Slack channel for that. And then Ernie, you know, that also is like heavy in the homebrew scene. He has his own Discord channel that also has a ton of people. So there's tons of resources out there with people with no software experience that can get feedback and input from other people to help them. They could even expand out in terms of collaborating with other people. I think that actually happened on some of these other games where it was a one-person project that then became a two or three through the community. So it's a very supportive community. What are your personal goals with this? Fun? I think it's different from person to person within the group. Me personally, I just enjoy, these are my friends outside of making the game. We play pinball together, we hang out together, we do tournaments together, we do a lot of stuff in the hobby together, even outside the hobby. I just enjoy that aspect. Making a pinball machine is a different type of feeling, different energy than just showing up and playing tournaments or just showing up and playing games. It's a different type of bonding experience, if you will. I would like to get more involved in the industry, so I'm just making projects. Hopefully they speak for themselves, whether it's doing voice call-outs or characters or songwriting or just sound of design or anything. I'd want to be involved, yeah. So what you're saying is you're a free agent? I am a free agent. You got the jersey, dude. You got the jersey, so. I've dabbled in a lot of homebrews. I hope that it kind of becomes a proof of concept that I can hold the project together. Now we know who to call. By the way, Glenn, personally, from me and Matt, thank you for all the contributions and help and suggestions and just creative collaboration you shared with us for the show. Yeah, we had to hug it out. That's great, guys. Group on, group on.

10:16

Next up, we have the fabulous Brad Albright. Hey, Brad, how's it going? Hey, great. How are you? We are here with Brad Albright, the artist on Winchester Mystery House, Portal, and Monster League Hockey, the incredible two-player homebrew. So, Brad, what's it like suddenly having your art on, like, three of the coolest pinball machines in existence right now? Thank you, thank you. It's weird and surreal. I'm generally pretty, like, humble and diplomatic. So I'm just trying to appreciate the moment, the weirdness of it, because I would never expect this kind of response. Yeah. Ever before or after. I've been chasing the dream of doing a production game for like seven years. Okay. And then Portal was it for me. I loved working with Multimorphic on Portal. It was, for me, a long development time because I chose to be in all the meetings and just be a sponge in that team. Fully immerse yourself. Totally. And, you know, long, detailed, hyper-detailed process. And then on the other side of the spectrum, Winchester was a surprise gig that had a very short timeline for me. So I had like no time to overthink it. Go, go, go. And I'm so thankful to be pulled up into the train as they flew through the station on it. Yeah, yeah. Everybody on it was doing such incredible work that it's just a lightning in a bottle kind of thing. Yeah, I don't want to speak for everybody, but it feels like it's kind of the game of the show. Everybody's talking about Winchester. We haven't even been able to play it yet because the lines have been so long. We're actually going to play it a little bit later tonight. But this is like a top ten game of all time kind of situation. Honestly like a week ago I would have been like man I be happy if one day I have a game in the top 100 I just I blown away that people are so emphatically enthusiastic You guys know the hobby can get a little toxic and cynical The amount of goodwill that people have shown towards the title like an unknown is just amazing And I think there's a lot of power to the surprise reveal. We're big fans of and big proponents of original themes in pinball. And we know it's like a hard sell marketing wise. And lots of times original themes don't do that well. But it seems like this might be kind of a game changer in terms of tapping into something that really works for an original. Right. Well, for me, the tone of the game, it's like a vibe that I felt I wanted in the scene. And conveniently, I saw really eye to eye with Carl about some of our favorite things that were inspired by the Winchester that could then inspire back to it. Like, examples, Disney's Haunted Mansion, The Seventh Guest, that old computer game. Yeah, yeah. Those things are really, like, you know, close to my heart from childhood. And there's never been a game that had, you know, a prominent Ouija spirit board thing going on. I love that some people, it's like a hard no. I'm like, I don't mess with that. That's awesome to me. It is an aggressive game, but it's also accessible. And it's a weird specific vibe that being an original theme, it was an untouched space in pinball for a long time. People clearly wanted a haunted house experience. Yeah, for sure. And I'm excited to explore it for years to come myself. I want to get back to your story just a little bit. How long have you been playing pinball? I've been playing pinball since I was a kid, but I never knew how to play well. I don't think anyone really showed me skills or anything like that. It was just this thing that I associated with going out to dinner with the family. There'd be a game room at the sports grill, restaurant, whatever. And then about the time I graduated high school and went to college, it was dying out, you know, 2001, 2002. And then for years, it was this special diamond in a rough thing that I'd be just super stoked to find randomly somewhere. Lucky if the games work when you find them. Exactly. It would generally not be in good condition. And then I was working in graphic design. I went to school for fine art. I went to graduate school for illustration to try to find that thing that was kind of pop-cultury that I could draw for professionally. And then I quit my day job in 2018 to do pop culture poster art, go to art shows and festivals. And at that same moment, I conveniently rediscovered pinball was growing healthily again. Yeah, yeah. And it was the inspiration I needed at that moment. And then it's just been go, go, go without laser focus since then. So my ability to play has grown a lot just in the last five years. It sounds like that's kind of the case for you. Yeah, both of us too. Yeah, for sure. You have a similar backstory as Don as far as getting into pinball. That's right. Do we have any new potential pinball machines to look forward to with Brad Albright artwork? I don't know. Can you hint at anything or even say if you're working on anything? I'll just say I hope to do more. I hope to maybe find a development timeline that's not quite so dangerously short because I wouldn't count on it working this well every time. I'd like to slow it down a little bit and really sink my teeth into other things. But also, you know, my personal work has taken a distant backseat to game art. So finding a little balance there will be nice, too. Awesome. All right. Sounds great.