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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast May 2026 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 36m·analyzed·Jun 4, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

May 2026 pinball recap: Transformers launch, TMNT pre-orders, Pedretti Arabian Nights remake, Stern EU distribution shifts.

Summary

Jonathan Houston and Martin Ebb recap May 2026 pinball industry news, covering Stern's announcement of Transformers: Transformers the Eye (designed by Elliott Eisman), Wonderland Amusements pre-orders, and Pedretti Gaming upcoming Tales of the Arabian Nights 2.0 remake. Notable themes include Sam Stern distribution restructuring (adding Pinball Heaven as a UK distributor), code updates across multiple titles, and a dispute between Pedretti Gaming and Team Pinball over Big Bang Bar remake rights.

Key Claims

  • Transformers: Transformers the Eye features Megatron with a cannon that shoots balls from his shoulder in Premium and LE versions, but lacks a functioning Optimus Prime transformation mechanism.

    high confidence · Jonathan Houston describing hands-on play at London trade event; mentions Pro version has no mechanical features, Premium has Megatron cannon, and uncertainty about why Optimus Prime transformation was removed.

  • Transformers launched with complete code at release, which Stern rarely achieves.

    high confidence · Jonathan Houston's direct observation: 'it was released with surprisingly complete code. So kudos to Stern for doing that.'

  • Stern ties game launches to licensor events (e.g., 40th anniversaries) rather than completing development first, limiting their ability to ship finished products.

    medium confidence · Jonathan Houston reporting conversation with Gary Stern: 'They didn't think that was particularly likely any time soon because they always try and tie things in with licensor events.'

  • Pinball Heaven is now an authorized Stern distributor in the UK alongside ElectroCoin, breaking the latter's exclusive distribution monopoly and potentially lowering UK retail prices.

    high confidence · Martin Ebb's detailed explanation of UK distribution changes and Pinball Heaven's pricing alignment with Stern's recommended retail pricing.

  • Pedretti Gaming and Team Pinball had a falling out over Big Bang Bar remake development; Pedretti retained the prototype and refused to return it to Team Pinball, who purchased it from Melvin Williams and performed development work.

    medium confidence · Martin Ebb reporting on independently verified Team Pinball post about severed collaboration and unreturned prototype.

  • John Buscalier (Stern) is planning to relocate to Amsterdam to lead Sam Stern office expansion, with a target of before year-end 2026.

    medium confidence · Jonathan Houston noting John's stated intention: 'He certainly would like to move over to live in Amsterdam before the end of the year. That's what he said last year.'

  • Wonderland Amusements game will begin shipping in October 2026, with only US/Canada availability and 110V configuration at launch.

Notable Quotes

  • “It was released with surprisingly complete code. So kudos to Stern for doing that.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~7:30 (Transformers discussion) — Highlights rare achievement of shipping feature-complete game at launch, contrasting with industry norm of partial releases and post-launch patching.

  • “They didn't think that was particularly likely any time soon because they always try and tie things in with licensor events as well.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~11:00 (licensing constraints discussion) — Reveals structural challenge: licensor-driven launch timing vs. development readiness.

  • “If you're a programmer and you're considering like, hey, I love programming pinball machines. Well, don't do it just for the royalties, because if you get sacked, then you get nothing.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~1:07:00 (Team Pinball dispute conclusion) — Cautionary commentary on contractor/royalty risks in pinball development, illustrating broader industry IP and compensation vulnerabilities.

  • “They only called it version 1.0 because they'd run out of numbers and it wasn't ever going to be the fully full featured version.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~33:50 (John Wick update discussion) — Humorous but revealing comment about Stern's naming convention masking incomplete initial release.

  • “So if you go to the Pinnball Heaven website, for instance, you'll find the latest Transformers game on there at the recommended retail price that was in Stern's press release with tax added on top, which is 20% VAT.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~21:00 (UK distribution restructuring) — Demonstrates concrete pricing impact of distribution change for UK buyers.

Entities

Jonathan Houstonperson[name withheld pending review]personElliott EismanpersonElizabeth GieskepersonGary SternpersonJohn BuscalierpersonMick BrownpersonLonnie D. Roppperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern's Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye launched May 2026 with complete code at release, unusual for Stern; Pro/Premium/LE tiers priced $7K/$9.7K/$13K following traditional Cornerstone pricing.

    high · Jonathan Houston's hands-on play in London; confirmed by multiple sources; pricing and tier structure documented in press release.

  • $

    market_signal: Stern restructuring European distribution by adding new authorized distributors (UK: Pinball Heaven; Germany: multiple resellers) to break monopoly pricing and reduce markup layers.

    high · Martin Ebb detailed UK changes (Pinball Heaven + ElectroCoin); noted similar shifts in Germany; Gary Stern declined to discuss full strategy but indicated more changes coming.

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Pinball planning European office expansion in Amsterdam under John Buscalier; timing unclear but stated goal before end-2026.

    medium · Jonathan Houston noting Buscalier's stated intent from prior year; presence in London for distribution discussions.

  • ?

    code_update: John Wick v1.01 (27 May 2026) was transformative post-launch patch, adding wizard modes, player feedback, and 5 extra ball paths (vs. 2 at v1.0), addressing incomplete v1.0 release.

    high · Jonathan Houston's detailed description; credited to software lead Lonnie D. Ropp; community sentiment implied improvement 'satisfy the people.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Transformers game lacks functioning Optimus Prime transformation mechanism in all versions; reasons speculated (reliability issues vs. cost) but not confirmed; viewed as design flaw.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.291

0:00
New Transformers game. New Turtles game. New Arabian Nights game. Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and welcome to this new episode of this Pinball Industry News Pincast. Pincast! And as always, I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Ebb and I'm the editor of Pinball News and Jonathan and I are here to look back in this new Pincast through the month of May 2026 and the first couple of days of June as well. Indeed we are. Yes, we delayed recording this by a couple of days just so we could include a particular event which we'll get to a little bit later. But we might as well dive straight in because it's been quite a month as you can tell from our headlines. Three new games to talk about or are they new? And three familiar titles with Transformers Turtles. I was going to say, it's awfully familiar. Yeah, I know. It's almost without wishing to tempt fate or talk about a future design. It was like Back to the Future. Sure. But that's not a game we're talking about at the moment. So let's dive straight in with the first of those. And of course, we're talking about Stern Pinball and they have revealed their Transformers More Than Meets the Eye game, which, of course, is a Hasbro license based on the Transformers TV series and a little bit of the movie. The cartoon animated series. Absolutely, yeah. Which is from the, I guess it's from the, what, 70s, I suppose?
1:50
I think it's 80s, but it doesn't matter. Okay, I was looking at some of the graphics. I think I re-ran those for, for, for, for, how many years on Saturday mornings? They're probably still running somewhere on some channel. So yeah, a design by Elliot Eisman with software lead from Elizabeth Guiske, which is her first lead on this. Elliot's not Elliot's first game, of course, he did John Wick previously.
2:20
It's a three-flipper, six-ball game, and surprisingly, I actually had a chance to play it today. Ooh, yeah. Do tell. Well, this is actually something we'll talk about a little bit later because there's a trade event in London today. But yes, they had a Transformers Pro game there. So I did have a good chance to play, I don't know, three games, maybe four. Didn't want to hog the machine because obviously it's quite an attraction and quite a rarity. I don't think that game has been anywhere outside the Stern factory up until now. So that was a bit of a coup. And it was a pro machine which doesn't actually have anything that transforms on it, which is maybe a little disappointing for a Transformers game. A bit of a downer. It is. The pro doesn't have anything. The premium nearly has Megatron that shoots the ball from a cannon mounted on Megatron's shoulder.

high confidence · Martin Ebb citing Wonderland Amusements' pre-order terms and website specifications.

  • John Wick 1.01 software update significantly expanded the game with mini wizard mode, final wizard mode, additional extra ball methods (5 vs. 2), and improved player feedback.

    high confidence · Jonathan Houston describing code update details: 'Version 1.01 came out on the 27th of May. That is much, much more fully featured.'

    • Melvin Williams
    person
    Stefan Riedlerperson
    Zach Sharpeperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Wonderland Amusementscompany
    Pedretti Gamingcompany
    Team Pinballcompany
    Pinball Heavencompany
    ElectroCoincompany
    Transformersgame
    World of TMNT: Battle in the Sewergame
    Tales of the Arabian Nights 2.0game
    John Wickgame
    Pokémon Pinballgame
    The Walking Dead Remasteredgame
    Pinball Planetcompany
    Austrian Pinball Festivalevent

    high · Jonathan Houston's hands-on observation; notes prototype video hints at intended transformation; current design described as 'unattractive.'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Pedretti Gaming and Team Pinball severed collaboration over Big Bang Bar remake; Pedretti retained prototype purchased by Team Pinball from Melvin Brow Williams; Team Pinball lost investment and potential royalties.

    medium · Martin Ebb independently verified Team Pinball's account; notes broader contractor risk in pinball programming.

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Pedretti Gaming/EPC appears to be running reduced production (possibly one game at a time vs. historic 2-3 concurrent titles); uncertain if Big Bang Bar, Funhouse, or Liga Booga are actively in production.

    medium · Martin Ebb observing limited visibility into Pedretti/EPC's production schedule; noted EPC claimed 'very packed schedule' but unclear what's actually being built.

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Stern's launch timelines tied to licensor events (anniversaries, franchise campaigns) rather than development readiness, forcing simultaneous release/patching cycles.

    medium · Gary Stern's comments to Jonathan Houston; explained 40th anniversary Transformers alignment; acknowledged this limits ability to ship finished code.

  • ?

    content_signal: Stern's media relations with Pinball News strained; lack of advance embargo assets forces last-minute scrambles; marketing company intermediary adds friction; coordination issues noted by both editors.

    medium · Martin Ebb and Jonathan Houston both noting lack of advance materials; discussing need for Zach Sharp to intervene with Stern's marketing company.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Wonderland Amusements pricing limited edition variants aggressively ($300-$350 premiums for toppers/scopes); Jonathan Houston notes toppers can exceed base game cost (industry-wide trend).

    high · TMNT Turtle Power Edition pricing; Jonathan Houston's commentary on topper economics; acknowledged as common practice.

  • ?

    venue_signal: Park Avenue Open Day in London (May 2026) was major trade event hosted by ElectroCoin/UDC; Stern leadership (Gary Stern, John Buscalier) attended; Transformers playable for first time outside factory.

    high · Jonathan Houston's attendance and hands-on play; detailed event description; noted catering, business networking, multiple manufacturer games on display.

  • ?

    announcement: Pedretti Gaming announced Tales of the Arabian Nights 2.0 remake (prototype spotted May 2026, following Liga Booga announcement from 2025); no pricing, availability, or production timeline confirmed yet.

    medium · Martin Ebb noting prototype photograph; contextualizing against Liga Booga and Funhouse production; acknowledging long development cycle.

    • 3:30
    There's no transformation of Optimus Prime, although it is shown on the display from the cartoon series.
    3:40
    There's various rumours or suggestions as to why Optimus Prime doesn't transform. Some people say that it's because they tried to get it to work and couldn't get it to work reliably, the transformation. Others people say it's taken out because it was too expensive a mechanism. That sounds like a concern. Well, I don't know which one of those it is, but in the end, he ended up with a rather unattractive looking Optimus Prime model that maybe should transform but doesn't. Interestingly, in one of the teaser videos, you can see him in the transition or transform state where he's down on the playfield level and turned into the truck. But there's only a sort of very brief glimpse that was in there. So it obviously was an intention to do it, but it doesn't anyway. In the Alien Premium Editions, the other animating thing is Soundwave model on the right-hand side that has a cassette sort of flap that opens and releases balls that have been locked inside him. On the Pro, that is a flat plastic, so all locks are virtual.
    5:02
    And on the upper models, there's a model on the left-hand side, the name of which I forget. It's a kind of dinosaur-type character. And that, again, is a flat plastic in the Pro. So, but I have to say it was still fun to shoot and had some nice flowing shots and quite tight and quite tough. I would say as well, those slingshots really do fire the ball straight down the outlane if they get the slightest chance to do so. And there's also a single pop bumper on the right hand side as well, just above the slingshots, which also does a very similar thing. So it was a tough playing game. And that's with the post on the outlanes in the middle position. It wasn't wide open or anything like that. So you have to be very, very careful about that. But even so, still had some good fun playing it. Got through to, I think, what's the mini wizard mode on the game, which is... That's not a good sign. You play your first game and you reach the mini wizard mode. Well, not so. It wasn't the first game. It was the second. But, yeah, it was... There's a lot more to go into it, I think, yet. But it was released with surprisingly complete code. So kudos to Stern for doing that.
    6:33
    What's interesting, I suppose, we can also say that it came out with the regular Cornerstone game pricing of just under $7,000 for the Pro, $9.7K for the Premium, and $13K for the LE. But what was interesting there was they actually started including recommended retail pricing for Europe and the UK with prices in euros and pounds, which I think is the first time they've done that, which will probably link to something we're going to talk about in a minute as far as CERN goes. But yes, of course, they had their media day at the CERN factory to release the game. Ah yes, I got an invite but not a plane ticket. Yes, same here. But Mick Brown was able to attend it for Pimball News and got some interesting information. They were quite a little more reticent to allow people to record things this time as well. I think there's a certain amount of licensor approval pending on some of this stuff. So I was talking to Gary Stern about it and saying that, you know, it would be really good if you could actually have the game completely done when you come to launch it. It always seems like every time they launch a game, it just about makes it to that point. You know, they can just about show enough of it to give an impression of how it's going to be when it's complete. Well, software complete at least. So it would be really nice if you could actually have a game completely done and then release it. They didn't think that was particularly likely any time soon because they always try and tie things in with licensor events as well. So if there's like a 40th anniversary of Transformers or something on a particular day, then the licensor will want to launch a game in collaboration with that and to fit around their plans rather than when it suits Stern.
    8:52
    But, you know, it's, from our point of view, it's a bit tricky when we only get like a week's notice that there's going to be a media event. And it's like, well, what are we meant to do? Drop everything and fly over to Chicago for that. Right. Yeah, not going to happen, I suspect. But they still get plenty of people stateside going there and doing their socials and their streams.
    9:22
    Right. And while Martin was not able, neither was I, by the way, to attend this media event, of course, he did write a very in-depth article on the reveal of the game with plenty of pictures and you have it. And because I was very busy, I didn't. Well, I was very busy as well because I'd just come back from Austria.
    9:48
    So I actually didn't actually get any of the assets in advance this time. Neither did I, which is a reason for me not to pay any attention to it. Yeah, so I debug them and get them afterwards. Right.
    10:03
    Just to explain to our listeners, I'm busy enough. During the day and no pinball company can expect me to drop everything because they just revealed a new game. I'm busy working with the stuff and I expressed to Stern Pinball in the past. There's this thing called embargo where you send your release assets up front. So I have time actually to write an article instead of just copy pasting a press release. And I figured like, well, there's too many people already copy pasting a press release. I don't need to do that anymore. So I'll be more than willing to write about new games coming up, but I need time to write a decent article.
    10:54
    So and if I'm not given any materials under embargo up front and. I don't see why not, because we have a reputation to keep up high. So, um, well, Stern have done that in the past, but they seem to be quite sporadic. Well, they have a marketing company who deals with all this kind of stuff. Yeah, and then you run into a brick wall and you never get a reply. Yeah, yeah. Well, you have to get, you have to get Josh, Zach, sorry, have to get Zach Sharp to, uh, to bug their marketing company to send the assets that you need. And then they do, but you have to do that in advance and give them plenty of notice, because otherwise they won't send it until an hour before, which is useless. Well, yeah, and I get it in the sense that, sure, they want the most traction on their social media, and not so much on one else's social media, although you want that as well. Still, priorities for me, at least. Yes. Well, anyway, I was talking about the pricing on the game. And so as we previewed in last month's Pincast, there's been a change to some of Stern's European distribution.
    12:28
    This month in particular, there's been an announcement about the UK market. Where traditionally ElectroCoin were the sole importers and distributors of Stern Pinball games and everybody else in the country who wanted to sell the games had to buy them through ElectroCoin. And of course, ElectroCoin had their margins and all the resellers had their margins. So it ended up with prices being higher than they necessarily would be. Well now Pimball Heaven have been added as new distributors for Stern Pimball alongside ElectricCoin. So now there are two companies which can import games and it does mean that Pimball Heaven can sell games direct to home buyers and to operators as well at Stern's recommended retail price without having to buy games for ElectricCoin and pay their markup. So if you go to the Pinnball Heaven website, for instance, you'll find the latest Transformers game on there at the recommended retail price that was in Stern's press release with tax added on top, which is 20% VAT.
    13:45
    All Stern's prices, of course, don't include tax anywhere because that varies across the globe. So, yes, it also means that Electricoin are able to sell to the home market as well.
    14:05
    If they wanted to do that, traditionally, they've only really sold to operators and the trade because they don't really have the infrastructure in place to support repairs and servicing of home games, unlike Pimball Heaven. And then all the other home buyers, Home Leaders Direct, to name just one. But there are plenty of other companies who sell Stern Pinball Games who do supply them and offer service and support.
    14:42
    And so, yes, it's a bit of a shake up in the UK market there. I suspect there were a few newsies out of joint with that latest announcement. And not least at Electricoin, who are no longer the sole importers. So it was interesting to see that today at in London at the Electricoin office, there was an event held, an annual event called the Park Avenue Open Day. And this is a trade-only event run by Electricoin and a fellow coin-op distributor company, UDC, which stands for United Distributing Company. They are the two big distributors of coin-op, manufacturers in many cases of coin-op games, electrical and certainly make a lot of slot machines and also pushers I think too. But it's kind of like an industry-wide event and it's not just them, electrical and UDC's games are there, all sorts of manufacturers bring the games along. It's a big social event and there's also catering and drinks and chances to talk business or talk nonsense and also to try out some of these latest games. And that was indeed where I was able to play the Transformers game today. Right. Had Transformers, a Pokemon and a Dungeons and Dragons set up.
    16:27
    So that was a nice event. So Gary Stern and John Buscalier from Stern were both there. John, as we know and we've spoken about before, is going to be heading up the European office in Amsterdam.
    16:42
    If that ever happens, yes. Yeah, yeah. We're talking about when that might be likely to happen. He certainly would like to move over to live in Amsterdam before the end of the year.
    16:56
    That's what he said last year. Well, I didn't say which year, I suppose, maybe. Or the end of a year.
    17:05
    Yes, but I think this is all part of Stern's plans to introduce more distributors across Europe and bring down pricing in the continent, Which has always been a bit of a bugbear. Everybody says, you know, why are prices so high for certain games in Europe?
    17:24
    And it's always been, oh, well, you have to ship the games over, then you have to go through a distributor and they have to be resold. Well, yeah, well, we've seen other, like in Germany now, there are other resellers. Indeed, Freddy's Pimball Paradise are one of those, and they, interestingly, are advertising that they can sell Stern Pimball machines worldwide. So not just anywhere within Germany, or indeed within Europe.
    17:54
    Right, okay. So if I may comment on that, not so much the Freddy Pimball Paradise thing, But if the plan is to introduce more distributors across Europe, then why is it that so far all we've seen is existing resellers becoming distributors? But I don't see any new parties being added to the mix. Well, I think, as I said, I think it's an intention to bring the price down by cutting out a layer of markup on certain machines. And also, like in Germany, KMS Handel were the sole importers, but they weren't supposed to be selling to the home market. They were leaving that to Freddy and Pibble Universe. Yeah. But now they can all import and they can all sell to homebuyers as well. So with that, it means that Pimple Universe and Freddy's don't have to do like Pimple Heaven did and charge and take or suffer from a markup from the importer because they can do it themselves. And so it's more distributors and hopefully lower prices for everyone. Well, it's technically the same parties that were already offering Stern games. Yeah, rather than being resellers, they're full distributors. Yeah, so I'm just waiting for if you want to sell more games and you have to tap into new markets maybe and get new distributors or people that have not been or companies that have not been distributing Pinball machines yet. Well, yes, that may be coming. I was hoping to speak to Gary and John about this. They've declined and said they're not really to discuss the changes that's happening across Europe at this time, but might be able to say more later in the year around the time of IAPA Europe, which is being held in London in, I think, September. Yeah, okay. Well, it will be interesting to see what will happen in terms of whether there will be more distributors for Stern Pinball or whether it will be sort of existing resellers now having a slightly lower price tag on their games. Yeah. Hopefully. Yeah, and I guess being able to import what they think they can sell rather than what the sole importer wants them to sell.
    20:45
    Right. And also, one other point on that is I think it will also help with attendance at pinball shows across Europe. Because rather than being like the one distributor who probably doesn't attend the pinball show themselves and they just rely on their resellers to sell games. So you'll see Pinball Universe at the Dutch show, but you won't see KMS there because why would they? Right. Now these companies can also bring in a lot more in terms of merchandise as well and mods and toppers and all that kind of stuff independently of anybody else. And I think that will probably be something which is expected of them as well. They will up their game when it comes to promoting Stern Pinball at various big shows. So it could be good news for show attendees as well. Right. Okay. So any other activities that Gary Stern and or John Biscaylor were a part of while they were in London? Well, they were planning to go down to the Pimball Republic Pimball Club in Croydon on Tuesday evening. But unfortunately, there's been a series of strikes on the London Underground at the moment by some drivers. So that wasn't possible because the trains weren't running and B, the traffic was so bad as a consequence that it would take like two and a half hours for them to get from where they were near Electricoin down to Croydon and it just wasn't going to happen. But obviously today recording this on the Wednesday, the day of the Park Avenue Open Day, the day after tomorrow, they are hoping to go down to Pinball Republic for their regular Thursday evening opening. So if you get to hear this in time, you should be able to pop down to Pinball Republic in Croydon if you are in the UK and somewhere near Croydon and go and meet Gary Stern and John Pascaglia. And I don't know, I don't think they're going to have the Transformers game down there for that, but they're certainly going to be able to meet and greet all the people who turn up for the regular Thursday night league night, which there are quite a few. So, and then I think they're both flying back on Friday. So, that's it.
    23:28
    Okay. Now, well, I guess that's all the news that we have from Stern Pinball besides, of course, our traditional new Code Corner. Oh, this is the best bit. Yeah, of all.
    23:45
    Yeah, been quite a busy month along with the new game being launched. There's been four code updates. Pokemon, which before Transformers was the current game. That's up to version 0.82 as of the 6th of May. Quite a lot of rules added, new light shows, blah, blah, blah. Existing rules changed adjusted and some extra standard features have been added Things like competition mode and target game time and all that kind of stuff along with the usual bug fixes Walking Dead Remastered, yeah, still getting updates, a smallish one this time, just added the Fish Tank Frenzy Topper Exclusive Mode and also the DJ Mixer option, So you add to the player menu holding both flipper buttons in the start so you can play the music tracks with a few bug fixes. John Wick. Now, this was interesting. The version 1.01. It's got a really big update and has really gone a long way to satisfy the people who are playing the game. Didn't have all the features that it really should have had in version 1.0. Apparently they only called it version 1.0 because they'd run out of numbers and it wasn't ever going to be the fully full featured version. Well, version 1.01 came out on the 27th of May. That is much, much more fully featured. Has a mini wizard mode, a final wizard mode, lots of more feedback to the player, lots more awards.
    25:18
    Five ways to earn an extra ball now compared to two that were there before. It took a long time to get there, but now looks from a least of a software perspective like a much more fun game. And that's all down to Lonnie Ropp, who is the software lead on that and has been working his socks off, I think, to get this out. So kudos to him for his hard work on that game.
    25:43
    And finally, just yesterday, The Walking Dead Remastered got an update to version 0.92. We've rewritten the Crossbow Frenzy mode with new rules, graphics, sound and speech, added some additional display information and tweaked a bit of scoring. And all these updates include a new version of the system software, version 4.25, I think in fact version 4.26 is in the Walking Dead Remastered. But this adds support for things like TOPS tournament from the gameplay menu, you know, holding the two buttons, and also adds various adjustments to the test menu settings in the machine settings category. So you can customize the screen colors, how the LED lamp tests work and various other things. So look out for that coming to probably all the Spike 3 games I'd expect eventually. But it's finally giving the test menu a bit more customization, which is good, as well as adding the TOPS tournament mode. So if you have a Spike 3 game, that's probably going to be arriving over the next few months. And I think that's it for the software corner.
    27:07
    Code corner. The Codecord, yes. And that's also all we have for Stern Pinball, like I said. Moving on to our second headline, we're at Wonderland Amusements, who started taking pre-orders for their second game, World of TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Battle in the Sewer. Now I won't keep making the same joke again but that's got to smell bad. That stinks, yes.
    27:43
    So the extended Wonderland Amusement, that is, extended the $50 discount for Kickstarter backers of their Alice Goes to Wonderland by a week. So if you bought that game you get a $50 discount. And if you purchase that game through Kickstarter, I believe, still no official detailed playfield pictures or videos. There is a trailer video, but it doesn't show the final version of the game.
    28:20
    But there will be two versions available, a standard edition, where have you heard that before? And a Turtle Power Edition which costs another $350 extra or more or $300 for pre-orders. It comes with five extra scopes and an illuminated topper.
    28:47
    Now you know what happens with these toppers. Before you know it, they cost more than the game. Yeah, well certainly some toppers cost more than this game.
    28:56
    Right. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Alice in Alice Goes to Wonderland Buyers are discounted only on the standard edition.
    29:09
    So keep that in mind if you're considering ordering the game. They expect the game to start shipping in October of 2026, but they're still only shipping to the United States and Canada at the moment. Yeah, it says on their website if you're an international distributor and they're happy to talk to you about setting something up, but currently only, as you said, US and Canada and only 110 volt ready at the moment. So how come I don't read that on the Stern Pinball website that they are looking for new distributors in Europe like we just discussed? I mean, these, at least Wonderland Amusement is actively announcing we're looking for distributors, obviously, also because they don't have any, but I get that.
    30:07
    Yeah, you have to start somewhere. Right, but at least they make it public we're looking for distributors.
    30:19
    Oh, well. Yeah, probably not for this game, but maybe for future ones. Well, you never know how long they keep making them. That's true, yeah. I guess you can still buy the addicators. Sorry. Right, yeah. So, and then our third headline was regarding a new Arabian Nights pinball machine. Well, new is, relatively speaking, is more like a remake game, which has been anticipated for quite a while. I think even January of 2025, Pedretti already hinted at, because we're talking about Pedretti Gaming, hinted at Tales of the Arabian Nights as an upcoming remake game from them. And then it's taken, well, at least 18 months before we finally get the confirmation that indeed they are planning to reveal Tales of the Arabian Nights 2.0 as their next remake game, similar to Funhouse, which is also a remake game. A prototype from the Euro Pinball Corporation game of Arabian Nights was photographed at the back, or from the back I should say, at the Planetary Pinball facility in Sparks, Nevada. It has rear back box lighting which you see on televisions as well these days. And purple legs and side rails and it looks like it has Brian Allen cabinet artwork. Obviously we couldn't see it from the front so we don't know what the trans light looks like whether it has Brian Allen artwork as well. So, new remake announced, but we still, well, that's all we know. We don't even know when we're going to see that game. All we know that it's coming and... Yeah, and we don't know how many different versions there will be or what the pricing is going to be. All we know is Pedretti have announced a Liga Booga game last year. We don't know how many they are building of those, but that was a re-themed Queen game.
    33:07
    They're currently not running any, as far as we know, Pinball Brothers games, which are also built in the same factory in Italy.
    33:18
    I believe they're still building Funhouse, but you have to wonder like how much more Funhouses can you build and at what point are they moving to the next game?
    33:33
    Because they used to be running like two or three games at the same time and as far as I can see right now they're only building one. Yeah, and that's been in production for quite some time. Yeah, or maybe two with the League of Boogs game, but we have no confirmation that that's actually being built right now. Yeah, although when we spoke to Pimball Brothers and Daniel, he was saying that EPC had a very packed schedule on their production, and it would be very hard to get any production time on the production line. They had so much work to work through. But I don't know what they're building.
    34:19
    Yeah, well, me neither. So I do know what they're not building, but you had a big story on that. So I leave this up to you. Yeah, it was just a post. I was contacted by Team Pinball about a post they were going to be putting out about work they'd done for Padretti to remake the Big Bang Bar game. Which is originally a Capcom game that was already remade by Illinois Pinball run by Gene Cunningham. Pinball Manufacturing Inc. Yeah, that was in 2005, 2006. And you were there? Somewhere like that. Yeah, I was definitely there. I helped build most of these games or at least the pre-production of most of these games. Well, Padretti had been working to remake Big Bang Bar. They've been working... According to this post by... Yeah, I've had it independently verified as well.
    35:28
    Apparently the rights for that game are now owned by Melvin Brow Williams. And so he was working with Padresi to bring the game to fruition along with Team Pinball to do some board design and coding for the game. Well, apparently there was falling out, well, everybody basically with Padresi. So Melvin, first of all, split from the whole project and then Team Pinball bought from Melvin a prototype game that he had made of a remake so they could work on that, which they did, and then they sent it to Padretti with the work that they'd done. And Padretti apparently replaced the cabinet and the playfield on it with artworks versions of those and then basically ended up severing with Team Pinball and then refused to give them their prototype back, which Team Pinball had bought from Melvin. So basically Team Pinball are out for the expenditure of buying that prototype and the work they've done so far. And I guess any future royalties as well, which is part of the agreement. So at the moment it seems like it's just Pidretti have a prototype game and when that's going to come, if that's ever going to be made into a remake. And if so, when? We don't know, but it's certainly not the next title as we already spoke about.
    37:20
    So it's been some time in the making and if it ever happens, it will probably be some time more before it actually does become available. Right. So if you're a programmer and you're considering like, hey, I love programming pinball machines. Well, don't do it just for the royalties, because if you get sacked, then you get nothing. Yes, that's right. And I'm not saying anybody got sex, but if you're basically out of the project or they decide not to use your code, then you did all the work for nothing. So make sure you get paid and get royalties as well. Yes, because otherwise you'll end up having to employ a lawyer and try and sue. And that's never going to end well, is it?
    38:07
    No, most likely not, no. No. Anyway. I feel sorry for Team Pinball, how this has developed, and I wish them all the best. And I assume Petretti has new programmers in place to make sure whatever they're working on gets coded. Yes, indeed, because bear in mind that now they are fully using the fast Pimball board set for all their remakes as they were for the Predator game, I think, from Pimball Brothers and is intended for any future Pimball Brothers games that may come out. So it's a different system to work on, but a well understood one, put it that way.
    39:04
    Right, okay. So we'll have to wait and see if there will be any new announcements for programmers being hired, or maybe, well, they're already collaborating with Pimball Brothers, so why not? I mean, I'm sure they have plenty on their own plate to take care of, but Daniel Jansen is also a programmer, so if he has some spare time left, then who knows what he might be coding.
    39:40
    Okay, let's move on and let's talk about American Pinball now because it brings us back to Melvin Brow-Williams who we were just talking about. Exactly, yeah. And he was at the Austrian Pinball Festival in May, in the middle of May.
    39:57
    Right. So were you right away. I was, yeah. And he very kindly, as representative for American Pinball, was able to donate some posters, drinks, cans, koozies and pens for as gifts for the prize quiz I ran there. Now, Stefan Riedler, who runs the Austrian Pinball Festival, or heads up the team who runs it, there's a big team behind it, I'll talk about that more later, asked me if I could do a quiz to give away some prizes. So I had to dream up some questions very quickly on the hoof. You did a quiz without me? I know, it wasn't that kind of quiz. It was a very different quiz. Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say. Yeah, yeah, I didn't even use any of our questions, but no, it's just a quick 30-minute filler, and yeah, anyway, we did that. Melvin was there as a guest, but didn't hold a seminar, unlike some of the other people who were there, and I did want to pin him down and try and record a What's Cooking With segment with him, which he agreed to do, but he was in and out and busy all the time. So we never actually got around. I bet he was in the kitchen preparing.
    41:21
    Yeah, it could be, yeah. But, yeah, didn't get in that time. Tying out his own recipe, making sure that he gets the right recipe across. Well, we will see. We'll get to talk to him, I'm sure, before too long anyway. It won't be that long before we run into him again. So not this time, but soon, hopefully.
    41:48
    Right. OK. But there's more from American Pinball because they also announced a new game. Actually, we already knew there was coming. Yes, that's right. Last month they announced they're going to be the reimagined Circus Voltaire game.
    42:04
    But there was very little detail there. In fact, still is very little detail was announced, Along with the fact they were going to be remaking it. I think that was announced at the Texas Pimball Festival.
    42:19
    But credit goes to Don's Pimball podcast who published at least a picture taken at the Golden State Pimball Festival where there was a poster from American Pimball about Circus Voltaire. Banner to be more precise, yes. Yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, canvas banner saying get on our interests list only 771 ringmasters planned. I assume that means the entire game rather than just the ringmaster but it's an interesting number. We don't know where that number comes from, how it relates to how many of those will be reimagined versions of the game Or how many will be just straight up remakes, which is the other version they're going to be making.
    43:09
    So Melvin did say previously they wanted to just do a run of them and then move on to the next game and not keep them as a continuing product line like they do with Houdini or Galactic Tank Force. So basically, one run and done and that's it and move on to the next remake. But 771 seems to be the magic number for that. And so if you do want to get on the interest list, I guess you have to contact or go to the American Pinball website and see who you need to speak to or speak to your distributor for American Pinball and get your name on the list. If you fancy being having a Circus Voltaire, either remake or reimagined version. Right. And in the meantime, American Pinball have been building and shipping their limited run of 100 Houdini 100th Anniversary Edition games with the new artwork by Christopher Frenchy and Playfield Scalps. Yeah, yeah, so only 100 of those are going to be made. Two of them reported in Texas Pimble Festival were actually given away, whether that's two out of the 100 or whether they're separate two, I don't know. But yeah, they are building them and they look very nice. So congratulations to those people who got one of the 100.
    44:32
    Right, okay. And it rounds it up for American Pimble still to come. Pairos of Fun, we're going to be talking about them. Spooky Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, Pinball Brothers we already briefly discussed. Dutch Pinball, but right now we're continuing with Hexa Pinball from France. Yes, they too were at the Austrian Pinball Festival in Mocklebrook in the middle of the last month, the month of May, which we are looking at here of course. They were showing the Three Musketeers game. They had that alongside. This time it was there. It was there, yes. A bit easier to get it to that show than it was to the Texas show.
    45:17
    Yeah, two Space Hunt games as well. Alice from Hexa did a short presentation about the game and how the company's unique approach to building them. And with an emphasis on the on their unique playfield manufacturing technique and how that allows them to to create any shape inserts they choose.
    45:40
    Ales' talk is available in the Pimball News Austrian Pimball Festival report and on the YouTube channel as well. I think it's probably fallen off the Twitch channel by now, but certainly go to Pimball News videos on YouTube. You'll be able to watch that and all the other talks that we'll come up to come to a little bit later from the Austrian Pinball Festival. It's interesting to note that they are also taking the game to the Southwest Flipper Festival in Pontac in France this weekend on the 6th, 7th of June, where they will be running a The Three Musketeers tournament. So I hope the software has improved a bit over the version it had at the Austrian Pimball Festival because on that the sound would often either disappear or have unusual volume changes and the game needed to be restarted a few times during the day in order to solve those problems and other problems too. So, yeah, it's an interesting game to play and interesting ruleset until I finally get to play it. But, yeah, it certainly did have some issues and it does have some interesting features in there which I haven't seen before, like holding in the start button to vary the strength of the initial plunge and the light bars at the side growing in length. The longer you hold it, the stronger the plunge is. So that's an interesting feature. And also the whole lighting looked very good. I mean, I've commented on that before, but didn't really get to experience all the features of it yet, because I think the software is still at a fairly early stage.
    47:29
    And also some of the call-outs and things need more fleshing out. But there's work to do, but it's nice to actually get to play it. After not being able to play, as you said, at the Texas show. Right.
    47:47
    I don't think there's any other news from Hexapinball, so I'd just recommend go and watch the video from Alice on the Pinball News video's YouTube channel. Or read the report from the show. Right. On pinballnews.com. Indeed.
    48:04
    Right. So then moving on to barrels of fun. And I have a feeling I have to leave this one to you as well because they had all three barrels of fun games at the Austrian Pinball Festival as well. Yeah they did When we been to Pimball shows you pretty much used to being permanently long lines to play certainly Winchester Mystery House but also Dune and Labyrinth 2 But it was very refreshing with so many games set up in the free play area at the Austrian Pibble Festival.
    48:42
    Most of the time it was like there's one person playing any of these games and sometimes those games were not being played at all. So you could just walk over and play a game. Sounds like they need more audience, more visitors. Well, maybe, but on the other hand, you kind of get the same kind of vibe that you do at the Pinball at the Beach, where they limit the number of people there. So you do get a chance to play these games rather than having the long lines all the time. But this was not deliberately limited, but it was the very first Austrian Pinball Festival. So it's something that's going to grow, not next year, but when it comes to that, but in future years.
    49:28
    So, yeah, I was going to say to put things in perspective, most games had no lines because there were so many of them. So, which is a good event if you want to play lots of pinball. And on the other hand, there were so many tournaments being run at the event that a lot of people were tied up with those, which is partly, I guess, why the free play era was less packed than you might expect. Okay. So, if you're ever planning to attend the Austrian pinball festival, get ready to play some pinball, Because chances are you have more games to choose from than you expect. Yeah, and also it's like five days long as well. So if you want to play a particular game, there's no rush. You've got all the time in the world really to get to play it.
    50:28
    And because it was open from like 10 o'clock in the morning to at least midnight, if not later, there were plenty of hours to play all the games. Which I guess is pretty much an ideal situation as a player. You play everything at your leisure.
    50:49
    Right. Okay. Going back to our ones are fun. Yes, indeed. A slight detour there. Yes. Yes, what I've understood is, and I've seen the photos that prove it, David Van Ness, the CEO or whatever his name is. Chief Mischief Maker. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I couldn't get that out of my mouth because I didn't remember exactly what it was. But has attended the licensing show, the licensing expo in Las Vegas. Yes, and so have other Pinball manufacturers, namely Spooky and Jersy Jack Pinball.
    51:40
    And well, if you're interested in what they might have been shopping for, so to speak, then you can take a look at the list of exhibitor at licensingexpo.com. And there you can start speculating on suggestions, rumors, and what have you about the future Pinball licenses that we might be seeing in a couple of years. Because let's not forget that it takes a couple of years to develop a game. Or longer, in some cases. Well, in some cases longer even. And well, in case of Barrels, which were what we're talking about here is I think they have a couple of games already in the pipeline, which means also years of production schedules.
    52:40
    If they start working on a new license today, it will probably take five years before we get to see that game. It could be, but yeah. Interestingly, when I was talking to Gary Stern today about licensing and I was saying I suspect you went to the licensing expo show. He said no, no, he doesn't do that kind of thing any longer. And it's now Seth and Jody who look after all the licenses at Stern. So Gary wasn't even at the licensing expo show and hasn't been there for a couple of years. Well, that explains Transformers, I guess. Yeah, well, it's the same, you know, now, his era and to an extent my era as well of themes are not the kind of licenses that they're looking at, looking at a younger demographic. And so we've got Jody and Seth, who are both probably younger than us.
    53:38
    And so they are the ones who are making decisions about what licenses they're going to buy. Right, okay, but getting back to barrels of fun. Yes.
    53:51
    Any chance they released some new code last month? Well, finally you should mention that, but no. Oh yeah, hang on, yes they did. Yes, in fact two games got it. First of all, Dune got a new version on the 13th of May. Not really any new features, but did fix quite a list of bugs. On the other hand, Winter to Mystery House got an update two weeks later on the 28th of May and that did add a couple of new modes to it.
    54:24
    New Sarah's Bedroom mode, The Possession, and new Hall of Fires mode, Ashes in the Walls, I should say. Also added several new light shows and quite a few bugs were fixed in that game too. So yes, those games are getting quite regular updates now, which is good to see.
    54:45
    Yes, indeed it is. So, okay, and that rounds it up for barrels of fun. Yeah. So, do we have any news on Multimorphic? No, fellow Texan manufacturers, but no, no news at all yet on what their next title is going to be. I mean, it's been 15 months since Portal was launched.
    55:08
    So, you know, just saying it's probably around about the time we'd hope to see something new coming out from there.
    55:16
    So they're still building Portal and I think the production was, well, a little bit delayed, I would say.
    55:26
    Yeah, but I think it's proved to be very popular though. Yeah, well, that's a good thing. Definitely, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, oh, well, so if, hold on, moving on to, if there's no other news from Milton Watt, then I suppose we can, moving on to Spooky Pinball. Yeah, why not? Well, as you mentioned, they were at the Licensing Expo, but also attended the Golden State Pinball Show in Lodi in California.
    55:59
    Not exhibiting themselves, but I think one of their distributors was. Going back to Austria and Pinball Festival again, they had the full lineup of spooky games there, including Beetlejuice, of course. And the giant inflatable Beetlejuice as well that we saw at Texas. I think that probably the same height inflatable model turned up partway through the Austrian Pinball Festival show,
    56:30
    which kind of dwarfed the, up until then, seemingly very large Pikachu model that was an inflatable one, which was next to the Pokemon games. So everyone's got to now have an inflatable model to promote their games from this point onwards, it seems.
    56:52
    Right. Well, you know what's even cooler? An inflatable topper. Oh, I like it. You can put the fan that's in the back box to some use and use it to inflate things.
    57:05
    Yeah, exactly. Patent pending. So, oh, well, if that's all for Spooky Pinball, then, well, it's a, yeah, it's, well, a short bridge, I would say, to Jersey Jack Pinball, as Jack was also at the licensing expo in Las Vegas. I like what you did there. Yeah. And, well, Jersie Jack Pinball have been heavily teasing Steve Ritchie's upcoming game, which is widely believed to be based on the Sonic Hedgehog character from Nintendo. So I think it's fair to say that it's going to be Sonic. Even in the way it was, Steve Ritchie was promoted, was sort of a reference to images of Sonic.
    58:03
    I'm not even sure from whether it was a movie poster or whatever. Yeah, backlit, should we say. Yeah, with a blue backdrop or whatever. Yeah, halo. So let's assume it's Sonic the same joke. Yeah, okay. Let's go with that. Yeah, and let's assume Steve Ritchie is the next designer or the designer of this game.
    58:35
    The game, according to George Jack, will be revealed in June, but we don't know when in June. Well, we can rule out the first three days because it hasn't been revealed yet. Yeah. So, now, Stern are premiering Transformers at the Northwest Pinball and Arcade show in Tacoma. And that is in Washington State. Yeah. At the start of the month.
    59:05
    This weekend, yeah. Okay. I'm not sure whether Jersie Jack Pinball would want or need to go head-to-head with Stern in competing for attention for that game or taking away sales as some people in the industry think that it works.
    59:29
    Although there are plenty of people who buy every brand's game. I mean, that doesn't matter. So that sort of leaves me wondering when do we get to see this presumably Sonic the Hedgehog game to appear at a major show or which show will be the first one to have that new Jersey Jack game which is about to be revealed somewhere this month. Yeah, there's normally a sort of lull during the summer months for major Pinball shows, and then things start picking up again towards September time.
    60:15
    So, you know, I think Jack said in the past that he doesn't necessarily feel the need to launch a game at a show.
    60:25
    Not sure whether that was done with Harry Potter. Don't think so. So somebody better correct me on that, but I have no recollection at all about that game. I have been informed that Steve's game is already on the line at Jersi Jack, meaning they are still building Harry Potter, of course, But there's a second line which is currently building from what I believe distributor games so that once the game is announced, distributors will already have them in their shops or warehouses or wherever. So people can actually either or operators can play them or decide whether they want one for their location or whatever. But from what I understand is they're currently building games to have games all over the US and possibly also in Europe as soon as it is announced. Yeah, well, it's certainly an alternative way to launch it at a show. Isn't it to have the games out there for people to try, but at the distributor where you can actually buy it rather than being at a major show. So people can schedule their own time to go and visit their distributor and check out the games. And of course having them all over the country and indeed all over the world is much more, gives a much wider audience than just having it one single show in one location.
    62:21
    So yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's a good way of doing it. And also I think it kind of adds a certain sort of exclusivity to those people who do buy it. Because to have that game in your home when most people wouldn't have had the opportunity to go to a show and play it. If you've gone to a show and 70,000 people have played the game already before you get your game at home. But if you buy it first before it's been at a show, then you have that early opportunity to know the game before other people do. So it's a different marketing technique, but I think it could work.
    63:06
    Right. Well, we'll have to see. I do recall Jack indicating that he, similar to Harry Potter, he played the prototype game and he said, don't buy anything until you play. See his next game. And that's sort of becoming a catchphrase for upcoming Jersey Jack games, I suppose, at least for the second title in a row, that is. It takes over from the old adage that Jack's played it and he likes it, which always used to be the seal of approval for any game. Right, okay. So now usually we don't do rumors. Oh, no, definitely not. No, no, we stick to the facts. Yes. Now the fact is that there's this rumor coming around.
    64:02
    Is it a fact? Well, actually, well, we started a rumor about Mark Siden's game last year, which we discussed a couple of times already, Where we loosely, or I should say, I loosely hinted at that it could have been, well, all I said was there was a reason why Stern Pinball is not doing a vault edition of Ghostbusters. And that was already enough to spark a little rumor that Mark Sider would be working on, or Jersi Jack would be working on a Ghostbusters game. But there's a new rumor. For some time, it's already been rumored that Mark Sider's game will be a music-themed pin. And the latest rumor is that that theme would be Michael Jackson.
    65:08
    Yes. Theme-wise, well, yeah, a little bit. Although not to everybody, I suppose. There's plenty of people who will only care about the music.
    65:23
    And not so much his private life, I suppose. Unless that's really part of the game. I can't see that somewhere.
    65:35
    Neverland. No, let's not even speculate on this. No. No good will come of it. Yes. But it's just a rumor. It could be interesting. Could it be a title that I would see Jack taking on for Jersey Jack? The name is big enough, but it's also a controversial title. It could be interesting. On the other hand, too many ballads in Michael Jackson's repertoire, I would say.
    66:14
    But there's probably about a dozen danceable songs that make sense. And then again, Guns N' Roses had ballads too, and that worked very well in Guns N' Roses' game. Um, well, anyway, that is a, it's a fact that that's a rumor, right? Yes. Okay, good. Good, because we wouldn't want to do rumors, just rumors. No. I still like Ghostbusters better, but. Yeah.
    66:44
    So, anyway, moving on from. We'll see what other rumors we can start. Sure. So, well, here's one to start. What would Pinball Brothers currently be working on? Well, is there a fact about what a rumor is about that game?
    67:02
    I think there is a rumor for a fact. Oh, rumor for a fact. Okay. So is it a fact or rumor that they're working on the fifth element?
    67:14
    I think it's a factual rumor. Okay. Well, there you are. Take it or leave it. But we haven't had an announcement about what the next game is after Predator because Predator sales finished at the end of March, I believe. Right. I'm curious whether they're still building ABBA games or Queen games, for that matter. Because those licenses have, as far as I know, not expired. I'm just not sure how big the demand is.
    67:47
    Although, based on the names of these groups, you would say that should be huge. Yeah, I suspect there'd be a small dribble of orders for those games, but not large numbers. But they could probably fill those from stock, I imagine. They're hardly going to pull it back onto production line. Unless they have a smaller line, they can just do small runs of these games.
    68:11
    Right. But then if they're doing the League of War game in Pedretti, then that is effectively a Queen game. So rethemed.
    68:23
    So, you know, maybe it's not that difficult to run some Queen games at the same time. Right. So, and I also wonder what happened to that alternative backlash for Queen that was shown at Expo, but I've never seen it actually as an option or an add-on for your game. Maybe it didn't get approved. I don't know. Probably the case. I'm surprised. It was really the band logo, wasn't it? Yeah. The crest.
    68:56
    Yeah. Yes. So, oh, well, then moving on to Cardona Pimball, who are actually building game kits in this case, I would say. Yeah, well last month we announced that they were going to be bringing Fishtails the ultimate fishing challenge kit as a sort of 2.0 upgrade to the original Fishtails game.
    69:25
    Well now they have to own the game already. Yes, or buy one. And they've upgraded. Yes, that's right. So it would be like a new control system, I think it's fast pinball boards to go in the game. New display panel, new back glass, same play field I think where it adds an LCD display to not just the display panel but also where the fishing, I shall remember what it's called, the panel on the left that has the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times LEDs or lamps in it for when you do the monster fish. Yeah, so they had an initial $200 discount on orders for Fishtails, the Ultimate Fishing Challenge, which has now expired. So if you didn't get in on that, the price is now $2,200.
    70:29
    The kit will, apart from being available from Cardona Pinball Design, it will also be available from Cointaker, who will be stocking it. So that's an alternative purchase option for you. Gameplay videos are available on the Cardona Pinball Design Facebook and YouTube channels, so you can actually see the game in action for yourself.
    70:54
    Interesting, we mentioned before they also did a No Good Gophers kit and a Black Rose kit. Well, Cardona Pinball says they only have one No Good Gophers kit left, And after that, they have no plans to make any more of those since the license has expired for that license, I guess, from Plantry Pinball.
    71:17
    They also have a handful, the phrase used, of Black Rose kits. But again, the license for that one has expired as well. So once they're gone, they're gone.
    71:31
    And this is a sudden surge in demand that causes them to renegotiate the license. So if you want to get either of those two kits, the N' Roses or the Rat Rose kits, now's the time to get it before they're all gone.
    71:46
    But in the meantime, Fishtails Ultimate Fishing Challenge is the new kit, available from Cardona themselves and also from Cointaker.
    71:58
    And that's it, I think, from Cardona Pinball Design. Okay, so then... Yeah, near your home, what's going on with Barry and co at Dutch Pinball? Well, I texted Barry this afternoon to find out about some rumours I had heard and he was busy today. He said he'd be happy to talk to me tomorrow. Hmm. Okay. Well, big news in next month's FinCast then.
    72:34
    Probably yeah But no officially no news From what I understand quite a few people are still waiting on their topper for their Alice Adventures in Wonderland game Yes. But, well, it's touch pinball. So on a positive note, they always seem to come through at the end. Although, well, the end isn't the end, but still. But so it might take a while, but it already has. Yeah, well, yeah. Well, you know how long I waited for my Lebowski game, right? True. That was like a decade.
    73:18
    Yes. And no kidding. So, but eventually I got my game. So, and I did run into Renz, who is sort of a spokesperson, at least online for Dutch Pinball. And of course, our talk was completely off the record. Of course. Right, moving on then.
    73:43
    And of course, he didn't spill any beans. I think I am allowed to say that I think they're expecting to finish the production of Alice Adventures in Wonderland this summer.
    74:02
    And I'm not going to pin it down on a month because, well, it's summer and you never know how it goes with holidays and what have you. Yeah, it's now officially summer. So now we're in June. So over the next three months. That seems reasonable to aim for. At the Texas Pinball Festival, I got a sticker from Chris from Cointaker of the Big Lebowski. There is one prototype only that has artwork by Christopher Frenchy.
    74:48
    And, well, that's a one-off, I suppose. But since there are hardly any photos of it, I was very happy with that sticker that has that image on it. So I mentioned that to Renz and I was like, so any chance you guys are getting approval to use that artwork? And take Lebowski back into production. Like a Houdini.
    75:15
    Yeah, something like that. And I think he said something like that not everybody in the company is a fan of that artwork. So if they would be considering doing a remake of The Big Lebowski or a rerun or what have you, it would definitely not be with that artwork. And I think that's all the news that I got out of him. So it's not very much, but make of that what you want. Did you get the impression that they might put Big Lebowski back on the line?
    75:58
    I guess that depends on how far along are they with their rumours to be the next title Back to the Future game. If that's ready to go into production, I don't see why they need to be building more Lebowski games. But if for whatever reason that game is not ready to go into production, they might need something to keep the line busy. I've been working, I guess I've been working on the next title for a good number of years now, So you might think it would be in a position to go into production when they're ready.
    76:39
    Yeah, well, you also have to order all your parts up front. Well, that's how a pinball company works, so we don't need to tell them how it works. No, indeed. Okay, so that's what we do know about Dutch Pinball.
    76:57
    We also know about a number of other companies. And unfortunately, what we know is that there is no news from them this month, at least in the month of May. We're going to make this very short then. Yeah, absolutely. We have no news from the following companies. Here we go. Chicago Gaming. Turner Pinball.
    77:16
    Ramps Pinball. Vector Pinball. That's Australia, that is. Kildozer Studios. Bitronic in Spain. I did check, although Super Hoop and Tokyo Perfect Drift Games were both at the Austrian Pimball Festival, just to throw that in. Not news from them, but they were available to play.
    77:41
    Right, okay. No news from Homepin either. No, no news from Pimball Adventures in Canada. Yeah. No news from Quetzal, which is sort of related to Bitronic, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. So that's those companies we don't have news from.
    78:00
    Yeah. And then we already cut a few from the list that we haven't had any news from for years. Yeah. Oh, well. Is there any other news? Well, just to hark back to talking about the Austrian Pimball Festival, which, as I mentioned, took place in Wokervuk, middle of May. Special guests there included Eric Meunier, famed designer, of course. Aaron Davis, also famed for Fast Pinball founder, co-founder.
    78:34
    Hexa Pinball, as you mentioned, they were there. The first three of those all did talks, Eric, Aaron and Hexa. So you can catch those videos, as mentioned before. Melvin Brow-Williams was there, of course. I was there. Aaron was talking with Brian Madden, Team Dr. Brian Madden, founder of the Mission Pinball framework, which an awful lot of games are built on, whether they're using the fast pinball or using other hardware systems. And so they're basically there to rhapsodize about how good it is to build your own homebrew game and how easy it now is and how you need to come up with an idea and then start working with like minded individuals to realize it. And there's a good selection of homebrew games there as well. And Aaron, Melvin, Brian, Stefan and myself sat down and had a talk about which games, and Eric as well, I should say, talk about which one was the best homebrew game of the show. And we decided it's Deep Blue Rage. So we gave that one the award. So well done for that particular game, which was very innovative in numerous different ways.
    80:11
    I assume there are photos of that on your report. And in the video as well, of course. Yes, Stefan organiser, Stefan Riedler, rounded up a nice selection of prizes for the quiz, which I, as I said, I quickly did it and got our audience members to shout out answers to try to get the right number. Most of them were number based, so we tried to get people to shout out the right number or get as close to it as possible and then I just give the prize away. So assisted there very much by Marcel van Kessel, of course, organiser of the Dutch Pinball Open Expo, which is being held in November near Utrecht. And so definitely worth going there where you and I will be there, of course, doing our proper quiz where we have lots more prizes to give away, which is actually the process of collecting even now and will pick up a bunch more from Pinball Expo in October. Unfortunately, there won't be an Austrian Pinball Festival next year as the dates that they could book the hall for clash with a large show in Germany being held by the German Pinball Association not that far away. So all efforts are going towards that show. But the Austrian Pinball Festival will return for its second outing in 2028. So I certainly hope to be back for that and hope you can make it as well because it's quite a show. I would say if you're not aware of it, then go and read the report and look at the pictures and the videos. I hear there's plenty of possibility to play pinball and not just long lines. I heard somebody mention that, yeah, it might have been us just now, but it certainly was the case. And I think that pretty much wraps it up from other news. You've got more?
    82:06
    I am more. Actually, you do. Do I? Oh. What have I got? Right. Well, while you were in Austria, I do believe that you were able to talk to Eric Meunier of Jersey Jack Pinball. Of course. Yes, and you wanted to find out what's cooking with Eric Meunier, didn't you? I did indeed, yes, Eric was kind enough to sit down and in a rather echoey back room there so we could talk about not just what's cooking with him but also what his impressions of the show were and how the game and his seminar about it went. And anyway, the key point was we wanted to find out his favourite recipe and here he is. So to find out what's cooking with Eric Meunier. We are joined here by famed pinball designer Eric Meunier of Jerser Jack Pinball who is here with me at the Austrian Pinball Festival, the very first Austrian Pinball Festival. Welcome Eric. Thank you. And we're going to ask the famed question, what's cooking with Eric Meunier? Yeah. So there's a recipe that I really enjoy making, that I enjoy bringing to parties, and there's two different variants for it. One of them is if you have a lot of time, you can make it one way. It requires about a day to prepare. And the other one you can make in about two hours. So let's start with the short one.
    83:48
    The recipe is jalapeños, fresh jalapeños, cream cheese, spices that include things like brown sugar, garlic, onion powder.
    84:05
    And so chili or anything in there? Some chili powder is good. Something to give it a little bit of kick. Yeah. And then we want, let's see, the outside is bacon. Oh, right.
    84:24
    The term that I've heard them described as is called an atomic buffalo turd. All right. So what you do is you cut open the top of the jalapeno. You stuff it with your cream cheese and spices. Those are mixed together. You can add more cheese to it, something like a Mexican blend of cheese.
    84:48
    That can help quite a bit. If you want, you can add chorizo to it, which can also help. And again, this is going to be something that can be prepared quickly. You wrap it in bacon and one of the key points is to use toothpicks to spear through it so you hold the bacon on so it doesn't slip off. And then it's often best, if you have the proper device, you can put it inside your smoker, which is why you want to do this, but you want them to rest vertically so that as they're cooking the cream cheese doesn't all pour out. Of course. You lay it on its side, cream cheese will all melt out. So you stick them vertically. Upright. All right. And smoke them for about two hours at 225 and they come out with a bacon crispy. Two hours. Yeah. And cream cheese nice and gooey and it adds this wonderful smoky flavor. If your fan base that is eating these is a fan of spicy food, when you're cutting open the jalapenos, you can leave in the seeds and stems or you can mix them back in. If your people who are going to be consuming this are not fans of really spicy food, you clean out all of the seeds and all of the stems from your jalapenos and that makes it much more palatable. So even people who don't like spicy food can enjoy this because it's not going to burn as long as you get rid of the seeds and stems. Now, if you have an entire weekend to prepare, what you do, and now this elevates it to a level. There is a restaurant in Texas near the Texas Pinball Festival that serves what's called the Texas Twinkie, which is a variant of this recipe. So it's this same recipe. It's the jalapeno. It's the cream cheese. It's the bacon.
    86:36
    And then inside, instead of chorizo, you have brisket. So you cook brisket, right? You smoke your brisket and use your proper spices for preparing your brisket. You slice it up into very small pieces and you mix that in with your cream cheese and put that back in the jalapeno. It's in place of chorizo. It's in place of the chorizo. Yeah. And then you smoke that with the same temperature. And next time you're at Texas Pinball Festival and you go over to Hard 8, make sure you order yourself a Texas Junkie. I've been there several times. And you'll see why this is a recipe for the ages. It's certainly not what you'd consider health food by any means, but it's one of those, we're going to go to a barbecue, we're going to have a good time, and we're going to have something that's a unique flavor. Is it small enough? It's like finger food and it's just nibble on. It can be. So certainly you can get smaller size, one inch jalapenos, that have a little bit in it, or you can get monster jalapenos. When you go to Heart 8, you're getting a monster size jalapeno. Of course, I think it's bigger in Texas. Right. I mean, that thing is a meal unto itself. I think it costs $8 for just one of these things. So it's a lot. But I've prepared them several times where I cut the jalapeno in half and lay it on its side but try to leave a lip made from the bacon so that you can rest and everything doesn't pour out. So they can be smaller size. I've made them for my wife's book club and they go over very, very well with her and her lady friends. Most prefer the milder version and that's what I would recommend if you're bringing it to a party where you don't know everyone. Make it the milder version. Okay, well thank you very much for that Eric. Now we are here at the very first Austrian Pinball Festival. It's an interesting show and I'm sure you'll be pretty impressed by what you've seen so far. But what's your impression of the Austrian Pinball Festival 2026? Yeah, I really like the way the hall is laid out. It's got a lot of space. It has a really good variety of games, right? So you're not seeing duplicates and triplicates of everything. There are enough different games from every manufacturer that you can play some of the stuff that you might not have been exposed to before, right? So every Dirty Jack game is here, all of the Spooky games, all of the Barrels of Fun games, everything is here, playable, set up, working, and it's really great. And the games seem to be quite available to play. There's not long lines behind any of them, which is quite surprising. When you come to some of the other shows, there's 10 or 12 people waiting to play the latest title. So I think a lot has to do with how many games there are in such a wide variety. And we're seeing games now as an American, there's games here that I haven't seen in the U.S. at any of the shows that I've been to. I've got to experience some games from European manufacturers that don't make it overseas. I've got to experience quite a few of the really unique homebrews that people don't, of course, bring over to the U.S. It's very hard to bring a game across the ocean. So it's been really fun to see what some of the people on this side of the pond are making with passion, right, and not for a major manufacturer. So that's been really cool and getting to talk to a lot of these people because it's an event where I'm not working at a booth. Yeah. I'm not representing 24-7, right? So I get to hang out, I get to spend time, I get to play games with people and hear their story and what brings them to pinball. So I really enjoyed this show. I really enjoyed the people and the environment and it's a fun place. So just talking briefly about your current game, which is obviously the Harry Potter game, which has done so well for the company and has been a big success and been so well received. I think in every version of it that's been produced. That is still on the line, I'm guessing. It is. But of course you will be working on your next title already. Absolutely.
    90:57
    And Jerser Jack Pinball will be launching a new game fairly soon. Correct. So what's, I mean, are you still doing development on, are you still looking at what's happening with Harry Potter, Are you still identifying any things which you might change later or might come into play later or even in your next game? Sure. There's always a list of nice-to-haves on a game, right? But there's also a certain amount of resources that you're allowed to apply to a project. Right now, Harry Potter is considered done by Jersey Jack. Of course, if we find bugs, which have happened, we have our beta group that will tell us and we'll read stuff online. Hey, there's a bug here. We found one recently on 125. We patched it in 126, and that's the only update that happened on 126. And it was a stupid two-minute update, but it was one of those things where it was this mode. And it was taking priority over this other thing. And is that what we wanted? No. But is it something that was exhaustively tested and found? No, because we wouldn't. Who would have thought it would happen? It was an edge case. Yeah, it was an edge case. And a fan brought it up. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that does suck. And then we reproduced it. Like, yeah, that's not fun. Let's fix it. And we did.
    92:28
    There are, like I said, those things that would be nice to have in the game. And maybe when there's a rainy day, myself or Joe will get in a room and we'll be like, hey, let's see if we can do X, Y, and Z. But the game is 100% complete. All rules, all modes, everything.
    92:45
    All the voice, all the animation, all of the movie clips, all that stuff is there. And guys like me and Joe, as fun as Potter is, and we love the game, Joe and I have been on other projects for almost a year at this point. You know, there's more to do.
    93:04
    So we're three games ahead of what the public sees at any time and working on the next thing. So we are both actively involved in Steve's game. We're both actively involved in Mark's game. And then him and I are heading another project ourselves. And there's always new games and more stuff. And again, Harry Potter is very close to both of us. And we're always open to what people say and their feedback and we listen. And if there are improvements that are deemed necessary by the company, of course we make them. And if there are improvements that are deemed necessary by me and Joe, we find time to make them. You must be very proud of the way that the game's turned out though and the reception that's received and the sales that it's garnered as well as a result of that. Absolutely. So when you come to a show like, well, come to any show, and you see all the games there, you see all the boxes all stacked up, saying Jers Jack Pinball and all stacked with Harry Potter and the various different editions on them. It must give you a very warm feeling to think, that's my game. It is a very good feeling when a game strikes true on all levels, right? So the layout is, of course, my primary responsibility. Software is Joe's primary responsibility and we work together so closely.
    94:27
    He's shooting the whitewood and he's giving feedback. I'm shooting the rules and I'm giving feedback. And then the mechanics being done by Dan Leitchik. We're all such a close group that we give honest feedback to each other and all of us strive to make the game as good as possible. And when we come to a show and we just have hundreds of fans saying how much they love the game and how it's not just the layout, it's not just the rules and the animations and the sound, but the whole package comes together, it's a very rewarding feeling. Of course you will be doing a presentation tomorrow about the making of that game ahead of the launch of the next game and your next game, which will be a little while yet, I'm guessing. Yep. But anyway, in the meantime, thank you very much for joining us on What's Cooking With. It's Eric Mounier, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Martin, for recording this segment. Thank you for reminding me. I've forgotten all about it.
    95:27
    There's so much going on. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Eric, as well, for sharing his thoughts on the show and his recipe. Absolutely. Good to sit down with him and talk. Now you get to say that this finally rounds it up for our recap of the month of May 2026. We hope you've enjoyed this look back. Yes, indeed. And we will be back at the start of July. My goodness, can you imagine July? We'll be back at the start of July with our next Pincast, which will look back at all the events in the pinball industry throughout this exciting month of June, because it is very exciting. Will include a new game review, most likely being Sonic the Hedgehog. Wow. Yes. So that's something to look forward to. Yes. And that will keep many people busy, including us. So anyway, we'll have that and all details of everything else that's happened in the pinball industry throughout the month. So until then, from me, Martin Ayer of Pinball News and me, Jonathan Houston of Pinball Magazine, We hope you have a truly joyous June and look forward to joining you again next month for the next edition of the Pinball Industry News Pincast. Bye for now. Bye bye.