# Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast October 2024 recap **Source:** Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2024-11-04 **Duration:** 114m 4s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pinball-industry-news/episodes/Pinball-Magazine--Pinball-News-PINcast-October-2024-recap-e2qi1nv --- ## Analysis Jonathan Houston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin O'Neill (Pinball News) recap October 2024 pinball industry highlights at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo, including the reveal of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Dutch Pinball Exclusive), Stern's launch of Metallica Remastered with 500-unit LE run, and an interview with David Van Es of Barrels of Fun discussing production progress, Barrel Ball community game mode, and the hiring of Butch Peel as manual writer. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a limited edition of 500 units and has sold out at distributors — _Both hosts confirm the 500-unit run sold out at distributors; waitlists still available_ - [HIGH] Metallica Remastered limited edition is capped at 500 units only — _Martin O'Neill states 'limited to 500 units only, which immediately caused a lot of people to be upset'_ - [HIGH] Barrels of Fun Labyrinth has sold approximately 900 of 1,100 units with roughly 200 games remaining — _David Van Es: 'we do believe that we have basically 200 games left for this whole market'_ - [HIGH] Barrels of Fun will wrap up Labyrinth production around January-February 2025 — _David Van Es: 'We are going to be wrapping up this production probably January, February next year'_ - [HIGH] European-certified (CE) Labyrinth machines started production and will ship in containers within 2-3 weeks — _David Van Es: 'they're on the line, probably this comes out at the end of November... they're going to be in a container within two to three weeks'_ - [HIGH] Butch Peel has joined Barrels of Fun to write manuals and provide technical support — _David Van Es announces: 'Steve Hill has joined Barrel of Fun' [speaker correction intended Butch Peel], hired to write manuals and provide phone support_ - [HIGH] Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was designed as a 1990s Bally Williams-style gameplay experience — _Martin O'Neill: 'Melvin has said over and over, it's designed to be like a 1990s Bally Williams-style gameplay'_ - [HIGH] The original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a foam core mockup by Tom Puppeteer for Zidware before Melvin Williams acquired and fully redesigned it — _Jonathan Houston details the game's origin history and redesign by Melvin Williams_ - [HIGH] Metallica Remastered includes over 1,000 new speech calls and 23 songs total — _Martin O'Neill: 'Over a thousand new speech calls, apparently... 23 now' songs_ - [HIGH] Stern did not provide advanced information about Metallica Remastered launch to media, hampering coverage — _Martin O'Neill: 'they wouldn't give us any advanced information so we could prepare it after'_ ### Notable Quotes > "Let the product speak for itself... We are not just a one-game company. We are a 10-year planned company." > — **David Van Es (Barrels of Fun)**, N/A > _Core business philosophy emphasizing long-term commitment and product quality over hype_ > "What made me excited about pinball was announcement day... I feel like nowadays we've lost that... I like the days where you had no idea what was coming." > — **David Van Es (Barrels of Fun)**, N/A > _Philosophy on maintaining mystery and excitement in game reveals, contrasting modern industry transparency_ > "We don't sell directly anymore... We are going to be wrapping up this production probably January, February next year." > — **David Van Es (Barrels of Fun)**, N/A > _Distribution strategy shift and production timeline clarity for Labyrinth_ > "It's gorgeous. This is not a trade show. This is where you can tell people are going to drink, they're going to eat, they're going to have a good time and play pinball... That's why I got into pinball." > — **David Van Es (Barrels of Fun)**, N/A > _Community-focused perspective on Pinball Expo vs. trade show atmosphere; emphasis on social aspects_ > "He came out, saw what we're doing... he's like, I'm in... he seems very happy... he's a collector and he can't keep us away from it." > — **David Van Es (Barrels of Fun)**, N/A > _Explanation of Butch Peel's motivation to join despite earlier retirement; community passion driving industry participation_ > "They're very precious about maintaining both that and his legacy... they've been very careful to add two new game modes based on Metallica's two most recent albums." > — **Martin O'Neill (Pinball News)**, N/A > _Stern's respect for Lyman Sheets' original rule design and careful evolution of Metallica Remastered_ > "If all the Pinball Minions are focusing on something else launching a game they will not give you the best attention." > — **Martin O'Neill (Pinball News)**, N/A > _Criticism of Stern's timing for Metallica Remastered launch during Pinball Expo, causing media distraction_ > "We have the opportunity. We have a great relationship with a licensor. We can actually have up to three lines to run... quality is number one." > — **David Van Es (Barrels of Fun)**, N/A > _Production capacity and flexibility, with emphasis on quality over speed_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Jonathan Houston | person | Editor of Pinball Magazine; co-host of this PINcast recap episode | | Martin O'Neill | person | Editor of Pinball News; co-host of this PINcast recap episode; attended seminars during Expo | | David Van Es | person | Founder/representative of Barrels of Fun; attended Dutch Pinball Open Expo with father; discussed production status and hiring | | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | game | Dutch Pinball Exclusive limited edition (500 units); main reveal of October; designed by Melvin Williams based on Tom Puppeteer's original concept | | Metallica Remastered | game | Stern Pinball remaster of 2009 original; announced Wednesday of Expo; 500-unit LE sold out quickly; Premium and LE models available | | Labyrinth | game | Barrels of Fun's first game; 1,100-unit run; approximately 900 sold; wrapping production Jan-Feb 2025; CE-certified European version in production | | Dutch Pinball | company | Netherlands-based manufacturer; produced Alice's Adventures in Wonderland through DPX (Dutch Pinball Exclusive); hosting Dutch Pinball Open Expo | | Barrels of Fun | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer based in Texas; producing Labyrinth; in 12+ months of operation; planning multi-line production capacity | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; launched Metallica Remastered during Expo; held factory tours; placed giant silver ball sculpture outside factory | | Butch Peel | person | Manual writer and technical support for Barrels of Fun; recently hired after earlier retirement from industry; known as 'best manual maker in the industry' | | Melvin Williams | person | Designer of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; acquired and fully redesigned the game from Tom Puppeteer's original concept | | Lyman Sheets | person | Original rules designer for Metallica (2009); Stern preserved and expanded his rule set in Remastered version with new wizard modes | | John Borg | person | Original playfield designer for Metallica (2009); playfield design retained in Remastered version | | Pinball Expo | event | 40th anniversary edition held in October 2024; major industry event featuring game reveals, factory tours, seminars, and vendor floor | | Dutch Pinball Open Expo | event | Concurrent pinball event in Netherlands hosted by Dutch Pinball where this PINcast was recorded and David Van Es appeared as guest | | Pinball Magazine | organization | Pinball media outlet; publishes full rule set articles and game coverage; edited by Jonathan Houston | | Pinball News | organization | Independent pinball media outlet founded 2000; publishes comprehensive industry coverage; edited by Martin O'Neill; hosts YouTube channel | | Charlie Bonanza | person | Composer of music for Uncanny X-Men; appeared in Stern promotional video explaining music design | | James Hetfield | person | Metallica frontman; promoted Metallica Remastered on social media | | Tom Puppeteer | person | Original designer of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland concept for Zidware company; created foam core prototype | ### Topics - **Primary:** Alice's Adventures in Wonderland reveal and reception, Metallica Remastered announcement, pricing, and limited edition scarcity, Barrels of Fun production status, distribution strategy, and personnel, Pinball Expo 40th anniversary highlights and industry events - **Secondary:** Game design philosophy and 1990s Bally Williams-style gameplay, Manufacturing transparency and factory tours, Limited edition FOMO and collectibility, Community engagement and social aspects of pinball ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.75) — Generally enthusiastic about October releases and Expo events. Alice's reception described as positive with strong visuals. Metallica Remastered praised for production quality and legacy respect, though criticized for launch timing and LE scarcity. Barrels of Fun portrayed very positively with confidence in execution. Some negative sentiment regarding lack of media advance notice for Metallica launch and Stern's factory photo restrictions, but overall industry coverage is upbeat. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Alice's Adventures in Wonderland drew largest crowds at Pinball Expo despite multi-machine setup; demonstrated strong collector interest in Dutch Pinball release (confidence: high) — Martin O'Neill: 'it was... the most popular game at the show... They had two of them, and then three... people really appreciated how it looks in the flesh' - **[sentiment_shift]** Metallica Remastered LE 500-unit cap generated significant negative community reaction despite strong product quality (confidence: high) — Martin O'Neill: 'limited to 500 units only, which immediately caused a lot of people to be upset, to put it mildly, because it sold out rather quickly' - **[design_philosophy]** Barrels of Fun prioritizes maintaining mystery around game announcements and avoiding pre-announcement hype culture; values 'announcement day' surprise (confidence: high) — David Van Es: 'What made me excited about pinball was announcement day... I like the days where you had no idea what was coming... that sense of unknowingness... that's truly exciting' - **[event_signal]** Dutch Pinball Open Expo and concurrent Pinball Expo (40th anniversary) in October 2024 served as major industry touchpoints for game reveals and networking (confidence: high) — Both hosts attended expo events; multiple game reveals tied to expo dates; David Van Es made special trip to Netherlands event - **[licensing_signal]** Metallica band directly involved in game promotion, with James Hetfield promoting on social media and band members contributing voices/music (confidence: high) — Martin O'Neill: 'James Hetfield was promoting the game and on social media... The band, obviously, right behind this' - **[manufacturing_signal]** Barrels of Fun emphasizes quality-first approach with multi-year production flexibility; willing to pause announcements if product not ready (confidence: high) — David Van Es: 'If the game is ready to roll, you guys will see it. When it's not ready to roll, you won't hear about it... quality is number one' - **[market_signal]** Labyrinth continued strong sales pace through October with approximately 200 units remaining of 1,100 LE run after 12+ months; extended shelf life demonstrates sustained collector demand (confidence: high) — David Van Es: 'I can't believe we've been out for over 12 months now, and this game is still selling... we're still selling our onesies and twosies right now' - **[market_signal]** Stern launched Metallica Remastered mid-Expo (Wednesday) without advance media notice, limiting coverage quality; hosts attribute this to poor strategic timing (confidence: high) — Martin O'Neill: 'Rather annoyingly for us Stone decided to launch this game right in the middle of Pinball Expo... they wouldn't give us any advanced information... you definitely won't get the best article about the game' - **[personnel_signal]** Butch Peel (legendary manual writer, Jersey Jack) hired by Barrels of Fun after retirement; motivated by passion for pinball community and quality work (confidence: high) — David Van Es announces hire: 'he's like the best manual maker in the industry... he came out, saw what we're doing... he's like, I'm in' - **[product_strategy]** CE certification delays pushed European Labyrinth production timeline; Barrels of Fun prioritized proper documentation over self-certification (confidence: high) — David Van Es: 'we wanted to make sure that we were properly certified and tested for CE, and that took a lot of time... they're on the line, probably this comes out at the end of November' - **[product_strategy]** Metallica Remastered features substantial upgrades over 2009 original including LCD screen, 1,000+ new speech calls, new mechanics (snake mechanism, hammer, sparky design), and new artwork, but retains original playfield layout (confidence: high) — Martin O'Neill details: 'improved Max, new snake mechanism... different hammer, different sparky design... full LCD display... new songs... different artwork' - **[business_signal]** Stern appears to be constraining Metallica Remastered LE production to 500 units to create FOMO after previous LE demand challenges with John Wick/Venom (confidence: medium) — 500-unit LE cap caused immediate sellout and upset; parallels earlier limited edition availability constraints --- ## Transcript Alice's Adventures in Wonderland revealed Stern launches Metallica remastered It's Pinball Expo! Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston, I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined by... I'm Martin O'Neill, I'm the editor of Pinball News and Jonathan and I are here to look back at all the exciting events that took place in the pinball world during the month of October 2024. And speaking of exciting events, this is a very special occasion, Mark, because in all the years that we've recorded this pin cast, we've actually never been together in the same room up until now when we were recording this pin cast. Yes, we are actually, believe it or not, sitting next to each other for the very first time, live in front of an audience of no one. I think that's Pinball Open Festival. Yes. We'll get to that in a little bit. So, well, it was October. It was Pinball Expo month. So, needless to say, it was a very exciting month. It was. And a lot of these things took place or were involved around Pinball Expo. So we'll bring that up as and when it's appropriate. but the first thing, the first headline that we had was about the final reveal of Alice in the Adventures in Wonderland, a game that we knew Dutch Pinball Exclusive would be making. They announced it before they actually revealed it, and they revealed it, what, about a week before Pinball Expo? Yeah, something like that, yeah. Yeah, and they also had three games initially, too, but eventually three games at Pinball Expo. On the vendor floor, if I may call it that. Yeah, that's right. They had two to start with, as John said, and because the lines for them were so long, they brought the third machine out to let people play that as well. Right. And, yeah, well, I think it's fair to say that it was, Certainly until Saturday night at least, it was the, or Saturday, it was the most popular game at the show. Probably, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then you had two of them, and then three. So you can't compare that to... Uncanny X-Wing or something like that. Yeah, or a dozen avatars on the floor, because obviously lines are going to be shorter if you have more machines. But the game was very popular and a lot of people really appreciated how it looks in the flesh, so to speak. Oh, it was our first chance looking at it as well, I think. Yeah, I've never seen it before and yeah, I certainly thought it looked really, really beautiful. And I think some people were maybe expecting something different from the gameplay than what it actually was. but it is designed, as Melvin has said over and over, it's designed to be like a 1990s Bally Williams-style gameplay, and for me, absolutely hit the brief. It felt very solid, it felt a lot more robust than many other modern games that are out there from other manufacturers, and yes, it's not a game that's the style of Godzilla or something like that. No. But it's not designed to be. So I think they did what they said they were going to do, and I personally think anyone who put an order down for one would be very happy with what they received. Well, if you're not completely familiar with the history of the game, originally it was designed by Tom Puppeteer for his Zidware company, supposedly to be his third game following Magigirl and Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland. The game never got past a foam core mock-up with some paper, black and white prints applied to it. Melvin Brown Williams bought the remains, if you want to call it that, from Z-square at Notion, including the phone core prototype, and decided to actually build that game, which basically meant he had to design everything himself, because there was nothing there other than basically a shot layout and some artwork. Yes, that's right. And, well, yeah, concept, pretty much. And he then went ahead and did all the legal requirements in order to actually get the rights to that design, which were a little bit mixed up based on other people who claimed they had the rights to that game and also the whole Deep Root saga where John was working for them and eventually handed over all his assets to Deep Root before that company went bust and before John was sued. So anyway, enough about that. So the game is made, It's a limited edition of 500 units that, as far as we know, all has sold at least two distributors of Dutch Pinball slash Dutch Pinball exclusive. Yeah. You may still be able to make points in waiting list. Yeah. As well. Well, certainly following up, because the reception to the game was a bit multi-pulsed, I would say. Yeah. I'm definitely in Mercy Post here. And who didn't do this from Anna? Simon. Well, it could be you as well. No, I did, I did. Is that Gary? Oh, no, I wouldn't have thought so. Would be very appropriate to have him call in the first time we actually record this when we're together. Anyway, so, three games at the Pinball Expo floor, and a seminar as well, which is available on the Pinball News website and YouTube channel. Yes, exactly. And here is what we will open up. So, two Alice's Adventures in Wonderland games set up. and we'll be hosting a seminar as well tomorrow. We're recording this on the Friday evening before the show starts, hence we're out of an audience. That's not to say we have an audience if the show is going. But yes, tomorrow is quite a heavy seminar day. We'll get to that when we get to talk about Dr. Kimball's open expo a little bit later because at the moment we're pretty much looking at stuff that took place at the Pinball Expo, the 40th anniversary of Pinball Expo. Yeah. Later on in the show, we will have a special guest, as David David Van Es of Bells of Fun actually made the trip over to the Dust Pimple Open and just walked in. I certainly did. Good to see you, David. So, we'd love to sit with you guys. Thank you very much. So, we'll get back to Dr. Emily in a second, but let's just jump in anyway with Dave and us of Barrels of Fun. Yeah. Applause. Yes. Thank you, Dave, for a part of this. No one else did it, but you guys did, so thank you. Well, we're looking back at all the events that took place in the month of October, which was a busy month for Barrels of Fun. Yes. We're going to be watching, I guess, pretty much now. and you hosted the fashion tour as part of the Eastern LKX show. Yes. How did that go? It went extremely well. We actually sold out all our tickets for the tour, which we were not... Houston's a smaller show. It's a very different crowd, so we didn't know how people will receive it. And it went really well and I think people really appreciate coming to see what we've done because there's been many other companies that, you know, have promised a lot of things and failed to deliver. And we kind of do get lumped in the same way because we've only been out for 12 months. And, you know, they got to come in. They actually got to see game 555 at that time. We have just crossed the 600 game mark. It's just, you know, it was good for the people to see how we operate, how we do what we do, and how we're learning from our mistakes and make it better. Yes, well we've seen the video tour that you did of the factory before, and that gave us a kind of feel for the operation out there, but you just can't beat actually seeing it in person, obviously. And would you say, I mean I'm surprised that you said that you think they were lumped in with other companies who have been less successful in producing games. Yes. Do you think that's because of your location being in Aquila, Texas, or do you think it's just because generally in the people business there's a lot more wariness now about startup companies? Oh, absolutely, and there should be. There should not. We've seen a lot of people get taken aback at jobs, and I don't think a lot of that was on purpose, but there's a lot of people that want to look at me and look at what we're doing. And as a collector myself, I don't want to see that. I want to see a product. And it was just really important for us. It's like it's not about look what we're doing. Let the product speak for itself. And where we are, we're probably not involved in the conversation as much because we're not in the traditional groups per se. So it's very easy. We took deposits for our games. So that causes skepticism. And that's why we're diligently making games. and make people realize that we're here to stay. And we're not just a one-game company. We're not a two-game company. We are a 10-year planned company. Very good to hear. Now, for those people who are a little bit on the fence, so to speak, let's say that's a few hundred people. If they change their mind in the meantime, would they still be able to buy a level of this game? So they can buy it through the distributor. So we don't sell directly anymore. So everything has been sold out directly from us, and now you have to go through your distributors to get them. We are going to be wrapping up this production probably January, February next year. So if you were to place an order today, it's going to be delivered in February around that time. Okay. Well, that's very good. So if you're wrapping up around January or February, what might we see in the announcement for an upcoming game? as my partner will say, we don't serve wine before it's time. So if the game is ready to roll, you guys will see it. When it's not ready to roll, you won't hear about it because at the end of the day, it goes back. What made me excited about pinball was announcement day. You know, back in the early 2000s, we would all get excited when a new game would come out, a new game. I remember Trump, and we would all get around the Internet. We'll talk about it. We'll be so excited about it. I feel like nowadays we've lost that. Everyone kind of knows what everyone's doing. The excitement around the new game reveal is still there, but you kind of already know roughly what's going to be 50%. I like the days where you had no idea what was coming. So it's really important for me as a collector and to give back to the community is that sense of unknownness because when you show them something they have no idea about, that's truly exciting, in my opinion. If you don't have a pickup tomorrow, you have to keep rolling. So once you've finished producing those games, you've got to start building the next game. Yes. So that limits your window for when you can actually reveal the next cycle. Unless you start building them and not reveal them. That's also a possibility too. Again, we went into this with a 10 year plan. So we knew that if we sold less games or more games, we had to have that flexibility flexibility to be able to make the best product we possibly can. And if we feel like game two is not ready to come out when that one is done, we won't do that and we'll keep paying our employees until we're ready to go. So, again, we've set a war chest aside to make sure we're going to do this correctly. Right. Now, Labyrinth is a limited edition run of... 1,100 games. 1,100 games. So in case you have not sold yet out of 1,100 games and you start production on your second game, is there a chance you will go take levels back in production if demand is there? Yeah, absolutely. Basically, we bought all the parts. We have all the parts in stock. We don't rely on deposits to make games. We invest in ourselves. We invest in our employees to make great games. So we will make all the games, and then we will sell them. And we do believe that we have basically 200 games left for this whole market. That's 1,100 total, no premiums or pros or LEs. It is just one collectible product. And we are still selling our onesies and twosies right now. I can't believe we've been out for over 12 months now, and this game is still selling. And honestly, we didn't even think it will sell as many as it has. But they're still taking it for sales. Absolutely. Or the distributors are, in some cases. Yeah. And still advertising it. So obviously people are picking up sales from those examples. Would you say that you expect that level of sales to keep rolling on until you reach the end of the production line? No. And if it doesn't, if we have to move over to game two, we'll move over to game two and we'll build the rest later on. It's like we have the opportunity. We have a great relationship with a licensor. You know, we want to be able to be flexible in our facility. You know, we can actually have up to three lines to run. We're not staffed up for that, but we have the ability to expand. So we are planning to go to a second line so we can be more flexible. but quality is number one. So it comes down to we need to concentrate and make sure the first game is coming off correctly as we cross-train for the next game. Right. Now, we're looking back at the month of October, as we always do in our pin cast once a month and we look back at the past month or the previous month. When it comes to Labyrinth, you did share a rule set sheet on social media, A very colorful ruleset sheet, I have to say. Thank you, Robert Blakeman. And, yeah, it looks awesome. And you also shared or released a new code update, which includes the... Barrel Ball. Oh, yeah, exactly. So tell us about Barrel Ball. Barrel Ball is a group game. So have you guys heard of Soul Ball? Yeah, I've played it. Okay, so that's exactly what it is. It's just our take on it. We've actually got a couple of little things we're going to be adding to it in the next couple of weeks. That's going to maybe take it a little bit more fun and make it a little bit different. But it's really about community. Like as a collector, it's nice to come and you come and play games at these shows. But we're here with our friends. So what things apart from tournaments can people do that maybe is not so serious? And that's where we're kind of like we need to do variable because this is an opportunity for people to have a few drinks, have a good time and do that. And that's kind of why I'm here. I want people to come over to the booth and I want to play barrel ball with them. Yeah, I think it's a nice twist on the sport ball in that you have it actually just into the code of the game so that you can't keep shooting the same shot over and over because after three times you go red and you can't, and that again becomes... That's your elimination. Yeah, which is the same as training the ball, effectively. Yeah. So, yeah, that's the stuff. obviously something that no other manufacturer ever did in so great. I know someone who came up with something that you can't make the same shot twice, but... Still, still, still... He was no sage. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what that is. But anyway, we are here at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo. So what brings you over here then, David? So what brings me over here? So there's two reasons. Obviously, I want to support Stefan, our distributor over here. Second of all, it's in Holland, and my father is a Dutchman. He's lived in Australia for 65 years, but he was born here and left here when he was 12 years old. And also, we have a lot of customers here that haven't had their games. So this was a great opportunity for me to come over, have my dad come over to see the game for the first time, because he's never seen it in real life. He hasn't seen the facility. He hasn't seen the game. he didn't even know about this company until basically a week before we launched so he pretty much thought I was broke burnt out because he would ask me what am I doing I'm trying to figure stuff out I'm trying to figure stuff out because building a pimple company is not for the faint hearted and if he knew what I was doing I knew it would be way more stressful than the other side I digress So it's for him to come and see what I'm doing. Also for me to communicate to people that got games here, and this will obviously probably come out after DPO, but I can say that European games are actually on the line right now. And the reason why it's taken so long is we wanted to make sure that we were properly certified and tested for CE, and that took a lot of time. The thing what they do is self-certification, and I didn't feel comfortable doing self-certification, so I wanted to make sure we followed all across the T's and got the I's, so we actually got the documentation done correctly. Right, okay. So when did you start making European games or CE certified games? So they are starting by, this is out, they're on the line, probably this comes out at the end of November. No, this comes out next Monday. Next Monday? So they're on the line. Okay. And then basically if they're on the line, and they're going to be in a container within two to three weeks. Right. Because you have to fill the whole container. Exactly, yes. Okay. Now, it's also Pinball Expo, man. What was your take on Pinball Expo? I was busy making games. I was planning to actually. You were the one person everybody was looking for, like where they'd been at. So we had Operation Pinball represent us at Chicago. I was going to be there with Travis, our mechanical engineer, but there were things at the office that needed me to be hands on with and again as much as I love shows and meeting people I need to make sure we're shipping games and making sure we're doing the right correct thing together again there's no foul in this I have to succeed so I've poured my heart so I went to this and I have to make it happen ok sounds fair so well if you Friday evening of the Dutch Open Expo, so there's a team tournament being played in a corner on the side, and everybody else, all the vendors are setting up. What's your impression currently of the show? It's gorgeous. Like, first of all, the hotel is magnificent. It's huge. I mean, I didn't realize I had to walk half a football field to get to my room. But it's like, it's got carpet. This seems to be exactly what a collector is. This is not a trade show. this is where you can tell people are going to drink, they're going to eat, they're going to have a good time and play pinball. And let's be honest, that's why I got into pinball. I got into pinball. Yeah, I love the game. I love the magic under the glass. But to be able to play a game with your friends, catch up, talk about things, have them witness you do amazing stuff, or sometimes most likely sucky stuff, it's the community. And this show seems to be all about the community. So I'm super excited to be out there. I mean, I'm already got, I know we're not meant to be playing games, so there's already got people coming up and looking at it. I'm kind of like, you want to shoot it? Because I'm cleaning it up. Can we? Of course. And then all of a sudden I'm in a full-person game having a good old time. But that's what's special about pinball to me. Right. And you're changing people to play barrel ball. Barrel ball, regular games, yes. Barrel ball as we get later into the night. Yes. Pay the one euro games. There you go. there you go so alright is there any other news about Barrel of Fun or the Leopardy's game that we can report on that or that you can report on that so this comes out Monday right yes so I won't have it posted on Facebook so the only place they're going to get it is here and Steve Hill has joined Barrel of Fun so very very good so congratulations yeah so it's kind of funny because we saw that he retired from the industry, and LTG messaged me and was like, David, did you see that Butch is available now? You should really talk to him. I was like, oh, man, he's like the best manual maker in the industry. And I called him up. I got his information, called him up, had a meeting. He came out, saw what we're doing. Because, again, he has other things he wants to be doing. he came out, saw the facility and was like, I'm in so he saw what we're doing and he is now going to be doing the manuals for us as well as text support so he will be helping us out on phones and stuff because someone that's doing a manual obviously knows how to fix a game and he knows it so he has a game, he is pulling it apart he's doing what he needs to do to figure it all out and he seems very happy I'm very up to you to be back into our hobby slash industry he's a collector he wasn't so he's a collector and I think when like again when he saw what we're about and saw the facility it was one of those things of he loves pinball you know and at the end of the day I think he really just wanted a free game so I get a game right so I get a top up and of course we made sure that happened but again he is he's like us we're collectors we love what we do and the problem is he can't keep us away from it right so there you go there's an exclusive fantastic fantastic thank you very much for joining us here at the Dutch Pimble Open Expo right David and just a lot with the show I really hope you have a good time and and your father also and we look forward to seeing you again soon and finding out what's new. Next year, why don't you guys come down to the Houston show and come on the tour? Or I guess, ideally I'd like to come to the Houston show, but if you're not with TPS come down and check out the show. Yeah, we'd love to do that. Nice to see you too. If we can make it work. I have to fly through Houston first then. That's what I'm saying, direct flight to Houston and then you car ride with us. Sounds like a plan Sounds like a plan There you have it Mark and Jonathan will tour the Barrel of the Sun facility in March of 2025 There we go More exclusive news News that even we didn't know Well thank you guys for letting us know Thank you David So David and I that was a fun good old Last month we we talked about the announcement and reveal of the uncanny X-Men of Stern, and lo and behold, just a few weeks later, they've released another new game. Yeah, but now you might think, is that the same game as Stern released in 2013? Well, yes, but got a makeover. Yes and no. So, yeah, there's quite a few changes. The playfield design is basically the same, isn't it? It's the John Borg original, but being a modern game, it now has no full LCD display. It has a whole bunch of new songs added to it as well. Different artwork. 23 now. Yeah. New artwork. Trying to remember all the other things that have gone into it. Inside of the map, of course. Oh, yes. Of course. Yeah, it's got new sound effects. Over a thousand new speech calls, apparently. Yeah. Some of the bands themselves. Really impressive. The band, obviously, right behind this because James Hetfield was promoting the game and on social media I think as well so that's nice to see and what else can we say they're very keen in the promo video to talk about retaining the essence of the Lyman Sheets rules that he made that game come alive I think with his rules and they're very precious about maintaining both that and his legacy there, and so they've been very careful to add two new game modes based on Metallica's two most recent albums. So that is Hardwired to Self-Destruct and Blackened, I think. There's a new Blackened Wizard mode, anyway, which I guess wasn't from the game before. I suppose not, because it's only in existence. Yeah. I think their Pinball Magazine website has a report that actually has a full set list of all the songs in the game that I didn't see anybody else publish Oh, very good Rather annoyingly for us Stone decided to launch this game right in the middle of Pinball Expo on the Wednesday Yeah, that's not very smart If all the Pinball Minions are focusing on something else launching a game they will not give you the best attention. And also they wouldn't give us any advanced information so we could prepare it after. So you definitely won't get the best article about the game. But, oh well. There's a premium model and a limited edition. The limited edition being limited to 500 units only, which immediately caused a lot of people to be upset, to put it mildly, because it sold out rather quickly. And so, well, I'm not sure whether it's fair or not, but obviously the original game had a limited edition run as well, and that was seen as the top-end model of Metallica, and quite a few years have passed since then, but now is this new Metallica Remastered a higher-end limited edition than the other limited edition? Well, that is a matter of time. Look at it. We won't do that right now. I must say, I have a look at the foil art on the side of the cabinet of the limited edition, and it does look very nice I sorry Anybody who owns the limited edition of the original I think the new one whether or not you a fan of the new artwork it's certainly, certain elements of it are certainly an upgrade to the previous one. And yes, they've had to put a lot of video assets into the game, a lot of live concert footage as well, which, once you've got an LCD screen in the game, you have to feed it with lots of material. Yeah, you can't get away with it. But mainly it's animation. Absolutely. Unless you're in the service menu, apparently. In which case you get. After all this time. Right. So a new game which Cern presented, well, they announced it on the Wednesday of Pinball Expo. They showed it off, well, privately, or for private people already on the Thursday of Pinball Expo. We got an invite, but we were reported from Primo Leto, so we couldn't attend. It was at the end of the factory tour on Friday. Yeah. Which I attended, and Martin, again, had to stay recording seminars. Yeah. Yeah. That's dedication to duty. I still haven't seen the factory yet. No. No. So that moves you. But anyway. But getting back to the target, yes. And then they brought two machines to the show, a premium and an limited edition, to add to their stand on Saturday. And very long lines ensued for those two games. Well, that's what you get. Limited machines. Yeah. Even though they are, you know, the playful design is not different from the original. Right. But people wanted to see how it looked, how it played. Yeah, but improved Max, new snake mechanism, I believe. I think the yoke of his teeth back again. Yes, different hammer, different sparky design. So, yes, everyone wanted to see what it was like. Yeah. Fair enough. So that game came out at standard prices. So, which is what, 9, 7 for a premium and 13 for a limited? Yeah, something like that, yeah. Yeah. Well, the limited is gone anyway. Unless you have found a distributed one. Available. one or two, you never know. But there was a lot more news from Stern Pinball. Yes, we were just talking about the factory tour on Friday. Right. You went and, once again, they didn't allow any pictures to be taken within the factory. Yeah, which is very odd, because at the same time they had their own camera crew filming the factory tours, and there were the visitors coming in and filming the same employees that everybody would have taken pictures of. Well, yeah, I guess they can edit that afterwards and make sure that only what they want to be shown is shown. So they'll keep control of it. It's not like people will be able to discover something that they wouldn't have supposed to. No, and as we'll see later, not every manufacturer feels that way. No. Anyway, as you said, I had the Metallica remastered at the end of the tour. Did you get some goodies for doing the tour? So, a coin, a stern pinball coin with a... There's a Gary on one side of the coin and I think a pinball X-Pro logo on the other side. But I'm not even sure about that, so... That's what everybody got at the beginning of the tour. I noticed that they have put quite a bit of effort in decorating the entrance hall, so to speak. At least the windows. And the walls, there's huge photos of playfields on the walls. And also the designer engineering creative area, so to speak, has playfields screwed against the wall or against the ceiling in a vertical, sorry, horizontal way, with LCD lights behind them, lighting them up, giving them a decorative light show. And of course, which was also taking place in October, Stern has a giant silver ball placed in front of the factory, right where you enter the parking lot. there's a video of how that was positioned with the trains and what have you very loaded interface Raymond Townsend was in charge of making sure that all goes right and yeah so it's sort of like Elk Grove Village now has their Chicago Bean although it's now a pinball yeah as it should be so yeah And then, well, other news, and I really wonder why we're mentioning it. Again, we're still going to have teams with the Fighting Illini Football Team. Oh, no, hang on. I've got to correct you, because I was correcting myself last time. I pronounced it like that. It's pronounced Illini. So it's the Fighting Illini. Right. What is it? Because you always try to be accurate. No potato, not potato. So basically they got a John Wick and a Jaws Pro Pimple Machine placed inside the plane launch and all the planes had to register for an insider connected account. And then you wonder what happened next. Well the machine stayed there for a couple of months and then they sold it. Yeah and in the meantime they play them. and they play them. Or they don't, who cares, we don't know. But they're there and apparently there's some auction value or whatever. So, okay, Thurn here in a row, I think. Yeah, that seems to be a standard thing, yeah. So yeah, let's move on. So Thurn also released a couple of videos on their social media, one of the Scrum Trouble Factory tour, another one of Charlie Bonanza, who did the music for The Uncanny X-Men. Oh, nice. Explaining about the music in The Uncanny X-Men. And so that's also a very nice thing to look at. And there was indeed a new making-of video, this time on John Wick. Yeah, so all about all the stern Facebook page. Yeah, whatever. So, yeah, it's all there. Yeah, if you look through it, to the appropriate games. Right. Yeah, so going back to the Pinball Expo, as we were, Saturday of the seminars was very much a stern day, and they had a whole bunch of seminars from teams behind Jaws, John Wick, and Young Kelly X-Men. All had hour-long seminars where they talked about the making of the game. we had the artists, the musicians the mechanical designers, the software people there, which was well, I found it interesting because the games which I wasn't that familiar with at the time well, that's changed a little bit since I got a chance to play them, and they also had a nice seminar with the former art director Greg Freres and he talked about his lifetime I'm designing art for thimble machines. Thank you very much. And then we ended the STEM seminar strip, and did all the seminars with the Dwight Sullivan's Let's Make a Deal prize quiz. Yeah, which was very much fun, just as last year. Always fun, and it was a little bit chaotic. As it should be. Yeah, it's a good way to wrap up the seminar session at Pinball Expo, and lots of people seem to win prizes. Yeah, well, we're too busy covering it for that. And so I will just remind you that all the seminars that we recorded from Pinball Expo are available on the Pinball News Videos YouTube channel. There's, along with video walk-arounds of the show and the tournament area in the free play zone. And, yeah, 43 videos in total there with about 27, 28 hours worth of video to keep you entertained. And thank you very much to my colleague here, Jonathan, for his assistance in recording some of those and doing the audio as well. Yeah, so... Yeah, that was a lot of fun, also a lot of work, which obviously means we don't get to play that much pinball at all. How much pinball did you play during Pinball Expo? I probably played about 10 games. Yeah, the same mostly on Avatar, I have to say. I tried to spread myself out a little bit more. I started off with Alice. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to do that before the queues formed. And then, yeah, face of Avatar. I played the newest games that I hadn't got a chance to play recently. So, yeah, that's That's the way Expo goes for us. We kind of know that. Anyway, moving on. I think that's the end of our Stern News for October. And the Stern News without the code updates. Well, okay, the code updates. There are, of course, multiple code updates, and almost on a daily basis at the moment. Surprised to see Elvira's House of Horrors going to look like Halloween. So it makes sense. That's true, yes. good point made well they are very much adding in support for their expression speaker lights now to older games so although you might see code updates for some older titles it doesn't necessarily mean that they are particularly detailed they might just be adding the speaker lights well in this case although our SaaS board did have quite an update so that's a very worthwhile update again you haven't got the expression speaker lights There's also the uncanny X-Men of course, you'd expect a couple of versions of that, as I was going to say it's their current title, but it's no longer their current title. Jaws, of course... Actually it is, because it looks like Iron Masters has not gone into production yet. Right, okay, so it's their current production title, it's not the most recently announced title. Yeah, that is right. Okay, yeah, Jaws of course, that also got an update, almost getting up to version 1.0, 1.0, 0.97 now. John Wick, surprisingly, is at 0.9, so that's quite developed by now. But I played that for the first time at the show, which was this month. Let's move on to their neighbours in Elk Road Village. and just get FITMOR yes absolutely that's the one yes so yeah they had a sold out factory tour now how can it be sold out well this has to do with the number of seats on the buses that are taking the people from FITMOR Expo to the factory and back and just take a very strict they hired luxury coaches with I think 65 seats in them or something like that school buses for Jersey Jack no they were way below that standard luxury buses and they would drive up and down for an extra amount of time at scheduled times so the number of not everybody went at once in time stops It was a time-floss. At the factory you got, well there was several people doing a tour, or giving the tours, and Henry was one of them. I got a tour from Kent Tromwell, and much to my surprise, one of the first things asked was, can we take pictures, and the answer was, yes, absolutely. Which nobody was expecting. So, everyone left their cameras open to take pictures. No, no, it was actually encouraged to take pictures. So, and share them on social media. Yeah. Which is, I think, a very smart move. It is. I asked Jack about that. I said, how come you're so different? And he said, well, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you want people showing pictures from inside your factory or whatever social media and producing it? Speaking of Jeff, Jeff is going to be a special guest at the Dutch People Open Expo where we are recording this Pinkov live. But he still has to arrive. He's arriving tomorrow morning early. Else he would have joined us. If we find the time to get him isolated somewhere this weekend, then we might record a session with him. No problem, sir. Yeah, and speaking of special guests and quickly jumping back to CERN, Jerry Stern is also a special guest at the Dutch Primal Open, and the same goes for Gary. If we manage to get him isolated from the crowd, then maybe we can record a small section to add to the Stern Primal section. But you would have heard that already by now. I'm confused already. Let's stick with Jersey Jack. Oh, okay. So, Jersey Jack's new game, the game on the line in the factory, Avatar, in the battle for Pandora. Also, you, I think, about ten games, Avatar games on the F1, including two prototypes of the... The projector edition inside the attack with UV lights. Yeah, that surprised me really. I mean, it's kind of a bit like what Stern did with Stranger Things. They initially only showed it in a sort of darkened room, so you could see the projector effect on the limited edition. Right. I wonder how impactful the multicoloured UV is in normal lighting conditions. Right. But I have to say, I'll have a look at the topper on that. That did look very impressive. Right. I originally thought it was a transparent LCD, but I thought it was actually, well, it uses the Pepper's Ghost thing, about half mirrored reflective surface, not to protect it as a head up display, but yeah it looked very nice and what were you going to say? Well what we were going to say is that on the line, yes, on the line, so the car is on the line, but contrary to earlier reports where, well the Jersey Jack factory has been redesigned, so to speak, for more efficient production of games. And instead of two production lines, there were supposed to be only one. Turns out to be one and a half. Because there's still a small, separate production line where they are building Elton John games. So that game is still also in production. Well, that's good to hear. Yes, I mean, it seems to make sense to have a main production line where the most popular title and the most voluminous title goes along, and then a smaller one for doing ad hoc and limited runs of past games. Right. And in similar fashion to Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack also released a making-of video for Avatar, which is rather quick, considering that Stern usually does this, well, six months after a game has been revealed, and this game hasn't even been out for six weeks. Yeah, although they did do a very comprehensive promo video when the game was launched, which I think everybody was impressed by. Yeah, all the games available on the internet. and some of the groups as well. So, if you want to hear more about the game, do listen to our previous Pink House, as we had an interview with Mark Syden, the designer of the game, live from the parking lot of Anteria. He was, he was. So, and, well, if you want to watch that, making of video is available on the usual social medias for them but they also did a seminar at pinball expo on the making of avatar right uh which of course is also available on the pimpin youtube channel right so and that was that was very informative as well yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah absolutely um so and uh last but not least um if we can get to well uh i wouldn't say the code update section, but... Well, they should. Well, the long... There's been a lot of complaints about the Pirates of the Caribbean game by Jus Jack Pimble not containing a wizard mode. Well, complain no longer. As a beta code version has been released for Pirates of the Caribbean that finally contains this final wizard mode called Break the Crest. And Playtech is enabled by holding the action button when starting the game, so it means you probably can't play it immediately without finishing the game first. Oh, one of those mini-modes, where the character... No, no, no. Or does that just switch out the label? Probably. Either way, it's still beta code, so it's not an official release, but they are working on it, so... Yeah, the funny thing was, I can say that they have it that way. had that in the game and they were testing it in beta at least five years ago. So well yes but it's still in beta. That's the funny thing. It's released in beta. Oh, and there's a project for people in that tech hospital. Yeah, okay great. So let's move over to American Pimple then while we're in the full Chicagoland area. Well, guess what? They had a sold-out factory tour. Did you? Oh, did you? Yes, I did. Oh. Did you go? Yes, I did. Yes. Well, the interesting thing was there were no pictures allowed to start with. The factory tour for the American Pinball part of the building was rather short, I would say. And people were guided in various groups. The first group was sort of rushed by the second group, who was rushed by the group behind them. A bit of a stampede, well, that's actually what happened. Yeah, nothing special there. The only special thing about the factory tour is that you also got to tour the Atron side of the museum. We haven't seen that before. No. So, which is where you saw all the tricks. And, of course, nothing was going on there. So, you were just looking at chip-making machines that were actually in production. Oh, right. Okay. I was seeing them actually in production in the main Atron building. Yes. Wow. More interesting. But I think it probably ties into exactly how clean the factory looks. Oh, yeah. Compared to, well, I think they're all quite clean these days. Even, and we get on to the similar, Chicago Game, where Clemmie has lived since he was a little boy. Oh, yeah, especially since they're in a working facility. Yeah, but anyway, we're sticking with American. Yeah, so I don't want to be negative, but I got a little bit of a feeling that the American pinball factory tools were a little bit staged in the sense that there were partly finished Legend of Koala games somewhere, partly finished Genie games, partly finished, again, let's see, collected Tank Force games. I think there were at least four different games at some point almost ready to be backed up or whatever but there were only two games on the line so it would make no sense so I also have to say the Spirits and Pinball Factory 2 also was partly staged in that there were a lot of decorative elements such as trans-light singing around the production line, which makes no sense, because there was no dust on them, it was clearly that they just had been placed there to give the more decorative aspect, I suppose, knowing that this was in the home. Well, that may be true, but I would say dress things up a little bit. Yeah. I can, if you're hosting a factory tour, I can imagine that you want to point out which games you are making or have been making. So, no harm in that, although I just figured I'd mention it. You, on the other hand, have a private tour. I do. I was fortunate enough to go after Pinball Expo on the Monday and go and see David Ficks, our good friend there, and show me some of the things that they've been working on, which is very interesting and I can't talk about. I was going to say, you'll play the upcoming game. I will play the upcoming one. Tell me all about it. I will, when it's no longer the upcoming game. And it is the game. Okay, but you need to use that point. Of course, I do, yes. Or just, fuck, you should change that? No, more in terms of lighting effects and visibility of certain things on the playfield, that's all. Which is what the real deal was, what they were coding at the time I was there. But anyway, I'm not talking more about that, because American Pinball had 20 machines on the Pinball Expo show floor, or around about 20. Yes. A big mix of Galactic Tag Forces, Barrios. Barbecue Challenge, yes. I didn't see any Deanies, or might have been. No, I didn't see any Deanies there. Was it? Okay. So, well, that's the current game of the Lions, or the first game of American Pinball. The only game I didn't see, and there might be a good reason for that, is Oktoberfest. Oh, can I ask you that? Yes. Well, funny enough, Oktoberfest is now officially a retired game for American Football. It means that they have no intention of making any more, even if orders come in. Unless they get a significant order, I suppose. They do say that support and parts will continue to be available for that, for your Oktoberfest game, if you happen to own one. But don't expect to see it available for sale or a new run being announced any time soon. Apparently, the American pinball season is over. The policies are gone. It's game over, apparently. Although, with American pinball, I have to say, we got the same message a couple of years ago for Houdini, and guess what's on the line? Yes. Well, yes, that's probably the Deluxe version that they're making now, which is a somewhat slightly cost-reduced game without all the same expensive mechs and models on the game. But generally, Americans seem to be doing a couple of discount pricing on their games. They were cheaper to discount at the show, at the expo. I think we've seen some sales on Halloween, Pinoine sale, also as well, cut prices on games. And then we still have Black Friday coming up, so if you miss out now, then you might as well wait. Yeah, and Thanksgiving, as well. Yeah, that's right. Right about the same time. But the American Pinball Team were there to talk about, well, David Fix, Steven Bowden, and Ryan McQuaid, were there at Pinball Expo in a seminar to talk about the creation of the Barrios Barbecue Challenge. game. It's, again, obviously available to use or what on the News Videos YouTube channel, if you missed it the first time round. It's, well, again, interesting, but it's pretty much, it is pretty much all about the things they put into that game, and how in-depth, and all the hints and nods to Barry's previous games, and that they're included in it. Yeah. Lots of things they put in that I wondered what actually they put in there. But it's the actuality of their game and, well, their faith, I suppose. Yeah. Let's jump to Spooky for a minute because they also had a very large stand at Pinball Expo. Yes. Well, they had four Texas Central Muskers, four Looney Tunes, and a couple of Scooby-Doos. Right. So ten machines in total. And a lot of merchandise. A lot of merchandise. yeah a big central desk full of merch which people are doing the British business with yeah they didn't do a seminar though because I guess they haven't really got a new game to talk about at the moment but they've got a new factory so they could have talked about that and their plans for YouTube they didn't they couldn't do a factory or a seminar because the seminar program was completely packed already but that doesn't matter you can squeeze them in somewhere and do a midnight seminar yeah yeah we'll look forward to covering that Midnight Madness seminar they didn't do it anyway but Don's Pinball Podcast did for the new Spooky Pinball Factory and you can watch that on YouTube if you search for Don's Pinball Podcast or Spooky Pinball Factory I'm sure you'll get the link for that straight away now also now as announced last month I should say multiple spooky pinball games received a code update, as they were going to get every week, one a week, throughout October. Right. So we had, what did we have? And how do we, and Ultraman. Scooby-Doo. Scooby And it a 24 and I think where are we no no no no Calvary over so Yeah that all of them I was thinking maybe we get another one but Well, we'll be on the watch in the future, anyway, so... Yes, that's right, yeah. That was just a weekly update throughout October. Right, so... And then there's a rumor going around about an upcoming title from Scooby. Do we do rumors? If we were to, in other words, what would it be? Well, rumor has it that the coming title for Spooky Boogie will be Evil Dead. Which is a movie from 1981 or something like that. Or 71. It's a movie. It is a movie. Yeah. And I think it is also a rumor, but that's considered not to be the next one. Oh well. And Spooky still have a game in development with Chicago Gaming, as we all know. Yeah, at some point. But it might take years before we get to that. Oh, well. It may never happen, but let's hope it does. So I think that they're probably going to have to reveal their next title, or at least announce it, before the end of the year. Yeah, well, that's also part of the rule. And so, well, probably mid-December, just before Christmas or so. Yeah, that's the end of the year. Right, so. And I have to thank Bob and a lot of other people, but Bob is always very generous with donating stuff for us to give away during our... Fantastic. So you think, you know, pinball quiz, which we are having this weekend at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo. Yes, it's time tomorrow night. In fact, we will, well, in fact we missed it this time of the night, but almost this time of the night we'll be holding our quiz. So lots of lovely prizes to give. So if, well, if you're listening to this and you didn't come, then you missed it. So, however, we will be back in the Texas Film Festival in March. So we've got some more prizes to give away and probably the same questions. So now let's move up north, well, at least for us that is, Pimble Brothers, and we're actually joined by CEO Daniel Jensen. Welcome, Daniel. Thank you very much, Jason. So we're looking back at the month of October. Is there any news in the past in the Pimble Brothers? Oh, that's a very good question. Yeah, of course. We always have news, I think. obviously we attended the Pimble Lake School it was a really great show I would say it was a really nice show it was the 40th anniversary obviously it was a big one and for us it went really well we had a lot of ABBA on site and a lot of disco disco balls and disco feeling so it was really good ok so positive feedback on the game? yes a lot of positive feedback But we also got that from other shows, like in Cologne in Germany and European Championships in Poland and some other shows as well. So that's good. Did you get a feeling that this was the first time a lot of Americans had played here? Yeah, it was. I think one of our distributors, Pimple Traders, actually brought the game to the show recently. But I think this is a bigger show. Yeah, obviously. So I think in that sense it was the first time to play it properly. And you said that the feedback was positive, it was very positive for you and those who hadn't played it before, hadn't seen it before. Did you get the feeling that people were maybe a little unsure of the theme before that deployment, but once they played it, that changed? yeah I think that is a good that's a good way of putting it I think that's a little bit of a common common thing I mean some people really love ABBA they obviously steps up to the game and really wants to play it because it's ABBA and they like the songs and everything around that but of course there are a lot of people also who maybe are not into ABBA that much and I think we get a lot of sort of surprised positive positive yeah a little bit like that even if you if you're not a dedicated ABBA fan there's no way escaping their music I guess not I guess not I mean they are played everywhere more or less somehow and they have some really catchy tunes I guess right so So, as far as, well, we've attended the launch event of the game in April of this year. Thank you for that. And since then, we have seen some rather large total dates. Yeah. Any news regarding upcoming updates that you can share with us? Or other news in that regard? Yeah, I can do that. we are, exactly as you say, we have had a very steep developing curve for the code obviously. There's a huge amount of code functionality in the game now compared to in April. There was some basic functionality of course at the launch but the game is very mature now I would say. But there are still a lot of updates coming and we plan for a big update before Christmas. And that will include the final wizard mode for the game. Okay. Which is kind of a big thing, actually, because it's based on the second animated movie from the ABBA Voyage show. So it will be a lot of content from there. So it's going to be quite a big one. So looking forward to have that released, really. And a lot of other things also in the code. Okay. So, any other FIMO Brothers developments that you can share with us? Yeah, what can I share? We are, yeah, I can tell you we are actually working quite hard on our next title. Which is? Which is a very good title. A very big one. And we are really looking forward to it. Is it going to be another music or band theme because we have had two in a row now? Yeah. And Ewa of course. I think it's pretty safe to say that we are doing something else actually. Okay. For a change. Is it a licensed theme? Yeah, it's a licensed. Okay. Is it a movie? It could be. Facebook? Yeah. or some kind is it mamma mia? no it's not I can tell you that but I think a lot of people would be happy about it so we're looking forward to that but in the meantime we're really we're really really happy with how ABBA turned out and we also are very excited to bring this maybe not final but I mean the final wisdom node is a big final piece to the game actually and having that released and then of course there will be a lot of tweaking and updates for the future for ABBA and also for our other games. There could be updates for Alien coming perhaps and the Queen update is in the making also. It's been a little bit delayed. We talked about releasing it before Expo but it's going to be released in the next couple of weeks. Okay. So that's also a good thing. Is that a major update for the program? Yeah. Is that an important thing? Yeah, it's pretty big, I would say, actually. It's going to be, the list is very long. So we can share it soon. But, yeah, it's a lot of work going into it. So it's been a long time since we updated Queen. and the English. We feel that yeah, I mean, all the games deserve to be updated. So do you think this latest update to ABBA, does that give you the full package that you've always envisaged this game was going to be? Or is there still more to be added beyond that? Or is everything after that just going to be tweaks and fixes? Is the big one coming up before Christmas, that's going to be what you hope the game is going to be. Yeah, it's yes and no. Yeah, I think from a functionality or the rules overview perspective, it's complete with the final wizard mode coming in there. I would say there are still a few more things to be added. There could be more songs in the future. There could be other things also, but from an initial scope perspective, as you say, I think you should see it as complete. But there are more surprises to come. Okay. If that makes sense. No, it does, absolutely. Okay. So, you also mentioned Queen, a game coming. I remember last year's Pivotal Expo, where you displayed an alternative backflash for the game. Yeah. What's the status on that? Because I haven't seen that after that anymore. No, it obviously didn't materialize. We weren't quite happy with it, to be honest. We brought it to Expo to get some feedback, and we also sort of evaluated it ourselves, I would say. And we came to the conclusion that we didn't want to release it, basically. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Some ideas are good in theory, and then they don't come out as you expected. Okay. Do you think you'll produce a different design for the second version? Or the properties of the second version? Yeah, it could happen. It depends. We don't have any sort of – there are no set plans for that. Yeah. No, not yet. No, not yet. No, not yet. Okay, so you're currently using both Queen and EVA at the same time? Yeah, and Alien. And obviously Funhaus also. I mean, since we are working together, we have these two brands, you could say. We actually build and ship four games at the same time, Which is a bit of a challenge, but it's working. So are you also a spokesperson now for Pedretti or your criminal court? Yeah, I'm a spokesperson. I can definitely speak for your criminal court. Okay, that's for sure. Well, Andrea Pedretti was invited. I don't think he came over. No, as far as I know, he's not coming. But, of course, we could be sitting together if that was the case. Well, that's what we were hoping for. Yeah, yeah. Next time. So, okay, so, well, it's quite impressive that you have your Fimble Corp. printing out four different titles at the same time. Yeah, it is, actually. It's quite remarkable, because the learning curve has been pretty deep to some of the games. But we are in a very happy place, and I think we, I mean, the main problem for us, for the moment, even if it's a tough market, it's actually that we are running at full capacity. So we are building as many funhouses, as many ABBAs, and then Queen and Alien on top of that. So it's really a very good situation. Okay. And the thought of what you had, given consideration to setting up a second European wall called Alien of America somewhere, to pay directly to that market. I mean, I think we're brothers USA, I know already, but they're not manufacturers. If you're already running at full production, maybe it was a European ball in Italy, and there was a big demand for your games in North America, it would be easier to not have to deal with the shipping over there. Yeah, it's a very good point. You have a very good point. Of course, I mean, it costs us our minds. I mean, the main market is no secret that the main market is in the U.S., in North America, I would say. For ABBA? For ABBA, I think it's a bit more split. It's actually, I mean, ABBA was and is very big in the U.S., actually. Maybe not in the flipper community, the pinball community. Sorry. But turning back to the manufacturing point, I think anything is possible in the future. Of course, we always consider what's the best next move. There's nothing decided, of course. But, I mean, the biggest market is in North America. Maybe not for all the targets. But in general, I think it's pretty clear that North America is the one. and could well be your next. Yeah, I think for the next one, I think most certainly that North America will be very interested. Okay. Is there some more news from you, then we'll wrap it up with you. And thank you for coming. Thank you. Usually we talk longer, but this is just a monthly recap. Yeah, I know. And we will talk more, I'm sure, about upcoming games. Yeah. And any changes, any news that comes out of the world. Yeah, I'm happy to share them. We are happy to report them. Perfect. Perfect match. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so moving all the way up to Taiwan and see what's going on with Mike Karowski's home bin. Oh, wow. If you think things are finally getting easier for them, then think again. Because Storm, I guess they have them in Taiwan as well. They destroyed a recently added boot shop building. And Mike posted some photos. Yeah, yeah. It looks like nothing was left, basically. Just the outside walls. Fortunately for the team, they had already moved the cabinets for their current booths of news brothers to the main factory before the store is made. But that basically means that Mike will be busy setting up a new woodshop. Yes, or trying to repair the existing one. Yeah. Right. And also very, well, unexpected, I would say. Years ago, Hongping worked on a game called China Zombies. Yeah, exactly. I mean, aimed at the Chinese market. Yeah. And, well, the game was sort of shelved at some point. Hongping moved from China to Taiwan. long and behold, Mike puts that game up in the Australian bar in Klauersjön, for Halloween. And I suppose it should be there for a couple of weeks, I'm very curious to find out how the game held up. But, well, he showed the photo of the first Australian, I suppose, playing the game at the bar after it was set up. Yeah, he gave a little explanation saying the machine was developed and finished just before they moved from China to Taiwan. The original intention was to send it to China, as we said. He said, because we moved countries, that plan was shelved. The machine has never been seen by anyone, and there's only ever been in our factory. It never went out of sight. it's not even on the internet in the database either, so it's themed on the Chinese folklore of zombies that hop, so the main mech had to have a hopping zombie of course yeah, so no suggestion that's actually going to go into production they're just putting the one model they did make into the bar at least some people get to play it now yeah Who knows, feedback is incredible and cash box income is through the roof. You might see that game go into production after all. Oh, wow. Let's not cancel that. Now, a game that did take into production was the Blues Brothers. And they have now added their Arena Lights system to it as a standard part of their game build. Right, which is sort of like similar to the big scene. Yeah, probably a little more simple than that. But the light strips are run down the side of the playfield to add extra illumination. Yeah. He said that the playfields have arrived for the initial short run of Blues Brothers, so they're getting prepped for assembly, which should have taken place in early October. I don't know if they did or not, with all the other stuff that was going on. I'm not sure what I should read into this. So, is this an initial short run? So, does it mean it's a short run and it's a first? But is there going to be a longer run? Well, that trend will have a short run, I suppose. Right. Okay. Well, best of luck to Mike in Taiwan. He works with his booth once again. And, well, moving back to the U.S., Turn Up Bimbo. Yes. Do you remember they were producing their Ninja Equips game? Yes. Which, well, last year, a lot of people thought, this is not going to work for me. It's too advanced, or they didn't see... It just felt a bit cheap, didn't it? They made it a lot smaller, didn't have a coin door, well it's not a full-sized coin door on it, and had various other things like a backbox that wasn't a backbox, it's just an illuminated sheet of Perspex, really. Anyway, people were not overly impressed with that, so Christiana took all that to heart, redesigned it, and came up with something which is a lot more traditional in build. Yeah, which is having a pretty good effort, and actually basically things have been going very well for them since then. That turned a lot of people's minds, and they had sold out of those 100 machines before Pinball Expo, but by the time Pinball Expo was over, they had. Right. The number's right. I'm not exactly sure where I sold it. I think before Pinball Expo, they had like 46. Somebody said that they had number 46 they just bought. So assuming these were all sold in order, that means they were below 50 units sold before Primal Expo but I thought they were really way too expensive they had about 20 to go to reach 100 so well not exactly sure either way the first edition is now sold out limited to 100 units and reportedly it's going to stay with 100 units. There was initially talk of an arcade edition after those 100 units. Yes. Right. So we'll move on to the title too, I guess. Once they've built those. Yeah, and well, they are hoping to finish the production of these 100 games by the end of the spring of 2025. Sounds like a reveal that's exciting in in Texas. Well, that's their home state, so why not? Yeah. So, we look forward to seeing what game number two is going to be, but game number one, I think, was a very credible design and build. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice artwork as well. And there was, that was one of, one of two games that a lot of people I saw commented that they hadn't considered before, but it turned out to be their game of the show. You know, because they know all about Avatar and Uncanny X-Men and Metallica, and expect those to be top-notch games. But having played Ninja Eclipse and another game, which will come to a bit later, they decided that those were the best show games. Right. Well, very nice, especially to see the smaller companies get such praise. Yep, absolutely. So let's move on to the company we were talking about just now as part of their factory tour, which was Chicago Gaming. Right. And this is one of the factories you get to explore. Oh, no, hooray. Yes, we both did the factory tour of Chicago Gaming's facility in Cicero. Right. And it was a bit different to the last time. We went there. Yeah, we have been there. For eight years, I think. Yeah. Well, now, for me, it's been more recent than eight years. But the place cleaned up very nice. Yeah, absolutely. Last time I was there, there was wood dust everywhere. You couldn't walk through the building and come back out without having to dust yourself down after you leave because there's just covered in wood dust everywhere. this time, maybe I was touching things. Yeah, not like that at all this time, which was just as well because they had a big group of attendees, I think they had about 130 at the end. Yeah, they were starting for a hundred. And, well, the only packet to a visitor actually a good event was with Chicago Gaming, applaud Tudank, yes, which was a very nice gesture, but well, they had accounted for 100 attendees of the factory tour, so not everybody was able to get one. Those who arrived later in the factory tour unfortunately didn't get one. That was a shame, but I guess it was oversold Yeah, or more people showed up at Pinball Expo and I think this was one of the factory tours that you didn't need to buy tickets for. Yeah. I'm not even sure. So, apparently more people already showed up on the Tuesday of Pinball Expo, the first day. And then expected a figure of, hey, well, why not? So, yeah. Three school buses full of visitors and quite a few people actually driving down there with their own transportation. Which indeed we did, which was very nice. Thank you Mike. Sorry, Mike. Thanks Mike and Terry for our transportation down there. And for the meal offers as well, which is nice. I'm getting back to the fact that you were there. Yes. So we had one fiction on the line. Surprised. And also elements of Cactus Canyon, not elements of our real intention. There's another game, right? Yeah. So, and, well, there's news about Cactus Canyon quite a bit, actually. For starters, when you entered as a group the Chicago Gaming Building through the main entrance, There is a small hall and if you enter that you get into the office area or what usually is the office area. But in this case they, well they had just... They moved in. They moved in. Right. As long as you have the game. Yeah. So the competition was there, the exchange was there, the new lens was there. Back to work. So, a nice game for visitors to play some games. The interesting thing about Texas Canyon was it had this new mod installed. It did, yes, which was something which the Chicago Gaming announced shortly before the tour. It didn't actually say you'd be able to see it on the tour, and they didn't point it out in any sense. If you spotted it, you would know it was there. Yeah. But it was fitted to at least one of the Cactus Canyon games, and I think we both got pictures of it in our respective reports. So, get the pinball-magazine.com and have a look at the pinball expo write-up, which Charlton did as a sort of personal diary of his trip, and the pinballnews.com full in-depth pinball expo two-parter. I was going to say, it was so big, you had to split it up. I believe it became, there's so many assets in it that it seemed to stop loading some of the videos after a while, because there were so many in there, like 43 videos. So having that many YouTube videos in one page obviously caused some problems. So I thought I'd split it into two then, and after that, I didn't have any problems. Right. So, yeah. Anyway, getting back to Chicago Gaming, they have this Sudden Dawn mod on there, which has light-up panels on it as well. But also, one of the other things they've been working on, which we reported before is a code update to Cactus Canyon which was being created I suppose by Josh Sharpe and Lyman F. Sheats Jr. Now, obviously Lyman is no longer with us, but Josh did share a whole lot of documents, pictures, storyboards and so on from the development of the updated kit project. This included items from the original Chicago Gaming team put on projects items from when Lyman and Joff got added to the project and items from when the Chicago Gaming Team and Joff alone finished up the project so all those three stages from the original when they were both working on it and when just Joff was working on it and you can find all that stuff on the IFPA pinball website so ifpa.com slash cactus so if you want to read the story of the updated software kit that should be available fairly soon. I don't think it's available just yet, but I think it will be a paid product, won't it? Yeah, it's going to be a paid update. We're going back to what's actually on the line. Yeah. Well, if we fall, Chicago Gaming on their social media you might have noticed a long absence of news from them but this week they got the spirit and they announced that the limited editions for Pro Fiction are finally online and they're shipping the first batch internationally in November and most American games which includes both USA and Canada. And let's look at it. Yes. Yeah, probably. And it will start shipping in December. And they also announced they will be doing all the North American limited editions in one consecutive run. So they get through all 1,000. They're expecting it to take until late February, possibly March. And they also announced that another run of Medieval Mads remakes is scheduled for 2025. That's a new year. Well, we talked about it last month. They're currently looking at spring, which is likely to be one of the... So, Pulp Fiction, Limited Edition have... Yeah, have been next on the line. And what I also understood is that the reason for the delay in the interdictions is apparently that the figurines that go on the topper, the ones that they got for the production, had a very, quite different in size compared to the ones shown on the prototype. So either it was bigger or smaller, either way it went right. So that caused a lot of the remake apparently. Okay, well let's move on to somebody else who is also shipping games, and that's Pedretti. Either Pedretti Gaming or Pedretti Pinball or whatever you want to call them. So they, well of course they're shipping Funhouse remake games. the game was present at Pinball Expo, of course, and also here at the Dutch Pinball Openings. Yes, it was on the Pinball Company stand at Pinball Expo. I think they had seven Funhouse remakes in a line. Right. It looked very impressive. Yeah. Well, you and I both are flyer collectors. I found it interesting to see that there are several different flyers for the same game in various formats, I have to say. available at Pimble X. You had to be there to get them, of course, or you had to reach out to all the various distributors. But I think it was a flyer with the planetary Pimble stand. They had flyers. And the Pimble company also had flyers, but these were like half the size of the flyers. The Pedretti themselves? Yes. Oh, okay. And Pedretti ones were A4? Right, and the planetary ones were letter sized, so... You understand, we need to get some tools. Yes, or none in my case. Oh! You weren't paying attention. I wasn't paying attention? Yes, anyway, never mind. I'll see if I can be a nice guy and get him... Too kind. Yes, no problem. off the shelf. Yes. Yeah, they did a seminar as well at Pinball X-Ray about the making of Funhouse Remake. I'm curious. If I have missed that, would there be a way to write that down? Oh, hang on. No. I think you might just be able to find it on the Pinball News Videos YouTube channel. Oh! Excellent. And if it's not there, I'll put it there just for you. There you go. In exchange for a flyer, it's free. So, and, well, as you said, they've got some little games here as well. Yeah, as far as I know, although the play has been divided into two levels, he's apparently a very busy man. So it appears that he will not be making an appearance at the show, as far as I know. If he does, then we'll let you know in our upcoming show next month, of course. Absolutely. And talking of people who aren't showing up, we should also mention that a company who was at Pinball Expo last year and showing their Elements games, which we thought you would be a bit earlier, was Pinball Adventures from Canada. I know them from Penny Factory fame. Yes. Indeed. Who hasn't played their games. Yes, they weren't at Pinball Expo this year. Not entirely surprised given the news that we reported a couple of months ago about them slowing down and taking things at a more leisurely pace, if that's possible. I did take a look at their Instagram feed, which is the only social media they are posting on. They were apparently testing elements late September, and that was the only news? Yes, I think we reported that. Yeah, but other than that, we knew they weren't coming. We were at design, I think, on that day. Yeah. But there is a, I think there's a polyfactory here at the Dutch Film Open Expo and it's the one with the engraved or embossed wooden cabinet, which I had a look at and it actually looks better in reality than it does in the pictures. and it does feel quite good as well. You can actually run your fingers over it. Fantastic. Well, I know. But listen, you're not running your fingers over it, are you? Yes, so there's a chance to play the game here as well. But anyway, moving on from Pinball Adventures, who didn't show up at Pinball X-File, to someone who was represented at Pinball X-File. I see. Who are we talking about? Ah, right, okay. Well, yes, Hexapimble are here, at least the games were at Pimble Expo, and they are here at the Dutch Pimble Open Expo. They had their Space Hunt game. Now, there was a Space Hunt game on the Pim sound stand, thanks to what book? who brought his model there. He owns one of them. And that was one of the other games that I was referring to earlier, people saying that Ninja Eclipse and Space Hunt were standout games for them, for Pinball Expo, those games that they didn't know anything much about and were very impressed by. They also got very positive comments, I think. Okay, so we've checked to see whether the Hexapimple team are available. Apparently everyone's been kicked out of the main hall at the moment, so I guess they're not at this present moment. But they certainly had a very good show in Pimple Expo. And I'm... At the Pimple In-Town stand. Yeah, that's right, yeah. You were there. It was good to see you. and we look forward to bringing news of their appearance at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo in next month's pinball. They will be hosting a seminar twice actually here, on the Sunday and the Sunday, so there might be some news from that as well, so look forward to that. Yeah, and with any luck we might even have a video of that. But no promises at this stage, this is all... Well, we might be able to. Yeah. We do, too. But anyway, more about that later. But one of the companies we haven't mentioned so far, who was at Pinball Expo, was Multimorphic. Yes, they were there in the form of Josh Kugler, who was representing the company. The company's games were on display on the Wise trailer stand, as they usually are, and had a good display of machines there, and the modules as well. So Josh did a seminar on the making of The Prince's Bride. Yeah, unfortunately it was scheduled to be in the second seminar room, not the main seminar room. Oh, crap. Yeah. I was looking forward to looking at that back in some form of video. No, I'll probably not get the video, but you will get audio of it. You can listen to it all on the People News website, in the part about the People Expo report. Okay. So all the 19 seminars that we got recorded from Thursday, Thursday, yes, they're all available to listen to and to download on the People News Expo. Okay. Right. Okay. Wow. then so moving on to our next company we're getting towards the end here and we've moved all the way down to Australia that's two companies I suppose in a way Vector Pinball in Australia right yes we mentioned before about their Peter Brock King of the Mountain pinball game which is based on a famous driver and the car the car plural I suppose you should say there was not a huge amount of news, but there was an announcement from one of their distributors, which was Amusement Works in South Australia, who gave a little more information about the game and said that there are two similar variations to choose from, the 1984 Holden VK Commodore version, and the 1979 Holden Tarana version. They describe it as pieces of playable art, and are limited to 105 builds of each design. Now you're talking about limited editions. Well, so that's 110 total, I guess. So they come with a build plate and certificate that confirms that we have manufactured them under license from Peter Brock and HDT, which is the Holden dealer team, which was Holden's semi-official racing team name from about 1969 until 1986. But they do say that other Peter Brock eras and cars that he was driving may be available by request. So, I guess it's limited to those two designs, 105 each, if there's a big demand for them, of course. I mean, they may never go anywhere near 105, but they might. It says this is a popular Australian-centric automobile automotive theme, perfect for any games room, man garage, or venue. It's retro classic style, they say. It has many modern features to keep it fun and challenging and keep coming back for more. It's priced at 12,900 Australian dollars, which I don't know what the exchange rate is, but I think as far as the pound goes, I think it's about two to one. So it's about 6,500 pounds, so about 7,200 euros, something like that. Okay. That includes Australian sales tax. which is 10%, but obviously overseas buyers pay their own tax and import duties. So it's a commercial-grade game. So, yeah, we may be seeing a few of them popping up. They're actually now producing them in larger numbers. So, good luck to Vector. Good luck to them. I'm curious how many of them sell, maybe 2,200 or maybe Holden or Peter Brock is so popular they have no difficulty selling them. Yes. We don't know the popularity because we don't know the license, do we? Exactly. And then you did your homework on Hager Spinball. Well, I did a little bit because I was fortunate that someone who shall remain nameless at the moment sent me the Liquidator's report which is available to download, but I think there's a charge to it. It's quite expensive. It's like 60, 70 Australian dollars, if you want to read it. But anyway, it's been downloaded, and I think it's being made slightly wider, more widely available. And from that, it says that there is evidence of Huggies Pimble trading while insolvent, which is a criminal offense. And they say the company has never been insolvent, in fact. so based on recurring trading losses and a negative asset position since the fall year 2020 the company appears to never have been solvent during its trading period we estimate the approximate date of insolvency will be the 1st of July 2019 due to this date being the early list of their financial reports and it says additionally the company had unpaid statutory liabilities from the fall year 2021 there is included in that a full list of creditors who we won't go into here but priority creditors listed who are presumably employees include Martin Robbins who is a co-host of the podcast and appeared with Damien at trade show and people shows promoting their games and Angela Martin I guess is Damien's wife or sister Martin is apparently owed 16,900 Australian dollars and his wife Damien's wife Angela is owed 4,500 dollars I guess as employees of the company this is in lieu of pay and there are unsecured creditors I mean it's a place to say that probably none of these, you actually can't get any money. Unsecured creditors total 1.647 million Australian dollars with big losses made by RS Pinball, Stefan and Nitro Pinball, Tommy, in Canada. But I won't go into the details of that, because I'm sure it's painful reading for them and for anybody else who knows them. Unsecured creditors, Damien himself claims that he's owed 621,000 Australian dollars. His company, Hearts Co., has owed 388,000 dollars, for a total of just over a million. All in all, with all the creditors, variety creditors, there's just over 2.7 million Australian dollars owed as a result of Haggis' collapsed. And according to the liquidators, credits are unlikely to receive anything from this. They say priority, unsecured and secured credits are all right to receive zero cents in the dollar just because there's no money. So, not good news for anyone from that report, but interesting to see the actual numbers and scale of what went down there. And as of yet, no one's really been responsible for it. different, don't they? Well, they're not responsible about it. What are you going to do? Well, yeah, so, there's no money to pay out, and, you know, a very sad situation. Yeah, so, yeah, I still wonder what happened to all the inventory that was, yes, was moved and disappeared, well, apparently belonged to Hartsco and not to Haggis Bingle. But Hardscope is also the Indian company. Yes, which is a different company, and this is also as a credit, or a... Right. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. That will surface at some point. So, then we have Scoop. Do we? Yeah. Surprise, surprise. Scoop away. All the way up to the end, but we do. Yeah. Do you remember Quetzal Pinball? We've been talking about that a lot. Yeah, most of us are in New York. Yes, most of us are in New York. Well, that's probably because they don't chat about things, but there is actually... Antonio Ortuño is the owner of the company and the main designer of the company. He developed a couple of games. Captain Nemo was the first one, yeah. And then, I'm trying to think what the second, Jules Verne? No, that was the last one. Oh, right. Okay. He designed the Superboob game. Yeah. Which was designed for Petronic. Spanish. Spanish. Sure. Spanish. And as reported earlier, Petronic had a large fire in their pinball facility. I think it was last year or the year before that. And at Pinball Expo, where Antonio Ortuño was present, actually, we learned that in the fire they lost about 250 completed pinball machines. But they have picked up, well, they have rebuilt the pinball facility. And the good news is, there was talk of a third game that Antonio Ortuño designed called Tokyo Perfect Drift, which he showed at the Pinball Expo, I think it was in 2019 or so. I can easily believe that. So, and... We already knew at some point, Pectronic was going to take that game into production. Oh, we hoped, yes, because it looked a very attractive game. Well, the good news is, the game is in production. It is! And it is free. And here at Gascon, we'll open it for you. A production machine of Tokyo Perfect Drift actually present together with a SuperHoop game that were especially transported from Spain to be at this event. Yeah. So it was good for the show, and it was good for us, too, to bring you news of it. Yeah. So I've seen photos of the game being in production in Spain, so, yeah, that's definitely good news, that the Bitronic is getting back on track with their pinball line. We invited Antonio to come over to Dutch Pinball Open, not sure whether he actually made it, but we're already happy that the games are here. And Bitronic also had a stand at Pinball Expo where they had the Super Loop game. I don't think the Tokyo Perfect Drift game was present. We can also report that in the meantime, Antonio has designed another game. From what I understand, that's going to be a very competitive game for the more popular brands. As in, it's fully packaged with toys and what have you. But there's no timeline on production yet. No, that's right. But it was good to see Antonio back at Pinball Expo. It was. And good to see Tokyo Perfect back as well. Not in person, but news of it. Right. And then we have a whole bunch of companies we have hardly any news on. Well, no. Pretty much, I'd say. So we can say that, let's just say, Cardona, pinball, tiltball, pinball, STR pinball, also from Swain, Quetzal pinball we just talked about. Circus Maximus, of course, no news from them either. So I think that pretty much wraps things up. Yes. well of course how did you experience Pinball Expo other than long days short nights I think it was an amazing show Rob and the team put on a huge effort to really make this year's show the biggest and best ever and succeeded in that organising all the factory tours everywhere you looked there were nice little touches It was kind of like everyone came up with so many ideas, and Rob said, yeah, if they do it. So there were things all over the place referring to it, and there was plenty of publicity, of course, about it. But I think, well, I'm glad to have been there to experience it. Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't agree. But, yeah, there was a good buzz going around it and doing all the factory tours and the other events as well they did, We got the trip to Logan Arcade and the trip to Galloping Ghost as well. I think that and the bumper blasting, which was nice because you did a special extra bit for international visitors to the show. Yeah, I wasn't there. Yeah, I was there. The rest of it was a nice little introduction with some snacks and speeches and stuff. So that was nice. Nice to be recognised for making it happen. Decent food, actually. Yeah, I'll take your word for it. I didn't have any of that. Very decent, I have to say. Yeah, no, it was absolutely, it was a fantastic show. You definitely needed to be there at least three days or more to see everything. The biggest vendor role for pinball I've ever seen. and also seriously well, you and I, we both have been to various pinball shows all over the planet I would say this was definitely the biggest ever without a question and with the I don't know if it had the most machines but it certainly had the most vendor stands and seminars and the most homebrew games yeah, that's true apparently over 40 there, and the most factory tours, and well, yeah, and the longest show I think as well, more than five days. Yeah, still would have thought it would have made more sense instead of the Tuesday and the Sunday, but oh well. Yeah, everyone's tearing everything down and going home on Sunday. There's a lot of that to do. Is the tournament run well? Yes. Yes, the The women's tournament, which was meant to finish on Saturday evening, finished six o'clock in the morning on Sunday. Wow. The main tournament was meant to finish on Saturday. That didn't finish until about four o'clock, if possible, on Sunday afternoon. And the classics carried on beyond when I could stay. I left at about 7.30 and it was still going on. they were into the final but they were just going through another best of three tie break match and I just couldn't say that they have another hour waiting for that to take place I have a dinner to go out to so fortunately big shout out to Jim Shelberg of Ping Game Journal for taking the pictures of the winners for me for that which I've been looking forward to years of reports so thanks Jim and thanks to Rob Berg for organising the everyone in the whole Burke family and the whole team behind it huge effort and also another shout out to Ron Coon Jr for all his help technical assistance and you name it the kit that we needed and the which we will be using in the years to come hopefully if we can still find it Yeah. We'll find it. Yes. Okay. So, that wraps it up for our pink box. Looking back at the month of October 2024. Yes, we'll be back at the start of, oh, can you believe, the start of December, when we look back at all the events in the pimple world throughout the month, this month of November. And it's already an exciting month. So, it's started off well. I'm sure there'll be a lot more coming up throughout the rest of the month. So, anyway, until the start of December, we both wish you a fantastic rest of the month and look forward to joining you again next month for the very latest edition of our regular Pinball Industry News Pincast, so from me, Martin Ebb of Pinball News and for me, Jonathan Houston of Pinball Magazine thank you for listening and until next time, bye bye Thank you. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a4597e5c-7e36-46dc-ac48-7c5a101eadbe*