American Pinball's First Game Will Be A "Reimagined" Bally Williams Title; Riot! Pinball Programmer joins Pedretti Gaming; The History of Super Chexx

Knapp Arcade·article·analyzed·Jan 28, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.016

TL;DR

American Pinball's new owners announce first game as Bally/Williams remake coming Q3 2026

Summary

American Pinball under new ownership (Bryan Vincent/Ron Lindeman) plans to release its first game in Q3 2026 as a 'reimagined' Bally/Williams title via a licensing deal with Planetary Pinball, with subsequent games planned as another remake and then an original licensed title. The company aims for two releases per year and is avoiding horror and superhero themes. A programmer from Riot! has joined Pedretti Gaming.

Key Claims

American Pinball's first game will be a 'reimagined' Bally/Williams title revealed in Q3 2026
high confidence · Direct statement from new owner Bryan Vincent and President Ron Lindeman in interview with Cary Hardy
American Pinball has a licensing agreement with Planetary Pinball for Bally/Williams remakes
high confidence · Stated in article as confirmed through recent owner interview
Rumors suggest The Shadow (1994 Bally game) might be remade, but unconfirmed
low confidence · Author explicitly states 'I have heard rumblings' and 'I have absolutely no idea and I wouldn't put money on it'
American Pinball's second game will also be a reimagined Bally/Williams machine
high confidence · Confirmed in owner interview
American Pinball's third game will be its first original licensed pinball machine
high confidence · Confirmed in owner interview
American Pinball is working on a surprise code update for Oktoberfest (2018)
high confidence · Stated in owner interview
American Pinball is aiming to release two machines per year: one remake and one original licensed game
high confidence · Confirmed in owner interview
American Pinball is not currently interested in horror and superhero genre licenses
high confidence · Bryan Vincent stated specific theme categories being avoided

Notable Quotes

“American Pinball's first game, which is at this point is forecast to be revealed sometime in Q3 2026 will be a 'Reimagined' Bally / Williams title, under its new licensing agreement with Planetary Pinball.”
Knapp Arcade (author citing interview) @ January 27, 2026 — Official confirmation of American Pinball's product roadmap and Planetary Pinball licensing deal
“I have heard rumblings about a possible remake of the 1994 Bally game The Shadow at some point. Is that true? I have absolutely no idea and I wouldn't put money on it, but it is out there.”
Knapp Arcade (author) @ January 27, 2026 — Author clearly distinguishing rumor from confirmed information, noting The Shadow as speculative

Entities

American PinballcompanyBryan VincentpersonRon LindemanpersonCary Hardyperson Planetary Pinballcompany The Shadowgame Oktoberfestgame Pedretti GamingcompanyRiot!game

Signals

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business_signal: American Pinball under new ownership announces structured product roadmap with two releases per year targeting alternating remake/original licensed titles through 2026+
high · Bryan Vincent and Ron Lindeman confirmed two-per-year cadence with remake/original alternation in recent interview
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licensing_signal: American Pinball secures Bally/Williams licensing agreement with Planetary Pinball, enabling first multiple games as remakes of classic titles
high · Confirmed licensing deal with Planetary Pinball explicitly stated for Q3 2026 first release
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market_signal: American Pinball leadership explicitly avoiding horror and superhero licenses, signaling strategic differentiation from current market trends
high · Bryan Vincent stated specific theme categories being explicitly avoided in ownership interview
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personnel_signal: Programmer from Riot! Pinball joins Pedretti Gaming, indicating personnel migration between boutique manufacturers
medium · Mentioned in article title and content as hiring news from Pedretti Gaming
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announcement: American Pinball's first game announcement forecast for Q3 2026, confirmed as Bally/Williams remake genre with specific title TBD
high · Official reveal of timeline and game type from new ownership in recent interview
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Topics

American Pinball ownership transition and new strategyprimaryBally/Williams licensing and remake strategyprimaryProduct roadmap: first three American Pinball gamesprimaryPersonnel changes in pinball industrysecondaryPinball game licensing and IP strategiessecondary

Sentiment

neutral(0.5)— Author reports factual developments from official interview with neutral tone; includes caveat about speculation regarding The Shadow rumor

Transcript

raw_text · $0.000

News American Pinball's First Game Will Be A "Reimagined" Bally Williams Title; Riot! Pinball Programmer joins Pedretti Gaming; The History of Super Chexx k knapparcade January 27, 2026 OK, I've dug out from under somewhere between 20 and 30 inches of Jon Snow and a power outage here in the Northeastern U.S. Whew :) . Time for more news. First up, we have more information about the new regime at American Pinball. The Company's new owner Bryan Vincent and its President Ron Lindeman recently sat down for an interview with YouTuber Cary Hardy. Below are a couple of new things that I learned from the interesting interview: \- American Pinball's first game, which is at this point is forecast to be revealed sometime in Q3 2026 will be a "Reimagined" Bally / Williams title, under its new licensing agreement with Planetary Pinball. No specific titles were mentioned in the interview, but I have heard rumblings about a possible remake of the 1994 Bally game The Shadow at some point. Is that true? I have absolutely no idea and I wouldn't put money on it, but it is out there. Still, take a grain of salt though. \- AP's second game will also be a Reimagined Bally Williams machine. \- AP Game 3 will be its first original licensed pinball machine. \- The Company is currently working on a surprise code update for its 2018 pinball machine Oktoberfest. \- American is aiming to release two new machines per year, one Remake and one Original licensed game. \- Two specific types of themes that Bryan mentioned the Company not currently being interested in obtaining licenses for are the Horror and Superhero genres. Meet the New Owner of American Pinball! - YouTube 0:00 / •Live • A few housekeeping notes for those of you who have made it this far lol. First up, the third time is the charm for the Knapp Arcade new article e-mail alerts. They are now back, working as intended. The next step is to repair the "Unsubscribe" feature for e-mail alerts. Rest assured, we are working on it. After that we have a couple of other cool new features for the website in the works. Stay Tuned :) Oh, also I accidentally included an exclamation point "!" next to the word Riot in the title of this post because one of my sons used to play for a club lacrosse team called "Riot!" and I'm used to writing it that way. I can't change it at this point though because changing the title also changes the link and the link was already sent out, so I'm going to have to live with it lol.