Thanks for the update, Charlie. Thanks for your characteristic communication and transparency. This makes complete sense to me. I can hardly wait to receive my ACNC!

I've had my own small business for 20 years (20th anniversary in April). Selling board games on the Internet. Sales of $4k the first year and now over a million yearly. Rode the growth wave and our fundamentals are doing well (zero debt and making a profit, even after they pay me) - even in the face of product and competitive oversaturation to the point where competitors are starting to go under due to a lack of sound fundamentals of running their businesses. So I've seen it all for a timespan of 20 years -- for my own market -- a target demographic which isn't unlike that of Pinheads (board game geeks and pinheads are usually different animals, but there is some crossover in general characteristics for sure LOL).

The problem is: running the business. Cashflow. Managing growth responsibly. (Down the road: managing too much competition and oversaturation of product. Pinball isn't there yet, but it may be coming (the old supply vs. demand problem). When this hits, the companies that manage their money and resources well (like Spooky) will survive, those that don't manage the business will be gone).

In the current social climate of Pinside or Board Game Geek or (insert crazy hobbyist interest website), there is an insatiable need for things to be 1. NEW and 2. FAST in the face of 3. INSANE GROWTH

1. NEW: This is always #1 for the business owner to understand. (To paraphrase Don Draper, what is happiness? It's a moving target.) And baby, to state the obvious, that target moves WAY faster now than it did in the 1960's!

The dirty truth is, if you put production first, ahead of promotion...you will not survive. You HAVE to have hype and interest for what is "upcoming". This makes your customers happy/excited. For pinball, this means hyping the "new" and obtaining some down payments to generate cashflow to pay suppliers (if you don't pay those you are dead) and the folks who work for you (without them, you will work insane hours and/or you are dead anyway). There are loans available, too...but these always need to be paid...and the larger the loan, the greater your business' general liability/weak financial position and possible compromised future position if times ever get lean.

2. FAST.

How do you produce something like a pinball machine FAST? Answer: you don't. It's insanely complicated and has to be done 110% or the damned thing doesn't work and creates MORE problems/expense...and public bitching/bashing/pitchforks on Pinside.

Currently, everybody wants everything yesterday. In pinball terms, Stern is humongous and the bully on the block (albeit a friendly bully -- I love my Sterns, I have a few). They can tease a release, then hype it to death...and then actually *produce* the freaking thing in crazy numbers because they are huge and established for decades. And, since Stern understands the almighty rule #1 (see NEW above)...they actually are cheeky enough to release a table that some might consider "incomplete" (LOL insert huge argument here) and then offer code updates from time to time (even small code updates will make people happy because happiness is a moving target).

So, a company like Stern has a huge advantage over the others. It is absurd to compare a company like Stern to a company like Spooky -- at least, at this time.

3. INSANE GROWTH

In quoting the numbers of production in 2018 (which don't completely resonate with us, since we don't know the insanity that is creating a single pinball machine, let alone hundreds), I think Charlie is trying to communicate his satisfaction in dealing with and handling growth. It sounds like they have a larger facility, more and better staff, and probably have modest debts, if any. Since everybody wants things FAST, the lack of ACNC production has perhaps become a black eye for Spooky in the public domain...but as a business owner, I understand the principle that they have handled growth more or less in stride and are more capable than ever to produce machines -- as they prepare to pump out ACNC (which is more polished than if they had shipped it in greater numbers last summer).

In finishing TNA production and growing the company in stride, they have put the horse before the cart. Is it frustrating? Yes. But I understand the struggle of dealing with insane growth in the face of running a company on a daily basis.

Will ACNC be perfect when I receive it? Nope. Of course, there will be those code updates and there might be things that appear to be "unfinished". But I'm pretty sure it will be damn fun, have great music, will be challenging, have depth...and it has freaking Alice Cooper and splashy comic book style art!!! (I've even warmed up to Alice's laconic delivery on the callouts).

I bartered my spot at #112 for a deal on a Tron but purchased back spot #114 (losing $100). As a lifelong Alice Cooper fan, I'd rather have ACNC than Munsters or the MB remake.

I can wait.