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We Are Pinball #28 "Kong is coming! C'MON!!!!"

We Are Pinball (WAP)·podcast_episode·1h 13m·held·Apr 3, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Stern announces King Kong (Keith Elwin) for April 17-19 reveal; hosts discuss market timing and competitive implications.

Summary

We Are Pinball #28 announces Stern Pinball Inc. media event scheduled for April 17-19, 2025, designed by Keith Elwin. Hosts Cengiz and Donnie received invitations from Zach Sharpe (Stern) and discuss the game's anticipated impact on the market, Keith Elwin track record, and competitive positioning against Jersey Jack and Barrels of Fun releases. The episode includes discussion of Tim Sexton departure from Stern, Evil Dead pinball adjustments, and community sentiment around award shows and tournaments.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball Inc. will be revealed to media on Thursday, April 17, 2025, with public play at Pinball at the Zoo (Kalamazoo, MI) the same dates

    high confidence · Cengiz received official invitation email from Zach Sharpe (Stern); dates and venue explicitly stated in the email invitation

  • King Kong is designed by Keith Elwin

    high confidence · Cengiz explicitly states 'it's King Kong by my favorite designer, Keith Elwin [sic]' in reference to official invitation details

  • Tim Sexton (John Wick coder) has left Stern Pinball and has been gone for weeks

    medium confidence · Donnie states 'I just found out about this yesterday, and I think it happened a while ago. He was the coder for John Wick' and notes code updates have stopped

  • Raven Davidson likely took over John Wick code duties from Tim Sexton

    low confidence · Donnie: 'I heard a rumor that Mr. Raven Davidson had taken over' — stated as unconfirmed rumor

  • Godzilla (Stern, Keith Elwin) is currently the #1 ranked game on Pinside

    high confidence · Hosts live-checked Pinside rankings during episode and confirmed 'Godzilla number one'

  • Keith Elwin track record includes Iron Maiden, Avengers Infinity Quest, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Bond 60th, Jaws, and other top-tier games

    high confidence · Donnie lists Elwin's portfolio and characterizes his design quality as 'next level'

  • Releasing a pinball game simultaneously with or just after a Keith Elwin title significantly damages sales for competitors

    medium confidence · Cengiz expresses strong opinion: 'I'm so sad for any pinball company, any designer that will release a game at the same time as a Keith Elwin game.' References Avatar launch strategy failure after Stern release.

  • Jersey Jack Pinball and Barrels of Fun have major releases planned that could be 'seminal' for their 2025-2026 business

    medium confidence · Cengiz: 'there's two other companies that also have games that like are seminal releases like these will be their big releases for the entire year and maybe even the next 18 months with Jersey Jack and Barrels of Fun' — speculation based on industry timing patterns, not confirmed releases

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm so sad for any pinball company, any designer that will release a game at the same time as a Keith Elwin game. I'm just saying.”

    Cengiz @ ~23:00 — Reflects market sentiment about Keith Elwin's dominance and the strategic disadvantage competitors face when launching simultaneously

  • “Godzilla, no other game from no other company has come out and destroyed that game. And I'm telling you, this is how it is.”

    Donnie @ ~26:00 — Assessment of Godzilla's market dominance and challenge for King Kong to surpass it

  • “I haven't seen any leaks. I haven't heard any rumors. I haven't heard about six upper playfields. None of that. So I'm totally unspoiled. And I don't even want to get spoiled at this point.”

    Cengiz @ ~31:00 — Indicates strong community discipline around avoiding Kong spoilers and host preference for surprise reveal experience

  • “The time to release a new game if you're not Stern was last week. I mean, it's now. When you hear this show, release the game right now, not tomorrow, right now.”

    Donnie @ ~20:00 — Urgent strategic advice to non-Stern competitors about timing window before Kong announcement captures market attention

  • “Stern Pinball Inc., bam, released. And everybody's pockets were empty. And like four days later, we got Avatar. And it was like, no, this is too late.”

    Donnie @ ~19:00 — Specific historical example of Stern overshadowing competitor launch (Avatar after prior Stern release)

  • “Just getting this invite, it's just so nice, man. I'm loving this... I'm honored. I'm happy.”

    Cengiz @ ~6:00 — Reflects community recognition dynamics and importance of media day invitations to content creators

  • “That X-Ray stuff on Avengers Infinity Quest. It's so satisfying, man.”

    Donnie @ ~28:00 — Technical gameplay detail praise for Elwin design mechanic (spinner halt feature)

  • “So he was like, dad let's take the plane, let's just visit... he wants to be an actor... check out the new game and just go to L.A.”

Entities

King KonggameKeith ElwinpersonStern PinballcompanyZach SharpepersonCengizpersonDonniepersonGodzilla

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Stern Pinball officially announced King Kong (Keith Elwin design) with media day April 17 and public play April 17-19, 2025 at Pinball at the Zoo

    high · Official invitation email from Zach Sharp to WAP hosts with explicit dates, times, location, and event logistics

  • ?

    product_launch: Kong launch follows standard Stern pattern: media day Thursday 4/17, dealer call Monday 4/21, trailer release Monday noon, order banks open Mon-Tue, public availability established at same-day show event

    high · Cengiz and Donnie discuss typical Stern release cadence based on previous launches and invitation details

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Kong release creates strategic disadvantage for competitor launches; hosts emphasize Jersey Jack and Barrels of Fun must launch 1-3 weeks before or 2-3 months after to avoid capsizing by Stern momentum

    medium · Donnie: 'The time to release a new game if you're not Stern was last week... right now. Lock up some deposits before our wallets are out.' References Avatar failure post-Stern release.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Tim Sexton (John Wick coder at Stern) has recently departed; code updates for John Wick halted weeks ago; departure likely explains update drought

    medium · Donnie: 'I just found out about this yesterday... He was the coder for John Wick... code updates stopped... Maybe that's also why they don't have the contracts'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Keith Elwin's reputation as industry's top designer has solidified; community consensus that no other current designer can compete with his combined design/code quality; Godzilla's #1 ranking treated as nearly insurmountable benchmark

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.221

0:00
oh i hope you're hungry for euro trash and pinball news because wop is back we are pinball we are maniacal we are handsome we are tall we are available as long as nobody tells our girlfriends and wives for the most preeminent pinball podcast in the universe this is we are pinball number 28 with some hot, hot news. Genghis, what's up, buddy? Oh, Donnie, we're back, man. We're back. I'm so happy. This is number 28, and we just got a mail from Stern. We're going to spread the love. We're going to spread the happiness. This is going to be awesome. Genghis here from Denmark and Donnie from the U.S. Oh, my God. Welcome to another WAP episode. From Denmark to downtown Wisconsin, man. We're making connections here. Shout out to friends of the show, Jamie Burchill and Retro Ralph. What an awesome episode of The Flipside. Thanks for the mention. Appreciate it, guys. Also, friends of the show, Spooky Pinball, I know you guys are listening. Listen, Jenga, everybody is listening to this in the industry for sure. Not everybody will talk about it and admit it, but we know they're there. So shout out to you guys. I know who you are. I see you with the WAP stuff. I see you with your sticker on the back of your car, your electric Rivian. when you're driving around mobbing, keeping it low-key on the WAP tip. I get it, man. So fresh, so awesome. We love the pictures with T-shirts. Yeah, we love the pictures with WAP T-shirts everywhere. Yeah, stickers on the car, stickers on the restaurant door. Just WAP stickers everywhere. I got another WAP T-shirt being mailed out today. If you want one, still get mad at me with the email. And we got to get a website going to make it easier to sling these things, man. But like this weekend, I got asked, we only sell T-shirt. I want some underwear. Oh, all right. And I said, dude, for you or your lady somewhere.
2:04
Oh, OK. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. How about this? All right. Listen, reach out. We we grant dreams and wishes here. So if you've got something you want a logo on, hell, send it to me. I'll stamp it on there and get it back to you. so you want him to send her his wife's panties i'll go ahead i'll go ahead and launder them myself just go ahead and send them on in oh my god i would love to monica just a you know stand up tuesday she opens up a package there's some used pantyhose in there what the heck coming in the mail not even being thrown to me on stage anymore donnie please stamp these we are ridiculous it seems we're pinball baby we're pinball and today we are honored right right donnie we're honored about this email we just got speaking of stuffed boxes my email box was just stuffed with a lovely message you got one too from who from who else but big daddy big daddy stern pinball big daddy stern we're gonna start I mean, Zachary Sharp. Mr. Zach Sharp. First, me here. Okay, me, Cengiz here from Denmark.

Cengiz @ ~48:00 — Personal anecdote showing appeal of Stern media events to younger generation/family members

game
Jawsgame
Tim Sextonperson
[name withheld pending review]person
John Wickgame
Evil Deadgame
Venomgame
Barrels of Funcompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Pinball at the Zooevent
Pinsideproduct
Jamie Burchellperson
Retro Ralphperson
We Are Pinball (WAP)organization
Metallica Remasteredgame

high · Cengiz: 'Keith Elwin he this guy... why is keith like so good at this?' Donnie: 'his team... his game design... his game code. It's just next level.' Discussion of Elwin's unbroken track record of top-tier releases.

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Evil Dead (Barrels of Fun) has right ramp/slingshot flipper interaction issues requiring mechanical adjustment; ball can unexpectedly drop down middle if flipper not engaged; fixable via wire form tension adjustment

    medium · Extensive technical discussion about Evil Dead right ramp trajectory; Donnie describes adjustment solution: 'loosen the nut on top of the sling that holds the wire form'

  • ?

    product_concern: John Wick code criticized for lack of depth and unclear progression; experience point system described as 'just thrown in for fun'; hosts debate if game worth ownership at current pricing despite strong theme

    medium · Donnie interviewed Tim Sexton on separate podcast about experience points: 'well, that was just thrown in for fun. And I'm like, well, that's not very fun.' Discussion of waiting for price reduction before reconsidering purchase.

  • ?

    product_concern: Venom topper originally planned ferrofluid mechanism but failed during development (housing melted); replaced with LCD screen; indicates manufacturing/design quality issues despite eventual release

    medium · Donnie: 'I think the housing melted and everything ran on the floor and they're like, we can't have this happening on games... they went with an LCD screen.' References Disney Avatar ride ferrofluid technology as intended inspiration.

  • ?

    community_signal: Community showing strong discipline around King Kong spoilers; hosts explicitly requesting no leaks two weeks before reveal; indicates mature fan base committed to reveal experience integrity

    medium · Cengiz: 'Please no leaks. No nothing... I'm two weeks away, and I just want to go in and just be surprised. It hardly happens in pinball anymore.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Stern media day invitations now explicitly allow hosts to bring guests (plus-one format); suggests growing professionalization of influencer relationships and potential for public event scaling

    medium · Donnie: 'When I did that, it gave me an option. It said, how many people are you bringing with you? One, two, three, or four?' Discussion of potential Patreon guest invitations and event scaling.

  • ?

    industry_signal: Community dynamics include fan award shows (Twippies) and potential industry award shows; tension between competitive tournament coverage and casual fan engagement; podcast hosts explicitly avoid tournament coverage but acknowledge legitimacy of other creators covering it

    medium · Discussion of Twippies award show appreciation; acknowledgment of Crystal/Industry Awards history; deliberate decision not to cover tournaments on WAP due to audience preference and host priorities

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Evil Dead production appears constrained; approximately 50-80 units produced; low production volume may limit Pinside eligibility ranking and market penetration

    low · Donnie: 'They've only made about 50 to 80 [Evil Dead units]... Maybe there's got to be so many made before it's eligible [for Pinside ranking]'

    • 3:20
    So Zach sends out this email, and I hope that it's okay that we can share some info here because we are so happy at this channel. This show is all about happiness. So Zach Sharp, he invited us. Guys, this is just awesome. Join us. Thursday, April the 70th for an Ernie Hazan experience hell yes so many great details all day long, do this, lunch and eat and have some fun he's not saying you have to film, you have to share nothing, just come, factory tour check out the new pinball machine, we all know what it is it's King Kong by my favorite designer, Keith Owen. Oh, my God. I'm so happy about this. The second I got this mail. Now, first of all, I got this mail on my Retro Django YouTube. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. So this is a YouTube invitation. But dear Zach, dear Zach Sharp, now, I have to take a lot of days, you know, fly a day, fly back a day, stay there. It will take me a week to do this. But the good part is I also do this WAP show. So Donnie is invited also. Donnie. And everything Donnie is playing, testing, seeing, hearing, all the rumors, all the thoughts, everything. He shares everything with me like I share everything with him. So I will feel like I am there already. So all the info, I will do a video about it. I will share my thoughts here on our WAP pinball episode also. I just want to say I'm honored. I'm happy. I mean, just getting this invite, it's just so nice, man. I'm loving this. And this game, I'm sure it will, Donnie, how do you feel about this? Look at Owen's track record, man. Just right off the bat with Iron Maiden, Avengers Infinity Quest, Godzilla Jurassic Park Bond 60th no ramps and it's still fun as hell with four spinning elements dude I love it Jaws come on who doesn't love Stern Pinball here who doesn't just love Big Daddy Stern we love their games that's the first thing second thing how the games are shooting we love it how they're coded we have some different designers in there we love it But the coolest part about Stern that I just absolutely nobody can get close to this is like every third month we will get a new game or a remake or, you know, something from the three, four months. We're getting new games all the time. Now it says 70th early, early access. So when they show the game to us, media people, the 70th, when do you think they will release this? 17th. Yes.
    6:31
    So this is all – the media day is Thursday the 17th, okay? That's a Thursday. Probably what will happen, there may be a teaser that Friday, or they may tease it that Friday, and then Monday in the morning there will be a dealer call, like a Zoom with all the dealers and distributors where they kind of go through the whole game, all the marketing materials. Then at noon they release the trailer, and then they release the behind-the-scenes featurette, and then you know order banks are open at that point you know monday into tuesday and then thursday media folks will be on site distributors in the morning us in the afternoon hot dogs to follow hopefully some pizza and then you know we'll actually get some hands on time with the game which is a maze but donnie there's also this part of the mail dude this part that says we will have games available for the public. Oh. Yeah, at the pinball at the zoo. Oh, that's right. Yeah, in Michigan, April 17th to the 19th. So that's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, there'll be a pinball show in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where games will be available as well. So same time. Yeah. So they just release it for the media, release it for the public, and you know we will share some info the public will go out and and film this game so it's so close donnie i'm so happy like like just over two weeks we will get a brand new stern game man oh my god and you know there's two other companies that also have games that like are seminal releases like these will be their big releases for the entire year and maybe even the next 18 months with Jersey Jack and Barrels of Fun. And all eyes are now on Stern. So we got a release date. So I think deep in the bowels around the corner at Jersey Jack Pinball, they're probably finalizing their plans for launching because, you know, what do they want to get out a week ahead of this and start getting deposits before, like, the full reveal? Or do they want to, you know, lag behind and let Kong eat up some sales and then nobody wants to follow Stern? Nobody wants to follow Stern. What happened last time with Avatar?
    8:47
    We all knew, and come on, and they were hyping. George Jack was hyping, hyping, hyping. And then Big Daddy Stern, bam, released. And everybody's pockets were empty. And like four days later, we got Avatar. And it was like, no, this is too late. I think the time to release a new game if you're not Stern was last week.
    9:08
    I mean, it's now. When you hear this show, release the game right now, not tomorrow, right now. Lock up some deposits before our wallets are out. We're already looking at it. We're buying jet skis soon. We're buying paddle boards. It's about to be the middle of summer. We're booking trips.
    9:27
    And, yeah, the money's going to be tied up. We're buying travel trailers right now. So, like, come get it so we can have our summer game. But crickets haven't heard anything yet from either of the two guys. I don't want to be mean against no other pinball designer right now. I don't want to be mean. I would never do that. Dude, I don't want to be mean, but this is some real talk, okay? Real talk, okay? I'm so sad for any pinball company, any designer that will release a game at the same time as a Keith Elwin game. I'm just saying. real talk with jingis i mean don't do it yeah just don't do it now like two weeks before or just wait three months or something because keith elwyn he this guy i mean donnie what the heck why is keith like so good at this not only keith his team because i love his game design but also his game code. It's just next level. Man, I miss Jaws. I know I'm going to have Godzilla again at some point. I was just playing Avengers Infinity Quest. I was playing an Avengers Infinity Quest on location that wasn't even maintained, and it was still better than 70% of the games out there. I mean, that game's so underrated. I love it. And it was a pro. It was a pro.
    10:55
    I love the pro. Avengers Pro, it's such an underrated. It's so cheap. It's an awesome shooting game. And that, you know, that spinner at the left side would halt when it builds up. Oh, I know. I know it. Yeah, that X-Ray stuff. It's so satisfying, man. Oh, I love it, Donnie. The biggest thing that Avengers Infinity Quest has going against it is it exists at a time when Godzilla and Jaws also exist. Like, that's the only. Otherwise, like, yeah, that'd be, like, definitely a top-shelf game. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome game. So, the million-dollar question.
    11:35
    And I'm telling you, since Godzilla, no other game from no other company has come out and destroyed that game.
    11:44
    And I'm telling you, this is how it is. This is how it is. You can say whatever you want to say, but Godzilla. Jaws? It's just a little. Jaws, look, Jaws is awesome, but it's just not like Godzilla. Jaws doesn't shoot as well. Jaws doesn't have as impressive of a mechanism, but Jaws' theme is so much better than Godzilla. That's what puts it over the top for me personally. You're definitely entitled to your opinion. To be honest, I don't care about Godzilla's theme. Like Zippo, I don't care for it. It does nothing for me but the music in Godzilla. Oh, it's so good. Shoot the wamps. Oh, my God. The call-outs. The guys are hilarious. That color got reduced.
    12:33
    It got reduced a lot. It's not like when you had the game. I love Godzilla. But do you think this game will destroy Godzilla and push it down as the second best game and sell more than Godzilla? Come on, win some more. Are we going to see a 70th anniversary black and white edition of King Kong in a couple of months? Are we going to see an SLE down the road? What's probably going to happen to Jaws at some point? The cool thing is I have no idea And I get to be surprised in two weeks When we see the damn thing I'm so excited I haven't seen any leaks I haven't heard any rumors I haven't heard about six upper play fields None of that So I'm totally unspoiled And I don't even want to get spoiled at this point Just I'll wait two weeks I want to see it And just be like Yes Donnie said it Please no leaks No nothing Let's just have a great intro I mean, start when they come out with their games. Their videos, their one-minute, two-minute clips, I love them, man. They're so cool. And later we get the designer. We get George Gomez showing, telling the game. I love stuff like that. And people are like, woo, getting on the list, buying this game.
    13:46
    That's how you do it. At this point, if you know what the layout is or you know what a mechanism is, keep it to yourself. Don't tell me. I don't want to know. I don't want to know at this point. I'm two weeks away, and I just want to go in and just be surprised. It hardly happens in pinball anymore.
    14:00
    And, Zach, thank you for the invite again. Absolutely. When Donnie's there, he will call me up live, and I will see everything. I will see the play field of the next game you're doing in there. I will see everything. We'll make a show about it. It's going to be awesome, Donnie. I'm so excited. I love Stern. And I want them to destroy Godzilla. So get up at the number one. Take it down. Yeah, absolutely. Everybody should be striving for that. You know, likely you would fall short, but, like, strive for perfection. Strive for greatness. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you know what number Jaws is on Pinside? No, I've never got a Pinside. I have no idea. No, me neither. Is it on top ten, you know? Should we just, while we're doing this, just live jump? Do you jump in and look at it now? All right, sure. Let me see what I can get. You're talking about yourself. What number is Jaws at right now? Top 100. It's April 2025. Yeah. I like all the April Fool's jokes we got into yesterday. Nothing was too crazy. Phantom Tilt said he bought Haggis Pinball. That was hilarious.
    15:07
    Top 100 solid stake list. I don't want that. Just top list. What number is it? Top 100. Here we go. Yeah. Come on. All right. Godzilla number one. Medieval Madness number two. You can't go by this damn list. Iron Maiden is five. Is Medieval Madness number two? It's number two. What the pfft? Dead Lord of the Rings. Jaws isn't even in the top ten on here. Jaws is twelve.
    15:33
    Twilight Zone is better than Jaws. Elvira's House of Horrors is number nine. Listen, just count from one to ten. Let me hear. All right. Godzilla number one, followed by Medieval Madness. Jurassic Park, Stern, number three. Metallica Remastered 4 Hell of a Game Iron Maiden number 5 Attack from Mars is 6 Monster Bash 7 Deadpool 8 Elvira House of Horrors number 9 Lord of the Rings 10 Twilight Zone 11 Jaws 12 Lebowski 13 Elton John 14 JJP Pirates 15 Foo Fighters 16 Cactus Canyon 17 This is the stupidest list James Bond 007, The Cornerstone at 18, Metallica, the OG version, 19, Star Trek 20 from Stern, and then Indiana Jones and on down. Okay. Yeah, that's one heck of a crooked list, man.
    16:32
    I mean, Texas Canyon should be number 219. I mean, you know, Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, number 50. I like that. John Wick, 47. What the actual hell is fuck is going on? Dialed in 48 How is that even in the top 200 Dialed in is a much better game than Cactus Canyon I love that Rick and Morty is tied at 42 With Circus Voltaire Above Alien, Star Wars Above Whitewater Can you find Evil Dead there Yeah I'll scroll down and see if I can find it Evil Dead I ain't seeing it Heist is number 76 What the flip All right. Just type Evil Dead, and you can see the rating. Oh, it's not even showing up. What? It's not in the top 100, then.
    17:23
    What? Maybe it's not registered. Maybe nobody's got this game yet to really rank it. They've only made about 50 to 80. Oh, I think. Oh, okay. Maybe there's got to be so many made before it's eligible or something. Because it's going to be up there. Rick and Morty's in the top 50. And, yeah, this is a much better game than that. I have a very, very fast question about Evil Dead. Yeah. So when you shoot the right ram, I just saw a two-minute video clip today. When you shoot the right ram, okay, and the ball goes up the ram and comes down. Yeah. And exits just on top of the right, usually slingshot area. Yeah. And you don't flip that slingshot flipper. the video I saw was it hit the top side of the slipper on that slingshot and jumped and went straight down the middle. How does it act if you don flip that flipper Right So on mine if you don flip the flipper it just falls rolls against it just like rolling down a sling and goes to the flipper It doesn go down the middle Oh okay And when you hold the sling flipper out, the ball will actually stay on the wire form, and you can drop it right on top and then hit it and either get the left ramp or the orbit or the hand or the stand-up targets. That's cool. I just watched this. I was like, what the heck? You shoot the right ramp, and the ball came there, hit the top side of the flipper, and just bounce straight down the middle. So that must be an adjustment then. I don't know. Yeah, so if you loosen the nut on top of the sling that holds the wire form, there's probably some play you can put it. So if it is catching that corner, I could see it doing that. Mine's never done that, and I'm sure you could loosen it up and adjust it.
    19:09
    Yeah, okay. So if yours worked, then it's just made to do. Because sometimes you don't want to flip that upper flipper and just scroll it down. Now, the big problem I've been seeing is if you really rip the right orbit, as it comes around, it will tend to go down between the flippers. So I adjusted that end of the ball guy, just put a slight little bend in it, ever so slightly, and then that fixed it so it goes to the right flipper every time.
    19:32
    And so what I was doing before that is learning how to nudge it as it comes around to kind of get it over to the flipper. Give it a boost. But it sucked to hit like a super clean shot on that right orbit, and then if you weren't paying attention, boom, right down the middle. It's like, no, I was doing good. I hit the shot.
    19:46
    But you have to know, orbit shots are very different on white-body games. Yeah. They are different. The exit trajectory is just different on the white-body. Some people have to adjust to it. So, yeah. But it was just an adjustable wrench right at the end of that ball guy. Just the smallest little millimeter deflection, and it comes down perfect. So that was good. I had to do the same thing with Elvira, and that fixed that problem. Nice. Yeah, you have to have a screwdriver and some skills when you have a pinball collection. It is what it is, man. But, yeah, daddy's turn. Thank you for the invite. Donnie, will you join? Will you be there? Absolutely, yeah. I already RSVP'd. I'll be down there. I'm three hours away, so that's not a big deal at all. I got the day off work. Remember, you have to click on the link on the mail. Remember me. Yeah. When I did that, it gave me an option. It said, how many people are you bringing with you? One, two, three, or four? And I'm like, well, there's no zero here. And it was mandatory. I had to put something. So I put down a plus one. Am I allowed to invite somebody? Can I invite somebody to go with me?
    20:50
    Non-media people? I guess. It just said I just had to provide the name. So I just put down to be announced. But maybe I'll reach out. And if so, maybe we can scroll through the Patreon members, see if anybody's in Chicago and wouldn't mind. Oh, I mean, you can take one of the collector's edition. I mean, I didn't press that. I'm gonna I didn't press that button so I didn't know that with plus one we were eating dinner and I saw this mail and I shared with my son I was like Aslan look at this I mean this is so cool and he was like dad this is so cool let's do this and I'm like dude you're like 14 years old what the heck do you want to do in Chicago and I was like dad let's take the plane let's just visit How about school? You cannot just – he was like, Daddy, it doesn't matter.
    21:45
    Let's just go to the U.S. I like how he's thinking, man. He wants to be an actor. He just wants to come to Chicago, check out the new game, and just go to L.A. and do some movie stuff. I don't know. I mean, yeah, that's not a bad way to spend your time. Doesn't he have spring break? It's like right before Easter. Have him take some time off.
    22:05
    All right, buddy. $825 from Copenhagen to Chicago stopping in Helsinki? No, stopping in Iceland. No, no. Yeah, yeah.
    22:15
    $800. Or non-stop on SAS. You could be there. I'll pick you up at the airport. $1,300. Yikes. $1,000 on lot. You can fly through Poland. How many hours? Let's see. Non-stop is 9 hours and 15 minutes. Oh my god. What else are you going to be doing for 9 hours? Oh, my. For nine hours? Yeah. Dude.
    22:41
    A thousand things. But you'll be there. I mean, if it was easier for me, trust me, I'll be the first one. Again, I'm honored to be invited. I'm so happy. But we're going to do some stuff here, and it will be released for the public at the same time that the media comes there. But just getting this invitation, getting that accomplishment, what's it called, Donnie? I'm just honored. What do you call stuff like this? Recognition.
    23:09
    Recognition, baby. Yeah, yeah. Validation. Validation, recognition. A nice ego stroke is what you got. I'm just happy. And Jamie, our dear friend Jamie from Wormhole Pinball, just worming the WAP show, just saying that he loves to listen to podcasts. And then he mentions you and I, Donnie, saying like these two guys, some crazy local guys, you know. And see how cool is this? This is the third media day now, and now it's starting to come like, how many people are you bringing? One, two, three, four? So it's like, see, if we go there and we behave ourselves, eventually we can bring our other friends with us too, and eventually this can grow to just be like a public event. Can you imagine where they just set up a tent in the parking lot, they're grilling hot dogs, everybody comes by, plays the new game, turn into an event for everybody in the area, right? I mean, Zach listed us all the stuff. Every 30 minutes we're going to do this. We're going to do this. It's so good, man. Lunch, dinner, everything. Oh, so beautiful, man. I wish I could be there, hold Donnie's hand with WAP T-shirts. Oh, my sweet mother of Canada. The one thing we're not going to be able to do is a meet and greet with Tim Sexton over there at Stern. What the heck, Donnie? So what's going on?
    24:28
    He's done and gone? Yeah, I just found out about this yesterday, and I think it happened a while ago. He was the coder for John Wick Making the rules and everything And we were like, come on, give us some more rules And then he just quit hearing stuff And then he showed up on a podcast I interviewed him with Enzo And I asked him, bro, what's the deal with the experience point system? What are we building towards? And it was like, well, that was just thrown in for fun And I'm like, well, that's not very fun And then I was waiting for more code updates And then now I find out this is probably why we haven't been hearing anything from him Because he's been gone now for weeks Maybe that's also why They don't have the Do you remember the contracts They should release some contracts The contracts just stopped It was just like no more No more contracts So hopefully I heard a rumor That Mr. Raven Davidson had taken over Which would be cool I hope somebody's taken over And finishing up that poor WIC code Because man, WIC deserves better than a god I think And Ray Day, he took over the Metallica remastered clothes. Killed it. Just killed it, man. And everybody is so happy with his work. So if he took over John Wick, I mean, because John Wick, great theme. Okay. Shots on layout, I fully enjoy it. And I do, I do. Some people don't, but look at my review on my YouTube channel. I enjoyed the shots on layout, but to be honest, I saw the play field, the Whitewood play field, Donnie. And you and I, we love this wrestling game, right? We love the wrestling you have in the background. On that wrestling game, you have these flippers at the ring at the opposite side of the playfield. So the mechanical engineer of wrestling is the lead designer of John Wick. So if you look at his first design of John Wick, he had the same flippers up there at the upper playfield. So he had the same flippers as wrestling, and those flippers are awesome. I don't know. I just love it. Okay. So they were in there. It would have been fun to have a John Wick battle arena up there where you could go in there and that's where you battle. I get it. I completely get it, man. So you have to work your way, go up there, and, you know, boss level fight. And it's not easy, those magnetic flippers, right? It's not easy. I mean, oh, that could be awesome. But, yeah, that got removed. But, yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking I'm back. Well, if John Wick ever drops down to Venom levels, I would consider picking it back up again because it was fun to play. I just wanted more to do in it than what it shipped with and what it even has today.
    27:12
    Have you heard? Because they released the topper for John Wick, and it sold out like in two hours or something. They just released, just at last show number 27, we talked about the topper for Venom. Yeah. Have you heard if they sold out? No, I haven't heard that. I did get to play a Venom game with it. It was at Texas Pinball Festival. And, you know, it's okay. It's the same size and shape as the Mandalorian topper. It's got some plastic characters in it. The LCD screen is kind of fun. I didn't see it really do anything different than just run through its routine. It does come with Ghost Rider. That was rumored to be happening. And when I was at Disney just recently, I was in Animal Kingdom. And in the line for the Avatar ride, they have an area where you're in a laboratory. and they have little jars of that ferrofluid, that magnetic fluid in there. It's going through this routine and looks really cool. And I know that that is what was going to be in that Venom topper and that's what was probably causing the problems. Sounds like they left it on overnight and something shorted out and they were like, forget it, we can't be doing this. I think the housing melted and everything ran on the floor and they're like, we can't have this happening on games. So they went with an LCD screen. But it would have been a really significantly cool topper if that happened. And I think they put all the budget into that, and that's why everything else is just a little flat plastic and lights.
    28:31
    I like the topper. The saga of the Venom topper will be legend. Yeah, yeah. Donnie, a few things. First of all, we're actually getting thanked because we're not talking about tournaments. Oh, yeah. We're getting thank yous. Thank you for not talking about the tournament. And thank you for not talking about names we don't know about, places we don't know about, people winning something we don't know about. So we're going to thank you emails for that. So you're most welcome. Yeah. Other podcasts talk about this, and they're fully in their right to do so. So if you enjoy stuff like this, do it there. Don and I, we don't talk about this, and I think we will still not talk about it. It's honestly, yeah, like tournaments, they're not something I ever really think about. You know, if they happen locally and I happen to be there, like I've played in them, and they can be fun. But most of the time I like to play pinball, and when I'm in a tournament, I'm standing around watching other people play pinball, and that's just not as fun, you know.
    29:34
    But I get that people dig it. It's just not something I think about. I'm not an authority on the matter of tournaments. And to me, F is an outsider. It seems to be the same eight people that are winning everything anyway. I feel like on a YouTube channel, when you show what's going on, edit and clip everything, and show the shots, show the people that are playing, then it could be maybe okay. Not something I want to do on my YouTube channel, but on a pinball podcast show on the radio, you should see this John Johnson. He made a great shot. He did the craziest death save I've ever seen on Paragon.
    30:20
    You're welcome. No one can play Future Spa like Jeffrey Anderson. He made that machine his bitch. Yeah. You should be there. You should see it. It was last week. It was magical. So, yeah, you're welcome. But we got a mail I want to address here. This guy says, oh, oh my, I want you to answer first. So this guy says, the Twippy Show, you didn't talk about it. Do you hate the Twippies? Yes, the Twippies need to die in a fire. And I hate, no, I'm kidding.
    30:55
    Let me answer. First of all, Donnie was at the Twippies. I was there. Me, before the Twippies, I made a video on my YouTube channel, and I promoted the trippies and said, this is awesome. We watched it. It's on Jamie's Wormhole Pinball channel on his YouTube channel. Go and re-watch it. It was a great show. Congratulations to the winners. But everything is in there. Again, another shout-out. We have nothing against it. We're looking forward to next year's show. And it was presented by Jamie. He did the work with Retro Ralph. It was beautiful, man. Why shouldn't we like a pinball award show? I mean, we love pinball. Yeah, I think there should be more award shows. The Twibbies are very much like a fan award because, you know, it's basically popular vote. Fill out the email or online form. And, you know, if you get nominated for a category, that's awesome. That's a recognition, right? Somebody takes home the plastic trophy and we all have fun. I would like to see a pinball industry award return where it's kind of voted on people that have a different perspective of the hobby from the manufacturing side and really recognize this person amongst pinball artists was voted as the best pinball artist. And I think that would be a good compliment.
    32:16
    Yeah, why not? So Don and I, we love the Twippies. We love everybody behind the Twippies, more of that stuff. and you know what i think it was like two years ago zach also did an award show i don't crystal award something something do you know uh remember i think that was the pinball industry awards is what they call it okay yeah yeah just come back it was fun everything pinball we enjoyed we supported absolutely but uh yeah go in wormhole pinball um on youtube check it out it's so beautiful yeah and i remember that i remember that industry award because it was the year that i started my podcast and they opened the voting ballots to people in the media you know people that did podcasts but you had to have like 10 shows or something or 20 shows to meet the cutoff and i only had like i was short by like three so it's like i didn't i didn't fit the criteria and i'm like that's okay next year i'll be able to do it and then they never did it again Donnie, come on, man. Come on.
    33:20
    I did it. It was fun. So, yeah, we love all the pinball award shows. So, yeah, more of that, please. So, yeah, we have nothing against it. Donnie, we have to thank our supporters. Oh, yeah. Let's do that. We need to start with the Collector's Edition supporters. Charles, Charlie's Angels, man. Charles Fortham at Collector's Edition. Yes. What's up, buddy? Give him some more. There we go. Thank you for the collector's edition. Donnie, $150 support, man. That's crazy. What the heck? Isn't it crazy? It's just so cool. And another collector's edition supporter. Oh, my God. Josh Cox. Velvet Steve, give him two. He just sent me the mod for Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's a handmade steel plate for that door that moves in the back. And then on the back, it's inscribed, like, WAP for life. Like, it's awesome. It's, like, personalized on the back. I didn't want to put it on the game because I want to be able to see that. I want to have it as a keychain. It's so awesome, man. You should be on the front, man. WAP on the front. Yeah, the WAP door, man.
    34:37
    Wow, so super awesome. Josh Cox. I mean, I cannot wait to have him on the show because all the stuff we have been writing with him, I want all the listens to happen. But Josh Cox, he's another collector's edition supporter. That's supporters with $150 on Patreon. I mean, give him another.
    34:59
    We're going to have to give this guy a polo shirt if he makes it six months of doing this. He's going to be in the Screaming Panther Club. Oh, we just got something Patreon, Brad Yeah, I just saw it That's on the next show Okay, Anthony Antonio Banderas Hell yeah Yes, yes, yes, Antonio Look, Antonio He sent a video where he has WAP sticker on his pickup truck It was beautiful Representing man That's the most badass pickup truck ever So he's just He's riding on his car, and at the backside, it just says, wet-ass pussy.
    35:42
    It's so good on that logo. When you get close enough, it says, we are pinball. But when you take it like one step back, it's just WAP with big letters. When you send me the picture with Spooky Luke, and he was like, yeah, look at this T-shirt. It's a yellow WAP. I love it.
    36:00
    And he's a big boy. I just love it. Just WAP in it. It's so cool, man. Dude, when you go to Stern, go out with some T-shirts. Let some of the guys just get the WAP T-shirts. The ones that want to wear the T-shirts, do it. Take some pictures. Let's do a fun show about it because it's WAPity WAP, man. Why not? Perfect. Yeah, I'll bring some WAP shirts for everybody. Cengiz couldn't be here, but he wanted to get WAP all over your chest. So here you go. Yeah, man. And all those videos where people – Donnie is filming people. People are like, Cengiz, we love you. Your show with Donnie is just awesome. All this love and positivity, it's next level, man. Donnie positivity when you listen to happy positive people you will get in the same mood Oh some males where people are saying that when you laughing we laughing More laugh more fun It just so good Right, Tony? No negativity, man. We love this. How about Enzo? Enzo from Australia.
    37:02
    What a guy. I'll give him two as well. What a solid dude. Premium supporter. Happy owner of a P3 multimorphic system. He's getting Portal. He's super happy about that. And we're happy for him. He's getting everything. He's getting it. We were writing today, and he was like, we were writing about the June, upcoming June, and he was like, oh, man, June. And I was like, yeah, you're going to buy June. And he answered he would buy everything. I'm going to be strident here for a moment. It's not good to just buy every game. You can't do that. You don't have enough windows in your house to put the games in front of. I mean, what are we even talking about here? Who wants to listen to that all the time? My God, can you imagine? Like the pinball market is what it is. Games are overpriced. Toppers cost too much. Ghost Glass is $250 for a wide body, one of the best deals in pinball. Thank you, Spooky Pinball. But besides that, like, yes, this is an overpriced hobby. But you know what? There's a million games that are out there. Tons of them are now in a buyer's market. Go pick yourself up a Venom Pro if you want to for $4,000. It's a lot better than spending $5,000 for a Blues Brothers. You're going to have a better experience there with Insider Connected, I might add. So there's places to find joy in this hobby that don't even include buying a pinball machine. Go to the location, drink some beer, play the local tournament, you know, put up a GC on the local Iron Maiden, you know. What are we doing? Visit KL Hernandez, man. Why not visit Electric Bad? So many great games. Visit Wormhole. So many great games. You don't need to buy. And if you are in the market to buy, you cannot bitch about the prices today. Yeah. Because it is a biased market. I want to give a shout-out to Loser Kids Pinball Show because they're putting out these videos with market research. And, you know, Josh in there, such a cool guy. I'm telling you, it's so cool. He goes in and daily just checks out the prices, the price stuff. And some of the prices, I'm driving in my car listening to this guy. I'm like, what the heck? That's half price of European prices. How much fun is it to hear, like, Deadpool is down 4%? this term, this quarter. You know, it's like, what are we listening to? This is craziness. It's so good. I do enjoy it. I'm going to shout out. And you know what? I started listening to pinball podcast shows. I want to do some shout outs, Donnie, because.
    39:27
    Go and preach, King. Go ahead. I'm telling you, look at this. Updated 16 hours ago, Don's Pinball Podcast. Oh, I heard of that guy. I'm going to listen to that. Yeah. Shout out to Don. And, you know, when the show was over, another podcast just jumped up. Listen to this. Updated one day ago. This one was so fun to listen to. The Slam Chilled Podcast. Do they have a new one that I missed?
    39:55
    I don't have a Beavis and Butthead clip. I'm not subscribed on this one. Do you know what their names are? It's two guys on the Slam Chilled Podcast. Yeah, I think it's Bo and Luke, I think are their names.
    40:07
    Bo and Luke? No, that's not it. okay okay i'm bad with names but i listened to their show updated one day ago it says here and donnie one of the guys were talking about the jjp harry potter release yes and the other guy was like when when one of the guys was talking the other guy was just he was just shouting just avatar avatar we're here to sell avatar don't talk about harry potter and i was laughing it was such a fun show. So yeah, they're on my list now. I think one of them is Carl. No, I'll think of it. Okay. Okay. We'll know on the next show, but they're on my... I will listen to their show from now on. Okay. Listen to this. Another one. Updated two days ago. Wedgehead Pinball. Oh, yeah.
    41:00
    I'll get a little ice cube there. Heck yeah. Updated two days ago. Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. Go Loser Kid. Go Loser Kid. updated three days ago the flip side pinball podcast with retro well don't miss one of them friend off the show listen listen updated oh this is not updated this is the 24th last month we are pinball the 20 seconds triple drain pinball podcast they get three they get three the 20th pinball party oh yeah yeah pinball party i want i want to listen to more of that 16th the 16th oh friend of the show electric bat arcade the 14th the pinball network oh we need it we're overdue i'm running out of these air horns 2024 December month super awesome pinball show wait wait a minute how did I miss that I mean shout out to all those shows they're all on my list now I am listening to them they're all just pure greatness in a box I will also highlight they had a recent episode out March 21st the Bash Pinball Podcast with Don and Matt I don't know them but I will check them out Cool, guys. I hung out with them at Expo. And then just four hours ago, we got Pinball Nerds Podcast by Albert Agar. Dropped again.
    42:36
    Let me give him one there. Let me give him one. All right. Now, where's Genghis? Genghis is drinking. He's filling up his saddlebag. I'm drinking. Sorry, sorry. Man, that was an epic rant. That was just all positive about Pinball Podcast, man. Woo-hoo! How about Jeremy Ferdman, our Ford Mustang? $50 supporter! Woo-hoo! Yeah! Woo-hoo! Play that song. Just play that song, Danny. Oh, my God.
    43:01
    I'm just going to let him go. Go, Jenkins. Go, Danny. It's your birthday. We're going to party like it's your birthday.
    43:11
    We're going to drink a card and I guess you're going to say. Can I just say how much fun it is that now everywhere I go, people run up. They're like, Danny.
    43:18
    Danny. It's not my fault. Danny. Oh, my God, dude. Listen to my friend's kid the other day. Say Donnie. Say Donnie.
    43:33
    Oh, my God. Such a cutie. Look, look. I watched that video with my son. So she says Donnie and Donnie. And then you move the camera towards your daughter. Yeah. And you're like, and you said the same thing to her. Come on, say Donnie. And she's like, hell no.
    43:50
    It was so good. I loved it. It was so good. Nerd. No. He's a cringe dad. I don't want to do that. No, get out of here. Teenagers, man. She's the best. It was so good. Gosh, man. Yeah, she'll be home in a minute here too. Jeez. Magical. So thank you for all the supporters on Patreon. We are blessed. We also have a lot of, you know, $5 supporters in there. Donnie, we're getting a lot of free, what's it called? Free members. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Our fully supporter chat is just glowing. We have a lot of messages. But we have opened a free member also chat, so they can go in and start the chat in there. Yeah. But we also have a chat going on on We Are Pinball Facebook group. Yes. Yes, and that's a glowing chat. Like, we need to talk about all that stuff that was written there about JJP. Oh, my goodness. Right? Hit me with it. Yeah. So if you are slightest interested in pinball, you have to come in on Facebook. We are pinball. And just click on that Join button, and then you can chat in there. It's for free. It's open for everybody. Everybody's welcome, right? We have 491 members in there. Can you imagine? Nine away. Who wants to be number 500? Get in there. Yeah, and we have about 700 users in there. And what we're going to say now, tomorrow, that page will go private.
    45:29
    That means that we – I kicked out – yesterday I kicked out 46 members that had some porn shit, some money shit, some shit shit that we just removed from there. In my defense, I forgot that I was logged in under the WAP account when I posted that. I thought that was going into my other fetishist account. Yeah.
    45:53
    So we're just going to do it private so everybody can see. But if you want to join, just click on the Join button. Everybody is welcome. It's the only thing you need to do. Just click on that Join button. So it's only members. There are members in there. So what's going on? We got some more info from Jersey Jack, the man himself, about Harry Potter. Oh, my goodness. You're a Harry wizard. I can't wait. This is another one, man. When this game is revealed, I'm taking the day off just so I can absorb it all because I can feel what's coming. So Jack was just on the Pinball News podcast that just came out, another one we need to shout out. They do a monthly thing. I met these guys again here at TPF, super cool dudes. One's British and the other dude is from fucking Netherlands. All right, don't confuse Dutch with Danish. Those are two different things I found out. They do. But yeah, so he dropped some information there I haven't listened to the full interview But it seems like he reiterated the three-tiered structure That they're going back to For these games And it seems like they're calling the limited edition The wizard edition Which is weird I can tell here, Jack confirmed the three Harry Potter tiers CE Wizard edition That's the LE And the arcade edition Arcade, come on A lot of details.
    47:18
    Arcade Edition is bringing back tier cheaper budget option. Yes, he confirmed it. Also said all three are pretty much identical. But the Arcade one won't have shaker, art blades, and topper.
    47:39
    That's okay. And more text, more text. And this is also interesting. the arcade version will be sub 10,000. What? That's cool for a Harry Potter game. So the play field is almost identical, but some stuff are taken out that you can put in if you want, right?
    48:00
    Yeah, and if you're operating an arcade, having a game without art blades from a maintenance standpoint is easier. So when you do have to lift the play field, you don't have to worry about protecting those as much. um you know dump the shaker to save a little bit on building materials i guess make it an option uh no topper that way if you want one just to get the price under 10k for a jjp that is absolutely going to earn on location i hope it will be absolutely going to earn 9k or something but this is also interesting man this is also interesting he said by may and some details i I don't want to share here, but latest June. So, Donnie, May, June? Not now? So that will actually be a clever idea, not to release it right now. Either today. Today or in two months. Or in May. Yeah. Today or May. I like that.
    48:54
    Oh, more info in there. What do you got? Guys, you can join. We are pinballed. And read all of this yourself. but he did say no actors from the movie for call outs call outs will be done by someone who has done voice work for harry potter theme park rides so what happened to we have all the assets from all the movies because if you're still in scenes and we don't have the audio from that if this is going to be, is this a kissing book? Is this going to be like Willy Wonka again? You got the jackpot, Charlie!
    49:33
    Kid Multi-Ball! Now, I will say that God, what's the dude's name that did the voice of the Labyrinth Topper? It just ran out of my brain. British dude, did the voice of Bob the Builder. He's the voice of Harry Potter stuff. He's the voice of the Sorting Hat, not in the movies, but in the games, in the merchandise.
    49:55
    Theme parks. You must have listened when it's theme parks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's good. Hopefully they pick him and, like, the sorting hat is doing the call-outs. It says here in writing that it's him. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I've got to get caught up in this. Yeah. So now we know. I hope that the arcade version will be about $9,000 because we want the arcade version on locations, Donnie. I think it will be a money-printing game. Mark Silk. That's his name. Like, damn it. I like just ran out of my brain. Oh, I have heard his name. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast. How do we miss them? Got to give them a shout out. He just did an interview with Mark Silk talking for like over an hour about just like all of the voices that he's done, like Bob the Builder and all kinds of esoteric stuff. Super cool. Great voice actor. So like if they got him, I'm not as mad about it. But like how do you not? You're a wizard, Harry. And a thumping good one. this what's his name a harry potter guy cliff richard as is what's his name do you know do remember his name cliff richard no daniel daniel radcliffe daniel radcliffe whatever dude whatever oh my god that's his danish name dude who who cares about that theme are you excited for a harry potter come on five million dollars and we don't get like not even the voice call out just from the film? You're a 45-year-old man. In your background, I see Star Wars. I see Stranger Things. I see Evil Dead. I see what is this? Dungeons and Dragons. I see fucking what's it? Texas Chainsaw. Are you interested in Harry Potter?
    51:41
    Are you sitting down and reading all those books? 1,600 books? No. I honestly haven't even finished all the movies. I've seen most of them. Tell you what, though. I've been on every one of the theme park rides. I've been to the Harry Potter Land. I've been to the Harry Potter Land in Hollywood. I've been to the Harry Potter Land in Florida. I've been to the Harry Potter Land in Osaka. You love theme parks. That's another thing. I'm talking about $15,000.
    52:08
    $15, little man. Put that shit in my hand. I'm going to have to day trade some crypto for a little bit, but I think we can build up there. But, you know, $15,000. I mean, for my home, I'm not interested in Harry Potter. But for locations, I cannot wait. So, so freaking excited about it. Every version will have the same play field, too. That's great. There's no upper play field that's going to be missing. You know, mechanisms will be missing. Sculpts may be missing. Shaker motors will be missing. You've got to have the magic motor.
    52:45
    I'll tell you who would care about a missing shaker motor, and that's the kids that bought that shaking broom toy back in the day that they had to take off the market because they just sold, like, basically an adult massager to children that goes between the legs. So you've got to be able to feel your Nimbus 2000 getting stimulated, right? Oh, that's the flying thing, right? Yeah, yeah. That's like 25 years ago. Nimbus 2000. But still, I don't care for the theme, but I am looking forward to this. On location, this is going to kill, Donnie. And, you know, if they make this for like 9K, because not everybody has played the standard version of Guns N' Roses. Good, because that sucks. It's not a bad game. Yeah.
    53:31
    Donnie, come on. It's not a bad game. So much was missing. It's not a bad game. So much was missing. You were missing that lock upper ram shit off the left side. Who cares? The bass guitar wire form was so awesome. That whole area is just dead. The plastic ramp to nowhere. It cost like $5,500 brand new back then. Okay, brand new. It cost like a Stern Pro. It was just jam-packed. We bought it on a location. Makes money just like the LE. No one cares. You're rocking to Guns N' Roses. And if they do this, around, I hope, not $9,995, but like $9,000 for an arcade version. That's going to be $9,999. I'm only here. Do it. They have to do it. So then Wizard Edition will probably have the standard plastic JJP topper that we see on Toy Story, that we see on other games. And then the CE is going to have the wizard hat, animatronic talking, knocker motors in it, projections of stardust on your ceiling, sprinkling you with holy water. I don't know. That's going to be like the version. And this is an Eric Mignot design. Come on. Look at the play feel. Look at the play feel on his Pirates of the Caribbean. That middle shot, not the chest, but just to the right of the chest, it has got this star map system. Pretty cool. You shoot the ball in there, a pin comes up, the ball shakes in there. I think it has a magnet underneath. I love it, man. In a dark room, so many great corners. That upper left flipper if you just press it and it open it has a hole The ball goes down under but it has got ins and outs and on the ramp ramps on the play field stuff soft ramps ball goes down under it It got ins and outs and on the ramps on the playfield stuff sub ramps Ball goes in goes out I love that game. It's so cool. And this is the same designer, right? Same designer from Godfather, too. And while the game wasn't very impressive and the theme didn't really hit, the gold accents on that collector's edition, the gold lions, the better topper. So if we see like that level of trim but with a theme that people care about and a layout that hopefully is better and code that's not just multi-ball after multi-ball, I think we've got a winner here. I have heard that this collector's edition, I cannot give all the details, but it's going to be goldenized, Tony. I have heard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're going to put extra, extra. I mean, when you see it, your CE buying wallet will pickle again. Damn it. I'm going to have to sell Kong. I don't even have it yet. Oh, no.
    56:15
    But, yeah, people, come on in and join in this beautiful community. It's free. It's on Facebook. So come on in and join and write. I mean, my phone is like, bing, bing. While we're doing the show on our Facebook, on our Patreon, it's just bang, bang, bang. The mails, it's crazy. It's fun. What a great community because this is – we are pinball. This is not just a show. This is a community, man. We're just having fun, and people are – people leave this show in a good mood. That's the most important thing in life, smile. We can't all be together if somebody's gone, so it's got to be all of us, yeah. All of us, man. We are pinball, absolutely. We're looking forward to this. Pretty cheesy. That's from the Insane Clown Posse.
    56:56
    We can't be together with you gone. It's from a song called Juggalo Island. and listen to it. There's a line about putting your wiener in a hot dog bun. It's great. That sounds like your song.
    57:08
    I'm surprised you still have your monsters in the background. Oh, I can't remember the monsters. You have so many great games, and you still have this game. It's a cool game. I love this game. But if you look at the portfolio, how many – Did you watch that series as a kid? Did you watch it on the TV? I've been to their house, Cengiz. Oh, okay. I grew up with this. It was an instant recognition. Yeah, yeah. No, yeah. So, yeah, love the show. Grew up with it. And then at Universal Studios Hollywood, you go on the backlot tour. You drive down 1313 Mockingbird Lane. It's in one of the backlots. The house is still there. The Munster's home is still there. It's been used for all kinds of other films and things. I think it was a house that we used in the Burbs. When you go through on the tour, they rattle off all the films that it's been in. It's across the street from Leave it to Beaver's House, which has been used in tons of shows and everything. It's right down the street from Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives. So it holds a place because my whole life I've been visiting the Munsters house in different iterations. So everything's got a theme park connection to it. See, so the theme really hits you. The theme is so important. And next year you have the gold version of World Wrestling Federation. Hell yes, brother.
    58:29
    And we grew up with this theme in the 90s. It's so cool, man. I got to have the Hulk Hogan version, man. Oh, my God. The theme is just so freaking important. It's so important. And King Kong, I said for so many shows here, if it was from the 1976 movie, I would fall in love with it. It was a movie I grew up with. But I'm hearing it's the, you know, that first King Kong stuff. What are you showing? I'm trying to show you. The King Kong ride from Universe Studios' Islands of Adventure. Fantastic. I want Skull Island with animatronics. hopefully I'm hopeful what I'm hearing it's the 30s King Kong a 33 or 1 it's from I don't remember now I haven't watched it it's going to be the cheapest one to license for sure because the license for King Kong is nebulous because it's been around forever it's been in so many people's hands you know so many different takes on it so if you want to represent everything you'd be paying out so much in licensing fees that it'd be untenable so I hope they will make an update where they include Kong from 76 I would love that I would love that. I would buy that. Just $40 inside your connector. I want a half-eaten banana shooter rod. Can I please get that? Just a half a banana. Just, like, refresh out the lunchbox. Like, some little black spores on it and everything. If not, I'm going to make it. I'm going to go make a freaking banana.
    60:00
    Oh, my God. Didn't you make the pencil shooter rod for the… John Wick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been making a lot of weird stuff. And so that's weird. A big monkey hand with a banana on it, that's going to be the shooter rod. Or the topper, I don't know, just a giant banana.
    60:16
    Cool, man. So, yeah, we already shared that someone already saw the play field for June. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so that got confirmed. That's cool. I'm excited for this. Do you know anything about release date? Nothing, nothing. I've heard whispers here and there, but they're completely tight. There's no leaks coming out of that ship at all. And I think they're in the same position. Like, get this game out now or three months from now. Like, you can't drop this. You can't drop Dune in the middle of frickin' Kong and Harry Potter. I mean, come on. And we also got new games. We got the T-shirt you have on there, Portal T-shirt. I just listened to Don's newest show. It was so good. Of course, go in and check out Don's Pinball Podcast. And in that show, he said that he was invited. He's going to talk with the guy from Multimorphic. What's his name? Jerry. Jerry himself. Jerry Stellenberg from Multimorphic. Was it tomorrow? It was. Yeah, Jerry and Don's going to talk tomorrow. Well, that was 11 a.m. today, and unfortunately, he got called away for work and wasn't able to make that happen, and we'll look to reschedule in the coming week. So wah, wah, wah. I got my Portal shirt on. I was ready to go. I set the alarms. But, you know, the guy's busy. Just had a game launch, right? I heard that the Portals are going to be at Pentastic, which is in like two weekends, in Massachusetts. So it will be another opportunity to play it. I can bring my Portal shirt that Brad Albright did the art. He's selling these on his Etsy store, $35. I bought myself an extra one to give away. I think I'm going to live stream Portal on my virtual pinball machine and we'll do a giveaway or something. but yeah I dig this and so yeah maybe we'll hear more in the future maybe next week then okay maybe my dad will come back from the gas station that he left 12 years ago to go to maybe he'll come back I feel like an orphan here I feel like the lone pinball brother dude we all love you have so much I'm just one phone call away man I'm just here, Donnie. You can call me anytime, buddy. Anytime. You can call on me whenever.
    62:38
    Just to hear your voice and know that I'm in your heart. How did that Stevie Wonder song go? I just called to say I love you, Baltimore Tech, and Porto will lead the way home. I finished Portal the other day. I played through it again on my Switch. Fantastic. That's still a live song. It's awesome. Man, I love Portal. I want to play the game again. So yesterday, April's Fools was just all over the place, right? Oh, my gosh. So on our We Are Pinball on Facebook, I just wrote there another April's one. And I just wrote there, you know, Arnold was too expensive, so Pinball Brothers contacted me and wanted me to do the call-outs, right? Just a fun one out there, okay? Oh, yeah, totally. I was like, you definitely should. I could see them not getting the license to get Arnold's voice. But what better sound-alike is out there than, come on. Dude, the response was like, come on, I'm over here. It was all over the place. People were riding like crazy, both there and to me. And one of them was, you have to say, get to the chopper, Donnie. I mean if anything would get me to buy ABBA in the jungle that would be it so I mean Pimple Brothers they posted you know PB and some jungle trees in the background and we did write somewhere and they released the game already next game is not from this earth or something giving some small you know just just just release it already april 25th come on that's like a week after kong nobody's gonna care anymore nobody's gonna care i want this game to be an amazing experience yeah like nothing else i cannot wait i have reached out i have said i will sign an nda put me on this project i know it's late but uh dude look at the trajectory right they had alien wide body had two different movies in it fun to shoot okay fine and then uh queen came out it's like oh okay step sideways but maybe that was already planned let's see what the next one then abba of all things was released and then just down even more i didn't think i'd like a game worse than queen but then Abba came out. And it's like, my God, if their trajectory is this downward slope, no wonder the other brother left.
    65:16
    I just hope they... People that don't know me... It's like your favorite theme, too, man. My favorite, Donnie. People that doesn't really know me, like Genghis or Retro Django or Dennis or whatever, they call me when they write through YouTube. they write this is the alien guy you know i unbox all the alien versions and first movie first video one of my videos has over 30 000 views and people are calling me the alien guy this company should just and i'm like 30 minutes from from sweden they should just hit me up i will sign the nda no problem at all let me just i just i just want the game to be perfection I was in Europe two summers ago and I emailed them and I'm like hey I was thinking about going to Kolmården which is a zoo that's in the middle of Sweden which is near where their headquarters are and I'm like hey I'm going to be in the area can I swing by and they were like we don't know what you're even asking about and I'm like well I like pinball I started this podcast can I swing by and like take a photo with the sign a little meet and greet something and they're like we're just an office we don't understand and then their production facility was in Milan and I was in Milan that summer as well. I got an Airbnb. I was making gnocchis in the kitchen. I'm like, hey, can I swing by the factory because they had games in production? Can I swing by and just get not a tour. Can I just walk by the sign, take some photos or something? I'll bring them some stickers, whatever, and then do a post about it. They're like, again, what are you asking us? We don't get it. We don't understand. I'm like, fine. Forget it.
    66:56
    It wouldn't cost them nothing. I was traveling all the way out there anyway. I would have brought them some stickers and stuff. Just five minutes, walk around the lot, take some pictures, post them on the internet. I don't get it. So I don't know if you can help these people. You can bring them a great idea on a silver platter, license free and they'd be like, what is this? We don't know what you're doing. You're saying this and an hour ago I was reading a mail from Stern saying, come to our factory, have a factory tour, check out the game. listen to what Big Daddy's doing, right? Talk about our product. Yeah, who's your daddy? What does he do? And I don't need special treatment, but let me swing by. If pinball brothers were coming by my house, I'd say swing by and come play some games. Have a Diet Coke or something. Just hospitality. Dude, I know Daniel. I have known him for many, many years. If they made a game called – give me a title. Give me a theme now. Come on. We are Pinball 2027. Running Man. No.
    68:06
    Running Man. Nothing Arnold. Something else. Do androids dream of electric sheep? What was that? No, no, no. Wait.
    68:15
    Die Hard. If they made Goonies and they invited me, I would like – no. I don't want to use 30 minutes on that. I wouldn't care. Just release it. I don't care. But this is over here. I'm going to have me some fun.
    68:37
    Yeah, I don't have to. I love it, man. Jesse Ventura, Carl Weathers. Now, Predator and Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been in the new Mortal Kombat games. and so like like come on come on i want to see the topper is it the gun on the shoulder you know we need the predator's head and his shoulders there and we need that cannon to move with those three led lights they will point and they can point on you they can point on the play field love it this is where the predator how are the details if the game sucks i would just straight up say you cannot release this don't release this in this stage or if it's cool i would say yeah heck yeah man imagine if predator was in the game with that articulated laser cannon and like as your ball hit switches it would go and track where you're shooting around the play field absolutely or have a predator there you you shoot it enough times and the metal helmet it opens up all the way up to the glass and you will see his face and when you hit his mouth his tentacles will open to the sides and his mouth opens and you shoot the ball into the mouth i don't know so many great ideas right how about a mechanism where there's a translucent predator and then when you hit him he flips into like you know the actual predator like his camouflage is knocked off of him and then you can bash him and then you can flip back to translucent one again so many ideas and none of them are going to get used on pinball brothers they used a smaller screen on alien compared to the original alien it had a bigger screen and has a screen on the on the um on the playfield also i'm just thinking maybe they included a bigger screen and having that contact multiple where they shoot with the minigun they just swallow all those trees they just cut all the trees they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna have a plexi back glass with speaker holes cut in it for some reason, and it's going to be the Predator's body, and you have to stick your finger in his crotch to lift it up, just like on Queen. You had to, like, finger Queen to lift that thing up and get it out of the way. Now you'd be sticking a finger in Carl Weathers and his finger in Predator to get that thing off.
    70:56
    Oh, no, no, please don't. Please don't. I have just, I'm dreaming about this, Steve. I mean, some people, they are dreaming about Harry Potter. Yeah, you are dreaming. You are dreaming if you think this is going to be a decent game.
    71:12
    I hate it for you, man. I hate it too. But can you believe how I will feel if it's a bad game? Oh, my goodness. I would be devastated because the theme, Terminator 2 is better, but nothing, maybe Star Wars, but nothing else, man. Man, we're going to have to get a sponsorship from BetterHelp because you're going to need it after this. if it's bad yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna quit pinball man oh my god i'm going back to amiga then i would say why didn't you just include me why didn't you just just hit me up i mean come on um okay okay i'm sweating now i just it's just so personal it's so important for me I mean, people, on Patreon, everybody, they're just writing, Cengiz, this game is made for you. This is because of you. They're tired of you.
    72:12
    So, yeah. All right, Donnie. Okay, okay, Donnie. So this is a jam-packed WAP episode, sir. When I called you and I said, did you get the mail? You said, yeah. And I said, do we have 20 minutes? 20 minutes. Let's make a stern only show, right? Yeah, yeah. And you were like, yeah, let me just take a shower. I'll be ready in 10. So 20 minutes, that's it. So how long time? One hour, 12 minutes. Oh, my sweet mother of candy flush. There it is.
    72:43
    Let's say thank you to everybody and play the lulululululul for my friend Donnie. Oh, my God. Email us at wearepinball69 at gmail.com. If you want to invite us to your factory for your product release, We promise to cover it and make fun of you if it's complete garbage. Otherwise, we have fun in pinball. We have fun with each other. We have fun with, I don't know, small furry animals sometimes.
    73:09
    More information as we get it. Thanks for participating in the Swap-speriment. Let's go out with the Euro trash, Genghis. Oh, yeah. Zach Sharp. Zach Sharp from Stern. Thank you, buddy. Thank you for the invitation. Absolutely. All right. See you guys next time.
    73:27
    God. No, no, no, no.