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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast April 2022 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 3m·analyzed·May 3, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

April 2022: Super Hoop ships, Ryan McQuaid joins American Pinball, JJP hints new game coming.

Summary

April 2022 pinball industry recap covering Bitronic Super Hoop shipments from Spain, Ryan McQuaid's appointment as game designer at American Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball factory tour restrictions suggesting imminent new title announcement, Stern's production schedule across 2022, Haggis Pinball's Fathom Revisited production progress, and various peripheral news from European manufacturers.

Key Claims

  • Ryan McQuaid, designer of the Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball homebrew game, has been appointed as game designer at American Pinball

    high confidence · Official announcement by David Fix at American Pinball; confirmed by hosts with knowledge of McQuaid's prior work

  • Jersey Jack Pinball has cancelled all factory tours, suggesting preparation for new game announcement with large production runs ready

    medium confidence · Speculative inference by Martin Ayer based on access restrictions; RB Flip France conducted a factory tour approximately one week prior (April 18) showing Guns N' Roses in production

  • Stern Pinball has a production schedule showing two titles per month, with the next new cornerstone game launching in August 2022

    high confidence · Production timeline reportedly sent to distributors; hosts reference this as official guidance from Stern

  • Haggis Pinball has eight Fathom Revisited units in production with completed Kelts production

    high confidence · Video evidence released by Haggis Pinball showing eight cabinets in workshop approximately one week prior to podcast recording

  • Rush pinball code update version 0.93 introduces a new Voyage Wizard Mode with mini-challenge gameplay

    high confidence · Direct reference to update notes; hosts confirm feature additions and Insider Connected secret feature

  • Elite Toppers produced a Pirates of the Caribbean topper limited to 100 units priced at $2,500 USD

    high confidence · Pricing and limitation details stated by hosts; compared to Star Wars topper pricing (~$2000) and Elvira topper ($1,000)

  • Pirates of the Caribbean pinball is missing scorebit/achievements feature, which has been in beta for approximately six months

    high confidence · Hosts note ongoing delay in rolling out this feature promised 'shortly' but pending for extended period

  • American Pinball has production scheduled for Oktoberfest (early May/summer), Houdini (late summer), Hot Wheels (late fall), and Legends of Valhalla expected in October

Notable Quotes

  • “Well, this month it wasn't... It wasn't the most exciting of months.”

    Martin Ayer @ 0:00-0:30 — Sets tone for April 2022 being a slow news month despite hosts' efforts to identify stories

  • “People who would normally be welcome to come and have a look around... seem to have cancelled all factory tours. So maybe that means they're making the next game now.”

    Martin Ayer @ ~25:00 — Speculative but significant signal that Jersey Jack Pinball is preparing new game announcement with large production run

  • “It could be that he's back in the U.S. visiting Jersey Jack Pinball... for him to be part of such a reveal... he could also just be working there fine tuning the last bits and pieces of LCD code.”

    Martin Ayer @ ~27:00 — Speculation about Jean-Paul de Wynne's presence at JJP potentially indicating imminent game reveal preparation

  • “These days, low power consumption, less heat, so hopefully not a problem.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~55:00 — Technical observation about Haggis Pinball's design decision to place electronics in cabinet base rather than backbox

  • “Been at the show Lost my voice, can't talk See you next month”

    Gary Flower (via text message) @ ~50:00 — Humorous moment when hosts attempt to contact industry insider; shows Flower attended Midwest Gaming Classic with industry knowledge

Entities

Ryan McQuaidpersonAmerican PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyBitroniccompanyHaggis Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Deep Root Pinball liquidation proceeding through asset sales and bankruptcy proceedings; Turner Logic (IT/software provider) acquiring life insurance policies as primary valuable asset

    high · Life insurance policies (~$10M) sold to Tuyo (Turner Logic subsidiary); hosts note lack of bookkeeping records and ongoing legal proceedings

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball cancelled all public factory tours, indicating preparation for major game announcement with pre-production units ready

    medium · Factory access restrictions reported; RB Flip France conducted tour approximately one week prior showing Guns N' Roses in active production; speculation that announcement strategy mirrors previous title rollouts

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern Pinball attending Craft Brewers Conference May 2-5 with Insider Connected tournament leaderboard showcase across Rush, Godzilla, Mandalorian, Avengers games

    high · Booth location (3839) provided; specific games listed; hosts note strong brewery/pinball location alignment

  • $

    market_signal: Pirates of the Caribbean scorebit/achievements feature remains in beta after approximately six months of promised 'shortly' delivery

    high · Hosts note extended delay and frustration among Pirates owners; contrasts with other Jersey Jack games receiving feature implementation

  • ?

    community_signal: Steve Ritchie transition from Stern Pinball to Jersey Jack Pinball; extensive interview conducted mid-April

    high · Bonus pincast interview released; community response noted as positive; hosts note significance of designer movement between manufacturers

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.190

0:00
First Super Hoop games shipped. Ryan McQuaid joins American Pinball. Fathom revisited in production.
0:17
Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston and I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine. And I'm joined here with... I'm Martin Ayer, but I'm the editor of Pinball News, and we're here to look back at all the exciting events that happened in the month of April 2022 in the world of pinball. Right. And, of course, at the beginning of these pincasts, we always say what an exciting month it's been and how action-packed it was. Well, this month it wasn't. Yeah, let's be honest. It wasn't the most exciting of months. That's what I say. But we've got something to report. So please stick with us because we've got some news. We've got two hours of no news for you. Yes, that's right. But we'll pad it out the best we can. No, we won't. No, there is a lot happening. It's just none of it was particularly dramatic, that was all. But let's get on with it then. And let's start with our first headline, I suppose. Yeah. Which was... The Super Hoop Games shipping from Bitronic in Spain. Yes. Yes, we're starting with news from overseas people. Yes, yes. Unless you're in Spain, in which case it's not. Yes. So, yeah, last month, my apologies, I forgot or I left out Quetzalpinball and Bitronic from our monthly pincast review of whatever happened. and I got an email from Antonio Arturo from Quetzalpimbo basically telling me like how could you have missed all the news I'm sorry I should say that in the Spanish how could you have missed all the news sorry couldn't resist I have terrible jokes. I apologize for that. I'm sure no offense was taken. Let's hope so. No, there was actually this month there was an unboxing video of Super Hoop. Yeah. Posted by, and I forgot the name of the channel. Okay. Right.
2:40
Retro, Retro Ocho or something like that. But anyway, if you're a subscriber to the Pinball Magazine newsletter, there will be a link in there so you can watch it anyway. And else you just have to Google it, I suppose. If you go to YouTube and look for Super Hoop unboxing video, I'm sure you'll find it. Yes, exactly. And what's interesting, especially in that video, as you will see, the back box opens up hinged at the bottom and it falls open like how do you say like a motor hood or something like that but instead of going up it actually comes down right ok so the back glass is hinged at the bottom and falls onto the play field but not all the way because it's being stopped there's something to stop it and And, well, so the news that I'm reading out right now is actually the news from last month. Bittronic had a stand at the International Gaming and Gambling Trade Show, which was held in Madrid on March 15th to 17th, where they had three Super Hoop games in their stand and two more pinballs in a partner stand. one of their distributors also had a pinball at an expo in Dubai which was at the end of March and they also presented two Super Hoop games at the Enada Rimini in Italy that's the big trade show that's held twice a year in Italy yes where it was at the stand of their Italian distributors so the good news is that apparently Bitronic already has a number of distributors for their games. Yeah, and they're very busy in promoting that as well, which is great. Yeah, and obviously Bitronic is also doing dart games and so on, so it's not surprising that they have distributors.

medium confidence · Martin Ayer cites sources regarding production schedule; subject to supply chain constraints

Deep Root Pinball
company
Pedretti Gamingcompany
Jean-Paul de Wynneperson
Steve Ritchieperson
Dennis Nordmanperson
Martin Ayerperson
Jonathan Houstonperson
Gary Flowerperson
RB Flip Franceperson/media
Sonic the Hedgehog Spinballgame
Fathom Revisitedgame
Legends of Valhallagame
Super Hoopgame
Funhouse 2.0 Rudy's Nightmaregame
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Kingpin Games (run by Eric Monnier's brother) representing Jersey Jack Pinball at Midwest Gaming Classic with Guns N' Roses

    high · Family connection between Kingpin Games and Jersey Jack Pinball designer establishes partnership rationale

  • ?

    announcement: Ryan McQuaid appointed as game designer at American Pinball; Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball homebrew now under American Pinball evaluation for potential production

    high · Official announcement by David Fix; McQuaid's homebrew confirmed to have won Popular Choice Award and is currently with American Pinball for assessment

  • ?

    product_strategy: Sonic the Hedgehog pinball delayed in American Pinball production; unclear if original Sega theme will be retained or re-themed for production version

    medium · Hosts discuss possibility of re-theming or licensing deal with Sega; game showcased at American Pinball factory during Ryan McQuaid announcement

  • ?

    product_strategy: Rush pinball code update 0.93 introduces Voyage Wizard Mode with mini-challenge gameplay and expanded rules/lighting effects

    high · Update notes detail new features; Insider Connected secret feature mentioned but unrevealed

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Pinball's 2022 production schedule reveals two titles per month strategy through December, with August marking new cornerstone game launch

    high · Production schedule reportedly sent to distributors; detailed monthly breakdown provided (Avengers/Rush April, Deadpool/Godzilla/Mandalorian May, etc.)

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Jean-Paul de Wynne (Jersey Jack Pinball LCD animator) visiting U.S. headquarters potentially indicates imminent game reveal participation

    low · Speculation by Martin Ayer based on Facebook post; unconfirmed but fits pattern of animator involvement in reveal events

  • ?

    technology_signal: Haggis Pinball places electronics in cabinet base rather than backbox, relying on plastic panels and modern low-power components to manage heat

    high · Video evidence of eight Fathom Revisited units showing dual subwoofers and electronics layout; hosts discuss thermal management strategy

    • 4:45
    So hopefully the game will catch on. And in March, Bitronic also delivered their first game, and since then they have been sending out pinballs since then. And Antonio also pointed me to his Instagram account where he's posting regular updates regularly so what I could see is a whole of I suppose Bittronic with quite a few Bittronic Super Hoop games set up there so there's quite a few games coming and about to be boxed up and shipped out, I suppose. Oh, great. Let's hope it's a big success for them. Then they can move on to some other titles as well. Yeah, I'm very curious if Antonio's already working on a new design for them.
    5:43
    I wouldn't be at all surprised. I thought I'd heard that they were doing another design, but I wasn't sure whether Antonio was involved in that. I'm not sure either. We will see in the future. But congratulations to them, anyway, on shipping that game out and hope the lucky buyers are very pleased with it. Okay, I sense that you're sort of in a rush to get this boring month over. Well, we haven't really got much more to say about that, so let's move on to our second headline then, which does take us firmly back over to the United States and to the Chicagoland area and American Pinball, where they have David Fix announce this past week that Ryan McQuaid has been appointed as game designer. and that might not be a very familiar name let's be honest, it's not like they hired Steve Ritchie no, but Ryan's you may have heard of the game that Ryan's been working on you may have seen it as well, you may even have played it he created the Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball homebrew game I've seen pictures, I haven't played it I've seen pictures and that is indeed an impressive looking game it is, it was fantastic when I was there and I had a good look at it I didn't actually get a chance to play it because, naturally, it was very popular with everybody and pretty hard to get on a game without spending some time queuing. And that's a busy show for me, as it is for many other people, so I didn't have the time to. But I did get some pictures of it anyway. And it was very well received and won the Popular Choice Award, I think, at that show from the public vote. Right. So while Ryan designed this Sonic the Hedgehog pinball machine, we don't know whether that is actually going to be a future title for Spooky Pinball or whether they are going to re-theme. Sorry, American Pinball, my bad.
    7:41
    Or whether they are re-theming that design into something else, which might very well be the case. Or maybe they just make a deal with Sega. Yeah, that would be the best way to go, given how heavily themed it is on Sonic the Hedgehog. But they certainly had the game in the American Pinball Factory, and took pictures of it as part of their announcement with Ryan with the game. So obviously the company were looking at it, and it would make sense if they were looking to see how they could make it a producible game.
    8:16
    And they also took it to the Midwest Gaming Classic Show, which was the past weekend. It was indeed, yes. They were there with Legends of Valhalla, Hot Wheels, and Houdini. I don't think they had any Oktoberfest games there, though. Well, it's not October, so that makes sense. No, true, but it does kind of mirror what they had at the Texas show. I don't think they had any Oktoberfest games there either. But they probably sold them. Well, yeah, could well be. But maybe it's time to be making some more. Well, apparently that's actually the case. from what my sources are telling me, Oktoberfest will be in production early summer, as in April, May.
    9:00
    Late summer, Houdini will be back into production and Hot Wheels in the late fall of this year. Oh, right. Okay, so obviously more Oktoberfest games coming, well, about now, then, I would guess. It's late April and early May, that's now? Yeah, that is now. And, of course, I suppose they are still building Legends of Valhalla. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, well, it's sort of exciting news. Dennis Nordman mentioned on his Facebook that his game is expected to be in production in October.
    9:37
    Right. Okay. I'm surprised it's going to take that long. But I guess if they're producing October 1st Houdini and Hot Wheels all the way through until then, maybe they aren't in the business of setting up multiple production lines or at least two lines, which is what we've spoken about before on this pincast and spoken to David Vicks about. Well, Legends of Valhalla might also still be in production, so that could be one line. That's a good point. And then the other games, the reruns, so to speak, on the second line. Yes, I honestly thought Dennis's game would be a bit earlier than October, But as we've seen from plenty of other companies, there are delays in sourcing parts and indeed in sourcing employees to build games.
    10:26
    So maybe that's… Well, they just added Ryan. I'm not saying that Ryan is going to be building games, but… No.
    10:34
    No, I mean, in a way, because they are building or they are doing another game with Riot Pinball, so Scott and Frank. so that's in the pipeline as well and if they were going to be doing a Ryan game and the last Barry Oslo game that's what I was about to say, yeah indeed they've got Barry's game which is going to be developed and taken into production too, so they've got a good pipeline of games there I'm sure everybody is waiting for supply lines to improve so they can get on and start announcing some new titles because one of the things that we haven't got this month I think it's fair to say, are there any new titles? No, don't think so no, no but don't switch off yet there is other news as boring as it is still news no, it's not boring, it's just it's not headline grabbing necessarily well, speaking of thank you for the bridge I suppose Speaking of new titles I think actually Well we're still waiting for a new For a title that everybody already knows Is coming But it hasn't been announced yet And that's the next Jersey Jack pinball game But we're getting the feeling We're getting closer and closer and closer Well we'd have to be really Because we can't keep making Guns and Roses games forever No But we have heard that There are no more People are being told they can't visit The factory, the JJP factory Anymore People who would normally be Welcome to come and have a look around They seem to have cancelled all factory tours So maybe that means they're making the next Game now so that when they announce it They've got a large number Of units ready Or already with distributors that's one theory unconfirmed interestingly RB Flip France did do a video tour of the Jersey Jack pinball factory probably the last ones which was only about a week ago and well they were obviously making Guns N' Roses at that point I think it was around April 18th or so that they were there oh did that long ago right so they Guns N' Roses on the line there I don't think you would see any hints as to what else might be coming up it was quite heavily edited that video I think with lots of cuts jump cuts around it as well to make it sort of pacey so interesting if you've never been to the Jersey Jack Pinball Factory or you've never seen around a pinball factory at all to see how they're making Guns N' Roses, they didn't seem to be hugely busy, but they didn't have a whole lot of games in boxes waiting to go out. So that was a good sign. Anyway, they've got the games made and are still building them. And there's a second clue, which is purely speculative from my end. Oh, good. We like those. Yeah. Jean-Paul de Wynne, who is the LCD animator for Jersey Jack Pimble, or motion graphics designer, if you want to call it that. he posts on his Facebook that he's back in the U.S. visiting Jersey Jack Pinball.
    14:11
    And I haven't checked with Jean-Paul, so it's, like I said, pure hunch on my end. But it could be that he's not back yet. And as far as I know, Jean-Paul never experienced a game reveal in the U.S. since working for Jersey Jack Pinball. He started off as a contractor and I think he still is a contractor.
    14:39
    But he's been doing that basically since The Wizard of Oz. Every game he's been involved in are directing the LCD content basically and designing all that.
    14:52
    And I think he's got a team of people that he's working with now. Yes, I think so, yeah. Yeah, which is basically supervising I think it would be nice for Jean-Paul to be part of such a reveal so it could be that he's we don't know why he's in the US we know that he's visiting JJP but he could also just be working there fine tuning the last bits and pieces of LCD code for the game that we're about to discover yeah or could be helping out with the promotional material, you know, the flyers, the banners, that kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely.
    15:35
    And something else I was going to mention. Yes, there's been a big push on social media for Jersey Jack Pinball's online capabilities.
    15:46
    Well there nothing else to push I suppose Well with the scorebit aspect of it But of course that still missing for Pirates of the Caribbean that game However there is some good news for Pirates of the Caribbean owners Why, if you call that good news. Well, it's getting some love anyway.
    16:05
    Elite Toppers have produced a new Pirates of the Caribbean topper. Not the cheapest one. I know toppers tend to be rather more costly than you think they should be, but this one, I think, is the most expensive topper. I think it exceeds the cost of the Star Wars one, didn't it, when that came out for Stern Game. I'm not even sure how much that was. I know Elvira was 1,000. Yeah, I think, well, anyway, this one costs basically 2,500 US dollars. What? Yeah, I think the Star Wars one was 2000 or 1999 or something like that. Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, it's a licensed thing, isn't it? So it's going to cost... It's Lucasfilm as well, so Disney now. So, yes, it's not going to be cheap. But, yes, this one's $2,500, limited to a maximum of 100 units. Right. It's currently not available, but we don't know whether it's out of stock or whether it's sold out or whether they're just not able to make any more at the moment.
    17:07
    I thought it sold out, to be honest, but if it has, then that's a nice cool quarter of a million dollars in topper. Yeah, and it probably means that they'll be building those toppers for the rest of the year. Well, yeah. In all fairness, I do have to say, it is an impressive-looking topper, and I suppose if you can afford the powers of the Caribbean pinball machine, then you might as well be able to afford such a topper.
    17:36
    Yeah. As I say, that's the only game, I think, that hasn't got the score bit and achievements added to it yet, which we're constantly told is in beta test and will be available shortly, but we've had that for about six months. So fingers crossed that owners get some love and get that added to their game, and then you can celebrate by buying yourself an Elite Toppers topper for your game. Right. So, and, well, the most exciting day of opinions, actually, we haven't mentioned yet.
    18:16
    Yes, absolutely. What's that? That's our interview with Steve Ritchie. Yes, absolutely. I do hope you got to listen to that. We did a special pin cast, bonus pin cast, in the middle of, well, I suppose it was, yeah, middle of last month, wasn't it? Yeah. Of April. Mid-April. Yeah. We had an extensive interview with Steve Ritchie, where he gave us the lowdown on how he came to join Jersey Jack Pinball and Left Stern Pinball and much, much more. Right. We won't go into it here because you either Happily already listened to it or you certainly can At the same place that you're getting this Pin cast Right so it's a previous episode so Clearly marked as the interview With Steve Ritchie Yeah So if you haven't listened to that Then make sure that you listen to it It is recommended And we did I did receive quite a few compliments For the interview Yes same here Yes. Yeah, we don't want to start blowing our own topic too much. But so moving on with Jersey Jack Pinball, they were at the recent Midwest Gaming Classic show, which was in Milwaukee this past weekend. They were there as part of the Kingpin Games stand, where I think they just had Guns N' Roses there because of the current title. And I guess they're probably not making any of the older games at the moment. So, yeah, Kingpin Games were, well, obviously the Guns N' Roses games are always very popular at any shows they go to. So thanks to Kingpin for bringing them to Midwest Gaming Classic. Right. And, of course, there is a connection. Kingpin Games is run by the brother of Eric Monnier, who is a designer at Jersey Jack Finball. So it makes perfect sense.
    20:15
    Great. Okay, moving on then. Yeah, around the block. Yep. Okay. Dirt and Pinball. Well, no new game announcements from them, but they did announce a sort of rough schedule of the games they're going to be producing over the rest of the year. Yeah, which is actually not officially announced, but I think a sort of pencil-in timeline, you could call it, was sent out to some distributors. I think so. Yeah. So basically we're looking at probably doing two titles a month.
    20:59
    Obviously earlier on Stern announced that they're not going to do a new Cornerstone game until August of this year. And in the meantime, they'll be trying to fill backlog orders for different games. And so for last month, we know that Avengers was on the line and apparently Rush.
    21:20
    For this month, May, Deadpool and Godzilla are scheduled, also Mandalorian. For June, Mandalorian, Rush and Jurassic Park. July Godzilla again and August says Star Wars with the original art package as well as the new Cornerstone game September still also Star Wars November Jurassic Park The Pin and then for November a new run of Elvira Premiums and December we'll see Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles taken into production along with i suppose the new cornerstone game which a one might expect stern will be making for a couple of months at least yes you think so they would probably want to get that in for the run up to the holiday season right and all of this of course depends on the availability of uh parts and well this backlog wouldn't be so big even if these supply chain issues wouldn't be that big in the first place. True. Well, as you said, Rush makes a couple of appearances on that. Rush is their current title. So not unsurprisingly, there's been some new code for that game, which has actually been quite impressive, what they've added to it this time around in version 0.93, which introduces a whole lot more rules, including a new clock bonus feature and the Voyage Wizard Mode. And there's a, as with most of the Wizard Modes on certain games, you also get a sort of a mini game, mini challenge game, which is called the Voyage Challenge on this, which you can select from the start menu. So you can just basically go in and play a version of the Wizard Mode as a game in itself. Right. So that's been added. There's quite a few tweaks to how the rules work, obviously improvements to lighting effects. and lots more achievements for the Insider Connected players. And if you do use the Insider Connected, there is apparently some secret feature.
    23:33
    But it's so secret we don't know what it is. We couldn't even spoil it for you if we wanted to. The server was able to keep.
    23:42
    Oh, yes, okay. Very good. I think quite good at keeping what the next title is until it's officially announced anyway. Well, everybody is rumoring that's going to be Venom.
    23:56
    Yes, that's right, yes. I think that's... A rumoured Brian Eddy design. I'm mistaken. But it could also be John Borg or... I'd heard Jack Danger, actually.
    24:11
    That would seem awfully quick after Jurassic Park Depend. Oh, that's been and gone. it's a rapid turnaround these days at Stern more and more titles anyway we'll see exactly what that is because they are quite good at keeping these two doing it even if they're not that good at the titles anyway so and yeah you also had some news about Stern attending the 2022 Craft Brewers Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota yeah they're there well basically now Well, maybe not at this precise moment, but certainly from the 2nd to the 5th of May, they are at the Craft Brewers Conference in Minneapolis, as you just said, where they're on booth 3839, if you are attending.
    25:02
    They are represented. They haven't got Gary or George or any of the usual ones. They're sitting in the heavy drinkers. Yes, that's right. Yeah, the ones who know their beer rather than the ones who pretend they know their beer. Tyler Carson Evan Kirby and Pat Powers is there as well according to Stern there's no better combination than pinball and beer with the president only drinks vodka yes well ignoring that well not only but most ok well they will be showcasing their insider connect system across the games Rush and Godzilla and The Mandalorian and Avengers Infinity Quest. So they're going to have those four machines set up. And obviously, pinball and beer and brewers and bars are a very popular combination. Well, they have the brewery of the month on their Facebook. So, yeah, I'm sure they like their beers at Stern. and it's interesting to see that so many breweries actually have a connection with Stern Pinball or pinball in general. Yes, and at Pinball Expo, when they do the event, they often hold in conjunction with Logan Arcade. They often have free beer at that as well for those who are able to attend. Right.
    26:32
    Okay, so we mentioned MDC earlier when we were talking about JJP, But obviously Stern were heavily represented there, thanks to Marco's specialties, and again, Kingpin Games, where they had a big display of Rush and Godzilla games. And as is often the case at these major shows, they were running a special insider-connected leaderboard system just for that one event. now that's something which if you speak to them and say yes it will be available for locations to set up their own bespoke tournament and leaderboard systems as part of the entirely connected system soon but it's been soon for a while but it's not not actually available yet for them but maybe it will be and there seem to be a lot of locations saying we want this we want to be able to run our own leaderboards at our own location. So that would be a good push for InterDate Connected, if they can roll that out. Right, yeah. And while we earlier mentioned RB Flip France from France, visiting Jersey Jack Pinball, but they also went around the block and visited Stern Pinball, so there's also a video available from their Stern Factory Tour, if you're interested in that. Yes, obviously doing a tour of the pinball factories and shooting some video. So go and see what they're making. Right, okay. So I suppose we're moving on to our third headline now. Yeah, so we moved down to Australia and Haggett Pinball, who have, up until very recently, been very, very quiet about production of their Fathom Revisited game. Yeah, right. we know that they finished the production of Kelts and that they were starting to get ready to take Fathom into production and in which order they would build the games and this month not even that long ago I think a week ago or so we got a video with no words just showing eight games set up in a I suppose you could call it a workshop yeah eight cabinets were set up we got a look inside the game I have to say they look very nice yeah there's a lot in there I was surprised to see there were two subwoofers in there all the electronics seem to be in the base of the cabinet rather than in the back box which obviously can be a problem if screws or anything or metal parts fall off the play field, not that you would expect that on a new game but you know vibrations happen, it's the nature of the game so they did have some pretty hefty plastic sheets or plastic panels covering all the electronics which we've seen before but hopefully these days without so many well without any incandescent lamps and lower current draw and power usage, it won't get too hot in the base of those cabinets. Which is always the problem with putting or one of the other problems with putting electronics in the base of the cabinet is there's not much in the way of airflow.
    30:03
    Right. But as I say, these days, low power consumption, less heat, so hopefully not a problem. Right. So and apparently the Mermaid Games also have a floor-projecting light show, which probably means that they have LEDs on the underside of the cabinets. Yeah, it's a nice effect. It's like a sort of disco light type thing. Ooh, disco. Yeah. Love it. Yeah, we should certainly have some good sound to it anyway with that sound system that's in the game and the powerful amplifier. Right, okay. So that was the only news for Haggis Pinball this month.
    30:49
    We didn't see any games actually in production. We just saw eight games. We saw one being boxed up, I think. Yeah.
    31:00
    But it's for a lot of people enough to know that Haggis are working on fulfilling their orders. So good news there. Absolutely. Okay. Congratulations if you've got an order in for one of those games. It looks like things are happening at Haggis to actually get those games made. So good. So moving on.
    31:22
    One, if Haggis are successful in making games, let's move to a company that wasn't. The ongoing saga, which is pretty much drawing to a close these days, of Deep Root Pinball. There isn a huge amount more to be said because there not an awful lot left of the company No well most of the assets were sold I suppose Yes that right But there are still court hearings and what have you You know all about it. Well, I've been keeping an eye on it. It's pretty dull stuff, so I won't spend too much time on it. Just to mention that probably the biggest asset of the Deep Root group of companies were those life insurance policies which were bought by Policy Services, I think, which was the name of the company which bought them. And there was meant to be a lot more of them bought, but I think there were about $10 million worth bought in the end, and they've now been sold at a reduced price, obviously, as part of the liquidation of assets to a company called Tuyo, which wouldn't be interesting in the least, except that TU is short for Turner, and Turner is, for those who are following this, Turner Logic were the company who ran the IT systems for Robert Mueller's companies and were developing the software for the pinball games as well. So he was the one who was, or his company was the one who was doing all the bookkeeping for the Deep Root companies. So, you know, it's a good position. Interesting, because apparently it turns out to be a lack of bookkeeping. Yes, there seems to be not much in the way of records around. but I can see that company will be in a good position to know what was paid for the policies in the first place and what their book value might be. Anyway, they're now in the life insurance business having bought those policies.
    33:35
    So, there you go. That's probably, as I say, the most valuable part of the assets that were outstanding from the company and everything else has pretty much been sold off. Now we just wait for the bankruptcy and any possible criminal prosecutions to go through the courts.
    33:56
    Right. I think that's enough. Yeah, I wouldn't know what to add anyway. Well, yeah, I have to be very careful what we say anyway. Okay, but so nothing more to say there. There's also, I don't think there's anything much more to say from our friend Mike Kalinowski and Homepin in Taiwan. Right. No, actually, very little news. I think he shared a post about building some stand-up targets, which is not very exciting. Although, if you need them, you need them, I suppose. I did text him before we started recording this and he has seen my message but he hasn't responded yet so in case he gets back to me during this recording then we will still add it to our show ok well if we haven't got any news from him shall we try and call up our trusted advisor who might be able to give us some news from the pinball world I'm assuming that you're referring to our good friend Gary Flower. Of course, yes. He often tries to get onto our show. Well, we tried to get him on as well. Yeah, exactly.
    35:11
    Unfortunately, so far, we haven't been that lucky to get him actually on. Well, we do know that Gary's just been at the Midwest Gaming Classic, so he must have spoken to an awful lot of people there and picked up a lot of news about what's been going on in the business and might have some insider tips on what's coming up. Right, okay. So, well, I suppose we... Do you want to call him up? Sure. Okay. Let's give him a call then, see what happens. I'm calling him right now.
    35:48
    That doesn't sound too good. Gary, are you there? Gary? Oh, dear. Oh, I think he hung up. Oh, dear. I'm not sure it was the right number or the right contact. I didn't look at the number, I looked at the name It's a modern phone, you know Oh really? I don't know, I just remember all the numbers Okay, well We'll try and get back to Oh hang on, I've just got a text message coming through From Gary He says Been at the show Lost my voice, can't talk See you next month Oh Okay, obviously can't text very much either I suppose that explains what we just witnessed. Okay, well, get well soon, Gary, and we'll hope to hear from you in next month's Pincast. Yeah, I'm sure he has plenty of great news and it will still be worth mentioning next month. Yeah, yeah, okay. Sorry about that. Okay, moving on. Let's move on. We mentioned about events in Spain, so let's go back to Europe and talk about what's been going on with Pedretti Gaming. oh I was going to say Pimble Brothers because there's no news there oh ok well we'll skip them then and go on to what a good idea there is some news there they released an alternative trans light for the Funhouse 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare upgrade kit which costs 120 euro plus VAT and that trans light which is printed on 3mm thick acrylic is limited to 200 units okay so basically you can choose which Translight you prefer in your package although I'm not sure whether there is the option to actually choose between the two if you decide to buy the kit now it's still artwork by the same artist that did the original back glass for the Rudy's Nightmare game so it's not by the original artist John Yowsey which would be nice I suppose but then again we don't know whether John would even be interested in doing something like that no so anyway if you were or have the 2.0 release nightmare funhouse game and wanted an alternate transite there you are you'd have the choice now of buying that one if you want as you say limited to 200 and I guess you don't need to have the game, you might just like the artwork.
    38:27
    Right. If you're curious what it looks like, there will be an image in the Pinball Magazine newsletter, which will be sent out a couple of days after the recording of this show.
    38:42
    Sounds good. Okay. Well, we mentioned Midwest Gaming Classic, which obviously is in Wisconsin, which is the home state of Spooky Pinball. and of course they were there quite a big stand actually they brought four games, two Halloween's and two Ultraman's games and a very big merchandise stand yeah they do have a good range of spooky merchandise it's always a good place to buy it and try it first before you buy at the shows they are busy cranking out those games apparently producing around about 40 games a week. Yes, which is I'd say for a company that size pretty impressive. I think it is. I think it's impressive for any company to be honest.
    39:33
    Right. And that's about all the news there is for Spooky Pinball for the moment. Yeah, although I have to say those games from what I saw those games were very popular throughout the entire weekend. There seemed to be a big line of people waiting to play them. Yeah, it's interesting to say I attended the Flip Expo in France.
    39:59
    Yeah, I know. And the link to Spooky is that there was an Ultraman game present, so I got the chance to play one more game. But I did a lot better on that game than I did in the Texas show.
    40:19
    There was a lot of interest for that game and apparently the person who brought it is a distributor for France or something there was a friend of mine was also there who was interested in it was making very hard attempts to trying to sell that game to him so that was rather interesting and amusing to watch good so yeah it's good to know that they are available in Europe if you are interested in buying one. Yeah, so still not in the large quantities that they are available in the US, but still. We are getting more and more, I suppose. Yeah, good. Okay, moving on to Chicago Gaming. No new games announced from them, but they were represented at the recent Pinbrew show, which is in, I think it's in Ohio, if I remember correctly. And Cointaker had us down there with both the standard edition and the limited edition of the Cactus Canyon remake, which is their current title. And Chicago Gaming's Butch Peel was also there on hand to answer any questions about it and obviously provide technical support where it needed. I'm sure it was. It's a smart idea to send Butch there. Yeah, he's a good salesman and also a good technician. And yeah, I'm sure he's a good representative for Chicago Gaming and for the Cactus Canyon remake. Oh, yeah, absolutely, yes. So, and, well, speaking of Cointaker, they're not only distributors for Chicago Gaming, but also for Dutch Pinball. Indeed, yep, for the Big Lebowski. So there's another bridge. Yep, because you and I are both going to a little soiree that Dutch Pinball are hosting later this month, aren't we? Yes, we are, yes. we already mentioned it last month Dutch Pimple will be hosting their housewarming for the factory that they are already using for I suppose a year or probably a year and a half now but due to COVID they never got the chance to officially do an official opening or whatever you want to call it so they're doing that at the 27th this month and apparently here's the link to Cointaker Chris and Melissa of Cointaker have both been invited to come over and when I talked to them at Texas they were very interested in doing so it wouldn't be the first time for them to visit the Netherlands and hopefully they were able to get plane tickets at a reasonable price and we will get to see them later this month. Yes, and we'll have details of how that went in our next pincast at the start of June. Right, yes, we could record our pincast actually at the event. Oh, there's a thought, yes. Well, it's not too noisy. Yes, and just as a warm-up teaser, so I asked Barry what the program is, So he said, well, you can either, they're open at 2, but you can also come in at 5. There will be a barbecue. There will be music. And he suggested to book a hotel.
    43:55
    Yep, already done. Yep. Good. So we'll give you more details of that, as I say, next month's Pincast. So moving back to the U.S. Oh, we're really crossing the board. We are. We were flip-flopping backwards and forwards more frequently than either of us.
    44:13
    Yes, almost like American Airlines. So, multimorphic, anyway, in Texas, going back to Texas, what we were just talking about.
    44:21
    And, well, there's a few items of news from them. First of all, they have some job opportunities. If you are a woodworker slash CNC operator or a pinball assembler. Well, nobody is a pinball assembler. They need to train you for that. Well, you say that. There may be some pinball assemblers from other companies who fancy jumping ship and doing modding off it. Yes, yes. So those two positions were, may well still be available at their Round Rock location in Texas, just near Austin.
    44:57
    And there's some other news as well about, well, we talk about supply line delays. and what else have they have Multimorphic been saying about that? Well what I have been saying mostly is obviously last month was the Texas Pinball Festival which was a big success and the Weird Al game is so popular that currently it takes about 13 months before a new game can be delivered. That partly has to do with supply chain issues, but also due to the big demands and the time that they need to build the games. This is for the whole base unit. Yeah, and what they're also doing is they're working with two production lines. One is only building the kits for the games, and one is building actually the complete games. So if you're already a customer and you already have a machine and you're just ordering the kit, you don't have to wait in line for machines to be built.
    46:12
    So they speed up that process, which is a good thing, I suppose. Yeah, especially if you're buying a game with a kit because then it could be built in parallel. Right.
    46:26
    Okay, and they're also... Well, one of the things that they recently announced that we covered here was the upgrade that they made to their flippers, which is something that needs to be supported in the software, and they have gone back and added that feature to some of their earlier titles. Yeah, but they also need to send in some hardware, I suppose. Yes, indeed. And they have been picking and chipping all outstanding flipper upgrade orders. So if you ordered such a Flipper upgrade kit Then you probably received it by now And of course all new machines Will have it included Standard Yes I suppose that's all the Multimorphic news for now And The They're already working on The next game Coming after Weird Al But obviously since Weird Al is so popular. I suppose that gives them some time to develop that game Yes not much point bringing out another new game if it going to take six months before they can actually get any of the kits out But we're talking just now about support for the new Flipper upgrade kits. Well, there's a new version of Ranger in the Ruins as well. If you have that game on your P3, you can download version 2.0.0.2, which primarily adds support for the new Flipper upgrade kit. It also does a couple of other things. So you can download that either over Wi-Fi or over a USB stick if you want to do it that way. Right. Excellent.
    48:14
    Moving up to, I suppose it's Canada, if I'm not mistaken. Yep, Vancouver area. Yep. Pinball Adventures. Yeah, well as we know The Pully Factory Their first title Which still hasn't actually gone into production yet They've been showing more pictures Of Six cabinets and back boxes With various plastics And various playfield Artwork snippets Have been featured on their Instagram feed Still no details Of when or where the game will be available Though so just keep waiting, it looks like slow progress but they are progressing so I suppose that's good news right I don't know if you've got any more news from yes I do from the company first of all I noticed and I'm not sure whether you did the company website used to be pinballbuzz.com Yes, that's right.
    49:24
    And that has been moved now to pinballadventures.com Okay. So the entire website is now available on pinballadventures.com and the pinballbuzz.com website doesn't even exist anymore. Well, it hasn't existed for a long time. We commented on that when it first disappeared. It disappeared and it was back up and now it moves to pinballadventures.com and I have been texting with Andrew McBain the owner of the company I'm not sure whether he reached out to you but he pointed me to an upcoming page that will be announced or we can actually announce it but probably next month he asked me not to announced it this month, where actually the building process for Pony Factory can be followed. So if you have a game on order or you know which game you have, then you can see how much of that game is already completed.
    50:32
    We will share that link with you next month. That's an interesting and novel idea. On the other hand, I was wondering, okay, I'm not sure how much time it takes to build such a page, but shouldn't you be building games?
    50:48
    I'm sure it could be done by somebody else. You know, somebody in charge of the website won't be the same person, hopefully won't be the same person, who's building games. Right. Okay, well that makes sense, I suppose.
    51:01
    Yes, so apparently there's some more information about exactly how the game is coming along. Yeah, well, Janos of Team Pimble is finishing up the code this week and they are also still waiting for some metal parts which should be done and powder coated and once that's done then they can move along I have been promised a gameplay video which should be sent after that, sorry about that but no information about the cost of the game yet? No, which apparently is a difficult issue at the moment as prices for parts keep changing due to the shipping going up and down and, well, the supply chain issues, you know, so that makes it a little bit difficult, but as soon as there is a price to report, and of course, you'll be the first to hear it here, or you won't be the first we'll be one of the first ok well one other company that we mentioned about before who haven't, who have been very low key and almost invisible in their production plans is Circus Maximus right apparently there's some news from them yes apparently they are planning to provide their production plans at the upcoming Southern Fright Gaming Expo, which takes place in Atlanta, which is sort of like their hometown. It takes place from July 15th through the 19th.
    52:56
    Still a show that I would like to go to at some point. I'm not sure where I can make it this year. but since it's their hometown show I suppose we can expect news from Circus Maximus over there well production plans whether that's going to be a time scale we're not going to be producing anything that would be a plan as well but that's going to be for Kingpin and not to do with the Python's Pinball Circus game.
    53:33
    Yeah, that's what I'm expecting, yes. Yeah. I still have to see whether we ever get to that Python's Pinball Circus game. Yeah. Well, we did comment last month about their absence from the Texas show. Right. Where they've been quite prominent exhibitors before. So maybe they're just keeping things more local now.
    53:57
    Maybe they are. Yeah. Oh, well, we'll just wait and see. There's a couple of more months and then we can report on that as well. Yeah, good. Okay, other news then. Now, first of all, you mentioned earlier about you went to the Flip Expo show in Le Trepot in France. Yes. Anything to report from that? Well, I think it was one of the very well attended show. The location was the same. New organization in the sense of a new chairman and new volunteers, but very popular with locals and people attending. I don't think I've ever seen the line at the Saturday morning before opening that long.
    54:48
    And the number of games was up compared to previous years. I'm not saying that the previous people who organized it didn't do a good job but this time the number of games was up the number of attendees was up I think the number of vendors was slightly down which is a pity but overall I think it was a very good show and I have to compliment the new organizers on their effort I plan to write a report which should be up on pinball-magazine.com soon, but I've been very, very busy, so I haven't gotten around to writing it. Okay. Well, I'm sure it'll be great when you do. And it's one of those shows which I'm always incredibly impressed by how cheap it is to actually get into the show. Yes. It's, what, five euros? Five euros entrance for one day. And also the food and beverage are very, very reasonably priced.
    55:57
    Yes, I remember that. We're talking like two euros, let's say two dollars for a can of soft drink. Crepes, French pancakes, basically, one euro fifty. Yeah. which is hot dogs I think were 3 euros and then you get a French baguette with a hot dog the size of your underarm so yeah very impressive show and I missed going this year oh you were missed, trust me that's very kind hope to get back next time it's a great show It was also a lovely town and area on the coast. Yes, and the very interesting thing about this show, which I also told my girlfriend who came along for the very first time,
    56:59
    it really is a family show. This is a show where you see mom, dad, their kids, and their parents. So grandma, grandpa coming along as well. and it's really funny to see 80 year old grandmas playing pinball and still trying to shake the game it's just fun good well I'm glad you enjoyed it made me very jealous that I wasn't there but well you go to shows that I wish I could go to well maybe but yeah so one of the good things about I've always thought about probably certainly French shows is they have a sort of very relaxed and mature attitude to having a drink or a beer or a oh yeah a perno or whatever it is you're you're carrying around in there um so on that theme it was uh interesting to see that uh ale industries of uh of Oakland in California they uh not a million miles away from uh a well-known people museum actually in Alameda. They are producing a pinball-themed beer called Degenerate Pinheads.
    58:14
    I'm sure we can all think of a few of those, but Degenerate Pinheads IPA Series 1 is here, which is a light-bodied West Coast IPA, apparently, with dry-hopped with Sabra Mosaic hops.
    58:30
    It's done in collaboration with The Flipper Room, and features nine designs of different degenerate pinheads. So the idea is you collect all nine of the cans and get all the characters. But, yeah, they are very attractive designs. And whether the beer's any good or not, I don't know. But it's a West Coast IPA, so it can't be that bad. If that's your drink of choice.
    58:59
    So the designs are different, but are they... The beers are the same, I think. I think the beer is basically coming one of nine random designs, and with each four-pack that you buy, you get four different designs. Right, okay.
    59:17
    Well, that's very interesting, I suppose. I suppose it will be difficult to collect them all in Europe, but… Well, I don't know. There may appear… Ale Industry is not a brewer I'm familiar with over here, So maybe it's just a U.S.-based distribution of those. Or maybe you can order online. Yeah. Okay. So we have some news. When we were in Texas, I was talking to Randy of Color DMD, and he was telling me a little about this. But you have a little more detail on some of the issues that Color DMD is facing. Well, the issue is supply chain issues.
    60:02
    And I spoke to Randy as well. and he was already foreseeing that they would be forced to basically stop production because they can't get the parts that they need to make their displays, which is a very sad thing because it basically is hurting their business. and ColorDMD, which I suppose was Randy, who is the main man, I suppose, sent out a message that production has been impacted by the global chip supply shortage over the past several months. LCD displays are currently sold out. LED displays are in short supply, but a limited number can still be found under the Sigma product heading of the ColorDMD, DMD website. Once they are able to resume production, they will send out a back in stock notification to their mailing list to which anybody can subscribe on the Color DMD website. Okay. Well, good luck to them in getting some more panels through because that's always a very popular purchase for any home collector or buyer of an LED flash LCD or DMD type game anyway ok I suppose there is one last item to discuss which is an interview that Christopher Frenchy of the super awesome pinball show did with Lime and Sheets which he has recently made available yes I think it's the last interview that Lyman did before his untimely death and I think it was suitably respectful to allow the certain passage of time to take place after Lyman passed before publishing this super awesome pinball show recording. But it's certainly worth listening to, I would say. Very talented guy and... As a host of a podcast as well. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, very well put together show. Right. And I suppose that rounds it up for our summary of April 2022. I think it does. Hopefully it wasn't too boring. And despite there being no big announcements of new games, as you've heard, there's still plenty going on. and I hope you got some, learned some new information. Right. Okay. So we'll be back at the beginning of June with our monthly recap of the previous month, which, which will be May 22. Until then, well, happy flipping and until next time. Yes, we look forward to that. We'll see you then. Bye for now. Bye bye.
    63:23
    you