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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast February 2024 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 10m·analyzed·Mar 1, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Feb 2024: Princess Bride revealed as Multimorphic P3 title; major code updates across Stern, Spooky, Barrels; Texas Pinball Festival previewed.

Summary

Pinball Magazine and Pinball News editors recap February 2024 industry news, including the reveal of Multimorphic's Princess Bride P3 module in three editions ($3,750–$13,750), Stern's Jaws Premium production and system software 3.61 rollout, Spooky Pinball shipping Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes games, Jersey Jack's $55,000 charity auction of Elton John CE#2, Barrels of Fun reaching 100 Labyrinth units shipped, and various code updates across manufacturers. Dutch Pinball is delivering final early-backer games this month after years of production delays.

Key Claims

  • Princess Bride for Multimorphic P3 is the first movie license and first three-edition release for Multimorphic

    high confidence · Jonathan Jewson and Martin Abel discussing February 2024 announcements; explicitly stated as first for both licensing and three-tier model

  • Princess Bride production will begin summer 2024; game is currently mode complete, feature complete, with rules finalized

    high confidence · Martin Abel citing Jerry Stellenberg, Multimorphic founder

  • Stern's system software 3.61 introduces standardized home and competition installation profiles across games

    high confidence · Martin Abel detailing 007 James Bond 60th Anniversary v1.08 update bringing system to 3.61

  • Barrels of Fun shipped 100 Labyrinth machines between November 2023 and February 2024 (roughly 10 units/week)

    high confidence · Jonathan Jewson and Martin Abel discussing Barrels of Fun accomplishment

  • Jersey Jack's Elton John CE#2 autographed by Elton John and Jack sold at Christie's for $55,000 to benefit Elton John AIDS Foundation

    high confidence · Martin Abel reporting charity auction result

  • Dutch Pinball will ship final early-backer Big Lebowski games this month (March 2024) after years of delays

    high confidence · Jonathan Jewson stating he spoke with Barry Dreesen, Dutch Pinball owner

  • Spooky Pinball now offering replacement translights for all their games at $80 plus shipping

    high confidence · Martin Abel discussing Spooky's new translight availability on website

  • American Pinball's upcoming Barry Osler-designed game will feature video assets and actors, but not in Galactic Tank Force style

    medium confidence · Jonathan Jewson clarifying David Fixer's vague comments from previous interview; acknowledges uncertainty

Notable Quotes

  • “It's the first time for Multimorphic to come out with three editions of one title”

    Jonathan Jewson @ early in episode — Highlights major shift in Multimorphic's distribution strategy with Princess Bride, signaling confidence in IP appeal

  • “The game is currently mode complete, feature complete, and all the rules are in place. But until production, the software will be tweaked, bugs will be fixed”

    Martin Abel (citing Jerry Stellenberg) @ Princess Bride discussion — Confirms Princess Bride is substantially complete but won't ship until summer; sets expectations for ongoing refinement

  • “Watch out for a big raft of software releases coming out to bring all the games up onto the same system platform”

    Martin Abel @ Stern software discussion — Predicts imminent flood of code updates as Stern standardizes system 3.61 across SPIKE 2 platform

  • “Getting 100 games out the door by February, that's not bad for a startup... about 10 a week, which is not bad”

    Jonathan Jewson @ Barrels of Fun section — Praises Barrels of Fun production ramp-up as impressive for young manufacturer

  • “I can't name any other pinball company that has done the same [delivered all early-backer orders]. I also can't name any pinball company that has had the same troubles.”

    Jonathan Jewson @ Dutch Pinball discussion — Acknowledges Dutch Pinball's unique recovery from years of production crisis; positions final delivery as notable industry achievement

  • “The company got in heavy weather and eventually managed to dig themselves out of the hole that they were in”

    Jonathan Jewson @ Dutch Pinball section — Euphemistic reference to Dutch Pinball's well-known financial and production crisis documented in community lore

  • “They've been true to their word, or Barry has and he's delivered on his promises”

    Martin Abel @ Dutch Pinball discussion — Credits Barry Dreesen personally for fulfilling early-backer commitments despite organizational turmoil

Entities

MultimorphiccompanyPrincess BridegameJerry StellenbergpersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyBarrels of Funcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Dutch Pinball finalizing early-backer Big Lebowski deliveries after years of production crisis; symbolic completion of multi-year recovery

    high · Jonathan Jewson confirms final units shipping March 2024 after speaking with Barry Dreesen; described as company accomplishment and celebration event planned

  • ?

    community_signal: Jersey Jack's Elton John CE#2 auction generating $55,000 charity donation demonstrates collector enthusiasm and premium market strength

    high · Christie's auction result; machine was autographed by Elton John and Jack; benefits Elton John AIDS Foundation

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival mid-March positioned as key venue for Princess Bride playtest, developer seminars, and anticipated new announcements from multiple manufacturers

    high · Editors repeatedly reference Texas show as must-attend for game reveals and interviews; Princess Bride playable with seminar; multiple companies confirming attendance

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky Pinball now monetizing aftermarket translight sales ($80 per unit) across entire game library; signals cost-sensitive collector segment and potential long-tail revenue stream

    medium · Martin Abel discusses UPS ground shipping ($8.42 US, ~$42 international); notes Spooky able to reproduce translights for games going back to early library (Pinball Zombies from Beyond the Grave era)

  • $

    market_signal: Barrels of Fun achieving 100-unit Labyrinth production in ~10 weeks (10 units/week) demonstrates successful startup manufacturing ramp and market viability

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.212

0:00
The Princess Bride Revealed Haggis Pinball in Trouble We're Heading to Texas Hi, my name is Jonathan Jewson. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined by... Hello, I'm Martin A. Abel. I'm the editor of Pinball News and Jonathan and I are here to bring you all the exciting news. in the pinball world throughout the month of February 2024, which, at time of recording, has just finished a few moments ago where I am, and about an hour ago where Jonathan is. So here we are. We're in March. We're looking back in February. And, well, it's been a relatively quiet month, I suppose. But we do have a new game. We do.
0:53
And the mystery of who is going to be making that game has been solved. Tell me more Well, okay In previous editions of this Pincast, we have Told you about the Princess Bride game And the fact that the Game had been announced But the actual manufacturer of it Was being kept secret Well, it was Teased through a website For the Princess Bride Pinball, and also from Some flyers that were sent out with orders from pinball life but it was only on monday the 19th of february when the game was officially launched and revealed as we had actually told you last month we thought it was as a as the latest release by multimorphic for their p3 pinball platform right and so it's the princess bride based on the movie of that name which of course is based on the book of the same title it includes all the assets from that movie, including all the actors, their likenesses, the clips, the full length of the movie, speech calls, and music. The game is, well, the game's creative director is Steven Silver, of course, who's worked on other games for Multimorphic, including Heist, and Weird Al, as well.
2:23
The music for the game is adaptation of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, his original soundtrack. It's been recomposed or reformatted, I should say, by a composer called Paul Farah, who's in the UK. He's actually a very prolific writer of music for TV shows and films and adverts and many other types of media. Anyway, he's adapted the music for the game and added at least another 20 extra tracks to it as well, which he's created. No expenses saved.

  • “We can't detect when the door is open... It means the game doesn't know that it's done that”

    Pinball Brothers (via Martin Abel) @ Alien code update discussion — Reveals technical limitation in Alien hardware integration; explains why ball saver only works in test menu, not from physical door open

    • Labyrinth
    game
    American Pinballcompany
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Barry Dreesenperson
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Aliengame
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Pulp Fictiongame
    Hexa Pinballcompany
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    David Fixerperson
    Barry Oslerperson
    Paul Farahperson
    Lucas Pepkeperson
    Jonathan Jewsonperson
    Martin A. Abelperson
    Arta Pinballcompany

    high · Jonathan Jewson cites achievement as impressive for young company; production began November 2023, 100 shipped by February 2024

  • ?

    personnel_signal: David Fixer (American Pinball representative) confirmed as UK Pinfest August 2024 guest with presentation; suggests American Pinball prioritizing international market engagement

    medium · Jonathan Jewson states Fixer will be in-person at UK Pinfest; Barry Osler game expected to be revealed by then

  • $

    market_signal: Multimorphic introducing aggressive three-tier pricing for Princess Bride ($3,750–$13,750) with staggered distribution (CE complete machine only; LE/Standard as modules or complete); tests market tolerance for P3 adoption cost

    high · Martin Abel detailing pricing structure and module vs. complete machine availability; first three-edition release for platform suggests confidence in demand

  • ?

    announcement: Princess Bride officially revealed as Multimorphic P3 module in three editions after months of mystery; first movie license and three-tier release for platform

    high · Multiple confirmations from Pinball News/Magazine editors; production timeline (summer 2024); gameplay video by Buffalo Pinball already available

  • ?

    product_strategy: Hexa Pinball's Space Hunt delayed approximately one year from announcement to first delivery; typical for boutique European manufacturers

    medium · Martin Abel notes 'It took them quite a few months... we've been talking about them for almost a year' before first units ready for delivery

  • ?

    product_concern: Pinball Brothers' Alien update reveals hardware limitation: game cannot detect coin door open state (only offers ball save in test menu), suggesting incomplete sensor integration on original design

    high · Martin Abel quoting Pinball Brothers: 'We can't detect when the door is open'; clarifies misleading ball saver feature description

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Editors express cautious skepticism about American Pinball's Barry Osler game vagueness; Jonathan Jewson publicly corrects his own interpretation of Fixer's comments, signaling community uncertainty about feature set

    medium · Jonathan Jewson explicitly states he 'put two and two together' incorrectly; quotes David Fixer: 'stay tuned' without committing to specific design approach

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern rolling out system software 3.61 standardizing home/competition installation profiles across SPIKE 2 games; implies major upcoming code update wave

    high · Martin Abel explicitly predicts 'flood of new code coming out fairly soon for every single game' to bring all titles to 3.61 standard

    • 3:03
    No, it's been very busy. From what I've heard and what you've heard as well, I think it sounded very well. Sorry, it sounded very good and works very well with the game.
    3:15
    Obviously, they got all the voice calls from the movie, but that doesn't include anything that's specifically pinball related. So, Lucas Pepke has recorded a whole bunch of new voices for it, which have all been approved by the movie License All as well. So, there's going to be a ton of voice calls and extra music in the game.
    3:40
    And I think it's pretty much in there. I don't think the voice calls are in there so much, but certainly the music is. And anyway, three editions. Yeah, I was going to say It's the first time for Multimorphic To come out with three editions Of one title Yeah, well the first time I think they come out with a movie license As well So they obviously think there's A big fan base For this title And the fans will want To get the top end Collector's edition of it Now unusually as you said it's being brought out in three versions which is a first for Multimorphic but also they are bringing it out in a kind of staggered way in that the top end collector's edition is only available as a complete P3 machine with the game module installed and various extras added to it, various cosmetic extras I should say the limited edition and standard edition are available both as complete machines and as game modules for existing P3 owners. Right. So if you have a P3, you can buy the limited edition, which costs $5,000, or you can buy the standard edition, which is $3,750. Right. But if you're still missing that P3 platform, then you are… Yes, if you haven't got one, then you can buy any of the three editions as part of a complete machine package. Right. So the complete collector's edition machine, so that's a P3 plus the Princess Bride module and all the extras that you get with the collector's edition, that's $13,750.
    5:28
    The limited edition, which misses some of the bling, but includes the topper and various other top-end specific elements such as the back box display imagery, that's $12,750 so $1,000 less or for $1,1500 you can buy a complete P3 machine with a standard edition of the Princess Bride and it is worth pointing out very early on that the actual playfield module is identical for all three of these so you get in the same game play the same physical playfield as well no matter which one of these three you get All you get with the Collectors and Limited Edition games are basically more bling, different cabinet, metal work. Different bedrock, I think.
    6:24
    Yes, that's right, yeah. And the Collectors Edition Complete Machine has the swords mounted on the side of the cabinet so it feels like, or looks like, you're wielding swords as you're playing the game.
    6:39
    Anyway. Anyway, so. So the game is announced, but production will start this summer, not immediately.
    6:49
    But I do have to say the game, according to Jerry Stellenberg, founder of the company, the game is currently mode complete, feature complete, and all the rules are in place. But until production, the software will be tweaked, bugs will be fixed, and that kind of stuff. Sure. Well, they have actually done some gameplay video. Yes. That's by Buffalo Pinball. It was just done last week, I think. And that's available to watch on YouTube on the Buffalo Pinball page and also on their Twitch stream as well.
    7:26
    So if you search those out, we won't bother giving you the convoluted YouTube link with a bunch of weird characters. I'm not even sure all of them are. but the game will be available to play at the Texas Pinball Festival in the middle of this month so along with the game there will also be members of the team there and I think they're doing a seminar as well about the creation of this game and Multimorphic normally have quite a large stand at the Texas Pinball Festival showcasing many of their own games they used to be showcasing a lot of homebrew games based on their P-Rock system and now they've got so many of their own games and they tend to show those off as well so now you get to play Weird Al and Heist and Final Resistance as well as well, Cosmic Heartbreaking I'm sure as well as The Princess Bride so if you're going to Texas Pinball Festival that's something to look out for and drop by the seminar as well to find out how that game was made. And, well, last year, Texas Pino Festival was a huge show where new games were revealed. So make sure to be there this year as well, and not just for new games, but for more reasons that we'll talk about later on. Well, indeed, yeah. Okay, well, that was the big news, I suppose, of the month. Finally, you can see what the Princess Bride was. And personally, I didn't know anything much about the game, about the movie, I should say, on which the game is based, before finding out that it was about to be announced, at which point I decided I'd better watch it. And then having done that, the game itself makes an awful lot more sense. So if you haven't watched the movie and you're considering buying a Princess Bride game, it's definitely worth watching the movie to understand the gameplay a lot more, there's a whole bunch of modes in there which are just names if you haven't seen the movie they make no sense whatsoever but once you have, I think it all comes together very well and they obviously have got a lot of assets in the game and that certainly helps with the storytelling and I think they've designed a very nice game there, but I haven't played it yet, so I'm looking forward to doing that in a couple of weeks time. Yes Okay, moving on from Texas, I suppose, to Chicago mainland.
    10:08
    Stern Pinball, the biggest manufacturer in the pinball industry at the moment and for quite some time already, they're currently building Jaws Premium games. and while doing that they also released a new making of video like they always do with design team members who talk about features in the game and so on and this time they highlighted or spotlighted Venom with Dwight Sullivan and Brian Eddy I guess and that video is available on CERN's Facebook as well as on their YouTube channel, I suppose.
    10:53
    Yes, that's where I watched it yesterday. Yeah. So the company also announced that accessories for Stranger Things are back in stock.
    11:04
    Thank heavens. Yeah. I didn't know they sold out, but apparently they did. And there's a bunch of new code, which Martin will tell you all about. Oh, right. Okay. That's me. Okay, the most recent one was an update for all those people who have got the 60th anniversary edition of 007 James Bond, which was actually quite a big update. Version 1.08 came out on the 27th of Feb and added over 250 new speech call-outs and changed some of the rules and addressed a scoring exploit that was available. But here's the thing that really hit me about that was it also moves the whole game up onto the new system software, version 3.61, which I know you've all been waiting for. And now this adds a whole bunch of new things to sort of our default settings. so there's little adjustments for what the action button on the lock bar does whether it does nothing, whether it starts a game or whether it takes you into the gameplay menu where you can choose competition modes and head-to-head and all that kind of stuff.
    12:23
    And also they've updated various things in the settings for different types of installs so you can install the home setting and it sets a whole bunch of things to certain values, such as it turns the number of initials on the high score to 10 straight away, turns the knocker volume down to low, allows you to use the Insider Connected Home Team feature when you're on free play, sets it to free play by default, that kind of thing. It also does one for competitions as well. so when you go install competition it sets up basically all the sort of things you'd want to do if you're running a tournament now that was previously available on some of the other games but it was a bit inconsistent to what it does now it seems to be standard across this game and other updates as well which I'm about to talk about but what this suggests to me is we're going to see a flood of new code coming out fairly soon for every single game like so on the spike 2 platform to implement this new system 3.61 right so watch out for that because no doubt they'll sneak in a few little other tweaks as well at bug fixes and things into software but watch out for a big raft of software releases coming out to to bring all the all the games up onto the same system platform and have all the same features um but that hasn't been announced yet, but one that did come out was Jaws of course, which is the current game, as Johnson was just saying. Version 0.85 came out, and that added a whole bunch of things as you'd expect. More multi-ball, bounty hunt multi-ball, celebration multi-ball, a whole bunch of perks as well, a whole system for completing various gear types, and it's... As you know, the game does make an awful lot of sense, but there's a massive amount of changes in the game and adjustments to how difficult things are, or easy. So that's a big update. And also, beginning of the month, back when we were just talking about Venom, well, that got version 0.97 on the 8th of February.
    14:48
    That, interestingly, only moved up to version 3.60 of the system, rather than 3.61, which seems to be exactly the same as 3.61. Except that in the new version, when it comes up with, do you want to play again,
    15:08
    in the new system it goes to the previously selected game mode. In this update for Venom, it doesn't. That option's not there.
    15:18
    But other than that, there are just a few tweaks and some extra speech call-outs and a whole bunch of achievements for those who care about those. 29 new achievements for Venom. That's probably enough software, to be honest. Yeah, there's probably enough Stern Pinball, to be honest. Yeah, I think so. It happens if any new games are being announced. Yes, let's move on to our next pinball company. Which would be Spooky Pinball in Benton, Wisconsin.
    15:48
    And news from them? Well, the scouts for Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes have arrived. allowed them to start or finish production of the first games, and they also started shipping. So the first games have been arriving on various locations, I believe. Yes, I've seen quite a few pictures of lineups of games with both Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Looney Tunes, even in the same row, which is quite impressive, I think, because they've basically got the same playfield. Yeah, but the gameplay is completely different.
    16:29
    Oh, yes, absolutely. Yes, and very different subjects as well. Yes, but also completely different programming teams, different rules and different qualifying modes for multiballs and all that kind of stuff. So same layout, but completely different machines in all the ways you look at it. So the company also announced, and this is very big, drum roll they are now on TikTok I knew you were waiting for that well that's it then my life is complete so and that's something you came up with I missed it but apparently Spooky is now selling translights for all their games through their website and these cost $80 plus shipping Shipping inside the US by UPS ground will cost you $8.42. But if you want a tube which translates to be shipped to the UK by UPS International and it costing you almost Yeah I was going through and trying different destinations to see how much it would cost because you have to put in a complete shipping address and almost put in your credit card details until you can actually find out how much it's going to cost. But probably not worth it then if you're just buying one Translite, but if you're buying two or more, then you can amortize that $42 over the cost of all of them. It's interesting, though, they've got all their games. You'd think after all this time they might have some issues with some of the older licenses, you know, about being able to reproduce those. But no, it looks like they've got pretty much every game that they've produced, including going back to the, what was it, Pinball Zombies from Beyond the Grave, that one? Oh, the very first one. Yeah. Yeah, and America's Most Haunted and all those are there.
    18:39
    That's what the Pimple Zombies game became. I thought that was... I thought Pimple Zombies became Rob Zombie, but... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. America's Most Haunted. Oh, okay. Right. Well, I do remember seeing one game inside the cabinet of the other one at the Midwest Gaming Classic many, many years ago, back when Spooky were just starting up. It was a very rare one-off. Yes, yes. Well, it was in a hotel room at the time because they didn't have any floor space left. Right. So that's where they were exhibiting. But anyway, yes. So transites from Spooky for all their games, $80 currently available. So get them while you can. Yeah, and there's also several streams of Looney Tunes available by now, and there were already of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So if you're interested in checking these games out before you head to the Texas Pinball Festival, you can do that on YouTube. Or TikTok, yeah.
    19:48
    Hey, good. Okay, well, that's enough spooky news. You can see after our three-hour pincast last month, we're getting a bit of a move on this time. We haven't got an interview, so we're going to rattle through this and get it all wrapped up and bring you all the news as soon as we can to our stop waffling and move on to Jersey Jack Pinball. I was going to say, don't waste people's time. Yes, I know. But now you are.
    20:17
    Right, anyway, Jersey Jack Pinball. Yes, not a huge amount of news from them. They're currently making the collector's edition of their Elton John game, which I think those who've got it and those who've played it always seem to speak very highly of the game. I think it seems to be, I don't know, I'm hoping it's not a sleeper game, but I think it is, well, to me it looks amazing, and I can't wait to play it again, hopefully at Texas. You've got all Elton John CDs.
    20:47
    I've got some. I'm sure you've got some interest I thought you bought this entire music collection at an auction I hope not I haven't been worried about that going back and checking my credit card statements anyway they are they announced that the Elton John collector edition number 002 pinball machine has been has found a new home through Christie's auction house where it was sold, well, it was put up for auction as part of rating money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and it closed with a remarkable winning bid of 55,000 US dollars.
    21:34
    This was a special edition, apart from being collector edition number 2, it was also autographed by Elton himself, and Jack, I think, as well. So Jack, of course, said a huge thank you to Christie's Auction House for allowing us to play a small part in supporting such an incredible cause. And thank you for joining us in making a difference. So, well, that was a very generous donation on behalf of Jersey Jack Pinball and Elton John for his AIDS charity. So another 55,000 and congratulations to whoever the lucky winning bidder of that was. Right. Now the question remains, when do we get to see Elton John play his Elton John game?
    22:23
    Hmm. Yes. If ever. I'm casting my mind back to a game that was based on someone and they played it and they clearly didn't know how to play very well. And I can't remember what game it was. Well, Elton John is like 100 years old So I wouldn't be surprised If he doesn't know how to play that well But at least it would be fun to see Elton John play Elton John It would I'm sure it will come back to me at some point Over the next half an hour Or however long we have left on this pin cast And I'll Or it'll probably be like 5 minutes after we finish recording But anyway Right, so I think that's Pretty much all the news in Jersey Jack Pinball As I was cranking out the Elton John games So we will see them At the Texas Pinball Festival as well Yeah so Oh well Then moving on to Barrels of Fun From Houston Texas Who have Announced that they have shipped Their first 100th Labyrinth machines Which is quite an Accomplishment I would say for such a young company. I mean, they basically announced themselves at Pimble Expo in October of last year and started production November-ish, I would say. So getting 100 games out the door by February, that's not bad for a startup. Yeah, that's what, about 10 weeks? I suppose, so 10 a week, which is not bad. And, of course, there have been breaks for holiday season over there as well. So, yeah, I think it sounds like they're really ramping up production. So congratulations to them. Yeah, and the toppers, the Goblin toppers for Labyrinth also arrived, and they started shipping. And last but not least, for Barrels of Fun, a code update for Labyrinth, which is dated on the 16th no, I'm saying 16th of February of this year it says the goblins are alive which I guess means that the topper goblins are now animated yes, I think that's correct and there's a whole lot more I haven't read into it yeah, well the goblins apparently react and comment to all sorts of things happening in the game. So they're quite interactive with the gameplay.
    25:11
    So you need to go in, if you have that topper, you need to go into the topper settings in the service menu and enable it or it won't do anything at all. Right. So that's a fairly basic thing to add.
    25:25
    Then there's quite a lot of other rule changes as well and additional assets in the game and some bug fixes, which apparently they were Buckooses but we didn't know about them but I guess we haven't got the game right oh well, I look forward to playing Labyrinth again, probably at the Texas Pinball Festival I'm sure they will be there, as you say they're from Houston so it's not quite their local show because it's the Houston Arcade Expo show as well which I'm sure they will have a big presence at but yeah I'm sure there will be plenty of labyrinth games set up in Frisco right okay so then moving on to American Pinball we had David Fixer as a special guest last month in our previous episode with quite a lengthy interview in which he revealed a lot which could be interpreted in multiple ways and apparently I did it in the wrong way so let me say on the record that if you're a reader of the Pimble Magazine newsletter and who isn't which goes out every month in my summary I mentioned that the upcoming American Pinball game designed by Barry Osler will feature live actors similar to Galactic Tank Force apparently that's not the case so I checked our interview with David Fix as I specifically asked about that and David commented I'm probably paraphrasing here but he said there will be video assets there will be actors and it was very vague you put two and two together I put two and two together but apparently it will not be like in Galactic Tank Force but in a different way so to quote David Fix stay tuned ok well we will We don't know exactly when that game is going to be announced. We're hoping it might be a Texas show, but I don't know. I haven't heard any rumblings in that regard just yet. But we will obviously let you know as soon as we know anything. But what I can tell you is that David will be a guest at the UK Pinfest show, which is held in Daventry in the UK, in central England, and that's in mid-August of this year. So if you want to ask David any questions about American Pinball yourself, then he will be in person, and I think probably holding a presentation of some kind, at the UK Pinfest show this August. Right, and by then most likely the Barry Osler game will have been revealed and maybe even present at the show I would expect it to be at the show, yes, indeed Yeah, so as was Barry Osler a couple of years ago He was, well, yeah he was indeed, yes, I remember driving him back to his hotel by the airport after the show was over Right, so Oh well, and that's all the American Pimple News that we found newsworthy to mention here. It's not that they're not doing nothing. I believe the classic model of Houdini is on the line, as well as Galactic Thing Force, of course. Oh.
    29:32
    Okay. Closer to home, my home. Your home? And mine, too. Dutch Pinball. Yes. I did talk to Barry Dreesen, the owner of the company, today.
    29:51
    Lots of off-the-record stuff that I can't mention, so I won't. But I can say that the last early Achiever games that the company still has to produce for those who bought a big Lebowski game when it was announced in, I think, 2014, those who got placed in order at Pinball Expo were right after that are the so-called early achievers and then if you know the story of Dutch Pinball which is worthy of a book or even a movie I think the company got in heavy weather and eventually managed to dig themselves out of the hole that they were in and well the good news is that the last early achiever games that the company still has to deliver to those early achievers will be shipping out this month being March so in a couple of weeks and Dutch Pinball will not let that event go by unnoticed it's not going to be a big celebration but I think it's very right for them to acknowledge that it's quite an accomplishment it is, yeah, everyone who paid for their game and over many years thought they may have lost their money, will actually be made whole, will get their game it may take them several years in order to do it but no, they've been true to their word, or Barry has and he's delivered on his promises. So I think that's definitely worthy of celebration. Well, I can't name any other pinball company that has done the same. I also can't name any pinball company that has had the same troubles. No.
    31:55
    No, it's a unique story, but hopefully one with a happy ending then. Yeah, yeah. And, of course, it's not the end for Dutch pinball. No, exactly. They're expanding and there's new projects coming up, which we will tell you all about in upcoming episodes. Yeah, more than that we cannot say at the moment. So keep tuned, stay tuned for all the latest updates. So moving on, if you can't say any more about Dutch Pinball, what can we say about Pinball Brothers then, who are also from Europe, a little further north in Sweden? Right, not that much this month. I was expecting them to announce a new game and well that might still happen in March, we don't know, or we might see one at Texas Glimple Festival, or maybe not, we don't know. but they did come out with a 4.1.1 code update for Alien and there's a couple of well changes of course and I haven't ran into that because I don't have the game and if you have it you'll probably install it right away so you'll notice the differences soon enough yeah one of the things I noticed which I did find interesting this is firstly they're still bringing out new code for Alien after all this time. This just changes things like free play has now been made the default and some new topper and flasher effects because remember they have that relatively new topper to the game as well by Arta Pinball, I believe. So that's a very nice looking add-on and they've added some new effects for that. But also one of the things I did notice they renamed the open door ball saver to ball save after test. And they said to make it more clear how this works, and they said, we can't detect when the door is open.
    34:06
    I thought, really? That's surprising. I thought every game knew when the door was open. Presumably it disables high power anyway, but that could just be a hardware interlock. It means the game doesn't know that it's done that. Right. So there you go. So it only saves the ball if you go into the test menu and do stuff. If you just open the coin door and close it again, it doesn't give you the ball back. That was the new feature there. But you think that if you are in the middle of a game, you open the coin door, and you go into test menu, that would automatically end the game anyway? Not necessarily. Apparently not, no. No, that hasn't been the case on quite a few games for quite a while. It certainly used to be the case, yes, in Valerie Williams' days, certainly, and earlier Stern games. Yes, going into the menu would basically dump you out of the game that you're currently playing. But no, now you can go in and change all kinds of things and come back out and carry on playing. Right, okay. Well, that was the only news from Pimble Brothers. I do expect them to be at the Texas Pinball Festival and I hope also that we can continue our tradition by now of interviewing Daniel Jensen at the event Yes, I'm sure we can find a room like we have done previously.
    35:36
    And, well, hopefully we'll come back with a nice selection of interviews for our March Pincast. Right.
    35:46
    Now, speaking of the Texas Pinball Festival, another Texas based company is Turner Pimble who have announced they will be at the Texas Pimble Festival reservations for Ninja Eclipse are opening soon visit us at Texas Pimble Festival to see our updated cabinet and pricing that's going to be interesting yes Yes, obviously they've been listening to some of the feedback after their Pinball Expo reveal and have adapted their cabinet and their pricing scheme. And we'll find out what that is and, of course, report on it in our next Pincast, if not in our individual reports from the Texas Pinball Festival, which we'll be able to get on the Pinball Magazine website and the Pinball News website. Right. Okay. That's all for Turner Pinball right now. So far, yeah. Yeah. So, moving on to Chicago Gaming. Yeah. They've been busy actually making Pulp Fiction games as well. As we reported last month, they started making them. But also now the manual for the Pulp Fiction game is available through the Chicago Gaming website. You can download it or review it as a PDF, and it's a pretty substantial document as well. I think it's probably Butch Peel's work. Yes, we've worked on it for years. Yeah, we've had years to work on it, so that helps. Yes, it's 183 megabytes of PDF if you wish to download it. It's a very, very attractive-looking document, and it explains how the game works, both from the player's perspective and from an owner or repairer's perspective as well. Right. So it's definitely worth having a look, because it's quite informative about how the game goes together, because it's a different style of game. And even the back box, how you attach the back box, is different, because it's designed to be, more of a valley style cabinet build. Yeah. Yes. So it works quite differently to how you might expect. So it's interesting to see how that works. I'm sure there are other aspects of the game I haven't quite got onto yet, which are unusual, if not innovative. So, yeah, available now through chicago-gaming.com through their website. Okay. Okay, interesting. So moving back to Europe, Heisla Pimble in France, who have their, well, they have been working on building their first space hunt games. And the first are actually finished and about to be delivered to their new homes, which is good news. It took them quite a few months to get to this point. I mean, we've been talking about them for almost a year, I think.
    39:07
    But congratulations for them for delivering their first games. And they also announced that they will be present at four French pinball events, which are taking place between March and June of this year, and more events to be announced. I'm not going to name all the places but they're going to be at the Salon du Brasseur and du Flipper well that's easy for you to say I know, that's why I say it Crazy Flip Expo which we know very well and Flipper Sud Ouest and well, more shows to be announced and I look forward to playing the game although I have no plans to visit any of these four shows? No, I'm hoping they might be able to make it across the channel and come to the UK Pinfest show in August. So maybe that would be one of the more shows to be announced shows. Right, okay.
    40:18
    And that's all the news from France, I would say. It is, so let's travel all the way around the other side of the world, pretty much, and go and see what's been happening with Homepin, who are over in Taiwan. And I understand you've been having a little bit of a talk with Mike Kalinowski. Yes, it's the owner of the company. Mike and I, when we talk, it's always lengthy.
    40:46
    I think both Mike and I are lengthy speakers, so it's no surprise there. we've been talking about a lot of stuff that I can't discuss yet because it has to do with their upcoming game but there is also still the current game, this is Spinal Tap and we already mentioned that there has been a redesign to the playfields to add a third flipper but there's more there will be a code update coming as Mike complained that the game was too difficult resulting in players not seeing any of the features or not reaching any of the features in the game or activating any mechanisms and that kind of stuff. So there will be a new code update coming up with simpler code or basically making the game simpler for people to get to certain features. Right. And that should make the game more appealing as well.
    42:00
    Yes. Well, that combined with the new upper right flipper, which makes the center ramp easier to shoot, they are needed, and we look forward to seeing how that changes the gameplay. because certainly I've played it a few times and I found that centre-round difficult to shoot and also found that I was shooting a lot of things and not much was happening. So I too get the feeling that we're not getting to see much of what's in the game in this current code version. So that would be nice if it's... There are mechs in the game which I've never even got to see, which is partly because I didn't play very well but partly because I couldn't shoot the ramp very easily either but anyway, that's the top news from Spinal Tap interesting but there's more news from Home Pit yes, as I mentioned they are working on a game to follow this is Spinal Tap which is based on a very well-known movie license, I would say.
    43:16
    The only thing else I can say about that game is that it will run on open source software. We have a new board system designed for that game and it basically means that if you have a game and you don't like the way it plays, then it's up to you to change it.
    43:44
    Oh, right. DIY pinball. Yes, yeah. And of course, not everybody's going to do that. But if there's a few people that are on board and turn basically the software into a very fun game, everybody wins. And I guess theoretically you could have multiple Versions of the game in different rule sets So you can play one And then upload a different one Right yeah so And But it's a licensed theme though Yes It is a licensed theme yes And well I guess If the licensor isn't happy Then good luck trying to sue Someone in Taiwan I don't know I mean, I was always under the impression that pinball manufacturers didn't want open source code because of the risk of, let's say, a coil. Yeah, being locked on and burning the machine, burning the house down. Exactly, that kind of stuff. Yeah, apparently there is a, because I asked about that, there will be something in the game to prevent that from happening. Yes, that's a century or so. Right. And licensors might be upset with, for example, people adding cursing words or something like that. Apparently for this theme, I wouldn't say it would be appropriate, but it doesn't have to, I wouldn't say it's not fitting. Okay. So that's also not something that a licensor probably would complain about. And then again, even if it's probably on such a small scale, then why bother?
    45:58
    So that's the news from HomePin right now. I'm still expecting that upcoming game that will take months, but we should at least see it at Pinball Expo this year. So tickets have already gone on sale for Pinball Expo. So, I mean, that's like six months away.
    46:27
    Okay, let me throw this curveball of a question at you then. What's the link between This Is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride? Oh, I think I know. Do you? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. Right, okay, moving on then.
    46:51
    You want to tell our listeners as well? Well, you better if you think you know. I think both movies have the same director. Correct. Yeah, Rob Reiner, yes. Yes, indeed. Yeah, so The Princess Bride, I think, came out, I think, wasn't the movie directly after Spinal Attack, That was the movie after that from Rob. So, yeah, well done. We better look up what movies he else has done because there might be more Pimmel material in there. Yeah, indeed. Yeah, that could be the next game from either of those companies. Right. So, okay. Well, that wraps it up for Homepeel in Texas and this little side segment. yeah it's time to move on to what was actually our second headline remember all that time back when we we started this uh pincast which was about haggis pinball and are they in financial trouble we asked the question because there was an email update sent out from damien hartin um who uh who owns the company and uh basically saying that they um they want to change their manufacturing methodology due to the fact that they have been having supply chain difficulties and their systems relied on getting parts delivered to them just in time for the game to go into production. Well, when they had these delays, it means that basically they can't make any more games until the parts turn up. So they said that they want to change that and want to basically build up a stock of parts. So they have inventory, which means that if there are any delays in supplies, they'll still be able to carry on producing games.
    48:55
    It seems logical. Yeah, indeed. But to do that, they need to have enough money in order to buy stocks of parts for their games. Whereas previously, I don't want to suggest that they didn't have any financing, but it seemed that they would ask for money from buyers. Buyers would put down an initial deposit, but they'd ask for the full price of the game shortly before the game went into production. Their particular game went into production, which meant that they'd get the money and would be able to buy the parts and make the game. but in order to have all the parts there early, they have to get the money up front somewhere. So they say, so in order to support this change, they say we will need to further slow down production activities, which are pretty much, well, they are making gains, but they're very, very slowly. And so we will need to recapitalize and refocus our procurement strategies and partner offerings, which to me says they need some injection of money in order to buy parts and renegotiate some contracts they have with some of their suppliers.
    50:13
    So if you want to invest in a pimple company. Yes, in the short term this means that for those of you currently waiting on a game from us, there will be further delays, which is disappointing. And I don't know what the potential outcome is if they don't get the recapitalization, don't get the investment of money. They'll be waiting for your centaur again for a very long time, I suppose. Well, it doesn't look like they can carry on going the way that they were. I've seen various claims posted which said that they had been requesting full payment on Centaur Revisited games that had been pre-ordered even though they aren't actually close to starting production of that they're still making the Fathom Revisited games haven't finished those that's usually not a good sign but I don't want to read too much into it but just a little red flag being waved there but they are still listed on the Texas Pinball Festival as an exhibitor.
    51:21
    So whether they will be there or not, we don't know. But will they have the funds to attend that show and bring some games or work with a local distributor to bring the games? It will be interesting to see. And I'm sure that if they are there, then Damien and Martin were there last time. So it will be good to hear from them. I'm sure they will have plenty of questions to answer. from various attendees of the show about what's going on.
    51:52
    I don't know, I don't think they're scheduled to do a seminar yet, but, of course, that could always change. Yeah.
    52:01
    Hopefully they will find a way to continue producing, because their games are built like a tank, I would say, even though they're not American.
    52:15
    Very good. Yeah. They do have some software issues. I know that, which the people who own the Centaur game were not looking forward to. Those who have the fathom are still waiting on various bugs to be fixed.
    52:31
    So I don't know. It's a mixed bag. But yes, obviously, we don't want them to stop making their wonderful games and amazing remakes. and we want to see many more coming from them. So, fingers crossed. It works both ways if we talk about the way the company is financed. I mean if you have to order say like drop target units for 20 games because you building 20 games you paying a lot more money for those 20 units than if you would have them if you would buy them for 100 or 200 games in bulk and have them laying on the shelf yes that requires an investment but the price per for those parts goes down and would eventually result in let's say a higher profit?
    53:34
    Yeah, or potentially lower prices of the games in the first place. One potential scenario is that they say, well, okay, we're going to need 500 of these drop target assemblies. Okay, give us a price of 500 but we don't want them all at once. we want 10 this week, 10 next week or 100 at the beginning of this month 100 at the beginning of next month and we pay for them when they're delivered so you commit to buying 500 but you don't pay for them and you pay the 500 price but you don't get them all at once and you don't have to pay for them all at once not sure whether you would get the discount then but sure well you know Pentite fits in with the manufacturer's schedule as well but maybe that's I'm guessing that's the kind of thing they're talking about, renegotiating with their manufacturing partners. Right. Oh, well, hopefully they find a solution. Yes, absolutely. And we will bring you whatever news we can find out. Yeah. Now, speaking of news that we find out or found out, this was actually found out by Neb Arcade. There is another startup pinball company, I would say, in Australia called Vector Pinball, and we mentioned them before. We did, yeah. Yeah, they have a game called 8-Ball Fury, and a pre-production model, which I believe is still a prototype, but still, okay, is currently on location at the 1UP Arcade in Brisbane. and not only that the arcade is or the company Vector Pinball is running a cash prize contest for 100 Australian dollars for the highest score of the month which month is the question probably the current one so but yeah and in earlier episode of our pin cost we also mentioned there is a website, fact4pinball.com. At the time, that website was rather under construction, I would say, but has been filled with content in the meantime.
    56:04
    It turns out the company is owned by Jason McNally, who has a lengthy career in operating and fixing pinball machines, as well as in customizing Piml machines, mostly what I could see from photos, firepower playfields to various custom themes for advertising, promotion, that kind of stuff. Corporate clients, really. Yes. Yes, so there's definitely some experience in customizing pinball machines and now they're attempting to start production. Hopefully, Australia is a healthy climate to start building pinball. Although I do hear that Australia might not be such a good environment because, well, in Europe, if you're looking for a metal part supplier, you can find one or more than one in every city. in Australia that might still be a thousand miles away yes true geographical challenges that may not help or creating the best environment for pinball manufacturing on the other hand Hankin did it years ago so it should still be possible And Haggis too, of course, until recently. So, yeah, one of the things we have learned, though, from Haggis' experience is the cost of shipping games from Australia is quite high compared to the US.
    58:03
    It does tend to rely on you being able to send out a container full if you're exporting from Australia to any other country. internally, yes, not so difficult but given the distances you were talking about but yeah, shipping costs are quite high, although obviously they've come down in recent months from their pandemic ludicrously high shipping prices, so anyway best of luck to Vector Pinball, we will of course keep you updated with how their 8 War Fury game does on location right, ok And well, then there's a bunch of companies where we have absolutely nothing to report on.
    58:50
    Yeah. So that's Pedretti Gaming, Pinball Adventures, Cardona Pinball, Bictronic, STR Pinball, which we're still including, Quetzal Pinball, and Circus Maximus.
    59:09
    Remember them? Yeah, I remember that. Finally, I was researching that for this pin cast, and I was going back and looking at some of the previous announcements from them, and I'm saying, I think it was in 2015, we've just bought this big warehouse where we're going to have our own spray booth, we're going to be doing all the manufacturing of Python's Pinball Circus.
    59:36
    I wonder what happened to that. Hmm We'll find out at some point But as of now No news from Circus Maximus And that or the Kingpin project That they were working on Right, okay Then there is other news Now you may remember Last month One of our major headlines was We were bringing you Dinner with Jack The first of a new series Yes In which we sat down for dinner with Jack Guarneri of Jersey Jack Pinball, and we basically recorded it and brought you the outcome. Well, you may have got some of that if you listened very quickly. Yes, if you were one of the early listeners. Early achievers. Yes, yes. Then you got that, and if you were a little bit later, then you got a little bit less. and yeah what happened was at the start of the dinner Martin and I just to paint a picture here, Martin and I were the first to arrive at the restaurant so we were at the table and then the rest of the group arrives including Jack Guarnieri and a bunch of people I won't name and we explain I clearly recall explaining we will be recording this and we're going to do this segment called Dinner with Jack and explain what the idea behind that is and sure everybody's fine with that so we eat, we drink and two weeks later we put that online in our pin cast and one of the people that was at the table was like I don't remember you guys asking and he wanted to take it down and at first I was like we did tell everybody at the table and we explained but he was very insistent and first we trimmed it down and then he was upset because there was still a part that he apparently was not happy with and at that point I was like listen we did say we did everything by the book the fact that you don't remember doesn't mean that we didn't tell you so and I left it like that so I'm not even sure whether it's completely gone or whether it's I think there's still three minutes up there or something. Okay.
    62:33
    So that's what happened. And I apologize for everybody that got upset because they were at the table and apparently not aware. I apologize even more to our listeners for promising them a segment that we had to delete.
    62:50
    Yes. The good news is, I also talked to Jack Munieri about this, who was like, I found it very funny, and we should do this again. So we're looking forward to recording more dinners with Jack in the future, and we'll be extra careful with other guests at the table, making sure they're aware that we're recording a segment for our show. have to get some sign to put up on the table recording in progress or something like that so sign a no quit claim yeah unfortunately that's the rules of the game really if even if people agree in advance to being recorded if they subsequently are unhappy with their appearance and object then you kind of have to you have to take it down or take out their contribution anyway. And it would have been far too complicated to go through and edit out one person's speech from what was a roundtable discussion or a roundtable of people eating and talking pinball. Anyway, we'll work on that one and have another go. You see, even I make mistakes sometimes. I find that very hard to believe well I'm only human well so you say okay well that's what happened if you were expecting a longer or indeed any dinner with Jack in our recording and you didn't catch it when it was on the website I apologise for that as I say we will try and do better next time Okay, so somebody else who probably... What will we be having next time?
    64:51
    Well, yeah. I was going to say, somebody else who also would say, well, never mind, I'll see if I can do better next time, is Robert Mueller of Deep Root, who his case brought by the Security and Exchange Commission,
    65:08
    who are doing a civil prosecution against him and the Deep Root companies for basically a number of different claims about how they utilised the money they took in for investments and didn't spend it in the way that they said they were going to. So that case is ongoing and is after there was an attempt at mediation, which didn't work out. So now there is a court date set for the 10th of June at 9 a.m., where the start of the hearing is due to happen. Now, that date may slip for any number of reasons. It's not unusual, or in fact quite common, for one party or the other to request a delay in order to prepare their case better. And that is often granted. But at the moment we do have 10th of June, put that on the back burner for now, and we will remind you of it nearer the time. And of course, remember, this is just the SEC versus Robert Mueller in a civil case. This is not anything to do with a federal case, which may be waiting in the wings after the conclusion of this particular case. So we'll see what happens there. Now other news I've also got A message this month from Stephanie Lesser Who is a renowned Puzzle book Author And she just says that Her 101 Pinball Puzzles book is Now available on Amazon Which is a collection of Word searches and crosswords And various Puzzles that are all pinball related. And it's available on Amazon. If you go and search for 101 Pinball Puzzles, then you will be able to find it. And she got in touch with me particularly to let me know that my name is in one of the puzzles.
    67:19
    So there you go. Fame at last. At last. Yes, I knew all the good stuff would come eventually. I'm so happy for you. Oh, well, you have to take what you can get. Now, anyway, talking about taking what you can get, we hope to see you in person at the Texas Pinball Festival. We mentioned it several times, but we're also holding our So You Think You Know Pinball free prize quiz. Yeah, there it is. Yes, that's right. Pinball trivia quiz, which we'll be holding, I think, Currently it's scheduled for 5pm on Saturday, and that will be held in the bar area of the Embassy Suites Frisco, not the normal seminar room, which that's where we normally hold the bar areas, where we normally hold the quiz. So if you've been to one of them before, we'll be in the usual place. It's where the happy hour is. Exactly. Well, it's doubly happy hour, because we're there giving away lots of free pinball stuff to people who get some of the questions right. Yeah, we still have to ask all the companies to sponsor us with those prizes. But sponsors in the past have been Jersey Jack Pinball, American Pinball, Pinball Brothers, Stern Pinball, Multimorphic.
    68:48
    Basically every large manufacturer of pinball machines or merchandise sponsored our quiz and we're very grateful for that and it's always fun to give away those prizes especially as random as it goes yes and it's all good fun and we have lots and lots of prizes to give away and at the end of it we end up with none for ourselves and we've given them all away so we rather keep them I know there's some nice stuff there which we really like to have but no the agreement is we give them away as prizes so we do and if you are at the show then please come along five o'clock on Saturday evening in the bar area you'll probably be around there anyway getting your free drinks right so that rounds it up for our recap of the Pimble Industry News for February 2024. Indeed it does and we'll be back at the start of April seems so long in the future but we'll be back in a month's time with our next Pimblecast looking back at all the events in the Pimble world throughout this exciting month of March 2024 including the Texas Pimble Festival so until then we both hope you have a magnificent March and we both look forward to joining you again next month for the very latest edition of our regular Pinball Industry News Pincast. So from me, Martin Ayr, I'll wish you a goodbye. And so do I.
    70:35
    Okay. My name is Jonathan from Pinball Industry News. In case you've forgotten. Yeah. So we'll see you next time. Until then, bye. Bye.