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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast August 2023 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 36m·analyzed·Sep 5, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

August 2023: Stern launches $13k Jurassic Park LE anniversary edition; industry updates on code, factory move, and personnel shifts.

Summary

August 2023 pinball industry recap covering Stern's Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited Edition ($12,999, 500 units), software updates for multiple games, a factory move in progress, and personnel changes across manufacturers. Major updates include Pinball Brothers' Queen 2.0 code and new US web shop, American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force podcast, and IEPA Europe show preparations.

Key Claims

  • Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited Edition priced at $12,999 USD, $4,000 more than original LE at launch

    high confidence · Jonathan and Martin discuss pricing; Martin notes this is $4,000 more than original Jurassic Park LE when it was released, and notes 10 years ago $4,000 would buy an entire new Stern game

  • Only 500 units of Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited Edition produced

    high confidence · Jonathan states 'limited in that there are only 500 units produced' and Martin confirms 'There's only 500, so it's not a huge number'

  • Jurassic Park software version 1.10 introduced bugs affecting Raptor and T-Rex motors, fixed in version 1.11 four days later

    high confidence · Hosts discuss bugs in v1.10 released August 18th causing motors to move randomly/repeatedly, with v1.11 emergency fix released August 22nd

  • Kevin Payne joined Stern as Director of Mechanical Engineering, leading Mechanical Engineering, Whitewood Lab, Model Shop, and Bill of Materials Group

    high confidence · Martin reports Kevin Payne's new role at Stern; George Gomez confirmed they collaborated at Incredible Technologies years ago

  • Stern factory move is currently in progress with Ray Tenzer in charge

    high confidence · Hosts discuss move happening 'as we speak' with Ray Tenzer managing it; note he previously managed move from Melbourne to Elk Grove Village

  • Pinball Brothers Queen 2.0 code update includes six-section reworking of Bohemian Rhapsody mode with new video clips and sounds

    high confidence · Jonathan describes watching promotional video that revealed 2.0 update details; however, code was not yet available for download as of September 4th recording

  • Barry Engler left American Pinball in May 2023 and is transitioning away from pinball industry into web development

    high confidence · Jonathan states 'Barry left the company' in May; Martin confirms Barry is 'looking for a new job in web development, and he's completely done with the pinball or even corn up industry for now'

Notable Quotes

  • “May I remind you that 10 years ago, $4,000 would have brought you a brand new Stern pinball machine in the box.”

    Martin @ early discussion — Highlights dramatic price inflation in pinball market by pointing out historical context

  • “There were a lot of people who bought the original LE and were annoyed in a couple of ways. Firstly, that their LE is not as exclusive as it was.”

    Martin @ Jurassic Park LE discussion — Identifies community backlash to limited edition re-release strategy, raises exclusivity/value concerns

  • “I'm just wondering, like, okay, what if, I mean, we're still waiting for a code update for Wheel of Fortune. Are you? Okay. Well, I have some bad news on that.”

    Martin/Jonathan @ James Bond code update section — Hints at potential abandoned games due to resource constraints at Stern

  • “Your progress is saved against your account. Yes, yes. So, you can eventually make your way all the way through the game without having to start at the beginning every time.”

    Jonathan and Martin @ Venom game discussion — Explains persistent progression system in Stern's connected/level-based Venom design

  • “It could make it into a whole new game. So that's very promising.”

    Jonathan @ Pinball Brothers Queen 2.0 discussion — Expresses enthusiasm for transformative code update impact on existing game

  • “He will put up a very large booth in the third hall of the show. There's three halls. The third hall being the smallest, and he'll be putting in 22 pinball machines.”

    Martin @ IEPA Europe show discussion — Details ambitious RS Pinball booth with multi-manufacturer lineup at show

  • “I have no indication whether that was on good terms or bad terms or what have you. I do know he's looking for a new job in web development, and he's completely done with the pinball or even corn up industry for now.”

    Martin @ Barry Engler departure discussion — Characterizes significant personnel loss at American Pinball with industry exit

Entities

Jonathan EustonpersonMartinpersonJurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited EditiongameStern PinballcompanyKevin PaynepersonRay TenzerpersonPinball BrotherscompanyDaniel JanssenpersonQueen (pinball game)game

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Barry Engler's departure from American Pinball accompanied by loss of other staff (Max and others); replacements Megan Hare and Steve Cummings hired in sales/logistics roles, suggesting turnover and rebuilding

    high · Martin: 'I think Max, who we met, and who I think is visible in our reports from our factory tours, when he left, he was certainly in a sales role or marketing role.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern factory move in progress under Ray Tenzer's management; in-person factory tour planned for Pinball Expo 2023 at new facility (unlike previous virtual tour)

    high · Hosts discuss move 'happening as we speak' with video sneak peek shared on social media showing workstations and stock room relocation

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern hiring Kevin Payne as Director of Mechanical Engineering with leadership over Whitewood Lab, Model Shop, and Bill of Materials Group indicates organizational restructuring and engineering focus

    high · George Gomez quoted: 'I look forward to having Kevin's engineering and leadership skills in the studio to help me lead game development into the future.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Release of Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary LE (500 units) four years after original LE launch created backlash from original LE owners who felt exclusivity/value diminished; precedent cited from Jersey Jack (Wizard of Oz, Hobbit editions) but first time for Stern

    high · Martin: 'There were a lot of people who bought the original LE and were annoyed in a couple of ways. Firstly, that their LE is not as exclusive as it was.' However, new version's artwork/color was preferred by some.

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.289

0:00
Jurassic Park 30th anniversary announced. Final resistance? Start shipping! Lots of new job opportunities!
0:18
Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston, I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine, and I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin and I'm the editor of Pinball News and welcome to this, well, this monthly look back at all the events that have taken place in the previous month, which in this case is August 2023. And in the pinball world, that is, of course. And it's, well, we have had a new game announced and there's been lots of other news, as you will have heard from our headlines. Yeah, it's not a spectacular month like March of this year when we had like a sea of new games. That was crazy. Yeah. But now there's still lots of interesting tidbits to report on, so let's kick it off right away with Stern Pimple. Yes, well, our first headline, of course, was the announcement of the new Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited Edition game, which is limited in that there are only 500 units produced. But other than that, it's basically the same as the previous Limited Edition, but with some different coloured metalwork, which is red in the current version versus green in the original limited edition. Got some new cabinet art, also done by Donnie Crapp, who did the original artwork for the Stern. Has a new mirror back glass. And, of course, now it comes with entirely connected, pre-installed, whereas that would be an add-on if you bought one of the original models. Some new software features, which... and this is a good thing for anybody who might have bought the game before, because the new software stuff was all rolled out for existing Jurassic Park owners, so they get a nice boost from that. However, the price is somewhat more expensive than when it first was released.
2:06
Somewhat more? Yeah, apparently so. There's been a price increase, believe it or not. The Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited Edition, comes in at $12,999 US dollars, basically $13,000, which is $4,000 more than the original Jurassic Park Limited Edition version was when that went on sale. Right. May I remind you that 10 years ago, $4,000 would have brought you a brand new Stern pinball machine in the box. Oh, you're right. Yeah, it was going to be two for the price of one at that point then. but yeah that's the price that they think they can sell it for and I don't know whether it's sold out immediately there were a limited number of them on sale if you pardon the pun through the Stern website but it's never entirely clear how many go on sale through there and probably enough to guarantee that they will sell out almost immediately but most of them are going to be offered through Stern's distributorship most of those 500. There's only 500, so it's not a huge number. So I think it's pretty safe to say they will sell all of them at that price.

Megan Hare and Steve Cummings hired by American Pinball as sales and office administrator and sales/logistics associate respectively

high confidence · Jonathan reports hires from July recap, both appointed to sales-related roles replacing departing staff like Max

American Pinball
company
Barry Englerperson
Galactic Tank Forcegame
Dennis Nordmanperson
Christopher Franchiperson
Stephen Bowdenperson
David Fixperson
Pinball Expo 2023event
IEPA Europe 2023event
Keith Elwinperson
Venom (Stern)game
George Gomezperson
Donnie Crappperson
Pedretti Gamingcompany
Euro Pinball Corpcompany
RS Pinballcompany

community_signal: Pinball Brothers organizing Galactic Tank Force design team appearance on Slam Tilt podcast featuring five team members (Dennis Nordman, Paul Reno, Jack Hager, Christopher Franchi, Stephen Bowden) for in-depth game discussion

high · Jonathan describes podcast setup with 'two hosts and five guests all chiming in together' to discuss game design and creation

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Hosts discuss whether Jurassic Park is Keith Elwin's weakest game compared to other acclaimed titles; note that 'even a slightly less than optimum Keith Elwin game is a fantastic game to play'

    medium · Martin: 'a certain number of people have suggested that it's probably his weakest game so far.' Comparison made to Avengers Infinity Quest as potentially similar tier.

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Brothers opened new dedicated US web shop (pbusasales.com) with Sean managing fulfillment; unclear if physical inventory presence in US or simply improved shipping/customs handling

    medium · Reference to 'virtual shelves' in announcement creates ambiguity about whether this represents actual physical inventory or marketing rebranding of existing distribution

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Barry Engler departed American Pinball in May 2023 after previously leaving Jersey Jack Pinball due to personality conflicts; transitioning away from pinball industry entirely to web development

    high · Martin: 'he's completely done with the pinball or even corn up industry for now.' Reference to previous Jersey Jack tenure and return to American Pinball.

  • $

    market_signal: Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Limited Edition priced at $12,999, representing $4,000 price increase from original LE launch; Martin contextualizes this as equivalent to an entire new Stern game 10 years ago

    high · Martin: 'May I remind you that 10 years ago, $4,000 would have brought you a brand new Stern pinball machine in the box.' Direct price comparison of current $12,999 vs. original LE pricing.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pinball Brothers releasing Queen 2.0 code update with six-section reworking of Bohemian Rhapsody mode, new video clips and sounds; update described as potentially transforming the game experience

    high · Jonathan: 'It could make it into a whole new game.' Code update available post-September 4th recording date with minor bugs remaining to fix.

  • ?

    product_concern: Jurassic Park software version 1.10 introduced bugs affecting Raptor and T-Rex motor movement, requiring emergency fix in v1.11 four days later

    high · Discussion of August 18th v1.10 release causing motors to move randomly/repeatedly; v1.11 emergency fix released August 22nd to address these issues

  • ?

    product_strategy: Multiple code updates in pipeline across manufacturers: Stern James Bond at v0.95 (not yet v1.0 after one year), Pinball Brothers Queen 2.0 with complete mode rework, American Pinball Galactic Tank Force update released but not promoted on social media

    high · James Bond discussion notes game is 'a year in. We're still not at version 1.0.' Queen 2.0 not yet available for download as of Sept 4th. Galactic Tank Force update only found in American Pinball website news section.

    • 3:19
    It's not a bad game. It's a Keith Elwing game. No, I think it's I don't know whether it's widely, but a certain number of people have suggested that it's probably his weakest game so far.
    3:33
    Right, well maybe with new software. Well, I think they're looking at the layout of it compared to, but, you know, it's very a high bar to go over with all these other games which have been so well received. So I think even a slightly less than optimum Keith Elwin game is a fantastic game to play.
    3:57
    So I would maybe that or maybe Avengers Infinity Quest as well. They were kind of on a par with each other. But obviously bringing out a new limited edition game at this point did raise some eyebrows as people who bought the original limited edition thought that had that exclusive limited value to it. So there was quite a few people who were less than impressed. Well, we've seen that before. I mean, a yellow brick road edition of The Wizard of Oz comes to mind. Yes, and there's been a Black Arrow edition of The Hobbit as well. So Jersey Jack have certainly done this before. Stern, I don't think, have, but this is their first time bringing it up. Well, they have done vault titles, but this is rather quick. I mean, this is four years after the initial release, I think. Yeah, but this is a limited edition. I don't think they ever brought out any limited editions before. Vault editions were also limited, I think. Limited, but they didn't have all the same features. They weren't the top-end model, whereas this clearly is. They weren't the only model. Well, that's true. Yes. Yeah, that's true. But they weren't limited when they were brought out in the first place. So there were a lot of people who bought the original LE and were annoyed in a couple of ways. Firstly, that their LE is not as exclusive as it was, but also a number of those actually quite like the new artwork and colour paint used on the armour more than the original version. so people who were saying well, if I'd known this was going to be available I would have waited and bought it but as you say, it's been a good few years since that Jurassic Park originally came out but, as we said there's been some good news for those people anyway in that the new software features which are in the 30th anniversary edition have been rolled backwards into the original machines so they did bring out a version 1.10 on the 18th of August which included all the new features that are in the 30th anniversary unfortunately it also included a couple of bugs although bugs is, I don't know, yeah probably is right, but because the systems are used back then Is there any pun intended in using the word bug? Oh, not in Amarok In relation to Jurassic Park? Yes, that's right it did cause a couple of issues then, shall we say, with certain boards that were used in previous versions where in the Raptor motor and the T-Rex motor, they would start moving around fairly randomly or repeatedly, which would make the game unplayable. So, fortunately, it didn't take them very long to bring out version 1.11. It took them four days, in fact. So 22nd of August, they brought out 1.11, which was an urgent fix for all those issues which were introducing 1.10. So now you should have some nice new gameplay modes and cooperative modes, team play, shared progress, and software updates. Very exciting. but all the stuff that's in the new game is now available in the old games as well so whether that would have happened without the launch of this 30th anniversary is... They probably dressed it up to I mean if they wouldn't have done the software update would people be excited to get another shot at Jurassic Park? I mean it's not that hard to find a game if you're looking for one second hand Probably not no but But that's not money that Stern's going to make on it, is it? Yeah, okay, so you need to do something extra. Yeah, well, put the price up for a start. Yeah, in typical Stern tradition.
    8:15
    Yeah, you want to leave the dollars on the table, as they say. But it was nice to see that game being brought back and given a new lease of life, and people seem to be enthused by the opportunity to buy a new version of it, although less enthused by the new price point. We'll see how they shift, whether distributors still have any in stock. Right, okay. Any other news from CERN? Oh, you bet. Yes.
    8:48
    Well, it almost harks back to our third headline about lots of new job opportunities. And one of those new appointments that's been made is for Kevin Payne, who has joined Stern Pimble as Director of Mechanical Engineering. Is he related to the King of Payne? Well, he will be, I guess, the King of Mechanical Engineering. That's for sure. Yes. And in that role, he will lead Mechanical Engineering, the Whitewood Lab, Model Shop, and the Bill of Materials Group. So he actually apparently worked with George Gomez back when George was working with Incredible Technologies. George said they collaborated years ago back at IT, and George looks forward to having Kevin's engineering and leadership skills in the studio to help me lead game development into the future.
    9:41
    He said. Okay. Yes, so that will kind of lead on to some more news about Stern, and something we mentioned before about the fact that they were going to be moving the new factory. Yes, actually that move is happening as we speak. Really? This time around? Wow, okay. Yeah, now Ray Tenzer is in charge, I think, if I recall correctly, of the move. Ray Tenzer inducted into the Pinball Hall of Fame last year, if I remember correctly. I remember, yeah. Yeah, and he already told me that the move was already known to be happening and that he would be in charge again. He already did it earlier on when they moved to the Elk Grove Village base from Melbourne. Yeah, that's right. I was surprised back then how quickly they moved the factory. Yeah, basically over a weekend, wasn't it? Yeah, and quickly back into production.
    10:47
    And certain people shared a video on their Facebook channel and probably other social media outlets as well, giving you a sneak peek, but quite a, well, like a minute of stuff being moved in and positioned and workstations being built and basically everything you need to get a factory going, where the spare parts are going, or the, well, you know, everything, the stock room. Yes, of course. That's the word I'm looking for, where that's going and so on. So quite interesting to watch, although it's only a minute long, but still. And, oh, well, they're on the move. Yeah, it's probably worth giving a shout-out to anybody who's going to Pinball Expo in October this year. who will get an opportunity to visit the new factory. Yes, because unlike last year, the official factory tour of Pinball Expo will be at the Stern Pinball Factory, the new one. Yes, in person rather than virtual. Right. So, yes, I wish Ray and, of course, the rest of the team doing their move all the best in getting everything up and running as soon as they can. Yeah, well, we're looking forward to visiting them as well, aren't we? Yeah, home. Yeah, I probably should ask someone, like, any leftover stuff that you're going to dump,
    12:23
    save it, we'll take it. Yes, yes. Inventory clear up and that kind of stuff, you know, like, we don't want to move this shit. Okay, I'll take it, part of my French. Yeah, that's right. Any old signs around the factory that they won't be moving to the new one? Any, I don't know, what kind of stuff you would find in a factory that would actually be worthwhile taking away? Well, it's probably like inventory, like, I don't know, translates of games going out of production and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean, no one wants those, do they? I mean last year at none of us had at Texas this year I got the impression they were really trying to get rid of all the Black Knight limited edition and Black Knight flyers because Steve Ritchie game they're not going to put back into production whatever happens so I mean that might have cabinet decals, translights and that kind of stuff, I'll take it Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. It's quite a shame we're going over there with only hand luggage, really, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We probably should hire a truck. Or a container, that's what I think. But then again, it's probably local dumpster divers who already figured out, like, oh, this is the dumpster we've got to dive into.
    13:45
    Well, let's hope not, because I'm taking my own little stepladder so I can climb into one, and out again, more importantly. Yeah, so, okay. Here is the answer. On to more serious matters. Last month, Stern finally revealed and launched the new Venom game. Yes. And I'm not sure whether it was done to generate more interest in that game, But Dwight Sullivan and Brian Eddy host a new video together in which they explain how you can play the game and how it differs from a traditional mode-based pinball machine into the one that they created now. Choose your host, change the game. Yes. Yeah, exactly. and how you can unlock more hosts if you do really well and what you have to do to achieve certain levels in the game.
    14:56
    And, of course, they talk about how you can... Well, the game is sort of level-based, so if you're at some point at level 7, if you log in with your insider connected on a different location, you continue playing at level 7. You don't have to start over at level 1 again. That's right. Your progress is saved. against your account. Yes, yes. So,
    15:17
    you can eventually make your way all the way through the game without having to start at the beginning every time. Yeah.
    15:27
    Which could be such a daunting task. Especially with games game rules deep as phone books these days, yes.
    15:36
    So, that video is out on social media as well. I found it actually quite interesting to see the thought process that they put into the creative concept of the game so do check that out and well I think I probably mentioned that as we were talking about Pinball Expo earlier that Dwight, Brian and the rest of the team will be hosting a seminar at Pinball Expo about the making of Venom and also I think Dwight is doing a family feud type quiz show ah right that's where you get all the goodies that don't end up in the dumpster go and raid the dumpster before they get a chance to find the prizes for that so that's also happening I think at Pinball Expo on Friday night Friday so it's no longer the Stern Saturday I was going to say Saturday but I think Saturday is kind of like the last day so I think let me have a quick look at the schedule of the event 2pm on Friday the making of Venom it's the current slot so that might still change but it's all Friday afternoon is all Stern seminars yeah there was a late I think I can't remember when the Family Feud event is, but I'll find it eventually. Anyway, it's somewhere in the schedule. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I think I remember it's after watching a movie, so it might be... Oh, no, probably on the... Oh, there it is. It'll be on Saturday night at 9.15. Let's make a deal. That's what it's called. Yes, sorry. Not Family Feud anymore. Let's make a deal. Corey Stupp and Dwight Sullivan, 9.15 on Saturday night. At the moment, all this schedule is liable to change before the show starts so keep checking the pinballexpo.com site for the latest updates on that and of course if you can't be there in person then there's a very good chance that there'll be some videos of all the seminars available on popular websites and video services so we'll come back to more about that here at the time. Yeah, so, finishing up certain pinball news, there was also a new code for James Bond's 0.95
    18:13
    0.95 and I don't have any details on that. I was just added the new Goldfinger's jackpot single time timed single ball wizard mode is available on the right ramp when you've played any of the either all six Abilene modes, all six Henshin modes, all six Spectre modes, or all six Q-Branch modes. Right. And then there's the usual bug fixes and lots of topper effects as well in that.
    18:45
    Yeah. So one question comes up to mind. This is James Bond. That's the game that was debuting at Pinball Expo last year. So we're a year in. We're still not at version 1.0. No, we're not. Which is not uncommon, I have to say that. But what if, it turns out, it's not a game that's doing that well for Stern? Will we ever see 1.0? Or are they going to abandon programming and use those programming skills for other games? Well, that's a good question. It will be down to what availability there is of programming effort. And I'm not saying, James, it isn't a good game or a well-received game. No, no, not at all. I'm just wondering, like, okay, what if, I mean, we're still waiting for a code update for Wheel of Fortune.
    19:45
    Are you? Okay. Well, I have some bad news on that, but we can come back to that at another time. Okay. But yes, that was a particular time when, well, I think the coder for that pretty much left anyway, so I don't think you're going to be getting much more for that game. But yes, it's ultimately a business decision, you know. Right, yeah. As all game development things are.
    20:19
    And, you know, if they are shorter programmers, they don't have the effort for that, and need to move on to the next one, then yeah, it'll go on the back burner for a while until that effort is available. Right, okay. So that rounds it up for Stern Pinball. I think it does, so who should we go to next?
    20:40
    Probably the next on my list is Pinball Brothers. Well, we've just been talking about code updates, so that would be a good one to move to. Nice bridge. Yeah, thank you.
    20:50
    Because there was an announcement just a couple of days ago, I think, from Daniel Janssen, who there was a video which was put out which trailed, as it turned out, version 2.0 of Queen Code. Now, it was, the way it was presented, it suggested it was available right now, but in fact it isn't. That was rather premature because the code isn't quite finished and isn't available to download at the time of recording, recording this on the 4th of September, so it isn't actually available to download through the People Brothers website just yet, and there were some comments from the programmer on Pinside that suggested there were still a few little bugs to fix before it would be available. But it is coming. It is coming, and I watched the video,
    21:42
    skipped through to about past the first three quarters of it, which were just like promos for Queen, and we got to the bit about what's actually in the new update, which does look quite impressive. It says there's a whole bunch of new video clips, new sounds, and a whole new reworking of the Bohemian Rhapsody mode, which is split into six sections and is included in the 2.0 update. So if you've got that game, that's...
    22:12
    More and more people do. Yes, it could make it into a whole new game. So that's very promising. We're looking forward to seeing that and playing it, of course, fairly soon. Right. Yeah. So I look forward to playing it at probably Pinball Expo, I suppose. If not before, yes. So, well, there was more news from Pinball Brothers as they opened a brand new U.S. web shop.
    22:42
    And on their Facebook page, basically they said, If you are located in the States and in need of some parts or maybe a nice little shaker kit, drop off an order and get your stuff hassle-free.
    22:59
    Was it hassle-laden before? I have no idea, but it could be a daunting task if you have to order it through distributors or something instead of directly with Pinball Brothers. they have Sean who is apparently working there to assist your needs and we are filling up the virtual shelves fast more goodies coming in soon and you can check that store at pbusasales.com very good, oh I didn't understand does that mean they actually have a physical store of parts in the US that they can ship from to US customers? Or is this some kind of just like a rebranding of their existing website that's more focused on delivering to the US? Maybe it has better shipping rates, maybe it deals with customs issues better. I mean you hope that they just ship a whole container full of parts to somewhere in the US and then they fulfil all the orders from there But I not clear from that announcement and I not blaming you personally for this but Thank you. I wasn't clear from what they said whether that was what they were doing. I think it's a very good question to ask Daniel Jensen at Pimble Expo or somewhere. Yeah, try and find out next month whether or not they actually have a... This is a physical presence over there. because obviously they've been selling games. They do mention virtual shelves, so I'm not sure about these presents. Yeah, that's the bit that made me question what this actually is, whether it's more a marketing exercise or an actual... Well, at least it's something new to report. There's plenty of other companies that have no news to report. That's true. We've come to those. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that wasn't all. Oh, tell us more. Pinball Brothers also have a new distributor in Greece. I'm not sure whether the company was represented before. Apparently not, because Chalkis Pinball Amusements is offering both Queen and Alien for the Greek market. Fantastic. That's all the news I have on that. but at least, well, it's another distributor. In Greece, of course, a very popular European holiday destination, so a big market for pinball. Yes, I'm disappointed you didn't pick up on my tell me more, tell me more reference to Greece. But anyway, carry on. Different type of Greece, sorry, sorry. I missed the clue completely. is there more for people brothers news this month well they also put out a facebook post and maybe it was another social media as well about not being able to keep an eye on all pinball related forums and social media channels for complaints about things not working in their games and what have you and they basically ask customers to open a service ticket which seems like the reasonable thing to do if there's a problem with your game but apparently for some people it seems more normal to first start complaining in public on some forum before actually trying to get the problem solved yes well I guess there's two approaches to that isn't there if you do it in public and you don't get a response then you can say you can draw their attention to it and probably try and get some action on it quicker if it goes into a ticket then it could go on to the back of the queue of existing tickets oh well I'm just reporting that they make perfect sense to have a ticket system in place for customers who need to have a service request quite right that rounds it up for Pinball Brothers and at the same time since they are related to Pedretti Gaming in Italy no news from them no, well, Euro Pimble yeah, Euro Pimble Oracle other than they're shipping lots of Queen games good building and shipping games it's almost like work but that's the business that they're in, so they shouldn't complain about that they are actually building the games at a very impressive speed, I would say yeah I think that collaboration they've done with Pedretti is proving to be very successful yeah and I probably should give them a compliment because there are other pinball companies and I won't mention any names who have been longer in business and are not able to produce games at the speed that Euro Pinball Corp currently is yes and we are left wondering why exactly but we'll come to that a bit later but in the meantime let's move back to the US and we're just talking about having a US web shop for Pinball Brothers, for American Pinball who are based in the US they have some news this month and Jonathan's going to tell us exactly what it is well the biggest news story probably is the design team of Galactic Tank Force joining the Slam Tilt podcast and I recall a podcast with like two hosts and five guests all chiming in together to discuss a new game this is what's happening here right now kudos to Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale for pulling this off. Well done, well done. And it's a very interesting podcast to listen to. So who was there?
    29:20
    Who was there? Of course, Dennis Nordman, the lead designer, as well as Paul Reno, which you probably call the co-designer of the game.
    29:32
    Art director Jack Hager was present. Christopher Frenchy, the actual artist who did the art. and Stephen Bowden, who was in charge of the rules of the game. And the stars, of course, of the videos. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's very well presented in the game. Yeah.
    29:54
    Surprisingly, no David Fix this time. But then again, David is not part of the design team, so that makes perfect sense. Okay. But speaking of David Fix, and we'll get to this. Oh, very nice. you've been practicing your bridge go for it David will be at the IEPA Europe show at the RS Pinball booth the IEPA Europe show will be held in Austria later this month, at the end of this month starting the 25th of September I believe which is a pity in the sense that I will be on holiday so I cannot attend.
    30:42
    But it sounds like an interesting show to go to. I talked to Stefan Riedler of RS Pinball earlier today. Yes, me too. He told me he was going to call you.
    30:55
    He will put up a very large booth in the third hall of the show. There's three halls. The third hall being the smallest, and he'll be putting in 22 pinball machines. Yeah, that's incredible. From,
    31:14
    let's count how many different manufacturers, probably like seven or eight different manufacturers. Yeah.
    31:21
    You reckon he's going to have about five American pinball games, one from Dutch Pinball, I think you can guess which one that's going to be, six from Pinball Brothers, I guess a mix of Alien and Queen, three Jersey Jack pinball games. Might be different versions of Godfather or might have some Guns and Roses as well. Three from Spooky. I don't know what they're going to be exactly. And two from Chicago Gaming.
    31:51
    That's going to be Cactus Canyon. It's going to be the remakes I think. I don't think it's going to have Pulp Fiction there.
    32:00
    He's pushing for that but yeah. Might be a bigger ask at this point. Spinal Tap is going to be there from Home Pin. Right. Which will be its second European showing. We'll come to what the first one was a bit later. And a Stern game as well, though we don't know which one. I guess Venom, maybe? Or Foo Fighters, one or the other. Yeah. So, and well, David Fix is not the only representative from a pinball company being present at the show. Daniel Jansen has also been confirmed from Pinball Brothers to be present in the RS Pinball booth.
    32:40
    And Stern Pinball will be represented by their distributor in a different booth. And that will have Doc Score and Gary Stern for sure. And possibly also Seth Davis representing the company.
    32:57
    It's going to be an impressive display, I think, on the RS Pinball stand in Hall 3 at IAPA Europe in Vienna on the last four days, from the 25th to 28th of September, so this month. Right, yeah, so sorry to jump topics as we were discussing American... What were we discussing?
    33:23
    We had just got on to... American, yes, American pinball. About where Day Fix would be. yes exactly so and now that we know where Dave Fiffel will be we also know who will not be there yeah Barry Engler who works for American Pinball indicated publicly and that's why we know about this that he left American Pinball in May Well, it's why we're able to talk about it. We knew about it some time ago, but... Yeah, we knew, but we couldn't say. And now that it's been made public, we're no longer under NDA. Well, we're still under NDA, but now we can discuss it anyway.
    34:20
    We get certain information that we can't discuss at the time. But there comes a time when it becomes public knowledge, and then we can talk about it in a little more detail. Right. So Barry left the company, and I have no indication whether that was on good terms or bad terms or what have you. I do know he's looking for a new job in web development, and he's completely done with the pinball or even corn up industry for now. Which is a pity, because what I always understood is that he was a very good force within American Pinball. He was well regarded by customers and those people who contacted him looking for assistance or support for their games. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, I might be misremembering that, but didn't he go to work for Jersey Jack Pinball?
    35:16
    That was before American Pinball. Well, I don't know if he was at American Pinball, but he left and went to Jersey Jack Pinball. and that didn't work out, I think, due to personality crashes, shall we say, with whoever was in charge of Jersey Jack Pinball at the time. And he came back to American Pinball and has now left again. Right, okay. And he left the industry now, apparently. But then again, never say never because the pinball blog always... Well, once you're in, it's very hard to escape. Right. So, yes. And, surprisingly, not mentioned on any social media, but there's a game code update for Galactic Tank Force. Oh, good. Who's all the details?
    36:05
    I have none. Okay. So, all I know is there was, at the end of August, a game code update. I have no idea how it improves the game, but I'm sure it does. it would be nice to think wouldn't it yes so if you own a Galactic Tank Force and you might not have heard about this update it's only in the news section on the American Pinball website but it wasn't on their social so that's a bit surprising to me now I understood that when Barry left a couple of other people also left the company apparently, maybe one of them was their social media manager. Well, I think we know that Max, who we met when we went to the factory last year at Lexpo, I think he's left. Right. I'm not sure who else may have left the company in that time, but no doubt there have also been hires as well during that time. Yeah, actually there are. I already mentioned them in my Pinball Magazine newsletter from July, the recap of July. We missed those last month, so what better perfect timing to redeem ourselves and inform you that Megan Hare and Steve Cummings have been hired by American Pimble. Megan Hare in the position of a sales and office administrator and Steve Cummings as a sales and logistics associate.
    37:46
    Okay. We're not quite sure. So they're both involved, but combining sales in some way, I suppose. Well, we know that Max, who we met, and who I think is visible in our reports from our factory tours,
    38:01
    when he left, he was certainly in a sales role or marketing role. Yes. So by appointing Megan and Steve, both in sales as part of their brief, they're obviously looking to replace that particular aspect of their skills and along with office administration and logistics too so good luck to Megan and Steve and we look forward to seeing both of you when we visit Chicago in October right so that rounds it up for American people as far as I can tell I think you're about right. So let's move from American pinball to Canadian pinball. Oh, yes. You have to be talking about pinball adventures. Certainly are. Yeah.
    38:58
    So they are building Pony Factory, I suppose. But in the meantime, they're also teasing their upcoming second game, Elements. Yes, indeed. And in this case, they showed some cabinet and LCD artwork images of elements on their Instagram account.
    39:20
    And it had a note with it saying that the standard edition will be limited to 100 units. It's a limited edition then.
    39:34
    No, that's the standard. and then it says Ninja and Valkyrie but does that mean that there is two different limited editions to choose from or are Ninja and Valkyrie other games that are also in the pipeline well we know Ninja a Ninja themed game is in the pipeline we know about that yes I think Valkyrie is also one of the trailed titles coming up So I suspect that's unrelated to Elements at this point. Very confusing. Yes. But, okay. Looks like it's going to be 100 Element games then. So... Yeah. And interestingly... I'm quite keen on that game, actually. I'm looking forward to it. Sorry. Yeah. We mentioned this before, having seen the playfield layout and the rules design for it. It looks like there's a lot going on with that game. So, I don't know, 100 might be a bit conservative, but we'll see. Right. Well, as we have learned from certain people, you can always do another run of limited editions.
    40:48
    You just give them a different name. Absolutely. Good idea. But, and this is just a standard, so there could be another limited of only 50 units, you don't know. What I also find interesting, if you visit the Instagram account of Pinball Adventures, they do share some sketches for certain elements on the playfield with back-to-back targets, of which one is basically a dead end in a shot lane that you make, and then it bounces back, which I don't think I've seen in such a form earlier on Pinball Machine. So there's a few slightly innovative features to expect in that game, and it should be present at, or actually should be debuting at Pinball Expo. Yes, that's right. So I'm looking forward to playing it. Yeah, well, me too. Yes, I mean, as I say, I've only seen the play field in its early form, so there's a lot throughout the software, but we know there's a lot of software going into that game. And the play field layout looked very nice. I think it was another Dave Sanders design, so always a good thing to see on a game. Right. Yep. So, and that's all the news I have for Pimble Adventure. I have no idea how Pony Factory is doing, or how the game has been received by people that played it. No, you can, I believe, follow the production of each of the games, but I'm not sure how up-to-date and relevant that progress descriptor is, because you can see which ones are meant to be in production, which ones are built complete, which ones have got software to complete, all that kind of stuff. So if you go to the Pinball Adventures website, anyway, you will be able to explore and find all this information out for yourself as well.
    43:04
    Right. Okay. So let's head back south of the border, back to the Chicagoland area, and to Jersey Jack Pinball, who are currently still neighbors of Stern, but not for much longer. Right. So we have some news about a new appointment.
    43:26
    A new appointment and a rather interesting one, I would say. Very. Gershigek announced the appointment of Tom Kupera as its new chief operating officer,
    43:40
    effective August 29th. almost a week ago from where we are yeah and in his role as COO Tom will oversee the company's operations implement new initiatives and contribute to the continued growth and success of Jersey Jack Pinball well you hope so now the interesting thing here is that the way I understood it is that Tom Capera actually used to work for Stern Pinball Yeah, well, he was certainly promoted through Stern as working for them. Yes.
    44:18
    The funny thing is I looked at his LinkedIn page. It doesn't mention Stern Pinball anywhere, but it does say that he runs his own company, Capira Design and Engineering, for I think like since 2009 or something like that. So he could be hiring himself out through that company as a third-party labor force, or whatever you want to call it, in this case to Stern.
    44:48
    Josie Jack is also not mentioned. Yet. Yet, yet. Yeah, he's only been there for a week, so... Yeah, you're not daily updating.
    44:58
    No, but it's certainly interesting. I mean, those who don't know Tom, he's got quite an extensive history within pinball. He's as Brett Abess, who is labelled in Jersey Jack's press release as the owner of Jersey Jack Pinball and is the son of Leonard Abess, who was the one who originally, I would say, bought them, but invested heavily in the company. Brett says we are thrilled to welcome Tom to the Jersey Jack pinball team Tom's extensive experience in the pinball industry and his proven leadership skills make him a perfect fit for this COO role now Tom obviously worked I wouldn't say obviously but he worked back at Williams back in the day yeah co-designer off Cactus Canyon exactly with Matt Correal so the two of them worked together to produce Cactus Canyon when Williams were having their internal contest to see who would make the final traditional design pinball game before they moved over to Pinball 2000. And Cactus Canyon from Matt and Tom was the winner of that contest, and they went on to produce it, and of course now it's back in production as a remake with Chicago gaming. At least that's what's supposed to be happening. Well, we've come to that. All things in due course. But after that he basically dropped out of the pinball business, as far as we were aware, for a while, but then made a reappearance as the credited designer for the Rolling Stones game. Right, yeah.
    46:48
    For a lot of people that came out of the blue, Rolling Stones is also not the Stern's best-selling pinball game of all time. I think it's safe to say that.
    47:03
    But it was interesting to see his name pop up again. And what I understood is that lately, for the past couple of years, I assume, Tom has been working as a topper designer, as he has also quite some experience with LED lighting and so on. So he was involved in the design of several of Stern Pimble's Pimble Toppers. Yes, and then he pops up now at Jersey Jet Pimble as its chief operating officer, which is quite a leap up the corporate ladder, you'd have to say, from being a topper designer. Right. Although, obviously, he has a lot of other skills, and maybe that topper job or design job he had with Stern was not giving him a fulfilling role. So this opportunity is very interesting. But it seems to be it kind of like the job that who was it Jim Petley Yes I was going to say yeah who had at Chester Jack Pinball but didn last there for very long did he No I think he was out in six months due to from what I understand let call it personality clashes Yes, indeed. Yes, which to some extent goes back to what we were talking earlier about Barry Engler as well, when he was over there, the same personality clashes. but the one reason was the same person with the same personality I believe it was but we won't go into exactly who that might be because that's only a suggestion and I have no evidence you can send in your answer that person is no longer working at Jersey Jet Pinball so maybe there's a whole new regime there and a more conducive working environment let's see how that goes. But either way, we certainly wish Tom all the best in his new COO role, I should say. And we look forward to seeing him ahead of Pinball Expo when we hope to visit Jersey Jack Pinball. Yes, as we did last year. We were very appreciative of the reception we received from Jersey Jack Pinball and Eric and Kem, yes, indeed, at the factory. And Steve, of course, as well. Yeah, yeah. I almost forgot Steve. It was a great lunch. Yeah, looking forward to repeating that this year. Yeah, and meanwhile, I'm looking at the Pinball Expo schedule to see when Jersey Jack is having their seminars. They're on Friday night, I believe.
    50:02
    Was it Thursday night? Thursday night, yes Thursday night, oh yeah, an evening with Jersey Jets they've got Jack, Steve and the team, yep ok, so 8 o'clock at the moment on Thursday night right, so a good chance that we will run into Tom Capere there as well yes, very likely I'd imagine yep, ok we'll play you all the rumours and the news that we can from Expo in our I guess it will be our November pin cast when we look back at the end of October but we're not saying goodbye yet because we're not done yet sorry guys and in the meantime of course Jersey Jack Pimble is manufacturing the Godfather in various models so it's not like there's no other news but they're just building the current game, so to speak. Yes, indeed. And a beautiful-looking game it is, too. So we will bring you more to ZZPinball news, I'm sure, next month. But in the meantime, let's move a little bit north and go to Wisconsin. Yeah, from Illinois to Wisconsin. And our good friends at Spooky Pinball. Yes. Now, we have some news from them. Yeah, well, as reported, I can't take the credit for this, so I'll give credit where credit is due. On the reported on the Don's Pinball podcast, Spooky Pinball are halfway through their run of Scooby-Doo,
    51:39
    building about 28 games a week. And note, the game isn't sold out yet. You can still order it in the shop on the Spooky Pinball website. So the number of units might still go up, but for the current number of orders, they're apparently halfway through which is a good thing I suppose well it's good they're halfway through it it's not sold out yet which is surprising because it's a very good game and it's getting better and better as more code updates are rolling out and there is one expected in a few weeks which should have the Scooby Doo character mode in it Well, yes, you'd hope that would be a big part of the game. Right, yeah, well, so these character modes are still being developed. Last month we mentioned the Shaggy and Deathly mode, I believe. Yep, that's right. And there's more characters in the game, so I'm assuming we're getting more of those character modes as well.
    52:52
    Aside from that, the company also appears to have three upcoming games in various stages of production,
    53:00
    which is odd to me. It should probably be in stages of development. But from what I understood, it was in production, which is not the case. What is in production might be interesting to note. Total nuclear annihilation. Their second run of 250 units hasn't sold out completely. although there's only about 11 units remaining until they make it to 250 so 250 seems about the right number in the long run, then they'll probably sell them all out eventually so they're still building one or two a week and if you're looking for a TNA you might still be able to get one yeah, it must be a bit difficult doing one or two a week unless you've got a sort of little side production line dedicated to producing TNAs. You don't want to keep disrupting your Scooby-Doo. Where are you? No. Or maybe you have just one crew member dedicated to that game and he's just building them as quick as he can. And maybe lands a hand here and there and that interrupts the workflow, so to speak. and while I'm discussing spooky pinball let's round it up immediately there's a new game code for Halloween 1.13 there's also a video of gameplay as always with new code updates with spooky day and day stream gameplay of the new code normally bug playing that yeah exactly now Ultraman has the same layout that code update 1.13 is still coming hasn't been released yet but it is in the work once that is out we already know that there will be another code update coming which should include the wizard mode for Halloween and Ultraman of course indeed and that's about it that's all the spooky news I could find I'm being peered at rather eerily through the door very Halloween-ish like Michael from Behind the Edges yes it's scary I tell you that ok so moving on to our next company which will be Multimorphic some good news from there which we included as one of our headlines yeah I think this is actually ahead of schedule they started shipping or they started producing and shipping Final Resistance the new Scott D'Alessi game yes and Scott didn't do that game on his own there was a lot of help from Michael Ocean and speaking of those two they were interviewed on the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast discussing Final Resistance and of course where they come from leading up to this game and it's actually interesting Multimorphic did also post on Facebook about Michael Ocean who is a sort of secret weapon driving force we should say well not only behind this game but he has quite a legacy in the world of homebrew pinball developing the skeleton game which has then been improved as an open source pinball game and has been basically the go-to platform for homebrew pinball people to design their games with right, yeah, it's a sort of starting point right Scott and Michael both on the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast highly recommend it it's video, so you can find it on YouTube and like I said well worth a watch and also to hear the philosophies behind the design of the game and what Scott had in mind and how that worked out. And I have to say, I think this is one of, especially due to the more traditional elements that are included in this game, such as the static inserts being displayed on the display in the game. Yeah, that's right, the LCD panel under the playfield, yeah.
    58:06
    Right. I think this game is going to do very well for Multimorphic and really draw more people into the Multimorphic platform.
    58:22
    And besides that, it's a very fun game to play. We played it at the Multimorphic facility in March. We did, we did. Yeah, I was very impressed. Yeah, me too. Yeah, it's a great fun game and I need more time on it. But obviously they haven't started shipping the units until just now. So it's been hard to supply it anywhere else other than that multi-morphic factory.
    58:46
    So hopefully that's going to change very soon. And we mentioned last month about Jerry's update on production and how once they start producing these games, they're going to be rolling them out very, very quickly, faster than they originally intended. So originally expected, I should say. So they should be getting those units out to buyers in short order. So if you've ordered that game, some good news there. It is not only being produced now and shipping, but they are producing them faster than they originally planned. So, yeah, all good news. All good news. And more good news is coming. Yeah, yeah. I know you would. So last month we reported that Nick Baldrige from For Amusement Only has been employed by Multimorphic for support when you run into issues. Yeah, yeah.
    59:51
    But Nick has also designed a number of third-party modules and games for the P3 platform. And it turns out he's working on two new games, of which one is a minigame that will use the drained playfield module.
    60:12
    Drained being one of his games? Yes, exactly. So when can we expect that minigame to be available? That should be available this quarter. Oh, this quarter. Right. Hopefully before Expo. Right, I look forward to playing that then.
    60:34
    Sorry. Right. And the second design is a completely new playfield module, I understand, which is going to be very wild. Wild? Yeah, wild. And I have no idea what that could be a reference to anything, I suppose.
    60:54
    It could be a big game. But there's no timeline for that. So that will be out whenever Nick is able to get it going. Yeah, because these come from his own company rather than, well, I say that. Previously they came from his own company for amusement only. Now he is working for Multimorphic. Maybe that new module will be a Multimorphic release. Maybe it will. Or not. As soon as we find out anything, we will, of course, let you know. But one other company who is a much more recent entrant into the pinball world is Hexa Pinball in France. In France, indeed. And, well, they have already announced their Space Hunt game, and we've reported on that in the past. And a very attractive-looking game it is as well. this month they announced that they have a new team member and his name is now I'm going to try and pronounce this Herve Cossillion oh right does that sound right probably does yes I apologize if it's incorrect I'm not sure whether he's a new member of the team or just a member of the team that they now introduce but Herve That's right. I think you're probably right, because he has done sound work and composed music for the Space Hunt game. Right. And if you're wondering what it sounds like, because obviously not many people will have the opportunity to play the game, it's pretty much limited to shows within France, more of which shortly, you can listen to some of the tracks he has composed for Space Hunt by going to Soundcloud which is where he has his particular area of where you can listen to his compositions so go to soundcloud.com slash disciple music then at that point you can select one of the sets of songs or tracks from there and Space Hunt Pinball is one of those sets. Right.
    63:20
    I still have to listen to those. Me too. But it's interesting. And the other news from Hexapinball that I came across is that they announced they will be at Games in Cholet I'm not sure how to pronounce that. Which will be held September 23 to 24. It's a two-day event, and the design team will be present, as well as their distributor, Fliptonic.
    63:53
    Okay. Is that the one that's in Bourgogne? I have no idea where it is. Okay, because I had another email on an unrelated subject about a game called Space Singularity, which is, I want to call it a homebrew game. It's actually produced by a company called Rebellion Pinball, which seems to be like three people, three friends who have come together to produce a game, which is a complete original theme.
    64:24
    I could not find any information about whether it uses an established board set, like Fast or the P-Rock system or what they're using for the hardware, but it's got an awful lot of custom toys on it and it looks it's a very similar thing really to Space Hunt so Space Singularity it looks really really exciting if you're interested in finding out more about that either go to the Bourgogne game show the BGS which is the 23rd to 24th of September same date as you were just saying for the Cholet game that show or you can go to Rebellion, I should say, Pinball, search for Rebellion Pinball.
    65:11
    At the moment, they don't have RebellionPinball.com. It's on another company's site, WixSite.com. But there's some close-up pictures and even some video of people playing the game.
    65:25
    So, at the moment, I don't think it's anything more than three friends building their own game, but who knows, it may turn into another Hexapimble they might be producing games it's another French company so we look forward to seeing what happens to Space Singularity it's an exciting game speaking of the Golette show I looked up the city of Golette which is near Nantes in France which is quite a big city and I'd say that's in the west part of France, somewhere in the middle, I'd say. So, that gives you an idea where to find the show if you're interested in attending, and if you're in France, you've probably already figured out where it is and how to get there. Yes, but it looks like 23rd and 24th September is where all the action is taking place in France, where you can see Space Hunt and Space Singularity. so now our next company takes us to something which happened just as we were recording last month's pincast in that particular pincast looking back at the month of July we mentioned about how Cardona Pinball's Black Rose Skull and Bones kit was not available at that time despite the fact it had been shown at the Texas show in March already In March, and their No Good Gophers Battle for the Green 2.0 kit was available at that point, and we were wondering exactly why Black Rose Skull and Bones wasn't available and when it might be available. Well, the answer was... We weren't even done recording or uploading, and we got an email from Cardona Pinball Design, Jim, thank you very much for that indicating us that the Black Rose right at that moment they had received approval hadn't they from Planetary Pinball yes and they could make it available right and so they make it available through the Cardona Pinball design website I think that's cardonapinball.com but you can also order the kit through Planetary Pinball and Cointaker. Yeah, so it was within a few minutes of us finishing and recalling that we got that through. And anyway, if you were wondering, like we were, when Black Rose Skull and Bones would be available, the answer is now. So Cardona, Planetary Pinball or Cointaker if you want to get that upgrade kit for Black Rose. breathe new life into your Black Rose game absolutely, good, so congratulations to Cardona in getting that approved and on sale right, so Dutch Pinball close to my heart close to, well close to your home exactly, yeah they announced a new partnership with Lior Raiwan that's easy for you to say yeah it's not even a Dutch name I think it's he's from Israel if I'm not mistaken otherwise known as the art of pinball that's easier to say yes and you might know them for their high end toppers and moths for pinball machines and he will be the new supplier of all the skulls and toys in the Big Lebowski moving forward, as well as for other future projects of Dutch pinball.
    69:28
    Right. Now, we are very curious what those future projects are, but there's no info on that, so we can't report on that. But we are desperately looking forward to hearing more of those. Well, it does make me wonder whether there will be any changes to the existing sculpts and toys in the Wiglerowski, whether everything will he'll be making visually identical parts to those that have been included so far or whether there will be some changes some modifications good question yeah I have no answer to that I do know that the announcements included some blurred images of which one included a topper for the game so we have to wait and see when that will be revealed who wants a blurred topper? that's no good is it? I assume by the time it's revealed it's no longer blurred understood but you know what happens when you drink too many white russians everything is blurred exactly the whole game is blurred if you play it anyway Anyway, so, and I have to make a small correction. It was pointed out to me that last month we reported that Dutch Pinball appointed Christoph Lienaert as a European distributor, and I mentioned that Pinball Heaven in the UK is one of the resellers.
    71:07
    Subdistributors. Yeah, subdistributors, whatever you want to call it. That's not the case. It's actually better, as the UK is no longer part of Europe. Well, probably your opinion, anyway. Yes. Well, okay, but Pimble Heaven has a separate agreement with Dutch Pimble and is an official distributor for the United Kingdom and not a reseller, as I mistakenly call it. Okay. So now that we've cleared that, I think that rounds it up for Dutch Pinball. Right. Okay. Well, before we just move on, one of the games that was at the recent UK Pinfest show, which I was fortunate enough to go to, was The Big Lebowski. The Big Lebowski, yes, of course. Yes, which came to us courtesy of Pinball Heaven, the UK distributor for that game. Well, they're right on top of things. Exactly. and another game which came which was at UK Pinfest which I think which we referred to earlier I think had its European premiere at that show was from our next company Homepin in Taiwan Before we head there I curious how was reception of The Big Lebowski Well, as far as I'm aware, everybody who played it loved it. I didn't spend a lot of time on it because I'm quite familiar with it. It was located in the lobby area rather than in the main body of the show. It was in the lobby... I'll come to this in a minute, But the show basically took over the entire hotel, all the accommodation, all the rooms. And they could put games in the lobby this time as well. I mean, they put some games in the lobby previously, but this time they could put games anywhere they wanted, in any of the side rooms, in any of the main hall and in corridors and in the lobby. And they had a Big Lebowski there, they had a Scooby-Doo, and they had a Magic Girl. well.
    73:15
    And they were on one side and on the other side of the entrance there were four more new or newish or newly restored games.
    73:27
    Details of which you can find in the Pinball News report, which is currently on the Pinball News site.
    73:35
    Completely missed that one. Well, it was only published yesterday, so you only just missed it. I finished it late last night. Very late last night. Okay. So then moving on to HomePin that we just mentioned and the first European appearance of This Is Spinal Tap. Indeed. It was at the UK Pinfest show thanks to Retro Arcade Specialists who are the HomePin distributor for the UK and had a This Is Spinal Tap machine flown over from Taiwan just in time for the show would have taken far too long to send it by sea so it was air freighted over and um covered up until just before the show was open to the public on friday evening and uh there it was available to play and um and how was it received um how do I sugar coat this it was maybe didn't live up to people's expectations for the game put it that way I think more down to the software than the actual playfield layout it's a fairly simple game hardware wise the software has a feel that it's been written by somebody who doesn't really know pinball because which is probably true it probably is but it does show because one of the immediate things you expect with any pinball is to get positive reinforcement when you make a shot and spinal tap was kind of missing that you'd make a shot and nothing would happen so you were left wondering did it register that shot or is it not lit or you'd expect there to be something you know, a light show a display effect, a sound effect okay, relying entirely on sound effects is normally a bad idea because the volume is often turned down in many locations so you'd expect there to be lighting and display effects and quite often you choose things and nothing would obviously happen when you did it which is, you know, it makes you feel as if, you know, you're doing the wrong thing or the game is not working properly. Isn't that part of the running gag, that all the gigs get cancelled? Well, that is a part of it. That's what happens when you tilt. All your points get cancelled, basically. Yes, if you tilt the game, it says the gig is cancelled. That's quite good.
    76:17
    But there's also sort of weird scoring imbalances. I don't know whether it's kind of tied in with the theme at all, whether it's a gag in itself. but sometimes like you'd shoot a ramp and it would say 30 points in big letters on the screen and you go wow okay uh 30 points i've got i've got a score of 250 000 points and i've got 30 points uh do i care about that and but then you think well is that kind of tied in with like the whole stonehenge gag about things being a lot smaller than they're expected to be and um but it's not obvious and there's also there's a video mode in there as well which um i watched about half a dozen people play that or try to play that video mode and none of them had a clue what to do um you're meant to you're meant to be uh under the stage trying to find your way up onto the stage um dodging various obstacles but nobody knew what they're meant to do to dodge the obstacles and basically the mode started, you died, it ended.
    77:25
    That happened to everybody within about two seconds, and that was the end of that mode. So, it's not intuitive. Or a bug to fix. Well, it just needs a lot more explanation of what the controls are, because no one knows what you're meant to do. So it's find your way out of the maze, out from underground, under the stage, but it doesn't tell you how to do it. So, yeah. As I say, it's not it doesn't give you the hand-holding and the reassurance and the guidance that you'd expect in a modern pinball machine. It's a fairly simple game, really, so it should be able to do that. But the good thing is that that can be changed. I thought, if only this was a game where you could write your own code for it, it would be great, because somebody would come along and write a real kick-ass set of rules for this. Which it hasn't got at the moment.
    78:18
    So maybe Michael Ocean is available? Well, of course, it's a custom operating system on it, so I don't think that's possible unless Mike gets somebody to do it for the game, but then you have to go through all the approval processes again, and what a pain that would be. But it has a lot of potential, but I just don't think it's fulfilled yet.
    78:38
    But maybe it will be. I really love it to be, because I love the theme, and I think it could be a great game, but it's not yet. Okay, well hopefully HomePin will get a software engineer on that which includes the topper as well which wasn't working on the one that we had have a look at the Pinball News report where I've got about half a dozen pictures of the Spinal Tap game okay so speaking of the spinal tap game we mentioned this uh earlier on uh there will be one at the ayapa europe show in austria later this month in the rs pinball booth so if you're in the position to attend that show and curious about how good or bad this game is um there's your chance yeah all right i'll recommend going if you possibly can it will be uh it's certainly worth trying it for yourself and getting a feel for it. Right. Now, getting back to the core business of home, which we would almost forget,
    79:54
    recently they shipped out some new WMS power transformers to some of their agents. Apparently, those are very popular. And I was wondering, like, why would you need a power transformer? if you have a game. But apparently lots of games have been stripped or are incomplete in parts, like a power transformer missing. And with the prices of second-hand games going up so much, all of a sudden it has become viable to basically put a new power transformer into these old games that were used as donation games, part games, and breathe new life into them. Yes, they've actually rebuilt an entire game from parts now.
    80:52
    Right. So Holping is building more WMS power transformers for their age. And also, going back quite a few years, there have been several games which have been involved in floods of various kinds where the cabinet and the bottom of the cabinet have been saturated which would render the transformer probably unusable at that point but the playfield might still be salvageable and the back box components as well So you only need a new cabinet and a transformer and the various wiring that's in the base of the cabinet, the switch box and that kind of stuff, and the filter, and you could bring that game back to life. So, yeah, another good use for these HomePin WMS power transformers. Right, okay. So now we get to the part, because this runs it up for HomePin Pimble, Now we get to the no news section Oh, wow, okay, let's start then Where is Chicago Gaming? No news Pedretti Gaming We already mentioned no news Haggis Pinball No news I also don't know whether Centaur are already sold out Or whether it's still available The revisited one Yeah, last month we mentioned it was available But we suspect there were only a couple that were available Yeah I didn't check, so if you're still in the market for that game, you might want to check. Yeah, go to Haggis Pinball's webshop and have a look and see if it's sold out or available to buy. Yeah. Okay, Biktronic.
    82:37
    No news, but they will be present at the IAPI Europe show in Austria that we mentioned a couple of times with a booth of themselves, and they will be in the third hall as well, quite near the restaurant. and the restaurant is in the centre, so they're on one of the edges around the restaurant, opposite of where RS Pinball is. Okay, great. From the restaurant. Hopefully they'll have some pinball there as part of their stand.
    83:11
    Probably, super. Yeah, that's what they had at EAG in January. So, yeah, it seemed to go down well. Okay, Quetzal Pinball. Well, no news. what I hear or what I understood is that the Tokyo Perfect Drift game is still supposed to be taken into production by Bitronic who we just discussed but there's no timeline known when that is going into production it's a shame, it's a really fun game it would be nice to see that being out there and people playing it Right. Okay. So. Okay. Now, turn the pinball. No news. Okay. Well, that's no change pretty much from March. So, when they announced themselves, and they said they weren't going to make any announcements until they had something to show. So, maybe not until Expo. Okay. Well, what about Circus Maximus? No news. What about Scandinavian Pinball Factory? no news but I haven't checked either ok but in the sense that last month we discovered the news that they were working on this troll pinball machine a very good catch of you by the way and I haven't seen any announcement that there is any news to report but then again we found it on their website so maybe I've been expecting it in the wrong places. Well, we'll investigate that further and we'll bring you any updates in our next month's Pincast. Right. Okay, so well, we also mentioned going to other news then, we've covered every factory or every company that we normally cover. So we also mentioned that Pinball Expo's schedule is up so you can go to pinballexpo.com and find that. Lots of seminars there and tournaments as well.
    85:17
    Yeah, I mentioned I was at the Pinfest show, UK Pinfest, held in Daventry. And a fantastic show. Congratulations to everybody involved in organising it. I had a great time. This is still the team that took over from Andrew Highway, right? Well, yeah, there was a couple of years of, well, there wasn't a UK show. But then Phil Murphy stepped up and offered to run UK Pinfest in a very similar vein. but on a more sort of concentrated and core basis. No special guests flown in from the US for this one, no awards dinners or anything like that, just two and a half days of concentrated pinball show.
    86:03
    And over the years it's grown, it's grown from, I think it started in 2018, I think was the first year, and that had 111 pinballs. this year there were 140 um so it's getting bigger and bigger and as i said earlier because they've taken over the whole of the hotel now all the all the accommodation all the conference rooms all the side rooms the lobby everywhere corridors they can put more and more machines around the building so uh this is the first year they've been able to do that and it uh it was great you know it was uh there's some really some some lovely new machines there and i mentioned about Scooby-Doo and Magic Girl and Hrabowski.
    86:49
    Didn't have Venom yet. I don't think that's available just at the moment in the UK. But virtually everything else was there. So read the report to see all the machines that were there. I did a video of it as well, so you can see for yourself. And I even played in the tournament, just for a laugh. and didn't do too badly, but it's a one-off. I have given up tournament play, honestly. I was going to say.
    87:23
    It was just to support the event, and I thought I'd just put an entry and see how it went. And it got me a certain way, so that was good fun. And thanks to all the organisers, and everybody who brought machines for that, and all the sponsors. And I think it just gets better and better every year, that show. Okay, well it's good to know I've attended a couple of times maybe I skip this year maybe I should reconsider next year I think you definitely should, it's definitely a good time and it's a very friendly show we've got great support from the community and it's not one of those shows that's trying to make the maximum amount of money the rooms are relatively cheap the entry is relatively cheap and even the bar prices are relatively cheap, so it's good all round, I'd say.
    88:18
    Right, OK. Well, thank you for that update on the show. Yeah. So, what other news do we have? Well, we mentioned about IAPA Europe in Vienna taking place, so we don't need to spend any more time on that.
    88:36
    There's some deep root news, if you can bear with me for a moment. Sure, sure. Yeah, bore me to death with it. Yeah, it's all right. There is so much news. I haven't had a chance to go through it all since coming back from the UK Pinfest show. So I'll just give a very brief summary.
    88:57
    There's a whole mass of new documents that have been released from the court on the Robert versus, or the SEC, I should say, versus Robert case, which is a civil case, remember, not criminal, no danger of him going to prison as a result of any of that, even if he's found guilty.
    89:17
    Fines and, well, that's about it, and maybe disbarment as well that can come from that. Including in these new documents is a resignation letter from one of his employees who basically was pointing the finger at Robert and saying he appeared to be operating a Ponzi-type scheme, willingly or not,
    89:41
    which is a claim that's been made in many quarters. The SEC, meanwhile, have requested a summary judgment, which basically means that the court decides there and then whether Robert is guilty of the charges against him based on the weight of evidence being overwhelming and no reasonable defence to speak of. Now, that's SEC's request. Roberts' lawyers will respond to that, and then the SEC will respond to that. That will happen over the next month. So probably about the 18th of this month, there will be a response from Roberts' lawyers, and then the SEC will file its response at the start of next month.
    90:30
    due process takes a long time as we know lots of paperwork has also been released with interviews or statements from investors in Robert's companies saying how they lost money, didn't know the money was being spent on Robert's personal expenses or on a pimple company and very sad tales of investors losing their pension savings in deep root investments and having to now work for many more years than they expected. Now their retirement funds have been lost.
    91:08
    I'll bring you more on that later because there is so much to go through. And it's a moving target. As I say, there's judgments going on or response to judgments, summary judgment coming through this month. and in time for next month's PENcast we should have some more news on the SEC's case so it's interesting reading but there's a lot of it I tell you ok well I'm glad you're diving into that well I'm not so glad but it's interesting but it is it's also depressing but hey someone has to do it you know what's depressing we don't get to play food truck Oh, no, don't say. I hold on to the hope that one day it will come back. Or that we don't get to experience the pin bar. Oh, surely that will come back. A good idea is never go away. Right, but regarding the deep root case, because I read your notes, is it correct that Robert is looking for a new attorney? That's true, yeah. It's one of the reasons that there's been a slight delay in the summary judgment application, because his existing attorney left the company that he was working for, who was representing Robert, so he's now got a new one.
    92:31
    Right. So it's taken a long time to get up to speed. And is that the same attorney that now left, where Robert said, like, my attorney told me it was okay to do it like this? No, no, that's a different one. this is his defence attorney now that was his company attorney ah ok could have been the same one I don't think so defence attorney is a specialised role right I just see you in advance what's coming right ok I guess that rounds it up for the month of August 2023 I think there's a bit of news about a bit of a disaster at a pinball shop.
    93:20
    Yes. Is that worth a recap? Because we've got to be able to help them out here by people to assist. Yeah, okay. So there is a pinball shop called The Pinball Shop with P.E. at the end which is located in North Olmsted. I'm not sure which state that is well Ohio I suppose could be yes anyway North Olmsted was hit severely by a thunderstorm causing the roof of a pinball shop to collapse and a certain pinball posted on their Facebook about this disaster as it is they are selling their games as well I assume and what I understand is they Pinball Shop have set up a GoFundMe for support to get them back up and running or get a new roof whatever they need.
    94:41
    But you can imagine the roof collapsing over a store that leaves a lot of damage, especially in a thunderstorm. Yeah, especially in a pinball shop. Yes. So people want to help and contribute? Yeah, check it out on GoFundMe. It should not be difficult to find out. Okay, so pinballshop, S-H-O-P-P-E. in North Olmsted. So we wish them the very best in getting their business back on its feet and opening up their store again.
    95:16
    Right. Okay. Yep. And that does round it up. I think it does. Yes, indeed. Yes, yes. Yep. Well, we'll be back at the start of October, I suppose, with our next Pymcast, looking back at all the excitement and events in the Pymble world throughout the month of September. And I think we've already indicated there'll be quite a few events happening in September this month. so and that's probably also most likely and I'm dissipating here without any consolation of Martin we might have Rob Burke joining us to give us the latest update on what will be happening at Pinball Extra yeah and also what's been going on with this Past Times Arcade which is me getting rave reviews and seems like an amazing place so who can update us on all the developments there as well. So until next month, from me, Martin Ayer of Pinball News. And from me, Jonathan Euston of Pinball Magazine. We wish you a very happy rest of September, and we'll see you at the beginning of October. Okay, thanks. Bye.