Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Pinball Industry News: July 2019 Re-cap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·2h 2m·analyzed·Aug 1, 2019
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

July 2019: Stern reveals Star Wars home edition and Jurassic Park cornerstone game with mixed reception.

Summary

A monthly recap of July 2019 pinball industry news featuring two major Stern announcements: the Star Wars Home Edition (a lower-priced consumer game at $4,499 designed by George Gomez) and Jurassic Park (a full-featured cornerstone game designed by Keith Elwin). The discussion covers design philosophy, pricing strategy, animation quality, rule complexity, and recent code updates, with significant attention to market positioning and community reception.

Key Claims

  • Star Wars Home Edition price of $4,499 is approximately 75% the cost of a Pro model game

    high confidence · Direct calculation from stated MSRP ($4,499) compared to typical Pro pricing ($5,500-$6,000). The hosts discuss whether this pricing makes sense for the home market.

  • The Star Wars Home Edition playfield is based on/similar to the Spider-Man Home Edition design from two years prior

    high confidence · Jonathan Euston explicitly states it's 'a further iteration of the Spider-Man home game' with the same lock mechanism and layout, with changes to ramp entrances and drop target function.

  • Jurassic Park game contains no footage from original movies due to licensing cost savings

    high confidence · Jonathan notes this was reported by IGN after checking with Stern, requiring the animation team to create all display assets in-house.

  • Stern's animation team for Jurassic Park consists of 6-7 video designers and animators

    medium confidence · Jonathan mentions 'a team of six or seven video designers and animators working on this game' during discussion of animation quality.

  • Jurassic Park was designed by Keith Elwin as a three-flipper layout with innovation

    high confidence · Both hosts credit Keith Elwin as designer and discuss the three-flipper layout with innovative shot design.

  • Jurassic Park images leaked from a distributor webinar presentation before official announcement

    high confidence · Martin notes images were leaked from a Tuesday distributor presentation, with low-res screenshots appearing before official reveal three days later.

  • Black Knight Sword of Rage soundtrack limited edition vinyl (baby blue, 100 units) sold out at Comic-Con

    high confidence · Jonathan states these were 'sold out pretty quickly' at Comic-Con but notes more vinyl will be available in different colors.

  • Stern maintained game pricing without inflation from previous titles (Munsters, Black Knight)

Notable Quotes

  • “If you're going to spend $4,500 on a toy, then you might as well buy the real deal for $5,500 or $6,000.”

    Gary Flower (referenced by hosts) @ N/A — Summarizes core concern about Star Wars Home Edition pricing strategy and value proposition problem.

  • “This game is slightly different from other games. Okay, it's a home game. It doesn't have a coin door. It doesn't have any coin slots on it.”

    Jonathan Euston @ N/A — Highlights key differentiators of home edition design versus commercial machines.

  • “I think this is probably their best video production they've done on any game so far as a team at Stern.”

    Martin Eyre @ N/A — Strong praise for Jurassic Park animation and video team quality despite licensing constraints.

  • “It seems like something that's more designed for the home buyer, shall we say, who's going to have the time and the energy to get into understanding the rules.”

    Jonathan Euston @ N/A — Assessment of Jurassic Park rule complexity and accessibility for casual vs. enthusiast players.

  • “A rising tide raises all boats...the level at which they have to reach to produce what is acceptable in the market now is higher.”

    Martin Eyre @ N/A — Commentary on increased competitive design standards across manufacturers.

  • “If you weren't enthused by our Star Wars announcement, don't worry, we've got another game coming out to be announced very, very shortly.”

    George Gomez (referenced) @ N/A — Evidence of planned messaging strategy to manage community expectations about separate game announcements.

  • “The Premium seemed to be the sweet spot in the range. If I was buying a game, that's what I would be going for.”

    Martin Eyre @ N/A — Assessment of pricing tier value across Pro/Premium/LE lineup for Jurassic Park.

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJonathan EustonpersonMartin EyrepersonGeorge GomezpersonKeith ElwinpersonJack DangerpersonGary SternpersonJonathan Bergeron (Johnny Crab)person

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo weekend featuring Jurassic Park playable at Coin-Taker booth (1 Premium, 6 Pro units) for community testing

    high · Specific mention of availability at Coin-Taker booth; hosts encouraging attendees to visit and play the game.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community reception mixed: enthusiasm for Jurassic Park design quality tempered by skepticism about Star Wars Home Edition commercial viability

    medium · Online criticism noted for Star Wars Home Edition; some players preferring it to original Pro/Premium/LE version; interest in replacing artwork with Data East Jurassic Park cabinet art.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jurassic Park rule complexity potentially inaccessible to casual players; designed for home buyers with time to understand elaborate rule set

    medium · Jonathan states he 'lost it almost immediately' trying to understand rules; notes requirement to understand dinosaur types; comparison to Munsters casual accessibility.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Keith Elwin design brings innovation and density to Stern games; hosts suggest this raises competitive bar across industry

    high · Praise for three-flipper layout with innovation; discussion of rising standards across manufacturers; comparison to Iron Maiden/Archer lineage.

  • ?

    leak_detection: Jurassic Park cabinet artwork and playfield images leaked from distributor webinar presentation before official announcement

    high · Low-resolution screenshots from Tuesday distributor presentation appeared online; official announcement delayed 3 days; cabinet art photos initially withheld, possibly pending IP approval.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.368

0:00
Star Wars Home Edition revealed. Jurassic Park also revealed. Dutch Pinball reached settlement with ARA.
0:16
Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston and welcome to the Pinball Magazine and Pinball News free monthly audio podcast with a sort of flashback, summary, recap, whatever you want to call it, of the past month of Pinball Industry News. And with me is... I'm Martin Eyre from Pinball News, the editor. And I have to say, Jonathan, this is... Last month we said things were a bit quiet, but we still managed to fill out quite a lengthy podcast. But this month, I think it's been really, really busy, isn't it? It's been a very exciting month for pinball, I would say, yes. Yeah, so we've... Let's dive straight into it, I suppose, really. We don't want to waste any more time. Right. So we've had two new pinballs revealed this month. Right. The first of those was shown at Comic-Con in San Diego. Comic-Con, a huge, great comic and fan-based show. Cosplay and all that kind of stuff going on. Yep. Absolutely. And Stern had a big presence there. I think their biggest presence ever. Yeah. and they were showing their newest game on the Star Wars stand, which was appropriate, as it was actually a Star Wars game, their home edition, which they called the Pin. Right. So this was a Star Wars Pin game.
1:48
Do you want to tell us a little bit about it, Jonathan, before we get into the detail? Right. Well, the game itself is a completely different model than the Steve Ritchie recent Star Wars game that we saw in three versions, the usual pro, premium and limited edition. This game is actually a George Gomez design.
2:11
And I would say it's a further iteration of the Spider-Man home game that we saw, I think, two years ago. which was then also used for the Supreme Pinball Machine, which was a private label game, of which only like 100 were made, and these are selling for like $25,000 or something like that. Sort of ridiculous, yes. Yes.

high confidence · Jonathan notes 'the price hasn't increased on this game from the last one, the Black Knight Sword of Raid' and calls this 'good news' regarding price inflation.

Jerry Thompson
person
Wayne Knightperson
Star Wars Home Editionproduct
Jurassic Parkproduct
Spider-Man Home Editionproduct
Black Knight Sword of Rageproduct
Game of Thronesproduct
San Diego Comic-Conevent
Dutch Pinballcompany
Pinball Newsorganization
Pinball Magazineorganization
Coin-Taker Boothorganization
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jurassic Park created without original movie footage; entire animation team required to recreate scenes in-house, demonstrating licensing cost constraints

    high · IGN confirmed no movie footage licensing; team of 6-7 animators created all display assets; voice acting quality concerns noted.

  • $

    market_signal: Stern maintained stable pricing across recent titles (Munsters, Black Knight, Jurassic Park) without inflation; hosts suggest awareness of competitive pressure

    medium · Jonathan notes pricing stability and references another company producing pinball 'at slightly lower price point maybe early next year' as factor in pricing decisions.

  • $

    market_signal: Star Wars Home Edition MSRP of $4,499 positioned at 75% of Pro model price ($5,500-$6,000), questioning market viability and value proposition for consumers

    high · Multiple discussions questioning pricing strategy; Gary Flower quote that consumers should buy real deal for $5,500-$6,000 instead; comparison to Spider-Man Home Edition pricing issues.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jurassic Park Pro/Premium/LE pricing strategy with meaningful feature differences (T-Rex head, Raptor pen trap mechanics exclusive to Premium/LE)

    high · Martin notes Pro and Premium initially looked identical but Premium justified by moving T-Rex head and Raptor pen features; Premium identified as 'sweet spot' of the range.

  • ?

    product_concern: Black Knight soundtrack limited edition vinyl (100 units, baby blue) sold out at Comic-Con; reprint planned with different color/artwork

    high · Quick sellout at $20 price point; confirmation of future vinyl availability in different variants; discussion of vinyl pressing economics explaining reproduction strategy.

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern strategic announcement timing: Star Wars Home Edition revealed at Comic-Con to reach consumer market; Jurassic Park announced week later to manage enthusiast expectations

    high · George Gomez comment about game 'coming out to be announced very, very shortly'; Martin notes Comic-Con as strategic venue choice for consumer market game; coordination between announcements.

  • ?

    technology_signal: Star Wars Home Edition uses LCD display (smaller than standard) versus Spider-Man Home Edition LED; potential for custom modifications

    medium · Discussion of HDMI connections allowing custom display upgrades; speculation about enthusiasts swapping larger displays into repurposed cabinets.

    • 2:38
    And interestingly, I'm not sure whether it was George Gomez who made the current changes to the game, but the layout is mostly the same, But the entrance to the ramps has been changed. And also the function of the drop target area on the left of the playfield, in front of the left ramp, has changed. In fact, on the Spider-Man Home Edition game, there was a construction where you had the three drop targets, where you could actually lock a ball behind the drop targets, which we'd later seen in Guardians of the Galaxy. and that section has changed where the three drop targets are still in the same place but they are now guarding the entrance of the left ramp and I think they are representing TIE fighters.
    3:38
    Yes, that's right. So you have to shoot the TIE fighters first before you can actually exit that ramp and shoot the Death Star. Yes, they're starting at the top of the left ramp there. It does have the same lock mechanism as Spider-Man Home Edition, which is basically a couple of posts with a switch behind them, and the ball can kind of settle between the two posts on the switch, and then you can knock that ball out to start a multi-ball mode. Right, and that's the R2-D2 multi-ball mode, which I think is a very clever way of locking a ball. It's also a sort of carry-over multiball, because if you don't release the ball yourself, someone else can release it. It's an easy-to-get-to multiball.
    4:28
    Yeah. The funny thing is, there was a lot of criticism online about this game, but on the other hand, there were also people saying that they have the impression that it's actually more fun than the Pro Premium and Limited Edition Star Wars. that Stern put out like, what is it, two years ago, one year ago.
    4:53
    And I have to say, although I haven't played the Star Wars game yet, when I played the Spider-Man Home Edition,
    5:02
    I thought that was quite a fun place to shoot with some very clever rules. From what I've seen on the stream of the current Star Wars pin, if we are going to call it that,
    5:17
    I'd say there's a little bit of overkill in the number of multiballs. You're really going from one multiball to another,
    5:27
    which I guess is sort of a pity in the sense that that way, achieving multiball is nothing special anymore.
    5:36
    Yeah, I understand what you're saying there. It would normally be something which you'd have to strive for. Well, those don't always used to give away one multiball fairly easily, didn't they? Right, that should be the two-bowl, multi-bowl, with the easy-to-lock ball. But, no, obviously Jack Danger streamed it from Comic-Con on the first day, so there was like nine hours of Star Wars footage.
    6:06
    I'd still say it's a fun game to flip. Obviously, this game is intended for the consumer market, if you wish. the cabinet is although it uses the artwork of the already approved artwork I would say of the pro premium and limited edition but then in a different configuration the cabinet itself is something that I think people can even threw that together as a sort of IKEA furniture type of cabinet but if that's what it takes for Stern To reduce the price Of such a game And sure, why not? Well there was a little bit of confusion Exactly how that game is going to be marketed The earlier versions Which they brought out They brought out a Not the Spider-Man Edition so much But when they had Transformers I think they had a Batman as well Before as pin games They were certainly Targeted at more retail market, shall we say, selling it through Costco, Walmart, Target, that kind of outlet. This time, there's no indication that that's how the Star Wars pin is going to be sold. It's shown in a presentation to regular store distributors, which implies that they're the ones who are going to be selling it, and the ones who are going to be providing any service requirements for the game. Right. Because that's always a big problem with any home game. If it goes wrong, who's going to service it? Actually, it might be a smart move, because let's say someone, a consumer person, let's call it that or whatever, is interested in such a game. if he's already walking into a certain distributorship, goes home with a Star Wars pin, if he ends up liking it, he knows exactly where to get a professional model if he would be up for that. And we all know how it goes with pins. Once you've got one, one is not enough. That's true. And obviously they should be in a better position to provide the after-sales service than any of these big box shifter companies who don't even know what a pinball is, and it's just a commodity to them that they sell. And if it goes wrong, it gets taken back and sent back to the distributor or to the manufacturer to deal with, which is not something that CERN would have to address. Right. And I think the smart thing here is, on CERN's end, I think what they experienced or might have experienced with these previous distributors like Amazon or whatever. Obviously, you have the risk of someone ordering a game, he sets it up at his home, plays it for two weeks, and he's like, eh, I don't like it anymore. And if it's within a certain date of delivery, he might still send it back. And then what are you going to do with the game? Yeah, true. He'll just order it for a party. People play it. Right. And then, as you say, send it back. But this game is slightly different from other games. Okay, it's a home game. It doesn't have a coin door. It doesn't have any coin slots on it. And it also has a smaller LCD display than a regular Stern game has. It is an LCD, whereas the Spider-Man Home Edition was LED. Right. Which makes me think most LED screens easily adjust to... I mean, technically, if you're a handy guy, you can replace the speaker panel and the speakers, put in a bigger display, and you might just get a bigger image on the display, whatever you choose to put up there as a display. Yeah, I would guess it's probably just an HDMI connection into that And using the same spike system that they use elsewhere So, yeah, it could drive any size display in theory Right, so there could be Actually, I was wondering It's not a It's actually quite an interesting and fun layout to play I'm actually wondering whether there's any pinball enthusiast Who are like, you know what I got a spare cabinet here from whatever old game I'm just going to put this Star Wars pin playfield in there And get a bigger display And sort of like build their own custom cabinet for it and basically have a more arcade type of game with a bigger display. Of course, the thing we haven't mentioned so far, which is the proverbial elephant in the room, is the price of this pin game. Right, which is... $4,499, which is basically two-thirds, Sorry, three quarters of the price of a pro model of Stern's latest machines. Right. So obviously this is the manufacturer suggested retail price, which in the end always turned out to be less than advertised. True, but it's being sold through the same channels as all the other games, which are probably going to be discounted by the same amount. So it's probably going to end up as being 75% the cost of a pro game. So given what's missing out of it, is it realistic? I mean, when I've been thinking about sort of pricing points that certainly need to hit in order to sell to the home market, it's below 3,000.
    12:18
    Here they are at 4.5, and it's getting so close to being just a pro machine in terms of price and in terms of the outlets and the channels that they're selling it through. it's not striking me as being something which is going to have any impact at all. I could be wrong. It could be a big success for them, as it turns out. Well, I was having a similar discussion with our good friend Gary Flower last month. He might call in. We can carry that on. Yeah. And Gary basically was like, he made a very good point. if you're going to spend $4,500 on a toy, then you might as well buy the real deal for $5,500 or $6,000. Yeah, absolutely. You're 75% of the way there already with this price. Right. And so I can see the concern whether there is a market for this or whether this is overpriced. I guess the only thing I can say is time will tell.
    13:32
    The only thing, and plus, if we look at earlier home edition games, I think pricing has always been an issue. Even with the Spider-Man Home game, that had to be, I think they made 125 or so of those, and we never know what happened to them. No, but that's always the issue, you see. They always have a certain... They're always overpriced, to be honest, for what they are. And they don't have that separation between being a home game and being an operator game in terms of price. They do in terms of features,
    14:17
    but it's just not... It hasn't got the differentiation that you need in order to make it a clear choice. If I've got $5,500 or $6,000, I'm going to buy an arcade version. If I've only got $3,000, I'm going to buy a home version.
    14:38
    And that's without even considering the resale value at the end of it, if you do want to move it on. Who's going to want to buy your home model when they can pick up a second-hand pro? Right. And speaking of second hand I think Second hand Star Wars games Are more or less In the same ballpark In terms of price As a new Star Wars pin Yeah true But if you're selling to the home market I know that It's selling to people who don't know how to fix a game Don't want to know how to fix a game So they want something which is new and works Right yeah true Oh well I just hope for Stern this will work out And I guess Since the Well the Spider-Man Home Game design Was later on used for Their private label Supreme game I'm pretty sure Supreme Paid very good money To Stern So you can't call that design A flop in the sense that It earned its money Or it made enough money for Stern I'd say And who knows what may happen with this design. I mean, take off the Death Star and the few other elements that represent Star Wars and give it a different artwork on the play field. And who knows what else you might use it for.
    16:14
    Yeah, I mean, true. It doesn't excite me in the way that I was hoping it would, and I know a lot of other people were expecting something a bit more from this announcement than actually turned out to be the case. The thing is, during a standout press release prior to Comic-Con, saying that they were going to review a new game, obviously within the pinball community that raises expectations, and then they come out with this home game or home edition, which is sort of like not what pinball enthusiasts were expecting. But then again, they made that up a week later, revealing a new Cornish home game. They did. And that Star Wars pin edition was not aimed at the regular pinball buyers. It was aimed at trying to bring in a new group of buyers, People who wouldn't have considered it in the past But you do lead on nicely To the second game Announcement One last thing About the Star Wars pin If you were going to announce a Star Wars pin For the home user market Or the consumer market San Diego Comic Con is the best place to do it So in that sense It's a very strategic Move from Stern I have to applaud them for that Especially if you can piggyback on the Star Wars hype and show your game on the Star Wars stand, which is exactly what they did. Right. And I think, leaning on to the next subject, I think it was either George Gomez or someone else who already let people know on Facebook in some comment that a new Cornerstone game was right around the corner and that took, in fact, less than a week after Comic-Con that Jurassic Park was announced. Yes, I think it was George who did say, if you weren't enthused by our Star Wars announcement, don't worry, we've got another game coming out to be announced very, very shortly. And, yeah, Jurassic Park. Although, I have to say, the announcement or the reveal of that game was not quite as smooth as maybe was intended. they did do a distributor presentation as is the way Stern seems to do things now they do a video conference type presentation to the distributors it's called a webinar and it's not even for all distributors I believe it's for selected distributors only and this was I think Tuesday a week ago And instantly images leaked Screenshots from that presentation That was held by Gary Stern Leaked So it was no longer A surprise that it would be Jurassic Park Although the images were rather Low res So there was a lot of speculation going on On what was actually happening on the play field Or what was there What could it do What would the ball be doing and all that sort of stuff. And then it took three more days before Stern actually revealed the official announcement and close-up photos of the game. Yeah, I'm sure they weren't happy about the leak earlier on. And in fact, when the... I don't know whether you'd call it an official announcement. I certainly didn't get the usual press announcement, which we normally get, which is, along with a bunch of – which we got for Star Wars, which gives the press announcement, the details of the game, the pricing, and the usual Gary Stern quote about it, along with a lot of information about how Stern Pinball is a global lifestyle brand. Don't get me started on that. Yes, that does wind up a lot of people, I know, and all the wonderful games they made in the past. But we didn't get that. And the pictures that did come out seemed to be fairly randomly scattered around across the Internet. Some outlets had some pictures, other people had other pictures. Yeah, I think the most reliable source was Stern's Facebook, where over 40 photos were published, as well as what usually would be a press release.
    20:56
    Yeah, although interestingly I noticed in that, there were no, at that point anyway, I think it's changed since, there were no cabinet pictures of the three models which were actually leaked earlier in the week. So it's almost as if they weren't, or maybe the artwork packages hadn't been signed off by whoever it is who owns the address. They were shown to distributors, so... They were shown, but not the publication. We've seen stuff that's been shown to us, but we weren't allowed to reproduce it because it hadn't been signed off. Which actually... That's the case.
    21:34
    Speaking of cabinet art, okay, so the Jurassic Park cabinet art is done by Jonathan... Let me get where I put his name. Jonathan Bergeron. Yes, who is also... Bergeron. Yes, who is also known as Johnny Crab. He's from Canada.
    21:54
    But the interesting thing is, since then, last night Jack Danger had his gameplay review stream, which I highly recommend for people to watch.
    22:07
    Is that it? Yes. But what I did notice is that, as is reported by IGN as well, who checked this with Stern, There's no footage from the original movie in the game, which obviously saves licensing fees and so on. I can understand that. But that also means that Stern's video animation team had to create all the assets for the display, the background, the island, everything that happens on the island, the animals and so on themselves. which sort of made me wonder like if you have your own animation team in-house already designing all this artwork for display use why hire a different artist for your cabinet art because it would be much more in sync with your display animations if you would just take a still from the display and use it as cabinet art. Oh, I think it's a very different skill set to do video animations compared to static art, the kind of high-resolution variety that's needed on the play field, on the cabinet, the back glass, the back box sides, and the plastics as well, not forgetting those. True. It's quite a lot. But still, it made me wonder, like, okay, if you want some synergy between the two, then it makes sense that... True.
    23:43
    But on picking up your point there about the fact that there was nothing, well, I don't know if there was absolutely nothing. There were some shots earlier on in the, kind of when you first start the game with the helicopter flying over the island that made me think, well, hang on, I'm sure they haven't recreated an entire island in that way. I think some of that might have come from an original movie, but maybe not. Maybe it's that good it looks like, it looks in cinematic terms. But they've got, I think, a team of six or seven video designers and animators working on this game, which is a huge task. I think it's really a massive credit to them for the quality of what they've produced. I think they've done what would almost seem impossible to take an entire Jurassic Park movie and recreate various scenes from it and create new storylines as well. Right. Take it beyond just the movies. And, you know, it's really genuinely very well done. So I think this is probably their best video production they've done on any game so far as a team at Stern. So congratulations to them on doing that. And also the sound as well. And, yes, coming up to Keith as well, but the sound, which has a really wonderful soundtrack based on the John Williams theme, but also, I'm afraid I've forgotten the name of the composer who did it. I know Jerry Thompson did the sound effects. Yes. I can't remember exactly who it is who did the music But it's excellent and very much in keeping with the theme And it is cinematic in scope So congratulations to them on that But congratulations to, I'd say, the entire team Because from what I could see on the review stream Which was yesterday Broadcasted yesterday by Deadlip Although this podcast might air a day later But okay Anyway I was very impressed with the game I think Keith Elwin is A brilliant designer For Pinball I think he really nailed it again He was obviously Iron Maiden Which was a continuation of his previous Archer design that was already a killer layout and again here we have a three flipper layout with quite some innovation I would say and as far as I can say it's very good for Stern to have some fresh blood in the designer department so to speak if you understand what I'm trying to say Yeah, I think it, you know, a rising tide raises all boats, as people have said in the past. Now, I think all design teams on, not just at Stern, but also other manufacturers, the level at which they have to reach to produce what is acceptable in the market now is higher. And I think, yeah, you're right, that Keith does seem to pack in an awful lot of shots into all his games and make them interesting shots as well. So I think, you know, originally, to be fair, and provide a little bit of criticism here, when I first saw it, I looked at the premium and the pro layouts on the playfield and thought, those two look exactly the same. There's hardly any reason to buy a premium. But then having seen the game actually played, I thought there was no reason to buy a pro, because there's quite a lot not in the pro that you would want to have in the premium. In particular, the moving T-Rex head. Yeah, which eats the ball and then spits it out or drops it on a ramp. Yeah, and also the way that the Raptor Pen traps the ball and does a sort of dirty pool feature of trapping it behind a target bank as well. So I thought those were nice features to have and probably just about worth the extra cost. The LE, well, some people call it an LE, but it's the same play field as the Premium. Yeah. The Premium seemed to be the sweet spot in the range. If I was buying a game, that's what I would be going for I think it was very clever also On the Death With the premium Instead of with the pro And Well Like I was saying, and not only Keith Elwin's playfield design Is very interesting, but I think he also came up with Some very Interesting And refreshing Ideas for the rule set Yeah I have to admit When we started off that stream And Keith was explaining The rules of what you're meant to do I kind of lost it almost immediately And thought, what? I don't understand this Yeah You need to have a certain understanding Of what dinosaurs And other creatures Are out there and whether they are carnivores or not It seemed quite involved It didn't seem as if the game You could just walk up to it cold as a casual player and instantly get what it is you're meant to be doing. It seems like something that's more designed for the home buyer, shall we say, who's going to have the time and the energy to get into understanding the rules and work out how best to optimise the scoring on that, because it's not unlike a lot of other CERN games. And when CERN didn't do that with a game like the Munsters, they get Richard Shreds for saying, oh, it's hard or for people who are saying it's far too simple a game, doesn't have the depth required, whereas on the other hand, you know, it's a great game for people to walk up and play and understand what to do fairly easily.
    29:55
    So, but after having watched the stream for a little while and understanding what the various rules are, it did kind of come together. It just wasn't immediately accessible to me in the same way that some other games would be. Right. But still, I think it's a very interesting title. And what was especially interesting, certainly after seeing the stream of that clip from yesterday, the fact that they didn license any movie assets and such is not a reason not to buy this game No it does have Wayne Knight who does the voice of the genious Nedry
    30:47
    within the game. I don't think we heard much, if indeed any, of that during the stream. No, we didn't. We did hear some, if I may say so, some very poor voice acting. Yeah, it was a bit cringing at times. Yes, the people trying to do the David Attenborough Richard Attenborough I should say Obviously there's a lot of focus On the Dennis Nedry character A little bit I mean People aren't stupid You don't need to call him two or three times In a sequence of voice calls To make sure that it's about him By his full name each time Yeah We need to get Dennis Nedry here Where is Dennis Nedry Oh Dennis Nedry Oh, sure, I thought you meant his brother, Brian Nedry. Oh, okay, right. But that might still change, although I doubt it, but if they could get better voice calls or have them re-recorded so they are less over-the-top and more natural, sure.
    31:59
    But other than that, I got the feeling there's not a lot of people being disturbed with the fact that there's no footage from the movie in there. No, I think the footage is the least of it. The voices are the things which stand out most as not being a mutual. Right. So I even talked to a couple of people who were interested in buying a game and then applying the Data East Jurassic Park pinball game decals to it because they just like the black cabinet with the red logo.
    32:34
    Wow. Okay, we could certainly put the topper on from that game. Right. And actually, I don't know how much interest there would be in that, but Ipcern would be like, hey, you know what? If you want a game without any side art, that's fine. You get a $300 discount and you get a game without side art and good luck to yourself and whatever you throw on it.
    32:58
    Hmm, yeah. I mean, I've also seen people saying like, oh, I prefer the data in Jurassic Park Translite much more, okay, you might find an original one or a reproduction, get it to the right size and put it in your game if you want to. Yeah, be careful about not being seen to kind of promote copyright infringement out there, because any artwork you're going to put on there is almost certainly going to infringe copyright in some way. Okay, but it's got the Jurassic Park logo, which is, you know, a trademark. Sure, but if you're doing that for your own home game, the game that you bought, then who cares? Yeah, sure. How many people have got the facilities just to, you know, print their own? Oh, there are people on the Internet that can help you out and, you know. Oh, well. But to each his own, I guess. Yeah, so anyone who's going to Pinnberg this weekend, And CERN will have one premium Jurassic Park game there, and six pro as well for you to experience. And they will be at the coin-taker booth, if I'm not mistaken. So visit the coin-taker booth to play Jurassic Park. And it's good to see that the price hasn't increased on this game from the last one, the Black Knight Sword of Raid, which I think was also the same price as the monsters before, so we haven't had any pinball price inflation recently from Stern, so that's good news. Yeah, especially since, if you look at how packed this playing field is.
    34:36
    Yes, I'm sure they're very mindful of the fact that there might be another company producing pinball at a slightly lower price point, maybe early next year. So they want to keep an eye on their prices to make sure they're not uncompetitive in that market. Right. So I guess that's it for Stern's two game reviews of the past month. There's obviously more news about Stern Pimble, so let's quickly skip through that.
    35:08
    Quite a few code updates, I'd say. Yeah. Two code updates for Game of Thrones. There was a code update Revealed July 15th On a Deathlip stream That became available July 18th And today Actually another code update For Game of Thrones became available And we're now at version 1.37 Yeah, literally As we were just making notes As to what we had For this particular podcast and we were on version 1.36 having been released, we got the notification of a brand new version. So this is hot off the press with 1.37, which adds, you know, it's not a minor update either. It actually adds quite a lot to the game. Right. So I guess Black Knight also got a code update, which is now at 1.0. Yeah, it's officially finished in stern terms, and it's reached 1.0.0. So anything beyond that is enhancements, but it is officially complete, although I'm sure we will find more additions and enhancements coming along over the next few months. Right. And we also mentioned earlier Stern's presence at the San Diego Comic-Con, where they teamed up with Nuclear Blast, like they usually do, and what's the other party's name? Okay, they team up with another party, which I understood has to do because basically Comic-Con is not accepting new vendors. So if you want to be at Comic-Con, you have to team up with a vendor that's already there. So that explains how it works. They've turned third year in a row, And this year they had, for Comic-Con, a limited edition exclusive vinyl record of the soundtrack of Black Knight Sword of Rage available in baby blue vinyl, 100 units only. Those sold out pretty quickly. Now, if you're like, oh, I wanted one, there are, from a rather reliable source, I'd say, there will be more vinyl available, but just not that limited edition Comic-Con thing. But my guess is, chances are, there will be a different color, maybe some different artwork for the cover. But I guess it's the same vinyl might be available at other shows. Yeah, the cover was branded with Comic-Con So it's certainly a souvenir edition And at the $20 price point they were selling it at It's no surprise that they sold those out very quickly But yes, I can imagine If it's not available as a vinyl It would probably be available as a download at some point Like they did with Deadpool That became available in other formats Mark my words, it will be available as a vinyl and my assumption is different color vinyl and a different artwork on the sleeve.
    38:25
    But obviously, when you're pressing vinyl, the most expenses are in getting the, I'm not sure what the proper names are for the molds, I would say, to press the vinyl. It's not the molds, but whatever you call those. you get my point so once you have those you can do anything with them, you can if you throw in different color vinyl you get different color vinyl so that's easy it would seem odd to me to just have molds created for just 100 copies because it would make it very expensive to make extra vinyls so my guess is the vinyl will be the same but the appearance Will be different Yep, that certainly sounds reasonable But having made the presses They will print them all So, did I miss Any other code updates From Stern?
    39:31
    No, I think that was the only two from Stern There were code updates From other companies as well Jersey Jack Pinball Had been busy updating Their Dialed In and Willy Wonka games Right Dialed In they brought out version 1.70 this month, which was very quickly followed by version 1.71, which fixed a couple of things from 1.70, which were found early on. There's a lot of stuff in there, quite a few different mode and, I would say, feature, the way that the features work, shall we say, have changed, but also I think they added in some bits which were missing, some of the choreography and motion detection stuff into Dialed In. In Willy Wonka as well, which is up to version 1.09 at the moment, so that's also at release and beyond, They've added in some extra tests And adjustments In there but also Which I think caught my eye Was they have And this may have been something which has always been in there But I wasn't aware of but they have A track mode Speech which is triggered by Motion detection from the Camera that's in the game Which I guess Means if somebody's walking by they can say Hey you stop play me Put some money in Wouldn't you like to play this And I don't know whether It would take a picture It probably might be a bit too much Of the person walking by and put it on the screen But there's all sorts of stuff you can do with that Absolutely Yeah It's good to see that they're using The camera feature in their games In innovative ways like that Yeah And while we're on the subject Although it's on the subject of Josie Jack,
    41:41
    that's throwing that slash confirmed again that he's working on a Guns N' Roses pinball machine, which is a... Who would have thought? Well, we reported on that like months ago after he already mentioned it to the London Times, I believe.
    42:02
    And I was actually quite surprised to see that so many people had missed that while we reported on it. So where are you all getting your information from? There's a very reliable source. It's the Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast.
    42:18
    And we discussed that months and months ago. So if you want to, it's very easy. Just subscribe to the Pinball Magazine newsletter, and you'll get every month an update with what happened the past month, including details like this and a link to the Pimble News and Pimble Magazine podcast.
    42:40
    So you can listen to it in your car or wherever you want to listen to it. But again, so Slash talked about it, and this is expected to be the second Jersey Jack Pimble machine that we are expecting to be announced or revealed still this year.
    43:04
    Yes, that's right. that doesn't mean that it will be an expo. We're hoping it might be an expo, but the year runs until December, and it might also be a game that will be revealed in, I don't know, just before Christmas. Who knows? That also depends on how fast the team is working and how far their games are long and what have you.
    43:24
    And also what other manufacturers are doing as well. They don't want their announcement of their big game to be crowded out by two or three other companies also releasing their latest games.
    43:39
    Right. So, okay. I guess that sort of covers the Jersey Jack news, at least on my list. Did you have anything else? Not from Jersey Jack. There's still quite a lot of Stern-based news, though. Oh, sorry about that. I got drifted away, I guess. That's all right.
    43:58
    Stern were one of the companies, one of 50 companies, I believe, who were invited to the White House in the past month as part of the White House's third annual Made in America showcase, where they have a company from each of the 50 states come along and produce, and a company who produces something which is iconically American and helps promote business, create jobs in their local community.
    44:29
    Stern were there. There were three, I think there were three people from the company there. I'm not entirely sure who the three were. I know Gary Stern and I think Dave Peterson went. I don't know whether the third one was John Bascali or whether it was Jody or whether it was somebody else entirely.
    44:47
    But certainly three of them went. I think they had two games there. a Star Wars and a Batman. Okay. And other companies who were invited along were companies like 3M, Lightspeed, Bicycle Zippo Lighters, Airstream, and Weaver Guitar Straps. They're companies which make iconically American products. Right. So it was a very nice recognition of Stern's success, I suppose, in creating not just games but also jobs in their area. So now I'm not entirely sure for who this event is held.
    45:27
    Obviously it's nice to have 50 manufacturers representing or presenting their products there, but I did see some coverage, some TV coverage of the event where I think President Trump was walking in the garden of the White House where some companies were presenting their products. So we walked by a couple, then he did a speech of an hour, and then I think he left. So I'm not even sure whether he went inside and looked at all the other companies.
    46:00
    Well, let's hope so. But by the way, it's a nice gesture, a nice bit of recognition for Sturm and for Pimble as being a quintessential part of American culture. Yeah, surprisingly, Stern did not report anything on that. It was brought to my attention because somebody else caught it on a local Chicago news channel,
    46:27
    posted a photo of his, basically, TV with the news channel on. But Stern did not send out a press release or anything like that, at least not to me, or maybe not to you as well. No, no, I found out about it by other means as well Yeah But it was advertised, but it was listed as one of the 50 companies In all sort of national coverage of that event Right, so Okay, other news or that was it? No, no, there's more No, Christopher Franchi, our good friend in the artist design department Right He was interviewed on the Head to Head podcast recently.
    47:13
    And despite rumors or suggestions that he and Stern have gone their separate ways, he did say he was still working for Stern. We're taking a little bit of a break right now. Right. So we probably expect to see some stuff from him. One thing that Stern announced recently was that in their shop, their Stern shop, you can buy the Munsters t-shirts, which use artwork created by Christopher Franchi for, I was going to say it's for the game, but I think it's probably uniquely for the t-shirts. So whether that's the direction in which he's working for certain moment, or whether he's going to be working on games again very shortly, I don't know, even now, I don't know. But you can certainly pick up the Munsters t-shirt from the Stern shop, with some Christopher Frenchy artwork on it. Right. So now we know already for like two months that Frenchy is sort of on a break with Stern.
    48:15
    Not sure whether it's an elephant in the room, but now that they have Johnny Crabb doing the artwork for Jurassic Park, if I look at the style of artwork that is used on the cabinet over there, that could be considered sort of like similar to Frenchy. So now that Johnny Kraft is sort of like introduced to Stern, which actually I was told by Steven Martin of the art department, he was introduced to Zambietti, or the art department was introduced to Johnny Kraft through Zambietti.
    48:56
    And now you just have to wonder, Okay, so if they're looking for a certain style of artwork, now they have two choices. So it's up to the art department to make a choice, like do we want to work with Frenchie or do we want to work with Johnny Crabb?
    49:12
    Well, also, it depends on their availability. I mean, they both have other, you know, I feel they're both freelancers and they have other clients they need to service as well. I mean, Johnny Crabb does a lot of album art. I think that's the link To Zombie Yeti that he had From doing artwork for Slayer And other bands Anthrax, which is also Another very uncommon name Relating to Sterling Yeah, absolutely So, you know, how much time Can he devote to Doing pinball, or is he Just going to pick up jobs as and when he can I don't know How busy his schedule is Well, Scone have a pretty regular schedule of game artwork they need producing. So I think they like to have people they can rely on to produce on a fairly regular basis. Right. Now, speaking of Christopher Frenchy, let me size up a little bit here.
    50:15
    The Texas Pinball Festival did reveal the theme, so to speak, for their upcoming 2020 show, which will be the last weekend of March held at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas. Yeah, as in the past couple of years. Yes, and the good news is that we both will be there. We will indeed. Yes, but speaking of the artwork,
    50:43
    this was presented through the Texas Pinball Festival social media channels and where we see a, I think it's called an armadillo, playing a belly pinball game and leaning heavily over the pinball machine looking at the playfield.
    51:02
    So that's what Christopher Frenchy has been working on as the artwork is done by him. And obviously, I expect it's not going to be that one single image. Usually, the Texas Pinball Festival needs more artwork for their badges and banners and what have you. Yeah, posters, T-shirts. Yeah, exactly. So I expect Christopher to be working on that, which is good for him. Congratulations on that.
    51:32
    Yeah. I mean, not the first show he's done artwork for. No, absolutely. He did a fantastic one earlier this year.
    51:40
    Yes, and, well, it's keeping him off the street, I'd say. Yeah, absolutely. And talking of artwork and Stern, that takes us rather neatly into the 30 years of Stern book, which there's been a little update just very recently. Yeah, it's now two and a half years late.
    52:08
    Yeah, that's not the update. Oh. It is two and a half years late. The update is that after having said they were going to redesign all the layouts on the pages, they said this month they are 75% through reworking the layout. Last month they were 50%, and they have been producing a few monthly updates, as they had promised at last. Right. So, on that basis, if they keep going and no one goes away on vacation or holiday over the summer, next month it should be at 100% done. No, it shouldn't, because in the meantime, Cern will release two new games, and, of course, they need pictures and what have you, so that's going to take at least another six months.
    52:56
    On that basis, they will never catch up. They'll always be chasing their tail. Yeah. I imagine that the latest games are not going to be in that It is what it is That has been their excuse to say Oh we're going to include more games If they would be strict Then they're going to do a book on 30 years of Stern But they're already doing 32 years of Stern I think And As an editor I did see A The spread for the The Sims of Pinball Party page which was crammed with like 40 images spread over two pages to give you an impression of the game. I think I counted at least three cabinet photos and five Homer heads and I was like, it makes no sense. I mean, they could have done half of the number of images and still get a better representation of the game. It did strike me as being slightly odd Almost like they were Just given all the art files For that game And it seemed to have all the Decals in the game Represented on the page And I thought well okay you've got decals From the itching scratchy Crop targets on there You've got the long decal that runs along the side Of the monorail track I thought I couldn't see any particular reason for them to be there, other than the fact that they filled the gap. Right.
    54:32
    But, you know, maybe in the surrounding text, which was too small for me to read at the size that I saw it, there'll be some explanation of what those are, and maybe some little interesting tidbits of information about how they came about. Right. But, okay, oh well. I just hope they get that book finished. Yeah, I think all the people who are still in there, who haven't got their money back by now, are also hoping to get their copies this year sometime. Well, that's very ambitious, this year, you'd say.
    55:05
    Well, I don't know, where are we? We're in the start of August, so August, September, October, November, December, five months. Well, if they win a little longer, they could do 33 and a third years of Stern Pinball, that might make sense, sort of like a reference to Longplay, which is Longplay Vinyl, so that sort of makes sense.
    55:27
    Or a picture vinyl. Yeah. Something like that. So, anyway. Oh, well. We'll see how that all will go. Yes. Okay. So, some more. More Stern news. Oh, my God. My God. It's all been happening this month, hasn't it? There's been a making of Black Knight sort of rage video.
    55:51
    Right. It goes behind the scenes, talks to the design team, Explains the processes Behind making That particular game Obviously talking to Steve Ritchie About his inspiration And his design for the playfield And what he Intended it to be And I think, what else can I say Oh yeah, finally, I think From Stern I can say that Johannes Ostermeyer, who won the IFPA World Championship recently got his prize, which was an Iron Maiden Pro through.
    56:31
    So congratulations to him. Well deserved. I think everybody who saw him win that world championship would agree he's thoroughly deserving of that game. Yeah. And so it's nice to see the winner along with his prize. You know, often we don't get to see that bit because it gets delivered weeks after the actual event. But it's nice pictures on social media of Johannes with his prize. So congratulations. Right. Okay. So are we done with Stern? I think we're probably done with Stern for now. Let me just scroll down my list of features. Yes, I think we are. Yep. Okay. So obviously quite a lot of news from Stern, which is a good thing. Two new games, Code Update, and a lot of other activities going on. They're keeping themselves very, very busy.
    57:26
    They are, but so are other pinball companies. There's still plenty of other news from other manufacturers of pinballs. Right, let's move on to the other big news of last month, which was actually quite early in the month.
    57:41
    The news that Dutch Pinball sent out a newsletter with several interesting news bits. The most positive one being that they reached a settlement with their former contract manufacturer, ARA. Unfortunately, there was also not so good news in the sense that Jaap Nauta, who was one of the two directors, I would say, or managers... Founders. founders of the company, is terminally ill with cancer. He was treated last year. They actually cured him at that point in time, but the cancer sadly returned, and it's not looking good for him at the moment. There's nothing doctors can do, and it's just a matter of time. I guess you would call him sort of like a ticking time bomb.
    58:42
    which is very sad, and I'm very sorry for Jaap. Sure, our thoughts go out to him at this time. Yeah, what I did notice is that, and other people who might follow Jaap on his Facebook,
    59:01
    might have noticed that he has not been involved in any pinball activities lately, and he's sort of like more trying to enjoy the rest of whatever is left for him. Yes, travelling quite a bit, which is great. So he's still hoping that Jaap will get the most out of the time that he has left on this planet, so to speak. Yes, and as part of that, he has relinquished his role at Dutch Pinball and Barry's taken over sole responsibility for the company. Yes, that is correct.
    59:41
    I have been talking quite frequently to Barry over the past couple of weeks, if not months even, and obviously with cancer as a disease and multiple, what's the word? Symptoms. Yes. obviously Jaap is at the moment still feeling rather good, but you never know when he won't be.
    60:12
    And I guess they figured while he's still in the position to take care of his own business, so to speak,
    60:22
    they figured to make all the arrangements that he would be no longer actively involved in the management of Dutch Pinball. Yeah. Instead of when he would no longer be in the position to act on that, and then family would have to step in and what have you. Yeah, he has other priorities at the moment. So I support that he gets to deal with that and enjoy the time. Right. So Barry is, I suppose, Dutch Pinball, or at least is the face of Dutch Pinball.
    60:59
    The face, definitely. I don't know whether Dutch Pinball was just Barry and Jap, or whether there are more people involved, but not as publicly known. Yes.
    61:11
    But I guess it's safe to say that at the moment it appears that Barry is Dutch Pinball. Yes Yeah So looking at this court case which obviously Dutch Pinball thought Barry and the app thought they had a very strong case against ARA who they say increased the price of the game unilaterally and without consultation or in breach of their agreement. Obviously, the court disagreed with that. Well, not necessarily. and I guess this is a story best to be told by Barry who will be giving us an exclusive interview in a future special podcast, hopefully soon. At the moment, Barry is too busy taking care of other stuff, which we'll get to in a second. Yes, exactly. But we'll get that exclusive interview. I know some people were expecting that to happen days after the newsletter went out, but I guess there is right now at the point that he wants to do the interview the moment that he has taken care of everything that needs to be taken care of so people won't be, sorry for part of my French, bitching about, oh, but you didn't take care of this, and now look what you've done. and now he wants to make sure that everything is sort of, whatever he can take care of, is taken care of so that he then can move forward without people pointing fingers and stuff like that. Well, the story is evolving even as we speak. The action is taking place in order to move events on, and to do the interview at this moment would be to dive in. while some matters are resolved and some matters are unresolved. So far better to actually be able to come and talk to us and give us an actual detail of what is going to happen rather than to say what he hopes is going to happen. Right, exactly.
    63:20
    But getting back to what you just mentioned. Yeah, the court case. Well, the court case where Dutch Pinball was very convinced that they had a very strong case against ARA.
    63:36
    I know some details which I probably am not able to share, but what it eventually came down to is, I think the judge ordered them three or four times to, like,
    63:51
    try to reach a settlement because you're not going to like what happens when... The court rules. Basically, that's what you could read in between the lines. And eventually, it turns out that the court ruled based on a question. And in hindsight, that question probably should have been rephrased. But since that was the question that was asked to the court to rule on, the court ruled on that question, which I don't even know because I haven't seen the court details, but obviously I've been talking to Barry.
    64:35
    But what it comes down to is the court ruled in favor of ARA. And I knew about that. Barry had been, he was, three weeks before the newsletter that was sent out, he was ready to send out a newsletter that contained the news of Jaap. And at that point, there was no ruling, no final ruling in the court case. Or, no, let me rephrase that. There was a ruling in the court case, but they still had the possibility to appeal to it. and that was supposed to be the news that was going out and I helped rewrite that newsletter for Barry knowing that, if you don't mind me saying, Barry's English tends to be a little Dutch, so to speak. There's a certain way of writing which is very recognizable for Dutch people and as a magazine editor I sort of try to avoid writing in such a way but it's still very clear with when Barry is writing something in English anyway so I helped him with that newsletter and I was talking to Barry over the phone and basically the newsletter was ready to go and he said well um he he was going to reach out to um someone at the um management level of the holding that is owning ara as a company ara is part of a of a holding and basically they were in court they were actually not so much fighting Aira as they were fighting the management of the holding above them. So anyway, so what happened is that Barry told me, I think we talked about lunchtime, he told me that he was going to make a private call instead of having a lawyer call. Yeah. And there was a situation. And he was trying to negotiate with Arna, and they said, no, we're only going to talk to you if you do such and such first. And Barry was like, well, if I do such and such first, then we're done. Then there's no more Dutch pinball. So if that's what you want, then what's the benefit for you? Because then you're not getting anything, and nobody's getting anything. So what he did was he made a, while that newsletter was ready to go, he made a call to this manager, and they talked. And basically, I guess it's safe to say that Barry laid his card on the table, and he figured, like, okay, well, you guys can execute the ruling, then there's no more Dutch pinball, or I can make you an offer, see if you can raise the money, take everything that you have from your hands, because what would happen if there is, if they would execute the ruling, then an executioner, I guess, would come in to see how much money is left, going to pay ARA and then make up the balance, like, okay, what's left in parts. That could take months.
    68:23
    And I guess pretty much to Barry's surprise, they actually reached a settlement. which he was very excited about, of course.
    68:35
    And that stopped him from sending that newsletter that day. And then it took three more weeks before that newsletter, two or three more weeks before the newsletter that was sent out was sent out, if you're still following me. Yes. So the basis of the agreement is, as I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong on this, that a certain sum of money will be paid to ARA in return for which the completed games, or the semi-completed games, all the box games will be transferred to Dutch Pinball along with all the existing parts for future games. And that is the end of the dealings that ARA and Dutch Pinball have together. Does that sound about right? Well, I guess Dutch Trimble isn't paying ARA they are paying the holding company Right and but basically they agreed that ARA would be selling them everything related to that project that's my understanding including any intellectual property and what have you that might have been IRS or I don't know.
    70:02
    And lawyers actually looked into that matter as well to make sure that they covered everything there was to cover, I guess.
    70:12
    What's also interesting to notice is, I think a week after Barry reached this agreement, so to speak, obviously I'm referring to it as ARA but it was the upper management of course basically they said like you're getting everything that's here Dutch Pinball related but no warranties in the sense that stuff had been standing there for two years and so they're not I can understand that Yes.
    70:55
    They want to watch the whole thing and move on. Yes. From Barry, I could understand that he said, like, well, I'd like to see what I'm getting first, which is also understandable. And so a week later, after the settlement was agreed on, Barry actually paid a visit to Ara. And I was fortunate enough to be part of that visit as well. So we went to ARA. I have to say that everybody was happy to see Barry on floor management level and what have you. Good to see him. And also people working in the factory were happy to see him.
    71:42
    Very friendly environment, I would say. So there's no, between the working crew at ARA and Dutch Pinball, there's no animosity there whatsoever.
    71:55
    Which I think is something I noticed, and that's what I'm telling you now. And it turns out the entire production line of Dutch Pinball had been disassembled last December. because Ara is expanding and they needed that area to expand for a different project, whatever.
    72:24
    So they had moved everything into a different hall where they have a storage facility, something on a first floor level. So they moved everything over there We went to see it It's like six truckloads of games and parts So that's quite big And so the games were there Barry opened up a box to see the condition of the game Which I... It's safe to say, pristine condition The games had been stored in a climate-controlled environment all the time.
    73:15
    We inspected some of the parts that were also present, and there was some fear that there might be some corrosion on metal parts. None of that was the case. everything looked like it was just it just was cut or ready to be implemented on the game looked in pristine condition so that was a relief because Barry was afraid of course that there would be well would have corroded or something like that yeah basically everything looks like it's ready to go and put a build into a game it should all work fine and um uh so that was that visit um which was an interesting one i'd say and um then obviously barry had to start taking care of stuff because you have to move um six trucks of games in part well before that before that he has to pay um our all the holding company right what they wrote in order to take position of those. Right, so he has to get some money. Right, so and he went after that and the well, that's one of the things he had to take care of, obviously. He also had to make sure that he has the room or the facility to, if he once he picks up all that stuff, to put it, to store it or to well, obviously he can't leave it in trucks and it needs move from ARA. And so he's been busy with that and part of the payment going to ARA, I guess, is being funded by the sale of, I guess, 38 or 40, the numbers vary a little bit, games that were offered by Cointaker at a new price of $12,500, I think. Yeah, it's a very good store. Yeah, and then they would be air freighted to the US, I guess. And at that point, I'm not even sure whether that includes air freight to whoever bought them, or if that's just a part from Dutch Pinball to Cointaker, and then CoinTech takes care of the rest of picking up games or delivering them or whatever. I don't know.
    75:58
    Didn't ask for details on that and so on. But, yeah, that happened. Some people got upset about that. I can understand why it happened. obviously it was the easiest way for Dutch Pinball to collect money in order to pay at least a large amount of what is owed to ARA. And then in the meantime, there we also had to look for the remaining part of that sum of money that is owed to ARA. Right, so the Cointaker purchase wasn't enough to pay off ARA, there was still some extra money needed to be found from somewhere. Yeah, I'm not going to dive into numbers, I'm not going to share that information. I know what the settlement is based on, and obviously the price is known that what Cointaker is selling these games for. you can make assumptions on how much they are paying for those games and what have you but yeah obviously at ARA there is not only the games there is also the parts so it's not a surprise that the total amount that ARA needs to be paid is more than what Cointaker is paying for those games.
    77:34
    But as far as I understood, Barry has been talking to parties that might be able to help him out with that. And I don't think it's up to me to give any details on that, but it's safe to say, I guess, that he found a party or parties, I don't know. So, if all goes as planned, then ARA will be paid this week, and the 40 games, or 38 or whatever, the games at ARA, very seriously looking to move them this week out of ARA. and that's actually quite, well, I wouldn't call it crucial, but there is a little bit of time pressure. Yeah, it's just us. Well, there's a deadline in the sense that ARA will be closing their factory for three weeks due to a summer break, which starts at the end of this week, which means that Barry has two days left to make sure that the payment is made and to get the games out, which is quite stressful on his end, but I'm sure that he will do his utter best to make sure it happens. And you're only looking to get the games out this week, you're not trying to get all the parts out as well? No.
    79:07
    What happens is quite a large undertaking to get. Well, what do you reckon, about 100 games worth of parts? I think there is, from what I understood, there's at least parts for 100 games, but some parts are... Yeah, a bit more of some. More of some. So for certain parts are there for 200 games, but not everything. But at least there should be parts for like 100 games, something like that. Which is actually a good thing because it means if they are able to assemble those games and sell them, that would get them into the black numbers rather easily. and then it's just a matter of ordering more parts, building more games, and keeping that going up to the point where they actually deliver the games that are owed to the early achievers, the pre-order people, which I still firmly believe. I have no indication that Barry is doing his utter best to make sure that early achievers will still get their games. Not that the pace on that we'd like to see, but in the end, Barry is doing everything he can To make sure that everybody will get The game that they are owed Okay Well I'm sure his intentions Are good but we know how difficult it is We know how making pinball Is hard without wishing to Trivialize that and Having A big pile of parts for 100 Games is a long way from having 100 complete games ready to go And I know that Barry who's got very good experience in setting up the manufacturing, both at Aura and trying to do the same thing with Zytec, but actually going ahead and building it and having the premises where you can manufacture, not just store the parts, but manufacture the games, the people, all the costs involved in that. It all mounts up, and people generally say it costs around a million pounds to set up a company, probably more, a million dollars rather, more now. if you're starting from scratch. And he has got a game and he has got parts, so that's a good start. But I would never underestimate the amount of effort and time and resources and complications involved in setting up a manufacturing facility for a pinball machine. And we've seen it happen many times in the past. It's not always, or it's never, never anything like as simple as people think it is. No, true. I agree.
    81:47
    Then again, Barry has done it twice before. and so that gives them an advantage, I'd say. I can see him pull it off. I'm that confident.
    82:00
    So, and again, it might not go at the pace that some people would like to see this happen, but I'm confident that it will happen.
    82:12
    So, I'm almost at the point that I would say if Dutch people can take this last hurdle then there's a bright future for them okay well I'm a lot more skeptical than you are but you have more inside information but maybe you're also closer to Barry and maybe see things in a slightly more positive or optimistic frame of mind right so that's where we are at the moment the money is planning to be transferred this week and the games will hopefully be released from the factory as part of the settlement the parts will stay in the factory until after the three week summer break and Barry has somewhere for those parts to go yes, he arranged a facility and just to clear up something that I've read some I gave up reading stuff on this subject online, because there's so much nonsense being assumed by people who have no skin in this game whatsoever. My understanding is that once the games are moved from ARA to Dutch Pimbles' new facility, the plan is that every game will be unboxed, tested, re-boxed without any of the original flags and such on it, because these obviously are supposed to go to the games that actually will go to those early achievers. But the game... They all bought numbered games, didn't they? That's the point. Yes. And these won't be the numbered games anymore. They won't be numbered with those numbers anyway. Yeah, exactly. So, Cointaker will be receiving, all the games going to Cointaker will be tested first. So, it's not like you don't know what you're buying and you get a game that's been sitting in a box for two years. now you get a completely tested game that tested okay just a couple of weeks before it was sent out and with the summer break at Arad these three weeks hopefully should be enough for Barry to test these games re-box them, ship them out the door so that he has enough room for when the parts come in yeah um to end this uh on a sort of positive note i'm still like i said very confident that um barry is doing everything in his ability to make sure that he gets his company sort of on track and uh that that people who are out games will get their games and uh hopefully they will be able to build more games after that in order to make sure that spinball has a bright future, so to speak.
    85:34
    Well, I'm hopeful as well. I'm just... I kind of have to be. If we're both singing their praises and saying everything's going to be a bright future, then it would be a bit unbelievable. As you said earlier Before we started having this discussion Good cop, bad cop type thing But that's perfectly reasonable But I think Barry A lot of people don't understand How much Trouble Barry went through To make things happen In the end And obviously the court case Has taken its toll on him as well But But, yeah, and then there's an unexpected twist, and it turns out to be like at the end of the tunnel after all.
    86:26
    Yeah, so fingers crossed. Exactly. Let's wish Barry and, of course, Jan as well all the best, and we'll pick up the story next time or when we get to talk to Barry, whichever is the sooner, whether it's next month or before that. Yeah. Okay, in other news. First of all, let me start with something that is not related to a pinball company. But July 29th, we celebrated Wayne Ion's 101st birthday.
    86:59
    Congratulations to Wayne Ion. Very happy birthday to Wayne. Yeah, I talked to Wayne. I called him on his birthday to wish him a happy birthday. And I can tell you that he's still living at his home in Mountain Home, Arkansas, by himself. He's still driving a car. He's still doing his own groceries. He did start sort of walking with a cane to have a little bit more balance because, obviously, God forbid, he falls over.
    87:30
    But he's still living on his own. And he's hanging in there. And he was very happy with all the calls that he got and the cards that were delivered by post and all that. And if you're wondering, like, who is this Wayne Nines? I never heard of this guy before.
    87:50
    May I refer to you to read Spindle Magazine No. 5, which is a 360-page magazine or book, if you may want to call it, that covers the entire career of Wayne Nines in depth. including all of the 180 pinball machines he designed for the Gutlieb company. Wow, that's an amazing achievement, and it's excellent the way that you cover that in people magazines. So thank you for doing that. It's a worthy tribute to Wayne's long and distinguished career. Right. And so I won't be plugging the magazine any further, but you know where to order your copy. Just Google Pinball Magazine and you should easily find it. Absolutely. And there's a very good chance that some of Wayne's games would be included in a new exhibition of pinball photographs that's about to begin, I think. Probably even by the time you hear this, it may have started. It starts August the 2nd. Exactly. And it runs still for the entire month of August until the 31st. And it's taking place in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
    89:09
    Yeah, I don't know where in Pennsylvania Newtown is, but I guess if you're in the area, you would know where that is.
    89:17
    Possibly, yeah, else you just Google it, and I'm sure you'll be able to find it. It's called the Pinball Photography Exhibit. I forgot to write down the name of the photographer whose photos are being exhibited. That would be Charles Acosta, who does a pinball photographs website. And the exhibition is being held at the Countryside Gallery in Newtown. As you said, it runs from the second to the end of the month. But there is, on the 23rd of August, there is a meet and greet event with Charles, where you can go along and obviously talk to the photographer himself and, I guess, get some sort of flyers and things signed by him. But the really nice thing about this is the whole exhibition is sponsored by Jersey Jack Pinball. Oh. So that's nice. That's a sort of generous means of sort of spreading the word of pinball amongst the art community who may not be aware of it. Thanks to Jersey Jack. Does that mean there will be Jersey Jack Pinball machines playable at the event? I'm not sure about that yet. as it's not a million miles away from the Jersey Jack factory in Pennsylvania.
    90:34
    But I guess we'll have to wait and see for that. Wait and see a couple of days and I'm sure there'll be reports available. But even without those, some wonderful photographs of pinball machines and the artwork on them available if you're available to get to Newtown in Pennsylvania this month. Right. So, which manufacturer would you like to discuss next?
    91:01
    Oh, let's see. Let's talk about Homepin, shall we? Sure. And what Mike has been doing, the battery in China. Right.
    91:17
    Go on then. Okay, sure. I was waiting for you. So It has been rather Silent on Homepins Facebook but they did share A reverse Or a photo of the underside of A playfield Pinball playfield Being cut I guess Which would be Their second game in the making So because it Clearly wasn't Thunderbirds They are still building Thunderbird Games, by the way. But they are working on a second game. I actually happened to talk to Mike I think early in the month last month He didn want to give any details on the game that was shown on that photo but my guess is it will be a game that is aiming for the Chinese market with a theme that is aiming at the Chinese market and it's going to be a very simplistic game, which sort of makes sense if you have to teach people how to play pinball that never played pinball before, then you better start with a simple game and then make them more complex along the way.
    92:41
    Yeah, from what I was able to glean from that picture, it seemed to have a lot of inserts in the middle of the playfield. Right.
    92:49
    It looked like it had three pop bumpers towards the top of the playfield, which is not a big surprise. a three-banker drop target, I think, as well, just in front of those.
    93:00
    It looked like it was, from what we could see, it was a sparsely populated playfield. It was on the production line and was semi-populated, so two flippers at the bottom, no obvious signs of other flippers elsewhere, but also a big hole in the middle, well, just above the flippers, where it looked like either some kind of mechanism or some kind of insert was going to go revealing something underneath the playfield.
    93:29
    Not exactly clear what that is. Mike did tell me what the theme, or the subject of it is a while ago, but it wasn't anything I'd ever heard of. So I instantly forgot what it was. And I've been trying to remember what it was ever since. But it was certainly something which is a Chinese title. although when I was talking to him there was somebody else in the earshot who knew what it was, so maybe that's just me not being clued up on popular culture enough, but I have looked and tried to see what popular culture themes are in China at the moment or recently, but there's nothing there that rang a bell with anything that he said. I don't think it's something that's going to be hugely well known over here but maybe familiar to a few people. Right. Well, obviously, being based in China, it's no surprise that Mike is trying to cater to his sort of home market, I would say, which doesn't mean that the games are going in homes, but basically to the local or national Chinese arcade culture. That makes sense. there was a trade show last month in, I forgot the name of the city, Guangjing or whatever it's called.
    94:55
    And I understood there is definitely interest from operators in the game, but obviously they need games to be in Chinese with Chinese signs on the play field and the glass and what have you. and so that's what Mike is working on so it might be a game that we never see in the rest of the world or yeah I'm sure it'd be easy enough to re-screen it with English language details and labelling on the playfield right but if it is a good game and it sells well it'll work its way over here I'm sure well the interesting thing is obviously the Chinese market is a different one than the Western Europe or the Western world one, I would say.
    95:47
    But obviously, if markets would be able to get some interest from arcade operators or whatever they are called in China, there's a huge market within reach for him. I mean, if he comes up with a game that actually earns good money for operators, then he can build them forever, I guess. Well, Gary Stern's been over in China and trying to break into that mafia for years. But I guess... With limited success. It has had some success. If you go to some parts of China, particularly Hong Kong and... Yeah, well, the exit bars and so on. Or places like that. Yeah. But what I understood is that the Stern games are relatively expensive for operators to buy, and HomePin is really trying to develop an affordable pinball machine, let's put it like that, for operators. And then once they get the hang of it and it earns, then, well, they might buy more.
    97:00
    So I guess that's the main advantage for Mike being in China. Yeah, and also he's totally free of any of these trade tariffs that might come and go over various times of American-made products into China. There's a trade war that pushes up the price of American parts or American games, and he's pretty much immune from that, sourcing so much of his product locally. Right, so, oh well It's good to see that Mike is busy And working on New games And I wish him all the best with that And I hope we get more progress soon Yep, I'm sure we will So that's what Homepin Have been up to In the past few days Meanwhile American Pinball Back to the US And American Pinball Who are still producing their Oktoberfest game in what we think are reasonable quantities.
    98:05
    They are still at their original base in Greenwood. They haven't moved over to their new factory yet in Palatine, but they do say they're moving more and more stuff over there as time goes on. But they did say that well, originally they said they'd be over there by the end of last year and that didn't seem practical. I think we both agreed on that. Right. And then earlier in the year at Texas, I think they were saying they would be over there in the summer, making that move, and, well, the summer's here, and so hopefully over the next couple of months or so, they will be able to transfer all their production over to the new place, which will give them a hugely larger area in which to produce games, not just their own games necessarily, but also if they wanted to get into contract manufacturing, either other pinball companies or other redemption or arcade games. They have the space for it, and I think they have the facilities in general to do that kind of work. Right. So now, surprisingly, American Pinball did start showing several photos of kings on their Facebook page.
    99:18
    Yes. Potentially misleading, I think. There are a lot of people Intentionally misleading I would say Yes, I think so They did float a few ideas as to what their next title might be The most popular of which was Sherlock You get it? Keys, Lock Yeah, well, it could be But I'm hearing that actually Sherlock is not their next title Which makes me wonder what the key connection could be One of the other titles they were suggesting or asking people to vote on was Robin Hood,
    99:54
    which is obviously an old theme for pinball. And you would think, well, what's the link there with keys? Oh, I know exactly what the link is with keys. Ah, right. But you have to know the Robin Hood story. You do indeed. Yeah, you need to know that Robin Hood is actually Robin of Locksley, is his full name. So lock Slee, well key, lock Well maybe that's stretching things A bit even further than the Sure lock connection And maybe it's something else entirely But I think It could be, maybe it's a Crossover game Well no, but Sherlock Holmes meets Robin Hood If you have a reference to keys And keys go in a lock, then you get Sherlock, and you get Robin of Lock, flee. Exactly. Yeah. So, they're, okay, so, I guess, from the four titles that have been teased,
    100:57
    this might narrow it down to two, but, then again, it might not. Yeah, there's also a little bit of confusion, I think, because they, one of the pictures, they featured something to do with the Punisher, which is a Marvel license. Right. I think they They already denied that it's not going to be the publisher. Yeah, I had to quickly get on there and deny any suggestion they were going to be doing a Marvel license. I think it's quite funny. I think Dan from there said there's only one company that can afford to do Marvel licenses, and it's not us. Right. Which is a fair point. So, yeah, it's probably going to be, well, my money at the moment is on Robin Hood, but it would be nice to see a Sherlock, but maybe that's going to come later. Or maybe there are some licensing issues with that that we're not previously aware of, and that means they can't do that. Right, okay.
    101:56
    Then let's move on to our good friends at Pinsound. Ah, yes, yes, they've been busy working on, apart from producing their wonderful Pinsound audio board, and various other pinball add-ons, they've come up with a whole new idea, taking the concept of a shaker motor a little bit further than we've seen before. Right. And it looks very interesting, I have to say. Basically what it comes down to is you will be able to install a shaker motor on basically any solid-state game, I guess. and program the Shaker motor to interact with gameplay in a very easy way. Even games that weren't designed have a Shaker motor and don't have any programming in there. You'll be able to set up the conditions at which the Shaker motor is activated. Yeah. I read their original posting on Facebook, I guess. Now they send out a newsletter as well. Right. Take notice, Stern. Binsang did. The Shaker motor has 12 different vibration patterns and 3 adjustable power intensity levels. And it's also able for instant reactivity and ultra-fast start and stop. And the Shaker motor comes with a special design motion control PCV board, which also has a 5V output for external mods. that can be energized through that and synced with gameplay as well. So if you have a topper or you want to add something to the play field and try that in with gameplay, this is the board that can do it for you. Yeah, sounds like a sort of mod controller really, isn't it? Yeah. Which you can hook in and program however you want it to interact with the game's rules. and I'm assuming it gets various sensors from the controller board and works out what's going on and when and how long to activate it. Right. But congratulations to Timothy and Nikolaus of Pinsound for this announcement. I think the strategy is that if you're interested in such a Shaker motor, Or you can sign up right now. And I think it's either during the summer or after the summer, then they're going into production and starting deliveries. But as FinSant has a very good track record,
    104:48
    anybody interested, go. Yes, sounds like a very clever product. And talking of clever things, That's one of the worst links yet But let me Recommend to you A website called Playfield.dev D-E-V Which is a pinball Emulator debugger Which runs in your browser It doesn't need any special Code to be downloaded or anything And once you load it up It lets you pick from a range of Pinball machines and you can then sort of simulate closing switches, like the press of the start button, the shooter lane, the pop bumpers, drop targets, that kind of thing on every game. It has a picture of the display showing you what happens when you do all that. It shows you all the switch closures, the lamp matrix contents, what's in the memory of the game, what's on the dot matrix display's memory.
    105:52
    Very, very clever stuff. It looks absolutely wonderful. I have absolutely no idea what you'd use it for, but it's a marvellous piece of programming, and it's something you should definitely have a look at, try. There's a whole range of different games you can load up, and I guess if you're not entirely familiar with what a game is meant to do when certain switches are closed, or what the display is meant to do, or what the state of the memory is meant to be at any particular point when you're trying to debug that game, this is a kind of like a reference point for you to where you can step through it and go okay well when i shoot this target and that target this is meant to happen and you can see it happening on the game and you can see if your game does the same thing or whether you have a fault and and what that fault might be so very clever um wonderful bit of programming and i think on the website there's a bit more information about who did it and why right and all the software is already on the website, or do you have to upload ROMs or software as well? No, it has a limited set of games on there, which you can pick. They're all listed across the top. You just click on a game, it loads it up, and then it's ready to go. Okay. It's all within the browser. There's nothing to download at all. It's all written in Java or JavaScript. Okay. I can't remember which, but it looks very impressive anyway, so a nice bit of work there. Right. Okay, hold on. Oh, guess what? Oh, I was wondering what he was going to call. Yeah.
    107:26
    It's Gary Stern, at last. At last, yeah. I've got good news and bad news for you. You got the first name correct, but the last name incorrect. Oh, okay. Well, it's too nice to hear from Mr. Flower. Yeah, I wonder how Gary is doing. Shall we find out? Well, he's been trying forever, and you know what happens if we talk too long? Then he just hangs up. Oh, yeah, we don't do that. I'm sure he's got some really hot off-the-press news for us. Okay, so, um, okay. Hello? Hello, it's Gary here. Hello, Gary. Oh, hang on, there's someone at the door. Right. I'm going to put you on hold. I'll be back in a second. Oh, what? Wait. So, you want us to wait? You're calling us and you're putting us on hold? Sorry, but I don't think it works like that.
    108:17
    We haven't got time for that. We're in the middle of a podcast. In the middle, we're at the end of the podcast. Oh, my goodness. Well, we're nearly at the end of it. Yeah. True. So, is there anything else that we missed out on?
    108:30
    Yeah. There was a nice piece on CBS's This Morning TV. Right. Which was covered. Yeah, Pacific Pinball Museum. Yes. Yeah, they sent a reporter there, and they did a really nice piece about the resurgence of pinball and the Pacific Pinball Museum's history and their aims of educating the public about the history, art and science of the game. Interviews with Michael Sheese and I think Darcy there as well and showed how people from across the social and, I don't want to say political, but the full spectrum of potential players can come to that place and learn and enjoy pinball. And the kind of exhibits that they showed there, I think they had an Art Stenholm exhibit at the time when the crew were there.
    109:25
    And it gave a little bit of a boost as well for the Pacific Pinball Museum and their larger collection and their hopes of getting a permanent home for their 1,000-plus machines. So, yeah, if you haven't seen it yet, go to CBS and have a look for this morning's report on the Pacific Pinball Museum. Right. Or if you're in the area, just visit the Pacific Pinball Museum. Absolutely. That's the best thing you can do. Quite right. Right. So, now, two topics that I have on my mind. And last month, there was the fantastic five days of pinball in the UK at Suriname. You were there.
    110:14
    Yeah, I certainly was, as it was my idea in the first place. So I kind of felt as if I should be. Yes, it was a nice event, I think. We held it at our Flip Out London Pinball Club. We really needed After last year Every previous year We've held the UK Open Pinball Open, UK Pinball Classic As part of a bigger show A part of a bigger pinball show A sort of national UK show And it's always Imposed constraints On us in terms of Getting machines Having to transport machines to a venue Setting them all up Making sure they're all tournament ready things happen, people, machines don't turn up or they get stuck in traffic or they're broken when they turn up and you've got all those issues. And then you've got a limited time when the shows open. So we thought, well, what we really need to do, or what I thought is, what we need to do is we need to have a permanent location, permanent collection of machines, where we don't have any of this stuff, so we know what the machines are like, which is what some other shows do or some other tournaments, major tournaments do. And so we didn't have that until recently. And now we have Flip Out London where we could do it. But then I also thought, well, if we're going to do that, let's make it really worthwhile for people to come over. And rather than just having two tournaments on two days, let's expand it and throw in some more tournaments and make it five days of pinball, have tournaments on every day, and give people a chance to experience not just the club, but also go into central London and see everything that the, one of the, I'd say, the world's premier capitals has to offer for visitors. So that's what we did. And I have to say it all went very, very well, thanks to all the staff and the members and founder members of Flipout London and to our two tournament directors, Neil McRae from Domino Pinball and Matt Vince from London Pinball, who were excellent in organising everything and making sure everybody had a good time, and I think they all did. So we had a good turnout. We limited it at 80 players, simply because of the size of the venue.
    112:35
    Maybe next year we can expand somehow. We might have an upstairs area that we can use. That's a possibility.
    112:43
    But probably the biggest potential nightmare was the weather, because it was particularly warm during that event, not as warm as it was the days after, but, yeah, we had to get some serious air conditioning into the building because this is England and, you know, normally we don't have air conditioning for most buildings unless it's particularly needed. So we did that, kept it at a very nice temperature and none of the machines overheated. And really, having done a lot of maintenance in the days and weeks before, It was encouraging to see We didn't really have any machine breakdowns Either, even the classics You know, we had 10 classic games And they all held up very well So we can look back on it And look forward to next year Okay, excellent So, and then from Well, the biggest tournament in the UK To the biggest pinball tournament In the world Which is going to take place Actually, the upcoming weekend replay effect in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Yeah, amazing. It just gets bigger and bigger. Every time you think it can't get bigger. This year, a thousand players, I think. And sold out in, well, seconds, I would say. Yes.
    114:02
    And I know there's a big contingent of UK players going over. I suspect there are probably a good number of Dutch players going over too. This is a Dutch tournament at the same time. I don't think there is.
    114:14
    No, I don't think so either. Yeah, so, yeah, I think probably had at least a dozen UK players going over this, which is, considering how far away it is and the likely costs, with it being during school holiday time, when flights across the Atlantic are, you know, pretty expensive, I think that's quite an achievement, and a good testament to the amazing event and facilities that the Replay FX team have built up in running Pinnberg and basically making it the world's biggest tournament by a long lot. Right. So for those interested, I think most of the tournament, or at least part of the tournament, will be streamed live, possibly on Papa TV, but I'm not sure. Yes, I think that's right. Yeah, I think they've been gearing up for that for a couple of weeks. They didn't cover something last weekend because they were preparing for this. Yeah, well, obviously they've got a lot of games to set up.
    115:18
    Even if you're not participating in the tournament, Replay Effects is definitely worth a visit. If you're in the area, go visit the Replay Effects. It's going to be amazing.
    115:32
    Actually, I wish I could go myself, but I'm busy with other activities, So I can't Yeah, same here Work, I'm afraid, has prevented me going It's prevented me going Going across the Atlantic at all this summer But it just makes the autumn trip to Expo All the more special And of course you and I are both looking forward to planning Our trips for spring next year as well Yeah, which is going to be an interesting one It is Yeah More on that later Yeah, more on that later But good for Well let's put it out there right now So spring next year Last weekend of March is Texas Pinball Festival And the weekend right after Is Midwest Gaming Classic Which is two of the biggest shows In the US In consecutive weekends Which makes it for us Very interesting to attend both Yeah it's a no brainer really When those two are so close together in the calendar, not physically that close, but certainly easy enough for us to either fly or drive from one to the other without consuming too much time. But, yes, I think you and I both wanted to go to the Midwest Galing Classic for a long time. Yes, I've never been there, so that will be my... I haven't been there for probably, I don't know, six years or something like that since it was back in the old location. And the interesting news is that Our good friend Gary Flower Who's still keeping us on hold by the way Because I'm still with him on the phone But I guess he's talking to Whoever he was at his door I had a very interesting story to tell But Gary already arranged That we're likely Doing a seminar Possibly a quiz With free prizes and all that kind of stuff At the West Gaming Classic And As a heads up since looking at two shows in America in consecutive weekends, I sort of marked a deadline for Pinball Magazine No. 6 that I really want to have Issue 6 available before the Texas Pinball Festival so that Issue 6 should be available at both the Texas show and the Midwest Gaming Classic. Can you give us a little heads up what it's about? It will be the Python Angelo issue. Right, okay. Which is already like five years in the making, although I didn't work on it for, I think, the past three years, but that doesn't matter.
    118:17
    No, but that's an issue that a lot of people have been looking forward to, and I really want to get that out of the door and out of my way. So, yeah. And I knew that I wouldn't have anything ready for October, but now looking at these two shows, It makes perfect sense for me to have that issue Ready by then So I need to start working on it Yes And talking of Expo actually You mentioned that Expo organiser Rob Burke Was actually over in the UK This month, this past month Okay I think his daughter was Is studying At Cambridge University Which one? He has four I wouldn't like to hazard a guess And then get that particular detail wrong But I was due to meet up with Rob For dinner to talk about Plans for Expo this year Which he's promising to be Even bigger and better than last year Well, it's the 31st anniversary So that's for a celebration Yeah, unfortunately Work commitments had me In Cambridge, working in Cambridge about three days before he turned up and then sent me off to Glasgow while he was here, which was awkward. So I didn't actually get to meet him again. Yeah. But we'll see him in October anyway, and we'll talk well in advance anyway about what's going to be happening in Expo. I'm sure we'll bring you details of all that in one of our monthly podcasts before October. Right. So, okay. I guess that concludes it for this month.
    119:57
    Yeah, I think so. I don't know how long we've been talking, but it's been action-packed and full of useful, I hope, information.
    120:07
    We've brought you some exclusive news and rounded up everything that's happened in the wonderful month that was July 2019. So any heads up for the month of August That we already know Like okay August being a holiday month I'm not expecting much Well I know I'm going to be at the UK National Show UK Pin Fest So will I We'll be in Daventry So we look forward to meeting up That will be in the middle of next month Or this month as it is now Right So I'm sure there will be some information Some news from there traditionally August is kind of like summer holiday time or summer vacations where people take a bit of a break some companies shut down you need to get things, as we heard earlier you need to get things done before that happens and then people disappear off on vacation and nothing then picks up again until September but that's the great thing about pinball, you never quite know what's going to happen and there's always something happening so we will certainly be back at the beginning of next month, beginning of September, looking back at everything that did happen in August. Right. Okay, so if you really don't want to miss out on any of the news, make sure you subscribe to the Pinball Magazine newsletter, which is sent out on a monthly basis. It's free. You get a summary of all the pinball industry news, most of the stuff that we discussed, And occasionally there's even stuff that we didn't discuss because it got in in the meantime and so on. So just visit pinball-magazine.com and you can subscribe over there. But also take a look at pinballnews.com, which is Martin's website, which has great stories.
    122:07
    Also last month, quite a few interesting stories. So make sure to check that as well. and I think that's it for now I think you're right so thank you very much for listening to our ramblings for the past hour and two hours or however long it's been we hope you enjoyed it and as I say we'll be back next month with the full round up of everything that's happened in August 2019 so until then this is Martin from Pinball News and my name is Jonathan from Pinball Magazine and I'm saying bye bye