Journalist Tool

Kineticist

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

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast November 2023 recap + David Fix interview on American Pinball

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·2h 30m·analyzed·Dec 5, 2023
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

November 2023 pinball recap: Stern's IC app, JJP Elton John success, AP production goals and rumors debunked.

Summary

Pinball Magazine and Pinball News editors recap November 2023 industry events, covering Stern's Insider Connected app launch (with initial server crashes), code updates across 22 games, Jersey Jack Pinball's Elton John game success at trade shows, Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth distribution expansion, and an exclusive interview with David Fix (American Pinball EVP) addressing production targets, rumors about the company's viability, and Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition details.

Key Claims

  • Stern's Insider Connected app and website crashed on launch due to server overload from too many simultaneous logins

    high confidence · Martin A. directly reports the crash; acknowledged as a popularity/traffic issue

  • Stern issued 22 separate code updates in November across all Spike 2 games, primarily for minor Scandinavian pricing scheme changes

    high confidence · Martin A. provides detailed breakdown of games updated and rationale; calls out inefficient software architecture

  • Keith Elwin is rumored to be the next designer for Stern's upcoming Cornerstone game, likely Jaws, announced early January or late December

    medium confidence · Jonathan attributes to 'Kaneda has been dropping hints'; presented as rumor with hedging language

  • Jersey Jack Pinball's Elton John game was the most popular title at Dutch Pinball Open Expo with sustained long lines throughout the show

    high confidence · Both hosts confirm personal observation; corroborated by sustained popularity report

  • American Pinball's target of 300 machines by end of December 2023 represents the largest annual production in the company's history

    high confidence · David Fix explicitly confirms this figure and historical significance in interview

  • Rumors that American Pinball would close if they failed to hit the 300-machine target are false; company financials are strong

    high confidence · David Fix directly debunks this as 'vicious rumor'; reports stellar sales

  • Barrels of Fun has placed Labyrinth games at 8+ location venues across multiple states as of November 2023

    high confidence · Martin A. lists specific venues; production start delayed to April 2024

  • Stern may be opening more organized group factory tours, not a public arcade at the facility

    medium confidence · Jonathan clarifies misconception from Silicon Era interview; Stern's 'arcade' is internal display of 15-20 recent titles

Notable Quotes

  • “All these connected people got disconnected.”

    Martin A. @ Early discussion of Insider Connected crash — Humorous summary of the ironic system failure of a connectivity platform

  • “It's like the same category as Rush... I'd say Rush were a lot more current, or were until the death of their drummer.”

    Martin A. @ Journey licensing rumor discussion — Skepticism about Journey as viable pinball license compared to Rush's relevance

  • “They understand that it's very important that the public gets to play the game in order to understand how much fun it is.”

    Jonathan Yousman @ Barrels of Fun location strategy discussion — Identifies key distribution strategy: playability drives sales for boutique manufacturer

  • “That's a vicious rumor. Nowhere would a company that has hit the number that we've hit this year with all the games that we made would ever close.”

    David Fix @ American Pinball viability discussion — Direct rebuttal of rumors about American Pinball's financial stability; strong confidence statement

  • “We should be the largest amount of games that this company has ever made in its history. And 300 put in the past. In one year?”

    David Fix / Jonathan Yousman @ 300-machine target discussion — Confirms historical production milestone if target is hit

  • “We're going to hit the $200 mark on that. and everybody who ordered their Galactic Tank Force signatures will have them before Christmas.”

    David Fix @ Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition delivery confirmation — Explicit commitment to Christmas delivery for pre-orders

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyDavid FixpersonJonathan YousmanpersonMartin A.personKeith Elwinperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Rumors circulated that American Pinball would close if failing to achieve 300-machine target; David Fix characterizes as 'vicious' misinformation

    high · Direct quote from Fix: 'That's a vicious rumor. Nowhere would a company that has hit the number that we've hit this year... ever close.'

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball on track to achieve record annual production of 300 machines by end of 2023; company financials described as 'stellar' with strong sales

    high · David Fix confirms production target and timeline; directly states no risk of closure

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Magazine and Pinball News hosted successful 'So You Think You Know Pinball' quiz at Dutch Pinball Open Expo with significant prizes from Jersey Jack Pinball; required second session due to attendance

    high · Jonathan and Martin both confirm two quiz sessions held; JJP donated prize selection

  • ?

    event_signal: Major trade show activity in November 2023 (Pinball Expo Chicago, Dutch Pinball Open Expo, IEPA Orlando) demonstrating strong manufacturing momentum and game debuts across multiple manufacturers

    high · Multiple hosts confirm attendance and game presentations at each venue

  • $

    market_signal: Barrels of Fun expanding location distribution aggressively; 8+ venues placed as of November 2023; production starts April 2024, suggesting strong pre-order demand

    high · Martin A. lists specific venues; production delay creates scarcity/demand signal

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.451

0:00
All the latest from American Pinball. It's raining new code. Hallelujah. We're at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo.
0:17
Hi, my name is Jonathan Yousman. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine, and I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin A. I'm the editor of Pinball News, and Jonathan and I are here to discuss all the exciting events that took place in the pinball world through the month of November 2023. And what an exciting month it has been. It was. It was very busy. So we won't waste any more time. We've got a lot to get through in this particular pincast. But briefly what you can expect. We have David Fix from American Pinball talking over an hour with all sorts of industry insights that you really don't want to miss out on. And he also debunks a bunch of rumors that have been going around about American Pinball. So it's very interesting. And we've learned the exact timeline, or the order of designers currently scheduled for releasing games with American Pinball. And there are four of them. four games, the heads up on four different games from American Pinball. We give you, we bring that to you exclusively. Yep, you won't get that anywhere else, and there's a lot of other very detailed and interesting and behind the scenes information as well from David, but we'll come to that a little bit later when we get to his interview, but we'll start with the news from November 2023 with the biggest pinball company in the world at the moment, Stern Pinball, and they have had a busy month because, well, mostly software, really. Yeah, and it didn't go all too well.
2:01
Some learning curves, I suppose. The bigger thing is, Cern Pinball finally launched their Insight Connected app and the system crashed right away. It did. It wasn't just the app system, it also crashed their website as well. Right. So I guess those are running on the same servers or related ones. And they're related on too many people logging in at the same time. So it's too popular. That's the problem. Yeah, yeah. That's what you get.
Jack Ranieri
person
Barry Driesenperson
Brian Eddyperson
Zach Sharpperson
Seth Davisperson
Elton John (game)game
Galactic Tank Forcegame
Labyrinthgame
Legends of Valhallagame
Pinball Expoevent
Dutch Pinball Open Expoevent
IEPA Orlandoevent
?

announcement: American Pinball Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition limited to 200 units; includes custom cosmetics (glow toys, reactive rubber, lenticular backglass, collectibles); all units committed to delivery before Christmas 2023

high · David Fix confirms 200-unit limit and Christmas delivery commitment; units shipping internationally

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack Pinball experiencing slight production delays on Elton John but not pursuing reruns or LEs of older titles; focus on forward-looking releases

    medium · Jack Ranieri mentioned delays in Loser Kid Pinball interview; prefers new titles over backlist production

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Keith Elwin confirmed as next Cornerstone designer; heavily rumored to be Jaws theme; announcement expected early January or late December 2023

    medium · Jonathan credits Kaneda with dropping hints; follows Stern's pattern of announcing CES games in late December

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Journey band licensed for upcoming Stern pinball game; credited to loose-lipped IFPA attendee

    low · Jonathan attributes to hearsay ('someone at IFPA'); hosts express skepticism about band's current relevance

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern's software update architecture is inefficient; issuing 22 separate game updates for a single Scandinavian pricing scheme change indicates lack of modular/centralized software infrastructure

    high · Martin A. explicitly critiques the approach and suggests Spike 3 should implement better modular design

    • 2:33
    All these connected people got disconnected. Yeah. So anyway, hopefully by now it's up and running and people are able to log in through the new apps which are available for iOS and Android. so if you go to your app store you should be able to download the Insider Connected Stern Pinball app where you can keep track of all your achievements and manage your account and I'm sure lots of other things and get the QR code of course if you want to scan that in to the game before you start playing it and there's lots of other interesting stats and details you can get there as well I haven't bothered to download it myself yet because I was going to wait to see whether it's actually worthwhile. Well, yeah, whether it's worthwhile doing it.
    3:23
    Because at the moment I can just use the QR code from my digital wallet as just a standard payment method. So if it proves to be suitably useful and powerful, then I'm sure it will find its way onto my phone as well as lots of other people's as well. Right, okay. But we look forward to trying it out ourselves. but talking about Insider Connected, it's been a very busy time thank you, a very busy time for Stern in promoting that system because throughout this month we're in at the moment, the month of December, I know we're looking back at the month of November but this was announced in November through December there will be a whole bunch of special achievement quests available on three games they will be Godzilla There'll be Venom And 007 James Bond Where there'll be 29 new badges That you can collect if you're into That kind of thing If you're not And don't give monkeys Or a barrel of monkeys Then you're probably not that interested in it But I know there are plenty of people Out there who want to try and collect all these things So there are special quests On Godzilla, Venom and James Bond if you want to be a completist and get all those new badges. Yeah, I thought there were also new badges for Foo Fighters coming up. Oh, there's always new badges for games which are still in development with the software.
    4:56
    I suppose Venom is as well, but this is a special December only. Oh, how special. You can't enter the new year if you don't collect all 29 of them. Well, we know once a company says that it's a special limited time availability, that they won't come out and repeat that exercise again. But moving on to another story. Yeah.
    5:22
    Oh, that's a big run. Yes, exactly. Stern have been doing a final run, another final run, of Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes. which is supposed to be a final run last October. Which either was delayed or the game was so popular they needed an extension.
    5:42
    Yeah, well, either way, last year's final run has been repeated this year with another final run 14 months later. And they are also rerunning the topper for Black Knight Sword of Rage, which is probably one of the more impressive ones with the talking Black Knight on it and the flame behind it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
    6:09
    It's very nice to have people who go up to Jerry. If I recall correctly, originally that chopper was priced around the $500 mark.
    6:21
    Wow, for a bargain. Yeah, at that time, yes. And since then, heavily sought after, And if you want to buy a new one now, you're going to have to cough up a $14.99.
    6:37
    Wow. Okay. So $1,000 markup. That's top inflation for you. Yeah, exactly. But it's a very cool-looking topper.
    6:50
    Yeah. Yeah, if you're looking for one, now you can get one. So there was a rumor going around That Stern was going to take The game back into production I don't see that happening with it being a Steve Ritchie design Seriously I've seen Stern ditch everything Steve Ritchie related In terms of flyers and what have you So I don't see that happening Hmm Yes So anyway Yes so apart from that They've also been busy at Stern producing a new video tour of their new factory. For those of you who couldn't go to the factory tour at Pinball Expo and see the place for yourself, you can now go onto the Stern website and onto their YouTube channel, where Brian Eddy will be showing you his Venom design on the line. Yeah. No one other. Yeah. In fact, him. Yeah.
    7:45
    Showing how Venom is produced in the new factory and all the different stages that they go through in order to create it from a blank play field up to a completely finished, tested and boxed game. So if you haven't seen that already, I recommend watching it. Even if you have seen looks around the factory before, I think that one's worth doing. Especially since it's the first factory tour in Sturm's new facility. So you can see how massive it is. Yes, and talk about appearances in videos. um jack zach sharp uh stern's director of marketing he appeared as a guest on the podcast or vodcast called i i don't know about that with jim jeffries uh episode number 172 um it's a sort of a fairly adult content with quite a bit of profanity in it but uh it's good to see him And it's a very deep context, Joe. No, not from him, no, but from the hosts. And he's one of the guests on that show. There are others as well. And it's, you know, it's kind of a, it's that kind of content, I suppose. I won't go into it too much, but. I definitely have to check it out. Yeah, well, I found it a bit, I don't know, not Zach's bit, but the rest of it, this sort of intro, I've had it a bit cringeworthy sort of over trying a bit too hard to be entertaining and funny but yeah Zach appears multiple times throughout it as do unfortunately some commercial sponsorship sections which seem to drag on for a long long time I'd say probably about 20% of it is commercials but the pinball bit is interesting and definitely worth watching. So that's if you search for something called I Don't Know About That with Jim Jeffries, then you want episode 172. And you can see Zach for yourself. Right. So, now speaking of appearances, Seth Davis, the president of Serum People, did an interview with Siliconera, which is a website in which he talks about the new factory where Stern just went or moved. He talks about game development and so on. I got the feeling that the link to the interview will be in the Pimble Magazine newsletter that will go out in a few days. So if you're interested in reading that, keep an eye out for that newsletter. Or subscribe, if you're not subscribed yet. I found it a bit amazing to view with questions asked by someone who's not very familiar with pinball and Zach is answering to his best capabilities but it's kind of odd to me to ask design type questions to the president of a company about a game that was developed when he wasn't even there yes that's true the outlet is called Silicon era and I assumed that was going to be about IT and the technology behind pinball but it's pretty sort of brief overview of how Stern's IT system had developed and is going to work into the future so I don't think you learn an awful lot from it. It's not that in-depth as you were probably used from news or pinball magazine not to plug ourselves but it's very fairly basic there is one thing mentioned which apparently got some people interpreted as Stern opening an arcade in their factory for people going on a factory tour well they're looking into organizing factory tours more regularly for groups and so on. Yeah, maybe more organized rather than just people turning up individually. Yes. So, they're looking to organize it a little bit better, but Stern is not opening up an arcade like you might think. It's not like Logan's Arcade or a bar arcade or anything like that. Stern always has had, or at least for the last decade, they've had what they call the arcade, which is basically their latest titles and we're talking about maybe 15, 20 games all different titles that they produced over the past couple of years lined up in a factory where visitors who have to wait for somebody to get it to work can play a game but it's not like you're going I'm going to spend all day playing at Stern Pinball no, it's not like that of course they always used to say they get their staff to play every day. 50 minutes of bimbo.
    13:07
    No, nobody believes that. Yeah. Okay, talk about things that nobody believes. Yeah. According to Canada,
    13:18
    someone at IAFA had loose lips and slipped a stern. Apparently he has the license for the band Journey.
    13:26
    Now, don't stop believing. I tried to make you very good so I'm not sure whether there's any truth to that personally I'm not sure whether that would work in Europe aside from a couple of hits from very long ago I don't think it's a very active band but to me it's like the same category as Rush I would argue that I'd say Rush were a lot more current, or were until the death of their drummer.
    14:06
    So I think they've been bringing out lots of fairly high-profile albums over the past couple of decades, whereas I'm not aware that Journey have brought anything out at all. I'm sure they have, but it's not been on my radar in the same way that Rush was. Right, okay. Anyway, so if they have that, good luck with it.
    14:31
    Yeah. They also have Mudley Crew, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. And that's just a rumor, so don't quote me on that as a fact. That's just what I've been hearing. Any more rumors? Yeah, yeah. Keith Elwin is next up as the designer for the next Cornerstone game, which is heavily rumored to be Jaws.
    15:04
    Yeah, again, I know, yeah. And again, Kaneda has been dropping all sorts of hints on what that game is going to look like. The game is supposed to be Announced early January Or maybe even late December Which would not be unusual for Stern Because they tend to have A new Cornerstone game At I think it's CES Yes And then EAG Expo in London As well So And I think Don't remember What the last game was that they announced for January or the first game of the year but I think last year that was announced right after Christmas yeah I think so it would not be unusual for them to repeat that so keep an eye out as soon as they announce something you'll probably read everywhere about it pinball media wise that is, of course. Yeah. Well, it always used to be the end of December and then the next game would come out the start of April. Yeah. Generally about a week after the Texas, well, a few days after the Texas Pinball Festival. Yeah, yeah. So, anyway. So, Stern was also very heavy on code updates in November. Twenty-two different games got code updates. Martin, can you tell us all about it, please? Yes. Well, I want to do all about it because that would be a four-hour pincast. We don't want to do that. But there was a big batch of updates for Thanksgiving. Mostly they were updating very, to us, minor things, such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark pricing schemes and adding verified location check marks to location games and a few other tweaks. But, yeah, they did them all for Monsters, Aerosmith, Guardians, basically every single Spike 2 game, with the exception, curiously, of James Bond's 60th anniversary.
    17:16
    Now, tiding with some of those updates were other features that have been added. So Stranger Things, Foo Fighters, Elvira's, House of Horrors, Rush, Venom, James Bond 007, not 60th anniversary, all got extra features as well, as did Black Knight Sword of Rage, actually got a little tweak to fix a bug, and Batman 66 also got a little tweak to fix a reset issue that could occur with some games.
    17:47
    James Bond 0076's anniversary didn't get, as I say, didn't get all the same updates as the other ones, but did get quite a few tweaks to the gameplay rules and behaviours and some extra bug fixes as well. So, really should have had, at least by the, I guess about the 14th or so of October, you should have got updates of basically every game if you have a Spike 2 game that's only the ones with the color LCD displays and if you're wondering what the hell is a Spike 2 game basically those are the games with an LCD monitor in the back box so starting with Aerosmith and Onward no sorry starting with Batman 66 oh yeah all of those it does seem I've harked on about this a few times it seems a bit daft the way they've set the software up that they want to change one or two little minor things like pricing schemes for Scandinavian countries they have to issue 22 different updates one for each game whereas they should just have a modular approach to the software where that's just one file which every game gets and then they wouldn't have to do it separately for every single game hopefully in their next system Spike 3 or whatever they end up with they'll come up with a better way of updating the games because at the moment every time they make a change, every single game has to get software updated we talked about this in the past, ok moving on, Jersey Jack Pinball sorry yes, ok just a block across the street oh no, it's no longer the case, sorry but still the same city yeah, not far away yeah, so Well they were at The European premiere I guess Of the Elton John game Which was at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo in Veldhoven Yes It was a premium version of the game Which was air freighted over Thanks to Pinball Pleasures Christoph Lienard Yes and thanks to Christoph Lienard As well for collecting Yoshi Jack Pinball prizes For us that was sent to his address that we basically were prizes for our So You Think You Know pinball quiz that we did at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo a couple of weeks ago which was a big success in fact we had to do two quizzes because we had so many prizes to give away we ran out of time the first time yeah so big thanks to Ken Cronwell and everybody at Jersey Jack Pimple for sending over a fantastic selection of posters, banners and various other prizes for us for that quiz. Yes. Now, in the meantime, November is IEPA month. IEPA, Florida it is, or Orlando. And Jersey Jack Pimple was present. So was Stern Pimple, by the way. But Jersey Jack was present with So was American Pimple, wasn't it? Yeah, alright, we'll get to that in a bit Two Elton John games Three times The Godfather Two times Toy Story 4 And one Guns N' Roses game Yeah And Jet Warnieri was present as well Of course, yeah I'm trying to think who else was there that was I don't think Steve was there To promote his game He was busy elsewhere Yeah, so I don't think Steve is dead mobile at the moment for medical reasons but we won't get into that because that's a private matter but they have Doja Jet Pinball have begun shipping out and dropping pinball machines to distributors but may need to be used as showroom games to help drive sales of the titles rather than to go out and be operated well if one game needs to be played in order to give it a fair judgement it is this Elton John game. I think we concluded that at Pinball Expo already. And I think many people would agree after playing it at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo. Yes, I think it's fair to say it was the most popular game of the show there with long lines to play throughout.
    22:15
    We were both fortunate, I think, to... Well, I was certainly fortunate enough to get on there early before the doors opened. I was fortunate enough to get in line and have to wait like 20 minutes. Did you? Oh, right. Okay. Well, that's what you get for turning up late.
    22:31
    But it was playing very nicely. I didn't see any problems with it over the entire course of the show, and it was played throughout from the first thing in the morning to the last thing at night. So it did well and was very popular, I think. Everybody who played it really enjoyed it. Yeah. Now, getting back to distributors getting showroom games, one of the first to get one was and this is not really a surprise I suppose, Great American Pinball which is like 20 minutes from the Jersey Jack Pinball Factory so they could probably pick it up locally and put it in there we've actually been there and there's pictures on the Pinball Magazine website in the Pinball Expo report of our visit to Great American Pinball, if you're interested in that. Yeah. Yeah, I think Mike and his team there were holding a party at their event. I saw all kinds of things. They had a pinball in a snow globe, which is a pinball machine inside a big inflatable ball with lots of balloons and inflatables floating around inside. So it's like playing it inside a snow globe, which seems like a fun thing to do. Yeah. But that was part of their recent party there. Yeah, so. Now, Jack Ranieri, always happy to promote the new game and the company, of course, attended Mikey's pinball party and tournament in Connecticut, dressed in his Elton John costume.
    24:09
    Yeah, yeah, he was there. And I think Mikey was dressed up as the bad guy from The Godfather as well. Oh. One of the gun-toting bad guys that you shoot in the game with the ball.
    24:28
    So it was a JJP-themed event, which looked very good. Yeah. And Jack's also been busy doing an interview with the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. Yes. Now, in there he mentioned there was a slight delay in the production of Elton John games, so it may not be on the line or might not be in full production yet but he also indicated they're not looking to take older titles back into production as he prefers to look forward so given that all their titles are licensed that may mean that they haven't renewed the license on some of their older games or that they've made all the ones they want to make of those and aren't going to bring out any either reruns or any limited edition runs. Yeah, or both games or whatever. So if you're looking for a pirate, then keep looking, because it doesn't come off the line anytime soon or anytime at all. No, it doesn't sound like it. Never say never, as they always say. Yeah, okay. So moving on to, well, I suppose one of the big hits at Pinball Expo, barrels of fun from Houston, Texas and much to the surprise of many Labyrinth already made its European debut again at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo thanks to Barry Dreesen from Dutch Pinball who bought one at Pinball Expo and had it flown in and was kind enough to bring it to the show so people could experience the game for themselves and again here also a long line of people waiting to play the game and it was very well received. Yes, including yourself in that line, of course. I saw you play that. I didn't get to play it at the show, at least not at Dutch Pinball Open Expo, having played it at Pinball Expo in Chicago. Yeah. But, yes, again, it seemed very popular, never saw any issues with it either. And the game was also exhibited quite heavily in probably about the same kind of size of display they had at Chicago Pinball Expo was at the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo, which was, not surprisingly, in Texas. And Texas, of course, being the home state for Barrels of Fun. Right. So it makes sense. It's been their local show, I think. And again, that went down very well. And I think they seem to have a very, very good reception wherever they go with their games. and seem to have built up a good reputation, I think, for a brand new company. They seem to have a lot of goodwill behind them, which is nice to see. Yeah, and smart as they are at Barrels of Fun, they understand that it's very important that the public gets to play the game in order to understand how much fun it is. and they have been distributing games to quite a number of locations right now. I think we're up to eight that I have listed here.
    27:49
    I'll just mention them briefly. IO Arcade Bar in St. Madison, Wisconsin. Lumberjack Johnny's in Appleton, Wisconsin.
    27:59
    61 Pin Bar in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Game Night Pimble Cafe in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Coinslops in Traverse City, Michigan. Wormhole Pimble, which is in Houston, Texas. Always nice people there.
    28:14
    We see them at the Texas Pimble Show every year. Joysticks, Classics and Games and Pimbles in, again, Houston, Texas. And the latest one to add to that list is Pimble Long Island, which I think is in New York.
    28:29
    Okay. You're getting the game out there. Yeah. Interestingly, Cointaker, who are a distributor, of course, of Barrels of Fun, on their website, it now says that production on the game won't begin until April 2024. Well, that's probably nice to create a little appetite, I suppose, with some games on location first.
    28:56
    Yeah, get them on location. and also put out a video as well, which they have done, about the making of the Labyrinth of Pinball, showing the development of the art and the sculpts in the game. That's on YouTube. Yes, a very interesting one. Again, you will find the link in the Pinball Magazine newsletter that will go out probably later this week, so early next week. And that rhymes it up for Barrels of Fun right now. Yeah, they weren't at IAPA But as we mentioned earlier American Pinball were They had a big stand there And But also Galactic Tank Force Made its European debut I think it's the European debut At the aforementioned Dutch Pinball Open Expo Where Pinball Universe Had it on their stand Where they had a little display of American games American Pinball games I should say They had the Jurassic Tank Force, they had the folded down model which is I think just a cabinet of it where it's into the tank shape with all the LEDs on the tank tracks animating. They also had Legends of Valhalla and Hot Wheels there on a little island of American Pinball Games. It was good to see that there and that again got a lot of people interested in playing the game. They also printed their own flyers for the games.
    30:24
    They do, yes. They're doing that for all the games, I think, aren't they? Apparently, yes. I had no idea until I saw the flyers for Galactic Tank Force, and I think Legend of Ohana, they brought two.
    30:39
    And these are A4 flyers. Yes. So all your flyer collectors see you have something else to do, to collect.
    30:48
    And they aren't alone in doing that. There are several reprint of flyers around now in A4 format from RS Pinball in Austria and also the Dutch Pinball Association, the NFB.
    31:04
    We have reprinted quite a few in the past as well with their branding on them. Yeah, but okay, we're drifting off from American Pinball, sorry. We were. No, you're quite right. We have a lot to cover. They did post Or release A promotional video For the Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition Which I thought Personally was rather late Since the game was Announced in March already And I thought it was sold out But in our interview with David Fitts Which we'll get to shortly That is addressed as well and he explains the reasoning behind that.
    31:51
    There are quite a few differences with this Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition, which is limited to 200 units, and some of these differences are painted Glow-Tec toys that shift colors with the playfield lightning, Radiant rubber reactive bands Which are basically glow in the dark Rubber bands Retro green powder coated metal Retro sky-pike diamond Coated playfield artwork It's not retro So basically you have a clear coat On your playfield A 3D dimension Lenticular back glass That was already given And the game also comes with Glow in the with powder coated armor, a pint glass a lunchbox a banner and two posters so lots of goodies to come with the game which is still available in a very limited quantity I would say the posters are the same that were distributed at Pinball Expo a couple of weeks ago Okay, and which we gave away, I guess Yes In our quiz Yes, in our quiz, indeed So American People also had a Black Friday discount in their webshop Offering $400 off Legend of Valhalla Limited Edition And there was some commentary on that game was sold out And so how could that be? Also that is addressed in the upcoming interview With David Fix So $400 off the limited edition Of Legends of Valhalla And we will explain Exactly how that Was possible And how you can Benefit from that discount Well I can tell you right now The sale has been extended It has You'll find out exactly how long And find out a lot more about that and an awful lot more about what's happening at American Pinball. Let's speak now with the executive vice president of the company, David Fix, who joins us now. Welcome, David. Thank you, guys. It's great to be here with you, as always.
    34:20
    So, a busy time for coming on. Yeah, sorry. No problem. Thank you. Yes, it's been a busy time. I actually was at IEPA Europe in September, flew back, did Expo, then IEPA Orlando, and now here. ranking up the well, it's the best for us so thank you for that no problem now one of the things we spotted when we were there and which I think we've referred to in the past is your target for the year end to build a total of 300 machines within the last three months of the year I think that's correct, is it? yes, yes, there's a lot of misconceptions about that 300.
    35:10
    Jonathan's going to ask me all about those questions. Let's eliminate a couple of rumors. For those who haven't seen it, there is a red signage or a print, a red print all over the factory using the 300 logo from the movie 300. but it has nothing to do with the moving 300 being one of your upcoming license fees. Correct. So it's an internal target, shall we say, to complete 300 machines by the end of the year. It said by December 2023, but it means by the end of December 2023. Correct.
    35:55
    So obviously you have a lot of, or have had, and will continue to have a number of things which will interrupt the production, things like IAPA, like Expo, like Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and New Year, and all that kind of stuff. So how's that target looking at this stage? Very good. We should hit it with no problem.
    36:21
    I understand we also put that out, Jonathan, right in October. Of course, we had Halloween then for the factory, so we kind of kept it Halloween themed. You know, just because we, you know, put a sign on the wall doesn't mean that it's like, you know, the end of the world. The idea of the 300 was just to, you know, at the end of December, when we hit the date, which right now we are currently right on target with this, we should be the largest amount of gains that this company has ever made in its history. And 300 put in the past. In one year? In one year, that is correct. Okay, so another rumor up in the air is, if you don't make the target, it would be the end of American Pinball. Is that correct? No, that's a vicious rumor.
    37:14
    Nowhere would a company that has hit the number that we've hit this year with all the games that we made would ever close. Okay, so we're doing very well. Sales have been stellar, and we're just continuing to move our products. So we're doing well. Okay so in this 300th we talking about two different games Houdini and Galactic Tank Force and Galactic Tank Force in various versions editions Correct. Correct. And in that number was the Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition, which was $200. So as a company, we wanted to be done with it already, right? But we wanted to make sure that anybody who is ordering their Galactic Tank Force Signature would have it by Christmas of this year, at the least, right? So the company is right there. We're going to hit the $200 mark on that. and everybody who ordered their Galactic Tank Force signatures will have them before Christmas. They have to reach out to the distributor and they can get that taken care of pretty quickly.
    38:24
    Is it also internationally or are you talking about the U.S. market? Well, it depends on the distributor, right? In fact, signatures are getting put into a container this week for Germany.
    38:37
    There's talk about Australia getting a container shortly. So, you know, the factory is producing the games. We're loading them up. We're trying to get them out as fast as possible. So we are definitely moving product. I think there's also a couple of distributors who may fly a signature over for their customers because they're trying to make sure they make timeframes. Okay.
    39:03
    As we're discussing rumors about, well, American pinball, but also pinball in general, and well you just mentioned there's a signature edition of Galactic Tank World, there's also the limited one and there's a standard one and basically where I'm hitting it don't you think the market is a little bit flooded with too many versions of the same game?
    39:28
    Well, yeah I would kind of agree with that especially if the manufacturers keep coming back and making another version of the limited version. So I'm not, I don't really buy into it. So this is Dave Fix, the collector, not Dave Fix, American Pinball. You know, what is limited, right? I mean, you know, oh, this is a limited foil edition. Oh, this is the other limited foil edition. I mean, it's like, it's kind of crazy, right? But we've seen games by other companies where the non-limited one was, it actually turns out to be more limited because less units were produced and everybody got the collector's edition or the limited edition or whatever you want to call it, making the standard edition more rare, so to speak. Yeah.
    40:19
    The standard edition was only like 100 made, right? No. So for us as a manufacturer, we're looking at, listen, we stick to our numbers. When it's limited, it's done. We move on. Now, if some people have canceled their orders or so, we'll allow people to buy that limited version, right? So they're still open. We'll probably get to that later on as well. But speaking of limited or different versions, I mean, okay, so there's four different versions of Galactic Tank Force. Would you be interested in a fifth one? what what the vanilla version or the uh a raspberry uh sorbet well i would say ice cream version and then you can do all the different flavors and what have you so no no no no no no no see you know in my world it is a collector right as a collector i've collected some games and i know they're rare and uh you know because there wasn't that many made of them, right? So in this case, the signature edition of Galactic Tank Force is limited to 200. I'm not coming out with a super secret two scoops version or a double secret probation Galactic Tank Force. No, no. The signature version is the high end. When it's gone, it is gone. And then we're going on to the next game. And we can talk about those a little bit too. But before we do that, just a reminder, how many different versions of Galactic Tank Force are you actually going to produce? Because I thought you were initially coming out with three, but you only produced the fourth if there was demand or if you thought the market was there for that. Is that correct, or am I misremembering that? Yes. So we did come out with a limited, right? It was a limited and a signature, the two top teams. And we did the deluxe, which is basically the limited in a deluxe cabinet, different art package on the cabinet, right? So it's just a little different. It's a little bit more geared for the coin-op market, right?
    42:35
    Judging on that market depends on if we come out with a classic edition. But right now, nothing on the paperwork, nothing talking about that yet. So we're just kind of like focusing right now on the limited and the signatures for everybody. Okay. I understood there's a couple of optical differences with the signature edition compared to the limited. Would you like to elaborate on that? Sure, sure. Yeah. The signature, of course, comes with the lenticular 3D back glass, okay, which is probably the, I don't know. It was a first in the industry for us here. No other company has done an actual printed glass. I think there was a Translight that had a lenticular on it.
    43:26
    But this was an actual. Go ahead. I think Dr. Dude was there and Avatar also with 3D Translight. Yes, yes, the 3D. But this is a lenticular style. So this is done with 108 layers. Chris Franchi had done 108 layers. So it gives the illusion of almost two to three feet back, right? So when you're looking at it, it's just stunning to see it. And when it's backlit, it's just gorgeous, right? So we played with that. There are two manufacturers in the world that make lenticular back glasses. One of them, unfortunately, passed away earlier last year, and his family has been kindly fighting about who's going to have the process of the lenticular and the other company, the company we ended up going with, they're the ones that are going to be able to print us this lenticular back glass. Right. But any changes on the play field?
    44:25
    So the play field, interesting enough, we played around a little bit with it. We noticed that the blue lights, when we were getting into the blue lights of the game, that it kind of gave us a really high-def glow-in-the-dark.
    44:47
    Yeah, it's quite sort of fluorescent almost, isn't it? Fluorescent, correct. So what we did was we changed it to glow-in-the-dark rubbers, and then we went out and painted all the toys in a special high-vis color so when it's a normal play it looks fine but when you turn on the blue lights and we go into the multi-ball, all the toys start to pop and start falling sort of fluorescent type of effect kind of like black light that's right it gives such a beautiful look when you're playing the game especially in any dark room any dark arcade you have that and you're just wanting to play this game you're going to sit there and you're going to put it in the signature, you're going to turn it on, and it's just going to go. It's just going to glow, right? And when you see it, you're just going to be, like, floored. Now, we do have a couple streamers who are getting the game, the signatures, pretty soon. So they'll be streaming the game for everybody to see. And when people start seeing it, they're going to be blown away with what we did with this.
    45:58
    We also tricked out the sources as well, see? Yeah. The spaceships. The spaceships, the robot inside. We also treated the powder coat differently. It's not just the standard gray. It's got a high-end green.
    46:20
    It's that kind of teal that feels for the game. It blends in very nicely with the game. We went a little bit on the high end with stuff to make the game feel really cool. Then it's also signed and hand-numbered on the bottom of the arch with a special hologram on the arch so that those are right there. And, in fact, behind me is where the holograms and the signatures have been locked in my office until we're ready to put them out. So every 50, I release 50 to the 4, they put them on there, and they put them on the 5, 50 games. And the same thing with the lenticular back glasses. any of them that have any problems they come and lock in my office they get sent back to the manufacturer so there's only the 200 glasses that were made so it's kind of cool that we kind of control this as really a collector's piece and then we give you the posters which we had the posters at Expo Jonathan you remember you grabbed yourself what was it a couple hundred posters I can't remember how many I got two for my personal collection, and I think we gave away two sets of two at the So You Think You Know Pinball Quiz that Martin and I do at the Dutch Pinball Open. And a set of exclusive flyers that were only available at Pinball Expo for each actor that performed in the game. So thank you for letting me take those. And I did not take hundreds. I wish I could. I will. I didn't look at you. I eat you, Jonathan. I'm teasing you. I'll be back and I'll come get you.
    48:10
    No, but talking about Expo for a minute, I mean, that was huge, right? We had all the actors there in full costume. Right. With the robotic tank. Right. and they were there signing the autographs of the individual autographs of all of their special flyers. So those are very special flyers. They only go to the actors. You can't get them anywhere else. So if you see an actor at one of the shows and they have it, you can get it from them. But, you know, it's kind of a collector's piece, you know. It's very cool to have that available, you know. And it was great for, you know, there were kids that just, you know, little girls who look up to Captain Tyann and she's, can we play pinball together? And she's there playing pinball with them. You know, so it's really cool. That really sounds like it's a unique event. Do you think you'd ever be able to, you know, get the band back together again and recreate that? I would love to try, but, you know, it was very tough because you have actors and actresses that are in different areas of the country, and we flew them in, you know, VIP status. You know, we took them out to dinner. We made sure they had a fun time. And just for them to kind of embrace this. We would love to do it for other shows. Show organizers, reach out to me if you want to do it for your shows. I can see. You know, I can't promise the world, but we could definitely, you know, make it kind of unique for your shows. it was very cool for Expo because people were able to walk in and we pulled no stops right I mean you saw the booth at Expo that was a 40 by 40 booth with the giant cows being abducted and the big giant screen showing all the clips and you know it was definitely a galactic tank force slogan yeah so speaking of the game very recently, last month you released this promo video for the signature edition and I was like, I thought those sold out at Texas People Festival in March already so why do a promo now?
    50:33
    Well they didn't sell out at Texas, we had a good number of those sold, right? Because again it's limited to 200 Correct and we had, I think it was like 160 sold. So there were some openings of like 40 games, but we knew that as soon as we start, you know, advertising that this thing is limited, right, that we'd start getting phone calls, right? So, and they have. The phone has started ringing quite heavily and, you know, people are trying not to miss out because, you know, listen, I'm a collector, right? I said that before. And if I'm going to collect something, This is something that's in my collection.
    51:14
    Dennis has it in his collection. Paul Reno. The one for Chris Franchi left today. Okay, so Chris is getting his. So there are the team that actually have the limited games, the signature games, because that is the top of the line. Okay.
    51:34
    Okay. So you briefly mentioned Expo. Now that you're so involved in American Fimble, do you still have time to do all your expo duties that you used to do?
    51:50
    It's kind of crazy, but I'm still trying to fit it in. And I told Rob that I would help him again. And, you know, the 40th is going to be with me and Rob again. We're going to bring another friend of ours in to do it. Work with us on Expo 40th. We'll make that announcement later. but this has been a labor of love for me and a labor of love for Rob for many years and we've been planning the 40th for a good period of time and I don't want to bow out before the 40th, right? So we're going to make it. I mean, I think this year was a wonderful show. People thought the layout was great. It was phenomenal. People were attending it. Rob is already going nuts for next year, the 40th. We've already made some deals. we are going to have a tour of American Pinball from Pinball Expo next year. Okay? Plus, there's going to be tours of other manufacturers at Expo. So we're really, like I said, the 40th, we're pulling out some major stops for Rob, and, you know, we're going to have some fun with it, you know? And I've been enjoying it, and I need to have other people step up, and we have. We had some other people step in and step up, And I have to always thank one of the key supporters of Pinball Expo, a man who is always very quiet behind the scenes, making sure so much gets put together. And then, of course, Pinball News' Martin.
    53:23
    Martin, running the seminar, spending all those hours, putting the videos up. And Jonathan. I couldn't do it without my compatriot here. Well, maybe it's somebody that wasn't being thought of because, Jonathan, also you have helped out immensely over the years, too, with Pinball Expo. There's many people unsung. I mean, you think about it. There's Jeff Oler. There's a bunch of little people who have, not just little people, people who are supportive of this. I mean, listen, Flippy. Flippy's out now. He's at the show. We're trying to make sure we're going to have his own security guard. And then next year, Flipette is going to be their flippy little sister. So, you know, it's going to be kind of fun. You know, we try that. But, you know, Jonathan and Martin, I know you guys, this labor of love sitting up there in that seminar room capturing pinball, you know, history right there. Martin deserves most of the credit for that. I give Martin a lot of credit. Occasionally help out. But, okay. How many games Martin played As a people expert I think I played six In the entire show And You know Martin should get A couple gold stars Not just because He does all that But he also puts up With Jonathan all the time That is a soft task Yeah Must be a grotten No argument there Anyway We'll come back To Expo Sure Later If not another time but I want to take this opportunity to use your time the best we possibly can and go back to what's happening at American Pimble. Yeah, right. And we were... One of the questions that... We were talking about rumours earlier that Jonathan was addressing and maybe I should also ask someone about one of your other titles, your Lettuce of Valhalla, and what's happening there with the limited edition of that because we thought they were all sold out, but then you... Black Friday came and the game was on sale. Exactly, yeah, with a special manufacturer discount of $400, I believe. So what's the deal there? How did that work? Does it still work? and why were they not sold out when we thought they were sold out? So they were sold out, right? You know, it's manufacturing. What happens is, unfortunately, you know, depending on the time frame you get your games out, you sometimes get left over with some orphans and some orders get canceled and people walk away from, you know, deals kind of thing. Now, granted, do I have thousands? No. Do I have hundreds? No. Do I have over 50? No, but I do have a good amount, not a lot, of the limited version of Legends of Valhalla, which you've got to remember, we were making classics, right? We made classics for the people who wanted classics. And we're still going to make classics, but I had some orders that got canceled on the limited, And instead of, you know, taking them and stripping them down and doing all this other, we're just going to, you know, we're kind of having a small Black Friday sale and making it impossible for some people to get it. Now, listen, you know, one of the things that when we brought out Legends of Valhalla, it was a very good game, right? It came on the market. People loved it. But since then, Frank and Steve Bowden and the rest of the Valhalla team have been working on the code. And they have gotten it to the point where it is tournament worthy, right? It's a really good, strong code for the game. And a lot of players have now been like, hey, I want to add that to my collection. which they've been buying classics, and there were some that were limited, which were sitting here. Well, the idea was we'll move out the limited. It did the Black Friday deal. We had a good amount of sales on those. We still have some left, and that's why I'm also stating here that we're going to continue running that deal until December 15th. So the manufacturer's rebate, which is an instant rebate, Only on new games, only new games that are being ordered by American Pinball until December 15th have an MSRP of $7,995. It's normally $83.95, but I'm giving you a $400 discount while supplies last. Once they're gone, they're gone. And all you can get is classics. And like I said, there's a good amount, but we're going to blow through those and we'll sell them, right? So until December the 15th. Okay, so how does that work if I was looking to buy one of these limited editions through my distributor, and I said I want to buy it and I want the 400 discount, and they say, well, we've already got three in stock, so we'll give you one of those, but we're not going to order any more from American, so there's no discount.
    58:59
    Correct. Or he has to give you the discount and say, hey, listen, I'll give you the discount. And then, you know, he might blow that out. But most of my distributors that I've reached across are not sitting on any limiteds. All right. So they, you know, this is a pure deal kind of thing. So if you want one, Martin, you could reach out to, let me think, it's Phil at Pinball.
    59:23
    And say, Phil, I want a Legends of the Hollow Limited. according to American, I get it at $7,995. That's MSRP.
    59:33
    Of course, there's, you know, all that other stuff. You know, exchange rates and all that other stuff. But you're not paying tax, right? You're not paying import tax and other tax. On the $83.95, you're paying it on the $79.95. So you're saving the $400 there. So you do save some stuff there, right? And then you could get it. Once they're gone, they're gone. Right. This is the limited version of Valhalla, which has the mirrored back glass and all the hand-painted toys. Yeah, and the full scopes. Yeah, full scopes, the side blades, the, you know, now the new code that's available, which has the jukebox mode in it. It has, you know, a bunch of other cool things that just make the game play beautiful, right? And trust me, Legends of Ahala Is an Amateur game that a good friend of mine Steve Ritchie played a couple Times and said, hey, you got something here It's a good game It is a good game, yeah, it's a very underrated Game I would say Yeah, so A bit of a sleeper should we say Now, talking about some of your Earlier titles, because it's very Easy to spend all our time talking about Galactic Tank Force But when we visited you this time, and I think when we visited you a year before that, you were working on some mods for games which may or may not turn into production items, might add extra features, or take existing games and make them, move them to another level, shall we say. Have you got any news on any of those? Anything you want to announce or talk about yet? I love how Martin turned his camera off so I didn't see his face when he was asking these questions but yes no pressure David the questions that were never asked factory mods yes we are still working on factory mods we don't have anything yet we will announce it shortly when the factory mods are available They are taking games to a new level.
    61:51
    Martin is absolutely correct. We do have some of those that are in the works. And when we have those done, people are going to be excited. And remember, when we do a factory mod, we do something that goes all the way back to game number one. So that means that if I make something that changes the gameplay, changes it, makes it a little better or fixes something, I've made it so that guy who has Houdini 0002 because 001 is sitting right here 002 can buy the mod, put it in and maybe do a software update and can do it, but most of the times it's just plug it in and go so we are working on some factory mods for some of our games can you already reveal for which games you're working on such a great few mods. So that people who have those games have something to look forward to. Like, oh, something's coming. I can't wait.
    62:54
    Well, let's put it this way. There are two mods. One is for one of the toughest games that is made by American.
    63:03
    And that will help make it not so tough, but can be turned off for tournament mode to make it just as tough as it always was. And the other one is something that just always has screamed for this kind of mod in this game and just didn't have time to develop it. And the team here, Ryan McQuaid and team, developed the mod, and it's pretty cool. That one we probably will see sooner than the other one. But time will tell. We have a lot of work ahead of us, guys, a lot of work. Well, you have. Are we talking Texas Pinball Festival that both will be reviewed, or is that even too soon? That might be a little, well, maybe one would be revealed by then, but not both.
    63:47
    You know, you've got to remember, we're a small team, right? And if I was my competitors, I'd have a bigger team, right? I'd have a, you know, I only have three software guys, right? One rules, two software. I have one mechanical engineer, two game designers, and a bunch of art people, right? I have two animators and one art director. And then we hire out our art team, right? And then I have an electrical guy, right? So that's it. Small team. Right. Now, speaking of teams, and we were just talking about Legend of Valhalla, which is actually developed by Riot Games, Scott and Frank.
    64:37
    Are we going to see another Scott and Frank or Riot Games game with American Pinball? Yes. And can you indicate when, in what order, when we might expect them? Or when, so to speak?
    64:58
    Not next year, but soon after. You have to wait and see, Jonathan. Jonathan, I mean, I'm always amazed how everybody wants to know what the next game is. The next game, what's the next game? You know, that kind of thing. Okay, well, let's But, yeah, that's a whole other subject. But let me just put, let me just say this, that Scott and Frank have been asked, we knew we were going to do another game with them. We're just giving him some time, but we're also working with a license there. So, that's kind of a fun title for us. So, yes, we have licenses coming.
    65:38
    Well, that sort of brings me on the next rumor to neutralize, so to speak. Apparently, there's a rumor going around or some people claiming that American Pinball is, upcoming games are only going to be non-licensed and, well, is that true? Is there any truth to that, or what can you tell about that? So we do have some non-licensed games, but the next game is non-licensed. The game that follows that, if you ask the designer, he'd say it's a pseudo-license, but it's a non-license, right? It's kind of like a follow-up. Let's just say that. That's a good word. And then after that is license and another license. Okay. Now, you have only a limited number of designers.
    66:37
    If I'm not mistaken, Barry Osler... Let's see if we can get them all right here, Jonathan. If I'm not mistaken, Barry Osler, who sadly passed away, was working on a game which he, I believe, mostly finished before his passing. I would guess that would be the next title after Galactic Tank Force and then we have Dennis Nordman working on what I suppose will be another non-license you have Ryan McQuaid in there and I suppose then it would be up to Riot Games Scott and Frank you got it right in the right order buddy So, yes. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. How many points did I get for that? I don't know. How many times did I have to tell you before this? No, just kidding.
    67:37
    No, so, yes, Barry's game is the next game. We're kind of excited. Now, this is a labor of love for the entire team. Understand that Dennis helped out with this game. Ryan helped out with this game. we all wanted to pay tribute to Barry in this game sadly to lose Barry he gave us his design for the whitewood and sadly he passed away before he ever got to flip it in fact he gave me the whitewood design I loved it is pinball it is the essence of pinball and to see this game and to wanting to play it and then to basically get a phone call the next day from his wife saying that he passed was very tough. It was very tough for the whole team.
    68:41
    And it wasn't easy for this team. But this team has come together because it's giving tribute to a friend, a friend to the pinball community, Barry Osler. I mean, the man designed some of the great pinball machines, right? You know, he was a game designer that studied under Norm Clark. Not Norm Clark. Sorry. Steve Kordek. but he was the guy who you know came into this industry and uh was very good at what he does and uh to have what he put together for us and he was already working on his second game right he already but he sadly never got it to a point where he was happy or you know he had concepts written down and like dennis barry even ryan um and even scott at riot they kind of write a story about what they want to do in the game and and what the storyline is based upon uh this this game is going to be you know this so you know like galactic tank force started off with you know this is this is you know we have a princess and an empress and we're going to battle this and it's going to be this cool thing, it's going to be a tank, you know, this whole storyline was developed, right, and same thing with Ryan's game is coming out, and the same thing with Barry, Barry designed and had a whole storyline behind it, I mean, everybody's got a storyline behind it, so Barry's second game had just a storyline, but never had any development, but his, this game here was developed, and then he needed a little tweak, a little love, Dennis jumped in, helped an awful lot. Ryan jumped in and helped some spots here and there with the game. And for the most part, we have a really nice flipping pinball that actually has already been sent out to our sound engineer. One's being sent out to our software engineer and many other people. So that kind of gives you a little bit of time. We need names. Oh, oh, oh, sound engineer. Well, okay, there is somebody new in the sound engineering. We've had Matt Kern. Matt's a great sound engineer, and we will be using Matt in the future. But the next game is coming from David Thiel. So David Thiel is joining the ranks of the sound engineers for American Pinball. So we're happy to have David on that. The software guy is, of course, Joe Schober, which Joe has been on the team since Oktoberfest. So Joe will be working on the software for this new game shortly. And then, of course, we have our artist, who is Dan Hughes.
    71:35
    Dan is no stranger to pinball. He was a good friend of Barry's. So Dan is, you know, he knew Barry. He worked at WMS and Williams back in the day. He did games like, you know, Corvette and, let's see, Corvette, what else did he do? I can't remember, Indianapolis 500, and a few other games. So, you know, Dan's no stranger to the art department for pinball. So he's going to be doing that. And then, of course, David doing the sounds is just, you know, you've got a sound engineer like David Thiel, he's just going to knock it out of the park. So we're kind of excited about that.
    72:18
    Sorry, Martin, go ahead. That's all right. I was going to say, obviously, this game means a lot to everybody in America and everybody who knew Barry. And I understand that everybody wants to give it their utmost and make it a real tribute to Barry.
    72:35
    Is it the kind of game which, or is the company in a position where it doesn't really matter whether it's a huge seller or not, but the important thing is that it is the game that Barry would have wanted it to be? because I imagine it's not going to be... It's going to be a unique game, if you put it that way. It's not going to be like anything else that's out there very much. Maybe a little bit more like the way some companies are going now, but it's not going to be a high-tech, multimedia-fest type game, I would suggest. It's going to be, as you said yourself, pretty much pure pinball.
    73:21
    Yes, it does. It is pure pinball. There's a bunch of little things that Barry had been working on for many years, let's just say, and this game perfects it.
    73:36
    So I can't go into more detail on that. But I will say one thing, Jonathan. I know you were asking me a question about this earlier. Spoiler, he did ask me a question earlier, and I said I wouldn't tell him. but I will give you one word that is in the title of the next game.
    73:58
    And the one word that I'm putting in there is the word Barry. Yeah. Okay. Good. So we did name the game. This is Barry's game. Yeah. This is Barry's game. And do we have a time frame for a Barry's game? So the way we do with manufacturing, it's out. it's you know we're gearing up for it it'll be in 2023 probably sometime in the spring of 2023 we'll just have to wait and see ok now we just mentioned the other designers we know that Dennis is working on a game are we also going to see that in 2023 or even 2020.
    74:48
    Let's get it right. I said it. 2024. Sorry, sorry. Yeah. Wow. My bad, my bad. You guys are flying by here, my friend. Yes. No, we should be seeing that in 2024 sometime too. Late 2024.
    75:03
    Okay. Right. Okay. So remember when you first heard So what kind of next year So to put it in this you know aspects think about this One mechanical engineer, two designers, you know, kind of like, you know, Dennis working on one and so forth.
    75:26
    An art team with two animators and one art director. Three software people, right? Two programmers, one rules. that's it so we're maxed out at our bandwidth right this minute we could grow bigger we will grow bigger we'll bring more people in we've already been talking about that um of course yeah so you are you looking for another yeah 300 helps an awful lot to grow right so we're going to be doing that um but if a mechanical engineer is listening right now and is like hey I would love to work for American Pitbull should he contact you yeah you can reach out to her he or she absolutely Sophia would love to have you know anybody who would like to join the American Bimbo we've had some candidates that have put their hat in the ring let's just put it that way we've unfortunately circumstances haven't led them to be here with us but you know hey the door is always open right we're always looking for people who want to find a passion and to work on a game audio engineers artists, you know, we'll look at it, right? We'll talk about it, but it's up to them at the end of the day whether they get to geek or not, right, or up to us. So it's just kind of like we'll figure it out. But yes, if a mechanical engineer is out there listening or a double E is looking, an electrical engineer or anybody who wants to, you know, do that kind of thing and they want to join America, they can send a resume in. We'll look at it. We'll set up a teams meeting, have them talk about it. There is growth. And I'm happy to say that America is growing. You guys were in the factory, right? You saw the growth.
    77:14
    Think about it. We're cranking out machines left and right here. So I'm happy about that. It's come a long way from what America was. And Martin will remember this, that in three days, right, Martin? three days from now is that three years ago, three days from now, is when David Fix walked in the door at American Pinball. Congratulations. December 7, 2020. A very good date.
    77:42
    Yeah, it's kind of crazy when people say, so, David, it's December 4, 2023. What did you think? I said, well, let's see. Three years ago, I was living in New York. I have a place here now in Chicago in Palatine, 10 minutes from the office. you know, was pretty much seated there in New York pretty heavily. And now I think that I'm spending more time here in Chicago in the factory helping them get to that next level. And the next level after that is just mind-blowing to me. But, you know, here we are three years in and ready to go into the next phase, which is 2024, which is crazy to me. You know, it's amazing how fast time has flown. love working with this entire team. This team is a very passionate team that wants to be there, right? You know, so going back to the game, right, the next two, they were being built simultaneously. So it's been a challenge for the team, right? I mean, not a very big team, but it's been a challenge for all of them to kind of, you know, okay, we're doing this game, we're doing that game, we're doing this game, we're doing that game. so you know that kind of brings me to my next question because you were talking just now about manufacturing issues and we've seen you know particularly in the past couple of years there have been unexpected delays in sourcing various components or things have not been up to spec when they've arrived is it possible because these two games have been developed in parallel virtually that we might see Genesis game come out before Barry's game if it turns out that there is a particular delay on a part or there is an issue with Barry's game or Dennis' game comes through faster than was expected? So that's a funny question you asked.
    79:39
    I don't know how you have insight there, Mr. Martin. Yes. It has already flip-flopped once, and that's where it's at now. So it's pretty locked in there. Because they were parallel for such a long time, they were flip-flopping back and forth. We were like, okay, we're going to bring out Dennis' game because that's got X, Y, and Z done, and it's good. And then it's like, well, this mech isn't working great, right? So let's redefine this mech. Okay, guess what? Barry's game has now flopped back into that place. Okay, Barry's got a delay over here. Okay, well, maybe do we need to move Dennis' game forward? It's kind of one of those things. We keep looking at it, but it's great as a manufacturer to have that. And then I have Ryan in his own little world, right, working on his game. And then I got Steve and Frank working on their game. So, you know, basically we have, you know, Barry and Dennis in parallel, and then I have Scott and Ryan working in parallel. so you know the future looks very bright you know we have games that are being developed and uh it's good you know it's fun i mean i would say one of the one of the persistent i'll say worries or issues um nagging issues i suppose in the back of people's minds when it comes to american pinball is okay you say you're a small company you're not selling thousands of machines but you are selling many hundreds of machines we know that and you're making many hundreds of machines is the long term funding in place to make sure American pinball is there for many years to come that's got to be a worry because you said it yourself people have been there have been rumours around about if you don't sell 300 is that it is somebody going to pull the rug out from underneath you is your funding source going to be cut. That kind of goes back to that rumor which you've already put to bed. But with any company, large or small, there's always going to be questions about how viable they are in the long term.
    81:57
    Particularly if they're relatively small companies, in the scheme of things, like American is. Yeah, well, let me touch on that for a second. Listen, when I started here three years ago, the question from Mukesh before he hired me was, he had one question, either I join the company or the company goes bankrupt and is gone, okay, so yes, given a new lease on life, we, you know, that kind of makes you like, okay, I gotta fight, and anybody who knows me is that I'm very passionate about my jobs, and I'm very passionate about pinball, and then I put 120% in and I continued to work exceedingly hard to make what is the hardest job in the world, you know, run a pinball factory. So the first year, I was hesitant. Did we do enough? And Mukesh was happy, okay? He says, yeah, we did okay. You know, the second year, we did, you know, and his words was, we're in the black. So, okay, we're there, right? So now comes 2023, and we're just shy of that mark that is the most amount of gains this company's ever made. So, yeah, he's happy, and the manufacturer's happy, and we're, you know, we're doing our job, right? We are a small company, and what I'm looking forward to is hitting that number and then be able to grow a little bit more and bring some more people in to make us not so crazy, right? You know, I laugh. My wife goes, I go on a small little vacation for our 25th wedding anniversary for IAFA Europe, right? I took a week off before the show. and she's like, you know, her happiest moment was the one day that I didn't have my phone turned on. And then the second day, she goes, you're on vacation, you know that. And I still answered like 20 or 30 emails or something stupid like that. But it was like the time difference was perfect for me and I was able to, you know, gallivant through Germany and Salzburg, Austria, and then get over to Vienna, which was a great little rest, let's just say, because when you're running a pinball factory, running a pinball, some people say, do you go home and play pinball anymore?
    84:40
    I do. In fact, yesterday I worked on my games, first time in a while that I have here. I have four games, four games in the basement right now. That's a new place.
    84:52
    So I did get to work on them for a little bit and spend time. But it's kind of weird, you know, because, you know, when it's your day-to-day job, you know, almost seven days a week, it kind of gets old, right? So I have a very understanding wife, which is nice. and she, you know, love of my life, and she's been very supportive over the years with this crazy hobby that's now turned into this gigantic job. But know that there's a lot of support from within just this little company that we're all fighting to keep pinball alive. And, you know, it kind of worries me, and I'm sure Jonathan is going to get into this question about the pinball market, but the pinball market is a very interesting market right now, what is selling, what isn't selling, what's the numbers, what's the trends how are things working, how are you doing with American pinball and it's a job, it's work I'm very happy with Galactic because Galactic has been a good mover for us has filled a lot of openings and the signatures are being received very well by the people who've been wanting something very special in order to show off a very cool game for people. But the market has changed.
    86:20
    The market is not the same as it was during COVID or after COVID. The market is very, very much like pre-COVID now. So it's kind of an interesting time. And somebody said to me today, he says, would you call it conflation?
    86:38
    I guess it would be, you know, depending on where we are with the market, right? So there will be a kind of an evening of the market, let's just say. At some point, I know it will be. Can you tell us what you mean by what it was like pre-COVID compared to how it's been in the past year? Sure. So, like pre-COVID, giving back to when I worked for ICE, you had your hot months, your cool months. Let's say January, February are always low on sales. March, April, May are up. No sales in June, July, August. September starts peaking back up. October starts hitting a higher strength. November, December finishes strong. and then after the new year you go back down in that curve it usually follows with the US economy a little bit so around sometime in the end of February beginning of March people are getting their tax refunds and they have some money to spend so they might look at buying a pin or selling their old pin with a little extra cash and buying a new something new that they think is very cool which is great and then that's that first rise so that's the March, April, May kind of thing And then families go on vacation in June, July, August. So you always see a slight, you know, a drop in sales, right? So you have to be prepared for that and schedule yourself properly. And then September, the kids are going back to school, and then October hits is when people start thinking, hey, I need to get something for the holidays, right? And then holiday sales kind of take over in November and December and finish strong for the season. And, in fact, right now that's kind of why we're pushing very heavily, you know, to have the signatures done very shortly so that everybody for the holidays will have a signature if they ordered it under their tree. So we're on schedule right now to have every signature done, and then anybody who orders one or, you know, because there's still some available, not much, you know, people are getting phone calls, that there are some available, and if you order it, you probably will have it for Christmas. So you'll have something that's very unique. everything you described there about the market and the fluctuations were all based around selling to the home buyer, not to operators.
    89:03
    So, yeah, interesting you say that, Martin, but it's the same. It's kind of weird. I know what you mean. So most operators do not buy anything in January, February. There's a reason why the AMOA show, the spring show, is always in March, and that's when they start opening their checkbooks because they're thinking about opening their FECs and opening them back up for the spring. So they come out in March, they buy for April, May. When June comes along, most of the FECs are wide open and they're trying to... They have everything in stock. They don't want to bring in new machinery. They don't want to tie up their old stuff. They don't want to take something off the floor. So they kind of just kind of ride that market, and they continue to bring out their stuff. Now they're also hoping, it's what we call the Jersey Shores, and a lot of the FECs that open for the summertime, they're open May, June, July, August, right? And then September, and then they might be around until the end of October for their Halloween special, and then they're gone, right? They shut down for the winter, right? They're gone. And that's the reason that IAPA is in November, because a lot of FTCs are already closed for this season, and they're looking to find out what the big new thing is going to be for next year. If I put my order in November, I will definitely have it before I open the store come March or April.
    90:40
    And then that's when they also re-look at their stock levels, they look at their gains, and you decide if they're going to keep them or not. So it's an awful lot going on right there at first. But it's interesting how that curve just goes across both levels, coin op and for the home market. So it really does follow pretty strongly.
    91:07
    So that's industry insights with David. Well, there's a reason if you go back far enough, right, If you listen to all the, you know, Martin will know what I'm talking about. If you listen to all the people that we've ever interviewed at Expo who always said the worst month to release a pinball game is what? June, July, August, right? It's the summer months. Games usually do horrible during those launch marks because it's at the wrong time of year. Families are there. People aren't seeing the game. People are out. They're on vacation. and things just don't sell, right? And, you know, if you really want to kill a game, release it in that period of time.
    91:54
    Now, granted, right after COVID and the year after, you know, the last two years up until 23, summer was okay because families were not still traveling as much. So they were taking it and saying, hey, let's make a staycation. Let's get a game for the house. Maybe we'll go out to see Grandma, Grandpa. we're not going to go very far on this vacation. We're not going to fly somewhere. We're going to just put the money into the house a little bit. Maybe mom wants something new in the kitchen or something, or mom wants a new television.
    92:27
    There's always some stuff there, right? A lot of times moms want a new pinball machine too, so there you go.
    92:36
    And, of course, the business has changed in that time. We're going back to when you were talking about you wouldn't launch a game in June, July. That was when you'd bring out a game, you'd make it for three, four months, and it's done, and you move on to the next one. Now you're making Houdini's, you know, from, what, four years ago?
    92:57
    Well, that long ago, yeah. So you're still making those now and bringing out, you know, making changes to that game even now. so who knows when that game was launched in the start of the year I suppose it would have been post-Expo it was shown at Expo 2016 released to the public at Texas about three months later didn't you that's right, I remember it was a real rush for that to be turned around from what you've shown at Expo to what you ended up presenting at Texas?
    93:36
    I think we were showing a game that had not a dot matrix at the time, a screen, and we still have orders for this game, right? It's 2017. People are still giving us deposits, wanting the game new, and buying the game because the game has long legs, right? and just take a second and look at IDBP, Internet Pinball Database, and look at what else was released in 2017. Look at the games that were out there at that time. And there's Houdini in the mix, and he's still being sold. And it's funny because I still go to shows and people go, Are you still making Houdini? Where do I get one? And it's like, you know, we didn't have it at IEPA, But we hit the flyers, and I took, I think, 200 flyers, and people were like, oh, I still need to talk to my distributor. And I hit Betson and Moss and Central Distributing and a couple European distributors come over and like, hey, when you're producing them now, can I get it on the list? Can I, you know, this, that, the other thing. So it's 2017, and games are still being produced. Yeah.
    94:56
    Okay. Now, on a completely different subject, because Houdini was the first game for American Pinball after... Oh, let's not get into that.
    95:11
    But I remember that American Pinball in the early days also attempted to get into the redemption game market with a game called The Flying Dutchman. A flying Dutchman. I can't imagine why you'd remember that name.
    95:30
    Yeah, I don't know either, Jonathan. We should have called it the flying Houston, but go ahead. But is that still a market that you're looking to tap into? Is that project dead, or is it on hold, or what's the status? Good question. Again, bandwidth, right? Let's get pinball well under control. Let's keep ourselves looking in. pinball where we are with that right now.
    96:00
    The Flying Dutchman is something that could always maybe raise its sales again in a new format. Something that's designed a little bit more, how do I say it, reliable, fun, all the way around. Is there a market for redemption games? Yes. Are we going to do it anytime soon? No.
    96:22
    We're a small group. We're going to focus on pinball. and then who knows? If the group grows, we could always dabble a little into redemption. Listen, I spent a good part of over six years with my friends over at ICE. They're good people.
    96:40
    Is there a possibility down the road of some of us developing a game and then having ICE build it? Absolutely.
    96:48
    There are many manufacturers out there who would love to take a concept or something that we develop and work together on such a thing. But, you know, you're talking, you know, worlds in the future. But, you know, given the smallness of this team and this group, I'll say that we're focusing heavily on pinball because, after all, we're known as American pinball, not just American arcade, right? So we're American pinball. Okay. I guess we sort of covered all the rumors that we wanted to address and a lot more thank you for that just one last question I'd like to ask before we head because as you say you are the head of American Pinball and it's easy true for those who are not that familiar with the business to think it's all about the design of the games and getting the licenses, getting the artwork, and getting the actual play fields to flip wonderfully. But due credit to Gary Stern a long time ago, he said, we are a manufacturing business.
    98:05
    And basically, Stern and most other companies, bimbo companies, could manufacture anything, as we were just talking about making reduction games. and the design side of it is the bit that feeds the manufacturing. How much of your time is taken up dealing with the creation of the games and how much is it taken up in actually making sure you have a manufacturing operation that has everything it needs, the staffing, the parts, the supply chains and all that, and the ability to deliver the product at the end of it as well? so so i will say that to start off it was more it was 100 of everything right when we first started um to create the teams to bring the people in to start working on the projects to work on that listen um i decided i started december 7th, 2020. October 7th, 2021. Ten months difference. We released Legends of Valhalla from a new team. So that gives you a clue how quickly we turned around. We brought in, the entire front office was changed, the entire, you know, the art department, everything. There was none. We had software engineers, yes, but for the most part, we brought in everybody, and in 10 months, this company took and made a new game. Now, at that time, I was happy to be back more back, let's say 40% or 30% within R&D, and now it's a little bit of a change, right? With Galactica, I was a little bit more involved.
    99:53
    Barry's game, I'm a little more involved. Dennis's game, I'm a little more involved. but you gotta understand something, it's not me being involved in like say, you know, I'm telling Dennis how to do his job Dennis knows how to do his job, Brian knows how to do his job Scott knows how to do his job, hell, Barry knew how to do his job, right and Zofia knows how to do their job, you know, I hired people that know how to do their job, but for me to step in and just kind of help out where I can, kind of give direction, kind of, you know you know, to say, hey, listen, this isn't jiving kind of thing. And, you know, it's a new perspective. So for me to jump in there and help with this with the team has been, you know, helpful. Granted, we had to bring in a production manager. Now we have, you know, different people, new people on the line, new people in the stock room, new people here, right? So we had to work our way through a lot of bumps and, you know, a lot of little, how do I say, growing pains. A lot of growing pains. We lost some people along the way, which, again, growing pains. And it's not been easy, right? So, and one of the growing pains is when you change people, you miss little things, right? You miss little bitty things. and I know there was something I was going to talk about, Jonathan and you, about, and we kind of missed that. And that's, you know, when you change personnel, you miss things. And it's good for a company to look back and go, oh, wait a minute, we forgot, right? We forgot that the shooter lane switch on Galactic Tank Force needs a little drop of thread lock, right? Not the heaviest thread lock or lock type, just a little bit. to keep the switch mounted properly.
    101:49
    We forgot about it, you know, and now it's been corrected. But so why I'm saying that is that we had a little issue with galactic tank force. Some people say, hey, the ball's on the shooter lane. It doesn't know it well. Look at the shooter lane switch. So it leads the company to think, well, do we need to perfect this a little bit better? Do we need to do this? But then again, it's like, do we have the bandwidth to do that? and do we have the time to do that?
    102:18
    And the question a lot of times is, you know, will we have the time to do that? And I think we've done that in the long run. We've had, you know, some growing pains, but you have to deal with it, right? You have, you know, technical service. You've got people who never looked at a pinball machine ever in their lifetime and they want to buy one, right? So then they're like, how do you do this? How do you do that? Jams up the phone lines. It jams up service a little bit. And then, you know, you walk them through stuff. But like I said, it's growing pains. To answer your question, I'm getting to the point now where I'm 50-50 or actually 60-40. I'm really walking away from production a lot more because production is humming, right? It's meeting their goals. It's hitting all that stuff. So I'm happy to go, okay, I don't need to be in charge of production. I don't need to be this. I have managers to take care of that. I don't have to have oversight on this. I can back off and just let them take care of stuff. Right. But, no, I'm the first guy in the line of defense. If there's something wrong with production, I'm going to be the first one breathing down their neck. So, you know, it's kind of, it's still not, I shouldn't say breathing down their neck. We're a team. We're going to work as a team. But I'm going to be, like, directing them, like, hey, how did you cut this corner? Why did you miss this? What happened? And how can we, you know, effectively get this back? What do we need to mitigate this and get this corrected? So there's a bunch of little things that we, you know, sometimes pops up that we have to take care of. But for my aspect, my role, I'm like, like you said, Martin, I'm walking myself back and back and back away from production, spending a little more time with sales, spending a little more time with the marketing groups, spending a little more time with, you know, R&D. so it's you know i don't know if there's enough hours in the day with everything that i do um you know some people think that you know what was the best the best statement somebody said there's plenty of time to sleep when you're dead yeah so okay thanks yeah i sorry went a little long around the way to answer that question but i think yeah i think so anything for you john You've been quiet there. I've been paying attention and listening to your very intriguing explanation of basically what your job looks like and explanation of how the market works. So thank you for that. It's very interesting. At least I found it very interesting. I suppose that The next time we will meet Will be at Texas Pinball Festival And From what you mentioned earlier Hopefully In the company of Barry's Game We will see Yeah But one thing I will say Jonathan Is please remember I think you guys are going to do your famous trivia question. Yeah. Remember, American Pinball, in the past, has always supported you guys and will still support you, so I'll send you some cool toys and some cool giveaway stuff for your trivia question. If you needed a reason to be at the Texas Pinball Festival, you just got it.
    105:48
    I think we gave you guys a play field one year, didn't we? Did we do that last year? I can't remember. I remember giving you some cool stuff over the years Yeah, we've got posters and banners and things like that Yeah, the size of the crew you get this year I definitely am going to throw a play field in there so you'll have a really cool, maybe I'll get it autographed by the team here, I don't know what I'll have but I'll get you a nice play field and we'll get you some back glasses and some really cool stuff to give away there at Texas All I remember was being in line to get some posters in and you were shouting at me.
    106:28
    I wasn't shouting at you. You're standing there with your hands full of 200 posters. That's why. It wasn't 200. He's walking around like this. If you guys can see his posters, he's like, quit before David said it. Let's get out of here.
    106:48
    Well, the people that won them were very happy with them. They were indeed, yeah. And we were happy to give them away.
    106:55
    I know they all went to a good home, so that's a good thing. Right. Well, thank you very much indeed, David, for taking the time on this busy time for you and answering our questions and hopefully giving a real insight into what's going on and what's coming up at American Pinball. Thank you, Martin. Thank you, Jonathan. Look forward to seeing you guys at Texas. And to everybody out there, remember that Americans already promised that we were going to deliver our Galactic Tank Force signatures for all those who ordered it under their Christmas tree this year or whatever holiday they happen to celebrate. And we look forward to a happy 2024 with an exciting future ahead of American Pinball and a lot of fun for everybody. We keep flipping. All right. Thank you, David. Thanks for this wonderful insight in his job and how American Pinball is doing. And all the exciting games they've got coming up as well. Yeah, exactly. Thank you for your time.
    108:00
    Right. And we still have quite a few companies to discuss. So, Dutch Pinball. Let's get on with it. Yeah. Okay. The biggest news from Dutch Pimble, of course, is that my big Lebowski game is finally boxed up and ready to be picked up, which I'll do later this week. Fantastic. Congratulations. I hope it's worth the wait. I hope so, too. Yeah, and you'll be able to enjoy it, either at home or on vacation. Yeah, so, now, we already mentioned the Dutch Pinball Open Expo, which was held last month near Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Dutch Pinball had three big Lebowski games set up at the show.
    108:54
    They also held an after-party on the Saturday evening. Now this is where it becomes interesting and where rumors start and speculation starts. So what was so special about this after party? Well, the after party was an event where there were drinks and there was music playing and people could mingle. and it was kind of the bit after the show closed from 10 o'clock in the evening until 1 o'clock in the morning. Yeah, no people being present in that area. No, there was a free prize draw for everybody who was there who could win the Big Lebowski playfields or toys from the game or rugs, that kind of stuff. but um i guess the bit you're referring to was uh was the dj it was uh jewel reavers who's a dutch pinball sound guy and he was he was uh hitting the decks and uh he was also wearing a t-shirt which uh you may choose to read something into or you may not but it was basically for you the band Huey Lewis and the News.
    110:19
    And there was a, somebody who was reading things into that might suggest that that could be a hint at a potential Back to the Future game from the company, given that Huey Lewis and the News are on the soundtrack of Back to the Future, or at least a couple of the films. Yeah, two tracks at least. Yeah, Back in Time and Power of Love, I think, those tracks.
    110:47
    Alternatively, you could also pick up something from the fact that Jules was playing a lot of daft punk music, apparently at Barry's request. So we don't know whether that's a potential thing. That's not the only daft punk reference. It's not? No. It's easier for you to say. Yeah. mechanical engineer at Dutch Trimble and a very close friend of Barry heavily involved of course in the mechanical design of the big Lebowski and working on the upcoming title for Dutch Trimble he was wearing a Daft Punk sweater as well on the Saturday of the show. So I found it quite coincidental that Guus was wearing a Daft Punk sweater and Jules was playing quite a lot of Daft Punk music in his DJ set. So make of that what you want, speculate away. And how great would it be?
    112:03
    Oh well, you can fill in the notes, I suppose. Elsewhere. Of course, this could also just be Dutch pinball teasing and playing around and trying to, playing games with you, trying to stir up some speculation or maybe get your attention off a certain scene, speculating on another one.
    112:29
    We don't know. We're just observing and reporting. Right. Okay. So, anyway, let's get back to the facts around that speculation, because they been posting Perfect Well yeah what they mean is speculation Yeah But Dutch Primal have been posting it on Facebook as well
    112:51
    And what have they been saying? Well, actually I had to call Barry to ask what the first sentence of what they were, what that post was saying actually meant. Because it says, like, Dutch Primal is actively developing forward-looking plans set to come to completion in 2024 and 2025. And I read that wrong and I was like, is that pinball coming to completion in 24 or 25? Are they stopping? No.
    113:21
    But basically, this was a sort of announcement that chances are that the production of the Big Lebowski pinball may come to an end in 2024. and basically it's not yet a final call if you want to order one, but they do want to invent a resize or get an idea of how many are they still looking forward to make and schedule their schedules so that they know when they can start on production of their other game, their new game. Right, so they are strongly recommending that you contract your distributor to order your Lebikowowski if you want one. Yeah, and maybe also don't delay. Right, it probably also means that they still have an extension to produce the game throughout 2024, but they're not likely to renew it.
    114:23
    I think that's basically what it's going to say. They want to move on anyway. Yeah. I mean, they've been producing the game for nine years now. Yeah, well, once they've fulfilled all the Achiever orders, then that would be a very good time to move forward into their next title, wouldn't it? Yeah, so, and, well, we just gave you a couple of hints of what that could be. Hmm, could be. Right, yeah, so, now, more also related to the Big Lebowski Pinball is that the Electric Playground, who you might know as a production company for aftermarket toppers for Twilight Zone and Godzilla, announced a topper for the Big Lebowski as well. This topper will be limited to 100 individual numbered units, which contain 120 plus LEDs, all externally powered. So not powered by the game. No, exactly. 15 printed cast acrylic panels that feature original artwork by Rob Jordan and a BOWL stunning bowl, intermittent light show, simulating the classic look and feel of Route 66 bowling alley marquees. Interestingly enough, the topper doesn't indicate the Big Lebowski anywhere, so you could also put it on top of a different bowling game, I suppose. Although its colour scheme is kind of influenced on the game. Yeah, but it also includes ten interactive lights that correspond to the bowling ball inserts and character inserts from the play field of the Wiglebowski. So it does hook into the game, but you can also have it as a standalone, non-interactive piece of wall art as well. So you can buy it, although there aren't going to be 100 of them, it almost seems a shame to not put it on the game. But if that's what you want, you can put it on the wall or we can mount it on the game and then tie it into the playfield inserts, which corresponds to lighting up the letters on the topper and the characters. So, the interactive version of the topper is priced at US$1,179, US dollars, that is, yes. And the wall art version is priced at US$7,779. So $100 less. Yes, and they had a Cyber Monday discount where there was, I think, $100 off or something like that. But Cyber Monday is already gone, so who cares? Anyway, shipping of this topper begins February 2024 and is expected to be finished by May 2024. and if you're interested in a topper for the Bitlabowski I think it's only fair to mention that there is also a flat plastic weed topper which is produced by Laserific and if I'm not mistaken the Art of Pinball who is an official partner of Dutch Pinball in regards to doing aftermarket mods is expected to also produce I suppose the official topper for the Bitlabowski but that hasn't been revealed yet. No, so the electric playground and Laserific are first. So they're hoping to get the early orders in, and only 100 of the electric playground ones are available anyway. Right. So I think those will probably sell out fairly quickly, $1,179. Right, so still ridiculous money for a topper, but... It's still cheaper than a Black Knight sort of rate one. No argument there.
    118:31
    So, sticking with pinball companies from Europe, pinball runners from Sweden, manufactured in Italy, have started shipping the Alan Ripley version of Alien. I think the first units left the factory by the end of last week. and they also announced a new backslash for Avian with the character Alan Ripley pictured on it and customers who order the game this year, 2023 will receive both versions of the Ripley Translator at Expo they showcased one version and now there is a second version and if you order the game through one of their distributors first of all it's on a special offer 7995 wow, I thought it was the price of a topper it almost is, yes and that gives you the game and with an extra back glass and I think the I'm not completely sure but I think the left side of the cabinet art now also features Alan Ripley both on the cabinet art and the bedrock decals yes I think that's right when I saw the game at Pinball Expo I don't think I spotted Alan Ripley in that artwork so that artwork changed yes It was pending approval. I think it was pending approval at Expo. Does that make sense? Yes. So, now, and as accurate as we are tonight, at, well, 7 p.m., which is already, well, we're nearly there in the United States, but then again, before this is published, it's already long gone, a new 4.0 code for the Ripley version of the game will be premiering at the Wild Dog Arcade which is also a Twitch channel so I suppose it will be premiering and you can watch a stream when it's being premiered premiered. Yeah, it will be available to watch back. Yes, and a downloadable version of that update for others to update their games will be available soon. And how soon that is, I don't know, but I suppose it could be later this week or only next week, something like that. Hmm, that's good Good to see Fimble Brothers supporting the The game And previous buyers Of the game as well with new code So I think that's about it for Fimble Brothers So we should probably move on I don't think there was any news from Prodretti so we can cross that off Right away Well you say that But There is some news from Prodretti Oh Yes Well nice It also harks back to something we were talking about earlier Because they have started selling Toppers Yes that's right Illuminated toppers And they now have one for Williams Barry games actually Scared Stiff Twilight Zone And Theatre of Magic And they are I think they already had those Yeah yeah Okay I haven't seen those before Oh okay Well if you don't want to spend over a thousand dollars on a topper, then you can get them for a very reasonable 175 to 220 euros through Podretti Gaming. And of course you can also get the topper there for their Funhouse 2.0 kit, Rudy's Nightmare, which is more detailed and sculpted, and that's 420 euros plus that, if you want to get that. And they also sell a whole range of mods and add-ons for Funhouse, Twilight Zone, Adam's Family Anyway, all that stuff on pinballremakes.com site which is where, but just for gaming Right Okay, well, thank you for the update. Yeah, the old news Yeah Okay, now we just mentioned the Houston Pinball Expo which took place last month which originally to Turner Pinball, who is actually a Texas-based pinball company. So what can you tell us about their presence at the show? Well, surprisingly, no, they didn't. I think after their appearance at Pinball Expo in Chicago, they're taking a little breather and re-evaluating some of their ideas with their Ninja Eclipse game and weren't ready to show anything new at the Houston show. But I think it's fair to say we'll see them in Texas for the Texas Pinball Festival in March of next year. Right. So they should be back with, hopefully then you'll be able to see the full-size cabinet for their game and see what changes they've made to the Ninja Eclipse game in the intervening, what, six months, I guess. Yeah, okay.
    124:25
    So, moving on to, I suppose, Pinball Adventures in Canada. Yeah, not much news there from them. After Expo, they posted a video on Instagram, thanking everyone for their comments and ideas, saying they had a lot of work to do to get the game released, to which the game in question being Elements, which we thought was about to be released, but it seems like they're going to have a rethink about some of the aspects of it, re-design some of the shots, and I guess also increase the reliability of the game, because as you mentioned, it seemed to have people working on it quite a lot of the time at Pinball Expert. Yeah, work-wise ever. well you're not alone in saying that I got to play the game and I enjoyed it and it didn't break down on me but I guess I was just lucky and that was after it had been made bulletproof but so I don't think we're going to be seeing elements for sale just yet although of course it can always go on sale even before it's ready to be manufactured because that's how people seem to work these days I think they even already opened up pre-orders for the game, but I'm not going to advise anybody on whether they should or not. All I would say is play the game first, and it goes by every game. Absolutely right, yeah.
    126:00
    So, talking about future games and future releases, let's move to Spooky and what they've been doing. Yeah, interestingly enough, Spooky started teasing their upcoming next title, the one after Scooby-Doo, by sending out unrecognizable playfield parts or wooden parts, basically plywood cut into a certain shape with cutouts, to various US-based pinball media. and they could speculate whatever they wanted on what they got from Spooky.
    126:45
    What I did notice is from the various reports is that the boxes that these wooden parts shipped in were almost twice the size or really gigantic boxes for basically what was inside of them. Maybe that's a clue I have no idea But I think I've seen photos of something that could have been A backboard With some cutouts Cutouts in it basically There's really no telling In what it's doing On the playfield Or whether it's a mini playfield Or what it's supposed to be Or which part of the game it is Well, I guess Spooky is having a bit of fun and we'll find out more about what they're actually going to be making in due course and when we've actually got something solid to bring in. Well, of course Scooby Doo is nearing completion, so it's only logical that Spooky is getting ready to take their next game into production and create a little buzz about it. Hmm. Yes. Okay. I'm not sure we should necessarily be playing into that, but hey, if they're having fun, good luck to them. So moving on to a company which is actually announcing a game, or at least having a game announced on their behalf, is Multimorphic, who are going back down to Texas again. and they have announced a third party game, the ninth third party game released for the P3 pinball platform and the 20th P3 game overall and this one is from a new company, Ian Harrow Games, who I haven't heard of before and they've
    128:47
    announced their very first title for a game called Birdwatcher Now, they say it's a fun and unique pinball gaming experience, and it's available to purchase right now in the Multimorphic Web Store. Yeah. Not exactly what the cost of it is, but... Don't know either. It works with all P3 playfield modules, and I've seen a short video. basically the big LCV on the playfield is basically displaying birds flying by and you need to sort of hit them with your pinball to make photos of them. Right, okay. So as soon as you, as the ball goes over the bird on the, which is flying on the playfield, then photos are taken and you're collecting these. That's my take on how I think the game works. So it doesn't sound very complex, but it could be a very nice and easy game for kids, I suppose, to get into Pinball. So yeah, I can tell you it costs $149 if you want to buy it through the Montimorphic website, which is, well, tenth of a topper, you know, so not bad. And the interesting thing about this game is, whereas most of the other games, if I think nearly all the other multi-morphic software games, require a specific playfield module to be installed in order to play it, this seems to work with just about every playfield module that's available,
    130:31
    and it plays differently depending on which one you have installed. Which is a really nice idea. Okay. So it doesn't force you to go and buy a new Playfield mod if you want to play this. So pretty much, if you have a P3, this game will work on it. Which is really nice. Yeah. Now, Multimorphic also posted on the 1st of December on their social media that the P3 pinball platform now carries 20 different games. that's 20 unique and immersive gameplay experiences on one pinball machine, including 7 fully swappable game kits and 13 software add-on games.
    131:16
    And since they started in 2017, that's 20 games released in just 6 years, which is actually quite impressive, I think. Yeah, 3 a year, 3 a year, yeah, so the 3 a year, so well done to them and third party developers as well who produce games who embrace the platform and of course a multimorphic update wouldn't be complete without a code update and in this case it's a huge software update for Weird Elves Museum of Natural Hilarity and basically we're talking about app version 1.5 and module driver version 1.3 Now you wonder, what do I get with it? Well, you get huge mode enhancements, squashed bugs, accessibility improvements, quality of life refines. Wow, that's impressive. Quality of life goes up. Yeah. Wow. Some meaner rules, also some nicer rules, and some delicious Bologna flavor.
    132:27
    Wow, all in the software update. Yes. It is huge Yeah exactly So If you happen to have A Weird Al game Make sure to download the latest code For all the above mentioned Improvements of the game Yeah especially the quality of life And the bologna Yeah definitely Okay so moving on to Other companies then Cardona Pinball is the next one On our list of features and no actual news from them directly, you might remember Cardona are the company that make kits, 2.0 kits for No Good Gophers and for Black Rose, well I'm pleased to report I've got a Black Rose Skull and Bones kit which I took to a friend and we had it installed in their game and I've documented it, surprisingly it took two hours to do the complete install which involves taking out a lot of the boards putting in a whole new board swapping the back box light board also putting in power supplies and running and changing the speakers over and so did all that in two hours and turned it on and it worked so much to my surprise I was kind of expect there will be some issues that will stop it working but no after two hours, turned it on, booted up, and we were all playing games on it for the next couple of hours as well. Okay. Without any issues. So there will be a lot more of that coming in the Pinball News Review, which I am in the midst of writing at the moment, to give you details of the process involved. So how did you like the game with the new code? I didn't get that much time to play it to be honest because we were all taking turns but it's certainly a new way of playing the game I have a lot of opinions about the graphics but what I've done is I've left it with the owner so they can get used to it they can play it pretty much non-stop over the next couple of weeks and then I can go back to them and get their take on how the game plays rather than me just having a very short Opinion of it So anyway you can read all about that In due course Right okay excellent Thank you for that So moving back to the Well we're still in the US Sorry Chicago Gaming Of course everybody's waiting for Pulp Fiction To start shipping And according to Josh Sharp Who is the CFO At Play Mechanics who developed the game in collaboration with Chicago Gaming, Chicago Gaming started building sub-assemblies for Pulp Fiction, and production and shipping of the games should start before the end of December 2023.
    135:37
    Now, that doesn't mean that if you have a game on order that you get it immediately at your doorstep, but at least there's finally a timeline, so to speak, when the first games will go into production.
    135:53
    Well, it was suggested before it wouldn't be until at least the end of the first quarter of 2024. So, if they're starting at the end of 2023, that's an improvement. So, good news there. Yeah, that's the only news I got from Chicago. Yeah. So, oh well.
    136:11
    It's good news and short. Yeah. No complaints here. Right, so let's go international then and head over to France for what's been going on with Hexapinball and their game. Right. Well, as you may recall, they have announced a game called Space Hunt, which is an original theme, and they have been taking that to various French pinball shows.
    136:41
    They recently, well, last month, posted a two-hour, 14-minute gameplay tutorial video on YouTube, in which they basically play the game and explain how it should be played. And the rules? Yeah, and this video is partly in French, partly in English. So if you want to improve your French, this is your opportunity I suppose. They also posted on Facebook a photo of the game and the box they will be using to ship the games in. Which is, well, now you know what the box looks like. Yeah, one turns up on your doorstep. Yeah, so anyway, it shows that they are preparing themselves for mass production of the game, which is a good sign.
    137:37
    Yes, indeed, yeah, need to get the game out there, and the fact that they're still working on the software, I think, or at least they've got a comprehensive set of rules in the game, is good news as well. Okay, so moving on to, let's go around the globe and head over to Taiwan. Well, in fact, we're not heading over to Taiwan, really. But we're talking about Taiwan East Company Home Pin. Right. Because I did see in a Facebook post that their This Is Final Tap game is now available to play at Caesars Fun Palace in Great Yarmouth in England.
    138:15
    Yes, of all places. So we haven't seen that game out and about very much. We've seen it at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. Yeah. But I'm guessing the one that's at Caesars Fun Palace in Great Yarmouth is the one that was at the UK Pinfest show, which was held at the end of August and was thrown over, especially for that. So it's good to see it's out there. So if you wanted to play that game, that's the place in the UK, at least, or in England, to go and visit. I'm sure they have plenty of other games there. And Great Yarmouth is always a nice place to visit anyway. So that's all the news really have from Homepin. There's no other update to bring you from them. Okay. Well, speaking on that subject, no updates, there's quite a few companies that didn't report any news that we are aware of and I'll just do this quickly these companies include Heges Pinball from Australia Bitronix from Spain Quetzal Pinball from Spain and Circus Maximus of course which I think we already discussed what happened and well we just have to see whether that company will rise like a phoenix or whether it's dead in the water, as other people have said it is.
    139:43
    Well, they seem to insist, the people behind it seem to insist it's not dead, but, yeah, nothing happens. We'll see, as you say. So, no news from those companies. Also, no news from a project that we reported on previously, which was the Princess Bride pinball. they put up a website, I should say, inviting people to register for details to be sent to them. I haven't received any details from them. And the website looks the same as it did last time we mentioned it. So it looks like there's no news to announce there yet. When there is, we will bring it to you. If it's not a prank after all. It could be, yeah. Yeah, okay. Then, of course, while we mentioned it already a couple of times, There was the Dutch Pinball Open Expo. And what I didn't mention is that, Martin, you wrote a very in-depth report on the event. Yes, that's right, yeah. It's a very interesting venue where it was held, which was sort of a conference center, but much more than that. It's a huge place. I think everybody who went there was amazed by just how large the whole complex is and how labyrinthine.
    140:59
    it is. I actually managed to get lost at one point trying to find my own room, which was a bit embarrassing, but I was certainly not alone in that. I walked down the corridor and I'd be accompanied by people saying, can you tell me which way to get to the show? Is this way to reception? Where are the rooms in? Because there are so many different corridors and blocks that all look the same. They end up colour coding it. You need to know the colour coding principle, because they colour coded the carpets and some of the lights that go over, that are in arches over the corridors. Once you work that out, it becomes a lot easier. But it's a great place. Anyway, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they end up going back there either next year or for future years. Great selection of games, I have to say. Great selection of people.
    141:49
    Some nice parties, including the after-party from Dutch Pinball that we mentioned earlier. Loads of tournaments being held there. Lots of food and drink and nice to have all that in the actual hall itself. So if you wanted to stop and just have a drink or grab a sandwich or a hot meal, you didn't even need to leave the hall, you just wander over to one of the to the serving area and pick up your food and pay for it and go sit right down in the hall. So that was really very nice. Obviously there was our So You Think You Know Pinball Quiz, which was, as you said, a big success I think The screening of the Roger Sharp movie Yep, the screening of the Roger Sharp movie some seminars as well Barry, for a reason, did one about Dutch Pinball there was also one about a custom game there might have been another one which I'm forgetting at the moment, but in which case, apologies and all in all, I think an excellent two days, I was there for about four days in total because I got to visit the Glow Eindhoven annual festival yeah, an orchestra of light in the city, which is always worth visiting last time the DPO was in DPO Expo was held in Eindhoven, I think it was 2017 just caught a glimpse of it during one of the brief breaks from the show, but didn't get a proper look, but this time and made a special effort to do it, and it's certainly worthwhile doing it, so I think Eindhoven's a great place to hold that, particularly if the Glow Eindhoven event is being held at the same time. Right. So I think that's my wrap-up of DPO Expo. Thanks to everybody who worked so hard to make it happen, and looking forward to going back again as soon as possible. Yeah, no, it was a stellar event, great location, and compliments to Marcel Kessel and his team on organising this edition of the event and like you mentioned, this looks like a location that certainly could be hosting the event again I really hope so because it's got a lot going for it anyway, that's enough about that Can you run through all the news? Yeah, sure. Cineplex from Canada announced that it's selling its huge Player One amusement group of arcade and pinball distribution businesses for $155 billion Canadian dollars, I suppose. I'm not even sure. It could be US dollars, but quite a big amount. but it's also quite a big business.
    144:48
    It was purchased by an investment company called Open Gate Capital. Part of the deal is that PlayerOne will continue to supply games to Cineplex, Rackroom and Junction location.
    145:04
    Description of PlayerOne says it has amassed 37,000 pieces of equipment, serve in 3,800 locations, I assume all in Canada. And the website also says it has 19 offices and about 500 employees. So it's not exactly a small company. Then again, Canada is a big country. You can't do service from one office. If you have to service the games all over the country. Yes, that's right. regional offices. So I see you did your little research as well. You came up with some different numbers. Yeah, I was just reading the press release from that they actually put out that said, Player One Amusement Group currently serves around 2,400 customer locations and manages more than 20,000 assets across North America. Okay, so it's not just Canada. No, it's not. anyway I suppose somebody is very happy with the deal like that and striking up their Christmas bonus but oh well it's a big company and well they operate pinball as well so we figured or I figured hopefully in Canada nothing will change and you can keep playing your pinball on these locations. Well, this is the pinball industry news cast, so that's pinball industry. So it's certainly relevant. Now, this is the next bit of the final bit of news, I suppose. It's not actually pinball industry, because they don't exist anymore, but we're talking about the Deep Root ongoing case by the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission. against... They tried to become part of the pinball industry. Yes, well, briefly they were. They were spending money anyway. They didn't actually manufacture any games. But, yes, SEC versus Robert Mueller.
    147:16
    There was a move from the SEC a while ago to try to get a summary judgment. I mean, they didn't have to go to trial.
    147:28
    There's been no publication of a decision by the judge in the case as to whether they granted the summary judgment or not. You kind of have to assume that means that they didn't, or all the trial preparations that are going on in the meantime would be for nothing. But we haven't seen anything written down that says yes or no to a summary judgment. In the meantime, lots of preparations going on for a trial, but no date set for that. It was originally thought it was going to be in December this month, but the court diary suggests there's nothing in the diary for this case at the moment, and it's looking like it's going to be about, I think it's scheduled for like 10 days of hearings. So it's probably not that easy to find a slot that long to put the case into in court. But as soon as we know any more about when it's going to take place, or when it's scheduled to take place, of course these things get knocked back all the time due to various arguments and changes and open circumstance, We will let you know what the current situation is. Right, okay. And that wraps it up for our pincast of the recap of November 2023.
    148:40
    We hope you enjoyed it. Yeah. And, well, many thanks to David Sticks for coming on and telling us all about what's going on at American Pinball. Yes, and also I'd like to just thank all those people that we've met at various pinball shows over the past couple of months who have been so kind about listening to this pincast and take how much they enjoy it. So thank you very much to them. We will be back at the start of January 2024. Oh, it seems a long way away, but it's not. We'll be back then with our next Pincast, looking back at all the events in the pinball world through the final months of 2023, this month of December. With possibly a new Stern Cornerstone game. Oh, could well happen, yeah. So, until then, we both wish you a wonderful Christmas, a new year. Is it already Christmas time? Oh, it's always Christmas. Can you not hear the sleigh bells? Thankfully, no. Oh, okay. Well, around here it's starting to look a lot like Christmas. We've got Christmas trees up. Anyway, we wish you a wonderful time. Christmas, New Year, holiday season, whatever you're celebrating, however you're marking the end of the calendar year. We hope it's a magical and relaxing time. no matter what you have planned and we are looking forward to seeing you bright and early in 2024 for our look back at the month of December. Right. So until then, I'm saying thank you and goodbye.
    150:12
    And from me too, have a lovely time and we'll see you next year. Thanks. Bye.