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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast June 2026 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·2h 1m·analyzed·Jul 3, 2026
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TL;DR

Jersey Jack's Sonic the Hedgehog designed by Steve Ritchie launches with innovative two-level playfield and magnetic mechanics.

Summary

Jersey Jack Pinball revealed Sonic the Hedgehog on June 23, 2026 (Sonic's 35th anniversary), designed by Steve Ritchie as a two-level game with polycarbonate upper playfield, innovative magnetic loop mechanics, and five micro-LED ring displays. The game launches in three non-limited tiers (Arcade $10k, Special $12k, Collector's $15k) with identical playfield features across all models. In an interview, Ritchie and JJP founder Jack Guarnieri discussed design philosophy, durability of polycarbonate playfields, the licensing collaboration with Sega, and production strategy emphasizing street/arcade placement alongside home collectors.

Key Claims

  • Sonic the Hedgehog is JJP's 12th game

    medium confidence · Jonathan Bergeron speculates 'The 12th, I think, Jersey Jack Pinball game. Possibly, yeah.' Not confirmed with certainty.

  • Sonic is the fastest pinball game Steve Ritchie has ever made

    high confidence · Steve Ritchie states: 'The pinball is the fastest that I've ever made. I think you're going to agree.'

  • The game is based primarily on Sonic Generations for visual assets

    high confidence · Steve Ritchie explains: 'It's based on Sonic Generations, basically, because the artwork is sharp and pretty in 3D' and later confirms 'I think it was Sonic Generations, I think was the video game which they mostly based it on.'

  • Polycarbonate playfields have a strong historical track record of durability

    high confidence · Steve Ritchie: 'We've got plenty of history. It's very cleanable, polishable, and it's extremely durable.' Saratoga early 1980s games and multiple Steve Ritchie titles (Black Knight, World Poker Tour, Elvis) as proof.

  • JJP is ready to announce production completion for Harry Potter Collector's Edition

    high confidence · Jack Guarnieri states: 'And actually, right now on Harry Potter, I'm ready to make an announcement soon that we're done with production.'

  • Sonic the Hedgehog features nine shots on the upper playfield

    high confidence · Martin Aeth: 'Yeah, there's like nine shots. One of them is like into a gate now' and Steve Ritchie confirms multiple ramp/shot designs in detail.

  • The game includes five micro-LED ring displays positioned around the playfield

    high confidence · Jonathan Bergeron describes 'five micro LED ring displays that they have dotted around the playfield' with detailed explanation of their function.

  • Taylor Snyder, a JJP programmer, was hired and had no prior pinball experience

    high confidence · Steve Ritchie: 'He didn't even know how to play a pinball when he came to us, but he learned how to play pinball and actually became a pretty good player.'

Notable Quotes

  • “The pinball is the fastest that I've ever made. I think you're going to agree.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 10:45 — Core design philosophy: Sonic's speed as a franchise requirement translated to game mechanics.

  • “I don't know, it's not pretty. I don't want it on the pinball machine.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 09:15 — Design decision to use Sonic Generations 3D graphics over 8/16-bit pixelated imagery; reflects artist's intent vs. nostalgia-driven expectations.

  • “Sonic is fast. I'm just a guy, you know. I'm just a guy to do that.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 11:00 — Humorous self-deprecation about translating franchise attributes to mechanical design; shows authentic designer voice.

  • “We've got plenty of history. It's very cleanable, polishable, and it's extremely durable... don't fuck.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 16:30 — Addresses community concerns about polycarbonate upper playfield durability with historical evidence and direct reassurance; proactive education on maintenance.

  • “I make games to sell. If we don't sell games, there's no money. If there's no money for pinball, then there's no more pinball.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 28:00 — Philosophy statement about manufacturer survival and market accessibility; justifies three-tier model and street operator emphasis.

  • “I'm going to tell you, I make games to sell... after that, you know, I definitely want to make sure that... I've lived through the ups and downs of the pinball business.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 28:30 — Experience-driven perspective on industry cycles; influences design and pricing strategy.

  • “Right now on Harry Potter, I'm ready to make an announcement soon that we're done with production.”

    Jack Guarnieri @ approx. 31:15 — Major news: Harry Potter CE production end-of-life announcement pending; signals market transition and secondary market implications.

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanySteve RitchiepersonJack GuarnieripersonSonic the HedgehoggameJonathan Bergeronperson[name withheld pending review]personTaylor Snyderperson

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Jersey Jack Pinball officially reveals Sonic the Hedgehog on June 23, 2026 (Sonic's 35th anniversary), a highly anticipated two-level game designed by Steve Ritchie with innovative polycarbonate upper playfield, magnetic loop mechanics, and micro-LED ring displays.

    high · Confirmed reveal on June 23, 2026; extensive interview with designer and founder; detailed gameplay specifications provided.

  • ?

    product_launch: Sonic the Hedgehog launches with three non-limited tiers: Arcade Edition ($10,000), Special Edition ($12,000), Collector's Edition ($15,000). All three models have identical playfield features and rules; Collector's Edition built-to-order only.

    high · Jack Guarnieri and Jonathan Euthen confirm pricing and production model; matches Harry Potter strategy from 2025.

  • ?

    design_innovation: Sonic features innovative technical elements: pancake magnets for sequenced magnetic loop acceleration, micro-LED ring displays (5 total), individually controllable three-blank drop targets, electromagnet-controlled accelerator lane with 360-degree wire loop, two-axis animating Dr. Eggman toy with positional mechanics.

    high · Detailed technical discussion by Steve Ritchie covering magnet design, opto timing, spin dash mechanic, and playfield feature integration.

  • ?

    product_strategy: JJP explicitly prioritizing arcade/location operator market alongside home collectors. Arcade Edition priced to encourage street placement; three-tier strategy designed to serve operators, special players, and premium collectors simultaneously.

    high · Steve Ritchie: 'It puts it in the hands of more people and certainly many more arcades. That's what we need to be. We need to be more of a street-operated company, too.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.081

0:00
Sonic the Hedgehog revealed. Interview with Steve Ritchie and Jack Garnieri. Tales of the Arabian Nights remake revealed. New Pinball crews announced. Hi, my name is Jonathan Euthen, I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Aeth and I'm the editor of Pinball News and Jonathan and I are here to discuss all the exciting events that took place in the pinball world throughout the month of June 2026. And as you just heard from our headlines, there's quite a lot been going on. Exactly, yeah, so without further ado, let's dive straight in because we got the long-awaited reveal of Sonic the Hedgehog, Jersie Jack Pinball's newest title. Yes indeed, it was announced on June the 23rd, which is the 35th anniversary of the release of the very first Sonic game outside Japan, and is now considered to be Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday. But if I get this right, there was already a Sonic game in Japan? There was, it was in Japan, but this was when it was released to North America and Western markets.
1:18
So, yeah, it's a fairly arbitrary date, but if you're going to pick a date, it's as good one as any.
1:26
And so that was a date in which they chose to reveal Steve Ritchie's latest game, as you said, Sonic the Hedgehog. The 12th, I think, Jersie Jack Pinball game.
1:38
Possibly, yeah. I think it is. So, there's some things that are carried over from what they did with Harry Potter. So, they've got three models. They've got the Arcade Edition. Rather than the Wizard Edition, they have a Special Edition as the middle model. And they have the Collective Edition as well. Prices are the same, which is essentially US$10,000 for the Arcade, 12 for the Special, and 15 for the Collector's Edition, respectively. None of these are limited in number at all, though the Collector's Edition is apparently being built to order rather than being a stock item. So, they'll only build as many as they get orders for, they won't be sending them out to distributors to keep them in stock. Right.

  • All three tiers (Arcade, Special, Collector's) have identical playfield features and rules

    high confidence · Steve Ritchie confirms: 'Any model you pick has all the rules, all the components, every feature, every software block, all the graphics on the screen. Everything is identical from one model to the next.'

  • JJP will build all three models simultaneously rather than sequentially

    high confidence · Jack Guarnieri: 'We build some CEMs because those people that like playing in first class, they want to get the game first. We're building arcade editions because operators want the game first... it's a juggling act.'

    • “It's a juggling act, but we're trying to make everybody happy.”

    Jack Guarnieri @ approx. 36:30 — Characterizes JJP's production strategy balancing three concurrent models, arcades, and home collectors; reflects operational complexity.

  • “So many incorrect assumptions on Pinside. I looked at every one of them. I hate to admit it, but I did.”

    Steve Ritchie @ approx. 22:30 — Reveals designer engagement with online community speculation; shows transparency but also highlights communication gap on initial reveal.

  • “It's a wonderful experience. The Sonic franchise spans multiple generations of games and across multiple gaming platforms as well.”

    Jack Guarnieri @ approx. 08:00 — Highlights licensing relationship quality with Sega and multi-generational appeal of IP choice.

    • Harry Potter
    game
    Segasacompany
    Bill Gruppperson
    Bill Gruppperson
    Alex Manningperson
    Black Knightgame
    World Poker Tourgame
    Sonic Generationsgame
    Pokemongame
    Transformers: More Than Meets the Eyegame
    Elton Johngame
    Elvisgame
    Star Warsgame
    High Speedgame
    Saratogagame
    Pinsideorganization
    Tales of the Arabian Nightsgame
    [name withheld pending review]organization
    $

    market_signal: Jack Guarnieri announces imminent cessation of Harry Potter Collector's Edition production, signaling shift in JJP's product strategy. Build-to-order CE model creates time-limited scarcity distinct from traditional LE production caps.

    high · Jack Guarnieri: 'Right now on Harry Potter, I'm ready to make an announcement soon that we're done with production.' Indicates planned closure of 2025's biggest seller.

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Successful Sega partnership for Sonic IP; described as smooth collaboration with good alignment on game design philosophy. Steve Ritchie hired Sonic-enthusiast programmer (Taylor Snyder) to ensure authentic franchise representation.

    high · Jack Guarnieri: 'It was really good to work with Sega... the whole team. Our team and their team really meshed together very well.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Community concern about polycarbonate upper playfield durability and fogging. Steve Ritchie proactively addresses this with historical evidence, maintenance guidance, and technical clarification of AC/DC-era fogging issues (heat + sanding interaction).

    high · Extended discussion addressing 'early ACDC games' foam problem caused by improper manufacturing (heating + sanding), versus Sonic's polycarbonate AR coating applied correctly. References 40+ year durability of Zaratoga era games.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Steve Ritchie chose Sonic Generations 3D graphics over 8/16-bit pixel art despite knowing some players preferred retro aesthetics. Decision reflects artistic vision ('it's not pretty') and commitment to visual quality over franchise nostalgia.

    high · Steve Ritchie: 'There's a lot of people who would say, oh, why aren't you doing the pixelated images of the 90s? And it's like, I don't know, it's not pretty. I don't want it on the pinball machine.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Sonic the Hedgehog designed as fastest pinball game in Steve Ritchie's 47+ year career, matching franchise's core attribute. Fast ball speed and continuous play philosophy without stoppages.

    high · Steve Ritchie: 'Sonic is fast... The pinball is the fastest that I've ever made. I think you're going to agree. It's beautiful because it never stops.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: JJP managing concurrent production of three model tiers with no priority queuing. Arcade, Special, and Collector's Editions built simultaneously to serve different customer segments; production sequencing based on order fulfillment queue.

    high · Jack Guarnieri: 'We need to build all three at the same time... We build some CEMs because those people want the game first. We're building arcade editions because operators want the game first.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Initial Sonic reveal created communication gap; fast-cutting promo video left gameplay questions unanswered, leading to extensive Pinside speculation and incorrect assumptions. Subsequent Alex Manning 'First Look' video resolved questions.

    high · Steve Ritchie acknowledges reviewing 'every one' of incorrect Pinside assumptions. Jonathan Euthen notes timing of First Look video answered 'nearly all those questions' suggesting intentional reveal strategy or unintended communication gap.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Taylor Snyder, JJP programmer, brought in with no pinball background but deep Sonic franchise knowledge. Rapidly trained by Bill Rupp and other senior staff; became 'pretty good player' and demonstrated strong code contribution capabilities.

    high · Steve Ritchie: 'He didn't even know how to play a pinball when he came to us... he's been magnificent on the code... he's just sucked up everything and become a monster.'

    • 2:27
    But of course JJP can choose at any point to call time on the collector's edition and say they're not going to make any more. And we have a little bit of that news coming up a bit later when we actually speak to Steve Ritchie and Jack Glegari.
    2:43
    Right. So, and, well, to the surprise of many, this is a two-level pinball game. Yeah, not too rare for a Steve Ritchie game, they have two levels of course, you've done that plenty of times in the past, Old Black Knight, original 2000 and Sword of Rage, premium and limited edition only.
    3:08
    This one has a polycarbonate of the playfield, which we've seen years before, particularly in World Poker Tour. Yeah, also earlier on in a lot of Zarkaria games from the early 80s, they used to have a polycarbonate upper plate field, not with as many charts, but still. Yeah, so that holds up pretty well, I think. In this case, that area is designated as Dr. Eggman's laboratory, Dr. Eggman being Sonic's nemesis. The two of them battling it out throughout the game. I have to admit, I never ever heard of Dr. Eggman. I'm completely unfamiliar with any of the Sonic games. Well, me too, but doing a bit of research before it was announced, Dr. Eggman is also called Dr. Robotnik, apparently, or was called that originally in North America, they didn't like the Eggman name, so he was known as that, but officially he is Dr. Eggman. And anyway, his laboratory, which is the upper plate here, has two full-size flippers and apparently nine shots up there, including a two-axis animating Dr. Eggman or Eggmobile bash toy, which means it moves horizontally and vertically. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Or forward and back and left and right. It doesn't move forward and backwards I think, it goes up and down, or left and right. Right. So you can shoot under it or you can shoot at it, depending on if you have to qualify him. Initially I think the model is at the playfield level and you just bash it. In subsequent levels you have to bring him down so you can bash him. And he swings off into a hiding area off on the far left hand side of the upper playfield behind some plastic, So you can't see him when he's not part of the gameplay.
    5:16
    There's also on the main playfield, there's an individually controllable inline three-blank drop target, which gives you lots of possibilities of what you're going to do with them. There's an interesting accelerator lane with electromagnets, a bit like the, I suppose, No Fear, As it would be my typical choice, where you shoot the ball on no fear, you shoot it up the ramp and the magnets grab the ball and they just fling it further around the loop up to the upper flipper. Well here, they can do a bit more with it. They also do that on no fear, they can stop the ball with the magnets and drop it down into the left inlay. Well on Sonic the Hedgehog, they can do quite a bit more with it as well. They can grab the ball, they can rocket backwards and forwards and build up some speed to it, and then they can fling it out the top of the lane, which turns it on a 360 degree wire form loop, which is a classic part of the Sonic gameplay in the video game. Right. Yeah, there's also a battle zone area with a couple of slingshots in it, which is a bit like the central area, the Team Rocket area in Pokemon, except that it's got more action going on in it, I'd have to say, because it's got a couple of big slingshots there. And it has its own magnet in there too. But probably one of the most interesting things I think is the five micro LED ring displays that they have dotted around the playfield. I think there are two on the upper playfield and three on the lower one, which are basically just circular LED displays that allow the team there to put symbols or instructions or animations with RGB LEDs inside them. So a bit like, I liken it a bit to the piano on Elton John that's got the long strip of LEDs on the front where they put messages and animations. Well, they kind of split that into the rings so they can all be controlled individually and sort of have little arrows pointing to where you're meant to shoot and they can do little firework displays when you collect something. So, looking very impressive I have to say and kind of like another display really in the game.
    7:48
    And of course, carrying on with what they did with Harry Potter and all the three models, the arcade, the special and the collector's edition, all have all these same playfield features. It's just all the extra add-ons that you play extra for, like the powder-coated side armour and metalwork and lock bar and Visi-Glar, shaker motor and toppers, which is another thing which we will talk about a bit later.
    8:21
    Right. Yeah, that's probably enough detail for me at the moment. Sorry, over to you, Jonathan. Oh, it's neat. Oh, my God. So, well, you mentioned the playfields are all the same.
    8:41
    There's obviously cosmetic changes. Are we getting into those, to the various models? Yeah, I can do. Yeah, why not? Well, okay, well, the Collector's Edition has laser-cut side rails and red powder coat armor, red sparkle, red cow, sorry, it's a very difficult word for me, gold ring displays, gold wire forms, the sonic shooter rods in Vinzy class, and an animated Sonic vs. Dr. Eggman topper, which is actually very cool. With the two characters moving across the full width of the back box to battle each other with a super wide interactive LCD screen behind them. So if Sonic starts running, you see dust coming up or when he crashes into something or you see pieces falling off and all that kind of stuff. So it's very, very cool, very well integrated. And it also has the Game Changer QR code system from Harry Potter to set the difficulty level using the player camera. So if you have these QR codes, you can instantly select whether you are a novice player or a more advanced player. And the game rules are just according. Yeah, it normally has three levels, I think.
    10:18
    The beginner, Standard, and Wizard, I think, are the three. Right. Yeah. So, well, there's also the special edition, which is finished in a sonic blue powder coat with a two-liter static illuminated topper. So that's basically a bunch of polycarbonate sheets. Yeah, two. Two layers of them. With some lighting effects on it. Yeah, and it has to be said the game was very well received. Yeah, I think it came out very well in people's expectations. Obviously with a big title like Sonic, there's a lot of assets and a lot of different games out there from which you can choose to set the game, but they chose one of those and I think that's probably, I think it was the Genesis version. And, oh, was it, yeah, I can't remember, it was Sonic Generations, I think was the video game which they mostly based it on, but I think there were a few other games included in there as well. Which seems to give them the best selection of assets to use in the game, but we'll hear more about that later on when we speak to Steve, and he can tell us himself. Right, so I have to say, not being familiar with Sonic and so on, I did watch some gameplay of the Sonic the Hedgehog pinball machine. And based on that, I mean, basically, if we're comparing, we now have two, or this year, two Japanese sort of cartoon characters turned into a pinball machine, the other one being Pokemon, of course. If money would not be an issue and I had to choose between Pokemon and Sonic, it would be Handsome Sonic. Oh, I agree. Yes, having played Pokemon a bit, it's okay, but it doesn't really have the well factor to me, even in the limited edition version that Sonic does. I think Sonic's got far more in it.
    12:39
    Right. Yeah, and of course, Pokemon's not even the current title at the moment either, with Transformers more than meets the eye being the current title from Stern at the time of recording. Which is also not, I've heard people are very enthusiastic about the game, but theme-wise it's not appealing to me at all. Then again the cartoon never was, so that explains a lot. Ditto, and the fact that there isn't anything that transforms in the game I think has been something that has been pointed out over and over again. Particularly when they said that they intended to have something transforming and they couldn't do it. Let's not get ahead of our topics in this PINcast. Yeah. Because first, and we already announced it, we had the opportunity to talk to Jack Gugnery, the founder of Jersey Jack Pinball, and designer of the game, Steve Ritchie. So let's listen to what they have to say about Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball. So we're joined by not only Jersey founder Jack Garnieri, but also veteran pinball designer and Hall of Famer, I should say, Steve Ritchie, who just released his latest game, Sonic the Hedgehog. Hello, Jack. Hello, Steve. Hello, guys. How are you doing? Well, thank you. Good to finally speak to you, and congratulations on the launch of your new game. Thanks a lot. It must be a big relief to finally get the game out there. Yeah, it's a big relief, and it's very nice to see that a lot of people are enjoying it already. That's so important. Yeah, that's one of the things that you've, well, as a company you've taken on now to get the games out there early, either at launch or very shortly afterwards. I know that's something that Jack was very keen to do. Yeah, congratulations on that, Jack, as well, to get that many games out to distributors and locations as well right after launch. Yeah, it's something that I think is important. The more games that are out, the more people get to see it. More people want it. We're not forcing people to buy it, but a lot of them have bought them, which is very cool. Okay, so we probably should ask a few questions about the game then really and might as well start with the Sonic franchise itself which is obviously a well established part of the culture, popular culture, 35 year anniversary this year and you launched it on the birthday of course of Sonic. So it was great. It was really good to work with Sega. Obviously they're people. They understand what great games are. And it was really a pleasure to work with them, the whole team. Our team and their team really meshed together very well. And it was just a wonderful experience. The Sonic franchise spans multiple generations of games and across multiple gaming platforms as well. And a movie too. So how did you decide which particular part of the Sonic storyline arc to use for the pinball? It's based on Sonic Generations, basically, because the artwork is sharp and pretty in 3D. There's a lot of people who would say, oh, why aren't you doing the pixelated images of the 90s? And it's like, I don't know, it's not pretty. I don't want it on the pinball machine. And although we do some pixelated images on our new little ring displays, there's five of them on each game. Yeah, they're very impressive.
    16:33
    It seems like a sort of a natural evolution from the display you had on the front of the piano for Elton John. Yeah, definitely. It's very similar technology. Okay. Well, I'll be honest, I've never played Sonic video games before, so I don't have the background that a lot of potential buyers and players will have. So were you familiar with the Sonic game, Steve, before you started working on this game? Well, I played Sonic with my son, I mean a long, long time ago, in the 90s. We had a Sega Genesis system and we played it, but I'd forgotten about it since then and I didn't focus on it. And I knew when I was going to get into it that I didn't know anything about Sonic, not enough. So we had this programmer that we hired, and he's like, it turns out he loves Sonic, he knows everything about it, and he educated us all about the history and how it goes, and then after experiencing that, we saw Sonic's attitude, which is really important, and how he looks, what he does, he does little dances, he's kind of a little ego. You know, it's interesting and we fell into it with that young guy's name is Taylor Snyder. He's been a great programmer. He didn't even know how to play a pinball when he came to us, but he learned how to play pinball and actually became a pretty good player. Anyway, he's been magnificent on the code too. He's just learning from Bill and Joe Katz and Bill Grupp, let me make that clear, and Duncan and others there. And he's just sucked up everything and become a monster. Yeah, I saw Taylor in the First Look video, which was released recently. And, yeah, seemed very personable and very knowledgeable about it. So, okay, you knew there was a Sonic the Hedgehog game.
    18:29
    What were your immediate thoughts as to what had to be in it? Well, a lot of things. I mean, Sonic is fast. I'm just a guy, you know. I'm just a guy to do that. The pinball is the fastest that I've ever made. I think you're going to agree.
    18:48
    It's beautiful because it never – and I love that. You keep making shots. Pinball doesn't stop either. I mean, you got to – you know, you can stop the ball yourself, I guess, but, you know, that fast speed. It's about – Sonic needs to collect rings. You try to collect as many rings as you can, and it's really important to get through checkpoints So you can have boss battles against Dr. Eggman. And, I mean, it is a perfect vehicle for a pinball machine, just no question. And it's really a nice thing that a hell of a lot of the people in the world are going to understand the dynamic instantly and how to play the game. And, you know, Sonic's attitude is another thing. You know, he's kind of a wise-ass. He's like, but he's like, he celebrates his little victories and it's, wow, it's about collecting emeralds and trying to become a supersonic. It's about working with his team of friends and a lot of other nuances, but those are probably the big ones.
    19:58
    That's what this game is about. So we're there, well obviously, so we're talking about a game with an upper level, upper playthrough.
    20:09
    That's not the first time that you did that. We've seen it with Black Knight, of course, and this time... Elvis, World Pocator.
    20:19
    Yeah. It's funny, if I can inject something, it's funny, I want to inject something just for the information of the people out there. Some people are questioning the strength and durability of a polycarbonate playfield.
    20:33
    We've got plenty of history. It's very cleanable, polishable, and it's extremely durable. Once in a while, if you're playing a game every day in many plays, it's a good idea to change balls now and then, but you would do that on any new pinball machine to protect the finish on any playfield. So it's not a worry. Historically, polycarbonate playfields have held up excellently, and they don't fuck. And where that fogging up thing is coming from was early ACDC games. Here's what they did. They installed the polycarbonate in the playfield and then sanded it. They heated it up, and it became foggy. And then they put hard coat on it, and the fog stayed in there. So you're not going to get any foggy playfields. You're not going to have problems with it. Keep it clean. Open it up once in a while. Take a rag. Clean it up.
    21:30
    Non-abrasive. Be careful. Use a microfiber cloth. Okay, that's all I wanted to say about that. Yes. And now we're talking about the upper playfield on Sonic. Right. Well, to your point, I think Zaya already in the early 80s proved that polycarbonate upper playfields were perfect for Pimball Because, well, 40 years later, and they're still very clear, those views on the Italian games back in the day. So I didn't see any issues with that, so for whatever it's worth. But, yes, upper playing field and quite a lot of shots as well, Oli. Yeah, there's like nine shots. One of them is like into a gate now, but we left it there and we left the switch there so that in tournament play, You know, if you want to shorten the game, tournaments mean massive groups of great players that can play a pinball machine forever. So, of course, during a tournament, they set up the games to be much more difficult and less time consuming. So one important thing to do would be to remove that gate so that people can either accidentally or on purpose shoot the ball back down to the lower place via the left ramp. So we put it in though because we put the gate in for commercial play, average people, and you can't drain out that way anymore. And so you can drain between two flippers and the magic post in the middle.
    23:02
    There's all kinds of shots up there. What I mean by that is shapes, there's orbits, there's two orbits, there's a loop, there's two ramp shots. One of them goes straight back down to the block where it pops back up onto your right flipper. It's not really as easy as it looks to make that shot. And even harder is a ramp that goes under itself, comes up the back, and then crosses over to the right. We call it the under and over ramp. And it's a fun shot. And there's also new targets. There's a dog bar back on it.
    23:41
    There's also two targets that, well, it was my idea, but somebody else's, other engineer's execution in that people have tried to make a target that just attaches to the play field with nothing hanging down below. I couldn't afford to have that. So these are linear targets, and they use these really nice little compressible dive springs that don't stack all their windings together. I mean, it allows a little excursion of this thing with great rebound and also a urethane face. So what you get is stand-up target play off of what normally would be a static, non-interesting target.
    24:27
    So you can play them and it's nice. You hit them on the right side, they tend to go to the red-a-bird. So, you know, it's a nice feature and I really like them and I'll use them again. There's a spinner up there, and there's also lots of single LEDs, and this is a color-based game. You look for colors. If you want to get checkpoints, look for a blue arrow. Well, it actually came to reveal on the 23rd of June, of course, Sonic's 35th birthday.
    24:55
    It kind of felt as if some of the marketing material for the launch was being held back with the... There was a fast-cutting promo video, which was very nicely made, but sort of left a lot of questions about what was actually in the game and how it all worked. Now we've got the first look video released, and that seemed to answer nearly all those questions, which was absolutely great. Okay, well, can I speak to that for just a moment?
    25:24
    It's like, I think that the timing of everything was just fine. We got people talking, there's no question. Nothing was held back. We didn't even make a play video because Alex was supposed to come out. Have you seen the Alex Manning video? You must have. What do they call it? What's the name? Yeah, that's what I was saying. It answers so many of the questions. Yeah, right. And that was it. Everything was according to schedule. And the controversy was created by the public, not us. There wasn't a non-release of the play video. We didn't have one and we didn't want one at that point. And so that's how it is. No, my point was really that once the game was launched there was still a huge number of questions about how various aspects of the playfield and the features worked. I mean obviously you could see the artwork in the cabinet and see how beautiful the games looked, but you didn't really get a feel of what was on the playfield at that time. And now you say maybe that's intentional that you create a certain amount of mystery and then you come in a few days later with the first look video which actually answers all those questions. If that was the way it was intended to be then fine. But it did lead to a lot of speculation and of course speculation often leads to people making incorrect assumptions about various aspects of the game. So many incorrect assumptions on Pinside. I looked at every one of them. I hate to admit it, but I did. But some people, I think they hope for things. And then if it is there, they're happy. If it isn't there, it's not. But there's always going to be, you know, everyone's going to have a personal, you know, interpretation of how a pinball from Sonic should look, should play. You know, and it's like, I wanted the game to be beautiful. All of us did, and 3D graphics is the way to go. And I would say that was the major concern, is that people wanted the old-style pixelated graphics. And I just, yeah, it didn't. Well, everybody seemed to come at the game from their own personal experience. So, you know, people who grew up with the 8, well, the 16-bit version of it wanted it to be like that. People who came to it from the 32-bit and the 3D versions wanted it to be like that. So you know that you're going to satisfy everything. Right. And then there's lots of newbies out there, people that are new to pinball, you know, wondering about a polycarbonate playfield, wondering how durable can it be? It's plastic. And I mean, there's a huge history. So, you know, we're going to clarify that. Although you play Black Knight sort of rage, world poker tour, Elvis. I mean, this is an old game and the playfields still look great. People just clean them now and now. Even if they leave them filthy, they can always be buffed out with a machine, you know, a nice buffing, and take out every scratch that's in there. But I just, most games don't need it if you just clean it now. And it's pretty easy to clean the underside of the polycarbonate, is it? Yes, but that comes from the factory that manufactures the polycarbonate. It's called polycarbonate AR, abrasion resistance. You can buy it without that coating, but we don't do that. We buy polycarbonate AR, and that's what's on the game. Both sides protect it. So, one of the, well, obviously there's a lot of features on the game, but one that really caught my eye is the looping shot, which is, it seems to have, it's like a looping shot without anything leading up to it. I understand the ball is basically drawn in there by magnetics. Can you talk about how you designed that and how you came up with that? Sure. It looks like magic, but it's not the first time I've done sequence magnets. I've done it quite a few times. It's just that you, you know, there was a different kind of magnet. This is a pancake magnet. It sits below the ramp. And because I didn't have room for the big giant square ones that I would use in Star Wars or high speed. OK, so it's like they're smaller magnets, but they're very powerful when the ball is close to them. And it's very much like a, you know, magnet save kind of coil, maybe a little stronger. And so they're accelerated. There's optos. And Bill Rupp, the master of this operation, of operating the magnet ramp, you know, it took us a long time to get the timing right. Because before each magnet there an opto We have to time it so when the ball gets there it applies the most power until it in the center of the magnet and then no power So you can take that momentum you gain and all of a sudden turn off the resistance as it tries to roll off the magnet So that a pretty intelligent explanation of how they work
    30:35
    But trying the magic numbers was difficult, and we got it. And then the other challenge, of course, was spin dash when you can take a ball coming in the ramp at any speed, fast, slow, it doesn't matter. It's got to stop the ball dead, and you pound on the flippers to move a cursor on the backlass until you get into a green zone, and then click, hit the action button.
    31:03
    And that's brilliant, and then the ball drops from that second net back to the first, gets re-accelerated again, past the second and past the third, and jumps through the loop. It's an impressive device and works very well. It's even more impressive when you just see a ball very gently enter that lane and then suddenly get whipped round the loop. Now, we're talking about features that are on the game. J.J. P has continued the trend that you did with Harry Potter, having three-tier model with the arcade edition, the special and collector's editions. In Harry Potter, the three models all had identical playfield features. Is that the case here with Sonic? Exactly. Any model you pick has all the rules, all the components, every feature, every software block, all the graphics on the screen. Everything is identical from one model to the next. What we don't have is we don't have a shaker motor. We don't give you art blades. We don't give you laser-cut sidearm. We don't give you rad cowls. We remove those things, and there's more. It doesn't come with this magnificent topper.
    32:22
    It's like I love it because it puts it in the hands of more people and certainly many more arcades. That's what we need to be. We need to be more of a street-operated company, too. And I think it's going to be good for everyone, including, you know, more on the street means more players get to enjoy it. It also means more money for operators. Once again, I'm going to tell you, I make games to sell. If we don't sell games, there's no money. If there's no money for pinball, then there's no more pinball. So I do my best to make everybody happy. I mean, the first thing is it's got to play and it's got to play well and it has to work. Those two things. And so, but after that, you know, I definitely want to make sure that, you know, I've lived through the ups and downs of the pinball business. I mean, you can bet that I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we stay in the up cycle, not the down cycle. Right. And I guess there might be one for Jack, but as with Harry Potter, you don't have any limit to the number of production of any of the three models. The collector's edition is not a limited edition. So the collector edition is bespoke. We're building them to order. There will be a time when we don't build them anymore. So it is limited by time. And actually, right now on Harry Potter, I'm ready to make an announcement soon that we're done with production. Gendball LLC. That almost seems like doing the build to order makes it quite tricky in that regard. It does. When you do build to order, you really need to have confidence in what you're selling. I do have a question for Jack. Since this is a game based on Sonic the Hedgehog, it could be my age, and that's probably it, But I get the feeling that with a theme like this, you're targeting a younger audience, which is fine, of course, but is the Jersie Jack Pinball collector's base, so to speak.
    35:10
    Do they fit that same profile, or will they just take it because it's a Jersie Jack Gap? Well, it's a little of everything. We're aging down, and we have a multi-generational title, and everybody seems to be responding to it. I was going to ask about the, because you've got the three models, but, so, if people order them, they obviously would like to know when they're going to get their game. So are you able to share a production schedule for when each of the three models are going to be produced? Well, we need to build all three at the same time. That's the simple answer. It's the factory that juggles everything around. We build some CEMs because those people that like playing in first class, they want to get the game first. We're building arcade editions because operators want the game first. We're building special editions because those people want to get the game first. So, it's a juggling act, but we're trying to make everybody happy. Right now, online, in the factory, all three issues are there. We're going to try to split it up the best we can.
    36:24
    I mean, I love people. I mean, obviously, we appreciate everybody, but I love getting the calls, and Jen loves getting the calls that, you know, the first day of order, when am I going to get my game? Well, did you win the game? Yeah, just now. So it's hard to tell you when you'll get your camera.
    36:42
    I can't give you an exact date, but all you want is fulfilled in the queue in which they were released. So let's be clear about this. It's like we're not going, we're going to build all the CEs first. That's not going to happen. We're not doing that. We're mixing them all the way through. Okay. So I do have a question for Steve regarding the design team in the launch video. We've seen Bill Grupp, of course. So he's part of the software team.
    37:13
    We don't know who did any of the artwork or the graphics, the LCD animations. Can you elaborate on that? Sure.
    37:24
    Well, we got Bobby Guzela. He's, I mean, I'm blown away by this guy. He can do 3D models, but he's also a great animator. And another guy named Johnny. You don't know who Taylor Snyder is, obviously, but you do now. He's the new programmer, young guy. I would call him a Sonics expert. And he's, you know, everybody on the team has been awesome. Duncan's been working on lighting effects and all that. I don't know if he's in the video or not.
    38:03
    Joe Ernest has been a major positive asset at Jersey Jack. He's tremendous at electronics design, but also this mighty open mind that if I say something, he goes, yeah, we can do that, which excites me. I love to hear that because there's a lot of things that I want to try in the future, and he's the guy that's going to make that happen. And I love working with him, love working with him. It turns out he came here, and he's like a pinball collector. I mean, he just stepped up the game, and we started playing because we're about, well, he's probably a little better than me, but we're a pretty good match if we play together. Anyway, I'm trying to think of other people that you saw on the screen.
    38:51
    Remind me. You had your lead mechanical engineer there as well. Oh, yeah. Cam, of course. And, yeah, he was magic on the EGMO mechanism.
    39:10
    He's a kid. I mean, to me, anyway. I think he's 25. But he used to work in robotics, and he's definitely enthusiastic. And he does understand exactly the point that it has to be easily durable. I mean, a ball is going to be beating on it for its life, and it's gone through testing like you would not believe. I didn't think it would make it. I just thought, it's going to break. Something's going to go wrong. And there were a few things on the way, but they were minor, and he fixed them. And I don't know. I think that's a magnificent toy, maybe one of the best ever because, all right, it is my concept. I wanted to make them go left and right. It's on one of my early drawings and up and down. But I pictured it with, you know, this beautifully molded character inside that's, you know, front lit from inside the ship. He's awesome to see. And just the lights in front and, you know, combined with the speech he says and the action up there. I love it. And I know that I know other people are going to love it, too, because it's fun. And we're going to do some more with that. It's going to be – we are definitely going to expand, you know, the look of what goes on in the software and art. You'll see. You were talking about the sculpts. You were saying in the video that all the sculpts in the game are custom made for this game. Is that right? They're not off-the-shelf parts. That's right. That's exactly right. We drew them and designed them and got them molded. They belong to us. I mean, not the copyright, but those toys won't to us. We'll never run out. We don't have to worry about a manufacturer not supplying them anymore. You know, I mean, we can do as many as we want.
    40:54
    That's an important thing. I think the industry learned that on Lord of the Rings. That's why you haven't seen any repeats of Lord of the Rings, because the toys can't be duplicated. But owners of character-based intellectual property are notoriously protected about how their characters are portrayed. That all has to be signed off, I guess, by Sega when you were making the sculpts. But what other aspects of the imagery and the video and the audio did Sega have a good control over? I wouldn't call them the control editor. I would say that, well, first of all, we are dealing with two entities. There is Sega America and there's Sega Japan. And often we had to wait quite a while to get, you know, through the translations. First of all, you know, back to Japan. Here's an interesting story. You know, shoot here. And they came back with, shoot like a gun. No guns.
    41:57
    No guns. And shooting is just a thing we say. It means flipping the ball at a target trying to hit it. Shoot this, shoot that. There's no guns. Okay, so we had to tell them that it was sort of indicative of, you know, translating problems we might have. And they weren't that bad. I mean, not bad at all. But they took a long time for some things to get approved. But as far as working with Sega, it was great. I mean, there's only been a few licenses that were as nice as this relationship, okay? They've been good about everything. They gave us a shot in there. You know, they have their graphic demands, no question, but they're beautiful and I'm happy with it. I mean, I want it to look as authentic as possible. I want it to look like one of those beautiful Sega games, Sega Sonic games. I do. And not just look like it, but also sound like it because you've got authentic voices. In the game. Absolutely. We use the actors that originally worked in Generations and one of the guys, I forgot his name, but he's, I think he's been doing Dr. Eggman for a long, long time. But all of them sound good. It sounds like Sponix. It sounds like Amy Rose. It sounds like all the characters sound like they do in the game because they are the characters in the game. You're quite notorious for getting your voice into all your games, or at least many of your games. Did you do any voice work for this? I did not, but you know there's one call I'd like to make. I'm not going to tell you what it is. There's just one, and I'm going to ask if they can agree to that.
    43:35
    It's just one call that I want to say. Meanwhile, it doesn't matter. Eggman is going, play better. You know, he's doing his version of a lot of, you know, my quotes and things like that in the way that I would speak. And I think it's funny. Yeah, there was one voice call that came out, and I thought it was you in it, where it says, let's crank this magnet up to 11. And I thought that was you, but obviously not. No, it's not. There's no way. The guy that voices Dr. Eggman is great. He's a great voice actor. Awesome. I bow to him.
    44:18
    So where are you with the software in the game now? And how complete is it? How much more is there to go in the game? Because people are just getting a first view of it and they're not really experiencing the whole game yet. So they don't even know what's missing at this point. That's a good thing. Well, yeah. I don't know if you ever, have you ever heard of this? Have you ever heard of anybody, ever, anyone ever said to you, none of your B-flack? Yes. Yeah.
    44:49
    It's kind of a white guy thing to say, but I don't want to talk about what we're going to do, but we are going to do more. Well, you've already published the sort of flow chart of the rules saying what's going to be in the game. Right. But it's just a question of how much is done now and how much is to come. There's nothing in that flowchart of a description for some of the major features that we're working on. And so I'm not going to disclose those things because they're in development. And what I say might be incorrect, misleading. I'm not going to do that. But I appreciate your asking. This is Martin. Martin gets to the question. He gets to the question.
    45:32
    But I understand. There's something wrong with it. And I'll pass over to Jonathan. Can I make one comment?
    45:41
    Sure. I just want to say to the people that hear this, okay? Jonathan Houston, Martin Iev, Jack, me, we've all been friends for a long time. A long time. We are. Yes. I very much respect you guys, how you've handled so many things. And both of you are incredible writers. And prolific. And I just wanted to say that, that I love you guys. Well, thank you very much. And thank you for joining us in this interview or monthly pin cast. I was very happy to try to get at the moment because you're not only you having to promote the game, you're going to a launch party, I think, aren't you, today? Yes. Yeah, there's a long schedule. And I think I did like, I don't know, six podcasts last week or five and a direct. You know, person-to-person interview in the conference room, and it's been interesting, plus dealing with some struggles. It's been intense, and like I said at the end of this, it's very relaxing to be here at Jack's house and enjoying a little calm, peace and quiet. Right. So, will you be attending any Pinball events to promote the game, aside from the upcoming weekend? Yeah, we're going to be at Southern Fried Gaming. That's definitely with the machines. There may be other things. We're doing something this weekend at a pinball speakeasy called Under the Glass. And somebody's trying to call me. How could they do that during an interview? How dare them in the list of us? I'll be in Sicily, I'll be in Sicily, I'll be in Sicily, I'll be in Sicily in Sicily in July, we're doing an open house. Great, right. Yeah, so, and you've got games on their way to Europe at the moment, is that right? Yes, yes. I've seen quite a few European distributors or retailers saying we'll have our game shortly and then we'll deliver a launch event. And you'll see in any of that as well. Yeah, yeah, Phil's posted about that already, so I'm just wondering how long they take to arrive. I don't know about air for that one. Martin, did you know we were together a year ago today? A year ago. Oh yeah, of course, at Phil's. Yeah, for the Harry Potter launch. Yeah, that was a very nice event. It's a shame he's not doing another one this year. Yeah, it would be great, wouldn't it? Yeah, it was almost a year to the day. Well, it was a year and I think it was the 6th of June that you launched Harry Potter, 5th or 6th. And then it was the 23rd of June that you launched Sonic. So, almost a year. Right. It's good that South birthday was when it was. Yeah. It worked out well. Happy coincidence. So, Jack, obviously you were working, I assume, closely on this reveal and setting everything up. Can you talk a little bit about the orchestration and the direction of how to launch this game and what ideas came to mind and what you were trying to achieve? Well, I've said it before, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
    49:09
    The game needs to do its own talking, but the people involved with it need to do the explaining. So I think we've launched, this is the 12th game, and I think we did it 12 different ways every time. It's been a little bit different. You want to get people to be excited in reality because the game is a great game. You don't have to sugarcoat it. You don't have to do a lot of things. As soon as we'll get the hands-on of the game, they're going to love it. And it was a lot of people involved. There were a lot of people involved in the launch.
    49:49
    And they did a great job. I think one of the most impressive parts, I mean, there are multiple impressive parts of the game, But everybody seems to be talking about that topper. Is there any chance that that will be made available for any of the other models other than the Collective Edition? There's no chance. You have to buy it if you want to. Well, you buy the Collective Edition. I think that will disappoint a few people, but understandable.
    50:17
    You have to have some differences between the games. The Super has a nice head of it. I haven't seen the lighting effects on there yet. I look forward to seeing that. So who designed the topper? Does Steve do that or do you have a separate mechanical engineer?
    50:40
    That's my design. In fact, I didn't make it. I want to make it clear, but it is my spec. I want the two horses to run back and forth on a track. I want both of them to be able to go to extreme ends of the track. I want them to be able to turn and face the player, face each other, face back to back. I want a video screen behind the back where we can display smoke, parts falling off the Eggmobile, Sonic getting knocked in the head, and little birds flying around above it. You know what I mean? I want a big cloud of dust when he takes off, and that's what we're doing, that sort of stuff. Yeah. So, with Sonic being a video game character, were you able to use any video game images in the game, or did it have to be redrawn and regenerated altogether? Now, I think we freely used, geez, I mean, with Sonic running on the display in the back box, that's full-time Sonic, absolutely the same that was on Generations in points. And we don't let you get to the end, and we had to do some extra work on there to make it pinball specific. But it's like, yeah, there's lots and lots of Sega Sonic artwork and animations, no question. Was the artwork for the game, for the cabinet, was that from Jersey Jack artists or was that from Sega? That was from an artist rehired at Jersey Jack. Okay.
    52:34
    It's very well done. I mean, cut it this way, okay? Sega has like, what, 100-page booklet called a style guide, okay? They've been selling products, you know, video game licensed products for a long, long time. They tell you how to print a T-shirt, how to draw what kind of graphics here and there and a lunchbox. The pinball was a new thing, but they said, use this style guide, and we did. And it's basically all from their style guide. It's all authentic, you know, Saga.
    53:11
    There's no other way to put it. And you managed to get a little bit of flesh in the music. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
    53:21
    He's great, you know, he's a great guitar player. I'm glad he came and he added a lot to a couple tunes. And there's, you know, it's kind of subtle. You got to know which tunes to listen to. But then when you hear the tune, you go, oh, that's the one with the man. And so that's cool.
    53:40
    Okay. So obviously Sega being a Japanese license order. So do they already have a game in Japan? Because Pinball in Japan is not the biggest market, so to speak, and this is a video game company. So, I'm just curious whether you already had a response from them on actually seeing and playing the game. I don't, you know, Sega has a game, and I think they loaned it out to an arcade for this weekend, and yet last night there was a big, long streaming thing, which was exciting because people loved it, and I could feel it, you know, it's nice. I don't think Japan has ever seen the actual pinball machine, probably videos, but I don't really know. I just know that Sega only had one game that appeared in California near the Sega, you know, campus. And that's all that I know. I don't think there's one in Japan. Do you, Jack? They're getting one. And it's in Burbank. Sega has a game in Burbank. Right. No, their question is, do you think the Japanese ever played a game or saw it in person? No. That's what I think, too. I think they ever have. I'm pretty sure they saw a video of the game. Right. In pinball in Japan, there's almost nothing. I mean, that's how it's always been. You know, we make a run of high speed and they take 10. You know, and that was in the day. Now we sell one, you know, from people there who are pinball people. Yeah, we have a nice football museum in Osaka. Yeah.
    55:11
    I've been there. I haven't been there. Yeah. Very impressive. Great people. Okay, well I think Jonathan has to go so I think it's a very good time to wrap this up and thank you, thank Steve Ritchie and Jack Garnieri for joining us on this special Sonic interview. Great talking to you. Thank you very much indeed. Very well. And we look forward to playing the game and seeing you in person. Looking forward to seeing you guys too, love you, take care. Thank you, thank you for your time. Well thanks for Steve and Jack for taking time out, what was a very busy time for them promoting the game to talk to us and answer our questions. They talk to everybody. I know they do. They're the last in line. Well, yes, we're the last ones to publish our interview with them. That's true. Oh, well, so. But it's always great to talk to Steve. It was very nice to hear what he had to say about our multi-year-long friendship going on. Yes, it's always a good time and I'm sure we'll get to see Steve and Jack again in October and hopefully go out for lunch again. Yeah, that's always fun. It's always a good time to start a new rumour.
    56:30
    Yeah, we'll work on that one. We'll see what we can come up with. But anyway, congratulations to Jersi Jack Pinball and everyone there on the release of their latest game. We look forward to playing it. Yeah, so Steve did, well he was with Jack for I think four days just after the launch to attend a launch party at Under the Glass, a pinball arcade in New Jersey. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly of the city, but Under the Glass is the name of it. And I think he also went to, I can't think of the name, that Pinball Museum, also in New Jersey, which is near the beach. Oh, Super Bowl. Yeah. And I think Steve was there for like four days to promote the game. So I hope he had a great time. And we will be doing more events, of course. You mentioned those as well in the interview that we just listened to.
    57:41
    And like Martin said, I look forward to seeing both Jack and Steve in October this year at Pimball Expo. Yep. Okay, so moving on to our second headline, or third headline I suppose we should really talk about, Which was related to the long, well it was previously announced that Pidressi was going to be doing Tales of the Arabian Night remake. And this month we actually finally got to see it. And it was released on the 15th of June. Yes, Tales of the Arabian Night remake available in two versions. A Legacy Edition, which has the original artwork on the cabinet and playfield at Backglass. And a 30th Anniversary Edition, yes that's right it's the 30th Anniversary apparently, which has Brian Allen artwork, Brian Allen of Flyland Design, with his take on Tales of Arabian Night artwork on the cabinet, back glass and play field as well. The Legacy Edition, I've only got European prices here, I don't know what they are in US prices, I've just got them off of Padretti's own website. It's Legacy Edition costs €9,300 plus tax, VAT, plus shipping. Uh, whereas the 30th anniversary edition isn't a huge amount more, it costs 10,000 plus, uh, that and shipping, and is limited to 399 machines. And I wonder where is that number coming from? Yes. Uh. I don't see any link, special link to the game, uh, with the number 399. No, it's not like, if it'd been 300, that makes sense to be the 30th anniversary, but, uh. Right. Yeah. Okay. Well, we don't quite know exactly why that is, but anyway, the game, like most remakes that Jesse do, comes with a full-width colour LCD display, in fact, 21.5-inch LCD display in this case, full RGB lighting throughout, speaker lights, playfield, sidebar, strip lights, comes with 4-bit integration, has the original game code built in and emulated, But also an enhanced 1.5 version of the game code. According to Dressi, while keeping the essence of the original rules, in version 1.5, each tale has been reworked to better balance the difficulty. And in addition, each tale will now feature additional goals to enchant the jewel before you collect it. Yes. As those of you who remember the rules, you play a tale and you collect the jewel at the end of it, or sometimes two jewels. Two jewels, I would say, if you shoot the Make-A-Wish first.
    60:36
    The 30th anniversary has purple glitter metalwork all round, while the Legacy Edition has black night sky, which is basically black with white specs on it. The 30th anniversary edition has sold out basically by the time you hearing this So they say the allocation has been fully reserved but it doesn mean it won be available through distributors Right. This means that as far as the factory is concerned, they're going to be making 399 of them. Yes. And distributors may still have them in stock because they tend to stock up before they are left without any. Hmm, that's right. And Tokyo Distributors, as part of this announcement, also announced some benefits for US buyers, because obviously these games are made at Pujetti's factory, their European Pinball Corporation factory in Italy, and that has proved to be a bit of a sticking point for some US buyers who don't like buying games from Italy, And relying on them for support. So they have announced, this is Padresi, have announced two things. First of all, they've appointed two authorised American repair centres and they have been created to support the Padresi factory in Italy. One is with Planetary Pinball Supply in Nevada and the other one is with the Pinball Company in Missouri.
    62:14
    So that's Nick Park Pinball Company and Rick at Planetary Pinball Supply in Nevada. And in addition to that, they've also appointed Lloyd Olson of SS Billiards in Minnesota as a US customer service support point of contact. So if you have issues with your games, you can call Lloyd and he will be able to talk you through what you need to do in order to fix it. And hopefully it will have the authority to order parts for you as well if you need them. But that may then get referred onward to either Pantry Pinball or the Pinball Company in that case. But it certainly boosted the U.S. support side.
    63:05
    Right. Okay. Well, so we finally get to see the 30th anniversary edition of Tales of the Arabian Nights. Off the record, I may have, well, let's call it a rumor. Well, it's not actually a rumor, but, okay, let's put it like this. For the Dutch Pinball Open Expo, which is held in November, the team is working very, very hard to get Andrea Pedretti and possibly his brother as well to come over to, well, obviously promote Pedretti Gaming And possibly also do a seminar on what they are doing as Pidretti Gaming and maybe as well as Euro Pimball Corporation.
    64:01
    Yeah, they have a relationship with Pimball Brothers as well. Yeah, exactly. So that's not confirmed yet, but we are working on it. And the local Dutch distributor is also pushing for Pidretti to make an attendance at the event. Because after all, it is Europe's biggest Pinball event. Hmm, that certainly makes sense.
    64:25
    Because otherwise, we don't really hear anything from them, much do we? Yes. They go through their distributors in Europe, but we don't hear much from Guggeshi themselves. And it seems like they have a lot of big plans.
    64:42
    Yeah, exactly. And there's lots of stories and dirt to be discussed as well, so you know. We want to hear it all. Yeah, it looks like they're still working out the final details of the game. There are a few things that they say have been improved since the launch took place. There was some issues with a couple of the mechs in the game that they say have now been fixed. And there's also some misspelling on some of the promotional material where it says lightning lamp is Miss Helder's lighting lamp. But that's also been fixed on the playfields in the final game. So they're across all this. It doesn't sound like they're actually building the game yet, and we don't know exactly when they will start or when delivery is going to take place or plan to take place. But as soon as we find out the information, we will bring that to you.
    65:42
    Right. That's the question. What are they building? Yeah, you broke up for a second on my end. Oh, I'm sorry. No, it was not your fault. I blame Wi-Fi.
    65:52
    Okay. Hopefully it sounds all right to all this year at home. Yeah, probably, yeah. So, anyway, then there is something that we say first for Pinball to have announced. The very first Pinball cruise hosted by Barrels of Fun. Indeed, yes, which was our fourth headline, I guess. But that kind of comes off the back of an earlier announcement by Barrels of Fun, which we should probably cover first because it kind of links in to the cruise itself, Which is Barrels of Fun launching a new program which is only available to US buyers, incidentally, and that is a thing called Barrels Reserve. Now, one of the issues they had in the past, and particularly with Winter's Mystery House, was that they announced the game and it immediately sold out and so many people are left saying, I wanted to buy that, but I can't. It sold out too quickly or I couldn't get in. By the time I knew about it and seen it, it's already gone. So, in an attempt to address that problem, they've created this new collector's club, which they say is created to make sure our biggest fans never miss out on the opportunity to purchase a sold-out Browser Fun game directly from us. That's a key point directly from them rather than through a distributor, which means that it has to be within the US. And they say, here's how it works. If a new Barrel's A-Found machine reaches its announced limited edition number, so 525 or whatever it was, 555 for Winter's Ministry House, 525 I think it was, isn't it? 525, yeah. Yeah. Within the first seven days of release, Barrels Reserve members will receive an additional seven days to place their order through their Barrels Reserve membership account before the edition is closed. So that limited number of 525 isn't actually a limited number because, well, it isn't limited to that, it's limited to how many, to that number plus how many Barrels Reserve members also buy it in the next seven days. Well, yeah, which is kind of confusing because obviously there will be reserve members who already purchased the game within before it's sold out. That's right. Or do they because they need to?
    68:35
    No, because they've got the time, they've got a week afterwards, assuming it does sell out, in which to see the game and then make their decision. Yeah. So in theory, if they have, let's say, 400 reserve members, and again it's limited to 500 unions, in theory, it could end up being a run of 900. It could, good indeed, yes. Because there's no cap on the number of members to the Barrel Reserve. The only reason not to sign up is because it costs you $75 per person per year to be a member. in order to get this access. But along with that, membership also includes access to members-only barrels of fun events, which we will come to in a minute,
    69:27
    exclusive merchandise, special sales on existing merchandise, members-only content online, and barrels of fun collectible, whatever that is, with your annual membership. Okay. So, as we said, future games will still be limited and numbered, but limited to whatever they announce, plus however many battles reserved members there are at the time, which we don't know. But hopefully that won't be too big a disincentive to people. Does it matter if it's 500 or 800 machines? And it's still a limited number and it's still going to be a valuable and rare title to own. Yeah. So the only, I can understand the reasoning for barrels for doing this. The only thing that I have wondering is if we look at the situation of Winchester, which was announced right before Pimball Expo. And if you were able to attend Pimball Expo, then you were able to actually play that game. But a lot of these potential members will still not be in the position to have played the game in order to form an opinion or a proper opinion like, do I really want to buy this game? No, but they will have the opportunity to ask Barrels of Fun for more information. More information will come out about the game over the week after it's announced. So you won't have that fear of missing out in the same way as, you know, if you have to buy it on the day, you have to buy it in the next hour, otherwise you'll miss out. But you still haven't played the game. Oh, it's not, yeah. That's true. Yeah, but you'll be better informed, if not fully informed. The only caveat to this is that you have to be a member of the Barrels Reserve before the game is launched in order to be able to have access to that extra week to make your decision.
    71:42
    Right. And of course we don't know exactly when the next game is going to be announced, you know, So I think the idea is that you just have a rolling subscription year on year just in case. They might come out tomorrow and announce a new game, for all we know. And in which case, if you want a member, you will not get that benefit.
    72:04
    Yeah. Right, so moving on. Yeah, well, so that's the first part of the news from Barrels of Fun. And then we get to this new Pimball cruise, Pimball at Sea cruise, which sort of reminds me a little bit of, I think, KISS and other rock bands have done cruises for fans in the past. I can remember Chris Jericho also doing a cruise. He's a singer of a rock band but also a professional wrestler. So you get the combination of both.
    72:45
    Singing while he's wrestling. Oh, good. Well, not necessarily that. I like it. It's a novelty act. Yeah, I think there have been lots of themed cruises taking place with either original bands or even tribute bands as well. Yes, oh yeah, 80s cruises and all that kind of stuff. And now, finally, here's your chance for a Pimball at Sea cruise. Martin has all the details. Yeah, well, it's a cruise on board Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas cruise ship, which is a very large oasis car ship, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, in fact. So as you can probably imagine, it's not going to be entirely dedicated to Pinball. It's going to be, you know, it's basically open to anybody to go on the cruise through booking through Royal Caribbean's site or through travel agents, but there will be certain Pinball-centric events and setups on board organized by Browser Fun. So it's actually been arranged such that you book it in two ways. First of all, you book your cabin through Royal Caribbean, and then after that's done, you can then book, well, not at the moment you can't, but you will be able to book the pinball part of it through Barrels of Fun as a separate event. And one of the things, they call it a Pinball at Sea event package.
    74:27
    So many of these things, while anybody can be part of the cruise, it's open to anybody, Pinball or not, the Pinball at Sea event package is exclusive to members of the Daryl's Reserve membership. So that kind of ties into what we were just talking about. So Barrels Reserve Club members who purchase the Pinball at Sea event package will receive exclusive Pinball at Sea merchandise, have access to their private game room featuring a variety of Pinball machines from Barrels of Fun and other manufacturers. In addition, you'll also be invited to a private browser fund reception, exclusive meet and greets with team members, a competitive pinball tournament with cash prizes, family tournaments and other fun activities that they have planned. Now, it's a seven-day cruise setting sail on June 2027. Well, all right. I don't know what the better way to say it is. They leave on the 27th of June, depart from Galveston in Texas and return to Galveston in Texas seven days later. So the first day is departure, the second day they're at sea, the third day they arrive in Mexico, the next day they're in Honduras, after that also Mexico, and then they stop their return journey with another day at sea and arrive back in Galveston on day seven. So the cost of this is currently, as I say, split into two things. You have your cabin, which can cost either US$1,776 for an interior room for two people, or US$2,442 for a balcony room, or an outside room, or one with an outside view. But the cost of the Pinball at Sea event package hasn't yet been announced. So I guess we'll try to work out what it's going to consist of and then work out how much it's going to cost. And is that an all-inclusive clue in the sense that breakfast, lunch and dinners, buffets and everything is included? Or is that all separate? Yeah, I think there are basics that are included, but then you can upgrade some aspects of it to high-level dining. And of course, with all cruises, there's all these gratuities and tips which have to be added on as well, which are pretty much mandatory, I think.
    77:15
    So it's going to cost quite a lot more, but certainly people seem to have signed up for it already, or at least signed up for the cruise part of it. And I think given the size of the vessel, I don't think there'll be any problem in getting accommodation, at least initially, bearing in mind this is a year out. So as I say, it departs on the 27th of June next year and returns on the 3rd of July. So, yeah, it's a new idea. A lot of people have also been saying, hang on, Pinball on a ship, is this really a good idea? Yeah. But those who are seasoned cruisers will tell you that such a huge ship as the Symphony of the Seas, which is, as I say, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, it's so massive that it doesn't rock and doesn't roll around at all very much. So I think it's going to be pretty stable. It's like a floating skyscraper. Yeah, or like an island, I think, really. You know, unless it's really turbulent, I don't think you have any problem with movement of the game. And if you do, it's all part of the fun, isn't it? Well, and probably, I assume the tilts will be loosened. Well, possibly. It needs to be. Yeah. Yeah, so, but what a great way to, for David and other Bells of Thumb employees to basically book a vacation as a take right off.
    78:53
    That's a very cynical way of looking at it, but. Well. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it's a cynical way of looking at it. Not saying I'm cynical, more and more with a. Practical, is what you're saying. Yeah.
    79:07
    Oh well. And we're still not done with Barrels of Fun because they launched new code for Winchester Mystery House and that's quite a big code update. Yes, version, well, it came out on the 1st of July this year, so hence it is called version 2026.07.01. There's a big change in how you tool the house with the ability to run now from spirit encounters or other ambushes, which was part of the strategy. You have to choose whether you're going to stand and fight or whether you're going to run from it using the running ability you've built up throughout the rest of the game. There's also some new high score tables as well, quite a few rule changes and scoring changes, some new informational displays and call-outs, And quite a big list of bug fixes as well. So nice to see Winchester Mystery House getting pretty regular updates and having some extra features added to it to keep it fresh and interesting. Never know if you've had it for some time.
    80:19
    Right. So that finally runs it up for Barrels of Fun. So I think we should probably head over to Sustern Pinball. Yes, indeed. The biggest manufacturer.
    80:31
    Yeah. So, last month we reported on Transformers More Than Meets the Eye being launched. Well, it premiered. Yeah, it premiered at the Northwest Pimball and Arcade show in Tacoma. Yeah, but it was a letter meets the eye.
    80:49
    Sadly, yes. Well, I mean, we had, say, premiered there. We also had a premiere at the Park Avenue Open Day, which we've watered on last month as well, so I've got to play it, as is other people in attendance for that, but we don't talk about that. However, as you say, it didn't quite go to plan with what they were hoping to have a big display of 20 machines at the Northwest Pinball and Arcade show, but unfortunately there was a parts supply issue, which meant they couldn't build them. So they were only able to bring one machine, which obviously meant that it was incredibly popular and long lines to play. Well, that's one way to create a line. Yeah, that's right, yes.
    81:35
    So, yeah, a bit of a shame about that, but it will, if you didn't get a chance to play it there, and looking for your opportunity, and it's not in your arcade yet, Because they obviously sent them out to locations fairly early on. Transformers will be at the San Diego Comic-Con, which is being held on the 23rd to the 26th of this month of July, obviously in San Diego. On Thursday there is a Transformers Celebration of Life concert, which is co-sponsored by Stern and Hasbro, amongst others. So a big Transformers event. Well, I'm sure you'll get plenty of Transformers more than meets the eye on machines there.
    82:19
    And I'm so curious who will be performing there. Yes. Well, I'm sure if you go to the San Diego Comic-Con website, you will be able to find out exactly all the details of that Transformers Celebration of Life concert.
    82:34
    Right. Yeah, I know certain bands that are able to transform a guitar into a pile of trash. Yeah, but you could see them do it the other way around. We'll run back.
    82:54
    Yeah, as I was saying earlier, there have been quite a few comments about the non-transforming Optimus Prime in the game. That's still something that people are beating Stern with, which I guess is understandable given the fact that if they said they never intended it to transform, then that would be fair enough and people could take it for that. The fact that they tried and failed is a bit of a negative point.
    83:25
    But anyway, the game is still fun to play, I can tell you that, and has some good call-outs and video in the game as well from the TV series, the cartoon series. Right. And you have some news about employment opportunity and employment opportunity at Stern Pinball. Well, it caught my eye. I wasn't specifically looking for this. It was pointed out to me that Michael Grant, who we know very well, is looking for an events manager to report directly to him at Stern Pinball. This rule will drive Stern trade shows, product exhibitions, and community activations from start to finish. Experience in the pinball gaming or amusement industry is a major plus. The rule requires around 30% travel and offers a hybrid schedule based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
    84:37
    They're looking for three to five years of solid event or trade show production experience, strong background with convention, hall, logistics, freight vendors and union labor, comfort with the basic field tech and troubleshooting equipment on the fly. I found this on LinkedIn and there is a link on Michael's profile on LinkedIn to this vacancy, so to speak. My first response was, isn't this Michael's job? In the sense that, why is he looking for a replacement? Excellent. Apparently, I assume, I haven't checked with Michael, but I assume that he's getting, climbing the ladder at Stern and getting a different role, but somebody still needs to do what he used to be doing. Yeah, well, it probably needs help, because Stern are looking to organise much more of their own, many more of their own shows at various events, and they used to work with Marco. A lot. And now that collaboration doesn't exist when it goes to trade shows or other Pinball shows. So now Stern taking over a lot of that responsibility themselves. So, yeah, Stern, well, they need some assistance with that. You know, the same kind of thing they're doing in Europe as well, trying to find a push their appearance And I'm having many more machines and a bigger display and stand at pinball shows around Europe doing that in the US too.
    86:25
    Right. So now, if I got you excited, then here's the bad news. It looks like they are no longer accepting applications and they are already reviewing the applicants that noticed the vacancy earlier. It's not to say that any of them will actually necessarily get the post. They might be advertising again if they don't get anybody with the required skills. But, yeah. And otherwise, if you would be interested, it might be worthwhile to add Michael Grant to one of the people on LinkedIn that you follow. Hmm. Yes. In order to find out whenever another opportunity arises. Either way, it looks like we can look forward to seeing an additional Stern staff member helping organize features and product displays. Right. It doesn't say that anybody was tagged in the sense that, like, somebody that used to work at Stern and helped Michael and they... No, you're not good anymore. Go away. It doesn't say that, but that might be a conclusion that we come after, for example, after Pimball X-Cover, so I don't know. Hey, where is such and such? Oh, you're no longer working with us anymore.
    87:47
    Well, anyway, we don't know that, but... No, that's pure speculation and for my amusement only. Good. Well, something else for all our amusement only is some late-breaking news. Just as we're starting to record this, I've got some news from Stern Pinball that they have added a new gameplay mode to the game Jaws.
    88:11
    Jaws, the Revenge is the mode. It's one of those ones where you're holding both slipper buttons and then you select from the gameplay one of the challenge modes. And it looks like that's been made available for the 4th of July celebration, which at the time of recording is tomorrow. And you may remember, of course, that Jules is later around the 4th of July, so it kind of ties in with it being that game. So it's available on the Game Mode menu as an option to play if you are logged in to Insider Connected, but only if you're logged in to Insider Connected. So this is interesting, this is a new feature that we're going to see more in the future. You have to be logged in in order to access some of these modes. It says you can take your revenge on the bounty hunters, always trying to hunt you, so I guess you're playing as Jaws, in this 5 level 8-bit inspired challenge mode. Yeah, so I guess it's a bit, well, I was going to say it's a bit like the video game in the mode, in the game, but as far as graphics go, but with five different levels to complete, it's going to be quite a challenge. So, nice little upgrade for any Jaws owners to take advantage of this 4th of July.
    89:31
    Right, so, and just in time. Yeah, that's right, yeah. Yes, and I mean that was... Now if only if we get this edited in time, that's the other thing. Well, I'm sure it will be there afterwards as well, but it's been launched for that. But that's a code update, I suppose. They say you need to have your game connected, well, powered up and connected in order to download this update automatically. But we also have quite a lot of other code updates to... Oh, golly. Yes, well, actually, this is a bit of a sort of bragging rights here, because last month we detailed some system updates, including the latest code for several titles, which added support for things like Topps Tournament in that gameplay menu, and also added a whole bunch of different test menu settings, which allow customization of test screens, RGB lamp test behavior, and saving system settings, both locally and on the USB stick. Well, in that we said, expect this to be rolled out to all Spike Games through future software updates. And sure enough, Stern released updates to all Spike Games on the 1st of July. Now, many of them... We told you so. That's it. Many of them got other bug fixes thrown into, and a few other nice features, which we'll cover in a minute. But for the majority, I'd say they are just those system software updates that we just talked about. So, yeah, we said it would happen, and it did.
    91:09
    Yeah, absolutely no knowledge it was going to happen, but it's a speculation. But they done it in the past and they aren doing it again And also things like software updates or firmware updates for like node boards and things like that to improve reliability But now speaking of code updates I was going to say are there any code updates for specific games released the past month Quite a few, actually. You'll be finished in here. Good heavens. Yeah, well, Pokemon, that's actually got two code updates on the 18th of June and the 1st of July. version 0.83 was first, which added new team features to boost a team member in the Pokemon game for the rest of the ball, and added Magikarp multiball if you have the new Magikarp topper, which was also launched this month. They also added travel between different biomes and new rules to the start of Team Rocket multiball number 2. Then version 0.84 came out just a couple of days ago, added quite a lot of rules, new rules, and new light shows. Several of the existing rules and scores have been adjusted, some standard features have been implemented, things like competition mode, target game time, all that that's in the menus, and there are even more bug fixes there.
    92:34
    Transformers, that got version 0.87 also a couple of days ago. Their current game, More Than Meets the Eye, that is. Quite a lot of rule changes and a handful of bug fixes, but nothing substantial.
    92:48
    John Wick, yes, that one, remember that? They've got version 1.02 updated as well on the 1st of July. Changed the way the TikTok Mr. Wick Topper exclusive mode works and added four challenge modes as well from the gameplay menu, holding in both blipper buttons. And it also added 36 new Insider Connected achievements, lots of bug fixes and quite a few rule changes too. So it's good to see John Wick getting a bit of love there. And finally, The Walking Dead Remastered got version 0.93 at the beginning of June, which added just a couple of things. An outlaying ball save, a bonus held award, a new end of ball bonus screen, plus a few bug fixes. So a minor one, but worthwhile having on The Walking Dead Remastered. And that's the code update for Stern Games throughout the month of June and the first couple of days of July. Right, okay, and that rounds it up for Stern Pinball for now.
    93:48
    Yeah, so moving on to, well, let's say Wonderland Amusement, who are based in the US and manufacturing from Hong Kong. There's still very limited information about TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Battle in the Sewers. But there is a brief video on their YouTube channel of a Whitewood game, or an Archer's game, if you will, being flipped. But you also have to wonder how much code is in that game, since it's a Whitewood. It might not be completely coded yet. So, the pre-sale of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle in the Sewer ended on June the 20th, which means the price rose from $849 to $1100 for the Standard Edition, but, of course, there's no guarantee there won't be another discounted promotion before they actually start making and shipping the game. So keep your eyes open for promotions around, I don't know, 4th of July or Halloween or Thanksgiving, that kind of stuff, yes. Yeah, Christmas, yeah, Thursdays, yeah, anything. And if you're a lucky owner of Alice Goes to Wonderland, there's a code update, version 1.1.4, released on the 22nd of June, which has a new attract mode, two new music tracks, a revised skillshot, The Caterpillar insert lightning has changed. They added user menu sounds, which might be very handy that you actually hear what you're scrolling through the menu. They fixed volume control and high score table bugs.
    95:59
    So if you own that game, then it's a choice to update your game. Yeah, it's nice to see that they're still releasing updates to that. We're not just concentrating on coding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game, but still supporting Alice. So I'd say there'll be some more code updates for Alice as well. Right. And that runs it up for Wonderland Amusements for the month of July, 2026. Yes. So let's move on to our next company, American Pinball. It's nice to have all these companies we can talk about. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. So different than 20 years ago. Yes, yes, I'll pin cast back then, it was very short. Yes, so American Pinball, they've launched a new YouTube channel called Official American Pinball. So go to YouTube, youtube.com slash at official American Pinball. Sounds very official. Yeah, the old At American Pinball channel with the old logo is still there but it looks like it's not going to be updated anymore and all their new content is going to go on to the official American Pinball channel. I don't know why. Why would that be? No idea. Maybe it wasn't, maybe the old YouTube channel wasn't included in the sale or maybe whoever managed it no longer working there and hasn't handed over control of it to the current team. No idea. That's not a situation that you want. Well, it's awkward having to point people to a new YouTube channel, especially when the old one's still there as well. It leads to a potential confusion. But anyway, hopefully now you know, at Official American Pinball is the place to look for existing and upcoming YouTube videos from American Pinball. Right, so. Now, earlier on we were discussing a job opportunity at Stern Pinball. If you were looking to work in the industry of pinball and you happen to be a little bit of a creative yourself and not so much a salesperson but more on the creative end, Maybe the following is interesting for you because American Pinball is looking to hire a junior pinball designer. Yes, that's right. So American Pinball, we're passionate about creating exciting industry with pinball. And they say if you love pinball, enjoy creative problem solving and have experience with Fusion 360 and Solidworks, they'd love to hear from you. They say the role is perfect for somebody with a strong technical mindset and an engineering understanding of how pinball machines operate and come together.
    98:47
    So you'll collaborate with the design team, assist in mechanical design, work with CAD, Fusion 360 and Solidworks, contribute ideas and solutions for gameplay and mechanical features, and support the production of the game and working under the creative leadership of, of course, creative director Melvin Williams. Right. And be part of the team dedicated to pushing pinball design forward. Right. And just in case you were wondering, this is a full-time in-person position at their office in Palatine, Illinois. Absolutely. Yes. So if you're looking... Not like you can phone it in from wherever you are. Yeah, no working from home for this one.
    99:34
    Yes, as it says, if you're excited about being part of designing the next generation of pinball machines,
    99:40
    we encourage you to apply by emailing jobs at americanpinball.com. So that's how you get in touch. And I'm sure if you go on any of their socials, you'll be able to find all the details of that, And even being able to ask them many questions, if it's not entirely clear what the possibilities of the job are, this is a junior pinball designer rather than a senior pinball designer. Right, so there's no need to point out existing pinball designers. Hey, is this helpful for you?
    100:11
    Yes, it would be interesting to see whether anybody who worked in the old American pinball decides to apply for that position. Now, if you think, oh, I'd love to work in pinball, but I'm not sure whether I can design a pinball machine. That's just so complex, and that's just not for me. I'd rather do something a little bit more, well, less complex. Yeah. Then there's also good news for you, because American Pinball is also looking for assembly line workers, Which means that you'll be working Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.
    100:55
    It's not early. Well, yeah, but you leave early as well. 18 to 20 dollars an hour. Training is included and there is no experience necessary. And if you're interested in that, then the email address is actually the same, jobs at americanpinball.com to learn more and apply.
    101:20
    No experience necessary, so basically open to anybody then by some time. If you think you can hold a screwdriver, then this is probably in the position for you. Okay, and if you don't know how to hold a screwdriver, training is included. They'll teach you how to hold a screwdriver.
    101:39
    So Thursday, over to everyone. Okay, I think that's it for our news from American Pinball for this month of June and the start of July. So instead we'll move, well, let's move all the way over to France because Hex of Pinball, they are celebrating their fourth birthday. Yes, no, not 35th, as in Sonic, but fourth for them. Gowd got their second game, of course, out, The Three Musketeers, the follow-up from Space Hunt, and that has been appearing at various pinball events across Europe, and it will also be appearing at the Australian Pinball Expo, which is being held this weekend, coming up on the, I think, the 4th to the 6th, no, it can't be right, 4th and 5th, I guess, of July. And also it's appearing at a show in France called Ile de Flippe, which is the same time this weekend. So a couple of opportunities there on opposite sides of the globe to play The Three Musketeers if you haven't had a chance yet. And also if you haven't had a chance yet to see what the latest code is like, which is something I'd certainly like to see. So that's, I think, we have some music to accompany Hexa Pimble. Not from the Three Musketeers, I have to add.
    103:08
    So that's the news from Hexa Pinball in France. And next we'll move over to back to the US and go and see what's been happening in Round Rock in Texas where Multimorphic are based. Right. Well, they've been adding more distributors, namely Natural Pinball in Canada, for amusement-only games in the US. Flip and Rex in Switzerland, which I have never heard of before, but okay. And Mr. Pimball Australia, and I assume they are in Australia. I believe they are. Yes. Yes, and Mr. Pimball Australia will also have a couple of P3 machines, namely the Portal Extended and the Princess Bride at the Australian Pimball Expo this weekend. So, quite a few new titles, I'd say, to play at the Australian Pinball Expo this weekend, if you happen to be in Australia and heading there. Yeah, that's probably just hark back to something you talked about earlier, because I've seen a few Facebook posts from David Van Esk, who's also down in Australia at the Australian Pinball Expo representing Barrels of the Cun. So you'll be able to go down there and meet David and get stuff signed by him. And I think they're also doing some barrel ball competitions there as well.
    104:42
    Oh, that's right. Yeah, so good fun to be had down there and say hello to David. Yes, indeed. And if you're wondering why David would be there, I believe David has Australian roots. Absolutely. He has family down there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. And last but not least, if you were ever wondering what it's like in the Multimorphic Factory, they did post a recent Factory Tour montage, I would say, on their Facebook channel. So where you can see various stations, what is happening with various assemblies being assembled before they go into a game and so on. So if you're interested in that, then by all means take a look at the Multimorphic Facebook page. Yes, and alternatively of course. I was going to say, did you publish a view of the Multimorphic Factory from your Texas Pinball Festival report? I think I might have. I think you did. Cool. I'm really sure you did. Yeah.
    105:56
    So that means that you have to log in, or well, not log in, but you have to visit pimble-magazine.com, And there you can find some more details about our most recent visit, which was in March of this year. Yes, we're building Portal, and I guess that we're still building Portal.
    106:14
    Yes, there's no new game announced yet, although we're still waiting for one. Interestingly, the Factory Tour montage uses by Scott Denizzi. I'm not sure whether that's new music or whether that's from already used in Portal or one of the other games. On a resistance, yeah. Yeah, so.
    106:42
    But it sounded good, so, well, it's gotten easy without that. Always good. Yeah. Okay, so moving north and going out to Wisconsin, a little bit of news from Sleuthy Pinball in the form of some new code for their Beetlejuice game, Which is what they're currently making. That came out on the 11th of June, and hence it's version 2026.06.11. And it has a new head shrink mode, which seems like a lot of fun, with some enormous number of switch hits which are in the trillions, which kind of ties in with the now serving, or how long you have to wait to be served in the movie. Okay, so new head shrink mode, lots of new callouts and new lighting effects, plus five bug fixes as well in the new code. I won't detail what they all are because they're quite boring, but if you haven't got the game, you'll probably never notice them. And right now, never will. So that's the new code for Beetlejuice.
    107:45
    Then again, you never know what new bugs are appearing due to these new bug fixes. Oh yes, that's right. Nothing is guaranteed as not introducing anything new. But hopefully not. Have a good record on the code updates.
    108:01
    So we're getting into the section where it's a little bit of more short news, I would say, until we get to the other news section, where Martin has a very in-depth story on the prosecution of Robert Mueller on Dibout. I'll try to give you a chance. That's still to come. So, but, new code from Cardona Pinball for Fishtails, the Ultimate Fishing Challenge, version 2026.06.12, which means it was released on the 12th of June. A new video mode, new announcer callouts, new headphone controls, some display text and scoring changes, and half a dozen bug fixes. So one more, Deadpool, Pimble. Yeah, yes. I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing. There was an additional bug. But whatever it was, they fixed it. Right. Yes, as you said, not much news from all of these companies, but a few bits and pieces. So let's move to Vector Pinball, a company in Australia. And of course, we'll have a selection of their games at this weekend's Australian Pinball Expo show. So not quite sure what they are yet, but I guess it depends on what they have, but I would expect them to have their Lost in Space game there as well, showing the latest version of that, and of course some of their other card-based games and driver-based games. And King of the Mountain and things like that.
    109:36
    Ebol Jury possibly as well. Yeah, that's a good game. No other news from them about any additional titles because obviously Lost in Space is their current one and they're still looking to build those. Right, so then we have Kill Loser Studios in the US, headed by Jake Denswick of course, who said they are rebuilding various aspects of the Monster League hockey game ahead of starting production. And that includes replacing physical switches with optos and tweaking some of the geometry and rewriting the code. Obviously, if you have an optos switch, that requires a different code than a physical switch. Yeah, I think they're actually going back to first principles and rewriting it from the very start again. Now, they've actually got to produce the game. So, speaking of which, we're planning to start production in the autumn and also to have at least 10 monsterly cocky games at Pinball Expo in Schomburg this October. So, take up a big space there, particularly as they're the head-to-head games, so you've got to have access to both sides. So, looking forward to seeing what they put on there. Sounds like it's going to be quite a display. Right, indeed. So, well, best of luck to Kildozer and... can't think of the name who are actually going to be building the game. Oh, that's Rams, yeah. Yeah, Rams, Pinball, thank you.
    111:22
    No news from Rams, Pinball either. No, we'll get that in early. Anyway, and also really no news from Bictronic in Spain either, but in researching that, I did notice on their website, it says, it makes the claim that they are the only pinball manufacturer in Europe. Which must have a bit of a surprise for Dretti and Dutch Pinball and Pinball Brothers and Hexa Pinball and everybody else trying to make games. But there you go. Maybe at least there's one. Yeah, certainly one of the pinball manufacturers in Europe, yes. Surprisingly enough, and well, you mentioned me being cynical earlier on, so this is the one manufacturer in Europe where we hardly see any games of. Yes, we're not actually manufacturing any, so... Saying that they are the only manufacturer.
    112:15
    Okay, well, so take that with a pinch of salt. Meanwhile, somebody who has made a few games, at least, is Homepin, based in Taiwan. They recently shipped a few Blues Brothers games to a customer in Taichung in the centre of the island, based in the south, Homepin. Not sure exactly how many, there are some pictures on the Homepin factory Facebook page which shows five Blues Brothers machines wrapped up numbers, They're numbered as numbers 124 to 128.
    112:52
    Not sure whether that means they've made 124 or 128, whether the numbering starts at 1 or starts at 100, or as Jonathan cynically pointed out, maybe it starts at 120.
    113:07
    Can you blame me? No, that's a bit of an open goal, wasn't it? And in World Cup times, that's too good an opportunity to miss. Anyway, nice to see some Blues Brothers games getting out there to Taiwan as well. Yeah, well, nice to see that there's still news coming from Hong Pin because it's been several months that we didn't hear anything. Yes, last news I think was just Mike Kaliansky setting off some firecrackers for the new year. Yeah, and I'm curious whether since Mike has Australian roots, usually he attends the Australian Pinball show, so I'm curious whether he will be at the Australian Pinball Expo this weekend. Yes, that's right. I guess we'll have to find out and report on that next month. Yeah, normally represented by Highway Pinball down there, but yeah, he's certainly no stranger to that show and to Pinball shows in Australia. Okay, so now we come to a whole bunch of companies where we really do have no news. Right, so we're going to wrap this up really quick. There's no news from Dutch Pinball slash DPX as far as that still exists. The DPX section, Dutch Pinball still in existence, there's no worries there. Also no news from Chicago Gaming, Turner Pinball, Pinball Brothers, Ramps indeed as I mentioned earlier, Pimball Adventures, and not sure why we keep checking those, but Quetzal Pimball in Spain and SDR we already did from the list as well as Circus Maximus. So a whole bunch of companies were no news, but that doesn't mean there's no activity. It's just that there was no news to report. No. It's just business as usual, then it's also fine. Yeah, we do. And then now on to the other news. As Jonathan mentioned, there was a bit of development in the Deep Root case and the criminal prosecution of the head of Deep Root, Robert Mueller, who is now also being prosecuted, in addition to wire fraud, being prosecuted over a $759,917 claim on the COVID Paycheck Protection Program from the government, which was designed to help companies pay for payroll costs, rent and mortgage interest and cover operations expenditure. Prosecutors from the Justice Department allegedly used the money to pay back investors in these deep root investment funds. They are pressing for a full repayment of the $760,000 loan along with penalties. And starting with any property that's been purchased using any of the funds, there was certainly a suggestion that there might have been a family member who got a property purchased by Deakroot. Whether it came from those funds, we don't know. But they also added, is it intent of the United States of America to seek forfeiture of any other property up to the value of the money judgment as substitute assets? So potentially seizing his home or homes. But that's just another pressure to put on him. As for the remainder, the wire fraud charges, well, there's a whole bunch of things that the Department of Justice say they intend to prove in the case, which they only need to prove one of these things. There were actually 16 items that they listed saying to things like he falsely represented this and falsely claimed that there were cash reserves and there were no debt and all that kind of thing. Mixing them in the boxes, falsely claimed that the Pimball operation had launched and was generating $1 million in revenue.
    117:09
    Well, I think we know that that isn't true. I truly believe that it would have cost one million, at least in development, but revenues I'm not so sure about. Yes, and the final item in this list of 16 things that the Department of Justice tends to prove is that Robert Mueller admitted to mention that the September 2020 launch of the Pinball was a failure. Their words, not mine.
    117:38
    So, anyway. Anyway, I'm really curious. Do you know from the top of your head what the September 2020 launch was? Was that Raza being shown at the… Yes, that was the one that was in COVID times, I remember, or just at the end of COVID, before when we weren't allowed to travel to the U.S., we actually missed out on the Pinball X-Fo that year as well, Because you couldn't travel until November. That was the youth in show with the two Raza games with the... No, that was the factory tour, I think, where they were showing a select bunch of Pimball media around the factory and the pin bar and the storage box thing, the pin pod, that and yeah, all that stuff which of course never came to pass. So anyway, that looks like it's still heading for trial later this year, and I think there is a hearing coming up about the 20th, I think, of this month, July. So more on that as whether it's actually going to go to trial. At the moment, I think it looks like it is, but because Robert's already rejected plea deals in the past. So there's a suggestion that this Paycheck Protection Programme additional allegation was intended to put more pressure on in order to avoid having to, The expense and time of a trial. But so far, it is headed for the court.
    119:30
    Right. Okay. Well, thank you for keeping us up to date with... It's okay. I'll keep across all this and reading through all the court filings. One other new bit of paperwork as well, which I'm happy to announce, is that there's a new pinball book being launched this month, the month of July. Yes, Tasker Smith's Pinball, A Quest for Mastery is going to be released on the 28th of July. It's a guide to how to increase your pinball skills in various ways from actual gameplay techniques to mental agility and getting into the right frame of mind in order to perform at your optimum. I have more about it because I'm getting a preview copy and we'll be doing a full review of it on Pinball News. Hopefully the book will arrive in time for me to get the article written to coincide with the launch on the 28th of July. But if not, it'll be out shortly afterwards and keep an eye out for where you can buy your copy of Tasker's Pinball, A Quest for Mastery on the 28th. I was going to say, will there be a presentation at Pimball Expo? Did you know of it? I don't know yet. Or will the book be available at Pimball Expo? I think the book will certainly be available at Pimball Expo, yes. Whether there's going to be a presentation or seminar about it, I don't know. But yes, I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to buy it on the show floor.
    121:00
    Right. Okay, well, we hope you have enjoyed this look back at the month of June 2026. Yeah, it's good, isn't it? We'll be back at the start of August with our next PINCAST, looking back again at all the events in Pinball Industries throughout this exciting month of July. So, until then, from me, Martin A of the Pinball News, and me, Jonathan Yuston of Pinball Magazine, we hope you have a truly jubilant July, and we look forward to joining you again at the start of next month for the very next edition of the Pinball Industry News PINCAST. Bye for now. Bye-bye.