We're at the Texas Pinball Festival. Monster win for Godzilla at the Twippies. Arabian Nights, The Forgotten Tales, revealed! Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine, and I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Webb, and I'm the editor of Pinball News, and we're here to look back at all the events in the pinball world that occurred during the month of March 2022. Right, and it was quite an eventful month. It certainly was. It was action-packed. Action-packed and packed with news. We've got so much story to tell you. But let's start with the biggest event of the month, the Texas Pinball Festival. Yes, we're back for 2022 After the 2020 and 2021 shows had to be cancelled due to Covid So, yeah, three year break And back at the same location But bigger than ever I think so Yeah Everybody was so delighted and so eager for the show to return And they weren't disappointed, were they? It was like a family reunion Yeah, absolutely They have a very extended family, given how many people were there. Oh, yeah. I think they had the most attenders ever. Yeah, well, they had the pre-sale tickets from 2020 and 2021 as well, as well as those who were new to this year's show. Right. So, as I said, there was a huge, huge demand for shows to come back. And, you know, this isn't the first show post-COVID, if we can call it that. But it's probably the biggest. and I think it was a huge success. So congratulations to the organisers, Kim and Ed Van Der Veen and Paul. Yes. So I think they can very happily sit back and have a little bit of a break after their work. Yeah, I think they raised the bar for everybody. This show was so well organised and I think they were running low on volunteers but nobody noticed any of the attendees. I don't think anybody noticed that they had a smaller team to run the show with. No. And it's still a great show. And, of course, as with all these things, when we're traveling, we both flew out and flew back from Dallas. and of course on that we get the sniffles a bit and so apologise in advance if we're sounding a little nasally or a bit throaty and Jonathan in particular I think has a bit of a throat condition after that which I'm sure you'll remember up in no time. Definitely not used to being in air-conditioned air so much. It was very heavily air-conditioned in that hotel. It was, I think it was like 28, 29 degrees outside on the Sunday, Celsius, of course, and inside it was quite chilly. So there was a lot of air-conditioned air pumping around that building. But I haven't heard any reports yet, although it's early days, of anybody catching anything particularly nasty or COVID-related. Well, you've just had it. Well, you've just had it, yeah, but I haven't, and there were no masks or anything like that required, but people were being careful and sanitizing their hands. And, you know, I think it was a good model for how a show can go ahead in these current times. Yeah. And, well, like I said, well-organized, lots of vendors with great booths. Yeah. Well, let's move on to the companies, because I think nearly all of them had a presence of some kind at the Texas Pimple Festival, so we'll pick up what happened there, what they were showing. So, start with the biggest, I suppose, Stern Pimple. Yeah, they shared a booth with Marco's Specialties and a fun superstore. I think they had like over a dozen games in their brush. Godzilla. Oh, they had loads, yes. I did actually make a list of them all, and I put it on in the Pinball News report. I was watching them on video, and counting them all as I was going along, but I reckon there were... I'm just scrolling down through my report now to try and find the list. I was typing it all out last night as I was watching the video. While you do the counting, let me refer people to the Pinball News coverage of the Texas Pinball Festival, a great report that you will find on pinballnews.com. Thank you very much. Well, the ten Mandalorians, let me get that in first, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve... Marking can count, people! Marking can count! Yep. Just, um, and, um... I think the other one was Godzilla, really, wasn't it? There were, um... There were also the Russians as well. Yeah, I said there were twelve Russians, I think. Right. Okay. So it's a big stand anyway from Marco, Fun and Stern Pinball and very impressive as it always is at that show. Right. Now, speaking of reports, Martin wrote his, which is the impressive ever. I started writing mine, which isn't finished yet because I as soon as I came back, I had other obligations to attend to. That will be that report will be finished rather soon. It will have a different take on the show than the suburb job that Martin already did. Looking forward to reading it. And, of course, you were delayed on your return flight as well. Yeah, quite heavily. Yeah, we could do an entire podcast on that. But we won't. Nope. For this spincast, we'll carry on with Stern Pimble and what they've been up to. Let's get the boring part out of the way first. Loads of code updates. Yeah, lots of stuff related to the Texas show, but let's just get them out of the way. All right, okay, let me get on with the more fun stuff. So The Mandalorian had a code of 1.22, which allowed R-rated speech to be included, and added the Insider Connected with 83 achievements, and so that finally got that cleared by the licensor. A couple of updates for Led Zeppelin, gameplay bugs, and it seems like in a sort of underlying system-wide change recently, they introduced a bug which meant if you power the game on with the coin door open, it would reboot, which is a bit embarrassing, but that seemed to have made its way into Led Zeppelin and Rush and Godzilla as well, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So all those games... So it took a while to figure out what's causing it. Well, yeah, and they had to fix it in all those games, but at the same time they had in other things as well at the same time. Which explains the extreme amount of code updates. Yes, that's right. So, yeah, there's Rush, Godzilla, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Dead Zek, all got new code updates, and I'm not going to bother going through them all because they're all pretty much the same. All bug fixes, more sound, more music, more light shows, and a fix for that Coindor issue. Right, okay. So, more on to the fun stuff. While we were at the Texas Film Show, Stern also went to the Amusement Expo International in Las Vegas. Yes, that's right. They were represented there by Gary Stern, Seth Davis, John Buscalia, Evan Kirby, Patrick Powers, Tyler Carson, and Ryan Craven. So, a big turnout from Stern there. and they were on booth 104, if you were there, you probably know that. And that was in the middle of March, that was the 14th to the 17th, in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and there they won the AMOA Innovator Award for their Insider Connected platform. So congratulations to Stern for that. Don't want to rain on your parade But I'm not sure whether that awards means anything In the sense that It's an award show, it's an industry award show Everybody knows everybody Hey, we got something new? Oh yeah, sure, we'll give you an award Well, maybe, I don't know I don't know how that particular one works Or how prestigious it is But we've got plenty more awards to talk about in a minute That were probably Voted for by the public So maybe they carried a little more weight But, you know, it's nice, nice publicity for Stern and keeps pinball in the public eye, or at least in the industry eye, amongst the AMA membership. Right. And speaking of shows, Gary Stern and Doc Score are currently in Italy for the Enada Primavera show in Rimini. Yeah, on the Faro Playstand or Faro Playstand there. Interesting that it's just those two who are there. and not Seth Davis didn't go to that show. No, he did go to the EAG show, by the way, which was actually also at the beginning of this month. Yes, we'll cover that a bit later. But I can tell you exactly how that went. Sorry, the rush ahead. Because I was there and I had a good chat with Seth while we were there and he did some presentations. But more about that later. Right. So, yes, that's the shows. at the Texas Film Festival, we said there was a Marco Fun Superstore Sand, which also featured Jack Danger and Mike Vinikour there, on their doing camera presentations, on-camera presentations, I should say. Right. They had their usual set-up with interviewing people, and yeah, to be honest, I was too busy to pay much attention to who they were talking to there, but I dare say they will be appearing on either on the Stern website, YouTube channel, or on Marco's channel. Right. Well, we were already speaking of awards. Texpert Festival does host the Twippy Awards. Yeah, it brings us to our second headline, really, doesn't it? which basically was Godzilla sweeping the board with a monster win in numerous categories. Well, basically every category that the game could win, it won. Yes, that's right. I think it won a total of 11 awards. Game of the Year, Gameplay, Layout, Toys, Gimmicks, Animation, Display, Light Show, Theme, Theme Integration, Artwork, Best Rules, Callouts, and musical sound effects. Yeah, and you know the fun part? I never played Godzilla up to when I got to the Texas Pinball Festival, so I finally got to play it. It's actually a very fun game. It is. Yeah, it's good. I'm glad you agree. Pinball magazine approved. It's almost award-worthy. Yeah. Yeah, and also, at the Twippies, Stern won the Accessory of the Year with, as we were just talking about, the Insider Connected system. So, yeah, a good sweep of the board there, pretty much, for Stern at the Twippies. Right. So, yeah. And, well, that put them apparently in a sort of joking mood, I suppose you could say. Today we're recording our podcast. It's April 1st, or April Fool's Day, if you wish, where Stern announced a Frasier pinball machine. Yes, that's right. On their social media feeds they have a mocked-up Frasier pinball. Badly mocked-up, I have to say. Yeah, terrible. Yeah, it's almost like... Two faces being... Well, I think the face of Daphne has a flipper button in it. Yeah, that's right. And I think the face of Ross, I think it is, the technician in the radio studio, is covered by one of the hinges from the backbox. It's almost like whoever's doing it, either doing it deliberately badly or doesn't know how to pin an image onto the side of a cabinet and just rotates it instead. Right. which is what they've done for all of them. So I think it was probably deliberately badly done so as to not appear as a genuine product. But it was fun. I'm sorry it caught a few people out. Yes. Apart from that, they've also been busy elsewhere on social media. They released a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Mandalorian pinball. Right. And there's been some other social media activity as well Yeah Singer Dua Lipa You have to be into current music To know who that is Even I've heard of that Right She posted a photo On her social media Posing in front of a row of Stern Pimble Games Saying she had an affinity for Dive bars Yes Not sure that's a compliment or not, but... So that's where you'll find Stern Pivot Games, in dive bars, but... Yeah. But even so, it's all good publicity, isn't it? Right. Well, she has a gigantic following, so... Mmm. It's good for her to promote dive bars, I suppose. Good. And we mentioned a video just now about the making of The Mandalorian. Stern also released another Drinks With Jack video, which was that from Expo, I think it was from Expo, wasn't it, where they recorded those? Yeah. With special guest Gary Stern, because he never appears very often, and new president of the company, new-ish president of the company, Seth Davis. He'd been in the role now for about five or six months, I think. Yeah. But back then, when that was done, which was in October, he had only been there a few weeks. So interesting to see, do a compare and contrast with his thoughts then and his thoughts now. Right. And that sort of wraps it up for Stern Pinball, I suppose. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it's been a busy month, and it's been a busy month for them as well. So let's move on to their neighbours up in Elk Row Village, Jersey Jack Pinball. And they've been busy, and they're looking to grow their team. Yeah, these are actually vacancies posted at the beginning of the month. They are looking for a mechanical engineer, custom service manager and a controller. But during the Texas People Festival there was a seminar with Jack Cornieri and Steve Ritchie in which Jack actually mentioned these vacancies again. Right, so I wondered if the customer service manager is Barry Engler, who moved to American Pinball, as we reported last month, whether that's his vacancy. Mechanical engineer, well, I think that will tie into how they're looking to restructure the teams at Jersey Jack Pinball. Controller, no idea what that is. So, anyway, if you fancy working... You were five minutes late. I was controlling you. Yes. Well, obviously not controlling very well. Yes, so if you're interested in any of those things, send your resume to careers at jerseyjackpinball.com and tell them which role you think you would be best in. Interestingly, I don't think we've mentioned it before, but I did notice that, you know, Jersey Jack Pimple always used to have the sort of tagline. Have you said that? I can't remember. Oh, yeah, Jack of all trades, master of fun. Right. That's right, which was, of course, Coyote. So outdated. It is. So they've changed their tagline now. It seems to be, we make fun and games. Yeah, which is actually a line from a Guns N' Roses song. Okay. Do you know which one? Yeah, let me think. Let me think. Welcome to the jungle. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, okay. Yeah, we make fun and games. Yes, okay. Well, there you go. So that seems to be their new tagline. So what could it be with the next game then? Oh, well, we could speculate on that. We make fun and toys. Yes. Or toys and games. Well, I suspect they're going to stick with that one for a while anyway. But, yes, going back to the Texas Pinball Festival, as you mentioned, Jack and Steve were there in a seminar hosted by Ken Cromwell. Which I have to say, he did very, very good. It was nicely controlled and tight, hang on time, and interesting, because some good information came out from that. However, one thing which didn't come out from that, really, is the sort of elephant in the room, which was about the playfield issues I didn't see any elephants at Texas Pizzle Festival Well, this goes to show you were looking in the wrong place Ah, it was right there in the room I mean anyone could have seen it But yes, so that really wasn't covered It wasn't covered by Jack, I don't think No, actually Jack did cover it at the end of the presentation when people were asking questions but prior to that Mirko Steffen of Mirko Playfields in Germany had a seminar where he was asked about the, well the elephant in the room so to speak asked very forcefully by several questions and in this case I feel I have to stand up for Mirko as a third party contractor he was probably told that he could not discuss that And that's basically what he told everybody, that he was not allowed to talk about that, which I get, because, I mean... Yeah. If you buy a car and you have a problem with the tires, you're not going to call Michelin yourself. You're going to go back to your dealer or to whoever made the car. Yeah, it's a contract between the playfield manufacturer and the game manufacturer that ends up with that playfield being in the game, and the game manufacturer is the one who has to offer any warranties. Right. Not the playfield manufacturer, not all the parts manufacturers. You know, if you've got, as you say, if you buy a Stern game and the coil stops break, you don't go and hunt down the company who made the coil stops and go and complain to them. You complain to Stern. Right. So this is a similar situation. I understand that people feel like, yeah, but he's right there. Yes. That's right, and he was there to promote another product, which we haven't come on to yet. We'll probably mention that a little bit later about that new game kit, which is available. I'll make a note in other hoops. It was people were using the Playfield quality as a stick to beat him with about the potential quality of his new product. are saying, you know, if you're producing, quote, defective playfields, how do we know that your new product is going to not be defective? So, anyway. Richard, and I have to be fair, it is fair of people to wonder that, because we had those problems with Willy Wonka playfields. At that time, we were promised it would not be the case with Guns N' Roses, and they were still there. Yeah. Yeah. And I think Jack says something that it would not be the case with the next game. Well, obviously. But it's, to a degree, it's outside his control, isn't it? You know, they have to use the playfields that they get. Right. And from whoever they source them from. And it was, I forgot what I was going to say now. Yeah. Okay. So it's Obviously you've got a playfield issue You can't just Given somebody a spare playfield It's not much use If you If you've then got to do a playfield swap yourself Because how many people are Capable of doing that Particularly on a game that's As complicated And complex As Guns N' Roses Yeah So there is no easy answer In a situation like that So So there was no warranty as well Well yeah Well certainly So anyway That wasn't really addressed I was going to say But There was some interesting points that did come out of that and also one of them was that Jack said that they thought they would announce their next title by I think June or July and it was still possible that they would announce two new titles this year yeah and there's actually a rumour going around that that second title has to be announced this year because else the license would be taken away that's something I find very hard to believe. We've had that suggested before on other, and we might even hear something about it a bit later as well from another manufacturer, but I doubt it. The thing is, it's not just one license. I mean... That's true. If you license a movie, you're licensing not only the rights for the movie, but the actors, the music, and that's all different licenses. It's no longer like in the old days where you made a deal with the movie company and you got everything. No, now you have to talk to five, six, seven different companies. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's a good point. So yeah, as I think to say they'd all run out at the end of the year. Secondly, even if there is something like a lustrum that has to be celebrated and the game should be ready for that. Even then, well we've seen it with Homepin, where they had the final step one that should have come out last year, and then there's supply chain issues, hiccups, and what have you. Well no, if they wanted to bring out, if they said we have to have the games ready for a a launch event for the license. I'm sure they could put together some prototype games, take them to the launch event, but that doesn't mean they've gone into production yet. Right. And the other thing I was going to say, licenses can always be extended. Yes, that's right. It costs money usually, but yes, you can do it. It depends what the terms of licenses are, whether it's an upfront payment or whether it's a firm machine payment, in which case it doesn't cost anything of the game that isn't made yet and they extend it. Yeah, but still, you can't develop a, let's put it differently, the development of a pinball machine usually costs about one to two million dollars. And then you still have to get into production. You can't just put two million dollars up in the air and hoping that you beat a deadline that the licensors set. And if you didn't, then too bad you can't release the game. That's never going to happen. No, and of course there will be clauses in the contract for that eventuality Anyway, they are currently making Guns N' Roses, as we know Hopefully the next title will be announced June, July anytime Probably Guns N' Roses, I suppose It could be sooner, but we did hear, I think we even mentioned last time That we thought they were winding down production of Guns N' Roses To lead into the new title But it could also lead into remakes or reruns of previous titles as well. Yeah, well, that's interesting because there were questions asked on Facebook whether Willy Wonka would be rerun, and apparently they don't have any plans for that right now. Right, okay. That's just one of the titles that could be rerun, but still. Yeah, absolutely. I think it probably deserves a rerun. I think it's a very good game, having played it a few times. But just to go back to the Guns N' Roses thing, and playfields in particular, Jersey Jack Pinball and Ken Cromwell were very generous, indeed, in donating a Guns N' Roses playfield to us for use in our So You Think You Know Pinball prize quiz, which we held at the Texas Pinball Festival, 6pm on Saturday evening. Right, which is not the main prize. Not the usual Friday, but still, which is good because it meant we got more contestants and we also had more time to get prizes, including that fantastic one from the Jersey Jack Fimble. So thanks for them. And because it was a bit of a last-minute deal, we didn't have it with us, but they very kindly offered to ship it within the continental US to whoever won it. So they've got the details for that winner and he will be receiving that, hopefully soon. Right, okay. So there's one more comment I'd like to make on the playfield situation. We just mentioned when we sort of feel that the next game is coming, at the Merkau seminar he was asked whether he would be making the playfields for the upcoming Jersey Jack title. which he couldn't comment on of course but he also did say that he's completely maxed out on his production now if he's not making playfields for a new game I don't know I feel he must be making those games else he would not be maxed out on his production I mean he's not making whitewater playfields or so in such large quantities that he's maxed out he would be mixed out. So you think he's making them now? So my suspicion is I expect him to be making playfields now that are shipping to Chicago and yeah, and that's pure speculation but that's just adding one and one together. Okay all good stuff yeah I going to make a bridge here Mm From Jersey Jack pinball to American pinball Right Well done Because they also have vacancies Do they indeed? Who are they looking to hire? Let me take a look. Would that be the in-house purchaser, the quality control, production line, and final game tester positions? Yes, absolutely. Oh, I didn't know. What a guess. Wow. So, if you want to work in pinball, there's really, literally, plenty of opportunities if you're in the area of Elk Grove Village or... Where's the American Pinball? In Palestine, yeah? I was going to say, start with a P. So, yeah, and moving on to American Pinball, while we're there. Yeah. Well, first of all, congratulations. And David Fix, who got promoted from Director of Operations and Marketing to being Executive Vice President at American Pinball. Yeah, congratulations, David. We've given him congratulations in person, of course, because we see David quite frequently and speak to him even if we don't get to see him. So it's very nice of him to do that or to get that position. And also we can thank him for also contributing a lovely prize to our quiz in the form of a Legends of Valhalla printed screen black glass. Right. A real genuine glass one. So that was a very nice prize for somebody to win. Right, exactly. And it makes me wonder, now that David is no longer Director of Operations, are they looking for a new one? Well, they're not advertising yet But we were sort of joshing with him That he should appoint a deputy or an assistant Given his new elevated position Yeah, and he was considering it No question about it So, yeah, and Well, there was some Nomination news for awards I'll let you handle this one Yes, also we were talking about the AMOA earlier and this is the American Amusement Machine Association AAMA American people were nominated for Manufacturer of the Year unfortunately they didn't actually win, that was ultimately won by Raw Thrills, but nice to be recognised and in the running for that prestigious title Speaking of Raw Thrills and the Texas Pinball Festival, of course. I keep hearing rumors that people are either a-hoping or expecting Rothwells to enter the pinball market. Yes, yes. We've had this a few times in recent months or even going back a year, I would have thought. And I don't know. I hear differing arguments about this. On the one side, people say, well, they're not selling their large $20,000 pieces into family entertainment centres because they've all been closed and they're not buying new equipment. On the other hand, I'm hearing that they're selling everything that they're making. So I don't know which one of those is true. two contradictory sizes of the coin. But also there's the question of, obviously, Raw Thrills is run by Eugene Jarvis, and Eugene and Gary Stern are very close friends and have been for many years. So would Eugene get into competition with his good friend or not? Right. But then there was also the fact that Walthrow's just bought... Well, Walthrow's, up until now, haven't had any manufacturing capability to build their own game. They always contracted them out. But they've just bought one of those contracted companies, so they do actually own some manufacturing capability. So would that potentially be used to make pinball machines? It's even more interesting, as you mentioned, that Joe Walthrow is a buyer for that company. Yeah, he was. Yes, Joe Balfour being a former pinball designer. Indeed. Yeah. And keen to get back into the pinball business. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Lots of facts and suggestions and ideas to throw around there, but no firm facts just yet. No, but a lot of people hoping that Raw Thrills will get into the pinball manufacturing side of things. Well, it would be a big push for pinball if a company like North Hills sees it as a big growth area and they think they can use all their game design expertise in order to leverage their entry into the market and also to get their own play mechanics as well, which a certain Mr. Mark Ritchie works. Yes. Which is also a former, or maybe not former, pinball designer. Yes, we'll talk about that a bit later. Anyway, yes, American Pinball were also at the Amusement Expo show in Las Vegas in March. Quite a delegation, I have to say. Yes, they had ten games there. Oh, no, sorry, this is skipping forward to Texas Pinball Festival. No, no, I'm talking about the delegation. I think they had Scott Gollux and Frank, I forgot his last name for a second. Yeah. The designers of Legend of Valhalla were present. They fixed the Bowden, Barry Engler, of course, and a bunch of other people. So they were very big staff at the Amusement Expo in booth 1448, if you were there. Right, and moving forward a bit Then of course they had a big presence As well at the Texas Pinball Festival As you would expect Had ten games there They had, I think they had four Legends of Valhalla Four Hot Wheels Yeah, four Hot Wheels Houdini and a Oktoberfest Yes The Oktoberfest and Houdini were Recent, were new runs Which were made in the current American Pinball cabinets Rather than the cabinets that they were made in When they originally came out And also running the new hardware Or new electronic system as well Right So And interestingly Dave Fix mentioned to me that the Houdini game originally was Or what they did With the upcoming new run Or current run, whatever it is He said they went into power management of the game and I was like so what does that mean? As it turns out when the game originally came out they only used one type of coil for everything. Yeah. And To keep it simple. Yes to keep it simple and now they went back to the drawing board and they selected a coil for each mechanism to be the right coil for that mechanism so the strength differs which is affecting gameplay also a lot I suppose yes one of the problems I think was that because they were using big coils all over the place and driving them hard all the time even when they didn't need to be they were generating a lot of heat within the game and drawing a lot of power that they didn't need to so of course if you've got switch mode power supplies or switching power supplies within the game they really don't like being overdriven and would tend to shut down if you drive them too hard unlike a transformer which will just disrupt the voltage so yeah now they think they don't have that problem anymore and they're using the appropriate coil for the appropriate use which means they've got to use more coils or different types of coils but ultimately produce a better, more reliable game. Right. Now, I didn't actually play Houdini, the new Houdini. No, I didn't either. So I can't compare it. I do have to say, I did play Hot Wheels for the first time and Legend of Valhalla. Hot Wheels is... Sorry. I found it a very fun game, and then I moved over to Valhalla. to which I have to say that the art package is not a package that makes me really tempted to play the game. But what a surprise this game is. What a fantastic game Legend of Valhalla is. I was really blown away what fun that game is. So I highly recommend anybody that has any doubts, could this be a fun game, give it a try. you might be pleasantly surprised. Okay, good news there. I didn't get a chance to play any of those games during the show, which is always so busy. I normally get to play about, I don't know, eight games of pinball the entire weekend, and this year was no different. Oh, yeah, well, I got to play mostly during build-up. and yeah I was busy taking pictures and talking to people but the only game I got to play which I think is a new release, oh no, two new releases I got to play, I got to play Ultraman and also got to play Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity as well, but that did involve queuing up for about ten minutes in order to get my go But fortunately I had quite a good game So it was all worthwhile And I'd been really hacked off So I queued up for About ten minutes And then had three house balls That would have been That would have been annoying But it didn't happen So Yeah so Anyway We were still with American Pinball And There were some more announcements In the American Pinball seminar At the Texas Pinball Festival Weren't there Yes I'll let you handle those Because you were present The entire time Well, they did say that, obviously, we've covered before that Barry Althor, sadly, died very recently after just joining the company. He did bring a game to American Pinball and was working on it for a short time that he was there before he died. Before you continue, I think we have to, From what I understood Is that Barry Osler was Announced recently To be working there But he actually already worked there for A little bit longer I'd say Right, yeah Officially then should we say But he was working on the game And David Fix Announced at the Texas Pimple Festival seminar that they would be Taking that game into production Which was very nice and he also put together a very nice tribute video for Barry and Barry's wife was there as well in the audience and he invited everybody to come up and talk to her and relate their happy memories of Barry and what Barry meant to them. So that took up probably half the seminar almost in that time. So very nice. So I was able to contribute a few pictures to that tribute, which they put together. Also, there was another announcement, which was that artist Christopher Franchi would be doing the art for an upcoming game for American Pinball. Now, he's not exclusively working for American Pinball, but I think that would be his first game working for them. Right. And if I'm not mistaken, that would be Dennis Nordman's game. Right, yes, which I think is the next title in line and non-licensed. Yes, that's right. So that will be the first time we get to see Christopher Franchi doing original artwork for a game. Is that true? Oh, right, that's right. Yes, that's a good point. Everything so far is done, has been licensed. Yeah? Oh, that would certainly be interesting to see how that turns out. So as you mentioned They decided to be rerunning Oktoberfest and after that Houdini And They said they were going to open up Two lines and potentially Three lines Once they really get going With their next game So it sounds like it's all Full steam ahead At American Pinball And while it's nothing they also released a code update For The Legend of Valhalla Yeah they did Yeah, they do their code updates based on dates. The version number is based on the date. So this is 2203.27 year, month, date. And it improves some of the multivore modes, adds extra callouts, improves the wizard modes, and has some bug fixes. So if you're lucky enough to have one of those legends of Valhalla, make sure you're updated with the very latest one that just came out a few days ago. Right. So, and, well, then something that you know a little bit more about than I do, there was supposed to be a difficult announcement. Yeah, not sure exactly what it is, and I didn't get the details, but something was meant to be, or thought would be announced this week, which wasn't going to be entirely positive, but apparently it didn't. So either it didn't happen or it'll come out later after our pin cast is over. So keep an eye out for any more American Pinball news. Right. Okay. And that concludes our coverage for American Pinball. I think it does. So let's move on to one of the other exhibitors at the Texas Pinball Festival. I mean, there are many. But Pivotal Brothers were represented there on the coin taker stand In a poem of Roger and Cato Yeah, and they had a very nice gazebo, tent affair with alien branding all over it Inside which were two limited versions of Alien and two standard versions I think that's the first time The limited version has actually been At a show or a public event Yep, that's true So that was nice to see I did actually get a chance to play that During set up, having said I didn't get to play any I did Briefly I was amazed I've seen the underside of the play field of Alien And If you compare that to certain other titles This is mostly White PCBs Yes, I've got a picture of it. With very, very few wiring. Yes. Yes, during the setup phase, because they had the playfields up, I thought, oh, I'll get a picture of that, because I was amazed, just looking at the underside of that playfield. Yes, as you say, it looks like there's hardly anything on it, because it's kind of, it's whitish wood and whitish PCVs underneath. So, yes, and just very short leads running from the PCVs to the various mechanisms and switches. Yeah, so Pedretti Gaming, who is building these games, is basically showing people pinball is easy. Well, I suppose a lot of preparation goes into making the board set and making it look that easy. Right. But, yeah, it's very impressive. We were talking about, you know, there's half a mile of wiring in old Stern games, So it looks like there's a few tens of meters of wiring in an alien these days. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a very interesting development, I would say. Very cost-effective also. Yeah, so you asked Roger about what's happened to the company recently, and what did he have to say? Well, I asked Roger whether he would be willing to come on our podcast, or PINCAST I should say, to discuss the, well basically what they did to get Alien to where it is now and future plans for the company. And then he said let me think about that because this was close to or way past midnight I suppose on one of the first evenings of the show at the bar. I thought it was time to get people to come in. Right, so, and then the next day he came back to me, and he said, he explained to me that Roger and Kato have been very involved in the development of Alien, and once that was in production, they decided to step down a little bit, in the sense that they are now more like shareholders, and the basic running of Pinball Brothers is handled by Daniel Jensen, who also runs Freeplay in Sweden. So if you would want to know anything about the company, we should talk to Daniel, which is fine, but I ask and I report what you just told me, and that was fine. So that's what we can tell about Pinball Brothers, that they had a slight restructuring of the company in which Roger and Cato sort of reduced their activities being involved. That is interesting, because I thought they would do that, but I didn't think they'd do it yet, because they've still got the Queen game to bring out, which we saw at the beginning or the end of last year. Right. And we might still see it then, Roger and Cato have been heavily involved in that as well. Yeah, exactly. So I thought they... Actually, it was the beginning of last year when it came available, and the end of the previous year. But that was a Highway Pinball development, as was Avian. And, of course, Roger and Cato were both heavily involved with Highway Pinball right at the end before that closed down. If I may add, Queen is also a very awesome game. Right. Is it exclusively him Or was he and Dave Sanders Working on that I wouldn't be able to answer that Yeah I think Most of those were sort of collaboration games But as to What the split was I don't know Because it started off as a wide body game didn't it And then it ended up in a narrow Narrow body version that we saw But yeah I thought They'd get that into production And promoted and then maybe reduce their roles in the company government. Unless you wonder whether Queen isn't going ahead. No, I think from what I understood, Queen is going ahead. But it's sort of for me an indication that the game was sort of ready to go, but the timing isn't right yet. Right, okay. And it might have to do with Pedretti not being a... still working on alien production and other stuff. Yeah, well, they've only just started shipping the limited version of the game, the LV edition, so they've got plenty of work to do to fulfil alien orders, and I suspect after this show they've probably got a whole bunch more. Right, yeah, I think the game was very well received. Indeed, yeah. Yeah. Now it's also, let's start a rumor here. Usually we're not like that. Not like that. But yeah, but... No, we'll just state the facts and... I'll state the facts and I'll let everybody then add one and one together. Or not. Sorry. So I think if you know who is who, everybody at TPF could see, especially the industry insiders I suppose, that Roger and Cato hang out quite a lot with pinball designer Mark Ritchie. And well they are apparently very close friends, which is very nice. I think Mark came over to the UK once when they were involved in Pinball Brothers. So they met and they developed a friendship, which is interesting to see, I would say. Okay. So leave it with that. Take it as it is. Okay. And with that, I think we're pretty much done with Pinball Brothers. and probably time to move on to Spooky Pinball because they also had a nice stand at the Texas Pinball Festival with two Halloween and two Ultraman machines. Yes. And some merchandise. Yes, plenty of merchandise, yes. Do you get to play those games? Yes. Both of them or just one of them? No, I played Halloween and I played Ultraman. Oh, well done. You did better than I did. I only got to play Ultraman because that was the only one that was available. people seem to want to play Halloween more, which is maybe not surprising, that it's a more recognizable title, I suppose, in the US. Well, I'm not that much into horror themes. No, no. Alien is my cup of tea either, and Halloween, I don't think I've ever seen a movie either. I found it a... How shall I put this? It's not a game for me. The sound package, it's probably spot on with the movie, but I like my games to have a little bit more action, type of power-driven music. I mean, this was so, well, scary, I would say. Yeah. Which is probably the intent of the movie. in the first place, so a job very well done by Spooky, but not a game for me. Also, gameplay-wise, not a game for me, yeah. And I'm not saying that Spooky didn't do a good job, they did probably the best job that they could with this theme, but the theme is not for me. and also on Ultraman, I really want to get into the playfield layout, but I don't know Ultraman either, so I'm completely confused, like what am I doing and what is the screen telling me and what's going on? Yeah, I know. That was the only one I played, and I don't know anything about Ultraman either. I figured out how to lock the balls. Yeah. Yeah, although I found it very difficult to actually make the shots, to do it, because you have to shoot the three scoops on the left-hand side if it's that multiple. And I could only shoot two of them for some reason. It was probably me. But, yeah, to me it felt, because it's because of the theme, it kind of had a feeling of competing against Godzilla, because it's a Japanese theme, and from the same kind of era, I guess, and the multimedia package of the video and the audio kind of looked a bit Godzilla-y in terms of the colours and the feel and the animation. And it just, I don't know, I think if you're putting yourself up against Godzilla in that way, you're always onto a bit of a loser, as we've just seen. Yeah, but if you want to copy a game, then copy the game that's winning all the awards. Well, I don't think I would copy it. I think it's just by nature of it. But it suffered by comparison. But the other thing I really didn't get, and I didn't understand why it was there, is those lifters that they have in the inlays to feed the ball back to the flippers. Yeah, they're hidden. You can't see the action of them, and they slow the gameplay down by a huge amount, and they tend to surprise you as to when the ball's going to actually reappear, because you can't see when the ball is released. Well, I don't like it when I'm not able to see the ball, especially that close to the flippers. Yeah, I was constantly just, every time you put the ball into a scoop, you're constantly looking at the flippers, waiting for the ball to appear from one side or the other, not looking at what's going on on the screen, giving you the instructions or anything like that. So, a clever mechanism, I just don't think is a particularly good use of it. It would be much more beneficial further up the playfield. Yes, I tend to agree with you. I'm still very well engineered, I suppose. Yeah, absolutely. But that's part of what didn't get me into the game. Because that ball is rolling down the inline, and you have like maybe an inch and a half before it hits the flippers that you actually can see the ball. So you have to be very responsive or trap the ball immediately. and then try to aim your shot, which is taking all the flow out of the game. Yes, although I will say that I think there's been some new code updates for both Halloween and Ultraman, version 1.06, and I think they've enhanced the sort of warning that you get when the ball's about to be released. There's a little flash of light. Yeah, I think that's been improved now, so it's more obvious when the ball's about to be released from the lifter, from the under-playfield tunnel to the playfield level. So I hope the one comes as so much of a surprise. And I don't know whether... Unfortunately, it's not one of those things that you can kind of... you can wait for too long, or have people blow off the animation if they've already seen it a million times, because it's actually physically got to lift the wall with a step of motion from under the playfield to the playfield level, and that takes a little time to do. Right. So it does slow down the flow of the game Just to prevent that people think that I bashing spooky pinball I had the same issue on Alien On Alien, it's a little different, though. There's no ball lifters, but there is actually two ramps are covering the entrance of both the in-lane and the out-lane. You have no clue where that ball is going. And I find that very uncomfortable playing, I would say. Sorry. What you're saying now, I'm just musing that maybe a better way with the Spooky Game is to stage the ball, stage a ball in each of the lifters so that you can start moving them sooner. Instead of having to wait for the ball to roll down the tunnel to actually reach the lifter, you can actually start moving it up if there's one already staged in there, kind of like they did with Star Trek The Next Generation, Although, having said that, there were plenty of issues with the operation of those on that game, if the octaves aren't working properly. Yes. Or diverters. Right. Okay, so. Oh, well. Yeah, that's almost all the news for Spooky. There's probably one more note to add. People have been wondering when, if, and when TNA will be going back into production. Mm-hmm. If that will happen It's most likely going to be After the run of Halloween and Ultraman And then the next title And Instead of the next title Going into production immediately And do we know If it does happen Whether it will be TNA 2.0 Or whether it will just be A rerun of the previous version Well I've seen some comments by Ben Heck who is referring to TNA 2.0 as TNA 2.0, hopefully it's an upgrade, but we don't know. Okay, or if indeed it's actually going to happen. But if it does, that's probably when it happens. Probably after the Halloween run, yes. Okay, so moving on to Multimorphic, who rose really near to the Texas Bimbo Festival and had a very nice display there. Nine games. Indeed, yeah, nine games. They had two of the Weird Owls Museum of Natural Hilarity, although they're obviously mostly kits, so they could have gone into any of the machines. Yeah, but they should have brought more. Yeah, probably. There were big queues to play that game. That was obviously the most popular. But they were showing off the range of different games and modules that they had, so it was understandable that they did that. But they had a limited edition, which is the one with the topper, and they had a standard edition of Weird Al's Museum of Natural Reality there, and I got to play that, and as I said before, I had a really good game, and I think I got a long way into it, and I found it very entertaining. Obviously, it's a very noisy environment. I wanted to hear a lot more of the music and the quotes, but yeah, it was good fun. I really enjoyed it. Did you get to play it? Yes, I had to send it online. I think I played two games on it I really sucked I didn't get that far into the game But I was watching gameplay With others I'd say congratulations To Multimorphic For not only a great game But basically They brought the game of the show This was the game That everybody wanted to play Yeah, I think it definitely got the biggest lines And yes, I think it was I was really impressed by the graphics I originally saw them I thought they might be a bit clunky But when I was playing And you sort of get that big The big wheel spinning around on the playfield It really is attention grabbing And it just looks so bright and fun, really It puts the fun back into pinball After so many dour and serious, intense themes is the one which actually makes you smile and laugh, which was so desperately needed. I mean, I laughed when I saw the topper in action, which was very nice. And I think a lot of other people do, because right at the end of the seminar, which Gerry held with the Multimorphic team, he said, we'll just quickly run the motor for the topper animation, which is the accordion. And that got a good laugh from the audience. So there aren't many toppers you can put into action, and you get a big laugh. So I think that's very fitting with the game. So, what else? Well, there's a first ever live stream of Weird Al's Museum of Natural Arity, which was done by their good friends at Buffalo Pinball, which you can watch. It wasn't during the show, it was actually prior to it. It was, yes. So you can watch that on twitch.tv slash buffalopinball, or one word, if you want to go and watch the stream. and didn't get a chance to play the game at Texas Show, like we were lucky enough to. Yeah, although no exceptions for being in the industry. Just you up with everybody else. Absolutely, yeah. Quite right, too. I guess if you got there early enough before the show opened, you could... No, no. I tried, I tried, I tried. Because I wanted to get to know the game better. Well, that's a good indication you got a hit on your hand when even all the industry and the set-up people they're wanting to play and lining up. Yeah, and they have shipped the first games, the first games I think, or first kits. I think the first game shipped, and I think there was a complete game unit, so cabinets and everything in it. Oh right, okay, because there's a moderate lead time for the kits, and there's quite a longer lead time for the entire cabinet, but I guess they would have had some in stock in preparation for this. But if you've already got a P3, then you'll be able to get your Weird Al kit a lot sooner than somebody who's ordering the base unit as well. Right, okay. So I suppose that... Oh, let me add that in the Multimorphic booth, obviously nine games there, I also got my first shot at playing Heist. Oh, right. Very interesting game. I played like... Probably being drunk, I don't know. But very clever use of animations. Very well integrated into the game. I think they really did an outstanding job With that game too So if you're already buying a Weird L game You might as well get the heist module As well because you're going to enjoy that too Yeah I found the rules on that Were very clear As to what you had to do And you try to Put the gang together You have a certain amount of time to recruit Each member of the gang and if you don't get them, then they get put into jail. And then you have to try and break them out. In order to put the gang, get all the members of the gang in order to do the heist. Yeah, it was well explained. And the shots were clear as well, which is always a benefit. Helped with having that big video screen to point you at what needs to be shot. So, yeah. And the crane toy as well is amazing. It's one of the few areas where I feel that they might actually indicate the shots a little better. But it's probably my only complaint about the game. For the rest I was very, very impressed. Yes, maybe have it as a sort of training option or a display option that when the ball comes to the flipper you can have the guidelines from there to show you what shot to make, rather than just having arrows halfway up the playfield to turn to you, which is not necessarily where you're looking. It's kind of you're looking at the flipper, you're looking at where the shot needs to go, you're not necessarily looking in between there. Yeah, that's one thing. What I also found is that the game, the Weird Al game, is actually giving a lot of cues what you should be shooting for on the display in the backbox. That's not where I'm looking at. So I actually see those when other people play But not when I'm playing myself That's a good way to learn the game I guess Before it's your time We had all the cues Everybody was trying to read the rules I kid, I kid Oh well Okay, moving on Because just around the corner From where Multimorphic had their stand Chicago Gaming also had a big stand And won the worst of many games they had eight machines all Cactus Canyons yeah two limited editions I think I think there were two yeah with the interactive topper and they were popular throughout the show as well of course even though they had eight of the same same model effectively there were always lines to play those so clearly a very popular title even though it's not a new one so have you played it? Oh, yes, many times, yes. Yeah, but the new... Okay, you played... Yeah, I played it at IAFA as well in November and at the Texas show as well. So I managed to break it when I was playing it. Yeah. Oh, well, that's always a good thing, you know. Well, I wouldn't say... Protesting. There was a ball trap right at the very back of the game, which had myself and the technician from there puzzling over where on earth the ball went. You sort of shoot it around the back of the bad guy, and it disappeared. And we could never find it again. Well, we did find it again. I found it after about five minutes of lifting the playfield and putting my hand around the back and all that kind of stuff, and eventually it was stuck under a plastic, which you couldn't see. But anyway, I don't think that problem really occurred after I pointed out where the issue was. So, that's what playtesting is for. That's why it's one of these issues. So, and Chicago Gaming are represented, of course, by Ryan White and Butch Peel. Yep, that's right. Very nice to see Butch again. Ryan also, by the way. Yeah. Yep, they had a good show there, and Butch did the seminar about the making of Cactus Canyon. Which was quite interesting. Oh, definitely. Butch always gives a good presentation. So it was good to see Basically his presentation was Or at least the bit that I saw was They were dealing with supply chain issues And while they were waiting They might as well improve the game Which is what they did But yeah it was also Went back to the very basic principles Here's what we got with the original game How can we make it better What can we do And what don't we want to do We're not going to change anything on the play field As far as shots go or functionality down there. So that was the number one rule. But given that, there's a lot of other things you can do. And of course, they've even added the topper mode as well and put in a bionic bar and things which were missing in the original and a lot of cosmetic changes as well. And originally, when they first came out with that wooden apron on the limited edition, I was in two minds as to whether it was a good idea or not. But I haven't seen it. Maybe they've toned it down a bit But having seen it on the games At the Texas show They look great Yeah Definite upgrade from the standard Bottom apron which is metal But has the guns on as well Right so I'm just curious and I'm just going to ask you this When playing Texas Canyon the remake Did you find the luck shot To be tighter than on the original or was it just easily to shoot for you? Well, to be honest, I've always found that quite difficult, that long shot. Far more difficult than it should be. But, yes, I found I was just off a little bit. I was always hitting the stand-up next to it, which... Yeah, that wasn't... Yeah, which was annoying because I kept trying to compensate for it and yet it didn't seem to make any difference. But, no, I did start multiple, so it's not that difficult. But several people mentioned that they sort of feel like that lock shot is tighter than... I think it is. But then again, those Williams games from back in the day, those are quite worn out. Exactly. So that whole... That'd probably be easier. But I did find that it was harder to backhand that lock shot than it was on the Williams game. Right. Okay. Any other news from Chicago Gaming? Well, I'm not sure whether this is... how to put this, but... Okay, rumor has it, and yes, I know we usually stick to the facts, but... We'll bear that in mind when we're saying it's a rumor. Right. The rumor has it that there is going to be... that one of the games that Chicago Gaming is working on could be Pulp Fiction. Yes. And that rumor's been around for, well, rumor of the game, at least, has been around for quite some time. Right. And apparently there is some pictures floating around, not so much on the internet, but there's a few people within the industry that have pictures of the game that were discussing it. And they find it apparently that the game that they were discussing is a single level sort of late 70s, early 80s type play field, which apparently was a demand from Quentin Tarantino himself. If there would be a Pulp Fiction game, it had to be in the style of those games. And, well, CNA, of course, is also a single-level play field with an 80s feel to it. So you can still do a lot with that. I haven't seen the pictures myself. I haven't seen them on the Internet either. maybe they don't exist at all, we don't know, but that was what I hear left and right, you know. Okay. The single level 80s. Playfield design. Yeah, that seems like, that was confirmed to be by multiple people that are in the know. So, this is a Chicago gaming game, I hope so, but it's going to be different than what we've seen from them up to now. Yeah, okay. Well, they did a single-level game, I think, that was at Vacation America a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. No, we don't say that. It didn't look like an 80s game. Well it played like a nature's game But yeah It was just a single level game I think So they have done that Them in the past But It'll be interesting to see Whether that actually does turn out to be true But Well on that subject Maybe this would be a good time To give Gary Flower a call If anyone knows Gary would know Exactly Yes And now I know that Gary is heading off to the Midwest Gaming Classic. It might even be at the airport round about now. So hopefully we can get to speak to him before he boards his plane and heads over to Chicago and goes up to Milwaukee from there and has a fabulous time at the MGC. So let's give him a call and see what he can tell us. Right. Okay, let's hear it. Hi there. Hey Gary, this is Jonathan in the And Martin's also here. Hi, Gary. I'm at the airport now. Oh, you're at the airport, right? Yeah. We were actually going to ask you... Passenger Gary Flower is present. Please report to the desk. Oh. Passenger Gary Flower. He's being called to the desk. I can hear that. I've just been called back to the check-in desk. I don't know what's going on, so I have to catch up with you soon. Oh. Bye for now. And that's it. Oh. Okay, well, we tried. Well, we'll see if we can talk to him once he's got his situation cleared up there and knows he's actually on the plane, or going to be on the plane. But anyway, moving on then, so we didn't get to talk to Gary just then. Sorry it didn't work, but we'll try again. Of course. Yeah, if not now, then later. Then, yeah, if we want to haggispinball Because it's been quite an interesting time for them as well It must have been a quiet time Well, it has been up until now, but Not for them, but the news updates Well, they went very silent They did indeed And claim that Damien says they've been basically heads down working on making the Fathom Revisited remakes. And to prove that, they produced a video which showed some gameplay, and quite expensive gameplay, of the new Fathom game. Yeah, you can find it on their Facebook page. Yeah, I thought it looked great And we were hearing about the rules That have gone into the new version And it seems like it's already quite expensive But then they've still got more to add And it's quite in keeping with the feel And the overall age of the machine So it's not gone completely stupid with 8-ball multiball, or anything stupid like that. It uses the existing hardware in a better way, I suppose. Yeah, the only problem was I couldn't see them make the RAM shop any time. There'll be a reason for that. Right. So, I kid, I kid. There's no RAM on the pattern. But, no, the good news is they confirmed that they finished the production of Celt, so the focus is completely now on the production of Fathom. They discussed that they would be sending out the series ticket holders games first, and then the Mermaid Edition, and then the Standard Edition, which doesn't have the enhanced gameplay. So if you wonder what that series ticket is, that's a six thousand Australian dollars non-refundable deposit across the next four remakes, so fifteen hundred dollars per remake, to lock in the same serial number on all five remakes, even though they haven't been announced yet. Yes, so you're basically putting a fifteen hundred dollar Australian dollar deposit down on remakes two, three, four and five. So you can keep the same serial number across the Fathom and the other four. But, as Johnson just said, it hasn't been announced what those other remakes are going to be. So there's a leap of faith there. If you're lucky, Centaur is one of them. If not, you might get Strikes and Spares. Just to name a title, nothing against Strikes and Spares. No, I love Strikes and Spares. I think it's a great game. I think it has the best back glass ever. Oh, yes. Probably. You can all care about Connor. Yes. I've had fun doing that. But anyway, as you say, that's the order in which you're going to send them out. And as I said just now, they did show some of the gameplay of the Mermaid Edition with the extra lighting and the new rules. Yeah, and there will be a link to that video in the Pimple Magazine newsletter that will go out a few days after this podcast is published. So if you're Receiving that Then it's easy to find the video Yep, absolutely Thoroughly recommended to read that As well To get extra up to date Details that may have happened After we finished recording this Right Okay, so I think that's all from Haggis But from one Australian company To another company owned by an Australian Even if not in Australia Yeah Homequin, which is a happy birthday to them, 14 years in business, actually as of last month. They started out in February of, I think, 2008. That would be right, yep. Yeah, and as many may not realize, they started off as a replacement part manufacturer. Sorry, manufacturer. and they got into designing pinball machines much much later on. Yes, indeed. And which is where we pick them up now. Right, so for those not in the know, Home Pin is currently working and teasing their next pinball machine, which is called This Is Final Tap. And one of the biggest news I suppose this month is that they counted a rumor which we actually heard at the Texas Pignol Festival somewhere, well, you know how that goes, people talk. But there was somebody from inside the industry claiming that Home Pin lost the Spinal Tap license. and that they would not be able to make the games anymore. And HomePink countered that by posting on Facebook a list of the licensors with who they are working together, and basically stating that the game is still on. Right, okay. They might have missed a couple of deadlines getting the game out, but those were partly out of their control and not an issue for the licensor to stop them. No, I don't seem particularly concerned about that. I think the big one was to do with Marshall but that didn't seem to be a problem in the end so I don't think the deadline there was a real one. It was just an ambition. Right. So anyway, another thing I've also been talking about is the fact that the company will not be, Homepin that is, will not be promoting the game This Is Final Chat themselves, but will be relying on the distributors to handle all the promotion for it, including gameplay videos and marketing campaigns and such. Yeah, which I'm not sure that's such a smart move, because not every distributor knows about marketing. No, you think it would be a joint effort, really, wouldn't you, that HomePin would talk about the game and the distributors would talk about the deals they have on and how they would actually get the games to customers. Right. And the warranty support, of course, as well. Right. Anyway, that partly explains why the Home Pin Factory Facebook page basically shows progress from the factory and mostly that. Well, I think that's what it says. I think there's a comment there. It says it's called Home Pin Factory for a reason. It's about the factory, what's happening in the factory, not what's happening for home sales or anything like that, which is handled by distributors. Right. Yeah, so it's always getting back to the playfield issues we were talking about before, that you know, Homepin are a supplier of games to their distributors, and then distributors sell them, just like Merko provides as a supplier of playfields to Jersey Jack, and Jersey Jack then sells them. Right, so now there is a bit of news on delays. One of the delays is caused by a flood that hit the Australian video animator, who had a few feet of water through his workplace a couple of weeks ago, and it has taken him a bit of time to reorganize and get back into finishing the job for HomePin. Hmm, well, that's nasty. Yeah, not very pleasant, but still very understandable that you need time to get your feet dry, I suppose. Yes. One of the interesting things that, or another one of the interesting things that has been on their social media feed was that it shows that they're using a removable pop bumper assembly, which is something which Highway Pimble looked into doing, or did, in fact, do, which means that if you need to service a pop bumper for any reason, you just unbolt the existing one, don't unscrew it, and the whole mechanism drops out of the playfield, and you bolt in a new one and plug it back in, and off you go. Right, it's not exactly new. I mean, it's not exactly new. I mean, I barely did that in the early 80s on games like, I think, Able Deluxe and that era. Yeah, it's an interesting idea, because it kind of implies that it's really more for operators who want to have limited or minimum downtime on their games. But I wonder how many operators are going to be operating Spinal Tap games, particularly when they not going to be produced in vast quantities I think Mike Kalinowski who owns HomePin has already said that you know they not looking to make thousands upon thousands of these No, but maybe that's something they're going to be using going forward on all their games. Right. So, yeah, you know something interesting about the cabinet for this final time? Can you get into that? I mean It features the Union flag Ah yes Yes the artwork of it Yes there was a picture on A highway entertainment website Promoting the game It's an external cabinet image But doesn't show anything of the playfield It's got black glass on it And the backbox as well Isn't there It isn't showing anything, but it does have a speaker panel on it, which has the Marshall logo and a display as well. And, yes, on the cabinet there is kind of, this is final chat, there is like a Union Jack in the UK flag, but it's not, it's not right because it's missing some components, Which is odd because It's the same kind of angle As used on the The Spinal Tap album The Sun Never Sweats Which does have the requisite bits In it but it's not on the playfield cabinet So that's a bit strange A Spinal Tap moment there Which is Well you know somebody from the UK Would pick up on that and notice that But one other thing I did notice on that was it mentioned about the licensing for Marshall speakers and the band as well but also mentioned about license for Mapex drums which there's no sign of that on the cabinet or backbox presumably they're going to have drum model on the play field maybe the bumpers or something well I can elaborate on that there will be there is a drum kit at the back of the playfield with his Final Tap logo. I think that's referring to that. And there will be a picture of that in the upcoming Pinball Magazine newsletter. Wow. Congratulations. Scoop, scoop. Very good. Okay. One other thing I noticed on their social media feed was that they showed a serial number plaque from the back of Tap Game 001. Interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, it only goes to three digits. So, it implies they're not looking to make more than 999 of them. Isn't there a lamp next to it that if they go past 999 the lamp shows up and that counts as a thousand? A thousand when lit. Yes. Yes. Could well work. Yeah. And also, it showed the game uses only 85 watts of power. That was at 230 volts AC, which means that, I guess that's a peak value, which means it pulls in 0.37 amps, so just over a third of an amp for the entire game. So that's really energy efficient, isn't it? Yeah. You could have a 13-amp circuit. You could have, I don't know, 36 of them or something like that. Wow Yeah Right So Oh well Just musing when I saw that I thought Oh that's a very low power Usage So Nice I mean Mike's obviously A bit of an expert When it comes to Electronics Electronics Oh yeah Absolutely Yeah So No that's very good So energy sufficient Or efficient That's what we need Yeah Yeah So it's a very green pinball Well I haven't seen the colours of it yet But yeah Okay Moving on Moving on Your local Local builder Dutch Pinball Yes Well I don't want to rub it in But I actually happened to be talking to Barry Driessen The owner of the company Last night For over two hours Lots of stuff I can't discuss here Of course They are still building the Big Lebowski which has a steady flow of orders coming in which is a good thing because they can keep on building them and the more new orders they build the more early achiever games they should be able to fulfill. Yeah and speaking of that my game is 161 and Barry told me that well I should put it in a different order I got invited and you as well by the way for a house warming party for the new Dutch Pinball factory where they actually are already almost well at least for a year probably even longer but due to COVID they never got to do a proper house warming inauguration for that They are going to do so on May 27th Which is a Saturday It's a Friday, I think I don't know, it could be It's a weekend somewhere I think the email I got said it was a Friday Okay, anyway It's a few days after Barry's own birthday And as I'm still waiting for a game I asked like, should I bring a car big enough to take my game home? To which Barry responded, what's your number? I told him it's probably, I think it's 161. And he said, well, it's not going to be in May, but it's going to be this year. So that's quite optimistic for me, since I'm only waiting for it for like eight years now. So, there's that, make of that what you want. Well, presumably that indicates they have enough orders, new orders, to get that far down the list. Yeah, just to clarify, Dash Primal is currently building like, one out of four games that is built is going to somebody, an early achiever, that already paid for the game up front eight years ago. They're still behind on that production schedule, but they need the new orders coming in to keep everything going, basically. And needless to say, Cointaker had a big reverse key on their stand at the Texas Fimble Festival as well to take more orders. Right. And from what I hear, they have no problem selling them. Yeah, probably have more problems making them. Yeah, that's probably the issue, but more manufacturers are dealing with that. Absolutely, yes. They are far from alone in that. Yeah, so and well Dutch Pimple still expanding their staff. It's not everybody that they hire turns out to be a good fit. But there's a new guy starting this Monday and they seem to be very happy. happy that he's on board. So hopefully that will increase production as well. Good okay well I hope to be able to get over to their factory warming party on May the 27th as part of a few days over in the Netherlands so I hope to see you and Barry and everyone else there and then not too far in the future. What was it? about eight weeks time, I suppose. That would be fun. That would be nice. So, moving on, anyway, to some of the other companies that we haven't covered yet. One ex-company we'll start with, then, which is Deep Root Pinball, who, as we know, have been in bankruptcy and has been, as we reported before, an auction of the contents of their offices in San Antonio, initiated by the landlord, who wanted all the equipment out, and got a court order allowing him to put them up for auction as part of the bankruptcy proceedings in order to recover some money. Right. And that's been going on. Actually, I think it's already closed, but there might be some more, some lots that haven't been auctioned off yet. I didn't follow it very precisely. No. We had a bad time because we were over in Texas for most of it, or at least planning to be over there and arranging things. So we haven't been keeping that close an eye on what's been going on. Right. So, yeah, I think there were like, I'm not sure whether the counting started at 001. I think the number of lots went up to 380. There were a couple of, what I would say, interesting lots, which had prototype playfields, games, mock-up games like... It was Fire and Brimstone was in there, I think Food Truck was in there, Yukon Yeti as well, there were versions of all those games in amongst Whitewoods or even pre-Whitewoods, it was like Foamcore. Yeah, and that's the word I was looking for, Foamcore mockups of certain games. I did look into the auction results and what I could see is, I think that most of that interesting stuff that we just described was bought up by two people both coming from Texas. And I think one got some stuff that the other wanted and vice versa. But they were both looking to make the Raza games that were also auctioned off playable, who knows what happens with the playful designs that's also in whatever they bought. Yeah, allegedly those Razer games had the software either wiped or destroyed before they went, before they were, well before the company closed, well before the software could be released into the wild shall we say, so that remains the property of the company which which is writing it for them. Yeah, so and not really banning prices so to speak at this auction. I think one of the prototype lots went for 8,000 or one of the Rasa games went for 8,000 dollars which is almost a bargain because that's what usually what you well what you pay for a new game anyway. Now you get a game, a prototype of which only two exist. Yeah, without any software of course, but... Yeah, well that's okay. Well that's not necessarily... Minor hiccup. Yeah, not necessarily impossible to either write your own or do a deal with the company who owns it. in order to get it. Most of the other office stuff and equipment went for, I'd probably say, bargain prices. If you wanted to start a pinball company, this was the best time to start it. Yeah, I mean, for me, the most interesting point was that there was so much equipment in there because it had long been muted that there was never any intention to actually build games. They didn't have any manufacturing capability at all. but as it turned out there was an awful lot in there and in fact too much in many ways there were two router machines there was equipment for making parts that no sane person but no business savvy person would choose to make themselves they'd contract it out to a local manufacturer so they obviously wanted to do all that stuff in house and bought the equipment to do it where they had the people to actually drive it. It's another matter, and that's something we've seen at other companies before. You might have the equipment, but you haven't got the skills. It's no use. But, no, there was a lot of value, and you're starting to see where some of that money went, in buying all this equipment. And how that money basically evaporated. Yeah, I mean, it kind of destroys the idea that the intention, there was never an intention to actually build games, but to sell the company. Because if you're going to do that, why would you have all the equipment there? So it just makes it even more unfathomable, if you pardon the pun, as to exactly what the plan was with that company to ever get any money. I mean, no one could seriously think that they were going to be making money from making pinball machines in the short term. But, yeah, that seems to be the only explanation. I was going to say rational explanation, but it's not rational. So, I don't know, it just mullies the water even more to see how much equipment there was in that factory or in that office. And, well, I guess, as you say, if somebody wanted to get into the business of making pinballs, that's a good source to buy it back relatively cheap. Right. Oh, well. I suppose that wraps it up for deep pinball, but then again there are still court hearings going on. It's the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. and instead of the five days of Deep Root I suppose we get the the fifth amendment of Deep Root you have to get five years of Deep Root I think five years of Deep Root court cases but anyway that's still going on so there might still be I'm sure we will be back yeah so it's not the end but it is the end it's the beginning of the end if not the end of the beginning so moving on to Pinball Adventures up across the border in Vancouver. And limited news from them, really, just on their Instagram feed, they started working on a second punny factory playfield. But it didn't look like there was really much in the way of manufacturing there. It was like, well, here's a playfield on a rotisserie and there's a few bits populated on it. Well, I think you just said the correct thing. Here's a playfield on our rotisserie. So that means one rotisserie Which is hardly manufacturing No Well You're basically building a prototype Yeah or a sample game or something Although I have to say I did see some pictures of the Playfield toys on there The sort of the punny machine And then I can't remember what the other parts on the playfield were But they're plastic But they were decorated Very nicely They're really impressive, the level of detail given to the paint job they've done on them, made it look sort of old and cranky and battered and Carl Weathers-beaten. No, it looked really good. Surprised me, compared to the rest of the theme, which is sort of light and bright. But this looked almost like something completely different, but very nicely done. So if they're building one game a month, they're still ahead of some of the competition. That's true. basically have problems building any games right now due to ongoing supply chain issues. Yes, that is as we say, and we've said it for many months, and I'm sure we're going to be saying it again for many more months, getting the parts and getting them shipped to you and getting them at a reasonable price is a huge challenge for anybody looking to manufacture pinball. Right. Oh well, Well, that's all the news on Pinball Adventures, I suppose. There was no news from Quetzal Pinball or Bitronic from Spain, who are working on their Super Hoop game. Yeah, I haven't seen anything more about that in the past month. But I figured I'd mention it anyway. Yeah, just good to keep them in mind. And another company where there was no news, really, was Circus Maximus. Yeah, which is more disturbing, I would say. Yeah, we were expecting to see them As a recap, they were doing the Kingpin remake And with the intention then of using the funds from that to The Pinball Circus, the Pythons Pinball Circus But they were scheduled to be a vendor at the Texas Pinball Festival Yeah, listed at the website as well Yeah, and there was a space marked out for them on the floor And no show, I'm afraid Well, there was a show, but they didn't show That's true. Yes, they were in our show. So there was some video. Without any notice. And I understood that the organization of TPF reached out, and one of the persons involved in Circus Maximus indicated that he wasn't coming to the show, and the other didn't basically respond. Hmm. That's disappointing, because they're normally a regular exhibitor there. Yeah. Normally have a very large stand of parts, which is where Mayfair Amusements were this year, and would generally have their kingpin game there as well, for people to play. But, no, not there this year, and no news, and it's been a long time since we've heard anything really from Circus Maximus about any of their, or either of their projects. Fingers crossed it's still happening, but it's not looking great. They're already afraid that they are basically boldly stating it's not going to happen. And, well, hopefully that's not the case. But it seems to me that if this is basically down to a two- or three-man project, if you want to make this happen, you need a bigger team. And you can't do everything by yourself. That's basically a recipe for disaster. Yeah, well, I think I had three people working on it at one point, but that's not enough. Certainly not for a big project like that But one new project which Has Reached production and is on sale now Is Was announced at the Texas Wimbledon Festival Technically Already the kettle was out of the bag Before the Texas Wimbledon Festival It was officially announced And shown to the public Was the Totem, Tales of the Arabian Nights The Forgotten Tales upgrade kit from being sold by Mirco Playfields with Mirco circuit boards and display panel as well but also using the fast pinball board set as well it's a basically adds a whole seven more stories seven more tales to the existing Tales of the Arabian Night gameplay as well as some other features as well in there, so I've some new rules. It has a new display panel which is a color LCD, color LED or LCD, I can't remember which one it was, but it's a color display and it has a bunch of inserts along the bottom to represent the new tails, so the C ones are on the playfield and the new ones are on the backbox and it has upgraded speakers and I'm trying to think what else was in it. It, well, it seems like it's kind of not quite finished because what's being sold at the moment is a beta or a beta version of it. Right. Which still needs some testing. Yeah. It kind of, it's supposed to be, it logs various aspects of the gameplay and the buyers are asked to upload those log files to Mirco so they can analyse them and see if the game is behaving exactly as it's intended to and if they do that they get some kind of gift but it was unaccessified exactly what that gift would be And this kit is only available through Mirco Playfields, and it's not being sold through any other distributors. So that's... go to mercoplayfields.com if you want. I think the cost was 2750 or something like that, euros? Yeah, yeah. Quite expensive for a kit I'd say, but hey, if you look at the price what pinball machines are doing, I can't blame anybody for asking that. No, that's right. It's not quite finished yet, but when they've sold all the beta kits, I think there were 50 of them or something like that, then they'll do the full production version of it, which, again, will still only be available through MoCo. Right. Oh, well. Yeah, it's an interesting project. Well, wish him best of luck, obviously, not only with that, but also with his playfields and the complaints that people may have about those. But let's leave it at that. Yes, absolutely. Other than that, last but not least, we had a European trade show at the beginning of the month, the EAG International Expo held in London. Indeed, yes And you were lucky enough to go there I was It was postponed from January Which is the normal time that it held So I pushed back a couple of months And yeah, on the pinball front Pretty disappointing I'd have to say In that Stern Pinball were the only Pinball manufacturer represented there Not entirely a surprise because Overall I'd say that attendance by vendors and visitors was down on previous years. I think there was still a certain hesitation in coming to a trade show like that. So it was quite quiet at the show. But Stern, note to their credit, put on a very good show on the stand of their UK distributor, ElectroCoin. They had five games there. They had two of the new Rush titles, a Pro and a Premium. had a Godzilla Pro, a Mandalorian Pro, and an Avengers Infinity Quest Pro. Bear in mind, you know, this is mainly a trade show, so they're pushing the Pros over home models. But they did have the premium Rush there, so you could see the difference between the two, which was nice. They had quite a little turnout there. They had newish Stern pinball president Seth Davis. He was there with Gary Stern, Doug Skor, and Waysan Cheng. And Wason is Sort of the lead programmer Behind the Insider Connected Kit Or system And he was there to help Answer any questions about it And also set it all up and keep it running And they were doing high school leaderboards On each of the games Although the Rutgers were grouped together So you could keep track Of your score and you could log in and sign up for Entirely Connected through that. And Seth Davis did a short presentation on two of the days about Entirely Connected to a sort of a several audience. From what I hear, that was a very short presentation. It was. It was probably five minutes, really, pretty much. So I handed out flyers about it. I had a nice chat with him about that and data protection and how they're dealing with the various legal issues around the world. But it was pretty standard corporate stuff. Yes, our lawyers have been looking into this and sorted it out, and we put the system through numerous different tests and brought in companies to ensure it's a secure platform and all that kind of stuff. that's it really there was one other pinball at the show which was a Big Buck Hunter Pro it was just on another stand which was selling a cashless payment system and it was just to illustrate how different types of coin-op machines can be can integrate with their system so you couldn't play it but it was there to show you could add credits to it from your phone or other device ok And that really was about it It wasn't an awful lot I didn't even bother doing a video this year A walk around Because it was kind of like a subset Of what you'd have seen Last time we had the show But I'm glad I didn't make the trip Yeah, it wouldn't have been worthwhile I was kind of in and out In a couple of hours And just spent the rest of the time Talking to people And sharing a beer With our good friend Adi Onka Right Yeah Yeah And that's it really From the EIG show report Again If you're really interested Pinballnews.com Has a report on that too Right As on the Texas Pinball Festival And along with you Pinballmagazine.com as well Pinball-magazine.com Yes Absolutely Yes And there will be of course The Pinball Magazine newsletter Going out in a couple of days I really like to finish my Texas Pinball Festival report first So I can link to that in the newsletter And as I mentioned earlier I will have probably three exclusive photos Playfield close-ups of this is final tap from Home Pin In that newsletter I look forward to seeing them Yeah, great Okay, well, I think that kind of wraps it up for this Pincast, looking back at March 2022, which, according to reports that we received from people at the Texas Pinball Festival, is listened to by many people in the industry. So thank you for all your feedback. It's the podcast the pinball industry listens to. Yeah, apparently so. So nice to know. And thank you for all the kind words And no harsh words either Everybody seems to enjoy this Right, okay So thank you for listening And we'll be back at the beginning of the next month Yep, so until then Have a lovely time And we'll see you then Thank you, bye-bye