# Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast January 2023 recap

**Source:** Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-02-02  
**Duration:** 76m 51s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pinball-industry-news/episodes/Pinball-Magazine--Pinball-News-PINcast-January-2023-recap-e1uc326

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## Analysis

Pinball Magazine and Pinball News editors Jonathan Houston and Martin Eyre recap January 2023 industry developments, covering Stern's James Bond 60th Anniversary reveal ($20k, 500 units, Keith Elwin design), Spooky's Scooby-Doo gameplay reveal and facility expansion, Multimorphic's development updates including Scott Denise as creative director, Pinball Brothers' Queen production, and Chicago Gaming's hiring. Key themes include code maturity concerns on James Bond Pro/Premium, production capacity scaling across manufacturers, and personnel appointments at Stern.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] James Bond 60th Anniversary is limited to 500 units at $20,000 MSRP, designed by Keith Elwin, retro single-level design with score reels and LCD in playfield — _Jonathan and Martin discussing official reveal at CES side-area preview, confirmed pricing and production numbers_
- [HIGH] James Bond Pro/Premium code at version 0.84 lacks mode stacking and multiball combination features expected in modern Stern games — _Martin reviewing code update from January 25th, noting extensive bug fixes but limited gameplay additions_
- [HIGH] Spooky Pinball is doubling facility size by hiring building across the street, expanding production space — _Jonathan citing Telegraph Herald article about Spooky's expansion announcement_
- [HIGH] Scooby-Doo production run capped at 1,969 total units across all variants (Standard, Bloodsucker, Limited Edition) — _Jonathan stating production cap during Spooky discussion_
- [HIGH] Scott Denise named creative director for next Multimorphic P3 game with dedicated playfield module, releasing in 2023 — _Martin discussing Jerry Stellenberg's February update confirming Scott Denise appointment and 2023 release target_
- [HIGH] James Bond 60th Anniversary features four-digit score reels using stepper motors (upgraded from Wonka-style but faster/more accurate), replacing standard LCD backbox panel — _Jonathan and Martin analyzing physical design details from preview reveal_
- [HIGH] Michael Grant promoted to Senior Manager of Location Entertainment at Stern, managing Stern Army and Pinball Street Team expansion — _Jonathan citing press release about Grant's appointment and role scope_
- [HIGH] Erica Frome appointed as Stern's Chief Technology Officer to continue in-house development of Insider Connected platform — _Jonathan citing press release about CTO appointment from development company to in-house role_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky Pinball building 'early bird' games for selected buyers to test and provide feedback before full production release — _Jonathan noting early bird games sent to selected buyers for testing and production improvement feedback_

### Notable Quotes

> "you're buying a pinball machine based on a bunch of pictures, and hopefully it will be fun when you get to play it"
> — **Martin Eyre**, ~22:00
> _Commentary on lack of gameplay footage for James Bond 60th Anniversary despite high price point_

> "It's probably on one of those coming later. We'll stack those later. We'll get them to run. Let's just get them coded first, and then we'll work out how to combine them."
> — **Jonathan Houston**, ~24:30
> _Speculation on why mode stacking absent from James Bond code, suggesting feature prioritization strategy_

> "if you order a game while everybody already has them theirs and they're only producing it for the next two months you don't have to wait 18 months for that"
> — **Jonathan Houston**, ~52:00
> _Questioning Spooky's 18-month lead time claim for late-order Scooby-Doo units, suggesting misleading marketing_

> "Topper interface kits for limited edition kits are shipping to existing owners of older P3 machines"
> — **Martin Eyre**, ~75:00
> _Multimorphic addressing backward compatibility needs for earlier P3 owners_

> "the time for new P3 orders continues to be about 12 months"
> — **Martin Eyre (citing Jerry Stellenberg)**, ~77:00
> _Multimorphic production capacity constraint: one-year lead time for new custom P3 orders_

> "Scott Denise is the creative director for the next game release which will have its own playfield module...planning to release in 2023"
> — **Martin Eyre (citing Jerry Stellenberg update)**, ~81:00
> _Confirmation of Scott Denise appointment and second P3 module game planned for 2023_

> "I haven't actually got the inside scoop on it, because we haven't seen any"
> — **Martin Eyre**, ~21:00
> _Acknowledging lack of gameplay details for high-ticket Bond 60th Anniversary game_

> "They're doubling in size...production facility and the other will be more like a storage"
> — **Jonathan Houston**, ~40:00
> _Spooky's facility expansion strategy to increase production capacity for Scooby-Doo manufacturing_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| James Bond 60th Anniversary | game | Limited-edition Stern pinball (500 units) designed by Keith Elwin, priced at $20,000 MSRP, retro single-level design with score reels and playfield LCD, revealed at CES 2023 |
| Keith Elwin | person | Legendary Stern Pinball designer; designed James Bond 60th Anniversary game |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; released James Bond 60th Anniversary, attended CES 2023, made Insider Connected platform appointments |
| Jonathan Houston | person | Editor of Pinball Magazine; co-host of Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast |
| Martin Eyre | person | Editor of Pinball News; co-host of Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast |
| Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? | game | Spooky Pinball game with gameplay reveal in January 2023, production capped at 1,969 units, expanded voice talent roster including Scott Innes |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; expanding facility by 100%, producing Scooby-Doo with early-bird program, Ben Heck and Eric Prupke coding upcoming games |
| Scott Denise | person | Game designer; former Total Nuclear Annihilation and Rick and Morty designer for Spooky; appointed creative director for next Multimorphic P3 game with dedicated playfield module |
| Multimorphic | company | Modular pinball platform manufacturer; P3 system with 12-month lead times, Weird Al and next game in development by Scott Denise |
| Jerry Stellenberg | person | Founder/owner of Multimorphic; sent February production update on P3 orders and upcoming releases |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Boutique manufacturer building Queen and Alien games in collaboration with Pedretti Gaming and Euro Pinball |
| Pedretti Gaming | company | Contract manufacturer for Pinball Brothers; producing Queen and Alien games; Funhaus 2.0 kits back in stock; next 2.0 kit nearing completion |
| Chicago Gaming | company | Pinball manufacturer; currently hiring for pinball technician position (noted as repeat hiring) |
| Michael Grant | person | Former American Pinball marketing manager; appointed Senior Manager of Location Entertainment at Stern to oversee Stern Army and Pinball Street Team |
| Erica Frome | person | Appointed Chief Technology Officer at Stern Pinball; transitioning from external Insider Connected development to in-house innovation role |
| Ben Heck | person | Confirmed as code designer for Spooky Pinball's next game (post-Scooby-Doo) |
| Eric Prupke | person | Spooky Pinball code designer; coding one of Spooky's upcoming titles alongside Ben Heck's project |
| Scott Innes | person | Voice actor; voiced villains in Scooby-Doo cartoons; confirmed as voice talent for Spooky's Scooby-Doo pinball game |
| Gary Stern | person | Stern Pinball leadership; attended CES 2023 preview and EAG International Expo in London |
| Seth Davis | person | Stern Pinball executive; appeared in video discussing CES 2023 success for Stern |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern's mobile/phone platform for pinball score tracking; added year-in-review feature for 2022; platform chief technology officer appointment made |
| Star Wars Pinball | game | Stern game updated to version 1.23 in January 2023; production schedule indicates return to production in second half of 2023 |
| Weird Al's Museum of Natural Solidary | game | Multimorphic P3 game; Stephen Silver featured in Extra Ball interview about design; code update coming with new modes and effects |
| Funhaus 2.0 | product | Pedretti Gaming upgrade kit for classic pinball; back in stock as of January 2023; kit requires owning original game |
| Queen Rhapsody | game | Pinball Brothers game in production; early games appearing at locations in Germany; code updates released during early production |

### Topics

- **Primary:** James Bond 60th Anniversary Reveal and Specifications, Stern Code Quality and James Bond Pro/Premium Development Status, Spooky Pinball Facility Expansion and Scooby-Doo Production, Multimorphic P3 Platform Production Capacity and Roadmap
- **Secondary:** Personnel Appointments and Management Changes, Production and Manufacturing Updates Across Multiple Manufacturers, Trade Show Attendance (CES, EAG London)
- **Mentioned:** Voice Talent and Sound Design for Upcoming Games

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Hosts express optimism about product announcements and manufacturer expansion (Spooky doubling size, Scott Denise appointment, voice talent additions), but tempered skepticism about James Bond 60th value delivery (high price, no gameplay footage, incomplete code at 0.84), lead time complaints (Multimorphic 12 months), and Chicago Gaming's repeated hiring issues. Generally celebratory of industry activity but with pragmatic concerns about execution.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Chicago Gaming repeated hiring for pinball technician position suggests persistent staffing challenges or high turnover in manufacturing/support roles (confidence: medium) — Jonathan noting repeat technician hiring at Chicago Gaming with surprised/skeptical tone, implying unusual or concerning pattern
- **[business_signal]** Spooky Pinball expanding facility footprint by 100% (doubling building size) to increase production capacity and storage for Scooby-Doo manufacturing (confidence: high) — Jonathan citing Telegraph Herald article confirming Spooky leasing adjacent building; Jonathan noting facility expansion as positive production signal
- **[code_update]** James Bond Pro/Premium at version 0.84 lacks mode stacking and multiball combination features, described as 'long way from 1.0' with extensive bug fixes but limited gameplay progression (confidence: high) — Martin's detailed review of January 25 code update noting v0.84 status, absent stacking, and basic functionality gaps expected in modern Stern games
- **[design_philosophy]** James Bond 60th Anniversary features four-digit score reels in truncated backbox, potentially limiting backglass size/functionality compared to classic designs or modern full-backbox machines (confidence: medium) — Jonathan and Martin discussing speaker placement constraints, comparing to Magic Girl and Circus Voltaire precedents for full backglass solutions
- **[personnel_signal]** Erica Frome appointed Chief Technology Officer at Stern Pinball, transitioning from external contractor to in-house development role for Insider Connected platform innovation (confidence: high) — Jonathan citing official Stern press release announcing CTO appointment and platform development transition
- **[personnel_signal]** Michael Grant promoted to Senior Manager of Location Entertainment at Stern Pinball, overseeing Stern Army and Pinball Street Team global ambassador network and tournament expansion (confidence: high) — Jonathan citing official Stern press release detailing Grant's promotion and expanded role scope
- **[announcement]** Spooky's Scooby-Doo gameplay video officially released; production run capped at 1,969 total units across Standard/Bloodsucker/Limited Edition variants; Ben Heck and Eric Prupke coding next two Spooky titles (confidence: high) — Jonathan and Martin discussing official gameplay reveal from January 2023; production cap confirmed; voice talent and coder announcements cited
- **[announcement]** James Bond 60th Anniversary officially revealed at CES 2023 side preview area; 500-unit limited production, $20k MSRP, Keith Elwin design with retro aesthetic, score reels, and playfield LCD display (confidence: high) — Hosts discussing official reveal, confirmed specs, pricing, and production numbers from preview attendance
- **[product_strategy]** Scooby-Doo gameplay reveal originally promised 'very soon' after announcement but deferred one full month, finally showing January 2023 (less than week before podcast recording) (confidence: high) — Jonathan and Martin noting original expectation vs. actual reveal timing, discussing how early-bird production games limited public gameplay access
- **[product_strategy]** Scott Denise named creative director for next Multimorphic P3 game with dedicated playfield module; release targeted for 2023; P3 order lead time remains 12 months (confidence: high) — Martin citing Jerry Stellenberg's February production update confirming Denise appointment and 2023 release timeline

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## Transcript

 James Bond's 60th anniversary model revealed. Scooby-Doo gameplay video finally released. Home Pin explains This Is Spinal Tap delays. Hi! My... I can't get any higher! My name is Jonathan Houston. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine. And I'm hosting this episode of the Pinball News and Pinball Magazine Pincast together with... Me, Martin Eyre, but I'm the editor of Pinball News. And I'm here with Jonathan to look back at the fun and excitement that took place in the pinball world during the month of January 2023, which is just finished so happy new year if we didn't say that did we say that yeah yeah oh yeah we did yeah sorry so happy new February oh thank you thank you yes and the same to you so on our previous episode which we recorded actually the day prior to the reveal of James Bond 60th anniversary game by Stern And we said, well, we only knew that it was going to be revealed, but we hadn't seen anything of it yet. So by now we're a month in, and of course the game was revealed around the CES show in Las Vegas. There were, I think, two different instances where the game was set up, although it wasn't at the CES show itself, but in neighboring hotels, I suppose you could call that. Yeah, they had a sort of a side area set up for the preview of that game and some of the other James Bond games as well. So, yeah, as you say, it wasn't on the main show floor, but in a special Stern reserved area. Anyway, it was, as everybody expected, a very different game from the pro premium and LE James Bond games. Designed by Keith Elwin, of course. Yes, but more than that, it's a retro sort of throwback design, a single-level game, with, well, not a huge amount on the playfield, I suppose, it's fair to say. It does have an LCD. It does have a rotating disc that reminds a little bit of Guns N' Roses, but in a different way. Ah, yes, the spinning hat, yes, that's right, or Jobs' hat. and it has score reels although four of them yes and not the traditional ones, these are stepper motors similar to what they used on Wonelly big juicy melons similar but slightly well they are upgraded significantly because they can move a lot faster so presumably have the accuracy needed in order to show the scores and and to reset as they go across from different players. Yeah, but they don't click, do they? Well, they might do with sound effects, but intrinsically they don't, no. But there are only four digits on it, which seems a bit of a shame to me, but I suppose they're probably fairly costly devices to build. Yeah. And also they sit where the LCD panel would normally sit on a stern backbox. So that whole LCD panel area has been replaced by almost like a blanking panel with four cutouts for the score reels to be visible through. And the rest of the area is lit up. Well, it has backlit in the old back glass style of backlighting, player number, ball number, tilt, all that kind of stuff, high score to date stuff. Yeah, still a pity that they didn't use the entire backbox area front, so to speak, which probably would be difficult because what are you going to do with the speakers, which are in the speaker display panel, of course. But it would have been nice if it would have been the size of a Wonelli back glass, for example. Yeah, I mean, there are obviously ways of attaching speakers to full back glasses, as we've seen with games like Circus Voltaire. Yeah, that's the first one that came to mind. Yeah, and Magic Girls, of course, as well, also does the same thing. Yes. So, yeah, they're all maize and maize. And you think for the price, which we haven't mentioned yet, but was as I think we trailed, it's up to distributors to set their own price, but the general price seems to be around about 20,000 US dollars, which Stern was selling a limited number through their own website, through their own store at £19,995, I believe was the price. And then it's up to distributors to set their own. And I think the price has been dropping on that. I think I've seen them around about £17,000 from some distributors. But I suspect they will sell out, but they probably weren't all sold out within a minute of going on sale. Pretty that way. $20,000 is not really a surprise, I suppose. And there are only 500 of them, I think. Limited to 500. Well, I think this probably is a status symbol for James Bond fans, I suppose. Wealthy James Bond fans. Yeah, okay, yeah, probably, yeah. And which there are a lot, of course. There are plenty of people out there buying very expensive James Bond memorabilia and branded merchandise like watches and things like that from, I'm trying to remember if it's Omega who had the license for that or not, but I think it is. But, yeah, people spend that sum of money easily on a James Bond watch, for instance. Yeah. So what can you tell us about gameplay? Ah, well, it's funny to mention that, because I've got the... No, I haven't actually got the inside scoop on it, because we haven't seen any. Right. So basically you're buying a pinball machine based on a bunch of pictures, and hopefully it will be fun when you get to play it. Now, it's a Keith Elwin design, so there's no doubt that it will play like butter. but but we really haven't seen anything much in the way of things you would expect to be in the James Bond game I think it was promised previously that it would have multiple theme songs of assets from all the games all the movies in the game all 25 is it 25 movies? yeah I think so, 6 actors portrayed in James Bond well okay they are portrayed on the on the game and their movie posters are there as well so in that sense that is correct um but of course well we don't know what they're going to do with it and with uh well the game does have a display uh albeit on the on the play field so they do have the possibility to to show footage and so on as we are used to to see on the on the in the backbox display, but since there is no... Yeah, I was just thinking about that. Is this the first Stern game with a playfield, well, LCD actually in the playfield? Um... I can't think of an earlier Stern title that does that. Yeah. For Stern, it might be a first indeed, yes. I mean, had it in playfield displays, with games like Wheel of Fortune, where they had LCD displays, oh, LED displays. Yeah, or World Poker Tour. Yeah, sorry, yeah, that's probably the one I was thinking of as well. Yeah, well, yeah, much bigger, actually, wasn't it, in World of Poker? Yeah. Yeah. But not an actual LCD, I don't think, until now. So that's a first. But you'd hope they'd use that in slightly, well, to showcase some of the movie's assets. But we haven't seen any of that, and it could be because they're so busy working on the Pro, and LE software, which is still a long way to go. Yeah. Because they did update code on that, but they're currently at 0.84. Yeah. Which still sounds like a long way from 1.0. It is a long way. That came out on January 25th. And I don't know whether this is done deliberately to make it look like, well, to indicate there is a lot of work that's gone into it, because their list of changes to the code is very extensive. but it doesn't actually add an awful lot to the gameplay. There's lots and lots and lots of bug fixes and rule changes and a few new display effects and a couple of extra character modes, but it's still a long way from being complete. And some of the basic functionality you'd expect from a modern game, such as being able to stack modes and multiballs together, aren't in there yet. So if you're playing a mode and you're just about to finish it and complete that character, and you accidentally launch yourself into a multiball, that completely wipes out all your progress on that mode, and you have to start again. Sounds like a junior mistake to me, but... Well, it's probably on one of those coming later. We'll stack those later. We'll get them to run. Let's just get them coded first, and then we'll work out how to combine them. Or it could be, you know, the license store doesn't want that. I've heard that mentioned as a possibility that they don't want assets from different movies being combined. If you've got a mode and a multiball running, and the mode is related to one movie and the multiball is related to another, then it's a mix of assets, and you might get call-outs from different movies. So maybe that's the reason. But even so, it's not what you'd expect from a modern title, particularly not a Stern one. Right, okay. Well, they're building them anyway, so... Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're shipping. Yeah. But there's more news from Stern, besides James Bond as well. I'm trying to wrap this up because I'm sort of in a rush. Oh, okay. Yes. Okay. Well, you know, there's... No pun intended, by the way. There's lots of news, but there's no big news this month, so let's carry on. So Insider Connected, that feature that keeps your phone connected to the pinball and your scores and so on, that now offers a year-in-review feature, which is basically summarizing your pinball accomplishments of 2022 in this case, which I suppose if you're into that, it's a nice feature. but then again, I've seen similar year-in-review features from Facebook or other things. I'm like, yeah, okay. I was there. You don't have to remind me about that. I know about it. Yeah, I get that from like Google Maps or something, your year of travel. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, I was there. Yeah, I did that. Yeah. Anyway, I'm sure, as you say, if you're really into collecting your achievements and want to see them, you know, how you did throughout 2022. It's probably more useful when you've got a few years of summarizing to look back on so you can see which was your busiest year and where you made the biggest gains, where you played the most games, I suppose, as well, if you're into collecting those things. Yeah. Well, as mentioned, Stern attended CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I think they had like five games or so present, if I'm not mistaken. Didn't count them. I think Gary Stern was there at least briefly. Seth Davis was there. He was on the Stern's Facebook. There's actually a video of Seth Davis talking passionately about what a success it was for Stern. So good for them. What, the show? or... Yeah, that's not exactly clear. Watch the video, because I don't remember exactly. I find it amusing to see Stance Davings doing such a video, but I watched it like a month ago, so forgive me for not remembering exactly. Fair enough. Okay. But that wasn't the only show they were at, of course. No. Tell me more. Well, they were still represented on the Electrocoin stand at the EAG International Expo, which was held in London in January. Yeah, usually we visit that show together, but this year I had to pass. Sorry. Yeah, that's understandable. There wasn't a huge amount of interest pinball-wise in that, and if you want to see more about that show, you can, of course, get a pinball news and read my report and watch the video of what was actually at the show. So we'll have a little bit more about what was there Pimplewise a bit later. But Stern were represented on an Electrocoin stand with five machines. They had a James Bond Pro and a Premium, a Godzilla, a Rush and Jurassic Park. They didn't have the 60th anniversary Bond machine there, or at least not publicly. I don't think they actually did have one. I remember last time we were there, they had Stranger Things. Yes. It was being previewed in one of the conference rooms at the back. I don't think they were doing that this year with James Bond 60th. They were. I didn't see anybody who, I didn't talk to anybody who was invited to it. So I don't think that happened. They were running their usual Insider Connected leaderboards on the titles, on the four titles, James Bond, Godzilla Rush and Jurassic Park. Yeah, I saw an interesting comment that everybody was playing the Pro because you got higher scores on that than on the Premium. Yeah, they joined together the scores on the Pro and the Premium, which is a bit weird. Because, as you say, the Pro was much easier to get the high score on. So I certainly had the high score on that for at least five minutes before somebody else came along and took it away. And that was on day two. but fortunately the person who came along and took it away Greg wasn't able to log me out of my Pinball News Insider Connected account so he got registered to me which was nice so you were one well I don't know I wasn't there on the last day and there were no prizes anyway just bragging rights but he got to put his initials in but it was using my entirely connected account, so that was a bit weird. But the games were very popular and played pretty much all the time. And although, I'm trying to think who was there. Doug Skor was there. Gary Stern was there. And I saw all of them very, very briefly. but it was kind of, you'd see them walk up to the stand and you'd kind of follow them up to the stand and then when you got there, they weren't there. So they were obviously busy doing other things. They weren't hanging around the stand talking to people very much, a little bit, but you had to be quick if you wanted to catch them. So that was really stern at EAG International Expo on the ElectroCoin stand. And there were two trade shows that CERN was attending. There's other trade shows coming up soon, so we might report on that as well. Yep. So there's a couple of personal announcements, I suppose. Michael Grant, who came from American Pimble like a year and a half ago or something like that, who was a marketing manager at CERN. He has been appointed to be a senior manager of location entertainment. And it looks to me like he's still doing the same thing that he was doing before. Seems to be very similar. Fulcrum for managing, developing and expanding CERN Army, CERN Pinball Street Team, a worldwide network of brand ambassadors that promotes organized league and tournament players turn pinball games in public locations. So that sounds like fun. We get to go to lots of different arcades and breweries and talk to the people who look after the pinball there and help expand play of league and tournaments with particular reference to Stern pinball machines. Right. Yeah, sounds like a pretty good job to me. Right. I also received a press release from Stern announcing the appointment of Erica Frome as chief technology officer. And she's basically, well, she was already part of the development of Insider Connected. And basically that was developed through an outside company. and basically they hired her now to continue the innovation, as they call it, at Stern in-house, so to speak. Yes, that's right. She's working for Stern rather than with Stern. Right. So congratulations to both, I suppose. And you can probably tell us about all the code updates that we haven't discussed yet. Well, there was only one, really, and that was the Star Wars, which received a late update to version 1.23. Not a huge amount of change to it, to be honest. There just some display changes for the entire Deconnect stuff and there was a slight tweak to the skill shot if the ball drained straight away um but other than that it was just adding or bringing it up to date with the sort of the base system so it's more um more in line with all the features that the other the other games have got particularly as far as connectivity icons and signal strength meters all that kind of stuff and that's it the rest of it just boring no ball updates so that's enough of that yeah so I did see a production schedule for Stern for the second half of 2023 which said that Star Wars will be back into production the second half of this year so it makes sense that they update minor details as the game is going to be produced later on. That's a predictive production schedule liable to change. Oh, absolutely. Things have been quite variable of late. Okay, so that rounds it up for Stern Fimble. Well, goodnight. Oh, wait, there's other companies too. There are, yes. Other people are still making Fimble. And you may remember that one of them we spoke about last month was Spooky Pinball and their new Scooby-Doo Where Are You game, which had been announced. Yes, and then it took like a whole month before we finally got to see some gameplay. Yeah, it was originally going to be shown very soon afterwards, soon after the launch, but was then deferred until, well, basically just the other day, wasn't it? Less than a week ago, I think, when we got to see the first in-house play of the game. And because the games aren't shipping yet, those are the only games that exist. so yeah apparently Spooky is building what they call like early bird games or so which are basically meant that they go out to selected buyers and so on who get to sort of test the game and then they get to improve it and improve the build process and what have you so they're working on that and they are sharing a lot of photos on their social media. So the place is packed with Scooby-Doo pinballs in various stages of being built. You might wonder, do they have enough room? Well, there was an article in the Telegraph Herald on Spooky Pinball in which they basically announced that they are hiring across the street another building which is a similar size of where they are now. So they're doubling in size. And that place will become the production facility and the other will be more like a storage or the other way around, whatever. So not that important. But good news for Spooky that they are doubling in size, at least in terms of housing, I suppose. Yes, right, production and storage space. Yes, and hopefully give them the opportunity to increase the rate of production. They haven't got all the stored games in the same building. Yeah, but they also increased, by the way, thanks for that, Bridge, is the roster of voice talents for the Scooby-Doo game, as they also announced Scott Scott Innes as a voice talent. And Scott has voiced most of the villains in almost all Scooby-Doo cartoon episodes, I suppose, which is why they sound all the same. but aside from that he's going to add a lot to the game doing all the voice work for the villains and who knows what else so congrats to Scott and to Spooky as well for getting Scott on board yeah it should have a really good big range of call outs for that game by the sounds of it a number of different voice actors they have involved in Scooby-Doo. Right. So we're looking forward to hearing that. In the gameplay video the other day, there was a certain amount, but not really as many as are going to be in it at the end. You get the feeling that we're only sort of just touching the surface of what's actually going to be in the final software release. So, yes, it should be sonically very impressive. So let's hope the rest of the game lives up to that. Yeah. And while we're speaking of software on the game, on various social media, Spooky announced, or confirmed, I should say, that Ben Heck is coding Spooky's next game. So that's not Scooby-Doo, but the one after that. and Eric Prupke who has also been involved in various games for Spooky is also coding one of Spooky's upcoming games which means they have more than one title in development yeah that makes sense and that sort of rounds it up for Spooky yeah well I guess just before we move on completely I think they're going to be busy building Scooby Doo for quite some time yet Yeah. So, I mean, they haven't sold out. Yeah, I was going to mention that. The production run. I think a lot of people are waiting to see what the code is doing after experiences with previous games. Yeah, I mean, the total run is capped at 1,969, I believe, for all varieties, not any particular division between the standard, the Bloodsucker, and the sort of whatever the top range is called, the limited edition, but they're all limited. But if they do sell out all near 2,000 of those, that's going to keep them busy producing for, well, they said at the start that if you order towards the end, you could be waiting up to 18 months for your game. so if you were if you were back at the older queue that doesn't make any sense actually but I mean if you let's say the production of this game is lasting for a year I mean 2000 games I think that's Spook is capable of cranking out 2000 games at least a year I'd say I mean they're building like 100 games a week well that's I mean that's what I read somewhere so okay don't quote me on that no that's yeah that sounds like an awful lot of games we'd be producing a week I could believe but so anyway you'd think that if you order a game while everybody already has them theirs and they're only producing it for the next two months you don't have to wait 18 months for that you have to wait two months because you're at the end of the line anyway so So, I mean, that's my logic on that. Yeah, I think there's some doubt over the maths there. But we won't get stuck on that or bogged down on it too much because that was just what they said in their initial press release. So that could have just been, of course, a spur to get people to order up front as early as possible. Right. Well, then you're definitely waiting maybe 18 months. yeah anyway as you said we have finished with spooky so let's um well who should we go to next well let's do multi-morphic it's right on top of my screen okay well that's a good reason as any and um so they've been uh been sharing some social media uh activity they've had um an interview with um stephen silver who of course is uh one of the uh well probably the the main game designer now at uh at uh multimorphic although um he's he's obviously got part of a big team there in uh in building and designing all their games and he has uh been interviewed about the design of Weird Al's Museum of Natural Solidarity, as well as working at Multimorphic as part of the team there. Yeah, it was an extra ball with Stephen Silver interview, it's called, which you can find links on Multimorphic's Facebook page and probably other social media as well. It was quite interesting. It was very casual, but you still get some insights into the company and the design process and so on. obviously the design process for these games is different because the lower two-third of the game is already designed. So the only room... Mostly, anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there is room to maybe add a ramp or, you know, but... Like they did on a Wii Rial game. But highly, highly recommended to watch that. Okay. And Gerry Stellenberg, the owner of the company or founder of the company, whatever you want to call it, he sent out a February update. I think it was called Today. So, yeah, a couple of highlights from that. Topper interface kits for limited edition kits are shipping to existing owners of older P3 machines. yeah the newer P3 machines already have interface for a topper but if you were one of the earlier buyers of the game you will need an interface kit and wiring for that and they are sending those out so good news there they should be arriving with you shortly if you haven't already got it right so and in well this production update that I just mentioned Jerry said the time for new P3 orders continues to be about 12 months but I also hope to have all Weird Al playfield modules delivered in the next couple of months so you wonder what else will they be building then well we know there's two days coming this year so yes indeed a little bit of information on that came in this update from Jerry where he said that Scott Danesi is the creative director for the next game release which will, as you just said, have its own playfield module. Right, and Scott and Easy for those... Which they are planning to release in 2023. Right, and for those who are not immediately familiar with who Scott and Easy is, well, Scott and Easy is awesome in the first place. And he also designed a... That's his middle name, I'm sure. Yeah. He also designed Total Nuclear Annihilation, which was then taken into production by Spooky Pinball, and he also designed Rick and Morty for Spooky Pinball. Yep. And is now working at Multimorphic. Yeah, or at least for them. I'm pretty sure that Scott is also still working at Pinball Life, which is basically his full-time job, I suppose. And he's also making techno music and all that kind of stuff. So that's why Scutton Easy is awesome. No. Well, can't argue with that. Right. But he's not the only one doing software because there are new versions of the game, one of the earlier games actually for the P3, Rocks, which is a kind of Asteroids-type game but played on the pinball playfield using the ball tracking technique that's built into the P3. and so these asteroid type rocks move across the screen you shoot them with the ball break them up into smaller bits and then shoot the smaller bits before they they collide with you so there's a new version of that that game has been out since you know from the very earliest days of the p3 system and nice to see it getting an update and not only that but the there's a update coming for the sort of base system manager as well. So a new look for that. And also there'll be a code update for Weird Al as well. So I expect all those coming in the next few days, I believe. Oh, okay. Cool. And that rounds it up for Multimorphic, I suppose. Yes, indeed. So let's go back to Pinball Brothers then. Right. Because they're, as we know, building their Queen game as well as Alien. Right. Those two are being built by Pedretti Gaming as part of the new collaboration they have with Euro Pinball. Right. Pedretti and Pinball Brothers. Right. And there's some news on the Queen Rhapsody editions, I believe. well first games have been appearing on location there was one in Germany recently that announced that the Queen game was present and I think they did even some stream of that although not exactly sure that that's okay forget I said that because I'm not sure they did a stream but they did announce that the game was at this place okay somewhere in Germany and if you're in Germany you probably read about it anyway but this was from the new factory yes well we've seen a small production update from Pinball Brothers showcasing the new production area for games which surprisingly to me at least didn't have these well, it has all the games set up on trolleys, if you will, or you know, but it's not like what we've seen in factory tours like Jersey Jack or Stern Pinball, where Playfield is sliding down a line. Yeah, no, this is more like, okay, each game is set up and Playfield is installed and they are adding to that play field, which I'm not sure is the most convenient way, but apparently it's working for them. Yeah. We also don't know quite what the production capacity is at the moment, and how many they are pumping out, how many orders they have, or whether they're still early days and they're ramping up production speed. But, yeah, I think we've seen this quite a few... It's almost like what we've seen at Spooky. You were talking about their pictures of their production. Right. They have all the games kind of set up in various stages of completion. You don't kind of see the production line of a playful going down, a production line having all the bits added to it, like you see at, as you say, Stern, Jersey Jack, and American. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So, oh, well, that just occurred to me. So, yeah. That's a funny point. Yeah. They did release a code update for Queen, but there's obviously not that many people that get to experience it but still, ok, bug fixes and new features and lightning effects and so on oh well I'm just basically waiting to get another chance to play the game because I'm really curious to see what they are doing with it yes, I suspect we won't get a proper hands on on that game until we get to the Texas Feeble Festival in March, which is about eight weeks away from now. Okay, so I better start saving some money for a plane ticket then. Yes, indeed. Yes, I thoroughly recommend booking early. Oh, that's too late, I suppose. Oh, right. Okay. So while we're on the subject of Pinball Brothers, it's not well, Pedretti Gaming is their contract manufacturer, and there's a little bit of news from them as well, not that much they did announce that Funhaus 2.0 kits are back in stock so if you were looking to buy one and you missed out because they sold out now is your chance ok presumably bought through a distributor somewhere yeah or directly from Patrici but check with your distributor to see if they have them in stock and if not when they're expecting to get one. And the kit does not come with a front-house game. So you have to own the game first, and then the kit makes sense. Yes. And I believe you have some news on Penretti Gaming as well. Well, I know that their next 2.0 kit is well underway and nearing completion. And I'm not at liberty to talk about what it is or any of the details of it, but I've been made a party to some of the new modes, features and display effects that are in the game. And it looks great. It's going to have quite a complex rule set. And I think I'll say no more about it other than when you see it revealed, there will be plenty of happy owners who will be looking to give their game a significant update with the 2.0 kit for that game. So that should be announced before too much longer, I think. OK, cool, cool, cool. So let move back to America Chicago Gaming Yes indeed Well we reported before that Chicago Gaming are looking for a pinball technician We can't imagine why they'd be wanting a pinball technician. I mean, it's not like they make... Oh, yeah, they do make pinballs. Yes, that's right. Yeah, but it's like... I don't know. Let's not go there again. I mean... Well, we are going there again, unfortunately, because they are looking for a pinball technician again. Again? Again and again. Okay. So it could be either that the previous technician left or that they are expanding and need another one. Yeah. So if you are a pinball technician and you would like to work at Chicago Gaming, then here's your chance. Yeah. Get in touch. And that could be just the role for you. And another thing we mentioned before was about the Cactus Canyon remake limited edition models, which seemed to start being produced and then kind of stopped being produced. but apparently they are being made again or they just picked up production where they left off yeah well we don't quite know why it ever stopped but we can speculate but let's save it for the next topic so if we're going to speculate so we've been talking about well we've known about a Pulp Fiction themed game for years I would say we knew that it was in development and everybody was denying it and still nobody confirms it but everybody is sort of like a public secret that there is a Pulp Fiction themed pinball machine single level game most likely designed by Mark Ritchie to be released or produced, manufactured, whatever you want to call it, by Chicago Gaming, although it doesn't have to be exactly a Chicago Gaming game, but they could be the contract manufacturer for it for a different manufacturer. Rumor has it that game, of which everybody is denying it exists, is to be shown at the Texas Pinball Festival at the end of March. Yes. Now, whether it will be shown on the show floor or whether it will be in a hotel room or in a conference room somewhere for private showings, viewings, we don't know. But we don't know anything about this because it's all a rumor at the moment. Right. But, yeah, well, certainly there's a history of Mark Ritchie collaborating with the Texas Pinball Festival on new titles. Right. Cosmic Chaos comes to mind. Cosmic Chaos, indeed, was a concept produced and shown purely as a cabinet and a playfield glass with some artwork on it. Yeah, and a back glass. and a back glass, yeah, which the idea is it might go into production but I don't think it ever has or ever will, but you never know never say never but that was a Mark Ritchie concept worked through with Ed Van De Veen of the Texas Pinball Festival and the crew there so it wouldn't be the first time that a Mark Ritchie concept game has been previewed at Texas Pinball Festival, so maybe this year there'll be another one. Well, we've also seen Kingpin being showcased there. True. As a prototype for Circus Maximus. No news on that, by the way, so we can cross that off the list. Yeah, put that down as no news. Yeah. So, yeah, but there is a little history indeed. Of course, we will be reporting on everything that happened at the Texas Pinball Festival in our April pin cast where we look back at what happened in March yeah maybe this year we'll try to record some interviews we say that every year it never happens but there's always so much else to do at shows like the Texas Pinball Festival yeah but last year we tried we did try didn't we last year I had a great time with Steve Ritchie I think up into the really early hours in the morning and even after the show but we can't talk much more about that because that was off the record stuff we recorded a great interview with Steve Ritchie actually after the show which we then re-recorded and you can still listen to that in our backlog of files which you can find on all the all the streaming services and so on, I suppose. Yeah, the same place you're listening to this. You should be able to, or downloaded this from, you should be able to find our Steve Ritchie interview from, I guess it was from last year, wasn't it? Yeah. April or May, something like that. Yeah, so anyway. Moving on. Okay, let's all the way to Taiwan. Yes, for our third headline. Yes. All about HomePin. And as we know, Home Pin have been developing and still are developing we believe the This Is Spinal Tap game which has had a curious launch showing up at a show in Australia Pinfest in Melbourne Newcastle Newcastle and then after that the game sort of disappeared Yeah, no one's been talking about it. And we haven't seen it. No one's been quoting it. Yeah, no social media posts or anything. So, as I was preparing for this recording, I actually reached out to Mike Kalinowski, the owner of Homepin, and I asked him about how come it's so silent about this is Spinal Tap. What did he say? Well, I have to quote him on this because else I might get the wording wrong. So I'll just quote what he wrote back to me. He said, the explanation is easy. He cannot get staff is one. And second, we have been trying to book a time to have the CE testing done, but keep having trouble as the machine has to be set up by us and two days later removed by us. and the testing can only be done in Taipei, which is at the other end of the country. Things are on the up, however, as we now have several suitable job candidates. Before Lunar New Year, nobody ever changes jobs because they expect and usually get large red envelopes with at least a month's pay, so they all hang out for that and won't even look for another job. This has been a timing problem, I suppose. It's something I was aware of but failed to act on early enough, so it's bad planning on my part. This is purely an Asian thing. It causes trouble every year, and I should have been on top of it. It's a slow period gearing up, but still the extra time has allowed us to improve a few small software issues and a couple of small playfield tweaks, things we've learned from exhibiting at Pinfest Australia. And end of quote. Okay. So it doesn't really explain why nobody's doing any marketing on the game. You'd think the distributors would be pushing it. Yeah. I mean, there obviously are games out there, but maybe they're having significant changes to the play field and the software, and they're waiting to get a representative sample game. Well, for now, I'd say we wait until we see when the games are actually back into production and shipping out. Yeah, but, you know, they're presumably only going to be producing them once they've got orders, and they're not going to get orders if they're not promoting it. yeah makes sense then again I suppose it wouldn't hurt you to build a couple and put them on the floor and distribute it oh yeah and shows yeah exactly I mean that's how you're going to get the word out but there's more news from Homepin actually well what have they been doing they haven't been making Spinal Tap games well they did show some pictures and a video of a test set of chaser lights for Data East Star Trek 25th anniversary game as you know Home Pin is also known for reproducing pinball parts that are difficult to find and And apparently these chaser lights for this Data East Star Trek game are rather rare to find. They're looking to reproduce them, but that will depend on the demand. So if you own a Star Trek game and you're missing your chaser lights, this might be your chance. Reach out to HomePay and who knows, you might be getting a set. Or you'll be able to buy a set. I'm sure it's not given away. No, let them know that the demand is there. Right. Exactly. And that rounds it up for Homepin for the month of January, I suppose. Okay. Well, good luck to them in getting their new staff and also getting their game tested, CE testing completed, so they can start shipping games internationally, because when you're in Taiwan, I guess, pretty much every game is shipped internationally. Right. Okay, so another company which is making games but not actually shipping any yet is Pinball Adventures based in Vancouver in British Columbia. Yes. So they've been, well, they always use Instagram as their main social media outlet and they've been busy on there as well, have they? Yeah, well, they posted several images, but the most interesting I found was a video in which they use a voiceover, either talent or, well, some sort of voiceover. and they were basically asked about the recent delays in the reveal of Bunny Factory and apparently that is due to them developing a new rail system for their playfields to slide in their cabinets and that doesn't mean how the playfield should slide into the cabinet but it's actually as you might remember from those older belly games, the 1980s ones and so on, you pull the playfield forward. Once you lift it up, you move it forward, and then you let it rest on the backbox, so you sort of tip it over. And for Puny Factory, they designed a whole rail system so you can ride it over instead of just pull it forward. So it sounds to me like a very luxury… Over-engineered, maybe. Yeah, possibly. I'm getting sort of deep root reflexes or deja vus, that kind of thing. But that's not a part of the pinball ecosystem that you would think would need redeveloping. No, exactly. It's very well established, and people know how it works. It's not something that you'd sell a game on, I'd say. No, true. You don't sell what's under the playfield, you don't sell what the playfield rolls in and out on. Yeah, so, but, oh well. There's a video where you can see how it works, where you see the small wheels rolling on the rails. Check out Pimple Adventures on Instagram for that. And that's the most important news, I say. and the reveal apparently is supposed to be soon but still no date was mentioned and I sort of wonder like with all these updates on Instagram is there anything that we haven't seen yet on the game gameplay gameplay video which seems to be quite common these days not to have that available at launch it's one of the things everybody wants but it's kind of held back for a few weeks So still, I have to applaud them for going with an original theme these days because not many pinball companies do that. And now let's just hope that it's something that people like and can relate to and want to own. Yeah, and find fun. Yeah, exactly. Good. Okay, so moving to your home country, any news from Barry at Dutch Pinball? Yeah, not much. I reached out to him he didn't have any news to report but there is a company called Pinball Dreams from Belgium I don't think they are related to Pinball Dreams in Germany who visited the Dutch Pinball Factory recently and they shared their photos on their Facebook page which is nice but it still look like the same factory that you and I have been to. And no news or nothing new to discover on these pictures, but still they're building games. Probably not at the pace that they want to, but still they're building games. And they are slowly fulfilling the promises to the early achievers. and we'll go to their games. Well, the goal is to deliver games to all early achievers this year, but I think that has been the goal for the past two or three years as well. Okay. Yeah, so, oh well, we'll see how it goes. I'm still waiting for my game, so fingers crossed. We will know when they may progress on that. Yeah, yeah, I'll probably be busy playing it. Exactly. Okay, so Jersey Jack and Ball then yeah that's a company that we usually mention early on but well what happens is if a company has a game which they are building for a very long time there's not that much news to report and that's exactly what's happening right now with Jersey Jack and Ball they're still building Toy Story 4 they also have Guns N' Roses yeah exactly I was going to say they also have Guns N' Roses available if you're interested in that and as far as new games, there's not that much to report. So what is there to report? Well, really just apparel really from the company. They've been doing a series of T-shirts, the first of which was released to coincide with Pinball Expo last year, the 2022 Expo, which was a sort of black cat design with Pinball Expo lettering on it. And this came from Christopher Franchi, who we know very well as a prolific and talented pinball artist, as well as doing multiple other artwork for movies and posters and things like that. And various pinball companies. Indeed, yeah. And the second T-shirt in the series was a Cyclops Medusa mash-up T-shirt. So she only had one eye. Well, Cyclops Medusa doesn't have any eyes. But that T-shirt was available, along with the Pinball Expo one, from pinballwizard.com, which is the merchandise website for Jersey Jack Pinball. And now there is a new third T-shirt in the series called Mothman Pinball, which is based around the Mothman character. Never heard of it. Well, you will now. And it's sort of like a Mothman pinball design on the T-shirt, which is also from Christopher Franchi. Also, $25, available from pinballwizard.com. You can look at that and the Black Cat and the Cyclops Medusa shirt and all of them from pinballwizard.com. Okay. I don't think we ever talk that much about merchandise in all our episodes. Well, it shows you that there's not much more news coming from Dirty Jack Pimble. But there is one more thing, though. Yeah. What I understood from Jack Guarnieri, the founder of the company, is that he is looking to attend the trade show Enala in Rimini, which is in March, I believe. and he's also looking to attend Flip Expo in France. Yes, that's the last weekend in April, I believe. Yes, that's I think the 28th and 29th of April or at least that weekend, if I got the date wrong. I think that's right. Yes. Now, the last time that Jack was attending the Flip Expo in France that was actually when Willy Wonka was revealed. That's right, yes. and there was much drinking of champagne and eating of chocolate. Yeah, in the storage area behind the stage. Well, also eating of chocolate at the game, of course. Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Wonka bars. Yeah, oh, yeah, that was great. Yeah, I had lots of those. I know you did. I still got some. Yeah but no it made me wonder since the last time Jack was there a new game was revealed could that be the case this year again Is that why Jack is coming to the Flip Expo show Well, who knows? We should ask Jack, but I don't think he's going to... Spill the beans, maybe. Yeah, no, no. But it just made me wonder. It's not a rumor. It's just something... Well, I didn't mean to start a rumor. It just made me wonder, like, if Jack is coming, could there be a new game launch? Also, I don't know whether that show is actually coinciding with another show in the U.S. like we had with Willy Wonka. So if that's the case, then, well, it could be interesting. Which show was it? It wasn't the Allentown show, was it, at the same time? No, I don't remember. Wasn't Pentastic? That might have been the case. I think that's now in June, so I don't know. There's this website that I check for people's shows. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm looking at that right now. Let's see. Yes, that's the end of April. Chicago and shows that weekend. Yes, exactly. And people at the zoo. That's the weekend. That's only a collective show. Yeah. Yeah, there isn't one at the same time. But anyway, let's leave that out there. We'll update you on that if we get any more hints or tips about whether that could be the launchpad for a new Jersey Jack pinball title. Right, okay. Now, I believe you have some news on Deep Root Pinball slash Turner Pinball. Not that they are related. No, absolutely not. No, this is just Deep Root Pinball. and yeah it's been fairly busy on the legal side of things, fairly boring really unless it doesn't really relate directly to the legal side of things yeah me too so let's just say the SEC they launched their case against Deep Root Family of Companies and Robert Mueller and it looks like they've sort of wrapped up all the stuff to do with the deep root companies and just leaving the robert Sébastien Muller case um as uh outstanding and in many senses and um now try to remember exactly what it was that was agreed it says they came to a court approved um agreement statement saying that none of the companies would do any more illegal activities well i mean given that they don't exist anymore. So that's not really going to happen. And also agreed that Deep Root Pinball and Deep Root Studios shouldn't have received the funding that they got from the investment funds to the tune of $12 million for Deep Root Pinball and $4 million for Deep Root Studios. And the SEC would wrap up that part of their case. The case against Robert personally appears to still be ongoing. However, after all that was done and dusted and looked like it was wrapped up Robert Mueller's attorney then objected saying he doesn't admit Robert doesn't admit to any wrongdoing by himself or his companies and therefore doesn't agree to the statement of settlement with the SEC presumably this is to avoid self-incriminating in advance of any criminal case by the FBI In a separate event, a woman called Pamela Hopman and her company, PGH Advisors LLC, have been ordered to pay restitution of $410,000 and a $35,000 administrative penalty, i.e. a fine, for dishonest and unethical conduct in selling securities. They found that she and her company had sold at least $1.5 million worth of securities from a company called Deep Root and its affiliates to her advisory clients who believed they were buying life settlement products, which, as we know, was where the money went to fund the pinball and studios side. things amongst other things which we probably shouldn't mention in case they turn out to be legally problematic um so anyway so she's been fined for basically for selling deep root products which weren't invested as they were meant to be invested so uh yeah so this this whole fallout seems to expand beyond just uh the immediate deep root companies as well and themselves and also to the companies and the people who were selling their products. Right, and does that mean that this $410,000 is going back to the people who originally invested? Or bought these products? Yes, well, it should be, because it's restitution. It should go to the people, but only to the people who bought through her company, PGH Advisors. The $35,000 administrative penalty I guess just goes into central funds. So, and it's not like this Pamela Hoppard and her company, BGH Advisors, immediately go into bankruptcy so they don't have to pay? No, I don't think so, no. I think they probably just take that one on the chin and move on, or repeal, or, you know, I suspect, given the way that the speed at which the legal system works in, not just in America, but most countries, that would probably go to appeal and be tied up in legal red tape for months if not years to come right, ok so anyway I thought I'd mention those two little nuggets of deep root news only Marshall little nuggets, you've been talking for 50 minutes about those ok, well main course, entree and dessert, so there you go ok, so let's get on to the cheese I was actually going to Bitronic if you don't mind oh ok fine nothing cheesy there no no no but it's actually something that you probably should talk about because much to my surprise and probably to the surprise of others as well they were exhibiting at the EAG Expo in London yes indeed, Stern were not the only pinball manufacturers at the show Bictronic as you said were at EAG International Expo and they had their Super Hoop machine, in fact they had two of them How super? Yeah, well one was, one was playable and the other was used as a demonstration machine so basically it was well yeah whether it was broken and then repurposed for that purpose I don't know but only one of them was actually powered on it seemed but the other one was set up with a playfield it up so you could you could look at it and see how it was constructed and um well we enjoyed playing the the working one it uh was seemed very similar to the code that we'd seen when the show was at the uk pinfest show in daventry back in august and it uh talking about trolley it turns out they they do have new code for that game which adds some new lighting effects to it but for some reason that code wasn't on the machine that was on their stand which was kind of a shame and maybe it's not quite finished or maybe there are a few bugs and they want to iron out before it uh it's made public but uh so there is there are some new lighting effects coming um it um i suppose i would say that the lighting did look a bit different the gi lighting did look slightly better this time but i still find the center of the play field very dark and i think it could do with some more general illumination, maybe in the same sort of kind of way that Stern had been doing it by putting sort of spotlights in the arch, bottom arch of the game, so it illuminates the bit above the flippers. Okay. It's on the slingshots or something, just to make the central area a bit lighter, I think, because at the moment it can be quite hard to see the ball movement if you're playing it in a darkened room. But, anyway, it was nice to see Biktronic there. They also have some other games, one of which I mentioned in my EAG International Expo report on the Pinball News site. So you can go and see the Super Hoop machines. You can look under the playfield, see how they're built, and inside the cabinet, and see the other games on Bittronic Stand. Okay. So moving on to American Pinball. Yes, American Pinball. They must have lots of news. Well, sadly, no. Oh, okay. no the only thing they sort of shared on their socials in January was an unboxing and gameplay video of the classic edition of Legends of Valhalla ah right ok we've mentioned that in the past and we've seen pictures of the classic version which is the sort of cost reduced base level version of the game but I'm sure it plays very nicely and it was really just cosmetically different. I don't think there's anything substantially different in the build of the play field. Right. Yeah. Okay. And there's a couple of other companies that have really no news whatsoever. Mm-hmm. Including Circus Maximus that we already mentioned. Yeah, we did. STR Pinball in Spain, although I'm not even sure why we are listing them because they are no longer building games for Quetzal Pinball, which is the next company that has no news to report. and Quetzal is as you might know the company that designed the Super Hoop game that we just talked about and also the next game from Bitronic, Tokyo Perfect Drift is designed by Quetzal Pinball so Haggis Pinball in Australia no news as well hopefully they're still building the Fathom revisited version Yes, indeed. Yeah, it seems to be very quiet on all social media and indeed communication with customers at the moment. So, which of course sparks lots of rumors about they might be in trouble either financially or in supply chain issues. But for a company which started off in the pinball business with such regular and frequent updates via their social media and videos on YouTube, and since they've started producing for the Fathom game, it's been very, very quiet indeed. So we keep our fingers crossed and hope everything's going well for Damien and the team. I was about to move to the next subject but my phone is ringing oh well I think we know who that's going to be then our good friend Gary Farrar it's not ringing he hasn't rung off has he no my phone has gone into an update it seems it's just rebooting and I get updating Android, I think, or something. A great time to do a software update in the middle just as you're about to receive a phone call. Right. Sorry about that. Apologies to Gary. I can't answer your call right now. Apologies to our listeners as well. We have to wait for that software update to go through before we can try again. Not that much news. I doubt my phone will be ready by the time we get finished but we'll see so because all i have left is some other news okay let's have the other news in well um what i found personally rather interesting uh brian allen who is uh uh running flyland design as you may know uh has already done some uh some some artwork based on older Williams titles and sort of reimagining I suppose of the artwork he now produced a seven piece licensed artwork for Theater of Magic which includes inner cabinet artwork so you can really customize your game and give the cabinet a complete new look with well, cabinet decals, a back glass, decals for the side of the backbox. It looks rather fresh, I would say. Yeah, certainly different. I mean, in a way, it kind of follows in the same vein as his previous work for things like Attack from Mars, where it's sort of based around the same composition as the original, but with a different feel to the way the characters and some new characters in there as well and some of the way the objects are depicted. And, yeah, given Brian's very unique style. So if you're a fan of his previous work, I'm sure you will love what he's done with the Theatre of Magic. Right. so so Flightland Design if you want to go and check that out as you said just now it's fully licensed through Planetary yeah so we mentioned the EAG Expo a couple of times you've been at the show were there any other any other pinball related items or games or what have you on the show no it was it was actually I mean If it hadn't been for Bectronic, it would have been pretty uninteresting all round. The games I'd seen all... It wasn't that I was playing any of them for the first time, but it was nice to have two manufacturers there, at least. But no, to answer your question in brief, no, there was no other direct pinball element to the show. set for a toy pinball game which was on one of the vendors stands who sell, you know, sort of redemption type products. Right. That was it. Right, okay. Now, usually we don't address rumors. There's one that crossed, that I came across and I think I mentioned here. here. There's a rumor that a pinball manufacturer has ordered 1500 ramps for Twilight Zone. Which would indicate that a company would be attempting to take Twilight Zone back into production in sort of a remake. What do you make of that? Well, I'm skeptical, should we say, because for a number of reasons. First of all, you would imagine that if anyone was going to be remaking Twilight Zone, it would be Chicago Gaming, who remade all the other Williams Valley remakes, unless someone else has been licensed to do this. And as we know, Chicago Gaming are already busy building not only the current run of Cactus Canyon Games, but they also have future titles already lined up, and we don't think Twilight Zone is part of that, including their own in-house design. Right. So you would think they would have enough on their plate already. Twilight Zone, obviously an expensive game to make. It was expensive the first time around. It was expensive to remake it now. There are lots of them around if you want one. I can't imagine you'd have that much of a problem getting one. and it's I don't know it just seems like a strange title to pick for a remake it's obviously it's a wide body game as well so it doesn't even fit in the standard cabinets although Chicago Gaming that wouldn't be a problem because they make their own cabinets so they can make any size cabinet but I don't know if the order is confirmed then I guess some needs to come to do something with those ramps, but I don't know why you... If it was a Chicago game where they're not going to be making the game for three years, why would they want to buy 1,500 ramps now? Makes no sense to me. Okay, so... Well, let's leave it at that, because I guess that rounds it up. I think it does, actually, yeah. So, well, thank you very much for joining us for this January 2023 PINCAST. We hope you enjoyed listening and getting up to date with all the latest news from the pinball industry. Obviously, you can check out all our reports on things that we've covered here and in upcoming news on the Pinball Magazine website at pinball-magazine.com and at pinballnews.com. Right. And we will be back, of course, at the end of February, end of this month. Which is a short month. Oh, it is. So it's quicker than you think. Wow. Okay, we'd better start making notes for next month's Pincast straight away then. Yes. And, yes, so we'll be back at the start of March to look back at all the excitement that took place in the pinball world in February. So until then, from me, Martin Ayer of Pinball News and... Jonathan Euston of Pinball Magazine. Yes, we wish you a very enjoyable and productive February and we will see you again at the start of March. So until then, it's goodbye from me. and from me bye bye

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 96439da0-c330-4ec2-b008-b28439c7bee0*