Here is my self-serving plan to help Spooky Pinball tamp customer fears…
Halt production of Halloween & Ultraman to give your people time to refine the code and make it the great game we all know it can be.
While production on those games is halted, do a run of 500 TNA using your latest production upgrades and incorporate the fixes that folks have done in the field to make the game as bullet proof as it can be.
Everyone wins! (I win).

...I feel like you've bumbled into something that actually sounds really interesting and fun.

Spooky, listen to this guy!

I was Talking to my students today And telling them that there’s a website where multi millionaires kick and scream while flopping around on the floor Over losing $2000. They just plum didn’t believe me.

Only 3 weeks in and already thread of the year potential, running with the time capsule thread.

Could 2022 be the new 2018?
One can only hope and get the popcorn out

A Mando Pro and not an LE???? So disappointed, lol. GZ looks great!!

Interesting.
Ask them to go without internet during lunch break.
Report back.

I am doing just fine as well.

But since I am not narcissistic, I won't give a detail of my business dealings nor post pics of my expensive vehicles. I don't need the approval of others.

I'm here to discuss pinball.

Well I certainly am…I mean I can’t even go to the grocery store without my passenger seat filling up with panties

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Sweet ride. It's so much better at the top than the bottom.
The more money you make, the more problems you get and jealousy and envy is just something that comes with the territory.

American Dream is for anyone to have.
God bless the USA!

Sorry, but this is the best color combo

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Ha!! We all bought the same car..
Congrats man!

That is awesome, but I got to say (and maybe I go over to the Unpopular Opinion thread instead), but I saw this parked 3 spots from me during holiday shopping and stared at it for like 10 minutes. This may be my favorite I've seen.

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I'm far from ever owning a Vette. I live in the Northeast, I'm a single parent in my 30s, and I don't even have a garage. But I just did a cash-out refi and it's taking all my willpower to actually put it towards a home remodel and not spring for a "passenger seat full of panties".

This is kind of a tough topic to chew through. You don't get innovation or new ideas by hiring the same pool of been there / done that people. I don't care what anyone else says, R&M hands down beats almost every Stern game released in the last 10 years IMO, even with it's initial clunk issues, and what appears to be a barer playfield than Stern/JJP. That being said, I'm not really a fan of any of the other Spooky games. I have not had a chance to play HWN/ULT yet, but I knew from the reveal that I probably wasn't interested. I do believe most of the hype/fomo about these games was because of how well R&M was received combined with the last 2-3 years gotta buy everything because it might go up in value mentality. What many failed to realize is that Spooky is still a small company, and the coding is slower than some others. We got lucky that R&M turned out as amazing as it did, because it could easily have sucked --- but then that can be said for every pinball machine being made where the code is half baked at release. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, they are ALL guilty of this to varying degrees on every single game being released.

Back to the point though - there is nothing wrong with new people in development. I'm not a fan boy of any of the manufacturers really, or any specific designer. There are games I love/hate from them all. Not only that, there are other experienced people involved in the development of HWN/ULT -- the problem I think is when the people involved are not passionate about the theme to begin with. They are less likely to come up with cool rulesets if they aren't interested in the theme. The reason R&M is a good example is you could tell from the ruleset that Eric was a massive fan of the theme - and really the only thing holding back the game being even better was the licensing.

So is this the part of the thread where we all show off our super expensive vehicles .... well, feast your eyes on this beauty I bought 2 weeks ago...

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Only a rich person born into wealth or at least very comfortable circumstances and thinks they did it on their own, thinks that “the more money you have, the more problems you get".

That truck looks a lot more fun than some shiny car in a parking lot that screams look at me and my tiny penis.

game blows!

Careful Frank might start posting pictures.

Your truck pics made me think of my old ride Pepe. Damn I miss that thing!

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Don;t worry you'll be able to sell an EM and get a Halloween sport soon

Ha. It's because we keep giving massive deposits to pinball companies with little or no production capability that spend the money however they please. Why produce a game?? Broken EM's are quite attractive these days. I love them.

Look closer, appears Cosmo got a sweet deal on the truck AND NIB!!
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<insert joke about cargument here>

I played Halloween a few months ago and didn't think it was that bad. It wasn't amazing or anything, but it was one of the more interesting games at the location. The code was shameful, but the shots felt good; better than RZ or ACNC for sure. The art and audio were also solid and I could see it being a real experience to play in the dark. This was before the bad reviews really started rolling in. I only played about a dozen games, but now I really wish I had played more to see if I would see what's sinking this ship. It's definitely been a rough rollout.

Love this.

That’s because we’re actually all a bunch of broke dicks who can’t afford the real thing.

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My ultraman is up for sale simply because I have spent too much money on pinball and I can’t keep funding all these deposits for games. I love the theme but I got to start scaling back the collection

My conveyance, along with my Citibike key.

Hey it’s a lot cheaper, and I get some exercise!

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Public transportation!?!
Yikes I hope you have a ccw permit.
Dont homeless nuts push people in front of subway cars in the Big Apple?

I mean, yeah...but still easier to deal with than finding or paying for a parking space!

I take the bikes whenever possible anyway, or cabs.

who does your lawn?

Local goats

Spooky is a good company that listens to us the consumer, unlike another unmentioned co that goes radio silent at the first sign of trouble.

Want to see them fix this so the mob will put down their pitch forks and return to liking Spooky again.
1. Since so many are willing to lose at least $1k, refund those that want out, $1k or half their deposit as a restocking charge. After code matures and if their spot has not been taken by others, let them opt back in for the $1k they were refunded.
2. This shows good faith on Spooky’s part in their product and allows others to not feel trapped. This demonstrates to the community, future sales are more important than a one time $1k charge so many abandoned to never return again. Everybody’s happy to an extent and the torches are put away.
3. Spooky is trying real hard to figure this one out and please everyone without ticking off those that have received their machines already. Code will take a year to sort, so let it take the time, which is what Spooky is use to doing. Next machine will be further along I’m sure.

Hope the best for Spooky, we need them in the pinball world to keep things interesting and would hate to have a misstep like this harm future sales. (Best solution is refund all the deposit, less CC fees. Keeping disgruntled people’s money will never serve Spooky well in the end.)

At least his got his priorities straight. $40,000 worth of pins and a 400 dollar truck

(edit) On second thought, I’m not getting involved. This thread is dumb.

BigBalls turned into BigDick swinging contests.

The trap was set, the bait was taken…

This company in my opinion is back to being a HOMEBREW company with Halloween. They really started to fall into place with RM, then all those guys left the company, putting them back to square one. At some point an alarm bell should have gone off there after looking at their bank account... hey we can hire someone to improve our games on EVERY level? But no they went a different direction with someone who had never designed anything. One step forward TEN steps back. I honestly think Spooky has severely damaged their company, brand loyalty, and their ability to collect up front deposits on their next game. Even their biggest fans will be like maybe I should play it first. Spooky in the past was smart in only offering 500 games total, which created a quick demand. But now they're offer 1,250 games, this creates the option of maybe I should wait and see. Whatever the next title is from Spooky they probably need to go back to the 500 title, or make a HUGE announcement of hiring KPOP, or some of the top guys from Deep Root, or stealing a designer from another company.

Who is honestly going to buy another game designed by the exact same group who did Halloween? People really need to STOP saying 'CODE' can fix the game... ahhh NO! This group thought to powder coat halloween game GOLD nothing else needs to be said.

I'm going to say something here that a lot of people probably never considered but here it goes... because SPOOKY only makes ONE TITLE a year or every year and some changes the games get drudged thru the mud a lot more than a Stern.

Let me give you an example... LED ZEP is not a great layout, great theme not a great layout. Stern didn't give you long to drag it thru the Mud here comes MANDO! Again Mando honestly isn't that great either, but that's okay because here comes GODZILLA which is awesome. In the span that Spooky released the disaster Halloween, Stern more or less released Led Zep, Mando, Godzilla now Rush. You can't dwell on one thing, because they bring the excitement before a lot of people can figure out Mando just isn't that good. Spooky on the other hand has their conversation focus on the SAME THING for MONTHS AND MONTHS and MONTHS... while they're still trying to make game number 600, Stern has already released another couple new games.

If you're going to take a year to release a new game you need to make sure you did it right because that game is going thru several phases as did Halloween.

PURE EXCITMENT - FOMO STAGE - Can't wait to play it - Played it a couple times it was fun (its always fun to play something new btw) to oh wait I played it again and again, this broke, this flaw, that flaw and it goes on and on for months. Again while everyone is finding every flaw with Halloween, Stern just had 10 more games come out.

This will always be the case which is why I think all the suppliers shouldn't make games until the demand is exhausted. Every flaw of that game is talked about over and over until they finally do something new. In Halloween's case there are so many flaws we've created the buyers remorse club wondering how do I get out of this. Spooky needs to hire experienced talent and make that announcement otherwise I really feel their next game will suffer.

One last thing Spooky games really are the pinside community, the toughest crowd, whereas Stern has buyers thru channels Spooky never has access to. You must design a great game because you'll get this treatment every time.

I'm all for Spooky doing your good faith suggestion as soon as the TNA and R&M buyers give Spooky back some of those windfall profits made on the secondary market. Since the buyers were acting in good faith, of course. This would build up trust toward Spooky that they aren't selling machines to a bunch of flakes.

And by 20 you mean 6.

You guys would drool over my exotic car NFTs.

Objection your Honor; People vs. Ghostbusters

BigBalls has apparently been BigBlocked from Pinside permanently. And nothing of value was lost.

Great point, and I would imagine for the same reason these are, just not a lot of fun to shoot and play.

You lost any credibility as a poster the second you typed that out......

Kramer, not just in front of subway cars, also off of them…you are from NY how do you not know this !!

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Imagine coming up with this take. Good grief, we've really seen it all now.

So ... all of a sudden Frank's not so special. Lots of guys have cool corvettes. Shame. I was building a shrine with your posts of infinite wisdom to pray at.. hoping some day I can be you. Then I was like F it.. snaroff is a cooler dude and my son and I like his car better. I mean, who matches there's pinball games to their vette.. yeah HE does.