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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast December 2024 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 47m·analyzed·Jan 3, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Stern confirms D&D cornerstone, JJP teases Harry Potter, major code updates released.

Summary

Jonathan Houston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin Ebb (Pinball News) recap December 2024 pinball industry news. Stern announced Dungeons & Dragons (The Tyrant's Eye) as the next cornerstone game, vaulted eight titles from production, released code updates for four games, and hosted media events. Jersey Jack Pinball teased something 'magic' with an old photo of Jack Guarneri at licensing shows featuring Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, and Harry Potter posters, sparking speculation about an upcoming Harry Potter game. JJP also released Pirates of the Caribbean 1.0 code after years of beta, offered heavy discounts on Guns N' Roses limited editions, and continues Elton John production.

Key Claims

  • Dungeons & Dragons The Tyrant's Eye is Stern's next cornerstone game

    high confidence · Stern released a teaser video confirming D&D as cornerstone; full reveal scheduled for January 3, 2025

  • Brian Eddy designed Dungeons & Dragons with Dwight Sullivan as lead programmer

    medium confidence · Jonathan and Martin state 'we have a very strong suspicion' based on pattern analysis; not officially confirmed at time of recording

  • D&D Limited Edition production is suspected to be around 700 units

    low confidence · Martin states 'I think I've heard something about 700 being looted, but that's not confirmed yet'

  • Jersey Jack Pinball holds the license for Harry Potter

    high confidence · Joe Camico stated this approximately 1.5 years prior; referenced in context of JJP's teaser image

  • Stern is not planning price increases in the foreseeable future

    high confidence · Seth Davis (Stern president/CEO) statement reported via Loser Kid Pinball Podcast interview about prize races discussion

  • Uncanny X-Men had launch problems with ball shooter and in-lane guides

    high confidence · Stern released free repair kits including stronger shooter rod spring, new ball guide plastic, and taller spacers; instructional video published by Kyle from Stern

  • The teaser photo of Jack Guarneri is from a licensing trade show in Las Vegas from a few years ago

    medium confidence · Martin states it is 'an old photo from a few years ago' shown at licensing trade show

  • Guns N' Roses Limited Edition discounted from $11,000 to $8,975 (down $2,025) until January 7

    high confidence · Jersey Jack Pinball promotional offer during discussion; specific pricing and end date provided

Notable Quotes

  • “It's so hard to keep secrets in this industry.”

    Martin Ebb @ ~3:00 — Reflects industry culture where major announcements leak before official reveals; Stern D&D leak was evident from social media teaser

  • “If you want a decent article... we need info up front, not when everybody else is getting it.”

    Martin Ebb @ ~8:00 — Commentary on media access and press kit timing; highlights tension between industry PR and independent coverage

  • “It was probably fully cooked... some of the tweaks that might have been applied before it normally got into production didn't quite get done.”

    Martin Ebb @ ~20:00 — Explains Uncanny X-Men quality issues as result of rushed production timeline, not design flaws

  • “They do listen to people's comments... you can either have the new or the old spinner sound.”

    Martin Ebb @ ~28:00 — Demonstrates Stern's responsiveness to player feedback on code updates within days of release

  • “A Jersey Jack pinball Harry Potter and think they're probably the only company who would be able to put all the mechanisms and the assets into the game.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~42:00 — Reflects community belief that JJP has unique capability/license to create definitive Harry Potter pinball based on past achievement (Avatar, Pirates)

  • “A big Christmas present, I'd say, because that's the thing that they've been waiting for... for many years.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~47:00 — Reflects player relief at Pirates of the Caribbean 1.0 release after years of beta; emotional weight of long-delayed content

  • “You have to train such a person to become such a good pinball player that they can actually see all the assets in the game... you have to play the game to see how it comes across.”

    Martin Ebb @ ~51:00 — Explains licensing approval delays as requiring Disney personnel to actually play/understand the game; illuminates hidden friction in IP approval process

Entities

Jonathan HoustonpersonMartin EbbpersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyDungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's EyegameBrian EddypersonDwight SullivanpersonHarry Pottergame

Signals

  • ?

    code_update: Stern code teams responsively addressed player feedback on Metallica spinner sound within days, offering classic sound option after new version criticism

    high · Metallica received Dec 23 update with new spinner sound, Jan 2 update reverting option to classic sound based on player feedback

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern Pinball Cup launched with 6 weekly races, objectives system, leaderboards, badges, and integration with Insider Connected platform

    high · Martin describes Cup structure: weekly tracks with difficulty-scaled objectives per game, ranking points, achievement system; tied to Insider Connected account

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan authorship of D&D based on designer pattern analysis and prior collaboration

    medium · Jonathan and Martin note 'very strong suspicion' based on Eddy's Medieval Madness work with dragons and Sullivan's game design history; not officially confirmed

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Disney approval process for Pirates of the Caribbean wizard mode delayed years due to personnel changes and requirement that approvers actually play the game

    medium · Martin explains lengthy beta period as requiring Disney approvers to personally experience game and understand assets; personnel turnover creates approval bottlenecks

  • $

    market_signal: Stern vaulting 8 titles (Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Avengers, Infinity Quest, Elvira, Foo Fighters) from production for at least 2 years, signaling inventory management and potential demand stimulation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.323

0:00
stern to announce dungeons and dragons jjp teases something magic but reti also teases something magic hi my name is jonathan houston i'm the editor of pinball magazine and i'm wishing you a very happy 2025.
0:29
And believe it or not, I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Ebb, editor of Pinball News, and Jonathan and I are here to look back at the very last month of last year, December 2024 in the pinball world, and a little bit of a look ahead to what's going to be coming up the start of January, sort of this month. And beyond. And beyond as well. Yeah, well, we got all the juicy details of what's going to happen have we oh right okay right yeah so let's let's dive in straight away um the the well our first headline um stern pinball to announce dungeons and dragons well you know all about that martin they did release a teaser video a couple of days ago they did indeed um basically confirming what a lot of people have been speculating was that Dungeons & Dragons is going to be the next cornerstone game. It's so hard to keep secrets in this industry. I know. And it's going to be released in, well, basically, we're recording this on the 2nd of January, and details of the game are going to come out tomorrow, the 3rd of January. Already the 3rd of January where Jonathan is, and it's half an hour to go for me. So Friday is the big reveal day, I believe, or at least the start of it. and then we get another Dungeons and Dragons week like with previous releases are you as excited as I am? I have no idea what Dungeons and Dragons is about so, oh yes I am well, the clue's in the name I suspect but the full name is Dungeons and Dragons The Tyrant's Eye which doesn't actually give you an awful lot of information about what the subject is of the Dungeons & Dragons game because I had a look for the Tyrant's Eye online and not being a Dungeons & Dragons fan, you couldn't see it. I couldn't see it. I couldn't see the eye. No.
2:36
So the Tyrant's Eye doesn't appear, doesn't seem to appear anywhere in any search results in reference to, I'm going to call it D&D from now on because Dungeons & Dragons gets a bit tiresome. So no idea what it's about, but then I don't know anything about the Dungeons & Dragons D&D game itself. So here's what we... Yeah, right. So it's a tabletop role-playing game.

“If you bought one in the Black Friday deal with $1,000 off, you're probably feeling a bit hacked off.”

Martin Ebb @ ~65:00 — Commentary on rapid depreciation and aggressive JJP pricing tactics within same season; customer relations concern

Jack Guarneriperson
Eric Meunierperson
Pirates of the Caribbeangame
Uncanny X-Mengame
Metallica Remasteredgame
Seth Davisperson
Joe Camicoperson
Avatar: The Battle for Pandoragame
Guns N' Rosesgame
Elton Johngame
Kyleperson
Wizard of Ozgame

high · Stern announced vault list; Jonathan and Martin debate whether this is marketing tactic to clear remaining stock or genuine multi-year pause

  • ?

    content_signal: Stern second media day (after first Expo reveal event) will not cover expenses for international or domestic press, raising accessibility barriers

    high · Martin states 'no expenses were paid, so I'm not going'; Jonathan and Martin discuss lack of advance press kit distribution impacting article quality

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jean-Paul DeWin transitioning from Jersey Jack Pinball to Dutch Pinball (implied by Back to the Future context)

    low · Not explicitly stated in this content; inferred from prior KB context about DeWin's animator role

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball aggressive discounting strategy: Guns N' Roses LE cut $2,025 (down 18% from $11k to $8,975) within weeks of Black Friday $1k discount

    high · JJP offering $2,025 off Guns N' Roses LE through January 7; Jonathan notes this likely impacts secondary market sales and previous discount buyers feel 'hacked off'

  • ?

    announcement: Dungeons & Dragons The Tyrant's Eye officially confirmed as Stern cornerstone with teaser video; full reveal scheduled January 3, 2025 at CES

    high · Stern released teaser video confirming D&D as cornerstone; reveal dates January 3 (online), CES Las Vegas, and EAG Expo London

  • ?

    product_concern: Uncanny X-Men shipped with manufacturing defects requiring free repair kits (shooter rod spring, in-lane guides) indicating rushed production

    high · Stern released comprehensive free repair kit; Kyle instructional video; Martin notes 'rushed out rather rapidly' and 'probably not fully cooked' before production

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball confirmed to hold Harry Potter license; speculated future title announcement based on January 1 'magic' teaser

    high · Joe Camico statement ~1.5 years ago that JJP secured Harry Potter; January 1 teaser photo shows Jack at licensing trade show with Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, and Harry Potter posters

    • 3:05
    Sounds kinky. Yeah. Well, I'm up for that, so sign me up. Obviously. Sign me up. But we have a very strong suspicion that this game is designed by Brian Eddy,
    3:25
    with Dwight Sullivan being the lead programmer, or at least heading the software team, so to speak. Well, Brian Eddy, designer of Medieval Madness, this game also has a dragon in it.
    3:47
    Yeah, it looks like it's a central bash toy type thing. Unless the dragon is something that you don't want to bash, because it's a good thing. I have no idea, because I have, like I said, no idea.
    4:02
    But Brian, Eddie, and dragons usually, well, the last time they teamed together, that was a very big hit. So, hopefully, that gets repeated.
    4:15
    Yeah, and hopefully the code is not so in-depth and focused on the subject and the minutiae of the subject that if you don't know anything about Dungeons & Dragons, it's still accessible to you, because that's always the danger. You want to appeal to the hardcore fans of D&D, but if you also want to appeal to those who are less familiar or totally unfamiliar with the game you have to make it fun to play even if you don't know or don't get all the references so now I'm getting flashbacks of Game of Thrones because I had never watched that show and I know it was very popular at the time but for me you start a game and you have to choose a house and I was already lost yeah that's another Dwight game of course um yeah i was going to mention that but thank you um so okay yeah so so it depends on the the the game design philosophy behind the game to see whether it's actually going to be a game that will be enjoyable for those who are not hardcore dnd players yep uh well obviously um stern we've got a whole as you said a week of Dungeons and Dragons themed events going on, including the making of and the interviews with the teams and presumably some gameplay video as well. But it starts on Friday with the reveal of at least the Pro and the LE.
    5:51
    They always say in these things that the premium will be shown at a later date but ends up being shown at the same time anyway. So we expect to get basically all the details tomorrow, including the sort of feed-to-make tricks. Pricing, I think, is probably not going to be a surprise. It's going to be the same as the others. It's being a cornerstone game. There'll be the pro, the premium, and the LE. The LE is going to be up at 13,000, I suppose, or 12,999. Right. And the pro is selling at pro prices. Yeah. The biggest mystery is how many LEs will there be because that's where Stern have been experimenting a little bit lately. Yeah, I think I've heard something about 700 being looted, but that's not confirmed yet, so we'll see when that is officially announced tomorrow. But we should get some good details, and no doubt Pinball Magazine and Pinball News will have in-depth articles about exactly what's in the game. Well, that depends. I was invited, and I believe so were you, for a special media day, which I think is going to be held January the 6th or the 7th, one of those two. Tuesday, I think. Yeah, but no expenses were paid, so I'm not going. But I did ask for the possibility to interview members of the design team as they have slots scheduled anyway on that date. Why not interview them online on Skype or something? Yeah, so I didn't hear back from that. So we'll have to wait and see. I know you will probably write a very in-depth article.
    7:43
    If I just get the press release at the same time as everybody else, I'm just going to copy-paste the press release. And I'm not saying that to scare people away from the Pimmo magazine website, but if you want a decent article, and this is basically for the marketing term at Stern, we need info up front, not when everybody else is getting it. yes I actually reached out to a certain about this and they did promise to get us the media kit sent out in advance but how much in advance that's going to be whether that's going to be 5 minutes in advance or 1 minute in advance of it going live on the website I don't know but hopefully you get all the details and some good high res pictures available as well rather than having to try and scout around and scrape them off the Stern website or look for other places. Which is not very easy to do.
    8:39
    And at the same time try and understand how the game works. Which is another thing. And watch the videos that they probably put out at the same time. Anyway, hopefully this time will be the start of a better process of revealing the game.
    8:56
    One last comment about that media day. This is the second time Stern is hosting such an event. Contrary to the first edition, this time no expenses are paid, from what I understood. Not even for domestic press. That's what they told us. well yeah so we tend to believe that so and I don't think it would matter price wise that much for an international flight I mean I think flying from Chicago or from New York to Chicago is just as expensive as flying from Amsterdam to Chicago can be yeah oh well yeah so tomorrow is launch day so Watch out for all the details if you haven't already seen them by the time you get to listen to this pincast. Well, then it's probably today or yesterday or whenever you listen to it.
    9:58
    Absolutely. So that's obviously Stern's biggest news. That game is going to have its premiere at the CES show. The Public Electronic Show. Yes. In Las Vegas. and then the week after I believe it will have its European premiere at the EAG Expo show in London where we both will be attending so we'll be able to bring you details of the game from having played it ourselves from that so that's pretty much all the news for Dungeons and Dragons reveal but there's more Yeah, it's a lot of other Stern Pinball news. Remember last month, we were talking about the Stern Pinball Cup, a series of weekly races which seemed a little undefined or ill-defined, shall we say, at that time. It was coming, but nobody knew quite how it was going to work. Well, since then, it's gone underway, and there are six weekly races, in inverted commas, each with a set of objectives of varying difficulty. so some are very easy, some are very hard and a whole range in between and for each of those you can earn ranking points if you achieve those on a particular game and each game has its own set of objectives related to that game so it might be start a multi-ball on this it might be get the super jackpot it might be get 200 spins on the spinner if the game's got a spinner that kind of thing plunge the ball for the easy one Yes, yes, successfully, which is not always easy on all Stern games, to be fair. We'll come back to that a bit later.
    11:45
    And doing this gets you on a leaderboard and earns you badges and achievements if that kind of thing appeals to you. It doesn't to me, but there are plenty of people who are getting involved with it. And it adds another dimension to the gameplay, I suppose, if you've got a whole bunch of new objectives to achieve within the game, just for this Stern Pinball Cup. Anyway, each track, there's a new track every week, and each track comes with a whole bunch of new objectives for each title. So that's going on for six weeks, and some kind of final at the end, I understand. Okay. Yeah, good luck if you're taking part in that. You can find all the details on your Insider Connected profile.
    12:35
    Right. Okay. And then Stern also announced they are putting a bunch of titles in their vault, which means they will not be rerun for at least two years and maybe not even at all.
    12:56
    And, well, so you might be wondering what are those titles. we're talking about Deadpool Iron Maiden Star Wars with the comic art Avengers Infinity Quest Elvira's House of Horrors and Foo Fighters which to me sounds well to me Elvira's House of Horrors just got a makeover Foo Fighters is a fairly recent game even though it's two years old but yeah um iron maiden had just seen another run uh not not that not that long ago a couple of months ago um so okay i'm not sure whether this is uh a way of indicating well it's sure it's a way of indicating that they will not be making those titles for the next two years but it also makes we wonder is this just a marketing trick to sell as many as they have left in stock, and that might be more than you expect.
    14:06
    Well, it could be a tactic. I don't know if it's a trick, but to make it sound a little underhand. Yeah, maybe it pushes up demand on those ones. If you realize there isn't going to be a run of new models or new machines.
    14:20
    But I think it's important to note that because they're being vaulted, it doesn't mean that there is no software updates. for those titles. Right. And as new features come out, not all those titles, I think, have the like, for instance, have the expression speaker lights code. So I think that's going to be added to those that haven't got it yet. And I guess other features as well as they come out and they will also be included in future Insider Connected events such as the STEM People Cup. Yeah. That we just talked about. So they get updates for that too.
    14:59
    So, yeah, they won't be making them. Well, they say they won't make them again for at least another two years. Right. But we still don't know whether there are any in stock or... Yeah. I mean... In a warehouse somewhere that's waiting to be made available. They say, oh, we haven't built them, but we've still got them. Yeah, something like that. Or, oh, you want Deadpool? Yeah, sure. No, we can find you a few. They don't have to rerun it if some are readily available.
    15:38
    Oh, well. If you're looking at the whole thing. Yeah. It could also just be a trigger for distributors to stock up games like, okay, oh, this is not coming out anytime soon, but I sold a bunch of, I don't know, Deadpools, so I might as well stock up now because I'll sell them anyway.
    15:58
    Yeah. Okay. Elsewhere, social media wise, Stern had produced some new making of team interviews related to the making of the Uncanny X-Men and Metallica Remastered. They are available on the Stern Pinball podcast, which is available through Insider Connected. You have to be logged into your Insider Connected account in order to be able to listen to them, as I discovered earlier. But, I mean, there have been plenty of other interviews with the team, both audio and video. So I don't think there's anything particularly revealing in those from what I heard.
    16:43
    And, of course, you can watch videos of the seminars on Uncanny X-Men making. Do we have Uncanny X-Men by... Yeah. That was an Expo. Yes, yes. Metallica remastered, I don't think. Oh, yeah, John Borg did one about that. Yeah, yeah. So that's all available from the Pinball Expo video seminars available on the Pinball News YouTube channel.
    17:11
    Right. And also there's another new video of the installation of the giant silver ball outside the Stern Pinball Building, which apparently is a different one than the one they published in October.
    17:27
    So, yeah. And that's available on Stern's YouTube channel and also on their Facebook page. yes we're talking about launching the ball in order to get an achievement on the stemping ball cup well stern have had a problem with the uncanny x-men game with the ball not launching properly or cleanly but they have made up a kit to fix this particular problem and a couple of other issues with the game now there were not going to diminish the game in any way but i think there There was a general acceptance that it was rushed out rather rapidly. And it also pretty much came out at the same time, or very close to Metallica Remastered being revealed. So those two, I think the Uncanny X-Men came out slightly before it was probably fully cooked.
    18:24
    So some of the tweaks that might have been applied before it normally got into production didn't quite get done. So there were kits available to help you if you owned one of these games. make it play as it was intended. So you can get a fix for the ball not launching cleanly,
    18:42
    and there's also another problem with the ball falling off the wire form that goes into the right in-lane, where it bounces and goes into the out-lane. So kits which include stronger shooter rod spring, a red one as opposed to the one that was supplied, a new ball guide plastic which goes at the top of the shooter lane and new taller spacers to raise the right in-lane ball guide are available. It should be free of charge, available from the distributor where you got your game. There is a video on Stern's YouTube channel with Kyle from Stern Pinball taking you through the process of installing the various parts. it's not exactly a trivial job the shooter rod spring is fairly easy because that's one of the things that quite a lot of people change over time but some of the other stuff involves dismantling the hardware the in lane and ball guide and pulling it off unplugging a flasher basically taking it apart, putting new spaces in and putting it all back together again if you want to do that then the instructions are there and it's a good guide. So it's kind of a shame that the game went out without all that fitted, but I guess you have to do what you have to do in Pinball. If you have to go into production before it's completely rock solid, then you have to deal with these kind of issues later. Right, so I assume this only applies to earlier games. I mean, I expect them to have changed it into the current production of the game. But how do you know whether your game needs that fix?
    20:35
    Yeah, good question. I guess you'd have to contact your distributor and find out whether or not they have a kit for you.
    20:44
    Right, okay. Tell them the serial number and they'll look it up for you. Okay, makes sense. It would be rather galling if you do have these problems and then you're told that your game is supposed to have been built after that they applied all the fixes and shouldn't have those problems. So I don't know what you do then. But anyway, yeah, get in touch with your distributor. They should sort you out. Right. So, and almost last but not least for Stern Pinball, I would say, a shout-out to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. kudos to them for interviewing the president of Stern Pinball Seth Davis president and CEO I think yeah he's a busy man I didn't listen to the interview personally but I did read that one of the most interesting or the more interesting issues that were being discussed were prize races for Stern Pinball. And I think the answer was something in the like of, well, they never like to do them. And at some point, well, they haven't in a couple of years, but at some point they will have to increase prices because everything else has become more expensive and wages go up and stuff like that. So at some point they have to, but not in the foreseeable future, I believe. So, yeah, it's a bit of a tough one when pinball prices generally are under pressure and it's getting harder to justify the high prices that pinball was selling for in the last year, for instance.
    22:31
    Yeah. And then, of course, there is the favorite topic of me, of Martin at least, new code. Oh, everyone loves new code, don't they? I mean, maybe one person who doesn't. No, that's all right. Good. Yes, so there's, how many games have we got? We've got four games this month, or in the month of December, that got code updates. The most recent one, Metallica Remastered, actually had two. I had one on the 23rd of December, and another one, well, just today, actually, 2nd of January. Well, the first one added the blackened multiple wizard mode, added lots of rules and scoring tweaks, added a new spinner sound plus some sound rebalancing and bug fixes. The one that came out today addressed some of the complaints about that new spinner sound and returned the option of having the classic spinner sound instead. So they do listen to people's comments and so you can either have the new or the old spinner sound and a couple of bug fixes as well from the 23rd December code. and did some more sound rebouncing, particularly in relation to some of the tracks that were in the original game and not the newer ones. Avorice House of Horrors, yeah, we talked about that just being vaulted. Well, that had a code update on the 23rd of December, which changed the wild market value wizard mode to have six stages and actually ends the game when it is completed. They also added some scoring balance changes and a few bug fixes. John Wick that had also on the 23rd December lots of rules and scoring changes a few bug fixes and 80 additional speech calls from the John Wick films have been added so that's nice finally the uncanny X-Men we were talking about as well added a new skill shot and double skill shot from a short plunge which is probably quite useful if you can't launch the ball properly also had some new graphics light shows and a few bug fixes. So a busy time for the code team at Stern Pinball, so congratulations to them in bringing all those updates out in the past month and also for listening to feedback from players who have installed it and addressing that. Right. Now, getting back to A Virus House of Horrors, so the new wizard mode ends the game when completed. So let's say you're that good of a player you're in a tournament, you're playing against another player,
    25:17
    you get to the wizard mode and the game gets ended, but you didn't drain. No, it ends when you complete it. Yeah, so basically you have not, if you're in a tournament and you get that far, you should not complete the wizard mode, else you drain and it's... I kind of think it gets to the point where there's nothing else to go for other than the shots which are lit.
    25:51
    And when you've got them all, that completes the mode and ends the game. But I think being a six-stage wizard mode, it's going to be so long and lucrative that you wouldn't want to avoid getting there. no I get that yeah okay but if you're if you put Raymond Davidson and Zach Sharp and a couple of those guys to play and all of them get to the wizard mode hmm I mean those it'll be about how you score on the way to completing it right or not complete it and just start over again so you can score more points because that's eventually what matters most get more points than everybody else well yeah I'm guessing you can't not complete it once you've started it. Once you've achieved everything, there's nothing else to go for except it. And once you've started stage one, it just keeps going. If you drain the ball and your next turn comes up, you still in the mode Hmm Okay Oh well Obviously I not that good of a player Here a wizard mode I probably never see Yes. I think a lot of people are saying that. It'd be nice to have that as one of those challenge modes that you can play from the start menu before you start the game, so you can go straight into the world market value challenge. So you will get to experience it.
    27:19
    Right, okay, well that rounds it up for Stern Pinball. I think it does. Sorry about my derailing on the virus. No, no, good point, good point. Yeah. Oh, well. On to our second headline. Yeah, well, Jersey Jack Pinball teases something magic.
    27:37
    So what did it, what were you saying? Yes, basically, Jersey Jack Pinball put a post on social media saying on the 14th anniversary of the founding of Jersey Jack Pinball, which is January 1st yes it is wish you all a very happy healthy and magical 2025 accompanied by a picture which we'd seen before and a second line sometimes all of your dreams can come true yeah which doesn't directly relate I suppose to for the players but could for the company it's accompanied by a picture of Jack Guarneri standing in front of three posters one of which is the Wizard of Oz a scene from the Wizard of Oz one of which is a movie poster for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the other one of which is a corner of a poster for Harry Potter which actually is an image used to promote the Order of the Phoenix movie Right. Okay. Now, I have to say, this is an old photo from a few years ago of Jack Warnieri at the licensing trade show, I should say, in Las Vegas, if I'm not mistaken. so it's not a current photo but it might actually indicate that something current is happening or that we finally might get to see a Harry Potter game from Jersey Jack Pimple also remember that Joe Camico has stated I think about a year and a half ago that Jersey Jack did have the license for Harry Potter Yes, he was less than happy, I think, at the fact that Jersey Jack had secured that.
    29:38
    And he was hoping to get it for Kapow. Right. Yeah, and lost out. But it'll be interesting to see exactly what comes out of that. If it's the next title from Jersey Jack, then we'll assume it'll be Eric Meunier as the designer on it. He will be next up. It's also going to be interesting to see when that game might see the light of day Or a public reveal so to speak Because obviously Jersey Jack has just revealed Avatar The battle for Pandora And I can imagine if they would be announcing a Harry Potter game in March That would probably kill Avatar sales Depends how Avatar sales are doing I suppose whether it's been a popular title or not.
    30:30
    But maybe they need to have a new title out sooner rather than later. I would not be able to comment on that because I don't know the details. But fair point, fair point.
    30:46
    Anyway, I think a lot of people were very excited at the prospect of a Jersey Jack pinball Harry Potter and think they're probably the only company who would be able to put all the mechanisms and the assets into the game.
    31:03
    A title like that that's got, what, seven movies, is it? Yeah, something like that, yeah. Yeah, seven movies worth. I'm assuming they have access to the entire gamut of the movies. It could also just be the first movie. Could be, could be any of them, really, couldn't it?
    31:21
    and they wouldn't necessarily have access to all of them anyway. It might be, you know, two or three movies they can get everything from because, you know, seven movies worth of assets is an awful lot to deal with. Yes. Well, and then it depends which assets you get. But I can imagine, for example, I'm not a fan of the Harry Potter movies and I don't think I've seen all of them, but I did see the first one. And that scene where they have to walk through that brick wall.
    31:50
    The station. Yeah. That's a very suitable scene to use in a pinball machine, where you have to shoot the ball against the wall and then some way you shoot it through. Sounds very Shadow-ish, doesn't it? Like the Sanctum lock. Yes. Yeah, so.
    32:14
    But no, well. Yeah, it would also be interesting to see how they, if they do have all the movies, how they deal with the fact that all the characters were obviously growing up during the years that those movies were released so characters like Harry Potter and Hermione and Ron from the first movie look very different to how they look in the seventh or the final movie yeah and will it be as complex as for example Pirates of the Caribbean where you can pick your own character and play as which will give you certain advantages obviously there's not that many characters I think not 30 plus characters in Harry Potter that you can choose from then let's not give anybody any ideas yes there are many and both on the good and evil side right but yeah I think I like to think a lesson was learned with that game that maybe having that many choices is not necessarily, more is not always more. Sometimes less is more. Right. Anyway, now, speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes. Good, Link.
    33:36
    Finally, finally, Jersey Jack Pinball have brought out the 1.0 code update update. Yes, I'm discussing a code update. For Pirates of the Caribbean, which had officially been in beta for years, and this includes the new Break the Curse multi-stage wizard mode. It does, and it came as a bit of a surprise, I think, to most owners. Well, a little bit of a Christmas present, I think. Yeah. A big Christmas present, I'd say, because that's the thing that they've been waiting for, as you said, for many years. For years! Every time we asked Jack about it, it's always been, well, it's in beta test.
    34:29
    As soon as it's ready for release, we'll release it. But that had been, many years had been saying that. So I don't know what it was that suddenly changed that made them able to release it now. Maybe they finally figured it's stable enough so we can release it. Well, of course, they also might have been waiting for approval from Disney for that, because all these things have to go to the license for approval, and maybe, you know, the way it works in licensing, there's personnel changes all over the place, and something that was on somebody's desk waiting to be signed off, that person's no longer working there, and it gets put to the bottom of the pile for the next person who comes in. And then you have to train such a person to become such a good pinball player that they can actually see all the assets in the game.
    35:21
    Because if they are not, then they won't see all the assets and they can't judge whether they are good assets or whether this is allowed or not. And if somebody changes jobs, you have to start over again.
    35:35
    I'm sure they're able to send them just the assets that are in the load. No, no, you can't do that. No, you have to play the game to see how it comes across. Right. Because you cannot make a fair judgment. I understand. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, hey, it's probably taken that long to actually get to the wizard mode. Couldn't find any good pinball players. No. No, and couldn't find the keys at the glass wall either to try it. Yeah. No, that's cheating. It's not the same experience. No, obviously. No, you need to. You need to understand the whole emotive journey. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, to celebrate or to mark that, Jersey Jack Pinball have been running a price promotion. I'm so excited I can't even say it. Yeah, a price promotion on their Guns N' Roses game. You may remember that they did a whole bunch of Black Friday deals where they were offering $1,000 off the recommended price of a bunch of games. including the limited edition of Guns N' Roses. Now, until the 7th of January, getting quick if you want to get one, you can buy a limited edition Guns N' Roses pinball machine and save over $2,000 on it, $2,025 to be precise. That's actually... Is it tempting? Yeah, it cuts the price from $11,000 down to $8,975. Okay. And how much does the limited edition go for on the second-hand market?
    37:13
    Don't know. Haven't been looking. But I suspect that's got to be getting down to that kind of level.
    37:20
    So, no, that's going to impact on second-hand sales, I think, if you can buy a brand-new in-box game for the same price as a used game. So that's only available, as I say, until the 7th of January from your Jersey Jack pinball distributor. Right. So if you're thinking of getting one, then now's a good time. If you bought one in the Black Friday deal with $1,000 off, you're probably feeling a bit hacked off. Right. But you didn't get the $2,000 off.
    37:50
    Yeah, I can imagine that, yeah. And not to make this Jersey Jack pinball update completely focused on Eric Meunier's games, which so far it has been, they're also building Elton John again or still whichever way you want to look at that so that title also is still in demand I would say else they wouldn't be building them yeah and don't seem to be doing any price promotions on that game either Black Friday deals didn't include oh did they I'm wondering now I was out of money already so I didn't even bother Yeah. But I haven't seen any standalone offers for money off Elton John, because I think it's still a very popular title.
    38:42
    And rightfully so. Yeah, I think it's been a slow burner in a way. And people are going to appreciate it.
    38:51
    Yeah, but people are waking up, put it that way, to all it has to offer. Okay, good. Well, that rounds it up for Joshy Jack Pinball. And let's head on to our third headline.
    39:05
    Pedretti announcing something magic. As well. Yeah, as well, yes. Yeah. Well, I suppose we should jump to their New Year's Eve image that they posted on social media saying, Happy New Year. What a surprise. Yeah. 2025 is going to be magic. Dot, dot, dot. Dot. Over an image of, well, fireworks being fired out, or seemingly being fired out of cannons.
    39:38
    But also in the background, there is a flying carpet. Right. There's also a hot dog with balloons. Yeah, yeah. Which I think is just a reference to Funhouse. Probably, yes. Yeah. And at the bottom is a whole bunch of circus tents, or you could say maybe Arabian night type tents. Yeah. Down there.
    40:08
    So which basically caused speculation that we might be looking at a remake of either Theater of Magic or Tales of the Arabian Nights. And some are saying, now those are circus tents, it's going to be circus from there. good point yes circus tent yeah I was wondering about the magic that doesn't particularly tie into Circus Voltaire as juggling and acrobatics and ringmaster but not really much in the way of magic no but then neither does Toton have magic not really the story of magic yeah there's a lot of mixed messages there.
    40:57
    Well, not so much mixed messages. Possible hints? Confuse people, maybe? Yeah, it could be none of these. It could be something else entirely. Well, there is at the bottom the lower right corner, there's two arcade machines. One looks a lot like the Zoltan game.
    41:24
    Arcade Machine, the fortune teller game that is, to confuse people even more, that game was very important in the movie Big with Tom Hanks. It was. And in that movie, Tom Hanks got himself a pinball machine.
    41:45
    I don't know. So could we be looking at a remake of Pinball? Or Jackpot, for that matter, which is a similar play field, but more updated.
    41:57
    Yeah, I think we can probably rule that out. I don't think the money's there for a pinball or a jackpot. I don't think jackpot was that popular.
    42:05
    Well, with new software, who knows what you can make of it? Yeah. Actually, pinball was a very popular game. It sold over 10,000 back then for millions. Yeah, but you wouldn't be able to sell it for the kind of price that you'd want to sell it for these days. need to be a completely revamped version, I think. Okay. Well, I'm just saying.
    42:30
    That's what I try to do. I'm just saying what I'm seeing. Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah. I don't think we can read any more into that. But what we can tell you is, it's also from Patretti, you remember they did a Funhaus 2.0 kit, not the code that's in the Funhouse remakes but a standalone kit of Rudy's Nightmare now that had support for an auto launcher for multi-ball but Funhouse, the original game, doesn't have an auto launcher it has manual launchers on both sides, one for the steps ramp on the left hand side and one for the normal ball launch it goes all the way round to the upper flipper or into the hideout so if you wanted to add an auto plunder to it was supported in the software but there was no kit available well now there is a kit available yes the Rudy's Nightmare Funhouse 2.0 auto launcher kit is now available to pre-order on the pinballremakes.com website which is Pedretti's website for their remakes and parts The cost is €179 plus VAT. That's a value-added tax if you don't know what that is. With shipping expected, as I say, at the end of January 2025.
    44:00
    The kit includes an auto-launcher assembly mechanism, shooter lane switch, the coil with connector, the plunger coil, connecting cable between the coil and the knocker connector, which I guess is how it supplies it, a shooter lane cover, which is custom made, and a wooden ball guide, a replacement ball guide, which I think is a bit thinner than the one that's installed on the game originally to allow space for the auto launcher prongs to fit in there. Okay. So, if you've got that kit and you want to add an auto launcher to it, you should be able to get that towards the end of this month. Right, okay, well that's very good news for those who bought that kit back in the day.
    44:53
    And speaking of Funhaus Remake, there's also a new code. There is indeed, yeah, version 1.21 comes out. Now, code's always a bit more complicated for the Funhaus Remake because it actually consists of three separate rule sets. There's the version 1.0, 1.5, an enhanced version of the original code, and version 2.0, which is a completely new code. So this new update enhanced all of those. For the first version 1.0 and 1.5, there was a bunch of bug fixes and a test in the menu for the topper to find out whether or not it has a topper fitted or not.
    45:40
    The version 2.0 code has Lightshow for that topper. It uses the knocker for if you get a high score, which wasn't activated before. There's various attract mode lights fixes, really, because there was a problem with it flickering at certain times, both in the play field and the trans light. And there's a whole bunch of other fixes as well. So that's version 1.21, available from the, well, was made available from the 23rd of December. for your Funhouse remake games. Okay, so, and, well, they're granted up for Pedretti, but as Pedretti is involved with Pinball Brothers, let's discuss Pinball Brothers as well. Yeah, new code from them as well. It's actually a kind of hotfix version of the 2.1 code, which was available recently, or was released, and this new code addresses a couple of new problems. What game are we talking about? Oh, I do apologise. Yes, this is, of course, for the Queen game. Yeah, both models. And, yes, they brought out a 2.1c update, which added a whole bunch of new stuff to the game. It was quite a big update. They also introduced a couple of bugs, which are now fixed in this 2.1f version. So you can go to the Pimple Brothers website, It will take you to the link to download it if your game doesn't install it automatically. I don't know whether it does or not. Okay. So any news on ABBA code updates or anything? No other updates at the moment, no. Okay.
    47:27
    Then, well, let's take your company closer to my home, to your home as well. Dutch Pinball and Dutch Pinball Exclusive.
    47:39
    There was an article published in the Spinner magazine, which is a publication published by the Dutch Pinball Association.
    47:52
    The magazine is in Dutch, but an English translation was posted on Dutch Pinball's Facebook page by Rens, their sort of public speech person. on the making of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. And it's a very in-depth article.
    48:16
    Yeah. So it goes a lot further than the, well, I don't want to knock down the stern making of videos of their various games, but this goes really a lot deeper. I think it's like a seven-page article or something with images of various stages of the Whitewood and changes they made and where the game basically originated from and what they wanted to do and everything. So, very interesting read on a game that most of you probably will maybe, if you're lucky, get a chance of playing once because there are not that many going to be that many on public locations, I expect. No, I would have thought so. Yeah, it was a good article. I've got my copy of Spinner as well, so I can read it in Dutch, too. How is your Dutch, by the way?
    49:13
    Struggling. I enjoy the pictures. I especially enjoy the first picture, which is of the phone call version of the game when it was in John Popatier's Zidware studio. Which is a picture you took, probably. It is, yes.
    49:32
    It is. I actually called up the one I took in 2015 just to have a look and make sure it was my picture. And it is. It's the one that everybody seems to use now. But I thought it was mine, but I thought I ought to check before claiming ownership of it. But yes, that was mine. But it's perfectly all right.
    49:54
    And I'll send the invoice later. My payment is a copy of the magazine. images were never cheaper so that's right yeah i'm a cheap date yes indeed um but we have more news about uh dutch pinball uh exclusive anyway yeah um melvin brower who is um the co-owner i would say of uh dutch pinball exclusive together with barry treason but apparently uh Melvin applied at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the trademark of Blade Runner,
    50:44
    which is a classic movie, I would say, from 1982. And, well, that could be very interesting if used on a pinball machine. Interestingly enough, the address where the patent is listed is not the Dutch pinball address, but it's an address of probably one of the other companies that Melvin is involved in, which appears to be a motor shop. Yes, like high-end sports cars. yeah and we know that that's Melvin's background but it's interesting that he put that trademark on that address and not so much on the Dutch Pindle exclusive address yes and the fact that it's for Blade Runner that must be the movie because that's the movie's based on the Asimov book Do Androids Dream of Electrics Sheep which isn't what he's applied for the patent or trademark for, so it must be the movie. And it's only, it's for Blade Runner, not for Blade Runner 2049 or whatever the sequel is. The more recent one. Yeah, the more recent one. Yeah, which is sticking with the classic, which, interesting subject. I mean, there's a lot you could do with it, but it's a pretty sort of slow movie, I'd have to say. I haven't seen it in years. I wouldn't know I've seen I kind of every time it comes on TV I kind of find myself watching it even though I know it inside out pretty much by now which is unusual for me to know anything about any pinball titles these days but that's that is a classic but see where he goes with that whether that's going to be a future Dutch pinball exclusive release could also be a curveball to have people expect something and then show up with something completely different because Melvin has more titles. Oh, yeah. Well, he has the rights to produce more titles. I mean, he has the rights to produce all the Zitware titles if he wants to.
    53:08
    There surfaced a photo of a Magic Girl playfield in a Dutch pinball cabinet also last month on the internet.
    53:21
    so it could be a title in the works and it makes sense that he registered the trademark but a trademark alone doesn't give you the license no, absolutely not so I assume well, if somebody makes a call to whoever, which movie studio owns the rights to that movie yeah I thought it would have been Fox back then so it would probably be Disney now Oh well We'll have to wait and see, but it's probably not anytime soon, I expect, that we're going to see that title, which does indicate that Melvin is intending to stay in the business for a while.
    54:11
    Yep, good news there. So let's move on to another company, and this time we'll move to Spooky, right up in Benton. And they recently announced their Evil Dead title.
    54:25
    Yep, the first of those games are now in production. So it didn't take very long. They announced they were going to have a maximum of 888 machines made. So far they've sold around 700 of them. So doing pretty well. I think they sold about 500 on the first day. Yes. Well, it seems to dribble out. You get a peek upon announcing a game and then... Yeah. Yeah, and it tails off and it becomes more steady. So there's a good chance. And then it might pick up again once people have played it on location and figured, like, or played it with friends. Yeah. Well, the games are going out now, so people will get a chance to experience it for themselves, other than at shows. And, of course, they'll be at a lot of shows as well in this 2025. I think they publish a schedule of all the shows that are going to be out, starting with the Pinball at the Beach down in Florida, and then Texas Pinball Festival, and then a whole bunch of others after that, ending up with Pinball Expo in October.
    55:36
    Right. so a packed year for spooky pinball but uh so anyway they're off a good start the games are in production and 700 sold out of the maximum 880 uh which means that they're uh they're actually making that game alongside looney tunes and texas chainsaw massacre and some skibby doo games as well skibby doo games are available for immediate purchase if you if you want to buy one of those Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre have a queue or have a line which all of which are being produced so there's a wait list on that but I think they're still available to pre-order but you'll be at the back of the line for those which is fair enough no, no, probably not they're going to get through those the collector's editions are certainly still available to purchase for Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo, as well as the toppers as well. That is a remade order purchase too. And with all these games that were in production and being made, they have bumped up their support service now and extended their phone line support.
    56:55
    This is now available between 7am and 8pm, Monday to Thursday. at Central Time in the US and 8am to 7pm on Friday and Saturday. So if you've got a bunch of people coming round for the weekend to play pinball and you suddenly find something's wrong with your spooky pinball machine, you should be able to get through on the support line up to about 7pm or 7 o'clock in the evening on Friday and Saturday night. And we might be able to give you some quick fix tips to get your game up and running for your friends. right yeah um i have one more note regarding evil dead there is a the dutch distributor for spooky pimble which is a zelda my flippers can you say that three times in a row i couldn't say it once anyway they included a um a flyer for uh evil dead with the uh spinner magazine that you also received it. Yeah.
    58:03
    And, well, if you're a collector of pinball flyers, then you're most likely already interested in this one. But what makes it special is this is the first four-page pinball flyer in years. Yes, I was surprised when I took that out of the envelope. Oh, this is very thick. Is it double page? Yeah, it is. Yeah. So, four-page flyer instead of a standard two-page flyer, front and back.
    58:37
    So, all you flyer collectors start looking out for that flyer. And that is a, is that how it comes from Spooky? Or is that something which the distributor, whose name escapes me, has produced for themselves? Because it's an A4 size. Yes, I think they produce it themselves. they did that as well with previous spooky titles so I'm going with that I also have to say I haven't seen any flyers from Spooky for Evil Dead yet although there have been images that could be used for flyer images but I haven't seen any printed flyers that's not so strange after not being in the US since Spring Ball Expo and the game was announced after that So, yes. I mean, there are certainly flyer images released when the game came out.
    59:37
    I've got them on the Pinball News website. Right. I'm looking at them right now. So I know they do exist.
    59:44
    Certainly for, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, well, they've got separate ones for, but there's only one edition, of course, of that game. Right. Yeah. So I just had to do a sanity check for a minute. Yes. But, yeah, they put a... They used some of this artwork, well, they used the flyer images for the Dutch version of it, but also added in some other extra feature matrix-type things as well from the game to list all the features that were in it. That makes it extra more collectible. It does, yes. Yeah, nice job, whoever put that together. Yeah, thanks, Errol.
    60:31
    Okay. I think that's everything from Spooky, so let's move on to another company, one which has maybe a less rosy outlook at the moment, and that's American Pinball. At least there's a lot of speculation. American Pinball, we're talking about you, yes.
    60:51
    Yeah, there have been a couple of layoffs. There have. some well-known people from the company in the game design side of it. Steven Bowden has been laid off.
    61:04
    So has Jack Hager. Yeah, Jack E. Hager, art director. Art director there. And also it looks like Ryan McQuaid has been too, who's the designer on the next game, on the next scheduled game. Yeah, which makes it extra sour because not being employed when your game goes out. Hmm, yeah, which will also make it quite interesting when it comes to promoting the game. If it actually does come out, you're not going to be appearing at any making-of videos or panel discussions. Right, yeah. And apparently some Pimmo assembly stuff has been laid off for Christmas. Yeah. Yes, it's not looking good at American Pinball at the moment. We have to start wondering exactly who is still there and what they're doing. Right.
    62:05
    Yeah, I believe David Fix was interviewed by the Loser Kid Pinball podcast, and he mentioned something like the layoff of Stephen Bowden being something temporarily, and he's looking to hire him back. but yeah that's I know that's an American feature of employment over there that they lay people off when times are tough and with the hope of bringing them back but of course that assumes that they're available to come back and want to come back as well so indeed the finances of the company improve sufficiently to allow that to happen It's not a good sign anyway, put it that way. And also doesn't give any potential buyer much confidence about the company and their ability to support their product going forward. Right. And you have to keep in mind that there is another new game scheduled to come out, most likely the first quarter of 2025.
    63:15
    Yes, that's right. expected to be out around about the time of the Texas Pinball Festival, which is where they've premiered games before. But whether or not that will still happen, it's very much dependent on who's left and how the process or progress of the game develops over the next couple of months. Because it's going to be a bit touch and go. And, of course, they'll have to be able to build the games as well and have the funding to buy the parts needed to build it and promote it properly.
    63:50
    Right, so the game that we're talking about is rumoured to be Cuphead. I will not comment any further about what it is. Oh, the rumour, I can comment on the rumour. Yes, yes, that is indeed the rumour, yes. Yes, so we can confirm the rumour is Cuphead. and for many pinball players that might be an unknown theme it's based on a video game but it could be very could very well be a very fun game and just what American pinball needs to dig themselves out of the hole that they're apparently currently in well fingers crossed there we obviously wish them well and hope no further layoffs and they'll be able to bring some of their staff back. We mentioned about Stephen Bowden being laid off, but at the same time he's starring in a new deep dive video of the rules for Barry O's Barbecue Challenge, which is available on YouTube. It's on the American Pimple YouTube channel, do you know?
    65:02
    I'm not even sure, but I suppose it is. And I'll just look it up, and you'll find it soon enough. And I see you're already doing that. No, I'm not. Apparently, I'm not doing that. No. I thought I was, but no. You just deleted something. Did I? From our shared notes. Oh, dear. Okay. Let me undo that, then. Yeah. There we go. Well, there you go. so anyway so that's not all um apparently a rumor had it that american pimple was being sued and um i believe that was also addressed in the the loser kid a pimple podcast where david fix was interviewed but i don't think at that time um it was known by who they were being sued And from what I understood, Paul Reno, co-designer of Galactic Tank Force, posted on, I believe it was Facebook, that he is suing American Pimble. And I don't recall exactly about what, but it seems to be reasonable to assume, and you know what that means, But apparently he is not getting paid for his share of design in that game or a royalty for the games sold where he is entitled to or something like that. So we don't know any details on that. And it appears that post has been removed after it made an appearance. so I don't know whether that indicates the matter is solved whether there is no lawsuit or whatever but I couldn't find it on Paul Reno's Facebook anymore or maybe I didn't look good enough oh well also Dennis Dortman not working at the company anymore so I'm not sure what to think of all this, I just hope things will turn out for the best for everybody involved. At the moment they have no designs as far as we know, working for the company. So they are working on existing designs.
    67:35
    But anyway, we'll see. It would be nice to be here to get some more information from inside the company and we'll try and bring that to you soon. And I'll just add that Stephen Bowden video about Barry O's barbecue challenge is on the American Pinball YouTube channel if you want to go there and watch it and learn all about the hidden secrets within the game. Right. Okay. So then let's move over to Texas. Multimorphic.
    68:08
    They revealed or launched or whatever you want to call it a new karate themed mini game called Young Martial Artist which is created by New Wilson, and that's his first game designed for the P3 platform. Yes. And the 23rd game that's available for the P3 platform. It's the best part, probably. Available as a free download for all P3 owners that have the highest playfield module. Right. Okay.
    68:51
    So if you have a highest playfield module and you're tired of playing that same game, and you figure, I would like to play something else on this playfield, then Young Martial Artist it is. Yep. Available to download now through your P3. As you say, totally free. So good work, Neil. Look forward to seeing more games for the P3. Right. Yeah. And, well, in the meantime, Multimorphic is still building batches of The Princess Bride.
    69:30
    And, unfortunately, they saw a delay of new shipments due to a substandard part from one of their suppliers. And, well, you know what it's like with pinball. If one part is not right or not functioning correctly or missing, basically that can hold the entire production. Indeed. But they have been building all the other sub-assemblies required to make the Princess Bride so that when this improved part does turn up, they'll be able to produce the completed playfield modules very quickly or much faster than they would do otherwise. They're having to build the whole thing. So they're not wasting time, but they're building all of them and waiting for this one part to arrive so they can complete them and start shipping them again. So if you're expecting your Princess Bride game kit to arrive and you haven't been told it's been dispatched yet. There might be a little bit of a delay on that, but I'm sure Jerry and the multimorphic team will have been in touch to let you know what the situation is. Right. Well, they've been very transparent about the current situation. Yeah, they're very good. Oh, yeah, can you pour me one of those, please? Oh, sure. Yeah, thanks. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Oh, strong. Yeah.
    71:00
    It's over. No. Definitely not. Okay. So, that's the multi-morphic news. Let's stay in Texas, though, and head down to Houston. And barrels of fun, of course, with the Labyrinth game. And we mentioned before that they added this new barrel ball feature to the game, which is like stall ball, but it's properly integrated into the game. So, it requires you to lock the ball into one of a number of places by making that particular shot. it's a kind of a good party game or a tournament for a show but they've integrated it such that you can't always keep shooting the same shot you can only shoot it a certain number of times then it's no longer available and that was fine as it was but now they've enhanced it even further by bringing in the voice talents of Tim Kitzrow who otherwise known as Mr. Boom Shackalacka of the NBA Jam fame and of course many many pinball titles as well including uh scared stiff world cup soccer uh i didn't realize he also did twilight zone but um he was the voice of rod sterling in twilight zone and uh and of course attack from mars and many other titles so well he's very talented then he is yeah and very enthusiastic and brings a lot of energy to to the the whole thing so i think I think it was also in Elvira's House of Horrors. Yes, indeed, yes. It certainly was here.
    72:37
    I think there's probably about, I don't know, about a dozen different pinball machines he's worked on over the years. I wasn't going to list them all. I'm very curious to hear what he did with that game and whether it's in any of the characters from the movie type or whether he just did his own thing. Hmm. Yes, and also I'd be interested to know how that ties in with the licensing deal. And, yeah, whether the movie company has a say over that, because obviously it's on their machine. So, and what was their take on adding Tim's barrel ball contributions? Which is a different game, in a way.
    73:23
    Right. Well, from what I understood from David Frenes, when he was over in the Netherlands for the Dutch Pimple Open two months ago,
    73:33
    he has a very good relationship with the licensor, and they are very appreciative of what he's doing. So it may not be as big of a hurdle as it is with other licensing companies that may see difficulty in everything. Yes, that's right. Or they don't have the proper pinball players to see what the assets look like, as we discussed before. Absolutely, yes.
    74:05
    Right. Well, that's the news from Barrels of Fun. So we look forward to playing that new Well, there's other news from Barrels of Fun Oh, we see Yeah, well, it's more like personal news We are planning to visit Barrels of Fun Ahead of the Texas Pinball Festival Yeah, that's the plan Yeah So My first time outside of the Houston International Airport Actually visiting Houston Oh, well, I can recommend it, although after a bit trying to find a suitable hotel in which to stay was more of a challenge than I thought it was going to be. If you'd like to look at pictures of roach-infested rooms and beds, I recommend going through some of the hotel reviews in the Houston area. It can be a bit of a scary sight, but I'm sure it's not going to be that bad. And anyway, we're going there for pinball, so how bad can it be? So, okay, any pinball enthusiasts out there who would be willing to accommodate to fellow pinball enthusiasts traveling all the way from Europe to Houston for one or two nights, don't hesitate in dropping an email to either Martin or myself.
    75:35
    Should I mention email addresses? No, I don't think we need to go that far. I'm sure we're contactable one way or the other. And, of course, I've been to Houston before anyway for the amazing Houston Arcade Expo show down there run by Keith. So, really good fun time down there. It's a great pinball city. And isn't Wormhole also in Houston?
    76:02
    I think they are. I think you're right. Yeah. Wormhole Arcade. I think we have to add that to the list of visiting. Sounds good to me. Yeah.
    76:12
    Okay. Well, we'll work out our holiday plans a bit later, but we'll carry on. Off air. Yeah. Exactly. Carry on with our pinball industry news. And a little snippet of news from Homepin over in Taiwan, that the first production of Blues Brothers machines destined for the UK have shipped. So apparently there's a batch coming over here. A batch? Yeah, coming to Retro Arcade Specialists, the distributors for Homepin in the UK. And hopefully it will be at the EAG show, but I fear it will not be. We'll come to what will or will not be at the EAG show a little bit later when we get to the other news. But at the moment there's a little bit of speculation on that because we don't really know for sure until the day itself. Because even if companies plan to bring particular titles to the show, things can happen, as we've seen in the past. and they end up not being available to go onto the stand. But more on that later when we get to other news. So that's... Heading back to Texas. We should have really worked this out a little better, shouldn't we? And done the Texas triangle.
    77:34
    Yes. Right. So Turner Pimble, who have been building and shipping Ninja Eclipse, their first game limited to 100 units. They did something that I haven't actually seen other companies do before, but they made the files to 3D print the sculpts used in the Ninja Eclipse game publicly. So if you have a 3D printer, then you can print them yourself. and bear in mind these are the prototype sculpts, so they may vary from the production versions to some degree, but they are freely available to download for personal use only. So don't start selling them on eBay and that kind of stuff, although not everybody may have a 3D printer, and if you own the game and don't have a 3D printer, there should be a way to getting those sculpts. I'm still wondering. I think someone, I can't remember whether it was Don's Pinball podcast, or someone was making them available for sale. They are licensed to sell them from Turner Pinball.
    78:54
    But I think they're still the prototype sculpt, but there's no reason that you wouldn't be able to edit them once you've got them and make them. The question is, why would you need them? Because if you have the game, I assume the sculpts are in there. They're in there, but they get broken. Or if you want to make them and decorate them in a different way to the way they were in the game, maybe add some extra features to them. You can use the files, the 3D printing files as the basis, and maybe add on top of that or modify them. Okay, makes sense. Yeah, lots of good stuff. It would be nice to see the finished ones available. I think Christian has said that there was quite a lot of changes involved before it actually went into production, and he hasn't got time to go back and redo those files.
    79:53
    So that's why they're the prototype ones. But it would be a great, great thing to have available for other companies to make those available as well. So if you need to buy parts, and for companies that don't have a big parts business that makes money from selling replacements, then, yeah, make them publicly available.
    80:14
    Right. Okay. So moving up north, back to the Chicago area, Chicago Gaming, Pulp Fiction Limited Editions are finally shipping to North American buyers after the first models were shipped to Europe before Christmas. and apparently a container of games for Australia is also on its way Yep so they going off around the world I think some North American buyers are a bit miffed that they didn get their games before the holiday season over there because the first units did go into shipping containers for Europe.
    80:59
    Well, that gives you another reason to celebrate once you get your game. I mean, if you're already celebrating something else and you get your game, now you get two parties. Yeah, that's right. It's a good way to start the new year. So congratulations to the people who stuck it out all this time and are finally getting their limited edition Pulp Fictions. And it's been a bit of a wait, but I'm sure you'll find it worth it.
    81:26
    Right. Okay. Then you did some digging on Bimble Adventures from Canada. Yeah, very quiet. As we mentioned before, they were going to be taking some time off from posting publicly and also from developing their games but recently, just a couple of days ago they posted on Instagram that the code for their Elements title is now 100% complete and say that the cabinet and playfield need just, to quote them, a few more tweaks I don't want to cast doubt on that statement but we've heard that quite a few times and it ends up being quite a lengthy process, particularly if they're not devoting themselves full-time to producing games. But it's good that the code's completely done, and that code includes a new feature allowing players to customise the soundtrack by plugging in a USB stick and uploading your own music to it, licensed or otherwise, as it's for your own personal use. In addition, they've also added a fully-featured graphical service menu to Elements as well, which is themed around the artwork within the game. So that's part of the 100% complete code. So it'd be nice to see Elements completed, really. Right. And made available.
    82:54
    Yeah, I haven't seen it yet. All we've seen is... I saw it at Expo. Yeah, but it was barely playable because it needed attendance all the time. Yeah, yeah. But fortunately I was able to talk through it by Andrew, who showed me how it plays. And it was good. It was a good, fun game. Nice to see it out there in what is becoming a crowded market.
    83:25
    Right. So in the meantime, I just noticed, I'm not sure whether you have seen this, a post from Pinball Adventures from 18 hours ago with an image of their service menu. Yes, that's the one. Yeah, okay.
    83:43
    Oh, well, yeah, I haven't seen that yet, so... Yeah, it's a graphical service menu themed around the element's artwork. Right, yeah, okay, makes sense, makes sense. Well, I'm very curious to see where or at what show that game will make its public debut. I assume it could be the Northwest Pinball and Arcade show in Tacoma. Yeah, I mean, one of the things we mentioned last month is that possibility of trade barriers being put up between the U.S. and Canada because Pinball Adventures being a Canadian company, and probably their major market for sales would be in the US. So if there were tariffs imposed on imports from Canada into the US, that might impact on their plans as well. But hopefully not. As I said, it's a crowded market now. One of the other companies that's entered the market fairly recently is our next company, Hexapimble in France, for their space hunt game. which is getting very well received, I think, everywhere that it's being exhibited. The company have been continuing with their series of interviews with Space Hunt team members, being featured on their Facebook page and maybe other social media as well, which I haven't checked out. But the latest interviews are with Alexandre Labadé,
    85:23
    the animations designer. that's almost certainly not how his surname is pronounced in which case I apologise and also Romain Fontaine the electronic systems designer who we know well and is a very familiar face in pinball electronics I should say and Luis Dos Santos the game designer as well I was interviewed with him about his history in pinball and the creation of Space Hunt. And also Hervé Cousillon, who composed and performed all the music in Space Hunt. So if you want to know a lot more about the game,
    86:12
    read the interviews with the people who made it. Right. Well, it's nice to see all those team members get some attention because quite often it's a lot of work and hardly any credits. Yeah, that's right. No one knows who the people behind the game are. So, yeah, nice. Okay. Then all the way in Australia, Vector Pinball announced a game that we actually already announced before Vector did.
    86:45
    Yes, that would be. The Holden Pinball Machine Heritage Edition, which will be the next game in their Aussie Icons Automotive lineup. And it's available to order now. It's priced at $12,900, I suppose, Australian dollars. and buyers outside Australia are exempt from 10% sales tax. Yes, a general sales tax applied in that price. I did a little calculation to work out what it would be without that sales tax, which brings it down to, this is US dollars, 7,280, because it'd be sales tax in the US if you're buying it there. in Europe it's 7,078 euros and in the UK it's 5,882 UK pounds oh then I'll buy it there that seems a lot cheaper plus respective tax VAT or sales tax and of course I guess it has to be shipped as well because we don't think there are any distributors outside Australia right it's also a very Australian brand and I'm not even sure Holden is any of those cars are known outside of Australia or driving outside of Australia. I was looking at the list of vehicles and I thought a couple that I recognise I think they are GM brands General Motors which in the UK they owned Vauxhall at the time, they don't own them anymore I sold them. So there was a Commodore car, which is certainly familiar to UK buyers, and I guess that would be Opel in Europe as well. It was an Opel Commodore, I believe. Okay. So some of them will be familiar, but a lot of them are strictly Australian-holden specific titles. Right. So now there's a few things interesting to note. some people wondered whether Vector Pinball had the license for Holden. Apparently they do.
    89:15
    So it's a fully licensed game. It's a limited edition with a maximum of 100 units. A familiar number. Right. I'm not sure whether that has a link to that many cars still riding around.
    89:32
    Could be. I have no idea. What I found very interesting as well is on their social media effect of pinball, they said for more pictures and info on the game, go to www.holdenpinball.com. So they created a specific website for this one game. Yes, or at least a URL and maybe it links to the Vector Pinball website. But you'd think they would go for the Vector Pinball website, but in this case, they didn't. No, it could be part of the tie-in with the Holden Automotive Company. They use the Holden Pinball website rather than the Vector one. but I have to say it's a very slow website when I was trying to find it earlier. Oh, is it? It takes a long time to find it and I thought it was going to time out but then it didn't eventually make it and it's quite slow at loading all the images as well. Oh. But there are some good pictures of the game on there anyway. It looks nice. It has a sort of classic feel to it in that the cabinet looks a bit beaten up a bit worn out. So in a way it's a good thing because it means if you get aware around the flipper buttons, it's actually in keeping with the design of the artwork. So I don't think you'll, yeah it does actually link back to Vector Pinball anyway, that Holden Pinball, it's just a redirect.
    91:22
    So still, well, it could be a smart tactic because if anybody is interested in Holden, and Holden Pinball is easier to remember than Vector Pinball. Yes, especially if you're a Holden fan, and you're looking for Holden-related items. Yep. Right. Okay, well, there was this other Australian pinball company called Haggis Pinball. Do we have any news on the current whereabouts of where these people are? No. No, everything's gone very, very quiet on that. No, I haven't heard any news about from the liquidator or anything any court hearings or any developments at all on Haggis people. Everything seems to have gone quiet in the last month over the holiday period.
    92:14
    Okay. But, you know, since we hear anything, we'll let you know. Sure. So, then we have Bitronic in Spain. Again, very quiet, no news.
    92:27
    Don't really do much in the way of social media for their games. As far as we know, they're still producing Tokyo Perfect Drift, which we haven't seen any. Well, we haven't seen any news from distributors of Bitronic either announcing that the game is available, but it could be that they are focusing on arcades and distributors in Spain first before they go international. Yeah, I will say that Bitronic two years ago, they exhibited at the EAG show in London, where they had a couple of machines there. But last year they weren't there.
    93:06
    But hopefully they'll be there this year. I haven't checked the exhibit yet. I'm looking it up, right? Oh, good, good, man. Okay. Well, they were there two years ago, and they had a couple of machines, one of which had the playfield up and was being used to demonstrate the build quality of the internals of the game. And the other one was playable. And I'm trying to remember exactly which game it was. Oh, it was Super Hoop, wasn't it? That's right. Yeah, Super Hoop game. And, as I say, last year we were expecting them to be there, but they weren't. And hopefully be back now, although there was, I think last year there was a lot of talk about the UK having enacted Brexit, with how that impacted on other European manufacturers selling into the UK market and made it somewhat harder. So we'll see. And Jonathan will, I'm sure, let us know in due course whether or not Bittronic. So far, Bitronic is not among the listed companies that will be appearing at the EAG.
    94:21
    Okay. Well, it doesn't mean it won't be represented by one of the other companies that is going to be at the show.
    94:27
    So, fingers crossed, we'll get to see Tokyo Perfect Drift before too much longer, because it's a good game, and it looks beautiful. and want to see how it's come along all the time since it was first announced. Right.
    94:42
    Now, there's another company which we saw at Pinball Expo for the first time and sort of bullied the waters a little bit because they too were working on an Alice in Wonderland game and in fact even called themselves Wonderland Amusements. Now, they're producing a smaller than normal pinball, an 80% size game.
    95:08
    And the key feature for them is that they are aiming to come in with an under US$1,000 price tag on their game.
    95:19
    Which is very ambitious. It's challenging, yes. Well, in the past month they've shared an updated video showing their cabinet design and a rough rendering of their playfield design of their game, which they have announced is called Alice Goes to Wonderland. Okay, it's not Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it's Alice Goes to Wonderland from Wonderland Amusements. The cabinet design, I have to say, looks pretty decent. I'm guessing from the number of bolts holding it all together, it's made of MDF rather than tongue and groove ply, which is fine for this level of price, and it's going to be solid and pretty heavy.
    96:05
    Looks like a standard pinball shape, although a little bit smaller, say 80% size. The back box hardly has anything much in it, so it's quite thin in terms of depth. Full width, you know, it looks like a pinball cabinet.
    96:23
    On the playfield, there's two ramps, both having wire-formed ball returns, or at least look wire-formed. They could be plastic, but light wire. And there's a castle sculpt at the back. No information on whether you can download 3D print files for that.
    96:42
    Interestingly, and rather disappointingly, it seems I've lost one of the three pot bumpers that they had on earlier Playfield designs, and they're just down to two now.
    96:53
    Previously, I had all three firing at the same time. Maybe that was a bit too much, both in terms of cost and in terms of having enough energy from a single coil to fire three pop-up simultaneously, so down to two. But we'll look to see how that game develops and what they do with the rules.
    97:14
    It's a fairly simple play field, as you'd expect for that price, but it's far from being anything like a sizzle game. So it looks like being a full-featured, although slightly smaller game with a slightly smaller ball in it as well. We will bring you updates on that as we get them. Right. Okay. So then, well, Cardona Pinball? No news for their great kids? No, it seems like James is doing some videos, but he seems to be reviewing other companies' games at the moment. So I guess his attention is elsewhere and not working on producing 2.0 kits for other games at the moment. Right, okay. Then we have TiltBob, who are working on their road trip game.
    98:10
    You found some news on Pinsight. Yeah, they've been very quiet everywhere else, and the website doesn't have anything at all. and it says, like, welcome to 2024, which is... It's a bit out there. A little bit, only by a few days.
    98:27
    But, yes, you say, it did post on Pinside a message saying we're doing things quite a bit different in some areas to other pinball manufacturers, and they say, in a good way, we hope, and are trying to focus on things important to us. They say it is insanely difficult getting pinball machines produced. but we are true fans and wanted our first machine to be something quirky, unique, and just fun to play. So they are continuing development, but they're finding, to coin a phrase, pinball is hard, and it takes quite a lot longer than you might hope. So it doesn't look like they're going to be bringing anything to the market just yet, but they're taking their time to make sure what they do come up with is unique and something that they are happy with. So good luck to the Tilt-Pop team.
    99:21
    Okay. So then heading back to Spain, SDR Pinball, no news, I see. Well, we haven't heard from them in years, basically. Yeah.
    99:33
    Well, there is no news from Quetzal Pinball. That's well Antonio Arturo, the designer of the earlier mentioned Tokyo Perfect Drift game. Yeah. I have it, however, from a good source that he is working on a new design. Yes, indeed.
    99:55
    Yes. No news on when that's coming out or when he's going to show that or whatever. He's not, well, I haven't seen any info on social media on that either. the only thing I hear is that it's a very interesting design yes and be interesting to see who builds it as well right and there may be a suggestion for Tilt Bob if you're looking for a manufacturer why not try Bitronic yeah because they're used to dealing with third party designs so I'll just leave that out.
    100:41
    Okay. So, Circus Maximus, no news either. No, I wasn't expecting any. No. No? Okay. And then we get finally to the other news section. Yes, well, we mentioned the AG Expo show, which takes place in London this month. Yes, second week of January. Jonathan will be flying in for the second day of the show, the Wednesday. I've been practicing on my wing skills. Good. I hope it's not too windy for you otherwise it could be hard work and I'll be there as well on the same day I don't think we'll be recording anything there well we never expect to record and then we have exclusive interview with Gary Stern and other people well you never know, yeah it's true we did do that didn't we yeah we don't know who's going to be at the show exactly Electrocoin will be Well, we do know. Yes. Well, we know. Uh-oh. We'll not be there. Yeah, Electric Coin will be Stern's main center of attraction, being the U.K. distributor for the company.
    101:51
    I think we can guess that Gary Stern will be there and some of the senior management, whether it be Seth or John Buscalia.
    102:03
    Yeah, he'll be there. I think Zach said he was going to be there as well. Oh, no, I think, well, Zach is going to Las Vegas. Yeah, but he's going to the UK. He's going to London after that. Oh, how nice. Yeah, so we should see him there. Be able to tell him all about our experience with the launch of the next Cornerstone game, which is coming out tomorrow.
    102:30
    Pinball Heaven, however, won't be exhibiting there. We thought they were going to be, but they aren't.
    102:37
    So no Jersey Jack pinball representation and no Jersey Jack himself either. And no dinner with Jack. Oh, I was so much looking forward to that because we wanted to redo our segment of last year, dinner with Jack. Perhaps we can do it remotely.
    103:00
    Yeah, but we won't be sitting at the same table then. No. Which was the whole idea. well let's see if we can work something out but Jack won't be there, Pimble Heaven won't be there but Retro RK Specialists will be there and they are representing amongst others Stern Pimble, American Pimble Barrels of Fun Hexapimble, Home Pimble and Turner Pimble and we don't know which of those companies they'll be bringing to the show I don't think they're representing Bitronic, but at least not yet. So maybe that's another one to add to the portfolio. I think,
    103:42
    I can't remember, perhaps they did have a Superhoops there before. I had Superhoops at the UK show, I think, one time, so maybe. Oh, wow. Might be a nice surprise there.
    103:56
    Anyway, we will bring you all the details of that in our respective reports from the Pinball Magazine and the Pinball News websites. Yes, indeed. And, of course, in our recap of the Pinball Industry News from January, which is this month, but you can listen to that, probably the first or around the first of February. Yep. Our next episode, basically. That's right. So, some more other news. I think probably our last item of news in this particular Pincast. as always. Yes, the long running saga of the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil case against former Deep Root boss Robert Mueller Deep Root pinball, Deep Root investment funds and all that was supposed to have reached a stage where Robert's attorneys filed a response to the SEC's requested monetary penalties in court however, as Robert is now facing a Department of Justice criminal case he has succeeded in getting the resolution to the civil case put on hold for the moment so that has kind of ground to a halt there was a going over to the criminal case now, there was a deadline on the 27th of December for any plea deal between Robert's attorneys and the Department of Justice for that deal to be filed with the court. As far as we know, nothing has been filed, although that doesn't necessarily mean there hasn't been an agreement reached. It's just not publicly viewable yet. If no plea deal has been agreed and put before the court for their approval, jury selection and the criminal trial are scheduled to begin on Tuesday, the 21st of January. I have a feeling we're going to hear more about this in our show. I think we're going to have something to say, yes. One way or the other, either there'll be a deal or there'll be a case, a court case.
    106:14
    So one way or the other, we'll have more to bring you next month. So, and of course, we'll be back, like we said, next month at the beginning of February with our next Pincast, looking back at all the events in the pinball world, including our experiences at the EAG Expo in London, and, of course, the reveal of Dungeons & Dragons, and who knows what other games turn out to be revealed. Yeah, it's going to be an exciting month, January. so anyway until the start of February from me Martin Aib of Pinball News and me Jonathan Euston of Pinball Magazine yeah well done we hope you have a fantastic start to 2025 we look forward to joining you again all the best wishes for 2025 if we didn't say that already yeah okay we're saying it now we look forward to joining you again beginning of February as we said and we'll be back with the next edition of the Pinball Industry News Pincast from Pinball Magazine and Pinball News. So until then, from both of us, it's goodbye. Bye.