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FEBRUARY 2026 PINCAST

Pinball News Website·podcast_episode·analyzed·Mar 2, 2026
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TL;DR

Pokémon Pinball revealed; Dutch Pinball Exclusive ends; Melvin Williams joins American Pinball as Creative Director.

Summary

February 2026 saw major pinball industry announcements: Stern revealed Pokémon Pinball after years of licensing delays, with three pricing tiers and 750 Limited Edition units selling out immediately; Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) dissolved after disagreements between designer Melvin Williams and new Dutch Pinball investors over Raza production terms; and Melvin Williams was quickly appointed Creative Director at the newly restructured American Pinball under new ownership. The podcast also previewed upcoming news from Barrels of Fun and Texas Pinball Festival.

Key Claims

  • Pokémon Pinball was delayed by licensing approval issues and finally revealed on Friday, February 13, 2026

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson (Pinball Mag editor) stating the game was long-rumored and finally got to see it in full glory on that date

  • Pokémon Pinball pricing: Standard $5,000, Premium $8,000, Limited Edition $13,000 with 750 units produced

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson providing specific pricing and production numbers during main announcement segment

  • Limited Edition Pokémon machines have unique serialized Pokémon linked to each serial number

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson explaining each LE has special Pokémon matching game number, mirroring Batman LE tradition

  • Pokémon Company International restricted Stern's artwork freedom, providing approved elements that could be rearranged but not modified

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson discussing licensing constraints on artwork design during Pokémon section

  • Dutch Pinball brought on two new Netherlands-based investors in early 2026, changing production terms for Raza and causing DPX dissolution

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson citing Barry's email to distributors announcing new investors and their impact on collaboration structure

  • Melvin Williams was 'blindsided' by Dutch Pinball's ultimatum to accept new business terms or leave, which he could not accept

    high confidence · Atomicoice reporting from direct conversation with Melvin Williams about his departure from DPX

  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland topper delivery delayed up to 3 months due to original display board supplier pushing back from January to May delivery

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson citing Barry's email regarding supply chain issues with display board supplier

  • Melvin Williams appointed as Creative Director at American Pinball within weeks of leaving Dutch Pinball

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson announcing official appointment and Atomicoice confirming through direct conversation with Melvin

Notable Quotes

  • “Pokemon is something like two hundred and forty billion so about three times if not four times the size of the next biggest brand”

    Jonathan Yousson @ early in Pokémon section — Illustrates massive scale of Pokémon IP and why Stern pursued it despite artwork restrictions

  • “I'd never forgive the way that he was forced out in such a way, which was very, very sad”

    Melvin Williams (via Atomicoice) @ Melvin/American Pinball section — Reveals emotional impact of Melvin's departure from Dutch Pinball and suggests acrimonious ending to DPX collaboration

  • “American Pinball needed a reboot. Starting everything fresh gives them that clean break from the old American Pinball”

    Melvin Williams (via Atomicoice) @ American Pinball section — Explains Melvin's motivation for joining American Pinball and his vision for restructuring under new ownership

  • “He purposefully published his announcement about leaving DPX until just after midnight local time when European market would be asleep when US was still awake”

    Atomicoice (reporting Melvin's reasoning) @ Dutch Pinball/American Pinball transition — Shows strategic timing of announcement and Melvin's awareness of community reaction patterns

  • “Pokemon Company International keep a very, very tight grip on their assets and the game's to the point where Stern were very restricted in what they could do with the artwork”

    Jonathan Yousson @ Pokémon licensing discussion — Explains quality concerns about Pokémon artwork despite otherwise strong game design

  • “The original supplier pushed them back unexpectedly from delivery in January to delivery in May, which he deemed was unacceptable”

    Jonathan Yousson (citing Barry's email) @ Alice in Wonderland topper delay section — Details the supply chain disruption forcing Dutch Pinball to source toppers elsewhere

  • “After 14 years in the coin op industry traveling across the country and around the world, I knew it was time to take everything I'd learned from different concepts and build something of my own right here in my hometown of St. Charles, Illinois”

Entities

Pokémon PinballgameJonathan YoussonpersonAtomicoicepersonJack DangerpersonGeorge GomezpersonTanya KleisspersonStern PinballcompanyDutch Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Stern Pinball officially announced Pokémon Pinball after years of licensing delays, with full specifications (three tiers, 750 LE units, $5K-$13K pricing, Spike 3 platform)

    high · Jonathan Yousson and Atomicoice confirm February 13, 2026 media reveal with specifications provided by design team (Jack Danger, George Gomez, Tanya Kleiss)

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Pokémon Company International imposed strict artwork control on Stern, restricting creative freedom to rearrangement of approved elements only

    high · Jonathan Yousson: 'they were given artwork elements and could rearrange them but couldn't make any changes to them whatsoever'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Pokémon LE 750-unit limited edition sold out immediately pre-release with secondary market flipping already occurring

    high · Jonathan Yousson: 'sold out immediately, if not before it was released with preorders' and 'people who put in their preorders are trying to make a fast buck on secondary markets'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Melvin Williams departed Dutch Pinball Exclusive after investor-imposed ultimatum, rapidly transitioned to American Pinball Creative Director role

    high · Atomicoice: 'he was kind of blindsided by the way that the split happened' and appointment confirmed by Jonathan Yousson within weeks of departure

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Dutch Pinball's Alice in Wonderland toppers delayed up to 3 months due to display board supplier pushing delivery from January to May

    high · Jonathan Yousson citing Barry's email: 'original supplier pushed them back unexpectedly from delivery in January to delivery in May'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.359

0:00
Pokemon Pinball Revealed The End of Dutch Pinball Exclusive New CreativeDirector at American Pinball Texas Pinball Festival Preview Hi, my name is Jonathan Yousson. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined by... Atomicoice, Pinball news and Jonathan and I are here to look back at all the exciting events that took place in the pinball world throughout the month of February 2026 and it was an exciting month I know we say this most months but I think it's fair to say that February brought us a quite a lot of news and we're going to bring it to you in this month's pin cast yeah big summary a new game of course and well the end of the company and and and some surprising events Let's just try. Yeah, let's dive straight in and start with Stern pinball who announced and revealed Pokemon by Stern pinball designed by Jack Danger and George Gomez. Long time rumored title, not really a surprise. And apparently the the reveal has been postponed The game was released in early 2019 due to licensing approval issues. Yes, that's right. We finally got to see it in its full glory on Friday the 13th. Ominous date, but I think it went down very well for them. It was shown to distributors a few days earlier on the Tuesday, and then there was a media open day at the Stirling Factory for invited guests on the Wednesday before the launch. Yes, which neither of us could get to unfortunately. Yeah, and as always, at least I did, I asked, Okay, can we get a zoom interview or whatever type of way of interview to talk to the design team long distance because we can't make it and there's ever never none of that happened. So no, I think they're a bit swamped by media requests The game is launched so unless you're actually there, I think you probably get to drop off the list of people to speak to but not a surprise. I was a little disappointed that it was but understand that it was arranged at quite short notice when you only got the invitation. What about a week or 10 days before the media open day actually happened, which was a little bit irritating for me because I was already in the US on On the Monday of that week and had I known that media open day was going to be on the Wednesday I could have extended my stay there by a couple of days and gone. But fortunately, a good friend Mick Brown was able to go for Pinball News and report from it and recorded the presentation that Jack Dainton, George Gomez and Tanyo Klyce whose software lead on the game did in front of the assembled media people. And so you can watch that on the Pinball News site in the report on the Nought of the Game and also on our YouTube channel. So I'll get that plug out of the way. He said actually it was a surprisingly young crowd at this media or streamers open day and which maybe that reflects the broad appeal of the Pokemon theme because personally I'm saying I don't it doesn't do anything for me. And but that seems to be a common thread these days when they launch these new titles I don't know. I know about them, but they're not something which I'm particularly interested in but it is surprising how many people are into Pokemon and I saw some some details somewhere about the the most popular of the world's most popular media brands and

  • Eric Gilly departed Stern Pinball after 14 years in coin-op industry and opened REC House bar in St. Charles, Illinois with 10 Stern pinball machines

    high confidence · Jonathan Yousson quoting Eric Gilly's LinkedIn post about his departure and new venue

  • Pokémon is the world's largest media brand by revenue (~$240 billion annually) with broader appeal than traditional pinball themes

    medium confidence · Jonathan Yousson citing data about Pokémon brand size, though specific sourcing not provided in transcript

    • Eric Gilly (LinkedIn post, quoted by Jonathan) @ Eric Gilly career move section — Confirms Eric Gilly's transition from Stern Pinball to independent venue ownership

  • “He says American Pinball needed a reboot...there's really nobody there from the old American Pinball and everyone's new and brings a fresh perspective”

    Atomicoice (reporting Melvin's observations) @ American Pinball restructuring section — Emphasizes complete organizational reset at American Pinball under new leadership

    • Melvin Williams
    person
    Barryperson
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderlandgame
    Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX)company
    Razagame
    American Pinballcompany
    Brian Vincentperson
    Ron Lindemannperson
    Eric Gillyperson
    Barrels of Funcompany
    David Van Nessperson
    Brian Savageperson
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Pokémon Company Internationalcompany
    Pinball Magorganization
    Pinball Newsorganization
  • ?

    code_update: King Kong: Myth of Terror Island received significant v0.93 update with new Lost Temple Multiball mode, combo system, scoring changes, and effects on February 4

    high · Jonathan Yousson: 'received a big update on the 4th right back at the start of the month with version 0.93. It featured a new Lost Temple Multiball mode'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Dutch Pinball formally ended external collaboration model, vowing not to pursue DPX-style partnerships in future due to 'complexity and dependency'

    high · Jonathan Yousson: 'Dutch Pinball has concluded this type of external collaboration introduces a level of complexity and dependency that does not align with how we want to build and scale'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: American Pinball under new ownership actively hiring coders and assembly workers, retaining only Ron Lindemann and Matesh from prior staff, building team of ~10 new employees

    high · Atomicoice: 'they are currently Papa Duke much the only previous workers from there and they are hiring coders and assembly line workers right now' and 'everyone's new and brings a fresh perspective'

  • ?

    product_strategy: American Pinball pivoting from multiple edition variants (Standard, Deluxe, Collector's, Signature) to two-tier model (Standard and Enhanced)

    high · Atomicoice: 'rather than the previous muddle of different versions, the classic, Deluxe, collector's edition, signature edition...New titles will just have two models going forward'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Melvin Williams and American Pinball pursuing larger IP licenses as core strategy to increase market appeal and competitive position

    medium · Atomicoice: 'he wants to get some bigger licenses involved' and 'American Pinball never really had any big titles and they really need something higher profile'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Eric Gilly departed Stern Pinball after 14 years as Senior Director of North American Sales to launch independent venue (REC House) in St. Charles, Illinois

    high · Jonathan Yousson quoting Eric Gilly's LinkedIn: 'after 14 years in the coin op industry...I knew it was time to take everything I'd learned...and build something of my own'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Pokémon announcement attracted younger, broader audience (Pokemon enthusiasts, non-traditional pinball media) indicating potential market expansion beyond traditional base

    medium · Jonathan Yousson: 'surprisingly young age of attendees at this media...maybe that reflects the broad appeal of the Pokemon theme' and 'surprised how much fun pinball was and were telling their viewers'

    • 4:20
    Pokemon far and away is the biggest in the world I think the second one on the list was Hello Kitty and that and that was and guess what? The game was billion worldwide per year and Pokemon was something like two hundred and forty billion so about three times if not four times the size of the next biggest brand so it is huge and So they're making such huge amounts of money and there's a lot of people who? Get involved in it, so I think from that aspect if they can attract even a small proportion of those fans Into the pinball world who were not previously there. Well, they probably I assume going back to the younger Attendees at the at the media briefing so to speak at CERN I assume they reached out to Pokemon Enthusiasts and and in in a who professionally or more or less professionally are involved in that and they might have been 1\'855-4\'853oh absolutely yes. I mean, all of them didn't really know much about about people and that's truel media coverage as well, you know, the follow the streams and recordings. I've seen. I've been people who were, you know, surprised how much fun pinball was and were telling their viewers and listeners. The pinball is still around and they wouldn't really have known about it otherwise. So I think yeah, I think it's not very Crapman, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, For the premium and $13,000 for the limited edition limited edition, of course, sold out immediately, if not before it was released with preorders, various distributors. They'd ever some apparently available for sales. It's still website, but chance to getting one of those is is pretty slim.
    7:15
    And now, of course, people who who put in their preorders on this are trying to to make a fast buck on it and saying them collegeitchie__'mtôiithate and copyright Hmm. So, um, well, the I'm not sure whether there is a reason for the 750 units for the le I do know that each le as a special Pokemon. Like like with the Batman. Yes. Yeah. So a special tag unique for that game. So maybe No you're right each serial number is linked to a Pokemon because Pokemon all have numbers as well. Pokemon character. I mean there are over 813 or something in the game so far and there's going to be more added, but I'd know, I think it's something like 3000 in total out there, so I don't think The game has a Pikachu toy on it and a pokeball, both of which are animated in the premium and LE but not in the pro. There's a Meowth balloon which comes down and turns into a bash toy. That is, that's in all models, but on the premium and LE there's a magnet under it, a disruptive magnet. And there's also a sneak in scoop and also on the premium and LE there's like a spin around like a whirlpool bowl on the left hand in lane, a bit like the opposite side of the ondestand if ca Deutsche is sweet Have you a or into the spin around depending on what the uh what mode the game is in so the ball won get stuck in there quite so much and also they put little bumps in it as well to stop it from spending you know a minute spinning around so i thought about all that um as far as production goes um there a limited run of pros being made first of all operators to put out on on location after that they make the limited editions and finally the rest of the pros. The first one, the ones for operators was supposed to begin production in late February but Stern's factory friday tour which was a couple of days ago didn't show it on the line so I don't know whether that's been delayed or whether it is in production or has been in production but they just weren't showing it. Very exciting launch I think generally I think it's a massive title really for Stern for those people who are aware of it I think so many people are into Pokemon it's quite surprising you know we took to people well I never was and the surprise is that this is an office with you know ten people in it probably three or four of them will be big Pokemon fans hmm well I I never was into the cartoon series I did play Pokemon Go on my cell phone, my smartphone when it came out for a little bit. But that's as far as my interest in Pokemon goes. I thought the app was fun for as long as it lasted. But yeah, but I get that the the theme of catching Pokemon's is very Relatable to or to transferable to a pinball game. So in that sense, I think sir may have a Definitely a hit on their hand. I'm just interested or curious to see whether operators Besides the traditional pinball operators that we have And now see the potential of operating a Pokemon game on location or maybe bringing new operators or something like that. You know, I mean, for FECs and so on, it seems like a no brainer to have a Pokemon pinball machine. Absolutely.
    12:33
    But but is the local laundromat going to put a Pokemon pinball machine in there or something like that? Hmm. Yeah, I'm not sure we go from Make miracles, but but I think it's it's certainly going to appeal to to a wide range of people who may be turned off by the the the previous traditional titles are the superheroes and bands Right. Well, the thing is if you think about it if you have ACDC pinball or Metallica You can put easily into I don't know a trucker's bar or any time bar but with Pokemon I mean that's more. Well, you think it would be more aimed at
    13:27
    Children teenagers maybe But not so much people that attend barcades Yeah, again, I think you go surprised might to attract people you The game itself, which is quite unusual. It seems that along with talking about the fact it was the law was delayed by license for approval. It does seem that Pokemon as licensed from the Pokemon company international keep a very, very tight grip on their assets and The game's to the point where Stern were very restricted in in what they could do with the artwork on the game. Basically, they were they were given artwork elements and could rearrange them but couldn't make any changes to them whatsoever. So it's almost like the the artwork on the game was was defined by licensor, which tends not to be a particularly good thing. We've seen that before. I have to admit I don particularly like the artwork on the new Pok game but then I not into the game I not into Pok I was gonna say would there have been any Pokémon related artwork that you would have liked? Yes I think so, it would have been a bit more dynamic. It's almost like it's a thing which would work really well with the sort of Jeremy Packer's, The Artwork that they've done for superheroes and and likewise, but I would appreciate that they're not allowed to do that For that that particular license. Oh, well, then there will be some aftermarket
    15:38
    Available and then you have the decals. Yeah. Oh, well, yeah anyway, so Well, obviously that was the main news from Stern pinball
    15:51
    Pretty much the only news really. Were there any code updates Martin? Yeah I'm surprised that you are so keen to find out. Yes there were actually. Yeah there were four. Four previous games all got updates to varying degrees or other. The Walking Dead Remastered got an update on the 11th. It wasn't a big update, just some additional feedback on displays and insert lighting to indicate whether features are ready or collected. A few new sounds, some voice calls and some new music as well. So that's quite good. Plus, of course, the usual bug fixes Metallica Remastered got a very small update on the 10th day before just to fix a couple of bugs and add a couple of service menu adjustments. And that was all. King Kong, on the other hand, Myth of Terror Island, got a pretty big update on the 4th and right back at the start of the month with version 0.93. Got a new Lost Temple Multiball Mini Wizard Wizard, Mini Wizard mode, whole new combo system which awards various timed powerups depending on how many shots you do and before collecting it. Added more perks through collecting treasure, rule changes, scoring and balances, all that stuff. More callouts, more lights, more sound effects and new shaker motor effects. So definitely a big update for King Kong. Finally, Star Wars Fall of the Empire got a new mini wizard mode as well called Never Tell Me the Odds. Got some new video clips added and some new attract mode settings and a few rule changes and bug fixes and all the usuals. So those were the four games which got code updates from Stern in the month of February. I think we mentioned a couple of months ago that we heard that Eric Gilly was no longer at Stern Eric Gilly being the senior director of North American sales at Stern Pinball and then I came across a post from him on LinkedIn and I'll read this out loud in quotes after 14 years in the coin up industry traveling I was traveling across the country and around the world. I knew it was time to take everything I'd learned from different concepts and build something of my own right here in my hometown of St. Charles, Illinois. Just three months ago, REC House opened its doors and it's been an incredible accomplishment that my family and I are extremely proud of. Full plus full service bar and kitchen. We host leagues and tournaments every week creating a space built around competition, community and fun. I wouldn't be here without my time at Bandai Namco Amusement America and Stern Pinball where I learned invaluable lessons that helped shape this concept. Special shout out to Tom Simenik and John Buscaglia both who were mentors to me at both companies. St. Charles area stop by and check it out we'd love to have you very nice just having a quick look at the website as you mentioned it yes it says they have 10 premium stern pinball models all collected via insider connected with a leaderboard and so yeah 10 people's and wrong with all those other games now I'm not saying this confirms that Eric Gilley is gone at Stern pinball but it does confirm that he is doing something on the side at least Rickhouse in St Charles, Illinois. So yeah, one to watch out. Maybe visit when we're over for Expo. Not too far away. So, no, indeed it is. And that rounds it up for first term. Yeah. Pinball is concerned. Yeah. Okay. So move on to our second headline, which was rather dramatic news about the end of Dutch Pinball Exclusive. So we better explain exactly what that is. I remember Dutch Pinball Exclusive was a company or a brand, a sub-brand I suppose, set up as part of Dutch Pinball to build the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland game. It was a collaboration between Barry of Dutch Pinball and Melvin Brow Williams who had the rights to the game. And so Dutch Pinball was basically building the game and Melvin designed finished the design did all the art art directing
    20:52
    did the software and gave it to Barry to build and um and to fulfill the orders I think that's a fair summation for what the the two roles um, however
    21:07
    um, there has been a The following out the party of ways, shall we say, between Melvin and Dutch Pinball. Yes, Melvin was the first to to bring the news out in a I think he even called it a press announcement or something like that. Basically announcing that, well, they are parting Mā Commit to building the remaining Alice's in Wonderland. Alice's Adventures. No. Yeah. The Alice game. So many Alice games. The Alice game, yes. So that should be a relief for those who have a game on order. Game is still being built and unfortunately the DPX collaboration ends now. We are going to do this in a slightly weird and backwards way because we have more news about Melvin coming up and we part of which got to speak to Melvin and he can give us a lot more detail about this and his other news. However, okay, so to back up, however, hold on. So the original plan was to have Melvin come on this episode of our pincast. And we had a confirmation from early in the week, where he said, Yeah, that's no problem. And then last night, just three quarters before I had to start a DJ gig. He texted me and he's like, I can't make it tomorrow night. And you can call me but we can't record anything and and then I reach out to you resulting in you actually talking to Melvin because I was not able to and what you Melvin discussed we're going to find out later. experience, respect Armycion Slice Illumination tens 몰�c interjectory eres freasifee , santé novels I Pars avez osen Ältrö Direktej afcie- Confirmed that the collaboration under the DPX name has come to an end. He said the title was first successfully brought to market discussions around a potential second title, which is Raza, as we know, that revealed a misalignment on commercial terms, which I think just comes down to a disagreement, Which we will talk about in Melvin's section. Specifically regarding margin structure and long term sustainability of all parties involved. As a result, both sides mutually agreed to discontinue not only the second project but the collaboration as a whole. Okay so now to me that didn necessarily mean that TPX was finished because another collaboration could come along and also become a Dutch Pinball exclusive title but as we will find out that not going to happen So, based on this experience, Dot's Pinball has concluded this type of external collaboration introduces a level of complexity and dependency that does not align with how we want to build and scale the company going forward. So they're pretty much ruling out ever doing anything like that again. Now one of the things which hasn't been mentioned in well, hasn't been mentioned so far and potentially is the cause for a lot of this is the fact that Dutch Pinball as mentioned in Barry's email to distributors has brought on board two new investors from the Netherlands. Now we don't know who they are so we can't can't speak about Anything they particularly bring to the company other than capital. Barry says they both have a strong passion for pinball and their involvement enables Dutch pinball to operate in a more professional, stable and well capitalized manner.
    26:19
    Okay, so As we understand it Up until their involvement Barry and Melvin had their agreement for the building Raza. We're going ahead with that. The new investors involvement changed all that. But we'll come back to that a bit later. I don't want to keep leaping backwards and forwards. Let's stop it. Anyway, it's varied to say Dutch pinball is fully committed, as you said, to completing the remaining Alice's Adventures in Wonderland machines and continues to work diligently towards final delivery. However, after that, there was another email went out to buyers telling them that there was further delays of up to another three months on the toppers for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland due to supply issues with the display board which is used for the capsize. According to Barry, the original supplier pushed them back unexpectedly from delivery in January to delivery in May, which he deemed was unacceptable, so has decided to get them made elsewhere, but is having to start the process of getting them with another supplier from scratch, which also takes time. In the meantime, it says Alice games are still shipping but without the toppers. So that was just something we were seeing before. Well, up until now, people were expecting them to be available at any time and looks like it's going to be longer delays for that, which is a shame. But it's only the topper. And if past experiencing to go by, if Dutch pinball say they will get you that eventually then they will. So but obviously disappointing not to have the entire package delivered to you if you've been waiting all this time for anything. Right. So now, before we close off the Dutch pinball segment, although in the next item, I did reach out to Barry today asking him whether he wanted to comment on the whole situation and he texted me back basically saying that he thinks everything has already been said and feels well so why repeating nothing you tried yeah that's my own interpretation of that but basically everything has been said so there's nothing new to report Ifおbod Papa Pakmak chan me. Basta te GRA feitoanders labs te wiっち fires še thousand CHRISTiS Dancer Hyundai zen Now you remember last month we announced the purchase of American Pinball the company By J Brian Vincent Who we call Brian Vincent from now on And or at least by his family company But he is heading up American Pinball And this month there was the announcement by American Pinball that Melvin Brow Williams has been appointed Creative Director Now who Melvin you might ask No no I don remember from five minutes ago So having separated from Barry and Dutch Pinball as part of DPX, he was very quickly appointed creative director at American Pinball. And although Melvin has near complete designs for retro atomic zombie adventureland Raza, as we were talking about before, apparently there are no immediate plans to build it at American Pinball. All that's not why he is there. As you said to find out more we wanted to bring him on to the this pincast and interview him but as you said Jonathan was busy working last night but I was able to speak with Melvin who took some time out from his busy Saturday night talked to us about the events all the events really over the past two weeks from the split with Dutch pinball to the appointment at American pinball. Um Uh no, but he said he wasn't in a position to record an interview with us just yet Um something we we're really hoping to do at the Texas Pinball Festival in a couple of weeks or shortly after where they He will be and uh Brian will be as well And we as well as well and several lots of other people as we will we talk about later in this Pincast Uh, but as I was able to chat to him about his departure from Dutch Pinball exclusive and his plans As creative director at American Pinball. So these are my takeaways from what we discussed. They're not his words exactly. So don't hold into any specific turn of phrase that I might use, but they are my interpretations and recollections from our conversation. Melvin and Brian, I said they, as I said, will be at TPF. They, along with us, they want to do, at the moment, would like to do a seminar there to talk about the A new Ameican Pinball. So let's hope that takes place. So, Melvin said Ameican Pinball is restarting now with many people are working on getting everything set up. We spoke about him leaving Dutch Pinball, Dutch Pinball Exclusive I should say and he said he was kind of blindsided by the way that the split happened. He knew about the new investors and welcomed their injection of new capital into Dutch Pinball John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteregon and the uncertainty that gives. And they basically gave him an ultimatum to either accept new terms for the business of building Raza or leave. Well, Melvin couldn't really accept those new terms because they were so unfavorable. So he was out the door. That was it. He said he'd never forgive the way that he was forced out in such a way, which was very, very sad.
    33:50
    As for the DPX brand and possible reuse of it, Bill Elvin and Barry created it together. Elvin said he didn't want the DPX brand to be used by Dutch Pinball after he left, as he feels it's tied so closely to his name. And he thinks Barry won't want to use it either. Melvin said he wouldn't allow another game to be produced under the DPx brand anyway. So that definitely does seem to be the end of touch pinball exclusive as a brand. When it comes to future games. Yes, that's right. Yes. Yes. The existing games, existing Alice games will be certainly will continue to be built under that brand. Yes, quite right. Good point. I moving on He said he purposefully published his announcement about leaving DPX until just after midnight local time when European market would be asleep when US was still awake so we could go to sleep and wake up in the morning and see what the reaction would be And he said it was amazingly supportive of his decision and understanding as well In a mere 16 minutes after he posted his announcement Out pinballANS presented vs Out pinball John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite and thought it would be a good fit for his skills and that's what Brian thought as well. And he said as creative director he will be ahead of all the designs being made, a bit like George Gomez's role I suppose at Stern. He will help with the design process, both his own designs and designs from other designers which we are yet to hear details of yet. We can imagine that Melvin's not going to be designing all the games. He says he has all the creative freedom that he wants in his role as creative director. He says he's only been working there for a couple of weeks but already feels like he's been there for a year with how settled everything feels. He says American Pinball needed a reboot. He says starting everything fresh gives them that clean break from the old American Pinball. So I asked him whether he's going to be moving over to Palatine in Illinois to work there. He said no, he's going to mostly still work remotely, but will come to the factory whenever he needs to. He'll come over and stay for about a week every eight weeks or longer if he stays for longer if he needs to, particularly around the time of new game launches and key points in the development of those. This week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, transliteregon He can be there.
    37:19
    You sound doubtful. In theory, yes. But even if you get the earliest flight, it still be there by India, India, but still, well, in theory, yes. Okay. Yeah. So at American pinball, Ron Lindemann is obviously still still there as vice president of the company. And Matesh is still there as a mechanical engineer from the old AP, but they are currently pretty much the only previous workers from there and they are hiring coders and assembly line workers right now. To get everything up and running. Remember last last month. Yeah, we also mentioned about the reimagined Valley Williams titles that American pinball have licensed from planetary pinball. Melvin will be involved in the designs of these. When he joined a couple of weeks ago, they were already working on the designs for one title, which Melvin has been helping with. He will help further with that and make changes where necessary. He is also doing the art direction for that game as well. But for subsequent reimagining games he will take a larger role in the design of the reimagining. The official designs for American Pinball may be his own or in collaboration with other game designers as I said before because they're trying to bring some of those on board but haven't got anything to announce just yet. Going back to Raza, he said that is not part of their planning at this time and it wasn't why he joined American Pinball. He says in a year or two it's the time to fit it into production schedule it could be made but it's not on Melvin or Brian's priorities. Excuse me, I'll go back off. The We talk this much in one long session
    39:21
    Turn to the Cuphead game. I thought it was a summary It is believe me. We talked for a while. The Cuphead game is not currently part of the future either
    39:32
    Martin said it could be brought into production at some point As he would as the As with a few tweaks, it's almost complete William Smoke Porter,
    39:51
    Sean Davidson Maybe not which designs are going to production. He says American pinball in the never the old American pinball. Well, they never made any particularly bad games. They never really had any big titles and they really need something higher profile and more appealing. So that's something he wants to address. He wants to get some some bigger licenses involved. Ron and Brian will do the employing of the staff and run the production line and manage the finances and all the sports side. Melvin thinks the sports side is getting a big boost and that will show itself in the coming months with additional staff and more parts stocked to support both new and existing titles. slecase formerly binding accepts, and Um, forever or indeed much longer. Galactic Tankforces says is a relatively new title so that probably build those for a little while longer. Apparently they're still building Hot Wheels at the moment and they do have the license for that still. So that's good to hear. That's quite a good game. I quite like that. Um, it says rather than the previous muddle of different versions, the classic, deluxe, collector's edition, signature edition and so on. New titles from the new American Pinball will just have two models going forward, a standard and an enhanced exact naming yet to be decided. There is a new team now with new enthusiasm to create the games. The reimagined games are a good starting point as there is already a solid popular base game from which to build and gives them a chance to build up the company further to the point where they can release their own original designs. Announcements will be coming thick and fast over the coming weeks and months regarding new hires and upcoming titles. And finally I think he said it's a refreshingly different to his experience touch pinball where there were no staff to help design Alice and you had to do it all on his own or find his own external contractors to help in specialist areas. He said American pinball is already a fresh team of 10 people working on different aspects of their upcoming releases. Other than Ronan Mitesh, Melvin says there's really nobody there from the old American Pinball and everyone's new and got a fresh perspective on building games. So he's... and that was about it. I think that's a good summary of what we spoke about. So I hope that's given you some useful information and we can look forward to a big stream of new announcements coming out of the new American Pinball fairly soon about new hires, New titles and new plans for the business.
    43:10
    Right. Okay. Well, then. Best of luck to to Melvin and American pinball, of course, and as well to to Dutch pinball in.
    43:21
    Well, with their new financial investors in the company and and their vision for the company as well. We have a few more questions to answer, but let's go on to the next one. So this brings it up for American Pinball and Dutch Pinball in this case sort of combined together. Movinging on, we are heading over to Houston, Texas barrels of fun. Yes. Well, I was at the Pinball at the Beach show, unfortunately you couldn't make it, but David Van Es and Brian Savage from Barrels of Fun were both there and they have brought along The game is available in the pavilion tent for guests of the show. Along with another game we are looking at in a moment, Beetlejuice, Winchester Mystery House had constant long lines when you play it. Even on a show where there so many machines that you could easily go and play another machine those two Witch mystery house titles were machines were in constant demand even from before the official opening of the show You can find people who were helping or working the show playing it and getting early games in I might have to sneak in and get a couple of games on it but After playing one I immediately wanted to play it again and there was nobody else waiting to play it And then by the time I finished the second game there were about six or seven people waiting to play So I moved along and let them take over. But anyway, I thought it was a good game. I got my first chance to actually play it after all this time. So I could talk about it later, but I'm not interested in my opinions of it. But we can say that Barrels of Fun, the company, are getting some extra publicity thanks to a new video from a company called Dassault Systems who are the company behind the SolidWorks software package, a 3D design program. And they feature Barrels of Fun in their latest promotional video where various people from the company talk about how they use SolidWorks The video ends with a link to Solidworks.com slash barrelsoffun as you can find out more about their experience using SolidWorks to build games. I checkedItToday.com, I'm sorry, I checked it today, that page doesn't exist. So maybe it's something which will be coming up shortly. It hasn't been released in public as of yet. But keep an eye out for that solidworks.com slash barrelsoffun. And hopefully that video will be there and more details of barrels of funds manufacturing processes pretty soon. Right. It's actually interesting that I mean, every pinball and the company uses solid words to design their playfields. So it's actually a surprise that they end up with barrels of fun while they easily could have went with Jersey Jack or Stern Pinball for that matter. Yeah, true. But I suppose I don't know the process by which they picked barrels of fun, Tentacles are a fun, but maybe it's just because they are a more open and adaptable company and they would have suddenly made themselves available to the film.
    47:21
    Right, or sometimes it matters who you know. Yes, true. Or where you are, maybe SolidWorks's public department or media company around the Houston area. Could be, could be. Oh well. Anyway. So, um, Berlsofvon also released a new code update for Winchester Mystery House. And that includes a new 13th Wizard mode. The 13th Wizard mode. Oh my god. You can clearly see I have all the knowledge in the world about this. The game is one of the features that you have to collect in the game. So after you've got all 13, the new wizard mode begins and which is called the 13th wizard mode. So there you go, unsurprisingly. Okay. Well, since it's a wizard mode, I'll probably never see it anyway, but it's good to know that it's there. Indeed. And there's also some new wildcard mementos to earn. And apparently some improved lighting and insert indications as well. Along with the... I just had to clean my... Oh yeah, from the 13th. Well, that's probably long overdue. So you probably see your notes clearer now. Yes, and along with the usual bunch of bug fixes in that I think that pretty much wraps it up for our Barrels of Fun section in this month's Pincast. Right, so you also mentioned Spooky Pinball being at Pinball. Hmm, yes prior to it opening there was or even being set up that people were saying there were going to be ten Beetlejuices at the show. investigators for 3 days়wegen Consecut binsandaag I'm not ma mister Thanks.
    49:31
    chow Okay. Well, it's aней's mask. SNALL Everyone really hwnh I still prefer Evil Dead more I don know why I think what was missing with Beetlejuice was it didn have the same level of callouts in it didn have the guidance of what to shoot and rewards and telling you well done when you shot things that Evil Dead does Because I think the voice callouts on that game are spectacular and as good as the art and really guide you through the game and that was missing. The Apparently speaking to spooky at the show is that they they are in there But they decided to turn them off for the for the show because it would be so noisy. Nobody better hear them
    50:34
    but I Mean the surprise that's possible. Yeah. Well, it's always easy to turn off. Yeah things like that, but why you want to I don't know maybe it's I Don't know man. I was gonna say maybe it's a with injunctinoalleyjalplinary ArsenalifnDB GOOGLE.НуatrAl de Other than that, yeah, big show for Spooky. It went down very, very well for them. I think they had hardly any technical issues with their Beetlejuice games at all. I think they said they just had like one screw come loose on the game, on one of the games and that was it. So that's, if so, that's a remarkable feat considering they were all being played the entire duration of the show, understandably. And so congratulations to them. They had a nice, really nice and a nice area had a big lineup of all their previous titles as well which I'd only seen previously at the European Pinball Championship in in Vokrabruck in Austria when Stefan Rieder from RS Pinball set that up last year. Oh, spooky were there if I recall correctly. Maybe they got an idea from that, like hey maybe we should do this more often. Yes and it's it looks good and it's credit to them just to see how the games are from the earliest America'sMosthaunted upwards to Beetlejuice. And that's over 13 years of Spooky Pinball, an anniversary they celebrated on February the 1st, 13 years of the launch of the company. So congratulations to everybody at Spooky Pinball on 13 years of developing pinball and making some really interesting games these days. Next up we have Multimorphic in Round Rock, Texas. They will be at the Texas Pinball Festival which we'll be talking about later on as well. That's the next big show coming up. It is. Any idea what they will be bringing? No, not yet. I don't think they're going to be launching any new games there. Hopefully Crapman, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, maybe 14, 15, 16, well, they've got 13 machines on their stand. And now we know marketing counters. Slowly, but I can, yes. Yes, they have an 18 by 35 foot stand right by, I should say right by the entrance, but right by the seminars room. There are another bank of machines on the outside of their stand and I don't know whether they're also going to be P3 machines or whether they're going to be public, just general machines. But anyway, we can expect to see at least 13 P3 machines and we may get a chance to go and visit Multimorphic on our trip to the Texas Pinball Festival if all goes to plan. Atomicoiceplan, we're still working out the final details of that, but it'd be nice to call in to the company and see Jerry and the team. Just before the show, as they're all busy packing up, we can get in their way and interrupt them. Right. So okay so as far as games it looks like Multimorphical also have their anti glass pin glass and pin glass plus which is the white body format if I not mistaken at their stand at the Texas Pinball Festival The pin glass is only available through pre So if you would like to order one or more sheets of pin glass or pin glass plus, then order through pinglass.net online. and the Texas Pinball Festival and they will have it there for you. So that's nice. So I was talking about Portal just now. Actually some new code for portal came out this month on the 19th of February. Quite a few rule and scoring changes. So some new callouts as well. Several new setting options and lots of bug fixes that need fixing version 1.2.3 from portal I'm sure if you have that game it will probably have downloaded the update automatically by now as it does it all over Wi-Fi through the menu system so I think I pretty much wraps up our news for Multimorphic for this month okay well next up we have Jersey Jack Pinball well we do I don't know what the next game will be like, but it's not an awful lot to say about them this month. It's been pretty quiet. They're not launching any new titles at the moment. They've been promoting earlier ones on their social feeds, including The Godfather, Guns N' Roses, and Avatar. I suppose we're kind of waiting for the announcement or the reveal of the next Steve Ritchie game which is in development, but they seem to be doing pretty well selling Harry Potter at the moment. collective All of them, I think, which is nice. It kind of took me back a bit to playing things like Wizard of Oz after all these years. But nice to see again how games have evolved over those, the years of Jersey Jack Pinball. Right. Okay. Next up we have Pinball Brothers from Sweden. Not too much to report. They've been pushing Predator with multiple game and tutorial videos and that is of course ahead of its closure of sales at the end of March which is this month. So if you're in the market for a Predator game act fast I would say. This week's game is probably limited and the production will end at the end of March. So if you're into the game and apparently more and more people are into the game, sort of a, I wouldn't call it a sleeper game, but because people were aware of it, but I think this is a game that really,
    58:45
    You created the feeling by with people that it's actually a lot better than the expected. Yeah, I think it got off to a tricky start with all the controversy over whether or not Arnie would be in the game and whether the various lines would be in the game or not. Which they were told they would be and it turns out they wouldn't be and then that kind of put a bit of a downer on it right at the very, very start. But since then, I think it's been a basically an improving story. And I think they've got a It is a lot of effort into the code on that game and yeah as you say people are really coming around to it now so make sure you don't miss out on it and become a fan of it too late to actually buy one. Right, so, oh well and slightly related of course Padretti Gaming, also known as Padretti Pinball in Italy, also known as Euro Pinball Corp. That's a collaboration with a pinball brothers that we were just discussing. No new games or anything from them, but there was an interview in the echo. Leco di Bergamo, local newspaper in Bergamo city Marco Pedretti, new name to me, familiar with Andrea Pedretti Marco Pedretti is the legal representative and director of Euro Pinball Corp as well as owner of Pedretti Gaming, and he shares some interesting details on the history of Pedretti Gaming and their current business together with Euro Pinball Corp. Inventor with pinball brothers, yalla yalla yalla. A few notes from that interview day. He says they produce about 80 machines per month, which 80% of those goes straight into private collections. He says the strongest markets are Northern Europe and the United States. In Italy and Southern Europe, the phenomenon is much more limited, pinball that is, which is rather odd because Italy as I recall used to be a huge pinball country. Well look at the number of manufacturers that were there.
    61:10
    Not only that but lots of games on location as well so apparently something changed there. Surprisingly given their pinball remakes business and Predator alien Queen Abba builds he says Until a few years ago licenses from the 80s and 90s were very successful. Now we also need to look for more recent periods because the audience is getting younger. And if you want to read the entire interview you can you can find it on the ecodibergamo.it.it that is ecodibergamo.it website and use the browser's translate function. Yeah there isn't an English language version but the browser does a or Chrome at least does a very good job of converting it into English so makes it very interesting to read. So yeah, yeah, right echo de Bergamo.it. Yeah right So and then Turner pinball. Yeah. Yeah, not much news from them either They will of course be at the Texas Pinball Festival and being a Texas based company ourselves
    62:24
    not a million miles away, but We were hoping to go and see them on this trip I don't think there's really anything much to go and see. We've really just been to just have a little chat and maybe an interview with Chris Turner, but we can do that in in Prisco at Texas Pinball Festival itself. So we probably won't be going over there. But they had been doing weekly Wednesday night live streams of either of their first two games, Mullins Arcade or Ninja Eclipse. It kind of came a bit spotty of late. They've been cancelled a few times. It was only released on February 26th, with more Merlin's arcade gameplay. Hopefully that will become more of an established weekly stream to get you better acquainteded with their two games. No sign of a third title being announced, just yet. So we'll bring you more news about that if we hear any hints or speculation. But that's it pretty much. We turn the pinball for now. We'll bring you more from Texas when we get over there. Right. So then Chicago Gaminging in Chicago area, of course. Yeah, Cicero indeed. I was looking for that word. Thank you. So apart from the Medieval Madness Royal Edition and Topper Orders, nothing new has been announced and of course these Topper Orders were already discussed last month. Planetary Pinball, who is the rights owner of Valley Williams titles and as such involved with Chicago Gaming who are producing Medieval Madness Attack from Mars Monster Bash and Cactus Canyon as a remake apparently were frustrated with the number of games that have been remade by Chicago Gaming so far which resulted in their deal with the earlier discussed American people who are also going to be The Remaking Reimagining in fact Rather than just making them But yeah I certainly get the impression that that there a lot of frustration there by some reason Doug Dubo in charge of Chicago gaming and doesn see any urgency in in bringing out titles Now he got other titles which are kind of almost ready to go Other remakes but nothing happening The people are being used as to why More more titles aren't coming out and more games aren't being made but
    65:34
    Well, if they're busy with what they're building and there's simply not the capacity to do well, they could always increase capacity of course and This demand is there but anyway
    65:47
    It doesn't seem to be well There's a lot of logic as to why they're not, you know, when they're sitting on all these designs which are ready to go, nothing's happening with them. And you can see why planetary pinball would be getting frustrated with that because, you know, I'm sure they get paid on a per unit basis. And if the number of units coming out of Chicago gaming is low and restricted and for no obvious reason, then yeah, they'd be looking to and other manufacturers to make more games and license them. So this is indeed what's happened. Yeah, so well it makes perfect sense for Planetary to look for more manufacturers. Well moving on to Wonderland Amusements who as you may remember were building the other Alice game The 80% scale size version of a pinball machine which they named Alice Goes to Wonderland being built in China and pressing hard to bring the game in at under $1,000 USD and indeed did that. I think the original games that were offered on Kickstarter I think went for $799 but I think they are now often available retail for 999 US dollars. Anyway, they have been building those. They're obviously like everybody else has been big delays in actually getting the games built and shipped. But the last month we announced they had shipped the games. Well, they have arrived in the US and are now starting to turn up at the houses of people who bought them. So they are working on their on The game is not being sent out in any particular order. They're not being sent to Kickstarter people or people who bought the game later. But it's just really about the geographic area that they are delivering them to. So anyway, they are fulfilling, they are delivering what they promised by the sounds of it. We haven't seen any particular reviews of the game as it's been arriving, whether it's been up to expectations. But a lot of people seem to be very keen and getting various mods for it and sending bits off to get them powder coated and customising them to their own design. So, yeah, we will bring you more details of that in next month's Pincast when we find out exactly how the game goes. and lots and lots of gameplay videos out there as well. Right. Yeah. Okay. And then up to well, long time announced upcoming title for the French hexa pinball who we know of their first game Space Hunt and the re-theme of that that they did for Twingo. Yes, Twingo. Car indeed. Yeah, and others as well indeed. At Pinball Expo last year in October they announced that their upcoming title will be the three Musketeers and that title is to be revealed at well this month at the Texas Pinball Festival simultaneously also in the city of Bordeaux, France, of course. So a Double review on March the twentieth and that should start at six p in the bouillon d gallery in Bordeaux and that means noon if I not mistaking at Texas Pinball Festival Yes that right on Friday and the show is not open officially Following De MARCITA Franchi compilerHYUN D motivo P, Vvington, koen quiero arct boca a de a B There's nothing actually scheduled in the TPF calendar just yet, but not to say there won't be because these things are often liable to change. So we hope that we'll get to do a simultaneous reveal as you said, both in Bordeaux and in Frisco at the Texas Pinball Festival on Friday the 20th of March. I've asked the organizers, I got an invite to the one in Bordeaux, but also to be in Texas for that one instead. So we don't know quite how that's going to go. We haven't really heard anything about what they got planned for Texas yet. And it's a big mystery or surprise, whatever you want to call it. Everything's bigger in Texas, including the mystery and surprises apparently. I've reached out to the team there and hopefully we'll be able to find out what it is that they've got planned and we will be reporting from Texas about what they actually do. Yeah, and believe it or not, I just mentioned their Space Hunt game which got a code update in early February as well, code version 0.956. posture, ogr beams Ceruleaven, TF terry hoon and the future, so 비둘ập bit uh... and he karting in This week in pinball we have a small pinball company producing their own games.
    72:53
    We have seen several games from them already. Eight Ball Fury was the first one. and then we got the Holden games yeah and and the famous famous real car seemed yeah what's his name yeah he's that famous yeah exactly yeah hey so anyways they and they announced a new Ned Kelly game which is the name that doesn't ring Oh, no, he's a famous outlaw in Australia in the earlier settlement days. I think there's been movies made about him, I'm not entirely sure. But something in the back of my mind made me think that Mick Jagger played Ned Kelly at some point in a movie. I may have to retract that later if I go and check and find that I totally imagined it. The Ned Kelly Game is the latest product from Vector Pinball in Australia. It uses the same kind of alphanumeric display, the 16 digit display as their earlier games. You are actually correct. It's a movie from 1970 with Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly. I do know something Not much but something I do know that there only 100 units of this in total maximum being made for this Ned Kelly game And it priced at 13 Australian dollars which translates to 9 US dollars 8300 euros and 7200 UK pounds So if you want to find out more about that game You can go and visit the Vector Pinball Facebook account And besides that they also published the latest version of the rules for another of their upcoming titles which is you may remember it been renamed Irwin Allen Lostinspace the pinball game Well, to be precise, it's called Owen Allen's Lostinspace, the pinball.
    75:27
    Okay, so got all that. Otherwise, there is lost in space. It has apparently has seven main objectives which lead to the Lost in Space multiball also includes crew multiball, podship, pod multiball, and ship multiball. Nick you All that's on their social media feed for the past few months is just a video of Mike Kalinowski, head of Home Pin, setting off some firecrackers to celebrate the start of the Year of the Horse. And that's it. So nothing at all related to pinball or anything arcade or coin-op. One of the distributors of Home Pros, if I'm not mistaken, where at least four Blues Brothers games were in various stages of production. So that game is still being, albeit as far as we know, in very small quantities. But I didn't want to leak that out. All of these things are sold out, so they're still building that game. Good spot. I didn't see that one, so well done for getting that. So now we can go to a bunch of companies where we really have no news. We haven't had a lot of news from some of the other ones, but we can say that for pinball adventures in Canada, there is no news. Ramps Pinball, no news either. Last year, they were at the very first Pinball at the Beach show. I thought it might be there with the road trip to show progress on that but no update on that. Victronic in Spain, no news. Cardona Pinball in the US, no news. Quetzal Pinball, no news either.
    78:25
    Which kind of brings us to other news. Ah, okay. Well, you went to pinball at the beach. The I mentioned about that great show really really nice Not as hot. How many people?
    78:42
    Were in attendance. Oh, that's a good question It was limited to a thousand tickets and I don't think they sold all of those So I probably say I guess and no no basis for this whatsoever. I probably say 700 maybe At times it was busy in the main, all the free play games were in a big tent called the pavilion and there were a lot of them and they were, I think almost at any point you would always be able to find a game that was free that you could walk up to and just play. So we never got overly crowded, but of course around Beetlejuice and around Winterton MysteryHouse and aroundHarry Potter as well, there were often lines to play, particularly Beetlejuice even with the 12 machines there and as I said earlier about Winterton MysteryHouse only having two machines there, that was always busy as well, always a line to play that. But otherwise it wasn't crowded, there was a lot of space in there, you know, you never felt crammed in and of course it's part of a huge group of resource. Tim Mangold, evolve event d suspect towards преступnist, Tim D兡e USD damp 통'TfmsHEg, 500% Tim Annas, Top G Reason bannerRoundAnti sel Caitlin MittseyASH илиTie έχividen cannons of Tomoces holders&Journal Rollair Types트 gasoline Force adoptionUnt promo Hamilton The game was held in the late 19th century in the late 19thcentury, around 15th, 16th, 17thcentury, most of the time, peaking on Saturday in around about 20th, 21th, but in the evening it tended to get quite cold and sea breeze would spring up. There were outside events and drinks functions out there, but a lot of people were huddled around the fire pits to keep warm. And there's karaoke as well of course which often, as it did this time, brought out John Borg to do his duet, so that was good fun. Yes, it was a really nice relaxed time. It was a little less relaxed for me because I was actually, although I was a guest at the show and was socialising with people and was at the signings, autograph session and all that, I was also writing a report for Pinball News for that, So I was constantly taking pictures and videos and going back to the hotel room and processing them and writing the words and uploading them and all that kind of stuff. So it was a bit of work. It wasn't just relaxation. But I dare say, had the weather been a little nicer, I might have spent more time down on the beach. But it was nice just to be able to hang out with people and talk and not have to keep checking your watch to see you're not missing out on the next seminar or anything like that. So it was very nice and relaxed there and I did sit down as one of the guests of your compatriot Mr Gerald van der Sanden of the Dutch Pinball Museum and did a five minute interview with him which is on the Dutch Pinball Museum's YouTube channel right now, launched today actually. So there'll be a series of those I think I'm number six or seven of the ones that have been published so far but Yeah, he sat down and had a little egg timer there and a kitchen timer and said you've got five minutes to talk about yourself and tell a story about which you haven't told before. So those five minutes vanished very, very quickly. Because, you know, I'm not somebody who likes to talk very much, but seems to manage to get through five minutes very, very quickly. And yeah, I'd thoroughly recommend it if you wanted to go down there and not only just go to the show, but also spend some extra time in what is a lovely part of the country. boxing hyperbole NAS charmsz democracy, Based for the schedule date template List of the tube death international 鬙 till And, at the Cypress Sweet bar also known as the Happy Hour bar in the Embassy suites hotel But anyway, we'll be in there from 5pm on Saturday doing as you say, doing our So You Think You Know Pinball free prize quiz. If you are going to the show, please come along. It's great fun. Everybody always enjoys themselves and everybody walks, almost everybody walks away with some prizes or other. You might think your pinball knowledge is not necessarily up to scratch. Well, the good news is all you need to This week guest will review Payer cepop 30 medal obstacles Silreal Sale Damn the lol pe MP4, Peep Party Josh cook,night aikauezAll expansion.com, television, crestNERU ingent instagram, احدناورحجج tulpiceninggeeknty supereyeque, DublinONWX ç congresské, 6si entendelysot, Tic Pickeukć'b so, Oh, Shark, Lake
    85:57
    Geuzo their, Citin, feden so our it is All right, Danny el a Today we recorded an interview with Paul McKinney who is the main organizer of the Texas Pinball Festival. How about we listen to them now? And to find out more about this year's Texas Pinball Festival we are joined by the organizer Mr. Paul McKinney. Hello Paul! Hello! Good to talk to you guys. Thank you for joining us. Well, exciting year this year. You've got quite a lot of changes coming up which we'll talk about as well. Stereotype Classicplatn mentor, Frostian Allidee, Wannabe, destiny1 avatar, Heλά, Smartaststein resources and i notice from looking at it still contouring quite a few changes to the to the show floor they helped from previous years are making the KamiteAway Corincek offensive� sense of reality Music 있으니까
    88:12
    The screen live now or they watch it after the show so you know it made sense that you know hey we could probably make that room a little bit smaller and that was the way to do it the other thing is is you know I've kind of moved the entrance to where it's at the start of what we call Dragon Alley which leaves that seminar room open to the public. We've scheduled two seminars on Friday afternoon just after the noon period while people are still coming in and Tiddlywine, Pinball, Knapp Arcade, Tindy, I'm not sure they won a ticket yet, but they can get into some of the seminars. And so one of those seminars is kind of an expanded, you know, here's how you do, you know, service on games. And, you know, just, you know, general public and collectors. That's something that they'll be interested in and they can just walk in and enjoy that. All right, let's get started. Okay, I mean you talking about how you change the floor plan within the main hall. How do you sort of balance? How do you strike a balance, I suppose, between the number of vendors stands in the hall and the number of free play games, not just in the hall, of course, but also out in the corridors as well? Yeah, I try to, you know, we've always, we've always focused on the local collector from the beginning to the show. I always try to make sure that we've got at least 200 games, hopefully more than that, that local collectors are able to bring and compete for machines. We already over 100 games and I haven even counted the ones that Spooky bringing in a couple of other exhibitors so we probably getting close to 450 Right okay so when you you been at the Frisco Hotel Convention Center for a number of years now John Papadiuk Black Water Kaneda Pinball Podcast Twippies Awards transliteregon All that sort of does that all come as like one big package or do you have to go yeah It does now. The last time that I did the contracts was about two years ago. And when I did it that time, we kept growing and growing and growing. And we've been kind of piecemealing the different rooms together. And I was like, okay, just give me one price where I can get it all. And so like, you know, this year, there's a room we've never used before. That's upstairs kind of on the end, right where the elevator opens where all the tournament games are. And this is for you guys. I mean, Knapp Arcade, David Van Es, WPPR bathtime, Pinball You know, I'm trying to set up kind of a quiet space where you know streamers can you know go in and just you know Reserve a little bit of time in that room to maybe do an interview I'll throw a hardwired interconnect connection up there if you need it So, you know, that's that's another little new thing to do this year so now you've got all these rooms is is the Convention Center a good size for the Texas Pinball Festival or you know, you expand it is it's about it This week we have a big event in the New York City Hall of Fame. The event is a big one. It's about 60,000 square feet, which seems to be a good size. This year is really the first year that I've had to turn away a couple of exhibitors because we just have run out of space. Okay. And you never know. And who knows what will happen in the future. I always visit other sites and keep my eyes open. But Frisco has some perks to it. The Nice nice location and you know while the the carpets not perfect. It's a lot better than no carpet. So oh yes Yes, I'll just say Jonathan. He's got the questions feel free to dive in because I'm oh, yeah
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    Well, I know Paul's been dying to talk about this because I know this you have an entirely new website Yes, we do. So the the you know, the ancient website The first project that we had started, I don't know, probably 2012. And when we did it, it was missing everything but the flames on the side of the header on the front. So, you know, it's kind of kind of get it a little a little dated. And, you know, as I talked to different sponsors over the years, I meant the age of our website was kind of one of the concerns that they pointed out. So we tried to make something that was, you know, friendlier to attracting sponsors, a little bit easier to navigate. And when I built it, I tried to navigate The Design around the personas of the types of people that would come to the show be it a collector an attendee an exhibitor And I think it's been successful to the degree from that that point But you know, there'll be some more modifications next year as we learn what works and what doesn't Okay, okay, so but I assume there must be but if you start doing a website The website, well, it wasn't like a small website to redesign. So you start doing this. I assume that's a lot of work. Yeah, it was. So it was in and you know, I mean, this isn't a plug for AI. I mean, I know there's people that's a love hate relationship. But when you're building sites, there was a lot I was able to do with AI tools that accelerated the speed of how quickly I can build it. So that was one of the things that helped. Yeah, I noticed a few AI images in there. Now, how locked down is the schedule of events or are you still open to other people coming up to you and saying, I'd like to hold a seminar or I'd like to launch? Yeah, we've got one or two slots that are still open. Like I said, we're trying to kind of start the seminars around noon on Friday and then run them all the way through Saturday. Saturday I think there like an early slot that still open on Saturday and maybe one or two on Fridayafternoon Okay because I got a couple of people I know who would like to like to hold a seminar there and said you know we thinking about it and and also the launch of a new game as well which I haven seen any mention of yet as part of the schedule so well Well it here Which which new game are we talking about thinking about hexes new 3d musketeers Yeah you know I asked them to do a seminar and and you know either we Miscommunicated on there or it just hasn happened yet Yeah I talking to them Yes but you must be that language barrier could be Yeah I said, they said that they're launching the game simultaneously in Bordeaux and also at DPF. I said, great, okay, but I'm not seeing you on the schedule anywhere. Yeah, no, tell Alex to shoot me an email after I get off this. I'll contact him and say, where do you want to go? Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, because I'm trying to get, I'm trying to draw up a list of times and places I need to be in order to cover everything. The Obviously having the the schedule lockdown makes that a bit easier. But anyway, I'm sure we will have that that launch there as well and There might be some some other people who also don't want to hold a seminar So I'm sure they'll be in touch with you haven't already About there might there might be and you know, probably between the two of us We all have different rumors of even newer games and will they show up at TPF or will they not I never know Round Bed, Rice hurricanes either same for and Yeah, you know the the take-ups accelerating right now I mean, I think we had three more people register in the last 24 hours So it's getting closer to the show and it's like oh this part of my game doesn't work. Ah, yeah, I can use that So that's starting to happen But and that was part of the goal of it The the real part of the goal was you know I wanted to get more pin sound boards and more precision flippers on games to be enjoyed at the show The end of the week was a debate on how to make it easier for people to do upgrades when they bring their games. I did that with my Godzilla either last year or the year before last where Sean Palmer dropped the pinvision board into it for me. That was really nice because I didn't have to do any struggling with it on my own. That was part of the impetus on that and then there is always the somebody with a little bit of a flipper that is a little weak that shows up on the show floor. The Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite proport wreakforth panel in backbox that is backlit during play통령 You've also got an event in the evening on Thursday, I think haven't you? They've got a karaoke event over at Two Brothers. And there's also a tournament as well on Thursday. Are you trying to sort of consciously expand the show back into earlier in the week? So it can start on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then a bit of Sunday. Tim You know, that wasn't the reason, but it might be how it plays out. The real reason, Martin, was Paul and Craig last year on Wednesday. There was an event that got shoved in in front of us and we weren't able to start laying out the floor until late Wednesday night. And so Thursday and the rest of the show was hard to get through. So it was like, okay, let's create something on Wednesday and then we'll have access to The so that was a little harder part of the impetus of doing it and have there been any events or features that you haven't been able to accommodate in the show so for all you you'd like to at some point
    99:21
    Uh, you know, I'd probably like the you do, you know one more music group People seem to enjoy that but you know, I don't want to ground up the seminars either C clothege,
    99:37
    Kirarte Conney, Phil Leazyr, Elton John, David Surext, specialist editor, David JOJO, and tonight's guest. Scott K Pain, George Narroom & voice director atгрn begins The Texas Pinball Festival before. And a lot of the people that I've seen that come into the show, it's the first time they've gone to any pinball festival. And usually they come back the second year and they've kind of become a collector. So, you know, we want to be able to kind of continue to concentrate on doing things that that drive that that kind of interest in business. And that's what has led to the tech seminars. You know, a few things are kind of outside of pinball that have an entertainment Mike Schultz, всем The other thing is, I mean, this goes back to changing the website. I think when we change the website, they kind of reset the search engines and more people have found us. We've also started to concentrate on other social media platforms. Not great at it yet, but I'll get there. And so I think we've picked up some through that. Fantastic. Right. So if you don't mind me chiming in, you mentioned you're Time to ask if you d like another music band, have you considered DJs? We have, we've done that twice and you know I thought about taking some of those side rooms and maybe you know doing the the Scott DeNancy you know rave kind of thing again you know you get a lot of that at the Houston show Keith does an amazing job if you've never been you know just just having a band party all weekend. We're not exactly that but there's some good things with that. AtьютAone, ーブ�
    101:57
    swendt SNM Majority of opening and closing, Stopping short of their presentation And will continue the 홍보 Please check inspires.com Well, so new website and a new show floor plan, but we still get the swap meet on Saturday morning? There is a swap meet, okay? There's not been a flood of big trucks saying we're going to have a lot of games there, okay? But, you know, every year we get a couple of surprises, so we've moved the swap meet to start about an hour later at 7 a.m. Thank you. To make it easier on people. VMark RochaQuéz, TN Notes trout Funchutz Salex©I LOTOv데amffice DJGNXVO, IWAST NYNCXQMQxO, GallerRACEe, Old Arisio Otherthus cried息XQN, NoT waiting for their birthday by the school contempt interesante Nزu Britney&Openie lighting pen kombițió Thank you very much Paul for taking time out and giving us the heads up of what's coming up in Texas Pinball Festival this year. If there's one last phrase or one last sentence you could tell us why people should come to Texas Pinball Festival and do your sales pitch. Now's the time to do it. Yeah, well we've got dragons, we've got lots of games and one of those dragons will be animated so that should be pretty cool. And we've got a new Lola's Mexican food truck and a lot of other food trucks and if you park in remote parking a Tesla will give you a ride to the event so all new stuff and kind of cool yeah well thanks again Paul for taking time out to speak to us obviously a lot coming up this year at Texas Pinball Festival and we will of course be reporting from it in our respective publications which I'll talk a little bit more about later The items of news wanted to talk about But while I'm talking about pinball news, I can do a bit of self publicity here Well almost self publicity and mention shame well it it it pinball news news and New people news news How is your pinpee thousand creators on troll tv hit is exciting still a sl grinder handy Hemingway, amarusempre友�� 아주 안 반가워요 367 crazy приех고 Tim It was also the pinball at the beach show with me and will be at the Texas Pinball Festival as well
    105:52
    for setting it all up and getting that project underway. So thanks Mick and remember stickermule.com slash pinball news to get all your branded pinball news merchandise. Because let's face it, who doesn't want to be looking cool in a pinball news t-shirt? Don't answer that. It is that I'm wearing my own Pinball Magazine shirt, otherwise I'd be all over it. Well, it'd be all over you. Yes. Okay, talking about other things you can buy, pinball related, we previously covered the film Mastering Pinball by Abe Flips, an Austrian master player and filmmaker, which was available A Kickstarter project. Well now it's also available to purchase as both a Blu-ray and a digital download Which you can get by going to Abeflips.com I'm not sure the blu-rays is actually available right now I think it may have sold out and there's more coming in a week or so but if you go to Abeflips.com you can you can purchase both the digital download and the blu-ray when it becomes back into stock and there's also a Subtitles by the Amara.org community and in the reasonable or could do with expanding on. So go and have a look. I think it's like $40 to 40 euros to download the digital version of it. And yeah, it's a very, very in depth and detailed and knowledgeable description of how you can improve your your pinball skills. The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental and unintentional.
    108:40
    And all the way up to the end of the week, we have websites as well. Yeah. We didn't mention them, but we obviously don't link to them. So, Jonathan is editor-in-chief of Pinball Magazine, which is available at pinball-magazine.com, where he's got his webshop. You can buy copies of Pinball Magazine and books as well that he's published. Yeah. Physical products. Yes indeed for as long as we still can with the current situations. Oh well. And Martin does not have a physical product but he is the editor-in-chief of pinballnews.com where you will find the latest pinball news as in depth as possible. It basically the number one news website regarding anything pinball And of course we keep everything on the website so there a lot of historical information going back 25 years believe it or not So you want to see what was at the show in 2005 and we were there to cover it. It's still there you can see who was speaking what they were saying and some interesting Timing, personalities from the past there who we later learnt more about but I won't get too much into that. Right. So you may be wondering what's the difference between Pinball News and Pinball Magazine. I'll briefly point this out. Pinball Magazine is more of a historical publication or documentation I have a lot of information regarding the careers of people in the industry of pinball and I'm not so much focused on the latest news. I do report on whether there's new game out but it's not a top priority and apparently neither is it for pinball companies to give me any assets up front to write such an article and they expect me to write it once they just The game well it doesn't work like that for me. I have a life as well and so for the current news Pinball news is the website to to go to but if you're into more of the historical Career aspects of a pinball designer and all the ins and outs regarding Why such and such game has such a such feature and all that kind of stuff Then I highly recommend the publications of pinball magazines. incredibly in-depth and produces some tells them some amazing stories about pinball and
    111:49
    people design and creation in the past and It has a lot of historic information and perspective and to remind us where we are now. Also, some decision making choices, why was chosen for this or for that, for this mech or that mech, that kind of stuff, which occasionally resulted in surprisingly good games and sometimes not. Thomas Williams correct one of eks Yea wei a bit but over the spider or a partner that's a in on the winners for ever pouvez interesting St placementers behind a whole process behind how people has been mini appreciated badly statement east as well and i'll go that in decades R IR magazine yet and I question운� noodle doesn't know for that certain time the back illegality we anotherension fair a 적 mez 1960 since more than one hundred twenty eight two hundred and arctic scientists延they mis IoT on this out your most recent say the às new company did case managersados we did yes and we 아니야 gnadoca pito Salons AND'S my Razarylicot classicsappridgeants teensiousnice NXT Espericiatesu였습니다 2432 sonytnius男아 Lào Sundí acredito",ádāsţ�� nedålýyná KɪãxGAġã èŠŭʁуй כ׉drɪə¡ɹ CountrylitešŠ consume TurtlequejţŵnI emot renewedand zijłuthéţŵ�, profess ignorantumʟala baby Pythonparoljchenłłzi' kont管ť했 lined은 and the reveal of the three musketeers. Yes, indeed. So anyway, until then from me, Martin Aeve of Pinball News. And me, Jonathan Houston of Pinball Magazine. We hope you have a magnificent March and we look forward to joining you again at the start of next month for the very next edition of the Pinball Industry News Pincast. So bye for now. Bye bye. The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
    114:23
    Titico To juist I insisted of rosara back Just like this advisoring in this Maokai kory meget Backgone I think we could probably make it easier is if we just record ourselves on the phone. We talk to each other but record ourselves just ourselves on the phone in portrait shape and then you send me the video of yours and I'll put it next to the video of mine and because it's a lot easier if we're actually sort of talking to each other like this rather I'm just a little bit more than trying to read off a script which looks very stilted and yeah. Oh yeah yeah yeah. But how can I record myself talking to you? Well if you're talking to me on your laptop or your computer and you just stick your phone in front of you and record video of you. Right. Oh we can do that right now. Could do. I've got my headphones on at the moment but... So do I, so we look very professional. Okay, let's give it a go, see what happens. Camera, video. I'll just switch the camera, switch it round to the other side. Take my glasses off as well. Okay. кварtUNI MотоULNI SIETS GRE in a Wointown. Timing and Subtitles by the Amara.org community Oh, okay. That's fine. Right. Okay. Hopefully your hopefully your your shots going to be framed. Well.
    117:32
    Yeah, I think so. Okay. Yeah. Right. Okay. I'm recording now. Right. I'm recording. Yeah. Okay. Hi. Oh. In 3, 2, 1... Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston, I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Abel, I'm the editor of PinballNews and Jonathan and I are looking forward to seeing you at the Texas Pinball Festival this year for another round of our exciting free prize quiz, So You Think You Know Pinball? We'll be there in the Cyprus Suite bar in the Embassy suite from 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon just after the signing session in the main building and we'll be there with a big table of prizes ready to give away to you.
    118:35
    Right and if you're wondering why are these idiots wearing headphones, we also have a very popular pincast pinball industry news
    118:46
    The end of the week, the Pinball Podcast, where we discuss last month's highlights in the pinball industry. And we just finished the recording for the recap of February. Go and do check it out on Spotify and other platforms as well. Just look for Pinball Magazine and PinballNews Pincast. And you'll hear all the latest news. This includes a special interview with the organizer of the Texas Pinball Festival, Mr. Paul McKinney. So it's especially relevant where he'll be telling you all about all the exciting things coming up at this year's TPF. Right, and we'd love to see you there. So until then, bye for now.