Why can't we be friends? Welcome everybody to Canada's Pinball Podcast. I'm still searching for my voice. My throat still hurts. Why can't we all still be friends? We're all here because we're united about pinball. Yes, it was interesting having a little bit of a broader discussion about what's been happening in the world, but I just want to say this. No matter what happens in this world, we're never going to turn this pinball podcast into anything other than that. And I'm just going to say this for the record. If I'm friends with you, I am not going to stop being your friend because you voted in a different way than me. I'm think differently than me. What happened to the world in which friends actually talked to each other and understood why you feel the way you feel? If Kamala Harris had won the election, I would not have threatened any of my friends that we are no longer friends. And that is what I received and it's a little bit disappointing. And I just want to say we're no longer going to talk about this topic. I respect each and every one of you, and I'm open to a discussion and a dialogue with each and every one of you. I think that is a healthy way to live, and I think the unhealthy way to live in life is spending $6,000 to $15,000 on pinball machines. People, think about it for a minute. How can we even with a straight face discuss the major issues affecting working class Americans as we spend $6,000 to $15,000 on pinball machines? We are all the biggest hypocrites in the world. If more people knew about how we spend our money, we would be public enemy number one. So let's just all align on that simple fact. We are all in a very, very privileged position. I mean, it's incredible how much money you have to spend on a pinball machine when most people are suffering to buy the basics. We are not basic. And that is why I love this hobby because it's introduced me to so many interesting people and so many amazing hypocrites. Let's do this. Let's go around the pinball horn. So right now we're heading into mid-November. We're getting into that end of the year crunch period. What's been going on in pinball? Let's go around and talk about each company, what they have coming out. And I've got some exclusive news for you on Back to the Future that you do not know. I have not signed any NDA around this game. It's going to be an interesting thing I tell you. I think when you hear what I'm about to tell you that nobody else knows, I think it's going to put a little bit of pressure to move this game in the right direction but nothing's a done deal right now I just want to say that and we'll get into it later I'm going to end this show with the big back to the future news for each and every one of you so let's start out with a Facebook post we'll just stay on Dutch for a little bit I did get a Facebook post from Cointaker saying that the end of the big Lebowski is coming as this company gets ready to make Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that's good news it's been about 11 years of making The Big Lebowski. The thing about Big Lebowski and the final run of this game, I still don't know how many they've made. There still has not been a sort of number of games that they've made. I'm not sure if they're going to communicate the final game will be game number this. And it's interesting, right? Because this game has always been somewhat limited, but they've been making them now for a few years. They've been sort of using this increased price of the game to make the older EA's whole. That has happened. You know, the game used to be $8,500, everybody. Now it's $13,500. Think about that for a minute. I think what that means is the bomb on the game is probably somewhere around five or $6,000. But basically we saw a $5,000 price increase on the big Lebowski. I think one of the reasons people absorb that price increase is there's a lot in this game. It's got a lot in this game. You talk about theme integration. You talk about assets. You talk about upper play field. That's awesome. Lower play field. That's awesome. A rug that rolls out. It's got a lot of fun stuff in this game. And it's also not too hard. I think a lot of modern pinball machines, a lot of modern pinball machines are way too hard. And Dutch Pinball's Big Lebowski, it's just the right amount of challenge. I think for a lot of you out there, let's face it. Some of you guys out there, like it's too easy. It's not deep enough. You're not playing the big Lebowski and seeing the end of the game every time you play the game, right? You'll probably maybe get to the aim once a month if you're good. $13,500 and we're seeing a little bit of a last call on Lebowski. The only issue is if you go on the Pinside Marketplace, you can now go get a big Lebowski for around $11,000 or $12,000. So they're out there on the used market for less money. also it's November now when is the last Lebowski going to be made when is the actual line going to turn over to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland I'm already starting to get a little bit nervous because I'm starting to hear stuff like Alice is gonna go on the line in early 2025 in Q1 2025 That is not what I want to hear. We were told that Alice was going to be on the line in January. For some reason, the pinball world always does this. They give you a date, like a specific month. We're going to make this game in January. Awesome. I'm going to give you my money now. And I expect the first games to go out the door in January. Then it turns into Q1. and then it turns into like production is beginning but no games are going out the door the only thing i'm nervous about with this alice and the start of production is that dutch pinball in its 11 year history has no history or experience turning a line over and i don't think it's gonna go as smoothly as everybody thinks and they've had a few months but there's a lot of specialized parts with Alice and I hope those parts have been ordered. I hope they're coming in and I hope this game does start to go out the door in January. Now look, as I said, we're going to keep this company honest and come January, if nobody's unboxing in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, we are already starting out on a bad note. So let's see what happens. All right. So speaking of games coming out soon, we've got Spooky Pinball and it is going to be Evil Dead, Christopher Franchion artwork. And I think we're going to see it in like a month. Now that's exciting. We are going to see this game in like four weeks. Usually it's mid-December when Spooky Pinball gets their new game out into the world. It's right before Christmas. Spooky found this December window that really nice for them because there no competition so we look forward to seeing that game Now before Spooky Pinball Evil Dead we may see a new game this week Did you guys realize this? I know most of you are not waiting for this game, but we know that American Pinball is going to be at IAAPA. And I think they've said something along the lines of, come see the new stuff happening at American Pinball at IAAPA. And so that is the end of this week. So will IAAPA be the moment in which American Pinball reveals to the world its next title? The rumor, because I haven't seen it, but the strong rumor on this game is it's going to be Cuphead, you know, and we know they didn't want to release the game at Expo to avoid the crowd, is what they said. And maybe that was a good idea, right? Because at Expo, let's be honest, there was Metallica, there was Alice, and there was X-Men, and there was Avatar. So there were a lot of games. And if they released Cuphead amidst those four games, I think, yeah, it would have been dead on arrival. Now, for some of you out there, this game is dead on arrival anyway because of the theme. But look, let's all keep an open mind. I don't love this theme, but let's face it, did Avatar win us over? No. Are people super satisfied with X-Men? Not really, right? The code, the quality issues. Metallica's sold out the LEs and the premium you can get forever. Like they're going to make as many premiums as you want for the rest of time. So we've kind of moved on from Metallica. 500 people are really happy. Everybody else is either upset or getting a premium. And Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is not even going to be made for a few months. And so really, when you think about it, if American Pinball has Cuphead on the line this week, if they reveal this game and it's being made now, there is a window. There is a window. My fear is it's not on the line. It should be on the line. I don't know anyone who's been ordering barbecue or their old games. They've retired their older titles. That's just inventory they've had sitting around. And so American Pinball, their strategy has kind of worked out in their favor. So what does Cuphead need to be successful? Well, it needs to be an amazing game. It needs to have a lot of amazing stuff in it. I've seen people overcome themes they were not happy with because the game was so much fun, because the game was amazing. Games like Iron Maiden did it for people, right? A lot of people aren't the biggest Iron Maiden fans. I think Foo Fighters did it for a lot of people. So we shall see. I don't even know if the game's coming out this week. We haven't seen any teasers, no nothing. So it might not come out this week. But it's not a bad window if you're American Pinball. So we're going to go from that this week. If it happens, we're going to have a lot to talk about this week. If it doesn't, we're not going to have too much to talk about this week. And then we're going to head towards Spooky's game. And then also in December, gang, I really think we might see Dungeons and Dragons. If you think about the fact that X-Men came out in early September, it was like September 6th. We are coming up on that four-month period where Stern's next cornerstone game should be coming out. Now, I don't think it's going to be December. I think it's going to be January. I think they're going to want to get some Metallicas on the line. But it's coming, right? Stern does not stop. The Stern Boulder keeps moving downhill and just flattening our wallets with new game after new game after new game. I think a lot of people are skeptical about Dungeons and Dragons. I think a lot of people have high hopes for Spike 3. I think when you think about Spike 3, I think it really needs to have more than just a big screen and a little bit better sound and lighting. I think overall, I want Stern games to have a little bit more fit and finish the way a Jersey Jack game is. Like a Jersey Jack game, when you put it next to a Stern, put a $12,000 Avatar next to a $13,000 X-Men, and it's really still night and day in terms of the material quality. I get it that the Stern might be more fun. It might flip better. but the physical material quality, it's like 100 pounds more. The game weighs 100 pounds more, and I'm sorry, but it just feels more solid. Some of you might argue that's a bad thing when you move games up and down stairs like I did, and you don't need something so heavy. It is harder to nudge a Jersey Jack machine. I've noticed this. I've been playing GNR a lot, and nudging that machine is not easy, especially because I have the rubber stoppers for the hardwood floor. And it does make playing GNR a little frustrating for me at times because I don't know how often you've played one, but I do find that whenever the balls go into the sling area, it just fires them into the outlanes like 40% of the time. And it just makes it a little frustrating. I'm going to be honest. I cheated this weekend. I put the game on five ball just because I wanted to see more of the game. I didn't want to lower the post, so I just put it on five ball. And even then, I'm just noticing a lot of outlaying drains. So we've got maybe Dungeons and Dragons coming out. Is Stern going to continue to improve the X-Men code? We talked about this on the Saturday morning show. I think what's happening with X-Men is that right now, the only wow happening in the game is the physical design. The software hasn't wowed people over. The music hasn't wowed people over. What the game is suffering from right now, and this is a little bit sad to me, what it's suffering from right now, same thing as Avatar. Both of these games are beautiful. Both of them have unique layouts. But both of them do not have a single wow moment that when you play the machine, something absolutely wow is happening. Now, it's a lot easier for X-Men to get there. I'll explain why. because X-Men has a lot more interesting stuff physically happening in the game with the Sentinel, with the Magneto Magnets, with the lower Danger Room play field. There's just a lot more ability to code in moments of wow from X-Men and I hope it gets there but right now it's not there. It's a lot harder to code in those moments of wow into Avatar because there's not that much physically on the game itself that's interesting and also we know that avatar code is pretty much code complete it's at like 0.9 something like keifer's not going to add too much more to this game and jersey jack historically when they ship a game it's kind of code complete they don't really do much i mean people have waited six years to get the final wizard mode in freaking pirates of the caribbean and did you see it? I went and watched someone who showed us the final Pirates wizard mode, and it's the most underwhelming thing I think I've ever seen. I mean, you waited six years for that? There's like nothing happening on the screen. There's like not much coded into the game. It really was not worth it I wish they would have gone further and did more I mean a final wizard mode like a final thing you get to should be the most amazing thing in the game It should be like there and back again in Lord of the Rings and something about like the final mode in Toy Story is also really lame It's like they run out of steam when they get to the finale of the game. I mean the finale should be so damn awesome that you can't wait to get back to it again especially because it takes you so long to get there. All right, so we'll see if we get Dungeons and Dragons, Jersey Jack, Avatar sales. You know, look, it's mid-November and nobody knows when a collector's edition is going to go on the line. Have you guys noticed this, that Jersey Jack on Facebook has turned on a lot of sponsored posts trying to sell Toy Story, trying to sell Elton John, trying to sell Godfather. I mean, they clearly have a lot of inventory on those three games. Avatar is going to be in the same boat. It's not selling people. It's not. Like, who's ordering a $12,000 Avatar? Like, nobody right now. And if you're a CE buyer and you were told your game was going to be made in November, where's your game? When is it going on the line? Did they fix the Playfield Inc. issues? You don't know. And I don't like this. And just like X-Men, just like Avatar, you get one chance to make an amazing first impression in pinball. And if you fumble it, we're on to the next. And I think everybody is kind of already on to the next. and when the next game is Harry Potter, it's hard to see a future in which Avatar ever gets embraced by the pinball community, ever holds its value. The only thing I can see is that this game is not gonna sell well. They're gonna sell to some CE people who are just gonna gush about how beautiful it is but man, I don't think this game is ever gonna turn around now and you're gonna be able to get a CE in six months if you want one for $10,000. Another game. This is another game, much like Godfather, much like Toy Story, where you're gonna lose $5,000 on a CE. Elton John, you're gonna lose about $3,000. It's a better game. It's a better game than Avatar. Elton John is the best Jersey Jack shooter to date. If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, I would try to find an Elton CE for 12. All right, so speaking of what's around the corner, let's go to CGC quickly. Everybody's waiting on these Pulp Fiction LEs. I don't think most people care. And then they're going to make more Medieval Madness games. And then it's going to be Mark Ritchie's Halo. The other thing we don't talk about as much anymore, but it's also happening. We don't talk about the fact that somewhere within Medieval Madness, somewhere within Halo, CGC is going to remake Twilight Zone. They are 100% going to remake Twilight Zone. The problem with CGC, if you take Pulp Fiction, Twilight Zone, Medieval Madness, and Halo, it feels like for them to even make four games, right, with different lines and different release dates, that's going to take them like eight years. It's like this company makes one game every two years. So there's absolutely zero enthusiasm. So I just think CGC as a brand has lost the enthusiasm of the community. They've lost my enthusiasm. I'm just over them because it's like everything comes out the day after you die. All right, what else is going on in pinball? Princess Bride from P3 Multimorphic. Look, people have been telling me this game is a theme integration perfect game and I just want to see more games go out the door. Here we are. This game was revealed like 11 months ago or something. Like where is it? Like have you seen anybody unbox the full new version of the game with the swords on the side, you know, the special version of this game that was like 13.5 or something. I haven't seen anybody unbox it. And you know, it's just really hard to follow some of these games. And then you ask the question, why did you reveal this game 10 months ago? It just feels like these companies have no money, no plan and are just hanging on like there's just too many companies executing right to deal with these like weird reveals like this uh turner pinball ninja eclipse let's see when those go out chris sold 100 he's only got to make 100 all right he's only got to make 100 and if he just makes a few a week he's going to satiate those orders like i think anyone who bought into ninja eclipse i hear people like canada you got to be hard on ninja eclipse and his association with Robert Mueller. And I'm like, oh, come on. I mean, the guy broke away from Deep Root, made his own game, sold it to people, and is going to make the games. And if he doesn't make the games, I'll be hard on him. But I'm not going to be hard on him now. And especially if you've met Chris Turner, he's the nicest person in pinball. So I have nothing but nice things to say about Turner Pinball. And they're making a $6,000 game, guys. It's like $6,600. dollars or it's like $64.99. So give the guy a break. He's not ripping anybody off. You know who's ripping you off? Jersey Jack, Stern Pinball. You guys are spending like $13,000, $15,000 for stickers on a game where they'll sell you the exact same game for like $4,000 less because they put a few stickers on the game. Talk about ripoffs. All right. Am I missing anybody from the world of pinball. I probably am. I'm not sure if I am. Barrels of Fun. I think they have Goonies. I think they need to get this game out before TPF. Demand on Labyrinth is gone. It was a great first game to get out the door. What I want to see from Barrels on game two is a better theme. I also want to see their line moving more efficiently. I think they came out of the gate they had like 10 games in a box and then production didn't really start then and they've been trickling these games out but I want what's next I'm not buying what was game number one it wasn't a theme for me so I just want these guys to do something that excites me and I want to get it sooner than later all right let's end this show right now with an exclusive bit of news on back to the future so as you know there's no way in a million years that Dutch pinball can make back to the future considering how large the demand will be. But they were smart. They inked a deal to make this game with Universal. They've got Joe Kamnikow on board, Bob Gale on board. You know that Stern passed on the game with my interview with George Gomez. We know all of that. We also know Dutch Pinball has been talking to the likes of Stern, the likes of Jersey Jack pinball. We know all of that because that was happening at Expo. People saw them walking into the buildings, people. And that's fine. It's a smart move to make. And I've personally been telling Barry, you got to get help here. If you try to do this all yourself, it's not going to work. I mean, the win-win scenario is to get a partner to help you manufacture it. So here's the part that you don know Both Jersey Jack and Stern are interested in this game One of the holdups on a deal happening immediately is the licensing deal You know I don know if Dutch Pinball had everything they thought they had with the deal for Back to the Future And for Stern Pinball especially, they don't want to make a game and they don't want to enter into a partnership unless the deal is the right deal. They want to make sure they can get everything they need to make the game in the right way. Now, the good news is nobody has better relationships with the company Universal than Stern Pinball. I know that exploration period is happening right now, but there's no deal, people. There's no deal between Dutch and any company. But here's a bit of information you don't know. And when you hear this, you're really gonna want Stern Pinball and Dutch Pinball to work it out. But this is something that's gonna be challenging for Dutch. This is something that's going to be challenging for Barry. Because when you hear what I'm about to tell you, this is going to require some humbleness and some intelligence to collide. So one of the reasons why Stern Pinball wants to make Back to the Future is because somebody over there really wants to make it. And they have someone over there that if they got the license, they would figure out a way to shuffle some of his projects so that he could focus on making Back to the Future. The person who really wants to make Back to the Future over at Stern Pinball is Keith Elwin. Keith Elwin really wants to make this game. And all of a sudden you hear that. The greatest pinball designer of all time wants to make what would be one of the greatest themes of pinball of all time. And if he gets the assets to make this game, like the kind of assets we see in Jaws, and he brings his team on board, it's not just him. Remember that. It's not just Keith Elwin. It's the software team. It's everybody that rallies around a Keith Elwin game. If I were to tell you Keith Elwin and his team would love nothing more to make Back to the Future, you would be doing backflips and that seems like a dream scenario for everybody. A dream scenario for Barry, a dream scenario for Stern, a dream scenario for you and me. Because if Barry inks a deal where he gets a royalty and he should on every game sold as he should because he inked this deal and you let Keith Elwin and Stern make the game, are you kidding me? You'd sell 10,000 games easily. And you get to just sit back if you're Barry and make your millions of dollars and everybody wins. Now here's the challenging part. If you go down that road, then you're, as Barry, you're not the personal designer of Back to the Future. You're not the rock star who made the game. You know, I've been saying a lot over the years, I love Barry's designs on the big Lebowski and he's one of the best pinball designers out there. And I can't wait to see what he does next. And I think some of that must be living on inside his head that he wants to show the world what he's capable of and what he can do next. But I'm just here to say this to Barry. I know he listens. Barry, I think you're great. You're not Keith Elwin. I think Dutch Pinball got themselves out of a bad situation. I'm really happy to see where this company is at. But you're not Stern's Elwynn team. You can't make the games like Stern can. You don't have the software team like they do. You don't have the genius that is Elwynn's unit. And so that is something that when you hear it, you can't unhear it, right? That Back to the Future, if made by Stern, has the possibility to be made by Keith Elwin and his team. And it's like, guys, no brainer. Just get together. Make this happen. And if you think about it, the reason why I would never want this deal to happen over at Jersey Jack is we know Jersey Jack wouldn't do it right. We know they don't have a designer nearly as good as Keith Elwin. They don't code their games in the right way. You'd have all these muted clips. And Jersey Jack, my indictment of you is simply based on everything you've been putting into the marketplace. I don't want you to have dream themes anymore because you don't do them right. You have muted clips. You have the wrong movie like you do just Back to the Future 3. Like whatever you do, you just find a way to take something that people want and you just do it in a way that doesn't blow us away. And so maybe Harry Potter is going to be different, right? Maybe Harry Potter comes out. And look, I hope Harry Potter is different. I hope Harry Potter comes out, blows us away. And then all of a sudden we're like, well, wait a minute. Maybe Eric Menier and his team are qualified enough to make Back to the Future. But until we see that, until you can prove it, because Eric's last game, the Godfather was one of the most underwhelming pinball machines, I think, of all time. I mean, you set him up to fail with that damn theme. But man, Keith Elwin, his rule sets, his team, and also the fact that Stern can manufacture the games. If we make Back to the Future with Stern, they're going to make all 10,000 games in one freaking year. You all will have the game in one year. Okay, so there you go, everybody. Let's stop arguing about politics. Let's all be friends. Let's not give up on friendships and family because they don't think the way you think. Having a rich life is surrounding yourself with different thinking people. I love each and every one of you. We haven't lost subscribers because of what I said or who I am. And I hope you respect me for who I am. And I will respect you for who you are. And I think that's the right approach. And thank you for being a member of Canada's Pinball Podcast, everybody. Happy Monday. Happy Veterans Day to all you veterans out there. It's amazing those who serve this country. And shame on you. Columbia University will not celebrate Veterans Day. They think it's a horrible holiday. Screw these people. I mean it. I don't care how you think. You're not going to show respect for the very people that have made us free all these years. I salute each and every one of you who's a veteran of this country. I appreciate your service. You've done way more than I've ever done making a pinball podcast. Everybody, happy Monday. Daycare is closed, but work is open. Going to be an interesting day in this household. Kaneda out. Why can't we be friends? Thank you.