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DPP #100 "The greatest episode of all time!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·2h 11m·held·Feb 6, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

DPP #100: Celebration episode analyzing American Pinball turnaround efforts and Spooky Pinball market dominance.

Summary

Don Garrison celebrates his podcast's 100th episode with guest Albert Orbital from Nova Scotia. The conversation covers American Pinball operational challenges and recent improvements (including David Fix self-assessment and new live streaming initiatives), praise for Spooky Pinball marketing execution and two new game releases (Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Don's new merchandise partnership with graphic artist Michael Barnard. The hosts discuss the importance of constructive criticism, community engagement, and manufacturer communication strategies.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball's David Fix gave himself a C grade in the The Super Awesome Pinball Show year-end podcast

    high confidence · Don Garrison reporting on recent podcast interview; characterized as positive sign of humility

  • American Pinball is now live streaming weekly with plans to improve content quality

    high confidence · Don Garrison discussing recent company announcement and strategy shift

  • Spooky Pinball has taken over as the number two pinball manufacturer by unit sales, potentially outselling Jersey Jack

    medium confidence · Albert Orbital's speculative analysis based on Scooby-Doo sales projections vs Jersey Jack output

  • Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre share the same playfield layout but play completely differently due to different design teams and insert implementations

    high confidence · Albert Orbital describing hands-on experience at Spooky factory

  • Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo has been updated with new 3D mechanical LCD screen toppers at under $1K cost

    high confidence · Albert Orbital discussing current product features

  • American Pinball originally planned to ship thermoses only with signature editions, then changed to include them with all lunchboxes

    medium confidence · Don Garrison paraphrasing David Fix recent podcast explanation of the thermos controversy

  • Cary Hardy was uninvited from some media event at Expo

    medium confidence · Albert Orbital's hearsay report; context suggests possible industry relations issue

  • Hot Wheels was running a new board during American Pinball recent livestream without anyone noticing

    medium confidence · Don Garrison discussing late-breaking observation from Pinball Party podcast

  • Seven's Pinballorama-O-Rama (largest arcade in Canada) has had 12,000+ games played on Hot Wheels with minimal maintenance required

Notable Quotes

  • “There has not been one day that has gone by that I have not had at least one listener to some podcast. So my episode got played every single day since the beginning, and that's what I want to celebrate.”

    Don Garrison @ ~10:00 — Core motivation and validation for the podcast; demonstrates consistent audience engagement

  • “Constructive criticism, take it with the spirit with which it's intended. It's not punching down, you know, and we all want them to be great and have great games because that benefits all of us.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~40:00 — Articulates the philosophy behind fair industry criticism; balances accountability with support

  • “He said he will not be foolish enough to tell potential customers how far along the code is. It's like, my guy, I love you, dude. I want American Pinball to succeed, but you've got to start answering these questions.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~55:00 — Criticizes Steven Bowden's communication strategy; identifies transparency gap as major issue

  • “Spooky is, like, firing on all 13 cylinders right now, man. Two games dropping... not 48 hours later, I'm somehow in the factory flipping these things with the freaking designer standing right next to me.”

    Don Garrison @ ~90:00 — Highlights Spooky's marketing execution and community access strategy as industry standout

  • “I think they've taken over as number two. In sales... if you told me that they sold or built and sell more Scooby-Doos than Godfather, I would say yeah, yeah, I think I could see that.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~135:00 — Key speculation about market share shift; positions Spooky as genuine competitor to Jersey Jack

  • “I think this has been a pinnacle year, and I think for a while we're going to see them be the second biggest seller, really unless Jersey Jack lowers their prices.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~145:00 — Market analysis suggesting structural shift in manufacturer hierarchy

  • “Bug, as far as I know, wasn't born a multimillionaire. He's had to work his butt off for this. So I think that everything they're doing out there is just incredible.”

Entities

Don Garrisonperson[name withheld pending review]personDavid FixpersonBugpersonAmerican PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Don's Pinball Podcast reaches 100 episodes in just over one year; industry figures like Bug from Spooky publicly congratulating; voicemail messages from listeners requesting longer episodes

    high · Opening segment; Bug's voicemail congratulating Don; Danny and Nicole's call requesting longer shows

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: American Pinball showing early signs of operational improvement after rough 2024; David Fix publicly grading himself, implementing weekly livestreams, hiring customer service staff

    high · Don and Albert discussing David Fix's C-grade self-assessment, weekly livestream announcement, new staff hires for customer support

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky Pinball potentially overtaking Jersey Jack as #2 manufacturer by unit sales; Scooby-Doo sales strength cited as evidence

    medium · Albert's speculation: 'I think they've taken over as number two... if you told me they sold more Scooby-Doos than Godfather, I'd say yeah yeah I could see that'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky pivoting to unlimited production model for multiple titles (Looney Tunes, TCM, Scooby-Doo) allowing orders to roll in continuously rather than fixed production batches

    high · Albert: 'We'll probably be in a situation soon where there will be up to four titles that you can just drop order... and they can just pivot and make them'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Spooky's new Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre share identical playfield but feature completely different rule sets, inserts, and gameplay experiences due to separate design teams

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.393

0:00
Hit me with that Beyonce, John Stable podcast in the house, over to Albert in the house, episode 100.
0:22
Come and stretch your ear holes from Wisconsin. This party ain't going to stop until the wheels fall off this bus. End up looking to be driving on the rims.
0:38
How about how you feeling tonight? Don, Don, Don. 100 freaking episodes. I am, I'm just stoked. I'm happy to be here with you, buddy. Congrats. What?
0:53
Jumping, jumping. I can't believe it. I can't believe I got Beyonce and Destiny's Child to regroup and come into the studio to record this. They sound great.
1:05
Oh, my goodness. Hello, everybody. John's Pinball Podcast is celebrating 100 of the crystal clearest, highest quality, highest caliber pinball podcasting episodes. And this one's completely off the rails. We don't have an itinerary. No, no. That was for episode 99 and beyond. This is a celebration of what we're having. I have invited my very good friend, Mr. Orville Albert, from River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. He's brave in the cold. He's got a weather advisory going on, but he said, heck that. I'm going to come on, and we're going to celebrate this podcast tonight. That's what we're about to do.
1:40

medium confidence · Albert Orbital citing Canadian operator experience as proof of Hot Wheels reliability

  • American Pinball is set to announce Barry's Food Truck (Barry Osler game) at Pinball Expo next month

    medium confidence · Don Garrison reporting David Fix 'all but confirmed' the title

    • [name withheld pending review] @ ~140:00 — Acknowledges Bug's leadership as self-made success; contrasts with established competitors like Jersey Jack

  • “I'm just a guy that's having fun in pinball, honestly. It's like I'm Forrest Gump-ing through this thing. It's just super fun.”

    Don Garrison @ ~115:00 — Reflects Don's philosophy; emphasizes organic community participation over calculated strategy

  • “Every wire form and ramp is even powder-coated in this game... Plus, like, they're not skimping on anything.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~150:00 — Highlights Spooky's manufacturing quality differentiation vs competitors

  • “I would do it myself. I'll happily be the mouthpiece of American Pinball and convey exactly what's happening to the people. Let's do it.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~75:00 — Identifies PR/communications gap at American Pinball; volunteers solution during episode

    • Stern Pinballcompany
    Looney Tunesgame
    Texas Chainsaw Massacregame
    Scooby-Doogame
    Barry's Food Truckgame
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Galactic Tank Forcegame
    Legends of Valhallagame
    Houdinigame
    Christopher Franchiperson
    Michael Barnardperson
    Steven Bowdenperson
    Cary Hardyperson
    Pinball Expoevent
    Seven's Pinballoramavenue
    [name withheld pending review]venue
    Jack Dangerperson

    high · Albert: 'These games each play so differently... even though the awesome shooting ramps are the same, they're implemented completely different'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky emphasizing manufacturing premium: powder-coated wireforms and ramps, magnetic speaker panel graphics, included acrylic toppers, 3D mechanical LCD toppers at sub-$1K

    high · Albert: 'Every wire form and ramp is even powder-coated in this game... they've got magnetic speaker panel graphics... they're not skimping on anything'

  • ?

    operational_signal: American Pinball criticized for unresponsive customer service (multi-day delays on communication) and lack of PR/communications department; compared unfavorably to Pinball Brothers' proactive outreach

    high · Albert describing himself as coffee business owner who responds same-day; Albert noting Pinball Brothers' Rudy provides immediate communications; criticism of Steven Bowden refusing to discuss code status

  • ?

    industry_signal: Tension between manufacturers and content creators: Spooky granting early factory access and streaming, American Pinball defensive with media (Cary Hardy uninvited from events, Don worrying about Expo ban)

    medium · Don discussing Cary Hardy's uninvitation; Don joking about being banned from Expo for criticizing AP; Spooky inviting Don to factory within 48 hours of game reveal

  • ?

    product_launch: American Pinball expected to announce Barry's Food Truck (Barry Osler game) at Pinball Expo next month

    medium · Don: 'He all but confirmed that Barry's Food Truck is up next... I think we're going to see it at TPF, which is next month'

  • ?

    content_signal: Don expanding beyond podcast into merchandise with professional graphic designer Michael Barnard (Jaws/Rush artist); launching t-shirts, translatables, stickers, and banners at Expo booth

    high · Don announcing new merch drop with Michael Barnard graphics; planning Expo booth display; Albert admiring merchandise as 'probably the coolest swag I've ever seen for anything but podcasts'

  • ?

    community_signal: Don Garrison transitioning from podcast host to content creator ecosystem: live streaming, merch production, Expo booth presence, professional graphics collaborations

    high · Multiple references to Don's expansion activities: boxing day streams with family, merchandise launches, Expo booth, professional artist partnerships

  • ?

    industry_signal: Aftermarket mod community (flipper toppers, 3D custom parts) filling gaps in manufacturer quality; discussed as complementary rather than competitive

    high · Albert citing Stumbler, Diddy, Flip Mods, Rocket City Pinball; discussion of 3D Elvira toppers vs flat Stern plastics; mods for missing Looney Tunes characters

    • Well, it might be cold here in Nova Scotia, Don, but it is getting hot. It's getting hot because Don hit 100. That's so, I mean, like probably one in 100 podcasts, if that can even, you know, get to this level. And you did it in just over a year. And your podcasts are clear, concise, and usually make sense. It's incredible. It's almost as if I planned it, but I can guarantee and reassure everybody, zero percent of planning went into this. There was no plan at the beginning. And I remember being in January last year and just hemming and hawing, like, should I, shouldn't I, does anybody really care what I have to say? And then I was like, well, heck it, let's put it out there. And if it's a failure, it can fail on its own merits, and I tried. But since I started, since day number one, since episode number one, There has not been one day that has gone by that I have not had at least one listener to some podcast. So my episode got played every single day since the beginning, and that's what I want to celebrate.
    2:37
    Well, Don, I'm not going to lie to you and say I've listened to every single episode, but I'd say probably 80%, 90% sometimes if, you know, life gets away from me and I only listen to the first half of it and I get stuck doing something else. But I will tell you what, when I heard your American Pinball podcast last week, my first thought was, this guy is being so kind, generous, and fair to his company. Because it would be very, there's a lot of things to say negative about AP, but you did a very good job trying to, like, ride the line of being constructive criticism, not being a negative Nancy. I think you were trying your best to kind of ride the, you know, like, be constructive for your listeners, but then at the same time, you know, you've got to have a little bit of edge. You've got to have a little bit of fun in life too, right? I appreciate that, sir, because, like, I don't have any objectivity. I'm just like, this is what's in my brain. I just want to put it out there. I don't know. I'm not out to attack anybody or anything. But, you know, here's what it happened. Here's what it happened. I was ready to record. I think that was episode number 98. And I'm, like, sitting down. I'm like, okay, I got my outline. Let's do this. And just as I was doing that, I was finishing up the Pinball Party podcast. And that was right when Cale was like, oh, look, I got a text message. A piece for sale. That's crazy. Okay, end of episode. And then I hit record, and I'm like, oh, my God. It just dropped to my left. This is happening right now, late breaking. Let's talk about that. And we heard the denial and the official confirmation that actually they're not for sale from Fix, which, okay. Whether they are, whether they're not, that's their press release. But the thing that was telling was, like, that came out and we all reacted like, oh, yeah, I could see that happening.
    4:13
    Well, I think that you're exactly right there. when everybody heard that, nobody was shocked or surprised to have heard that. So it wasn't that far-fetched. Yeah, yeah. And then they did a live stream, whatever. And it turns out that that live stream was running on a Hot Wheels machine that was running the new board, and nobody noticed. And that was celebrated recently.
    4:35
    But then I'm like, great, am I going to get banned from Expo now? I haven't even met David Fix yet. I've seen him, but I haven't talked to the guy yet. But I'd hate for him to think, like, I'm gunning for him or his company or something. I'm just, like, a mirror reflecting what's happening, you know, in the greater diaspora of pinball as I see it, you know.
    4:56
    Well, anything can happen. From what I understand, Cary Hardy was uninvited to be part of the – some type of media that was happening at Expo. And to me, Cary Hardy is pretty freaking balanced, you know. Like, he's pretty fair to the companies. He's, yes, okay, maybe he'll make fun of them in kind of a funny way, but he's not being toxic. He's not being rude. He's not being mean. I think he's just kind of being funny and taking, you know, maybe small pokes when they're due. And believe me, they are due sometimes. And the crazy part is that all of the pinball podcasters that are more likely to champion a product are not necessarily the same pinball content creators that are going to be the ones that give the constructive criticism, yet the constructive criticism is really what's going to help enable some of these smaller companies, especially like American Pinball, that can use all the marketing, advertising, and customer advice they can get, this is just going to help them become a better company. And so the one thing I was happy with AP in the last, you know, month or so was when the Super Awesome Pinball Show did put out that, you know, their end of year podcast. Loved it. And they talked to David Fix. I was at least, I will, I do want to give them a smidgen of, you know, a little bit of something here, because I do think that at least David Fix was humble enough to say, you know what, he only gave himself, I think, a C grade. He gave himself a C! Yeah! Most of us were thinking maybe a D, but I'm just saying, he gave himself a C, so I feel like at least there's a little bit, we're seeing a little bit of David Fix being a bit more humble, and the company itself, and the big thing that happened in the last week is the fact that they're going to start live streaming each week. Even if the live stream wasn't great quality, even, you know, if they weren't responding much to chat, I think they'll get better, And if Stephen Bowden can be as good of a commentary guy he is with tournament pinball, he can definitely figure out how to do a live stream and how to converse with chat. And, you know, they didn't even say once during – I watched the entire thing, Don. They didn't even say once, this is how you order your American pinball machine. Not once. I mean, that's like the best direct-to-consumer marketing you could do. And you don't need somebody just blowing smoke up your company and then them not buying machines. Like, that's not helpful, you know. constructive criticism, take it with the spirit with which it's intended. It's not punching down, you know, and we all want them to be great and have great games because that benefits all of us. I mean, you know, and I will say, like, no one's complaining that American Pinball has a game that doesn't work out of the box or boards that are melting or, you know, shooter rods that don't work, you know, or shots that reject, you know. So there's not, like, a great depth of, you know, interpolation of killer licenses, which is, like, on brand for right now and where we're at. But, you know, the game just thought, I like Legends of Valhalla, damn it. I think it's super fun.
    7:44
    I mean, I like the callouts. I still think Houdini's their best pin, but just me as a tournament player, I love those tight shots. It helps you become a better player. I just hate playing Houdini on location because I'm half-ducks and I'm cheap, and then I've got to spend too much money. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But you know what? The largest pinball arcade in Canada is Seven's Pinball-O-Rama, just outside of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Shout out. And he has had upwards of, like, I think 12,000 games played in this arcade, and he's hardly had to do anything to that Hot Wheels. Yeah. So I understand sometimes, you know, they don't work out of the box, and then sometimes they're, you know, freaking tanks, like GTF could have been. And you know what? besides maybe some marketing missteps that the company's had, I really do think that overall they make a great pin. And if they decide to actually start bringing some themes that people love and make sure that they're doing a better job, thank God they hired some people because I've been hearing now for months that if you have a problem with your American pinball machine, it's like pulling teeth. It's worse than going to the dentist just to get help fixing the freaking thing. So, you know, at least they've hired some people on that side of it. I want them to do well. You want American Pinball to do well. I hope a year from now, Don, you and I get to do a year in review for 2024, and we can say, wow, American Pinball freaking turned it around. They nailed the marketing. They brought us a theme people want. They kept the prices in line with the current market costs. You know, they actually started returning phone calls when people had issues with the machines. Like, you and I want them to do better. We want them to succeed. But, you know, a big part of that is going to have to be them changing how they were last year, because in the last year, they were a little bit conceited. They were, you know, a little bit too – the thing that bugged me the worst of all the live streams last year was when Stephen Bowden was asked, how far along is the code? He was trying to figure out if the code's doing better work. Preach, brother. Do you remember what he said, Don? Yeah. How would I even – I wouldn't even venture a guess as to how far the code is. He said he will not be foolish enough to tell potential customers how far along the code is. It's like, my guy, I love you, dude. I want American Pimple to succeed, but you've got to start answering these questions. Like, you know what? the code isn't even give us a generality. Like, the code isn't as far as we want it. We've got some more modes to add. We've got a mini wizard we still want to finish, but it's coming along. If I had to guess, just for you, my customers, my potential customers, if I had to guess, I'd say it's at 75%. Just give us, you know, a generalization. And I'd hope that that would be the new hire that they would make is, like, you know, the PR communications guy. Thank you. Pinball Brothers has an excellent dude, Rudy. He's on the socials all the time. I've interviewed him. I've met him. He gave me a beer at Expo. If I've got a question, he's right back with me, you know, mouthpiece of the company. I can go to him, get confirmation of things, you know, even if there's not, you know, if the official word is no word yet, like that's what I get. It's really easy, you know. So that's what we want to know. I don't need to bug the guys that are doing the programming and the guys that are the engineers and the ramp benders and all that. You know, just give me like a go-between that I can communicate with where that door's open, you know. Let me grab that pie on the shelf. I totally agree. Like, okay, I own this little tiny coffee and tea company. I would never go three days straight, three business days and not respond. Even if it was someone looking to buy one $7 tea from me, I wouldn't go 72 hours on Facebook or email or anything and just nothing and ghost them. And I don't run a multimillion-dollar pinball company. Do you know what I mean? Right, right. That kind of stuff's got to be done. American Pinball's got to be like, no, we respond to every person as soon as we can, especially if they spent $10,000 on our product, especially if they paid an extra $6,000 just for a thermos. You know what I mean? Oh, he addressed that in a podcast just like today.
    11:31
    And so the word is that originally it was going to be an order for strictly the lunchboxes and then strictly the lunchboxes with the thermos for the signature people. Forget the fact that $6,000 for a thermos is completely off the wall ridiculous. And then what had happened was that the company decided to ship a thermos with every lunchbox, as one should. And then he's like, I don't want to end up with all these thermoses, so now everybody gets a thermos.
    11:55
    But then there's like one less thing that's special about the signature edition. That was the weirdest call of the year, man. Oh, my goodness. Thermosgate. Thermos. I'm confused is what's happening. I'm glad we started this with American Pinball because I've got a whole list here in random alphabetical order and they were number one. So, like, we went ahead and hit it organically. There you go. Well, I do love them, AP, and I will say this if I had to be, you know, say some positive stuff. I will say that Galactic Tank Forces, I think the nicest artwork they've ever had. Now that I know the storyline after Franchi came on the Pinball Nerds podcast. Thank you so much. I didn't know anything until he was on your show.
    12:36
    Yeah. But, I mean, and even some of the shots are pretty cool once they've figured out, you know, like how to be able to actually shoot your main mech in the middle without it breaking and getting air balls, you know. So I think it has so much potential. Do I think it has, you know, looks-wise it's their best pin shots-wise? Is it going to be better than Legends of Valhalla? Probably not. But, I mean, I still think that I want American Pinball to work, and I want to be a positive Polly. I don't want to be a negative Nancy. I just think that, like you're right, they need someone doing social media and marketing for them, and they need someone doing the live streams. You don't have to be Jack Danger. You don't have to have the perfect cameras and everything, but you need someone doing the live streams who can read the chat, respond to the chat, make the sales, and make the live stream look good. And I don't want to be a guy that's offering a problem without a solution. Like, I would do it myself. I'll happily be the mouthpiece of American Pinball and convey exactly what's happening to the people. Let's do it. You know, I don't have a homebrew ready to go. Don't hire me as a designer right now. But I've got a microphone and a mouth, and I love to travel, man. Like, what else would be better than that? That's my pitch. I want to join the family, sir.
    13:48
    Well, American Pinball, we love you. Dave Fix, we love you. Don't ban us from Expo. We're not that bad of people. I want to give Dave Fix a high five and just tell him that, like, I just want to know where he got his hat so I can get my own. Maybe I'll get a mustache and a hat just like Dave Fix for Expo. Who knows? How much fun would that cosplay be? If we all went as Dave Fix. Yeah. It's like a mini Indiana Jones running around. He needs a whip. He needs to carry a whip.
    14:17
    All right. Oh, I got a voicemail message here. Who's calling? Go ahead, caller. Hey, what's going on? This is Danny. And Nicole. From Virginia v. Virginia. Just wanted to throw a quick shout-out to Don's Pinball Podcast, our favorite podcast on the airwaves. Woo-hoo! Keep up the great work. Make the shows longer. We're out there running to you every morning, and we need to get some more mileage. Keep up the great work. We love you. Thank you. Oh, Danny, you peach of a person, dude. And Nicole, thanks for the call. I really appreciate that. Man, the voicemail's been blowing up. I hope maybe we'll get to some more throughout the show here. What's American Pinball got up next? He all but confirmed that Barry's Food Truck is up next, the Barry Osler game. And I think we're going to see it at TPF, which is next month, which I'm super stoked on. Not only is that the fact that it is an amazing exposition of pinball, But because your boy here is going to have his own booth on the show floor at Expo with some brand-new graphics from Michael Barnard, the dude that did the graphics for Jaws, the dude that did the graphics for Rush. I hired this man to do some podcast graphics for me. And I'm going to put them up on the Facebook page right the heck now. So go check those out. Get your pre-order emails in. I'm going to do T-shirts. We're going to do translates. We're going to do stickers. I'm going to do a banner.
    15:37
    Amazing. Happy to announce that now, episode 100. I got a new merch drop, and it's completely devastating, dude. I got to show Orby, man. I can't wait to see it. You know, I just added Michael's Facebook, his art group. I just added that in the last week, and he's got some incredible artwork. It's funny, a lot of these pinball artists have artwork on disc golf discs. That's awesome, yeah. But his artwork is incredible. I can't wait to see it. Do I get to see before all your listeners? I'm going to show you right now, dude. I'm scrolling through it on my phone. Oh, dude, it's great. It's great.
    16:14
    It's great. What? Oh, my God. I'm not going to tell them. I'm not going to say anything. Well, they're going to see this by the time this is posted. Is this going to be on a shirt? Can I buy that shirt? Absolutely. That's the banner right there, but that will be on a shirt as well.
    16:31
    Don't even tell me the cost. Just charge me and charge me full Canadian shipping. Is that not amazing? That, honestly, that is probably the coolest swag I've ever seen for anything but podcasts. I said since day one when I started this that you may not like the podcast. You may not like my personality, my face, whatever. You're going to like my stuff. I want to make good stuff. I want to have good stuff.
    16:55
    You know, none of those cafe press. Yeah, the show sucks, Don, but your merch is great. Dude. I'm just kidding.
    17:02
    No, I love the show, but your merch is great. Your flipper toppers are great. You've made your own, like, that Elvira, like the... The Elvira Crypt is three-dimensional now. Forget the flat plastics. You know, the shortcomings that, due to manufacturing process that Stern and other companies need to make, the mod community is there to step it up. I'm standing on the shoulders of Stumbler and Diddy and Flip Mods. And everybody else I'm forgetting, Rocket City Pinball. Like, I love all those guys. I mean, all the stuff that they can create and how masterfully they can make stuff. And then, like, the fact that I'm doing stuff, too, is just, like, blows my mind. I love it. So I'm trying to just make things and just participate out there, right? I see this as, like, you know when you went to the roller skating rink back in the day in fourth grade and you're, like, a little bit timid and, like, the cool people are out there, you know, but you're like, dang it, I just want to get out there and I'm going to roller skate and I'm going to fall and it's going to be fine and I just want to go and play. And, like, that's what I'm doing. So I'm out there trying to do my best to, like, the 70s tunes and stay up on my feet. Well, I definitely was watching the cool kids from afar, like really far, like in the bathroom while getting a swirly and a wedgie. But, you know, that's okay. That's okay. I got older, and now I only give myself swirlies and wedgies, and I do it just for fun. So just to remember what it was like to go to the roller skating rink, where I was the only guy on rollerblades at the time. I did a few skateboarding, but I also was a bit of a scoobier, as we called them here in Canada. But I'll tell you what, Don, I'm jealous of you. You're making all this stuff. You're doing the live streams. You did that on boxing. You had your daughter in for the Jaws on boxing. I got to catch some of that later. That was so fun. I can't believe it. Like, just the opportunities that come with this. You know, I'm just a guy that's having fun in pinball, honestly. It's like I'm Forrest Gump-ing through this thing. It's just super fun. Oh, I got another voicemail. Let's see if this one comes through. Hello, caller.
    18:58
    Hey, everybody. It's Bug here from Spooky Pinball, and I wanted to congratulate my good friend Don Garrison on his 100th episode of Don's Pinball Podcast. 100 episodes. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think Don bought about one game per episode.
    19:13
    Incredible work, Don. But anyway, in all seriousness, Don came onto the scene, and you stole all of our hearts immediately, and we couldn't be happier that you did. Cannot wait to see what you do more in the future, sir.
    19:26
    Gem of people there. Salt of the Earth out there in Wisconsin. Holy crap. That's awesome. That's awesome that Bug took time out of his day just to, like, give you that cool message. Like, that's awesome. Fresh off the phone. That was crazy. Thank you so much, Bug and Luke and Squirrel and Rabbit and Coyote and Fox and Hound and everybody there at Spooky Pinball. I mean, I may have made some of those up.
    19:51
    Yeah, Spooky is, like, firing on all 13 cylinders right now, man. Two games dropping. I know they're not up alphabetically, but I'm ready to chat about Spooky. As I said, this is in random alphabetical order. Oh, random? Yeah, so they are up next here.
    20:08
    So, God, these guys, talk about opportunities. These guys reveal a game, two games, and not 48 hours later, I'm somehow in the factory flipping these things with the freaking designer standing right next to me, like just completely blown away. There was no way I was leaving that factory without having two of these preordered, And I'm happy to report that I kind of feel in the next couple weeks they're going to be down here at District Dawn Arcade, Orby.
    20:32
    That's so incredible. I think this was a big changing year for Spooky. Like, yes, okay, when Rick and Morty came out, obviously people loved Rick and Morty. Loved Rick and Morty. But I'm just saying this particular year they showed us that they could kill it with the marketing. They could kill it with communications. The weekly stream and stream that Bug's doing is just, they answer almost too many questions in chat. Right. The opposite of AP, right? Like, almost on the verge. But it's great to see that openness. It's great to see, you know, even them inviting you up to play the game so early. Just, I think that they're finally figuring out how to fire on all cylinders. The artwork has been incredible. Their last couple pins, I mean, like, they're just, they're figuring everything out. I think they're doing it. I haven't played Spooky yet, but, so you tell me, Bug. Dude, Scooby-Doo is one of my favorite games. I play it every night that I'm down here. I've got the brand-new topper that they're making now, too. Like, their games already come with some acrylic toppers, similar to what, you know, some of the Jersey Jack games come with included. And now they even have, like, you know, fully three-dimensional mechanistic LCD screen toppers for, like, still sub-1K. You know, I'm digging it, man. And the way that they support their games going forward, like, they're still updating Ultraman. They only made 500 of those And it's not even anybody's Top 100 game maybe But they're still supporting it anyway And Halloween is getting code updates Scooby Doo is going to be supported for the next Five years at least And then they drop these two on us With Halloween Ultraman They showed that they could take one layout And make two games with it, fine, copy paste the themes These games each play so differently Because there's a different team Completely on each one The inserts are even different on each one So even though like the awesome shooting ramps Are the same in each game And the mechanisms are the same They're implemented completely different And like up until now I still think like Maybe 12 people have played these games Like once these games get out And people play them I think we're going to hear like a groundswell of support Like oh my god Spooky's addressed every concern That we've had with their games And they took it to heart And they actioned upon it Like these things play I went and bought both of these dang things. I couldn't decide which one I wanted more. And the fact that they play so different, like playing Roon Tunes. Wait, wait, wait. You went and bought both? I bought both of them after playing them. Shut the front door. That's so crazy. You're so rich. Right. You've spent more in one day than I've spent on pinball in 20 years. But, okay, that's a testament, though, to how different they are because they had totally different teams, right? Yeah, yeah. You tell me this. This is my hot take of the day on Spooky. I think they've taken over as number two. In sales. In sales by numbers? Number of units sold. Yeah, absolutely. You know, how many Godfathers are out there? We don't know. You know, but did they sell or did they build and sell more Scooby-Doos than Godfather? If you told me that, I would say, yeah, yeah, I think I could see that. Yeah. So just the fact that that seems reasonable is probably true without knowing the numbers at all. Yeah. Yeah, and even if they're fighting neck and neck with JJP, what great competition to be in, just to be in the running. Yeah, this little tiny family company from Benton, Wisconsin, that's been taken over basically by Bug, who, Bug, I love you, dude, but obviously he's a younger guy who hasn't worked for a big company. Like with Jersey Jack, they have multimillionaires, right? Bug, as far as I know, wasn't born a multimillionaire. He's had to work his butt off for this. So I think that everything they're doing out there is just incredible. And honestly, Looney Tunes, like growing up, I think that that, I mean, I don't watch a lot of it now, but like I think that it's the best shooting pin they've ever done. It's my favorite artwork they've ever done. The call-outs are probably the best they've ever done. The rule set seems to be maybe the best they've ever done, if not Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So cheers to them. I think this has been a pinnacle year, and I think for a while we're going to see them be the second biggest seller,
    24:36
    really unless Jersey Jack lowers their prices. And, I mean, just, you know, the stable of games they're going to build to. Because even if Looney Tunes TCM doesn't sell out and Scooby-Doo doesn't sell out right now, they're still on the line. And they'll be able to pivot and put them out as orders come in. So we'll probably be in a situation soon where there will be, like, up to four titles that you can just drop order, you know, from Spooky, and they can just, you know, pivot and make them, and here you go. And if there's any issues, here you go, right? Plus, like, they're not skimping on anything. Every wire form and ramp is even powder-coated in this game. You get a full powder coat, including the coin door and the speaker panel. They've got magnetic speaker panel graphics that are up there. Like, it's game and mods, you know, complete. And for the characters that are missing from Looney Tunes, the mod community is going to have them right there for you. So, you know, somebody's Sam's going in, Foghorn's going in, Pepe Le Pew's going to be in there, whether he's on a flipper topper, whether he's spinning around. And since I'm getting both games, I might even have a Tasmanian Devil in Texas Chainsaw Massacre spinning around in the back. Taz is my favorite, Don. I freaking love, I basically was Taz growing up. I was an ADD spaz, so I'm basically the real-life Canadian Taz. How cool is that Tasmanian Devil cartoon in the 90s? That was the best. They actually had a Sega video game that went on it that I spent months beating it. Yes, they had a Super Nintendo version, too, that I played because I was a Nintendo dude. But, yeah, like, come to Tasmania. Welcome to Tasmania.
    26:08
    Hey, Taz, no better way to start the day than a nice cool glass of orange juice. Get the body started. Like, I love Taz's dad in that cartoon.
    26:22
    Fuck, man. He's cool AF. I know DVDs aren't a thing, but I want to go watch some Tasmanian episodes. Like, that was an ensemble cartoon show, too. Like, there was other characters in there, too. So it was almost like Animaniacs with, like, the other, like, side characters that would come in. And to this day. Yeah, there's Garfield and Friends where they went back and forth, right? Oh, yeah. U.S. Acres was in there with all the farm animals and stuff. Orson the pig. Whatever. Sheldon, the duck that was still in the shell. Or he was a, Wade was the duck. Sheldon was a chick. Anyway, to this day, my wife is still, every time, like, we interact with Spooky at all, she's like, guys, I'm just going to say it again. Animaniacs. You know, Warner Brothers. Go get the license All the characters Good idea, bad idea Come on I can hear the song in my head Between Animaniac characters Between the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister Dot And just for fun they run around the Warner movie lot Pinky and the Brain Just those two alone could support a whole machine Let alone the Slappy Squirrel And Good Idea, Bad Idea And just everything else man I would love to Dude I would pay cash money right now Animaniacs Pinball Machine Mortgage the house Divorce the family I want it I want that cake DuckTales Come on Rescue Rangers DuckTales Dude if they I swear If they venture into Disney And they start making pinball machines Based on Disney theme park rides Like Haunted Mansion The ride The pinball machine Jesus H.F. dude Like I'm gonna Play the dune buggy All the lore of the Haunted Mansion All the three different mansions that exist around the world, brother. Hitchhiking ghosts? All these themes you're talking about, Don, I just heard Dave Fix say how expensive, like, oh, it's a million. All these licenses are probably not very expensive. They're not expensive like the Beatles. They're not even expensive like Scooby-Doo. I bet you can get those licenses for a fraction of a million. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Those licenses are, I'm not going to call them, they're not dead. they still have nostalgia, but I mean, those licenses, that's the wheelhouse. Stern's not going to go after DuckTales. Let me tell you this. The Disney theme park fan base is 70 times the size of the pinball fan base, probably more. So if you made a haunted, if you made a thousand haunted mansion pinball machines that would be sold in a second to Disney park nerds that would put it in their basement and not even touch it just because it had Hitchhiking Ghosts up on the Hopper and Madame Leota within the sphere there. So if they had did things like Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, like the ride, brother, dude, forget the pinball people. Like, Disney Park people would sell out that entire production run. Well, they love the limited edition stuff. I know even recently in Magic the Gathering, there's a game very similar to that. That's Lorcan for Disney, and those boxes went to like from $50 a box to $500 a box right before Christmas. The Disney people are crazy. They will spend the money. It doesn't matter what it is. People are paying scalper prices. I want to see the small companies go for those type of titles. I haven't seen scalpers or people pay scalper prices for popcorn buckets. People wait hours in lines to sell out the entire popcorn bucket run for Figment at Epcot, and then they go for hundreds of dollars online. Like, the market is there, dude. Like, a major expansion for anybody that wants to take on Disney, like, theme park licenses. Forget your licensing the movies. Forget that. Just the theme park ride itself. Oh, my God. I would buy every single one.
    30:03
    Well, I mean, I hear what you're saying. It's so specialized. It's just there's all these licenses out there that I guarantee you are well under $100K that I'd like to see all the companies except for Stern going for. you don't have to get a million dollar license you don't need a $500,000 license but look at Barrels of Fun you know I'm going to guess they paid only a fraction of that and Labyrinth at least it has that nostalgia it has the David Bowie connection and songs and then it has obviously you know if you love Muppet Babies you're going to love Labyrinth, if you love Fraggle Rock anything Jim Henson there's your Jim Henson machine right like so that's what they did that was the perfect size theme for Barrels of Fun to go through for the very first time. Let's talk about Barrels of Fun. They're next in the random alphabetical order. Okay. I just got invoiced this past week for Labyrinth. Blowing my mind. I ordered that game when it dropped. I FOMO'd. I'm like, who's going to sell out or whatever? Went in on it. Got the topper. And then I went and played it. And oh my god. That game plays amazing. I played it with Bowen Cairns. I'm playing a two-player game with Bowen Cairns. I'm live-streaming this game at Expo. on my YouTube channel. Holy crap, what an experience that was. And I'm watching this dude make, like, every single shot he's doing. Like, it's nothing. Like, it was blowing my mind to what's capable within pinball. Like, it was magical to watch. This dude death saved from the left out lane. The ball went in the left out lane. He shifted the machine, knocked it into the right out lane, and then death saves from there.
    31:40
    Dude, I've never seen anything like that before. It's like it's nothing. and like the modes of this game this is a Jim Henson pinball machine. Some people say like Labyrinth doesn't really appeal to me. I never saw the movie. I'm not into it. Forget that. This is a movie loaded with Muppets. Let alone David freaking Bowie. So there's awesome music but this is the first Muppet machine. That is incredible. Not only to mention if you've seen the Mythbusters guy video, the Adam Savage makeover thing. He gets it. Like, there's three Muppet sculpts on the topper that are, like, light up, move slightly, and talk to you. I can't wait to just do that for hours at a time in my downstairs basement. Please give me my labyrinth. I can't wait for it. The wire forms do fun things. There's fun little hidden shots there. Ludo pops up out of the sculpt of the damn village. Johnny crapped at all the art. Not only the art blades the outside of the cabinet the back glass but the play field like I know you haven stood in front of this machine yet but like when you do like there three depth created throughout the entirety of the machine let alone there an LCD screen in the spot of the dot matrix display and circus Voltaire at the back there that extends the sight lines into this world. Like, I hate the cliché term world under glass, but, like, this is it, dude. This is it. Labyrinth. I can't wait.
    33:09
    Here's the funny part. It's their first machine. This is their rookie fucking card. Like, they knocked it. I'm sorry, Franchi. I don't want to piss off Franchi, but they knocked it out of the park. He doesn't like when people say that. But, man, for their first pin, if these guys get it, I would say Labyrinth is, like, you know, a B-level title. If these guys even get to, like, an A- or something, it doesn't even matter. Like, with what they've learned from this first pin, if they build on it just slightly, their second one, watch out. Like, I'm going to say it right here. Watch out, JJP, and watch out, Spooky. Barrels is coming for you. Dude, if they're doing Fifth Element with full Bruce Willis assets, come on. Dude, and if they have this relationship with the Jim Henson Company and can bring, like, the Muppet Show with, like, those classic episodes into the game, forget it, dude. Game over. I want to subscribe. Like, so when we talk about Galactic Tank Force and, you know, it's a $9,500 deluxe edition, is fine, but it's competing against stuff like this. And so, you know, if you've got the $10,000 to spend on a machine with tax and shipping, you know, you're looking at Galactic Tank Force and Pounding Fudge versus, you know, getting Labyrinth of David Bowie in your downstairs. Like, that is the power of the license. That's why it matters, you know. I get that it's cheaper to produce and there's better margins with original IP,
    34:31
    but come on, like, that's what the competition is, you know. So as good as Galactic Tank Force is fun to shoot, dude. I play it on location when it's working. But, you know, I don't think it can compete against Jaws. Because I'm looking at you. If you've got $10,000 right now, you've got Jaws Premium. You've got Labyrinth. You've got two great titles hitting different markets with Spooky, let alone JJP and what they're doing with their Dazzle Box. You know, versus, like, we're going to have, like, Pokemon later in the year. We're going to have Dungeons & Dragons. We're going to have John Wick. Like, we're going to have – Dutch Pinball is going to come out back to the future. Like, how do you take your money away from all of those and put it towards Galactic Tank Force? You know, yeah, it shoots fun. It's kooky. It's different. But, like, you know, if you've got the money, like, how are you not in on one of those other ones? The pull is too strong.
    35:22
    Yeah, there's not enough money left in the pool. I would think the main people that would be buying Galactic Tank Force at this time would be small little niche pinball bars that, A, have a good maintenance guy working there, and, B, that just want to be the only place in the area that can say they have Galactic Tank Force. Because overall, Galactic Tank Force is probably more rare. It's more rare than Labyrinth. There's no way they sold more than Labyrinth. It's going to be the rarest machine probably that came out last year, except for frickin' Elements or something, right?
    35:54
    You had Elements over there, Donna. I thought you were number one for Elements. I played Elements. You put your money down right away, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I can't wait for my deluxe engraved edition of Elements. It had Elements of Greatness. It's got Elements of My Blood literally in that machine. Because, you know, now I was playing with the laser cut side rails on one of the ramps. I did slice my finger a little bit. Oh, for real? So I can say that some of my blood has gone into the production of that machine. I thought you were joking because it was so painful to play, but you're being honest. No, no, yeah, I've had the glass off. So the dude is, oh, man, Pinball Adventures. Guy's got a vision. He's making it happen. Whether he sells six machines or 600, he's still going to be happy. Bless him. Bless the dude.
    36:43
    Well, that was probably, honestly, I know you weren't going to ask me, but I'm going to tell you anyways. We're doing some hot takes here. The only time I disagreed with you on any of your shows when you were like, yeah, I kind of like Pinball Adventures. Yeah. What was that other game that no one bought or that one person bought but it didn't work? Honey Factory. Let's get into that in just one second here. Honey Factory is absolutely a game that happened. There was a debacle with play field issues, some fighting back and forth. Todd Tucky's roof was involved. Oh, yes. The pin that almost went off a roof? Almost. So we'll see what happens. I will say, I played Funny Factory. I think it was the first person to live stream it on location. That was, like, it's been an incredible year, man, let me tell you. First and only. I think, probably true, I think it shoots just fine. You know, it's not as cerebrally complex as Elvira House of Horrors, but the shots didn't feel bad. I had fun playing it. You know, you don't have to buy it if you don't want to, but it's a fun game. I think you play it on location. If I had a location. How many did they sell, do you think, if you're being kind?
    37:53
    Well, I think number seven engraved is for sale right now, direct from the company. Okay. So they sold six and five don't work. Well, I don't know about that. I know that one had – it worked. It's just there was some play field scratching issues. How they happened, who knows. We'll never know.
    38:11
    We'll never know. The thing is, like, as a Canadian, I want a – it's the same thing with AT. Yeah. Like, I want more Canadian companies to be successful. My whole thought was, unfortunately, I've been in pinball for a while now, and I was there for the whole book debacle, and I thought, if you have issues printing a book, maybe making pinball machines isn't your thing. But at the same time, they made a shootable pinball machine with a beautiful Canadian maple play field. Much better than I have. You know, maybe he keeps making games, and maybe they sell sub-25, but then maybe five games from now he's really cooking and making some sweet stuff. I hope that's true. I hope you're right. I hope Don and I are talking on Don's 500th episode in 2030. We're like, can you believe that Pinball Adventures sells more pins now than Jersey Jack and Stern combined? Who would have saw them coming? Remember the days of Elements cutting people's fingers? And now it's Elements 2 is burning up the charts. They've got Taylor Swift doing their call-outs. It's incredible. You're a little bit of a Swifty You're nifty for Swifty I got another voicemail message Let's get to that Hey Don, congratulations on episode number 100 Keep it up man, you're killing it Thank you Doug Puerta Man, that was a quick one, appreciate it sir I love the fans here The fans are dope So Taylor Swift would be An awesome pinball machine It would be inclusive It would bring more women into the hobby It would showcase more feminine-led themes. And even though, you know, I don't listen to Taylor Swift, like, constantly, I think it would be good for pinball. And, you know, it's another game that you wouldn't have to sell a thousand of them to the pin side groups because the Taylor Swift fans with cash would come out and purchase this thing, you know? I really think that we need either a hip-hop pin a pop pin or at the very least I don't really care if it's Lady Gaga or if it's Taylor Swift um we need a female we've had too many rock bands that are just dudes even a rock band that's like a woman-led rock band would be rad right like even right now I can't stop listening to this new punk band called the Linda Lindas right? There are the incredible four Asian young punk pop chicks that are making awesome music like we need something that's a female driven game. So we need the Lilith Fair the pinball adventure is what we need Okay Lilith Fair you've gone too far there you've gone too far dog. I got some KD Lang love deep in my heart baby No I'm Canadian and I don't even want a Shania Twain or like Orby come to my window I don't want to come to you bring some four non-blondes with you what'd you do like you know what I've got to give props for props as do and I know we're not on stern yet but it was really cool to see like every other pinball machine that came out was like I'm 43 okay my mom was very smart when she got rid of my dad she married much younger and my much younger dad was like half my stepdad Ian was halfway between my age and my mom's age and so like he listened to a shit ton of the bands you'd hear now on you know from stern like from acdc to aerosmith um he didn't really listen to maiden but probably every other pinball machine they came with out with up until foo fighters he loved those bands so of course you're not going to love the same bands that your stepdad makes you listen to all the time but he hated the foo fighters and he hated marijuana and he hated grunge music that's why i'm so glad finally that stern came out with a band that came out in the 90s instead of the 70s or 80s for once Dude, I would love some grudge pinball. I would love some hip-hop, seriously. Like, give me some Death Row Records. Give me, like, Dre and Snoop Machine. Put the thing on hydraulics if you need to, but, like, drop that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, can't lie. Can't lie to Eminem. I would love me some Cypress Hill from someone like Spooky Pinball, but we'll see. Yeah. I know who you want, Don. Oh, yes, yes. Insane clown posse. Ice BP, baby. Dude, the Juggalo Machine. Hell yes. hell to the yes. Like, the lore that exists within that subculture. Now, the problem is that most juggalos can't afford bail, let alone a pinball machine. Because I met them! They're my people, man! But, like, that's not the market you want to cater to. They got $110 for a jersey and, like, $50 for bail, and that's about it. So, I don't know that they would find a $10,000 machine. But, you know, damn it, if I get to making homebrew machines. It's on my damn list.
    43:05
    Well, I mean, Beastie Boys would be great too. Snoop Dogg and Eminem would be a nice collab like that. Snoop Dogg was on Jay Leno's show where they were raffling off a car, and Snoop Dogg was on there talking about his pinball machines, and he went over and played a game with Jay Leno. And then Eminem was in that video from last year. He's talking about pinball, and they actually show an animation of a pinball, the Snoop Dogg-Eminem collab with all the smoke in the studio. And at the same time, Eminem's had now three different covers that had different variations of pinball machines with the scoring and the words. And also, I've seen Eminem has a really cool arcade at home. He hasn't shown it for about, he hasn't updated it since 2019 online, but he obviously is huge, massive into pinball. What a better dude to have back behind your pinball game. What are you pouring there, Don? I gotta ask. I'm gonna drink it. Hypnotic. I said hypnotic, tell my blood it's falling and pissing. Yeah, so it's the turquoise liqueur du jour. Because this is episode 100, and this is what we do. We've got to get to another shout-out here. Who do we got on the voicemail message? One shout-out to the fellow medical pinball enthusiast, Don. We want to congratulate you on the blazing fast speed. You got to 100 episodes. This sounds like Loser Kid. Slow down, though, boy. You're going so fast. You're going to get 1,000 by the end of the year. So, again, congratulations and welcome to the club. Yeah, it took us four years to get to 100, and you made it in like a year. Josh Rupp, what's up? Time to take a break and put your feet up, dude. Or play more pinball. No, no. Talk more. You obviously love to. Yeah, definitely. Congrats, Don.
    44:46
    Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. What a couple of gems of the industry those two guys are. Man, man. I love both those dudes. They ran that really cool charity there last year as well, I think, at Expo. Honestly, I'm a little jelly because they've done a lot of these Keith Elwin interviews. Like, they must have, like, his personal line to his secretary or something. But, no, those guys are both great. The only thing is I heard them say, like, they're connected to you in the medical industry. Yeah. But the weird part is you were on the Pinball Nerds podcast, and you told me straight up that you are the top manager of the local Burger King. So I don't know what they're talking about with this medical stuff. Yeah, yeah, they must have got some wires crossed or something, because I'm clearly, like, lead shift manager of the night shift at the Burger King. We flipping Whoppers, homie.
    45:33
    So, you know. No, I love Josh and Scott. Shout out to those guys. They honestly, they do. What I think is, originally when I first listened to them, maybe I was like, okay, like, who are these new dudes? Maybe I wasn't, you know, their biggest fans. but I have still to this day never missed listening to a single solitary episode. Never missed it. And honestly, they do the best. I would say with Christian Line, with all due respect, with Christian Line, no longer being at staffs all the time with them only doing, you know, one or two interviews a year, I would say they're the best interview show in the game right now, wouldn't you? I would call them winner kid pinball. I don't know about calling them loser kid. I think it's too self-deprecating.
    46:16
    Everybody loves a winner. Josh and Scott are winners too They're winners Who else do we got here on the voicemail messages?
    46:26
    Hey Don, it's Sterling from Balls and Steel Pinball Sterling! I just wanted to congratulate you on episode 100 What a cool guy I just want to say thanks for staying positive Staying out of the drama And we're all looking forward to the next 100 episodes from you Also, can't wait to hang out at the TPF booth, man It's going to be a great time So anyway, talk to you soon Later, buddy Bye Oh, thank you. So Balls of Steel Pinball running tournaments down in the Georgia region. Killing it. Making modifications as well. Selling games. Having a good time. Can't wait to hang out with my boy Sterling. So me and Sterling at TPF are co-sharing a booth. We're going to have our own damn booth at TPF. Orbital Albert, you've got to get out here. I'm going to be having the new banner for display for sale. New t-shirts, trans lights. I might even be dressed up cosplaying as my character on the banner. Oh, my God. I will tell no one. Do you? Okay, wait. You don't even know this lore, do you? You don't know this lore. Bring it to me. So many, many, many years ago, the thing, wait, I can't even say this. Okay, someone who may or may not have been a pin turn for my show may or may not have worn a costume very similar to the thing you showed me at the Twippy Award Show to run up and accept an award. Nice. You didn't know this. There's precedent.
    47:44
    Well, yes. All right. But here's the good news is it's an awesome person in pinball. They're actually part of the poor men's pinball tribe. At least they used to be. They used to be.
    47:56
    Yeah. I'll leave it at that. I'm intrigued by the tribe. There's probably three people on earth who know what the hell I'm talking about. Very good.
    48:03
    I'm very excited for TPF for you, and I can't make it this year because I'm going to Nationals. Oh, well, where? And I'm going to Expo. You're going to see me at Nationals, Don, and I'll see a whole bunch of people at Expo. TPF is just too expensive and too far to drive. As long as I'm not banned from Expo, I'm for sure there. I've got a hotel room at least. Well, we'll see. I 100% – if need be, I have Dave Fix's cell phone number, bro. I will be like – I have his cell phone number. I'll go to bat for you. I'll say Don is a good guy. Thank you, sir. You legitimately just gave a very balanced critique, and that's all you did. All right. So we love you, buddy. You're going to Expo. Yeah. Woo-hoo. I can't wait. Oh, wait. I got a flashing message here. Let me just get this out of the way. Probably some loser. Hey. Oh. This is naughty. I'm a scratchy. You know, I was sitting here going through your back episodes, and I realized you've done 100 episodes in just a little over a year. That's not a hobby, sir. That's a problem. That's a condition. It's like some sort of funky audio pinball rash that you keep scratching. Anyway, I'm just kidding. Congrats on 100 episodes, a feat I will never reach because I spend too much damn time editing. But I admire your balls-out, freewheeling, hair-in-the-wind podcasting technique. Here's to 100 more. Cheers, buddy. See ya.
    49:24
    John's Pinball Podcast. Fuck yeah. It only took Franchi seven hours to edit and record that. Big Daddy Franchi in the house. That was amazing. I'm just kidding. I'm just messing with you. The greatest bit of shade was just shaved by Bugs Dream and Stream the other day. Franchi had posted something about Galactic Tank Force. He's like, you know, who doesn't want to buy this game? And, like, Bug was on there, like, you know, maybe if it had different artwork, I'd get one.
    49:55
    That's the one thing that's not Wanda's thing. Come on. Savage! Oh, it's so great. It's so great. I love it. Nobody is complaining about Galactic Tank Force because of the art. The art is amazing. Captain Cayenne lives in my dreams. by Tangerine or Clementine Dreams. Amazing. Okay, Don, artists are not sensitive people. That would have rolled off a duck's back for Franchi.
    50:19
    I'm absolutely 100% positive. I've never been more positive at anything in my life, sir. I love Chris. All his artwork is great. Papa Bear.
    50:30
    His podcast and Silver Ball Chronicles are the two I go back and listen to over and over. It is a crime that Dutch Pinball didn't use his updated art for the 25th anniversary of Lebowski. It is completely amazing.
    50:43
    Amazing. Like, the side of the cabinet had the dude reclining in the back of the limo holding his white Russian. And, like, I want that as a banner. I want to Photoshop my head on the dude and put it on the wall. Like, that criminal. How are you not ordained? Criminal. How are you not ordained yet? I don't know, sir. I've been ordained for 14 years. Come on, get with it. It's easy. It's free. Go to dudism.com. Speaking of Dutch pinball, what's up with Back to the Future? When's that coming out?
    51:12
    I don't know, but I'm getting to my DeLorean and getting to 88 miles an hour to go buy it. I've got my big Lebowski pinball machine over here. I've got a preorder with the electric playground for the big Lebowski topper. I still haven't seen from Lior where his Lebowski topper was at. I talked to Lior about two months ago, and I'm like, brother, Lebowski topper heard rumors, and he just said soon. But then this country kind of blew up And got invaded and went into war So I think that's probably slowing things up a bit Probably a good excuse I'd say But Electric Playgrounds sold out of all 100 Of their limited edition Lebowski toppers I got myself one Those will go into production soon Those are some solid dudes down there in St. Louis I can't wait to see what they come out with next All they had to do was the Twilight Zone topper With the ball that leaves a clock And rolls down the wire form Like mind blowing dude That's like next level stuff.
    52:02
    Balls. Forget a shark eating the ball. We're talking about a ball on the topper rolls around in the Twilight Zone. The eye of the Illuminati shines on. Love those guys. Love what they do. Only 100 of these toppers were going to be made, and they're completely sold out. Love it. Congratulations to you guys. Amazing. I'm not going to lie, Don. Like, obviously, I think you're, you know, managing a Burger King. You're in a different pay grade than a homesteader. But I'm not really into toppers. You know what one topper is for me, Don? That's 1,000 games I get to go play in Moncton with my friends or my family out at arcades. Okay, maybe not 1,000 games because I'm buying craft beer and, you know, I'm a foodie, so I'm there getting good food. Moncton sounds like the most glamorous place in the world. Like, I just picture Moncton, and I'm looking at, like, azure-colored seas and white sand beaches and women with my ties. It's mostly French. No, it's mostly tabernacle. A lot of smokers. Oh, remote? They're wearing their fashionable clothing in even some of the pinball places. Oh, my God. If you only speak English, I'm not even going to lie. Sometimes you feel like you're getting looked down on. I'm serious. Oh, man. So I have to brush up on my French when I go there. So I'm going to be, je voudrais, on joue le pinball des flippers avec moi, si ce soit. Oh, bouche, monsieur. But it's Canadian French, though. I don't know. I've got, like, French French. I don't know Canadian French. It's similar enough. It sucks either way. I don't care which one it is. So, like, do I have an open invite to come into Prince Edward Island and hang out with y'all? I live in Nova Scotia, but I'm close to Prince Edward Island. Same thing, right? Halifax, right? Sure thing, Don. It's not just for you. It's not just for all your listeners. It's not just for all my listeners. If anyone comes to Nova Scotia, look, I'm not going to invite you to stay at my house, per se, but I will give you the tour of Halifax. I'll give you the tour of Moncton. I'll give you the tour of Charlottetown. and you can see the largest pinball arcade in all of Canada. With, honestly, the coolest, weirdest pins you've ever seen. Like, this is, I don't even think he owns one stern. It's insane the games that this man has on location there you've never seen on location. We have got to make this happen. Come visit. Either bring the fam, if you'd like, or don't. If it's just you, you legitimately can have this beautiful pull-out couch here I'm on. It actually pulls out to a king-size bed that's pretty, pretty comfy. but if not, you can just simply, you know, go to the, I don't know, there's like a, whatever, they probably have them there in the U.S., like a Hilton that has the largest water slide on the east coast of Canada. Love it. Like 20 minutes off the road from me, or you can stay in a castle 45 minutes away from me in Moncton, like where Danielle and I stayed for our anniversary. So, no, come visit. I'm sold. There's lots of stuff to do. Just don't come in the winter. It sucks right now. Yeah, which brings us to, I don't know, another voicemail message. What message should we got?
    54:53
    Hey, John, congratulations on your 100th show. Thank you, sir. This is Down South Pinball. Yes. John Tomberland. Just wanted to tell you congratulations. Love it. I remember when you first started and you had about 10 listeners. I was two of them. I was both logged on as Down South and logged in as myself so that we could get your numbers up early on because we knew you were going to be awesome. Thanks for the wonderful year that it's been, the last year that rides it to getting you to 100. Love your content. Love your craziness in the pinball industry here, and love listening to your podcast. Keep up the great work, and keep being your quirky self. We love you, and congratulations on hitting 100 episodes. Take care, man. Bye-bye. John Tomperlin, thank you so much for the kind words. You are the salt of the earth, sir. Down South Pinball gave me an awesome shout-out for the 100th. Man, how fortunate am I to be in this position to have, like, so many cool people, like, just, you know, to interact with, let alone rooting for me, you know? Love it. Don, your podcast is everything I wish mine was. Like, you hardly ever have any filler words. You know what I mean? Like, you have a clear, concise path. If you say you're going to have a 20-minute pod, you have a 20-minute pod. Like, you don't go off topic as much. Even though the other day, episode 99, you did do a good 20 minutes of non-pinball content. Near the end, I was like, oh, there's a little Orby there.
    56:19
    That was fun. Yeah, I had to shout you out, dude. I was channeling you, sir, from River Hibbertson, Nova Scotia.
    56:26
    Well, I can't believe that I get to come see you at Nationals as well. So that's coming up in, like, March 7th. That's like a month from right now. I'm going to get to hang out with you, hopefully, at Lumberjack Johnny's if you don't play in the Pinmasters. I'm putting you on the spot, sir. You've got an open invite to District Dawn Arcade here. I know you've only played one ball on Stranger Things. I've got a Stranger Things Premium behind me that is in immaculate condition, upgraded projector material. It's got my own shooter rod that I made for it. Like, you've got to come and play this thing.
    56:55
    How far of a drive is it from District 82? 45 minutes plus or minus 40 minutes. What's that? 45 minutes plus or minus 40 minutes.
    57:05
    Okay, so traffic is a thing is what you're saying, I think? No, it's 90 minutes, but I'm trying to encourage you to get here. I'll give you a ride if you're not going to have a rental car no no no no I'm flying into Toronto then I'm getting a rental car hopefully Toronto?
    57:21
    yes Toronto is only like 120 bucks to fly to and it's only a 10 hour drive and get this I just looked it up on the map I'm going to have to drive through Chicago I've never been to Chicago why don't you just fly to Chicago how is that not more expensive than Toronto is like $700 even if I drove to Detroit Then I flew to, what's north of De Pere? Green Bay? Green Bay. Yeah. Green Bay is still like $300 there and $300 back. I can't believe Chicago is not like a $300 round trip ticket for you.
    57:53
    Nobody from the East Coast is flying to Chicago, like of Canada. Well, you had to connect through Toronto, right? I could drive to New York City in like 12 hours, and then I could fly for $50 to Green Bay. Or like $80 or something crazy. It was cheap, right? Yeah. Or Chicago. I could fly to Chicago. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And Chicago's how far from Green Bay? Like three hours? Yeah, about three hours. Yeah, straight up the interstate.
    58:18
    Well, either way, you know, if you're going through Chicago, you could make a small detour and stop by for a little bit.
    58:25
    Well, the only problem is the flight gets in at noon on the 6th, and I have to be there to play my first round in the morning of the 7th. All right. So unless I'm sleeping over on your couch or something. Absolutely. I've got so many places to sleep over here, sir. I live in a McMansion now. Okay, I will have to leave very early in the morning. You're like, Orby is gone, just pew. But maybe. I'll give you a hard maybe on the show. How about that? Which brings us to Home Pin. They're up next. So do you have, how many Spinal Taps do you have pre-ordered, sir?
    58:58
    Zero. However, I think that A, it was a good theme for their size company. Well, okay. No, it's a good, it's better than no theme. It's better than no theme. B, didn't they do, like, a minor price decrease? I have not been following them close enough to even understand or notice that. Okay. Maybe. And, obviously, no one's buying it, and that's why they did the price increase. But they went on $9,500, dude, and, like, it's got, like, no assets on the screen. It just plays the same trailer over and over. Also, I heard that there was so much trouble hitting the center ramp that they've now decided to move the spinner and put an upper flipper in it.
    59:39
    What? How do you get this far into production and then decide to put an upper flipper in your game? Wow. Pilbara's and Pinball Adventures elements anyways? Now, it's built for people by the companies on the mission that don't like pinball. So if you want a pinball machine for people that don't like pinball, it's right here. And this is my shop.
    60:02
    That interview? Okay, I'm going to say this. Interview of the century. That was wild. That was the most wild interview since Python Angelo. Probably that was like 15 years ago on TopCast or something. Like that was the last time there was a pinball interview as wild as that one on TPN. Listener, if you missed the Aussie Pinball Podcast with that John guy from Home Pin, go look it up. I was driving through the Swiss countryside. I left Zermatt, Switzerland. I was at the Matterhorn. I'm driving through these picturesque valleys and everything. listening to this interview, losing my G.D. mind about the stuff this guy was saying. Holy cow, I was driving through Bern, Switzerland, stuck in traffic, listening to the guy rant about how much Americans suck and how much people PayPal scam him for circuit boards and stuff. Crap. It was amazing.
    61:00
    I honestly, Dr. John, somehow got through that interview without breaking out in laughter. I was like, cheers to you, buddy, because I couldn't have got through that interview. Brother needs a twippy for, like, the best interviews. Okay, your interview with the Pinball Adventures guy was kind of like, a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. It was up there. I'll give it my top five. Thank you, sir. I'm sorry. The Aussie Pinball Podcast, you win. I touched her. OJ stole. If there was, like, 1% of the pinball community who didn't hate Hope Pin, it's now zero. It's zero. That's what happened. Congratulations. You did the opposite of marketing. Andrew from Punny Factory never pissed off an entire market country of pinball machines. Nope, only 99.9. So. You win the worst marketing of the year. So where is the fundraiser to raise money to get a Spinal Tap and throw it off of Todd Tucky's roof? Let's start it. Between Don's Pinball Podcast and Pinball Nerd's Podcast, we can raise enough money to get a Spinal Tap and let's make it for charity. Forget donating money to Pinball, Project Pinball. Let's donate money to throw Spinal Tap on the side of the roof. We're not the four children in hospitals. Let's just raise money to help the company we hate.
    62:11
    That's the real way to do it. I'm going to put a line right through a home pin because I'm going to call that covered.
    62:17
    Hexa Pinball. Our friends from France, Hexa Pinball from L'Exagon. Bring it for us, John. Come on. Space Hunt. The Jeu de Flippel. Premier. Space what? Space Hunt. Oh, I thought you said the way to say there. Space Hunt.
    62:36
    So this is the game. So like of all the games of 2023, I played them all except for two of them. Final Tap, which can go run and jump off of Todd's roof. And Hexapinball's Space Hunt. Space Hunt has an absolute banger of a song. And I'm working with Mad Pinball To try to get one of these imported to the US That we can tour around and let people actually play Because to date, like, a space hunt Has not made it to the United States shores I would love to be, like, if I can help Bring one here, so we can at least play This damn game, play as Spherus The hero of Hexa Pinball And bring it to the US And play it, I want to make it happen If it's at all possible This game is so burgundy and pink Looking, which perfectly fits into the theme of Les Ville en Rose from Toulouse, France, which is where the Bordeaux region, which is where the Hexapinball comes from. It all makes sense if you understand French culture. I can't wait to finally play this game. So Hexapinball, salut mes amis. Pour les friperes du jus.
    63:40
    And I want to play that damn stuff. Alright. John and I both drank at the same time. I know dead air is the worst thing for a podcast, but But Hexa is the one company, I always have an opinion about everything. Hexa is the one that, like, okay, the song was incredible. Incredible. Your shots look definitely unique. I'm not going to say it looks like it has flow. It's more of a stop and go. But, like, I don't know. I haven't seen it live streamed. I haven't seen anyone talk about it ever again. I would need to watch a live stream. I'd probably need to flip it. You know what I mean? High-level talks. High-level talks are going on right now with Hexa Thinball. I'm involved in them. Let me put it on the list. If there's a way to make it happen, we're going to make it happen. I can't wait to live stream that burgundy box. Okay. I'll give you a shout-out on the show. Let's do it. Yes. All right. Hex up. Don's 100th show. Send this man a machine to flip. He'll sell it for you after to whomever buys it. Am I right, Don? You'll ship it up nice and send it if someone here buys it, right? Absolutely. Absolutely, sir. Yes, yes. We need to bring it in. There's some things that need to happen before they can happen, but the wheels are moving, sir. Wheels are in progress. All right. We've put it on long enough. let's get to the market share leader let's talk about the next person on the voicemail what do we got oh some fanfare hello John this is Frank from Cap Custom in Spain oh I just want to say congratulations for 100 episodes and telling you're gonna need a bill wait just kidding thank you for supporting the pinball community and everything you're doing, Mom, you're doing awesome.
    65:30
    I gotta say my popularity among the French contingent continues to rise and I couldn be happier I love the nation of France. I've been going there every summer. I'm trying to improve my French. I just love it there. I was cruising through the Champagne region of France as just some dirtbag from the U.S. Like, can I even afford to be here? Like, what a cool place and space that is. Love that. So that was my buddy Frank from Cab Custom. He's got a company that makes custom cut, laser cut, plasma cut pinball side armor.
    66:03
    He's the one that got me my Star Wars LE-styled armor for my Star Wars Premium. I love it so damn much. I'm a customer of his. I love his laser cut armor. I've ordered the Jaws armor already.
    66:16
    Like, you know, Stern doesn't even have it available. So he's got it, and for less than what Stern would be charging. I powder coated here in the U.S. Frank, mes amis, avec pinball et avec flipper, bonsoir, messieurs. All here, mes amis.
    66:35
    Honestly, like, sometimes I think we get painted in a little box here in North America, and we forget how big pinball is. Huge. Pinball isn't just big in Europe. We don't just call it North America. We say, you know, USA, America, United States, whatever, Canada, maple syrup dorks, whatever you want to call us, a bunch of hosers, right? A bunch of moose-stucking maple syrup drinks.
    66:59
    Molson's swilling. Honestly, European pinball, since I've got into pinball and watching professional pinball about eight years ago, it's just taken off. And, like, now you see top-ranked players from, you know, Scandinavia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, all the way through the U.K. You've got the Neil McCraes and such. But, you know, even in France it's big. In Holland, when I was over in Holland visiting friends and family, Almost every cafe you went into, every little laundromat, there's one or two pins in the corner. You wouldn't see a Street Fighter. You wouldn't see an arcade game. You'd see a pinball machine in the corner of the arcade. We know what you were doing in Holland, sir. Our Australian friends. It's huge there, too, right? Yes. I can't wait to go Down Under. Shout out to my boy, Louie, down there. He's always on my live streams. From the land down under, I can't wait to get down there and plunder Australia. My wife and I, Monica, we're both very excited. We can't wait to get to Australia. It's been on the list for too long. We need to get down there. And now I've got a lot of pin friends down there, too. We'll bring our wives. It'll be a whole thing. It'll be great. Yeah, yeah. And then when we go to Amsterdam, we'll leave the wives.
    68:06
    Hey, I'm only partially kidding there, sweetums. Don, some people listening might think that Don got excited for that red light district, but I know this guy. He's a family man first. Don's just excited for the space cake. Am I right? I'm such a nerd. The first time I went to Amsterdam, I walked right through the red light district on my way to Dam Square so I could go find the Amsterdam dungeon because they had an indoor roller coaster in an old church, and I went and rode that. Yeah, I walked right by all the cafes, walked right by all the glass windows in the red light district, and I went right to go ride a roller coaster, and then I bounced. That was my first trip to Amsterdam.
    68:48
    So who's the nerd now? You know me being half Dutch. If I were there, I might have stopped in the smoke shop, then hit up the roller coaster. Can I just say how awesome the Netherlands is? You know, we've been fans there. I loved Efteling. I can't wait to go to Dutch Pinball. Barry invited me on over. He's such a cool dude, man. They did that live stream and showed them pouring the white Russian sculpt for the big Lebowski. And I emailed the guy, and I'm like, let me purchase one of those sculpts. I just want the glass with the white Russian in it. And he's like, you know what, let me just send you one. Give me your address. He sent me one for free, Barry did. Thank you, sir. I saw that. That was pretty cool. I've since traded a Rick and Morty for a Big Lebowski. I've got it now. I love the dang game. Everybody that comes over here loves playing it. It's fantastic. It's built incredibly. It's like the best cabinet in my home. When you lift the playfield on this thing, it is solid. It is dovetailed, joined together. Like, it's amazing. No, it was a mini play field. Oh, yeah. Was it the best mini play field in pinball? I think so. There's, like, three or four things to do up there. It's very responsive. The rubbers are right in the right spot. For the first game that these guys made, it is incredible what they've done. As far as, like, from a gameplay perspective, dude, I love it. And if these guys have Back to the Future up next. Uh-oh. Watch out. I don't care if they've got, like, Ishtar up next. I'm interested. I'm for sure interested.
    70:19
    given the build quality. Are they paying good money in the U.S. for blood and plasma? Blood, plasma, and semen, right? You'd have to. I mean, I think it's $13,500 from Melissa at Cointaker to get yourself a Big Lebowski. But if you want one in less than a year, it's about $14,500 or so.
    70:35
    What a game. No, okay. Not the Big Lebowski. Weren't you talking about another potential theme coming up? Was I? Remind me. I thought you were talking potentially about Back to the Future. Yes, Back to the Future. Marty, we've got to get to 88 miles per hour. It's the Libyans. I don't know how, but they found me. Run for it, Marty. Oh, gosh. Now, people have been saying that that license is hard to nail down, but since when have we known a license to stand in the way of Dutch pinball? They're going to march ahead and make the game, figure out the licensing on the back end. If it takes a decade to get them to customers, so be it. We're going to make the damn game.
    71:15
    They can get the big Lebowski. They can get anybody. Come on. I can't wait. There's a price for everything. We all know there's a price for everything. But is the game going to have gullwing doors on it and will it look like a DeLorean when you fold it up? Because that's where we're at in pinball now. Galactic Tank Force has pushed the industry past traditional cabinets. We need to have cabinets that fold up and look like something when you're not playing them.
    71:37
    I don't care if it folds up, but if there isn't a hoverboard, like I honestly don't know. Hoverboard multiball. The same way everyone lost their shit about the shark not eating a ball in Jaws, if the hoverboard doesn't float, that's a problem. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I hate this, guys. Back to the future. It's got to float. Got to float. Where did I leave off on?
    72:04
    Well, I thought we were going to talk about Stern. Oh, I did that one. Oh, yeah. Who are the Stern pinball? I've heard of those guys. I don't want to get banned from the Stern tour either. So the shark doesn't eat the ball. So I played Jaws. I played the Pro. I played the Premium. They're incredible games. Everybody is going to love them. The Pro is a fantastic game on its own. The Premium is just even better. So I'm in on a Premium. I'm in on that first run through Old Town Pinball. Thank you, Will, for hooking me up. I can't wait to get in on that and have this game. They got every single asset from the damn movie is in there. Every perfect scene. the sea shanties I want to go swimming with bow-legged women like it's all in there dude it's all in there Don will you sing a sea shanty with me someday not right here not right now we both had a little bit of beer but maybe we get a good like sound guy like Glenn the skateboarder he can like he can help mix it we all maybe we bring in Tim the lion man Lee maybe Ian and Drew from poor man's I love it and we do a big pinball podcasting sea shanty talking about how the shark didn't eat the fucking ball. We need to do it live in front of people. Live. Inebriated. Oh, my God. Let's make it happen. Don's Pitball Podcast, number 100 episode. This is what you get. We're bringing you the fantasticness from my brain to your drain. Put me in your slimy ear holes. We got more to rattle your eardrums. What else do we got? Let's go to a voicemail.
    73:38
    Hey, brother. It's Jeff sending much love from the West Coast 100 episodes Fantastic Can't wait to see you again Vancouver All the best to you We're very excited And keep doing what you're doing Jeff is a solid homie dude This guy contacted me He's like guy we love what you're doing We've ordered your t-shirts We want to meet you This is like the first time I felt like a celebrity When I was at Pinball Expo And this guy came up to me with his beautiful wife and was like, Don, we love your stuff. And I'm like, dude, I'm just some, like, dirtbag from the Internet, dude. What are you talking about? He's like, no, like, legitimately, we love what you're doing. We want your stuff. Can we get a selfie? And I'm like, are you kidding me? Absolutely. You absolute gem of a human. And, yeah, maybe it's just the Canadian in him, but, like, what a swell guy. Jeff, what's going on, buddy? You're a solid brother. No, he sounds like a sweetheart for sure. For sure. The weird part is, like, I honestly, like, I went to Pinnberg when I'd only done maybe, I don't know, like, 80 or so episodes or something. And, like, really no one knew me, which was honestly probably better that way. I kind of flew under the radar. But, like, I do think there's a possibility when I go to Expo this year, at least a couple of the Poor Man's Tribe members and yourself, Don, come on. I'm going to be bugging you nonstop. He's going to go, we're not worthy. We're not worthy. Yeah. What a crazy experience I was at Expo. I remember my first, I'm talking about my podcast. My first Expo was in March last year at Louisville Pinball Arcade Expo.
    75:17
    I flew on down there to go check it out. I had been podcasting for three months, and I went ahead and I made myself some prize packs. I put my T-shirts in there, stickers, loaded it up with stuff, and I'm like, all right, if you see me, and I think it was Whitewater, like if you see me and say Whitewater, I'll give you something. I went there with four prize packages, and I gave away three of them. The random people that came up to me was like, are you Don? And I'm like, wearing my shirt, trying to be conspicuous. I'm like, absolutely. Like, that was so cool. And then I did Whirlwind at Expo, and I ran out of prize packs because people, like, kept getting them. Like, that's how much it built from then to then. And so now, when I'm at TPF, I'm not even going to be able to offer the prize pack anymore because I think I'm too recognizable. So I'm going to have, I'm happy to say that I'm hoping to put together some golden tickets. Then I'm going to, like, take ten of them, and I'm going to hide them amongst the expo floor, taped under machines, taped to the backs of whatever. And if you find them, you're going to get yourself an awesome prize if you come by the booth. So hopefully I can make that come to fruition and each day have some golden tickets hidden on the show floor. Can you imagine, like, looking under machines, oh, I found one. I'm going to go get a free banner from Don's Pinball Podcast. Like, how awesome is that?
    76:31
    You're making me want to come there just to do that promo, my guy. Dude, like, how cool? How cool is that? I did marketing in college at one of the top business schools in Canada, and I swear to God, your marketing for your podcast is, like, better than most pinball companies' marketing. I'm serious. I'm going to go to, like, Spooky Pinball. Like, hey, can I hide a golden ticket somewhere in your booth or put it in the background if someone sees it, you give it to them, and they get a prize, and I can go to, like, American Pinball and be like, dude, hide this under one of your tank treads, and people are going to be looking for it. Like, how fun is that? That's super fun. It's like a metagame going on while you're there. And you get a prize. You get a translate. You get a banner. You get a t-shirt. You get a hug. You get a pint of beer or something. I don't know. But, like, that's, like, the level of where I'm thinking of doing, like, fun promotions within pinball podcastery.
    77:17
    Well, I mean, I hope you don't – I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but part of what I love about listening to your show is a little bit of, like, your newness to the hobby because you still have this unbridled, like, Not so much now, but especially six, seven months ago, you had this unbridled joy, and it reminded me of my first couple years getting into the hobby every time a new pen came out. This wonder. It's so full of wonder. I had a million dollars when you were buying machines. You know what I mean? So I will say, I'm not a, like, obviously, like, I'm very blessed with how I'm doing. I went to school for 15 years to be able to have a position that pays me some damn money, and now it's paying off.
    77:55
    Where was I going with this? But I appreciate everything At one point I was homeless living in the back of a 1987 Hyundai XL And crashing on the couch of a random girlfriend That I had, shout out to you So like I didn't come from The hustle is real dude I remember going I spent five years in community college Just because I had that little direction Of what you're actually supposed to do in life But I made it happen because I refused to give up Is the thing the persistence of vision, right? The hope for a brighter day tomorrow. How many live streams have you done? How many what? More than you've done podcasts. How long have I done podcasts? No, no. How many live streams? I bet you've done 100 live streams too. I probably have. Like, whenever I'm sitting here and I'm like, you know what? I got something cool I want to say. I want to interact with people. Boom, we pop on live. And, like, now, like, I might have nothing to talk about except, like, you know, like I'm sitting on the toilet. Like, nothing. and all of a sudden like 20 people are in the chat. And I'm like, man, like this is amazing. Let me entertain you guys. Can we give away some stuff? Can we give away some T-shirts?
    79:03
    I was there for your live stream where you were paramotoring. That was incredible. I was there. I was like 10 people in chat. I was like, how is no one watching this and blowing my mind? I was piloting an aircraft 1,500 feet above the ground and like, hey, let's talk about what's going on with Stern.
    79:23
    That was, that's definitely live stream of the year. Oh, God, it's so fun. I was at the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland, up at the peak, and I had 5G service, and I'm like, I'm going live from here. I did a live stream from the Swiss Alps. Nobody else has done that. And, like, I'm not bragging. It's just it's something I've always wanted to do, and I was up there, and I'm like, let's make it happen. So what's in 2024? Are you going to, like, go skydiving and do one? Are you going to go to the Mount Everest? Are you going to go streaking at the typeys? Oh, wait, they're not at TPF this year. What are you going to do? One of the coolest things that happened last year, and I'm going to repeat it again this year, was I went to IAPA, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Amusements. It's like the big expo for, like, you know, if you've got, if you're looking to buy roller coasters or go-karts or bowling alleys or whatever, pinball machines, it's like the place to be in Florida. And so I was at Epcot after the show one night, and I'm walking around Epcot's World Showcase at Walt Disney World, like the biggest Disney resort on the planet, fireworks are going off, and I'm doing a live stream interacting with people, fireworks in the background. It was one of the greatest moments ever. And so I've got more trips to Walt Disney World coming up. I bought a timeshare down there, and I'm super enthusiastic about it. I love roller coasters. I love theme parks. I love themed environments, of which pinball machines are exactly a themed environment playground to go play in. So it plays right into my hobbies, right into my interests. So there's going to be some more of that. I've got a cross-country trip of the USA planned for this summer. I want to go out and hang out with the Loser Kids out in Utah. I'm going to go to Yellowstone. It's just going to be fun. I'll meet people on the road. I'm going to be at Expo. I'm going to be at Southern Fry Gaming Expo. I'm going to be at TPF. I'm just trying to get everywhere. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe. Let me get a free weekend, and I'll fly out to Scosche. I'll find a way out there. Fly myself into Halifax. I will pick you up at the airport I will show you every cool pinball spot in Halifax Every cool craft beer spot Which many of the cool craft beer spots also have pinball We will hit it up We will live it up We'll have a great time my friend Even though Treetopper is closed Upper Columbus Park is closed I always wanted to go to Nova Scotia I never made it there But I was going to go to that theme park And it's closed because of COVID We are an hour away from the Treetop Adventures I know it's not a roller coaster, but it has the top or second top-ranked, no, it has the top-ranked one on the East Coast of Canada as far as, like, you know, zip lines and, like, a ropes course up in the trees. It's beautiful. We'll do that instead. This hypnotic be hitting, yo.
    82:03
    I've been hitting the turquoise liqueur. Should we talk about Stern Pinball for a second? Jaws is amazing. Go buy one. I'm drinking my wife's cider right now, so you know I'm desperate. Oh. I ran out of beer, actually. Did you hear about that lady that died after she ate a bunch of fermented apples? She died. Yeah. Apparently, the apples made cider and cider and sides.
    82:26
    Are you effing with me, or is this real? I know you're a doctor, but come on. It made cider and cider and sides.
    82:34
    Okay. That's an old joke. She ate fermented apples and she died Because it made insider insider inside Oh Jesus Lord Okay Stern Pinball has released Jaws Pinball Machine Too many special cookies in to make sense of that Don I think we talked about Jaws enough The game's amazing whatever it's Elwin Of course it was going to be amazing Well to sum it up you said Okay they got all the assets they wanted It's amazing how much It's a bit of a hard ass It's a tough game it's a tough shooter Oh, bullshit. It's awesome. If you make a fair shot up the lanes, you're going to make them. The wave ramp, the left orbit shot, the right orbit to the ramp, every shot that's been fair has gone up there. I don't find it hard. It's not a drain monster, and this is playing it on location. Now, Interium was set up for tournaments, and their tilt bob was so damn tight, you couldn't even nudge to get the right outlane ball safe. But when I played it again, when I unboxed it at, not Nerd Haven, at Geeks Mania in Madison, Wisconsin,
    83:42
    we put it super loose on the tilt-flop sensor. It was just a fun game. I got 500 million points or whatever. Like, it's fun. All of the assets of Jaws are in there. Everything you could want, all the characters, all of everything. It's just fantastically amazing. You need to have timing. The market's not in a great place. If Jaws came out a year ago, people would have celebrated this son of a B. I'm serious. Yeah. Come on over here, Emma, yeah. We've got to share a microphone. My awesome preteen daughter, Emma, is here. Hello, you want to say something?
    84:17
    Oh, just quit being weird. Get out of here. How's it going? Anyway, she's still in Jura Scout cookies. So Stern Pinball is going to have his banner here in 2024. I don't know if kids are awake, but Luna, come here. Stern dropped a machine in January that is groundbreaking. and its amazingness. It doesn't even need to eat the ball. There's a rubber peekaboo shark. It's great. All right, Jaws is a great game. It's going to be the game of the year. And then we've got two more games coming up from them this year. Like, there might be another game by the time we get to June. There's going to be another game this fall and another one in June, or in January of next year. They're doing three cornerstones at least, plus whatever else they're going to sprinkle us with. Please run Black Knight Sword of Rage again so I can get the damn machine. I've got the topper already waiting to go. You have one on order, Don? Do I have what on order? A Black Knight Sword of Rage. No, they haven't announced it. They're running it again. But if they do, Mad Pinball is going to hook me up. Email jeff at madpinball.com. Tell him Don is an awesome person and you love him. But he'll put you on a list for a game. He's got me down for a Black Knight Sword of Rage. These games are not available pro version anywhere online. When they do show up, they sell immediately. So there is a demand there. Stern, put this game on the line. We're going to see Metallica come as a Spike 3 title probably. I don't know if it's this year or next year. But, like, the rumored titles from Stern I am super excited about. I'm talking about Dungeons & Dragons, Pokemon with Jack Danger, John Wick maybe, maybe not. What else is coming from Stern? Like, every title, somebody told me Goonies recently. Like, because Sean Astin was recording assets for a pinball machine. What in the ever-loving F is going on? It's going to be a banner year. I can't wait for their next two games. Stern Pinball, keep killing it. Keep making Insider Connected amazing. I'm a fan. I love it. Don, earlier in the podcast, you were talking about Taylor Swift and how that will bring in women and a new demographic. Yes. Well, Pokemon is going to bring in a younger demographic because here's the weird thing. I even made fun of my sons. I'll admit it, until five years ago, every single Christmas, every single birthday, both Hayden and Owen, all they ever wanted was the newest Pokemon set. And I'd say, honestly, I would be rude to them. I'd be a bad dad, and I'd say, guys, instead of getting the next Mega Double Charizard, could we maybe just, can you ask for a bicycle or a scooter or an experience or a trampoline park? And I would always say something like that. And then finally what ended up happening is they grinded me down, and I started realizing these little cards, all they are is tiny, cool, unique, limited edition pieces of artwork. That's all it is. And then they got me into the Pokemon Go game. You know, eight years after Pokemon Go came out, it's still number one for the most revenue on the Canadian Google Store. Still number one. I still have adult friends that are playing the hell out of some Pokemon Go. With this new code that they brought out with Venom, where you can, like, log into one machine and just pick up where you left off, where you can unlock characters, there's 151 original Pokemon to unleash, unlock, let alone, like, the hundreds that have come out since then. Like, make this damn game today, dude. It's going to completely slay It's going to be sold for years Yellow Machine Pikachu Powder Coat Come on dude You can have the Charizard version The Pikachu version The Bulbasaur version Mr. Mime version if you're a creep It's going to be amazing dude There is some other people in pinball Who think that it's just for kids But I will tell you as a collectibles dealer I go to one show every month and Moncton and one show every other month in Halifax. I'm one of 170 tables that sets up. About 20 to 30 of us are Pokemon dealers. The average age of someone buying a Pokemon card is between 25 to 35, especially the expensive high-end limited edition. So if someone will come up to my table, like a guy came up and bought the Moombrion from me last week. Moombrion! It's the Umbreon with the big moon in the background that's an altar.
    88:21
    $660. Dude. And he was a guy in his 50s. $600 he spent. If he'll spend $600 on a little piece of paper, he'll spend $10,000 on a really cool pinball machine. That reminds him of the 1990s and the nostalgia of it. And imagine that guy that's out there that wants that fake badge on his Insider Connected account, and he's going to come and put dollars in that machine over and over until he achieves enough points to unlock that. Whoa. Hang on. Monica's calling me. Monica, you're live on the podcast recording now. How are you doing?
    88:59
    Hello, Monica. Go ahead. You're live with Orbital Albert. I can't hear her. Okay, I'll call you back. Mon, are you there? Can you hear me, Monica?
    89:13
    Hey. Hey, you're live on this recording with myself and Orbital Albert because I'm recording my 100th podcast right now. So what's going on?
    89:25
    Not much. My flight's been delayed in San Francisco. You're flying home tomorrow. Yes. And I might be missing my connection. Do you need me to drive to Minnesota and pick you up, I guess?
    89:41
    Right. Maybe it would be easier. All right. What if I do this? Can I give you a call in, like, 30 minutes when I'm done recording and work out the details?
    89:52
    Yeah, yep, that's fine. And if you want me to talk about the pin barcade I went to, I can. How'd you do? That was in Sebastopol, California. We got a live review of this barcade. How was it? Oh, my God, it is so fun. So after 8 o'clock, it's 21 and older. They have pour yourself beer on tap. They had a live DJ And It was a great time That's amazing Yeah I was watching The photos and everything that looks great That was the basketball California The town that I went to A continuation school in After I got kicked out of my own high school So near and dear to my heart So yeah I'm glad you had a good time out there It's cool to see pinball Coast to coast is as popular as ever right and they had a leaderboard and I was about ranking to second and third place whenever someone's logging in so yeah I thought I was doing pretty good that's awesome yeah thanks for leaving some podcast stickers there too that was amazing yes I went around and kind of gave some people some stickers and chatted with people so So, yeah, it was fun. Fun time. Check it out. Cool. I'll call you back in a bit about your changes in aviation planning. But what it sounds like is that you don't have to get up at 4 in the morning to get to the airport.
    91:28
    Correct. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Bye, everyone. Later, Poopy. Love you. Bye. All right. Who the heck was that?
    91:40
    I'm kidding. That was Magnet Save Monica. That's cool. Wife of mine. Did she check out a pinball bar without you? She did, yeah. She was killing it. Her and her friend were playing games. I don't think she's ever been to a pinball bar without me. Not only was she there without me, she was killing it. She got, like, second place on the leaderboards. What? Yeah, it was completely amazing.
    92:06
    You go, Monica. All right. What else? Turner Pinball. Let's talk about them real quick. Okay. My question is, are we going to see the other half of the cabinet from Ninja Eclipse at TTF? I kind of think so. Now, this guy took a lot of arrows at Pinball Expo, and it was like, guy, you've got to make this game look like a traditional, put it in a regular cabinet, because if I'm going to put it in my lineup, I don't want it looking like some zizzle from Costco. I want it looking like an actual machine. He said, okay, sir, I understand, sir, let's do it. So he's going to come out with an arcade edition in a full-size cabinet, and I'm hoping that we see that at TPF. Turner Pinball making some games, doing it. The game played fine. Like, I didn't have any complaints about the game play, but he had the same problem that American Pinball has where, you know, their games are the same price and competing right up against these big bangers of licensed themes from Stern and other companies. So, like, how do you justify getting an NJ Eclipse when you could go get a Labyrinth for the same price? Like, this is not going to happen, you know. But I want him to be a viable voice in the pinball industry. He's building games himself. He's got his own workshop. Maybe he can work some economies of scale or find a way to bring his BOM down so he can have a lower price, and I think that's a spot that he can enter into the industry.
    93:30
    I think that your bang on there either has to be a much lower price than even the Stern home pins or you have to make it look comparable to every other pin. You can't be both. You can't be as expensive as a CERN Pro but look like a kid's toy.
    93:46
    You've got to choose a lane. Find a lane that you're good at. If you want to get into every Costco and you want to hit that price point, I think the price point for American dollars would be around $2,999. If you could come in under $3,000, there's certain families that would maybe consider buying something that looked like what he made now. No one is paying $8,000 or $9,000 for a Ninja Pinball. They're just not. Yeah. And as amazing as the game may play, you know, I'm like, do I want that or for the same price can I get Labyrinth? Like, it's going to be Labyrinth all day. Like, that's a Muppet machine, dude. Come on. And, you know, asking people to, you know, download an app to play it on location, that's like a no win. I think he took that advice to heart. I like having that as an option. That's a cool option, but it can be everything. So that's what I think his through line is. I don't know that he's a pinball company. I think he's a technology company, and I think he could license this technology to other existing companies that aren't Stern and, you know, come out with apps, companion apps for their games. I think him in a partnership with American Pinball would absolutely slap if he had a way to download an app and purchase credits and things and track your progress and unlock achievements, you know, through his platform, you know, with a company like, you know, Spooky or American Pinball or something like that. I think that might be his way forward. I think it's interesting, but I don't think it's going to make many waves. Do I applaud them more than I would applaud Pinball Adventures? Yeah, maybe a little, I guess. Yeah. I don't know, though. I don't know. It's not. CERN is just, even their homepins are miles ahead of that, so no. You know what would make this game at least 30% cooler? If it was not Ninja Eclipse, if it was Ninja Gaiden, licensed through Tecmo. Ninja Gaiden. Can you imagine? I tried to beat the Canadian speed record on Ninja Gaiden 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3, dude. I love those games. Ninja Gaiden 1 was too easy. Everyone can beat it in nine minutes. Come on. But, like, 2 and 3, you had to have nuance. And, like, this guy can't beat it without a tool-assisted speed run, which is what I did when I beat all three NES Ninja Gaiden's. I had save states to, like, the nth degree. You are that guy who did the tool-assisted. Absolutely. Well, there's no other way I could do it, dude. Like, I don't have those skills to get to, like, it's insane at the end of Ninja Gaiden. You know, if you can make it through that game, like, legit, bless you, sir. You are, like, you are an elitist. Oh, wait, wait. Wasn't there three different game options, like, for hardness? Not for Ninja Gaiden. Not on the NES, dude. I had, like, like. Okay, I don't know. Either on two or three, I feel like I beat it, like, just barely. Now, are you talking about, like, the Xbox redo of it, or are you talking about NES? No, no, no, no. Oh, Nintendo, back in the day, two and three I was able to beat. Wow. I got very good at three. Okay. I spent month on three. I could see that. One was a B.I. itch, man. This is my non-humble brag. Back in the day, I broke into the top 25 Nintendo, like Super Mario Brothers speed runners in Canada on speedrun.com. But two I sucked at, three I sucked at, but Mario 1 I could do in just, I think my top run was 5 minutes and 36 seconds, which right now is like almost a minute off the record, but at the time was only about 27, 28 seconds off the record. Well, here's the other thing. You were like a provincial champion when it comes to pinball. Like, I'm not even at that level at all. So, like, I can see you. If you lived here, you'd beat me, Don. You'd beat an over-stripped pinball champion.
    97:21
    Provincial. Man, I want to be Canadian. That was by luck. We talked about Stern pinball. We haven't talked about Jersey Jack pinball that much. What do you think of the house that Jack built and where they're at right now? Their games are the most expensive on the market.
    97:38
    Everybody out there has said who's actually flipped Elton John that it's their best shooter, that the flippers feel the best, and that it's their nicest artwork ever. So by all means, Elton John should be their best-selling pin, but it's not. It's not. Is that because the price is too high or because the market has dipped or a combination of both? Yes.
    98:00
    Yes? I played every version of Elton John. How cheap would Elton John have to get until you consider getting Franchi's beautiful version? $9,200 is where I'm at. So if tomorrow if JJP said Franchi edition was would their sales not double or triple Absolutely triple yeah And they could still make better margins than they making now because they would sell more That platinum edition is going to list for $8,500 on the secondary market. I have a good friend of mine that's getting a Godfather collector's edition, the $15,000 game.
    98:38
    $97.50 is what this guy wants for it. For the $15,000, Gold Lions on the outside. He's like, should I buy this? And I'm like, that's kind of a great price for that. And that's, you know, so pricing is the thing. Like, Godfather's a good game. You know, it's fun and everything. It's not $15,000 worth of fun to me. You know, so I have an enthusiasm for the machine, and the machine has a price. And the place where those meet is somewhere around the $9,000 range. $9,500, I'd be like, okay, I think I could see making that purchase then. beautiful machine, love the gold lions. If I get it, I want the gold, like, chromed armor and the gold chromed wire forms. And the great topper that it has, I don't deny that they have a great built machine. It's just I don't have $15,000 of enthusiasm towards that machine.
    99:31
    Okay, but if money was not an option, would you buy a Jaws? Don't lie. Would you buy even, let's say, even the LE Jaws, the top Jaws? Yeah. Or would you buy, you know, the equivalent in price version of Elton John? So here it is. So I win a raffle. I get one free pinball machine. I walk into the room, and there's a Jaws LE, and there's a top shelf Elton John?
    99:55
    Or the platinum version? Well, okay, I wish it was Francis Art with that other topper, but whatever. All right, all right. Whatever you like. You won the raffle. You get whatever pin you like. Now, I've played them both. I've played about 25 games through each one. I've played every trim level of both of them. And for me, I think I'm taking Jaws because I think that the code and the gameplay is much deeper on Jaws than I do for Elton John. I've played Elton John. Elton John is absolutely a concert in a box, a great box of lights. It's a couple of great multiballs, and, like, that's about it. That's all I found. Now, I'm not the world's most incredible pinball player. Maybe there's great wizard modes at the end there. But maybe there's great wizard modes at the end of Jaws. What I have with Jaws are fun modes I can get into, fun multiballs I can get into, and also this, you know, this bounty hunting part where it's almost like playing the kaiju battles from Godzilla, but you're collecting sharks, plus those call-outs and those themes from Jaws. Versus Elton John, I've got about 12 to 16 songs, about half of what's in Guns N' Roses. It shoots just fine, but there's not, like, that depth of code. There's no adventure to go on. It's a concert that you're playing with the music, and the shots are fun. The shots are rewarding. The multiballs are cool when you get them. I love the Rocketman ramp, but, like, it all seems a bit superficial. Like, there's nothing within that Nutella center of that Ferrero Rocher that you find with Jaws. It sounds like you're more confident that Elowen's team is going to round up that code better than J.J.P. I think so, because, like, there's no adventure with Elton John. I'm not, like, building up and collecting all the band members to get to the concert like I am with Guns N' Roses. I love that part about Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses is the ultimate, like, box of lights in a concert experience. There's an LCD screen at the back. That's the stage, you know. Like, the shots are fun. The code's not incredible. There's multiball heavy. But it's, like, more of an adventure, which is what I'm looking for. Now, if I'm looking for arcade enjoyment, Elton John absolutely hits that mark. It's great on location. It's so fun to play on location. But I feel like if I had that in my basement, I would love it for a week, and I'd play it off and on over the next few months, and then I would look to sell it.
    102:17
    Okay, I don't want to do, like, too hot of a take that you burn your hand here. I don't want to do that because I know you're a doctor. Your hands are important. But, I mean, you're a whopper flipper. Yes. Your hands are important. But if you had to, hands to the iron, do you think you'd like Jaws, we'll say, premium better or Foo Fighters premium? Because you own a Foo Fighters. Up until recently, I did own a Foo Fighters premium. I did sell that, and that's partly because I wanted to get in on the next turn. Do you think that Jack Danger's rookie card, let's say outside the home pins, his first full-featured pin, do you think that that may have just even beat Elwin's most recent pin, Jaws? We're going to have to go to the Excel spreadsheet and break this down. When you talk about shot for shot, I think they're pretty equal. The shots are fun on both of them. I mean, the cross-field shots on Foo Fighters are amazing. I love what's been done with that. I love the dead posts and that integration there. I love how the looping shots to the upper play field on Foo Fighters work. I love it. And the shots on Jaws, I think, aren't incredible to the level of Godzilla, where there's a building that acts as a diverter. But they're fun, especially on that upper playfield shot when you hit that upper ramp and it comes around 180s back, loops around through the spinner back to your flipper. That's magical. So I would say that the shots on Jaws are just as good as the shots on Foo Fighters. Congratulations to both teams that created those. Wow. When it comes to the code, I think the code is better on Jaws because of the adventure factor, because of the monster that you're fighting and the fact that there's like the bounty hunting element, collecting the shark teeth, whereas on Foo Fighters, it's cities and then that's kind of it. You do three cities, you get a mini wizard mode, you do three more cities, you go into the inward wizard modes. There's a couple of multi-balls, but that's kind of it. And after a while with Foo Fighters, I was kind of like, well, I've kind of seen everything. I'm kind of done. You know, you're just playing the cities or that's about it. with Jaws, there's some upside potential, I don't know the full depth of the code, I don't know how deep this ocean trench goes with Jaws, but I do like the fact that you can, like, you know, kind of have a meta game of bounty hunting the sharks in the middle of what you're doing, the theme is much more pronounced, because it's not just, you know, a band fighting an alien, it's like the movie, it was Spielberg's first movie, it's all these great clips, these great characters, these Great interactions. So I forgot what the question even was.
    104:53
    But I think longevity-wise, one better Foo Fighters or Jaws, and it sounds like you're telling me they're both incredible and you're not sure which one will be better. Yeah. And that's a fair response. That's a fair response, my guy. Yeah, congrats to both teams. Both games are great. They both cover it. Foo Fighters absolutely was game of the year last year for 2023. And, you know, Stern may have came out with game of the year for 2024 in January, of all things. What are you most excited for in 2024 Games wise I'll tell you what, Multimorphics Princess Bride That's what I want to see We never talked about Multimorphics P3 It's the last one up in the randomized alphabetical order Okay So what a great theme This would be theme of the year for me Theme of the year for last year I think Spooky took it with Scooby Doo But man I love me some Princess Bride I've always loved it, I grew up with it My family loved it. We called it the peanut movie because of Andre the Giant's line in that movie. Nothing gets better. I love being in that universe of the Princess Bride. If it's for Multimorphic, I'm not a buyer. That's the problem.
    105:59
    Why? Tell me why. Because I don't want a dang P3. I don't like the fact that the flipper's on multiple buttons. I don't like the cantilevered thing. I think the gameplay's a little bit limited. I think my virtual pinball machine does virtual pinball much better than the Multimorphic does. The Multimorphic doesn't do traditional pinball As well as traditional pinball does And so there's the shortcoming I've got to spend more money than a traditional pinball machine To get in on the P3 platform And then I'm having a subpar experience So that's where I'm at with it Here's my one sentence argument Don It takes up the space Of one pin And you can have Weird Al You have Cosmic Cart Racing You can have I've played them all Final Resistance, Bird Fighter, Dungeon Door Defender. I know them well. They're not bad games, but again, when I'm looking at what financially I'm going to have to put out for it, there's ten things in its way. It's the original output. So here's where I'm at. Why can't they have a traditional pinball machine set up of their games, plus the multi-morphic P3 edition of them? It's just like when you had the Neo Geo version of the arcade, and then you had the Super Nintendo home version of a game, or like with Street Fighter. You could have the arcade Street Fighter machine if you were a baller, but you could also have the home version of Street Fighter if you wanted to have one console and multiple titles. So why don't they come out with full-sized commercial pinball machines dedicated to that theme, plus the P3 multimorphic version of that same title and license, double the market share, give people what they want, give people options and choice. I would love to see that, but I kind of feel like the team behind P3 is so sold on their concept that they won't let that happen.
    107:50
    You know what? This was like the first time tonight we've even mildly disagreed, and I kind of like it. You're kind of arguing with Albert. It's great. You probably won't win, though, because here's what I'll say. It's for the price. A man that has your wealth, that has the amount of space you have, for $100 to $200 for you to buy an add-on and get to play a brand-new pin, even if it's virtual or not. And this thing is real, but even if it was virtual, $3,500 for you to be able to get a cool pin that you can play with people around the world that has internet connectivity that only takes up the space of one little, you know. I just think if I were you, I don't want it in a heartbeat. Me, myself, I only own a Guardians of the Galaxy Pro right now. And I'm probably going to save that. I'm probably going to sell that so I have money for Nationals and Expo this year. because I've been promising to go to Expo for like five years, so if I don't go this year, no one's going to listen to me ever again. But in Nationals, I was lucky enough to get to go play in the pin golf. But, you know, I hear what you're saying with P3. I hear what you're saying. Maybe I'm jaded because I got to play it early in my pinball career and fell in love with it. I also got to stream it. It was one of the first pins I got to stream. I don't know. I love the idea that we're kind of like it's changing pinball. It's kind of like it's moving forward like many other video game systems did. I like what they've done. I do consider it pinball, but I don't necessarily think it's where pinball is going. However, I love the idea that you can buy a game for $100 or $200 and software creators like Ian Haywer and Nick Baldridge and everyone else that's on there that makes these cool little cheap fun games. It's just a cool fun add-on. Everyone who can order a P3 can afford $100 or $200 for a new game. You know what I mean? I agree with you from where your argument is coming from. If you have this platform, you know, spending $100 for Bird Hunter or something, it is real pinball. It is fun to play these games. There is a Weird Al on location here in Madison, Wisconsin. I've gone and I've played it. It is fun to play. But, you know, when I'm looking at, like, $13,000 as my barrier for entry, I've got better options for sure. I've had people offer me these games, like Weird Al, for sub-$10,000. And, yeah, okay, that would be, you know, reasonable. But then I'm stuck with this platform. It's $3,500 for a new insert for it. And, you know, for drained, $3,000 seems like a big step. I think if you have a – I don't work for P3 Multimorbic. Steven Silver is a member of the Poor Man's Pinball Network, okay, and he helps them out over there and does a great job. But I'm just saying that I think there's room for a company like them. I love Weird Al. I've always loved Weird Al, of course, being a Weird Al. Absolutely. Man, if it was a Weird Al standalone machine, man, I would have that thing. You'd be there. Yeah, yeah. And I don't knock the platform. I love the technology that they did. I love the work that they put in to make this thing. But when it comes to, like, dollars to donuts,
    110:50
    I have, like, ten other games in the way of getting a P3, you know. And I don't like the cantilever flippers. It's weird. Make the LCD screen a little bit shorter. I don't like all the servo motors that are in the pop-up little scoops. You know. God, the Nisi's new pin looks cool, too, though. It's fun. I've played it. With the pink? But, you know, I'm not looking for space in my lineup to put one of these things. I was a little bit of a cad early on, and I said that this is the worst parts of traditional pinball mixed with the worst parts of virtual pinball that put in one product. You are not getting a sponsorship from B3, my guy. I have a virtual pinball machine, and I love it. I have traditional pinball machines, and I love them. I don't know why we've got to mix the suits. I don't know why we have to cross the streams. But here it is. If you've got a P3 Multimorphic, though, the Princess Bride is absolutely a godsend for you, especially if it is sub $4,000. I would be in for sure.
    111:51
    Have fun storming the castle. I mean, if ever there was a license that would get me to, like, cross the threshold into P3 territory, this would be it. but it's a lot of technology a lot of moving parts I don't know how to service these things I don't know what goes on with them you know I would love if they just came out come out with a standalone cabinet and then come out with a P3 version you know there was like you could play Samurai Showdown at the arcade and you could play the home version as well and it was a little bit different and they had their own markets and it was fine do that You know, I would buy Princess Bride, the standalone pinball machine, for sure. I can't wait to find out more about it. I love this license. I want to go play it.
    112:35
    I don't know. Well, it is Drop Target Danielle's favorite movie of all time. I don't even need number two or number three. The Clip of Insanity. Yes. So if it came out, I'd probably, it's maybe the only pinball machine she would split with me in price. Endlessly quotable. So I will see, yeah, this would be incredible. Fantastic license. I'm sure it's going to be an amazing game. You know, like, imagine if Weird Al, though, wasn't confined to just the back third of the play field. Like, you had, like, a full machine of Weird Al. Like, come on, man.
    113:08
    That's all I'm saying. I'm not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole, but here's what I'm suggesting. I played P3 Multimorphic. It feels like real pinball, and I've seen real pinball, quote-unquote, that only uses the back one-third of the play field. Venom. whoa I didn't say that you know who do we got in the voicemail congratulations on 100 episodes of Don's pinball podcast oh it's my buddy Ryan Davies love Ryan Davies he's from Florida he works for Universal Studios he's an amazing guy known him forever gangster from way back in the day doing big things running a theme park I love it I love it. Can we just say, like... You're the theme park guy that listens to your show. Absolutely, man. I am huge into the theme park, like, hobby. It's even bigger than pinball, to the point that I could even podcast about that. I'm thinking of, like, splintering off a separate show. But this is my home from way back, and it's so fun to take my pinball fans, my friends, in theme parks, and introduce them to pinball people. And it's like bringing my two universes together, man. It's amazing. I was with my friend Jeffrey J. at IAPA, and he was having a conversation with Jersey Jack himself, and it was like, this is blowing my mind. He's like, my coaster friends are talking to, like, Kim Cromwell. What's even happening? And I made it happen. I was like the crux between, like, the coaster community, the theme park community, and the pinball community. I love it. I'm that channel. I'm that conduit, right? And when we think about it, we love theme parks and roller coasters because it's vehicles on tracks. They're thrilling, plus the themed environments. And that's exactly what you find in pinball. You find a themed world under the glass with ball paths and vehicles traveling, and you hit this to make this thing happen. And, like, I love them both for the same reason. Amazing. Excelsior.
    115:10
    Okay, I don't want to bring this podcast down because you've been all about the positivity thing, which I love. Yeah. But roller coasters, I don't want to dish on them, but now that I'm old, like ever since I turned 40, when I get off one, like the two good ones at Canada's Wonderland. Oh, I love Canada's Wonderland. It's been hung over as shit for like two hours. You're talking about Leviathan and Behemoth?
    115:33
    Leviathan. Yes. I feel sick for two hours, Behemoth like 45 minutes. Okay. Leviathan, I get the spins, I feel nauseous. Are we around the same age? Yes. Don't you feel sick when you get off these things? I do now when it comes to like, you know. Don't pay for a hangover. You know, I'm not looking for the 60 mile an hour, seven looper as much anymore as far as just like a thrilling, disorienting experience. I love like a Harry Potter themed, you know, entertainment, dark ride attraction. I do think that. With like animatronics and projection mapping and like take me into this world, take me on an adventure, then put me out in the gift shop. I love that. and Universal comes through in spades. When you're wondering about pinball themes, all you have to do is walk around Universal Studios. They've got a whole Minions land. You know, they've got the Grinch present. Shrek is there. The Mummy with Brendan Fraser. E.T. Men in Black. Back to the Future. Simpsons. E.T. Fast and the Furious. Like, it's all there, man. This would be the worst theme for pinball, Don. The what? This would be the worst theme for pinball. Which one? Did you see Brendan Fraser and the Whale?
    116:46
    Oh, my God. I don't want to play that. I don't even want to look at that meme, man. It frightens me. That movie was incredible. It blew my mind. I haven't cried since, like, the Titanic or something. Like, that movie was a go-watch. Or a B-team. Bad B-ball team. I'm sorry. I ruined it. I'm sorry. I brought down the podcast. Go ahead. I love Brendan Fraser, man, and C-no-man, and the Mummy. Come on, the Mummy trilogy. Cool, man. That is one of my favorite roller coasters on the planet is the mummy at Universal Studios in Orlando. Not the one at Universal Studios Hollywood. It doesn't have the level of effects and interactions. What? They're different? Yeah, they are absolutely different. Yeah. It's because of the space constraints that it comes with. Listen to the Hot Reels pinball podcast that I do, or the roller coaster podcast to get all the backstory of that. But, like, how cool would a Minions pinball machine be? How cool would Mummy with OG Brendan Fraser be? Transformers has been done Fast and the Furious I'm surprised that nobody's picked up There's been 12 Fast and Furious movies And like That's a huge I don't care about the theme myself I wouldn't play it But for the mainstream audience They love Fast and Furious They keep cranking these machines out For that point When are we going to get Rambo First Blood, the pinball machine I would love to play in that environment
    118:08
    Okay, what about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? Never saw it. It never happened. The zombie Eddie and Christopher Franchi on one of each edition, it would be nuts. Christopher Franchi could illustrate a saltine cracker and I would play it. There you go. What about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? That can't cost that much. It'd be trippy as hell. You give all the stoners like me something to play. It would be like if you put the big Lebowski beside Fear and Loathing, that would be like the stoner lineup. Everybody would get it. We'd love it. I love it. One more voicemail message. Let's see who this straggler is.
    118:43
    Donnie, I'm so proud of you, my friend. Show number 100 is just incredible. Your enthusiasm is just out of this world. Keep on doing what you're doing. Make those Don's Special 80 versions. We all love it, and I just can't wait to get your show number 200. Have a great day, my friend. Thank you for everything. Retro Jingo out. The love is permeating my heart right now. I can't believe the outpouring of support. 100 episodes of Don's Pinball Podcast. This podcast I started on a whim. Let's see what happens. Let's throw it at the wall. See what sticks. And when I look at where I am. You know what made me start watching him? Yeah.
    119:30
    This guy. I didn't watch him until that. That's amazing. I don't want to go down that direction. I'm just saying that kind of helped him. It might have helped you a little. I don't know. But the good news is I'm glad you're here. You're a positive voice in pinball. I think that you're positive while still maintaining to be somewhat critical. And really what makes your show probably better than mine and a lot of the other solo podcasts is that you say it in a clear and concise way. And we love you for that. And I don't want to speak for all your fans, but honestly, like, I love your live streams as much as your podcast, and I hope you're in pinball for a long time. I love your promotions. I like what you do for pinball. I like that for the most part, even though you can obviously mention some negatives that you might see in a particular pin or something with a company. Overall, you're quick to mention everything that you love about the game, and that's what we need more in pinball. I'm having such a fun time playing pinball. Like, people say, like, Don, you're new to pinball, But it's like I've been playing pinball for 40 years. I just, you know, I never knew who the designer was. I didn't know who did the art or did the code. Like that's what I'm new into. Like at this level, shout out to Hypnotic. You make an amazing turquoise-colored liqueur. Because I can't even remember what I'm talking about now.
    120:53
    Orville Albert, you are a homie. I remember when I did, when I was invited onto your podcast for the first time, When I was out in West Virginia, which is how I paid for these pinball machines, which is how I paid for my student loans, was by leaving my family, traveling a field. You had a lot of listens, Don. People love that show. Weeks at a time.
    121:12
    And then, you know, people are showing up and they dig it, man. This is incredible to me. You know, and I totally love that. It's worth, you know, whatever petty drama I had to go through in the last year.
    121:24
    It's fine. You survived. You made it. The thing is, like, okay, the thing is some of the people that you had beasts or disagreements with, all of us in the pinball content creation have over time. And just kind of, like, you let it go. You push through it. You just try to be that positive voice. Sometimes you'll get less listens. Sometimes you get more. It doesn't matter. The main thing is being sincere, telling your truth. And just, like, for you, like, if I lived where you lived and I got to go to as many events as you, like, I'm so jelly. Like, that's awesome. Keep it up. And, like, the thing is, like, you know, I've always kind of lived, like, this type of lifestyle. If something's happening, I want to go and be there. You know, I went to Japan for the first time because I found out about this roller coaster called Thunder Dolphin. And it's in Tokyo, and it's built on top of a shopping center, and it dives through loops, dives through the middle of a Ferris wheel, and I'm like, Thunder Dolphin? That's amazing. How do I do that? So I found out how much a price of a ticket for the ride is, found out where you go buy your ticket, find out the subway station that you have to get off to go to the park, and then I found out the subway station you have to take from the airport to get there, and I just reverse engineered it and, like, made it happen. Like, you know, there's nothing really special about what I do. It's just about making things happen, having the perseverance to find out, like, okay, what are the steps I need to do to achieve what I'm looking at doing, and then making the sacrifices necessary to make that happen, you know, whether it's eating hot dogs for a month so you have enough money to buy a Greyhound bus ticket to go across the country, or, you know, waiting until January to go to Japan for your first time because a round-trip ticket is only $400 instead of $1,500. Whatever you have to do to make it happen, you can do it. There's a way to do it. Now, it may not be worth the sacrifices you need to make to make it happen, but that is the decision that you have to make. Nothing is impossible in this life if you just have the vision to see it and the perseverance and the tenacity to make it happen. And so that's just what I've done. I just, I don't give up. I'm too stubborn is the thing, Orbit.
    123:26
    I don't even know. That was totally an Orbit sideways conversation there. I don't even know what's happening. But the thing is, like, go to Japan is what you're saying, I think. I love it. You really like roller coasters, though. Yes. That's what I'm hearing. You like roller coasters more than I probably like craft beer and burgers. Craft beer. Something to be said about craft beer. just ask Craft Brew Sally from the pinball junk drawer who I never miss an episode, I can't wait to hang out with those guys they live 90 minutes up the road in the region that you're going to be at a district 82 as provincial champion from the Nova Scotia region yes, I want to go meet them I've had an open invitation for these guys we've got to make it happen Orby, let's do it this is my only minor beef with you, I've got to bring it up before I go I've got to go pretty soon It's getting close to 11 o'clock here in Canada. Although it is a snow day tomorrow, I don't want to be too loud for the fam upstairs. Yes, yes.
    124:23
    But I'm coming to Nationals, and I'm just going to say it like I did. I got interviewed by CTV News Atlantic. Anyone out there who wants to read, like, a cool interview about why partially I moved to the East Coast, they can just go on to Google and type CTV News Atlantic pinball on the top link. The point is you need to come play. If you don't come play pin masters, it's okay. But in golf, imagine if you love golf as much as you love pinball, and you could go play with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and all the top golfers in the world, Vijay Singh, Mike Weir. I got to shout out my Canadian brother. You know what I mean? If you could go watch the best golfers in the world, but not just watch them, but compete with them, well, the pin masters is a way that you could come compete with the top 144 players in the world, and everyone of everyone is there. And here's the thing is, it's a casual event. no one is like, oh, all serious. You know, it's not, it is for some whoppers, but it's not for that much money. Okay, I think there's quite a bit of money involved. The point is a lot of the people playing there are kind of like you and me. They're just people who love pinball and aren't that good. And they're just like, if I'm playing, like, hey, last year my buddy Pat, who won for New Brunswick in the province where I won. Yes, yes. Who was playing with Roger Sharp. Love him. Escher Lefkoff and Raymond Davidson, I believe. Great day. I get so much crap about his rush code. Meeting these people is one thing at Expo, but you, Don, could spend a couple hundred dollars, less than the fraction of one topper that you love, and you could play with the top 44 players from every province and every state, as well as 100 other people that just really wanted to play with these people, including usually like, you know, Elwin played last year, Roger Sharp played last year. the point is I don't know if you're going to come to that one or even Lumberjack Johnny's I hope you come down there and play with me in at least one tournament because I know you're not big into tournament pinball and I wasn't my first two or three years even getting back into pinball I wasn't huge into tournament pinball it only happened eventually but even though you're not like the best player I think you'd love getting to meet all these players play with them and it would open doors for your podcast in the future so I encourage you and challenge you to come and at least hang out, and if not, play at Pym Mastery, play at Lumberjack Johnny's in just one tournament with me. Well, I mean, what better invitation than that is, you know, come on. I mean, as a personal favor to my buddy Orville Albert, I think we should make it happen. Some people coming, I need help. Some people can fuck off and go to hell. Little Cypress Hill action going. Let's do it, man. All right, I'm down AF. I'm off the day you're flying in, so, yeah, dude, let's convene after the episode and we'll make it happen, homie. Thank you so much for joining me here on Don's Pinball Podcast, episode number 100, Celebration. I hope everybody loved it.
    127:28
    Shout out to Hypnotic, the Turquoise Liqueur. For scrambling my brain towards the last hour that we've been recording.
    127:42
    Pinball Nerds Podcast in the house. I never miss an episode of Orbital Albert when he's going on. He's my fifth favorite podcast. Forget it. You're third or tops, man.
    128:00
    No, versus Dorcha. I haven't listened to a single episode. You know that? Same. I never listen to myself. It's the worst. I listen to the first 30 seconds to make sure the audio is okay, and I'll listen to 10 seconds at the end, 10 seconds in the middle. Except for interviews. Like, I listen to your interview with me again. I love that. I love it. Let's do more consistent content, homie. Let's do it. Like, honestly, every three months I'll have you on. I'm only interviewing 10 people this year. I'm only doing one per month. As a personal request, if you're listening to this, Email me at DonSpinballPodcast at gmail.com. And let me know what you think about this, what you want from the future, because I am the wish maker. I am the bringer of dreams.
    128:42
    I will bring you what you want. Do you want Robert Sharp, Roger Sharp, wrapped in ribbon and brought to my living room, like in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? We will make it happen.
    128:55
    That would be so cool. I can't wait. You want to hear the solos. The solo bonds are great, too. I can't wait for this merch drop that's about to happen. Homie, you want a t-shirt? Are you an XL, XX? What do you want, homie? XX. I got them. I'll hook you up. I'll hook up Drop Target Danielle. Meg Save Monica will be in there. Shout out to the wives that put up with us in these pinball lives that we're doing. Monica and Drop Target, shout out.
    129:22
    We're going to get them together. I think it would get along absolutely fantastically. Oh, I'm pretty sure.
    129:29
    All right, homie, thank you so much for making this amazing, dude. Thanks, sir. It's so cool you had me off to 100. That's right. Number one. I really appreciate it. Dude, did we even get to 100? How did this happen? Keep it up. I ain't stopping, man. I'm having too much fun. I think you're like, I think you're one of the, I don't talk to you as much as I should, but I don't talk to a lot of other pinball podcasters much, but I honestly think you're one of the most sincere, genuine, like straight up dudes. It's crazy what you told me about the AP stuff. Obviously, don't mention that on the pod. That's crazy. But, no, that's nuts. When you called it, I was like, that's nuts. But, like, I think you do a great job. Keep going. Like, don't listen. You got some mean people in the YouTube comments. I saw that with Jaws. Bring it. That was horrible. They were being rude. If you're not doing amazing, people won't care. So the haters only come when you're shining. Their demon faces come out. So that just means I'm on the right path, homie. No, keep it up. What did you get in, what are you at now on your Facebook? Are you at 1,000? I had 1,025 followers on Facebook. If I never get another one, that is a complete success. I can't believe it.
    130:41
    You're killing it. Keep it up, man. We're going to keep going from here. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Email donspinballpodcastgmail.com. Follow the Facebook page. Check out the YouTube page. I got some hot new content coming in 2024. 2020 catorce for y'all. And we're going to keep it going. Thank you, Orbital Albert. You are a gentleman and a saint. Thank you.