The Hype Index system tracks over 2,300 intellectual properties with more than 90,000 community mentions, some from conversations going back nearly a decade.

Wikipedia pageview data, updated daily and normalized to 0-100, is a surprisingly good proxy for cultural attention on franchises.

The momentum detection signal in the new Hype Index is dampened by volume, so a franchise going from zero to two mentions doesn't register the same as one going from fifty to a hundred.

Star Wars has multiple nostalgia eras (original trilogy, prequels, sequels, animated series) that each create nostalgia windows across different age groups.

The Goonies came out in a single primary era (1985) and hits a specific band of the pinball buying demographic hard with nostalgia.

Some advanced Hype Index features like internal visualizations and scoring breakdowns are still being validated and may become paid subscriber perks.

The old Hype Index version depended on manually reading threads, which meant rankings were always behind current community sentiment.

The previous Hype Index had rankings skewed toward recent mentions and franchises with accumulated mentions, crowding out newer themes people were genuinely excited about.

The new Hype Index uses a composite ranking that weighs multiple signals together rather than just counting mentions.

Colin is the chief pixel pusher at Kineticist and a lifetime gamer who became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker

J.B. Vincent's background is in LED manufacturing.

Sterling Mosska is a 14-year-old competitive pinball player gunning for top-three world ranking

American Pinball's previous employee treatment was not great and raises concerns about supporting the company

Twippies voting closes on January 20th with show airing February 7th at 7 PM ET

American Pinball eliminated all previous pinball production staff and is starting completely new

World Pinball is expected to announce Resident Evil around Texas Pinball Festival in March

World Pinball's Resident Evil machine will have 300 limited edition units and a 12-unit personalized STARS team edition

IPDB has not added any new games to its database since 2023 (Venom)

David Fix is no longer running American Pinball

World Pinball founders have pinball repair/restoration background but are new to commercial manufacturing

Twippies 2026 will premiere on YouTube February 7th at 7 PM EST with a new format

IPDB has not added new games since 2023 (Venom was the last entry)

IPDB visual design has remained unchanged since 2002 launch

World Pinball is a new Swiss manufacturer developing Resident Evil pinball

Sterling Matoska is a 14-year-old competitive pinball prodigy targeting top-three world ranking

American Pinball is rehiring and recruiting across all production roles with new leadership

Resident Evil pinball will likely be announced at Texas Pinball Festival in March

IPDB admin is unreachable and appears to have lost interest in maintaining the project

IPDB may not survive into the next decade, if not sooner

Kineticist has seen increased engagement in its pinball database as IPDB has declined

The pinball community usually finds a way forward, but community should start thinking about data preservation now

Colin is the chief editor at Kineticist

Colin's interest in pinball began with a family copy of 1979 Joker Poker (EM)

Walking Dead cabinet features butt joints with brackets instead of traditional wood joinery

The Twippies are in their ninth year of operation

Walking Dead cabinet uses HDF (high density fiberboard) not MDF

Jack Danger was potentially working on the next cornerstone before George Gomez was brought in to help finish it

George Gomez confirmed the next Stern cornerstone is either Transformers or Pokemon

The Twippies were founded around 2016-2017

Independent media cannot survive without direct subscriber support and will either fail or become dependent on advertising/sponsorship

Kineticist's annual operational budget is approximately equivalent to the cost of one new pinball machine

Kineticist uses no-code/low-code platforms for infrastructure rather than custom development

Colin became interested in pinball through a family copy of the 1979 Joker Poker EM machine

Kineticist maintains a private Discord server for paid subscribers

A full-stack developer could build Kineticist's infrastructure more efficiently than Colin's no-code approach

Kineticist's model is inspired by Pinball Map's transparent operational approach but maintains more confidentiality due to not being open-source

Colin has bought, sold, and repaired many pinball machines

Colin became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (EM version)

Colin has competed in all kinds of pinball tournaments

Colin has competed in all kinds of tournaments

Colin has bought, sold and repaired many machines

Colin became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (the EM version)

Kineticist is implementing automation and non-coder tools at premium cost ($1,600/year) rather than hiring a full-stack developer

In-person travel and event coverage are essential to producing quality pinball journalism

Colin previously purchased approximately one new-in-box pinball machine per year before founding Kineticist

Freelance contributors are paid fair rates rather than leveraging volunteer labor

Indie media cannot survive without direct reader financial support

Kineticist reaches tens of thousands of people monthly

The $60/year subscription tier is the most popular option

Annual operating costs for Kineticist and This Week in Pinball are approximately $10,000

Back to the Future is the highest desired IP on Kineticist's Hype Index

Stern provided improvements at King Kong media day including dedicated conference room with dedicated lighting and 15 minutes solo play time per creator

Colin has a BFA in film and photography from Ithaca College, later transitioned to integrated marketing communications

Kineticist was founded officially in 2022 after 6-8 months of development under the name 'Game Room Dude'

Wonderland Amazements is attempting to create an affordable home pinball machine as entry point for casual players

Tron has been rumored to be in production by Dutch Pinball

Colin's observation of Dune pinball as 'cinematic pinball' sparked a community poll about cinematic pinball experiences

Colin from Kineticist built the database by hand while watching TV in evenings and during night shifts with his young son

Colin received a six-month ban from Pinball Info for posting 'Jaffa' on a fertility post

Cactus Canyon reached wizard mode on day one of play and was too easy to justify the £10k purchase price

Godzilla is the favorite pinball machine of all time for Colin and broke the mold in game design

There are only about four Jaws machines in all of Europe

Colin organized a pinball media mixer and excluded Kaneda based on other creators threatening to boycott

Colin at the Kineticist has only been in pinball for two years and doesn't have context for the hobby

Colin's score of 186,000 on The Wizard was a significantly high qualifying score

Colin achieved $2 billion score on Guardians of the Galaxy during qualifying rounds

Colin won the tiebreaker against Escher on Flash with a walk-off victory on ball three

Colin's play on Black Knight Sword of Rage yesterday was exceptional with impressive aggression and accuracy

The extra ball on Iron Man is more valuable in tournament play than the Do or Die 35 million hurry-up

The tournament uses a best-of-seven match format with head-to-head play

There are 14 different pinball machines available for game selection at the tournament

Extra balls are worth 6 million points on Iron Man