# Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast April 2026 recap

**Source:** Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-05-05  
**Duration:** 69m 22s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pinball-industry-news/episodes/Pinball-Magazine--Pinball-News-PINcast-April-2026-recap-e3itgnv

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## Analysis

The April 2026 Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast covers Chris Granner's return to pinball to lead sound design for Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti game, Stern's lifestyle sponsorship of the Q West Comedy Festival in Key West with strong Pokemon machine performance metrics, code updates for multiple manufacturers, and updates from Hexa Pinball, American Pinball, Barrels of Fun, Multimorphic, Spooky, and Jersey Jack. Notable developments include Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade outperforming Pokemon at some locations, Stern's plans to restructure European distribution, and Jersey Jack's upcoming titles with significant voice recording and revised designs.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Chris Granner is returning to pinball after 20 years in video game sound and music, now leading sound direction for Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti game — _Jonathan Houston and Martin Ayo, Pinball Magazine/Pinball News editors, discussing official Turner Pinball announcement_
- [HIGH] Chris Granner previously worked on Jersey Jack Pinball's The Wizard of Oz in 2013 and the original music for Dennis Nordman's Whitewater game — _Martin Ayo clarification during discussion of Chris Granner's history_
- [HIGH] Pokemon is Stern's fastest-selling game in their 25-year history (excluding Data East and Sega titles), earning 2.5 times more revenue than other machines — _Jonathan Houston citing Stern's official memo to Insider Connect Pro operators_
- [MEDIUM] Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade outperformed Pokemon at a location for at least two weeks in a row, performing better in week two than week one — _Martin Ayo citing Arcade Legacy image response and operator feedback_
- [MEDIUM] Stern plans to restructure European distribution agreements and establish a base in Amsterdam, changing longstanding distribution partnerships — _Martin Ayo reporting on Stern's internal communications about European business changes_
- [HIGH] Steve Ritchie indicated his upcoming Jersey Jack game 'might be the fastest one he has ever designed' and will use a standard body, not white body — _Jonathan Houston summarizing Pintastic New Robert Englunds seminar with Steve Ritchie, Jack Guarnieri, and Mark Seiden_
- [HIGH] Over 6,000 voice calls were recorded for Steve Ritchie's upcoming game in a one-off recording session, but only a fraction will be used — _Jonathan Houston citing information from Jersey Jack Pintastic seminar_
- [HIGH] Mark Seiden completely scrapped his first design for his upcoming Jersey Jack game and started over; the new design is described as 'amazing' by Seiden and Jack Guarnieri confirmed it's a great shooting game — _Jonathan Houston reporting from Pintastic New Robert Englunds seminar with Jersey Jack designers_

### Notable Quotes

> "Chris Granner, legendary sound designer and programmer back in Williams days, is returning to Pinball after a long, long absence"
> — **Martin Ayo**, early in podcast
> _Announces major industry return of iconic sound designer_

> "They're basically bringing the band back together, you're saying? Yeah, kind of, but at least two of the members anyway."
> — **Jonathan Houston and Martin Ayo**, Yukon Yeti discussion
> _Commentary on reunion of Williams-era talent for Dennis Nordman's game_

> "Pokemon is currently earning 2.5 times more than other machines making it the highest returning pinball machine of the last 25 years. I'm not sure whether that's a good statement because that also says something about the games you made for the last 25 years."
> — **Jonathan Houston**, Stern Pokemon discussion
> _Critical observation about Stern's game performance claims vs. historical portfolio quality_

> "If you're an operator and you're interested in making loads and loads of money on operating Pinball, then maybe you should get a Merlin's Arcade by Turner Pinball"
> — **Martin Ayo**, Turner Pinball Merlin's Arcade discussion
> _Highlights operator revenue potential of Turner's game_

> "There's a lot more information needed to tell you what you've hit and what you need to hit... There's a lot of potential in this game if they need to improve on their display effects and general overall game choreography"
> — **Jonathan Houston**, Three Musketeers gameplay analysis
> _Technical criticism of Hexa Pinball's multimedia integration and feedback design_

> "You're trying to finish an event and get a reward for it. And if you don't get a multimedia sound, lighting and display effect for it, then it feels a bit of a letdown."
> — **Martin Ayo**, Three Musketeers discussion
> _Design philosophy insight on importance of celebration feedback in pinball_

> "And why not put it in the foyer where your visitors can actually play the game? That will be done to the theatre, of course... that's a limited audience."
> — **Jonathan Houston and Martin Ayo**, Jersey Jack Harry Potter Broadway discussion
> _Criticism of limited accessibility for promotional machine placement_

> "Steve Ritchie, when asked about his upcoming game, he said it might be the fastest one he has ever designed... I'm guessing he's referring to the flow of the game"
> — **Jonathan Houston and Martin Ayo**, Jersey Jack seminar recap
> _Design direction preview for upcoming Jersey Jack title_

> "Mark Seiden indicated that he completely scrapped his first design for that game. And threw it in the trash. It was no good. He started again and now he has a new design which shoots amazing."
> — **Jonathan Houston**, Jersey Jack seminar discussion
> _Designer candor about iterative design process and self-critique_

> "And much to my surprise, it looks like Mark Seidman's game may actually still go into production this year... I would say early 27. At the earliest."
> — **Jonathan Houston**, Jersey Jack production timeline discussion
> _Speculation on production timeline overlaps for multiple Jersey Jack titles_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Chris Granner | person | Legendary pinball sound designer returning to pinball after 20 years in video game audio; now leading sound direction for Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti game alongside Adam Grubman |
| Turner Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer launching Yukon Yeti designed by Dennis Nordman; also produced Merlin's Arcade which showed strong operator revenue performance |
| Dennis Nordman | person | Legendary pinball designer; designed original Whitewater game and current Yukon Yeti for Turner Pinball |
| Adam Grubman | person | Composer and implementation specialist working with Chris Granner on audio direction for Yukon Yeti |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; Pokemon is reported as fastest-selling game in 25-year company history earning 2.5x revenue of other machines; sponsoring Q West Comedy Festival; planning European distribution restructuring |
| Jonathan Houston | person | Editor of Pinball Magazine; co-host of PINcast recap podcast with Martin Ayo |
| Martin Ayo | person | Editor of Pinball News; co-host of PINcast recap podcast with Jonathan Houston |
| Brian Q Quinn | person | Stand-up comedian, cast member of Impractical Jokers, founder of Q West Comedy Festival in Key West, long-time Stern Pinball collaborator and voice of King Kong Myth of Terror Island |
| Mick Brown | person | Reporter and collaborator for Pinball News; covered Stern's presence at Q West Comedy Festival in Key West |
| Hexa Pinball | company | French manufacturer; revealed Three Musketeers game with gameplay videos; showing at European expo circuit; noted for strong RGB lighting but weak multimedia choreography feedback |
| American Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Hot Wheels and Houdini; hosted high school factory tour; attending Midwest Gaming Classic and Pintastic shows |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Texas-based manufacturer; released major code update for Winchester Mystery House adding angry spirits gameplay and new wizard modes |
| Multimorphic | company | Manufacturer with distributor Wise Trailer representing them at shows; Portal game generating positive operator feedback |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Wisconsin-based manufacturer; released code updates for Evil Dead (Hail to the King wizard mode) and Beetlejuice (Singing in the Stairwell mini-wizard mode) |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Harry Potter game; planning multiple new designer titles from Steve Ritchie and Mark Seiden; Harry Potter still in production with collector's editions available |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer at Jersey Jack; upcoming game described as potentially his fastest-designed game with 6,000+ recorded voice calls; using standard body design |
| Mark Seiden | person | Jersey Jack designer; scrapped initial design and started over; new design confirmed as strong shooting game by Jack Guarnieri; potential 2026 production window |
| Jack Guarnieri | person | Jersey Jack Pinball president; attended Pintastic seminar; playtest and approved Mark Seiden's redesigned game; appears in Harry Potter promotional content |
| Eric Meunier | person | Jersey Jack team member; conducted solo presentation on making of Harry Potter at Pintastic; appears in Broadway theatre promotional video |
| Tom Felton | person | Actor playing Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage production; featured in Jersey Jack promotional video at Lyric Theatre on Broadway enthusiastically endorsing signed Harry Potter pinball machine |
| Wise Trailer | company | Distributor evolved from Multimorphic reseller to multi-manufacturer representative; now representing American Pinball, Barrels of Fun, Turner Pinball, and Multimorphic at shows |
| Pinball Magazine | organization | Print and digital media publication edited by Jonathan Houston; co-produces monthly PINcast with Pinball News |
| Pinball News | organization | Independent online pinball media outlet founded in 2000; co-produces PINcast with Pinball Magazine; maintains comprehensive industry coverage |

### Signals

- **[personnel_signal]** Chris Granner, legendary Williams-era sound designer, returning to pinball after 20 years in video game audio to lead sound direction for Turner Pinball's Yukon Yeti (confidence: high) — Official Turner Pinball announcement discussed by Pinball Magazine/Pinball News editors; Granner previously worked on Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz (2013) and Whitewater original music
- **[market_signal]** Stern's Pokemon game is reported as fastest-selling title in 25-year company history, earning 2.5x more revenue than other machines (confidence: high) — Stern official memo to Insider Connect Pro operators cited by Jonathan Houston; claim excludes Data East and Sega era (pre-1999)
- **[competitive_signal]** Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade reportedly outperformed Pokemon for at least two weeks at a location, with stronger performance in week two than week one (confidence: medium) — Arcade Legacy response with operator data cited by Martin Ayo; unusual sustained growth pattern noted as atypical for new games
- **[business_signal]** Stern Pinball planning to restructure European distribution agreements and establish Amsterdam base, changing longstanding partnerships (confidence: medium) — Martin Ayo reporting on Stern communications; described as not yet finalized with announcements expected 'over next few weeks and months'
- **[code_update]** Dungeons & Dragons Tyrant's Eye reaches version 1.0.0.0 with new Infinity Dungeon Crawl challenge mode, speedrun tracking, new character looping awards, and extensive bug fixes (confidence: high) — Jonathan Houston citing April 2 release with detailed feature list
- **[code_update]** Star Wars Fall of the Empire v0.96 adds new bonus missions for multiple characters and new Death Star 2 multiball with different rules than original (confidence: high) — Jonathan Houston citing April 16 release with rule detail clarification
- **[design_innovation]** Hexa Pinball's Three Musketeers exhibits strong RGB lighting effects but weak display/audio feedback synchronization with playfield actions, affecting gameplay clarity (confidence: high) — Jonathan Houston detailed analysis of gameplay videos noting lack of display feedback for shot confirmation and weak multiball callout timing
- **[product_launch]** American Pinball continuing production of Hot Wheels and Houdini; confirmed via high school factory tour showing both production lines active (confidence: high) — Martin Ayo citing American Pinball social media posts of factory tour
- **[code_update]** Barrels of Fun's Winchester Mystery House receives major update adding angry spirits gameplay mechanic, spirit battles, spirit reckoning, and new Echoes mini-wizard mode (confidence: high) — Martin Ayo citing April update with detailed feature list
- **[machine_intel]** Steve Ritchie's upcoming Jersey Jack game characterized as potentially his 'fastest' designed game, suggesting high gameplay flow/speed rather than quick design timeline (confidence: high) — Jonathan Houston interpreting Steve Ritchie's statement from Pintastic seminar; comparison to Dragonfly from 1980 provided as context
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Jersey Jack recorded 6,000+ voice calls for upcoming game in single one-off session; expecting to use only fraction in final product due to one-chance recording constraint (confidence: high) — Jonathan Houston citing Jersey Jack seminar disclosure; noted editing challenge for unused takes
- **[design_philosophy]** Mark Seiden completely scrapped initial design for upcoming Jersey Jack game, restarted from scratch, and new design now confirmed as strong shooting game by Jack Guarnieri (confidence: high) — Jonathan Houston reporting from Pintastic seminar with direct designer and company head confirmation

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## Transcript

Chris Granner returns to Pinball. Fishtails 2.0 reveal. Stern sponsors Comedy Festival. Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston and I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine. And I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Ayo, and I'm the editor of Pinball News. But why are we talking like this, Jonathan? Because it's been a slow month. Well, in that case, we'd better speed back up to normal and we can get through all the news that there has been quite quickly. So, yes, welcome. Welcome, everybody. We're back at normal speed. Yes, welcome to the April 2026 Pinball Industry News Pincast with Jonathan and myself. We are here to bring you all the exciting events. Well, they're reasonably exciting events that took place in this month of April. And last month of April as it is now. And yeah, as Jonathan says, a slow month for news. No, no real exciting news, but several things of interesting and which you may not have picked up on across the month. So that's why we're here. Right. And well, let's start things off with the exciting news. At least I find that exciting that Chris Brenner, legendary sound designer and programmer and so on back in Williams days. Yeah, is returning to Pinball after a long, long absence. Yes, indeed. He's going to be leading the sound direction for the new Yukon Yeti game from Turner Pinball. Now, it was announced that he's returning to pinball after 20 years of doing sound and music for video games. But in fact, I heard that. I thought, hang on, he was back as part of the Jersey Jack team when they started. Yeah, that's true. It's also true that he did 20 years of video games. He did do 20 years of video games alongside that as well, but he did do sound design for, and I guess music as well, for Jersey Jack Pinball's The Wizard of Oz back in 2013. Alongside Rob Berry. Wow, okay. Okay, so 13 years. Other than that game, it was like 20 years because he did the original music for Dennis Nordman's Whitewater game. Yes, that's right. One of many games that he worked on while working at or for Williams back in the day. And so it's only very fitting that now that this Yukon Yeti design by Dennis Nordman is brought back into life, coming from the ashes of Deep Root, Pinball if you will, that Chris is doing the sound. Although I do feel a little bit sorry for whoever produced the music for the current version of the game. Yes, that was one of the things I asked Chris when the game was first launched exactly who was doing the sound and he was a bit cagey about it at the time saying that he'll give more details on that later. So, you know, maybe we did hear some of the music, but we didn't hear an awful lot of music when we played the game in Texas because of the nature of the environment. But it's also worth mentioning that according to the information from Turner, it says that Chris will lead the audio direction while he's teaming up with Adam Grubman, who he has worked with before on other projects. And Adam will drive the composition and implementation. So I guess it's kind of like, you know, like Chris will be like an art director. Yes. Who's working with artists and making sure that it all comes together as a cohesive package. Well, I guess that's what Chris is doing, using his many years of experience and knowledge of pinball sound and working with Adam in order to make sure that all the whole thing comes together as you'd expect in a pinball machine, which has some unique aspects to it, of course. Yes. So but regardless, I find it exciting to see that Chris Turner reached out to at least that's what I'm assuming here to Chris Granner to see like, hey, we're doing this Dennis Nordman game. Would you like to be on board? Yeah. Along those lines, I suspect. So, yeah, it could be very interesting. I mean, were it not already done, you would sort of speculate whether you would have reached out to John Yelsey as well and see whether he could do the art for the game, seeing as they could then bring Dennis, Chris and John from Whitewater back together to do Yukon Yeti. But, of course, the art for Yukon Yeti is already done. They're basically bringing the band back together, you're saying? Yeah, kind of, but at least two of the members anyway. Yeah, so, oh well, I think it's great news and that's not all the news there is from Turner Pinball, no, no, no. Tell us more. Every other Pinball machines by 2.5 times to which Arcade Legacy responded with an image. And they basically saying that they added Merlin's Arcade. That's not the Yukon Yeti game we were just discussing, but the previous one from Turner Pinball. They added that game to the lineup and the results have been incredible. It outperformed Pokemon for at least two weeks in a row. So, and that's quite rare for a new game, especially since it did better the second week than the first week. Because usually when it's a new game, people play it once and apparently they keep coming back for more because they like it so much. So that's, well, good news for Stern Pinball. Yeah, and that's Merlin's Arcade, which is not even their current game. Well, they're still building it, but it's good that it's still available should people want to get in on it and see if it performs as well for them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So if you're an operator and you're interested in making loads and loads of money on operating Pinball, then maybe you should get a Merlin's Arcade by Turner Pinball. Hmm. Well, certainly sounds like it's worth giving it a shot. Or if you believe Stern, you should buy a Pokemon. Yeah. OK. Well, in that case, we should maybe move over to Stern and see what news is from them this month. Yeah, well, it was surprisingly little. I think you already covered the main feature. Yes. I think the biggest news was they were a lifestyle sponsor because, of course, Stern, as we all know, is a lifestyle brand. Oh, yes, definitely. Yeah. So and they were a the sponsor or a lifestyle sponsor for the Q West Comedy Festival in Key West, Florida, which is apparently I'm told pronounced Quest rather than Key West, which is which is how I leave the rest of the news to you. Well, several of the Stern team members went down to Key West in Florida, including Jack Danger. They've been doing lots of social media posts about it. The Quest Comedy Festival is run by a comedian called Brian Q Quinn, who might be a slightly familiar name to some people, Because he's been a long time collaborator with Stern Pinball and is the main voice in the King Kong Myth of Terror Island game. And he is a stand up comedian. He appears in a cable TV show called Impractical Jokers, I believe. And this is, I think, his is his home ground down in Key West. And there was a whole weekend, two or three days long festival held in a theatre down there where it's basically water wall comedians and comedy turns. And as part of that, they had a number of sponsors, which, as you correctly said, Stern were a lifestyle sponsor for it. And as part of that, Stern went down there, as I said, in a team of about four or five people. They also set up a whole bunch of games in one of the local bars down there and ran Insider Connect high school tournaments on those as well. Now, if you want to see more about this, we're fortunate that Mick Brown, a reporter and collaborator on Pinball News, happened to be in the area at the time and ran into the Stern team in one of the bars there and found out all about what's going on. And you can read this report. How much did Mick have to drink before he met them? Well, he wasn't really there. He just happened to be in one of the main bars there doing a report because they had pinball machines there. That's my question. I can't tell you. I wasn't there. All right. OK. Well, I kind of wish I was. How fortunate for, well, anyone, basically. You hang out in a bar and Stern shows up with a bunch of pinball machines. I know, exactly. And then they're down there for a whole weekend for a comedy festival. And in between doing their acts on the stage at the festival, quite a lot of the comedians would come along to the bar and join the Stern team and play some pinball as well. So it sounds like a good time to be down in Key West. Yeah. Well, there's a bunch of funny or, well, I'm not sure whether they're that funny, but videos on Stern's Facebook and probably Instagram as well. Yes, I saw they got a lot of coverage out of that event. Probably, I don't know, six, seven, eight videos of various kinds. Yeah, and there were so many videos I'm now wondering whether the Quest Comedy Festival isn't more of a lifestyle sponsor for Stern. Yes, I think it's a good collaboration between the two of them because I think the actual Comedy Festival was limited in number of tickets that were sold, I think like 200, 250 tickets, and they were pretty expensive as well. So I'm trying to appeal to that market, I suppose. But hey, it's spreading Pinball to a new audience, which is what stands for. Comedy and Pinball has always been a good combination, in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely. I'm not sure which of the recent titles would particularly appeal in that regard. Deadpool is the closest, I think. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Anyway, so that was that was Stern down in Key West in Florida, Florida Keys. Yes, and as mentioned, Stern did send out a memo or whatever you want to call it, a mailing message, whatever it is, to their Insider Connected Pro operators, obviously trying to sell more Pokemon games, I'm saying that Pokemon is the fastest selling game in their entire history. And by entire history, we mean the past 25 years. So not the Data East and Sega titles. Those have to be excluded. And they're saying it's just not not just a popular title. It's a revenue blockbuster. Pokemon is currently earning 2.5 times more than other machines making it the highest returning pinball machine of the last 25 years. I'm not sure whether that's a good statement because that also says something about the games you made for the last 25 years. Well, yes, there's always the flip side. Yes. So Pokemon is bringing a whole new generation to commercial locations and accelerating the commercial pinball renaissance. Make it yours now. Oh, well. Although they also say that the initial quantities have all sold out. So maybe you can't. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense with me. So I mean, get your order in now. Yeah. So they can order small games. We need to sell more games, so order one, please. Talking about trying to sell more games, I think Stern's focus, apart from on the Pokemon side, has also been in trying to improve their sales in Europe. And actually spoken about in the past by setting up a European base in Amsterdam. Yeah, which still has to take place, but still. We'll eventually be moving to. Yeah. And they have made a number of changes and will continue to be making a number of changes to their importation and distribution agreements across Europe. Yes. Which basically means that it doesn't matter how much or how long you have been partnering with Stern Pinball. That's all water under the bridge now. We allow anybody to sell. Yeah. Yes. If I think we will see some some announcements coming up over the next few weeks and months, which will change the way which Stern Pinball will be available across Europe. So we'll bring you more news on that when it's actually announced. But just a heads up. But you heard it here first. That's right. Yeah, we can't say any more about it at this moment, but we will in due course. And which brings us, of course, to the most exciting part of the whole pincast, really. It's where we get to talk about the new... Oh, please do tell me if it's code updates. It is! Oh, isn't it exciting? I can hear it in your voice. Yes, although fortunately, as with the rest of the industry, it's been a relatively quiet month for the new code. I don't know if it's because everybody's been in Key West. But now only two games got updates this month. Dungeons and Dragons, Tyrant's Eye got version 1.0.0.0. It's about time. Yes. On the 2nd of April that was Not April fall today the day after It gets a new challenge mode Infinity Dungeon Crawl available through the gameplay menu New belongings looping awards on the left orbit, new mystery awards, new speedruns. A speedrun is how long it takes you to play a full campaign with one of the characters from the very beginning to the end. And inside a connected Dungeons & Dragons website will show your current speed run times for all your characters. There's also a whole bunch of new speech, a few rule changes and a big list of bug fixes, which is not that surprising considering what a complex game it is and the number of characters and how they all interact with each other. So that's Dungeons & Dragons. The other one was Star Wars Fall of the Empire version 0.96 came out on the 16th. He added new bonus missions for Luke, the droids, Lando and Han. New Death Star 2 multiball, which is different rules to the first Death Star multiball, first time you play it. Oh, I thought there was a multiple Death Star. Yes, when they rebuilt it. Just the second time you play it is not the same as the first time with minor changes. No, it's quite different. And quite a lot of other rule changes and a few bug fixes too. And that's all the code for Stern for the month of April. Okay. So, we move on. No, we move up. Move up? Oh, what are we moving up to? Well, we're moving up to Hexa Pinball in France. Yeah. Yeah, they of course revealed or well, they did reveal the three musketeers. Unfortunately, not as planned at the Texas Pinball Festival. We covered that last month. But of course, life goes on and so goes the reveal of the game. Gameplay videos of the three musketeers are out there now. The game was also presented at the German Pinball Expo in Bielefeld. The Flip Expo show in Le Trapport, which I missed again. That was in France, by the way. And the Pinfest in Allentown. And if you're curious, the next stop will be the Austrian Pinball Festival in Woklabruck. And then there will be three French events in May, June and July. And who knows where the games currently residing in America will end up as well, because there's more shows coming up there as well. So who knows? Somebody might bring them there. Yes, it wasn't. It wasn't sort of there was a list of events where the game will be shown in Europe. But there wasn't really the equivalent in the US, so maybe that hasn't been worked out yet. But yes, a lot coming up, and I'm looking forward to actually getting to play the game soon. I did watch some gameplay videos. Let's hear your take on what you've experienced so far. Well, okay. Well, my takeaway from that was it's got some really great lighting effects on it. There's all obviously RGB lighting throughout, and they use it very well. But a lot of the choreography of the game, to me, seemed to lead synchronising with what was on the display. So when you were shooting things, the display wasn't necessarily giving you any feedback about that, and there wasn't much in the way of call-outs either for that. Some of the more dramatic moments, such as the start of the main multiball, for instance, which you lock the third ball and it just kind of happens. And then while it's releasing all the balls on the display, it does the animation that says multiball start. But nobody's going to be looking at that. They'll be looking at what the balls are doing and they're coming towards flippers. There's a lot more information needed to tell you what you've hit and what you need to hit. But, as I say, the playfield shots look fun and the lighting looks excellent. And there's a lot of potential in this game if they need to improve on their display effects. The effects, I think, and general overall game choreography between what's happening on the playfield and the multimedia side of it. But the good thing is it's a new game and they've got plenty of time to do that. So let's hope they do, because certainly with Space Hunt, I think they did a good job with that game. So they're perfectly capable of doing it. Yeah, although I have to say also with Space Hunts, choreography is not as good as with certain other companies. Let's put it like that. No, I think that too, to an extent, lacks the dramatic moments of the game. When you do something and you make an achievement, it's kind of not really much of a celebration of achievement, which is what you're trying to get with Pinball, isn't it? You're trying to finish an event and get a reward for it. And if you don't get a multimedia sound, lighting and display effect for it, then it feels a bit of a letdown. Right. Oh, well. So that's it for Hexer Pinball for the month of April. We look forward to seeing more feedback on the three Musketeers from upcoming events, as mentioned. And we're moving on to American Pinball. OK, so, well, not a huge amount of news from American Pinball this month. They've been at a few shows, the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee and also Pintastic in New Robert Englunds, where they had a seminar. I was looking forward to watching that before we recorded this pincast. But unfortunately, it's not yet on the Pintastic New Robert Englunds YouTube channel. But other seminars are and certainly seminars from previous years are there. So I'm sure that seminar will appear in due course. So keep an eye out on the YouTube channel for Pintastic New Robert Englunds, all one word. And you'll be able to see the other seminars from that show and eventually the American Pinball one too. But in the meantime, American Pinball posted on their socials that they had a high school tour of the factory where all the pupils came and saw how pinball is made. And pinball was being made indeed. And as they were producing Hot Wheels and Houdini on two separate lines. So that's good to see. You can see Pinball being made. I don't know. It was just coincided with the school factory tour that they made sure the lines were busy at that time or whether they were running all the time. But nice to see those two titles, the very first and one of the one of the better titles, I think, with Hot Wheels, both in production. Right. It makes me wonder whether they were sort of reaching out for high school kids to come work at the factory. Child labor. Well, it's not rocket science. And if you want to make a bug and you don't want to flip burgers, then why not? Yeah, also might bring some of the next generation of pinball designers and programmers and mechanical engineers. Those youngsters that don't know yet that they're going to be a pinball designer someday. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Can't get them too early, as they say. The best way to lure them in is looking for test players. Yes. Yeah, indeed. That's how it worked in the old days. Right. I think that wraps up pretty much of American Pinball at the moment. So as there's no more news, we can move on. Barrels of Fondant in Houston, Texas. Yes, again, not a huge amount of information from them this month, although what was exciting was they did have some new code. Woo-hoo! Yeah, that's right. You're really spoiling me now. Last month we had one of the code-friendly one of their earlier games, but this month we have their latest title, Winter's a Mystery House, has got a big update, actually a really big update, adding angry spirits to the mix of gameplay. These appear when you fail to complete a room, spirit battles have been added, and spirit reckoning when you have three angry spirits on the loose, i.e. failed on three rooms. And all my information suddenly disappeared. OK. And a new Echoes Mini Wizard mode as well, which along with the Shattered Threshold mode, which is available once you've played Echoes. There were new callouts, new lighting effects and display effects, as well as multiple behavioral changes and a big long list of bug fixes. So nice to see Winchester Mystery House getting a big update like that. And again, look forward to playing that fairly soon. I wonder where, because there's hardly any in Europe, but it's good that you're looking forward to it. Well, I expect to be able to play in a couple of weeks. I'm guessing Austria. Yeah, yes, I think you could be right. I'm hoping so. But it's not confirmed yet, but we'll get on to that a bit later. Right. Okay. So moving on, as there's not much else to report on from Barrels of Fun. And in case you were wondering, as we visited Barrels of Fun last month, how come there was no What's Cooking with David David Van Es? Well, David already shared his favorite recipe before that, so we figured it would not be a good idea to ask him again. Yes, very tasty cake. And nobody else was available, so. Okay, so know what's cooking this month, but we will bring you another edition fairly soon, I'm sure. Yes. In the meantime, we can ask Martin what Martin's cooking tonight. Oh, I don't think anybody wants to know that because I don't know what I'm cooking tonight yet. Oh. So we're going to find out later. Anyway. Okay. Moving on to Multimorphic and who also visited when we were down in Texas last month. No, a month before actually in March for the Texas Mobile Festival. Where Gary actually did share. Exactly. And they shared that on their socials as well. So thank you, the Multimorphic team there for publicizing that. So, but other than that, there's no real news except that their distributor, Wise Trailer, have been representing them at Pinbrew and Pinfest shows. Pinbrew, both of them in Pennsylvania. Yeah. Wise Trailer, interesting to note, I think started off just selling multimorphic or being a reseller for multimorphic games, but now seem to be resellers of both American Pinball, Bowser Fun and Turner Pinball games as well. So really getting into the pinball side of their business rather than the trailers, which is what they named it for. But that was it really. They've been taking the Portal game around and it's been generating a lot of very positive feedback I think. People loving Portal. And rightfully so. Okay. Well that was it really for Multimorphic. Okay. So then we have Spooky Pinball in Benton, Wisconsin. And of course we don't need to remind you that they are the best pinball company. In Benton, Wisconsin. Allegedly, yes. Yeah, yeah. That's what you get when you have no competition. However. But that's not fair to say because they are making very fun games. And, well, apparently with Pinball at the Beach and Texas Pinball Festival, the festival season, Pinball Festival season really has kicked off. And resulting in Spooky attending both the Midwest Gaming Classic, which is sort of their home show, and Pintastic New Robert Englunds. Pinball Star, their main distributor in the U.S., has also been representing them at Allentown Pinfest. Yeah. So, yeah. And, well, this is right up your alley. There's new code for both Evil Dead and Beetlejuice. There is indeed. Evil Dead gets its Hail to the King wizard mode added in the latest version. And that also adds a whole bunch of new speech, new sound effects, a few scoring adjustments and the usual bug fixes. Meanwhile, Beetlejuice, their current title in production, sold out, of course, as well, gets new Singing in the Stairwell mini wizard mode, along with some extra feature and menu adjustments, more minor things. But Beetlejuice, we can expect it, I think, to get some more updates to that as well as the game develops. But I see Evil Dead getting its wizard mode at last. So great news from Spooky. And I think that pretty much wraps it up for them for this month. Yeah, I'm just wondering, hail to the king wizard mode. Who is king wizard? Well, perhaps that's whoever the player is. No, but I can't really answer that. Okay, okay. So then we have a little bit of news from Jersey Jack Pinball. You might have heard them, they did this fantastic Harry Potter game. Yeah, and they've been pushing that continuously ever since they launched it and understandably so. It's a huge setter for them as we understand. Obviously they don't release actual production or sales numbers because they're still making it and they're still selling it. So they'll be out of date. Anyway, they are continuing to push it anyway on social media. And one of their most recent posts features, well, comes, I should say, from the Lyric Theatre on Broadway in New York, where Tom Felton reprises his role of Draco Malfoy from the movie in the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And in the video that Jersey Jack had put on the social media feeds, he's seen enthusing over a specially signed and dedicated machine, which is set up backstage at the theatre. So it's a nice promo video to watch on. I saw it on their Facebook page, but it might be on other feeds as well, probably on YouTube too. Yeah. Now, and when you say signed Pinball Machine, just to clarify, the design team signed it. It's not signed by the Harry Potter actors or anything like that. Oh, not yet. I mean, it could be. Yeah. There was room. That's definitely true. Yeah. So the only thing that surprised me because it was a beautiful video, very nicely edited, Tencel 1. And of course, Jack Guarnieri was there. Eric Meunier was there. And Tom Felton seemed very enthusiastic about the game. And then it turns out that it's basically set up backstage for the cast to enjoy. Yes. Which is nice, but why not put it in the foyer where your visitors can actually play the game? That will be done to the theatre, of course. They may not want that in the foyer. Right. Well, that just crossed my mind. I don't want to think anything negative of it, but I was just like, okay, that's a limited audience. And why would you put it in an area that not accessible to the general public while you could have the general public play it Yes Well maybe a smart operator would put one there too Makes sense. Are you listening, smart operator? Meanwhile, JJP has been over at the Pintastic New Robert Englunds show. Yes. Where Jack, Steve Ritchie and Mark Seiden held a panel or a seminar there. And you watched it, as I understand. Well, I took some takeaways from it. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. And let me also say that Eric Meunier was also present. He did a solo presentation on the making of Harry Potter, I think, similar to the one that we've seen at the Texas Pinball Show. So it would not be right to mention that Eric, because he was not part of the seminar I'm about to discuss, that he didn't do anything there. No, he was present as well. Right. So, but then again, well, Steve Ritchie, when asked about his upcoming game, he said it might be the fastest one he has ever designed. Yeah, which made me wonder if you're referring to gameplay or the time that it took him to design the game. I don't think it's plenty of time to make the game, given the success of Harry Potter. Well, yeah, I figured also he drew flesh on a David Hankin when flying from California to Chicago back in the day in 1980. So I'm guessing he's referring to the flow of the game. So it's going to be a very fast game. He's certainly produced some fast games in the past. So it's interesting to see how fast this one is. Hopefully it's still playable for those of us with slightly reduced reaction times. Yeah. And we're talking about, of course, the game that is rumored to be themed around Sonic the Hedgehog, Hmm. Which is never confirmed. But then again, where there's smoke, there's smoke. Yes, exactly. For the game, over 6,000 voice calls have been recorded, but they will not be using all of them. They were told up front that it would be a one-off recording session. And so the only time for them to record speech or voice calls for the game, no chance at a second session. So they had to record as much as they could, which they did. And, of course, if you have like, you know, 30 jackpot callouts, you maybe only need five different ones for the game. And so the 6,000 voice calls may seem like a large number, and they have to be edited, all of them, of course. But in the end, chances are they will use a lot fewer. Yeah, probably not even half of those. Yes. So, and Steve's game, upcoming game, that is, will be a standard body game, not a white body. So, Mark Seiden, also present, was asked about his upcoming design. You know, the Ghostbusters designed that rumor that we helped into the world, which is absolutely not true. But then you at least know the game that we started the rumor that it was going to be Ghostbusters, but it's not. So, yes. So, but it was fun to start that rumor in collaboration with with Mark Seiden. And to see where it went. Yes, and I'm sure we'll have a laugh and a beer about it at the upcoming expo. If not sooner. Yeah, if not sooner indeed. But, so getting back to his upcoming game design, Mark Seiden indicated that he completely scrapped his first design for that game. And threw it in the trash. It was no good. He started again and now he has a new design which shoots amazing. And also Jack has already flipped it and he confirmed that it's a great shooting game. Jack likes it. Yeah, well, Jack likes it again. Are there any Jersey Jack games that Jack doesn't like? I wouldn't have thought so. And much to my surprise, it looks like Mark Seidman's game may actually still go into production this year. Although I figured, well, with Steve's game most likely coming up June, July-ish, and Harry Potter still going, I figured Mark's game would be early 27. At the earliest. Yes, I would say. That's my personal opinion. But who knows? Maybe if, I don't know, Steve's game, I can't imagine Steve's game not being a big seller. Unless they decide to launch two titles at the same time, well not at the same time, but overlapping. So, yeah, start making Mark's game while Steve's is still in production. Right. And Harry Potter is still in production as well. Well, speaking of Harry Potter, collector's editions are still available, believe it or not. Not many, but still a few. So, if you're in the marketing, you're like, ah, I think I missed out on a Harry Potter collector's edition. Well, good fortune is with you. You might still be able to get one. But they aren't limited in number, are they? Don't think so. I don't think there's a limit on how many they're going to make. Okay, then they will be available in five years' time as well. Well, maybe they're running out of parts for it, and they have to wait until they get enough orders together to do some more. For now. Okay. For now. Anyway, that was mentioned in the seminar, and of course, Jack wants to sell games, so he mentioned... Some are still available. Not sure whether there is actually a limited supply or whether it's endless for as long as supplies last or parts last. But it's still a fucking game anyway. So if you're in the market for a Harry Potter game and well, go treat yourself to the collector's ones. Absolutely. Beautiful game and plays, plays excellently. I think before we start getting on to some other companies where there's really not much news, we should probably go back to our second headline and bring you the details of that, which was, of course, about the Fishtails 2.0 game. And the company we're talking about in this particular regard is, of course, Cardona Pinball. And they have they have. Well, James Cardona's company has brought us to 2.0 games before for No Good Gophers and Black Rose. And now they were saying for many months we hadn't heard any news about a third title. Well, now we have. And it is indeed, as we said earlier, it's Fish Tales and full title Fish Tales Ultimate Fishing Challenge. And that has been announced as the third upgrade kit. And the game was revealed at the Pinfest Pinball Show in Allentown. Yes, that's right. Yeah. And so this priced at two thousand two hundred US dollars for the upgrade kit. Obviously, you need a base, Fishtails, in order to upgrade it. And expressions of interest in making of the kit are now being taken through the cardonapinball.com website, where you can also check out the new backglass or translight artwork. We don't know whether it's a backglass or translight. I'm assuming it's a translight, but it could be a real backglass. You can view that there and that's from Brian Allen of course who is famous for doing remakes of classic Williams Valley artwork. And yes so if you go to the cardonopinball.com you can see the Fishtails Ultimate Fishing Challenge and if you think you'd like to upgrade your Fishtails game you can register your interest there And they'll be in touch when more details and orders are actually being taken. Right. So and congratulations, of course, to Cardona Pinball for their third 2.0 title. Yeah. Looking forward to seeing it and playing it. Unfortunately, you didn't get to play the Pinfest. Hopefully you get to play a little bit later in the year, maybe at Pinball Expo. Right. Yeah. It would be fun to have all three of them lined up next together. It would. Good idea. Yeah. All three also have Brian Allen artwork, don't they? No, I don't think so. Oh, no. Black Rose, yes. No Good Goers. I don't think Brian Allen did that. No. Okay. Sorry for the confusion. Okay. So, now, where should we go now? Pinball Brothers in Sweden. Oh, okay. Well, there's obviously going to be a lot of news from them. Yeah, well, with the predator and alien sales no ended, when will we see the next game announced? Or in English, as opposed to Swedish chef, with This is the subtitle. It should. Good. Yes, the answer is a rhetorical question because we don't know the answer to that, but we certainly expect to see it soon. The only question really is because obviously the manufacturing is done with Pedretti at the European Pinball Corporation in Italy. Do they have a slot lined up to make the next Pinball Brothers game? And if so, when is that? Yeah, and you're also wondering what are they currently working on? Are they still building Van Huis? Because that seems a very good selling title for them. Also, no news on the Liga Boer game that they are supposed to be running. It lacks information. Yeah, and there's no announcement from Pedretti themselves about what they're going to be making, what their next remake is going to be. Right, so we're just in the dark and we have no idea what to expect, when to expect it, but we know they're cooking up something. Well, hopefully we'll get the details on what it is that they've been cooking up very soon and do what's cooking up with. Oh, that's going to be interesting. For Dread, Deepin, we're making the pizza. Hey, go on. Okay, let's move on rapidly to our next company. Wonderland Amusement. Yeah, quite. Well, we reported last month there was a preview of their second game after the Alice Ghosts of Wonderland game. The second game has been previewed again. That title is World of TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to you and I, Battle in the Sewer. And this time, it's going to stink, isn't it? I was going to say that's going to smell nice. Yes, and this time the game was shown at the Level Up Gaming Show in Las Vegas, but it's only a view of the cabinet and no actual artwork, no actual play field in the game. Just a sort of drawing of what it's going to be instead. But I guess that's still being worked on. But we look forward to seeing it in a little more depth, maybe, at shows later on in the year. However, going back to what I was talking about earlier about their first title, Alice Goes to Wonderland, And they, Wonderland Amusement did announce on the 28th of April that they have brought out a code update for that, or going to bring out a code update for that. It's meant to be beginning of May, but apparently it's been delayed a little bit based on playtest feedback. But they say that on the 28th, they said today, Rick Sellers will be recording new audio for the Mad Hatter character that he voices in the Alice Goes to Wonderland game. And also Wes McCraw is composing additional new music for the game. So it sounds like it's going to be quite a nice update, not just a bug fix. So that should be coming out reasonably soon, but it was meant to be right at the beginning of May, delayed a bit. So hopefully we can bring in full details of that in our look back at what happened in May, at the beginning of June. Right, so let's move on. We've already mentioned about a number of companies where there's very limited news. One new company we can add into the mix now is Kildoza Studios, who we mentioned before, who are making the Monster League hockey game, the head-to-head game. Well, they're not making it. They designed it and they're working with ramps at Pinball to actually produce it. Well, before that, they have brought out some some merch, some apparel. The Monster League hockey jerseys are now available. A limited run of ninety nine individually named and numbered jackets priced at three hundred and fifty US dollars with US shipping included. It allows you to pick the number that you want on your jersey from between 1 and 99 and also the name that you want to go with that. It's like a hockey player shirt. US purchases only unless you order it and pick it up at Pinball Expo in October. So limited run at 99. Still plenty of spots left judging by what I saw on the most recent update which said they listed all the numbers from 1 to 99 saying who had taken which or rather which name it was against each one and only 28 of those have been taken so far so if you had a particular number in mind and wanted to have a Monza League hockey jersey then you're still in a pretty good chance obviously the prime numbers the 1, 2, 99 and I've been taken, but there's still plenty of others available. So go to have a search for Killdozer Studios on social, also mostly cocky, and you'll find the details of how you can order one for yourself. Is 69 still available? It actually was, I think. Surprisingly. Asking for a phrase. Yes. Although maybe it's 96. I don't know. Upside down. Right. Oh, well, well, interesting news. And then, well, you mentioned Rams. No news from Rams other than that they will be building the Killdozer game, of course. But we discussed that already last month That right Also no news about the road trip game Yeah No Also no news from Vector Pinball in Australia No no Still taking orders for their Irwin Allen Lost in Space game which looks very nice Yeah. And no news from Dutch Pinball or DPX. Hmm. Also, no news from Chicago Gaming. I've been trying to reach out to Chicago Gaming myself lately. No response so far to my emails. They seem to be hard to reach. Maybe I should pick up the phone. So I might actually do that later today. So no news from Bitronic in Spain, neither from Homepin in Taiwan or Pinball Adventures. Remember those in Canada? Yeah. That's right, no elements out yet. No, no, no news from Quetzal either, although I do know that Antonio is working on something. Yeah, been working on it a long time, but it's been over a year since we saw what he was working on. Yes. Well, that basically rounds it up for all the major and minor pinball manufacturers. And that brings us to the other news section. Fantastic. Well, we can start off with some some good news. Scorebit. Remember them? Yes, they have launched real money tournaments. Yes, that's right. You can win cold, hard cash at 13 part or could have done at 13 participating locations across the US. That was back in April, of course, which is what we're looking at in this in this pin cast. There was $4,000 in prizes up for grabs across those 13 locations. Entry was through the Scorebit app and then you show up at one of the participating locations, put up your highest score and if it's up there then you win a share of the winnings or need all the winnings from that location. Let's raise a question immediately with me. Where's the money coming from? No, not even that. No? No, you sign up for the tournament, you go to a participating location. Do you have one attempt or can you pump in $100 into a game until you have a score that you're happy with and that counts as your highest score? I don't think there's any limit on the number of entries. It was to drive play. If people just play once, then that's one and done. So they want to have people playing the game constantly, don't they? Right. Yeah. So, yeah. That's how you win the tournament, kids. Yeah. You just make sure nobody else gets to play it. Pump and dump, as they say. But yes, it wasn't exactly clear where the prize money was coming from, what the arrangement was with the location about whether a percentage of the take went towards the jackpot prize or not. But certainly you could look on the Scorbit website and you could see all the locations and what the current prize pot was standing at there. So it's a nice, it's a new thing, you know, rather than winning badges and achievements in the app, you can actually win cold hard cash. So I'd like the sound of that. Hopefully that's something that will be repeated and also across more diverse locations and just across the US. So we'd like to see that spread to Europe and to other parts of the world as well. Right. And also, of course, it'd be a big driver for the score bit too. So let's hope that retakes off. Yes. OK, so I guess that rounds it up for score bit. Now there is one topic I was wondering about that you have been following where I gave up a long time ago. That's the criminal trial of Deep Root founder Robert Mueller. Any news on that? Yes, well last month we said that we thought there was a good chance that the criminal trial which was due to start in April would be delayed due to some of the changes in the charges made by the Department of Justice. Well that was approved and now it's all been pushed back until August the 17th. So that's the court granted more time. So Robert apparently rejected a plea arrangement offer to plead guilty to one charge, one count of wire fraud, which would have resulted in between 10 and 12 and a half years of jail time. I can see why I would say I didn't do it. Well, yes, although if he's convicted at trial of that same charge, the resulting sentence is likely to be between 27 and 34 years in jail. So I suppose it depends on whether he fancies his chances at trial. He thinks he can convince a jury that he is innocent of the charges, which is a big gamble. But and also if he gets convicted there and gets the longer prison sentence, that would be less likely to be in a softer jail rather than a camp. It might be in a more harsh environment. Anyway, there's a new plea deadline of the 24th of July. So if he wants to do a plea deal, then that has to be done by the 24th of July, after which the trial will go ahead unless it's delayed again for some other reason. I have a feeling it will be delayed again. I don't know why you would imagine that. But so anyway, I sense it in thin air. OK, well, at the moment, OK, for it in your diary, August the 17th is when the trial is due to start at the present time. Well, that's that's where we are at the moment with the Robert Mueller criminal charge. Right. OK, then. Well, we have some news. We already mentioned the first Austrian Pinball Festival to take place in Wokla Brug, Austria. And you might think, where have I heard that before? Well, last year, same venue, same organizer, European Pinball Championship in Wokla Brug. So that's why it sounds familiar. But now, as it's no longer the European Pinball, Pinball Championship. It's the first Austrian Pinball Festival. Yeah, the European Pinball Festival, or European Championship, I should say, was so successful that organiser Stefan Riedler of RS Pinball in Austria decided that it was worth carrying on with rather than just being a one-off event. So, yes, he books the same ice rink venue, which closes down in March, I think, and through to about October. And they sort of drain all the ice and turn it into a sort of regular conferencing area. And he's decided to do that. And he's basically, it's not going to be as big as the EPC was, because that was an extra special event with a lot more guests from across the world coming to play in the tournaments. There's still going to be a large event with over 200 machines set up for people to play. Big tournament area again with Main and Classic as well as Jersey Jack Pinball and a bunch of special guests as well. And included in that, I'll be there to report and stream the talks given by those guests. Last year we did the seminars, the talks we've done in a little side room which was a little hard to find and a little crowded at times. This year Stefan wants to move everything onto the main stage so we're going to be a little bit of a challenge to get everything set up, Get all the streaming and the cameras and the sound and the projector, the screen and the presentation feed all hooked up in a very short amount of time. But we do the best we can. So check out the Pinball News Twitch channel, which is twitch.tv slash pinball news. And where we the streams, if they happen, which I hope they will, will be appearing. And of course, they'll be on YouTube as well. And in the Pinball News review and report of the show after the event. I don't think I'm going to write it while I'm there. I'll be I'll be a bit busy. But right. OK, it's like an exciting show. And it starts on Wednesday. The I think it's the 12th. It is. Yeah, that was the only evening that I was available, but I'm not going to Austria for just one night. Oh, well, I will not be there. But you mentioned special guests. 13th, sorry. You mentioned special guests. Who are these special guests that you're referring to? Well, I know Mr. Eric Meunier is going to be there as one. I think David David Van Es is coming over as well from Barrels of Fun, so he'll be there too. Trying to remember who else is on the list of special guests. I'm counting on a recipe from Eric Wignet on you. That would certainly be a good idea, wouldn't it? Yeah. Let's see if we can get something recorded. Certainly last year we had, who was it, Pinball Profiled, Jeff Teonis. Yeah, Jeff Teonis, yes. Yeah. He did a nice What's Cooking segment with us. And as you may guess, I'm actually kind of filling for time. I look up the list of actually who is going to be there. Oh, yeah. Leo from The Art of Pinball is going to be there. And of course, Melvin from American Pinball. Melvin Brown-Williams is going to be there, too. And Aaron Davis as well from Fast Pinball. Wow. Yeah. Quite the guest list. And some guy called Martin Ayer from Pinball News. I heard bad stories about him. Yeah. Well, we can skip that. And Hexer Pinball are going to be there as well. So hopefully with three musketeers. Hmm. So maybe we could get a French recipe as well. What was that? Yeah, probably not anymore. But yeah, OK, we can give it a go. Yes. So we can we can get. And so that's the the very first Austrian Pinball Festival coming up the 13th to the 17th of this month. Mike. Excellent. Well, if you happen to talk to the Hacks of Pinball guys, maybe you can get a recipe on how to dip your croissant in the butter. I see. I'm sure they won't take any offense to that whatsoever. It's all in bad taste but good intentions. Yes. OK. Well, time to tone down a little bit, I'm afraid. Some sad news to report and that is the the passing of Dan Fonts. You may may not know Dan or you may. He was a talented artist in the Bay Area, San Francisco area and a big supporter of the Pacific Pinball Museum. He included he did some of the huge murals that they hung at the museum and also at the Pinball Pacific Expo shows. He was also a big advocate for public art as well, helping to campaign and restore paintings in public spaces around the city. So really sad to see him go. Our thoughts go out to his devoted partner, Julie, and his many friends in both the Pinball and the artist communities around the Bay Area. So thanks for everything, Dan. I had a good fortune to visit him and Judy's house when I was over there a few years back and had a lovely home and really, really generous and fun guy. So our thoughts are with everyone over there. And thanks for everything you did for Pinball and for Art, Dan. So on that, we better move on to some more uplifting news and this time a new product from our friends at Pinsound. Yes, I came across a new version of the Rocket CPU. And if you're not familiar with what the Rocket CPU is, it's designed to replace the CPU in Sega and Stern White Star Pinball machines. The board set White Star was used by both brands and Stern used it up to, I think, from the top of my head, I'd say 2006, 2007, something like that. Yeah. Yeah, and then it was, yeah, so anyway. So the new board replaces the original CPU with natively integrating the power of the Pinsound audio engine, bringing modern reliability and high fidelity sound to the White Star platform in a single streamlined package. Right, so you get a new CPU and you get pin sound audio built in. Yes, yes. Nice. So, and with this Rocket CPU WhiteSAR, you can also unlock the compatibility with Sonata SPK speakers, allowing you to upgrade your machine's acoustics even further. So that basically means replacing your speakers for more expensive ones. Yeah. But then you get better sound, yes, because obviously using a pin sound board, you already get better sound, but if you have crappy speakers, and we know speakers aren't really known for their high fidelity quality, then yeah, so you'll be upgrading your game anyway, then you might as well throw in a few extra bucks. Hmm. Additionally, the Rocket CPU White Star lets you install headphones or the Headphone Station Ultra. This allows for convenient control over your machine, giving you the ability to adjust volume, mute or switch between different sound packs directly from the front of the cabinet. Cool. Okay. So, yeah, I just figured I came across it and I figured, well, it's always good. Yeah, and Nicholas is always fun to run into at shows in France or in the US. So he's also very supportive of us and encourages everybody to keep listening to our podcast, even though you're already sick of it after two minutes. Well, yes, thank you for hanging around this long, everyone. Sticking it out for this duration, even though it's quite a short one this month. Well, thankfully. Yeah, in fact, I think that's it, isn't it? It is. We'll be back. We'll what? Yes. We will be back. We will be back at the start of June with our next episode of our Pinball Industry News reports. Looking back at the events in the pinball industry throughout this exciting month of May. So until then, from me, Jonathan Houston of Pinball Magazine. And me, Martin Auber Pinball News. We hope you have a truly marvellous May and we look forward to joining you again at the start of next month for the next exciting edition of the Pinball Industry News Pincast. Bye for now. Bye bye.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: 6e21bb5f-a7e3-4af6-97f9-f6e93215c086*