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Ep 163: 2025 TPF Recap | Harry Potter, Portal, Medieval Madness, Merlin Arcade, Evil Dead, and Dune
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We're here to talk about the the crazy news that came out of Texas Pinball Festival this year! News about Harry Potter, Portal, Medieval Madness, Merlin Arcade, Evil Dead, and Dune.
Social and merch links here: linktr.ee/loserkidpinball
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. We on episode 163. I am Josh Roop. With me, my co-captain, as always. Scott Larson.
Weekend Highlights and Game Orders
00:00:15
Speaker
And Scott, it was a pretty amazing weekend.
00:00:19
Speaker
There was a ton of games announced. There is a bunch that our favorite distributor has on hold. If you want any these games, how do you get them? Well, contact Zach and Nicole Mini at Flippin' Out Pinball. I actually ordered two games from them, and I also ordered three upgrade kits. So I got two Medieval Madnesses, ah the Merlin edition, and I also got three Cactus Canyon upgrade kits. So they are always there for you. Just go ahead and reach out.
00:00:46
Speaker
um Well, Medieval Madness may not be available anymore, but you know, reach out and see what they can
Game Availability and Deals
00:00:52
Speaker
do. ah But there are lots of plenty of games out there that we can talk about. So let's ah so just aska ask them at Flippin' Out Pinball.
00:01:00
Speaker
Definitely. And if you're looking for a portal... Take $1,000 off on Loserkid. The way this works, email us here at LoserkidPinballPodcast.com. The only question we're going to ask you is this ah for a brand new P3 for any kind of module. It doesn't matter if it's Cannell and Good up to Portal.
00:01:18
Speaker
If you say yes, we'll send you on through to Sarah, and she will get you squared away with that new Portal game. And one word of advice, if you don't qualify, don't berate.
00:01:29
Speaker
Or attack. yeah this is This is for new customer. like It's basically try to get your foot in the door, a new system with a new play field. And ah you know the caveat is this is for this is the complete package. know they're They're trying to help expand their footprint. So be nice to them and we'll be nice to you.
00:01:50
Speaker
Definitely. I couldn't put it any better
Shoutouts and Podcast Updates
00:01:53
Speaker
way. Scott, I want to give some updates to our fans, to our, for our friends, for those that have been listening the podcast for a while now. ah One person that i we met this week was, um was pinball pursuit.
00:02:06
Speaker
want to give a shout out to Cameron and his wife, JM. ah Very, very nice people live in our neck of the woods here in Utah. If you haven't checked out their content on YouTube, definitely go check it out. It's something different that I haven't seen in pinball yet. And it's cool because it's coming from a perspective of a newcomer coming into pinball.
00:02:23
Speaker
ah Think mrses ah Mrs. Pin without the swearing. um Swearing was kind of fun with with Mrs. Pin. True. True. true But to go back to Loserkid, we have switched RSS feeds.
00:02:40
Speaker
We've done this seamless seamlessly ah and you probably haven't even noticed. You probably did notice that we accidentally re-uploaded the same episode twice. So our interview with the development crew for the new Portal game got uploaded twice, but that's because one is on the old RSS feed and the new one is on the new RSS feed.
00:03:01
Speaker
What does this mean to you? It really doesn't mean much. It just means that we've switched some stuff. ah SoundCloud wasn't doing it for us anymore. Zencaster actually does give us RSS feed capabilities.
00:03:11
Speaker
Scott and I were both like, why are we paying for double? Let's slim it down to one Zencaster does great for us. Ta-da. Simple as that, right? Shazam. So, and YouTube doesn't change.
00:03:23
Speaker
So, ta-da. Ta-da. Uh, that's
Merchandise and Corrections
00:03:28
Speaker
that. I think that does it for our update on loser kid. Well, and if you want swag, you know, silverballswag.com slash loser kid, you know, ye people are loving the attack for Mars Jersey and t-shirt.
00:03:39
Speaker
Well, not attack from ours. Loser kid attacks. All Loser kid attacks. That's right. It's ah the font is surprisingly similar, but ah we, ah as, as always, we thank Michael Bernard for helping us out on that.
00:03:52
Speaker
And all the words out of my mouth. I was about to say that. Michael's a great guy, by the way, if you don't follow him, he, his stuff is hilarious. He ah recently, he had a, he's like, I got an extra,
00:04:02
Speaker
ah sack at the fast food joint. I can't remember what it was. So he drew drew like a garbage pail kid on it. He's, he's really huge in the garbage bill kids. So if you're either into a disc golf stuff, he has, he has all sorts of cool stuff and also in the garbage pail kids. So seriously, like if you want that eighties revival, that man is doing it with work.
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah. And it's amazing. Those garbage pile kids are amazing. Yep. So, Definitely check out, what it, Michael Bernard Art and Community, I want to say, on Facebook? yeah You know, that actually does remind me that we did have one correction that too we we did not ah get to ah because we were doing interviews.
00:04:41
Speaker
um We talked, and and so we are ah a pinball podcast, but we also do try to maintain information.
Speculations and Supporter Perks
00:04:49
Speaker
you know, journalistic integrity. So if we say something wrong, then we try to correct it.
00:04:53
Speaker
ah We did get asked to correct. um Christopher Franchi has actually not said anything about the license ah with Back to the Future. And so what we did is we inferred some things based on some information. so We want to keep, ah we we don't want to get anybody in trouble, especially when their job is contingent on being good with licenses. So just ah just to clarify, we don't have any more information on the Back to the Future license. We just highly suspect that it's it's Dutch and we shall see what will happen then.
00:05:30
Speaker
Sure. Okay. Whatever Scott says. Well, I'm just saying that we we do speculate a lot and we do not want to attribute any erroneous speculation to someone who's employed with you know licensing and creating things. So that that this is for fun.
00:05:49
Speaker
We definitely don't want to affect anybody's ability to work with within their business. I agree. Yes, 100%. Actually, speaking of speculation, I've been thinking about this. ready, Scott? Go ahead.
00:06:00
Speaker
So we did start up the Patreon, right? Like this was an opportunity for people that wanted to support us to support us. Also, it's opportunity for us to give back. We've talked about this once on the podcast before. We talked about these media days that the manufacturers do, and we're giving one of you an opportunity to join us on those media days.
00:06:18
Speaker
The way that you do that is you sign up via our pat Patreon, and the higher the tier, the first right of first refusal you get. There's only one in the Winter Kids. So they get to choose whether or not they get to go with us. There will be a small fee.
00:06:29
Speaker
I want to warn of that because I don't want to shock anyone when it when we do say, hey, by the way, we do have some some costs that are incurred with this. But ah if you want to check that out, but the reason I bring up speculation is... Well, it's the ability to join us. Correct. We we cannot pay for your trip.
00:06:46
Speaker
exactly Exactly. Yes. So, but one thing is, is there's a lot of speculation going on right now with the next game. Yeah. Being Keith Elwin. The last pinball show, Zach many had mentioned that the last half of April and the beginning of May do not have anything in the production schedule.
00:07:08
Speaker
Interesting. And usually when something's on the line and shipping, it's because two weeks before they announced it. So my speculation is with nap arcades confirmation that Ellen's next game is King Kong.
00:07:25
Speaker
something of mystery Island. I can't remember exactly perfectly ah because that was what the licensing trademark was from Stern. yeah My guess is either this Friday or next Friday, we get a teaser trailer for Kong with a full release the Tuesday after,
00:07:42
Speaker
or It's like what they did with D and D they do a teaser on Tuesday with a full reveal on Friday. Yeah. So either way we, we may or may not know more, but either way we have a good relationship with Stern and we will let you know when we know.
00:07:56
Speaker
Definitely. This is all educated guests. This, we have no behind the scenes as much as I've been asking. And I wouldn't tell you if, if, if we were told because we'd like to keep our relationships nice and on the up and up. Right.
00:08:07
Speaker
So, uh, but that, that is my, that is my educated guess on our speculation. Um, And we'll get more to that a little bit later, but let's talk about TPF.
Festival Recap and Announcements
00:08:16
Speaker
It just happened this weekend. Yep.
00:08:19
Speaker
it It sounds like people had an insane amount of fun. Shout out to all of her friends that went. I felt bad we didn't go. Shane told from the nudge cast was down in the tournament was slaying it. He was wearing our hat, just destroying everyone in the tournament.
00:08:33
Speaker
ah The triple drain guys were there. Carrie Hardy was there. I mean, who else, who else did eclectic gamers, Dennis and Anthony. Yeah. It just sounded like a party. Well, if you, if you looked at all of the pictures that were uploaded by ah Joe, you saw like a,
00:08:49
Speaker
ah basically all our friends were playing pinball and we were working this weekend. So, yep. So I, I was hoping to be there, but I had to work a Friday night. And so I would have had to fly in Saturday morning and then fly back Sunday night. And I just, right now it's nearly impossible for me to get time off work due to many business related things. Not on my part.
00:09:11
Speaker
So it's, ah it's just hard for me to get off work. And Josh lives in dinosaur land with the fossils and it's pretty hard to get to ah transport in and out of there. Which is exciting that we get a second airplane flying out of Earl now to have two different options. How amazing is that? That's amazing.
00:09:30
Speaker
That is amazing. Um, what I noticed you were posting kind of as, as announcements were happening in this weekend, I was trying to help, you help our friends out and yeah and relay things going on. Yeah. Yeah. You were posting so well and I was posting so well that people are like, man, we wish we were down there with you in Texas. And we're like, me too. We're not Texas.
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah. I really am trying to get to, um, to expo. My, my plan is to expo. Cause my, even my daughter said, wait, Texas, weren't we supposed to go as a family?
00:10:00
Speaker
like Yeah, we we couldn't make that happen this year, but there's Expo, which would be fun because we'd take you to a pinball, you know, the pinball manufacturing. So, yeah and I actually have the time off this year.
00:10:11
Speaker
So I am, well, I'm okay. My fall break, I have the time off. I'm hoping it overlaps with Texas Pinball Festival. So I need to double check those. I'll have to, I'll show you the schedule.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah. um Okay. Let's, let's talk about, i would say the biggest news slash blunder from Texas pinball festival. Ooh, this is a biggie. Yeah. Speaking of your hat, a nice hat, by the way. Yeah. I'm wearing, I'm wearing my JJP hat that Eric Mignore gave me. So thanks Eric. And,
00:10:40
Speaker
And, you know, I actually, it was either Eric or Ken, ah both. Like, I know that was talking to both of them. I can't remember exactly who did it, but either way, thanks, Eric. Thanks, Ken, being a friend of the show. Let's say they were both holding it together and handed it to you. They could have been. Absolutely. yeah But either way, every time we see ah Eric and Ken, they're always really good to us.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yes. hundred percent. Okay. Jack Winery was on a panel with Mark Seidon. They were talking about Avatar and someone had asked, when is your next game coming out?
00:11:10
Speaker
And this is when Jack took over the mic and said, Harry Potter's coming next. You're going to want to save your money. that If you thought Wizard of Oz was amazing, wait till you see this.
00:11:24
Speaker
And then apparently he's saying happy birthday date to someone. Oh, wow. Okay. Interesting. ah what i want to What's what's your thoughts on this, Scott? i just... Yeah. ah um Okay. In tennis, there is a term called unforced errors.
00:11:43
Speaker
So this is ah this is something that you commit when you have full control of the ball and you really should just hit the ball back over the net. Um, this seemed like Jack teed up and then nailed the ball right into the net. Um, uh, just a couple of thoughts and, and legit, we, we did reach out to a few people to say, what, like, what was Jack thinking? Like, is this, was this planned? Was this like, what, what's going on?
00:12:10
Speaker
Um, I'm, we didn't hear back and that's fine. Um, but I am guessing that this was Jack being Jack. Jack's, uh, Jack's always been kind of a salesman and being able to drum up interest and,
00:12:23
Speaker
ah And I'm sure he is extremely excited about Harry Potter because this is something that everybody's been asking for, well, for about 15 years. okay um Well, you even said in the video it took him like 10 years to acquire the license and they spent millions and more millions of dollars. And then there's a big, there's a pretty...
00:12:46
Speaker
um let's just say a a very good rumor with some some good sources behind it that Stern kind of dropped the ball on this. And we we talked we talked about this, that- You mean like Joe Kamikawa saying that- Yeah, Joe Kamikawa on to a Mother's Day, just saying, hey, by the way, JJP has Harry Potter. There it is.
00:13:09
Speaker
Ooh, again, unforced error. I don't know why that happened either, but ah okay, so why- Well, one, why would he say it?
00:13:20
Speaker
I would say he said it because he is super interested. He's super excited about it and justifiable excitement because this is going to sell a ton of games.
00:13:34
Speaker
The problem though is you still are trying to sell your existing games that are available today. You are also at a seminar promoting your current game.
00:13:48
Speaker
which is Avatar. And all that focus really should have been on Avatar. So i i'm I feel bad for Mark that Mark's there. This is his debut game. And Mark has, it's a solid game, by the way. If you haven't played Avatar,
00:14:06
Speaker
It's a solid game. The theme integration is fantastic. The art is great. The light show Jersey Jack is second to none on light shows. So they're going to make sure that it pops and it pops appropriately. So it it takes over the the environment of Pandora. So there's so many things you could be promoting about Pandora and avatar and you're your co your collector's edition topper with the pepper's ghost look.
00:14:37
Speaker
And he totally chopped the knees out of it. And so I, I don't understand from a marketing standpoint, why you would do that. Also, just, you're really undermining your, the sales of people who would consider buying avatar because this is an expensive product. Jersey Jack products are all expensive and you have to justify spending 12 $15,000 on the product. And you are telegraphing, well,
00:15:02
Speaker
and if you are telegraphing well You really want to hold on to the next product. And I know what he means is don't buy other people's games, but the unintended consequences, you're also telegraphing.
00:15:16
Speaker
um Maybe you shouldn't buy our games. yeah that That may not be what he meant, but I guarantee that's what people think.
00:15:24
Speaker
No, I totally agree. I think that, uh, what, okay. From my perspective, I know you're saying excitement and whatnot. What I first heard Jack say don't spend a dime. Yeah. You see Harry Potter.
00:15:37
Speaker
I felt like it was a move of desperation, at least from my perspective. And I'll say, okay, go ahead. When you see portals out there, when you see evil dads out there, you're here. L one's next with King Kong. And you know, he's a threat as is, and you've got barrels of fun who have proven themselves and their game.
00:15:55
Speaker
the If it is the rumor, Dune is on the horizon. Sure. So, so I see it as a play of don't buy anyone else's stuff. Wait till you see Harry Potter. Yeah. However, add to that though, you know, they are trying to clear their inventory out.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah. They have been, they have been dropping prices, you know, they've been dropping prices on some of their games. Yeah. If you see the ads right now and all the Facebook posts, yes it's like, it's like Toy Story four with Topper for like 10 grand.
00:16:24
Speaker
It's G and R for nine. Right. And so this is now, by the way, this is a common practice in business. Yeah. Like for you to, that what you really want on from a business standpoint, we've talked about this for, you know, we've talked about the challenge of being a startup because the challenge of being a startup is you basically have to have like five years of money and and seed money for you to start becoming profitable.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah. So you you really have to have some money up front just to break even. And then you start taking off. and Look at Amazon, by the way, if you really want to know how startups work, look at Amazon.
00:17:05
Speaker
And it started as him selling. Now, he he Jeff Bezos is a smart smart guy. I believe he left Princeton. And so it's not like he was a dummy who said, hey, I'm just going to start selling. But like he knew about business, but they didn't even break even until well past the fifth year.
00:17:23
Speaker
and And so when you're doing something like that, you typically have to make some compromises. So a lot of times you don't want to sit on old inventory because that costs money.
00:17:34
Speaker
So you're paying money and in storage fees, you're paying money in everything. So you really want to have pass through of probably 30 to 90 days on your supply.
00:17:45
Speaker
You definitely don't want to be holding holding onto things for a year. So they're trying to clear out their old inventory. And by saying, hey, um we're discounting our games.
00:17:57
Speaker
Also, by the way, we have this epic title that's coming out and you are going to have the have the, you're going to influence people who are on the fence of buying a super expensive game and they're going to hold on.
00:18:15
Speaker
So it's not the entire market because we know that the pinball market goes from people who who just play at arcades to people who will buy every limited edition and in and everywhere in between. yeah You have people who buy used stuff. You have people who buy new c pro level markets. Then you also have the premium level markets, the new and the used. So you see where I'm going with this. yeah But when you say, hey, we're clearing out our inventory, but I don't even know if you want to buy it because we have a great game coming out.
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah. ah it it it it It completely undermines what you're trying to do as a business. I totally agree. i just it It was a blunder.
00:18:58
Speaker
um i don't know if I know people have been saying this behind the scenes and whatnot. Jack is getting old. um I wonder if it's time to stop having him do discussions.
Public Discussions and Feedback
00:19:10
Speaker
I love Jack to death. I love sitting down with him, talking to him stories. Some of my favorite pinball memorable stories are sitting down with Jack. Um, but this isn't the first time that Jack has done something of this magnitude.
00:19:22
Speaker
I know that like he is the founder and whatnot. Maybe, maybe it's time though. That'd be more of behind the scenes kind You have, still need to have your messaging consistent with the goal of the company.
00:19:33
Speaker
which's Right. And so if, and who knows, maybe this is this could just be like one other, one other instance where, Hey, people are talking about Jersey Jack.
00:19:45
Speaker
They're talking about it, which it is. Hey, the it's it's it in many, in many instances, you want to be relevant. This definitely keeps you relevant. And there is the possibility that people say, Hey, they, they have Harry Potter coming out. Oh, by the way, they've done really good job of theme integration on Hobbit.
00:20:04
Speaker
They've done a really good job of theme integration on avatar. Maybe while I'm waiting for that, I'll buy that. So there is a possibility yo it could go another way too. yeah It's and I'm, I'm hoping it turns out for them.
00:20:18
Speaker
I, I'm just really concerned by the fallout of it. Same, same. Not much else we can talk about with it. Besides that. Yeah. We wish him luck. I know that we've reached out with Ken Cromwell. See what, you know, if we could have some people on, talk some stuff that we can, see we want to talk about avatar. I played avatar avatar. Avatar is a fun game and it's super immersive. And in keeping with Jersey Jack coding,
00:20:44
Speaker
and it has a billion modes in there. Yeah. So it it is a packed game, which is is an achievement unto itself. Yeah. I agree. All right, let's let's move on to, I would say, maybe one of the highlights of TPF, at least this is what I'm hearing, Portal.
00:21:03
Speaker
People actually got to get their hands on this game. There was ah the standard and the extended edition down there from Multimorphic. but They had the whole development team down there helping out.
00:21:15
Speaker
coaching people running through rule sets. If you haven't listened to triple drains, most recent episode, I would highly recommend it. They, they talked about in depth, a lot of these games, cause they got hands on.
00:21:25
Speaker
Also, if you haven't subscribed, if you haven't liked, they did have to move RSS feed as well because of, they talked about in the last episode, ah the pinball network is kind of ah dissolving.
00:21:36
Speaker
And so, yeah, In good ways, by the way, I mean, we're friends with all of the podcasts there. So yeah we we wish everybody nothing but the best. I think they're just figuring it's easier just to go into it's go independent.
00:21:48
Speaker
Like everybody having their own, so you know, their, their own dedicated feed, which I think is a smart move. Definitely. And so any who go check out that episode, but they did talk about portal in depth.
00:22:01
Speaker
And I think personally the aerial tricks look really cool. Um, the people I think their only complaint was is that that right ramp on the X-Ten edition sometimes wouldn't come all the way down.
00:22:13
Speaker
But right something you can fix in coding, I mean, it's just it's something that they can they've got a little time to fix. So why not? It's great to get feedback. It's a prototype. And remember that. it's even the And this isn't a huge issue that they could figure out. and It could just be that there's only so much you can do because you have a ramp descending onto a, onto a screen, right?
00:22:39
Speaker
But the the screen has a lot of protective stuff. And so I'm sure that they'll be able to figure out a better way of implementing it. This is one reason why I said it always was challenging with Jersey Jack when they had Pirates of the Caribbean, because the The prototype, you know they sold so much on, hey, it has a triple spinning disk, which by the way, probably didn't do much for the gameplay.
00:23:04
Speaker
It was a cool idea, a cool feature. But when they announced that they were taking it out, they still kept sending the prototypes with the triple spinning disk to shows.
00:23:15
Speaker
And I thought i thought that was a that that didn't help their their cause. um This is probably just a little different. This is a ramp fix. that Jerry probably gets a a lot more in because think about more people play portal in the last weekend than they have in the entire, in the entire development cycle.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. Well, and, and one fan of the show, Matt Benzik, he posted on our, on our Facebook, he got to play. he absolutely loved it. Can't wait to get his, he's already in on one.
00:23:48
Speaker
He said, having Ian and Steven, Steven talk about the rules, lore and shots between games made the game feel a ton better. Once I knew what I was doing, it's enjoyable to stack two, three random people in a line and have conversation about the game what and what they wanted to shoot for. The shots felt good.
00:24:03
Speaker
There's some challenging ones, but it doesn't feel like there's any an unfair rejects that could end your ball for just barely missing a shot. yeah I mean, that's that's pretty high praise when you're doing a layout and stuff too. If you listen listen to the Triple Guys,
00:24:17
Speaker
triple guys ah triple drain guys, ah they were talking also about how the deluxe version or the plus version, it does, you know, the extended version, it actually does extend it down beyond that that back third.
00:24:32
Speaker
So it feels a lot more like a typical pinball machine yeah that is not limited to the back third. So this is ah this was a huge step forward for P3. Yep.
00:24:44
Speaker
Well, and even that whole I mean, one thing they talked about that they don't think that had ever been done in pinball before was on the left side. If if you look back at the the trailer whatever, the wall actually becomes like a flipper. Yeah.
00:24:57
Speaker
And there's this trick where the ball, there's a light bridge. So in the game, you can create these Bridges a light that you can walk across. So you create a light bridge all the way across the play field. And when you flip the ball, it looks like it hovers across the whole play field to the other side because of some of the tricks they were able to do with that.
00:25:13
Speaker
And so just, there's some really amazing magical moments in this game. And I think P three has done good in the past. Like they've been good. And I think people have been sitting on the fence. Like I want to support Jerry and Sarah.
00:25:27
Speaker
yeah Because you know we all like the mom and pop businesses. We want to see those people succeed and move it into a bigger industrial part of the industry. And I think this game, well, I know.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, i know this this game has pushed. It's getting people off the couch. We've seen quite ah the amount of people that have have hit up for the referral program. And man, it's I am so happy we've been to help so many people the referral.
00:25:54
Speaker
I'm excited to get more time on it. And yeah I'm, I'm pretty close to probably getting one at my house too. So it, this would be something that we would love to have more access to.
00:26:06
Speaker
yeah And it gives us more experience with it. And this also is a bridge to many options in pinball that, that, that isn't serviced by Stern as well, because Stern, as we know, is the juggernaut the industry.
00:26:22
Speaker
However, they, they tend to focus on tournament friendly pinball machines. Yeah. Right. And it it, now we're going to talk about the next game, which probably fills a little bit of that niche to say, Hey, pinball doesn't always have to be about, ah you know, about,
00:26:40
Speaker
who can Who can go to you know Papa or who can do this kind of stuff? There are entertainment aspects of pinball that P3 does better than anybody because it does incorporate some new technology, especially the giant screen that's helping out.
00:26:57
Speaker
yeah So it's ah it's nice to see different aspects of pinball that can be incorporated into the fandom. it's It's awesome. And I i don't know. i just I'm excited.
00:27:09
Speaker
um i will One concern that has been brought up multiple times while doing all this is people have been concerned about the ah the quality of the build and the viability of it lasting.
00:27:20
Speaker
um um' I'll be honest at the moment. I accidentally blew one the circuit boards on who playfi on um Princess Bride playfield. um I sent in a message on a Sunday just because I didn't want to forget. And I figured they wouldn't answer until Monday. i So I didn't, I didn't care.
00:27:39
Speaker
ah it didn't need to be right then. Right. It wasn't an emergency. Sure. You were like, Hey, FYI, I did something stupid. Yeah. I did something stupid. And 20 minutes later, nick Baldridge reached out.
00:27:49
Speaker
He didn't say you did something stupid, but he's like, well, I'm glad you realized what you did. ah He actually called me. We went through it, which I felt really weird bugging someone on a Sunday about. Sure.
00:28:00
Speaker
ah Just because i don't like to bug people on their weekends. Um, but yeah, within, we had the, we had the fix. we We had it diagnosed in about five minutes. Yeah. Um, it was a piece of cake.
00:28:14
Speaker
He had it ordered on Monday cause that's when stuff starts shipping out. I had the part a week later, i installed it, got it up and running. And he, he said, okay, I need you to do this, this, and this, like it was move some dip switches and do some other stuff.
00:28:29
Speaker
It was probably by far one of the easiest repairs I've done on a pinball machine. e ah It was four screws, unplug the old circuit board, put the new circuit board in. And it was pretty dang easy.
00:28:41
Speaker
i Yeah, i I get like there's some wear and tear parts on here that might be a little hard to get to. ah But overall, the service is great. Service is great.
00:28:51
Speaker
This is the one thing people complain about when it comes to a pinball company. They're like, if it breaks, I want someone to to be there to help me fix it. Right? Right. And even me, I wasn't expecting help on a Sunday, but somehow I got it.
00:29:04
Speaker
yeah One thing is, is when you're, when you buy a P3, you make an account through multimorphic. use that account. That account is, it gives you access to all the tech documents, gives you access to their contact people.
00:29:19
Speaker
It's amazing the amount of support the system has. And i I don't know, i like I said, this this has been pre pretty cool experiment. I see the P3 off in the corner.
00:29:31
Speaker
this has been a um I've been very happy that Jerry and Sarah and all those down there have agreed to help us better understand the system.
Customer Service Praise and Game Features
00:29:39
Speaker
And it's it's been quite the experience so far. um I'm pleasantly surprised.
00:29:44
Speaker
Granted, I am a media content person. I'm a content creator. They want to keep me happy. i I would bet, though, if you've met Nick, he's genuinely one of the nicest people on the planet.
00:29:55
Speaker
And I guarantee that if you were ah an average person who just bought a P3, you would have got the same service. Well, seriously, let's let's go through rank. Like I did, we probably shouldn't rank him but I'm like, who's, if you're going to go the nicest guy down at, at multimorphic,
00:30:11
Speaker
I mean, Michael Ocean's been a gem every time I've talked to him. Yeah, that that they're nice people. like Yeah, like Steven Silver. Ian Harrow has been awesome to talk to You've got Nick Baldridge, which is insanely talented on tech work.
00:30:26
Speaker
And he even built one of the P3 modules for Drain. I mean, it's just like Jerry's been awesome. ah Sarah has been fantastic. I mean, I don't... I don't know, man. Other companies are good too, by the way. This is just saying that our experience with this company has been great.
00:30:41
Speaker
Yes. so So let's move on. So what you're saying is it was a piece of cake. So are you promising me in Portal though there will be cake? There will be cake. Okay. I got admit, I went back through. It's been years since I played Portal. Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
I got it for $20 on Switch. one and two, right? Yeah. I went back through and beat them both. and okay At the end. Okay. I will say, by the way, I I'm only partially through. So I, I know there's a joke about the cake, but yeah, there's a, and I won't spoil the joke about cake, but if you beat the game, yeah.
00:31:11
Speaker
The very end, like, you know how you go back to the start screen, you get a cake, your desk. Oh, there you go Yeah. See, there is cake. So the cake is not a lie. am Nice. Yeah. It's awesome, man. I love those games.
00:31:24
Speaker
We breezed through them. I actually bought, I bought them too for 20 bucks. I, I, I don't have a lot of time. I'm chasing kids around a lot and I'm, I'm a lot working a lot, but you're, see you're like, I'm going to go lay down in the back room at work.
00:31:37
Speaker
Cause you know, I need sleep. Yeah. I I've actually, I I've already been going through nights of the old Republic again. This is not a collector gamers, but it's a game that I play like every couple of years. It's a fun, it's a fun story. If you're looking for something on your Switch or on your iPad, it's it's a good one, especially if you're a Star Wars fan.
00:31:57
Speaker
Okay, next.
Family-Friendly Pinball and Market Positioning
00:31:59
Speaker
Okay, this leads right into what I was talking about, finding niches in pinball that are not um that are not fully fulfilled by Stern. And by the way, this is not a denigration on Stern. this ah Stern has absolutely amazing products.
00:32:15
Speaker
They typically cater to people who are quite, uh, quite immersed in the pinball culture anyway. Right. Yeah. Like people occasionally will buy a game based on a theme.
00:32:27
Speaker
Like my cousin, i went up to her house. She has a beautiful house and I looked downstairs and there was a ghostbusters. So that, you know they, they buy things on theme, but they, I guarantee they don't have much in a way of playing or even I doubt that they've even updated the code.
00:32:43
Speaker
I've even told them, Hey, I'll just go and update your code. But, the the next game that comes out with Turner pinball is, is Merlin's arcade.
00:32:57
Speaker
Now, Josh, I want you to, you to tell me um what is your first impression on the theme of Merlin's arcade? Uh, First impression was as I was confused.
00:33:10
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Because Merlin edition medieval madness was released. Okay. Yeah. but And they were all released within 24 hours of each other. Yeah. And I was like, what is going on?
00:33:21
Speaker
Okay. um What I will tell you about Merlin's arcade. Now, if people who have young kids, they're going to see exactly where I'm going with this. Josh, have you ever been to great wolf lodge?
00:33:34
Speaker
No. Okay. Do you know what Great Wolf Lodge is? Yes. Okay. So it's basically, it has like some water slides. It's kind of a water park slash um hotel that has some loose theme integration with, ah you know, with...
00:33:55
Speaker
But it's catering to kind of the bluey crowd, I guess. So you're you're thinking of like the the younger kids. Maybe like you're talking like five-year-olds to maybe 12. Okay. Okay. And so when I saw the um the Merlin's Arcade… I looked at that and I thought, actually, from a theme standpoint, this is exactly where Turner needs to be.
00:34:22
Speaker
you You know how we talked about before. Companies find their audience. they They find what they are going for. Stern definitely knows their audience. They know what they're going for.
00:34:34
Speaker
you know They're going for the audience. Casual to hardcore pinball player. k Jersey Jack is going for the elite collector crowd who who wants like the prettiest game that has deep code. It's fun.
00:34:49
Speaker
and Then you have like CGC that knows what they're, what they're shooting for. And spooky definitely knows who their audience is. Right. So on top of that, Now you have ah Turner Pinball, who's secretly trying to capture that that Super Mario Brothers crowd where it's you know like the Super Mario Pinball, where you're like, you know what? this is It's an okay game.
00:35:15
Speaker
the The theme is not too... It's very accessible, but this is something that everybody can get to and play and have a good time without being completely destroyed on.
00:35:27
Speaker
And I would argue that this is where Turner pinball is trying to find. They're trying to find that ground for, hey, I have a game here that my kids are going to really love and have a good time. And it's not going to be as as punishing as like a John Borg game, right?
00:35:45
Speaker
This is not John Borg, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. yeah This is a a fun, accessible layout where people are just going to have a good time. but What do you think about my assessment?
00:35:57
Speaker
i think I think you're spot on-ish from the feedback I heard with the actual play of the game. Okay. There's a lot of rattle. I think if you like Deadpool, I think Deadpool kind of gives you an idea of the game isn't like a flow monster. It's definitely like no ricochet and react kind of thing.
00:36:19
Speaker
I think also, um so so when he when he comes to kids and stuff like that, They might be little forgiving, but if they get frustrated with the game and they feel like they're not accomplishing stuff on the game, they might not go up to it anymore.
00:36:33
Speaker
um I do see, though, like the way that it's colored, the way that the artwork's done. Just the theme. What do you think about theme? The theme yeah, definitely gears towards family, towards children. Yeah.
00:36:46
Speaker
yeah I just i wasn't super impressed by this. I feel like Ninja Eclipse layout was better. okay um I find it unique that they had John Norris do the layout. John Norris, I feel like has some good games in his catalog.
00:37:01
Speaker
I actually was a fan of High Roller Casino, which was his last commercial game he did, which was for Stern. ah it's It's just unique. It's a different game. It's not something you'd see. It's not very run of the mill.
00:37:12
Speaker
um But you can definitely tell that this is a rehash of Golden Q he did for Sega back in 98. Yeah, it's a resurrection game. It is absolutely it is absolutely a resurrection game.
00:37:25
Speaker
um Golden Q only had a ah handful of them made. There wasn't a ton of them produced. ah But the thing is, I i just i didn't get hands on the game.
00:37:36
Speaker
Those that I did said it was okay. sure i think I think Turner is going in the right direction with their technology and the way that they're doing stuff. I think that's why people bought in on Ninja Eclipse at Expo. That's why they were able to sell the rest of them out.
00:37:49
Speaker
ah So it's interesting to see where Turner is going to go from here. I think Chris has some good ideas. um i in my In my opinion, this is ah soft...
00:38:02
Speaker
a soft base hit, a base hit, maybe a base hit, ah especially where 2025 is wrapping up to be an amazing year for themes. And the only thing that's going to be holding back these pinball companies are their code and their layout.
00:38:17
Speaker
um You've got the themes, but the, I, I would argue, i don't think Turner is selling too much on layout. I think they're selling for theme and this is definitely an accessible theme.
00:38:30
Speaker
It's not, you know, it's not a horror theme yeah that is is going to be over the top. You're you're not going to be, know, you have something little different.
00:38:40
Speaker
And so I can totally see this fitting into a, you know, like ah a grandpa game room where he's like, I just want fun thing for my kid, for my grandkids to come over and play.
00:38:52
Speaker
I agree. There are a lot of people who don't really know a lot about code. i had a I had a Simpsons pinball party for three years before I even knew what modes were because I was not good at pinball.
00:39:04
Speaker
Well, and here's the thing too, is like going the original theme route, I think is very, very dangerous. It is. I get that like some of the best games that have ever been made were original themes and attack for Mars, medieval madness.
00:39:17
Speaker
I mean, monster bash is a licensed thing because it's universal monsters, but still, I mean, cactus canyons. Medieval madness is, is the Holy grail. I mean, come on. It's, it, it's just a, it's a coded version of the Holy grail.
00:39:29
Speaker
It's come on. It's a joke. mont You mean Monty Python, the Holy grail. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. What'd you think I was doing? i thought you were talking about like the actual, like Holy grail of pinball machines. No, no, no. I'm sorry. Monty Python, on the Holy grail. I mean, it's, it is that it is, sir and but here's my thing.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah. People tend to forget these games were released in the nineties and they had years from years to different time. It will. And they, people kind of came in and learned about these games and And they grew a fan base over years, right? Right. And the problem is, is if you're starting off in 2025 with an original theme, you're going up against Portal.
00:40:07
Speaker
You're going up now against Harry Potter, which is officially confirmed. You're going up against King Kong, which is a theme for me that I'm like, it kind of falls in the Godzilla category. i would argue Elwyn's the theme.
00:40:19
Speaker
King Kong's the theme. Elwyn is the theme. but Godzilla and King Kong are selling. I mean, these movies are doing great right now. It's a good theme to latch on that. I think that we'll put, we'll pull a Godzilla, especially ah if, if it's designed the way I'm hearing. mean, it's L1.
00:40:35
Speaker
So, you know, it's going to be designed well, the code's going to be fantastic right out the gate. um Well, I mean, I ah i also have a ah Metallica over my shoulder and I would not have paid $13,000 for rock band.
00:40:49
Speaker
You know, it's okay. It will. Well, okay. Would you like for a generic rock band? Oh, I guess I get what you're saying. I'm like, I thought meant like rock band, the video game. No, no, no. Just, just like, uh, you know, just basically like, everyone got leave did punk and it was just, yeah, yeah. I would not know bad girls or something. yeah Yeah. Yeah. So no, but you see what I'm saying is like a hundred percent. I it's hard to gain traction in this today's environment when you have a ton of themes that are killing it right now.
00:41:20
Speaker
and And I agree. This is definitely a calculated move by Chris. This seems to be, i agree with you, a base hit that will continue to move the, move the company forward yeah with the anticipation that they probably will transition to themes that are appropriate to the audience they're trying to reach.
00:41:40
Speaker
So my question to you, I had this thought over the last, last couple of weeks. Okay. Would it be worth it? You know, really the market is more home-based than it is location-based.
00:41:53
Speaker
But the wonderful part about location-based it gives people an opportunity to play these games they wouldn't necessarily play otherwise. I know that location isn't making make on these games. We've talked to many, many, many operators.
00:42:06
Speaker
And the problem is, as they say, if we're spending anywhere from $7,000 to $12,000 on a game, it's just hard to justify going on the expensive route. Do you think it's time... that there are certain sponsored locations throughout the nation that essentially get the game on loan. I know it gives a disadvantage to the other operators, but if you're trying to grow your business and you're trying to grow your market, the best selling tool is the machine itself and getting hands on the machine.
00:42:34
Speaker
yeah So do you think as we move into the future that there should be sponsored locations that receive a game for a certain amount of time and then it moves on to the next location or get shipped back and sold as a used unit?
00:42:48
Speaker
Are you saying like a, like a loaner program from Stern or maybe like a promotional program, I guess? Yeah. so you're doing Something like that. Similar. Like this operator will have, I mean, i'm obviously Metallica sold units. It's not something they have to ship out, but like if you're having a hard time moving John wicks, you are, you got a ton of them sitting in your factory or venom.
00:43:10
Speaker
You say, Hey, Keto's brewing in salt Lake city, Utah. We know that you are by our games. We want you have a John wick on location. We will give it to you for a couple months. We will throw some promotion behind you and and giveaways and stuff like that to help push this product.
00:43:28
Speaker
You see what I'm saying? Because operators are even getting more and more picky of what they buy to put in their arcade because they don't want to buy a flop. ah Maybe. I guess i'll'll I'll put this as a possibility.
00:43:44
Speaker
heres Here's the challenge that stern is having stern actually the only thing they sell directly is a few limited editions that's true that they have held off okay yeah and they sell those off and they can you i don't even know how many they have do they have 50 of them 50 out of 500 or 20 out of 500 who knows yeah that then who knows yeah so if you have that then Okay, fine. If you're the main seller of of things, so if Stern were also their main distributor, then it would make sense to be able to set up those relationships, to be able to do some creative licensing.
00:44:28
Speaker
and it's It's hard in in a dealer-centric model. And there there's there are a few ah huge advantages to the dealer model is that The dealer model, it's it's kind of a small mom and pop option where for the most part, you're dealing with a small business. And so if you have a problem with the flipper or so in flipping out's case, if you have a problem with something, you contact Greg Bone and say, hey, this happened to me when when and Rush came out. i was like, I don't think that like the optical sensor on the scoop is not working.
00:45:07
Speaker
And so Greg said, okay, let's look at this. And he took out the sensor from his own machine and sent it to me. I don't know if you're going to get that sort of customer service.
00:45:17
Speaker
And really, if Stern is interested in that level of customer service that will require to maintain things in the wild. Yeah. Because it's pinball. This is the one why you don't see a lot of pinball machines in the wild is because they are labor intensive.
00:45:36
Speaker
So yeah you're not going to get the return on investment on a complicated game on modern pinball machines, you may have been able to get it on, you know, the old like solid states and the old like easy to maintain ones. But these machines have outgrown their usefulness on most locations.
00:45:55
Speaker
So you have to have a location that is typically associated with a bar because you're going to make your money off food and beverages. Yeah.
00:46:06
Speaker
I just, like I said, the best way to get to sell a product is to get hands on the product. yeah Right. And I just, it's just, we're just spitballing here. Cause let's be honest. Pinball is ah on the economic scale of pinball.
00:46:21
Speaker
Pinball is declining in price. Really your use market is becoming your biggest competitor when you're trying to sell new product. Yep. um And it depends on how your product is performing where people are saying, no, I need an, and like your biggest selling tool is FOMO.
00:46:36
Speaker
especially when it comes to your LEs or CEs, whatever it may be. And that's dropping off. It's dropping off. It's dropping off. It's dropping off hard. um And, and some of these companies aren't making all their LEs or their CEs or whatever it may be.
00:46:49
Speaker
So we're going to start seeing some creative ideas for promotion, for marketing and stuff like that. Just wanted to throw that out there. I'm like, it's, I know it's probably not viable. It's not probably not an option. What not?
00:47:00
Speaker
I know that like the stern launch launch parties, kind of do this. yeah um But where operators are feeling more and more squeezed when it comes to coin drop and stuff like that, trying to find unique ways to get the product into people's hands without them having to drop the the the coin to do so.
00:47:19
Speaker
But like you said, though, Stern is really more of a manufacturer to dealer slash distributor, as long as they sell their products them. It's business to business, not a business to consumer typically. Correct.
00:47:30
Speaker
And so as long as they sell to their distributor, honestly, it doesn't really matter what happens on the backend. um So who knows? here's Here's another problem. And we've talked about this before.
00:47:43
Speaker
they Their current model actually doesn't allow for discounting. Yeah. So you, the pro models are the same across all designers, across all themes.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I know they do weight it a little bit because they try to give everybody the same bill of material. Yeah. And so theoretically the same thing that goes into one machine should cost the same amount that goes into another machine. Yeah. you're, you're banking on,
00:48:15
Speaker
okay, if we spend roughly the same amount per machine, you're going to get a a similar product output and product sales. Now, we know that that's not the case because we know that if you look at sales over the last you know four years, they've been completely dominated by Keith Elwin designs.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah. So we know that that's not exactly the case, but what they would probably have to adjust some of their business things. And even Jersey Jack is starting to toy with this with discounting some of the older stuff.
00:48:51
Speaker
Now Stern did a little bit of this with discounting like the discontinued stuff. So they discounted, um and they discounted turtles, they discounted Zeppelin, they discounted Rush.
00:49:05
Speaker
And so there were ways that they were able to do this, but, and they would really have to adjust things in order for them to actually do it. um is Is it something to consider? Absolutely. Any way they can they can try to motivate more locations to have pinball machines would be huge because people will be exposed to it.
00:49:26
Speaker
um Whether or not that will be worth their investment of of effort and time, i don't know. um But I would love to figure out more and more ways of getting pinball back into the wild instead of just relying on barcades showing up.
00:49:45
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. All right, let's move. We still got a couple more items here on the list. um Speaking of Merlin edition versus Merlin arcade, yeah medieval madness remake Merlin edition was announced.
Remakes and Demand Discussion
00:50:00
Speaker
um I'm going to laugh at this and I'll, okay because the The hilarious thing is, so I have right over my right shoulder, if you're watching, um I have the ah Medieval Madness Standard Edition that has the stainless steel everything.
00:50:18
Speaker
And then i upgraded the lighting because they they had, ah it didn't have the upgraded lights before the RGP. It was just standard. So I upgraded to do it myself because they they had the Royal Edition, right?
00:50:34
Speaker
So the Royal edition had the black paint and ah the, the fancy lights. And so I was able to buy the lights and retrofit, by the way, it's a huge pain in the rear. It was like six hours to do that.
00:50:47
Speaker
I got the speaker panel and I actually had to change a few things on the speaker panel because the speaker panel that they sold, um actually didn't have the RGP changing on it. Did did did I ever tell you this, ah Josh?
00:51:02
Speaker
No, you didn't. So if you look at ah medieval madness, it changes to the different colors depending on the the mode. and um And when I looked at the panel, I said, this is weird.
00:51:16
Speaker
And if you looked at the connector, the connector they put on it was only two wires. But if you look at the Royal, it's four. And so I had to swap out some wires and solder them so it would actually do the ah RGP.
00:51:33
Speaker
So I did that and I also got the topper. And so it's it's close enough. It's still a great great thing. But my friends who had the the Royal Edition, you know it was black and I played it and I thought was fine. But I was like, oh, mine's good enough.
00:51:47
Speaker
But when they came out with this Merlin edition, I'm not kidding you, Josh, this is exactly the same effects that my friend Gary put on his machine, on his l LE machine.
00:51:58
Speaker
He powder coated it with this, ah this shimmery blue stuff and he has mirror blades on it. And so it is exactly what he did on his. So it's, it's, this is a, this is a perfect combination of the way medieval madness should be done.
00:52:15
Speaker
And with the topper, Combination at $12,000, which is still below an l LE. um I think it's great. I think it's a great presentation. I dominated that. Go ahead and say what you think.
00:52:30
Speaker
ah he Obviously, it's funny because like the price came out, and I don't think anyone even had long enough to complain about the price before they were sold out. So obviously, the price was great on these.
00:52:42
Speaker
ah the The product looks good. I'm going to talk about the ridiculousness of this reveal. Okay. Oh, geez. Okay. ah It makes me chuckle. So those that don't know, Planetary Pinball owns the license for the Valley William games.
00:52:59
Speaker
And then they, you know, sell these licenses so people can create these games. Well, CGC has the license. They're the ones that produce the game. They are licensing the intellectual property to make medieval madness. Correct.
00:53:14
Speaker
So was it Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday? um yeah It starts coming down the pipeline that Medieval Madness is getting ready to be revealed and start selling. Did they even have one at Texas? i don't know if they had one at Texas.
00:53:29
Speaker
What? Medieval Madness? Yeah, the Merlin edition. don't think they did. Oh, they did? Yeah, they did. Okay. Do you remember? Cary Hardy was watching him set it up. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. i yes So yeah go to Cary Hardy, by the way, friend of the show.
00:53:41
Speaker
Cary Hardy has a ah whole thing where he was there filming it while they were setting it up. But The point being is, is planetary pinball announces for CGC, by the way, we're remaking Merlin. They're also a dealer. They're also a dealer. They're also a dealer. It's kind of a weird situation, but they also deal for, for CGC. Yeah.
00:54:02
Speaker
medieval madness is on the way. If you want yours, get ahold of us right now. And all of a sudden it like opened the floodgates because the rest of the distributors knew, but they were holding off till an an official announcement. they they went planetar You can't announce until an official announcement. Yeah. Yeah. But what do you do when the license holder says, Hey, hu yeah, here the new ah medieval madness remake. And,
00:54:23
Speaker
It's kind of like this whole like what the heck just happened kind of situation. And that was probably the biggest news. I didn't even realize to like a full 24 hours after the fact the Cactus Canyon complete.
00:54:36
Speaker
Yeah. Had just released as well. yeah And it's like, ah guys, like, why did you do that to yourself? You cannibalized Cactus Canyon cells. Yeah. in favor of medieval madness. And now, now, okay. CGC.
00:54:51
Speaker
Let's be honest. Would you rather sell? would Would you rather sell? Was that thousand? Was that the Merlin? Yeah. The Merlin was, did they even, I don't know how many they sold on that thing.
00:55:02
Speaker
and Well, okay. They sold, they sold through, which we learned is different than selling out. Right. Yeah. They sold through, which means they sold to distributors and the distributors all sold out of theirs. Yeah. They sold them through to the end user within like 12 hours. It wasn't any even, I don't, I, that's being generous in my opinion. Yeah.
00:55:18
Speaker
But here's the thing is like, yeah. Um, CGC, you take forever. I don't think I'm saying anything that's shocking. i don't think it's anything offensive. They know it. They know it. We know it.
00:55:29
Speaker
When we joked, it's funny. Cause like I joked on, you had shared some stuff and yeah it's prep key fan of the show, Mr. Macho himself. ah He, he messages. He's like, Oh, 12 K. I don't think I can afford that. I think I'm gonna have to pass.
00:55:44
Speaker
And I put, look is why put your deposit down for a thousand dollars. Now you can save up half this year and have the other saved up for next year when they finally actually start shipping these games. Like it's the reality of the situation. Like, yeah,
00:55:57
Speaker
ah When I got my Monster Bash, I was lucky because I got mine within three months of release. And I didn't realize I had mine for almost a year when I was talking to to um the distributor I bought from and said, hey, what's like is what's going on with the LEs? People aren't getting theirs. It's like, Josh, you've got to realize because you had the numbered program,
00:56:18
Speaker
You were one of the first to get it. And then they held off on building them for like a year. So it's like, oh, hey I did not realize this. Wait, which which one was this again? made of The Monster Bash LE. Because I had oh Attack for Mars i Yeah. The 119. And so I got the number match for Monster Bash 119.
00:56:35
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. um Which I wish... I sold those off, but it is what it is. Anywho, let's be honest here. You have now tied up $12,000.
00:56:46
Speaker
who You've done a deposit. Now people are going to be like, okay, now I got to sit on this cash for the next who knows how long for CGC to produce these games. And then you're like, by the way, we did Lyman code extended.
00:56:58
Speaker
We have cactus Kenya SEs that we can ship to you for 10.5 is what I saw for for the topper, the e SE, and the upgraded kit.
00:57:09
Speaker
That's a pretty good deal. That's a good deal. At least that's what I saw one of them floating around for. I'm like, dang. But um i day but no one's going to buy this now because okay, they'll buy the kids. You have a cactus Canyon really 12, 1250 is not bad.
00:57:25
Speaker
Like you said, it's like a topper. It's, it's not, you're not overextending yourself. And this is, that's interactive. It's new stuff that goes into your game. It's 10 new modes. There is a lot a lot of stuff.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah, there is a lot to the fact this edition. And Cactus was always the almost done game. Yeah. Almost done. But what what you did is the most expensive product in your inventory is now going to sit because everyone just bought a Medieval Madness remake.
00:57:49
Speaker
So what do you do? but Okay, i I would argue I don't think they're cannibalizing much. but Because the people who um the people who jumped on the Medieval Madness bandwagon they weren't holding off to say, Ooh, what's going to be announced because I have $10,000 to spend on cactus Canyon.
00:58:12
Speaker
Like they weren't spending the money. Okay. But yeah. Okay. and so let's so let's say You're not cannibalizing that sale. The bottom line is they should, ah they did. i just pulled up by the way. It's the, the interesting thing is they don't have the,
00:58:30
Speaker
um they don't have the King of Pain topper, by the way, ah okay like as, as a side thing. So right now they just have the color display upgrade. And,
00:58:42
Speaker
and and so you look at that and you're like, well, okay. So um there's, I'm still not seeing is it, is it just a thousand? I'm a, I'm even on planetary's website and I can't even see how many.
00:58:57
Speaker
I bet flipping out has it with no problem. Why don't you go check out our, our good people, zach and Nicole, many at flipping out.com. Yeah. Well, I i'm just wonder if it said how many, like yeah how many they were making, but yeah, i kate I don't think you're, you're not cannibalizing any of this stuff.
00:59:13
Speaker
It's fine. People are, You 100% are. Okay, well let's rewind time. Let's rewind time. Okay, let's say they didn't announce they weren't going to do Medieval Madness and they made this all about the new Lyman Sheets code.
00:59:27
Speaker
You say, hey, we've got Cactus Canyon sitting in stock right now. If you go right now to your distributor and say, hey, I want a Cactus Canyon. I want the upgrade kit.
00:59:39
Speaker
You have instant sales right there, especially if the game's already made. i mean, this is okay. I can, I can see your point on that, but I'm wondering how many people are actually, people bought the original cactus Canyon knowing that they were going to buy the upgrade.
00:59:54
Speaker
i don't know how many people are saying, Hey, I didn't buy cactus Canyon because I was waiting for the code.
01:00:02
Speaker
Maybe this is another sailing tool. I think maybe, and I don't think people think like, I agree with you. I don't think they're like, Oh, well I really like a cactus Canyon, but. I'm to sit on it and really think about it till I see the extra code.
01:00:14
Speaker
No, it becomes a like a FOMO thing. It becomes this whole thing of like, Oh crap, this is out now. This is something that's unique. It's different. I know that cactus Canyon is a good game. Really. It's not a bad price. Like I'm not like if you weren't in on portal at Texas pinball festival, evil dead already sold out. We'll get out to that in a second.
01:00:34
Speaker
what else was there to buy side buy besides Merlin's arcade? Unless you're really holding out for a Harry Potter, like Jersey Jack told you to do. Yeah. Or Kong, like Kong is on the way. And like, obviously if you're a fan of L1, I mean, you're, you're like me you're like, well, I'll just wait till everything else releases. Cause soon as Ellen releases, that's really my, where I'm deciding where I'm spending my money.
01:00:56
Speaker
Sure. That's me. So, so, okay. Now I, I went over a very long winded explanation about how, I think this is the perfect addition. So what do you think of their choices for medieval madness?
01:01:10
Speaker
I think it's beautiful. I love the blue. i think the upgrade all looks good. This is probably one of the best looking additions they've come out with. I mean, I've, I wish I didn't have to pass up on it, but when they announced at the same time, Keith, that one's Kong's coming out and,
01:01:26
Speaker
Harry Potter, my family's huge Harry Potter fans. So I've got to decide what's going on there. yeah it becomes a coin toss at this point. Well, not even coin toss because it's like, I guess the decision was made for me though, because Merlin additions, we seriously got, you and I both got the message.
01:01:43
Speaker
I will. Zach was very nice enough to say, i love you guys at loser kid. I will give you an opportunity at one of these. If you say no, it is gone. Yeah. yeah i I paid for it by the way. I get it.
01:01:56
Speaker
So I, I, I paid, I paid full price and this was a, but I, I did. And I, I ordered one for one of my friends was, was looking and he, he, he's been on the list for two years and I actually picked one up too, because I, I have a rental property and I'm considering putting my old one in that one and keeping the new one.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah. But um that's, ah it looks great though. I, and, and, I wish that CGC would, well, in maybe even Planetary Pinball.
01:02:28
Speaker
Like, seriously, guys, yeah you're sitting on an instant sale. Like, make 5,000 of these, the standard editions. ah Price them at $9,000 and you'll get it.
01:02:40
Speaker
yeah so it's Obviously, they sold out in 12 hours. It means they didn't make enough. Right. There's a demand for There's demand. There's demand. Okay. The biggest crime – I know this is a side tangent. The biggest crime in pinball right now is the fact that CGC doesn't want to upscale enough to sell they could be selling out of these games there should have been no reason they shouldn't be making a remake at least once a year i mean they could be on par with now you're saying medieval madness because i don't know if because they obviously have cactus canyons waiting around so people can buy those okay monster bash i don't know if there's any just waiting in a warehouse attack from mars don't know they all sold out
01:03:20
Speaker
yeah there' also There's no Attack for Mars in there. So I do understand them saying, hey, we want to keep this as like an instant buy. And and that's smart. Smart. But it's ah they should they really should have sold like 3,000 these standard editions. But you could be doing a remake once a year. And then the ones that don't sell out, yeah do what you need to with them.
01:03:40
Speaker
And you keep tabs of the ones that sell out in eight hours flat. You know what saying? in fairness, i and I will... what I will always declare that I do not know the nuts and bolts behind the manufacturing. There is a tipping point where, you know, it's, it's best if you have a demand for a thousand things to make 999 versus 1,001.
01:04:07
Speaker
So they obviously are doing something right with selling what they want to produce. So I'll, I'll at least give them yeah at least a, ah at least the benefit of the doubt to say they may be more in tune to what the supply chain are is and what the demand is.
01:04:25
Speaker
Then we are, i just don't understand why they don't make, you know, 2000 standard editions because they would sell out. But my point, be like they could, that's, that's the whole point of this exercise is like, they don't know if they quality I don't, I don't quality. they They, they have the quality. They're amazing, but look, never making a 30 year old game and made it modern. it just,
01:04:48
Speaker
They've CGC is on top of their game. The only thing they're falling flat on is delivery time. Okay. But why is that? but My understanding, my understanding is they don't want to, they don't want to increase their production. They don't. They're happy with what they're making.
01:05:05
Speaker
I think it's production. And I think there is a level of perfectionism could be that is expected out. not of us as consumers, but out of that factory from the employers and and the president.
01:05:18
Speaker
yeah That's a r as far in depth as I will go with it. Sure. But i'm I'm just saying that is that is their choice. Their choice is to make that much.
01:05:29
Speaker
Yeah. But there is no other pinball company outside of Stern right now that is poised to grow. I don't even know if Stern's hit their ceiling And they're looking for weight. I feel like CGC is poised to grow. And I think the problem is they've shot themselves in the foot now because planetary pinball is pushing licenses out to other manufacturers.
01:05:50
Speaker
That's why we saw Haggis ended up with Centaur. Making them available anyway, yeah. Yeah, Fathom. And now Pedretti, via the pinball company, has Funhaus and possibly more in the pipeline. i think Actually, i think Pedretti did announce that they have more licenses in the pipeline.
01:06:07
Speaker
I just, it boggles my mind when you have such a good product, yeah but you're not producing. Well, okay. So this gets to another point and we, we actually haven't brought this up yet, but they're still getting the Pulp Fiction LEs out, right?
01:06:23
Speaker
Yeah. And so now one of the big sellers of Pulp Fiction was the topper, right? Cause the topper is really cool. Now we, didn't we didn't, we, we, we talked about this behind the scenes, but we forgot to bring it up.
01:06:35
Speaker
So there is, you remember we had the electric playground on. Yep. they had their version of the attack from Mars topper and it's cool looking and it has little like screens on it. And you know, Godzilla has that too. Sorry. I think Godzilla is the one with the screens, but attack from Mars is a cool topper too.
01:06:53
Speaker
Yep. And they also have a Pulp Fiction topper. That has, it's kind of fun. It has like a, a ball. If you've seen their twilights on topper, which is what brings us up because twilights on has been the next rumored title to be made some time, some time.
01:07:08
Speaker
i know yeah Um, but the electric player and they have a twilights on top, which is really clever because it has a ball that goes through a you know, a trail and they have a, their version of the, of a pulp fiction ask topper.
01:07:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, go go take a look at it. I have no idea how how much leeway they had to make it look as close or as close enough. um but I do wonder if they paid for a license for this or if they tried to rub up against that.
01:07:41
Speaker
copyright line as well close as they they could. Okay. We don't know. we have We haven't talked to the guys over there. We love Rob and Alec, man. They are great dudes. They're awesome. And they came on ours. And by the way, just so you know, the Attack from Mars Topper was officially licensed. so ah But this is this was an option. So if by the way, guys, go check that out or If you're curious, email us and we'll send send you to them and we'll figure something out because it's a cool looking topper.
01:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. It really is. I just, I just joked that like, when you look at this, some people are complaining because you don't really get a face for, for Samuel Jackson or John Travolta. Yeah, but you know who it is. Just look You know who it is, but that's why I'm like, is after we we either didn't license this and we're rubbing right up against that copyright line or, or you were going for something very different. How do you license an Afro and a wig?
01:08:27
Speaker
I mean, come on. Yeah. yeah Well, that's what I'm saying, before besides putting faces on. The one thing that i I, my small criticism, guys, I think the topper looks fantastic, but I wish you would have found a way, because if you haven't seen this topper, and go check it out, electricplayground.com, or Google it. Sorry, I don't know if that's the exact correct website.
01:08:50
Speaker
Sorry if you end up somewhere you don't want to or some kids get in trouble at school. That that totally reminds me of You know when they when Wicked came out? yeah. Did hear about this?
01:09:01
Speaker
Yeah. They sent out the toys to say the tell people to go to wicked.com. Yeah. They should have checked to make sure that wicked.com was really where it was supposed to go. Let's just say it is not a musical website. It's not a family-friendly site.
01:09:16
Speaker
Okay. So you've obviously got the guns pointing at you. ah John Travolta is holding the one. Samuel Jackson is holding the other. And there's a habit trail that comes out of one of the guns and back into the other. So when the ball shoots out, just there no it's not electric playground. It's TEP pinball.com. But if you Google electric playground, you'll get it. yeah Perfect. TEPinball.com. Thank you for that. electric playground, TEP.
01:09:42
Speaker
But it's really cool that they've got lights and sounds synced up with this topper. So it looks like they're actually shooting it out of their guns. You get the the the bang and everything like that. My only criticism is it comes out one barrel and goes through the habit trail and back in the other gun. So it's like you get this really cool effect and that kind of, I feel like it kind of loses it. I still think it's cool.
01:10:03
Speaker
But really, it's an amazing topper. like If that's your biggest criticism, then it could be much worse. i think I think it's cool. I think it's cool. I think it'd be too much if you had two habit trails.
01:10:16
Speaker
righty. We got two more things. Let's try and hit this. We're past our hour mark. We are. Yeah. ah let's Let's talk about spooky cells out of evil dead.
Theme Integration and Quality Improvements
01:10:23
Speaker
um Good for them. Yeah. Amazing.
01:10:27
Speaker
It's a 25 units gone. They have already, they have always nailed art and they've always nailed going like both feet in for, ah for theme integration.
01:10:40
Speaker
So if evil dead is your bag that it's awesome. It's a great theme integration. So shout out for them. Awesome work guys. And, um, continue it up because again, you have found your market and you're really good at it.
01:10:55
Speaker
If you want one of these Zach was flipping out can probably get you one. He might have to bake, borrow and steal, but man, that goes, that guy goes to bat for you. So yeah if you want an evil dad, this game. So I, my understanding is for Texas pinball festival, it came down to either to portal.
01:11:10
Speaker
or evil dead. yep And it was kind of a personal preference thing. ah Portal was doing some awesome unique things, but evil dead theme integration was top notch. Same with portals, but I just, for most people, i it's a great game like evil dead. I wish we have played it. We haven't got to have our hands on it yet. yeah It might be one those things we don't see tell expo.
01:11:30
Speaker
Maybe. Yeah. I don't have any time this summer to go to a, go to something, but yeah, I will say, and I've said this before and I'll say it again and again. Spooky is doing an amazing job at doing their company.
01:11:45
Speaker
ah They have done something. They've carved out a slice of the pinball industry pie that I don't feel like they're ever in trouble. they They are always selling you know fairly well, and they've taken care of their customers. Yep.
01:12:01
Speaker
um And I feel like their build quality is getting better and better. It's continually improving. Absolutely. Continually improving. Do you remember the days when they talked about the hot glue cheese sticks? Like yeah they would use hot glue put stuff in and they're dangled down. And so you open up the play field it looked like it's, it looks a lot better. looks a lot. looks so much better.
01:12:19
Speaker
So it's great to see a company like that growing. All right. yep Last one. Girls of fun. We don't have much, but they did send out a very interesting letter that I want to talk about. Go ahead.
01:12:31
Speaker
I'm going to summarize this pretty quick. It says pretty much if you have bought Labyrinth, whether it's new or used. If you own a Labyrinth, yeah. You own a Labyrinth, new or used. you will be If you go to their website and you submit that you own a Labyrinth, they will put you in for a drawing for their next game given away for free to you.
01:12:52
Speaker
So they have one they're going to give away of Rumored Dune. And if you are, if you, if you win, you get a, you get a brand new pinball machine and they only have like 13 left is when I was, cause they had, they had like said it was like the 13th hour because their games getting ready to release and they only got 13 labyrinths left.
01:13:12
Speaker
That's amazing. That's amazing that they've been able to do this. Um, and, and they're about 18 months out from when they last revealed, which was at Expo 2023. Yep. um, twenty twenty three yeah so um yeah, I just congrats to barrels of fun. I feel like they're doing it right.
01:13:27
Speaker
They're doing some unique things to help production and whatnot. Very,
Movie Discussions and Comparisons
01:13:32
Speaker
very cool. So does do and do anything for you, Scott? You know, I still haven't seen it yet. I know there are people who are like Dune too. It was like my generation's empire strikes back. It was so good. um It's I, I have a hard time finding time for a two hour movie.
01:13:53
Speaker
And when it starts blowing beyond the two hours, then it's hard for me to, to, to get it. yeah um I'm looking forward to it. You know, I, I will make a commitment that I will watch it. And next time I will return and report and tell you about how, how broad a appeal it was. i I know it's interesting though, because Dune, when it came out, there were people who were talking immediate Oscar.
01:14:17
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't know if the Oscars have, changed in relevance. It seems like they're focusing on trying to be like an indie film festival award show, as opposed to like a mass marketing award show that it used to be.
01:14:33
Speaker
Um, but it, it didn't really get anything. Um, so I, I, I do want to watch it and see, but if you look at the, ah any idea how much Dune took in?
01:14:45
Speaker
I haven't a clue, but I know it did. It did very, very well. I assume you're going to give us ah I'm just Googling it right now. While you're Googling that, I think that pretty much does it for us.
01:14:57
Speaker
Yep. Um, if, you know, if you've liked what you heard, please leave a comment and stuff on our Facebook. Uh, Scott, do you have a number for us yet? I'm almost there. Almost there. girl almost there Okay. Okay.
01:15:10
Speaker
i want to I want to reiterate, we are the content creator of this episode. If you haven't checked them out yet, Pinball Pursuit, ah at Pinball Pursuit on YouTube. They don't have any socials or anything up yet, but check out their content. They're doing some pretty cool, unique stuff.
01:15:24
Speaker
ah And I want to see where they go with it. They've only been doing it for about three months now. Got about 10 episodes up, but they're pretty cool to check out. Okay. So according to IMDb, The worldwide gross of this was $714 million. dollars That's pretty good. Is that both films or just the first one? or it so That's the second one. Sorry. i Oh, that's right. I just looked at the second one. I should probably look at the first one.
01:15:50
Speaker
Dang. I heard the second one was really good, though. But yeah, I don't think, I think if it would hit the 2 billion mark, we would have known the second one. The second one did better than the first one.
01:16:01
Speaker
The first one was 410 million. That doesn't shock me. Usually sequels do better than the original. I actually use that as a drop off. it It depends on the movie. Yeah.
01:16:12
Speaker
Yeah.
Contact Info and Listener Engagement
01:16:13
Speaker
Alrighty. You got anything else for Scott before we sign off? You know what I, I just want to thank everybody who went to Texas and please, if there was something that you thought of that we missed, please, please bring that up to us again.
01:16:27
Speaker
And, uh, thanks again. Thanks again for coming. Definitely. If you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com. If you want that thousand dollar discount on your new P three, uh, portal game.
01:16:38
Speaker
Also, if you just want to read, write an email or whatever it may be, hit us up on all the socials at loser kid pinball, whether be tick tock, Facebook, Instagram, X, ah threads. We're on all of them and we are constantly ah posting to everything as well. And there is unique content, whether it be on YouTube or with our podcast channel or with our socials.
01:17:00
Speaker
So please go hit up, like, subscribe, all that jazz. Scott, give us our last words. You know what? i want I want to know what you guys thought of Portal because I haven't played it yet. We've interviewed. it looks great. If you played it, please send us and let us know.