Looks great. I've played Archer, and you can definitely see it in here. Having loved Archer, I think this should be a winner. I hate the music/theme (it's the pinnacle of angsty teenager cheese), but that's not a deal breaker.

The ramp through the pops shot is more intimidating than actually difficult. I was able to hit it reliably on Archer.

Is the $5700 street price real on the pro? That's not the minimum, is it? Anybody get pricing from a distributor yet?

SPIKE legit sucks, but it's not going away, so you either accept it and move on or you don't buy. I really disliked my time with a SPIKE game, for what it's worth.

It's still a bad look. Everybody but Stern supported pinball's biggest show of the year. I know they didn't want to split the coverage, but there's a lot to be said for supporting events put on by the community.

That's Stern's problem. Licenses are their choice. They choose to deal with them. The fact remains that they were the only manufacturer that had nothing to show. That's the bottom line of it all.

So...go to your core audience that buys your machines or go to a publication where the vast majority of the readership will look at it and say, "oh, neat" before moving on. Satisfy your base first. It's just like Microsoft digging in with ESPN and other networks to announce the Xbox One. They lost the hardcore base by positioning it as a mainstream/entertainment product rather than a gaming product.

The game looks great. The method of reveal is a little odd. I know they've had IGN running their reveals for a while, and that's ok. It's not ideal, but it works. Going to Rolling Stone won't improve sales or harm them, but it's just a sign of misplaced priorities.

Harping. Ok, dude. You get so crazy sensitive about every slight at Stern these days. Look, we get it. You have buddies there. Drop your hackles, nobody wants to harm them. I've mentioned no new Stern stuff at TPF a single time and you have a mild heart attack. I'll remember not to bring up their Expo absence when they favor a reveal in GQ two weeks later. I'd hate to see their self-appointed white knight suffer any further trauma.

I do understand how it works, probably far better than you do. I've worked with licensed content a lot over the past decade. And no, I didn't take it as an insult. Keep rolling out the strawmen, it's about the only thing you do well around here when you get grumpy.

Haters. You're something else.

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Jack has the stream tonight. I wonder if we'll see Elwin absolutely demolish his own game as well. It would be nice to get a peek at the premium, even if just a quick glance, but I imagine that will follow the standard reveal timeline. We should see the pro played tonight, hear a bit about premium/LE, see the premium/LE photos in a few weeks, and then get a premium/LE stream soon after that.

They were smart to go colorful with the art package. It retains the Iron Maiden look, but it shies away from being too dark or violent. I think that really matters. ZY is a got dang master. It's crazy that he's so good at this being so new to the scene.

Pretty high. The game usually makes the rounds within a couple of weeks after the main gameplay reveal. The pros are already on the manufacturing line, and I imagine they'll be shipping in early April. LEs will be on the line in April too, so the game will be getting out there really soon.

The more accurately you hit the shot, the better. Close to center scores better than the outside edge.

500 is quite a few. Maybe Europe will suck them up being a region that actually likes Iron Maiden's music, but 500 is quite a lot. They probably won't disappear overnight. If they do, well, that's a pretty dang good indicator that Keith Elwin has designed something special.