# Pinball Industry News: September 2018 Re-cap

**Source:** Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2018-10-02  
**Duration:** 72m 40s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pinball-industry-news/episodes/Pinball-Industry-News-September-2018-Re-cap-eie89m

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## Analysis

September 2018 industry recap covering Monster Bash remake delays pending Williams approval, Stern's decision to forgo game reveals at Pinball Expo to protect Deadpool sales, American Pinball's Oktoberfest announcement, Jersey Jack's Pirates of the Caribbean production, and Rob Burke's efforts to revitalize Pinball Expo with expanded tournaments and marketing.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Monster Bash remake is awaiting Williams approval, with Chicago Gaming developing two game versions (classic and new code) — _Jonathan citing reliable source; unconfirmed details about dual-version implementation_
- [HIGH] Stern will not reveal any new games at Pinball Expo 2018 to avoid cannibalizing Deadpool sales — _Martin states definitively: 'Stern will not be revealing a new game in Expo, I'm telling you now' based on production schedule_
- [HIGH] Joe Balser of American Pinball is pushing to have Oktoberfest Pinball on Tap ready for Pinball Expo (3 weeks away) — _Direct statement from Joe Balser at Vancouver Flipout seminar_
- [MEDIUM] Houdini has strong secondary market demand with distributors reporting resale every two weeks — _Martin cites rumor of distributor complaints about rapid resales_
- [MEDIUM] Stern was making small batch Metallica production (estimated 20 units) despite earlier denials — _Jonathan's factory floor observation; explicitly noted as guess, not confirmed_
- [HIGH] Pinball Magazine No. 5 will not be distributed via Amazon due to excessive fees ($15-20 per unit) and international shipping costs — _Jonathan's direct account of Amazon negotiation and fee quotes_
- [HIGH] Rob Burke hired Roy DeSharp's marketing company and local marketers to promote Pinball Expo with emphasis on recovering walk-in local attendance — _Rob Burke interview at IAAPA Amsterdam show_
- [HIGH] Chicago Gaming and Jersey Jack had booth reservations at IAAPA Euro Attractions but provided no games due to stock/timing issues — _Martin's direct observation at Amsterdam show; distributor confirmation_

### Notable Quotes

> "Stern will not be revealing a new game in Expo, I'm telling you now."
> — **Martin (Pinball News)**, ~18:30
> _Definitive statement contradicting earlier expectations of Stern announcements at Pinball Expo_

> "They've got games made very quickly in the past and maybe you think that that wasn't a good thing either... if that's a result of designing a game under pressure and just trying to live up to a deadline that you set for yourself, then maybe don't set the deadline."
> — **Jonathan (Pinball Magazine)**, ~41:00
> _Criticism of American Pinball's aggressive Oktoberfest timeline, questioning quality tradeoffs_

> "The game could have been designed for a long time and a white wood ready for some time and the game, all the shots and the flow and everything dialed in on the playfield and the only thing that's taking the time is the software and the sounds and maybe a bit of artwork."
> — **Martin**, ~42:30
> _Counterargument suggesting physical playfield may be ready; software delays don't reflect design quality_

> "We have been struggling for years what to do with the vendor hall... we noticed that the attendance was waning over the years. So just the decision was made just to drop the banquet."
> — **Rob Burke**, ~60:00
> _Acknowledgment of Pinball Expo's declining attendance and strategic restructuring_

> "I'm the first to admit that the show was waning in interest. And I just needed a shot in the arm."
> — **Rob Burke**, ~73:00
> _Direct admission of Expo's deterioration and motivation for overhaul_

> "So the fees that Amazon is applying is one thing but obviously for me to ship the magazine to the US there are postal costs involved as well... the magazine would be more expensive with Amazon than it would be in my own web shop."
> — **Jonathan**, ~77:30
> _Detailed explanation of Amazon's economics making distribution unviable_

> "A lot of the same exhibitors are coming back, but they're also coming back with new excitement and bigger boosts, more energy, and they're just glad to be back to the show."
> — **Rob Burke**, ~56:00
> _Optimistic assessment of exhibitor sentiment and commitment to revitalized Expo_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Chicago Gaming | company | Developing Monster Bash remake with dual game versions; awaiting Williams approval for new code version |
| Monster Bash | game | Classic Williams remake by Chicago Gaming in development; delayed pending approval; may feature classic and new gameplay versions |
| Stern Pinball | company | Currently producing Deadpool LE/Premium; made strategic decision not to announce new games at Pinball Expo to protect sales; also producing small batch Metallica |
| Deadpool | game | Stern's current major release; LE and Premium in production; reason cited for Stern's silence at Expo |
| American Pinball | company | Revealed Oktoberfest Pinball on Tap at Vancouver Flipout; pushing for Expo debut; previously successful with Houdini |
| Oktoberfest Pinball on Tap | game | American Pinball's second title; teased at Vancouver Flipout with character Otto and playfield imagery; attempting Expo debut |
| Houdini | game | American Pinball's debut; strong sales with active secondary market; reportedly resold every 2 weeks by distributors |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Started production of Pirates of the Caribbean with single disc; had booth reservation at IAAPA but no games provided |
| Pirates of the Caribbean | game | Jersey Jack title in early production; single disc version |
| Pinball Expo | event | October 17-20, 2018 in Wheeling, Illinois; Rob Burke now sole organizer; expanded tournament offerings and marketing efforts to recover attendance |
| Rob Burke | person | New sole organizer of Pinball Expo 2018; implementing major changes including tournament expansion, marketing hiring, seminar video recording; also runs Burke Paper supply company |
| Jonathan Yoston | person | Host of Pinball News & Magazine podcast; editor/publisher of Pinball Magazine; reporting from Amsterdam IAAPA show |
| Martin | person | Co-host from Pinball News; attended Vancouver Flipout; providing factory and industry sourcing |
| Joe Balser | person | Owner/representative of American Pinball; presented Oktoberfest teaser at Vancouver Flipout |
| Jack Guarnieri | person | Jersey Jack Pinball representative; presented at Vancouver Flipout seminar; promoted Pinball Magazine No. 5 |
| Metallica | game | Stern title in small batch production (~20 units estimated) despite prior denials |
| Vancouver Flipout | event | September 2018 pinball event hosting seminars from Jack Guarnieri, Mike Karanowski, and Joe Balser |
| IAAPA Euro Attractions | event | Amsterdam show where Martin observed Stern pinball presence and Chicago Gaming/Jersey Jack booth failures |
| Roy DeSharp | person | Marketing professional hired by Rob Burke to promote Pinball Expo |
| Dave Ficks | person | Helping Rob Burke with Pinball Expo exhibits |
| Pinball Magazine | publication | No. 5 edition; distribution through Amazon failed due to excessive fees; Jonathan is editor/publisher |
| Williams | company | Original Monster Bash creator; approving new code version for Chicago Gaming remake |
| Ashley Davis | person | Hired as Doc Score's assistant at Chicago Gaming; left company shortly after Doc Score departed to Stern |
| Doug Dubas | person | Chicago Gaming representative; described as not communicative with press/distributors |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Monster Bash Remake Status, Pinball Expo 2018 Restructuring, American Pinball Oktoberfest Announcement, Stern's Deadpool Production & Game Reveal Strategy
- **Secondary:** Manufacturing Delays & Supply Chain Issues, Distribution & Retail Challenges (Amazon), International Market Activity (IAAPA Amsterdam)
- **Mentioned:** Code Updates Across Multiple Titles

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.45) — Cautiously optimistic about Pinball Expo revival and American Pinball's ambitious timeline, but concern about Monster Bash delays, Stern's conservative strategy potentially limiting excitement, manufacturing supply issues at IAAPA, and distribution/retail friction (Amazon). Industry showing signs of retrenchment and consolidation of enthusiasm around fewer major events and releases.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Chicago Gaming and Jersey Jack unable to fulfill IAAPA exhibitor commitments; stock/production timing failures (confidence: high) — Both companies had reserved booths but provided zero machines; distributor stated inability to supply in time
- **[business_signal]** Rob Burke diversifying beyond pinball through Burke Paper amusement park supply company; maintaining parallel business (confidence: high) — IAAPA booth for Burke Paper catering supplies and amusement park equipment; separate revenue stream
- **[event_signal]** Pinball Expo attendance declining significantly; Rob Burke implementing major structural and marketing overhaul (confidence: high) — Rob Burke explicit admission: 'show was waning in interest'; dropped banquet, expanded tournaments, hired professional marketing
- **[market_signal]** Houdini strong secondary market velocity; distributors reporting rapid resale every 2 weeks (confidence: medium) — Martin cites rumor of distributor complaints but notes it's speculation about secondary market health
- **[personnel_signal]** Ashley Davis brief tenure at Chicago Gaming; left shortly after Doc Score departed to Stern (confidence: high) — Hired as Doc Score's assistant ~10 days before his departure; did not remain post-departure
- **[market_signal]** Amazon distribution channels unviable for Pinball Magazine due to $15-20 per-unit fees plus international shipping (confidence: high) — Jonathan detailed account of Amazon fee structure making retail price higher than direct web shop; magazines remain US-only distributed
- **[product_strategy]** Monster Bash remake awaiting Williams approval with undefined timeline; private playfield demo held under NDA (confidence: high) — Reliable source confirms game in approval limbo; NDA-bound private showing indicates regulatory/licensing friction
- **[sentiment_shift]** American Pinball announcing aggressive Oktoberfest timeline raising concerns about design quality prioritizing deadline over gameplay (confidence: medium) — Jonathan explicitly criticizes rush mentality comparing Houdini; Martin counters suggesting software-only delays vs physical design issues
- **[business_signal]** Stern deliberately suppressing new game announcements at Pinball Expo to protect Deadpool sales momentum (confidence: high) — Martin's definitive statement and production schedule rationale; contradicts earlier Joe Kamikow commitment
- **[technology_signal]** Pinball Expo exploring video recording and online distribution of seminars (YouTube upload) (confidence: medium) — Jonathan planning laptop streaming setup to record seminars post-show; Rob Burke approval pending

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## Transcript

 still no monster bash reveal oktoberfest pinball on tap is officially announced interview with rob burke of pinball expo hi my name is jonathan yoston from pinball magazine and with me is i'm martin from pinball news and welcome to our monthly free audio podcast in which we are summarizing the pinball industry news of, in this case, September 2018. Yes, an exciting month, wasn't it? It absolutely was. We both went to Vancouver Flipout, which we will be talking briefly, I guess. And, well, there's some news revealed regarding new and upcoming games. and, well, lots of little tiny bits that usually keep us running for two hours or more. Yes, but we'll try and get through it as quick as we can this time and not dither too much. So let's get straight to it with our very first headline, which was there's still no official reveal of the Monster Bash remake game from Chicago Gaming. Now, what do we know about what happened in the last couple of weeks, Jonathan? Okay. Officially, we don't know anything. But what I hear is the game is awaiting approval, apparently from Williams, because apparently Chicago Gaming developed a second game that is running on the new software. So as a player, you could be choosing between classic gameplay and the new game that they developed. But for the new game, they still need some approval. I don't know any details on that, but this is what I heard last week from a source that I consider to be very reliable. Okay, so this game did actually make an appearance at a private party just recently, didn't it? And it was shown just for one night only, but all the people who played it had to sign a non-disclosure agreement so they wouldn't reveal any of the details of what it is that they saw. That seems to be holding up quite successfully at the moment. So we weren't there, so we don't know what was seen and whether indeed did it have those two versions of the Monster Bash game on it, the original and the recoded version. We also don't know how many people were there, so it's like we don't know what we're looking for. That's true. but if what you say is correct or what you've heard that would certainly be a good reason why it's taking some time to get the game fully signed off and released and shown to the public right it will also be interesting personally at least that's what I figured if they are doing a new game are they using like the voice calls of the older game but they just developed a new game code for it, I don't know. But I was wondering whether they would be using like soundbites and music from the original game, but just change the rules or develop something completely new. Because obviously with this theme, if they could get access to movie footage and stuff from the Universal Monsters, then it would be really cool, I guess. Yeah, indeed, but that would actually be taking things to a whole new level, wouldn't it, for Chicago Gaming? If they had produced an entire new version of the game using the existing hardware, that's quite a move on from simply remaking existing games and in some cases improving or up-resing the artwork on some of them for the display to actually go ahead and completely rewrite the rules and create new sounds, possibly, and music and, I guess, lighting effects and a whole bunch more. That's all worth creating a whole new game, except for the hardware part. Yeah, well, the hardware is there. But then again, they've been working on this for quite some time, so it's all very, very possible. But officially, nothing has been announced. And one of the sources, actually, that I was sort of hoping on to get some news from, in person of Ashley Davis, who was hired to be the assistant of Doc Score about, I'd say, 10 days before Doc Score left and went to Stern Pimble. Well, she didn't last long either. She already left Chicago Gaming, so she's no longer there. and now we just have to wait for an official release I mean the only person that is probably the one to talk to would be Doug Dubas he's not exactly known to be very communicative to the outside world in terms of distributors and all that kind of stuff let alone press which I think we are yes so we just have to wait to see what we see there's no suggestion they're going to be revealing anything at any upcoming shows they haven't announced they haven't said they're going to announce anything or show anything at Expo and that looks all right maybe yeah well the field's pretty much wide open I'd have thought at Expo there's not many or any other reveals expected. Well, I suppose Stern will be... No. Stern will not be revealing a new game in Expo, I'm telling you now. Ah, okay. You heard it here first. The Stern-O-Rama on Saturday night, which is kind of taking over the banquet. I don't want to get too much into Pinball Expo just yet, because we've got that coming up a bit later. but Stonorama is the Saturday night entertainment at Pinball Expo and effectively closes the show. Right. And you heard it here, they won't be revealing anything. So no monsters or beetles or anything being shown to them. There has been some speculation that monsters and beetles might be switched. The original expected order of release would be first monsters and beetles a couple of months after that. Although initially there were also rumors that there would be two Expo releases, being both Monsters and Beatles. But what I heard earlier, well, basically last month, is that Stern is not going to be revealing anything. They just have Deadpool out. They are producing the premiums and the limited editions right now. The Pro has already been on the line. It would just be too quick after the launch of Deadpool, and it basically would eat up Deadpool sales if they would announce anything. Well, that certainly seemed to be a danger when the initial timeline of announcing something in October at Expo, given what we knew that Deadpool was going to be announced in late August or mid-August, and with the Ellie and Premium being produced early September, I'm sorry, mid-September to late September into October, yes, that didn't make a lot of sense, pushing all those games out so quickly together, or so rapidly. So it's not entirely surprising, although in a way it's a bit disappointing, because Stern did say they were going to have at least one game to reveal at Expo, and if they haven't then... We're not even sure they did. When they actually said that, usually Stern is not very committing themselves to when they are releasing a game. Let me clarify that. It wasn't Stern, it was Joe Kamikow actually came and said I'll be back next year with at least one, if not two. Yes, correct. You are correct and apparently from what I my sources tell me we're not going to see anything at Expo. If we're going to see anything at Expo, then it might be similar to the Batman released that you just get to see a couple of games behind a rope but you can't play them right okay so they might might not even be at the show they might just be in the factory behind a rope for the for those who are going on the the factory tourists but still i i doubt that but okay that should still be the case yeah okay um so yes you mentioned that stern are now producing the Deadpool limited edition and premium. They've also been quite busy on the code front, haven't they, updating a number of games? Right, yes. Last month we saw updates for five games. Batman, Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Maiden, and Aerosmith. Aerosmith was sort of a surprise, because that's you figure sort of like a gone and done deal. Are you done? Yeah. So I actually was at the Stern factory, and little scoop, although it's probably not a real scoop, although Stern said that they would not be making any Metallica, they were actually making Metallica as well. Okay, they've got form with that, haven't they? Yeah, but from what I understood, they are only building a handful of games, so it's probably just for one distributor that asks for a couple of games, and then so they're i think they're maybe building 20 or so i don't know okay um that's that number is just a guess don't quote me on it it's just what i saw at the factory floor it's not that many i mean it was full that uh deadpool production all the way and um the sounds of it you're reading it off your uh your notes that you made there um come here not a paper being flicks through and uh you can check yeah um just like that scratching my head or are you leafing through pinball magazine number five by any chance oh how nice of you to bring that up no i'm not okay well moving on from that then um so uh jersey jack pinball also started producing their their current title their pirates of the caribbean right with the single disc with the single disc yes and well since you mentioned Pinball Magazine number 5 I have to say thank you to Jack Guarnieri of Jersey Jack Pinball who did a very nice promo of on Pinball Magazine number 5 at the Vancouver Flipout seminar that he did and it's actually recorded on video I recommend everybody to take a look at it because I thought it was quite funny well that was fortunate somebody recorded it all on video for you yeah thank you very much for that You're very very welcome That was nice to be able to Do video recordings Of the three seminars They had at Vancouver So thanks to all the speakers there And also of course to Tommy and Suzanne Right And for those who haven't seen it yet So what happened is Jack started his seminar And instead of being on the stage He sort of walked through the audience which was sitting on a sort of arena like a tribune I would call it so he spotted me in the audience and he started talking about the magazine and then he had Butch Peel pull out the magazine from his backpack and then he basically took the magazine and he just landed it on the table just to hear the sound of it hitting the table as impressive Professor Elliot, because it's like a phone book hitting the table. It was. It was pretty loud, and I think it made the point, exactly what a hefty volume it certainly is. But also at the Vancouver Flipout Pinball Expo, if I get the name absolutely correct, apart from Jack's seminar, there was also a nice seminar by Mike Karanowski of Home Pin, talking about Thunderbirds and the development of his company. And Joe Balcer of American Pinball. American Pinball, who, apart from talking about the making of Houdini, right at the very end revealed a couple of little teasers for their second title, which is called Oktoberfest Pinball on Tap. Right. Now, what he showed there on the screen, just some little thumbnail images. One is a logo from the game. So just confirming that is the full title. Oktoberfest pinball on tap. He showed a little portion of the artwork, which showed one of the characters from the game. Which is named Otto. if you're going to show anything from Oktoberfest then I'd show some lady in a in a that typical Oktoberfest outfit where I'm sort of looking for the name right now but I can't feel it Dendrol or whatever it is but so anyway and there was a sort of detailed close up of the playfield that showed a little bit of ramp action, but... Yeah, it's on a playfield level, and it's black and white, and it was a very oblique angle, so it was... You couldn't really make out an awful lot of it, except, as you say, there were ramps there. Definitely ramps. But they're also... They're also quite keen to sort of play down the drinking aspect of it, I think, for fairly obvious reasons, saying that Oktoberfest is about a lot more than just drinking. But then, having said that, the logo was basically on a barrel, and it's people on tap, all about beer again. Yeah, okay. But what Joe, I think what he was trying to say is that the game will be family-friendly. So it's not going to be a game that's going to be offending women or people who like beer or... Or people who don't like beer. Exactly, yeah. So that's interesting. And Joe did say that he is trying to get the game ready for Pinball Expo. Yeah, that's going to be a bit of a push, I think. But it would be great if he can manage to do it. And I'm going to say this out loud here. I'm not so sure whether that actually is a good thing. Well, getting it ready for Pinball Expo or the theme Well, I guess it's they've got games made very quickly in the past and maybe you think that that wasn't a good thing either Well, if we look at the game, yes they got Houdini done under tremendous time pressure and well as impressive as that is that seems to be like the only success factor for that game because there's a lot of Houdini's being sold and sold and sold again apparently rumor has it that distributors are complaining they sell one game and that game gets being sold every two weeks later on so that's not very helpful for the game I realize that but But if that's a result of designing a game under pressure and just trying to live up to a deadline that you set for yourself, then maybe don't set the deadline, but instead come up with a game that's considered to be more fun and has a layout that people actually can make the shots instead of just shooting into posts and bricks and whatever it is. But the game could we don't know, the game could have been designed for a long time and a white wood ready for some time and the game, all the shots and the flow and everything dialed in on the playfield and the only thing the thing that's taking the time is the software and the sounds and maybe a bit of artwork so pushing the game to the show earlier may not have any impact whatsoever on the way it plays physically. It could just be that when you get to see it, it will be missing a whole bunch of display effects and sounds and even some of the artwork. Right. Then you still might wonder, okay, it's not very likely that they're going to be pushing the game into production really soon, especially if they have to push to get it ready for expo. That probably means that they still have months and months of work ahead before they actually start production then you can wonder is it a good thing to show it at Expo Or maybe should we wait till Texas Well the trouble is that they wait till Texas There a lot of other things that are going to be shown at Texas But now it might eat up your Houdini sales. It depends how they present it, of course. They might present it in such a way that it's an early look just to get the excitement going. Right. Well, we've seen how that worked for Jack last time. I mean, we got the introduction of Pirates at Pinball Expo last year, and it took them almost 10 months to get into production after that. Yeah, true. But did that hurt sales of Darlene or any of their other games in the meantime? Well, that's always difficult to tell, but possibly. Or did it stop people buying other games from other manufacturers waiting for Pirates to appear? I'm sure that certain manufacturers are convinced it did. Yes, I'm sure. That's all speculation at the moment, but we'll see whether American Pinball managed to bring Oktoberfest Pinball on tap to Pinball Expo, which is only about three weeks away, isn't it? Not very long at all. Probably less than that. We will know by the time of the next podcast and be able to bring you a full report on that. Well, you will be I will. Yes. Well, I'll be busy there giving a report live as well, but by the time we come to the next podcast, it'll be a good time to wrap up and look back on everything that went down at Wheeling that weekend. So anyway, that's a little bit about Pinball Expo, But we're not done with that yet because a certain Mr. Rob Burke, who's now the sole organizer of Pinball Expo, was in Europe at the I Am Football Attractions show in Amsterdam. Yes, and I was there as well. Let me give you a very brief show report because it really is not that long. So the Euro Attractions show, organized by IAPA, every two years it's in Amsterdam. And this year there was a total of three Pindle Machines present. All games being Stern games, namely Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Maiden, and Deadpool. They were all hosted in the Game Castle booth, which was really in the outer corner of the show. So people didn't take it. It wasn't at the center spot, but really on the outside. You really had to look for them. Game Castle being the distributors for Stern? Apparently, I guess. I don't think there is an official distributor in the Netherlands for Stern at the moment. I think there are several parties that are distributing Stern games, and nobody has the exclusive at the moment. Interestingly, there was a booth reserved for Chicago Gaming and Jersey Jack, and I talked to the distributor of the games, and basically he said that neither company could provide him with games in time, and he had none in stock. So basically They booked The booth But they had no games So they didn't show That's a shame Not good for pinball In general Getting highway pinball flashbacks Yes Yes That's not good either No There was One other pinball related company at the show in a form of a pinball universe uh with a german uh distributor reseller if you want to call it that um they are actually exclusive distributor for the uh atari phone table the the the coffee table it's the physical yes yes and they had a booth entirely dedicated to the pong table uh thing and um so they were there basically focusing on that and they had quite a lot of interest so that's good for them yeah uh interesting the pinball pinball universe and they were not selling any pinball machines or not promoting pinball i guess they're uh they're leaving that up to uh to the other the other distributor or the other reseller right um i I think that might have to do with territory restrictions in terms of, obviously, Pimble Universe is a reseller of Stern and Jersey Jack, but they're not allowed to sell them in the Netherlands. And as the show was held in the Netherlands, I don't think they're allowed to show Stern or Jersey Jack games. Right. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. But also present at the IAAPA show with a stand for Burke Paper, which is Rob Burke's company, in which he's supplying all sorts of amusement parks with all sorts of stuff that they could need, anything a janitor might be needing, you know, like plastic cups to hold drinks. Yeah, sort of catering equipment and knives and forks and spoons and plates, things like that, and taping up kins. All that kind of stuff that Rob is providing that. And he had a booth at the show in Amsterdam, and there I was able to talk to him. And obviously he was very excited about the upcoming Pinball Expo. He's desperately trying to get me to come over there But I have a different show So I can't make it there And But I was able to take To sit down with him for a couple of minutes In his busy schedule And talk about The upcoming Pinball Expo So we're going to listen to it Hold on Hang on No it's not I think it is Let me check Yes. No, Gary, not now. No, okay. I'll respond to Gary. In the meantime, you listen to my interview with Rob Berg at the IFA Euro Attraction Show in Amsterdam. Here we go. So we're here at the IFA Euro Attraction Show in Amsterdam. Standing with me is Rob Berg, the owner of Pinball Expo and organizer. Pinball Expo is coming up in a couple of weeks, Ross. Yes. This is the first show that you're doing on your own. Right. What can people expect of the rebirth of Pinball Expo? Well, first of all, Jonathan, thank you for tracking me down today. There's a couple of things we need to know. It's not totally on my own. I have Dave Ficks help me out with exhibits, and Rob Craig has helped me out as well, pulling games into our exhibit hall. but we can expect a whole lot of positive energy. A lot of the same exhibitors are coming back, but they're also coming back with new excitement and bigger boosts, more energy, and they're just glad to be back to the show. And a lot of exhibitors we had in the past that we lost are coming back, so I'm excited about that. You mentioned Dave Fix, correct? Rob Gregan. Yeah. I also noticed you hired Roy DeSharp for promotion. Yeah. Roger, being in the industry as long as he has, he's got a marketing company. So I figured what a better person to help me promote the show than to use Roger. So not only have I used Roger, but I've used a local guy in my area to do some marketing. So between the two of us, we hope to saturate both social and direct media, either digital media, social media, as well as radio and cable. So we're trying to cover the gamut that we've never had before. Right. So does that mean that you're aiming at a lot of locals to come and visit Pimble Expo? You know, when the Expo first started, we had a tremendous walk-in crowd, and a lot of walk-in crowds were the locals. and a lot of those guys became right away a tennis expo because they loved pinball but didn't know where to go to enjoy pinball. And between that and word of mouth, of course, the show became bigger. But then when we moved, we lost that audience because I think we went to, especially to Wheeling is where we really felt a drop in the attendance because people weren't familiar with where the show had moved to or it was too far for them to travel. So that's why I put a lot of energy and effort into marketing it and bringing some of those people back. Okay. So a lot of the program is familiar to those who attended shows the past year. I mean, you still have the Pimble Factory tour, but you lost the banquet at Saturday night. Yeah, that was a decision I made. You know, we have been struggling for years what to do with the vendor hall. Do we keep it open? Do we keep it closed? just with respect to the speakers at the banquet. We wanted people to be there to hear them. But on the other hand, we noticed that the attendance was waning over the years. So just the decision was made just to drop the banquet. And we're going to have our, like the Hall of Fame inductees be part of our regular schedule. And this year it will be at 7 p.m. on a Friday night. So we're still going to keep that part of the banquet alive as far as doing that part of the show. Okay. The charity auction also gone? The Make-A-Wish is gone. However, this year we're working with Dan Spoiler, Project Pinball. Yeah. And we've actually donated a game to him, which he's going to raffle off. And monies from that will go to him. plus we're going to have a raffle of Stern's Deadpool pinball which we're going to have posted to that raffle we're also give a Dan for the project pinball so we're going to keep that charity angle going I think it's important we do that for the community. There's still a seminar program like you used to have in the past few years? We have a lot of seminars and what we're doing this year is also we're incorporating a little bit of the video angle. Ed Fries is one of the guys we're bringing in, and Jeff Lee, the Q-Bert, and Q-Bert fame is coming in. So we're bringing some of the video aspect of it as well. And another new aspect of the show is all the tournaments we're doing. Not only is Josh Sharpe doing his tournament. Trent is doing his. I'm sorry, Trent, I'm sorry. Trent doing his tournament, but then American Pinball is doing their separate tournament where the winner gets to win a Houdini machine. We're also having a separate tournament from a big ball bowler from St. Louis Ball Bowler Company. So you can actually win a full-size working big ball bowler. Then we're having several other tournaments with Eunice, the Atari Pong, as well as Super Checks. We've got a tournament on that. And we have a tournament on a midway haunted house gun game. So that's something that you won't win a game on that, but you'll win a trophy and some sort of other prizes. But we have a lot of tournaments going on. So that's a whole new element of the show we've never had before, at least not at this intensive level. So it's open to everybody and anybody. And in theory, you can win both those machines. And if you win the raffle, you'll win three machines. Because you can really do it real well. So well that maybe Jonathan, even you, would come to the show and enter all these tournaments. We'll see what I can do. But from what I hear, there's a lot of anticipation coming on in terms of people are getting decided for the show. I mean, the past couple of years, people tended to, a little bit, to be like, But it's the mother of all pinball shows. Let's not forget that. Well, it was the first, no question about it. But I'm the first to admit that the show was waning in interest. And I just needed a shot in the arm. And hopefully with some of the changes that have been made, that the intensity and excitement will return. And it will be a positive experience for everyone in attendance. Excellent. Well, thank you, Rob Berg. Thank you, Jonathan. Looking forward to see you at Pinball Expo in Chicago. Looking forward to you. It's always great to see a great man like you there. Thank you. And we're back. Thank you very much, Mr. Rob Burke of Pinball Expo, for his detailed answers on the upcoming show, which is held from October 17th till the 20th in Wheeling, Illinois, in the United States of America. Indeed, I will be there. And I'm hopeful, or this hasn't been confirmed yet, I'm still working with Rob and seminars organiser David Fix, but I'm hoping to be able to video and put online all the seminars this year. Now, as I say, it hasn't been confirmed, and we've still got to get Rob to sign off on it, because normally he likes to keep those seminars as a very special, know this, one of the key selling points of Pinball Expo is the range of seminars and the number of very knowledgeable speakers who turn up to that show. So we may not be able to do that. If not, I'll certainly have the audio available from them. I'll have that anyway. But fingers crossed, I'm getting my laptop out, trying to get a little streaming set up, put together, so I can record them. They won't be streamed live, I don't think, but they could well be on YouTube. a couple of days after the show, if all goes to plan. Right. And I look forward to that because since I won't be at the show, I will need to do my homework and watch everything or listen to everything later on. Although you do great summaries as well, so that saves me someone to listen to some of the seminars and I'm like, ah, you probably covered everything. If I am videoing them, they might not be able to keep up with the seminars. something is quite so speedily because I'll be using the laptop to stream stuff and I'll then write as I take a second laptop. But we'll see how that turns out. Yeah, well, there's always a possibility, but you know what luggage is like, luggage restrictions. But that's happening in America in a couple of weeks' time. But we've also got news from America for those people who are looking to buy Pinball Magazine No. 5 from Amazon.com. Yes. It didn't quite work out the way you'd hoped. I'm trying not to start a rant on Amazon right now, but seriously, I've put quite a lot of time into trying to cater to every demand that Amazon basically laid down, like, oh, we want you to do it like this, we want you to do it like that. Okay, so first I was expecting them to, I was preparing magazines to be shipped in boxes, and they would be taking a magazine out of the box and then handling all the fulfillments, and then they're like, no, but you need to make sure that it's ready for postage so that they don't have to box it themselves. And I'm like, so what's the fulfillment part? And I thought I was paying you guys for that. So, okay, we take out the fulfillment part. So we prepped over 200 magazines over here to be shipped to Amazon, completely prepped. Like I would send them out from here with mail. So everything completely packaged in a cardboard box with a bubble wrap around it and everything, postcards included and the whole shebang. and so I'm discussing this with with Amazon I'm ready to go and I'm looking at the fees that they are applying and I'm looking at them and they're applying like almost $15 in fees and I'm like hold on that's not even including postage so if people don't have Amazon Prime they still would have to pay postage for that and I'm like so what are the fees for on top of that on three different pages I get three different quotes for the same product so I'm like how come there's no consistency here and they couldn't explain that I send them screenshots of the different quotes and I'm still waiting for them to get back to me but the most important thing to cut a long story short is the fees that Amazon is applying is one thing but obviously for me to ship the magazine to the US there are postal costs involved as well Even if I shipping a pallet of magazines that way I still paying like let say somewhere between to per magazine included on that pallet which needs to be added to the price of the magazine in order to recoup those costs. And then with the fees Amazon is applying, turns out the magazine would be more expensive with Amazon than it would be in my own web shop. So then what's the point of ordering it with Amazon? Yes, okay. Well, I'm glad you didn't get into a rant about it because that could have gone on for quite a while. Sorry, I've got a cut to the chain. No, no. It is actually interesting to see quite exactly how Amazon work when, I mean, what they're doing, I suppose, is they're putting it in their shop window of the website So people search for pinball and magazine, they will see your magazine, and it will get promoted to an extent. But, yeah, they're going to charge you for that, and it sounds like they're charging you between $15 and $20 for that privilege. And then, as you say, you have to ship it to them in the first place, and if you're not on Amazon Prime, you have to pay for the shipping from them. So not necessarily much of a saving. So the upshot is, if people in the United States want to buy the magazine, they buy it from you directly. Yes. Please go to pinball-magazine.com slash shop, and that will get you to the Pinball Magazine web shop, and you can order it from there. It will be the, well, I'll be handling it myself, So I can personally guarantee that your magazine is shipped and everything. There are alternatives, thankfully. Steve Young is currently selling the magazine, the Pinball Resource, that is. So I think it's on the Pinball Resource website. Rob Anthony will also be selling the magazine from his website, which is pinballclassics.com, if I'm not mistaken. That sounds right, yeah. and he will also be selling the magazine at Pinball Expo and those copies already shipped so they will be there, should be there in time okay and if people want to get the postcard pack how do they go about doing that? it's already included with the magazines that I ship to both the Pinball resource and to Rob Anthony so that's no problem and if you order the magazine in the Pinball Magazine webshop the postcards are still available. So obviously there's a limited supply, but the supply is still, we haven't run out. So if you order your copy now, then you still get the set of seven postcards of Santiago Fodos of Wayne Nyhan's games. And while we're speaking of the magazine, aside from all the hassle, the feedback so far has been great. and I'm really appreciative of that. I got some very lengthy feedback from Wayne Ions himself, which I should probably put into a website where people can read what Wayne had to say about it, but he was very impressed. Randy Peck, who is featured in the magazine, actually, but he's also a big collector of Wayne Nyan's games, was very, very impressed with the magazine and learning all sorts of new things about both Wayne and how the Gottlieb factory used to work. And everybody seems to be impressed with the quality and what a huge issue it is. So I'm very happy with all that feedback. Good. And if you want to have a little preview of exactly what's in it before putting your money down on it, there's a review of it on a certain pinball website as well. Yes, pinball news, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of them. Yes, they, in this case you, were kind enough to do a neutral review of the magazine. Thank you for that. So I'm not sure whether I should emphasize on this, But just because we work together doesn't mean that Martin is a fan or in favor of my products. In fact, I think he's more critical. I have to be, really. But Martin wrote a review about what you can expect in the magazine, and obviously it's a lot more than just Wayne Neyens and his career. There's also Scott D'Anesi, there's Jack Danger in there talking about the Netflix streams. Gary Stern is in there Doug Skor before he went to Stern and so in his role as Vice President of Chicago Gaming still discussing things going on with Chicago Gaming at that time and lots more so I'd say check out the review and order your copy in the Pinball Magazine workshop ok so moving on from that extended advert let's talk about Let's stick to things Dutch for a moment. Is there any news at all about what might be happening with Dutch pinball and their particular travails? No, there isn't. And let me get back one second. There is, for the people in Florida, a very good chance that Little Shop of Games will be offering the magazines soon as well, so keep an eye on that as well. That's Curly down there, right? Yes, right. Well, actually, it's Marshall. Oh, right. two locations and I'm currently talking to Marshall. But that should be, that's in the works, so hopefully soon available in Florida as well. And I think they also ship out copies. That's currently being discussed and we're looking at things. So no news from Dutch Pinball then? No. So we do have some from other companies who have shall we say, announce their intention to make games, if not actually got anything to show. Yes. We have one called Great Lakes Pinball, who have said very little, really, about what they're doing, other than they have a logo, and they're going to be showing something exciting in 2019. Oh. Hmm. So, obviously, Great Lakes, based in the United States, around the Great Lakes area. and Haggis Pinball from Australia, who are also working on a game which they are pushing, a bit like American Pinball did, pushing to try and get done and shown at the Texas Pinball Festival in March next year. They haven't announced a theme, just like Great Lakes haven't announced a theme, but they have got a couple of videos on YouTube and promise to do weekly updates to show their progress. And there's two guys down there who seem to be fairly recent converts to pinball, but seem to be quite well-resourced and quite knowledgeable about what they're doing. So let's wish both companies, Great Lakes Pinball and Haggis Pinball, good luck in their game development and see what they come up with. Right. And then you sent me a link earlier, which obviously the viewers don't know, to a game that was actually in progress. Is that one of the games that you just mentioned? I can't remember what I sent you earlier. We've been talking about lots of things. I think it wasn't. I think it was a different company. I think that... Let me try to remember exactly who it was. But I think it was somebody who announced on Pinside that they were going to produce something and it was a sort of what was it called? It was a it was a sort of A very symmetrical game. It looked very 90s I'd say, but early 90s. Yes, it was a sort of I wouldn't say Caribbean theme, but it was sort of like a summer theme, I think, from I don't remember the exact title of it, but I'm sure we'll come back to that in a future date. We've actually got something. It seemed like it was, at the moment, only a one or two. Cosmic Carnival by Suncoast. There we go. Yes. Told you it was to do with summer and all that kind of stuff. Yes, Carnival time. Cosmic Carnival, yes. So let's see what they come up with. But that was announced quite a while ago, actually, I think. Yeah, a couple of months ago, and so they got something going on with a very symmetrical playfield with a couple of rams that are, well, symmetrical. So, oh, well, we'll see what that ends up being. Pardon me for being a little tempered on the new companies. As long as they don't have anything in production, then I'm not holding my breath. Yes, it's easy to announce and difficult to show, I suppose. Right. That's the upshot of that. We've seen, in fact, even once they've shown, it's difficult to produce as well. Even more difficult to actually go into production with a game once you've shown something, as we've seen many times. So, yeah, good luck to them in their development. And when they've got something to actually show us, we'll bring it to you here. Right. But on the same subject, in Germany there's a couple of guys working on a new head-to-head game called Good vs. Evil. I'm just doing this from the top of my head because I forgot to write it down. But it's a head-to-head game, but actually it's two complete playfields, the full-size playfields like you have on a normal pinball machine, and then head-to-head. So it's taking up a lot of space, basically two pinball machines back-to-back, identical playfields. And apparently these guys have been working on it for quite some time, and the software code is developed enough that they are going to be showing it at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo the second weekend of November. Wow, so there's plenty of space to show it then because it sounds like it's going to be a pretty big game almost like a ball bowler length Right, and Is this a homebrew project? It's not something they intend to produce I have no idea, but they will be doing a seminar at the Dutch Fibble Open Expo on the Sunday of the show where we will be able to find out more whether they are going for a serial production or maybe just a few hand-built models I don't know we'll find out in the weekend of November 10th and 11th in the Netherlands ok, well of course you and I will also be doing our seminar or our, do you think you know pinball quiz yes, we will be doing that I haven't no, no, no, actually In my head I'm already at Texas next year Where we're going to be doing the show Again So It looks like we'll be kicking off The Texas Pinball Festival once again In the bar area During happy hour Win great prizes And get drunk That's a great way to start the show And continue it as well Yes So that's new games being sold. Hopefully going to be sold. But there's some much older games also up for sale. They are coming from the Pacific Pinball Museum who a little while ago had a sale of surplus machines, which are duplicates that they have in their warehouse that have either been donated or they bought or they They combine games to make one high-quality game from the parts of two. So they have all these spare machines in their warehouse, and they had a sale a while ago, and now they're having another sale on the 27th of October at their warehouse in Alameda in California. I think that's probably all I can really say about that. But, Felix, do you have any views on the sales of Surface Machines, Ron? Well, I do have an opinion, of course. In this case, I think it's a good thing that they are getting rid of games that they don't need. I mean, they have a collection that is like 1,500 games, something like that. That's far more machines than they can ever exhibit, you know. And then still I hear people, oh, I'm donating my game to the Pacific Pinball Museum. I'm like, if they already have 1,500 games, they're really not waiting for your game to be donated. And it's not a stab at the Pacific Pinball Museum because they do a great job at preserving pinball, and they have a great museum, and the annex is absolutely amazing. If they are ever able to hold events over there, then I would recommend it to anybody. But with 1,500 pinball machines, you're not looking for another 50. No, true, but H7Buddy is a machine that maybe they could sell on or repurpose a less desirable title. Right. And if they sell it, they can raise funds to restore and repair and put money towards finding a more permanent home for the collection. Sure. It's not a direct sort of, you know, you donate the game and it just gets added to the pile. Things happen because, as you say, they have a finite amount of space there. True. So they do these types of sales. And then still I'd say, okay, there's a couple of pinball museums all over the place. There's a couple in America, there's a couple in Europe. If you are a bit collector and you want to donate your games, I'm pretty sure that you want to donate them to a party where they actually get used or shown to the public. and my personal belief is that there's not much sense in adding to the pile if there is other museums that have far less games in stock and they might actually have a better use for those games and just put them in a warehouse and whenever we get the time to look at them, we'll take a look. True. Yes. Yeah, but one solution would be, of course, to work in cooperation with the Pacific Museum and, you know, borrow some of the machines for uses in another museum's exhibit. So that would sort of help both parties, wouldn't it, as if the PPM was a kind of a central repository where other museums and exhibitions could source their machines. Right. There is one other comment that I would like to make in regards to the Pacific Pinball Museum, and it actually relates back to Wayne Nyant. And I think we discussed this two months ago when Wayne just had celebrated his 100th birthday. and apparently Wayne donated his Spirit of 76 game, which is a very special game with a great story behind it, which you can read in Pinball Magazine No. 5, to the Pacific Pinball Museum. And while, of course, I'm happy for the museum and I can understand that Wayne is donating the game, what I didn't understand was that they picked up the game a few weeks later. And I was like, why not wait until Wayne actually has left this world, to say it in a gentle way, and then pick up the game. But they already went there. And I was talking to Wayne a couple of weeks ago, and he says, like, I missed my game. So I talked to Michael Sheese, and I already had the podcast two months ago. So I was like, how can you take the game from him now? Because it's like his only spare time diversion. Or instead of watching TV, I mean, he doesn't do much online. So either he's watching TV or he's playing pinball. And now you take the game away. So what else is he doing? So he misses the game. I called Michael Sheese, and Michael told me he felt terrible. He was like yes we want the game but they didn want it right now and then it was already taken care of that it would be picked up and so on And I said well the least you could do is give them another game back you know And actually, that's what I hear is currently in the works, that the Pacific Pinball Museum is going to be sending a game back to Wayne. And they're currently choosing between two or three different titles, which game it will be. It will be completely refurbished so that Wayne doesn't have to worry about the mechanics and all that kind of stuff. Right. So that Wayne will have a game in his garage again so he can play pinball if he ever feels the need. Well, that's good news. And thanks to you and to All In Gold for making that happen. Right. Well, I'm not tapping myself on the shoulder for that, but apparently I wasn't the only one wondering, like, why did they take the game now? So I'm glad to see that even within the Pacific Pinball Museum, people were like, no, no, hold on, this isn't right. And I'm glad that they are trying to make this work. And for Wayne, it would be nice to have a different game. Of course, yes. I've had that one for a long time now. Even though it's your favorite, it's always nice to have a bit of variety. Okay, so we don't normally cover, if we say, digital pinball. Yes. But there is a little bit of news this month about, well, there's two companies who have got news, the first of which is Zen. Do you want to mention what Zen Pinball have been doing? Yeah, well, Zen Pinball is a, I think they are from Budapest in Hungary. Yes. and they provide digital pinball machines with a lot of animations on the playfield that usually can't take place in real pinball machines. And they built quite an empire, I would say, for themselves in making such games. And they recently acquired the Bally Williams license and they are now remaking basically all the titles that not that long ago were available with the Pinball Arcade. Yes, Farsight did have the license until the end of June. Right. I'm not sure exactly who it is who licenses the digital versions, whether that's Rick and Matt or directly from Williams themselves. Yeah, well, scientific games as it would be now. Yes. But whoever it was, yes, I guess Far Sight were outbid by Zen and so Zen are now doing recreations of original games rather than their more outlandish and quite amazing titles. And Zen Pinball, I think, correct me if I'm wrong here, isn't that where quite a lot of the talent was sourced for the Team Pinball game? Yes, exactly. Yes, okay. So a lot of pinball skills in the digital domain out there, which some of this has moved into the physical. As the fun side, sorry, you've got something to say about Zen? Well, yes, I do, in the sense that I haven't followed the discussions online, but there is, obviously people are opinionated which company has the better pinball physics, you know, And I guess that's a personal thing Some might prefer The pinball arcade by Farsight And others might say that Zen does it better I really wouldn't Be able to Tell you anything about that because I don't Play digital pinball that much But it's interesting that Some people are actually happy to see The license going to Zen Because they Are more fond of the Pinball physics used in that Yeah, absolutely. In the meantime, Farsight, having lost the William Bally title, are now concentrating on their Gottlieb titles, and they have Stern ones, and Stern ones are the ones they're really pushing at the moment in a virtual reality Oculus Rift version of, I think, about nine... Ten. Ten, is it? Yeah. Stern, Data East... And Sega. Sega titles, yes, which are, I believe, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Mustang, ACDC, Last Action Hero, Phantom of the Opera, Starship Troopers, High Roller Casino, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Harley Davidson. Of course, many of which are licensed titles, so I don't know whether that complicated matters or not, in getting that signed up, or the Stern just deal with all that licensing, or had all that licensing. I doubt they had it when they took the license for some of these titles. Certainly for the older ones, but apparently these are, I'd say, are licenses that are either fairly cheap or easy to obtain. I think with Ghostbusters they were already at the stage that they were like, okay, we need to think about digital as well. I agree, yes. Yeah, but going back to things like Starship Troopers and, I don't know, Harley-Davidson. Yeah, no, that was never part of the original deal, I guess. No, no. So that was obviously not a big deal to organize. Right. And I think for a company like Harley-Davidson, for them it's just a bunch of brand extension, free advertising. If people want to play pinball, you know, sure, why not? Yeah, yeah, sure. Even if the license with Stern has expired, I guess Farsight were able to negotiate these on the back of their great Williams-Bally titles and the other work they've done with Gottlieb and Stern. So Farsight are still going strong, despite losing Williams-Bally stuff, and then are moving into a slightly new area of recreations. Right. And then you still have to wonder, how big is that market? If there's one thing that just crosses my mind, and I'll just throw it out there, obviously, as long as Far Side Studios had the license, they were obviously pushing for people to buy the games. And once you bought them, then you actually own them, and they will continue to do support on them. So, of course, there's always new people getting into pinball and digital pinball and all that kind of stuff. But you also have to wonder, like, okay, so let's say that all the diehard fanatic pinball, digital pinball players, all got the old 60-something titles that Foresight recreated. Are you really waiting for another Medieval Madness to show up with Xen? I mean, you already have Medieval Madness if you want to play the game. And sure, then we'll be adding some of their trademark animations and stuff that might not be happening in the real game. But still, how big is the market since everybody who wanted to have these games probably already has them? I do remember us having a similar conversation when we were discussing the possibility of a company reproducing Medieval Badness as a physical game. and we were saying, well, there's plenty of medieval manners games out there. People want one, they can find one without any problem. And now the same thing is happening in the digital domain. So, you know, maybe it's not something that's unprecedented. Okay. Well, we'll see. But I'm sure it's probably the start of a series of titles that Fast... Sorry, that Zen are going to be bringing out, extending beyond maybe what Fastlight were able to do. Right. Well, personally, I'd say, okay, we probably know what Xen is going to be coming out with. So it will probably be more interesting to see what else Farsight is going to be doing, because those will be titles that are really new for Digital Pimble. Maybe. Or maybe they'll just track what Stern are doing. And Stern are producing three titles a year. Maybe Farsight will bring out three or four titles a year as well. three new ones and one more from the archives. I guess we'll just... There's a big back catalogue we can pull from, I'm sure, and add it to all the new titles that come out. I don't suppose they'll be short of titles to remake in traditional form. Okay, so, have you got anything else you want to add this month? No. I think we covered everything that I could think of. Well, of course there was, and I'm sorry that this is sort of at the last topic, but we didn't really discuss Vancouver Flipout, but thanks to Tommy and Suzanne for getting me over, and you were there as well. I'd have to say, what a fantastic show. It was just such a good atmosphere there. there you know it's it's not the biggest show um of the year but it was certainly i think the the one that that had the greatest um number of smiles everybody just seemed to have such a good time and be so positive about it and um it was so relaxed as well you know you weren't tied into doing any one thing you could come and go whenever you wanted and it was you know if you wanted to go and have something to eat yes there were food trucks there or you there was you could just walk outside the building and within a couple of minutes there were 50, 60 different dining options all around from fast food joints to whole foods type stores that had a great cafe in and bars and upscale dining down by the yacht marina as well. It was a lovely location, loads of hotels. You could walk to the venue from any of them and pop into places on the way back home and we'll do some shopping and you know Vancouver's a lovely city of course I've always been a big fan of it and this time just went to prove that so I think it was a great show, I had a really nice selection of games some of the latest titles there thanks to Tommy at Nitro and some seminars for those who wanted to catch up on and hear about the latest games and the people who are making them so I think yeah So hats off to Tommy and Suzanne and everybody involved in setting that show up and running it so smoothly. Right. And I can't give enough compliments to Tommy and Suzanne, but there's a couple of things I want to mention. First of all, the location is great. It has a certain atmosphere already in it, which is very nice, very cozy, I would say. And then what made the show really stand out, and this might sound a little bit weird, but what they did was they had made these huge adhesive banners that they were able to stick on the walls behind, like the desk or if there was a vendor they had aligned all these banners behind the banner or behind the vendor on this back wall and that looked just so professional I thought it was great you know you see those lying on the floor you think my goodness these are actually massive banners they're probably, I don't know, about four or five meters long, some of them. Right. But with great artwork, great printing, and they really looked great. They really elevated the whole professional atmosphere at the show. That's probably not the right word, but part of my Dutch-English, you know. But it just Had this air of professionalism All over it Which I think is great And although I didn't play in any tournaments It seems there were Tournaments for everybody All the time Yes there were, there were a lot of them And all professionally run By Dave Stewart and Germaine Marial From the Northwest Pinball group who do the shows, do the tournaments at the Northwest show as well. So, yeah, I think it was, it all seemed to run to time as well, and everybody seemed to be very happy with the way that it happened. And one thing which was very unusual, I think, for any pinball show, particularly one that's like two and a half days long, is Sunday was actually the busiest day of any of them. And that's something you don't normally see. Normally, you know, everyone's thinking, oh, you're going to start tearing down the machines by lunchtime, but that didn't happen at all, and it was absolutely, well, it wasn't packed, but it was worth the use. Well, you could still walk around because of the way the aisles were laid out. Let's put it like this. You could still walk around, but Sunday afternoon, I think between 2 and 4 p.m., every game at the show, which was like 150 games present, every game was constantly being played. Yes, absolutely. Which was great to see. I guess the Carl Weathers probably had a little bit to do with it, because Sunday was quite a wet day, whereas Saturday was only slightly rainy. So people obviously thought they were going to come inside and come to a pinball show, which was great. But it was, as I say, it was nice to see a Sunday being a full day, if not the fullest day of all the days of the show, and very well supported by locals as well as people from out of town and out of country as well, like us. Right. So once again, a big thank you to Tommy and Suzanne for organizing these shows and flying me over. There was a VIP event on Friday evening where I was fortunate enough to provide the music by DJing. And I was happy to hear that people actually appreciated the kind of music that I played. I figured we sort of decided on going with a sort of 80s pop rock kind of mix of music. And that seemed to go very well. It might not have been as rocky as Tommy was expecting But I got compliments from Various people in the crowd And hats off to Jack Danger and Antoinette Johnson for Basically stealing the show At the VIP event Yeah Unfortunately I'd left by then Because I was there with Christina And we needed to leave and all that, but from what you said, it sounded like it was quite a performance. Yeah, well, it was absolutely fun. And Antoinette showed one of her, I'd say, hidden talents, and I'm not going to elaborate on that, but it was very nice to be a witness of that. Well, if you want to see it next time, go to the show and see it all for yourself. Right. But this is definitely a show I will absolutely recommend everybody to go to. if you can next year Vancouver Flipout, that's absolutely a show that you want to be at yeah, good, and we've both got detailed reports from the show on our respective websites as well so you can read all about it if you haven't already seen it and as I said earlier we've got the videos of the three seminars as well on the Pimple News site so if you want to see that on the Pimple News YouTube channel Okay, so I think we're about at the end of this month's recap of everything that's happened that's worth talking about in Pimble in the past month There's just time for you and I to say goodbye. Oh, hang on, what's that noise? Oh, crap Yeah, I talked to Gary I told him to call me back later So here we have Gary calling me back later Just saying goodbye Yeah, no, that's okay well thanks for listening and we'll be back next month with a new update if you haven't ordered your copy of Pinball Magazine you know where to go pinball-magazine.com slash shop and I say goodbye for now and let me hear what Gary has to say thank you, bye bye thank you and goodbye till next month

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