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Pinball Industry News: December 2018 Re-cap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·39m 39s·analyzed·Jan 2, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

December 2018 pinball recap: Tokyo Perfect Drift revealed, Munsters teased, TNA nearing completion, Pirates LE shipping.

Summary

Jonathan Houston and Martin Eyre discuss December 2018 pinball industry news, covering new game announcements (Tokyo Perfect Drift by STR/Quetzal), production updates from major manufacturers (Stern's Primus and Munsters, Spooky's TNA completion, Jersey Jack's Pirates LE), code updates across multiple titles, and industry developments including a planned Texas Pinball Museum and a devastating collection fire in Germany. The episode emphasizes that December was a slow news month due to holiday season lulls.

Key Claims

  • Tokyo Perfect Drift revealed by STR Pinball and Quetzal Pinball, designed by Antonio (known for Captain Nemo Dives Again), priced at €4,395 (~$5,000 USD), launching with ~50% of rules and 2 songs initially

    high confidence · Jonathan Houston and Martin Eyre discussing official announcement on December 9th

  • Stern's Primus game shipping with production of first 50 units in December and remaining units in January, limited to 108 total machines

    high confidence · Discussion of Primus production timeline based on Facebook manufacturing photo

  • A Primus game shipped with a Munsters manual inside instead of Primus manual, containing partial rules information

    medium confidence · Martin notes skepticism about whether this was accidental or intentional leak; only two pictures seen repeatedly; not fully investigated on Pinside

  • Spooky's TNA (Total Nuclear Annihilation) has completed most of its 550-unit run with less than 30 games remaining and games in stock available for immediate shipment

    high confidence · Martin reporting direct understanding from Spooky regarding production status

  • Jersey Jack's Pirates of the Caribbean Collector Edition is being manufactured and shipped with code version 0.98 (not fully featured)

    high confidence · Discussion of production line status and code update release

  • Texas Pinball Festival organizers are setting up a Texas Pinball Museum expected to be operational by March when the festival occurs

    medium confidence · Facebook post announcement with limited details; only exterior photo shown

  • HomePin shipped a container of Thunderbirds pinball machines (likely to Australia) and has switched to using metal pallets bolted with metal pellets for shipment to prevent damage from previous wooden pallet failures

    high confidence · Discussion of HomePin Facebook announcements regarding shipment and logistics improvements

  • Stern's Munsters game expected to be revealed before CES (January 8-11) or during the show, with additional appearance at EAG London show

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm still looking for a game if you catch my drift... I think the play field looks interesting but I'm still missing a game in the game, so to speak.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~6:00-7:00 — Identifies core concern with Tokyo Perfect Drift: lack of substantive rule set and objectives despite attractive layout and art

  • “it appears to me that more and more people seem to bother themselves more with whether something is politically correct than get excited about a new game being revealed... I think it's rather worrisome that political correctness is taking over the excitement for a new game.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~8:30 — Commentary on community discourse around Tokyo Perfect Drift artwork; reflects hosts' perspective on fan engagement priorities

  • “TNA is officially their most successful game to date... Well, congratulations to Scott and the team.”

    Martin Eyre / Jonathan Houston @ ~38:00 — Recognition that Spooky's approach to accessible, single-level design has commercial success with 550-unit run nearly complete

  • “Version 0.98... not quite version 1, not quite fully featured, but almost. That's quite worrisome actually because that means that they are still putting more into the game and there's already plenty.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~46:00 — Concern that Jersey Jack's Pirates may continue adding complexity to an already complex game

  • “They had a couple of incidences where games got damaged during transport... So in this case, with the games being basically bolted to the pallet, they should not fall off.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~33:00 — Documents HomePin's supply chain improvements addressing previous shipping damage issues

  • “Well, that is exciting, and they do hope to be up and running by the time of the Texas show in March.”

    Jonathan Houston @ ~55:00 — Announcement of Texas Pinball Museum as new community hub and addition to Texas Pinball Festival ecosystem

  • “Ensuring your pinballs won't bring them back, but it might make it easier to replace them.”

Entities

Jonathan HoustonpersonMartin EyrepersonTokyo Perfect DriftgameAntoniopersonSTR PinballcompanyQuetzal PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyPrimusgameMunstersgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack's Pirates of the Caribbean version 0.98 code release indicates ongoing feature additions post-production, raising concerns about game complexity continuing to expand

    medium · Martin expressed concern: 'that's quite worrisome actually because that means that they are still putting more into the game and there's already plenty'

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Museum announced by Texas Pinball Festival organizers; infrastructure expansion for community hub

    medium · Facebook announcement with limited details; exterior photo only; expected operational by March 2019 festival; Barry Driessen (Deep Root) confirmed as guest

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern launching website refresh with improved layout, game location finder, and Pro Circuit rankings accessibility on homepage

    high · New website deployed with scrollable content; reported improved user experience (minor mobile loading issues experienced initially)

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tokyo Perfect Drift criticized for incomplete rule set and missing objectives despite visually attractive playfield; only ~50% of rules implemented at launch

    high · Jonathan Houston observed lack of substantive gameplay progression; Martin noted placeholder trance music with no dynamic mode changes; Antonio's brother Cristobal composed only 2 initial songs

  • ?

    event_signal: Multiple industry trade shows expected January 2019: CES (Las Vegas, January 8-11) and EAG (London, mid-January); Munsters expected to debut at one of these venues

    high · Standard industry reveal pattern; Munsters production visible in factory photos; timeline speculation based on trade show calendar

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.119

0:00
Tokyo Perfect Drift revealed. More Monsters Leaks. Spooky completes the TNA run. For now. Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston of Pinball Magazine. And I'm Martin Eyre from Pinball News. And welcome to our monthly free audio podcast with the latest industry news from the industry of pinball. And this month we're a little ahead. Usually we're here the first week of the month, but since it's December and there's hardly any news, which still won't keep us from talking for two hours, but still, we decided we'd do this before New Year's Eve. So that's why we're here already now. Yes, because let's face it, after New Year's Eve, we're all going to be too hungover to work out what year it is, let alone what month it was. So, yes, let's look back on the wonderful month of December.
1:02
And where should we start? Well, I'd say with the refreshing news, I would say that STR Pinball and Quetzal Pinball are teaming up together, and they revealed a new game called Tokyo Perfect Drift. indeed it's um it's been designed by uh antonio um who uh was of course well known for captain nemo dives again and um he he told us that he was um he was working on his follow-up to that game when uh str pinball came and asked him to design a rather simpler sort of single level game which seem to be very popular these days after games such as TNA and Beatles. Yeah.
1:52
To sort of fill in before his game is ready next year. So Antonio worked on that and designed it, and he unveiled it on, well, the 9th of December. And it is a single-level game. It's a very attractive artwork package on it, like Captain Nemo it's got an LCD display although this one's in the back box rather than in the play field is there anything you want to add about the game, any thoughts about it Jonathan? Well, I've seen a couple of videos of gameplay and I'd say that I think the play field looks interesting but I'm still looking for a game if you catch my drift. Right. No pun intended.

medium confidence · Speculation based on production timeline and typical industry reveal patterns

  • A German pinball collector named Ingo Kramer lost a collection of over 100 pinball machines in a building fire, apparently uninsured, possibly caused by a parked car catching fire outside

    high confidence · News reported as occurring a couple days before podcast recording

  • Jim Askey released a code version 2.0 update for Revenge from Mars (originally from 1999) with new hurry features, championship tracking, and underlying code changes

    high confidence · Discussion of mypinballs.com release for 20-year anniversary-adjacent update

    • Martin Eyre @ ~71:00 — Practical advice following discussion of devastating collection fire in Germany

  • “We're less than 40 minutes on the way and we're done. Unbelievable. Well, December is always a bit of a quiet time, what with the holiday season and things being held back until the start of the next year.”

    Jonathan Houston / Martin Eyre @ ~73:00 — Meta-commentary on December as traditionally slow news period in pinball industry

    • Spooky Pinballcompany
    Total Nuclear Annihilation (TNA)game
    Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castlegame
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Pirates of the Caribbean (Collector Edition)game
    HomePincompany
    Thunderbirdsgame
    American Pinballcompany
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Texas Pinball Museumorganization
    Ingo Kramerperson
    Jim Askey / My Pinballsperson
    Revenge from Marsgame
    Pinball Magazinepublication
    Pinball Newspublication
  • ?

    leak_detection: Munsters pinball details leaked through Stern's production facility photo showing machines on assembly line; unconfirmed manual swap story further indicates information leakage

    high · Facebook photo showed Primus and Munsters simultaneously in production; Primus manual containing Munsters rules reported (though credibility questioned); expected reveal timing inferred from production line visibility

  • $

    market_signal: Tokyo Perfect Drift priced at €4,395 (~$5,000 USD) positioned as low-end entry price point with simplified single-level mechanics

    high · Hosts expressed surprise at aggressive pricing; questioned breakeven viability given minimal hardware (no major toys, standard LCD, basic mechanics)

  • ?

    announcement: Tokyo Perfect Drift officially revealed by STR Pinball and Quetzal Pinball as new single-level game with €4,395 price point

    high · Antonio designed Tokyo Perfect Drift unveiled December 9th; specifications: LED backbox display, neon artwork palette, multi-song soundtrack by Cristobal

  • ?

    product_concern: Severe manufacturing/logistics incident: German collector Ingo Kramer's 100+ pinball machine collection destroyed in building fire; collection uninsured; possible cause: parked car ignition

    high · Reported as occurring days before podcast; emphasizes insurance and electrical safety recommendations for collectors

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky Pinball completing TNA run (550 units) before transitioning to Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle production

    high · Less than 30 units remaining in TNA production; games in stock for immediate shipment; next title officially named as Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community discourse around Tokyo Perfect Drift artwork focusing on political correctness concerns rather than gameplay excitement; hosts express concern about priority misalignment

    medium · Jonathan: 'people seem to bother themselves more with whether something is politically correct than get excited about a new game'; Martin characterized as 'true to life' authentic design

  • ?

    technology_signal: HomePin implementing metal pallets with metal bolt fastening for pinball machine shipments; addressing supply chain logistics failures from wooden pallet deterioration

    high · HomePin Facebook post documented previous shipping damage incidents; metal pellets and bolting provide improved structural integrity and damage prevention

    • 2:48
    It shoots well, but you're not seeing any progression or any rule set or anything. Or even a simple, like, what are you supposed to do? Right, yeah. Some objectives in the game. Right. So it is an interesting layout, I'd say that. I thought the art package looked very nice and refreshing. Yeah, certainly very colorful. All the purples and blues in there. I'm assuming it was neon effects. I did see some Facebook posts of people immediately objecting against the artwork because it was too sexy, apparently, for some people. Let's just call it what it is. Yeah.
    3:38
    And it appears to me, okay, maybe I'll cut this or maybe I won't, but it appears to me that more and more people seem to bother themselves more with whether something is politically correct than get excited about a new game being revealed. And these are people that are supposed to be in the hobby.
    3:59
    And I think it's rather worrisome that political correctness is taking over the excitement for a new game. yeah i agree there's going to be quite a few people out there who who want to be offended um by by anything they can find and not necessarily on their own behalf on behalf of other people who they think they should be supporting and be offended for but anyway it's not uh it's not doing on that too much because it's a season of goodwill um and um that can always be a new year's resolution to uh to be a little more uh accommodating shall we say and uh and accepting of other people's opinions.
    4:36
    But getting back to Tokyo Perfect Drift, yes, it's bright neon colour. I think the artwork is very much in keeping with the theme and the way those races are held in Japan. So I don't think there's any complaints on that level. No, it's probably very authentic, I'd say. Yeah, I think so. It's bright, it's garish, it's fast.
    5:00
    And yeah, you're right. It does have those elements which some people might find a problem with. But, you know. Well, that's how they actually are. Yeah, that's true to life, I'd say.
    5:15
    What I also, in the videos that I saw, what I noticed is that there was some sort of a trans track as audio in the background. but it didn't have the effect that the soundtrack of TNA had on me yes so I'm all for trance music in pinball but this was just like a placeholder music and there was nothing there were no modes, nothing was changing we were just flipping the ball around on a trance track and that was it yes I think when they launched the game There was apparently about 50% of the rules in there, and only two songs in it at the moment, which were composed by Antonio's brother, Cristobal. Right. But there will still be a lot more music in the game over the next few weeks, and the rest of the rules will be put in as well.
    6:15
    So the price is €4,395. euros. That's something that's surprising, I'd say. Yeah, it's a low-end price, $5,000, just under £4,000,
    6:33
    I guess, plus tax in whatever region you're buying it. And actually start expecting to manufacture these games in January, with most of the parts coming from Spain. Right. So I'd be tempted to buy one if – but I want to see more rules first because from what I saw right now, it looks good, but I'm still missing a game in the game, so to speak. The rules are always going to be fairly simplistic, I think. But yes, there's no reason they couldn't have more in there. Or the rules which have been spelled out and haven't been implemented yet will obviously get in there. Right. And maybe, I don't know, maybe they need someone with an objective eye to look at the play field and maybe come up with a completely different rule set than what they have in mind. And that might actually work better.
    7:36
    Yes. I wonder what the possibilities might be of doing some sort of customization option where you can actually write your own rules if you wanted to. Right. Obviously, it's using Antonio's own controller board, so that may or may not be possible. But, yeah, we can find out over the next few weeks. Right. And still, for the price that you're paying for that game, I'm almost surprised that they are breaking even on that. let alone making money.
    8:10
    Yeah, well, there isn't a lot of hardware in the game, is there? There are no sort of big toys in there other than the screen, I suppose, which is almost like a standard these days. That's it, being drop targets or stand-up targets, and pop bumpers and slingshots and flippers, and that's about it, really.
    8:29
    Probably the most impressive part is going to be the lighting on it, which I think they have a lot of scope to do some nice effects on, particularly once they start races and things like that. Okay. Well, anyway, good luck for them. Yeah. So that's one game which is coming up. Right. Now if we move over to almost the opposite end of the manufacturing spectrum to the biggest people manufacturer and Stern, and what they've been doing and what they've been, what do we say? Teasing. Revealing? Yeah, teasing us with. Teasing, yeah. Yes, good idea. So, yes, well, let's start with what they're doing now because the game Primus, which we just got in the last podcast, as having just been announced, that is now shipping. I don't know how it's selling. well they're only limiting it to 108 machines i believe which is 100 for sale and eight for the team and the band and the promotional company right what i understood is that they are manufacturing the first 50 um this month in december and the remaining games uh will be on the line in january right okay so i did have a quick look at the primus merchandise shop just now to see if you can buy them there And it lets you order up to six at a time through the shop there Well, that means they have six or they just put some artificial number in to stop people messing about too much. But, yes, if you want to buy the game, you can order it through Primus' merchandising.
    10:16
    Okay. And what's interesting to note is that on Facebook appeared a photo of the Primus game being in production, with in the background monsters also being assembled.
    10:33
    Yes, I didn't see that myself, but I heard about it. and that's one of the leaks about Munsters, one of the many leaks about Munsters that we've had from Stern.
    10:48
    Either intended or not, you make your own mind up on that. Right. I think we think it's all planned. Carefully choreographed. Yeah, yeah, quite right. and the actual launch date or the reveal date of the monsters has not been set in stone yet but there's a lot of speculation with the game being on the line I'm pretty sure that we can expect the game to be shown at the CES show in January and the EAG show in London as well yes the show runs January 8th to 11th in Las Vegas so you can probably expect it to be revealed slightly before that, in the week before the 2nd to the 7th or something like that, and then appearing at the CES show, and then, as you say, over the EAG show in London a week or so later. Right. And one of the other leaks around monsters was that apparently a Primus game shipped with a monsters manual inside instead of a Primus manual now that's a mistake, I find that very odd for something to occur like that as an accident either it must have been choreographed or either it's a completely made up story which is just a nice story to add and everybody is buying it apparently I have to say I didn't fully investigate it on Pinsight I didn't dive into the Munster thread for all these clues and whether somebody actually got that manual because I think there were only two pictures and I see the same pictures popping up all over again all the time I think I saw there was a list of rules that were spelled out in the manual for the game. So that might add some credence to that.
    12:59
    Right. But anyway, no matter how you look at it, month is coming. There's no doubt about it. Yes, indeed. It's not on the Stern website yet. But speaking of the Stern website, they have a new website. Right. with lots of scrolling tickers and lots of big pictures.
    13:20
    It's been given a refresh. It looks very sort of WordPress-y to me. I'm sure the previous one was as well.
    13:27
    No, the previous one was different. Actually, I have to say I like this new website of Stern better than the previous one.
    13:36
    I had a slightly negative experience with it, I suppose, when I first loaded it up because I was doing it on my phone. and it only half-loaded the first time, which ended up with you only getting the first four characters of each game name. So you get, like, the B or something. That's why we have abbreviations. Yeah.
    14:00
    But they're doing that for all of them. So it was a nice little game to try, and the pictures weren't appearing either. So it was a nice, interesting game to try and work out what the games really were. Or you just get something that said dead on it, which wasn't that great, you know. But since then I've loaded it again a couple of times And it's been fine So just teething troubles at the time But yes, it's a lot bigger There's a lot of stuff on there now A lot of good content Including the game location finder And the Stern Pro Circuit rankings On there And all on the front page So yeah, it looks nice Right And to conclude Stern For now quite a few code updates as well this month we've seen code updates for Deadpool, Batman Beatles, Guardians of the Galaxy Aerosmith and another update for KISS which I think is basically some bug fixing on the previous update of KISS which was last month which was a big surprise for many and yet still no Ghostbusters update, which will annoy a number of people.
    15:12
    I'm sure it's coming, but every time another code update comes out, there's always the chorus of, where's the Ghostbusters code? Yeah, not to mention Wheel of Fortune.
    15:21
    Oh, well, yes. Any day now, I'm told. Right, okay. So, moving on to Spooky Pinball. Yeah. So TNA Total Nuclear Annihilation Good point That was going to max out On the current run at 550 units Right That was expected to have been done by now I'm not sure that actually They've reached that number And done the moves towards Starting production on the next title Which is of course Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle Have you heard anything from Wisconsin? Well, what I understood is that as far as I the all the games that have been ordered have been built and they're so that doesn't mean that they reached 550 yet, but the games they are building now are games so they have games in stock and if you call Spooky and you want to order TNA they might have it immediately in stock and they can ship it to you right away.
    16:36
    And from what I sort of understood, let's say they're less than 30 games away from finishing up. Right. So that presumably means that TNA is officially their most successful game to date. Yes. Well, congratulations to Scott and the team. Right. Yeah. so and um uh obviously the game might be taken into production uh again after alice cooper if there is demand but uh if you don't want to wait that long you can order a game right now it's spooky and um yeah they have some in stock right right so um moving on looking at my uh my notes here.
    17:30
    I'm wondering what we're going to cover next. It's exciting. Okay, so HomePin has been building a new batch of Thunderbird pinball, and apparently a container of games shipped out the door earlier this month. And if I'm not mistaken, that container is heading for Australia.
    17:52
    Well, hopefully that includes the games which were bought early by Australian buyers, and there was a bit of a hoo-ha about them not getting the games and who was going to pay for shipping and how shipping was going to be arranged. So hopefully that's all been sorted out now, and those games are, if not already arrived in Australia, are on their way. Right. And it's also worth noting that on their Facebook page, Homepin posted that they are now using metal pellets.
    18:27
    which they actually screwed the games on for shipment. They had a couple of incidences where games got damaged during transport, apparently either due to wooden pellets not being, well, basically failing in what they should be doing, or games falling off a pellet. So in this case, with the games being basically bolted to the pallet, they should not fall off. And since it's a metal pallet, it should be, what's the word, sturdier than a wooden pallet or last longer. Yes, I guess they would bend rather than snap as a wooden pallet would. But it's surprising that it's cost effective for them to do that. I know the cost of various products in China can be surprising. As Mike has explained various times now, it's often cheaper to make, or at least no more expensive to make stainless steel parts than is regular steel parts. So maybe they have a very good line on the metal they using for the pallets and they getting a good deal for that It doesn make the game or doesn increase their production costs too much Right Okay So that covers Homepin Obviously there's still a manufacturing part for more games, so that will keep them busy. And they are working on a second game, but there's no real news on that. No, no, although various hints have been given over time as to what that title is. Mike hasn't actually announced it yet. Right, but it should be, the game is supposed to be aiming at the Chinese market. Yes, absolutely, yeah. Speaking of the Chinese market, that reminds me of a photo or video I saw earlier today, coming by on my Facebook, where a Japanese company came out with a Space Invaders themed pinball machine. That was Taito, I think, wasn't it? Yeah. And interestingly enough, the hardware layout of that game is exactly the same as Super Pong Pong Bar, which is a game that was shown I think last year at the Amusement Expo show in Las Vegas. It's by a Taiwanese company called Wedge. they even advertise for that game in Pimble Magazine number 5 so you can look up the ad over there but the title game apparently has different artwork on the playfield but the layout is exactly the same and it appears to be a sort of a multi-ball game where multiple balls are launched at the same time and it's a head-to-head game So basically you're trying to flip the balls over to the other side of your opponent's playfield. Yes, a bit like Joust or Elvin G Soccer Ball and those types of games, especially entitled Space Invaders Pinball Jam.
    21:54
    It seems to have a fairly simplistic-looking layout on the playfield. Right. But it is, as you say, it's a multi-ball game, and it looks like it has sort of rubberized balls to it, So it's not like proper steel pinballs.
    22:09
    But it is sort of a flipping frenzy to try and keep the balls in your opponent's side and hit various targets on their side rather than just like joust and basically every game pretty much that employs head-to-head play.
    22:28
    Right. it's interesting that they're thinking that physical pinball is the way to go rather than using a sort of video pinball version which would be quite easy to do well it might be a refreshing game for the Japanese arcades yeah it could be fun for redemption play as well I thought so there's that and okay, let's move on to Jersey Jack.
    23:03
    Yes, so the collector edition of Pirates of the Caribbean, which is that, that's the base version. No, that's the limited one. Oh, the limited edition, okay. Well, the super limited, how you want to call it, so the most expensive model. Right, okay, and that is now being shipped, is that right? being manufactured and shipped that's now on the line and to go with that they have a code update as well, which is version 0.98 not quite version 1, not quite fully featured, but almost Yeah, that's quite worrisome actually because that means that they are still putting more into the game and there's already plenty Well, maybe putting more maybe making sure what they put in works properly adding more features. True, true. You spoke last time and in our Christmas wish list about simpler, more easily understood game rules.
    24:06
    Hopefully they're not making them even more complex than they already are. Hopefully not, but oh well, we'll see.
    24:13
    And on a side note, obviously everybody is familiar with Jack Warnieri, founder of Jersey Jack Pitbull. And he became a grandfather again. His daughter, Jen, who is also working at the company, gave birth to Gary Salvatore di Cosmo.
    24:37
    Oh, okay. And I think it was on Christmas Day, if I'm not mistaken. Well, congratulations to them and to everyone in the family. Exactly. so and what do I hear? is it your phone ringing? oh hang on no it's not actually is it yours? could be but I don't know where my yeah it's me speak of the devil I'd say you're such a oh with the name Gary oh wow what's Gary Stern doing calling it his time he should know that we're doing this podcast I'm sure you told him I didn't tell him and it's not Gary Starr Oh, who is it then? It's the other Gary Oh, that Gary Flower Yeah, exactly I suspect he's got some really exciting news to share with us Right We should answer it and find out what it is he's got because we can include it in the podcast Okay, so let's find out Let's switch over to Gary What?
    25:45
    He does it every time Every time I want to reach out for my phone And answer his call He's gone It's almost like he knows you're about to answer I wonder if he's listening to us Oh my god Well that's That'll have to remain our New Year's resolution To get him on the show Right, yeah, so let's hope in 2019 We'll finally manage to get him on the show Yeah, definitely Yeah, we'll definitely arrange for him to make a special appearance and bring us some late-breaking industry news. Right, okay. So, moving on,
    26:28
    there was an interesting post on Facebook concerning the Texas Pitbull Festival, and, well, not so much the festival, but apparently the organizers of the Texas Pinball Festival have also been working in setting up a Texas Pinball Museum.
    26:52
    Yes, that was a bit of a shock, but it's exciting news. I haven't got any more details of it other than the picture that was on Facebook showing the exterior of the unit that they're in. It looked a bit like an office to me rather than having a big sort of shop window to show what they have inside, but maybe that's just another tease, a Stern-like tease, showing us what's coming. Well, you never know how big the building behind the door is. Exactly, yeah.
    27:24
    Well, that is exciting, and they do hope to be up and running by the time of the Texas show in March. Right. Well, I hope so, too, so that gives us at least somewhere to go now that we're not going to Deep Root. well just they're not coming to us doesn't mean we're not going to them of course right um so yes so that was um that was the museum and the latest addition to the texas pinball show of texas pinball festival um lineup of guests was added well um barry also has been confirmed to be in attendance as well yep so barry is obviously working at deep root in san antonio and might be able to share a little information about what's going on down there in the absence of Deep Root themselves launching their games at the Texas Pimple Festival. But, you know, there'll be a lot going on anyway. Right. So we mentioned a couple of code updates for games. American Pimple also released a code update for Houdini. it was like magic appearance here's a new code of date wow do we know what's in it is it a significant one I have no idea they're working hard on bringing Oktoberfest to the market and getting that ready for launch or for production I suppose so it's good that they're still working on a few tweaks for Houdini as well So, right. Nice to see. And I'm talking of code updates. One which came across my radar in the past week or so was a rather unexpected code. I didn't call it an update, but a code variation maybe for Revenge from Mars. Wow. Yeah, exactly. After all this time, 1999. And it comes out in 2019. So 20 year anniversary almost. Right. Jim Askey of My Pinballs has been working on making some tweaks and a couple of new features in the game. They not sort of groundbreaking in terms of how the game plays but he added a new hurry feature to it and some new championship some re initials for getting the most There's one for missiles and hypno-beams destroyed and some underlying code and service menu changes as well. So I would say rush over and download that at, I think it's mypinballs.com. Yeah, mypinwalls.com, version 2.0, where you can download the code and look at all the changes that have been made in version 2. But as I say, I was going to say to rush over and download it and install it, but of course that uses ROMs, doesn't it? EPROMs. PROMs, yeah. Yeah, unless you're running one of the emulators, in which case it would be a lot easier. but if you still want the original game you'll have to burn some e-proms or have somebody else burn them for you and install that so anyway, go and have a look see if you think it's worth the while I think it is and if you'd like it feel free to make a donation and support Jim's work actually I think you just unintentionally mentioned something that actually would have been very very cool if there would be an official 20th anniversary update for a game. Or, I mean, it could be a 25th anniversary game for another game. But something like that, of course, is very unlikely to happen.
    31:22
    Well, one might say, maybe that's what's planned for Ghostbusters. Well, yeah, that could work. Yeah. But it's a fun idea, something so, oh well, but that's up to manufacturers or people hacking games and so on and I guess for Chicago Gaming, that sort of applies to Monster Bash the remake that is which is like a 21st year anniversary kind of remake kind of thing so One more item of news slightly sad news a couple of days ago there was a big collection of pinballs in Germany which was destroyed when the fire burnt through the building that was Ingo Kramer's collection, over 100 games I'm sorry to hear that it is devastating I'm sure but fortunately nobody no human lives were lost or and there are no injuries, but seeing all that work he put into building out that collection destroyed is really devastating, and apparently it wasn't insured either. The building was, but the collection wasn't. So it was rumoured that it might have been started by a car that was parked outside catching fire, and then that spread to the building. But anyway, let's not dwell too much on that, But just a reminder to make sure you keep your collections and yourselves safe and ensure your collection if you're concerned about anything like that happening. It's not necessarily a huge amount of money if you can add it on to your household insurance. It's a bit different if you have a completely separate operation. But ensuring your pinballs won't bring them back, but it might make it easier to replace them. Right. And also note that this isn't the first fire destroying Pimbles this year. Apparently earlier this year in Australia also a complete game room went up in flames.
    33:39
    Oh my goodness. Well, it's more common than you might think then. So make sure you check everything, check your wiring and make sure there's no fire risk there. Right, so well, hopefully Ingo will recover and won't leave the hobby after this Let's hope so, let's send him all our best wishes anyway Hope 2019 starts out in a much better way than 2018 finished Right, so Wow, this is really amazing, I mean We're less than 40 minutes on the way and we're done.
    34:22
    Unbelievable. Well, December is always a bit of a quiet time, what with the holiday season and things being held back until the start of the next year. So it's not really too surprising. But we hope you had a lovely time over the festive period and looking forward to 2019 being an exciting year for pinball. I'm going back to working on my look back at the whole of 2018 in a long article for Pinball News which is taking even longer than I thought because quite a lot happened last year and wrapping it all up into one article is taking some work and I'm sure you're going to be busy Jonathan as well over the next few days and weeks Right, yeah At some point I should probably start working on the next issue of Pinball Magazine.
    35:12
    But for now, I'm still busy with other projects that I'm working on, so I'm not in a real rush. Pinball Magazine No. 5 came out in August, and I'll give it a couple more months, and then I'll start working on the next issue, I guess. Yeah, excellent. We're looking forward to that. Is that still the Python Angelo edition? I'm currently planning, yes. Right. Okay. Good. And may I remind people that... Sorry.
    35:47
    There's plenty of material to work with there. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. And speaking of printed publications on pinball, there has been that publication that was Pinball Adventures, but the quality was sort of lacking, I'd say. I did receive my copy of the first print of that book, and I can see where other people are complaining about the quality, and that's a pity. I even understood that there is now a second print, which is actually, oddly enough, smaller sized than the first print. And the paper is a little bit thicker, but still not glossy or anything like that, and still not as thick as it should be.
    36:38
    Does that have all the grammatical errors and the typesetting issues sorted out in the new version? I think there was a repeated section and spell checking and all that kind of stuff. Proofreading basically wasn't really done on it before it went to press the first time. Do you know if that's been addressed in the reprint? I have seen people asking about that on Pinsight, but I haven't seen a confirmation that they actually fixed things. Although it would seem odd that, I mean, the Dr. Dude chapter had the text for Whitewater. It would seem odd to me if they did at least not fix that. Yeah. Okay. Well, that all ended a little acrimoniously, didn't it, with the publisher and Todd giving their versions of what happened. and it's clear that it wasn't exactly how either of them were anticipating it turning out. Right. Still, at least they came out with something, which can't be said for the 30 Years of Stern pinball book that has been in anticipation of those who funded it for almost two years now. Perhaps they're going to do the anniversary. Perhaps it will be the 30th anniversary of the 30th anniversary.
    38:04
    That's going to come out. Right. Oh, well. There's 2019 around the corner, and maybe they will get it done this next year. So let's hope for that. Yes. Well, let us wrap this up then and wish you all the very best for enjoyable and safe and happy celebrations for the start of 2019. And the same to you. Thank you. And let's hope that 2019 brings plenty of excitement of a very positive type of excitement to the pinball world and and to you and all our listeners. So with that, I think we'll wish everyone a very happy time, and we'll see you at the next free Pinball News, Pinball Magazine, Pinball Podcast, which will be at the latest at the end of January, the start of February.
    39:04
    But we will be getting together at the EAG show in London in the middle of the month. so who knows what will come out of that maybe we'll have some exclusive interviews that we want to bring you earlier but until either of those things happen it's goodbye from me and from me as well, wishing you all the best for 2019 and on behalf of Martin and me, thanks for listening and Happy New Year!