Hey, what's going on everybody in Patreon land? I'm just kicking it here with my summer vibes, listening to some Slipknot. After recently, did you catch Bug's Screamin' Stream this week, man? He was getting all into that Slipknot on that virtual machine. I got a lot to go over for you guys to get you caught up on what's been going on behind the scenes. It's been a minute since I've done a show, which I'm going to do a little bit later today. but I figured I'd clue you people in on some Patreon goodness, man, and favor you. So check it out. I'm in Ohio again. I'm sitting here beachfront on Lake Erie, making money for a Harry Potter pinball machine I no longer own. And I'll give you the straight dope on exactly what happened. I sold three machines this week. Bonkers, man. Some crazy stuff going on. So I was driving around Cleveland, Ohio yesterday, watching Bug Stream, playing it through the car, and he actually has my Ultra VP, my virtual pinball machine, It's been sold to Spooky Pinball in exchange for that Ultraman that I got, Butter Cabinet. Hell yeah. And, like, I've been saying since I got this machine, this doesn't play like any other virtual pinball machine I've had before. The flipper lag is nearly non-existent. Very high-definition screen. The sound is incredible. And you just have to, like, play it and feel it. Like, you can't demonstrate that on YouTube or streaming or whatever. so these guys wanted to get one in order to have a bank and library of like every classic game out there as well as things that were never made themes that never got made into pinball before are on there and so they can try out ideas and goof around and stuff it's totally fun so he was on there and i could tell so i see he's been having a good time with it and like running through all the different games and i think based on the reactions getting from people other people were into it too so that's awesome so i just want to put that out there that virtual pinball doesn't have to be a four-letter derogatory term and that was the ultra vp it was a 5.0 they're up to 8.0 now i got it from rec room world you can search for them or they have facebook groups uh vp cabs is another company that rec room world purchased and kind of took over and merged with or whatever so they may be called vp cabs now but the straight dirt on these things is these machines are made in china and they're imported in in huge batches uh with all kinds of like unlicensed goodness in there. You can order them with custom graphics or whatever you want. But when they get imported in the country, they actually have this cheap decal of just standard art over them. And you peel that off and you have the good decal art underneath. It's like super gray market. But they import these things. They're up to the 8.0. And so these machines have physical actuators in there. They have coils in there. They have gear motors in there. So as you're playing, you're feeling like physical feedback from actual mechanisms in the cabinet, which is super cool. They've got 3D audio so like when you hear the ball rolling around the play field the sound moves from the back of the cabinet to the front in a realistic manner uh when you push the the button to add coins it sounds like there's a coin actually dropping into a real coin box it's pretty impressive now these things are pricey they're about nine thousand dollars there's some options and things with them uh the newer versions have you know uhd screens you know 4k screens instead of like the 1080 that they had before in the previous generation they added like this weird air blower in the coin door that will like blow on you for force feedback. I think that's kind of silly and unnecessary. And so my 5.0 essentially plays identical to the newer ones, but it can be had a lot cheaper. You know, I paid the $9,500 in 2002 for this thing, and I've enjoyed it for three years. They do depreciate. They don't hold the same value as a physical pinball machine would. You know, so that being said, if you want to pick one of these up, look around because there's always people selling their used ones when they want to upgrade or whatever. So if you're interested, it's super cool. Like find someone with one and try it or head down to Benton and play my old one that they have now. So that was super fun and super cool. I've been spending a lot of time down there with Spooky recently. I mean, I went out with the team and the crew out to Austria. We had some great road adventures, had fun times out there. I've been down to the factory a few times to deliver that machine, also to come down and check on some other projects and things. but let me get to where I'm at right now. Personally, my job looks like it's going to be relocating and it's a completely awesome thing because it provides me an opportunity to pick up and move into a different place. And that's kind of what happened in the last couple of weeks. It'll still be within the same Midwest region. So it's not like a cross country move or anything and nothing is finalized yet, but it seems like overnight, wow, I came up with the the need to have some liquid cash available, you know, when it comes to putting bids in on houses or building custom homes and those sorts of things. So like overnight, my priorities changed from let me see if I can actually get to 20 games to let me see if I can back down a little bit and get some liquid cash. So I was, I think it was on WAP, maybe it was our Patreon version, and I rattled off five games that I would consider selling right now. And damn if that didn't work, because four of them are sold like like overnight people talking about how the market's down and everything uh not for the right game i guess and and my shows must have a reach because that's fantastic so i mentioned my games avatar collector's edition uh i mentioned i have harry potter collector's edition i would even consider selling that for the right price not thinking it would actually sell hashtag it did uh evil dead i mentioned i was considering selling um probably Dungeons and Dragons LE and then Kong Premium. Now, Kong Premium is already promised to this arcade in the Pacific Northwest. It'll be going out there in a month or so. So that was one that was kind of like already spoken for. But Evil Dead went pretty quick. Shout out to a good homie. John, how you doing, buddy? He recently sold his Evil Dead. You'll know him from Down South Pinball on the Discord. Hell of a guy Firm handshakes warm hugs the whole bit so he had mentioned that he had sold his game but he had other suitors that were looking for it as well and he passed those on to me So I should probably give him a finder fee to be honest So this game is going out to an overseas collector that paid essentially my full asking price. I asked $15 and went for $14.5. I think that's reasonable. So here's the thing. I love Evil Dead, man. Hell of a game. It's a game that I've been enjoying since February? I mean, I have number 10. So, like, I got in on this thing early. They're in the 300s right now. Big Container just went out to Europe. But, you know, like, I've had this thing for several months. I've played through it tons of times. I've had fantastic games on it. And then I'm looking at this thing that's going for, now this is with the topper. So, you know, 11.5 is what I paid. 14.5 is what I got. So I'm trying to balance, like, this game is great, but at the valuation it is right now, my need for some liquid cash, it kind of makes sense to go ahead and move it on now that I've enjoyed it. Now that it's trading at what's probably going to be the top of the market for it. With the idea that later on down the road, I think prices will soften a bit. I don't forecast them going back down to MSRP though. This game sold out. It's phenomenal. I think if you haven't yet purchased your, or if you've obviously purchased your Evil Dead, if you haven't made the final payment and final decisions, and you have the option to consider Butter Cabinet, you might want to take another thought at doing that. When I was asking around, there were a lot of people that were informing me that they had buyers interested in their games, but specifically butter only. That's what they were looking for. And so if you have a butter cabinet, you really have the most desirable version of this game. Never going to make any more than what they've sold. So, like, not saying you should definitely do it, but I would at least consider sleep on it. Because if you can end up with an Evil Dead that's butter cabineted, that will be the one that will be worth the most going down the road. Scooby-Doo's not sold out. TCM Looney Tunes aren't sold out. So we won't see those going over MSRP. I wouldn't consider ordering one of those and going butter unless you are a collector and you just want that. But for a valuation, I would consider going butter on Evil Dead if it hasn't been built yet and you have that option. And it looks like being at the factory, I was talking to the guys, they don't really have a backlog in the process anymore for getting butter. It used to be if you wanted a butter cabinet, you would anticipate having to wait several extra weeks to potentially a month or two as you're waiting for the clear-coater to get those butter panels back in to actually build the cabinet. Versus if you want to decals, they can do all that in the factory. Now it seems like they're pretty much caught up. So if you want to go butter, there's not really a delay at all in getting your game put together. Now, this game will probably suffer a similar fate to Rick and Morty, which is a fantastic thing for buyers. That game sold out immediately, and it has never sold for MSRP since then, which I think was probably $7,500. I bought mine for, I think, $12,000. I think it was around the time that I had sold Rush LE and then picked up Rick and Morty. I just really wanted to have one. I got one that already had a lot of the mods in there, the launcher ramp fix on the right, the Galaxian Crystal mod. It had a lot of other figures and things that were in there. I put the Jerry ramp in there, so that was an extra fee and everything. but it pretty much had everything I could want in it. And plus, it was built with every option that was available at the time, except for butter. And then I ended up trading that for a big Lebowski. So essentially kept some value there in the trade. So that was a good job. Now, Rick and Morty's come down some in price. I think the lowest I've seen them is like $9,000. It's still higher than MSRP, and that's an older spooky title. So I think we will see what Evil Dead is. It'll probably hang out above MSRP for sure, for sure going forward. Unless Demand just completely tanks in it. There's still only 888. It's a phenomenal game, and the code updates are still coming. We haven't even seen this in its final form. And for God's sake, order a topper. If you haven't ordered one, get one. Based on the stream last night, over 750 toppers have been sold for 888 games. So if you're one of the 50 to 70 games that didn't get a topper, you might as well just go ahead and get one as well. Because if you've got Evil Dead with a butter cabinet and the topper available, man, that will be, even if it doesn't give you more money, it will make your game the most desirable if you decide to sell it going forward. So that's all I would say. For myself, I've got to go and try to find one of these later on. Considering I sold mine for $14.50, I'm risking and I'm gambling and betting that I'll be able to pick one up for that or less going forward. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I had a hell of a time with Evil Dead. And it's going to be so funny when people see I sold Evil Dead, but I still have Looney Tunes and TCM right next to each other. I can't help myself. I can't help myself. So that was what happened with Evil Dead. That'll be going out to its overseas buyer. Harry Potter. I got an offer, Harry Potter, for, again, $14.50, which is not a bad price for it. I had this game for weeks, and it's a great game. I've been teasing that I was selling it because of the AI art. That was not the reason for it. It's just that this is another game that right now is trading at the top of what I think its market will ever be. I don't think this is a game that will ever go for more than MSRP because of the fact that, listen, they've sold a ton of these CEs already. They sold a ton of Wizard editions, people bought arcades, whatever, but mainly CEs are out there. They have not yet announced the cutoff for when they're going to quit making, they're taking orders for this thing. So even if it was today, there still is potentially thousands that have been ordered already, at least like 2,000 maybe, maybe 1,600, something like that. It'll be a huge number that are available. Wizard edition, limited to 5,000. 5,000 is not limited, especially when it's not even the top-end edition. So there will always be wizard editions. There will always be collector's editions of this game out there. I think this game is going to do similar numbers to what Elton John is doing 12 5 13 for the CE for the same reasons It a hell of a game and there just going to be a lot of them out there So in a year eight months to a year when people have had this game they've played through all the code, new shiny stuff's coming out, space is at a premium, and they need to list it, you may go onto Pinside and see 20 other of them listed for sale, and if you want to move yours, you may need to kind of budget on price there. And I think that's what's going to drive the price down. not because Harry Potter is not the best JJP game they've ever made forget it it's awesome topper aside AR art aside even factoring all those things in I still think for me this is their best game and it's a hell of a game and I think it will be available cheaper later so here I am having satiated my initial hype on Harry Potter had some phenomenal games on there I got over a billion points on easy mode over 800 million on regular mode I've played through just about everything there is in there and my several hundred plays I put on it. And I have an opportunity to trade it for some cash now, and then I can always pick it up for less later. I think that's the move. And I feel good about that. I feel good about that. I also powder-coated the door and it matches. And it looks amazing. I even powder-coated the cash box lid. I'm a crazy individual. It looks awesome. So that went out. Also, at the same time, I'm getting these two games ready. And I'm like, okay, perfect. I needed to generate some income. I have done that. And then, boom, I get a message from a guy I know that I've sold a game to before, and we talk quite a bit. He's out there in the Cleveland, Ohio region. And he's like, hey, what's up with that avatar? Because he's making himself a JJP corner. He's got an Elton John coming. He's got a Harry Potter coming. He wants an avatar too. I said, listen, guy, I got this thing. I was looking for 12.5. He met me pretty close to that. And he's like, but you have to include shipping. And I said, how about this? We do 12. I will drop it in your driveway tomorrow. And that's exactly what I did. So I left my house yesterday with Harry Potter CE, Avatar CE, boxed up, palleted in my truck, and then I dropped them off across the country on the way to Chicago and then made some time to stop in at Planet Pinball? What was that place I went to yesterday called? I think it was like Pinball Planet. A cool place in Parma, Ohio, the Cleveland region. If you remember the Drew Carey show, the theme song, Moon Over Parma, Parma, Ohio was a town that that whole song is about Cleveland. you know cleveland rocks thing he did so moon over parma parma ohio uh i'll even went over to solon you know uh we're going bowling so don't lose them in solon that's also a town in cleveland i was in solon too yesterday i had a drew carry day yesterday uh dropped off these games so to date i've sold my vp for an ultra man that i'm hanging on to uh but uh i can't believe it avatar harry potter and evil dead all sold uh dungeons of dragons still available kong is sold and daddy has money for a earnest deposit and a offer on a house so that's great so mission accomplished and it feels good to thin out the herd a little bit i was getting i was getting a little bit contaminated downstairs and now i'm able to pick up some more stuff star wars i'm gonna talk about that on the main show um honestly i haven't heard and i don't know uh what this star wars game is from stern i've heard people that seem relatively assured that this is john borg doing episode one 223 Jar Jar Darth Maul, that whole bit. Pod racing. Are you a space angel? I hate sand. It gets everywhere. All of that garbage. I hate that idea. I hate that idea. I've also heard it floated that this is episodes four, five, and six, just like the Steve Ritchie Star Wars pinball machine, but done by John Borg with, like, hopefully a more forgiving layout and more of a game. God, I hope so. I've even heard, and this hasn't come up very often recently, but that someone was floating it was just going to be a Darth Vader theme, which would absolutely 100% be the one to make, be the one to sell out of LEs, be the one to make an SLE for, a $3,000 topper, lightsabers shooting out of my ass. Like, that would be the theme to do. And I don't know if it's possible, but we'll wait and we'll see. I've been meaning to check the schedule and see when this game would come out based on when the fall release was last year. I'm going to talk about it on the main show. Anyway, I don't know for sure with that. I'll tell you this, though. since this is Patreon and I do have to give you guys some inside information, I'm not mentioning this anywhere else, but during my trips to Benton, Wisconsin, I happened to see a new forthcoming product. Okay. And I'm allowed to give my impressions upon it. I'm not allowed to just disguise or unbeguile the theme or any of that business. And I don't want to do that. I know it's just a matter of months till everybody sees this, but I've seen the topper for the new game, which I guess means I've seen the theme as well. And I'm just telling you, yes. Yes. I'll tell you for me personally, after seeing what is forthcoming, I absolutely have, in addition to my housing money, I have some spooky pinball money sitting there waiting, and I've got the page preloaded. So as soon as the go live happens for the sales, I'm doing the same thing I did when I was down at IAPA for Evil Dead. I'm going to sit there and hit refresh, and then once the sales open. I'm going to click and submit my deposit as soon as I can. And then I'll log back in and then buy the topper. But I want to make sure like my number for my game is in there because I want this game as soon as it's done. I'm very excited about it. I've seen it. The code's not complete yet. Some of the art and assets are not complete yet. They will be. And based on what I've seen, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah. So there's my impressions of it, if that helps you out. Now, what I also can't wait to see is what everybody else's reaction is going to be I was in a little bit early on Evil Dead I got to play it and then keep it under wraps until it was released it was super exciting I thought the game was really fun though I was a little disappointed uh in the theme because I was thinking it was going to be something different you know something that's been one of the things that rumored to be coming out um and I was like oh it Evil Dead okay let me just hype myself up I wasn intimately familiar with the movie and I seen it now but I hadn seen it then But I did know about Bruce Campbell of course I know about the movie I know about the cult following I know that everybody really loves that theme. I didn't realize it was going to be quite as big as it was. But I was like, you know what? Heck, I'll go in. I'm going to get one. You know, let's spooky. Let's go for it. And damn it, it turned out to be like the hit. Considering where these guys have been coming from, Obviously, with TCM's layout and Looney Tunes' layout, it was a big step up from where they were coming from. And I think Evil Dead was like another big step up. And now these guys are on this tier, this level. Now, when they were making or releasing Scooby-Doo, when they were releasing TCM, this game, Evil Dead, and the following game were like in production. So the ingenuity and the engineering that these guys were producing was going on when Scooby came out, when TCM came out. And so, like, now we're seeing the fruits of what they achieved, you know, as they leveled up, right? And so, is this game going to be better than Evil Dead? I can't say for certain. I can tell you that I'm enjoying it, and I think it's on par with that level of game as far as build, theme integration. This code, of course, is earlier than Evil Dead, so it's hard to judge that part of it. But the bones of the game were really fun, and I can't wait to play them again. So I hope that helps. Don, is the topper better than the Evil Dead topper? Hmm. Okay, that hemming and hawing means that it's at least on par. And I'm kind of going, like, in some ways, yes. In other ways, maybe. Yeah, but it's at least as good. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, man. Yeah, this is going to be fun. this is going to be really fun to see. So all I'm telling you, like, I don't want to shill you into this. You know, if you're not in a position to buy a game, don't buy a game. If you don't like spooky titles, don't buy it. You know, if you want to go in on something else, whatever. But I'm just saying, if you liked what they brought with Evil Dead, maybe just carve out a little space in your budget and wait and see what they got. And it seems like they're going to keep the same launch window. So Pinball at the Beach will probably be the first place that you will play before you pay that opportunity. I think this show is going to be a lot more popular this year based on the feedback. I was there. It was a blast. I'm going again for sure. But I can imagine it being an even more well-attended event coming up this next year. So hopefully this is going to be like the preeminent, like first big show of the season. And come on, what else are you doing in February? Come on down to Tampa. Hang out on the beach with Don. The water was a little chilly, but we all went in it, right? We were having a great time. where we were having food and drinks and playing pinball in a very much low-key setting. It wasn't high stress or anything. Super fun, and you get to play the games early. Dungeons & Dragons was there. There were tons of them. Ramps Road Trip was there. There were a lot of cool games to play. Eric Meunier was just walking around wearing Harry Potter stuff, just rubbing in our faces. It was a fun time. Texas Pinball Festival will be the big public event. If this thing doesn't sell out day one, it's selling out during TPF next year. Those are my impressions and predictions. and I'm carving out spot to get one and I've even carved out some extra money for that butter because if I didn't do it on Evil Dead, definitely do it on this one. I can't wait to talk more about it. But yes, okay, so keep this under wraps. We'll keep this on Patreon. I won't mention this on the main show, but I know some other, well, Kerry already saw it and he's like, yep, he's getting one. I saw it, I'm getting one. And hell, don't buy it if you don't like it. I don't want you to think I'm just trying to shill you into buying something, but like i'm just saying if you like what they're doing carve out a little bit of money to have it there just in case you don't have to you know be feel like you're missing out or something man because and based on the hype from evil dead i think a lot of people are just going to go in on this game so that'll be fun so job relocating i covered that um it's it's nothing's going to happen soon but it's it's in the process and it's very exciting and i can't wait to can't wait to discuss more about that all right i think i covered just about everything i still have to give away this Translight. Man, I can't believe June slipped by and it didn't take a moment to sit down and actually get out that Patreon giveaway. So we're going to do that and get caught up in July too. I'm back home in a couple of days and then let's get caught up in all that stuff. I've got an Evil Dead Translight from Spooky to give out for June and then I'll find something else cool that I'll give out for July and then we'll be all caught up and we'll all be Patreon friends and it's all going to be amazing. So thank you for the continued listenership. I like giving you guys the inside word as I see it I haven't heard anything yet about the Star Wars game that's coming from Stern I haven't heard any real confirmation on the Walking Dead remake and what we will hope to see from it and I don't know if Elwynn is on Pokemon or what's going on with that but when I hear it I'll let you know I like it you have continued patronage so I want to cover that so shout out to all you guys for being amazing I'm going to go and record the main show because I got to talk about Jaws 50th. We're going to talk about the budget Stern toppers that came out. I'll cover some more Star Wars stuff. Alice in Wonderland is dropping in the U.S. now. Oh, I will say that there has been a new release of a topper from the Electric Playground for King Kong, sub $800. That's coming soon. The list is open, so go join that if you want to get first dibs to maybe purchase this thing if you want. I'm making a King Kong topper. It's a banana box with ape arms on it. It's going to light up. It's very silly. I'm not intending on making it a product, but I can't wait to show off its final form when that will be done, hopefully when I get back. Otherwise, thanks, everybody. I'm going to go back and listen to some Slipknot because I'm kind of in that mode. Would a Slipknot machine be awesome? I mean, just what a punch to the throat. Like, seriously, people are making ABBA. People are making Elton John. Can you imagine just Slipknot coming out and just throat-punching everybody? All right, be cool.