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DPP# 246 "Sonic time, Cruise time, Multimorphic time"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·29m 25s·analyzed·Jun 28, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Don's hands-on Sonic review at JJP HQ; cruise announcement; Multimorphic tease

Summary

Don visits Jersey Jack Pinball headquarters post-Sonic reveal, plays the game extensively with designer Steve Ritchie, and provides detailed gameplay impressions. He discusses Sonic's upper playfield mechanics, compares it favorably to Pokémon, and decides against purchasing due to family prioritizing a UTV instead. The episode also covers Barrels of Caribbean Cruise cruise pinball event and a rumored Multimorphic game release within three weeks.

Key Claims

  • Sonic the Hedgehog is shipping from the factory and already reaching distributors and locations

    high confidence · Don states: 'Games are leaving the factory right now. In fact, a handful have already left and have showed up at distributors' and mentions specific locations like IO Arcade in Madison

  • Sonic will be at Southern Fright Gaming Expo in July (Hotlanta)

    high confidence · Don: 'Game will be at Southern Fright Gaming Expo, which is like in a week and a half or some such. It's in July. It's in Hotlanta.'

  • The upper playfield on Sonic uses transparent polycarbonate angled to eliminate glare to the player

    high confidence · Don verified with the creative team: 'it's just angled in such a way that the glare that is there is not visible to the player'

  • Sonic's loop is magnet-driven and even weak shots halfway up the ramp get grabbed by the magnet

    high confidence · Don: 'It's opto-driven, so even a weak shot that only goes about halfway up the ramp usually will be grabbed by the magnet and flung through the loop'

  • Jersey Jack has leveled up since Guns N' Roses in flipper feel and playability

    medium confidence · Don: 'they're on, like, another level. Like, they've leveled up since Guns N' Roses, right? The flippers feel better.'

  • Sonic the Hedgehog is unlimited production (not limited edition)

    high confidence · Don: 'by making this game unlimited, they can really sell to what the true demand is while avoiding rewarding scalpers'

  • Barrels of Fun is launching a pinball-themed Caribbean cruise June 27-July 3, 2027 on Symphony of the Seas

    high confidence · Don: 'Symphony of the Seas is leaving from Galveston, doing six nights out in the Caribbean...June 27th to July 3rd next year, 2027'

  • A Multimorphic game release is rumored within three weeks

    medium confidence · Don: 'I have heard a rumor that we're going to get a multimorphic game in three weeks, maybe a little bit less than that'

Notable Quotes

  • “this game feels like Pokemon with a really good P3 module added on to it”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~18:00 — Key comparison to explain Sonic's gameplay: accessible lower playfield + dense upper playfield mechanics

  • “When I saw the reveal of this game, I posted online that this is the game that Pokemon should have been. Meaning there should have just been more.”

    Don @ ~25:00 — Direct critique of Pokémon's lack of depth; frames Sonic as solving that problem

  • “they're on, like, another level. Like, they've leveled up since Guns N' Roses, right?”

    Don @ ~15:00 — Signals quality improvement trajectory at Jersey Jack as a manufacturer

  • “don't slow down, just hit it”

    Steve Ritchie @ ~35:00 — Designer giving real-time play advice to Don; reveals intended fast, flowing gameplay philosophy

  • “Sonic can be a super fun game, and I also am fine not getting it to have at home. That's reasonable.”

    Don @ ~55:00 — Rare collector perspective: separating personal purchase decision from game quality assessment

  • “by making this game unlimited, they can really sell to what the true demand is while avoiding rewarding scalpers”

    Don @ ~58:00 — Analysis of JJP's unlimited production strategy vs secondary market scalping

  • “the little house that Dr. Robotnik goes into when he's parked... needs to be a three-dimensional sculpted piece”

    Don @ ~52:00 — Identifies specific modding opportunity; three-part plastic assembly seen as insufficient

  • “Water's still a little cold to jump in, but it's still fun to go down and hang out on a beach in Florida”

    Don @ ~75:00 — Reflects on pinball community beach event culture as context for cruise announcement

Entities

DonpersonSteve RitchiepersonJersey Jack PinballcompanySonic the HedgehoggamePokémongameBarrels of FuncompanyMultimorphiccompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Sonic the Hedgehog confirmed leaving factory and arriving at distributor locations and venues

    high · Don reports games already at IO Arcade (Madison), Mad Pinball (Ohio), Ace Gogey's, and others; Southern Fright Gaming Expo confirmed for July

  • ?

    design_innovation: Sonic uses transparent polycarbonate upper playfield with angle-based glare elimination rather than coating

    high · Don verified with creative team; describes as 'translucent...angled in such a way that the glare...is not visible to the player'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Sonic's loop features magnet-driven shot completion that grabs weak shots halfway up ramp

    high · Don notes: 'even a weak shot that only goes about halfway up the ramp usually will be grabbed by the magnet and flung through the loop'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Sonic combines accessible lower playfield (comparable to Pokémon) with engaging upper playfield mechanics

    high · Don's core assessment: 'wide open lower playfield...Then the upper playfield is fun to play around in with a lot of shots condensed in a more dense area'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack pursuing unlimited production model for Sonic to avoid scalper premium market

    high · Don: 'by making this game unlimited, they can really sell to what the true demand is while avoiding rewarding scalpers'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.088

0:00
Heyo DJ, where's my theme music? That's right, because Don's Pinball Podcast is rolling like a steamroller down the avenue of excitement. Here because of Retro Ralph, or Rad Ralph, as he knows, I wanted to do a podcast, he wanted to listen to a podcast, so here we are. Let's go.
0:30
I'm your host, Jaws, Foo Fighters, Venom. Or Battle for the Empire or whatever the tagline for it is. Through sweat, tears, and some shrewd negotiation, I was able to land myself in Jersey Jack's headquarters. Thanks to all my new friends that I have there, the marketing team, everybody that I've been emailing, thanks so much. I got to go to JJP on the day after the Sonic reveal and relaunch, which was great because I was working anyway on the day the game came out. I was working a 24-hour shift, and so I peeked in here and there and caught bits and spurts of content, and I'm like, well, when this is all over, when I get off work, at least I can sit down and watch the gameplay trailer, only to find that, and of course, we did not see that, and then it subsequently released the next day. I got off work, I drove into Chicago, and I met a ton of new and old friends there at the house that Jack built and some billionaires bought or whatever. Regardless, they made Harry Potter, man. That game was amazing. Sonic came out, I got to play it. I got to play this game. This game is now leaving the factory.
2:04
I'm just going to encapsulate all of my enthusiasm thusly. It's been hard to record since being there because I wasn't sure exactly how to feel about the game coming off of it because of course it's beautiful. Of course it plays very well. It's fun to shoot and everything. But as somebody that tends to buy everything that comes out and this is the one that I'm holding out on, I just wanted to get a sense on what I was feeling coming off of it before I blad my mouth online and everything. So the game is fun. I got to go down there. I got to be invited. Super nice. Had a nice two-hour stay there. I played the game about eight or nine times. Some of that was with Steve Ritchie standing right next to me, so I'm the blessed child. Games are leaving the factory right now. In fact, a handful have already left and have showed up at distributors that have locations that they operate so people can play. Ace Gogey's been out there. They got the game. Mad Pinball's got the game out in Ohio. Go check their socials to see where they're dragging it around to now, and I'm sure there's some others that have it as well. So talk to your distributors. They'll know somebody that knows somebody that's where it's at. It's at IO Arcade in Madison, Wisconsin. So I think as the weeks go on, more and more of these games will get out there. And here's some confirmation. Game will be at Southern Fright Gaming Expo, which is like in a week and a half or some such. It's in July. It's in Hotlanta. I went like last year, a couple of years ago. I'll be out of the country this time, so I'll be going. But it'll be there. And then probably to every show from here to Ad Infinitum. So the game, man, I got to see the release. I didn't get to see any gameplay videos or anything. I got to watch parts of Ralph's extravaganza of a video in between shifts and seeing people and getting some work done.
Spooky Pinball
company
Black Knight: Sword of Ragegame
Elton Johngame
Southern Fright Gaming Expoevent
IO Arcadevenue
Retro Ralphperson
Godfather Collector's Editiongame
Transformersgame

collector_signal: Sonic Collector's Edition with gold accents (rings, wire forms, topper) commanding significant premium over standard editions

high · Don contrasts CE gold plastic rings (premium) vs standard edition plastic rings; frames CE as 'the version I want'

  • ?

    community_signal: Emerging acceptance among hardcore collectors of selective purchasing rather than completist acquisition

    medium · Don explicitly states: 'I'm not saying nobody else should buy pinball machines ever...But me, I don't have to have absolutely everything'

  • $

    market_signal: Recent premium game pricing (Godfather CE $7,500) suggests collector willingness to pay for limited edition aesthetics

    medium · Don noting Godfather secondary pricing and considering it attractive; signals mature secondary market for visual/limited tier games

  • ?

    event_signal: Barrels of Fun launching first-known pinball-themed Caribbean cruise event (June 2027)

    high · Announced 6-night cruise on Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas; ~20 pinball machines; reserved room block; Barrels Reserve member benefits

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Rumor of Multimorphic game release within 3 weeks; hoped to be licensed IP

    medium · Don: 'I have heard a rumor that we're going to get a multimorphic game in three weeks, maybe a little bit less than that'

  • ?

    product_concern: Dr. Robotnik parked position design criticized as insufficient; modded shed/doghouse suggested by community

    medium · Don: 'the little house that Dr. Robotnik goes into when he's parked...is completely out of view...needs to be a three-dimensional sculpted piece'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Steve Ritchie emphasizes fast, flowing upper playfield play over deliberate shot control

    high · Ritchie's direct instruction to Don: 'don't slow down, just hit it'; ball behavior encourages rapid flipper work

    • 3:50
    But so I essentially got to walk right in there and it's like, here's the game. Here's the arcade version. Here's the special edition. It's in the back of the short bus. And then here's a whole line of CEs being made. Here's a couple that you can check out the topper. And so top to bottom, like, yeah, this is absolutely a Jersey Jack game. And can I just say that they're on, like, another level. Like, they've leveled up since Guns N' Roses, right? The flippers feel better. We saw that since Elton John. That's been carrying over. Still feels like you could tell it's a Jersey Jack game, but, man, does it shoot quite well. Looking down at Sonic the Hedgehog, which doesn't have a tagline, just looking down at it, I can see, like, it initially appeared to me as a take, a modern interpretation of, say, Black Knight's Sword of Rage premium L.E. with the upper playfield. Like, we've seen this, what a Steve Ritchie clear upper playfield looks like. This one is a much better version of that. I've played a lot of Black Knight. You know, you've got the one flipper up there. You've got the catapult or the cannon or something that you can load. You can kind of shoot up there, get a couple shots, then it drains on out, right? Because it's a spiritual success at a Black Knight. This doesn't feel like Black Knight at all. I was joking with some people, man. Like I said, it took me a while to kind of distill my feelings about this game. I mean this in the best way. When I first saw it and first played it, I was like trying to, like, how do I explain, like, what this game feels like to somebody? And I came up with, in my sick, deranged brain, this game feels like Pokemon with a really good P3 module added on to it. Okay. And by that I mean all the shots are very hittable, they're enjoyable, they're comboable, they flow very well all in the lower playfield. And then the upper playfield is fun to play around in with a lot of shots condensed in a more dense area. So you kind of have the best of both worlds here with this game, I've come to realize. You've got a wide open lower playfield, which it's a fan layout, they all shoot well. You know, if the playfield is open, you're going to get those long shots, they're going to go all the way out away from you, Go through something, course right back to you. The orbits feel good. The ramps go to the upper areas.
    6:01
    The ramp that goes over to the loop functions well every time you shoot that. It's opto-driven, so even a weak shot that only goes about halfway up the ramp usually will be grabbed by the magnet and flung through the loop. It was fun every time I did that. I even did the thing where the ball gets stuck on the magnet and you have to charge it with the flippers And then use your beer belly to hit the action button just at the right time to maximize your bonus points. It was all super fun. And if that's all the game was, we could say that, yeah, this game's fun, it's fast, it flows, but it has, like, not that much to do. Which is kind of the problem we're having with Pokemon now. It's fun to shoot, the shots flow very well, we just want kind of, like, more to do with it. So this solves that problem. When I saw the reveal of this game, I posted online that this is the game that Pokemon should have been. Meaning there should have just been more. I love the layout of Pokemon. It's super fun to shoot. It feels very good. You have orbit shots. You've got ramps. You've got a wire form. Safe return to your flippers. People love that stuff. But then it just didn't have anything else going on. Pokemon doesn't have upper play field, a lower play area, a very obvious physical ball lock of any kind. It just devoid from it Kind of the one thing I seeing missing from Sonic here But the upper play field solves so many of those problems Okay first off it a large large upper playfield right People are thinking like well this is the Jersey Jack version of Scooby here What it has over Scooby is that this is a transparent playfield, so you can see all that cool art in the shots on the lower playfield. I can say, after playing all three versions of this game, the upper playfield does not distract. It is translucent. It's not like an invisiglass or anything, but because of the angle and where it's at, there's no glare that comes back to the player. And this was verified by the creative team behind the game. At first I thought maybe there was like a non-reflective coating or something on this, what's not plexiglass but it's polycarbonate play field. They said no, it's just angled in such a way that the glare that is there is not visible to the player. And it wasn't even visible to me standing at the side watching someone else play the game. So like, that's fun. When you get up to this upper playfield, there's two ways to get up there, the left ramp and then straight up the middle. And how weird is it that two games that release essentially after each other, one from Stern, one from Jersey Jack, has the exact same battle arena in the exact same location and plays largely kind of the same way? I think Sonic has two slings, whereas there's just a rubber and a pop bumper and a Pokemon. But I mean, realistically, it feels about the same, which was good because I've played a lot of Pokemon. I had the game at home here for a bit. And the shot to get up into that battlefield and essentially shoot straight through the back of the game is very high on the flipper, like much higher than you would think. And so I translated that to Sonic. And while not as high as Pokemon, it is in the upper half to get up there successfully and hit Robotnik. Instead of coursing around and joining the orbit, however, this game has an upper play field. And that's one of the ways to get up there, in this case courtesy of a vertical up kicker if you shoot straight up the middle. There's also a drop target blocking that shot, so sometimes you'll have to hit that to activate it before you can shoot through and access the upper play field. Which is fun, right? It's got wide flippers. I didn't really care because of how the geometry is. It doesn't really factor in to all that high of a degree. There is a center post up there which is very nudgeable when the ball is going to hit it. You can just kind of nudge back on your flippers. And here's a tip straight from the man himself. Like the second game I'm having, I'm actually doing not too bad. Steve's there, and he's either taking pity on me or I honestly impressed him with some of my combo abilities. But like how fun is that to play the game with a designer right next to you? He gave me the suggestion that when you rip that orbit, the inner orbit on the upper playfield, keep your flipper held up. The ball will careen around, hit it, and like skyrocket over to the other flipper where you can kind of slow it down and get a more controlled shot. Super fun. Thanks for the tip. So the game was fast and frenzious. You couldn't really trap up on that upper flipper because the way the geometry was, the ball would just slowly roll right off of it. And when I tried to kind of get control of the ball and take some time shots, I got Steve in my ear just like, don't slow down, just hit it. And I'm like, yes, yes, I will do that. I will do that, sir. Man, we were having such a great time. I had a lot of fun with the game. I got to talk to him about the engineering that went into the loop. I've heard online that there's people that are talking, I think it must have been on Pinside or something, that they had the great idea to theme the loop to look like the Grass Hill Zone or Green Valley Zone, the loop from the first game with the checkerboard and all that business. Where it's situated, I don't know that that would be the best thing to do. Certainly you could do that, but because of its vertical orientation relative to the player, it's kind of perpendicular to where you're looking. I know it's parallel. You're looking at it in line. So it would essentially hide a lot of it if you did that. If this game had what the AI Sonic images did and you saw that vertical loop kind of in profile just like you were playing the game, I think it would work fantastic. And that's something I wish I would have seen in this game. But the vertical loop as it is, I would leave it alone, play it. It is pretty fun. Every time it shoots around and goes through the loop, it runs right to your flipper. It's impressive, all right? I like it a lot better than the Elton shot where the wire form just dead ends and then like throws your ball right down to you. Effectively, this does the same thing, but man, a magnetic launch into a loop, it's super cool. Now, I'm fighting with the concept I had in my head of what Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball was going to be. I was like, this is Steve Ritchie. He's at the house of the unlimited build of materials. Like we're going to see some crazy stuff. I wanted to see, rather than borrow heavily from Black Knight, I would like to see him borrow heavily from No Fear and give me multiple levels of play and everything. But in a more like, I'm battling this mountain, this area, rather than just upper playfield as Robotnik, lower playfield as kind of everything else. But this is what we got. And what we got is good. It's fun to play, it's fun to shoot it. I can't wait to go play this over and over on location. But really prior to the release, I came to the family and I said, family, Sonic the Hedgehog is going to come out soon from Jersey Jack. What are your thoughts on adding this game to the family? You know, once we see it and we agree we want it or or here was the option. What if we get a side by side and just tear ass around all these Wisconsin trails that we live among? And they didn't have to deliberate very long before they said, you know, yeah, let's join the UTV world. We want to go wreak havoc on the countryside. So I was outvoted. And honestly, I'm very happy with the UTV as well. So I wouldn't pick that up. So that's where my Sonic money went. Otherwise, I would be very tempted to pick up this game. But I don't need to own anything or everything. I'm coming to terms with that. I feel okay not having Transformers, even though I liked the game. Sure, I would have liked to see a little more transformative action there. Sure, I would have liked to see Soundwave used a little bit more intricately than essentially the DB5 car from James Bond turned on its side. But, you know, it's still a fun game, and the code is a hell of a fun player, and I can't wait to hit up the local arcades. I think that's over at IO Arcade in Madison. I know one of the other places there will have it. So I'll get to play it on location. I don't own it. It's not coming, and I'm okay. Hey, I'm okay with that. I'm not saying nobody else should buy pinball machines ever. Like, go ahead, man. I've got multiple friends that have already got this game ordered. I feel happy for them. I think they're going to love these games. But me, I don't have to have absolutely everything. And then I'm in a position where I still have a couple of games coming. Yukon Yeti is going to be coming soon. I nearly finished Beetlejuice today. It's got some cosmetic issues, cosmetic issues, cosmetic things to put on there, the marquee that's in the back. I got attached to the Polaroid, but the ramps and everything are in there. The wire forms, the habit trails, they're all there. The mechanisms, I built them. They appear to be functional. They're in the game. So I just need to add the final accoutrement and final testing. So there's your spooky update. Don, what number are they building? I get this question. I don't know. Why are you guys asking me?
    14:24
    Info at spookypinball.com. Email them. They'll tell you where you are in line. I don't always know. I just want to walk in there. I saw a box with like 347, I think, or some such around there. Now sometimes these numbers are out of order but I get a sense that they probably around there so maybe that helps I don know Keep sending your emails I don mind It fine And you know if I there and the guys are around I ask them They probably look at me and say I don know email Morgan So Morgan at SpookyPinball.com. Email her and then maybe you'll get a response in short order to your question. Regardless, Sonic Pinball. Here's the other thing. Here's the other thing with this game and me. I've seen the CE. The criticism I had was shared by some other people. Why the red armor on the CE or whatever? I don't care. I looked at it. It looks pretty good, man. I like it. The gold habit trails, wire forms that are on this game, they look good. I wish there were more of them. I tend to like games that are filled with wire forms so balls can be going everywhere. You've got multiple levels of verticality throughout the entirety of the game. I know there's a clear upper play field that drains off just like Black Knight, But I really wish there was like something else to it. Anyway, regardless of that, having seen the sparkle cabinet, having seen the art, having seen the sparkle on the apron, the sparkle on the playfield, the gold wire forms, the powder coat, and the topper, which worked remarkably well. Like that's the version I want. Like it's the point that like, you know, if I want a Sonic, I want the good one. Okay, the arcade edition, it's got the same gameplay, but like it's all the little touches, you know, the shooter rod, that's the gold ring that looks pretty cool. The five gold rings that are in the game with the little dot matrix displays. First off, the resolution does look better from a player's perspective when you're standing there looking at it. I still think LCD screens would have been a better way to go. Look at Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for what Dutch Pinball did when they created that watch by putting a little screen in there. I think five little screens would have had a lot more fidelity. But this is what we got. The gold rings on the CE look fantastic. They're like a plasticized metal, but they look like they're shiny gold chrome. I mean, they're fantastic. They look just like the rings you would expect. They look gold. They're shiny. They're cartoonish. I love them. The gold rings on the standard edition or the special edition and the arcade edition are plastic, and they're gold-colored plastic, and they look like plastic, and they're just like, I don't want that. No thank you. I think the game's going to be fine, but for me, for my house, I want that topper. I want the gold. And if I can't get that, or if the value that they're asking me to pay isn't quite matching my enthusiasm for it, then I'm okay waiting on it. I'll get it at some point. I'll get it at some point. Case in point, Godfather, Collector's Edition, Gold Lions, going for like $7,500 or best offer right now. I think even though that game didn't capture me from a gameplay aesthetic, it's one of the most beautiful pinball machines I've seen of the modern era for sure. The gold lions, the sparkles that are in there, the art that Franchi did, the topper's really good and intricative. It's exactly what I want to see in a topper. I know the theme doesn't really reach out to me, and the gameplay didn't wow me to a great extent, But damn, for $7,500, that's a pretty machine with a lot of code in there that I could explore, have fun with at home, and then probably sell it for around what I paid for it. I call that a win. So I got my eyes open. I'm not ready to jump out and go grab one today. But yeah, I think, you know, should I pick up a couple extra shifts at work, I would be tempted to go pick up a Godfather. I don't think I'd mind having one at that price point. Yeah, that's very attractive. That's very attractive. Now, I don't think Sonic will fall that far, because Jersey Jack has done a couple things for themselves here. Essentially, by making this game unlimited, they can really sell to what the true demand is while avoiding rewarding scalpers, because there's no way to scalp Sonic the Hedgehog. If you got a Sonic CE next week, you might be able to get an extra $1,500 for it from someone that doesn't want to wait in line. But essentially, once we get a couple months out from this, they'll be available. And so, you know, I'll just kind of watch it. But I think Elton John held its ground pretty well. It did better than Avatar, which actually didn't do as bad as I thought it would do. So I think this game's going to be available. I think it's going to be everywhere. I think that's a great thing. We can go play it. We can have fun with Sonic. Sonic's fun. Two things can be true at the same time. Sonic can be a super fun game, and I also am fine not getting it to have at home. That's reasonable. As reasonable as you can get in the pinball hobby collecting community, I guess that's where we're at. So those are my thoughts on the game. The shots are fast. The shots flowed well as far as like a lower play field, ripping orbits and things. I wish there was a spinner on that left orbit downstairs. Dang it. I wish there was a physical ball luck mechanism. Dr. Robotnik, when he comes out, I mean, he's fun to blow up, and then he goes and parks away. When I was looking at this game trying to find something to mod, And really the only thing that jumped out that, okay, this probably should be modded, and I think the guys there agreed, the little house that Dr. Robotnik goes into when he's parked. And when he's parked, he's completely out of view. Okay, this isn't like Bond on the Wand where it's like he's kind of like sticking out there over in the side of the playfield in the back plate and then just like slowly cantilevered over the playfield and then dropping balls. Like he's articulated pretty well. He goes up, he goes down, left and right, taunting you. It's fun. When he's parked, though, he's completely out of the way. The little house that they built, the little Dr. Robotnik Eggman doghouse is like three or four plastics that are screwed together. And they're functional and they're printed and they look like his lab and I get it. But that really needs to be a three-dimensional sculpted piece. And I'm curious why they didn't go ahead and do that. Regardless, Lior, if you're listening, we need a $450 shed for Robotnik to park in. Raiden, Gorby, if you're out there, we need something that lights up and is flashy. We've seen what you did with Foo Fighters with the Area 51. I think this needs that. Who else is making really cool stuff? Stumbler? Can you put some cool lighting out or something?
    20:45
    These resin guys that make some cool stuff. Back Alley Matt. Somebody get to work on this and come up with a Robotnik shed, a little Eggman doghouse that you can put up there that maybe it's got some lights in it. Maybe it does some effects. Maybe like when he goes and parks, I can trip a sensor and then like this lighting show can go off like he's exploding inside of this booth. I think that would be fun. But like other than that, I can't really think of much else unless you want to get, you know, some kind of, you know, gold chrome accents to swap out on your arcade audition or, you know, a golden ring shooter rod. I got a buddy that's making some of those. We're going to put them out for a good price. I can put you in touch with him if you want to be, you know, get yourself a shooter rod here pretty soon for not like $100. We can hook it up, man. We can hook it up. We are dreamers. We're dreaming the dreams. What else is going on in pinball, man? It's been a couple of days. I've been driving a UTV all around Wisconsin. That's what I've been doing. I've been building Beetlejuice. That's what I've been doing. I've been eating pizza. I've been getting my car worked on. I've been doing Patreon lives for We Are Pinball. That's super fun. We're getting ready to order some more T-shirts and everything. I just enjoying summer man It summertime And what better for the middle of summer than a Caribbean cruise with I don know 50 150 or closest pinball friends Did you guys hear this I woke up this morning and late yesterday I must have missed it when it came out Barrels of Fun launched an event Barrels of Fun Pinball Our friends in Houston Our friends had just launched Barrels Reserve join our club and get a 7 day insurance policy If the game sells out within 7 days you still guaranteed to be able to purchase yourself one for a total of 14 days of purchasing fun with Barrels of Fun Sounds like an ad for them Well, they're doing a cruise. Well, they're doing a cruise event on Royal Caribbean. So here's the deal. It's January 27th. No, no, no. June 27th to July 3rd next year, 2027. You got a whole year before this thing kicks off. Symphony of the Seas is leaving from Galveston, doing six nights out in the Caribbean, stopping at Cozumel, stopping in Honduras. I don't know if they swing by their private island or not. But it's going to be, first off, on one of these big Royal Caribbean ships. My friend Ryan did a cruise on this exact ship, said it was super fun. I've been wanting to do one for quite a while, so my interest has peaked at this.
    23:04
    And then so if you're on this cruise for the event and you're a Barrels Reserve member, you'll be able to participate in some select activities that may take place during the cruise. And it sounds like there's going to be a pinball room on the ship that you'll have access to, Probably yourself and a plus one for the barrels cruise. So that seems to be what it is. This is not a cruise ship full of only pinball people. This is a cruise ship that's going out anyway. And there's probably 20 different events or private groups that also have blocks of rooms here. Barrels will be one of them. So it sounds like fun for me. I wanted to do a Royal Caribbean cruise. My friend Jorge went and priced this thing just through a travel agent. And the group booking rate actually saves you some money on this cruise. Even if you didn't partake in any of the pinball stuff at all. So that's kind of fun. So I'm going to consider this and I'm going to try to pick up some more information about it. But yeah, no one else has done something like this. We saw Pinball at the Beach, the fun shop, little shop of games. The fun event that's done down in Tampa, St. Petersburg Beach in February. We all get to go down. You know, we're all like super white from being inside all winter up here in Wisconsin. We go down there in our board shorts and play around in the sand in February, dip our toes in the water a little bit. Water's still a little cold to jump in, but it's still fun to go down and hang out on a beach in Florida when we've been suffering through negative 20-degree weather for an extended period of time. Well, now the same amount of fun with the ocean and pinball will be happening on a ship, Don.
    24:37
    Tell me. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking to yourself, dude, but ships rock back and forth. How can you play pinball on a cruise ship? It won't work. Now, first off, cruise ships do have dampeners on board, right? So you do get that side-to-side motion, but it's not, like, you know, intolerable, especially with these larger ships, unless the weather's very bad. And tilt bobs can be taken out, okay? And pinball machines do exist on some cruise ships in the arcades and things. Now, as the boat is naturally swaying, of course there'll be some tilting and whatever. Well, like, not like tilt your games over, but like balls gonna act a little funny. And that may be kind of fun. There's a guy in Chicago at the Pinball Olympics that creates similar instances with pinball, and it's like a hoot to go play those. I was in this man's garage playing a Subhumans retheme of, I forget what game it was, that he rethemed into Subhumans. It was on a spinning turntable, and I'm playing this game, and like, it was the weirdest experience, because of course I'm standing on the same turntable, I'm moving, So my frame of reference is not shifting, but as I'm playing this game, the ball is doing some really wacky stuff. And it's not like it was unplayable, it was just doing strange things because we're spinning, right? So as the ball travels up and down the playfield, its moment of inertia keeps changing relative to the centrifugal force of how we're spinning. So the ball would make a shot, and it would go up the playfield, slow down halfway for a minute, and then accelerate again. It was just kind of interesting. So I want to see how Winchester plays. I want to see how Dune plays when we're out there. Hopefully their tech brings all the stuff they need to keep these games running. I heard there's going to be 20 games, so I'm thinking not all barrels of fun. So yeah, it's a pinball cruise that they're doing. Will it be a success? Will it be a fire fest? Who knows? Either way, we're going to be on a ship in the ocean and going to buffets and things, and there'll be swimming pools, and the family can go do family stuff, and you can be on a cruise knowing that there's going to be pinball machines and probably some sips and nibbles and things exclusive to you. So there you go. Prices were $17.76 for an inside stateroom. This is double occupancy. And then another $500 or something for a balcony. So there you go. At the time this morning when I called to get more information, rooms are available. So if you want to book yourself a cabin, there you go. Barrelsoffun.com. I think it's time for a Multimorphic Minute. Do I still have? I think I got rid of my soundbite for Multimorphic Minute. Oh, we'll use that one for now that was not intentional.
    27:06
    Jerry's going to hate me even more now. Oh, my God. He's already not answering my calls. Multimorphic Minute. This is just starting. I have heard a rumor that we're going to get a multimorphic game in three weeks, maybe a little bit less than that. This concludes the Multimorphic Minute. So those are the news I got. I've been hearing that they're ready to release a game. I think they're apt to release a game now anyway. I was expecting one at TPF a year after Portal came out.
    27:33
    Yeah, Portal was the last one. Princess Bride was prior to that. That was also at TPF. So it's been, what, like four months or so since TPF? They're due for another game. Let's see what it is. I'm hoping it's licensed. I'm hoping it's as awesome as Portal is and all the other cosmic kart racing and all my favorite games. I mean, nothing's going to ever top drained as just being like a sensory experience more than a pinball machine. But there you go, man. There you go. So I hope this satiated everybody with an appetite for content. Everybody's been doing their Sonic stuff. I know Loser Kids has an interview. I haven't even got to it. Oh, I did also sit down. How could I forget this? I sat down with an interview with Mr. Steve Ritchie. It wasn't even like I didn't write down questions. I just sat down with the guy. We talked. It was awesome. And I recorded it. And I'm going to upload it as a supplemental episode to this one. So let me get this one wrapped up, and then we'll go ahead and post that interview as a standalone. So you can get both there. You can get both there. And be sure to join me over on the Patreon at patreon.com-backslash-donspinballpodcast, where I do Patreon lives occasionally up there. We do giveaways. We do fun stuff. We hang out. We've got a chat at the Discord. It's a whole thing. When more happens in the pinball world, I'll talk about it. Did I talk about the Pokemon Topper yet?
    28:55
    It's a plastic fish, and Sonic's got Sonic and Eggman battling back and forth with this, like, industrial commercial screen? How do you not want that, man? This thing was cool. Thanks so much to my friends over at JJP. You want to go on a cruise? There's a pinball cruise. That's a thing now. What an exciting time we're living in. Where's the Multimorphic game? Jerry, I'm just joking with you, man. But seriously, give me a call. Later.
    29:25
    Thank you.