Episode 428: Pinball in Taiwan

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·14m 0s·analyzed·Oct 4, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Taiwan pinball scene emerging with 45+ players and workshop tournaments organized by expat Jake Crimmins.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Jake Crimmins, founder of the Taiwan Flipper Pinball Association, about the emerging pinball scene in Taiwan. Jake discusses how he relocated to Taiwan 12 years ago, discovered pinball through a friend's Tales from the Crypt machine in 2016, and has since organized tournaments and built a community workshop with 12 machines. The conversation covers Taiwan's growth from the first tournament in November 2019 to now having 45+ registered players, with aspirations to send competitors to the World Championships.

Key Claims

Taiwan's first pinball tournament was held in November 2019, organized by a Norwegian player named Jack, with 3-4 machines and players from Japan.
high confidence · Jake Crimmins directly stated this to Jeff Teolis; specific date and details provided
Taiwan currently has 45+ registered players and could send two players to World Championships if they gain 5 more players before year-end.
high confidence · Jake Crimmins stated 'right now we're up to 45 players' and explained qualification threshold
Jake's workshop in Taiwan has 12 pinball machines, with 10 operational and 2 in restoration projects, including Beatles and Stranger Things acquired in February.
high confidence · Jake detailed current inventory in response to direct questions about machine count
Six used Stern Pro machines were acquired in October (before tariff implementation) and were heavily abused but restorable.
high confidence · Jake mentioned tariff timing and condition of machines purchased; Jeff noted 'No tariffs. Well done.'
Asia in general is positioned as 'the next boom for pinball' with growing interest in Japan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.
medium confidence · Jake's prediction: 'I think Asia in general might be the next, hopefully will be the next boom for pinball'
HomePin factory is located in Taiwan and provides same-day parts availability to local players.
high confidence · Jake confirmed visiting the HomePin factory in Taiwan for parts procurement
A bar owner named Mark set up a Tales from the Crypt machine in Taiwan in 2016-2017 that was the catalyst for pinball interest.
high confidence · Jake described Mark's machine as the turning point for his own pinball interest and subsequent community building
Heavenly arcade in Japan operates with ~190-200 pinball machines, free entry with tournaments and open days monthly, located 2 hours outside Tokyo.
high confidence · Jake provided specific details about Heavenly arcade's size, location, and operations

Notable Quotes

“Someone once asked me, Jake, who the best player in the world is? And you know what my answer is? You don't know. I don't know, because they probably haven't played yet.”
Jake Crimmins @ ~32:00 — Philosophical statement about untapped talent in underdeveloped pinball markets, suggesting Asia's potential
“I think Asia in general might be the next, hopefully will be the next boom for pinball.”
Jake Crimmins @ ~24:00 — Forward-looking industry prediction about market expansion and growth regions
“Everything's free, including some snacks and drinks. It's a great time. The machines are in great condition, and the people there are so friendly.”
Jake Crimmins @ ~20:30 — Description of Heavenly arcade's community-oriented model as template for regional growth
“You know, it's a slow word of mouthing probably, or maybe it's social media. That's what it again was for me. Just somebody made a post, we're having a league. I'm like, what, what, what?”
Jake Crimmins @ ~14:00 — Identifies social media and word-of-mouth as primary growth drivers for emerging pinball communities
“We actually had an exterminator come in to give us a quote on doing some work at our workshop. And you know, he spent the first 30 minutes going around to give us a quote and you spent the next two hours playing every machine.”
Jake Crimmins @ ~13:00 — Anecdote demonstrating pinball's infectious appeal and ability to hook new players organically
“I think it's great to see people from all over to hear their stories, to find out what pinball is like in their neck of the woods.”
Jeff Teolis @ ~18:00 — Host perspective on value of international tournament participation for community building
“I definitely think so. I think right now we're up to 45 players. So I think if we get another five new players before the end of the year, Taiwan could definitely be sending two people.”
Jake Crimmins @ ~17:00 — Specific growth milestone and pathway to Taiwan's World Championship qualification

Entities

Jake CrimminspersonTaiwan Flipper Pinball AssociationorganizationJeff Teolisperson Pinball ProfilemediaUK OpeneventHomePincompanyHeavenlyorganization

Signals

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business_signal: HomePin factory in Taiwan operational and providing same-day parts availability to local players, supporting regional maintenance ecosystem
high · Jake's confirmation of factory visit and same-day parts availability eliminating week-long international shipping delays
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event_signal: Taiwan Flipper Pinball Association organizing monthly tournaments and open play at workshop with 12 machines; 45+ registered players
high · Jake detailed monthly tournament format starting May, workshop setup, and current 45-player roster with potential for World Championship qualification
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community_signal: Grassroots social media and word-of-mouth driving Taiwan pinball discovery; organic conversion of non-players (exterminator anecdote) demonstrates viral appeal
high · Jake identified social media as primary growth mechanism; anecdote of exterminator spending 2 hours playing demonstrates infectious appeal of machines
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market_signal: Asia positioned as next major growth region for pinball with Taiwan, Japan, and regional neighbors developing grassroots competitive infrastructure
high · Jake's statement 'I think Asia in general might be the next boom for pinball' and discussion of growing communities in Japan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia; Japan's Heavenly arcade with 190+ machines serves as proof point
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market_signal: Pre-tariff machine acquisition in October 2023 (6 used Stern Pros) followed by February 2024 purchases of Beatles and Stranger Things suggests strategic inventory building before potential cost increases

Topics

Taiwan pinball community emergenceprimaryInternational tournament participation and growthprimaryAsian market expansion potentialprimaryCommunity organization and grassroots pinball developmentprimaryHomePin factory operations in TaiwansecondaryJapanese pinball infrastructure and venuessecondaryPricing barriers to market growthsecondaryStern Pro Circuit competitionmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Enthusiasm for Taiwan's emerging pinball scene, optimistic tone about Asian market growth, appreciation for international community building. No negative sentiment expressed; interview maintains encouraging and celebratory tone throughout.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.042

it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teals you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we're on twitter x instagram at pinball profile we've got a great facebook group as well if you would like to email us maybe tell us who you'd like to hear that's easy pinball profile at gmail.com and if you'd like to show your support on patreon don't worry the show is always free but it certainly helps with expenses and audio and stupid things like that but thanks very much it's patreon.com slash pinball profile so been doing this podcast now nine years and i knew there was some people in my home country of canada listening of course in the u.s which is the biggest pinball population in the world i've done a lot of traveling including recently to europe so there's a bit of a presence there with this podcast australia well i don't need to tell you how I'm veered in Australia. I kid, of course, but there is certainly that. So I think, okay, well, that's pretty much it. No, out of nowhere, I find out Taiwan. I've never, I actually have been to Taiwan, but I get this notice from Taiwan and I'm now seeing the man himself that is really putting together the Taiwan Flipper Pinball Association, Jake Crimmins. Jake, good to see you finally. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here at the UK Open. It's a fantastic event. We'll get to Taiwan in a second. Now, you have traveled a long way to come to the UK Open. You picked a great event. This is not only a Stern Pro Circuit event, but one I think I've been four years in a row and will never miss. But it's your first big event, and it's a toughie. How are you finding it? Yeah, it's a lot of fun. A lot of games I don't know, so that's been pretty difficult. I think I ended up 92nd in Classics. I would have done a little bit better, but the format's very difficult. It's a card format, so probably the hardest in all of pinball. You have to be consistent as opposed to a pump-and-dumper match play. Really, some great players here all over the world. You got your first taste of it. You picked a tough tournament. They're not always this tough. Yeah, no, I mean, I figure why not. why not everybody's talked so much about the tournament itself it sounded like it was a great opportunity and i'm coming out to visit my sister anyway and next week we're going to lund for another tournament another great one and you saw vigo here and you saw arvid and even jorian the legendary swedish player he's here too so uh yeah you'll have a great time yeah i can't wait i'm i'm really looking forward to it actually one of the players from taiwan just moved back to sweden He's going to meet us there. So it's going to be great. Oh, that's very nice. A little bit of a travel agent, if you will. So, okay, you're not originally from Taiwan. Where did you make your home before that? So I grew up in New Jersey on the Jersey Shore. Lived in California for a bunch of years. And then my company wanted to build an office out in Taiwan. And I went ahead. I've been there 12 years now. 12 years. That's incredible. Now, I've been there once, and it was for five hours. It certainly doesn't count as an extended stay because I stayed in the airport. But it was January of 2020. We all know what happened immediately after that You told me the first kind of pinball event in Taiwan happened just before that in 2019 Yeah so in November 2019 a Norwegian player by the name of Jack hosted the first ever tournament in Taiwan It was three machines. We had three or four players from Japan come over as well. You know, the bug kind of hit me. Well, didn't you say you had a buddy that got like a Tales from the Crypt game? And that's really, I mean, forget the competitions, but when you're just playing pinball, oh, this is fun. Oh, yeah. So my buddy Mark set up a Tales from the Crypt in his bar in 2016, 2017, and I was hooked. This is in Taiwan? In Taiwan, yeah. And was it popular? Like people, like, what's that? There's certainly the older generation that, you know, had pinball in Taiwan as a kid in the 90s. Now they're growing up and they see it and they're like, oh, that's my childhood. I haven't seen one of these in 20, 30 years. Exactly my same story, too. When I saw a machine in Florida in 2014, it had been 15 plus years. So, yeah, I see that. But a small gathering for that first event. But there's not a lot of location pinball or maybe home collection. I assume it's grown a little bit. It's certainly grown. There's a mark open to another bar. Unfortunately, that had closed. He has a new location now with four machines. And then last year, I rented a workshop to work on my machines. And then next thing you know, we had 12 machines in there. And we just started opening that to the public every month. in May this year for tournaments. Are people more interested in just playing or they find the tournament aspect fun? A mix of both. You know, like I said, a lot of people haven't seen it in 30 years or have never seen it. And they're like, oh, that's so cool. And, you know, they get hooked. We actually had an exterminator come in to give us a quote on doing some work at our workshop. And, you know, he spent the first 30 minutes going around to give us a quote. and you spent the next two hours playing every machine. You're not paying for that. That's not part of the quote time. But anyway, that's pretty cool. Again, I think it's a slow word of mouthing probably, or maybe it's social media. That's what it again was for me. Just somebody made a post, we're having a league. I'm like, what, what, what? I had no idea. So is that how it's going to grow in time? I think definitely social media is probably the biggest to get it out there. but we've also had players that have come from Germany, Finland, Japan and one from Hong Kong. Again with the IFBA calendar and you're having to post at least 30 days advance there's a lot of people that travel you said you were over there before you went there permanently and maybe the Germans that you speak of they were there for travel too or who knows whenever I go to a city I take a peek at the IFBA calendar and I'm like okay anything in this area anything around the dates and starting to get a few in Taiwan. It keeps you busy because you're the guy probably doing it, aren't you? Yeah. So, you know, it's I'm organizing the events, but, you know, it's a group. It's a group thing. My my girlfriend, Annie, obviously helps a ton. The kind of collective that we started in my workshop those guys help out as well And one of them even provides American barbecue So Hello Free beer barbecue and pinball What you know A little taste of home when you thousands of miles away That's pretty incredible. You mentioned, I think you said four machines, then 12 machines. How many do you have now, and what do you got? So right now, we're at 12. Ten of them are working. I've got two projects. So we got really lucky last October, and we were able to pick up six used Stern Pros. That's great. And then I picked up... And last October, too. No tariffs. Well done. No, they were used. So, you know, they were already in country. Heavily abused, but... Everything can be fixed and cleaned. Exactly. So, you know, we spent about six months doing that and picked up another two this February. What did you get? Got a Beatles and a Stranger Things. Oh, two great games. Yeah. Very nice. Now, we were kind of kidding before we started recording that whenever I go to, and it's not always the case, but when I'm fortunate enough to make it, going to world championships and John Youssi players from all different countries, could we see Taiwan as maybe one of those countries soon? I definitely think so. I think right now we're up to 45 players. So I think if we get another five new players before the end of the year, Taiwan could definitely be sending two people. That's pretty awesome. I think it's great. I mean, it's great to see people from all over to hear their stories, to find out what pinball is like in their neck of the woods. You know, a lot of people might not travel, so when they come to this one-time gathering at the World Championships, you really learn a lot. And it's kind of nice to say, hey, I know somebody from Taiwan or wherever the case may be. So very, very cool. I hope that happens for you. And I guess just more tournaments, more social media, word of mouth. You were telling me, because you're obviously close to Japan, There are some great places I've heard of in Japan, but you told me one I had no idea about. What was that one with, oh, I don't know, 200 machines? Yeah, I think they're right around 190, 200 right now. It's called Heavenly. It's about a two-hour train ride outside of Tokyo. They open every month for a tournament and for just an open day. Everything's free, including some snacks and drinks. It's a great time. The machines are in great condition, and the people there are so friendly. You showed me a video, and honestly, every machine was mint. It's one thing to have a big collection, but I guess if you've got the bankroll to put that together, you want the finest, and these were great games too. And other places too in Japan. Japan's a pretty popular pinball place from what I understand. Yeah, the Yoshihiro up in Hokkaido's got his pinball dojo. I think he's got 30 machines now. So he's running tournaments up there. They have some tournaments outside of Tokyo. It's definitely growing, and I think Asia in general might be the next, hopefully will be the next Ed Boon for pinball. We've had the Japanese guys have had players from Hong Kong and Indonesia, first-time players. Nice. Well, certainly the population is there, and I'm sure the interest is there. It's just now the awareness right and the availability because I mean here you are at your first tournament And you're about to go to Lund in Sweden Where other than Taiwan are the closest tournaments if you didn't want to travel as far where would you go? We try to go to Japan at least once or twice a year to to play with them maybe Next year Australia or maybe the Beast Really We see You get a free pass if you come to the Beast I mean, if I have somebody come from Taiwan, I'll hook you up. That'd be awesome. Great, thank you. That's incredible. I mean, I know a lot of people, and I certainly consider myself very fortunate to be able to play pinball locally where I am and to be able to travel. Some people don't have a lot of pinball locally or don't have the means to travel, and that's understandable. It's tough. I wish pinball wasn't that way. I mean, that's why it's probably not as popular as something like eSports, where, well, I don't know. Here's Minecraft for free. You just have to have the console, and who knows? And the same with other games, too, right, that are like that. Pinball, it's an expensive hobby, and I hope that's not a barrier for the massive population that you have, certainly in Asia, because, yeah, we could have them. Someone once asked me, Jake, who the best player in the world is? And you know what my answer is? You don't know. I don't know, because they probably haven't played yet. I know who's the best that has played right now, and you can name one of five people, but it's probably somebody that's never played before. Yeah, I mean, you look at all the young guys that are playing now, and they're always at the top, right? You don't know if the next one will come out of Japan or somewhere else. I think it's possible for sure. so after Lund are you going to go through a little pinball withdrawal from like turn on so you're going to be scouting the calendar I think we have a tournament scheduled and uh the weekend after we get back so not a chance that's awesome and then it's a matter of putting on the IFPA calendar and and like you say maybe we get enough this year and hopefully Taiwan's part of the world championships the other thing about Taiwan I want to mention because I think you've been there too I know the Home Pin Factory is in Taiwan. Used to be in China there. You've been to the factory. Want to tell us what it's like? Yeah, I went there once to visit to pick up some parts. Mike's been very helpful, you know, being able to get some parts same day and not have to spend a week, you know, overnighting parts from the U.S. So, you know, it was very interesting. It was eye-opening. I've watched some of the other factory tour videos. It's fairly similar, not too much different. Nice. Well, it's great to finally meet you. Thanks for reaching out way back when, but I'm glad to see you here at the UK Open, and you brought me some cakes, too, from Taiwan. So, I mean, thanks for that. That's really cool. Oh, I put it on the podcast, and I've got to share it. Darn it. Oh, well. Glad to do so. Jake, all the best and safe travels. Enjoy London. Thank you. Thank you for having us, and this has been great. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter, X, Instagram, at pinballprofile. We've got pinballprofile at gmail.com, Facebook group as well. And if you'd like to show your support, don't worry, the show will always be free. It's patreon.com slash pinballprofile. And thanks so much to Lua W. and to GME Law, Ken G., Colin M., Erica's Pinball Journey, Jerry S., and more. Here in the UK, learning a little bit about Taiwan. And it's pretty interesting. I'm Geoff Teoles. T-J-I-I-I-J-J