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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast September 2022 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 30m·analyzed·Oct 4, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Sept 2022: Stern's 007 delayed by Queen's death; HomePin's Spinal Tap gets mixed Pinfest reception.

Summary

Jonathan Houston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin (Pinball News) review September 2022 pinball industry news, covering Stern's delayed 007 James Bond reveal due to Queen Elizabeth II's death, the licensing complications that emerged, early code impressions, and HomePin's mixed reception for This Is Spinal Tap at Pinfest Australia. Stern also released Spike 2 OS updates across 18 titles and announced goodie box collaborations with NECA.

Key Claims

  • 007 James Bond LE sold out immediately despite being capped at 1,000 units

    high confidence · Jonathan states 'the LEs all sold out immediately as everyone kind of expects'

  • 60th Anniversary James Bond edition will have 500 units (fewer than LE) with different playfield and rules, designed by Keith Elwin

    high confidence · Jonathan: 'There will be 500 apparently of these 60th anniversary games...a totally different game with a different play field, different rules'

  • 007 reveal was delayed ~8-10 days due to Queen Elizabeth II's death and UK mourning period

    high confidence · Martin: 'due to the software sensors...they weren't able to update it before they got to the event' and official delay announced out of respect for Queen Elizabeth II

  • Early 007 code allowed multiball to be started in a single shot (problematic for game balance)

    high confidence · Martin observed '20 seconds in and you're already in multiball' and later 'It's a single shot to start multi-ball, basically'

  • Stern Spike 1 boards are reaching end-of-life with no replacement parts currently available

    medium confidence · Jonathan: 'apparently those boards are basically when they're at their end of life there's no replacement parts available' for games like Game of Thrones, Ghostbusters, KISS

  • Lonnie Rock and Mike Vinicore are coding the 007 James Bond game

    high confidence · Martin: 'There's talk that Lonnie Rock is doing the code for this game' and Jonathan: 'Mike Vinicore is also working with him on developing rules'

  • HomePin's This Is Spinal Tap initially promoted as 'first production models' but later downscaled to 'first prototype models' after mixed Pinfest reception

    high confidence · Martin: 'games were originally promoted as being the first production models, but...it was later scaled back to them being the first prototype models'

  • HomePin states all Spinal Tap production through mid-2023 is already sold out

Notable Quotes

  • “Well, if it is the case that this launch has been pulled due to the Queen's death and marking that by not launching the game, then fair enough. I'll respect their decision there, being based in the UK.”

    Martin @ early in 007 discussion — Shows editorial judgment in respecting licensing/corporate decisions during cultural events

  • “The ball launches it bounces around it goes down the middle I think, oh, that's a bit rubbish, and walk away.”

    Martin @ describing Christie's auction event attendees — Illustrates the challenge of showing complex pinball rules to casual players unfamiliar with the game

  • “Why were you showing it? And the answer is that the game was supposed to have been updated with new code before it went to that event. But unfortunately, due to...beyond the control of the people who were bringing the game, they weren't able to update it before they got to the event.”

    Martin @ explaining code asset issue — Reveals production/logistical pressures forcing games to be shown with unfinished code

  • “I think there's only the theme music in there”

    Jonathan @ discussing 007 code quality — Confirms sparse audio implementation in early code state

  • “His games tend to be more simple as far as the rules go or more understandable perhaps...certainly easier to document when I've been doing the in depth reviews of games”

    Martin @ discussing Lonnie Rock's coding style — Expert assessment of coding design philosophy differences between programmers

  • “Well, based on what the reports were from Pinfest, I'm not sure there will be that many orders.”

    Jonathan @ regarding Spinal Tap reception — Skepticism about HomePin's optimistic production timeline based on negative feedback

  • “It's obviously very, very, very early code...it smacked of we're contractually obliged to have the game here at this event let's put something together with some basic rules”

    Martin @ assessing Christie's demo build — Suggests Stern was contractually bound to present 007 by 60th anniversary date regardless of code readiness

Entities

Stern Pinballcompany007 James BondgameJonathan HoustonpersonMartinpersonKeith ElwinpersonLonnie RockpersonMike VinicorepersonHomePincompanyThis Is Spinal Tapgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Spike 1 boards reaching end-of-life with no replacement parts currently available; potential major issue for operators maintaining legacy games

    medium · Jonathan: 'those boards are basically when they're at their end of life there's no replacement parts available' for Game of Thrones, Ghostbusters, KISS, WrestleMania and others

  • ?

    event_signal: Stern transitioning to virtual factory tours and special artist signings at Pinball Expo instead of traditional in-person factory tours

    high · Jonathan mentions 'virtual pinball tour...Jack Danger with a camera streaming live' and 'special sort of signing for Stern's artists and designers'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Early 007 code has multiball triggering in single shot (~20 seconds into game), indicating poor difficulty tuning and game balance issues requiring significant code revision

    high · Martin: 'you're 20 seconds in and you're already in multiball. That's not something that I would...' contrasts with original code requiring 3-4 orbit shots

  • ?

    licensing_signal: 007 contains unlicensed assets from early code that weren't authorized for public viewing; game initially shown with outdated code due to software update delays

    high · Martin received email requesting video removal because 'assets which haven't been licensed yet...may never be licensed by Stern from the James Bond licensing company'

  • ?

    community_signal: Martin attended Christie's auction preview event to play 007 but found most attendees unfamiliar with pinball mechanics; had to record gameplay himself as no experienced players were available

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.271

0:00
stern reveals jim's bond this is spinal tap premiere it's pinball expo month hi my name is jonathan houston i'm the editor of pinball magazine and joined by hi i'm martin and i'm the editor of pinball news and together with jonathan we're going to look back at all the excitement that took place in the pinball world in the month of September 2022, which has just finished, and, well, it was a packed month, wasn't it? It was absolutely a packed month, yeah.
0:41
There was a lot of chaos, I would say. Yeah, things didn't necessarily go to plan for several manufacturers, but we can talk about that as we go through what's been going on in the industry throughout the month. In rough lines or guidelines or whatever. So we got a new game by Stern. We also got the debut of a new game by Homepin. And, well, all the other manufacturers also have news. So, yeah, lots of news to cover. Right, okay, so let's get on with it then. So the long-awaited reveal of Stern Pinball's latest Cornerstone title. that's the one which is one of the standard ones they normally will produce three times a year 007 James Bond no no no 007 not James Bond it's a James Bond themed pinball but it's called 007 there's nowhere that you can read James Bond on the translate or the cabinet anywhere ok I might have to investigate that But it's a 007-themed game, but it's also in the three different versions of it, the Pro, the Premium, and the LE, which have been announced and revealed so far. Each one of those is themed around a different Sean Connery-era James Bond film. Right. Is that right? Yes, absolutely. Okay, good. Okay, so we have Doctor No, which is the pro-level game. Right. We have You Only Live Twice. Or You Only Lodge Twice. Yes.
2:30
You Only Play Twice, maybe, which is the premium. Right. And then we have a, is it Thunderball? Yes. It's the limited edition version. Right. Okay, of which there will be 1,000.

high confidence · Martin: 'Mike from Homepin was saying that all the production up until mid-2023 has already been sold'

  • 007 game contains unlicensed assets that weren't supposed to be shown in early video footage

    high confidence · Martin was asked to remove video 'because it contains assets which haven't been licensed yet...may never be licensed by Stern from the James Bond licensing company'

  • Stern releasing NECA collaboration goodie box for Elvira's House of Horrors at Target for $50, including exclusive Elvira figure, beanie, t-shirt, patch, and pin

    high confidence · Jonathan: 'they are now doing one in collaboration with NECA...themed around Elvira's House of Horrors' with '50 dollar price point'

    • Pinfest Australia
    event
    Queen Elizabeth IIperson
    IAPA Europeevent
    Christie's Auction Houseorganization
    Liberty Gamescompany
    NECAcompany
    Elvira's House of Horrorsgame
    Spike 2product
    Spike 1product
    Pinball Expoevent
    Jack Dangerperson

    high · Martin: 'I was waiting for somebody to play the game who knew how to play pinball...virtually everybody who walked up to the machine didn't know how to even flip the ball...I thought, well, I'm going to have to play this myself'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Mike Vinicore returning to active pinball code development after period of illness, working with Lonnie Rock on 007

    high · Jonathan: 'Mike Vinicore is also working with him on developing rules. Well, it's good to see Mike Vinicore back in action after being ill.'

  • $

    market_signal: 007 James Bond Pro at $6,999, Premium at $9,699, LE at $12,999; 60th Anniversary model pricing to be determined by distributors (similar to Beatles model strategy)

    high · Jonathan: 'Pro, which is priced at $6,999, premium at $9,699, and a limited edition...of $12,999...no price has been set for that, it will be up to distributors or resellers to set their own price'

  • ?

    announcement: Stern announcing $50 NECA goodie box collaboration for Elvira's House of Horrors at Target, including exclusive Elvira figure, beanie, t-shirt, patch, and pin

    high · Jonathan: 'they are now doing one in collaboration with NECA...themed around Elvira's House of Horrors and the box includes an exclusive Toonie Elvira figure a beanie, a t-shirt a patch and a pin'

  • ?

    product_strategy: 007 James Bond launch delayed 8-10 days from IAPA Europe show due to Queen Elizabeth II's death and UK mourning protocols

    high · Martin: 'due to the software sensors...they weren't able to update it before they got to the event' and official Stern statement about honoring Queen Elizabeth II

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: HomePin Spinal Tap received mixed-to-negative reception at Pinfest Australia; initial 'first production models' marketing claim downscaled to 'first prototype models' allowing for feedback incorporation

    high · Martin: 'games were originally promoted as being the first production models, but...reception was...mixed...later scaled back to them being the first prototype models' and Jonathan: 'based on what the reports were from Pinfest, I'm not sure there will be that many orders'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern releasing coordinated Spike 2 OS updates across all 18 platform titles (Rush, Mandalorian, Godzilla, Beatles, etc.) with new connectivity features and home team functionality

    high · Jonathan details updates: 'core updates to the operating system...Wi-Fi signal strength warnings...ability to do the new home team feature if the machine is set on coin play'

    • 2:45
    But that's not all. No. there's a fourth version of James Bond coming out but that will be a different game designed by Keith Elwin it's the 60th anniversary edition and that game has yet to be revealed although the interestingly 007 .com website actually already put an image of that game up there which was immediately removed of course but could easily be well it was already captured by other people and you can still find it with Google as well this is an exterior shot of the cabinet yes single level Keith Elwin design and apparently it contains all actors that played James Bond all six actors yes indeed we can see that on the back glass slash trans light image but we'll report more on that when it's actually launched properly we can talk about it in some depth if we're talking about this 007 game I suppose you're the expert at this moment because you played it on multiple locations in London the past couple of weeks where the game debuted on various events can you tell us more about that? yeah let's talk about the process by which this game came to be revealed.
    4:19
    We knew it was going to be launched or it was going to be previewed at the IAPA Europe show, which was being held in London around about the 12th to the 14th, I think, of September. Right. I think those were the dates. Which would have been great for me, except I was away on holiday at that time. so I wouldn't have been able to go. But I did have somebody there who was going to be able to take pictures of the game.
    4:49
    Unfortunately, the day before, while they were setting up, somebody else took pictures and, despite promising not to share them, did share them. And they shared them with people who then shared them with other people and those pictures leaked out. Now, what happens next is subject to some uncertainty, but Stern put out a press release saying that they were not going to be launching the game at the show. Now, the background to this is that a few days before, the death was announced of Queen Elizabeth II. Right. And there was a kind of moratorium on celebrations or launches of things in the UK around about that time. now Stern said in with respect the honour or honour the memory of Queen Elizabeth they weren't going to be launching that and they were going to delay it for well basically about a week or ten days that's the official reading that is the official yeah now there were all kinds of rumours floating around that it was wasn't Stern's decision that it was actually the licensor's decision to do that. The 007 slash James Bond licensor had decided they didn't want any new products launched during that time period. Or whether the game wasn't ready to be launched as well. But whatever it was, the game... I heard a different take. I heard the game contained assets that were not allowed to be shown. Well, I'd say that falls into the not ready shown. Yes.
    6:38
    Okay, so it terrifies it a little bit better. Yes, that's a possibility as well. But these two, there was a pro and a premium game that had been set up on the standard of Stern's distributor in the UK on the Monday before the show opened on the Tuesday. These leaked pictures came out. Stern said they weren't going to be launching the game.
    7:00
    Those pictures obviously went around the internet everywhere. I think you had Do you have them on the Pimple Magazine website?
    7:07
    I'm not sure whether I have those there. I think I do, yes. Okay. Well, you can probably still see them there, but I took the decision that I wasn't going to publish them myself because I thought, well, if it is the case that this launch has been pulled due to the Queen's death and marking that by not launching the game, then fair enough. I'll respect their decision there, being based in the UK. I know it seemed the right thing to do. But if they did actually then reveal the game at the show the next day, then I'd certainly show the pictures of the game. But they didn't. They didn't. No, those games were put back in their boxes and taken off the show floor. Yeah, I even got questions from people texting me, like, hey, I'm at the IAPA show and there's no James Bond to be found. Do you know what happened?
    8:06
    Yeah. So, well, that was it. Stern did put out a press release saying they weren't going to launch the game at IAPA after all. So the machines were there anyway. And so we didn't really get anything much other than some rough pictures, so to say, of the games that were on the stand. I don't think I was even powered up at that point. There was no video, I don't think.
    8:33
    So anyway, roll on to the next event, which was Stern officially launching, which was... A week later, eight or nine days later. Yes, that's right. So we had the full, the normal release, the announcement, the press releases, the Gary Stern comments. It was a presentation to distributors and operators the day before. It was publicly launched.
    8:59
    And so we have the three models. We have the Pro, which is priced at $6,999, premium at $9,699, and a limited edition, as we said before, with 1,000 maximum build of $12,999. U.S. dollars, that is. Yep, absolutely correct, yeah. now the LEs all sold out immediately as everyone kind of expects even though they did announce that there is this 60th anniversary model but no price has been set for that, it will be up to distributors or resellers to set their own price although obviously there will be a price that Stone will be charging them but that hasn't been announced I'm not sure whether this will be similar to the Beatles situation where distributors were forced to buy 10 games in a block and then could set their own price. But CERN has been experimenting with such strategies, so to speak. There will be 500 apparently of these 60th anniversary games. So there will be more limited than the limited edition. But as you said before, it will be a totally different game. with a different play field, different rules, you know, and featuring different actors in it. So anyway, they did all this nice announcement, and then they said, as part of the press release, the game will be premiered at a 60th anniversary charity auction preview event being held in London at Christie's Auction House. so I immediately registered and got tickets for that so I could get to play the game and went along and played it had some fun it was obviously very, very, very early code I think it was I mean to me it smacked of we're contractually obliged to have the game here at this event let's put something together with some basic rules you can have a multi-ball you can start a mode or two and it flips and it scores and the key mechanisms work but they're certainly far from optimized that was fine so I took some video of that the truth was I was waiting for somebody to play the game who knew how to play pinball so I could then video them playing it apparently not that many people knew how to play pinball at that event well nobody did um i was waiting and waiting and waiting and no virtually everybody who walked up to the machine didn't know how to even flip the ball or didn't even know how to flip it in some cases so they press the press the flashing button on the lock bar start a game press it again because they don't because that's the only button they know exists start a two-player game and a three-player game and a four-player game the ball launches it bounces around it goes down the middle I think, oh, that's a bit rubbish, and walk away.
    12:11
    So anyway, I wasn't going to get... That's what you get when you make games too complicated. Yeah, I shouldn't have flippers on. Let's go back to the old days.
    12:19
    So in the end, I thought, well, I'm going to have to play this myself, so I asked one of the guys from Liberty Games over there who were working with Electricoin, the UK importer and distributor of Stern Games. liberty games are a more a home seller of various various coin-op amusements and they were there to sort of guide people on to how to play the game and and and basically sell them um so one of the guys there very kindly held my phone while i played the game and recorded about eight minutes of video until he said his arm was getting tired so which is understandable because it was a single game and it was just going on and on.
    13:03
    But we got enough there anyway. So I went home, edited that video. It was a nice event as well, by the way. I could talk more about that, but I don't want to get too boring about the James Bond launch event. And put it online, along with a report from the night, which is still available on Pinball News. the next day I was asked if I wouldn't mind removing that video because I'm really curious how that went, did you get a text, did you get an email? No, it was an email, it was just perfectly pleasant saying would it be possible to remove that because the reason being that it contains assets which haven't been licensed yet by, or may never be licensed by Stern from the James Bond licensing company.
    13:59
    Now, my thought was, well, why were you showing it? And the answer is that the game was supposed to have been updated with new code before it went to that event. But unfortunately, due to... Due to the software sensors. Yeah, beyond the control of the people who were bringing the game, they weren't able to update it before they got to the event. and by the time they'd set the machine up and had got the new code, the event was just about to start and particularly these public facing events, you're not allowed to open up a game or start working on it once public are admitted for public liability reasons and also because it doesn't look good for the show so it basically went ahead with old code which wasn't meant to be seen so that's fair enough I think enough people had seen enough of that video already. So I said, well, okay, that's fine. Will I be able to get some video of the updated code?
    14:59
    So, yes, it turned out the machines after that event, after they were taken back, were updated and were going off to the British Film Institute for last weekend's James Bond celebrations.
    15:13
    And in between that point, I was able to get about three hours of playing that game. and videoed some more stuff, which I then edited together. And then I checked with Stern to make sure they were okay with it. And, yeah, they said, yes, no problem. You can put that up. So I did.
    15:33
    And you can find it on pinballnews.com. Yes, including more pictures of the game in better lighting conditions than I was able to get either at the show or, I think, some of them are even better than the ones which Stern put out as well so that was yeah it was nice to be able to get some time on it but again you know it's still very very early code and I don't think I've seen the video you may hope that this is early code because I think there's only the theme music in there yes no there is some other music for one of the only Q branch mode in there, which is Q's ring. Right. That has a different music track to it as well. And some quotes from the movies. Yeah. The movie in which it was featured. Yeah. The slot machine. Yeah, the slot machine scene where Q is winning all the jackpots. Yes, that's right. There seemed to be quite a lot of sort of gambling-based stuff in there. The match sequence is a roulette wheel, which I don't know if there's any... Yeah, in the match scene, I've seen that. Yeah. There is also the high-stakes poker, where Bond throws a couple of cards onto the table to declare his hand, and that's the mystery award.
    17:04
    Those two cards, one of them will contain the whole bonus, or a bonus multiplier, or a start multiball. or whatever.
    17:12
    Yeah, well, speaking of start multiball, I think in that video of yours, I think you're 20 seconds in and you're already in multiball. That's not something that I would...
    17:25
    No. Well, let's put it like this. I hope that code-wise they will figure out that it's absolutely not rewarding to get into multiball 20 seconds after you plunge a ball. Yeah, that certainly was different on the newer code, it wasn't like that in the original code in the first version you had to shoot up the left orbit at least three times, each one to lock a ball, and then the third time it would, no actually it was three times it didn't lock a ball, it built up towards multi-ball, and then eventually the fourth shot would go up and it would get stopped at the jet pack toy which would, then it would start jet pack multi-ball, so it certainly wasn't that easy to get, and given what I was saying about the standard of people who were playing the game I think there was zero chance of any of them ever starting that so if they changed it so that you make one shot and you get to see some multi-ball action then that's not a bad thing for that kind of show if we don't know how to do anything yeah but for anybody playing pinball longer than a day or two yeah Yeah, I mean, it's a single shot to start multi-ball, basically, on that. But I would say, unless you are in any way capable of flipping the ball in a sensible way, then you wouldn't see that. Right, okay. Well, Stern does have a history with giving away multi-balls on their games, if you didn't get to it by game three. and I never approved of that either because I think either you have to earn it or there's no point in giving everybody a pity multiball so to speak yeah that was sort of back in the Sega days wasn't it yeah but even on Stern games as well but ok code wise the game is likely to improve how about assets from the various movies because there is a rumor floating around that there are not that many assets available. Well, I think by limiting it to a single movie, they can do it quite immersively. But there were certainly custom callouts in the latest code using a... I don't know who the voice actor was, but it sounded a bit clichéd to me. It was like, oh, Johnny Goode, 007. Oh, bravo, 007.
    20:08
    It's like, hmm, okay, yeah. It sounds a bit like how the old Q sounded in those movies. Yeah, Desmond Llewellyn, yeah. Well, he was a bit more... Oh, well, 007. Yes, that's right, yes. Yes, it would tend to look down on Bond's antics rather than congratulate him. But, you know, it's an early essay. I don't think we should read too much into it. The point of the video really was so you could see the shot, see what combos you can make. OK, so shot-wise, what do you think? I liked it. It was a nice mix of tough shots and some nice easy shots as well. the right ramp which feeds back to the right inlay that's a nice easy shot the drop targets in the middle that's one of the things which you see on the video is quite a lot of shots up to those drop targets it kind of looks like you're sort of missing or you're bricking the shot but in fact you are knocking down the drop targets and building up towards multiple and it has a secondary feature as well which I like is that once the drop targets are down you can shoot the ball through them and not only does it then hit the bird one rocket to build up that feature there is an array of stand up targets I should say behind that which also builds up to spell spectre which starts another feature and there is a one way gate in addition to that which basically allows the ball to go past the drop target and then roll back and stage it nicely for the upper flipper to do some of the side shots either at the ramp or the orbit the inner orbit shot so that's actually quite a nice way of of um getting the ball to the upper flipper in a in a slow way so the ball's not flying past the flipper you can actually time your shot a bit better okay so so yeah i think it's uh it's got some nice features in it it's um but it is very at the moment because of the code and the state as it's in, it feels a bit dead, you know, you can kind of make shots and not much happens. Right. Or you don't get any sound effects or any progression or anything very much. So there's a huge amount to go on that. So, please don't look at that video and say, oh the code rubbish or the sounds or it plays the same music over and over because it won You know long way to go Well yeah there a long way to go There also quite a long way for Stern to go until they actually take the game into production, because they won't start production until November. Yeah, surprising that.
    22:52
    I suppose it's not given the state of the code at the moment, but I would guess that they were contractually obliged to launch the game when need. in order to meet the 60th anniversary event deadline. So it could appear at both Christie's auction preview and at the BFI screening this last weekend, which they've done. So now I suppose it's, let's talk about it, those machines are now going to another show, possibly in Italy. I don't know whether that's in Arda, the autumn show that they have there. Yeah, it could be. Yeah, so those might be going over there. So if you're in Italy, or going to be in Italy, they might still get the chance to play the game before it hits the actual street. I got the advice for that show. Yeah, quite often it seems to be around the same sort of time as Pinball Expo, which makes it difficult to get to. Exactly, that's the reason why I don't remember. In this case, there's a UK show at the same time as Expo, the autumn coin-op show. so I guess it's probably not the same time as Enada but anyway keep an eye out for that because it may turn up there, it may have newer code on and you might get to see some newer assets in the game so anyway that was my fun time with the 007 games so well many people probably envy you for being able to already flip it as many are very curious to find out themselves how it flips and whether they like the game or whether they like the game that they bought already. Yeah, well, I don't think we'd be disappointed with the play field layout, certainly.
    24:43
    Probably the key thing is in what direction does the code develop? There's talk that Lonnie Rock is doing the code for this game, which I haven't seen him do the code for a little while but his games tend to be more simple as far as the rules go or more understandable perhaps. Well, that's a good thing. Well, yes, absolutely. But certainly when I was looking at it there were aspects of the rules which looked familiar, should I say, from previous Lonnie games which I normally find. other coders tend to over complicate things and have too many combinations and hidden scoring techniques which you need to know in order to get the score into the billions whereas Lonnie's code traditionally to me at least has always appeared to be more understandable and certainly easier to document when I've been doing the in depth reviews of games well we'll see how it goes and of course Stern has a team of programmers so Lonnie won't be the only one coding it. No, I understand Mike Vinicore is also working with him on developing rules. Right, okay. Well, it's good to see Mike Vinicore back in action after being ill. Absolutely, yeah. So anyway, that certainly isn't all the news from Stone Pimple this month. No, there's more. One thing that I initially got excited about, that they have been launching these goodie boxes that you can purchase at a supermarket, Walmart or Target in this case,
    26:30
    with some goodies themed around or related to the license of a certain game, but using the game's artwork. I think that's the best way to describe it. I think we've seen those for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There was another one, but I can't remember. I think for Batman they did something like that as well, but I'm not even sure. But the news this month was that they are now doing one in collaboration with NECA, N-E-C-A, which is available at Target. And that one is themed around Elvira's House of Horrors. and the box includes an exclusive Toonie Elvira figure a beanie, a t-shirt a patch and a pin, not a pinball machine but a pin yeah and you get all of that for merely $50 hmm, ok, well it's obviously a collector's item but it's very nice to see Elvira's House of Horrors which as far as I'm aware is an exclusively pinball related title I haven't seen it anywhere else being turned into a mainstream product which is available at Target yeah, and also the t-shirt and the beanie they're all themed around that House of Horrors brand, if you want to call it that yeah so if you want to spend $50 and get I'm not sure what's the most collectible aspect of it, the t-shirt the beanie, the patch, the pin or the box well the box definitely I'm not sure whether the t-shirt will be available anywhere else not in a box so to speak but just separately sold yeah I'm assuming it's going to be one size fits no one t-shirt rather than having different boxes with different size shirts in maybe it hits me maybe it will maybe you're the one person it hits yeah okay so and well speaking of Target apparently from what I understand from people looking for these some Targets in the US and of course there's plenty were also selling the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles box which was released in collaboration with Stern so if you're interested in that, check your local target or another target nearby and who knows, you might be lucky. Yeah, it sounds nice that pinball products like that are making it into the mainstream. That's a nice alternative lifestyle, shall we say, product for Stern to be working on with Nika. Right. Along with all this, as if Stern hadn't been busy enough doing all this, they've also brought out a whole bunch of code updates.
    29:41
    Ah, good. Okay, now's my time to shine. They've actually updated all their Spike 2 titles, which is, I think, 18 such titles. That's Rush, Mandalorian, Godzilla, Beatles, all the way up, all the way back, I suppose, to Deadpool. Deadpool, and what's the other one? The Guardians of the Galaxy? Yep. Aerosmith. Yes. Absolutely. That's what I was thinking of. Yes, so they've done some sort of core updates to the operating system to bring them all into line, so they're all doing the same kind of core operations as far as the operating system goes. It also ties in with the Insider Connected system as well. So I think recently they had a potential game reset issue, which they are squashing in this latest update for all those 18 titles. Some changes to how the games connect with Wi-Fi.
    30:43
    More information, really, about the signal strength as well. It will warn you if the Wi-Fi signal strength is insufficient to connect. They've added the ability to do the new home team feature if the machine is set on coin play. Previously it was free play only, but now it can be operated as well. Although, interestingly, they say that home team is not available for machines registered to a pro account operating in a commercial environment. So if you registered your game as an operator, then you won't be able to do that. It seems a bit odd. And they also said this is a new feature, which is actually a very old feature, I think, that was available on Williams Games. I certainly know that, which was after a certain amount of time, if there's any sort of fractional credits, if you're using coins and you put in half a credit but haven't got enough coins to get a full credit, after a while that fraction will get wiped. The whole number of credits never gets wiped, but the half a credit will be taken out of the system after a certain amount of time. and the final one I think is that they've actually changed the Insider Connected Software update default to install updates automatically so obviously keen to get Insider Connected stuff as up to date and keep it as up to date as possible to get all the latest achievements without even bothering you to ask hmm right ok well thank you for that Okay.
    32:24
    But, well, while code is easy to update, that doesn't go for hardware, I suppose. No. There's a rumor going around that the... Rumors? We don't do rumors. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. We don't do rumors, but... Okay.
    32:43
    So, these updates that you just mentioned were for Spike 2 games. but prior to Spike 2 there was Spike 1 and apparently those boards are basically when they're at their end of life there's no replacement parts available. So you're screwed if you have Game of Thrones or Ghostbusters or KISS or WrestleMania or well, any big juicy melons or Pabst or Primus or Spider-Man Home or Supreme. Because if there's, well, let's put it like this. there might not be a replacement board available now, but knowing the pinball market, somebody will come up with something to replace boards that are no longer available. It might take some time. You'd expect so, yes.
    33:33
    But for now it seems that if you have one of those games and one of your boards dies, which especially with certain... Is this the CPU boards or the node boards we're looking at here? I have no idea. But some boards are easy to fry, I suppose. We've seen that happen even with Stern employees at pinball shows. Yeah, no names. Yeah.
    34:02
    And, oh, well, for now it's just a rumor. But, well, I'm not sure whether people should start stocking these boards or, I don't know. Well, we have certainly seen lack of availability of some of the components that go to make up these boards. So it could just be that some of the parts are not currently available to remake them. But those parts may become available at some point in the future, in which case they may come back into stock. This is something which we'll actually be looking at a little bit later with a different manufacturer, I think. I don't want to pre-empt that too much. Right. Yeah, but it's certainly worth taking care of your Spike 1 boards. Right. Yeah. Okay. I think that rounds it up for Stern Pinball. I think it does. Yeah. For now. Yeah, they're going to be very busy making 007 games. Yeah. And announcing the 60th anniversary model as well. So, a last couple of comments. Of course, it is Pinball Expo Month. Traditionally, Stern used to do a pinball factory tour during the show.
    35:19
    Similar to during the COVID pandemic, Stern will now be doing a virtual pinball tour, which means that I think the last time it was Jack Danger with a camera streaming live, which was aired in a room in the hotel, and people could watch that and ask questions to Gary Stern. Seth Davis will be present as well. Yes, I think it went down very well last time. I think people were very impressed with the quality of the presentation and what they were able to see. Right. So no factory tour in person at the Stern Pinball Factory. No. But, well, traditionally the Saturday is sort of Stern Day at Pinball Expo. So there's also quite a few seminars with Stern designers and art people and so on talking about their work. Yeah, I think they're doing a special sort of signing for Stern's artists and designers. Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess all that. That's in addition to the regular signing autograph session, I would say. Okay.
    36:37
    And that rounds it up for Stern Pinball for the month of September. Yeah, okay. Well, let's move on to our second headline then, which was all about another game. premiering. Another new game. Yes. Well, one which we knew about again and has been heavily trailed. In this case, we are talking about This Is Spinal Tap. A home pin from Taiwan. Indeed. If you were listening last month, you would remember that we said that this game would be premiering at Pinfest in Newcastle in Australia. And it did indeed.
    37:14
    Now, the games were originally promoted as being the first production models, but, well, the reception was, let me say, a little... Mixed. Yeah, mixed. That's a good adjective.
    37:29
    And it was later scaled back to them being the first prototype models to be shown. Yeah, which basically means that people were making lots of suggestions of what could improve on the game, notes were taken, and where possible suggestions will be implemented. Yes, I think that's a good description. Yes. Now, apparently orders won't... Mike from Homepin was saying that all the production up until mid-2023 has already been sold.
    38:06
    And so any orders made now won't be fulfilled until the middle of next year. Well, based on what the reports were from Pinterest, I'm not sure there will be that many orders.
    38:23
    I don't want to sound harsh, but like we said, the reception was mixed. It could still be a fun game, but there are complaints about the price tag and what you get for that money. yes well certainly the price has been increased but uh you know it's as with with bond and um and pretty much any licensed title there's always going to be a hardcore of uber fans out there who've got to have everything related to that particular title so i wouldn't be surprised if he's already got you know 100 orders for the spinal tap pinball from people who don't even know what it looks like or hardly know what a pinball is. I'd be surprised because at this moment even the Spinal Tap diehard fans don't even know this pinball exists.
    39:16
    Not that much of promotion for it because the company feels that promotion should be done by disc computers and they are just a factory.
    39:26
    True, but as we know it's very hard to keep a secret on the internet and once news is out about there being a Spinal Tap Pinball, they will spread to all the relevant forums, I'm sure.
    39:42
    Right. But let's hope that the game, that the suggestions will be implemented and it sounds to me that Mike could use some people that really understand pinball, not just the engineering side of how a pinball machine works or how you could build a pinball machine, but what makes it fun yeah exactly what makes it fun how to get the choreography of gameplay right that you're not waiting too long for a ball to and this is just an example for a ball to be released from a certain mechanism or something like that you know you want well it should be entertaining and yes and it should guide the player through the game to what they're meant to do Yeah, it's not just shoot a ball around here, a couple of voice calls, and play some music in the background, and we're done. No, you need to have a reason to make shots, a storyline.
    40:42
    Who are you? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to achieve? And are you trying to achieve something in a fun way, or is it just repetitive shooting that makes it boring? Right. Right, so best of luck to Mike and the rest of Team HomePin implementing the suggested improvements of the game. I hope they can be implemented easily.
    41:10
    But they were set up at the Pinfest show in Newcastle, as I say, and on one side of them was the Stern distributor, and on the other side was Haggis Pinball. Right. So they had their Fathom Revisited game there and that seemed to be very well received at the show, I would say. Everybody who played it thought it was built in a very, well, more than professional, very impressive way. Okay. And played remarkably well. So we haven't actually got any experience of those games ourselves, have we? No. I haven't played it, and I don't think you have either yet. No. Hopefully in a couple of weeks. Oh, yeah, yeah. Fingers crossed for that, but we'll talk about that a bit later as well. But that's basically all the news that we had from Haggis, was that they are busy building Fathom Revisited and showing it at Pinfest. And good luck to them. Yeah, exactly. Now, where do you want to go next? Well, while we're talking about new games and premiering of new games, let's talk about another game which didn't premiere where it was meant to, or it was intended to, and that's Pinball Brothers. Right. I'm not sure whether that has to do with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
    42:40
    But we're talking, of course, about the Queen game, by Pinball Brothers that was supposed to make its debut at the super awesome Tailgate Parter hosted at Toyncade Cointaker premises I think that's in Pennsylvania right? Yeah, that's right, in Pennsylvania so, but while the Pinball Brothers were there and they know how to party the game was not shown in public there so No, it's a bit disappointing.
    43:16
    I guess they either, again, didn't get the licensing sorted out in time, or it's just not at a suitable stage to show it to people who may not get the fact that there's still development work to go. Yeah, now we did get something in the form of a promotional video for the game, but it's not like a gameplay video. It's really like a promotional video. You see a couple of shots made, animations, and it's a quick montage of some gameplay, but it doesn't tell you how it plays, actually. No, and that was released, well, it was made available this month, actually quite recently, about one week ago, I believe. But I was looking on YouTube at it and looking at the details, until it was uploaded in August.
    44:11
    So it's actually been there for a while, but I guess it had been private or unlisted until now, but has now been made publicly available. So even that may not represent the current state of assets. But they did also show some of the video display animations as well. Assuming they are the ones that will make it into the final product. They look nice, very well designed and executed.
    44:42
    So it's nice to see some of that. The thing which I really didn't like, and it's probably one of the biggest selling points of the game as well, is the voice calls from the surviving band members. Yeah, I feel you. They just sound so bored when they were doing it all. Very calm call-outs. like Roger Taylor's autograph is lit but in a way that is really not urging you to make a certain shot Yeah exactly It wasn building the excitement shall we say It's one of the key things you've got to do with any pinball, is you've got to, you know, get the player to actually want to do it.
    45:29
    And to cut through all the background noise as well, all the background music, so it's loud and clear. Yeah. That may change, but I doubt it. Well, then they better record new ones. Yeah, so they probably recorded all those voice calls now, probably had their session, and that's it. Yeah, so, oh, well. Anyway, there were no availability details on the video.
    45:52
    We know what the prices are going to be, or what the price was going to be, at least, which was the Champions Edition was going to be US$9,295, and the Rhapsody Limited Edition was going to be another US$1,700 at US$10,995.
    46:10
    Now, obviously, we've seen pinball inflation taking place recently, and you kind of think the longer that people don't launch games,
    46:24
    the more the temptation will be to raise the price before they actually do. so they seemed pretty towards the top end of expectation when the prices were initially announced but as more and more games come out that are in the $12,000, $13,000, $15,000 price range they're looking more and more reasonable by the day now the original release schedule said that the Champions Edition which was the sort of standard version, would be released in the first quarter of 2023.
    47:05
    So whether that's still on track, we don't know, and whether the price will be the same, we also don't know. But, uh... We'll probably check with Pimble Brothers during Pimble Expo, I suppose. I assume they will be present, so... Yeah, well, hopefully. There's a lot of hopeful stuff from that show. We'll see what happens, and we will report back to you as soon as we know any more details. Right. So, um... well then moving on to Spooky Pinball yes they are currently running a 25% off promotion on Spooky Pinball merchandise last month they also announced Total Nuclear Annihilation 2.0 the Scott and Easy game that Spooky Pinball is manufacturing this is the second run with some improvements, add-ons, whatever you want to call it. Now, that upcoming run of Total Nuclear Annihilation was limited to 250 units, but it didn't sell out. And I think like two weeks after the game was opened to fan club members, non-fan club members are now also available to order a game. still not through distributors you have to order it directly with Spooky but you don't have to purchase a fan club membership not sure whether that was holding back a lot of people but let's just mention it anyway and Scott Denise showed on his social media that he's working on a sort of jukebox mode which will allow the game to play at least the scottanese music that's in the game and possibly even more music as well so you can use it as a jukebox in your game or something like that nice feature yeah well if you want to buy one of those remaining TNA 2.0 games then as Jonathan said you can get them through the spooky pinball website for the full price is $8,995 but there is only an initial $2,000 non-refundable deposit at the time of ordering. Right. So the rest is paid when the game is ready to be built.
    49:37
    Right. Okay. And that's already all the news from Spooky Pinball. I think it is. They will be at Pinball Expo present as well. I don't think they do any seminars, but I expect the spooky family to be present the Emerys yes indeed they're normally there to some extent obviously there's also the pinball life what do they have up there pinball olympics is it that they hold ah they are holding that I saw some people bought tickets for that and with the transportation and so on yeah I think the Pinball Olympics to take part in that is 50 bucks and the transportation ticket was like 35. Yeah, so that's taking place around the same time as Expo is this month, but we're coming back to that a little bit later. Right, okay. And that's at the Pinball Live premises. I'm not sure whether it is because I did see a post from Terry saying that the Pinball Life factory or premises are packed at the moment and there's no room to do a party-type event. So I don't know whether that's being done there or it's being done at a nearby location. I don't think it's actually in Pinball Life, but I could be wrong. We'll find out. Right. So now while we're on the subject of Pinball Expo and events at Pinball Expo, Jersey Jack Pinball currently running Toy Story 4 will be doing in person factory tours for everybody you don't even have to be a Pinball Expo attendee so to speak or you don't need a Pinball Expo ticket apparently but they are doing free factory tours if you are interested in seeing how Toy Story 4 is being made then this is your chance that's all happening on October the 20th if I'm not mistaken that's the Thursday of Pinball Expo yes starting at 9am in the morning and not only are the factory tours for free but they're also including round trip transportation between the Pinball Expo location which is the Renaissance in Schaumburg and the factory in Elk Grove, which is not that far.
    52:21
    Now, we've seen, and probably this is where Jersey Jack likes to stand out, we've seen transport to other pinball factories in the past where school buses were being used. And, well, with Jersey Jack, you can ride in a clean, safe, and comfortable ride on a 56 passenger luxury motor coach from Windy City Limousine and Bus Worldwide.
    52:54
    So who knows where they might take you next. But no, so there's going to be luxury buses, I suppose, that will take you there instead of school buses, which is a nice touch, I suppose. a little bit of comfort on that journey. Yeah, and upon arrival at Jersey Jackpinball, you will be introduced to a JJP team member who will walk you through the factory and show you how they make the best pinball machines in the world. That is, if you have to believe their promo.
    53:31
    So, and at the conclusion of the tour, you will have the opportunity for pictures and a meet and greet with several team members before boarding your bus for the return trip to Pimble Expo. Oh, it's a bus for the return trip. It's a luxury motor coach on the way out. Oh.
    53:50
    So... You have to go and stand at the bus stop and get your bus back. Right. So I did text Jack because I was wondering whether Pat Lawler will be one of the team members at this factory tour and I haven't had any response I don't think that Jack has read my text yet so no wonder he didn't respond but that was one of the things that that's a good question now I may have some interesting information regarding Pat Lawler I think it was Jack who a couple of months ago when we were talking to him in an episode of this Pincast that he said that Pat Lawler never officially indicated that he retired from Pinball. That's right. He was taking some time off, time away from the factory. That's exactly the words that I received from Pat Lawler himself. I had a small email correspondence with him where he basically said that he is taking some time off from Pinball and so I'm wondering whether he is either pausing that for the factory tour or even Pinball Expo for that matter because it would be nice to have Pat at Pinball Expo of course yes he's done some amazing seminars in the past as well pure gold yes yeah in fact probably I think we agree that his last seminar to date was probably his best yeah the one at Expo last year yes absolutely those were really great stories that he told not answering the same questions that get asked all the time about what's your favourite game what features would you like to put in a game what does the red button stand for and so on No, it was very good. So it would be nice to have him back this year.
    56:09
    But I suppose we'll have to wait and see. We can't answer that right now. Yes. If you do want to go on the Jersey Jack pinball factory tour, and let's face it, who wouldn't, then you will need to sign up at the registration desk at Pinball Expo because there are certain time slots. There are only so many people. There's certainly a 56-seater luxury motor coach from Windy City Limousine and Bus Worldwide, or at least on the way out. And so there are certain time slots. I think they're every 15 minutes, half an hour, something like that. So you only get one bus? Yeah, that's right. So you have to pick your time wisely, choose wisely, and then it'll take you there to the turn, bring you back, and then you'll be back in time to pick up the rest of the Pinball Expo because I'm wondering how I'm going to be able to go there, to be honest, at the moment. Because if I'm working on the seminars and helping set things up for them, then all this happens during the set-up and as the seminars start. Well, we'll visit Jersey Jack probably ahead of... We will try and do that, yes. Yes. and also some news about Jersey Jack Guns and Roses is back in stock at Jersey Jack or at the Stooges back in stock with Jersey Jack not that long ago they announced that the game was being well that they were working I wouldn't say final run but that the game was that they would stop making the game. Finishing production. I couldn't find the word. Thank you very much.
    58:01
    But apparently, either they set up a second line in the studio or something, but the game is available again.
    58:08
    So, if you missed out on the Guns N' Roses and you're looking to buy one, then this is your chance. Right. Well, okay. So, nice that that will be back in stock and available. and of course that's an Eric Meunier design with Slash. Have you got any information you can share with us about what Eric might be doing later in the year? Yeah, I can. I think it's about to be officially announced and I'm just going to steal that.
    58:44
    Eric Meunier will be a special guest at the Dutch Pinball Open which will be held from the 11th to the 13th of November in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, that is. At the Dutch Pinball Museum. Yes, exactly.
    59:03
    And we will both be there, of course. Yes. And we'll be able to report on what happens and what Eric has to say. I assume he's doing a seminar, is he? Oh, yeah, absolutely, definitely. Okay, that's great. Okay, so if you can possibly get to that, I thoroughly recommend it. Eric's always very good value in his talks and presentations. Yes. You can find out a lot more inside detail about Guns N' Roses and I'm sure his earlier game as well. Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And why didn't you tell us about an upcoming title? Oh, who knows, who knows. So, yeah, and we're still working. I have been asked to invite certain special guests. We're still talking to one, but they can't confirm yet whether this person will be present because we haven't nailed down the flight details yet. So we have a pinball artist who is willing to come over, but we're not sure whether it will happen. So we're looking at more than one special guest, but I can't at this point disclose who we're talking to. No, totally good. Well, if you do come over, hopefully Jonathan and I will be doing our So You Think You Know Pinball free prize quiz at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo. and we've been asked to do multiple rounds of the quiz in various time slots, so more chance for everybody to win, I suppose. Yes, we should mention about the time slots that there is a limited capacity in the building, so you'll need to pick the time which you wish to attend the show. It's like the Jersey Jack pinball factory tour. Yes, but I think it's all explained on the website for the Dutch Pinball Open. just google that and you'll probably find out everything you want to know if you if you're interested and able to attend so yeah okay we hope to see you there so uh we're talking about guns and roses or you were just talking about guns and roses being back in stock and available um just um not too far away uh we have chicago gaming and uh and and they're also about to start shipping games yes yeah well the long awaited limited edition games of Cactus Canyon remake have been distributors have been told that they would start shipping in one to two weeks and that was a couple of days ago so that should be very soon apparently The parts for the topper were either difficult to get or other parts. That hasn't been specified. But, yeah, those are ready to ship. So if you have a limited edition Cactus Canyon remake on order, then hopefully you'll get yours soon. Now, we don't do rumors. No. There is. Oh, should I stop? No, no, no. Carry on because we want to see what the rumor is that we don't do. Oh, right, right. So, well, there's a rumor going around actually already for a couple of years.
    62:40
    I think we addressed it in previous episodes, but I wouldn't remember which ones. But because it's been such a stubborn rumor, I would say, the rumor started with Mark Ritchie who is a producer at Play Mechanics which is a part of Raw Thrills would have designed a Pulp Fiction themed pinball machine Mark has always denied that he did that and he can't talk about that in public and he doesn't but the rumor is that Royal Thrills actually teamed up with Chicago Gaming for the production of such game and that game is currently rumored to be on the line at Chicago Gaming and that could indicate that they have more than one line currently producing games because obviously they're also building Cactus Canyon remake and it could also indicate that we might get an unannounced or unexpected reveal at Pinball Expo.
    63:53
    So, that's another good reason to be at Pinball Expo. Right, but of course everybody involved will deny that anything is happening. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, there's no scheduled seminar, I don't think, for either Bart Ritchie or even Chicago Gaming. I don't think they have one at the moment no production update or anything like that I didn't see any seminar slots scheduled for him but you never know there's always last minute changes there might even be a cuckoo in the nest there lurking who is actually one of those seminars actually turns out to be something other than what it is built as yeah so another reason to attend Pitbull Expo absolutely as if there weren't enough already yes so but that sort of rounds it up for Chicago Gaming yes well we were talking about what's going to be going on or coming up in the Netherlands but so let's go back to there and is there any news from Barry at Dutch Pinball about the Big Lebowski or indeed any upcoming game well as it so happens I called Barry this afternoon and had a nice conversation with him.
    65:20
    As far as news regarding Dutch Pinball, they are currently building games and it seems that the supply chain issues that they were suffering from for months, but months ago, it looks like they have a steady supply chain at the moment. so they are building games and they plan on continuing doing that Loose Flip I think is a
    65:53
    pinball vlog or something like that or a channel that does pinball videos they visited Dutch Pinball Factory and they shot a video of a factory tour and the first thing that I noticed is there's no employees in that video only Barry is to be seen and the people from Loose Flip so I asked Barry about that and it turns out the video was shot on a Saturday where people were basically not working so it sounds normal I suppose and one other thing that well I asked Barry about of course an upcoming game we're definitely not going to see a new title from Dutch Pinball being announced this year and I got the feeling from Barry that especially if you look at the current situation where a game is being announced and then it takes a year before you get it he would like to avoid such situations so if he is going to announce a game he rather does it when he has plenty games ready to ship so people can buy a game and play it not that long after. Makes sense. That's where everybody wants to be, I think. As long as he's got plenty of Lebowskis to produce, he's in a very good position as far as launching a new game to his timescale. Right. And that's all the news from Dutch Pinball. We did touch on an interesting topic, which I, well, here in the Netherlands, currently prices for electricity and gas to heat your house and so on are going through the roof which is blamed on the war in Ukraine and Putin cutting us off from gas I suppose
    68:05
    You're certainly not alone with that. We have all the same issues in the UK as well. So, you were talking about pinflation earlier on, and I was wondering whether that is actually going to affect pinflation, because obviously pinball machines use electricity, and if you have a row of games and you want to have them on, you're definitely going to see a peak in your electricity bill at the end of the month.
    68:33
    Yeah, although I have to say the newer games are far more energy efficient in that regard, with the switching power supplies and LEDs as opposed to incandescent lamps, in them. So, yeah, it might make people think that maybe they just turn on the games that they want to play and not turn on the entire game room or the entire range of games that they have.
    69:00
    But it's also got, obviously, impact on the cost to build parts and games as well. Right. So, I'm afraid that we're not seeing the end of pinflation because everything is getting more expensive. Yes, indeed. it's not as I understand it, it's not such an issue in the US, it is still an issue but it's not to any way like the same degree but certainly for people like Barry and for Padretti Gaming and other companies in Europe making games yes, the cost of the fuel to supply their factory and to heat it with winter coming up is going to be a significant factor I think.
    69:45
    Right. So, buy your pinball machines while you still can afford them. Yeah, if you think they're expensive now, just you wait. Right. Anyway, so on some,
    69:58
    I don't know, I was going to say some more uplifting news, but I suppose... No, no, we don't have any uplifting news. No, no, no. At least one person has got a brand new machine and that is a well-known personality with the name Weird Al Yankovic. Right. And he has got his serial number 000027.
    70:25
    Yeah, which is a special number. It is. It appears in the game as well. Yeah. And Jerry Stellenberg from Multimorphic delivered that game to Weird Al personally. And he posted about that with I think Weird Al's wife Suzanne that the game is set up I'm not sure whether he actually met Weird Al at that time he wasn't in the picture or maybe he took the picture I don't know obviously no one wants to see him in the picture so he got his game so hopefully he gets to enjoy some pinball and yeah that's well, that's good news, I suppose, from Multimorphic. Yeah. But you also had some notes. Well, yeah, not news as such. I don't think this is particularly new. But I did notice, browsing the Multimorphic webshop, that both the P-Rock boards and the P3-Rock boards are currently not available to buy. They're on backorder. and that kind of made me wonder well okay, if I can't buy any of these what about the company or companies who are using P-Rock boards in their games and in particular, thinking about American Pinball who use the P3 Rock I believe, as their game controller well Spooky does as well at least in Total Nuclear Annihilation yes that's right, TNA Yeah, so are these boards available for them, or is that impacting on their production as well?
    72:11
    That's a very good question. We should ask Jerry. We should ask Jerry, or we could ask Dave Fix or Charlie or Scott. Or impact it.
    72:20
    Yeah, is this causing, you know, obviously there are supply chain issues all over the world to some degree or other, but is there something as important as this? If your entire game is based on this one controller and you can't get it you can't exactly get it from another supplier can you? Right, so that's the same issue as we described with the Spike 1 games and obviously Stern has a backlog of orders that they still need to fulfill also partly based on these supply chain issues which may now be not as relevant anymore as they were a couple of months ago, but they still need to fulfill those orders. That's right, yeah. Easing, but not eased completely. Anyway, that's something to ponder for now. We'll find out more about that. We'll ask people at Pimble Expo. Well, not so much people, but I'm sure that Jerry Stellenberg of Multimorphic will be present as well. Somebody we probably won't be seeing at Pinball Expo this year is the former head of, well I suppose he still is the head, of Deep Root Pinball. Why not? Well, apparently he's now busy in a new job. Yeah, Mr Robert Mueller, who was the, I was going to say brains behind Deep Root Pinball, but was behind Deep Root Pinball, is now apparently working for the plane maker Boeing. Oh, my God, in what capacity? Well, exactly. I'll hurriedly check my plane ticket to Expo to see what plane we were using. But, yes, well, I would assume it's returning to his legal roots and working for them in that capacity rather than Boeing suddenly getting into manufacturing pinball machines. so just a little aside there but is it a corporate function or I believe so yeah it's full time post I think working for Boeing while the small issue the small inconvenience of the SEC investigation and bankruptcy rules the courts and through they need to put food on the table of course yeah Yeah, and hopefully Bo will pay him like 60 million a year or so. Well, that would be good. That would help refund some of the people who lost money. Yes. Okay, so anyway, moving on. That's the only Deep Root Pinball news that I was able to find this month. Okay, and was there any news from Turner Pinball that sort of picked up the remains of Deep Root Pinball? Who are definitely not Deep Root Pinball 2.0. No, there are no new videos, no news coming out of Turnpinball at the moment as far as I am aware. Okay, okay. So, moving on, where do you want to go?
    75:30
    Well, let's talk about somebody else who is bringing out games then. We've got quite a few games being released or become available. And let's go across the border up to Vancouver and Pinball Adventures. Right. and well last month we reported that they were moving to a new space in order to build their Polyfactory and subsequent titles and that move has apparently been completed now and they are well set up in there Andrew has been posting a few pictures on his Instagram feed but it does seem now that although Polyfactory has not gone into production fully yet they are concentrating more on game number two which is well the interesting sticking with Punny Factory for a second the last post from December sorry September 23rd says that the moving is now complete and assembly and testing resumes for Punny Factory but I think they announced something that the production of Punny Factory was complete and I don't think they built even 10 games oh I haven't seen it saying it had been completed you'd imagine if orders came in they would build more yeah that's what you expect yeah but they have said or Andrew has said that they are going to be streaming or showing the development and production of elements in a video format and he showed a rig where they're going to show how they're going to build the game. Yes, I've seen that post as well and I look forward to that. It also says that he showed a separate playfield for elements and said let the coding begin. which probably means that we're still quite some time away from seeing elements going into production because there's no code yet, apparently which seems odd to me but then again I'm only reporting what I read here Yeah, okay We'd like to actually see some actual games come out of Pinball Adventures Well, that's the thing We haven't seen any games come out yet We have seen games being built but we haven't seen them show up anywhere. No. Well, maybe at Pinball Expo. I was going to say, maybe that's another one. We're putting a lot of store by Pinball Expo this year. I can't imagine it's going to lead up to all these trails that we are putting out there. But if we get any of them, it will be good news.
    78:32
    We'll bring you all the details of whether we find out anything about what Pinball Adventures have been up to. Right. So, yeah. And then you found something rather interesting, although not as enthusiastic as you apparently were. Oh, yeah. I was contacted by Orlando from STR Pinball.
    78:54
    In Spain, that is. Yeah, absolutely. I was just mentally checking that they are in Spain. I wasn't entirely sure they were, but yes. Well, Orlando was telling me that he's announcing, has announced, a new game. And this one is called Angels and Demons. It's going to feature a 15.6-inch HD LCD screen in the usual place in the back box, I believe. it is based on a WPC 95 cabinet shape but they've reduced the width slightly to 69 cm so it can fit through doors more easily apparently Spanish housing has smaller doors yes, one would guess 70 cm if they've reduced it to 69 well I think that's kind of makes sense because what's in the back box these days, hardly anything. It's not exactly full of boards like it used to be. So it's almost superfluous. It's just there as a display device. So yeah, if you reduce the width a little,
    80:06
    and then that will even allow you to get games a bit closer together if they're in a line. So you already showed a or you sent me with the notes that you sent me an image of what I assume is going to be a back glass. Yes, that's right. Translight or back glass image. is very much a good versus evil type. It's called Angels and Demons Final Battle, to give it the full title.
    80:36
    Orlando says if all goes well, we'll finish the prototype next year. Which means he still has to start. Oh yeah, exactly. That's not an announcement. It's an announcement of the intention to build it and what the title is going to be. There's quite a large teamwork on it by all accounts. If you have a look on the angelsanddemons.strpinball.com website, then you can see more pictures of the development of the cabinet and the people who were involved in creating this game.
    81:12
    I'm sorry, but I'm still sort of biased by a video that I've seen by STR Pinball from years ago where I suppose it's the girlfriend or wife of Orlando hosing down a pinball playfield with a garden hose.
    81:32
    And no, no, it's all safe. The electronics are not turned on. But then again, water and wood, you know,
    81:40
    it's not... I'll make of that what you will, but... Maybe lessons have been learned. One may hope so.
    81:51
    Okay. So, while we're in Spain, we're discussing a Spanish company. Any news from Bitronic? Yeah, apparently.
    82:03
    And I think I saw this on Jason's Nap Arcade site. They had a fire in August in the factory for Bitronic, which set back production of their Super Hoop pinball machine. I suppose you could easily make the joke that their production was on fire. Oh, wow. Yeah, smoking. Yeah. Well, apparently it didn't set them back too badly, though. It was almost like a month out, I think, because delivery of the game was supposed to have resumed last month. So we don't know who these machines were going to, so we don't know whether they... Well, there's a couple of distributors already announced, so... Oh, yeah. Well, I got a chance to play it anyway at UK Pinfest in Dalton Tree in August. And, yeah, it seemed like a fun game with some very nice lighting effects. So good luck to them. Hope they're back and building more games. Right. Now, there's a small jump from Bitronic to Quetta Pimble, who actually designed the game from them. Any news? Not that I'm aware of, no. Have you got any? no I can do a live check on Antonio's Instagram see if there's anything there I will say that going across to Italy Pedretti Gaming who as we know are manufacturing games not only for Pinball Brothers but also producing the Funhouse kits as well as future kits I believe are going to be 2.0 kits they are still busy building and delivering the Alien limited version but other than that we haven't got any other news from Adretti Gaming in Italy right ok I checked Antonio's Instagram his last post is from March of this year so ok I think we can safely rule out any imminent announcements there but some place that we can bring you news about an imminent announcement is back in the US and American Pinball. Although we don't actually have any news just yet,
    84:23
    we are expecting an announcement to be made by the company on the 5th of October. So we're recording this on, well, almost on the 3rd. We're going into the 4th because it's getting up to midnight.
    84:38
    So, yes, if you're listening to this on the day we release this, which will be the 4th, then it'll be tomorrow. So keep an ear and an eye out for news from American Pinball. Yeah, and what I hear in the rumor mill is the Dennis Nordman game will have Christopher Frenchy artwork, which I don't think was any secret. But the game design itself, the play field looks very impressive, is what I've been told.
    85:13
    And it should be a lot of fun. So that's all I can say about it right now. Have you seen it? No. But I know people that say that they do. Okay.
    85:26
    Speaking of which, one of those people is our good and close friend Gary Flower. Well, let's see if he's able to give us any more information then. Okay. let me give him a call ok hello Gary hi Gary what's that noise oh dear what's that sounds like a fire alarm oh my god Gary you need to get out of wherever you are but make sure you're safe I lost him ok well sorry about that noise everyone hopefully we'll get some more information soon if it's only about whether there really was a fire or whether it was just a forcible but we'll try and get back with Gary either later or more likely next month yeah if you're coming to Pinball Expo of course from what I understand Gary is also going to be at Pinball Expo oh well you'll be able to get it from the horse's mouth as it were right so with Pinball Expo being this month if you're a listener of the show and you're coming over Martin and I are both likely to be present and we certainly appreciate it if you give us a shout out or say hello and you know So, yeah, we'd like to hear from you. Usually we're just talking without any feedback, so any feedback will be appreciated. Yes, certainly positive feedback or things you like the most. It's always good to hear which aspects of the Pincast are your favourite. So I think we're going to have a very busy month with the Pinball Expo trip coming up and hopefully visiting some other places in and around the Greater Chicago Land area. I don't even have time for that. Well, no, I mean pinball-related ones, though, because we're already lining up some visits, aren't we?
    87:49
    Yeah, we need to get to working on that, yeah, and I've got a couple of international European flights as well. It's going to be a busy month. Right, okay, well, we'll be back next month. I think that wraps up everything in our rota for this month or our schedule of news. So I don't think we missed anything. But, yeah, exciting times. We will obviously have an awful lot to bring you from Pinball Expo. And we look forward to bringing that to you at the beginning of November, I suppose. Looking back, everything that happened in... Hold on, hold on, hold on. assuming that you're doing the recording of the seminars and so on for Pinball Expo, of course people need to tune into pinballnews.com for your live updates, I suppose. Well, that's very kind of you to remind both me and listeners. Yes, the intention, I better just say now, The intention is to be able to release audio recordings of all the seminars as soon as possible after they've taken place. The video productions of them will probably take a bit longer. I don't think there's any live streaming planned. But, you know, I don't know because I'm not doing the video of this. I think that will be Jeff from Arcade Hollywood will be handling that this time. But I will be in a seminar room, and I'll be helping out with the sound and the AV and all the computer stuff and projections. As usual, hopefully not the entire time, because it's, as we said earlier, it's an absolutely packed schedule of seminars from Thursday lunchtime or mid-morning, in fact, all the way through to late on Saturday, Saturday evening. So I certainly don't intend to be holed up in that room for the entire four days. but I certainly intend to have the seminars available for you on the Pinball News site as part of the Pinball Expo 2022 report. So I look forward to getting that done. Right, okay. So I guess that rounds it up for this episode. So from my end, thank you for listening and I hope that you'll be back for our next episode at the end of October. Yes, indeed. Okay, so until then, have a fantastic month, and we will see you next time. Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye.