Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

DPP # 157 "X-men forward! IAAPA preview!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·35m 5s·analyzed·Nov 12, 2024
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

X-Men fixes, Back to the Future partnership rumors, D&D Spike 3 speculation, IAAPA preview.

Summary

Don discusses his experience with the X-Men Premium pinball machine, detailing manufacturing issues (auto-launcher, ball hop problems) and fixes the community has developed. He speculates on Stern's rushed release schedule, rumors of Dutch Pinball contracting with Stern to produce Back to the Future, and upcoming releases including Dungeons & Dragons on Spike 3 and Pulp Fiction LE. He previews IAAPA as a massive industry expo.

Key Claims

  • X-Men was rushed to market, likely because Metallica needed more development time and the release schedule is already fully packed

    medium confidence · Don speculates: 'There was a game that was supposed to go into this launch window. I kind of think it must have been Metallica. Something may have needed to jump there.'

  • Back to the Future is being contract-manufactured by Stern Pinball for Dutch Pinball, not produced by Dutch internally

    medium confidence · Paris Pinball Addict rumor post: 'Back to the Future...will be actually like a contract built by Stern Pinball.' Don notes this is a rumor but spreading via credible French-language community source.

  • Dungeons & Dragons will be the next Spike 3 game from Stern, likely using TSR/Advanced D&D license rather than a film adaptation

    medium confidence · Don heard rumors and speculates on licensing approach: 'probably the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons license from TSR...the next Spike 3 or the Spike 3 game that comes out'

  • X-Men has left ball hop issues caused by wire ball guide height, fixable by raising the guide approximately 1/4 inch

    high confidence · Don personally fixed both his X-Men machines: 'take a microfiber cloth, wrap something sturdy against it...pry up that wire ball guide...about a quarter of an inch is all I put in there'

  • Metallica LE sold out immediately and LEs are flipping on secondary market at significantly higher prices than earlier releases

    high confidence · Don notes: 'The LEs sold out right away. They're flipping higher than Alice' and cites Pulp Fiction LE attempting to sell for $35,000 then marked down to $17,000+

  • Stern could sustainably produce two cornerstones per year plus a re-release, but currently has a packed schedule

    low confidence · Don's opinion based on observing release cadence: 'they could probably do two cornerstones a year plus a re-release, and that would probably be fine'

  • Pulp Fiction LE international units are shipping and nearing arrival in domestic markets

    medium confidence · Don cites unconfirmed reports: 'allegedly the international ones have been shipping out...if it's on a boat it's probably a week or so away from landing'

Notable Quotes

  • “Game's fun. Having a lot of fun with the game. One of the other little issues, and this was a little quirk that I didn't think was fixable...the left ball hop.”

    Don @ ~20 minutes — Identifies specific X-Men mechanical issue that affects playability and describes it in detail for community troubleshooting

  • “I do like where the code got to eventually where if you failed out of a mode by either timing out or losing your ball all you had to do was shoot the ramp to restart it i hope that comes to x-men because i'm having kind of a similar issue with this”

    Don @ ~8 minutes — Suggests X-Men code needs improvement to match Foo Fighters' mode recovery mechanic

  • “Back to the Future...a monumental game where demand will outstrip supply probably throughout its entire run. They're having it built by Stern Pinball in their brand-new factory.”

    Don @ ~45 minutes — Reports rumor of major manufacturing partnership between Dutch Pinball and Stern

  • “When you hear about a rumored title and think, oh, that's probably just the code name. Has that ever been the case? I mean, really? In the last two years...It's probably Dungeons and Dragons.”

    Don @ ~50 minutes — Dismisses speculation that D&D is a codename; argues it's likely the actual license

  • “Stern, I love you. Best-selling pinball company around, churning out licenses like nothing, but you can really throw those games around, especially coming from a Dutch pinball game...then you go over to an X-Men, and you can slide that thing across the floor.”

    Don @ ~40 minutes — Contrasts build quality and durability between Dutch Pinball and Stern manufacturing approaches

  • “IAPA...dwarfs Expo, it dwarfs TPF, it's bigger than both of them combined...as far as like the depth and breadth of everything”

    Don @ ~65 minutes — Characterizes IAAPA scale relative to other major pinball/arcade events

  • “I was actually, believe it or not, going to skip out on X-Men altogether...And then this game came out, and I swear, I saw the Sentinel destroying the wire for him, and I was like, well, that's it, man.”

Entities

DonpersonX-MengameBack to the FuturegameDungeons & DragonsgameMetallicagamePulp Fictiongame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Dutch Pinball potentially outsourcing manufacturing to Stern for Back to the Future, allowing boutique publisher to focus on design while leveraging Stern's production capacity

    medium · Paris Pinball Addict rumor: 'Back to the Future...will be actually like a contract built by Stern Pinball.' Don notes this benefits both parties with guaranteed demand and freed production resources.

  • ?

    community_signal: X-Men community collaborating on identifying and sharing mechanical fixes; improving game experience post-launch

    high · Don reports: 'the communities kind of come together to fix those little shortcomings'; details wire guide fix posted by community member; Stern released launcher assembly update

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Metallica LE sell-out and high secondary market prices indicate successful scarcity/FOMO strategy; contrasts with earlier releases like Alice

    high · Don notes: 'The LEs sold out right away. They're flipping higher than Alice' and cites Pulp Fiction LE secondary market attempting $35k then marked down to $17k+

  • ?

    event_signal: IAAPA is significantly larger industry event than pinball-specific expos; dwarfs Expo and Texas Pinball Festival combined; features massive themed entertainment sector with pinball as small subsection

    high · Don's first-hand IAAPA attendance: 'dwarfs Expo, it dwarfs TPF, it's bigger than both of them combined and then times three...Stern Pinball was well represented, had a huge booth there...they're just dwarfed'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Dungeons & Dragons likely licensed from TSR/Advanced D&D rather than film adaptations, chosen for creative freedom and minimal approval constraints

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.105

0:00
Hey, Don's back. Episode 157. Let's go with a very X-Men forward episode to get caught back up in the swing of pinball and the life of the silver ball. Also, there's some news and speculation out of Dutch Pinball partnering with Stern. What's going on? Dungeons and Dragons Spike 3? What?
0:30
My life with the uncanny X-Men. It's gotten twice as crazy here with it, having this game at home. Probably because I now have two of these things in my basement somehow. What is even life right now? What's going on, everybody? Good to connect back again. Bit of a hiatus for about a week or so. letting everything settle in. I don't know. Everything's been a little topsy-turvy crazy in the life of Don. It doesn't mean the projects aren't still getting done, though. But since I've been pulled in eight different directions, burning the candle at six different ends, Don, how do you do it? I don't know. I'll just gesture wildly and just say this, okay? But finally, I have some stuff to talk about. Let's get together and get on with it. So I got my X-Men Premium. Previously, I had the X-Men LE from Stern. This is their new release, their cornerstone release, the Jack Danger Darling, the follow-up to Foo Fighters, the follow-up to the Jurassic Park Home Edition from Costco. So, Don, how's the game? Game, similar to Foo Fighters in a lot of ways. You know, playing Foo Fighters, which I had, which I put 550 games through, which I thoroughly enjoyed and then moved on from, had a great layout with cool, interesting cross shots in it. But it was essentially shoot two shots, start a mode. okay pick which one you want shoot a couple shots start the next mode i do like where the code got to eventually where if you failed out of a mode by either timing out or losing your ball all you had to do was shoot the ramp to restart it i hope that comes to x-men because i'm having kind of a similar issue with this the shots and layout for x-men the mechanistics that are in there definitely more interesting um than on foo fighters all the shots are makeable i found the upper playfield ramp super fun and just a little frustrating to try to get a solid shot up there on foo fighters so i'm not having that problem here with x-men there's no shot up a ramp where it's like it's got to be perfect to get up there now i'm looking at you left of sentinel head wraparound weird shot um but actually now that i've played the game for a while i got 150 or so games through it it's actually a makeable shot dare i say repeatable shot even though there's a little rattle. So, speaking of rattle, and some of the other issues that have come with this game from the factory, I want to approach it a couple different ways. First off, we know, due to their own omission, that the game was rushed a bit. There was a game that was supposed to go into this launch window. I kind of think it must have been Metallica. Something may have needed to jump there, and Metallica needed a bit more work. I don't think that the next game, which is rumored to be a Spike 3 now, was going to originally launch in this spot and they would have spike to come out after it doesn't make sense to me so okay the time frame was definitely shortened why it was shortened though is curious you know why why the need to rush i think they could have waited another month and had metallica come out in its new spot or whatever but regardless of that there were a few issues out of the factory that we're not typically used to seeing from stern pinball particularly the launch now when i was on site early on i got to play an early build of the game they had some issues with the launch there they had issues with the launch button to shoot all the way around. So I don't know if some of that is carried over. I know that there's a lot in the way of the ball as it's making its way around that final orbit shot to launch into the game, particularly that little gate that it has to clear. Now, typically, when you have a stern game, you know, you do have stern games with the gates, or most of the time they'll use that elevated ramp mechanism. You know, when you're launching the ball, if it's going to go clear in orbit, that can then work as an orbit the opposite direction. You don't want the ball coming back in the shooter lane. So you either have to put some sort of physical impedance there, a one-way gate, as with X-Men, or you elevate the little launch ramp a little bit so it works as a ball guide coming back the other direction, like on Elvira. That's how Elvira works. Elvira shoots great. You plunge all the way around every time. Monsters, similar.

  • Butch Peel (known for pinball manual design) has moved from Chicago Gaming Company to Barrels of Fun

    high confidence · Don announces: 'Butch Peele's over there now? Wait, no, no. He left there. But Peele left there. And now he's over at Barrels of Fun.'

    • Don @ ~22 minutes — Describes visual appeal of X-Men's Sentinel mechanism as decisive factor in purchase decision

  • “The Pulp Fiction one is absolutely like a coffee table book that can be used as a coffee table. Spiral bound. I love it, man.”

    Don @ ~58 minutes — Praises Butch Peel's work on Pulp Fiction manual quality

    • Stern Pinball
    company
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Jack Dangerperson
    Paris Pinball Addictperson
    Butch Peelperson
    Barrels of Funcompany
    IAAPAevent
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Pinball Expoevent
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderlandgame
    Spike 3product
    Foo Fightersgame

    medium · Don analyzes: 'probably the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons license from TSR...much more fun than if we were to find a film...You want the whole thing to be integrated' vs Bond/Star Wars film licensing restrictions

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Butch Peel transitioned from Chicago Gaming Company (Pulp Fiction) to Barrels of Fun

    high · Don confirms: 'Peele left there. And now he's over at Barrels of Fun.' Previously known for creating exceptional pinball manuals.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pulp Fiction LE international shipments in transit; arrival in domestic market still weeks away

    medium · Don states: 'allegedly the international ones have been shipping out...if it's on a boat it's probably a week or so away from landing' but caveat: 'I'll believe it when I see it'

  • ?

    product_concern: X-Men launched with multiple mechanical issues: auto-launcher problems, left ball hop defect, ball catching on wire forms during launch orbit.

    high · Don documents personal fixes to both machines and confirms community-wide reports of same issues; Stern acknowledged problem and released new launcher assembly plate

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Dungeons & Dragons confirmed as next Stern cornerstone, rumored for January release on Spike 3 platform

    medium · Don: 'apparently that's going to be the next Spike 3 or the Spike 3 game that comes out...Probably January' based on rumor mill visibility

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern appears to be deliberately managing release schedule tightly; X-Men rushed to accommodate Metallica development; suggests packed multi-year pipeline

    medium · Don speculates: 'There was a game that was supposed to go into this launch window...Something may have needed to jump there, and Metallica needed a bit more work.' Notes: 'release schedule for Stern is already so full'

    • 4:32
    You know, for this, they went ahead and put a gate there because, I don't know, reasons. I'm wondering if maybe that little takeoff would have been better. Maybe they didn't want the ball to catch that much air. Whatever the reason, the ball interacts with that gate at a fairly high speed, and it may even be catching a little corner of a ball guide as it approaches that. And then certainly back around the orbit, there's that takeoff ramp area. Some people are getting a little hop there. Ball's getting a little wild and expending some energy. All of that net return is to give you a ball with less energy coming up the plastic ramp to come back to the front. Now, I was able to add a little more oomph to my ball by using a Bally Williams rod to create my own shooter rod, And I'm having some success with that. That's still not 100% because you still do have the ball rattle, ball path issues, maybe catching a ball guide here and there. Maybe something needs to be rounded off. I think we'll see some more to come from that. But apparently the fix is in. I know some people have put tickets in with Stern, and they've received a new auto launcher assembly plate. It has the forks a little bit tuned in. Although I don't see the auto launchers really being the problem. I see something along the course of that ball. It's catching somewhere. and that's expending a lot of the energy there. So maybe a simple piece of acrylic that needs to go over to keep the ball from gaining air and losing momentum that way. Maybe that's what we'll see. I know that adding a longer shooter rod and some people have put in a stronger spring, those things have worked. Aligning the forks seems to work for other people. I think that's kind of an issue with any pinball machine. If your auto launcher isn't working successfully, sometimes you do have to bend the forks just slightly. Get them in tune, right, so they're both hitting the ball at the same time. seems to alleviate a lot of issues, particularly with games that are auto-launch only. You tend to see that. Okay, so it's evolving, but apparently there's more of a fix in from what I'm hearing. It sounds like Stern will be releasing some sort of catch-all procedure once they have that. And given the fact that the game may have been rushed a little bit there at the end, there could have been a little bit more time for testing, so now we have after-product release testing ongoing. I think we'll get to a fix. I don't think it's going to be a killer problem for this game. We could just doom it forever. I think we're going to get there, and I'm hopeful. Game's fun. Having a lot of fun with the game. One of the other little issues, and this was a little quirk that I didn't think was fixable. I thought it was just a little quirk of the game, is the left ball hop. So if you're not familiar with this, as the ball courses around that inner left ball guide, where there would be a sling on most games, the ball will come around, and then where it pops off onto the flipper, the flipper should be recessed slightly below, kind of towards the player to allow the ball to kind of roll off in one continuous motion down the flipper so you can really dial in those shots. You know, maybe you want a shot two-thirds of the way down the rubber, and you want it particularly on that spot in contact with the flipper when you flip for accuracy purposes. Well, it was coming off and either catching the corner of the rubber that was on the flipper, but it would do a little ball hop. man when your ball's not on the flipper and you go to flip it you're not putting it against it as much inertia as you otherwise would you don't have as much accuracy and in some cases i've seen this game unboxed where it's completely hopping over the flipper and going down the drain which is frustrating because you're sitting there waiting for the ball to roll down and it's like nope i'm catching air i'm out of here like you hit a rock on your skateboard you're just flying over the handlebars not the skateboards have handlebars regardless it was an issue so there's a wire ball guide that is press fit into the play field. So the fix for this, and somebody's already posted a video, is just to increase the height of that rail a little bit. It allows the ball to sit, I guess, a little bit lower, a little bit higher. Whatever it's doing, it allows the ball to then gracefully transition onto the flipper. And since I've done this fix to both of my games here, it's working better than I ever thought it would. I was just kind of compensating for it when the ball would come off of that wire form to drop into that, for lack of a better term, in lane, I'd have to cradle, let the ball kill some momentum, and then make my shot. Now, I can more accurately make my shot without having to slow down. Definite improvement to the game. Really like it. The way that I fixed it, the way it was described to me is take a microfiber cloth, wrap something sturdy against it and you going to use a screwdriver or some kind of lever arm to just pry up that wire ball guide that sits underneath there I just grabbed a nut driver because it got a rounded end wrapped it in microfiber stuck it under there wedged it up raised it an eighth of an inch at a time, and it seemed to be about a quarter of an inch is all I had to put in there. That's, I don't know, two and a half millimeters. And then just testing the ball, it's rolling perfectly now. So I think this is just a simple adjustment that needs to be made, just like any other pinball machine. You know, put the first hundred plays through it. see where things are shaking out. But that fixed it for me, and I'm super glad about that. So for me, personally, putting in a new shooter rod and now adjusting that little ball guide area, little wire, that solved two of the main issues I had with the game. Game's not playing fun. I'm not having much of an issue with balls flying off wire forms. Occasionally it'll happen. Some seem to happen more than others. I will say for that, what seems to be working is leveling the game left to right, more so than some other games. And then a 6.6 degree pitch is what people are liking. I kind of eyeball it. I just set both of my back legs up about an inch and a half, the front about a quarter or half an inch. That way I can get my lift cart underneath the game. But that seems to be working for me. So see how it's going with you. Now I'm taking it a step farther in my intimacy with X-Men here because I've got both games currently being made over. I've been doing this thing where I get the games in and just like anybody else, I like to put the modifications in there, start out with simple things, putting in new plastics, little stick-on flipper toppers, maybe a shooter rod, and then eventually it got to where I'm powder coating the whole thing, the coin doors, disassembling that whole thing, the speaker panel, taking all that stuff off. Like it's a lot of work, and there's a learning curve to it. And now that I've done it, you know, eight or nine times, I'm much better at it, much quicker at it. I'm not losing parts like I used to. I'm not breaking things, so I'm appreciative for that. And so the plan was that I try to have a rotating game, at least in the lineup somewhere, because new things come out and I want to try them. I want to try to make some things for it. I want to enjoy them, kind of dig into them, do a review, do live streams and things, and then get them on to somebody else. And people have obviously caught on to this because my games that I get and I make over and then I list for just a little bit below market price. It's kind of like if you're getting a really good Kelly Blue Book value on your used vehicle. They tend to go pretty well, and it's been working out well for me. Yeah, I'm not flipping games for a ton of cash profit, but I'm having time with the game to review. Maybe I make a couple of mods, sell them to some friends, you know, no big deal. And it works out for me. So it's a good relationship between the person that's purchasing a game and me getting to play the damn thing in my house. So I've had some people reach out like, Don, are you getting an X-Men? Can I buy your X-Men when you're done with it? And the answer was, yeah. So I went ahead and got an LE for this one, just because I was captivated by the initial release, the fact that they reduced the number of these that are available, the fact that it just looked so awesome. I was actually, believe it or not, going to skip out on X-Men altogether. You know, when I heard about the rumor of the license, I'm like, I don't need to own every single thing as soon as it comes out. Let me take a break. And then this game came out, and I swear, I saw the Sentinel destroying the wire for him, and I was like, well, that's it, man. I've got to have this thing. Not only that, I was able to secure an LE. So I've got the Ellie here, but then I also had a person reach out that wanted to have a premium. So I said, you know what? Let me go ahead and get that premium too for them. We already have a deal worked out. This should be fine. Then I had someone else waiting in the wings for a later build. So I was like, all right, well, let's just launch the Donco's Customs customization factory, right? And so that's what I'm in the middle of now. I've got about half the powder-cutter parts in. I found a way to match the Ellie armor perfectly. And, man, the coin door, when it's the same purple as the rest of the Ellie, it's shining man the uh the speaker panel that's on there just completes the look i've got a topper going i'm going all out with x-men here my own line of modifications are in there other modifications from other folks are in there the shaker motors and like it's it's it's going well it's looking good it's about halfway through the build right now i just went and got titan rubber kits for like the entire entirety of the game all the posts all the little rubbers all the sling rubbers uh the flipper rubbers, every rubber word in the game. They are not easy to access all the spots to this, but I was able to do it. I feel good about sticking through it. I had to get into the Sentinel hand a bit and disassemble that just to put it all in there. So it was a bit much. I would give it maybe three out of five wrenches of difficulty, but we managed to get it done. Maybe 3.5, 3.5 wrenches of difficulty. But it's looking good. And so the premium build will be done soon. My LE build should be done soon as well. the premium as a buyer, the LE, as of now, still does not. So if you are interested in an X-Men LE that's been fully powder-coated, coin door, speaker panel, all the mods are in it, everything the LE comes with plus everything I could throw at it, plus a topper, plus for less than MSRP, I think that's something that I would definitely have jumped on. So I'm just trying to put it out there. So if you're interested, email me, donspinballpodcastgmail.com. We'll get at it. I guess people sniffing around. I'm sure it'll sell. It's not a big deal. But I thought I'd go ahead and post it here first before it hits the pin side in the Facebook marketplace in about a week or so. So, yeah. So I'm having fun with X-Men. Dawn, is the game fun? Yeah, the game's fun. Dawn, do you like the premium LE features? I think so. Are you losing a lot with the Pro? Not much.
    14:09
    I would say this isn't a game like Iron Maiden or Bond or Black Knight Sword of Rage where the Pro really is just fully featured and you don't even have to look at the premium or anything. I do like the extra little elements that are on there. The finger is still fun to me. I like watching the crushing wire form when the game is balanced left to right. At least for me, my balls are going to the flipper. They're not going straight down the middle. It's a fun little exciting element. What I would like to see is the code improve to the point that the shot that's going to start the mode does not go to the destroyed wire form because I want to lock there so I can actually start the mode. I think they'll get there too. It's probably going to come in the next code update. But, yeah, game's fun, and I can't wait to see how it fleshes out. Just had a really big update that added a lot of cool shots and neat little things. The, what do they call it, the fastball special, right, combination shot where you shoot that ramp with the light going off and then you hit the sentinel for the bonus or whatever. I like things like that, and that's what I'm looking more forward to. So, yeah, it's interesting. It's been fun having fun with X-Men. I'm now enjoying it a lot more than when I first got it. now that I've got some of the fixes and the communities kind of come together, to fix those little shortcomings. Now, why did this game come out so soon? Why was it rushed? I have to think that's because the release schedule for Stern is already so full that they couldn't afford to just wait a month, right? Because we got X-Men. The next month we got Metallica, and Metallica was amazing, right? The LEs sold out right away.
    15:34
    They're flipping higher than Alice and what else? I saw somebody trying to get $35,000 for Pulp Fiction L.E. Man, who the heck is this guy at Facebook Marketplace? And now last time I saw it, it was going for $25,000. I think it's marked down even more, $17,000 or something.
    15:49
    Ridiculous. I don't think anybody's going to buy it at that price. But we saw Metallica be successful. It was the jewel of the show, right? It stole all the attention away from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Now, they kind of waited and then put them on the floor like the last day of the show. So, of course, it was going to end the show as being the highlight. But whatever. Game's super fun. and I've got a build ordered of a premium, so I'll have that coming in here. I'll probably have it for a couple of weeks, get it made over, and then I'll be going out to a customer. Already sold. That one's already sold and spoken for. But yeah, it's exciting. I don't think they needed to release X-Men when they did. I think they could have made this a January release, in all honesty. And I don't know that things would have been any different, except for the fact that they probably already have a game for January, one for March, one for probably middle of summer, a fall release, and somebody was talking to me earlier last week that Stern could probably do, and I don't want to put this on them because I love seeing all these cornerstones, but they could probably do two cornerstones a year plus a re-release, and that would probably be fine.
    16:52
    But yeah, I do like the idea. I do like seeing all these new games that are coming out, and I think their schedule is packed, and I think I'm getting a little bit more insight into that because I saw a post from the Paris Pinball Addict, my friend on Facebook. I follow his page. It's a French-language pinball enthusiast page. He drops little nuggets. He's not afraid to just put stuff out there as he hears it. And so now there's this rumor. I kind of heard rumblings of it before, but now I'm seeing it again, that Back to the Future, a game that's largely rumored to be coming from Dutch pinball after Alice's Adventures in Amsterdam,
    17:25
    will be actually like a contract built by Stern Pinball What in the heck right So this game Back to the Future big theme big 80s theme Everybody wants it The license is super hard to get I guess Kamikawa was involved or somehow I don't know. I never met the guy. But apparently it was a big to-do to get this license. Probably is an expensive one if it's being done right. Everybody seems to want this game. And it was going to come out from Dutch Pinball, which does great cabinet quality builds. Big Lebowski was super fun. Took 10 years to come out. a bit of a salt in the game there. But now I guess there's talks to have their back-to-the-future game, this monumental game where demand will outstrip supply probably throughout its entire run. They're having it built by Stern Pinball in their brand-new factory. Now, I see this, of course, as a win for Stern. Here's a game that they can make where they don't have to worry about necessarily the sales and storing things and pressuring distributors. It's going to sell. and if this is a way to keep their line busy with guaranteed money, allowing them to kind of shuffle their projects around and give them a little bit of breathing room, I see it as a win for them. For Dutch Pinball, I guess it would be a win for them too because they don't have to worry about churning out 1,000 games over three years. They could do them all in a matter of weeks with Stern behind the helm. I have to wonder, though, because one of the things that really set Dutch Pinball apart, aside from just tackling the big Lebowski and having it come with a rug, man with a pee stain on it come on theme integration is a bowling alley but the build quality of the cabinet especially was like artistry level um if you've taken the lockdown bar off of a big lebowski like you can tell like it's it's thick good quality plywood it's an excellent cabinet just from a woodworking enthusiast perspective super awesome plus that mechanism for the bowling alley it's got to weigh like 60 pounds the thing is huge man the game is an absolute beast. I set one up myself before, and I think I did permanent disc damage just doing that. So, like, the game's an absolute beast. Stern, I love you. Best-selling pinball company around, churning out licenses like nothing, but you can really throw those games around, especially coming from a Dutch pinball game, you know, trying to nudge and everything, and then you go over to an X-Men, and you can slide that thing across the floor, man, if you're on polished concrete. So, would we get or Back to the Future in a Spike 2 style cabinet, of which Stern has thousands of them ready to go? Or would they be doing more of a Dutch-type build? Would Dutch be building the cabinets and sending them to them? Would they be sourced in the U.S. and then assembled and then distributed? I don't know. I'm waiting to hear more. I don't think we'll hear more until somebody's ready for a release. But if you're going to hear something, it may come from the Paris Pinball Addict. So go ahead and follow him on Facebook. Guillerme, cool guy. he shows up to shows and stuff he comes out over here met him a couple times solid dude wish i do french better uh but yeah i'm learning i'm learning i'm trying and then also if that wasn't enough right since we're still on stern here 20 minutes into this uh dungeons and dragons is supposed to be now the next cornerstone to be released which makes sense i kind of saw that in the forecast window rumor mill gazing into the crystal ball we knew that this was coming um and and yeah i really gotta stop doing this like when you hear about a rumored title and think, oh, that's probably just the code name. Has that ever been the case? I mean, really? In the last two years, when we heard about Godfather, oh, that's probably just the, that's the code name for Harry Potter, right? No, it's not. It's not. It's probably Dungeons and Dragons. It's probably not the cartoon show. It's probably not the movie. It's probably what would cost them the least and be the easiest and less constraining as far as, like, the character of the actual license. So probably what they've done is they've licensed the Dungeons & Dragons name, you know, from the original book manufacturer, not Wizards of the Coast, TSR. Is that who did all the books and things for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons? That's probably the license, all right? I've seen the T-shirts at Walmart over the last year, so I know it's a license that's gettable. There's no major movie stars tied to it, no film clips you have to worry about getting approval for. You know, you start doing that, then you run into problems with Bond, where you can't display score over a video clip. so then you have this big LCD screen and you're only using 50% of it because you have to shoehorn and thumbnail the actual footage from the movie here so you can keep the game information over here. It's kind of a bit of a mess, right? You want the whole thing to be integrated. So I think as a designer, it would be most freeing to just take Dungeons & Dragons as a license and just take off from there and bring in all the fantasy elements and all the art from the books and everything and build game theory into it, build a customization of character, pick different characters, have different attributes, skill trees and everything. I think that's much more fun than if we were to find a film and get actors' licenses and stuff to be able to put that in there. Or who the heck wants to play the old cartoon game? Well, the cartoon show from the 80s. I would play it. The Dungeon Master character, super creepy.
    22:26
    I think it would be fun, but I think it would be much more successful and much more creatively diverse, especially given the game theory folks at Stern, by just doing the AD&D license from TSR. So that's what I think is going on. And apparently that's going to be the next Spike 3 or the Spike 3 game that comes out. Sure. Okay. We'll wait and see. When are we going to see it? Probably January. If not, you know, teased at the end of December like we saw with Jaws. Was Jaws teased at the end of December? This year has been a whirlwind. It's been hard to keep track of. So, yeah. So that, I think, may become a next release. That's what I'm hearing. I do have one other rumor of a new game, and this is actually pretty exciting, from another fairly major pinball manufacturer that I want to talk about on the Patreon bonus show because I've got to give it to those guys that help me out. Stick with me when I take these week-long hiatuses from recording. So if you want to go to patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast, $5 gets you in the door. We'll talk over there for a little bit, a little bit of bonus show after this to come. I'm excited. So what else is coming? What else is coming? Well, Pulp Fiction LE, right? allegedly the international ones have been shipping out i haven't seen any unboxings yet if it's on a boat it's probably a week or so away from landing and then it's going to be at a distributor it's going to go to a sub distributor it's going to go to finally through customs and then to someone's home maybe i'll believe it when i see it it seems like we've been waiting for this game for years and years uh medieval madness supposed to be coming after that it's supposed to come out in 2023 who knows who knows new marketing people are over there at cgc butch Peele's over there now? Wait, no, no. He left there. But Peele left there. And now he's over at Barrels of Fun. I did see that little tidbit. That's your little Nap Arcade corner update. To the man that makes... Okay, so I know him that he makes the really cool manuals for games. And the Pulp Fiction one is absolutely like a coffee table book that can be used as a coffee table. Spiral bound. I love it, man. The kind of thing that back in college would have cost me $190 for a syllabus that I've been forced to buy at the bookstore. Yeah, so it's cool. So happy he landed somewhere. I haven't met the guy yet, but I'm happy for him. So interesting, interesting. Let's switch gears a little bit. IAPA is coming up this next week. This is the International Amusement and Arcade Entertainment Expo. It's the big one, man. They have these in Europe. They have one in Vegas. But this is like the giant one in Orlando. It happens in November, usually a week before Thanksgiving, so right when nobody's really traveling in Orlando. industry people from the themed entertainment industry in general, encompassing go-kart tracks, theme parks, arcades, sure, but also bowling alleys,
    25:05
    outdoor entertainment centers, ropes courses, sports entertainment centers, people that want to buy inflatables. Like, everything is there. This area is the size of, like, four or five Costcos. It's indoor. It's outdoor. It's at the Orlando Orange County Convention Center. It's convenient to the airport. I went last year for my first time and was completely blown away. it dwarfs Expo, it dwarfs TPF, it's bigger than both of them combined it's about the size of both of them combined and then times three I would say as far as like the depth and breadth of everything and it's more, it's more, it's so much more luckily I got to go down there last year tour the show floor and it was everything you want a convention to be like all the new tech, all the new fun things all there to try inflatable obstacle courses zip lines, amusement rides Roller coasters are indoors.
    25:53
    But in what seems like a small corner of the huge cavernous entertainment center is the pinball and arcade area. And Stern Pinball was well represented, had a huge booth there. Jersey Jack was there with a big booth. But they're just dwarfed because it's just gargantuan inside there. It's super fun. The fun part of IAPA as my own little aside now that I been to TPF a couple of times I been to Expo I done the big shows the fan shows This is very much not a fan show This is an industry show where Disney Imagineers are walking around The purchasing agents for Dave and Buster's are walking around. This isn't people that live and breathe and flip pinball and can tell you the minutia and who designed this and whatnot. These are people that are showing up and they work for a company where they need 700 pinball machines across their entertainment spectrum and they're there to make deals. right because of that these aren't pro players right it's not a place or situation where there's going to be an hour-long line for metallica they're going to have you know three or four metallicas lined up there they're going to be about one person deep and the person playing is just kind of testing it out to see if they want to purchase this for their whatever enterprise they have and not necessarily sit in there and try to get all the achievements which means for people like me i can cozy right up in there and play the ever-loving crap out of these brand new games without having to wait in line and that is fantastic not only that i can go over to where they're testing out all the different uh you know pretzels and fair and carnival foods and uh you know try the waffle bears they had a one of those little like airline um alcohol drink bottle claw machine games for a bar like you could try that thing out uh every manner of shaved ice and whatever and it's just like it's so much fun it's like a it's like going to a carnival without the Carnies. It's fantastic, man. It's great. It's like business suits and cocktail hours. And I went to a luncheon presentation with Disney Imagineering where they talked about a lot of their new rides around the world that are coming out. I saw sneak peeks of Epic Universe stuff. It was madness. And this was like a year before any of this was announced. The theme park people are definitely there as far as the theme park fans. But the pinball community is not very well represented. So you can kind of go in there and like... I played Elton John for like hours and hours. And it was like a brand new game that just released at Expo with huge lines. I could just camp on it with, like, Jack standing next to me. Like, it was crazy, man. So IAAPA, if you're going to be in the Orlando area, it is open to the public. There are public days. Go check it out, man. It's fantastic. And it's the best time of the year to go to Orlando. The weather's great. The crowds are gone. The rides and everything are open. It's so much fun. For people that are into the themed entertainment industry, to the level and depth that I am, it is fantastic. What's going to be there from pinball, though? so we were hoping to see Cuphead from American Pinball at Expo, rumored title, nothing's confirmed, I haven't seen it, haven't played it I've asked, but they're not ready to have me come by there yet but from what I've heard of people that have played this game, if allegedly that is the game, they say the game's good mechanistically interesting, and of course the animations are fantastic, so we all want to see this game, right? I don't think Barrio's Barbecue Challenge was the sales juggernaut that AP was anticipating. And, you know, I don't think people have beaten down the door to get to this game. Although, fun for what it is. I do enjoy it. But it's Barry O's Barbecue Challenge. I just think there's so many better options out there for your pinball money. Regardless, we want to see Cuphead. We want American Pinball to be super successful. We love our Fixie, right? So we want this game to be cool. So we want to see it, right? And so originally, they were probably shooting for Expo. and then you don't, the thing is you don't want to show a game when it's not ready, when it's too early, right? And you can be 95% of the way there and the game can leave a bad impression in everybody's mouth. But you get to 97% of the way there and all of a sudden you have something that's really great. That's probably where they are, hopefully. And that last 5%, that crucial 5% of completeness, you know, you don't have to have the game completely code complete, but you want things functional. You don't want glass up on half the machines, right? You want people playing them, playing them all day, not going down. showing they're reliable enough for a tournament, showing they're reliable enough for your sports pub or whatever entertainment venue you're going to put this thing in. And so it just didn't come together. It wasn't ready for Expo. So then this is the next big entertainment reveal place, not so much for the fan community of pinball, but just for the industry in general. And it sounds like it's not going to be there either. Maybe there were some rumors or plans for it to be there, but I'm not expecting to see Cuphead there, which means TPF, I guess. That's three months away. You know, would they release it at one of the other shows? Isn't there like a New England show or something in February or like this Allentown show? Regardless, I think we'll see it. TPF will probably be the show, even if it releases sometime in February. I think TPF will be when actually the most the public gets to put their hands on this game and see it in person the soonest. So that's what I have plugged in for there. AP will be there, however.
    30:55
    I guess they're going to be slinging some barbecues. We'll see. I'm hoping, hoping I might be there. in person. Could happen. It could happen. It might happen. It will happen. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Don, do you want to pop down? I have the time off. I love Orlando, especially November. I got permission from the family to go down there. It just feels weird, you know, to be like, alright child, have fun at school. Alright wife, have fun doing household duties. I'm just going to traipse on down to Orlando for a quote-unquote business trip. I feel so scummy doing it. But that doesn't mean I won't. That doesn't mean I won't. I think it'll be fun. But yeah, I have to But mark it down at some point. It's like San Diego Comic-Con. I want to go to Comic-Con at some point. It's just putting everything together. I want to go to a WrestleMania at some point, but it's just the planning and everything. IAP has been something I've been looking at for greater than a decade. And I finally went last year, and it was like, why have I not been doing this every single year? Super-duper fun to go down there. What else is going to be there? Jersey Jack will be there with some sort of online product to show. we know that they're trying they look at Insider Connected and they're like yes that we want that, that is not a cheap thing to accomplish that is not an easy thing to accomplish it requires time, talent and money three things of which I believe Jersey Jack Pinball does have so I think it's coming, I think it's coming we're going to get some sort of, I can log into the machine I can keep track of my scores I can share them with people online we can battle, hopefully I can get achievement type things that I can unlock goals and things to encourage people to go play. Like, tell me, straight up, if Guns N' Roses had unlockable achievements, tell me you wouldn't go down there and then put some dollars into Guns N' Roses right now and start unlocking those things. You know you would. I would love to do that. I love the bleep bloops when they come up. So of course that would happen. So of course they want that. Of course. Of course. So, I think that's coming. It sounds like they're ready to show something off, and it may just be an online leaderboard, a way to register your game online and then keep track. Some sort of fan community. I love that idea. Please go and do that. Gary came out and dropped the gauntlet. He's like, basically, if you're not doing this with your pinball company, you're not going to have a pinball company. This is the future. I think that was a little bit hyperbolic, but I like it. I would love every company to have some sort of platform that they could do this. I don't think there's a way for cross-platform connectivity between all the different companies, But, yeah, I would like to see this become easier, some sort of app that you can integrate with. I know Turner Pinball is doing this. I love that. So keep that up. So we'll have something shown there in an app. If my sources are to be believed, I think it will be fun. So CERN Pinball will be there. Jersey Jack Pinball will be there. American Pinball will be there somewhere. Last year they were kind of against the wall with a couple of, I think they had a Legends of Valhalla, an Oktoberfest, and a Galactic Tank Force. Hopefully they have more of a showing. but either way I'll be there with snow cones playing everything that I can play guys thanks for joining me once again we're going to continue the show over on the Patreon because I do have a little bit of information I want to put out there and I got to reward the people that support me the most man I really appreciate it keeps me spurred on and going when I'm in the doldrums of life and looking and feeling a lot of pressure like I don't want to record right now I'm not in a good mood, is it going to come out I look at the people providing the support over on the Patreon and the fans and the people that email me and stuff. And I'm like, gosh darn it, let's just go make it happen for them. And then everything goes great. I get on here. It's super fun. I'm having a good time. We're celebrating the industry. We all have problems. But this is a good way to alleviate a lot of that and make the problems worth suffering through.
    34:40
    Don's Football Podcast at GMA.com is a great way to get at me. Follow the Facebook page, Patreon, Discord. We're all over everywhere. More news as I have it. I'm going to go over to the Patreon Lounge crew, and we're just going to chillax. And I'm going to drop some beans on them. I'm going to drop some beans. So grab your cornbread. Maybe over on the Patreon, man.
    35:01
    Don out. Let's go.