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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast June 2021 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 59m·analyzed·Jul 2, 2021
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TL;DR

June 2021 pinball recap: Spooky Halloween, P3 Silver Falls, Elements design revealed, tariffs resolved.

Summary

Jonathan Houston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin A. (Pinball News) review June 2021 pinball industry news. Major topics include Spooky's Halloween announcement with servo-driven ball elevators and a potential second horror-themed variant, Multimorphic's Silver Falls P3 game by Nicholas Baldridge with Scott Tracy music, Team Pinball's Elements design for Pinball Adventures, and discussion of EU-US tariff resolution on pinball imports. The hosts also note supply chain constraints affecting game releases and production expansions at both Spooky and Multimorphic.

Key Claims

  • Spooky's Halloween game will feature servo-driven ball elevators accessed via two subway tunnels

    high confidence · Jonathan and Martin discuss visible playfield features from the underside reveal; Spooky team confirmed testing bulletproof motors

  • Halloween production limited to 1,000 units total across three editions (Standard $6,995, Bloodsucker $7,995, Collector's $8,995)

    high confidence · Explicit pricing and production cap announced by Spooky; pricing includes optional $995 butter cabinet upgrade

  • A second, more niche horror theme will use the same Halloween layout

    high confidence · Luke from Spooky referenced on Pinside; Kaneda mentioned similar information; hosts believe both themes will be revealed together

  • Spooky has completed Rick and Morty production and is rebuilding Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle units for a European distributor

    high confidence · Martin reports single-digit units remaining available; speculates distributor dissolution or order cancellation

  • EU-US agreed to eliminate 25% tariff on pinball imports at G7 meeting in June 2021

    high confidence · Martin cites recent agreement; notes suspension was temporary and reimposition was threatened

  • Silver Falls is the third P3 game by Nicholas Baldridge (after Raging in the Ruins and one other)

    medium confidence · Jonathan corrects count; game uses Heist upper playfield module with music by Scott Tracy

  • Multimorphic doubled factory space by acquiring adjacent building section for expansion

    medium confidence · Martin mentions news from previous podcast; expansion allows more in-house production and faster output

  • Elements playfield design by Team Pinball features octagonal red insert above flippers, three U-turn ramps, and dual spinners

    high confidence · Detailed playfield breakdown from Facebook photos and artwork reveals

Notable Quotes

  • “Spooky team have been adamant that they've been testing the heck out of it and really made sure that they're bulletproof motors, which is obviously very important.”

    Martin A. (Pinball News) @ early segment on Halloween — Addresses reliability concerns about servo-driven ball elevators in pinball machines

  • “They're completely free to decide for themselves how those numbers add up, but the total is limited to 1,000.”

    Martin A. @ Halloween production model discussion — Describes novel tiered production allocation system not previously used by Spooky

  • “It's a fairly simple game I'd say. But it seemed that the way that Kevin was playing it was that rather than go to the store and buy each item individually you just wait until you've earned enough pinbox and go into the store and buy everything.”

    Jonathan Houston (Pinball Magazine) @ Silver Falls gameplay analysis — Critiques apparent scoring imbalance favoring spinner shots with playfield multipliers

  • “There's a house with six rooms in it and you have to score points, which are actually pin bucks. And with those pin bucks, you then can visit the store. And in the store, you can buy furniture for the house.”

    Martin A. @ Silver Falls core mechanic explanation — Describes unique economy-based gameplay loop for P3 module game

  • “The costs for labor and metal and wood have gone up so much that you probably paid a 25% soon anyway.”

    Martin A. @ Tariff discussion — Notes that material cost increases offset tariff elimination benefit

  • “I think it's going to be a dark game. But I don't know, it certainly looks, to me at least, more interesting than the Pony Factory layout.”

    Jonathan Houston @ Elements artwork assessment — Compares Elements design favorably to previous Pinball Adventures title despite dark aesthetic

  • “Team Pinball are a design studio. They come up with the designs and work with artists and software programmers in order to produce or to create a product which Andrew can then take and get made locally in Canada.”

Entities

Spooky PinballcompanyJonathan HoustonpersonMartin A.personHalloween (Spooky)gameSilver FallsgameMultimorphiccompanyNicholas BaldridgepersonElementsgameTeam Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Team Pinball operates as outsourced design studio creating playfield designs for Pinball Adventures local manufacturing; ~8 games announced in pipeline but none yet produced

    high · Martin explains model; Pinball Adventures website under construction; Wayback Machine shows prior intentions; YouTube shows making-of videos for unproduced games

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Elements playfield features unusual dual spinners in tight configuration and heavy dark metal-aesthetic artwork contrasting with light airy layout

    medium · Jonathan questions optical switch feasibility for dual spinners; notes artwork heavy/dark despite whitewood appearing light/airy

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Second Halloween variant will use identical layout but more niche horror theme (not family-friendly alternative as might be expected)

    high · Luke from Spooky and Kaneda referenced as sources; hosts speculate layout mechanics may not support tonal shift; both themes expected to be revealed simultaneously

  • ?

    licensing_signal: EU-US tariff elimination at G7 meeting removes 25% import duty on pinball machines, though material cost increases offset savings

    high · Martin cites recent G7 agreement; previously suspended tariff now permanently removed; notes labor and materials costs have risen equivalently

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky and Multimorphic both expanding production capacity with factory extensions; Rick and Morty production complete

    high · Spooky extended factory nearly complete (250 unit production increase); Multimorphic doubled space by acquiring adjacent building; both cite need for faster production

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.358

0:00
Spooky announces Halloween is next New Silver Falls game for the P3 Design for Elements Pinball revealed Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and as every month I'm joined by from Martin A. of Pinball News. That's correct. Thank you, Jonathan. Yes, indeed. We're back together for another month's discussion of all the events that took place in the pinball world. And this time we're looking back at the month of June 2021. And what a month it has been. It has, yes. We say that every month, but absolutely true this time. Some months are slower, and we are honest about that. We say it was a slow month. We still have stuff to talk about. And this time, it's not a slow month. It's not. So I guess we better sort of get on with it, because otherwise this could be another two-hour-plus podcast. And I'm sure everybody would like us to condense this down and get all the key facts and features in as soon as possible. Right. Okay, so here we go. Yep, let's do it. Spooky people have been teasing and finally announced Halloween will be their next title And for those Not To avoid any confusion Halloween is a movie franchise It's not dedicated so much To the The holiday Yeah it's not like Oktoberfest or something like that It's the movie, the original movie The very first one There have been some sequels But I think it's sticking to the original The Michael Myers classic And And, well, they've announced it, and... But they haven't shown, or they haven't revealed the game. Let's put it like that. No, at the time of the recording, they haven't, anyway. Yes.
2:08
Although they did show the other side of the playfield. Yeah, from which people are obviously trying to work out exactly what's on the top side. But it did seem that there were some features we could identify on there. There's two subway tunnels, which seem to both lead to servo-driven ball elevators. Now, we don't know quite how or why that elevator is there, whether it just lifts the ball back up onto the playfield rather than an up-kicker, or whether it moves it onto an upper playfield, or an upper-upper playfield, or how far it moves it. But there's obviously a bit of concern when you start putting servos in pinball games, because, well, servos these days are pretty cheap, but they also are sort of quite unreliable as well. But the Spooky team have been adamant that they've been testing the heck out of it and really made sure that they're bulletproof motors, which is obviously very important. Right. There were also, we could see three flippers. There might be more.

Supply chain shortages (wood, metal, labor costs) may delay game announcements into 2022

medium confidence · Martin speculates parts scarcity will slow game development despite price increases already offsetting tariff elimination

Martin A. @ Team Pinball / Pinball Adventures partnership explanation — Clarifies outsourced design model where Team Pinball creates playfield designs for Andrew McBain to manufacture

Pinball Adventures
company
Scott Tracyperson
Kevin from Buffalo Pinballperson
Gary Flowerperson
Andrew McBainperson
P3 (Multimorphic platform)product
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
European Union - United States tariff agreement (June 2021)event
  • $

    market_signal: Novel three-edition flexible allocation model (Standard/Bloodsucker/Collector with dynamic ratio against 1,000 unit cap) differs from traditional pro/premium/LE tiering

    high · Martin explains producer can allocate up to 1,000 units among editions based on demand; optional $995 butter cabinet upgrade not included in base editions

  • ?

    announcement: Spooky Pinball officially announces Halloween game with three editions and novel flexible production allocation system (1,000 unit cap with dynamic edition distribution)

    high · Explicit pricing, production limits, and feature details provided; underside playfield photos shared showing servo mechanisms and multiple upper playfield hints

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky implementing hardware upgrades for Halloween and future games: Molex connectors for reliability, quieter power supplies, multiple Spike 3 features

    high · Spooky produced two detailed videos explaining upgrades; mentioned as starting with Halloween cycle forward

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Supply shortages for wood, metal, and parts may delay game announcements from 2021 into 2022 despite increased manufacturing capacity

    medium · Martin speculates parts scarcity will slow development; notes manufacturers cannot build without parts despite production lines running

  • ?

    technology_signal: Servo-driven ball elevators introduce reliability concerns despite Spooky's testing assurances; novel mechanism for pinball market

    medium · Martin notes 'servos these days are pretty cheap, but they also are sort of quite unreliable as well' but acknowledges Spooky testing; no failure reports mentioned

    • 3:16
    Those are the ones that are visible from the underside. There was a central drop target bank which was slightly angled, which was good, probably meant it wouldn't send the ball straight back down the middle. It looked like there was a single resettable drop target on the left-hand side, and maybe one on the upper playfield, or an upper playfield.
    3:38
    Apart from that, there seemed to be multiple entrances to the two subway tunnels as well. Which does suggest An upper playfield as well that can drop the ball in Right And from the hints that Buck and Charlie from Spooky Pinball Left in their videos That were shared on Facebook and YouTube And what have you The game is likely to have More than one upper playfield Yes, I think you're talking about an upper playfield A playable upper playfield even So That could be interesting From what I could see, there was at least one, but it appears there's also on the upper left, do I say that right, upper right area, there's also something that seems to be an upper play field. So it could be two, and maybe even more, who knows. Yeah, well they are saying it's their most packed game yet, as far as features and hardware goes. So let's see what is actually revealed when they do show some pictures. What we do know about it is that there are going to be three editions produced. Yes, and let me add to that immediately that there's three editions, which are the standard edition, the block sucker edition, and the collector's edition, and I'll let you handle the prices. But the interesting thing is that basically production has been set to a thousand units, but they are free to decide how many of each edition, in the sense that if they can sell a thousand collective editions, then there will be no bloodsucker editions or standard editions. If they sell 750 collective editions, then there is room for 250 bloodsucker and or standard editions. They're completely free to decide for themselves how those numbers add up, but the total is limited to 1,000. Okay, that's an interesting model. It's not something which we've seen before, but this whole three-edition system is not something we've seen from them before either. Right. So that's, as you mentioned, the prices. Well, the standard edition comes in at just under $7,000, $6,995. The bloodsucker edition is $1,000 more, at £7,995, and the collector's edition is another £1,000 at £8,995. The standard edition requires a thousand pound, a thousand dollar initial deposit. The Bloodsucker edition is $1,500 deposit, and the collector's edition $2,000. So you need to put that money up front even before the game is produced, and the collector's edition will be built first, the most expensive model. the middle model the Bloodsucker edition will be built next and then the standard edition to be built last and there is a list of what's added onto oh my god, you won't believe it it's Gary Flower calling oh really? oh my goodness, he must know we're on ok, well, let me see if I can see what he wants ok, sure hello Gary we're in the middle of a podcast Gary oh am I live on air yes you are I'm about to rush out so why are you calling I'm pleased to go to the studio another time because a lot of interesting stuff going on isn't there well yes there is and we were hoping to get your input but if you're rushing to go out then I suppose we'll talk to you later yeah I'm sorry but I've got someone waiting for me. Okay. Well, good luck. Nice to hear your voice. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Gary. Talk soon. Bye.
    7:40
    Well, he's got his priorities straight. That's good. Yep. So Gary's going out and won't be joining us this podcast which has all his input on all these exciting stories that we're talking about today. Right. Yeah. So, oh well. too bad where were we oh yes the good news is we did get him finally on the show but kind of yeah we've got to want to say he's not going to be on yeah so that's good well that might be a relief for some people very cruel but true right so yes we were just saying about the prices and the cabinet treatment which Spooky are famed for, their butter cabinets which are the sort of ultra glossy decals, normally included on the higher end model but they're not on any of the models this time and they're about as an option another $995 if you want your cabinet decals to glisten and it does look like on the collector edition they've cut the bill of materials down as low as they can the collector edition sorry I mean the standard edition compared to the collector edition the standard edition doesn't have a coin box or a lid doesn't have a knocker installed doesn't have target decals those are expensive target decals well exactly it doesn't sound like hugely expensive pieces to put on the game but they're not on there anyway but the playfield in all three models will be the same basically the playfield features will be the same There'll be different characters or additional characters on the more expensive models and all the usual things like art blades inside and different trim and flipper button protectors and things like that as you go up the range. But 1,000 games are going to be built over, well, I don't know whether they've increased their speed of production, but otherwise it's going to take them the best part of a year to get through those. Right. Well, they did Rick and Morty in 18 months or less, including unforeseen COVID lockdowns. True.
    10:03
    So production is being increased with 250 units for this game. So, well, they might still be looking at a good portion of at least 18 to 24 months. building Halloween? I would have thought a year. I think they've probably got... Because something we haven't mentioned yet is that they have built an extension onto the factory in order to be able to build games faster and develop more games. So that extension is nearly complete, I believe. I haven't seen the pictures myself, but that's what I'm led to believe. So hopefully that will allow more people into the factory and build more games simultaneously and up the production number or production rate. Right. So I wouldn't have thought they'd want to stick with the same title for more than about a year, to be honest. Right. That probably feels about right. And 1,000 would seem to be an achievable thing for that. But we said this theme is Halloween, but it's not necessarily, is it? There's a bit more to it than that. Well, there's a strong rumor going on, and I'm going to refer to a Canadian Spinball podcast as a reference for that,
    11:25
    where it is believed that the same place of layout is going to be used for another theme as well. Well, that was actually referenced on Pinside, I think, by Luke from Spooky, who did say that it's very likely there will be a second theme applied to the same layout. Right, okay, so I didn't see it there, couldn't watch everything, but I did hear Kaneda talk about it. According to what I understood from the source I just mentioned, that theme is supposed to be an even more niche horror theme than Halloween already is. Yeah. Which sort of surprised me, I have to say, because I already figured Halloween is quite niche. I'm not sure It's not like Rick and Morty I'm not sure whether they will sell out A thousand units immediately Like they did with Rick and Morty 750 units I would expect the other Theme with the same layout To be more family friendly But apparently it's not No that's what you think isn't it Because Halloween is certainly not Or the theme of it is not family friendly but we haven't seen the execution of it yet, as it were, to avoid, well, to not avoid the pun, but to walk into the pun.
    12:52
    But, yes, I originally thought a more family-friendly theme would make sense. But, you know, I suppose if the layout doesn't really lend itself to that and it is much more a sort of horror type, a sort of haunted house type theme, then it would maybe you can't tone it down that much and there might be mechanisms on the playfield which would not work if there was like a stabbing knife or something like that you couldn't really make that a very family friendly device unless you changed it to something else which completely would look a bit out of place if it was designed that way but we'll see probably they will announce the they will announce both titles or reveal both titles at the same time oh right one does actually have a prototype of the other one because it's a lot of if you're not going to make many of them or sell many of them it's a lot of effort to go to you've got to implement a whole new set of artwork and assets and sound calls and video and all that kind of stuff. It goes into a game now just for, I don't know, 100 machines. Or maybe less. Well, it could be fewer than that even. Who knows? Yeah. So, oh, well, we wish Spooky, of course, best of luck with the upcoming reveal for Halloween and the potential second title.
    14:28
    Yeah. We're not completely done talking about Spooky Pinball. Oh, no. No, no. because well, I'm not sure whether we mentioned it but the production of Rick and Morty has finished, so that's done and in the meantime before getting into the production of Halloween Spooky is actually building Alice Cooper's Nightmare on Castle again apparently there was a lot of games that were supposed to go to a certain distributor but they were never realized and apparently the distributor is either no longer in business or doesn't want the games anymore I don't know what the story is but they are building Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle again and I believe, well the last thing that I saw was they were down to a single digit number of games still being available for those interested Right. I do wonder whether it was something which we haven't actually included, I think, in our list of items to be mentioned, but it's actually quite an important one which we could maybe bring up now.
    15:46
    In June this year, the month we are covering, it was actually finally announced that there was an agreement between the European Union and the United States over the import duties which were being paid or being charged by the European Union on pinball games when they came into Europe, a 25% tariff. And it had been suspended earlier in the year, but there was a danger that it was going to be reimposed once that suspension finished, which I think was a two-month or three-month long suspension. Right. But the good news was that at the G7 meeting that was held recently, the European Union and the US agreed to scrap the whole system so it's not going to be reimposed not now and not anytime or in the immediate future so that extra charge on people machines has gone for good well at least gone for the immediate future until the next spat occurs the sad news is that in the meantime costs for labor and metal and wood have gone up so much that you probably paid a 25% soon anyway. That is very likely. But the reason I mentioned that at this point was I was wondering whether there was a distributor in Europe who had ordered those games and was waiting for this tariff to be either cancelled or suspended before they actually took delivery of them. So maybe Spooky Pinball didn't build them at the time, knowing that they had to store them in the meantime and just waited until this tariff had gone away and now they can build the games and ship them at a 20% less price or lower price than they would have been if the tariff had been there. Right. So that's pure speculation on my part as to why they've got these games that weren't delivered, that were allocated to the distributor but weren't produced.
    17:45
    But it's a good point at which to bring up that particular topic because we weren't going to mention it later, so let's mention it now. Yeah, okay, very good. And also, well, good news in general regarding Spooky, although it's starting with the next cycle, Halloween, there's a couple of hardware upgrades that will be applied to the game, and you have to think about the use of Molex connectors, which are more reliable, a quieter power supply so you won't have that fan noise that some people find very annoying, and lots of other stuff. Spooky produced two videos during the past month in which they go into much more detail. So if you're interested in finding out what other upgrades are coming to newer Spooky games, then check out those videos as well. They're on the Spooky channel, so easy to find. Great. I think that's about it for our coverage of Spooky for this month. Yeah, well, unless they review the game during the recording of this podcast. Well, I'm sure we're all hovering over our email just to make sure that if the report comes out and the pictures are in, we'll cover them right here.
    19:10
    Right. So, yeah, I did ask for information on their embargo up front, but so far, nothing. Yeah, I don't think Spooky are really that keen on doing that kind of promotion. They just do stuff when they're ready, which is fine. That's the way they work. So, moving on to our second headline, which was about a new game for the P3 platform from Multimorphic. Right. And this one is the second game, I think, from Nicholas Baldridge. I think it's the third already. Is it? But I might be mistaking. Yeah, there's also... Oh, there was, yes. Raging in the Ruins. Raging in the Ruins was the first one, yeah. Then there was a... Well, actually, I can't remember what the second one was. Maybe it wasn't from him.
    20:02
    But, yeah, Nicholas Baldrige has teamed up with his daughter, Sophia, to produce a game called Silver Falls. Right. Now, this is for the P3, as we said, and it uses the Heist upper playfield module. So that's our second game for that particular piece of hardware. Right. And probably just as interesting as that is the fact that, certainly to a music head such as yourself, is that all the music for the game has come from a certain Scott Tracy.
    20:38
    Who? Well, exactly, yeah. Famed for his work with Spooky Pinball on, well, Total Nuclear Annihilation, amongst other things. Right. And Rick and Morty. And Rick and Morty soundtrack for that. Yes. Followed by Rick and Morty later. And we don't know whether any future games will involve a collaboration between Scott and Spooky at this stage, but we'll wait and see. But in the meantime, he's done the music for Silver Falls. And he's also working on the music for the upcoming P3, the new P3 module, for which we don't know for which game it will be, but Scott's working on that as well. Wow, okay, doing a lot of work for Multimorphic Or with Multimorphic, anyway So, congratulations On this new game Which I had a look at the videos I don't know if you had a chance to watch anything Jonathan Because Kevin from Buffalo Pinball Was doing a stream of it on Twitch Yes, I watched it Well, I watched a part of it, let's put it like that And, yeah, it was Very informative Congrats on that, Kevin it surprised me that the music produced by Scott and Easy is actually rather loungy I would say. It's very laid-back, not that energetic as we've experienced with Total Nuclear Annihilation for example. So yeah and the The game is, I can see where the game is, the gameplay ideas coming from. There's a house with six rooms in it and you have to score points, which are actually pin bucks. And with those pin bucks, you then can visit the store. And in the store, you can buy furniture for the house. But as soon as you buy something, it deducts from your score. Yes, well from your Pinbox account, yes Yes And Well it's an interesting idea But it's It's a fairly simple game I'd say But it seemed It seemed that the I mean the way that Kevin was playing it Was that rather than go to the store And buy each item individually You just wait until you've earned enough pinbox And go into the store and buy everything and then move on, basically. Once you've got everything, a timed mode starts,
    23:19
    and if you complete that, then you can move on to the next room. It does seem also that there's... To me, at least, it seemed that there was a bit of a scoring imbalance in that the real one way to earn a lot of pin bucks was to get the 10-second playfield multiplier going, which you get by spelling out more cash on the side targets. There are more on one side and cash on the other. And then just shoot the spinner because every shot or every spin or every switch register adds bucks to it. And once you get that spinner going with a 10-second double playfield multiplier, you rack up huge amounts of money and that basically gets you through that room. Well, it must be a very satisfying spinner shot then. Oh, well, all screen shots are satisfying when they work properly.
    24:13
    Right. Oh, well, congrats to Nick and Sophia and, of course, the entire Multimorphic team for this third-party game release. The game is obviously for sale, but you need to have the Heist playfield module. And if you have that Then you can buy it for Or download it even For $149 Bargain, really Isn't it, for what you get Yeah It's a very good piece of work And certainly worth that price And I look forward to seeing lots more Games coming out for the P3 And really sort of Make the most of the Interchangeability of games And playfield modules as well that that platform offers. And just before we finish on Multimorphic, we did mention just now that Spooky had extended their building, but I understand Multimorphic have also done the same. Yeah, actually, that was news that came out when we recorded our previous podcast. We just missed it in that one. I did mention it in the Pinball Magazine newsletter already. Right. Yes, I think they sort of doubled in size. I think they got the back part of the unit where they currently are also became available, which means that they can do a lot more in-house.
    25:44
    And obviously they need the space to expand further and speed up production. So good for them. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All growth is good, especially in this climate. So congratulations to Multimorphic on the new game and their new larger premises. Right, yeah, and of course, well, we know that Scott is working on the music for the next P3 module, so there is a next P3 module in the works, we don't know when it's going to be revealed, but on the development end, they're certainly not developing, so to speak, So they are working on new stuff and more innovations and what have you. So I'm looking forward to that. But I think, well, we don't know when they might be revealing something, but I have a feeling that it could be a very game-heavy second half year of the year. Yeah, well, I think once pinball shows get going again, the pressure will be on manufacturers to show something new. because we've seen a lot of the games before and you've been able to try them all then yeah I think there's been to counter that actually I was about to go ahead and agree with you but I think they might counter that a bit by saying I think the shortage of supply of various parts for the pinball and other manufacturing might actually lead to a slight slowing down because games which we thought were going to be announced, no now are coming out later because there haven't been supply shortages are in place. People can't get the parts, they can't get, in some cases, they can't even get the wood for some of these games. So, I think it might wait a bit until, I don't know, next year before we get a big influx of new games once everybody's able to get all the parts that they need. Right. But still, these manufacturers need to get going. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so whether they are building an old game or a new one, they still need to get going. But if there's no old games to build, then what are you going to do? Yeah, well, you have to keep demand up, don't you? Right. Keep feeding the line, as they say. Right. Okay, so moving on to our third headline. Yeah, very, very interesting scoop that you got me there, because I completely missed it. Well, I very nearly did. It was only as I was going through every company over the last couple of days just to have a look and see what they've been up to. But yeah, a company we've both covered in the past, Team Pinball, who are based in South Wales in the United Kingdom, they designed the game The Pony Factory for Pinball Adventures, Andrew McBain's company. and we didn't know whether they were going to be involved in designing any of his upcoming games, or they're all upcoming at the moment, any of his subsequent games, shall I say. But not today, but this week they announced and revealed a design for the game called Elements. Now that game is designed by Team Pinball for Andrew's Pinball Adventures company. Right. And so the way it works is Team Pinball are a design studio. They come up with the designs and work with artists and software programmers in order to produce or to create a product which Andrew can then take and get made locally in Canada, which is where he's based.
    29:35
    So far, I haven't actually produced any games, but... I was going to say, we're still waiting for a funny factory to be manufactured. Yeah we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves as indeed is he but he has announced a whole slew of about eight different titles that are in the pipeline even if they haven actually produced one of them yet But Team Pinball produced a game, Ship a Playfield, a complete flip-able game with artwork and software over to Andrew, and then it's up to him to get it developed further and manufactured. So Team Pinball showed us what they've done And they produced A three-flippered game Called Elements It's designed by Joseph Jose from France Artwork by I think it's from Hungary But I'm not entirely sure Mechanics from Romain Fontaine Our good friend who's also from France Of course And the concept is from Andrew from pinball to benches. Right.
    30:42
    So what's on the playfield? Well, I suppose the main thing you would immediately see is this large red octagonal insert that's in the middle of the playfield. It's just above the flippers, kind of in... There are some inserts just immediately above the flippers, but it's kind of between the slingshots almost. And it's got infinity lighting in it, so it looks like those mirror back glasses, but we can't really see what it does at the moment. I think it's just an insert, but it looks like it could be a funnel, but it doesn't look funnel-shaped, so it wouldn't be hexagonal, or octagonal, I should say. It was going to be a funnel, because the ball would hit the edges and wear it down. So I'm assuming it's an insert, which can light up in different ways, either statically or dynamically, with animating LEDs underneath it. which could be interesting. As you said, three flippers. It's got a sort of mini playfield area, the top left-hand corner, with three dock targets and a stand-up target, I think. Two rollover lanes at the top, a right ramp, and two U-turn ramps, I suppose. There's one sort of above where the octagonal insert is, and one further up that actually goes underneath the upper right ramp. So that's interesting. It looks like there's a kick-out on the right-hand side as well. I'm not sure if there's a drop target there. There might be as well.
    32:14
    But, yeah, it's not a hugely complex playfield because that's generally not what's required for these pinball adventure titles.
    32:25
    But, in fact, I think there's a kick-out on the upper left as well as on the mid-right. So a couple of kick-outs as well. and drop targets in the U-turn lane on the upper right, a bit like TNA, I think. No, that's Rick and Morty. Oh, no, no, I knew there was drop target tricks on one of them. Yes, of course, TNA inline drops, U-turn lane drop targets on Rick and Morty, as you say. And didn't I see two spinners in one of the horses? Yeah, the left-hand one has a spinner on either side as well, which looks interesting. I'm not sure exactly where the switches are going to go for that. It looks a bit tight to me, but it'd be nice if they were optical ones, but I doubt whether they are.
    33:17
    That's it, really. There's a mini U-turn lane, I suppose, on the left-hand side, just above the out lane. So you can almost say there are three U-turn lanes on this game Right, so if you're really curious what this looks like And you have no idea what we're talking about Then maybe look up the Facebook page of Team Pinball Where you can actually Well, their top post at the moment is actually the playfield Also, well, there's a couple of pictures Also with the artwork that's supposed to go on there So you can get a better idea of what the game will look like in the end Yeah, I mean, I think just looking at the white wood Or the bare wood, in fact, in this case Or the white board, as some might call it It looks like a very sort of light, airy game But when you look at the artwork The artwork is all heavy, dark colours Looks very sort of classical Sort of, I would say, godlike with winged serpents and God knows what else going on in there, and knights in armour. It looks pretty heavy, almost like heavy metal type artwork on it, more than any kind of light theme. So I think it's going to be a dark game. But I don't know, it certainly looks, to me at least, more interesting than the Pony Factory layout. There's a lot more shots A lot more features on the playfield Okay, so Yeah, and then You pointed out to me, and I'll just mention it here That the pinballbuzz.com Website, which is the Actually the website of Pinball Adventures Which is the manufacturer of these games Is currently under construction Or actually gone Yeah, it's just Just a sign that I kind of thought that the days of seeing websites that said they're under construction was long gone that's sort of something from back in the early 2000s but no Pimple Adventures has gone retro and they have an under construction sign on their website although if you wanted to know what was on it before that you can use the Wayback Machine and have a look at previous versions of it where you can see all about the upcoming games as well because all those are listed there with artwork ideas, at least, and intentions of what they're going to do with them. And also the YouTube account as well for Pinball Adventures, that is still there.
    36:02
    And on there you can watch the making of, which is a little bit weird, making of games that haven't actually been made yet, but you can watch making of videos for the Punny Factory.
    36:16
    including one which got a certain amount of criticism, I think, recently on Pinside. But I'll let you watch that for yourself. It's called the whiteboard video for the Pony Factory, which I think is what Andrew's calling the whitewood version. So have a look on YouTube for Pinball Adventures, and you can see five videos there. I'm sure there used to be more, but maybe not. Right, so moving on to well, let's say Jersey Jackpin Wolf Yeah Well, you know they're obviously busy doing Guns N' Roses that's going to keep them busy for a long time they are currently building or at least were very recently building limited edition models Right So those were very recently on the line Any news on the development or the playfield issues that have been addressed by several people the past couple of weeks or months even. And in some cases, Jersey Jack offered a solution and in some cases people weren't happy with that solution. So is there any news on that? No. I was going to say over here in the UK now it's summertime and that's what's known as cricket season. and I think when it comes to news coming out from Jersey Jack Pinball about solutions to their playfield problems, we're also hearing crickets. So I don't think we're going to see or hear anything made public about that at the moment. I think they're just carrying on producing games. To an extent, if people keep buying games, why would anybody change anything? and just deal with those situations as and when they occur. Absolutely. I don't think we're going to see anything made public, at least, about that at all. Well, speaking of making things public, one thing that they did make public is a new webshop. At last, yes. Yes, we've been waiting, I think we've mentioned it, two months. But pinballwizard.com was the domain that they registered, a long time ago, and they're coming soon, I guess, rather than under construction. It is, say, coming soon on it, and it did finally open just this week, I believe. And, well, there's not a huge amount in it at the moment, but I'm sure there'll be more added over the coming weeks and months. But at the moment, if you just want JJP-branded merchandise, then all they can offer you currently is a Jersey Jack pinball t-shirt and face mask.
    39:10
    So not quite at the global lifestyle brand status just yet, but I'm sure building up to it. But there's quite a lot more Guns N' Roses merchandise available there to go along with the game. And it uses pinball Guns N' Roses rather than just Guns N' Roses generic stuff. So it's got the flippers on the logo. So you can get a patch, a t-shirt, There's posters and banners. And that's also where you can buy the new Guns N' Roses topper. Right. And I do have a question about that because I've seen it. It looks like the sign outside of a theater saying, like, who's playing tonight, and it says sold out as well and what have you, the very classical way. Once you see it, you know exactly what I mean. But I understood that topper is actually a third-party topper, and it's not the official topper, which still has to be revealed.
    40:12
    Oh, that's not my understanding. I thought when I saw it, it said in the advertising that it was the official, the only official branded G&R. As far as I understood it, it's not being mentioned anywhere on the social media of Jersey Jack Pinball, as far as I could see. It has been mentioned by distributors of Jersey Jack Pinball I understood it's developed by a third party And it's interesting to see that the Jersey Jack Pinball webshop is offering it But not officially announced by Jersey Jack Pinball As far as I can tell But maybe I'm wrong So correct me if I'm wrong Well, I'm a little critical here Because I'm going to say when I saw it I was hugely underwhelmed by it I thought, is that it? Because that just looks like an illuminated bit of Perspex with some printing on it. Right. I don't know if it does anything other than just light up, whether it's got animation of the lights, but it's only bottom-lit. There's no backlighting, as far as I can see, to it. It looks almost like the original Wizard of Oz one that was a sheet of, that was green, but this is just printed and bottom-lit and just fits on top of the game. That said, it's $199, so you're not exactly... That's a bargain for a topper these days. Exactly, that's what I thought. But it did seem to me that the market was wide open for a more interactive Guns N' Roses topper, especially considering the price of the collector edition model. You'd think there'd be something befitting of that. and how much lighting effect there is in the game and how interactive that all is.
    42:04
    Maybe that, because it is so interactive, you really don't want any more going on on top of the game because it would just be distracting. But having seen other toppers which do animate to the sound in a much more exciting way, I was a bit let down by what they came out with. But for the price, I can't really argue, I suppose. well it's up to taste I suppose if we're discussing issues with toppers personally I seem to sort of, well I wouldn't say object but I'm like if a topper is basically nothing more than a bigger logo of what the game is called which we see more and more and on this Guns N' Roses topper the Guns N' Roses flipper logo is also present, but it's right above the Translight, which already has the logo, so I'm like, why would you put it on top of the game as well? It's already there. Well, it's illuminated, if you're playing in a darkened room, at least you can see it, I suppose. Or we talk about the one that's on the back glass. Well, there's one on the back glass, and then right above it is the topper one, so I'm like, what's the point of putting another... The logo is already there, do some... I would appreciate it more, I suppose, if you did something with the game or team members or something with a Guns N' Roses logo that's not on the back glass or something like that. I get that it's a cool logo, but if it's already there, why put another one on top of it? That's sort of my issue.
    43:47
    I'm taking this one as an example. and it's not fair in the sense that other toppers have the same issue, I suppose. But the Black Knight one doesn't have that. It's a moving head with the flames, and that's really cool. It doesn't have to say Black Knight, because everybody can read it's Black Knight. It's on the back glass. Yes, that's right, yeah. I agree with you, yeah. Although I suspect if there was any obvious imagery that they could have used up there, they probably already used it within the game, so it would only be repetition. And of course, even more difficult with a high-profile license like Guns N' Roses, that they're very limited on what they can actually put on there. I'm sure I'll have to go through all the authorization stages. I agree with you there that it's probably easier to license this, or use the logo that's already been approved. Although I can imagine there's also a cross logo with the skulls of the band members, which I think was used on the earlier Guns N' Roses pinball machine, or at least on the artwork of one of their previous albums. It would be cool to put something like that on top of the game, which lights up, but it's not completely in line with how the game is designed. No, maybe it could be a third-party one then I've certainly seen another topper Which I think would fit very well on top of there And is a lot more dynamic Than the one that we are currently looking at But that will hopefully be announced in this coming month But we'll cover that later Elsewhere, Jersey Jack Pinball We've already said that Guns N' Roses Limited Edition Is currently in production But that hasn't stopped them going back and adding some features to older games, in particular The Wizard of Oz, the very, very first. Yeah, I think we mentioned that in our last podcast already, that it was coming. I think it came out right when we recorded our previous podcast. So the game is now compatible with Corebit integration and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and all that boring stuff that you love to... It's not boring, it's exciting. It is? Oh, sorry about that. For all those updates that are going to be coming out for the Wizard of Oz in the future, then you can automatically download them whenever that happens. And, yeah, Bluetooth audios, nice feature.
    46:26
    I think if you want to wear headphones and listen to your game. I know Wizard of Oz came with the jack and the volume control on the front, so you could plug in, but now you can do wireless and, of course, easily feed external speakers or amplifiers, so that's quite useful. And so, Schoolbit is, I think, catching on in a big way. Certainly, at our club, there's more and more games. We're buying more and more Schoolbit board kits to put into various games. So, hopefully, that will become a big thing and we can play games and have leaderboards across the world, which is fun. In fact, I think at the moment, I think only dialed in is the game that hasn't received that update yet. I think all the others have. Okay, well. So that won't take long, I suppose. No, it's a modern kit, so I'm sure they're getting around to it, but they're not actually putting a timeline on when these things are released, of course. It'll come when it comes, but as you say, I don't think it'll be that long. So then they have the whole range up until Guns N' Roses, all enabled with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Scorpit. Right, OK. So I suppose that covers it for Jersey Jack. I think it does, yep. OK, let's move on next door to their good neighbours, Stern Pinball. Yeah, indeed. Stern of, well, lots of small bits of news this time. I don't think there's any sort of earth-shattering news report from them. Yeah. So what's on the line? Well, at the moment, we believe that limited editions of The Mandalorian are in production. Right. So they are, I think they're produced second, aren't they? There's an initial run of pros, which goes out to operators, then the limited editions, and then some more pros normally, and then the premiums come last. And then probably some more pros. But of the three models we produced, the pros always come out first so they can get them out into arcades and things in time for launch parties and so on. But the editions are there at the moment. So, speaking of The Mandalorian, I'm not sure whether it's fair to mention, but from what I hear from people that actually played the game and I've only seen a handful of comments, I would say.
    48:56
    But the general consensus is that it's very disappointing that the Grogu toy doesn't do anything. Yeah, it's always wasted playfield space, really, isn't it? Yeah, and it's a pity, you know. I mean, well, others have talked about it, but it's not that just people aren't talking about it, but if you see that the experience from people playing the game and they are like, well, it's just a static toy, it doesn't do anything, yeah, that's a missed opportunity, I would say. Yeah, I think we're agreed on that. But we were talking about Mandalorian and also talking about the order of game or model production. It was interesting, just leaping ahead to what we want to cover right at the end, about the game code, that there have been two updates, actually, for the Mandalorian this month, version 0.56, sorry, 0.95 and 0.96. That's the same one I have.
    49:56
    But they came out in quick succession. But the interesting thing is that they only came out for the Pro model, and I'm guessing that's because the Pro was released early and had earlier code on, whereas the later, well, the limited editions that are being produced now will have this code in already, and premiums will have it or later code when that is made. So if you had one of the early pro models, then some code update is available for you, which does a lot, really, in bringing it up to the current standard. Well, we won't go into it all because it's boring. If you can't see it, we'll play it. Just to mention that you have an early pro updated.
    50:40
    Right. So, what I found interesting, and I'm quite sure you as well, Stern Pimble did send out a press release stating that Tom Capera is joining Stern as director of mechanical engineering. Yes, that's right. Now, anybody not familiar with the industry might say, like, oh, good for Tom. But the fun fact actually is that Tom has been working at Stern for years already. But apparently as a freelancer with his own engineering company or whatever you want to call it. So, but according to the press release, he will be lead mechanical engineering. He will be working in the Whitewood Lab, the model shop, and the Bill of Materials group. Well, he'll certainly be in charge of those and leading them. That's right, yeah. He might even be the only one working in those.
    51:48
    I don't think they're quite that lean yet, I think, for the materials group. The interesting group is only one person.
    51:56
    Yes. So Tom, as we, just a little bit of backstory there, Tom, as we know, worked at Williams. The designer of Cactus Canyon. Indeed. He was, basically, he did a lot of work with George Gomez, really. He was brought into Coinop, I suppose, in the first place by George to work at Midway on video games. when George went over to Pinball, Tom joined him fairly soon after where he was doing mechanical engineering and then as the traditional style of Pinball was coming to an end and they were getting ready for the Pinball 2000 Revenge from Mars, the first title and then obviously Star Wars after that they were looking for a game they were looking for a new design team basically at that point and so they sort of said well okay who's going to bring us out a game and Tom joined up with Matt Correal and they together had worked on the Cactus Canyon game and it wasn't quite ready at that point but when Williams asked various people to put together a game which they can use to plug the gap between the end of regular pinball production and the start of pinball 3000, Tom and Matt produced, brought up their Cactus Canyon game, and that was picked.
    53:18
    And so it was, they made, was it 1,000, I think it was, Cactus Canyon games before Revenge from Mars began. 903, to be precise. Thank you very much. I knew somebody with a knowledge of the history of pinball would be in, and obviously Gary's not going to do it, so thank you for stepping in there.
    53:37
    So, yeah. Go on, sorry. Okay, I was just going to say, and since then, when Williams closed George went over to Stern and Tom joined him there as well and has been doing a lot of work on various games I have a list here so Tom is credited for the design of the Rolling Stones which came out in 2011 so George was already there for some time I believe or at least working freelance for Stern and I even heard a rumor that George might have designed Guns N' Roses, sorry, the Rolling Stones, but wasn't allowed at the time to take credit for it due to other contractual obligations. It was working elsewhere, I think at the time. Right, and for that reason Tom Capera has been credited for the design and he obviously must have been involved, but I'm not sure whether he designed the entire game. That's a good question for him once we get the opportunity to talk to him. But he's also been involved in, and I'll make this short,
    54:50
    Transformers The Pin, Star Trek for Stern, Avengers The Pin, well, Star Trek, all three editions, I would say. Game of Thrones, all three editions. Wonelly, Big Juicy, Melons. The Beatles and Elvira's House of Horrors any credit for that information?
    55:17
    IPDB ok and the heavy metal game all the games just mentioned he's been credited for mechanical engineering so obviously it's not a completely new position for Tom to become, well, director of mechanical engineering. Yeah, I think on at least some of those games, the more recent ones, like The Beatles and Elvira, he was the lead project engineer on that game. So I think he had quite a heavy involvement with that. But also, you know, something which maybe people don't know is that he's been very heavily involved in building toppers for Stern Games, all the way up until, I think, The Monsters. I think that might have been the last. But before that, yeah, I think he basically did or designed all the toppers for Stern Games prior to that point And after that I think he probably got a bit more expensive and a bit more complicated So there might be more people involved in it after that Right, so it's interesting that while he's lead in mechanical engineering, there's nothing mentioned about toppers No, no I know That's not normally something that's listed on IPDB Neither in the press on these No, no But in research I did listen to an interview That he did And I forget exactly which one it was Or I would give them credit to it But I can't remember which one it was But it was I think it might have been The pinball show or something like that. It was certainly one of those brands. And it was a good interview, so congratulations to whoever it was who was doing it. But yes, I wanted to get some background information, and that's where Tom was interviewed. I recommend you listen to it if you're interested in some of the inner workings of how pinball is put together. It's got a good story. His story covers a lot of different companies and a number of different designers and ways of working, So it's interesting to see how he's been in the business a long time and how it's changed. Yeah, okay. What I find interesting, and then we'll leave it with Tom Capera, is that the rumor has it that Chicago Gaming will be remaking Cactus Canyon as their next remake title. So basically Tom Capera would have his old game come out again while he's working for a competitor. Yeah, that's right. And as part of that interview, he actually asked about that and said he'd had no involvement with Chicago Gaming about remaking that. Which I suppose is a pity, but... It is, but... Yeah. And essentially since he... Well, he used to freelance up to recently, so he could have had any influence or collaboration. I suppose now that he's director of mechanical engineering, that chance, or that ship has filled, I suppose. I think it has. It will be interesting to see if any of the intended features that were planned to be on Captain Scallion do make it into the remake, should that be produced shortly. Right, okay. So, getting back to Stern Picking.
    58:46
    Gary Stern, to be precise, well, first of all, congratulations, Gary, with his 76th birthday. Yeah, happy birthday to Gary. And for those, well, let's put it in a different order. So, Gary was also interviewed in two different shows the past month. One was on Shack News and the other was on WGN Radio.
    59:20
    The WGN Radio had an interesting title, how Stern Pinball became the largest pinball manufacturer in the world, and then it didn't cover that topic at all And which is a pity because well I hate to say it but for those well everybody who was around in the late 90s and the early 2000s know that Stern basically became the biggest pinball manufacturer because Williams shut the doors. Yeah, if you're the only manufacturer, you're the biggest. Not quite an effort. But And to be completely fair And not to stab on Stern But Williams used to sell Lots and lots more games than Stern Or Sega Pinball Did in those days But I'm Getting back on point Yes Well two interviews Basically the usual That you get from Gary Stern The three legged stool the story about Sam Williams becoming owner of Williams Pinball back in the day. Sam Stern, I would hope. Yeah, sorry, Sam Stern, his father. And, well, basically no news there. So, if you heard Gary Stern talk at public seminars, you know what the story is going to tell. If you're, however, interested in hearing another side of Gary Stern, then I'd like to remind people of the double episode interview, if I'm not mistaken. That's correct, yeah. Yes. Interview with Gary Stern that you and I did last year as part of our series of podcasts when Gary turned 75. That's right. in which we basically steered away from all the standard issues that he discussed and actually went into details and his history in pinball, lots of parts that he usually does talk about. And that interview has been very greatly received. Yeah, it's a very popular one, I think, for us. I've been downloaded or listened to a lot. And, well, it's nice to hear Gary talking in a different way because we've seen him turn up at shows so many times. And, no, obviously he's a pro. He tailors it for his audience. So on the Radio Shack and WGN radio interviews, he's talking to non-pinball people. So he's playing it very sort of down-to-earth and non-technical and just talk about how pinball is still there, not just still there, but thriving. And he's always the salesman at the end of the day. But that's not what we wanted for that interview. So we wanted to know the details which, as you say, you don't hear him talk about often. So, yeah, have a listen. Anyway, it was a year ago for his 75th birthday, and it was kind of a landmark interview, I think. Give it a listen if you haven't heard it already. It's definitely worth it. We got a very, very good response to that.
    62:51
    And also interesting, Stern is on the road again. Well, actually, shows are happening again, and in this case we're talking industry trade shows, I suppose.
    63:03
    And Stern has been present at two, which we can mention. First, there was the International Bowl Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. That was held on June 23rd and 24th.
    63:16
    And Stern was there with three games, I suppose. They had two people present, Evan Kirby and Ryan Cravens. The games present were Stranger Things, Jurassic Park and The Mandalorian. and I suppose it's a good thing that Stern is actually showing up at the bowl expo because from what I understand, and I haven't been to any bowling centres in the US, but pinball used to be a very common part of bowling centres for those who didn't want to play bowling. Absolutely. I think it's just like having a hot dog stand and concessions and having a crane game, all that kind of stuff. Having a pinball or an arcade there, including pinball machines, is sort of standard equipment to find in a bowling alley. So, yeah, I think teaming up with Player One Amusement Group, who Stand It was on, and they are a North American distributor for Stern Pimble who are exhibiting at the International Bowl Expo. It makes very good sense and keep that link going because Pimble needs to keep in with the existing market as much as it needs to grow the market and expand into new areas. Right. Now, let's just hope that what I understood the trend is that more and more bowling alleys are closing down. So let's hope that trend gets stopped and actually more bowling centers open up again. Yeah, that's right. So they can put in pinball machines as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and the other trade show that I was going to mention is the annual Amusement Expo, which was held this year in Las Vegas again, which is actually started June 30th and still going on today.
    65:24
    And Stern is represented there by quite a larger team, including Gary Stern, John Buscalia, Evan Kirby, Patrick Powers, Roper Fuentes, and Ryan Craven again. So, big presentation, or representation, I would say. And they also brought more games, six to be precise, Avengers, Jurassic Park, Deadpool, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Led Zeppelin and Star Wars. Surprisingly, no Mandalorian. No, that's right. No, Mandalorian wasn't there, considering it had been at the show the week before. But maybe they're... Well, actually, I can't think of a good reason why they shouldn't have it there. It's their latest product, if it makes sense. But they didn't. So anyway, yeah, there's Stern regular exhibitors at Amusement Expo, been there for as long as I can remember.
    66:22
    It's a fun show, by the way. It is, yes. This year, I was going to say, this year it's back, as you said, it's back in Las Vegas. I think the last time it was held, which would have probably been two years ago, given the pandemic, I think it moved to New Orleans for one year. Right, that was the show where Hot Wheels was introduced Ah, right, good point Yeah, okay And actually that was last year And it was just before the pandemic Everything closed down Okay, yeah, my timeline's a bit out there But it certainly makes sense If Hot Wheels was debuted there Because that makes That fits in with the timeline there But yes, they always have a good display In previous years they've held tournaments as well, IFPA tournaments at Amusement Expo, and people who want to play in the tournaments will be able to get special passes. Of course, at the moment, and it's something we'll come on to a bit later, no IFPA-sanctioned tournaments are in place. So it was strictly an exhibit this year. So I have been practising for nothing?
    67:30
    You'd be practising for nothing if you were planning to get over to Las Vegas, yes. That's for sure. But no Six games, nice display And I don't know what the next show for them is But No, actually I don't know what the next show for them is I was going to look in the calendar Well, I do have a feeling what they will be doing Tonight A little bit of sidetracking But I believe that the The opening Of the Pimble Hall of Fame in Las Vegas Actually was scheduled to tie in with the ending of the International Expo, and that's tonight. Absolutely right. I knew it was today. I'd forgotten that it was also tying in with that event. But, yeah. Yeah, the official opening. There's been a soft opening there for, well, over a month now for those people who... I think you had to buy a T-shirt in order to get in. But now... I don't see Gary Swim buying a T-shirt, so... No, I'm sure he'd be an honorary guest Anyway, I'm sure Tim would not skimp on that But whether it would or not It is, as you say, the grand opening So we look forward to seeing some exciting pictures from that And video Right, from the actual Later today Yeah, but it's not We already, well, yeah When we are recording And we try to put out this podcast as soon as possible but it might be old news by the time that you hear this. Well, I don't think there's anything particularly to cover on that, other than the fact that it's happening, unless there are some outrageous events take place that we need to report, but I can't imagine that happening at the Pinball Hall of Fame. Okay, so here's an outcry to everybody who wants to do outrageous events.
    69:22
    If you happen to be in Las Vegas tonight, which is July 1st, oh well yeah oh if anyone's going to do outrageous events can you try and not do them on the first day of the month when we're doing our podcast do them a few days before give us a chance to catch up right we'd love to report on those yes and we'd love to receive a notification on the embargo so we can actually report properly on it yes quite right okay I think we're probably done with Stern for this particular section yeah I think so too I think we covered everything that's on the list. Okay, so let's move on to another pinball manufacturer, somebody who actually is manufacturing pinballs, and that's Haggis Pinball in Australia. Who are indeed in Australia. And they've put out quite a few updates this month, this month of June, that is. Right. starting on the 5th, when Damien reported that all the buyers of the Fathom revisited Mermaid edition should have received their confirmation emails. I think you might have mentioned something to that end in the last one. Well, we mentioned that they all sold out, that all 250 available units were sold.
    70:43
    Yes, well, everyone should have received a confirmation by the start of the month, and if you haven't got it by now, then there's definitely something that's gone wrong. What you should also have received, if you joined, is the pack of goodies that you get from joining their Clan Haggis Supporters Club. Now, there are a series of items which you get when you join, and unfortunately they weren't all available right at the point where they needed to be sent out. So the team has sent out everything they've got to everyone, and there'll be a couple of small items, a pin badge and a medal or something like that, which hadn't arrived at the Haggis factory in time and will be sent out separately in a separate small package. So you get two packages of goodies sent to you. Woo-hoo! So twice the fun, two goody bags. I know. Yeah, the suspense is suspending. then also earlier in the month now this is probably in a way sort of old news because it's probably no longer applicable but right at the start on the 8th I think they were, Haggis Pinball were advertising for staff because they're obviously expanding they still are, they are still looking on the lookout for personnel Okay, great. Well, they were looking for some additional roles in the factory, including assembly line workers and CNC operators. And if those are your skills and you fancy working in the pinball business, then you can contact Haggis Pinball. You can email them at employment at haggispinball.com, or I'm sure you can find their details elsewhere and give them a call or get in contact in other various ways. I do know up till now they seem to have about 13 staff working there now with a few more joining over the next few days which maybe they've probably got everybody they need but if you know that they're still looking and you haven't contacted them yet and want to do it now Right, so and then the 27th of June, just a couple of days ago a new update video was shared on the Haggis social media platforms in which they explained that they are currently under lockdown again due to COVID-19 or 20 or 21 or COVID-D or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Which means, well, they are still able to continue to work because they are allowed to move on, but they are having or facing delays getting the factory fitted with stuff that they need. So if they need screws or whatever, and usually go to a hardware store and get them, and now it takes two, three, four days before they actually receive them.
    73:53
    Right. And there's also a shortage of timber, which is causing more delays. That being said, they are currently building 50 Celts games, and that's what I understood the entire run. Yeah. So the entire run of Celts is just 50 games. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. At least it shows that 50 people had enough confidence in an upstart company like Haggis to buy the Celts game. And obviously a lot more regarding Fathom Revisitor. Well, yes, absolutely. It sold out in short order before the ordering window closed. they did say that they were planning to start Fathom in July and with the current delays that they had in getting some of the parts that is still the plan but Damien says it could be more towards the end of July than the start or the middle which was their original plan but as we mentioned before and we'll mention again supply line shortages and delays are affecting everyone right now So if they're able to just delay by a couple of weeks in their production or start production of Fathom, then that's not a bad result, I'd say. Right. So moving on, because I think we covered everything you had to mention about hangers. I think so.
    75:36
    Switching back to America, American Bimble to be more precise, We were sort of expecting A game announcement this month But So far nothing Yeah, well, in June At least We were expecting something And yeah, didn't really come, did it? David, when he was on our podcast With Mikesh and Nirmal Was heavily hinting That they were expecting to announce something In June and yet it didn't happen. So whether that means that the timing wasn't right or the game wasn't ready or they too are experiencing part shortages, we don't know. But I'm sure we'll find out as soon as we can. Right. So in the meantime, I did check the American Pinball Facebook page and the Amusement Expo Facebook page because, like I said, last year they introduced Hot Wheels at the show So I figured maybe they introduced a new game and didn't tell anybody about it, but just revealed it to the industry. You were thinking. Yeah. But, again, I have to disappoint you. Nothing yet.
    76:52
    Okay. However. I did notice that they have a distributor called the Gamma Group in Italy. I'm not sure whether it's a new distributor, but it was certainly news to me that they have a distributor in Italy. So if that's new then congratulations and otherwise I'm still very happy that they have a distributor in it in Italy which is to me a new name. It's not one of the distributors for other brands. No I was in the same situation as you. I hadn't heard of them before and I was pleased to see that one of the things that American people are very very keen on now is pushing to new markets and getting games to operators a lot more and it looks like that that's one step that they've taken in hooking up a Gemma or Gemma group in Italy in order to supply operators I think I don't think they're well well known in the home supply market but they might they might sell to other companies who do supply the home. So if Hot Wheels becomes available a lot more over there, as it probably should be, good luck to them. And I think we can probably stick with Italy, can't we, a little bit, with our next company as we move over to Pinball Brothers. Not the Italian themselves, very much Scandinavian in nature, but their Alien game is, I don't want to call it a remake necessarily, because it's the first proper production of the alien game. But that is being made by Pedretti in Italy, and they have shipped the first full container of games over to Cointaker in Pennsylvania, I think, isn't it?
    78:47
    Is it Philadelphia? No, it's Pennsylvania, isn't it? Not that technically, I haven't been there yet. Yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, Cointaker have taken their first full container of games, of alien games, and I'll send them out. Couldn't see how many games were in that container. Could be anywhere from 12 to 33 or something like that. Depends on the size of the container, I suppose. Yeah, I think I saw a picture that indicated it was a full container rather than a short one. So, yeah, hopefully it would be 33.
    79:20
    That's right. Yeah, we don't know for sure. But that's kind of like the latest developments from Pinball Brothers and getting the Alien game out into the hands of the people who bought it. Right. Okay, well, congrats to them. And let's see. Well, I didn't, surprisingly, and for two months now, I didn't see any pictures of more games being in production. No. So I'm not sure. I suppose they sold more than 33 games of the Alien title.
    79:53
    So I'm assuming that it's still in production. but there's no proof of that so let's just hope for the best I would certainly expect them to be carrying on at a pace I don't think they have any well I was going to say I don't think they have any Covid related lockdowns in that part of Italy but I don't know for sure because these things can be very localised can't they in certain circumstances we've seen that with Haggis as well certain parts of Australia have been put into lockdown So it's As far as I'm aware though They're still manufacturing At pace and getting The games that have gone out so far From Project E, the sample ones In the first batch all seem to have been very well received So let's hope All the production ones are in the Of the same standard I'm sure they will be Right, ok Well that was all the news that we could find on Pinball Brothers So let's move on probably lesser known Circus Maximus group.
    81:01
    At least the name might not ring a bell with that many people, but that's the group of people that are working on the remake of the Pinball Circus and Capcom's Kingpin. Yes.
    81:16
    Been very, very slow progress. very few updates indeed from anyone on the team. Yeah, especially considering both games are being in development, I would say, for a couple of years now. Yeah, they are games which have been built before, so you kind of know what it is you're building. In the case of Python's Pinball Circus, there's a lot more work going into that game, but that's been put on the back burner while they were concentrating on the Kingpin project in order to basically raise some funds in order to build the Pinball Circus game. But Kingpin has been built, the parts are known, but it all went very quiet. And with some attempts to redo the artwork, I think by Dave Christensen,
    82:11
    with, well, personally I'd say limited success there. I don't think the artwork that he produced, while beautiful in itself, is necessarily suited to this theme and this design of game. Right.
    82:25
    Yeah. And, well, it's been fairly quiet because that artwork is already, I think, a couple of years old. But, yeah. So there was an update from Jimmy Lippham, who is involved with actually a lot of pinball projects. for various companies. Usually on the software end, although he's usually also the guy that has to step in whenever something explodes or goes wrong and what have you. So we're very happy that all these companies have access to Jimmy to clean up the mess that they get themselves into. Although that's probably not the nicest thing to say. I'm sure that's not his job title. No, no, no, exactly. But no, Jimmy is a very talented software engineer, I suppose you can call it.
    83:17
    And so he posted an update on the Kingpin project on the Pinsight forum, where he explained where they are coming from, what his role is in the project, and what the things are that they are running into to basically to make the game or remake the game. And long story short, there's still quite a few hurdles that they need to take, challenges if you want to, to make the whole thing work. But it seems to me that they are still confident that they will get there at some point.
    84:08
    One of the interesting things, because I'm not going to detail everything that he said, and I suggest do a search on the Pinsight forum, or wait for the Film Magazine newsletter where I link to this specific post and you can read all the details for yourself. But the interesting thing, or one of the interesting things I found is that nobody on the teams want to set up a production line for them to build games themselves. So that means they will be sourcing out the building of the game, and several third parties already have shown interest, but it's still too early to talk to them because they don't know what they actually need because they don't have a working prototype with all the new mechs and parts and what have you. so and what's also interesting if you ever play the Kingpin or play Capcom games they have a certain feel to them but for the production that they are planning the current plan seems to be to switch to as much Valley Williams parts as possible so that might actually give the game that classic Bally Williams feel that a lot of people seem to love hmm I guess we're mainly talking about flippers rather than sort of ball guides or up kickers or slingshots or anything like that because those are the parts which are the most hands on the ones which you have the most interaction with directly and obviously Kingpin itself has some flipper tricks that it plays in that it can weaken the flippers if you don't make the correct shots until the point where you can't flip anymore and then basically your game is over, your ball dies and drains. So we need to replicate that feel of how the flippers lose their power, which needs to be tuned to work effectively and give good feedback to the player. Yeah, well, I suppose this is where Jimmy comes in Because he will probably be the one programming the current Or the voltages being sent to the flippers to get that effect Yep, certainly, yeah Okay, well, we continue to wish you good luck Yeah, it's good to see an update But I still get the feeling that they're a long way from home Yes, well Or from the finish line, maybe they are at all I say we're reasonably familiar with getting updates that tell us that there's still a long way to go One of the other companies we should look at maybe was Deep Root Pimble Right On that particular note No updates from them yet The last update that we did have didn't reveal very much but other than to say they were experiencing continued delays, labour shortages, and to offer some buyers a chance to back out of their purchase, if that's what they wanted. They were, well, it's generally expected they will give an update again in a few days' time, really, after the July 4th American Independence Day holiday. So once everybody's back at work Maybe look out For an announcement From Deepwood Pinball Saying how they are currently doing On their plans To produce their first title Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland Yeah For a second I was going to say How much more delayed we are going to expect As for you Well yeah I don't expect there's going to be a flash of light and a sudden appearance of a production line producing these games. Right, okay. Yeah, and then someone on, I forgot their name, sorry about that, someone on Pinside pointed out that... Yeah, it was Blueberry Johnson, I think, who's good on there, for delving into the finances of companies.
    88:33
    Yo, I tell the story, you're more... You probably know it better than I do. I didn't realize we even read the same story but yeah just to note that there's been basically a monthly payroll protection plan, a series of loans given out by banks in order to support pinball, well not pinball companies across the whole of the US and manufacturing in particular and Deep Root Tech who's I guess the parent company of Deep Root pinball they received a second tranche of loans and bear in mind these aren't loans they're not payments they received basically just over one million dollars in payroll protection loans in may
    89:24
    these figures coming out in in june having received almost a million in April as well Yeah and I do recall that it states for how many people these loans are or how many
    89:41
    salaries. I'm not sure whether we can see that these people are being paid very well or... No, I'm not entirely sure what new Deep Root tech covers. It might be more than just the pinball side, because it might cover Deep Root Studios as well.
    90:05
    Although I think I saw a separate listing for Deep Root Studios, so maybe that's different. But there could be other Deep Root entities that we're not familiar with or aware of who are also part of this. But I think it was something like 64 employees, I think. That's just a rough recollection of a number that could be entirely wrong. But that's the number that comes to mind. I'm looking it up right now, so give me a second. Sure, okay. Well, I mean, obviously Deep Root are not unique in getting these loans. They are available to all large companies. Right, okay. So I got the details here. So there's two loans, one of $759,000, well, let's say $760,000 for 47 jobs, and the other one is for $298,000 for retaining 18 jobs. What's the total there, those two? Yeah, it was just over a million for 65 jobs in total. Oh, it's one hour.
    91:24
    That's not bad. So a million divided by 65, how much are these people making? Yeah, well, I'll let you do the calculations on that. Of course, it's not all salaries, that money, of course. In fact, it could be that none of it's salary. It's meant to be, but it's meant to keep the company afloat and going.
    91:48
    And that was for May. And there was, as we said before, there was a similar payment a month earlier. Right. Oh, well.
    91:58
    So, unfortunately, I suppose that's all the news for DeepRoot. I think it is. Yeah. So, hopefully, somewhere soon, we get flooded with new games by Deep Root, and they turn out to be a highly successful pinball company. Yeah, exactly, and stop paying back some of that loan they've taken on. Right. Okay, other companies? Yes, well, if I get to stay close to home. Yeah, I think you should. Dutch pinball, sad news regarding a game, but founding member Jaap Nauta, who had left the company due to his illness, his battle against cancer, passed away last month, which was very sad news because Jaap was a very likable person. He was. Yes.
    93:10
    And, well, he didn't get that old. I think he was probably late 50s, early 60s, I suppose, maybe, or maybe even younger. Yeah, I was at 50.
    93:25
    Yeah. And well, like I said, he already resigned from his duties in the company, but that doesn't mean that, well, he will be greatly missed. Yeah, his legacy lives on in both the company and the game.
    93:44
    He's had so much involvement in the creation of the Big Lebowski and of Dutch Pinball, and he was sort of the public face of it, I think, really, wasn't he? He was standing up at the shows, hosting all the seminars. Anyone who's seen him perform but hosting a seminar will know how full of life and energetic he was, absolutely, and likeable as well. He didn't mind telling it as it is, and he will be so sadly lost. Yes, absolutely. And in other Dutch Pinball news, I did text with Barry, the owner of the company.
    94:28
    Basically he said there's not much news to report, and I asked about the supply chain issues which they have been facing, and he expects that to be completely an issue of the past in the next one or two weeks. Oh, right. And they are going full steam ahead. Great. Well, good news then to counter the tragic loss of NAP. Yep. I should say. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
    94:59
    Well, there's a few other companies and a few tidbits to address. Yeah. But we can do this very briefly. the home pin, not much news other than that their Thunderbird toppers are finally being assembled and packed. But there seems to be an issue with shipping them out because of postal issues and what have you. Oh right, okay, last month they reported they were finally being made, but it's a shame that they haven't actually arrived yet, or they have problems in getting them to the owners. I suppose you were a little bit early with that. Yeah. You were looking in your crystal ball and you could foresee the news of the next month. Yeah, I kind of overshot a bit. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. No. So can you tell us what we'll be discussing next month? Well, I could, but it may not be that exciting. Or it could be too exciting. I don't want to get people overexcited in case some of these things don't happen. You know, I can look and see what should be happening. But it doesn't necessarily mean it will. Can you see what lottery numbers Will be successful I'll tell you later Okay Well we briefly already mentioned Chicago Gaming Yeah No news from them We're still expecting a remake title To be announced fairly soon The interesting news To report possibly is While others said that That search title would be announced last month we were actually well I reached out to Ryan White who told me they were not planning to announce anything this month and that was right. Yes, that's right. So just a tap on our shoulder that we brought you correct information like we try to do all the time of course but in this case it was verified info that they would not be revealing a game which turned out to be true. Yep, absolutely. Sometimes we can tell you where we got the information from, sometimes we can't. But we do try to keep it as accurate as we possibly can, and source it from the best people. And that's a great example of knowing that Chicago Gaming were not going to be announcing a game in June, despite so many other people saying the opposite. Right, and I didn't reach out to Ryan this month So I wouldn't be able to tell you what he would have told me But we're still waiting for some announcement But of course they are facing supply chain issues As many other companies as well So it could be that they would like to announce But they can't because they can't finish production of certain parts Yes, that's right Or the parts or whatever And maybe it's completely something else Maybe they don't want to announce anything They want to wait three more months, I don't know Okay, so moving on We've got no news from Chicago No other news from Chicago So let's look at some other news In the pinball world Some other news Yes, that's right And I suppose Probably the biggest Well, there's a couple of big news here Let's start with the Museum of Pinball out in Banning in California.
    98:29
    That turns out to be a rather tragic story. It does. Well, it may be. It's looking that way at the moment. I'm still trying to find out more and more details. Well, actually, there was a... I'll continue, and let me grab something over here while you're digging up the story. Yes, go ahead. Oh, well, I was just going to say, I've been trying to get the word from the horse's mouth and talk to John Weeks or Jonathan Weeks over at the Museum of Pinball, but they don't want to talk at the moment, and they're the ones who would really know what's going on, as John is the owner of the Museum of Pinball and owns the 18-acre plot on which the Museum of Pinball's buildings are located and ends of buildings. And Jonathan Weeks is his son. It is indeed. Yes.
    99:19
    Very good first name, by the way. Yeah, well, a bit common, I'd say, but there you go. So the basic plan was that Museum of Pinball, as we mentioned last month, were planning to move to Palm Springs. They'd identified a building, an old newspaper building, which had been refurbished and were all set to move in. And then it turned out that it would take an awful lot more time and an awful lot more money to actually get the building ready for the Museum of Pinball to move in, along with its, God knows how many games there are over there. There's over 500 pinballs, over 1,100 games in total. No, no, no. Actually, it's 2,200 games in total. Really? Wow. Yes. Apparently, there's an extra warehouse that also needs to be emptied. Ah, okay. Right. So, well, they got all those games, and it would take far too long and far too much money in order to move, because, unfortunately, it seems that John has signed a lease with a company which grows cannabis, which is legal in California, and they are going to take over the existing buildings starting in October, and all the machines have to be out by that time. But there's nowhere for them to go, and that is the problem, really. Where can you move that many games? Now, John's got a large plot of land, we said 18 acres, and it's possible we could put up some buildings there. I was going to say, that seems to me like the cheapest option. Yeah, I mean, he's got other buildings, but I would assume that they are in use for something at the moment. But the whole collection may have to go into storage. Right, but then why not set up your own storage buildings on those 18 acres? Yeah, we talked about shortages, and I know there's a lot of shortages in the construction industry as well, particularly when it comes to things like concrete and timber. As we've mentioned before, the same issues that were affecting Haggis Pinball and the timber that they needed to build their offices. And the prices, of course, have gone way up as well. And to an extent, building those, if you don't have a use for them afterwards, is kind of wasted money. But they are investigating the possibilities of what they can do. It's not so much that there's no use for them. He could also start his own pot-growing business. Well, yeah, potentially. I'm not sure how the existing tenants would take to that. But I'm not sure that weed is a way out of this. But maybe it is.
    102:04
    But I hear there's a lot of money in that. Well, there certainly seems to be. they were able to take over those anyone who's been to the museum of pinball will know there were two very large halls there, one pinball side one arcade game or video game side and those are all going to be basically turned into growing houses which is different I suppose for those of us who live in a culture where cannabis is not legal which I think probably just means me actually isn't it? Because it's certainly legal where you are, in certain cases, where you are, Jonathan.
    102:43
    It's certainly allowed over here, yes. Yes. We set the tone. California took it from us. Yes, quite right.
    102:51
    As usual, you're spearheading the movement, shall we say. Right. Yes, so at the moment it's all very confusing and time is running out And I've been trying to write a story about it But it's As you can hear, there's a lot of unknowns About what's happening They are trying to get sponsorship For the museum, but that seems pretty unlikely In all honesty Should they sell some games in order to raise some money? Well, the thing with Selling the games is, what I understood is That they are willing to sell the entire collection To one buyer Well, yeah, who's that then?
    103:34
    I mean, that's I mean, you could sell off some games, but selling them off to one buyer, that's basically like reducing your chances to one in a billion, maybe. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't make any sense. You could sell, I don't know, 100, 200 games, get some working capital, if you're short of capital. But it seems like they got some money, because they were planning to move into this other building and renovate it. But the cost of doing it is far more than was planned. So there was some money put aside for that. I suppose so, yes but of course you have the problem of moving that many machines in a short space of time as well you know, you can move them off the site so to me the obvious answer is to build some properties on the existing plot that's what I figured as well put them all in there until you can you know, get I mean it's not like they were open that often they're open about four times a year but also one of the things that you have to bear in mind is that they were going to be hosting the Indus, the It Never Drains in Southern California tournament, which is now one of the biggest tournaments in the world, and was held in the biggest collection of pinballs open to the public in the world. And now I know that the organisers of that tournament are looking for possibilities of where they can relocate if the museum is not there anymore. and it's almost certain the museum won't be in that building because leases have been signed and they have to be out by October right, so in the meantime of course while the Museum of Pinball used to be the largest public collection of pinball machines with I think over 500 games set up and they might have had more in their collection, I'm talking about game set up Yeah, over 500 Yeah, obviously With their new building The Pimble Hall of Fame is exceeding that number Yeah, obviously They will be, they're not there Immediately, but I don't know how many they'll have at the Opening tonight Well, I think their aim For tonight was like 500 But in total they can have like 700 games in there Yeah, that'd be amazing, wouldn't it I guess they take over the title And also they are somewhere that's open all the time Seven days a week I don't know whether you need that many games For the Indisc tournaments But It seems to me that the Pimple Hall of Fame Might be a good alternative To host the tournament Yeah If the games are in tournament condition. Yes, that's another point. And they're willing to dedicate a large area of the museum over to just a tournament for tournament players.
    106:39
    And spectators, of course. But that would just be one weekend, I suppose, or a week. Yeah. But it's like Wimbledon Once a year or something It could be an annual event To be held at That location But then again It's not up to us to figure it out So Twelve hours ago The Museum of Pinball Did post on the Pinsight Forum I'll just read One line Friends, staff and volunteers, stay tuned for an update coming in a few weeks, and please, in the meantime, try to be nice to each other.
    107:28
    This is on Pinside. And regardless of what the future holds for the Ministry of Pinball, let's be thankful for the good times that we had over the five-plus years. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Okay, so there's a thread on Pinside. If you want to read the full statement, you can find it over there. but the fact that it says that there is an update coming tells me that they are working on something whether it's good or... Yeah, so... Yeah, so basically, as I said, it's confusing to exactly what's going to happen with that place and difficult to report anything concrete at this stage, particularly involving laying down any concrete. So, we were talking about Indisc just now, and being in the largest tournaments.
    108:19
    And that takes us neatly onto tournament play and the announcement this month in June by the IFPA, the International Clifford Pinball Association, that they will be resuming their sanctioning of pinball tournaments from the 1st of August this year. So from that point onwards, you will be able to play in tournaments and earn those valuable Whopper points. I haven't been practicing for nothing No, well as long as you keep the skills up through the whole of July yes, you'll be raring to go come the 1st of August for those people who are organizing tournaments the 30 day notification rule for registering your tournament with the IPA is still active, so if you haven't registered your tournament by now then if you want to do one on the 1st of August you'd better get onto it very, very quickly because you've only got 30 days.
    109:16
    You have to register your tournament 30 days before it starts. So get onto the IPA website and get the details filled in and get it accredited with the IPA. And then you can start awarding offer points. And I'm sure there'll be a big rush of tournaments that will all start taking place at the beginning of August. people to start earning their points to make up for all those that have decayed over the past, well, couldn't say how long it is since it was suspended. A long time ago, it seems. And the basic competitive pinball worldwide back on.
    109:53
    Good, good. So, well, there's two more items on our list. I suppose I'd take the last one. so why don't you go ahead and do this sure let's take a blast yeah okay well just an announcement that Norbert Slicer who does a sort of regular two-day pinball maintenance course has announced he's doing a new online pinball troubleshooting and maintenance course called pinball machines how they work and troubleshooting it's a system where you can do it in your own time because it's online. It's not an intensive like two-day course as other ones have been. It's priced at $520.
    110:40
    What? Seems a lot of money, but it's an extensive course and it gives you one year's access to all the course material as well. So, you know, it's comprehensive. It's not just a skimming over it.
    110:57
    Norbert says in a quote, it's done in the same spirit as the two-day course and is much more comprehensive and also more in-depth. The online curriculum would not be possible to cover in the time frame of the standard two-day course. You just go on to list all the things you're going to be covering, you know, like the Williams system, the Spike system and various other systems as well, which you will learn how to both identify problems, troubleshoot them and fix them. Anyway, if that's something which interests you It might be something that would be more applicable To operators or trainees In the operator business Head over to Pinballtroubleshooting.com And you can find out about that course And Norbert's other Material Which you can order from him So just put in the link That's available If doing a troubleshooting course Is something that tickles your fancy right ok and there is a bit of news regarding the Magic Girl game which was designed and developed by John Popaduic originally for his Zitware company and eventually manufactured by American Pinball as actually the first game that they took into production when John was still working there As you know, I think there were 19 or 25 games, something like that, in that order, manufactured in total. It was a very small run. Yes. The problem with those games was they don't work. Well, they flip, but there's hardly any game in there. That's true. And so, much to the surprise of, well, a lot of people, I suppose, Gerard van der Sanden, who is the director of the Dutch Pinball Museum, posted a photo of himself standing next to three Magic Girl games in the Netherlands. and the story with those was that there's a group of people,
    113:24
    well, the three owners of those games, who basically spend two and a half years of their time trying to get the game working properly. And they are, well, two and a half years in, very advanced to the point where they have been redesigning certain mechs that weren't functioning or that could never function the way they were put in the game as they were, trying to figure out what certain mechs were supposed to be doing and figuring out a way how they actually could achieve that. for example the game was supposed to lock balls on the ramp but there was absolutely no way the game could lock balls on the ramp because there was no way to stop the ball at any point and there were lots of technical shortcomings in the game so to speak so while it according to many, looks like the most beautiful box of lies you've ever seen. Indeed. Gameplay was very, very poor.
    114:46
    And now that they have been working on it and fixing these mechs, as well as fixing the software by comparing various software versions that they were able to get their hands on, it's becoming a playable game. and there will be more news from them in the hopefully near future.
    115:13
    Basically, a lot of people got enthusiastic and wanted to know more. And I actually talked to one of the guys, Eric Bartels, here in the Netherlands, and we talked for two hours on the phone. He told me a lot of info, which is really too much to discuss over here. but what it comes down to is they are not completely finished yet and they want to wait before putting out any videos of a game that's still not functioning completely they want to finish the project so that they can actually once they show it off it won't be half a disappointment if you understand what I'm trying to say yeah they don't want to show a work in progress they want to show what they did with it And from what I understand, they are well on their way with this project. And I can't wait to visit them, hopefully soon, to be able to play the game. Because whenever I've seen it, I was not able to play it for more than 10 seconds. And certainly now there is a game and certain shots can actually be made. So it should be Hopefully a lot more fun to play And there will be I think Once they are able to go out with the news The way they plan to go out with the news once they can I think it will surprise a lot of people Well, great news that that's being worked on My immediate reaction would be Are they trying to create the game as it was intended to be? Yes. Or they are, they're not trying to create a game that works. No, no, what they are trying to do is work in the spirit of what John intended. The only downside so far I would say is that John is not involved, and I'm not sure whether that has to do with any contractual obligations he has to Deeproot. although I can see a benefit for Deep Root as well because if I'm not mistaken Magic Girl is still a game that they intend to produce at some point as well and it seems to me that these Dutch guys have figured out a lot of stuff that Deep Root doesn't have to figure out anymore. So if Deep Root is interested in taking Magic Girl into production then I suggest Robert picks up the phone and contacts a couple of these guys and I can help reach for them but I'm sure he can contact them himself as well he's capable enough of doing that and they're not exactly hiding no, not quite is there anywhere that anybody can see any progress so far? You mentioned about Gerard there's pictures on the museum well yeah the Dutch Pimple Museum Facebook page and probably Instagram as well the picture with the three magic girls is over there but any other info we'll just have to wait until they're really finished to show what they did and I'm quite sure whenever they are ready it will make quite an impact I'm sure it will well that's a good point on which to wrap up this podcast then because a nice high point something to look forward to for the future. Right. Okay, excellent. So, thank you for listening, and hopefully you enjoyed this, and you'll be back next month when we discuss the Pinball News of July 2021. Yeah, and as we said before, it's going to be a busy month, we're sure, and just as this month was, so we look forward to seeing you then with the next Pinball Magazine and Pinball News Pincast. So, until then, we wish you a happy time, and we'll speak to you then. Okay, thank you. Bye-bye.