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TPF Pre-Show 2026
2 Playsin 19 minutes
We're talking about all the new games and speculate what else might be coming at Texas Pinball Festival
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Milestone Announcement
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning to the loser kid pinball podcast episode 90. I'm saying that because we're 10 episodes away from 200. du dun don I am Josh Rupp with me. My co-captain Scott Larson
New Game - Yukon Yeti Unveiled
00:00:19
Speaker
and Scott. There is actually there was a new reveal today. That's true.
00:00:23
Speaker
If you want to get Yukon Yeti, who you call them? Yeah. Call Zach and Nicole Minnie at flipping out pinball. They've always hooked me up with all my needs and, Hey, if you want to pick up that new Yukon Yeti, if you are missed out on that white water, then you can get the newer version of it made by Turner Pinball.
00:00:38
Speaker
Yep. And ah this is bright and shiny. It's definitely. It's definitely LED. d the the Well, and we can get we can dig into this later, but I'm like, if you want the legendary edition, sure hit up Zach, right? That's what they're calling this edition. so It's pre-TPF.
Texas Pinball Festival Highlights
00:00:54
Speaker
where it's It's that time of the year where we're starting to see some reveals. we're starting So we're doing a pre-TPF episode to kind of... Go through the news. We're on TPF Eve. So it starts tomorrow, if I remember correctly. And then, um yeah, it's in Dallas. It's like Friday night, Saturday, and then Sunday. it it is actually one of the one of the festivals that really has a meaningful Sunday.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yes. A lot of them really, Sunday is just... you get out of town, everything's broken down. yeah they They typically have a very full weekend. So if you don't have the day off, but you're still want to be able to, ah to get just a weekend in it it really does give you a big bang for your buck.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yep.
Absence from TPF and Expo's Evolution
00:01:38
Speaker
And i you know, we haven't been to TPF since, so Ed, at Ed Vanderveen was originally over TPF. It sounds like he sold it and he's been doing Pinball at the Beach recently. But between that and some of the live events that are no longer at ah TPF, I don't think we've really seen the difference that that has happened there. and Yeah, but but I also wonder if Expo has taken a lot of lot of hints from the success of TPF. yeah And they've incorporated a lot of the things to make Expo more successful. yeah Expo also happens to have
00:02:15
Speaker
A lot of the manufacturers right there, it has the tours usually. And so they have been able to incorporate a lot of the good things about TPF.
00:02:26
Speaker
um TPF is still, it's more of a fan experience. it's It's not so much of a vendor thing. So it it still has that element, um but it it does feel like it's changed a little bit.
00:02:41
Speaker
A little bit. um so But that's that's the other part. um This is all just what I'm hearing. you know right um it sounds like the incentives to bring your games to TPF have been kind of truncated a little bit, and so that's kind of hindered a little bit of what's been going on there.
00:02:56
Speaker
um I don't know. I'd like to get back down to TPF.
Personal Stories and Support Networks
00:02:58
Speaker
We've got a handful of friends going down. ah Pinball Pursuit. They're heading down right now. They just sent me a picture. His whole family's going. That's amazing. I'm excited for them.
00:03:08
Speaker
Um, one other, i don't know if these people are going, but I want to give them a shout out. I have them here on our notes, punk rock, pinball, specifically Stephanie.
00:03:18
Speaker
Um, i I forget that my wife tags me and stuff on on social media and she always does the family stuff while I try to just do this, right? Like I don't, anyhow, um she tagged me. So for those that don't know, my son ah was diagnosed celiacs back in December and it's been quite the transition. And then a couple of months later, his twin sister was diagnosed with it as well.
00:03:43
Speaker
But when Stephanie had heard, when she saw on Facebook that Grayson had been tagged, um or that Grayson had been diagnosed with celiacs. She reached out. She works for a company called Jackson.
00:03:55
Speaker
And this company specializes in potato chips, sweet potato, veggie straws, stuff like that. And she just wanted to, she's like, I want to send you like a care package because their food is like missing the top nine allergens.
00:04:10
Speaker
And like, it's just really good product. And so they shipped it out to me. And my son was so excited that he got this box for himself. This is before Nora was diagnosed, but seriously, you didn't have to do that. I really appreciate I really appreciate those that reached out to, um, to help, to, to talk to me about it.
00:04:30
Speaker
Uh, there was a lot of people that reached out. Um, it's, it's amazing how much you don't know it affects people until it happens to you. And then it seems like everyone comes out the woodworks to help. Right. So like,
00:04:42
Speaker
Thanks to Stephanie. Thanks to Pinball pur Pursuit as well. They reached out as well. um But yeah, just want to hurry and throw that out there before we got digging into the rest of the news, right?
Excitement for TPF Reveals
00:04:53
Speaker
So um yeah, so going back to TPF, I'm excited to see what's coming out this weekend because TPF and Expo both always have reveals, right?
00:05:04
Speaker
So let's talk about, let's hit st Stern first because we know Pokemon was revealed last month and so they're not going to be revealing another game by TPF. Yeah. But this will probably be the first time people get their hands on a Pokemon. Yes. And this is ah they're starting to get out in the wild. Our local Barcade has been able to start. to They just got it last weekend, I believe.
00:05:26
Speaker
They got the pro version. i have not, I've been so busy. I've not had a chance to get up there and try it out. But they are getting out there. So I'm really curious to see what people's experience has been.
00:05:37
Speaker
There has been a little bit of an issue ah with the orbit. And I'm hoping they were able to to fix that. i mean, Joshua, what are your thoughts on that? I think it's just adjusting some tooling in in the the tooling process. You could even see like the orbit itself actually goes over the artwork for some odd reason. They just haven't pushed that back. And so if you're worried about it, it's literally you take the plastic off, you unscrew the screw, you move it over, you adjust it, and you screw the screw back into the wood, put the plastic back on. You're good to go.
00:06:10
Speaker
So it's annoying. i will give you that. But like... it it's always it It always happens, though. yeah and this is This is, by the way, not a justification or a condemnation. This is saying...
00:06:24
Speaker
and Pinball, it's a mechanical device. And so considering the complexity of a an entertainment toy that has you know mechanical parts in in this day and age, it's pretty amazing what they can do.
00:06:40
Speaker
Unfortunately, having you know a ah ah kinetic ball moving around at high velocity, it's pretty hard to dial everything in. So and i i i think we we tend to be getting a little better incrementally with the manufacturing process.
00:06:56
Speaker
Still things will ah well slip through. Well, and it's hard too, right? Like Stern, Jersey Jack, we've both been in their places and they're big enough that they... It's not like spooky who's enthusiasts that can keep an eye on the line one hundred percent because they're pretty much the ones doing it right. Stern's handing it off to, to people that's, let's be frank, they don't even give a crap about pinball. They just want a job. but Well, okay. Okay. That's not true. That's, that's, that's not fair. Um, there are people who obviously their main job is the assembly line of pinball, right?
00:07:31
Speaker
Yes. But, ah Okay. Yeah. So they, they care about the product. People who work still care about, even if you don't care about playing pinball per se, you still are going to care about your product because as a business, you don't want to have the complaints about, Hey, the product is not working the way it's designed. So but we've, we've heard stories though. We're like, we're designers get feedback of like,
00:07:55
Speaker
like a Newton ball isn't staying on. And it says literally in the instructions, like use Teflon tape or use whatever, you know, to secure the Newton ball. And they had to go out on the line and like stand over someone to be like, you're not doing this properly. You need to do this. There will always be some gaps, certainly. And correct considering any assembly line, you're going to have people who are less committed to that one job. For sure. You're saying this so professionally. ah Okay. that yeah my My point being is, is like Jersey Jack and Stern might have those right quality control issues that might slip through the gaps because it's hard when you have
00:08:36
Speaker
50, 100 employees an assembly line. 200 individual people touching the game before it goes. Yes. yeah Correct. yeah You're going to have variations on commitment to quality for sure. Yeah. You don't know if someone's girlfriend broke up with them that week and they just don't care. You know what I'm saying?
00:08:52
Speaker
Anywho, point being is, is like, I agree with you. It's not a condemnation. It's not justification. It's just pinball is pinball. And it's, it is amazing how much goes into these games before they get into our house. Right? Right.
00:09:05
Speaker
outside of a car i don't know what all the product has this much going into it before it gets into your house not mechanical for consumer-based consumption like there will be business-based consumption yes that will have similar high high complexity machines but certainly pinball has to be up there when you're talking about someone buying a complex operating mechanical machine for mainly entertainment yeah the only thing you could possibly say is maybe like a motorcycle or a side-by-side but those are when you're talking about manufacturing they do 20 40 thousand times the amount of volume and so they're going to have uh they're gonna spit through some some errors pretty quickly
00:09:55
Speaker
So speaking of, well, Stern's making
Challenges in Pinball Manufacturing
00:09:58
Speaker
these games. Pokemon, you and I have not played it yet because one just barely came available in the wild here at Kidos. It just popped up Saturday, i want to say.
00:10:07
Speaker
Um, but everything I'm hearing, it is back to not basics. Like obviously this has more rules and code and and depth and modernization than a 1990s Valley Williams, but I'm hearing a lot of great things. Uh, it's, it's nice to have a straightforward game every once in a while. Um, I think this one's going to have quite the tail on it. Um, I just, I'm excited to play this game.
00:10:32
Speaker
um I haven't committed to one yet, but I just, don't know, man. This is, I kind of grew up on Pokemon. I still dabble in the cards here and there. i did Pokemon go for years.
00:10:44
Speaker
Um, Yeah, I just, I want to see how this turns out. You know what I'm saying? like did you Did you read the link that I sent you guys about the Pokemon game that was actually an information gathering thing for mapping software? thought that was actually pretty ingenious. Yeah, so for those that don't know, Pokemon Go was originally owned by a company called Niantic, and they still are involved.
00:11:12
Speaker
um But that's literally like they used the AR tool because it was Niantic that was also working with Google. And so Google took all those photos and everything. They literally had millions of people sourcing all their It was like 8 billion pictures. Yeah.
00:11:29
Speaker
That is crazy. But hey,
Jersey Jack and Harry Potter Impact
00:11:32
Speaker
pretty ingenious. And hey, if people were, getting entertainment at the same time i think it's interesting nothing's for free right like you're still somehow your time still costs money too yep yep so i know i'm excited i'm jealous of people getting to go play this uh pokemon down there uh we do know that jersey jack pinball is not bringing anything like they won't be revealing anything um and and i i hope that jack does not go into the harry potter well and be like sonic the hedgehog's coming up save your money
00:12:06
Speaker
It'd be pretty hard to submarine Harry Potter. It's true. i just, I feel bad for that avatar panel. Well, I feel bad for the avatar team. i It was definitely mistimed. um i I'm guessing they were feeling some heat from King Kong with the possibility that could be another another Godzilla situation, which would siphon siphon sales.
00:12:29
Speaker
So i I understand why why he did it it. It is just unfortunate how it how it turned out. But at that time, King Kong hadn't even revealed. it went't No, but it was, okay, Godzilla is on track to be the the best-selling modern game. Okay? Who knows? Who knows if it'll beat Adam's family? I don't know. But it is certainly on trend, and it doesn't seem to show signs of slowing down. yeah And they're still making it in in record amounts. So having another similar game from Keith Elwin coming out, it makes sense for them to be nervous. Concerned. Even if you have a monster theme like Harry Potter. Oh, yeah. And the thing is, is Keith is more hit than miss, right? like Sure. You could argue all of his games were hits. uh whether you agree with avengers or not it's still an amazing flow game and if you over complicate it yeah it could be stressful but like honestly the game shelf shoots really well shoots really well and it can be overly simplified of just collect the avengers and you can get to the end you' know i'm saying there there are certainly different ways i still like it i just i find it one of the most dynamic layouts the way that you can move the ball path around yeah yeah um I would argue King Kong would have been number one for 2025 if they would have put the Star Wars theme on it.
00:13:49
Speaker
Probably. Yeah. Hands down. No, like no issues. Like everyone said, it'd been the greatest game made. know I'm saying? Sure. So, But okay, so JJP was not showing anything. Spooky obviously is not really revealing anything for Texas Pinball Festival, but i don't think they ever have because they're the annual annual
Spooky Pinball's Beetlejuice Game
00:14:06
Speaker
release guys. That's it. Yeah.
00:14:07
Speaker
So they're they're pumping out Beetlejuice. This will be the second time in public you can play one. ah Well, at an event like this. So um they did go to Pinball at the Beach. i'm I'm hearing if you are a theme immersive person, this is a game for you.
00:14:23
Speaker
hi I have heard complaints that it plays fairly easy. um And then I've heard complaints that plays really hard. So I don't know where the gameplay is at. And I really wish I could get my hands on one of these to be like, yeah, it's one way or the other. eight Okay. Spooky has never dominated on the best flowing game.
00:14:44
Speaker
they They never have. they They have dominated on theme immersions and they've also dominated on having sculpts. and presentation and their art has always been tier.
00:14:59
Speaker
So that's really where they, they focus. Uh, and really, i think they just kind of know where their audience is. Um, you know, Texas Chainsaw, uh, they know their audience, uh, evil dead. mean, really it does know their audience. And so they, they certainly succeed at that.
00:15:17
Speaker
Um, I think Beetlejuice will hit exactly where the people who want a spooky game will hit because i I don't think you'll ever going to be competing at least currently with Spooky's lineup at like the best flowing game or the best, ah you know, the best coded game.
00:15:36
Speaker
That's not really who they are at this point, but they are excellent at theme presentation and theme immersion. I agree. And I think honestly, pinball is different for every person.
00:15:49
Speaker
And i think if you are a true like purist pinball enthusiast, it doesn't matter the theme, so long as the game and the and the the rules and everything are great, right? It could be the worst game in the world. Theme wise, you know, shadow. Sure. ah Okay. i i will I will argue though.
00:16:11
Speaker
Even having like the best, there's a reason why they have art on them. There's a reason why they have themes on them because if you just had a white, like think of Deadpool. Okay. Look at the white wood of Deadpool and it's pretty bare.
00:16:26
Speaker
It's and it's a fun game because the rules and the artwork and the experience brings you in. But if you just had the white wood and even the rule set, so just say a scoring rule set without any sort of theme immersion, it would not be the same game.
00:16:45
Speaker
True, but games like, i don't know, this is Spinal Tap and Thunderbirds? okay you know Okay, but those aren't great games. Those are terrible games. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. If you're if you're a pinball purist...
00:16:58
Speaker
Like it's all about the gameplay and the rules. And that's why like people that love King Kong, I, I, I feel fall more in that pinball enthusiast because the theme itself is it's, it's almost like ah an original theme when you did it off of a book a hundred years ago. yeah Sure. It'd be like Phantom of the Opera. Really? And then I feel like opera came out today because it's an old book really. Yeah.
00:17:20
Speaker
And, and I think there's people that are more of a pinball, immersion right? Like they want, they want the evil dads. They want the Beetlejuice. They want the Adams family that draws you in and showtime. Yes. You know what i'm saying? And there, there are some people it's a mix of both.
00:17:38
Speaker
Um, but I just, I think that spooky's really found their group and I think they've done an excellent job at it. And it's those theme immersion people that want to feel like they're part of the license they are experiencing.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah. so Just my thought. But all right, and let's talk about the last one that will not be at Texas, which is very unusual for this this company.
Multimorphic's Strategic Absence from TPF
00:18:00
Speaker
ah Multimorphic announced this last month through their email update. If you've not subscribed to their email, do so. But they are not showing at TPF this year, which is smart.
00:18:12
Speaker
It is very smart. It's smart. Yes. I agree. um I think one of the problems that Multimorphic has had is they show at Texas because they want Texas. Cause that's their back. That's their backyard. Right. And then they don't ship for another six months. And so I think with this whole, like, I think portal has been a great hit for them. I think it helps them push into financially going to later.
00:18:37
Speaker
And so why not reveal when you're ready to ship or within a month, right? Like stern reveals. And then you're anywhere from two reveals, Harry Potter, same thing. Correct. Harry Potter. Yeah. you jump on it now, you can get it um P3 is definitely smart yeah in saying we are going to wait and announce the next game when we have a short window of shipping because the the quickest way of selling something and retaining the demand is to have someone be able to buy it and have it in their hands within two weeks.
00:19:13
Speaker
I agree. And I think as much as people don't want to hear this, pinball is becoming more like it was a collectible item before, but it's truly becoming a collectible now. Right. We're seeing that with like Pokemon Ellie. We saw that with Winchester. We saw that with Beetlejuice, like it's sold out.
00:19:27
Speaker
Those three alone sold out within 48 hours. Well, okay. Collectible versus hype. I'm going to say that's a little different because I guarantee eventually the Pokemon, like right now, yes, we're hearing like crazy, crazy things for certain numbers, I'm sure. but you're going to get the same thing. And you remember how um Foo Fighters was was a big hit. And then everybody just saw it. They played it. And there's always a new shiny object coming. I guarantee when Winchester gets out here,
00:20:00
Speaker
You'll still be able to pick it up for probably around 13 when maybe, maybe 14, maybe 15, just because the limited nature of it. But I don't see it realistically being like a, a J.J.P.
Pinball as a Collectible Market
00:20:15
Speaker
Pirates of the Caribbean because they didn't make that many of those.
00:20:18
Speaker
Like it's, that was the reason why that was so rare. Well, and I i agree to you with you to a point. um I think it really does depend on...
00:20:32
Speaker
ah It depends on the audience, right? like It depends on the audience that are buying these games. I mean, one that we always skip over that... blew everyone's socks off. Like no one knew this was happening. And and if you would have told me to buy 10 of them, I would have laughed at you, but I would have thanked you if I did it.
00:20:50
Speaker
ah Supreme. Supreme released in 2018. It was a home edition. That's a totally different scenario. That's a totally different scenario. It was... that was Supreme, it's like...
00:21:02
Speaker
if Lamborghini came and said, Hey, because we want you to make a pinball machine. And so just because it's associated with that brand. Now I still do not get at all what the drive of Supreme is or the, but it's the brand that,
00:21:20
Speaker
breeds exclusivity. And so that was engineered into it, but that is so few and far between. Yeah. But I think it goes back to your audience. you're selling We couldn't even get one. Do you remember that there were people who reached out to me and said, Hey, I'm getting a Supreme. How can I get one? I'm like, don't know. just asked Stern. Like I had no idea what Stern, what Supreme was at the time.
00:21:42
Speaker
Sam. But here's the thing, though, like Pokemon, I feel like is positioned a little bit in that way as well. I mean, Jake or Logan Paul sold his Pikachu illustrator card the same week Pokemon revealed for sixteen point five million dollars. There isn't this audience like pinballs pretty niche.
00:22:01
Speaker
I think once it starts getting out there and people start seeing it like this is a thing. Yeah. I half wonder if those L.E.s are still going to go up. I think people selling them for 20,000 right now. They may.
00:22:12
Speaker
i I could be completely wrong on this. I know that Pokemon is a huge, huge thing. um There are going to be a billion premiums available that you can blingify up to a Pokemon adjacent LE.
00:22:30
Speaker
And so unless you really care about having the LE, yeah, yeah. ah know I don't know. I still like my Godzilla Premium more than I like the Godzilla LE. And that's me. i Even if I went, but the the reason why i didn't buy the 30, or sorry, the 70th, because I liked this artwork better than the 70 artwork because the 70 artwork was a foiled version of the of the LE.
00:22:57
Speaker
No, I agree. right, let's talk about the companies are to be there that are going to be showing stuff They have Tease Us. ah Let's start with the one that hasn't fully revealed yet. Well, I guess there's two of them. American Pinball.
00:23:08
Speaker
So let's let's get up to speed because it's but it's been a minute since you have talked news.
American Pinball's New Direction
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah. um American Pinball was bought out by J.B. Vincent. um So it's a total wash. They said it was a clean break. Colin with Kinesis, if you go there, he did ah in an interview with Ron. Um, it seems like, so when J B Vincent bought them out, he did keep her on, which was the president that, that took over after Dave fix left.
00:23:36
Speaker
And, he was bumped up from cells to, to president. And then, um, I'm trying to think if they kept anyone, I think they kept some of the original team that was there. Um, okay. It's, I would say.
00:23:50
Speaker
for all intents and purposes, it's a reboot. It's a totally flush and reboot. yes Um, so they've announced a couple of times here already. sure So Rick with planetary pinball announced, uh, uh, a partnership with American to make more remakes, which this has the fourth or fifth company that's agreed with planetary. Yeah. So what licenses haven't been taken already? Why hasn't been picked over? Why hasn't been scavenged with, you know,
00:24:19
Speaker
um Because that's the thing, though. when When these companies do agreements, too, it seems like they're taking seven or eight titles at a time. You know I'm saying? Yeah. The challenge, though, is that the secret sauce that CGC has had with their remakes.
00:24:35
Speaker
And yes, we all know that they have a terrible manufacturing timeline. Yeah. But the product was always good.
00:24:46
Speaker
Yeah. Sometimes great, really. Yep. So the the fact that they were able to have a ah near perfect version with modern components of an older game made it so, hey, buying Attack from Mars was great.
00:25:03
Speaker
Buying Medieval Madness was great. you know And even Monster Bash, which is probably the runt of the four Cactus Canyon games, Oh, by the way, I do want to give a big thank you to CGC. So they sent me out a test kit. Okay. I installed the test kit. We already talked about this before. And um I actually found that I had an error in mine where the door, the saloon door would open up and then it wouldn't shut back down.
00:25:32
Speaker
So, so I actually reached out to them and Jim, took Took everything. he took everything was going on and they sent me out a new one to replace that one.
00:25:42
Speaker
So I haven't, i was a little curious when I was talking to to Josh Sharp about how far I was getting in the game. It was because the the door wasn't shutting on me. So I'm very thankful for CGC for sending out another one.
00:25:55
Speaker
I will uninstall the old one and reinstall the new one. And then I will give a re report on that. But yes. Um, so if you look at the CGC games, they were able to capture the four most in demand games and keep it at a high quality, which is why you're still seeing people saying, okay, I still want those.
00:26:18
Speaker
Uh, American pinball has not had that same level of quality control on their manufactured games. And whether or not they can do that, people are still interested in a high quality reproduction of a classic game.
00:26:36
Speaker
Having Tales of the Arabian Nights, having Theater of Magic, having Circus Voltaire, having a Whitewater, all these games would find homes in people's houses as long as they were a quality reproduction of it.
00:26:53
Speaker
i i I guess the jury's still out on whether or not American pinball can replicate that. They have a factory. It is on the smaller side. We've talked about it.
00:27:04
Speaker
um And can they actually put out a quality game without any bugs? um I guess we shall see. True. And so American,
00:27:19
Speaker
they've made those changes, right? So they made the agreement. Um, and then this just a couple weeks ago, they announced that Rob of the electric playground, which we've had on, we we helped them reveal their attack from our stopper and Nick that did the Tony Hawks pro skater homebrew, which flabbergasted and Florida everyone at expo have now signed on to American pinball.
00:27:43
Speaker
Nick is a designer, Rob is a product director. um So it seems like they're starting to put the right cogs in the right spot to really get this machine moving. I'm hopeful. I guess I'll put I'm i'm hopeful, cautiously cautiously optimistic. Okay, but they've done this before, right?
00:28:01
Speaker
Yes. Yes. This seems to be APs. They they found you know they found Ryan yeah to do, you know the who had the the great Sonic game, the homebrew game. yep They brought him on and that didn't pan out and so I'm hoping that with a new approach they may be able to make it pan out this time I'm still just holding my breath though because they haven't shown anything that would make me have faith in their company right now so I also forgot Melvin formerly of DPX so Dutch Pinball and DPX decided to split ways new investors came into Dutch Pinball and said hey This is an extra division. It's extra weight. We have we have different views. Yes. Yes, correct. And so Melvin wasn't even gone from Dutch after his announcement for like a full 24 hours when American reached out and gave him a job as well.
00:29:01
Speaker
um I agree with you. So here's here's my concerns. So my concerns are we're still producing in Chicago, which is fine. I don't think that's a bad thing. That's a good thing. It's a good thing.
00:29:13
Speaker
But – You're producing pinball in Chicago. Your president lives in St. Louis. Your designer lives in St. Louis. Your product director lives in St. Louis. Melvin, I don't know exactly what he's over. I can't remember, but he lives in Europe.
00:29:28
Speaker
we we're starting to see this trend of like, so the assembly line will be in Chicago, but we're going to scatter the pieces to the wind. How, how well can you, can you keep that going? yeah That's a big question. yes It's, it's really, that that's how startups are. That's not how manufacturing, like high volume quality manufacturing is done. You have to have people who are connected more when you're, when you're deciding to step up.
00:29:59
Speaker
So I I'm, I'm curious again, prove me wrong. I am willing to be proven wrong, but you have to actually make a proof of concept before I'll believe you. Sam here.
00:30:10
Speaker
Um, and so American announced this week, they are bringing, let me, let me verbatim working on something exciting for Texas pinball festival with the picture of them.
Teasers and Speculations for TPF
00:30:23
Speaker
with an assembly line with play fields upside down. So you can't see exactly what it is. um But we have seen our bits and pieces of artwork. My understanding is they're bringing Houdini back. They're giving it a facelift. And um yeah, I, that's what I've been told is going be at Texas pinball festival.
00:30:44
Speaker
So if it's Houdini, okay. But that is, they tried to cram one too many shots in that game. And it is it is a really hard game, even opening up for anybody who's, and even like elite players, you have to have a big enough tolerance for a shot that elite players will still have fun doing it. yeah um I'm not sure Houdini's that game.
00:31:12
Speaker
I would argue it's their best-selling Probably is. Yeah, it probably is. i ah But just because that's their best-selling game doesn't mean that it's the That's going to make them more money.
00:31:24
Speaker
Well, and let's people who have Houdini already or want Houdini already have it. True. And let's break it down. Like Oktoberfest. It's a good shooting game, but it just, I don't think it the legs to, to be redone. Well, the Hot Wheels, the license, they've openly said it, the license expired in December, 2025, and they were not allowed to renew it. That was so basic of a game. I'm not sure. Yeah.
00:31:47
Speaker
I don't think you do another legend Legends of Valahalla rerun because a we don't know if the license, like how that all unfolded, right? Yeah, I don't know. There's still Galactic Tank Forces in the in the warehouse probably. They're never making that game. Yeah, and Barrio's Barbecue. so Again, never making that game. yeah You're back you're back to Houdini. And if you need to bridge the gap from when you bought the company, you need something on the line, start bringing in a little bit of cash to to reinvest.
00:32:18
Speaker
Or a proof of concept that you can make a functioning, high-quality pinball machine. Yeah. So maybe that's what they're doing. Yeah. I'm excited to see a couple things because if you remember, the original Houdini had a weird cabinet. It had a unique cabinet. Let's not say weird. Unique cabinet.
00:32:33
Speaker
but divergent cabinet. Are you going to do that again? i doubt it. If you want to cut back on costs, like if you want, you know i'm saying? Standard cabinet.
00:32:44
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I think you could open up the shots a little bit, not by a ton. And then there's a couple of spots that like often rejected that I think you could work on. I think you'd almost have to take one of the shots out and, Oh, and put a few millimeters in each shot.
00:33:00
Speaker
The weirdest part you want to, okay. ah I've been digging into American for the last little bit, just because there was a lot of discussions with us in American around a certain project that never revealed.
00:33:14
Speaker
um And so any who, the point being is, is I went on because I insert clips into the video as we're talking. So like people can see, Oh, this is what they're talking about. Right. So I looked up Houdini.
00:33:27
Speaker
he They released a trailer for it last year. And I'm like, this game's been out for like almost a decade now. Why are we redoing a new trailer for it? So I thought that was pretty weird and unique. ah The other weird thing about American, and maybe, i don't know, maybe Orbit Games has dissolved.
00:33:46
Speaker
Nothing has done been done to update their website. Nothing has done been done to to update their Facebook. Essentially when American got, uh, what, what, what was that game? They tried to, Whirlow ball. youre a little ball at yeah They didn't sell one of those. You think they sold a single one. There's no way.
00:34:02
Speaker
No way. Yeah. so Maybe the company's mom bought one. That's a Maybe. Amtron bought one, I guess. It's that was laughably bad.
00:34:13
Speaker
So I half wonder if like orbit games is no more because it it just, it should be no more. It should never have been. Yeah. So it's going interesting. I'm excited. I'm cautiously optimistic for American, but like Scott said, I need a proof of concept. yeah I need to get my hand on. I'm skeptic. I'm skeptic. I'm not even optimistic on this. Really? Yeah.
00:34:35
Speaker
With it being fresh faces, I'm optimistic. i i okay i okay I hope that they'll do the best. I don't really expect anything to change. With no AIMTron in the picture, I am cautiously optimistic. Let me put that that away. I really don't think, because that's the that's the difference that's go around, right? AIMTron has always been involved involved from the beginning. when j pop When J-Pop was like, I want to make Houdini, and then when they realized this man don't know how to make a game, so they brought in Joe Balser. and then everything that happened around that and then COVID hit and they fired like half their people and they brought in the David Fix era and then the firing of David Fix and the new era of nothing. It's being really produced. I know the sell, the sellout.
00:35:20
Speaker
That's the difference, right? Amtron is the difference. And Amtron had a lot of control over over American because obviously the people front the bill. So I, I really think if JB Vincent,
00:35:31
Speaker
is going to invest and he's as big as pinball enthusiast as he says, let's give this a couple of years and let's see how this works out. Okay. I wish them the best. I am not holding my breath at all.
00:35:44
Speaker
i agree all right let's move on to the next one that semi revealed we'll probably see more of it this weekend hexa pinball from france you remember their uh space space space hunt space space hunt yeah um they are now bringing out their next game uh three musketeers okay so nap arcade did a little write-up on this thanks nap because i could not find this video literally anywhere else i I don't know how he got a hold of it. if yeah i'm just well i I don't speak French either. so me that
00:36:15
Speaker
and ja Jason knows people. he gets He gets things. He does. And so 15 seconds long. It's a musketeer walking up to pinball machine that has been completely blurred out.
00:36:27
Speaker
Yeah. and Anything. Does this do anything for you, Scott? um I like the candy bars. Okay. i When was the last time a Three Musketeers movie has even been done?
00:36:41
Speaker
um The last one I think was, wasn't Chris O'Donnell? Like, D'Artagnan or whatever his name was? Um, yeah, I, okay.
00:36:53
Speaker
I would say, you know, the generation who even knows the three Musketeers story is, was that Charlie's vanishing there where we're old now, all the people who, and none of us, we were peripherally, i guess, aware of the story, but nothing that would make me think, wow, I really have to get this pinball machine. Yeah. I guess it's in public domain. It's free.
00:37:19
Speaker
um right there was there in 2023 there was a three musketeers dark ton movie but it was like even know if went to theaters it might have been like a street it was probably direct direct to eight track release yeah exactly yeah um okay it's it's an interesting theme it's i i kind of think pride and prejudice would have more legs than this would um But hey, again, it
Hexa Pinball's Three Musketeers
00:37:48
Speaker
depends. I don't know what their business model is.
00:37:50
Speaker
how many people How many games they need to sell? What is considered a success for them? And if maybe a run of 100 is, i doubt they I doubt they sold more than 50 space hunts.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah. So when the i wonder what their success what their success line is. True. And they are France-based. Like, we don't know how... like through musketeers might be amazing over there, regardless of if you're actually paying for a license or if you're using, cause the story's been around since mid 1800s, probably before that. Yeah.
00:38:22
Speaker
Um, I just, that's the other thing too. Like, let's be honest. We're still in this weird space with terrorists right now and like Congress struck them down, but like there's pushback and yada, yada, yada. I, I doubt that they're selling any of these in the United States.
00:38:37
Speaker
i I don't know. and They might. Maybe 10 to very eclectic people who want something that's different than Godzilla. Yeah. um Well, what's crazy too is like not like the terror like not even even just the tariff thing. like you have to claim product like You have to bring that product back with you too. like I don't know. Anywho.
00:38:57
Speaker
um Yeah, that's a whole some other side tangent. We don't need to go on. um see yeah So yeah. So Three Musketeers does nothing for you? Nope. I don't think it does. Space Hunt didn't really do anything for me either.
00:39:09
Speaker
ah Three Musketeers does nothing for me. If the gameplay was good and the rules were awesome, I would consider it. Okay, sure. But this is now you're getting into like Ninja Eclipse territory where you're saying, I thought Ninja Eclipse was fun enough and I thought that Looney Tunes was fun enough.
00:39:27
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. So that's kind of where that level could possibly be. But it would be like coming out with a Bugs Bunny movie right now or Bugs Bunny anything right now.
00:39:38
Speaker
Like you have to be dunking on spooky. They came out with Looney Tunes just like a couple of years ago. Well, okay. But what I am saying is that you have to be over like 50 to even remember when Looney Tunes was on TV.
00:39:52
Speaker
yeah ah Yeah. And it's actually, I, I find it interesting. I just went to, this is a year ago and Looney Tunes came out by spooky or two years ago. And I looked up, okay, I wonder what a box set of like,
00:40:07
Speaker
you know Looney Tunes cartoons or something like that would be, they don't even have like a good collection, an easy collection to buy and consume. It's all chopped up into all these rando weird, like seasons.
00:40:23
Speaker
And I don't understand why they don't have a better way of doing it. But I'm just saying even that is, you know, Looney Tunes. It's not relevant to anybody under 50. I doubt that you even watch that. So Cartoon Network actually does have modern Looney Tunes on right now.
00:40:40
Speaker
But it's not Teen Titans. It's not like, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah there's there are other properties at Cartoon Network, I feel like, that do a good job of being in the cultural zeitgeist. Right. You'd have better luck with ah Batman, the animated series.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's called The Looney Tunes Show. Oh, sorry. It came out in 2011 and only ran for two seasons. Huh. How many years ago is that, Josh? That's been 13 years ago. They still rerun it. It's syndicated, so.
00:41:13
Speaker
kind I kind of swear it was newer though. It's not relevant. It's literally not relevant. Man, Hanna, Kate, think of it coming out with Hanna-Barbera. You have to be in your sixties to remember that. Yeah, true. Yeah. ah Speaking of which, if you want a Looney Tunes pinball machine, go to spookypinball.com. I'm pretty sure you can still order one right now. And again, i thought i thought Looney Tunes was fine. i really did. It was the D side a Texas Chainsaw Massacre. wasn't Their website says you can still buy a collector's edition. Sure. they're In stock.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, i I thought it was actually fine for what it was offering. Yeah, yeah it was a great game. But i I agree with you to a point. There's certain licenses like Three Musketeers. See, here's the thing. is the Looney Tunes, I feel, is more relevant than Three Musketeers.
00:42:04
Speaker
Of course it is. Yeah. so That's exactly my point. is like They should have come up with Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice or... I don't know. down Downton Abbey or something like that. Downtown Abbey. They should do Bridgerton.
00:42:17
Speaker
Oh yeah. Yeah. They'd have to, they'd have to edit that one. Oh no. that but Maybe that's the untapped market. Girls that read and watch spicy material. Yes. Yes. 50 shades of pinball. that that's what That's what's missing in the market. No one's tried.
00:42:33
Speaker
who Who's done the research algorithm on that? I want to know. i do not want to know your screen search if you've done the research algorithm on that. Oh, I know a couple people that would probably have done the research just yeah just to see if it's – I'm curious now. Sure. It's the same people who read certain magazines for the articles.
00:42:50
Speaker
No, and there's people that generally are in pinball that are searching for good themes that resonate with pinball that would make money. I'm not talking about people that are breeding 50 shades of gray and be like, this would make a great pinball machine. No, no. I'm talking about actual people behind the scenes doing research. Okay. but yeah I guarantee three Musketeers is not in the top 1000 desirable topic or ah titles. i half wonder, i wonder how many they're going to make of these.
00:43:18
Speaker
And what the price is going be. less than 50. I'm guessing less than 50. And if if that's really their success point, then good for them. they're ah They're finding something that it's a product that I don't think anybody wants, but maybe if there's enough demand, sure.
00:43:33
Speaker
Sure. all right. Speaking of you said Ninja eclipse. Yes. We have had an official reveal today. It is March 18th. That is Wednesday. Yukon Yeti, which is the direct follow up to white water from 1992.
Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti Follow-up
00:43:50
Speaker
Yeah. Or 93. I apologize. um Which is wrong anyway. Do you know how many people reach out to correct us? Holy crap. Okay. It's 2013 white water. All right. Okay.
00:44:02
Speaker
okay all right so no it's a 2026 whitewater oh there you go okay yeah okay i was just making a joke that i know 13 was obviously wrong yeah okay okay it it looks it looks like they took whitewater and skinned it and added a physical ball lock elevator well and here's the other interesting did you watch the trailer did you happen to watch the i watched part of it i was at work and so i don't really I can't really watch videos when I'm at work. You're watching a video while someone, someone's getting their kidney taken out. Sure. Why not? Yeah. yeah Why not? Yeah. Oh yeah. He's still good. He's good. Yep. Yep.
00:44:37
Speaker
Anywho. Um, I do find it interesting. Like the main shot from whitewater is literally in this game. So they've taken the upper play field and they've reversed it. So instead of shooting to the left and up, it shoots the right and up, but even that up center shot that's on whitewater that like goes into a ball walk, or into ah a buck and then goes up onto the upper playfield is literally in this game so like it's which is great like it's a it's a it's a throwback like that was the most memorable part of that game i do like them flipping the upper playfield i feel like it opens up my one complaint with whitewater it's a really great game but the whole right side of the playfield is ah it's blocked by the upper playfield and it also you just have a bunch of pops in there so you never see the ball coming through
00:45:21
Speaker
And so like the right side really isn't used in that game. So it's a lot of up the center and the left. Right. Yeah. So, um, I'm excited to see this. I, I white water is one the ones that I really thoroughly enjoyed as I got into pinball when I first got in. Yeah.
00:45:37
Speaker
Here's my concern. And I don't know how, like you and i were talking about this behind the scenes. We have the same concern. How many companies passed up on making this game?
00:45:49
Speaker
we know for sure publicly American did. yeah And I don't know, we just assumed it was the fallout between g GTF and Ryashian. Yeah, there's no way. That's that's that's like dating your ex.
00:46:01
Speaker
But I'm pretty for sure this one was pitched at Stern. And the reason being, Dennis worked there for like a decade before he moved on to, well, he wasn't working there for a minute. And then he did some stuff for Multimorphic. He did Lexi Lightspeed.
00:46:17
Speaker
um And then like So I guarantee this game has been pitched a couple of times. What about this game makes it that other companies have passed and Turner's the one that's like, we're doing it.
00:46:30
Speaker
You know what i'm saying? Well, okay. and Now this is me speculating. Okay. okay So Dennis has done many games he was designing what in the 80s or nineteen early 90s his first game was rapid fire okay so so he's been around and designing okay there are there are companies out there that are familiar with him established companies that he has made games for so we have pirates of the caribbean stern game we have ah you know elvira
00:47:06
Speaker
and That's another Stern game, but he left at the end of that one before it was even made. So Stern took that across the finish line. Well, he's been around and and he's done like, whoa, Nelly and that.
00:47:22
Speaker
The challenge I have is that it's possible that companies that have worked with him have decided that he's not their best option for a designer.
00:47:33
Speaker
and Now this is, I, I've never met Dennis. I don't know him personally. I don't even know any stories about him. Okay. But I am saying that Jersey Jack knew that Dennis was out there when they were trying to build up their, you know, their arsenal of designers.
00:47:52
Speaker
Stern has an arsenal of designers. And at some point, Dennis departed Stern for whatever reason. Okay. So, You have the two major companies where so where Dennis has an established record of making games and they weren't interested.
00:48:11
Speaker
So it makes me wonder why. Whitewater, this is obviously a just a revamped Whitewater, right?
Dennis Nordman's Career and Yukon Yeti
00:48:20
Speaker
So it makes me wonder, okay, so if they didn't want to do it and Whitewater, it still is a beloved title. It's a fun title. Okay, it's not the deepest one. It's not a tournament game.
00:48:32
Speaker
but a very, um, a tuned up whitewater is still a good time. So if given all that, why would they not be interested in a version of whitewater that could possibly sell?
00:48:49
Speaker
The question is why wouldn't they take a risk on it? And I think it's just because they felt they had better options. So if they felt they had better options,
00:49:01
Speaker
And American, okay, i can I can discount American just because ah the GTF fallout. But i I don't think that there's a lot of people who were chomping at the bit to do this.
00:49:18
Speaker
I don't disagree. um Looking at the play field, honestly, it does look good in my opinion. Sure. One ah one of my negatives when it comes to pinball, granted, everyone plays differently i don't like i don't mind physical ball locks sure but the weird staircase that houses like six balls and i get that like once you get multi-ball it drains like it dumps them all at the same time at you avalanche avalanche yeah and so i just um
00:49:51
Speaker
i'm I don't know. I want to get my hands on this game. I want to play Like I said, I am a Whitewater fan. So Yukon Yeti is is a happy sight to see, right? One thing I want to You and I were talking about this earlier, um but we kind of did go through Dennis Norman's lineup of games he made. So let's let's go really quick. Barrio's Barbecue, Avira, House of Horrors, Galactus Tank Force, Primus, Zombie League. So if you didn't know Zombie League, it was a Pitch and Bat that he did in between...
00:50:20
Speaker
Jobs, I guess. Uh, Lexi light speed paps can crush her. Whoa, Nelly. So whoa, Nelly paps and primus are all the same layout. They probably just was like a white dad. That's a reskin. Yeah. Uh, will a fortune, uh, parts the Caribbean.
00:50:35
Speaker
Yep. Uh, his first game back at starting was a Simpsons kooky circus. It was a redemption machine, right? Uh, his last game. So then we're going back into the nineties, right? Scared stiff demo man, whitewater,
00:50:49
Speaker
that's three solid games right there. Sure. Partied zone, which is fine. It's not a bad one. Dr. Dude, Blackwater 100, which is like known for its like rarity, right? That's kind of a fun one just because it's an interesting motorcycle one. Yeah. And I've played one. It's I'm,
00:51:08
Speaker
It is definitely a niche title to say the least. I feel like it's, it's, it's a showpiece, right? Like it's also like bonsai run, right? Like bonsai run is a fun game, yeah but it was that eighties. Like, and and I've heard people who love blackwater 100 or they hate it. Right. Yeah. ah Party animals, special force and rapid fire. Yeah.
00:51:27
Speaker
So that is 40 years worth of design wrapped up. And what is that? 20, 20 ish titles. little How many solid games would you say?
00:51:38
Speaker
So I would say six, probably about six. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I forgot one that is on this list. Sorry. Indy 500. Yeah. Which was all another, which was another solid one from, from Valley Williams. And I would, okay. I actually like Stern Pirates of the Caribbean.
00:51:54
Speaker
It's still one of my, one of my games. I still like it and I'm glad I have it. It's a, it is a solid game, but okay. Of all those games, which ones would I consider buying? Okay.
00:52:07
Speaker
I'll take stern, ah stern pirates of the Caribbean. I would say that one whitewater. um i think L virus fine scared stiff. I actually think it's more fun than it's pretty fast for the era. It is what is.
00:52:25
Speaker
Okay. And then I'm really kind of stalling out. of the ones that I would be interested in. I know that that that's that may not be the best way of looking at things, yeah but I'm your typical collector who will buy games and put them in my basement. yeah and if that If my last game that he designed that I'm pretty interested in would be the Stern Pirates of the Caribbean, that was like 2006? Something like that. so That's years ago Yeah. And he's been around for a long time and bouncing from job to job. So they're they it tends to tell me that they feel there's better options out there.
00:53:07
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and me personally, I've owned Whitewater. I searched it out. I got a deal on it. I got it. The only other game I've ever owned that's a dance movement is Dr. Dude. The reason being is is it was at a local arcade here in town. It kept breaking. The dude owed me money, and he went under, and he's like, just take the game. Take the dude.
00:53:28
Speaker
Take the dude. So i didn't I took it, and I put it a local pizza joint, and it was fine. It's Dr. Dude. Um, of this list, I have considered buying demo man. It is a cheap game. Like it is yeah for that value. Well, that's fine. i yeah just, I'm just not heavy as sin though.
00:53:45
Speaker
And it's got weird handles. Um, scared i do I think the handles are kind of fun. actually They are fun. But what I'm saying is like, it's again, trying to get into your basement. It's just one extra thing to fight. Right.
00:53:56
Speaker
especially with Demoman's a wide body too. So it just becomes like a series of unfortunate events. Scared's Def, fantastic game. um And it is what is. It's not a deep game, but it's a fun game. And especially if you have the, ah like the bony beast mod with the moving eyes, it looks really cool.
00:54:14
Speaker
ah Pirates of the Caribbean, really good game um for Dennis Norman. And then i would agree House of Horrors is really good as well. Yeah, so the basically, the I would say... Oh, Indy 500. Indy 500. Yeah, okay. yeah But still, what's one, two, three, four, five, six? Over a 40-year career, aren't you going to hope that you have someone who has a little higher track record of hits?
00:54:40
Speaker
True. And maybe we're not giving enough credit to to Dennis. Could be. Maybe. Looking at... Like, seriously, looking at this, though, it looks it looks solid. Like, i There's a weird empanada on the on the the apron, but hey. and right But I'm excited for a Whitewater 2.0.
00:54:59
Speaker
I want to try it. I definitely want to play this. Yes. And it definitely looks... It looks pretty good. And Turner actually, um the Ninja Eclipse, I thought was very solid. they Very solid. Merlin's Arcade, I thought was a little interesting choice on that. Yeah. But it's ah it seems like this may be something that would work really well with Turner. So I'm hoping that it ends up being a big hit for them. And what, the Ninja was like 100?
00:55:29
Speaker
So how many of these are they planning on making? like So they're maybe like for Yukon? Yeah. Yeah. Yukon, they're making 500 and the base price for legendary is 10,000.
00:55:40
Speaker
Right. But that could be achievable. 500 could be achievable for them. And this could be the right, the right marriage of Dennis and a small company who views success in limited numbers.
00:55:54
Speaker
They do have an all in inclusive package, which includes anti-reflective glass, Shaker, yeah you know, shaker motor premium sound with led speakers, cabinet interior art blades, cabinet backsliders. I'm sorry. that and It's not clicking right now. A dust cover and a topper premium Norman, the light topper for 12 to 50.
00:56:17
Speaker
Okay. So, which honestly isn't bad. Cause if you bought it all separately, yeah, the topper itself 1500. um You're probably pretty close to, let's see, $1,500, $2,000. You're definitely saving some money if you buy the all-in package, right? Yeah. If you're going to buy this, you're going to buy the big package.
00:56:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. So I don't know. I would like to be down there playing this game because, like I said, Whitewater was always one of my grails, and I got it into my my collection, and I really, really loved it.
00:56:50
Speaker
The problem was, and I could have made it harder. I was just, it was constantly, I was getting to, the end of the river to wet willies. And, um, it just became one of those things where like, even if I made it harder, i just don't know if I'd play it anymore. Right. And at some point you're like, okay, I'm done.
00:57:09
Speaker
Yeah. and And then you go like, is this a big enough girl to stay in the collection? So um yeah, I i think Turner's doing more like right than they are wrong with this one. And the reason being is it's an established designer that um is revered for for handful of titles. You're taking one arguably one of his top five games and making it a sequel.
00:57:33
Speaker
The art is a little here or there. It depends on your taste. I think it's fine. I think it's solid with what um with what Turner has done, like with Ninja Eclipse. It's very similar to that.
00:57:46
Speaker
Yeah. I just, yeah. I think overall, I think this is a good step forward for Turner if they're looking to produce more numbers. You know, there's a lot there's a lot going for them on this. yeah I don't see a picture of the topper. Have they showed it?
00:58:01
Speaker
um I don't see it, but it's listed. so Just curious is what it would be. Uh, it's probably, there is a whole slew of pictures here. So, but all righty. does that really do? Oh no. Well, we got more reveals. We got more these. So these aren't like pinball, like machine reveals.
00:58:21
Speaker
But our good friend Davey over at Stumbler Pinball, you remember having him on when we did
Innovative Pinball Mods
00:58:26
Speaker
John Wick? Oh, yeah. Holy crap. That feels like forever ago. um Davey has done like mod after mod after mod reveal. He's doing like four for four this week because it's TPF and it's reveal time, right? Yep. So the first one was the spider.
00:58:45
Speaker
He's upgrading it for like the pro. It's like a full kit for the pro for King Kong. Do you think this is a good move? You know what? ah Sure. ah I think King Kong is actually a it's a great game. And there are a lot of people who decided that they just wanted to do the you know the pro because they didn't want the Kong Dong and the Spider.
00:59:10
Speaker
Kong Gong? Yeah. I don't know the dong where you hit it. It goes dong.
00:59:17
Speaker
So, okay. Don't make it weird. Okay. um That, ah so there are people who tend to get, I think the pro probably sells more than the premium on, on Kong. Yeah. So if they want to get that, you know, that spider grab chore, does it integrate well with the code?
00:59:37
Speaker
Like, do you have to download the pro code? ah So i'm I'm curious as to how that integrates. It looks great though. Davey does things high quality. So the, the King Kong skull mountain looks amazing.
00:59:51
Speaker
The, ah you know, the, yeah, the spider looks certainly a lot better than what Stern had. I mean, Stern's looks a little bit just like a, you know, and ah a rubber spider dude that it's great, you know? So fine. So when we talked to Keith, I went about the spider yeah during our interview, he said that the, the spider itself is actually controlled by the magnet.
01:00:15
Speaker
Like there's either metal or something on the bottom part of the spider. And when it pulses, so you really don't, you really don't need anything special code wise for the spider. Yeah.
01:00:25
Speaker
So the whole point of the spider was to kind of slow the ball a little bit. Yeah. Yep. All right. Okay. I think it's still cool. The next reveal. And the next reveal is amazing.
01:00:37
Speaker
Yeah. The card blaster, the automatic card dispenser for, yeah, it it is being shown for Pokemon, but I bet you could retrofit this to whatever you want it. Sure. Right.
01:00:49
Speaker
Yeah. brilliant like okay it is totally brilliant the only thing i am concerned about though is it like people will try to break into that and steal cards that's my only concern so i just want to make sure and and davy can vote can voice his concern because i'm sure he thought about this yeah when they load the the pokemon vending machines they have to have security yeah yeah no i agree um so yeah there is that and i had the same thought as well but still give the people what they want yeah it is cool yeah yeah and that's exactly what you want for a pokemon game and this that's how you drive more people to pinball you want the younger generation it you i get to play a pinball machine and if i do well enough i get a pokemon card get them addicted to gambling absolutely exactly do it do it right yep and then today's so we haven't seen the fourth one yet but today's reveal was the ultimate ball rog
01:01:47
Speaker
for Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Which I think is interesting because I i know that he's done ah like he's done Creature from the Black Lagoon and stuff like that but he's tended to stay more of the more recent stuff so to do a throwback to Lord the Rings I think is really cool.
01:02:00
Speaker
Well a how old is Creature? 92. Okay, so Lord of the Rings is 10 years after that. Yeah, that's where I'm like... There's a billion out there. so it's For the man that does like Godzilla, King Kong, Jaws, Dungeons & Dragons, Jurassic Park, Big Lebowski, Foo Fighters, you you see where I'm going with this? Oh, sure. he He's definitely catering more toward the modern high-volume games. yeah But ah having Lord of the Rings and...
01:02:31
Speaker
I guarantee there's high suspicion that at some point Lord of the Rings is going to get remade. Yeah. And my gosh, have you seen mimic? He's not doing a Wheel of Fortune mod. Have you seen the mimic for Dungeons and Dragons? The mimic chest?
01:02:44
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Oh yeah, no, that's cool. Oh my goodness. That's so good. Davey, I don't know how you come up with this stuff. I just... Well, yeah, just dude. Yeah. And if if you have Davey mods, you know, and like I even talked about this on the market trends video that or this week's pinball market. Sorry. Zach many has trademark pinball market trends. trademark ah But my point being is, is like games that are tastefully modded do sell higher.
01:03:12
Speaker
And Davey's mods have proven that time and time yeah again. Davey's are something that will actually be, be, a marketing thing that you can say, I have this But yes, absolutely. My gosh, that Dungeons & Dragons mimic mod, that tongue goes out. That's awesome.
01:03:31
Speaker
Yes, it's it's insane. like i have I have the Bowie mod in my Jaws. I've got all of them for Godzilla except for the theater building that comes down. They just elevate. Yeah, i need I still need to get the upper right noodle one. I i actually just found out that my my new one's ready for Davey, so I'm interested in that. But yeah, the back right noodle one, I i guess I...
01:03:52
Speaker
The noodle soup one or whatever. Yeah. I didn't get around to get to ordering that yet, but. Well, even the skull mod, the skull mountain for King Kong. Yeah. It's awesome. Oh my goodness. Just seriously. Like Davey.
01:04:06
Speaker
Holy crap. And I know. Yeah. The noodle bar one is the one i don't have. And the lollipop one, I guess the lolly. Yeah. And, and like, it just goes to show like every year that they've had twippies, he's won ah an award. If they have,
01:04:21
Speaker
a category for mod like yeah just insane so Davey seriously hats off to you I think that pretty much does it for our TPF roundup is there anything I'm curious to see what other people are looking forward to going down there it is definitely more of a ah festival atmosphere we mentioned Monster League Hockey is going to be down there yes so how do you check that out yeah how did we forget ah Jake Danzig is going to be down there with his Monster Hockey League yep So it's ah go go and play that. is It's a lot of fun. It's a head to head. So it's very few games are like that. Well, and he said, this is going be the last time it's going to be seen publicly before it goes into into analysis for production. Sure. Yes.
01:05:05
Speaker
And so go get your hands on it. i I will be shocked if there isn't a line for that game because seriously, that game is insane. So cool.
01:05:17
Speaker
ah Yeah. Scott. Um, I just want to give a quick shout out to our Patreon. We did ah a hangout this last week. Yeah, it was our first one. i was down in St. George. Uh, and so my reception was a little spotty. I was tired, but we had a good time talking. And it, if you want to be basically involved in like one of our shows, that's pretty much what we talked about. And any, any topic you guys wanted to talk about, we were, we were more than welcome, more than free to talk about it. Yep.
01:05:46
Speaker
So they asked questions that we were able to talk about off the record that we do not have NDA signed with. So, um, I don't think we have any NDAs at this point. So, yeah. I mean, we, we will obviously respect, uh, we will respect the manufacturers who share information to be time released with us. Yeah. Um,
01:06:06
Speaker
But for the most part, this is kind of how the hangout is. So if you ever want to be a part of a Loser Kid episode, being part of the hangout is ah is a great way of doing it. And I thought it was a lot of fun. we were We were going around asking people what they thought, what they were looking forward to.
01:06:20
Speaker
well and we appreciate those that do support us to via patreon uh they're amazing and like it you help us keep creating content here at loser kid it keeps the lights on for sure yes if you don't want to support losing kid vi via patreon you can go to silverballswag.com and get a shirt get one of our baseball jerseys it is baseball season you could get a hat well sorry we don't well we do sell a couple different hats there but we don't sell a couple different hats yeah we don't sell the loser kid hat and It's still a loser kid hat, just not the ones we hand out. so We are monitoring the situation with the shoes. So we did have to take the shoes off the website because of the shenanigans. It was just too expensive at the moment. so that They will be re-released when the time is right.
01:07:01
Speaker
Yes, we will announce it like top of the mountain style, right? Like it's coming out. so yep um that Like I said, that's one way you get something out of it, we get something out of it. We appreciate the support. um If you want to hit us up on the socials,
01:07:15
Speaker
You know, that's another way you can help support us at loser kid pinball, uh, everywhere. YouTube, all the jazz, right? If you want to email us, uh, uh, it's loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:07:28
Speaker
So, all righty. I think that does it for us, Scott. You any last words for us? You know, it's a March Madness. BYU is in the tournament. And so I'm wearing my BYU hat and hoping and they do well. They did lose one of their major scorers. So I don't know how how deep they'll go, but don't know. If they get 16, that'll be awesome.
01:07:48
Speaker
See you in a couple weeks. Bye.
01:08:01
Speaker
you