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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast August 2022 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 27m·held·Sep 1, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Aug 2022 pinball recap: TNA 2.0 announced, Stern adds Home Team feature, rumors of Stern relocation and JJP licensing.

Summary

Jonathan Euston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin A (Pinball News) recap August 2022 pinball industry events. Major announcements include Total Nuclear Annihilation 2.0 rerun (250 units at $8,995), Stern's Insider Connected Home Team feature added via 18 code updates, and unconfirmed rumors about Stern relocating and Jersey Jack potentially licensing Billy Joel or Top Gun themes. Spooky also confirmed Ben Heck and Eric Priepke returning as designers/programmers.

Key Claims

  • TNA 2.0 limited to 250 units at $8,995 (vs original $5,995), includes all previous add-ons as standard

    high confidence · Jonathan and Martin discussing official Spooky documentation and pricing

  • Spooky Pinball builds approximately 40 games per week

    high confidence · Martin citing Saturday morning Spooktacular Facebook live Q&A with Bug and Spooky Luke

  • Halloween and Ultraman production should complete by end of 2022

    high confidence · Martin quoting Spooky's Facebook Live announcement

  • Ben Heck designed America's Most Haunted (Spooky's first game); Eric Priepke programmed Rick and Morty

    high confidence · Martin stating established facts about previous Spooky designer/programmer roles

  • Stern adding Home Team feature allows up to 8 players and QR code integration with Apple/Google Wallet

    high confidence · Martin detailing Insider Connected 18 code updates from first week of August

  • Unconfirmed rumor: Stern may relocate factory from Elk Grove Village back to Melrose Park area

    medium confidence · Jonathan reporting crowd rumor about lease non-renewal and landlord notification

  • Eric Meunier at Jersey Jack Pinball reached 10-year anniversary in first week of August; Steve Ritchie reached 1-year anniversary

    high confidence · Martin citing factory milestones

  • Led Zeppelin, TMNT, and Guardians of the Galaxy announced as final Stern production runs

    high confidence · Martin reporting distributor announcements for final order placements

  • American Pinball switching to Titan flipper rubbers exclusively across all games

    high confidence · Martin reporting Titan Pinball announcement; sticker visible on playfield glass

  • Magic Girl game from Dutch team will be playable at Pinball Expo (Oct 19-22, Schaumburg, IL)

Notable Quotes

  • “TNA 2.0 will feature [all the extra add-ons as standard]”

    Jonathan (reading Spooky documentation) @ early in discussion — Clarifies that TNA 2.0 includes previously separate add-ons bundled at higher price point

  • “the offer for my home use only game is even higher than what Spooky is currently charging for the game, which is US$8,995”

    Martin A @ pricing discussion — Secondary market demand for TNA exceeds new production price, signaling strong collector interest

  • “they're building about 40 games a week”

    Martin A (quoting Spooky Facebook Live) @ production capacity discussion — Reveals Spooky's manufacturing capacity; 250-unit TNA 2.0 represents ~6.25 weeks of production

  • “We only have time to do a small run of 250, so there's another game lined up after that... but there's always a possibility of making more”

    Martin A (paraphrasing Spooky) @ production planning — Spooky signals limited edition is temporary strategy, not permanent scarcity; leaves door open for reruns

  • “it kind of looked like an infomercial for Godzilla to me”

    Jonathan @ Godzilla tournament discussion — Critique of Stern's Heads Up Invitational production quality and tournament format (not open, small field)

  • “they might be going back to Melrose Park... the home where the Teresa was first set up”

    Jonathan @ Stern relocation rumor — Contextualizes potential Stern move as returning to historical manufacturing origin in Melrose Park, Chicago area

  • “Does that mean that Titan rubbers are no longer available for any other manufacturer? because then it would not longer be exclusive for American Pinball”

    Martin A @ American Pinball/Titan discussion — Highlights ambiguity in 'exclusive' partnership wording; clarifies it means exclusivity on American Pinball games only

  • “Oktoberfest... just in time for October, I suppose”

Entities

[name withheld pending review]personMartin ApersonSpooky PinballcompanyTotal Nuclear AnnihilationgameTNA 2.0productStern PinballcompanyInsider ConnectedproductBen Heckperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Spooky Pinball announced TNA 2.0 rerun limited to 250 units with bundled add-ons at $8,995 (up from original $5,995), sales exclusive to Fan Club members, all units expected to sell out immediately upon Sept 1 opening

    high · Official Spooky documentation cited; $2,000 non-refundable deposit requirement; 250-unit cap explicitly stated

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky Pinball revealed ~40 games/week production capacity; TNA 2.0 (250 units) represents ~6.25 weeks; Halloween and Ultraman scheduled to complete by end of 2022

    high · Martin citing Saturday Spooktacular Facebook Live Q&A; production timeline math discussed

  • ?

    code_update: Stern released 18 code updates in first week of August adding Home Team feature (8 player profiles, QR code to Apple/Google Wallet integration) to all Insider Connected games; also added milestone achievement tracking backend; followed by universal Insider Connected feature expansion

    high · Martin detailing update scope across LCD game library; discusses potential need for dedicated Insider Connected update system to avoid per-game code releases

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Spooky Pinball confirmed Ben Heck (designer) and Eric Pripke (programmer) returning for future game programming after Eric's brief departure

    high · Martin reporting official Spooky social media announcement; notes both previously worked on Spooky titles (Ben: America's Most Haunted; Eric: Rick and Morty)

  • $

    market_signal: Martin reports original TNA machines commanding secondary market offers higher than new TNA 2.0 retail price ($8,995), indicating strong collector demand premium and possible FOMO cycle

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.263

0:00
TNA 2.0 announced Insider Connected adds home team Roger Sharp movie to premiere Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston, I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined with... I'm Martin A, but I'm the editor of Pinball News and we are here to look back on all the events in the pinball world that took place, well, the important ones anyway, that took place during the month of August 2022, which we've just had. Right. And it was an interesting month. It was not exactly the way we expected it because we were planning on there being a new game released from Stern. I don't think that hasn't happened as of yet. And we're recording this pin cast on the very last day of August in preparation for releasing on the 1st of September. So I don't think we're going to get any news about that today. Right. But even so, it's been a busy month, and there has been a new game release. Right, yeah. Although it is an old game in a new version. That's right, yes. It was our lead headline, and it's Spooky Pinball. And they have announced a new version of their Total Nuclear Annihilation game. and it's version 2.0 as everything seems to be these days but there are references to this and the previous version and first of all it comes with all the sort of extra add-ons which were available to purchase separately previously when the game was first run and it's also limited to only 250 units just to clarify I don't think Spooky is referring to the game as TNA 2.0. Oh, they did, actually, in the documentation. Yeah. I have it here. In the questions and answers, it says, what makes this game different from the first TNA? It says, TNA 2.0 will feature. Right, okay. And it goes on. There you go. I didn't think that either until I checked it. Right, okay. So, excuse me for barking in. No, no, please do. Because you know more about this game than I do, because you have one. Yeah, well, actually, I... I had one of the first run and there's been quite a demand for the game I can only speak for Europe I would say I imported a few myself back in the day those are all gone I have multiple people asking whether I want to sell my game and interestingly the offer for my home use only game is even higher than what Spook is currently charging for the game, which is US$8,995.
2:59
And that's not including any sales tax. Or shipping. Yeah, or shipping, if available. But like you said, the game in the new,

high confidence · Martin citing Pinball Expo social media announcement; completed and feature-complete

Martin A @ American Pinball production shift — Topical game release timing; notes Oktoberfest runs Sept-Oct, so production now makes commercial sense

  • “you need to be a member of their fan club... need to make sure your payment details, your credit card information is up to date”

    Jonathan @ TNA 2.0 sales mechanism — Describes gatekeeping strategy for TNA 2.0: Fan Club membership + $2,000 non-refundable deposit required

  • “I'm not sure whether it's exactly a pinball material so to speak”

    Martin A (on original Top Gun movie) @ rumor speculation about JJP Steve Ritchie game — Expresses skepticism about Top Gun as pinball theme fit, though acknowledges movie's recent success

    • Eric Priepke
    person
    Rick and Mortygame
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Jack Guarnieriperson
    Eric Meunierperson
    American Pinballcompany
    Titan Pinballcompany
    Magic Girlgame
    Pinball Expoevent
    [name withheld pending review]person
    Maxperson
    Godzillagame
    Pinball Magazineorganization
    Pinball Newsorganization
    Spooky Supporters Fan Cluborganization

    high · Martin's personal experience: 'the offer for my home use only game is even higher than what Spooky is currently charging for the game'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky using Fan Club membership ($45/year) to gate TNA 2.0 sales and create exclusivity; requires fan club membership, current payment info, and non-refundable $2,000 deposit; deposit non-transferable between games but transferable between buyers

    high · Jonathan detailing sales mechanics; Spooky's Q&A documentation cited

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Unconfirmed rumor: Stern Pinball may relocate factory from Elk Grove Village to Melrose Park area after lease non-renewal; historically significant as Melrose Park is Stern's original/historic manufacturing home

    medium · Jonathan reporting 'crowd rumor only'; no official Stern announcement; sources cite landlord lease non-renewal and location scouting

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern announcing final production runs for Led Zeppelin, TMNT, and Guardians of the Galaxy; distributors given final order windows; signals potential license expirations (especially GoG) or end-of-life for underperforming titles (LZEP)

    high · Martin citing distributor announcements for final order placements

  • ?

    technology_signal: American Pinball switching to Titan flipper rubbers exclusively on all games; first manufacturer to make exclusive partnership deal; Titan rubbers noted as durable/well-made; sticker marking visible on playfield glass

    high · Martin reporting Titan Pinball announcement; discusses exclusivity interpretation ambiguity

  • ?

    product_launch: American Pinball postponed Houdini rerun production in favor of Oktoberfest build; timing rationale: Oktoberfest event Sept-Oct aligns with game availability window; uses new cabinet/hardware standardized with Hot Wheels design

    high · Martin reporting schedule change and production rationale

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo 2022 (Oct 19-22, Schaumburg, IL) will feature completed Magic Girl game for public play; seminar planned with Max (finishing facility owner) discussing production/restoration process; Jonathan Euston narrating making-of documentary

    high · Martin citing Pinball Expo social media announcement; confirmed attendance and seminar planning

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community skepticism toward Stern's Heads Up Invitational format (non-open, hand-picked 8 competitors, invitational-only, prize: single Godzilla machine); hosts criticize as 'infomercial' for already-popular game; desire for open tournament format

    medium · Jonathan expressing format critique and preference for open tournament eligibility; Martin questioning invitational selection criteria and participation trophy optics

    • 3:11
    the way they are planning to rerun it, has a few changes versus the first run, so to speak. and let's not forget that at that time Total Nuclear Annihilation was Spooky's most successful game ever with production at that time I think of 550 and of course that was later topped by Rick and Morty and then Halloween and the additional 250 units are not going to make it Spooky's best selling game ever but they do not exclude or they're not saying that they won't rerun it again.
    3:55
    So for some people, the new pricing point is rather steep. I believe that the original price for the first run of Total Neutral Annihilation was $5,995. So that's $3,000 added. and for those $3,000 you get a nuclear green plastic protector set on the game, which gives the plastic an extra color, and they sort of light up due to the LEDs below it. Yeah, that's right. There's a knocker, a shaker motor, custom laser-cut side rails, which I'm trying to look at the image. well there's still on the flyer it shows the game name Total Nuclear Annihilation being laser cut similar to the original one but there is an alternative laser cut side reel yeah custom metallic powder coat which is also similar to the original interior graphics I don't think those were part of the original game. No, I think so. Speaker kit and grills, I think there was an upgrade at the time, and eliminated or light up drop targets, which was not part of, it's more like an aftermarket mod that came later on. It's basically the same drop targets, but transparent with an LED behind them. Right, so all that's included in this new 2.0 version at the new higher price. Now, sales for this game open at 10am on September 1st, which is, as I said earlier, that's tomorrow given the day we're recording this pincast. But, you can't just go and buy it from your distributor. You do have to be a member of the Spooky Supporters Fang Club. Right. For which there is a subscription, I believe. Yes. I'm not sure if the number is correct I think it's $45 a year but I could be off I think it was $45 for last year and that also gets you the news of any new games or reruns as one of the first because I don't think Spooky actually announced the game on their website or social media it was only announced to fan club members.
    6:35
    That's right, yes. So I think you also get some kind of swag as well with it, like a can cooler or some other items. Yeah, there was a special spooky pinball shaped beer glass that you get this time.
    6:55
    For this year they did the special beer glass, which you can see on Spooky Pinball's social media. I think they show pictures of what it looks like, so people know what to expect. Okay, well, with only 250 units, they'll probably sell out straight away, no matter how much they are charging for it, but it'll probably sell out very quickly. So if you are very keen to get one of these 2.0 versions of TNA, then you, as I said, need to be a member of their fan club. You need to make sure your payment details, your credit card information is up to date on your account and you need to go to shop.spookypinball.com tomorrow or today probably as it would seem to this by 10am central time which is when sales will open up right you will require as I mentioned to put down an initial payment of 2000 US dollars which is non-refundable and you can't transfer it to another game either So I think you need to be committed to buying it if you're going to hit that buy button. Yeah, which makes me wonder what we've seen, obviously, with Halloween and Ultraman, when those games were announced, they sold out also immediately.
    8:16
    And then lots of people offered their spots, trying to sell basically their place. Yes. I don't think there's any way they can stop you selling your place to somebody else they can make it difficult of course, they can require you to take delivery of it first and then transfer it to the eventual buyer but it doesn't say the deposit can't be transferred to another person it just says it can't be transferred to another game so they really just want to make sure they're going to sell all 250 and make them move on to the game after, fairly quickly I would have thought Yeah, but what I understand is they still expect to run the game for like six months or so.
    9:03
    I'm not actually sure whether that math makes sense, because there was a very first Saturday morning spooktacular Facebook live Q&A with Bug and Spooky Luke, I think last week, in which they announced or mentioned that they are currently continuously building 40 games a week.
    9:31
    40 games a week, that seems like a production run of six weeks and then they're done with TNA. But as you said, they haven't ruled out making another one of games either. It says we only have time to do a small run of 250, so there's another game lined up after that, or a rerun, maybe, I don't know. But they say, but there's always a possibility of making more. So, don't treat it as a limited edition run. I think that's the story here. Yeah, so one thing I didn't mention yet about Total Nuclear Annihilation is that the side rails on the rerun will have a black trim instead of a chromed look on the first run of the game. so it looks darker, I suppose.
    10:22
    Okay. Continuing what you were saying just now as part of that Facebook Live spooktacular, apart from saying they're building about 40 games a week, they also said that the Halloween Ultraman run should be completed by the end of this year. So where the TNA 2.0 fits into that plan isn't clear, whether it's going to be at the end of that, and they will start building it at the beginning of next year, or whether there's a gap in production for Halloween and Ultraman, where they can slot in these 250 games at 40 games a week. Right. So, yeah. And, well, there's more news from Spooky Pinball. They announced on their social media that they are very excited that both Ben Heck and Eric Pripke will be joining forces with Spooky Pinball again to program future games. And obviously both already worked for or with the company on previous games. Ben Heck is the designer of America's Most Haunted, the very first game by Spooky Pinball. And Eric Pruipke, I think, was a programmer for Rick and Morty.
    11:38
    Most of the code is by him. And I think he briefly left. and is now coming back. Good things for Spooky and Ben Heck and Eric Pripka, I suppose. Yeah, and talking of Rick and Morty, there's a new video now available of the making of Rick and Morty. Part 1 is now available on YouTube, and I guess that will be on the Spooky Pinball channel on YouTube. And else, just Google Rick and Morty Pinball making of, and you'll probably find it easily. Absolutely. And more Rick and Morty news, because there have been two code updates this month, and we know how excited Jonathan gets by the prospect of new code. Oh, right. Where's my pillow? Okay Well, okay, so the first one came out On the 2nd of August And actually added quite a lot With lots of New features And new dimensions Some of which are positive and negative And feature dimensions Include some very weird And interesting ideas in there Including one which just Produces a bunch of cursing One which is unlimited ball saves one which fires the knocker and a lot more I'll let you read about that if you're interested on the Spooky Pinball site and who knows Jonathan may include some of the details in the monthly newsletter that he produces yeah don't hold your breath there's a link to the way you can find out more and the more recent one which is on the 18th of August adds a new sort of fun feature called Morty's mind-blowing single adventure challenge, which allows you to just play one ball, one adventure in a single dimension, as they say, for funsies. So that's a nice little feature they added in and a little change to the tournament settings that allows it to randomise dimensions and adventures in order in which they occur, if you want to, in a tournament setting rather than always getting the same ones. Well, that's the code update news from Spooky Pinball. Right. Now, sticking with the code update, let's move on to Stern Pinball right away, because they dropped 18 code updates the first week of August. And Martin is now going to tell us what's in them.
    14:08
    Well, kind of. Yes. I mean, the key thing that they added to all these games, and these are the games which are all supported under the Insider Connected program where you scan your QR code is they added the new Home Team feature which allows you to log in and play without having to scan your QR code. Now, that's one of the things which is always a bit of a bugbear that people are scrambling around trying to find their QR code photo.
    14:38
    And although I have to give credit to Stern again here, apart from adding the Home Feature thing, they've also allowed the QR code for your Insightly connected login to be added to your Google Wallet and your Apple Wallet. So it basically acts like a loyalty card where you just open that app, scroll down to the stone pinball thing, and just press it, and it shows the QR code on your phone, and you just instantly get it. So no having to hunt through saved photos or having to put a shortcut on your homepage or anything like that. But this home team feature, it allows you to add up to eight players into your system, which then you can select from when you start a game and you don't have to get your phone out and find the code. You just pick who's playing it from the list and it automatically selects them and gets all their details from the Insider Connected service. And it also works across all the games in a single home. So you can say that if you've got four or five different Stern LCD games, you can add them all to your home team group. and the same players will instantly be available on every machine, which is great for family get-togethers. And you can also add guests temporarily as well to the home team if you've got a party or just friends coming round and you don't have to register or get their code out from their phone in order to log in. So a nice little feature there. But one of the things that did immediately strike me was, is this something you're going to have to do every time they add something inside a connected feature are they going to have to release new code for every single game that's um that's been released so every single lcd game we on which inside the connected works because it would seem that they kind of need to have a means of just updating the inside connected because that's the bit that's getting all the love and attention right now and getting all the extra features added to it it's almost like you just need to download an insider connected update which is universal for every game so maybe that's something which is going to be coming but then i looked at all the code updates and not all of them but nearly all of them but they all seem to add extra things as well they're bug fixes and a few little features and bringing everything up to the same kind of standard now adding the dj functionality to games that didn't have it before and standardizing the settings across all the games so it's more than just the home team that's been added to most of the games but you can imagine they keep saying they're going to keep adding all these new features to Insider Connected but you wouldn't want to have to release 18, 19 20 as they release more and more of their games, code updates every time they add a new feature so maybe there's a dedicated Insider Connected update system that needs to be added and that's not even all because following these 18 updates there was also a milestone achievement added to the Insider Connected where it basically keeps track of the number of games played, the number of days playing, days in a row streaks and I sort of get the feeling that your pinball is close to becoming a sort of Tamagotchi type of thing where it's basically calling your cell phone telling you, I need to be played.
    18:12
    Yeah, it's going to be like Pokemon Go, where you have to collect every single different achievement in order to win some kind of prize or be able to brag about your achievement so far. Maybe you get an achievement for getting all the achievements. Or if you play me now, I'll give you this unique achievement.
    18:33
    Yeah, it's a limited time. You've got to play it in 30 minutes or something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was interesting, though, that that wasn't an update for every single game. It seems to be a sort of a back-end feature, which is on their server. So I don't think it appears on the actual game itself. I think it only appears when you log into your user profile on the website, and then you can see these milestone achievements. So as we were saying before, it's not something you need to update the game for. It will automatically appear on your profile. Right. Now, interestingly, several older games are in production right now, being Mandalorian, Godzilla and Star Wars being the oldest one from those three. Those were on the line the past month. and it looks like we're looking at the last run of Led Zeppelin, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy as they have been announced to distributors to put in their final order so to speak so they can build the number of games that are being ordered and that's it That's surprising for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that's a relatively recent title, Guardians of the Galaxy, obviously much older it came out of the license for that could be running out and it's also surprising to see that they're still trying to make more Ned Zeppelin games because well there's probably people that like the game but generally the game is not that well received no I wouldn't have thought you'd have a problem getting one if you wanted one but well apparently there's still demand out there for it so that's good news there unless they're just using up parts they had left over right so and well I just mentioned Godzilla we mentioned last month that Stern will be holding their heads up invitational tournament usually I'm not that much into tournaments and this was a very odd one I would say I do applaud the production team for what they tried to achieve because it looked like a sort of ESPN type of report on various challenges that needed to be done between two players but overall and that's just me and don't see this as criticism but it kind of looked like an infomercial for Godzilla to me and I don't think the game needed that it's already popular as it is and yeah it's sort of I don't know Then I clicked the link and I was under the impression that this would be a live tournament, but all I got was an edited highlights, basically, of what happens.
    21:42
    Well, presumably it already happened then. By the time you were clicking the link, it was over. Yeah okay but I not sure whether they actually broadcasted the entire tournament or that the highlights was just that when the video went live and that was it so i not exactly sure so yeah i like yeah i not that uh interested well if it was a if it was a live tournament um i i'd be more likely to watch it but if it's an invitational then um without knowing how people got invited or why um and whether it was open to the public it holds a lot less interest to me. I want it to be an open event where anybody could be invited to take part. Not hand-picked, which I am. I'm not talking down the competitors, because I'm sure they were all very well qualified for the criteria that Stern used to pick the players, but we'd like anybody to be given the chance of having a great game and winning a Godzilla machine, which is what the prize was yeah so still I find it rather odd with only 8 competitors you hand out a pinball machine I mean it's almost like a participation trophy I mean it's not like I mean we have a quiz every year where we knock on the store it's not like we ever got a pinball machine to give away I mean we have more participants in our quiz than in this Hatsop Invitational. Yeah, the whole series of them. Oh, God.
    23:24
    And then there's, okay, usually we don't discuss rumors, but there is a rumor going around, actually.
    23:34
    In crowd only, I suppose. But there is a rumor that Stern will have to relocate their factory. They have been told by their landlord that their leases, once their lease is up, they are not getting a sanction, I think. That's what you call it. Yeah, or renewed. Yes.
    23:59
    So they have apparently been looking for a new location and the rumor has it that they might be going back to Melrose Park.
    24:10
    Yeah, which is of course the home where Day Teresa was first set up. Yeah, that doesn't mean they're going back to the same building. No, I don't think they'll be able to. Yeah, but back to that area, so to speak. But nothing has officially been announced so far and could still be months away before Stern announces anything on that. But it looks like it will be the end of Jersey Jack Pinball and Stern Pinball almost being neighbours. Yeah, I don't suppose Jersey Jack Pinball were going to have to move because I think that particular street's been redeveloped fairly recently. But I know that there has been a lot of building work around the Eastern Pinball factory either side. So, and on the opposite side of the street, it was all demolished and these huge great warehouses built, which I think is part of a plan to, I think I mentioned this before, It's turned into a sort of high-tech farm there with lots of server farms being put in and tech companies moving in, which is the right of the city to zone it however they want. and I'm sure the move from Elk Grove Village to potentially Melrose Park will be well managed. And although it always causes a little bit of disruption to production,
    25:46
    it gives them a chance to make a few changes to the production facility and optimise a few things. So it'll be interesting to see what they come up with. in their new home if they do indeed have to move. Right. I do remember that when they moved from Melrose Park to Elk Grove Village, for the outside world, that looked like a very smooth operation. I think it took less than a week before they were up and running again. Yeah, they were actually producing stuff before they even announced that they transferred.
    26:18
    So although people in the business knew about it, there was no public announcement that they were up and running in their new place. and producing games. Right.
    26:29
    Now, since we already mentioned Jersey Jack Pinball, let's jump to them straight away. Not a huge amount of news from them. No, true. They are currently building and shipping the collector's edition of Toy Story 4.
    26:45
    Yep, okay. So when it was first announced, there was no indication exactly when they would be making those games. but the answer to that is now apparently and the first week of August marked the 10 year anniversary for now pinball designer but then I think electrical engineer Eric Meunier for being 10 years with the company congratulations to Eric and the same week also marked the one year anniversary for Steve Ritchie to join the company congratulations to see yeah and Jersey Jack himself went to the factory as well Jack is usually located in New Jersey but he flew over to Elk Grove Village where he did an interview for WGN TV where he's basically talking about creating jobs in the area and so on how many parts are in the pinball machine the kind of usual stuff that apparently reporters think entertains people watching such a documentary or news item and that's available on YouTube as of recently so this is for WGN TV yes ok so if you search for that but of course don't forget that last month we spoke to Jack on this pin cast so you can find out more if you didn't catch that one about what's been happening in the factory and well quite a bit of inside information and potentially a little reveal or two as well so go and have a listen to last month's pin cast now one of the things that Jack mentioned in his interview last month is somewhat interesting. I think he mentioned that he went to see Billy Joel in Madison Square Garden. That's right, in concert, not just socially, I think. Yeah, exactly. And he was basically sitting sort of backstage, basically, literally,
    29:11
    behind the stage, where you could basically touch Billy Joel if he wanted to. But while we usually don't address rumors, there's two going around for Josie Jack, which might be wishful thinking or people just speculating. But apparently, one of the rumors is that Steve Ritchie's first game for the company will be themed around Billy Joel, which could be true or it could not be true it's definitely an interesting theme but I think even Jack mentioned that there's a list of criteria that a theme has to tick before even being considered and I'm not sure whether Billy Joel ticks all the boxes no well we were speculating last month with Jack that maybe Bruce Springsteen would have been a better fit for Jersey Jack or Bon Jovi could also be a very good one because I think Bon Jovi is also New Jersey based oh well that's just a rumour but there's also another rumour which we obviously don't cover but we will just this once about another potential license for Jersey Jack Pinball, which would actually be more fitting, I suppose, for a Steve Ritchie game. Right, yeah, and that would be the Top Gun license. We have no verification whether this rumor is true or not, but of course the Top Gun Maverick movie broke all records this year. I think it's one of the most successful movies ever now. I just had the pleasure of watching the original Top Gun DVD recently which is also still quite an interesting film although I'm not sure whether it's exactly a pinball material so to speak with but then again Steve Rich already designed F-14 Tomcat which was sort of like a reference to the Top Gun franchise which it is now and I forget if it was Airborne as well which was based more around an air show but certainly flying planes and buzzing towers and things like that so there's a couple of games out there but it would make sense if Steve was going to do an updated version of F-14 to pick up the Top Gun license for real this time rather than try and just hint at it. Right. So those are rumors going around, but it could just be wishful thinking from some people hoping that those games would be manufactured. Okay.
    32:20
    Not that far from Jersey Jack pinball is American pinball. Yes, indeed. Not a lot of news, but tell us what we have. Well, they made an announcement and I don't think it was American Pinball who did it but actually it was done by Titan Pinball that American Pinball will use Titan flipper rubbers on their games from now on and it's even indicated with the little sticker at the top left of the playfield glass ok so it's presumably not rubber but the sticker is not rubber, no.
    33:03
    Good. That's reassuring. But no, the rubbers in pinball machines are both on the flippers, of course, and in certain areas to prevent the ball going from places where it shouldn't go if it's not blocked off by targets, but it's also used on posts and slingshots. Slingshots, exactly, yeah. That kind of stuff. and there's various qualities out there of rubbers, and American Pinball are very happy with the Titan flipper rubbers, and they're the first company to switch to Titan. Is it just flipper rubbers that they're using, or are they using Titan rubbers all around the game? I assume it's Titan rubbers all around. Right, that makes sense. Well, that's a good deal for any American Pinball buyers, because they are, well, in my experience, they're very well made and very durable. Yeah, so the only thing that I, and I have a question for you, and this might have to do with English language or American, whatever you want to call it. So the announcement by Titan said that American Pinball will use Titan rubbers exclusively.
    34:18
    Does that mean that Titan rubbers are no longer available for any other manufacturer? because then it would not longer be exclusive for American Pinball. No, I think it just means that they will only use Titan products on the American Pinball games. Okay. Just to clarify, because it could be that... You're right, it could read either way, depending on how exactly it was written. But I'm sure that Titan won't want to give up their home use sales as well. Right. Okay. Now, we've talked about a rerun of Houdini already for a couple of months now. Apparently, that has been pushed back, and instead the company is now building Oktoberfest.
    35:05
    Just in time for October, I suppose. Well, yeah, just about, yeah. It makes sense. Obviously, Oktoberfest runs mostly through the actual event itself, runs mostly through September, and only slightly into October. but if they're building them now then they should be available for Oktoberfest celebrations it makes sense to do it that way and remember these games were going to be using the new style cabinets and new hardware that they're currently using in games like Hot Wheels so they'll get that kind of upgrade to the more standardised design which should make getting parts and maintenance a bit easier Right, okay, so And there was some more news That involves Seems to involve American Pinball Yeah, I'm not entirely sure What their involvement is But there was an answer from Pinball Expo On their social media feed Saying that they will be They will be showing And allowing to have played A completed Magic Girl game Which is from the Dutch team Who are based in Wimbledon Who have finished the code and made physical changes to the game in order to make it playable and feature complete. It said that it was thanks to American Pinball that that game is going to be at Pinball Expo, but it's not entirely clear what American Pinball's role or involvement in this is, whether it will be a supplying machine or whether it will be Rob Burke's personal machine, which I believe has been sent over to Warhammer. Actually, I think Rob Berg already sold his game, so he was looking for a new one. Oh, right, so maybe he's bought one of their games. Yeah, so that probably is it.
    36:56
    I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that he's... I was at Warhammer when Rob was... No, that was the day after.
    37:09
    But he mentioned that he already had sold his Magic Girl game. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Rob's original Magic Girl game ended up in Warhammer to begin with. Yes, I think I could be right. But then once he'd seen what they'd done, he may well have decided to buy one back. Right. So that game will be at Pinball Expo the upcoming October, that is, October 19th to the 22nd in Schomburg Illinois. Yes, indeed. So if you wanted to get a chance to play a completed feature, Magic Girl, then that's your probably your best chance of doing it without going to the Netherlands, where there is one on display at the Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam for public to play.
    38:03
    And I think there are a few others now cropping up around the world, but mostly in private collections, I think. Yeah, so and I did reach out to Max who is the owner of the facility where the Magic Girls are being finished, so to speak.
    38:24
    He is looking to attend the Pinball Expo as well, so I would not be surprised if there would be a seminar about the finishing of Magic Girl and yes indeed I think that's already been announced that they will be telling the story of how they did it if you can't wait for that yeah well you and I have both been involved in the telling of that story to some degree Jonathan as you may remember us talking about on the spin cast a while ago was asked to voice and narrate the story of the making of Magic Girl video which is available on YouTube so if you search for that you will find it there meanwhile I've also been busy because I wrote up the story of that for Pinball News and after everybody was able to get together and check it out and confirm that all the facts in it were correct it was published about a week ago on the Pinball News website so you can read the long story of Magic Girl how it came to be and how it came to be finished on the Pinball News site.
    39:41
    Right. I think that rounds it up for American Pinball. Yes, you may be wondering why we're talking about Magic Girl for an American Pinball section. Well, let's not forget that American Pinball assembled all the Magic Girl games that are currently out there. Absolutely, yes. John Popaduke was working for them, or working with them, I should say, to build those games, build a number of those games, and also design their launch title, the Houdini game, which ended up being redesigned, of course, by Joe Balser. But those games which we're talking about, those were the ones which were built in the old American pinball factory before they actually got into building their own game, Houdini. so that's American Pinball involvement right so okay moving on to I suppose Deep Root Pinball do you have some news on them? not really obviously their insolvency rolls on the bankruptcy through more and more legal motions and attempts to recover whatever they can through the selling of their assets but there are some pictures which came up on Pinside, so thank you to those who posted on Pinside, which revealed that there was apparently another title which hadn't been announced. They already announced plenty of titles in their planned raft of machine releases, but one which they had worked on, they had artwork for, and potentially a playful design, which is a bit hard to tell from the pictures but quite possibly was a Men in Black Alien Crisis game so yeah there is a backlash of some rough cabinet art drawn up as well and it's interesting that they were obviously putting some effort into building that or at least designing it while they were still trying to get their launch title Raza out but it wasn't amongst the titles that they had announce. So whether they had the license free yet or not, or whether it was a speculative thing they were going to present to the movie company and try and get the license, we don't know. But I'm sure the story, the full story of how that came about will come out in due course. Right, okay. You want to jump to what's it called? Turner Pinball. Oh, right, yes. Which is sort of like the well Chris Turner is very keen to say he's not Deep Root Pinball 2.0 despite the obvious links to Deep Root but so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt and have a clean slate from which to start but yeah basically the only news I think from Turner Pinball is there was a new video on I'll say it's on the Turner Pinball site but it's not it's on Chris Turner's personal YouTube channel called chris turner.tv which is on youtube and um there's there are currently three videos on there the uh the rather awkward um reveal of the company which we referred to before uh there is a a top a new top five questions about turner pinball answered video which um i haven't bothered to look because i think we already knew i think it's kind of like a subset of what was in the first video and another one about making a costume helmet using foam and bondo which I don't think is anything particularly pinball related but you don't wear a helmet playing pinball? I'm only doing this podcast although there are plenty of times I do feel like banging away at you so anyway so if you If you interested check out Chris Turner YouTube channel Chris Turner TV on YouTube right okay so so I scrolling back let just do this in the order of we have them on paper here which is hang a spin ball Australia no news okay crossing the water over there a home pin in Taiwan. Some news yes, mainly around the manual for their upcoming This is Spinal Tap Pinball. We haven't seen a completed game yet. It's going to premiere at Pinfest show in Australia. Newcastle, yes. So until then, we don't have any full detailed information about what's in the game. But what we do have is we have a service manual for the game, which I did have a look at and does give you quite a lot of information about the features in the game. So you can work out quite a lot of it, if not the rules. You can certainly see what the various mechanisms and devices within the game will be and even how they work. so you can get a printed service manual but that, you can probably buy it from them as well but it will come with, included when you buy the game but you can also download a lower res version off the Homepin website so you can look at basically all the details of the game even before it's been announced or revealed, I should say so that could be quite interesting, I'd say I certainly was looking at the exploding drummer mechanism and trying to work out what it does and how it works. So there you go. If you're interested, go to homepin.com, I think it is. And certainly if you search for Home Pin Pinball, you will find their website. And you can download the manual now. Exploding drummer? Of course. How can you have a Spinal Tap game without an exploding drummer? Right. Makes no sense. Yeah, okay. So the two games that are supposed to be available for public play at the Pinfest Newcastle event, those were shipped.
    46:16
    So hopefully they will be there in time. Not exactly news, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. Yes. Very good. Okay. So Pinball Brothers in Europe then.
    46:28
    Yeah. as we know they are making Alien at the moment and apparently still making Alien and shipping more of them so that's keeping them busy because they although they've announced their next title which is Queen they haven't really done much more in the way of promoting it other than that initial reveal right I mean I haven't seen any gameplay videos which is what everybody seems to be crying out for It makes me suggest it's not actually ready to show yet. The game is supposed to be shown for the first time at the super awesome pinball show event. Tailgate party. Yes, exactly. At the Cointaker premises. That's somewhere this month, if I'm not mistaken. I think you're right, yes. So until then, we're just eagerly waiting to see gameplay footage. Yes, and I think the pinball brothers, or at least two of the Pinball Brothers are going to be going over to that as well. Yeah, I think Roger and Kato. And Kato, yeah. So I'm not sure if Daniel is going there from Freeplay Sweden.
    47:42
    Who knows? He might be at Pinball Expo. I'm sure they will be talking about it at that show as well. Yeah, so that will probably be our first siding with the game because I don't think we're making it to the tailgate party at CoinTaker. No, sadly not, although some of us have seen a version of the game before. But anyway, moving on, and you've got some news from Chicago Gaming, haven't you? Yeah, sort of. Ryan White, who is sort of their spokesperson,
    48:16
    demonstrated the interactive shooting gallery mode that is played on the new topper of Cactus Canyon remake. And he demonstrated that in a Flippin' Out video stream.
    48:30
    What it basically comes down to is you have, the topper has a backdrop of buildings that sort of form a street. And some of these buildings light up. and in front of the topper basically on the front edge of the topper is an LED that's lighting up and it's basically a strip of LEDs I think isn't it which sort of move right ok please explain that your English is better than mine well it's a while since I've played it you've watched it more recently so basically as Jonathan said it's like the shootout kind of like the back glass on the top of a view down the street with the bad guy in the middle and you've got a, on the base of the plinth on which all this sits, on the front edge of the plinth on which it all sits, there is an LED strip which a single LED, I think, or maybe it's two or three, sort of illuminates and moves left and right and you have to, well, you have to steer that lit LED to the illuminated building in order to shoot out the people who were shooting at you from it. I think that's correct. Is that accurate? It's a long time since I played it. It's almost a year. From what I've seen Ryan demonstrate, the LED, the lit-up one, moves from left to right and you have to shoot when it's matching with the window. With the building or the window that's lit up. Right. and you have to shoot the bad guys only, not the... Ah, that's probably why I didn't get very far. I didn't know you had to shoot. I thought it would be more like the bar fight or the bar scene in Indiana Jones, where you just steer the gun and you don't actually have to physically fire the trigger, but apparently you do. So that would be why my game finished so quickly. Right, okay. And apparently Chicago Gaming have been dealing with quite some supply chain issues resulting in delays of Cactus Canyon games being built. But good news, it looks like limited edition and standard edition plus games, the ones with the topper,
    50:56
    will be back into production by the end of September and then they start shipping immediately as well. Right, so I guess that's October then. So that's good news if you've been waiting for one of those and had an order in for some time, because it's been a while since they announced the game.
    51:16
    But these days, you have to be patient, don't you? If you're ordering one of the top-end models, it could be a year or more before you actually get it. Yeah, no, actually, I was thinking about that. I think there isn't a manufacturer where you don't have any waiting times at the moment. The only one is probably Stern, but you get an old game.
    51:45
    That's true. Yeah, so that was not a stab, but that's basically because they're rerunning the older games, so you place your order and it's shipped rather soon, unlike some of the newer titles. Yeah, everything seems to have a lead time these days. So I think that's all the news from Chicago Gaming. Right. So where should we go next? Well, let's do Multimorphic. Okay. So, well, they made an announcement on the 2nd of August about increased lead times of another two months on the complete P3 machines, which takes it from about 10 months up to around about 12. so if you haven't already ordered your P3 and were planning to buy one, this is the entire unit then it's probably going to be, as we were just saying about a year before you would get it and also on top of that yeah, not only that but there's also a price increase kicking in in September for many of the game modules now that is it varies but generally speaking Well, the newest one is Weird Owls, Museum of Natural Arity, which goes up from $3,000 to $3,500.
    53:02
    Heist also puts on $500 to $3,250. Cosmic Cart Racing goes $400 up to $3,000, exactly. What? The same price for Lexi Lightspeed Escape from Earth. and the Cannon and Lagoon module which is the simplest of all the modules available I think goes up another $301 to $1800 now you can look in those old prices if you order before the increase kicks in and there is obviously again generally a lead time on all these modules although it's a lot shorter and it is for a full game. It can be a couple of months or something like that. Depending on whether they have them in stock or not, I don't think they have many.
    53:53
    But also, some good news. Oh, finally. Yes, because there was a price decrease on two of their games, Rocks and Grand Slam Rally, which are now gone down from $399 to just $199. So, basically halved in price. immediately. So you don't have to wait for that price decrease to kick in. It's there now through the Multimorphic store. If you go to Multimorphic.com and have a look. Right, okay. So the old pricing was still effective, I think, during the month of August, but in September you pay the new prices, is that correct? That's correct. I don't know the exact date on which it goes up. It was the 1st of September, in which case it's pointless to tell you about this because it's already happened. But if you were thinking this is going to affect you, then hop on over there and have a look and see if the price has gone up yet.
    54:52
    On other areas, Multiborfic has also been quite busy as we've seen a code update actually two for Wheeled Owls Museum of Natural Hilarity. Usually you're the one doing the code updates and I take that, but okay, I'll do this one. So first there was version 0.9, 0.6, 0.2, 0.25, 0.7. I think I'm making that up.
    55:22
    Which came out August 1st, which is actually a rather big update. It includes the You Make Me mini wizard mode, a new drink from the firehouse mode, improved video playback performance, scoring changes and bug fixes to the Dare to be Stupid mode, new rules for the UHF multiple, along with many gameplay changes and bug fixes throughout the game. And then there was the 1.0 code update on August 29th, which includes the Running with Scissors Wizard mode, which is a speedrun challenge throughout the entire museum where you have to complete various tasks in every room of the museum.
    56:12
    Excellent. So that's something quite complete. Yes. And Buffalo Pinball had a live stream where they actually played the new code and managed to play the running with scissors wizard mode as well. So if you want a spoiler, then check out Buffalo Pinball. Yeah. and I think I skipped something there's a new game development emulation software available for budding game designers supporting the latest hardware so if you're tempted to design a game for the Multimorphic P3 platform make sure that you have the latest version of that emulation software so you can properly emulate the game if you don't have one sitting next to you. Yes, because as we mentioned before, the newest games have a few hardware changes compared to the older ones. So rather than the walls that pop up halfway through, halfway up the playfield, they're not solenoid driven anymore, they're motor driven. So that gives you the possibility of doing more interesting things with them. And there's also speaker panel lighting, which can be controlled as well now, which it couldn't previously. So the new development and emulation software supports those, as well as providing RGB LED simulation. So you can see exactly how it's going to look rather than guessing. So if you're a game, as Donaldson said, a budding game developer for the P3, you want to update your software.
    58:00
    Right. Okay. Okay, so who's next then? Where should we go from here? I know. Let's go and check out our good friend Andrew McVeigh and what he's been up to with Pinball Adventures. Right. So actually, while you said that, I just looked up his Instagram.
    58:18
    First of all, congratulations as he had his birthday yesterday. and apparently he has been mentioning that he is moving to a new location or factory September 1st but according to his latest update he got the keys early so he's already starting the big move today ah ok only one day early but yes that's good every time saving measure is always to be welcomed. So congratulations on both your birthday and the new location. Yeah, or the location because I'm not sure whether he had a factory, if it's a factory.
    59:06
    It sort of looked like he was building the games in his office. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, new location or new factory, new assembly area. Right. So, well, best of luck with that and hopefully we'll get to see them cranking out games soon. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. It's been in development for a long time. And as we know, there's another company with a number of other titles already announced in the pipeline. So we're looking forward to see that, both the Pony Factory and Elements and the various other ones which are upcoming. Right, OK. Now, do you feel a little bit Spanish, Martin?
    59:47
    Yeah. You feel it too, I feel a little bit of space. So do we have any news on the Biktronic? I'd like to say see, but I have to say no news. But it seems that you played the SuperHoop game recently in the UK Pin Test, isn't that true? I did, and I'm not going to attempt to talk that way for any length of time because... Sorry, sorry, I don't want to be... Well, I will have to clean my monitor off fairly soon after doing that. But yes, I got a chance to play Super Hoop, and it was set up on the floor at the UK Pinfest, and an interesting game. There were some nice lighting effects on it. Quite dark, I have to say, on the play field, not the theme or the treatment of it, but there wasn't a huge amount of general illumination. But it seemed to work well. I think the flippers on it might actually have been slightly overpowered, maybe because we have a 240-volt distribution in the UK, and it's probably more used to like a 220-volt in Spain. But it did play very fast, and the ball was flying around the playfield throughout the entire weekend. The flippers never got tired, and the game was in use nearly all the time. So it was holding up very well. I don't think anything broke on it. so not a huge amount on the playfield but the game seemed to play well and I found it to be one of those games where you almost get to the point you're trying to get to but not quite so you want to go back and play it one more time just to try and achieve what you didn't quite get to last time and of course when you try it again you don't get there either it does drag you back for another game So that's good news, I think. Okay. So, and was the game brought by a distributor or a private collector? You know what? I don't know who brought it. I never found that out. I was trying to find. But I don't think it was by a distributor. I don't think they have one. Right. I think it must have been a private collector. Okay. Now, that game is designed by Antonio Orturo from Quetzalpimbo in Spain. And interestingly, I was looking up Antonio on Instagram, and I noticed that he has a new website for Quetzalpimbo, which is qtzpb.com. And apparently it's not a secure website, so you may get a browser warning. But the website does show SuperHoop and the Tokyo Perfect Drift designs. Yes, there's a story, well, development pictures of it. So you can see a little bit of text describing the development of it. But, yes, it's a nicely designed website. And, oh, look, there's a video there from Pinball News. I hadn't noticed that, about Captain Nemo anyway that wasn't why we were mentioning it I hadn't even noticed that until I scrolled down that far but yeah, so obviously Antonio was the designer and the builder of Captain Nemo Dives Again which is out and about there were quite a few of those around and yeah, while I was at Finfest I was talking to fellow Dutchman Adi Anka, who brought two games to the show, very kindly, all the way from the Netherlands.
    63:35
    He said he's still waiting for his Tokyo Perfect Drift game to be built, which he ordered about two years ago. He's very patient and not complaining about the delay, but hoping to get his game. So you can see the pictures of it on the website,
    63:52
    qtzpb.com but as far as we know there haven't actually been any made out in the wild the game has been made because we saw it at People Expo in the past so there is a working model but it hasn't been produced commercially yet as far as I'm aware so hopefully it won't be too long I know Antonio has been very busy doing other work so I think the cabinet is done but the playfield is still waiting population I think it was sourced out, but I'm not sure whether there was a falling out between the guy who should assemble it or what's going on. So I don't want to speculate on that.
    64:38
    Okay. Anyway. I think that's a lot of Spanish news. You think so? And then, no, there's more. Oh, no. Yes. Do you remember New Canessa from 2010? The game that we played at EAG Expo. I do. I still wake up screaming with cold sweats in the middle of the night about it. Yes. Okay. So there was a company called Marsa Play who brought a new Canesta game to the EAG Expo in 2010. And that game was actually the very first pinball machine with an LED screen in it, also taking a picture of the player during gameplay.
    65:22
    And one of the odd things with that game was they tried to make it as reliable as they could in terms of eliminating switches and so on by going with sensors and opto-switches. That all worked fine although you could use some feedback on because if you don see an actual switch and it still counts it scores like you hitting a switch you need some visual feedback It's hard to know what's registering, isn't it? Exactly. Because you can roll through a lane, but is there a switch there that does something or not? Yeah. So despite that technological advancement, I would say, one of the curious things missing on that game was an end of stroke switch causing actually flipper coils to burn if you hold the flipper button in too long. Yeah, and I would say it ended up being hugely unreliable as well, the actual electronics of it. So I still remember seeing two of them side by side and both of them were broken. I don't think either of them actually lasted very long. Okay, so now the interesting news is, because why would we bring up this game from more than 12 years ago, I actually got an email from Marsup Play with an invite to the IAPA London show, where they are apparently showcasing a number of virtual pinball machines.
    67:00
    And the invitation looks like a flyer, and it shows at least a virtual version of New Canasta, the game that we just described, which is a rebuild of Canasta 86, a very popular game in Spain. Indeed. It also shows a game called Brave Teams and a game called Billiards, which has a back class that reminds a little bit of 8 Balls of Lux. Okay, so just to stress, this is a virtual pinball machine, not a physical one. so hopefully it's going to be more reliable probably yeah so the company apparently is still in business because we haven't heard from them in 12 years but they're still around and doing a new attempt yep okay that's available to see at IAPA London which I think is about the middle of this month unfortunately I'm away the entire duration of that show so I won't be able to go there despite the fact it's in London which is a bit annoying there you go I'm sure we'll see some news about it and we'll bring you details of what happened in next month's Pincast right, ok I don't think I will be going either although I got the invite oh well, maybe if there's a cheap last minute flight I might actually hop in there yeah, do you fancy braving the chaos of Shiphold Airport and trying to hop over no, I'd probably fly from another airport yeah, what a good idea Okay, talking of the Netherlands, what news from Barry at Dutch Pinball? Nothing so far.
    68:41
    Nothing. Oh, sorry. Sorry, wrong mode, wrong mode. No news from Dutch Pinball. No, I tried reaching out to Barry.
    68:53
    His phone is basically connecting me and then disconnecting me. so it could be that he's on holiday or something yeah, it's the time of year so no update from Dutch Pinball so any new information from Pedretti Gaming in Italy well you tell me no, basically no news from Pedretti and they are still building the Funhaus 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare Right. They're also building the aliens for Pimble Brothers. Indeed they are. And they will be building the Queen game. So they are very busy. Yeah, wrapping up for that one would hope.
    69:39
    But I did run into Janos from Team Pimble when I was at UK Pinfest. And he gave me a bit of information, some of which I can't report most of it. But I can say that he is busy working on the next, as yet unannounced, 2.0 release. Which is it? Which title is it? Tell us, Warden. I'm afraid I'm sworn to secrecy. You know the rules.
    70:07
    But there is another one coming up fairly soon. Oh, you know my weakness. Yes. which will have the same code from the same team who did the Funhouse so yeah well experienced so if you say very soon is there a timeline no I didn't say very soon I said soon well ok soon so is there a timeline I'm sure there is but I don't know what it is and timelines slip so it will be inadvisable to say a particular game is going to be announced at a certain time. And as we know, and as we talked about earlier, there's a big difference between announcing a game and actually producing it and selling it. So, to a point, it's actually more important when you can actually buy it rather than when it's announced. Right. As we've seen with Queen. Yeah, well, Pedretti is doing a pretty good job with shipping their stuff once they make an announcement. I mean, the Fanas gets started shipping rather quickly, I suppose.
    71:17
    Yes, they have become a significant force in pinball manufacturing, I'd say now, which is good, good to have more companies out there able to supply. Yes, okay. So that rounds it up for Pedretti in Italy. But I just remember we have more than you from Spain. I know. I can't believe you missed the opportunity. Oh, sorry. Ah, well, okay, yes, well, there was quite a lot of pinball media to report on this month, and we'll start that with news about a Spanish pinball book, which is called Extra Ball, the History of Pinball in Spain. Now, it's been announced, well, it was announced just a few days ago that they were doing effectively a Kickstarter, but it's not with Kickstarter, It's with another company called Vekami, who are, I guess, more Spain-based or at least Spanish-facing. But it works in the same way. And they were trying to raise €3,000 to publish their book. And it is a history of pinball in Spain from the very early beginnings to today. and it's 464 pages in a coffee table landscape format. Wow. So there's a lot of pages in there, a lot of information and they were looking to raise, say, 3,000 and after two days they had raised 4,924. So there's a big demand out there, it seems, for this book or certainly for the extras that come with it. So you can expect to see that. But it is, as far as we can tell, it is only available initially at least in Spanish language, not English but it'll have a huge number of very high quality photos in it I'm sure so even if you don't necessarily speak the language you'll be able to enjoy the games from the earliest days of Spanish pinball through to the more modern ones, who knows it might even include the games that we've just been talking about oh that would be good yeah so no it's very interesting, I'm always interested in other pinball publications as an editor of Pinball Magazine. So I think I'm going to back this one as well. So I'm not sure what the book will cost, but the amount will go up a little bit. I think there's various options available. You can get a digital copy or a physical copy. It's not hugely expensive, I don't think. It's probably, I'm trying to remember, but no more than about 25, 30 euros. I can easily afford that. I'm sure you can. You must be rolling in money after... Yeah, I am a very successful DJ, as you also might remember. I was going to say, all the money you make from Pinball Magazine No. 6.
    74:13
    Oh, yes, sorry. That hasn't actually been published yet. Yes, that's my retirement plan. Yeah, we'll come back to that.
    74:23
    So anyway, more... More Kickstarter companies or Kickstarter projects, I should say. Yeah. The Skillshot Baby, a feature pinball epiphany to be produced by Emoto, Harney and... David Torreotti. Yes, exactly. We mentioned that last month. That actually reached its funding target on Kickstarter. It was a $15,000 goal and they almost reached $16,000 being backed by 108 backers. So good news for them. They get to make their short movie. Yeah, this is a feature, sort of a scene. I wouldn't say it's a scene, but it's a section from a much larger project which they are hoping to produce. So this is like to be able to show off what the production qualities and storytelling will be like if they get to do the full thing. And whether there'll be another Kickstarter for that or whether they'll be pitching it to studios, we're not quite clear at the moment. But we look forward to seeing Skill Shop Baby Pinball Epiphany when that is released. right now from one movie to another Roger Sharp who I actually just talked to and who agreed to come on our next pin cast at the end of September he has a movie made about well basically the story well it's not exactly solely the story how he saved the game but that's sort of like the subtitle for the movie, The Man That Saved the Game.
    76:13
    That's more a backdrop to the story of the movie. Yes. Roger expressed to me, it's not a pinball movie, but pinball is a huge part of it. So if you're expecting to watch a tournament like you do at some tournaments, you can watch a screen and see gameplay. No, that's not it. It's actually a sort of a love story.
    76:43
    It's a comedy drama, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it should be appealing to a wider audience. And there's actually, well, the company behind it is currently reaching out to film festivals. And good news, the movie is to debut at the 30th annual Hampton International Film Festival. which is scheduled to take place from the 7th to the 16th of October. Now, that's quite an accomplishment. And from what I understand from Roger, more festivals have shown interest in taking the movie up in their program as well. And it's very difficult to get your movie to be selected by festivals. So kudos for them for getting so much interest in the movie already. Yes, and if you would like to go to the 30th annual Hampton International Film Festival, general admission tickets go on sale on the 27th of this month. So you can just go to have a search for Hampton International Film Festival, and I'm sure you will find it no problem. but there's also some good news which if you can't wait until then to find out more about the movie there is a website the official movie website of www.pinballfilm.com where you can see shots from the movie you can see the story of the people in it, the people working on it the cast and crew basically so it's very well made looking at it right now as we speak and you can see the beautiful quality of the photography in the movie it really does look pin sharp and very well composed so nice to see an actor playing a young Roger Sharp in that and some lovely household and some courtroom scenes as well there's a lot you can see from that I'll have to look at it I will like I said before we started recording this pin cast I was actually talking to Roger the movie is actually done so it's complete editing is done or the first version is done and Roger is going to promote the movie as well at some of the events where the movie will be shown he can't do them all but he's doing quite a few and he has been he's had quite a heavy hand in the script and the production of the movie so it should be I'd say rather authentic yeah well I think he's technical advisor and one of the executive producers of it as well so yes obviously very much involved in production and not just sitting back and letting the storytellers tell the story but making sure that it's kept on point right so yeah I'm very curious to see the film although I'm usually not one to go to movie festivals or film festivals but they're still not sure exactly how the movie will be distributed whether it will be available in theatres nationwide or worldwide or what have you. I suppose that still depends or is up in the air depending on how the game is received at various film festivals. Yeah, that's right. I'm sure it will come to a streaming platform as well before too long. Yeah.
    80:38
    But from what I understand from Roger, such a release that we're looking at next year. It's not going to be this year. No, that makes sense. Good. Okay. Well, some other news, as we mentioned earlier, I was at the UK Pinball Pinfest Pinball show in Daventry this past weekend. I wasn't, which is also quite newsworthy, I suppose, because you feel I am there. You are. You were missed, and I was asked a lot of times whether you were coming. And I had to explain that you had a DJ gig to attend to at the weekend, so I couldn't, unfortunately, make it. Events will clash, and talking of events clashing, we're not sure whether Roger's going to be able to be at Pinball Expo this year, because he may end up a bit busy promoting or talking about the Pinball The Man Who Saved The Game film. So, if you want to hear from Roger, probably best to tune in to next month's Pincast, when we plan to be talking to him. But, yeah, getting back to the show, very well received, very popular. I think we had the most people at that show that we ever had at UK Pinfest. I think on Saturday afternoon we actually at capacity. I think the hall has a maximum number of 400 people and I think it was just about there or thereabouts. So that was really good. But even then it didn't seem overly packed. You could still get on the game and you could still move around the hall. So that was nice to see. It was very busy but there was so much going on. There were so many tournaments, so many events. Fun and serious. So congratulations to everybody involved in running it. I'm happy to say that I only had a very small role to play this time, and that was in introducing the new inductees into the UK Pinball Hall of Fame. So congratulations to them. That was Paul Brock, who runs the popular Pinball Info website in the UK, which is the forum and home for online collaboration of all things pinball, and the Northern Lights Pinball team, who raise a huge amount of money for charity by bringing machines to shows, support the shows, and also spread pinball to the next generation and to people outside the pinball hobby, so to people who wouldn't normally see pinball. They get a chance to play it. So well done to them, and if you want to see more about that, there's a new website, ukpinballhalloffame.com, where you can see all the past inductees going back to 2008, as well as this year's ones, and also details of the new selection committee that's been set up. So that was me at the weekend. Okay. So usually I attend the show, and usually our good friend Gary Flower is also there. Did you see Gary? No, Gary couldn't make it this year. Oh. I think he's actually been to Pintest for a number of years, but he's normally busy around that time, and it's a long way from where he is up to Daventry. so it's a difficult journey to make. So no, Gary was not there. But we missed him last month because we didn't get to speak to him. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we realized right at the end that he hadn't called and it was too late. So we're not going to make that mistake this month, are we? No, I suppose we can give him a call. I'm sure he has some interesting news that we'd like to share with our listeners as well. Yeah, okay, so call him up, see what happens. Okay, calling right now.
    84:20
    We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. I'm sure I have the exact calling number. Let me try again.
    84:33
    We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. I don't know what's up with that. Well, we tried. We did, yeah. We tried to... Hmm. Okay. Well, we'll try and get him on next month to bring us all up to date with what's been going on in his corner of the world. But until then, I think that's it for us for this month. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. I don't think I have anything else to add as well. Okay. So that wraps it up for August 2022. And we hope you enjoyed this month's New Pimcast. we will of course be back next month at the end of September and the start of October to bring all the pinball news from the previous month and I just remember we forgot one item no we're still here so well obviously pinball expo is coming in October that's right and Rob Berg the main organizer of the event has been promoting the country tournament ah yes a new country tournament yes exactly and he's looking for I believe it's two representatives from various countries from over all over the world to take place in such tournaments now I'm not exactly sure which countries already have participants going there, but if you're an international pinball player and going to Pinball Expo, you might be reaching out to Rob Berg, see if you can participate in this country tournament.
    86:22
    Yes, it's a new event, so it's definitely worth checking it out. It might even be that you are one of the few people from the your country who are in attendance. So you may want to represent your country there in the 2022 World Cup of pinball, which is being held there. But I'm just trying to find any more details about it as we speak. But the website seems particularly slow.
    86:55
    Yes, so there is a registration for two players on the pinballexpo.com website. So it costs 50 US dollars to register. 50 US dollars?
    87:08
    Yeah, but I'm sure there are plenty of benefits and you get to represent your country. I mean, who can put a price on that?
    87:15
    Apparently, Robert can. Okay, well, now we know what the price is. So, okay, and that does wrap it up for August. Yeah, so thank you for listening and we hope you join us next time at the end of September. until then bye bye yeah have a great month bye bye