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DPP #193 "The Potter Episode!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·40m 28s·analyzed·Jun 8, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Don praises Harry Potter pinball launch as major success but critiques art/topper design choices.

Summary

Don enthusiastically covers the launch of Jersey Jack Pinball's Harry Potter game, calling it a success both for the company's boldness in securing a complex Warner Bros./JK Rowling license and for delivering a complete, feature-rich product under $10K in arcade form. He praises the playfield design, upper playfield, and mechanisms while discussing two specific critiques: the cabinet art direction and the topper design. Don announces he's breaking his New Year's resolution to buy a new-in-box game due to FOMO, citing record-breaking launch sales across distributors like Mad Pinball.

Key Claims

  • Harry Potter pinball had the best launch day ever for Jersey Jack Pinball, eclipsing Foo Fighters and Jaws

    high confidence · Don cites direct feedback from distributor Jeff at Mad Pinball and Star crew: 'this is their best launch day that they've had, like, ever'

  • Harry Potter fans outside the pinball community are buying the arcade edition at $9,999 price point

    high confidence · Don observes mainstream crossover: 'It's not just pinball people, either. Harry Potter fans are coming out of the woodwork' and references viral social media content about the price

  • The license reportedly cost Jersey Jack approximately $5 million

    medium confidence · Don states: 'five million dollars is the rumored amount' for the licensing deal

  • Harry Potter was originally scheduled to release in April before licensing delays pushed it back

    medium confidence · Don speculates: 'I think what was supposed to happen, I've heard this rumored, that this game was originally supposed to release in April. And then, of course, licensing delays'

  • The game has four full-size flippers with each belonging to a different Hogwarts house

    high confidence · Don confirms: 'Starting with four flippers. Three on the main play field, all full size... each one of the four flippers belongs to a different house within the realm of Hogwarts'

  • The Wizard Edition represents approximately $1,000+ in value when accounting for topper ($500), Radcals ($400), and inner art blades

    medium confidence · Don calculates: '$500 for a topper, $400 for Radcals... at least... there's at least $1,000 baked in there'

  • The playfield appears to feature three distinct levels of play: street level, intermediate level with upper playfield, and high wire forms

    high confidence · Don analyzes: 'I think this is what he was talking about The street level from the game play field That second intermediate level... there's also that third level'

Notable Quotes

  • “This game is a success for two reasons... number one the fact that this company had the uh the justitional fortitude... to take on this license like what a capital license”

    Don @ early-mid — Core thesis: Jersey Jack's boldness in tackling an extremely difficult license (Warner Bros/JK Rowling/Stars/family trusts) is the primary success factor

  • “The upside for you is that if you put out a game like a Top Gun, like a Matrix, instantly you're going to get a ton of eyes on your property... The downside is you have to navigate this very intangible relationship with the license holder who holds, again, all of the cards”

    Don @ mid — Detailed explanation of licensing risk/reward dynamics in pinball; explains why certain marquee IPs aren't licensed

  • “Everybody and their mother is buying one of these... I've got word from my distributor, Jeff, over at Mad Pinball and the rest of the Angelic Star crew that this is their best launch day that they've had, like, ever. Ever.”

    Don @ early — Direct evidence of unprecedented commercial success; cross-over appeal beyond traditional pinball collectors

  • “for a new loaded game, the absolute hotness under 10K, dude, take a bow. Jersey Jack, I'm going to give you one of them”

    Don @ early — Positioning Harry Potter arcade edition as competitive value proposition versus other manufacturers

  • “I'm going to go against my no new in box purchase, a new year's resolution, and get myself one of these games, I have to... It is because of that four-letter F word, F-O-M-O”

    Don @ opening — Host breaking personal purchasing rules due to FOMO; indicator of scarcity perception and collector psychology

  • “to get to this point where like a game is in a box it's on location now it's happened success man even if i didn't like this license even if i wasn't interested in owning it, this game is a success”

    Don @ mid — Unconditional acknowledgment of commercial/production success independent of personal aesthetic preferences

  • “when I saw the reveal, they showed us the Wizard Cabinet... one side... It wasn't like the greatest composite ever I've seen... this looked like what I would go and purchase if I was going to buy a poster from the theme park”

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanyHarry PottergameDonpersonJeff (Mad Pinball)personRetro RalphpersonJack DangerpersonSteve Ritchie

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Harry Potter pinball achieved record-breaking launch sales, reportedly the best launch day in Jersey Jack Pinball history, eclipsing previous flagship releases like Foo Fighters and Jaws

    high · Don cites distributor Jeff at Mad Pinball: 'this is their best launch day that they've had, like, ever. Ever. Eclipsing Foo Fighters, eclipsing Jaws'

  • ?

    event_signal: Retro Ralph's launch featurette produced comprehensive behind-the-scenes coverage including interviews and detailed playfield explanation; Don credits it as valuable resource

    high · Don: 'did Retro Ralph not do an awesome job capturing that whole vignette and everything and the behind-the-scenes stuff and the interviews and the slow-moving pan over the play field'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Mainstream crossover appeal beyond traditional pinball community; Harry Potter fandom driving purchase behavior at retail price point; viral social media engagement

    high · 'It's not just pinball people, either. Harry Potter fans are coming out of the woodwork... I've seen crossover memes in mainstream content creation' and viral TikTok/Facebook content about $9,999 arcade pricing

  • ?

    product_concern: Community debate about whether upper playfield qualifies as a 'toy' in pinball terminology; Don expresses frustration with semantic/definitional arguing as unproductive

    medium · Don: 'Is an upper play field a toy? And I don't even know why we're having this discussion. What's the point of this? Whether it is or whether it's not... Who cares? Is this what we're arguing about?'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Cabinet art direction received as generic/corporate (theme park poster quality) rather than custom artistic vision; specifically described as having pediatrician's office/children's library aesthetic rather than mature Dementor/stormy sky vision

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.121

0:00
Don's Pinball Podcast is coming at you with a hot number 193. It's time, man. Harry Potter is here, the boy that lived the pinball machine that existed against all the odds and survived intact with every single piece of content from the entire movie series. Come on, man.
0:30
Devastatingly smashing itself amongst the cauldrons and piles of discarded wands and the bones of his enemies, Harry Potter, the Death Eater himself, I'm not sure if that's actually the correct lore, is here among us, and that will be the main topic of pretty much everybody's discussion from now until the next three weeks when we get another release, man. The golden snitch has come and snitched our hearts, man, myself included. Even so fact, and even so far, as the fact that I'm going to go against my no new in box purchase, a new year's resolution,
1:15
and get myself one of these games, I have to. And it is because of that four-letter F word, F-O-M-O, fear of missing out. In this case, I'm not afraid of missing out on the game. I mean, this game is going to make Guns N' Roses look like child's play, man. There's going to be so many of these Harry Potters out there. Everybody and their mother is buying one of these. I've got word from my distributor, Jeff, over at Mad Pinball and the rest of the Angelic Star crew that this is their best launch day that they've had, like, ever. Ever. Eclipsing Foo Fighters, eclipsing Jaws, eclipsing whatever, man. And it's not just pinball people, either. Harry Potter fans are coming out of the woodwork. They're getting these things. I've seen crossover memes in mainstream content creation and stuff over this. I was watching a Facebook reel or a TikTok or something, and the heading was just, Why I'm Not Buying the Harry Potter Pinball Machine. And it was just a screenshot or a slow zoom in on this guy's laptop where he's highlighting the arcade price of $9,999, and then just a slow fade back to his face, just him looking deadpan. It's like, that's the reason he's not getting it. And, like, of course, as a pinball person, to come into this and look at an absolutely loaded game full of abscess with nothing missing from the play field on the arcade edition for under $10K, like, that's the very sweet spot to be at. That's where Spooky lives at. Like, anything that comes fully loaded under $10K is, like, that's a bargain compared to everything else. If we're talking new in box. If we're talking new in box, you know. You want to go get a $3,000 Judge Dredd or something that's been well taken care of, fine. in a much more easier way to get into home pinball ownership. But for a new loaded game, the absolute hotness under 10K, dude, take a bow.

Don @ late — Specific critique of cabinet art direction; describes it as theme-park-poster quality rather than custom artistic vision

  • “I was looking at seeing maybe a vista of Hogwarts on the hill, you know, Dementors in a cloudy, stormy sky... And then they show us this stuff... my initial reaction, my God, I think I'm at, like, a pediatrician's office”

    Don @ late — Detailed articulation of artistic disappointment; expected mature/dark aesthetic, received something sanitized/child-oriented

    • person
    Ericperson
    Mark Silkperson
    Pinball Newsorganization
    Warner Broscompany
    JK Rowlingperson
    Foo Fighters (pinball)game
    Guns N' Roses (pinball)game
    Elton John (pinball)game
    Godfather (pinball)game
    Hobbit (pinball)game
    Jaws (pinball)game
    Mad Pinballorganization
    TPF (Texas Pinball Festival)event

    high · Don: 'my initial reaction, my God, I think I'm at, like, a pediatrician's office or, like, the book corner at the children's library area' vs. expected 'vista of Hogwarts on the hill... Dementors in a cloudy, stormy sky'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack Pinball design approach emphasizes shot flow quality (no notorious brick shots), thematic integration, and full utilization of screen real estate compared to smaller Stern Spike 2 displays

    high · Don states: 'I haven't really found a Jersey Jack game that didn't have shots that were fun... everything worked... it didn't feel like there was any notorious brick shot' and praises their use of screen space vs Stern's constraints

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Complex multi-stakeholder licensing arrangement (Warner Bros, Stars, family trusts, JK Rowling) successfully navigated; estimated $5M investment; approval process described as high-risk with potential late-stage changes

    medium · Don explains licensing holders 'can change their hand at any point, can go back to things that have been approved and say, you know what? Actually, that can't be like that' and references rumored $5M licensing cost

  • $

    market_signal: Jack Danger's pre-launch marketing strategy (announced 6 months prior 'not one dollar out pocket until you see our game') successfully built anticipation without leaks; launch executed on announced schedule without delays

    high · Don praises: 'The unorthodox thing in this industry was Jack coming out, what was it, six months ago, saying, you know, not one dollar out your pocket until you see our game... He didn't mention it's coming out immediately and then nothing's happening. So game is out. Game launched well.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Don experienced significant emotional oscillation regarding purchase decision over 6+ hour period, cycling through excitement/doubt/FOMO/regret/re-commitment; final decision driven by FOMO and community participation desire

    high · Don: 'like how many emotions was I going through that day... I kept going back and forth, man. That was mood swinging harder than a cuckoo clock in a thunderstorm... And then it came around again... And then it came around again, and my reasons are enumerated'

  • $

    market_signal: Harry Potter arcade edition at $9,999 positioned as excellent value proposition for fully-loaded new game; Wizard Edition ($12,000) justified by ~$1,000+ in bundled components (topper, Radcals, art blades)

    high · Don calculates value: '$500 for a topper, $400 for Radcals... at least $1,000 baked in there' and calls sub-$10K loaded game pricing 'where Spooky lives at' and 'a bargain'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Harry Potter originally scheduled for April 2025 release, pushed back due to licensing delays; announcement at TPF in March would align with April target

    medium · Don speculates: 'I think what was supposed to happen, I've heard this rumored, that this game was originally supposed to release in April' and notes 'His announcement at TPF in March would line up with an April release'

  • ?

    product_concern: Only two design aspects Don would change: cabinet art direction and topper design; all playfield mechanics, shot layout, thematic integration, and upper playfield praised as successful

    high · Don states: 'There are two things that I would change, absolutely. This game is not perfect, not perfect' — later identified as art and topper

    • 2:59
    Jersey Jack, I'm going to give you one of them. So, yeah, the game is a success for two reasons. I'll get into that. There are two things that I would change, absolutely. This game is not perfect, not perfect, and I'll get into that too here in a bit. And I'll get into a little bit of the reasoning behind my decision to go against my own intuition, my own logic, knowing that I can save thousands if I just wait. And I'll get into that too. This is going to be a fun show, man. We'll hang out. Everybody's talking Harry Potter. I'm going to jump into the mix. We'll go in a stylistic direction here. It's maybe a little bit sideways from everybody else. So this game's a win for sure, no matter what, just based off of what I've seen. I know I haven't played it. I haven't seen it in person. I'm starting to see more review videos. I've watched the featurette. I've watched all that stuff. The game is a win for two reasons. number one the fact that this company had the uh the the justitional fortitude i think this is a four letter b word for that um to take on this license like what a capital license i've gotten to know pinball manufacturers and designers a bit more over my last several years of being at this level of the hobby and one thing that will tell me and one thing i'm very interested in is licenses i mean the thoughts occur to us like why isn't anybody doing gremlins why isn't anybody doing Pee-wee's Big Adventure? Why isn't anybody doing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Why hasn't Top Gun come out? Where's Matrix? What's wrong with these stupid pinball people that design these games? Are they that dumb that they don't occur these ideas to them? A little Yoda voice there. No, that's not the case. They've thought of this more than we have thought of. The fact is licensing is tricky. You're going into somebody's house and trying to offer them money to basically date their daughter and they hold absolutely all of the cards. Now, the upside for you is that if you put out a game like a Top Gun, like a Matrix, instantly you're going to get a ton of eyes on your property, a ton of interest will be generated, and then you'll have sales to follow. So there's a big upside for you. The downside is you have to navigate this very intangible relationship with the license holder who holds, again, all of the cards, can change their hand at any point, can go back to things that have been approved and say, you know what? Actually, that can't be like that. And, like, that's the end of it. And you have to either walk away for the entire project, forfeiting all of your funds that you've invested, or you have to acquiesce. And that's how we get things that come out that are missing key elements. That's why there's this predator talk of Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice and likeness not being in the game, a huge miss. But the alternative is to completely back away from the project, and you have to find that balance point there. so to go in to not only a license held by warner brothers held by stars held by family trusts held by jk rowling herself who's notorious for being a bit persnickety let's say on who's allowed to be on our sports teams to go into that and say you know we're going to tie up this money five million dollars is the rumored amount and let's make this game like do challenge accept it okay so that's number one to go in and just like have the balls to tackle that license number two to come out of the other side with a game that actually has all of the assets, right? This thing hasn't been budget engineered in the 11th hour. This hasn't had, you know, likenesses approved. And then, you know, oh, you can't use Hermione's voice. And you can only get Daniel Radcliffe from the left side, nothing from the right side. You'll have to mirror image flip that if you want to use it. And, oh, by the way, the music rights holder just sold all of their rights to this other third-party company. So now if you want to continue this, you have to pay them as well. Like that stuff happens. and you know this is all a project that isn't a six month turnaround this is years and years and like to be working on this thing every day you got to be thinking i could get an email a phone call a telegram a true social post and everything could completely change at any point on this and so like to get to this point where like a game is in a box it's on location now it's happened success man even if i didn't like this license even if i wasn't interested in owning it, this game is a success for those two reasons. So I got all of my hats off, man. My Jersey Jet hat is off. My European Pinball Championships hat is off. My Barrels of Fun hat is off. I got a Haggis hat around here somewhere, I thought. I don't know what happened to it. It must have disintegrated into the ether. So the game is a win based strictly on that. Let's go over the play field. Man, I got to talk about it. So we got the full reveals. And, dude, did Retro Ralph not do an awesome job capturing that whole vignette and everything and the behind-the-scenes stuff and the interviews and the slow-moving pan over the play field. Man, I love it, dude. Thanks for taking the time to do that. That's definitely something I couldn't tackle, man, not to that level. And so we had, I mean, there were no leaks on this at all. There was like some floaty potato cam photos of a play field that came out. I think there was, it started floating around a little bit earlier, saw the three characters down between the flippers, but definitely didn't get any detail. And I wonder if that wasn't an intentional leak of just a low-quality image just to kind of satiate everybody so they'd quit digging and quit looking. Maybe. Either way, I don't think it hurt the launch at all and just made me more hype on it. So we dig a confirmation that was the play field. Very good. Starting with four flippers. Three on the main play field, all full size. I love that. The extra flipper is up on what is not a toy but an upper play field. It looks great. And I didn't notice this at my first pass, But each one of the four flippers belongs to a different house within the realm of Hogwarts. Gryffindor, Slytherin down at the bottom. And then you got Ravenclaw, my own personal house, up there on the right upper flipper. It's going to be my shot, man. I can tell. And then Hufflepuff, of course, I got to be up there on the upper play field because, like, is that not, like, totally Hufflepuffy?
    8:37
    You know, so game looks fun there. From what I see from gameplay, the shots flow fine. I'm not worried about that. I haven't really found a Jersey Jack game that didn't have shots that were fun. Going back to Hobbit, going back to Wizard of Oz, like everything worked. It didn't feel like there was any, you know, notorious brick shot. Nothing played like a Houdini, you know, nothing played like Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. It was all pretty open. And even a game like Godfather, which is not completely lauded, even though I think it is in the Pinside Top 100, the shots did feel good. They flowed with each other. I just didn't really care for the subject matter that much. didn't pull me in theme-wise and didn't have the most compelling type of gameplay, but the game wasn't bad because of the shots. So I'm expecting this to shoot at least as well as everything else that Eric's designed. Guns N' Roses shot well. There just wasn't much to do.
    9:27
    And the one ramp felt a little wonky, so hopefully this is better. I love this because I can see elements from other Eric's games in here. I see maybe a little bit of inspiration coming from Steve Ritchie just being in the room, just being in the building, especially that right upper flipper shot. You know, if this shoots like, if that shot shoots like Elton John, we're good. We're good, man. As long as this doesn't shoot like the biplane ramp on Kong, I know that's like a high reward shot, so it's made a little difficult intentionally. If this one flows every time it comes around, if it's more like a Dungeons & Dragons, then I'm so happy, man. Just going around the play field I mean pick a spot man Pick a corner right upper corner with the three wizard wands from the golden trio there in the same exact location as the drumsticks were on Guns N Roses In this case, I can't tell yet, but it looks like there's a wire form there as well, and these wands are just there for set decoration. I love the fact that the actual drumsticks were used as the wire form ramp, as it were, in Guns N' Roses. So, you know, maybe that'll be the case here. It looks that you can't just shoot right up here. you have to drop in from that diverting magnetic whatever upper diversion thing, that golden wire form that drops them in there. I dig that. I liked watching the featurette and the fact that these, I did notice that the LED tips of the wands were glowing different colors. This is fiber optic, so it's actually lit from the back of the wand, and the fiber optics travel through the wand. So if you need to replace the LED, it sounds like it's going to be a lot easier to get to at the base of the wand. Lots of little cool touches, man. I'm really glad I saw that featurette. If you haven't checked it out yet, it's over on Retro Ralph's channel. It's amazing. I love these damn things. We had a great one with Evil Dead. We've had great launch videos so far with the last recent JJP games. I dig this one. I dig the trailer, too, as an aside. Did you guys see the trailer with, like, the three guys, the girl, the two guys, and they're all going to some castle somewhere? I guess it was filmed in North Carolina. Is that a movie set? Is that a theme park? Is that a walk-through haunted attraction? What the hell was that where they filmed it? But that looked awesome, man. Like, way to go on that. Great trailer. And honestly, if we can talk about it, a pretty great launch. Nothing was leaked ahead of time. The unorthodox thing in this industry was Jack coming out, what was it, six months ago, saying, you know, not one dollar out your pocket until you see our game. And then, you know, nothing was really released after that. I think what was supposed to happen, I've heard this rumored, that this game was originally supposed to release in April. And then, of course, licensing delays. I know we talked about that over the last several months, you know, because we're eager to talk anything about Harry Potter. But maybe there was something that had to change with the play field and things had to be broken down. Who knows if that's true or not. But his announcement at TPF in March would line up with an April release, of course, and then kind of left us all in the lurch there. Regardless, we were hyped and talking about this game for the last several months. We didn't have to wait years for it. He didn't mention it's coming out immediately and then nothing's happening. So game is out. Game launched well. It launched on the date that was announced. They didn't announce an early date and then keep pushing it back. So, yeah, I think it's great. And from what I'm hearing back from distributors, this is one of the greatest selling games that they've had in recent memory. Just $15,000? Yep, here we go. $10,000 arcade version? Yes, yes. And the Wizard Edition, the edition that I was speculating was going to be the loser bet, actually kind of seems worth it. It's $2,000 more. If you defer like $500 to a topper, that's a great price for a topper. officially licensed, interacts with the game, what's not to like, acrylics, easy, nothing's going to break. And then you get yourself some Radcals. Now, I've since gone and checked into this, and the cost for Radcals versus decals, like, say, if you wanted to just purchase yourself a set of the Wizard cabinet Radcals and put them on yourselves, the price I'm hearing quoted is $400. So we got $500 for a topper, $400 for Radcals, you know, at least. And then you do get some inner art blades. I don't know if Wizard Glass or whatever comes with it, but there's at least $1,000 baked in there. Plus then you get to call yourself, I own the Wizard Edition. So maybe it's not as bad as I thought. So if you don't want to go the full 15, save a little bit of money, especially if you have a low ceiling, Wizard Edition is going to look great, going to have Radcals on it, and you won't have to do any upgrades to it. Otherwise, Arcade Edition is still a great way to go. So I was kicking around this idea of getting an Arcade Edition, getting the Radcals, making my own topper, throwing in some aftermarket art blades, and then pulling out the chrome wire forms and having them redone in gold, like the gold chrome or the electroplating or whatever they do. I was seeing prices quoted anywhere from like $120 to $380 per piece to have that done. And given the fact that just counting here, there's one, two, three, four, at least four gold wire forms in here, I'm looking at over $1,000, five where they're coming out, plus the other golden upgrades and stuff, plus the powder coat. Oh, you do get the powder coat on the Wizard Edition. Oh, man. It just ended up being too much. So that did weigh into my choice of which game that I was going to get, which we'll get to that here in a little bit. So mechanisms on the game. They're there. I mean, did you not see the spinning building? This thing is crazy. It's like Godzilla times two. It spins fast, too. Like, this isn't a slowly rotating staircase. I haven't even started to dissect all the different branching ball path options this thing has. When Jack was mentioning three levels of play I think this is what he was talking about The street level from the game play field That second intermediate level With all the different interfaces to the wire forms That's probably where most of the action is going to take place But there's also that third level The exposed staircase there that the balls roll in on I think that's what he meant by that third level Either way, it does look like there's street level There's intermediate level with the upper play field And then there are some high wire forms they are the triple wands in the back so that i could i could see that translating to three levels of play while avoiding a lower play field i mean how about that how about this there's a pop bumper in the game at least one i can't tell if there's another it looks like actually now that i have a high-res image thank you to pinball news it looks like there's two pop bumpers back there one with the whomping willow and the ford anglia sitting up on top of that i was joking with my australia friend you should swap out a ute and put that up there one of their pickup trucks, the snorkels and things they have in Australia, and make like an Aussie version of this game. Looks cool. I like the idea of taking that kinetic movement of a pop bumper and translating that to a decoration on top, call it a toy, call it whatever you want. Willow whomps around while having a stiffening rod to the Ford Anglia that was pointed out in the featurette. Man, I'm glad I watched that thing. Yeah, I like that. Gives you some kinetic ability back there. You're hearing the pop bumper. You're seeing the whomping willow go off. Theme integration. I think it's perfect. I love it. I can't wait to play this game in person. I can't wait to play it in person. So it looks like two pop bumpers back there, several ramps. I don't even want to get into dissecting all the ball paths. I want to play and experience that organically. So this topic popped up. Where are the toys in this game? Now, by toy, do you mean something that the ball actually hits and interacts with, or it's just a set decoration? Those kind of mean the same thing to me. I think toy is kind of a weird word to talk about, you know, in this thing. I like mechanism or themed element piece, but whatever you want to call it. There was a question on, I think it was Kineticist's Facebook page, about is the upper play field, this little Quidditch pitch that's up there, does this count as a toy? Is an upper play field a toy? And I don't even know why we're having this discussion. What's the point of this? Whether it is or whether it's not. If you think it is, then it is. If you think it's not, then it's not. Who cares? Is this what we're arguing about?
    17:11
    It's an upper play field. You play with it. You interact with it. It looks like a lot of fun. It's got that quick 180 ramp to jump up to that golden loop wire form, at least on the Wizard Edition. And then you've got two kinetic balls up there. I think these are supposed to be golden snitches. Two captive balls. These look like those mini balls, that little three-quarter scale size, like the one from the lower, lower play field on Avatar. I think if I have the Wizard Edition, I'm going to look for some gold balls that I can replace in there, just so I have actual gold snitches rolling around.
    17:41
    But, yeah, it looks fun. You know, this looks like one of my favorite recent upper play fields, too, actually. But I think I'd give the edge to the Foo Fighters upper play field. I did love that a lot. When the ball went up there, you could trap up. You could pass through the spinner. You could hold the flipper up, and it would spin around a few times. You could hit the orbit. There was a little bonus stand-up target that you would get access to because that little diverter would pop up. I like the creativity in that Foo Fighters upper play field. The other one I really like recently was the upper play field on Jaws. I think that was fun, though it didn't have the reproducibility of if you had some skill, you could stay up there and loop a few times and play around. So I see this much more like the Foo Fighters upper play field. The flipper's in the same position. I can see where you can hit that orbit, maybe hold the flipper up, and the ball may go around a couple of times. Or you can shoot up through that 180 ramp, get into a wire form, just to have the ball come back and return to the flipper each time. That's super fun. I haven't been able to see exactly how many areas the ball can drain out of. Looks like you can go down that plastic wire form as the main area drain. There may be another one to the side. But this thing looks fun. And it's in the back corner of the game. I don't see where it takes the space of anything else that could be back there to interact with. Like, what do you want, Voldemort's face or head to, like, raise up like the X-Men Sentinel back there? And then you go up and bash him? I mean, what are you going to put a Jabberwocky back there? Is there anything in the back left corner Of a pinball machine where an upper playfield Typically sets that would be necessarily More fun than this other than just an orbit You know we have Carnage back there On Venom He takes up that upper space It still leaves space down there for the orbit I'm okay with this I like upper playfields if they're used in this manner Where they're not super intrusive Unless it like lends itself to the entire theme Of the game like on Scooby Doo Where it's just like an extra upper deck but yeah, game looks fun upper play field looks fun, is it a toy? if you think it is, it is I don't see the point in even arguing at this point, I don't see what there is to gain from it I love the collagen that the balls fall into, I can't wait to explore all these orbits and ball paths I like that there's a little rocket raccoon shot with the Death Eater right there, we get a villain right there in the middle, it's not just Voldemort's face like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein where he's like looking at the ball and arguing making the whole game about himself you got like a nameless ghoul there in a mask with a wand at you that has multiple aspects I dig it man I think that works it looks like that probably going to be a relatively tight shot and it probably should be so there some more reward to it It makes more of a moment I can wait to play this game man I was hoping that these Ron targets on the lower left would be drop targets. They look like they're stand-ups, so there's no chance to shoot through there. But there's some kind of ball path behind there. Oh, there's a spinner back there. There's another spinner on the right where you can shoot back into the in-lane.
    20:35
    Does the in-lane drain out? Yeah, the in-lane does drain out. goes across that Protego back to the right flipper. This is a cool layout, man. You know, this is a cool layout. It's not the most complicated thing that I've seen in pinball. It just looks like a really fun layout that looks like it's a bit more condensed than Hobbit. It's not wide open. Hobbit, of course, being a wide body, was a little more open. Hobbit was fun to shoot, but it was pretty wide open with that play field. This appears to be brought in a little bit and still seems to feature more things than were on Godfather, Even though I think if you were to add up the linear centimeters of all these wire forms and ball paths, they're probably going to come up the same. It just looks like there's more to do here. And in contrast to Godfather, this is a theme, this is a game, an area that I don't mind spending time in. Especially when we didn't even talk about the graphics, the custom animations,
    21:28
    the call-outs from Mark Silk and others that are on here, and the rest of everything else. The game's awesome. The game looks awesome. What else do we have that we can talk about? Backglass Translight, the Arcade Edition, the Wizard Edition, shows the movie graphics. I think it works. Good versus evil, good guys versus bad guys, yellow versus green. And the heads-up display that's on here makes a lot of sense. I think Jersey Jack, here's where they excel. They really use up all the square footage of that screen. When you think about everything that was displayed on Rush, on Stern, on that smaller Stern Spike 2 screen, it did get a little bit muddled there. You know, it's hard to play 007 because the screen is even smaller because they can't overlay any graphics on actual assets from the movie. So, like, the main thing that you want to feature is, like, truncated and small. You know, talk about taking on a license. You know, that was 007, right? And that's from, like, 60 years ago. This is brand new, relevant. The actors are all still active. They have powerful agents. We're in modern times. And you tackle this? Man, hats off, dude. Hats off. I love the fact that there's, like, the school banners that can drop down. Those are animated on the screen. You got things telling you where you're at, what mode you're in, how much things you have to do to collect whatever. And then you've got some real-time screen footage there. And then the whole thing can just go full screen and play a scene when a ball locks, whenever we're playing stall ball or something. So I dig it. So, yeah, I dig the back glass. It works. You know I love the wizard art. It's one of the two things I probably would change if I could. The collector's edition, again, it looks great. I don't think there's really much to change here. except I probably would prefer the other art, all things being equal. All right, but here's the thing. So the two things I changed. Let me just get into that. Of course, the art. So when I saw the reveal, they showed us the Wizard Cabinet or the Arcade Edition, one of the lower two tiers with the movie graphics. They showed us one side, and it was all the heroes. And it wasn't like the greatest composite ever I've seen of these characters. This looked like what I would go and purchase if I was going to buy a poster from the theme park to take home with me. this is what I would see on a freeway billboard it looked totally appropriate and I think where you're going to really push for artistic entrepreneurship innovation, I don't know if it's worth the fight to push it for what's going just trickle on the side of the cabinet this is art that's approved, let's use it, I dig it I like that it's heroes on one side, villains on the other I like when cabinets have different graphics on one side versus the other I dig that, so I really like that and I wanted to see in my mind's eye what I had created. And this is probably that anticipation I talk about. I was looking at seeing maybe a vista of Hogwarts on the hill, you know, Dementors in a cloudy, stormy sky, you know, some magical demons coming in, some creatures out in the distance on the hills, and then maybe another version where it's, you know, the heroes welcome, it's bright and sunshiny, glittery coming down, playing off the sunlight off the water, you know, like a scene from that Hogwarts Valley is what I was thinking I was going to see. And then they show us this stuff, they only show it's the one side of the cabinet, the cabinet side, the right side, the one that doesn't look quite as good as the other. And, like, my initial reaction, my God, I think I'm at, like, a pediatrician's office or, like, the book corner at the children's library area or something. What am I even doing here? It was like, dang, man, it's so close, so close to, like, bringing it to my vision. And then this is what they came out with. Now, I watched the featurette. I've talked to a friend that's connected with the studio and with these artists professionally. I get what they were going after. and pretty early on I came around to say that the art was good and I get what they were doing. It just wasn't what I wanted. And so like that's where my disconnect and disappointment was. I'll stand by that. I'll leave that stuff out there because that is my honest reaction first time of seeing this. It was like, oh, man, we were right there. And how many emotions was I going through that day? It's like the game is coming. I can't really afford it. I should just be like downplaying it in my head. I shouldn't put my heart on it. And then it's like, you know what? Like six hours later, I'm like, that's it. I'm getting this game. I want to be a Jersey Jack guy. Ride or die, let's go. I want to play this. I want to be part of the crew. I want to have this game when it comes out, you know, like that enthusiasm. And then I kept going back and forth, man. That was mood swinging harder than a cuckoo clock in a thunderstorm, if you catch my meaning.
    25:50
    And then when that art came out, it was like, fine, I'm done. Forget it. Get out of here. I don't need it. And then, like, I felt good about that. And then it came around again, and my reasons are enumerated. I'll get to those in a minute. Other thing I had an issue with, the topper. Okay, like in my head, seeing what they've done with the toppers, Guns N' Roses didn't have a great topper. Elton John had a lot of stuff on the topper.
    26:13
    Screens, images, projectors, light-up letters and lights really blew me away as far as what they could bring to the topper game. Fully integrated with the game. Loved it. The projections were great. Every pinball show, you could look up and you could tell where Elton John was because of all the lasers that were on the ceiling. So Godfather predated that, preceded that, and had a little animatronic guys on there, bang, bang, guns, a fully sculpted scene. It looked really good. I loved that. It reminded me of the great movie ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida, man. The little gangster scene that used to be in there, man. I loved that. I loved that topper. I loved that aspect of Godfather. I wish it was more of that and less of, you know, what it ended up turning into, like sitting at Human Resources at Jersey Jack Pinball or something. You know, and then I saw what they did with Avatar, and I'm like, this is the best use of a Pepper's Ghost effect I've seen in a topper. It spans the entirety of the topper, ties in with the game, displays real-time information. Everybody that comes over and sees it, like, that's the wow factor. Like, oh, wow, I didn't notice that did all that stuff. And then standing back while other people play the game, and you can watch the topper as a screen and the things that are going on, the light shows that are in there. I really, really love it. So I'm thinking, all right, this is Harry Potter, the $5 million license, the boy that lived. This is the topper that's going to be only exclusive to the collector's edition. This is going to be the one that's going to push people into that high bracket price to get this thing unreasonably priced. And so in my mind, I'm looking, all right, there's got to be projections. And to its credit, there is a projection effect. But I was like, there's got to be projections all over the room, man. like the second coming of Elton John, lasers of magical spells will be engulfing your game room, your arcade, your empty warehouse, your soggy basement, wherever you're playing this thing. And then it's got to be the castle. The castle's got to be full sculpted, just like I'm walking into the theme park and that reveal of this huge castle on a hill. There's got to be fiber optic effects embedded within the walls of the castle. So in different parts of the game, the castle will either have projection effects where it looks like it's being destroyed by demons and things, or it's frosted over from a spell gone mad, or it's in flames, or there's this magical sparkle of fiber optics that's spread across it. This is in my head when I'm building up. Surely Jersey Jack is going to bring us this. Instead, they bring us a castle that's three-dimensional plastic in two parts with an acrylic, laser-engraved acrylic that sits behind it, full RGBs, light boards in each one of the windows I get that little stepper motors with little plastic seam guys that come up some guy on a broom flying around the tower for some kinetic satisfaction there and then a dark mark projection that to date still has not been fully shown off Jeff over at MadPinball.com go check him out on YouTube he posted a short, I shared it on my Facebook page where they're over at Finney's Arcade in Ohio in North Canton and they have the game fired up they're going through the topper test and they're going through each different light-up mechanism and moving thing in it and showing it off. They stick the camera up into the topper so you can see how everything's laid out up there. They show off the projector without really showing the projection. It may not be coded in there yet. It may not be ready for final approval. But they did a great... I understand this topper so much more now. What I didn't get was a topper trailer from Jersey Jack at the release. I think that would have been helpful. I think there should have been a features trailer on Arcade, Wizard, and CE. guys there's still plenty of time to do that like let's show everybody exactly everything that's within this game the true nature of what you're getting with the different tier levels so everybody picks the one that they feel okay with and then you feel satisfied with that one that you made or the one you decided to go with I think that would be helpful so go check that out so with the topper that's the other thing that I would change if I could I would find a way to do some fiber optic effects embedded into that plastic wall now who knows maybe that might have stretched the budget up past you know extra thousands of dollars a bomb or something they may have thought of it and there just no practical way to get that done Or maybe they tried to do it and the licensor was pushing back and they were like guys there other fish to fry in here Let's leave this one alone. So I'm sure there's a reason. Maybe we'll hear more of that. But I'm noticing I'm not alone when it comes to the art for the wizard edition. I mean, it's the collectors, the top end edition and the complexity of the topper, given what we've seen from Jersey Jack in the past. And I've even seen some comments from my friends over at the electric playground, purveyors of aftermarket toppers. And they may even be cooking up something. And this would absolutely be the game to do that for, guys. Like, get to work. I'll help you brainstorm if you want. But yeah, I would love to see another aftermarket topper for this game. Bonus points if it's officially licensed. Holy crap, can you imagine an officially licensed aftermarket topper for this game? Dude, that would be amazing. Especially for people if they just had the arcade edition there. So yeah, so there's Harry Potter. What else did I want to talk about?
    31:13
    Did I get one of these? I did. I went against my own New Year's resolution to hold off any new inbox purchases. And if I was going to go against that, I picked a hell of a game to do it, guys. So here's what happened. At the time of the release, it was 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. I believe it was a Thursday. M. Bison would say that was Tuesday. Raul Julia, hashtag. Game had released, and, man, my brain is just, like, full of fizzy lifting drinks. I'm seeing sparkles and things. I want the boy who lived. There's got to be some way to get this. So I'm starting a wheel and deal with Jeff, jeffatmadpinball.com. Email him. Order yourself a game. Use code WAP. I know people are doing that because I'm getting ready to ship out T-shirts. If you use code WAP, as an aside, to run this other internet-based show podcast with RetroJango called We Are Pinball. It's available at every podcast streaming service. If you use code WAP, W-A-P, with Jeff at Mad Pinball, when you buy any new in-box game, we will get a notification. you will get a t-shirt that has not only the WAP logo, but the Bad Pinball logo as well. And if you know me, and if you've ordered anything before, it's never just a t-shirt that you get. I've got stuff all over. I'm looking at a hat from the European Pinball Championships right here that I don't need. I've got too many hats. And so that will probably go in with one of the shirts. So you're going to get probably most likely a swag bag from Don. If you're buying a game anyway, hit up Jeff at MAD and just give him code WAP or mention me or something. We'll work it out. You'll get your bag of crap. from Don. I've got so much good stuff we're giving out, man. Who knows what you'll get? I may be feeling extremely generous and give you a mod or something, too, in there. You don't know. So just tell me your shirt size, get a game, and then wait and see what comes to your mailbox.
    32:59
    So, I'm talking to him, and I'm like, what can I do, man? I'm looking around. I need to declutter my game room a bit. I'd love to get down to 10 games if I could.
    33:08
    So I was like, well, I got this Avatar CE. I see them being listed for $12.50. Some go as low as 12. I'm sure like 11.5 it would sell. Maybe I'll bundle this with like I got this Gottlieb Wipeout where everything works in it. Maybe I can put these two together and maybe some cash and then maybe I can get myself one of these. And so we're kind of wheeling back and forth. The market's really tough. I'm basically having to promise to drive this thing to Ohio myself, drop these games off just to get one. And then I'm like this is too much. I just got Avatar. I do enjoy the game. I love having that topper. I love the underlining effects that it has. It's a real focal point of the game room. And I'm still just scratching the surface of the code and getting farther in the game. I've only gone to the Pandora Wizard mode once. It's too early. Too early to give it up. So I'm like, okay, fine. I'll just go back to waiting. I'll let everybody else get this game. I'll go play it on location. No big deal. I don't have to own everything. It is what it is. And then, this was crazy. I do some gig work on the side where, you know, if I'm needed anywhere nationwide, people reach out to me. I've got recruiters working for me. I've got an agent working for me. And so they plug me in with projects. If someone needs something done, we negotiate prices, and then that's really how I've done a lot of my arcade building, as it were. And so an hour after the official reveal, I get a text message on my phone. There's a week-long project that's coming up in the next few months, and if I go ahead and take it, it will pretty much cover the entire cost of a Wizard Edition game. And that text message came at the most vulnerable time. I've been turning down work all year. I've been doing a lot more traveling, spending a lot more time at home working on projects, and I'm not just on the road constantly, at least for the first half of this year. And it's been nice. It's been nice. The student loans were paid off last year, so I don't have this impetus to take any job that comes across my desk. so it's been nice to just kind of like enjoy life a little bit smell the flowers flip the balls whatever but in that moment of weakness at peak FOMO when all that is swirling in my brain and I'm getting to the point that I'm considering giving up you know other games I just got just to get this new hotness and like trying to decide no I don't really need it I'm gonna get this offer this golden ticket uh this owl brought a letter from Hogwarts almost literally dropped in my lap Like you have been cordially invited to get yourself essentially a week of labor to trade for most of this CE game that just came out. And it's like, my God, man, my God. And then I'm seeing that CEs are shipping right now. And Jeff's like, look, if you get in right now, you can probably get one of these early ones and not have to wait like the six or eight months because they're going to get inundated with orders. And so in just about the same instant, almost like it was an interstellar space. and I was moving like at the same moment through the nanospace. I said yes to the job and said yes to the game and completely forgot about the promise I'd made myself at the beginning of the year not to purchase any new Unboxed games this year. And just like that, all of a sudden I'm in. I'm part of the crowd that's getting one of these games. That's a mixture of luck, serendipity, karma. I don't know, all mixed together to happen in that moment. Because I've been offered before jobs in the last few months that I could have taken that would have provided the funds to go ahead and just get this thing on launch day. But I was choosing life over work at that point. And I think that was the right decision to make. And yeah, that's what happens. That's the backstory of it. And I don't know that I can blame myself for that. And I understand that I'm in a position that I'm able to leverage these things. And so that's how it happened. So I want to share that with you.
    36:49
    Why am I like this? This thought occurred to me the other night working graveyard shift, wandering around. lost in my own thoughts as I often am and it hit me role playing games, that's where it came from I am a person that went to high school in the 90's and so Super Nintendo and skateboarding and chasing girls were the three loves of my Triwizard tournament and so Super Nintendo was my console of choice and just playing Final Fantasy 2 and 3 that's 4 and 6 in Japan also Final Fantasy 1 on the NES Dragon Warrior, these type of games. That's what I gravitated to. Loved Contra, but I love my role-playing games too. Now back in those games,
    37:32
    if you wanted something, you wanted the new sword when you got to the new town, you wanted the better armor that would regenerate health while you walk around or something, you had to buy it. You had to save up and you had to get it. You had to go grind is what you had to do. You had to get your ass into a dungeon, into a mine, and just start endlessly battling slimes and ghosts and whatever and what have you for hours and hours and hours until you had enough credits or gold or whatever to go and get that thing. And so I think being informative at an age and participating in those kind of exploits, I've unwittingly carried that over into adulthood. If there's something I want, some toy, some extravagance, something that just generally is a luxury, it's not needed, but like, damn it, I want it, I generally end up always getting it because I'm able to always find a way to generate that income, to grind, to sell something, to hustle, to get it. I don't have enough skills in my thief point tree to just cop something, so I've got to go and get the cash monies, right? And so that's what I've done. When I have an opportunity, I go out of town, do some work, some gig work, come back, part of the money goes to the family, part of the money goes to whatever that indulgence is. I remember doing like a week and a half stretch on the road by myself in the rural mountains of West Virginia, and at the end of that, I had some money that went to the student loan, some money went to retirement, some money went to the family, and then a chunk of it went to a Rick and Morty for myself because, damn it, I really wanted one of those things. I was stuck in the far-flung hills of Appalachia working solo and just the whole time just seething like, I want a Rick and Morty. I don't care anymore. We've got to make it happen, and it happened, and it was good. And so I think I've been applying that same philosophy as to picking up pinball machines of all things. Like if I want one, whether it's pinball machines and plane tickets, that's been the two things that I've been after recently. I find a goal and I look at what needs to occur to meet that goal. Now, it may be that that task list is not worth it to you. It's too much work. You don't want to go into it. It's not worth it. That's fine. For me, I'll set my sights on a goal and I'll work backwards from there, make a list that I can go through, and then lead to accomplishment. So that's where I am. Not that this is a good financial decision by any means, but the boy who lived in his machine in its golden glory will be sitting over here in a freshly designated space in my game room here very soon.
    39:59
    What a week, man. Where's Predator? I'm ready. I'm not ready to buy. I'm ready to see what Predator is in. If you want to get a game, jeffatmattpimple.com. Use code WAP. Get yourself a t-shirt and a swag bag from me. Email me, donspinballpodcasts at gmail.com, and I will get back to you. Join the Patreon, patreon.com backslash donspinballpodcasts. And you would have got insight like this a week ago because I dropped some exclusive content over there. Appreciate y'all. Also, it's almost time for the giveaway for this month.
    40:24
    All right, guys. Be good. I'll talk to you later.