Oh hey, what's up everybody? Don here. Episode number 209. It's 24 hours after the Fear of the Empire showed up in my basement. Live unboxing is up on YouTube. Let's talk about how the first day has been with this game and where's it gonna land, huh? And you are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take her away. And the unboxing went with just about out of headache. If you watch it, you saw the cardboard box clobber me in the head. Other than that, no airbags utilized this time. Able to set up the game, no problem. So I got the call yesterday that game had arrived at the local Chicago warehouse where I run down to pick up games. Happen to have the day off. What is one to do but go down there and scoop up Fall of the Empire, the new Stern game, which maybe you've seen. It's absolutely blowing up. Probably no charts. LEs are still available. LEs have a cutout of an ad at on the side of the cabinet. Does that tickle your fancies? I don't know. I don't think I'm alone. what's going on with the market, what's going on with pinball, what's going on in general. We are at the eve of Pinball Expo. All rumors are now that Walking Dead is on for an Expo reveal, which has my cockles tickled. So yeah, if I hadn't been in on a fall of the empire at this point, I definitely would be waiting at least until the end of the week to see that teaser. There's a spooky teaser that's rumored. There may not be anything to that other than a lot of excitement for like, okay, what else you got when it comes to pinball? Now, I didn't get any spoilers here for Star Wars. I went in cold. Even the day before when things were leaking out, I was like, you know what? I'm going to abstain because I'm going to be there. I was very happy to be amongst the friends and invited dignitaries for the reveal, the press reveal of Fall of the Empire. It was a cool experience. My first time seeing this game was sitting there in the conference room, Gary Stern in the back, Seth Davis at the front, George Gomez guarding the door. And then, uh, boom, we get through a PowerPoint and then there's the trailer. And like, I got to see in real time, like, oh, so this is the star Wars game. We knew it was coming. We were hoping that it was going to bring some kind of magic, uh, you know, a layout like Kong with a theme like star Wars would have been hitting on all cylinders. Um, I got, I got some, some thoughts, some thoughts here running through my head. How about this? Let's, let's put a pin in Star Wars for a moment. Remember the rumored Indiana Jones game that was going to come out and then something befell it probably licensing. It was going to be by John Borg is going to be his game. And then I don't know what happened to it. I don't know if we'll ever know what happened, but what if this game, this layout was that Indiana Jones layout, and then it had to get scrapped. And, uh, you know, then they're like, okay, well we got Star Wars, uh, Borg, you want to get on that? and maybe they retrofitted it into here. If that's the case, I'm kind of glad we didn't get an Indiana Jones game. I've been saying, telling anybody that'll listen, Raiders of the Lost Ark, man, the first Indiana Jones film. It's got everything in it, Indiana Jones, you could want. If the license is available, just go for that. Get the film assets, get a solid sound alike to do call-outs, and let me escape from a temple full of booby traps. That's all I want to do. That and blowing up the Nazis' wizard mode, open the Ark of the Covenant, it's all in there, man. Travel, intrigue, a temple, booby traps, Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford, snakes in a plane. It's got it all, man, just in that one film. You don't have to go broad spectrum with it. Maybe it's a licensing nightmare. Maybe they were like, dial a destiny or nothing. Shia LaBeouf is the only person we'll let you talk to. And then Stern would have very wisely kind of taken several steps back, right? Ming Lo, move this mountain and get me away from this tragedy. So pull that pin back out. Here we are with Star Wars. A layout that is not knocking anybody's socks off. But now I have it at home. And games always hit differently at home. So 24 hours, hence the unboxing now. I've played it 25, 30 times now. It's got that one more game feel. When you get three cheap drains, you're like, son of a bitch. Get me back in there. so I've had some good games on it I think the game is fun for sure without a doubt game is fun game is fun game is pinball not all pinball is really fun blues brothers isn't very fun uh bone busters isn't very fun you get strange science isn't very fun this is fun this is a fun pinball game uh the shots are learnable um just about everything is backhandable even the right ramp, which is fun. So by a bits and pieces, it's a modern engineered pinball machine without any hidden intrigue or anything in it. Okay. Uh, we've got it here. Monica has been able to play it a ton. She digs it. Okay. This game right now, I mean, it's early on early days with it. This game is fun to play. Like venom is fun to play venom premium, you know, and venom premium, you know, you're hitting the carnage shot. You're working him up towards the multiball. Uh, you know, you're qualifying some battles. The battles are kind of fun. Um, you know, there's a, a matrix on the, on the play field to kind of play through hit shot, hit a hurry up, hit a shot, hit a hurry up. The center ramp that one 80 ramp is pretty satisfying to hit. The fast locks are fun. You know, it's fun. You can learn all the shots. You can find them. You can backhand both orbits. Right So like it a fun game not knocking your socks off There no mystery or intrigue in it at all What you see is what you get right It makes Stranger Things and Dungeons Dragons look like high you know mystery adventures in comparison right This is no way approaching Elvira House of Horrors as being just like a super fun main mech and silly modes and things. Like, it's not on that tier, but it's a C tier. It's a good game. So Star Wars, Fall of the Empire, fun to play as a game like Venom with a hell of a lot of a better theme. The problem is what I'm getting now, 24 hours after owning this thing, those two things don't seem to be connected. It's a fun game to play, and it's a bunch of Star Wars stuff, but it's like you're just playing a run-of-the-mill, fun-to-play pinball game, and oh, by the way, there's a bunch of Star Wars stuff playing. I don't feel like I'm connected to it at all. I hit a character shot, and now I'm in Dagobah for some reason, or now I'm in Bespin with Lando for some reason. Now I've got a multiball going, and I'm exploring Jabba's Temple from Return of the Jedi at the same time that I'm also playing the Battle of Hoth multiball from Empire Strikes Back, and the modes are stacked. Now, I like stacking modes. I like strategically loading two balls before a multiball, starting a mode, plunging one ball in, starting the multiball, bring that into the mode rack up some points right you know you get jackpots for not only the multiball but also the mode that you're in like that's fun pinball stuff and that's what i mean that star wars follow the empire is a fun game because you can do that stuff it's just like while you're doing that also there's like someone's got star wars on the other room and you're like listening to that in the other room while you're playing pinball that's what that's kind of what it feels like it doesn't feel like i'm i'm conjoined you know like when i lock into a multiball it's like okay we are transported to hoth right now and and let's let's get hothma right where's the wampas man why isn't everything like crystalline blue why doesn't the music change to empire stuff why can't i see a probe droid moving around on the screen you know why isn't the probe droid moving around the play field and i'm trying to like simultaneously hunt him and then also stay away from him like maybe there could be some stealth and then if i trigger him then we're battling them, you know, or I can escape and get a bigger bonus. You know, it doesn't have that, right? The gameplay doesn't feel like it's connected to the theme. It's fun to play, but there's a disconnect. And that's why I'm thinking maybe this was Dial of Destiny or whatever this Indiana Jones movie was. And you could easily just be playing the Indiana Jones game while Star Wars is playing in the main room. And you're just kind of listening in on that, right? So just a lot of little things. Maybe it'll come together more and I'll feel more integrated. There were some moments. There were definitely some moments. Playing the Death Star multiball, I got to add a ball or something. At one point, there was like four balls going everywhere. So, of course, all the shots were qualified. And then I got the notice, the notification. Everything coalesced into one shot. Hit the Death Star. It's ready. Blow it the damn up. Let's get the hell out of here. I go in there. I lock the ball in that shot. Flippers die. All the balls drain out. and then there's Moff Tarkin on screen and then it like fast cuts to this Death Star exploding and then I get like a victory multiball. So that was cool that that was in there. But the thing that was missing is like, why couldn't they have had the animated Death Star mech from the other game here? That would have been a great time for this to go through its explosion process, right? And that's what's missing, you know? So it's like, it's like that, there's two different things going on right now. there's amazing Star Wars clips great call outs all my scenes that I really like the closing shot of Jabba's palace in the background with that giant frog thing that's eating that other creature it holds on him for a beat and then he burps like that Muppet frog right now there's no burp audio clip in there please put that in there because it would just be when you're sitting there watching it would just be great to hear them there's a lot of little clips and things you know that are not implemented yet a couple of call outs that I'm waiting for and they're muted. I don't hear them, uh, coalescing with the, the, the, the scenes. Um, I'm hoping that that gets in there, but the two things seem like diametrically opposed. Uh, so let's take it back to last night. Of course, you know, we're kind of switching off playing the game. Uh, Monica's on star Wars. I got it right next to star Wars, 2017. I jump on that on the premium and I'm playing while she's playing. So it's like double star Wars. What could be better? Right? So I'm playing and, um, I hit a shot and I'm ripping around the hyperspace loop, right? In 2017 Star Wars. And I look over and I'm like, hey, Monica, look what I'm doing. I'm in the hyperspace loop. Can you do that in your game? No, you can't. Have fun hitting the add at, have fun with the Death Star. My Death Star is not hardly rejecting at all. So I'm thankful for that. But it was just missing that excitement, you know? So I'm playing Han on 2017. I'm going through the modes. I'm playing fairly well. I ended up with 700 million points or something it was one of those kind of games um and i got down to the mode where i'm about to kill the death star now i didn't get the shot it is a tight shot it's a time mode it's during a multiball but like i damn near blew up my death star when the best she could hope for was a ball to fall back into the vuck while she watches moff tark and explode on screen right and it's like gosh man um you know i got that they went with a simpler layout fine but if they could have took the mech that nobody got to see because a shot was so damn hard in 2017 and put it in this game they put the millennium falcon in uh they put the stormtrooper helmet in there my official stern shooter rod of a stormtrooper helmet is the exact same sculpt as the one that's in the game so you get that you get the millennium falcon the same one you get a tie fighter it looks the same to me we could have just put that exploding death star in there because it kind of fun when you finally get to see it and in this new Star Wars game people are gonna be able to blow up the Death Star a hell of a lot easier and it would have been a chance to finally like kind of fix that era from the past and uh just kind of missed so that's where I'm at 24 hours into owning this game uh the modding has started I threw some expression lights in it I had a Foo Fighters set kicking around here. The install went fine, but they're not working at all. So I followed the dip switches. I went into the menu and activated them. So it should be good to go. I want to double check and make sure the dip switch setting isn't different on Star Wars than it is in Foo Fighters. But the pamphlet of information I have for the install does read that it's the generic version. So it should be good for any game. So we'll wait and see. It could be that the code for the premium doesn't quite include the expression light coding yet. I've seen this before in games that had lit shooter rods, where I installed a lit shooter rod mech onto a game, Foo Fighters, before it was ready and nothing would happen. So it just wasn't coded until the accessories came out. And technically the accessory kit for Star Wars Fall of the Empire isn't out yet. So maybe that's what it is. I have a ticket in with Stern. I'm asking that question. I also put it out to everybody. Anybody that's got a Star Wars LE, can you please look at the dip switch setting and let me know what it is just so i can verify it's not something stupid like that um okay so that's what i got i got a start button on there i'm working on some flipper toppers then my mind is churning on some ideas to add some magic into this game that wasn't quite there yet it's going to be heavily vader focused i think that's what i want to see with this game otherwise this the spike 3 screen is freaking awesome i dig that there's a cool startup noise when you start the game kind of like when you used to watch movies with THX back in the day in the theater, and you would get that rumble. Like, you get that kind of effect with Spike 3. I love it. I think it's great. The game boots up in about 30 seconds, so that's super fun. There's a setting in the menu to turn off the Spike 3 sound on startup. I don't know why you would ever want to do that because you only see it when it starts up, and it's so super cool to hear that sound. So I'm waiting to hear back on exactly what speakers the LE has so I can upgrade this one, and then we'll kind of go from there. It's going to be a fun project. um don why did you buy this game if it was just for my personal collection i wasn't impressed enough with this game to have purchased it just yet uh you know if you're super into star wars which i am i mean it's not a bad game it's just you know yeah walking dead's gonna be coming out spooky's about to hit us upside the head with some magic um so it's like i don't mind having this game but i probably wouldn't have it this soon i'd wait for a later build i think once accessories are out and such um but it's getting made over uh for one up lounge bellingham washington go check it out. They got a bunch of my games out there. They're getting this one too. It's going to get powdered. It's going to be a Vader edition, I think, and it's going to be freaking fire. A note on the expression light kit. So I had one of the ones from Led Zeppelin that had a, uh, basically just a, uh, art blade over the lights and you could pull it off and just have a light bar, uh, somewhere along the way. It may have been with Metallica, uh, but the Foo Fighters said I have, it's actually an acrylic that's on there that plugs in and it looks like it's more durable although the sheen doesn't really seem to match quite as well maybe it looks better with the included art blade um but i was hoping i could just rip the graphic off and throw a new one on when i put it in the cabinet uh you can't do that so i either have to order replacement acrylics from stern eventually whenever they get made or i think i'm just going to install an art blade directly over the expression lights that i have take one of those craft exacto knives and just slowly go by and cut the lights out from the art blade. Then I'll have one seamless art blade and I'll still get that effect. I'm going to try that and see how that works. Wish me luck, everybody, on this endeavor. I think that'll be fun. So 24 hours in, the game's fun. It's got that one more game feel, I guess, only because it may just be because it's new. When I play a game, I'm not having any problem getting the three multi balls and then getting a score somewhere in the hundreds of millions. I think that's fine. I think it's a fun game. It's early on. The modes are interesting for what they are. It's just a disconnect. Tell me your thoughts on what you think. This game's going to be absolutely everywhere. I'm sure it's going to sell fine, and life goes on, and there we are. Expo's around the corner. Very excited for it. I'm making the trophies right now for the Top Topper contest. If you haven't heard, hosting a contest that's going to be over by the homebrew area. If you've got a homemade topper that you would like to enter for free, go ahead and do that, and we'll solicit votes for a couple days from the touring public. They'll put little raffle tickets in your jar to vote for you. They'll be tabulated ongoing, and then Saturday at noon, we'll cut it off, we'll add up the votes, and then at 1 p.m. or so, we're going to give out awards. And I've got prizes, man. Stern Pinball, thank you for coming through, donating an Iron Maiden topper. That'll be going out to one of the top winners. uh the electric playground donated their amazing king kong topper uh so that'll be available as well uh missing pin is is donating some uh cabinet leg bags and other swag like a whole swag kit plus i got mod makers are bringing stuff mad pinball's bringing so it's gonna be great it's gonna be awesome uh and if you vote you can win a play field because i'll be drawing a random voter um from all the votes at the end to win a play field that's from me to you um i'm gonna enter a couple of toppers that I've made, but I'm not going to be eligible for prizes. That's just for fun. But I would kind of like to see how many votes I get. But it'll be fun. I think the top winner from all eligible winners will be able to pick their prize. Then number two can go to the prize table and take what's left, and then we'll just go like that with prizes. So if you want the Iron Maiden one or you want the Kong topper, you get to pick if you're number one, and then the next person kind of goes after that. If you're a company with something to promote, sell drop off whatever I take all prizes man and I shout you out and we let the winners pick from the prize table My hope is that somebody can get something from doing this I won it the first year that it was done a couple of years ago. Super stoked because that was like the first thing I had made myself. I was very proud of it. Looking back, it was very rudimentary, but it was a stepping stone from there to like what I'm doing now, which how was that for a segue? So Patreon members, you got this early. I wasn't sure exactly when I was going to go public with it, either now or like three years from now, but just so everybody can be aware, if you're even interested, you know, I may have relocated to Benton, Wisconsin, and I may have taken a job with a local production facility, and maybe I'm just, you know, hanging out with some guys doing this, that, and the other, and, you know, maybe helping to design a project or something. oh you know i don't know it could be anything man could be a new forklift uh could be a new excel spreadsheet it may be a pinball machine whatever who knows real who can say who can say um you know but this isn't something like uh you know don was hired to lead a team for a new project or something like he's going full jack danger listen i got a lot to learn when it comes to pinball manufacturing i've learned a ton already i do have more to learn and i've got great guys that decided to teach me. So we're going through the process. What I do have are some ideas. I've got a good feel on the market, a good feel on what people want that purchase machines. Um, and I got some cool ideas that like I've been taking them around and trying to get them implemented. And, uh, I think I've got the wherewithal and I think I got a good partnership here from people that are open to that. And basically I just want a chance to make some cool stuff. Right. Um, when I approached, you know, making mods, making over games, I just kind of made stuff that I liked. And as it turns out, that seems to be what other people like too. And so now with the resources of an actual manufacturer, we can really make some stuff happen. So, um, Don, uh, when are we going to be able to see what you're working on? Uh, can you tell us? No. When will it be? Not now. When you can tell us more, will you? Of course. Can you tell us anything else? No. Can you give me a hint? I can't. Is it awesome? Absolutely. It's going to be phenomenal. More to come, you know, when I can, when I have something to talk about, really. But this is really fun, man. If nothing else, I get to go along this journey. I'll tell you this. It's not a resurrected, failed project from the past. We didn't raid John Papadiuk's closet and drag some plastic ramps and half-cocked ideas and force them to make them work, you know? We're just not in that universe where I think these projects can really translate into something um you know fun or worthwhile but it seems like some people are trying to do that anyway uh so we'll see what happens when we get to expo are we gonna see big bang bar or raza uh sorry i can't tell you over how excited i am to go play big trouble little china and predator and blues brothers again before it breaks hot tip i've played bruise blues brothers before it was at tpf here's my tip with blues brothers go play it as soon as you can because if it's anything like last time it's probably going to be down way more than it's up and like if you're someone like me that wants to have played everything uh you know i need to get that credit i need to at least play it on that game so i can say that i played it um go hit it up early man um you probably won't be over there for very long um it's definitely not what i would call a good game but it is an experience and especially the topper yeah you talk about talk about low effort toppers um i i think a six-year-old could make something more compelling than this but hey hey man it's a homebrew topper contest not a home pin topper contest so that's how we'll delineate the eligibility and everything um if you want to get a game like i just did jeff at madpinball.com use code WAP W-A-P and get yourself some free stuff while you're ordering also free shipping on stern games that's cool i don't even get that i gotta drive my ass to Chicago to a factory and pick them up and drive all the way back home to get it in. But, you know, if you go through MAD, you can get it shipped for free. Use code WAP, man. Maybe I should do that. Why am I not using code WAP? Why am I not getting reimbursed for transporting my own games? Jeff, I can't wait to see you at the show. Listen to the JBS show with Jamie Burchill. He just did another roundtable with Retro Ralph and Kale, and it was fantastic, man. I love listening to these guys. a little bit more tournament focused given that they are the tournament bros. So that's where I can get my finger on the pulse of tournament without falling asleep. So I dig that. Also Diet Coke and plus or minus some talk about Zin. So JBS. The JBS show. I guess is it the JB show or the JBS? Because JBS show seems a little redundant. Like it's from the Department of Redundancy Department. More as I hear it. Thank you to all the new Patreon members that have come in there. Shout out to all of y'all that have joined, including Mr. Christopher Kaneda-Colores. Thanks for coming in, man. I followed back, so that's cool. Hey, it looks like we're besties. Who saw that coming? This is going to be the expo of love, man. All fires have been squashed. Hatchets are lazily buried, and we're all going to go out and have some food, and I'll see you at the media mixer. Go get a ticket. fall of the empire is it because it's fall if this game came out in march would it be spring of the empire let me know your thoughts don spinball podcast at gmail.com patreon.com backslash don spinball podcast for late breaking news and all kinds of fun stuff pictures and all that stuff jeff and matt pinball.com anybody else jbs shout out to jbs and pinball nerds podcast and wop