Well, hey, howdy, hey, camp counselors. It's Don here from, you know, the podcast that you listen to. Coming live from the Texas Pinball Festival at the conclusion of day number uno. And I've played everything, I've seen everything, I've talked to everybody. I didn't get kicked out. Let's kick this. oh it's thumping episode number 180 is now streaming hello everybody buckle in coming to you from the sunny land of freedom down in texas the place of buckies and other convenience stores and such what a burger i think also hello welcome everybody settle in buddy and and female buddies we're going to get into everything that i've been seeing this last uh 24 hours the friday of texas pinball festival it's been one for the record books man we are recording near midnight completely exhausted I've got convention voice going on, so why not record this for all of the posterity, man? So what a fun time. Yesterday I had gotten in, did a quick little Patreon update or some such, and everybody was still setting up. Now everything is uploaded, it's powered up, and I got to play everything from Blues Brothers to Multimorphic's plethora of chart-topping games, everybody. and hanging out and doing all the things that happen at the show. So let's start with something here. Okay, we got two brand-new games that got launched here. Portal, of course, from Multimorphic, P3 or such, reverse, reissue, however you like that. And then Merlin's Arcade from our buddy Turner. The second game in the cinematic Turnerverse has been unleashed. It's not the pirate game that I was trying to will into existence. It was known as Merlin's Arcade. Evil Dead is here being played for the first time by the vast plethora of people that are out here. And not only did all 10, 11 of the games that they brought sold before the show even started, another at least 10 games sold today, leaving them with under 50 now. Supplies are drying up if you want to get a number for Evil Dead, man. Jersey Jack is here. Balls of Fury is here. Barrels of Fun, I mean. And then we got an announcement. So let's start with that. So there's a seminar room here at the Texas Pinball Festival, which is essentially to me a lecture hall. I'm aware that there's scheduled activities, but I go to these things. I play pinball machines. I get to talking to people. I leave and find food. And the last thing I'm doing is remembering that there's, like, scheduled activities going on in the seminar hall. So I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket pretty much nonstop for about 10, 20 minutes while I'm out goofing around. and then i come to find out that jersey jack has unleashed the beast the harry potter announcement was today at tpf apparently and i found out about it after the fact would have been cool to have a heads up guys man call me like 10 minutes before these things happen it probably wouldn't have helped because i was playing i was playing future spa or something just blowing it up uh so anyway jack took the stage i have no idea what the topic was uh but he went ahead and let it slip that harry potter is the next game and of course everybody already knew that uh it costs multiple millions of dollars was apparently in the works for 10 years or so um okay sure um but that's the next game that's coming out and uh no idea when we're gonna see it um but the other big heavy lifting thing that happened was he said that they have gotten all of the film assets give me some of that not just the book not just the cinematic universe not just hogwarts but like the films the film assets the speech the actors apparently they got it all and not only that he also said that those two things here he said that this is gonna uh look just like wizard of oz did as far as like the level of interactivity and mechanisms the trees and the pop bumpers man fantastic so we're getting a wizard of oz level thematic integrated universe from harry potter with the films and the assets for multiple millions of dollars and he said do not spend one dime until you see what we have coming this could be big this could be big uh but this is like like a big marketing push here from the man himself so that was crazy that that dropped on us today and on top of like the merlins and the gelatinous cubes and everything else that's going on man there's a lot to talk about there's a lot to talk about but that man buckle up if you don't think that there's like already releases standing on top of each other's shoulders it's about to get even deeper and with some real heavy hitters so that's awesome let's round robin this thing okay i mentioned the the turner cinematic uh turner verse the pin verse that's going on uh the maker of ninja eclipse turner himself chris turner uh and crew are back with their seminal second release of merlin's arcade a game that i don't think any of us had on our bingo score sheet cards uh from what i understand this is from deep root assets but apparently there was also a dozen games in various stages of development some of which were sold off um i guess the John Papadiuk variety to uh marvin over there in melvin in dutch wonderland who is making uh alice machines and magic girls and all that business so apparently this is one of the other ones um chuck norris jim norris Jon Norris this designer of this game really wanted this to see the light of day chris being a heart of gold type of person himself said you know what bet let's make it happen and not that we're gonna throw some finesse flippers in the mix and that is what happened so what i couldn't get out of turner was a solid idea of what the story for this is from looking at the game from the pictures i came away with uh so that's all we're getting and uh i filled in the blanks with the sounds and and and the gameplay and stuff so it all did come together once i got to play it of course but what i was wondering is this a theme is the story of this game taking place in antiquity in the middle ages in camelot and somehow there's basketballs and things or is this taking place in like a 1980s camelot themed arcade uh like like the golf and stuff or golf and fun or whatever i used to go play in southern california where there's like a big castle and mini golf and stuff castle park and riverside is like the greatest example that they usually had a giant castle with an arcade inside of it and then awesome mini golf and some rides and things all around there and i thought wouldn't it be cool if this game was taking place in one of those areas and there was like 14 teenagers and they were all like calling themselves Lancelot and whatnot and then those were the modes and everything and he said well Don it's kind of open to interpretation so whatever you want to believe apparently is the truth so here's the thing um the it's a game it's fun to play it's got that one more game feel I feel like people throw that out when they don't really have anything else to say about a game um yeah just from a presentation standpoint chris's cabinets are awesome they're engineered really well uh the fact that the glass lifts off and it's all contained with the armor and stuff that's fun i like that there's pin stadium esk lights but they're implemented in probably the best way you could possibly do this where they're attached to the armor itself the armor lifts off the whole game there's no glass channel or none of that business and the whole thing connects by contact so there's no wires or anything the bottom of the play field uh solid the whole thing is two printed circuit boards with integrated lights and uh uh driver boards for all the coils and stuff this is all you know some some engineering nonsense but the thing is super clean man you could flip it over and have a an old town buffet on the back of it without even having to worry about the novice to clean it so uh the machine is clean the machine looks good everything looks exceedingly well engineered um what's not really present are upper playfields, lower playfields, more than one ramp, right? So this game, I kind of covered it before during the release, but yes, it is one ramp plastic to a wire form, which I'll give a pass. I love the feel of plastic ramps, but I like that wire form too. So this is how I'd like to see it implemented. Um, there's six main shots and a fan layout. There's four pop bumpers. There's the spinning, uh, what do you call it? A foosball target, which is not in its final form. It'll be a slightly different color, uh, uh, but it's a placeholder white right now it is super fun to hit i do like the sound it just kind of makes this knocking sound as it's spinning around there uh there's two other spinners in the game and the pop bumpers make like galaga type noises like when you're when you're blasting uh ships or aliens and it makes that like nice 1980s arcade burnt like blip kind of sound that's what they sound like i can't replicate it with my human vocal cords but like you know that part of it is fun uh you know code wise i didn't get into a ton of the modes um i was doing multi balls mainly uh this one they have the virtual lock installed but there is a physical subway that they would drop into otherwise for the legendary edition and you got three sculpts to talk to each other and merlin does move back and forth raises his arms up and down so there is some motion there the sculpts look much better than the pictures of course you know when looking in person they're not as cringed as i initially thought but that's kind of all you're getting with the game you know the eight stand-up targets they have this great billiards ball sound when you hit them like it sounds like billiard balls being knocked you know so that's fun everybody was having fun playing the game there wasn't ever a time when the games didn't have anybody on them uh the game's nine thousand dollars and there'll be an arcade edition for two thousand dollars less that won't have the sculpts or the powder coat you get plastics that still have eyes that light up uh so at the end of every ball the sculpts will talk to each other or give some quips you know the better you do the more they kind of talk and their eyes flash when they're talking so it's it's it's it's interesting it's fun um Who is the game for? The game is for the guy with the 20-game collection that already has a Ninja Eclipse, a P3, and every Stern from the last three years. Okay, so that's probably who's going to get this. It would be nice if some arcades would get it, I'm sure. We'll see some places in northeast Ohio that will have it courtesy of Jeff at MadPinball.com because Legend, the guy, gets games, puts them on a location so people can actually play some of these rarer, harder-to-find titles outside of a show. So that's cool. um you know is it the game for you you already know that answer and you already have one on order if it is um and if not you're gonna go play it at a show uh but it was cool to see this release it doesn't really push any boundaries i was joking a bit so um you know i think in the last show somewhere i had said that this is the type of game you would make if you wanted to offend absolutely nobody on the planet um you know it doesn't have spice it doesn't have edge it's not pg-13 it's not pushing the envelopes it's gonna make it anybody uncomfortable it's nothing that you'll have to put a blanket over the game so you didn't freak your kids out or anything and so today i came up with the situation the thought that you know this game is the pinball equivalent of a nice dad in a sweater vest shopping at walmart on a sunday afternoon just kind of it it there there nothing wrong with it it fine but like it doesn have like that freaking edge right There no headless nude female zombie walking around while you ripping spinners a la Evil Dead So depending on what you're into, this will speak to you or it may not. I will tell you this. Ripping the spinners was fun every time I did it. I liked getting the multiball in the game. I like the sound effects. I like the talking back and forth. And I love the finesse flippers. Did you see this? I recorded Chris Turner himself demonstrating this. There's a second button on each side of the cabinet. This was in kind of the release notes of the game, but I didn't really understand what the heck it was talking about until I saw and got to do it in person. So the little tap nudge or whatever that pro players do, not to post pass, but just to like, you know, kind of ramp a ball over to the other flipper. So there's these secondary really low power, quick flex, low voltage or whatever flipper buttons. so as the ball is rolling down the in lane and coming out to your flipper you can hit it and it activates just enough to loft that ball over to the other flipper so that you can then take that shot that you want from there so it is super fun and it's impressive to get the ball there and just kind of juggle it back and forth flipper to flipper flipper to flipper um city to city uh sister to sister um so that's fun it's it's a cool little mechanism you know some people online were quick to say well that's cheating it's just gonna make you see you're not good at pinballs otherwise whatever i'm not gonna pinball anyway i like this and i would love to see this in more games so i think what you're seeing is on the surface a game with six shots and a fan layout and an original theme that doesn't really speak to you but if you look a little bit deeper just a little bit there's some innovation that's here so don all right listen i'm on the fence i want to buy this game i want you to sell it to me what's your pitch i say that this is a broad-based family appealing game that's appropriate from grandmas all the way to the nursing home that will be fun to play, pick up and play. It's got that one more game feeling, and it's got a cool yellow powder coat, and it'll only be at the most 500 of the legendary editions. Comes with a topper. Go ahead and order one now. You'll get it this summer. There's not a hard and fast date. This isn't a game that you'd have by, say, June 8th for sure, but if you order now, you'll get it sometime this summer and who can argue with that so it's a new pinball machine and it's super fun let's talk about the other new pinball machine machine that's the the p3 multimorphic newest hottest release of portal so uh it's been it's been discussed it's been carry-hearted it's all over the place uh so you've seen the release of this by now i'm sure um you've heard my thoughts personally on the p3 it's not a system that i own but it's a system that i keep coming around to trying to find a way to make the numbers work because the games are fun to play final resistance in particular absolutely slaps i went over and played it again today and i swear it's got the best easiest entrancing scoop of any game so smooth just jumps right down in there pops right back up i'm fighting aliens i'm in some kind of mode i'm following what the lights are telling me to do on the inserts i have so much fun with final resistance i would love to own that game i'd love to own it um you know the problem is there's other games i would like to own and they end up being of a lower cost than what final resistance would cost me and so they're just going to keep getting in the way you know until i find somebody that's got one to dump um you know you know for cheap or something so that's an issue so this game based on a video game portal love the game portal i was there i was very much in the target demo when portal came out back in the day 2007 or some such and at the time it was kind of like look this is a game it's a little bit different than every first person shooter out there it's an action puzzle game it's almost got this indie kind of meme feel you know the cake is a lie gladys is there like get in on it and you know downloading it again today and playing through it the other day it's still a fun cool interesting mechanism type game i love to see this world put in a pinball machine perfect i'm dig it like like i'm target demo right here man couldn't wait to play this thing. I had a little bit of difficulty. I got to say, you know, I go to these pinball shows. It's been like three years now that I attend just every major one that comes up. I see the same people at each one, you know, so I know them, they know me, we hang out, we joke around and stuff. You know, sometimes I buy their games, sometimes I don't. We rib each other back and forth and it's all good fun. And for the most part, I get along well with everybody, except when it comes to Multimorphic and I don't know why I can't make any inroads. Not the friendliest bunch, not that I'm demanding to be treated a certain way or anything. Certainly I'm not entitled to everybody's friendship, and I get that. But it's just a little difficult. But I try as I might. I like the games. I have some constructive criticism for what I would like to see that would make it easier to convince myself to go ahead and be a purchaser. And obviously nobody cares, particularly them. So whatever. uh hey i'm at tpf paid some money let me go let me play some games so i'm over there with my friend brad uh it's friday uh it's around 11 a.m so the games are up games are playing all the other multi-morphic titles people are playing on them i played some final resistance so they're getting portals set up they had three games two of which had the extended module on them and one of them was the more simplified single module deal right the $3,700 one not the $5,500 one and not the $5,500 one that had the $750 topper. No, this is the other one. So cute little girl is there playing the game with an adult standing next to her. Brad and I are waiting right behind her. We're like, great. Game's up. First one, you know, we'll let her play. She's obviously doing awesome. And then, you know, we'll get up there. We'll get our first play on portal before the crowds really come in. This is going to be super fun. You know, so we're waiting there. She's actually pretty good and plays for, you know, a good, good while. And then, you know, she drains and have fun, puts her name in or something. And then she walks away. And so we're walking up there to go and hit the start button. I'm literally reaching for the button. And this guy from – who I later found out was with the crew there just comes over and just looks at us and switches it off and walks away. And I was like, what the heck just happened, man? He was there. He saw us waiting to play the thing and watching the girl and cheering her on. And then we're talking about playing it. And at the time I was actually having a discussion because I was approached by somebody at the show that lives local to me that has a multi-morphic with heist that he's looking to really move, like really move, really willing to wheel and deal, trade deal, or best offer, like what do you got? And so I'm coming up with situations in my head that make it work, and I'm talking back and forth, and I'm kind of getting excited like it's really going to happen. I'm going to have one of these machines finally, and I'll be able to get Final Resistance at home, and then later on I can get Princess Bride. and then either pick up a Weird Al or something, or hopefully Portal because this game looks fun, and then walking up there, it's like rug pull. Like it was a huck to a coin or something. And it's like, no, man, what the heck? And then I asked the guy, like, what's happening, man? You know, we're waiting here. You saw us here. I'm not the guy that always has to go talk to the manager or anything, but like, you know, what happened, man? And I got an explanation that, well, I'm not sure if these are supposed to be on yet or something. And it's like every other game there is on. It's playing fine. Like, you know, I'm going to go push the button, dude. And you saw us waiting here. What happened? And so I was told to come back in an hour or two hours or something. And I was like, well, the show's already started, man. Early entry's going on. What's happening? So that was disappointing. It took the wind out of my full sails. Came back again and then, you know, of course, joined the queue back then, waited a lot longer. uh but managed to get in on it this time an extended version and so got to play portal so uh the shots are are fun everything seems to be based around the upper left ramp the one that's on a diverter like it lifts up goes down so you shoot the ramp and then you know it lifts up and then you shoot underneath it and it pops up to that upper play field that's where you hit the weighted companion cube it pops back into the portal where it pops up on the other side where it acts as a physical ball lock and then you can do the iron maiden ramp jumps to lock the three balls against the back panel and then when you get all three up there uh the the portal cube will move and then you're in a multiball so that's fun i did that a couple of times i played through this bode where it was essentially a two ball multiball where you have to escort the other ball like it's your companion cube through the different rooms of a test facility and i managed to play through that mode as well still on the same ball i think this was ball number two i managed to round a score of nine million points or something which seemed to be fairly respectable you know especially for my first time playing it um and then after that i was like well what else am i supposed to be doing um now maybe it's an early code situation um but i was kind of i i'd hit everything i saw everything i wanted to do i accomplished everything i wanted to get there to accomplish i played at the upper ramp or upper upper play field i did the portal thing i moved the cubes i locked the ball against the the back wall iron maiden style off the jump ramp um i did this stuff i didn't do the light bridge i couldn't figure out how to operate that upper mechanism that's on there um but essentially it was like, I was asking Brad, like, what else do I do? Did I kind of, have I exhausted everything? So I, you know, I played ball three and then we went off and did something else. So people started texting me, Don, what do you think, a portal? And I thought, I thought it was fun. There's a lot of interesting mechanistic things that are there. I think for a P3 module, it's a fun game and such. But it was like, I don't, I don't know. I got a little bored with it. I got a little bored with it. I couldn't hear everything that was going on though. I could hear Marc Silk's narration i heard gladys's voice i play the modes like i get it and it was all right it was all right but the problem is it's a 5500 ask you've got to get the version that has the extra ramps the extra spinner the extra kickback the extra essentially upper playfield area that comes with it uh the whole the whole extended module is like the size of a module itself and it spans as like quarter inch plexiglass across the entire width of the playfield and then goes in there and then attaches with like two bolts to this kind of t-molded rail system uh that's on either side so it was it was fun the uh right lower ramp the one that raises and lowers the one that actually sits in contact with that screen that is on the lower playfield area um doesn't have anything to secure it down there so it does have the jank which i don't like in pinball jank when things are just like you know not screwed down not transducing motion of the ball in an efficient manner and losing some velocity. It led to some drains, especially later on when I played it again. It's almost like I compared it to a Mandalorian Pro that's on location and not maintained very well. The screws to the plastic ramp are weak and just kind of janking around. That's kind of how it felt, but you could backhand it. I mean, it wasn't like a game-killing element, and I get that it's just there mounted on, you know, drops down on the screen, and so it's probably the best that you could come up with if you wanted to integrate a ramp right there, I suppose. But yeah, it just left a little bit of jank that I don't know added to my enjoyment of the game. So the thing is is the ask for this That does not include the topper which looks reasonably well There a cool red laser light effect on there that it done with a set of LEDs So it impressive I would want the topper, especially if I'm getting the top end edition, but that's another $750. You know, so where are we even at here, man? We're like $6,250 to get this thing plus tax, title, and dock fees on top of the $5,500 if you find like somebody with a heist that wants to dump it. um and then you're like you're literally eclipsing ninja eclipse you're eclipsing evil dead evil dead is ten thousand dollars and it comes with a topper and and it's loaded with mechanisms and all the powder coat you would want no jank ramps there's no jank in evil dead and it's like uh who's this product for i'll tell you who it's for and uh and so far i haven't heard back from anybody that owns a multi-market machine as their single system um but it's for the man or woman it has 20 games at home great high-end condition has a multi-morphic already has a ninja eclipse already every stern from the last three years and a couple jersey jackpins including like a i don't know that dialed in that you probably got uh you know it came out when when the game came out um so of course of course you would get a portal and of course you would have fun with it because it is a fun game it is fun to play and it's probably much more fun to play at home um but man i think i'm still thwarted even try as i might to find a way to make the numbers work and get one of these things in my house so i could really kind of explore it especially because my good buddy enzo he loves he's got one he loves it bless him i hope he gets a portal but like it's like the universe or something doesn't want me to participate in this and maybe maybe somebody's trying to give me a message i don't know but i still come by and try to be my polite friendly self whenever i can um no inroads if any well look i'm not entitled to anybody's friendship right you know i i go by vampire rules i go where i'm invited and so it's kind of where it's a little colder in the room around the the p3 booth and maybe that's maybe that's how they want it i don't know uh but the glass looked cool they had some of their invisibility glass there's 150 bucks hell of a value wish i had a truck here to take them home there it is so i played portal there you go uh what else is going on um it's like the the time of merlin right now uh not not one day after merlin's arcade is revealed then we start hearing the mold that the uh medieval madness redux is coming out it's called the merlin edition so the royal edition of medieval madness is back it's purple now and it comes with the topper and it's medieval madness and you know what you're getting and what you're getting is twelve thousand dollars in debt uh essentially the same price as a fully loaded portal you can have a medieval madness and tina fey's in that game um it was fun i i played it it plays fine um it's a big ask and i could see back in the time of the royal edition if they were to have this available i'm sure it would sell a lot better than the enthusiasm leak that i or the the dearth of enthusiasm seen for this release that's a lot of money especially when you know consumer if you order this game it's coming in 2028 or 2027 probably at the earliest because that's just the pace and we've been able to make allowances for that knowing that you know pulp fiction was under nine thousand dollars right well now it's 12 and it's medieval madness and it's not doesn't have the depth of the code doesn't have any lineman sheets code that's getting boosted uh like the 1200 code update for cactus canyon charging for code updates what kind of place are we in now um so that got released it's out there it's fine it's medieval madness it's a royal edition that's now called merlin i wonder if this was the purple potion dragon edition and then they were like you know what let's just go with merlin instead i'm sure it's all a coincidence but if this isn't the year of gelatinous cubes and merlin games um my goodness that takes us to barrels of fun joking around with these guys what a bunch of slapstick shysters i have a good time with those guys uh you know shout out to brian and vanessa over there they're there with four uh what are the labyrinths right um labyrinth feels like it's been out for six years already but we love labyrinth i owned it i loved it i love my Marc Silk doing the voices on the topper great topper super fun more of that please yes and playing labyrinth again now that it's not been in my collection for six months or more um it's it still holds up it's still fun i still like the integration i like the little fiery heads of pop up all that business i'm in it it's fun to have this game around they're in the last hundred of their build and they'll be moving on to another game and you know they had plans to have this new game at some point at the show and it's just not ready yet and you know what we're gonna have to wait till may until we get the game i'm calling it doonies i've heard everything from goonies to dune to old dune to new dune to fifth element i've heard people that swear up and down i've seen the cabinet i've played the game i know it's this that or the other uh we're gonna find out in a couple weeks what it is but uh brian there he was joking with me he came up and said i'm gonna share with you the name of our next title it's uh it's it's merlin in wonderland or merlin's adventures in wonderland is what they're gonna call it i thought that's just absolutely on trend right now man we'll sell like gangbusters merlin's having a moment you throw a gelatinous cube in there and uh you remove an areola from the lady on the side of the cabinet you're really gonna have something It's just going to fit right in. So that was fun times over there. So there's four labyrinths. The guys are having a good time. Obviously, the new game is not ready yet. But, you know, people are still playing labyrinths, and we're all still having fun. So next TPF, I'm sure we'll see the new game. Maybe it'll shock us with something, but probably it's going to be Dune or Sand related. All right, so what else do we got? What else do we got? So much to talk about. So much to talk about. Got to see in person the final build of the Pulp Fiction topper. It's out near the Wormholes booth out in the hallway. Talk to Robin and Alec from the Electric Playground. Shout out to you guys. And they walked me through all the features of the topper. It looks really cool. I played a Pulp Fiction with the LE topper as well. Also looks cool. So no matter which way you go, whether you get the aftermarket topper or you got yourself an LE topper or your LE is coming, you're going to have a great playing game with a cool topper. and uh you know the price is just it's fourteen hundred dollars if that's too much don't get it if that's a bargain go ahead and get it um and there's only going to be 300 of them but the ball rolling mechanism was much better than what i was picturing because you know i thought oh cool you know gun fires ball rolls out but then ball rolls back into a gun well it's implemented much better when you see it in person it didn't seem out of place or not um the ball rolls down the gun sounds the lights they're all integrated and timed properly and it was fun and he was showing me some ideas for some other effects and things they would like to have it do i like the fact that the actual rgb lights on the topper match the rgb light show that is going on at the game at the same time i'm not sure exactly how they accomplished that i know before they use light sensors that would basically turn on and off their electronic system um but now they probably hacked into or or found a way to splice into the actual code of the LED boards to get those different colors. It's beyond my scope of understanding. All I know is it was great seeing a topper that's aftermarket, but matches the light show on the game with the different colors, plus the kinetic satisfaction of that ball. I like it. People have fair criticism of it, and you're entitled to your opinion, and whatever way you think about this thing, you're correct. I know I am in on getting myself one of these. Can't wait. going to put it up on my se and i'm just going to have pulp fiction cgc time so that's going to be super fun what else is going on there's still so much to talk about uh jersey jack's new announcement that happened today um i got to play blues brothers you guys and the jank the jank is is real over in that whole corner of tpf so on the extreme far end away from spooky away from jjp away from multimorphic is uh nitro's got their own little area over there it's the only place to find American Pinball Games. Should you be looking for them, they're over there. They have a Signature Edition Galactic Tank Force with the treads and David Fix's signature and the 3D lenticular trans light, and it's under $10,000. The game was originally like $15,999 at MSRP. Nobody bought it. I think there's still over 100 of them in existence in a box somewhere in a warehouse. So if you want to get one of these things and you're this late to the party, call up Nitro and get yourself one. I also got to play ABBA again. um this thing also was jank also is nine thousand dollars and that's the discounted show price and it was the arrival edition so the ladies are arriving i loaded up the predator chopper and uh the left flipper was having some hang-ups where it would just kind of hang out like at full erection even when you let go of the the flipper button so that was fun i still put up a uh you know the 10 million point score or something and i got the multiball twice while was playing even with a jank flipper so that was fun but can you imagine spending ten thousand dollars and getting an abba home and having just just weird flipper issues and you could have had you could have had evil dead man for 10 g's oh my good gravy speaking of good gravy so i got excited when i saw that home pins new release blues brothers was over there the open source um essentially stars rip off only it doesn't have the star spinner what the hell are they even doing I played two games on this with my buddy Brad. We were just rocking this thing. And it was interesting. It played better than I thought it would. Like, it's not total dog crap. You know, it's not quite Thunderbirds. Thunderbirds is a bad game in a bad way, but I do have fun with it because the shaking palm trees is so silly. And that weird ramp to nowhere that gives you a light that means nothing. It's got a place in my heart. I do have a place for bad games. Bad games that are good fun. ABBA is a bad game that's good fun. Barbecue is a bad game. It's bad fun. This was a bad game that made me feel bad about myself, especially the paltry topper with the dancing plastics. Very strange, which, I mean, in its own way, I liked. I don't know. The jump ramp orbit on the left is fine. Everything else, it's got the stupidest ball path ever on the lower right-hand side of the game. I didn't really notice this, but there's, like, the jankiest of the jank little ball path that's over there on the right. It's not even engineered very well. It's not smooth. The ball doesn't roll around there good at all. It doesn't return to an in lane in any kind of satisfaction. Literally anything else that you put there would be more interesting. Even if it was just a gaping hole that dropped the ball straight into the cabinet, never to be seen again, would be more fun than this janky freaking thing. This looks like something sitting on my homebrew right now that I haven't even spent any time on. Just like janked it and threw it in there. It's like the worst ball guide ever. Hilarious. The game, otherwise, plays okay. It's obviously a game made by somebody that's not a pinball designer. And I not saying I could do any better But what a game The dude from Nitro I swear to God he walked up to me and told me that this game is And I laughed loudly I could not hold it back. Like, this is a $3,200 game all day if it's anything, if it's anything. And even then, I would feel ripped off. So $5,000, forget it. I'll go buy a $5,500 portal and I don't even have a P3. I'll go sit home and play with that. And I'll have more fun than I will with this jank of the jank. So we didn't expect much from Home Pin. And I did have fun playing it. And I went back to play it again later in the day. And, of course, the machine's off. So, of course, of course. Oh, man. And I had explained to this guy, this sales rep that was trying to sell me on this Blues Brothers, that, of course, I don't like it because the creator of the game has openly said that he makes pinball machines for people that don't like pinball. and then when I told him that the whole sales facade broke down he's like yeah that guy's kind of difficult to deal with and I was like I get it dude I get it best of luck selling the game I'm so glad they brought it so I could play it I hope they keep bringing it to shows this game is just like a legendarily bad game and I want everybody to have the opportunity to drive some joy and fun and mirth from this game it was fun to play I did go back to play it a third time it was off and I couldn't wouldn't um but yeah just what a it's just the universe is so strange sometimes uh so strange let me go to my list what else are we talking about spooky pinball my god dude they've got themselves 10 evil deads a scooby-doo a tcm and a looney tunes and from the time that you know the crowds really started entering about 11 o'clock or noon the whole their booth was just packed full of people just surrounding and everybody was there people from stern came over people from jjp came over turner came over like i didn't see multi-morphic so everybody else that was over there playing some evil dead saw a great interaction i'm gonna go ahead and share it uh mr Steve Ritchie himself was in attendance played evil dead and loved himself the hell out of the game including the shotgun uh target bashing thing he says i don't have any idea what the rules are like but this game is effing good and uh you know bug was just sitting there elated taking this all in i wish i recorded it but i'm just glad that i was there to witness this i think this was happening the same time that jersey jack uh seminar was going on so i'm sad that i wasn't there for the jjp seminar but i'm glad i was here for this and so like that was just cool you know just like game recognizing game like like mr black knight himself mr shout con mortal combat himself like come on over and like this game's great like this is what a what a cool i'll have that forever i'll have that forever because i was standing there um otherwise it was just fun times with franchi he let me ride in the back of his power scooter so thank you for that sir um you know everybody's just having a good time and like lines were packed for all 11 evil dead machines like the entire there's still a crowd over there i don't think i think the show ended an hour or so ago there's still a crowd over there playing evil dead i think the spooky guys have already crashed and passed out and the people are still over there playing the damn games so um i didn't see i'm not gonna jinx it but like i wasn't seeing glass off at all i wasn't seeing playfields lifted up i wasn't seeing games getting power cycled like we saw even last year so generationally we're at a different spot now and that's that's why i'm i'm a customer of spooky pinball man i'm just at this point just just give me a prescription and every year i'll check out your title and unless it's absolutely dog's dinner um i think i'm gonna have to find a way to make space for it i'm finding a way to make space for harry potter now too and i don't know i'm feeling bad about going against my no new inbox purchases uh in 2025 but if any game was going to break me of that uh resolution i think it's going to be a harry potter that's as loaded as wizard of oz imagine wizard of oz which like a much more compelling theme for modern audiences especially with modern technology everything they've learned over the decade they've been around like implemented into this game i can't wait to see what eric has built okay so we got confirmation eric's the guy we knew this already but now we've heard uh the game's coming out it was multiple millions of dollars for the license it's the movies it's like i'm hearing everything that i like heard one other little tidbit i haven't seen anywhere i'm hearing gold powder coated armor because of course and so yeah i i think uh if everything goes out in plan uh as i have it conceptually in my head i think the move to make would be to go immediately on a collector's edition secure yourself one of these thousand games um or or i think wait it out and get yourself an le or the rumored standard edition uh down the road because this will be a game that i can see being in production for as long as there's demand okay so i don't think you may have to wait if you're not you know first up you know fomo here take my money now i barely saw half of the trailer and i'm already like i'm number 275 for getting my game um you know unless you gotta be that guy or you gotta have a collector's edition i think you could kind of you know sit back and like let's watch but this is this is the game to beat uh for the rest of the year as far as i'm concerned so we're gonna get this game we're gonna get the barrels of fun game like by may uh probably it's dune we'll see how that goes up against potter the i really think it would have done a lot better if it launched here but you know maybe the sculpt isn't back yet who knows uh what else we got we got kong coming out which of course we do it's an elwynn because of course it is um unless they surprise us with pokemon i think we're gonna get kong i don't think it's gonna be called king kong i think it's just gonna be called kong and then you know the uh the myth of the spectral mountain or the the mystery of the crystal banana or whatever non-proprietary name that they come up with myth of terror island is the one i saw battered around and i think that's because the the licensing for king kong is completely insane and convoluted and not even fully settled and so like to the point that you can't even use king with kong unless you pay off like five different people that are all claiming ownership rights of it so i think we're just going to be k-o-n-g kong and then you know the myth of the golden golden bunny slipper whatever it is and you know what you could release a game called the myth of the golden bunny slipper if Keith Elwin has designed it because i know it's absolutely going to slap banana peels off your grand nanny's face man i mean how could it not oh jesus or anything else to cover that was so much that was so much we talked portal we talked to merlin edition venom god i love that shooter rod i'm glad i bought it um they have the stern uh lit up mirrored sign for sale now 200 bucks for a stern light up sign that's actually a topper as well $200 go snap one of those up if you haven't already um i it's absurd to see it for that cheap i wonder if lc science had something to do with he's in guangzhou china go check him out on tiktok um i got to play venom today i got to play venom as ghost rider uh which was super fun and i had a great game on venom it's fast it's furious it was a premium version which is the only version you should be playing that or or an le and uh i was talking to the dude i think his name was andy He's working for Fun, I think was the supplier over at the Marco slash Stern big mega booth. So he had a Venom Premium that was brand new out of the box with the topper, with the art blades, with the sight armor, with the shooter rods. So completely loaded with all four accessories we just saw drop this week. And initially he was wanting, you know, like $9,800 or something ridiculous. and uh but he came back and said no no no 8700 i think 8500 8700 for a venom premium with the 400 armor the 100 art blades the 200 shooter rod and the 1400 topper which i was like i considered it i considered it especially since i would save three to four thousand dollars over the cost of a p3 multimorphic portal edition especially when you add the topper in there my goodness man who's this game for well we already covered that um i will say grabbing that shooter rod was so satisfying and uh yeah i had some good times i had some good times uh what else is on here that i want to cover i saw the the christopher franchi lebowski 25th anniversary over the coin taker booth there's only two in existence or one in existence now be one in the future looks freaking fantastic there's an in-and-out burger on the side of the art it's just great go look at the pictures man i'm sure App Arcade's got it up. Fan flippantastic. All right. No American pinball at all at the show, save for the machines that Nitro brought. What did you do else, Don, during the day? Well, I hung out. I talked to everybody. I tried some pin grips. So shout out to Pin Grippy Jr., I think is the guy's name that's making these things. These are 3D printed handles that go on the side of your machine. They go right where you put your hands on the flippers. And essentially the work is thumb protectors to keep your thumb off the glass. They're normally $35. He's got them here for $25. If you want a set of them, go hit him up. It's a silly product that felt very comfortable to rest my thumbs on a space that's not glass, but over the glass on the pin grips. So shout out to Pin Griffey Jr. Sorry, I forgot your actual name. But I walked by there a couple of times and they had a turtle set up with them on there. And like, dang it, if it didn't feel comfortable to rest your thumbs on there. Do you need it? No, absolutely not. But were they fun? Yeah, I had fun with it. I had fun with it. Andy's there selling his start buttons. If you want some of the best start buttons in pinball aftermarket, Rocket City Pinball is where you go get them and go get them. I get them. I got the one from Evil Dead from him. Super fun. There's so much more stuff. Like, Back Alley Creations is there. There's a ton more stuff to cover. I'm going to go ahead and wrap this guy up now, just like my Wiener Schnitzel hot dog that I had for lunch. And I will try to find some suitable outro music for you. But I'll probably fail in that aspect because I'm on the road. minutes after midnight and i've been talking for 40 minutes and i already have convention voice um but thanks to everybody man that came up to me today don a what's up give me a dab give me a hand um you know i've got some stickers uh i got some t-shirts out there too many people to thank but mainly the patreon people because like you you fuel me so much man jeremy dude you blow my mind constantly man thanks for being cool marshall from little house of games uh love you guy hope you can pull off uh pinball at the beach again next year let's do it let's all tell marshall that we were really excited we want to go to it and make it an even bigger event than it was this year i'm hopeful fingers crossed man fingers crossed anything else as i hear it of course i will jump on here and let you know i'll be at the texas pinball festival all day tomorrow saturday who knows what's gonna happen i heard there's a happy hour over at the wormhole booth uh let's kick it what do we got for music yeah that'll work don's people podcast gmail.com is how you can get at me order a t-shirt order a mod order whatever you want i'll show up at your i'll show up at your party i'll show up at your business um i'll show up with bagels if you want we'll stop by panera we'll have some fun uh join the patreon at patreon.com backslide don's pinball podcast five dollars to get you in the door we got bonus episodes over there content dropping non-stop also you get some free stickers if you join, which is fun, so do that. Woo! More as I hear it. Later, guys. Be good.