Who STOLE the show at Texas Pinball Festival 2025?

Cooltoy·video·19m 54s·analyzed·Mar 24, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Texas Pinball Festival 2025: Spooky dominates with Evil Dead sellout; JJP confirms Harry Potter license.

Summary

Cooltoy provides a comprehensive manufacturer-by-manufacturer breakdown of Texas Pinball Festival 2025, highlighting Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead as the clear standout with rapid 800+ unit sellout, Turner Pinball surprise return with Merlin's Arcade, and significant announcements including Jersey Jack's confirmed Harry Potter license ($4M acquisition) and Chicago Gaming's Medieval Madness Merlin's version. The festival was notably thinner on total machines and major announcements compared to prior years, with American Pinball effectively absent and Barrels of Fun withholding their second title.

Key Claims

Evil Dead sold out over 800 units, fastest sellout in Spooky Pinball history
high confidence · Cooltoy directly reporting announcement made at festival by Spooky representatives
Jersey Jack Pinball paid $4 million to obtain Harry Potter license with all eight movie assets
high confidence · Jersey Jack Pinball himself confirmed at booth; specific dollar figure stated
Portal Pinball on P3 is the most advanced module Multimorphic has ever engineered
high confidence · Cooltoy's direct observation and assessment of displayed units at festival
American Pinball had no representation at Texas Pinball Festival 2025, suggesting company decline
high confidence · Cooltoy's direct observation and 'word on the street' reporting
Barrels of Fun deliberately withheld their second title from Texas Pinball Festival to avoid rushing release
medium confidence · Cooltoy's interpretation of Barrels of Fun's decision based on absence of game at show
Chicago Gaming Company's Medieval Madness Merlin's version is limited to 1,000 units
high confidence · Cooltoy reporting announcement from Chicago Gaming booth
Stern's Venom topper costs $1,300 and reuses parts from Star Wars: The Mandalorian
medium confidence · Cooltoy's observation and speculation on parts reuse at festival
Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade features a foosball spinner on ball bearings that spins very fast
high confidence · Cooltoy's direct gameplay experience at festival with prototype
Festival attendance was notably thinner this year with fewer machines and major announcements than previous years
high confidence · Cooltoy's direct observation throughout event

Notable Quotes

“Spooky Pinball definitely had the biggest hubbub and the biggest lines and the most crowded anticipation for their latest release Evil Dead pinball.”
Cooltoy@ 0:57 — Sets immediate tone for Spooky's dominance at festival
“They've progressively just gotten better and better with each and every release they've done to date which is a very nice upward trend to continue”
Cooltoy@ 1:23 — Assessment of Spooky Pinball's manufacturing and design trajectory
“The big news out of the Jersey Jack Pinball booth was Jersey Jack Pinball himself confirming that yes they officially have the Harry Potter license.”
Cooltoy@ 12:38 — Major announcement of Harry Potter license confirmation with all eight movie assets
“The big talk was supposedly they spent four million dollars to obtain this license. Obviously it's going to garner a lot of attention, a lot of new eyes to pinball, but man that is a lot of money you got to recoup just to break even.”
Cooltoy@ 13:03 — Key financial detail and business concern about Harry Potter investment ROI
“I honestly kind of respect that they would hold it back and not rush it out the door and try to meet everybody's hopes and desires to show it early when it's not necessarily finished polished”
Cooltoy@ 13:46 — Positive interpretation of Barrels of Fun's strategic product delay decision
“There was no representation here at Texas Pinball Festival. The only time you got to see an American Pinball game was just at other distributors' booths who were still trying to move some of that back stock.”

Entities

Spooky PinballcompanyEvil Deadgame Turner Pinballcompany Merlin's ArcadegamePortal PinballgameMultimorphiccompany

Signals

?
business_signal: American Pinball effectively absent from Texas Pinball Festival 2025 with no booth representation; company appears to be in terminal decline
high · Cooltoy directly observed: 'no representation here at Texas Pinball Festival' and 'only time you got to see an American Pinball game was just at other distributors' booths who were still trying to move some of that back stock'
?
design_philosophy: Evil Dead features innovative possessed flipper system replacing right slingshot with secondary button-activated flipper, requiring gameplay adjustment from players accustomed to standard mechanics
high · Cooltoy experienced gameplay: 'sling flipper mechanism that they're using here was basically replacing the right slingshot with a miniature flipper. Utilizes the additional button on the right side. I had to drain my brain, remind myself that it's not a sling, it's a flipper'
?
licensing_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball confirmed Harry Potter license with $4M acquisition cost and all eight movie assets secured
high · Jersey Jack founder personally confirmed at booth; specific $4M figure provided; noted inclusion of all eight movies differentiates from Toy Story 4 precedent
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market_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2025 characterized as notably thinner in total machines and major announcements compared to prior years
high · Cooltoy's direct observation: 'Overall Texas Pinball Festival felt a little bit thinner this year in terms of total pinball machines available to the public there wasn't as many big huge new company announcements this year as previous years'
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Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.060

0:00

Alright, today we're going to be talking about some of the pros, the cons, the ups, the downs, the winners, the losers of Texas Pinball Festival 2025.

0:30

So we're going to run this down manufacturer by manufacturer and I'll put timestamps down in the video description box below in case you want to skip ahead and just kind of ignore certain manufacturers. We're right now going to start with Spooky Pinball. I feel like they were basically the hit of the festival if you will, the bell of the ball. pinball definitely had the biggest hubbub and the biggest lines and the most crowded anticipation for their latest release evil dead pinball got to play this first and foremost this is a wide body pinball i know some people are just anti-wide body in general i'm not one of those people i enjoy a wide body game just as much as a standard game this game is jam-packed with features mechs all sorts of cool bells and whistles spooky really outdid themselves i feel like they've progressively just gotten better and better with each and every release they've done to date which is a very nice you know upward trend to continue uh their manufacturing capabilities are impressive just how quickly they can spin out games make them manufacture and put them together which is great because they announced at the show that they've officially sold out of their run of evil dead over 800 units which is very impressive uh just got released slash announced i think back in october of 2024 so it's a very quick turnaround i think it's probably one of the fastest if not the fastest sellout for spooky on any of their releases today so props to them for doing that the artwork on this is absolutely amazing i think the color palette christopher franchi chose pops exceptionally well uh the purple sparkly powder coated armor that is on this is beautiful but the little doodads here and there like the the tape recorder that's on the apron that actually you know spins in certain mode very cool features this thing is coated exceptionally well there's all sorts of modes in there that i was really impressed with uh there's like a a hack to bits mode i think is what it's called uh where you're playing and you're using an axe in the in the game and actual the movie and when you hit a shot there's a knocker inside the cabinet that actually makes that chop noise to coincide with every chop that is going on on the display screen uh and so you do that continuously and you keep hitting that you know knocker sound in the cabinet which is really immersive feeling it's a very neat way to uh code the game some of the satisfying things on this game to me were you know auditory the shotgun shell targets is really cool super satisfying to hit those you know they go in and out you hit that you hear that shotgun shell kind of like drop onto the floor sound effect which is just a chef's kiss through and through one of the cooler features is the cabin mech so you have a physical ball lock you get three balls up there in the cabin even has a swinging porch swing which is very creepy but it's very cool simultaneously because you know it's that classic cabin in the woods but you get three balls locked up there you know the porch swing will get out of the way and I'll come training down and go back into the play field this actually has a lower play field as well which is nice I felt it very fast easy to play down there you weren't stuck down there for what felt like an eternity which is always you know the biggest criticism with upper and lower play fields that they distract from the main gameplay but I think they did this exceptionally well. The moving hand on the left side is super cool. The sling flipper mechanism that they're using here was basically replacing the right slingshot with a miniature flipper. Utilizes the additional button on the right side. I had to train my brain, hey, remind myself that it's not a sling, it's a flipper, and I actually have to use a secondary button. So it took a little while to adjust to that. It's not a complaint of mine. It's just something you have to be cognizant of, especially when you're playing it for the first time. It's Like, hey, wait a minute, you've got to play it a little bit differently than you're accustomed to on most standard machines. But I had an absolute blast playing this game. I think it shoots amazing. The ramps, everything's super accessible. I didn't feel like there was any kind of drain monster one way or left or right. It's got a center post, which is great. I'm always bad about trusting that way too much. I give it a forward nudge and it still ends up draining down the middle on me. But I had a blast playing this. my only criticism, it's not really a criticism, my only wish that could have possibly made this game better is that as assets from Evil Dead 1 and Evil Dead 2, my favorite film of the franchise is Army of Darkness, but it makes no sense really to include Army of Darkness into this because the artwork and theme and everything centers around the Cabin in the Woods so if you have this medieval type of stuff going on with artwork and features that are on the play field that are Cabin in the Woods it wouldn mesh well I applaud them. They did an amazing job on this release. Artwork, game package, sound, shots, flow. I think it's awesome. If you're a fan of the franchise or if you're a fan of Spooky, definitely this is a no-brainer. I'd say get one, but they've already sold out. So if you bought one, enjoy it. Next up, we have the return of Turner Pinball. this time with a brand new game this was kind of a surprise announcement this week for texas pinball festival this is merlin's arcade and this felt like an extremely well polished well built machine you would you know if you didn't know any better you would think one of the other big tier major manufacturers that put this together so it has some unique play field and game features that is custom to turner pinball the the glass and the lock bar and everything is all kind of one piece and lifts up which is makes it much more accessible and easier to work on we got options for stadium lighting if you will kind of built into the machine which is really cool merlin's arcade i had a fun job playing it it's a pretty straightforward easy to understand three flipper game which was nice i did have some accuracy issues and this is poor play on my part of trying to find that uh upper third flipper shot but once i did it started to make sense to me one of the most satisfying shots on the game for sure was a foosball spinner so this is kind of a prototype sample they had two out here for us to play so the foosball spinner doesn't have any paint on it it's just like clear 3d printed i think it is uh they did say it is going to be painted and you know the final product is not representative of what we saw here but in my brain once i hit that thing for the first time i i'm thinking foosball spinners that you know they go around slow they're not going to be super crazy fast but that thing is on some sort of ball bearing that is really greased up because that thing flew and it felt so satisfying to hit the shot in fact everything was very accessible it did have a kind of Stranger Things vibe where you were starting a lock by hitting a left ramp and you had to hit two targets next to the ramp to light your locks very reminiscent of Stranger Things to me and it's very unforgiving so if you miss the ramp shot or if you hit one of those light locks it's almost always going to come right back towards your flipper or towards the middle so you definitely had to be wary of that they jam-packed from what I could hear. Obviously, Texas Pinball Festival is a very loud atmosphere, but what I can hear, there's lots of custom music and call-outs that are all unique to the play-filled characters, which is nice, so you're not having that repetitive droning music that just kind of goes over and over in loops and loops until you want to pull your hair out. But my hat's off to them. Great job, Turner, for a new surprise there. They also had two units of Ninja Eclipse. One thing they didn't have on site, though, was the the cheaper variation of Merlin's Arcade the arcade version that has kind of some stripped down features no yellow powder coating or anything like that one observation slash criticism I had of playing Merlin's Arcade was the topper seemed a bit thin and a little bit flimsy the acrylic they used maybe wasn't braced well enough because every time you nudged the machine you saw it kind of flopping and it's like oh wow that's a little bit alarming to see it kind of you know flopping in the wind, so to speak, with every kind of gentle nudge on the machine. But other than that, great job, Turner. Then we have the latest release from Multimorphic on the P3 platform, Portal Pinball. First of all, this is the most crazy, engineered, jam-packed module that they've ever done hands down, far and away. Absolutely no discussion about it. Anyway, it is the most advanced module they've ever done. If you're not familiar, Portal's a huge franchise in the PC gaming world. It's been around for years, so it'll definitely bring some new eyes to the pinball space which is always good it played really well in fact one add-on that they have is their extended game kit so for years you know people have kind of told multi more fake and you know said criticize that hey you know what's more stuff going on down the lower play field like it's cool that you're jamming everything it back here in these modules and they're interchangeable and everything but it's all it's always fixing up back third we want something down here in the lower half and now now they have the option with the extended game kit you get more shots set it on there and it doesn't necessarily like affect the trajectory of these standard base kit shots which is nice one thing I was a little kind of concerned about is maybe the longevity of it because I'm not first of all I'm not an engineer but uh just looking at and seeing it operate and you know playing it the ramps and the lifting mechanism seems like there would be a lot of stress on that hinge mechanism that would lift these ramps and get them out of the way because they do kind of go up and down and clear a path for different modes and different activities that are going on so time will tell how well that works and when it comes to like wow factors in pinball portal has a few of them it's got a couple of aerial mechanisms one of them that i'm familiar with was like the faith ramp i always kind of toyingly called it like the trampoline ramp it kind of up the middle but once you activate it it would lift the ball throw it up in the air and it would land in a trough in the background It literally flat and even with the playfield and once the ball is over that it would just throw it up and it would magically land in that trough in the background And you have a physical ball lock, which is really cool. These modules get more advanced, more impressive, and I had a heck of a time playing Portal. And it's so impressive, like I said, with just the playfield features and what they do. and I think the extended game kit is, you know, definitely the step in the right direction. The artwork Brad Albright did looks absolutely amazing as far as the Portal universe. It looks very on the nose and I mean that in a good way. I mean, it just nails the industrial feel and the vibe of that Portal world. So, I mean, great job, Multimorphic. You got another hit on your hands. They had three different copies here on display and they've had lines all day long.

Evil Dead released/announced in October 2024, achieved sellout in approximately 3-4 months

high confidence · Cooltoy's timeline calculation based on known dates

Cooltoy@ 15:00 — Stark assessment of American Pinball's apparent collapse as a manufacturer

“Portal Pinball is the most crazy, engineered, jam-packed module that they've ever done hands down, far and away. Absolutely no discussion about it.”

Cooltoy@ 8:15 — Strong superlative about Multimorphic P3's technical advancement

“It's got a center post, which is great. I'm always bad about trusting that way too much. I give it a forward nudge and it still ends up draining down the middle on me.”

Cooltoy@ 4:26 — Playfield design element and gameplay feedback on Evil Dead

“Overall Texas Pinball Festival felt a little bit thinner this year in terms of total pinball machines available to the public there wasn't as many big huge new company announcements this year as previous years”

Cooltoy@ 17:24 — Meta-observation about festival size and announcement volume decline

“Sad to see another manufacturer maybe go the way of the dinosaur, but it is what it is.”

Cooltoy@ 15:12 — Somber assessment of American Pinball's apparent market exit

Stern Pinballcompany

James Cameron's Avatargame

market_signal: Evil Dead achieved rapid 800+ unit sellout within 3-4 months of October 2024 announcement; claimed as Spooky Pinball's fastest sellout

high · Spooky representatives announced sellout at festival booth; Cooltoy confirmed 'very quick turnaround' and 'probably one of the fastest if not the fastest sellout for Spooky Pinball'

community_signal: Stern Pinball Venom topper reuses hopper shell and potentially LCD components from Star Wars: The Mandalorian, suggesting parts inventory optimization or design recycling

medium · Cooltoy speculates: 'it clearly reuses some leftover parts from Star Wars The Mandalorian's hopper i think it's the same shell and i wouldn't be surprised if it's the same lcd that was in that as well'

announcement: Chicago Gaming Company announces Medieval Madness Merlin's version (1,000 unit run) featuring Merlin powder coating and King of Pain topper; Cactus Canyon Lyman Sheets add-on code kit with new saloon mechanism and ten additional modes

high · Cooltoy reported direct observation of booth displays and announcements; specific unit count and feature details provided

announcement: Turner Pinball returns to market with surprise announcement of Merlin's Arcade three-flipper game featuring innovative foosball spinner and lift-up glass design

high · Cooltoy directly experienced and played Merlin's Arcade prototype at festival; described as 'brand new surprise announcement this week for texas pinball festival'

product_strategy: Barrels of Fun deliberately withheld second game from Texas Pinball Festival showcase to prioritize product polish over early announcement

medium · Cooltoy notes: 'I kind of respect that they would hold it back and not rush it out the door and try to meet everybody's hopes and desires to show it early when it's not necessarily finished polished'

product_concern: Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade topper exhibits flimsy acrylic construction, noticeable flex with gentle nudges causing alignment concerns

medium · Cooltoy observed: 'the topper seemed a bit thin and a little bit flimsy the acrylic they used maybe wasn't braced well enough because every time you nudged the machine you saw it kind of flopping'

technology_signal: Multimorphic P3 Portal module represents most advanced engineering effort to date with extended game kit expanding lower playfield shots and lifting ramp mechanisms

high · Cooltoy assessed Portal as 'the most crazy, engineered, jam-packed module that they've ever done hands down, far and away'; extended game kit addresses years of community feedback about lower playfield capacity

10:43

Stern came out hot and heavy again with Dungeons & Dragons in full representation. They had a nice little dungeon decor set up with like little flaming pots and everything This is the first time I got to play Dungeons & Dragons since a couple of new code updates that came out Definitely got to see some new code polish definitely feels a little more refined than the earlier versions I played and I got to see some new animations and here a couple of new call-outs, which is very nice Still enjoy playing the game. It's it's it's fun one. I think it's selling well for them So I'm happy that's going well for Stern and I hope they keep on keeping on

11:17

they also had their venom topper and accessories out to the public for the first time this is long time in the making feels like 84 years or whatever the titanic quote is but uh it clearly reuses some leftover parts from the mandalorian's hopper i think it's the same shell and i wouldn't be surprised if it's the same lcd that was in that as well um you get to play a new character Ghost Rider and if you don't have the topper and you play on somebody's machine signed in for Insider Connected that has the topper you get to play as Ghost Rider for I think like three months which is a neat little um you know feature for players out there that maybe are not willing to shell out the $1,300 for this Venom topper uh aesthetically it's cool it's nice to see like on the screen the little Venom blob bouncing around I mean it's a good looking topper but as far as the wow factor just didn't hit me the accessories same kind of thing the sad thing about this is venom's been out for so long i think a lot of people that originally were maybe in the market for a topper and the accessories have long since either traded or sold their machine or just you know given up and just moved on to something else jersey jack was once again representing with avatar a fun game nothing really changed since i played it at an expo and since it's been out for a while. The big news out of the Jersey Jack camp was Jersey Jack himself confirming that yes they officially have the Harry Potter license. The next game, the next Jersey Jack game is Harry Potter. We know that. I would not spend the time out of your pocket until you see the game. And he did confirm that they have all the movie assets for all eight movies so it's not going to be like a Toy Story 4 all over again where you just got some of the Harry Potter world and not all of the Harry Potter world. The big talk was supposedly they spent four million dollars to obtain this license. Obviously it's going to garner a lot of attention, a lot of new eyes to pinball, but man that is a lot of money you got to recoup just to break even. So we'll see what it looks like and hopefully what it plays like sooner than later. Barrels of Fun was on site with Labyrinth in tow. I think a lot of people were expecting and hoping, wishing, and waiting and I was honestly one of those people expecting barrels of fun to announce and showcase their brand new second title and as it stands unfortunately it just wasn't the case for whatever reason it just wasn't available in time for Texas Pinball Festival and honestly I kind of respect that they would hold it back and not rush it out the door and try to you know meet everybody's you know hopes and desires to show it early when it's not necessarily finished polished and just ready for public display and abuse and gameplay. So more Labyrinth, which is fine with me. I own Labyrinth. I love it. I think everything Burleson Fun did with that is perfect. I'm just chomping at the bit to find out what the second game is because if it's got the same love, attention, and detail, which it seems to already since they're holding it and protecting it for release, anxious to see what it is. And I think a lot of the pinball community is. So if you haven't had a chance, definitely check out Labyrinth. Otherwise, you've got to wait a little while longer for that second game reveal from Barrels of Fun.

14:28

American Pinball last year at Texas Pinball Festival kind of disappointed with the Barry O's Barbecue Challenge release. Unfortunately, it seems that things have went so south for American Pinball that it's just not even going to happen as far as a new game. The word on the street and the internet has always been that Cuphead is the latest game from American Pinball. and there was a lot of hope that it was going to be released and announced and showcased at Texas Pinball Festival But at this stage there doesn really seem to be anything left of American Pinball In fact I not sure who even turning the lights on at the factory There was no representation here at Texas Pinball Festival. The only time you got to see an American Pinball game was just at other distributors' booths who were still trying to move some of that back stock. So it's sad to see another manufacturer maybe go the way of the dinosaur, but it is what it is. Chicago Gaming Company was once again on site with Cactus Canyon, Pulp Fiction, as well as their newest iteration release announcement. I don't know what to really label it as, but Medieval Madness is getting another run, this time as the Merlin's version. Basically got a different powder coating trim. Same amazing gameplay, same game you know and love. This time, you just got to get that high-end version. That's your only option. They're only doing one run, I think 1,000 units. but the king of pain topper like said the amazing game that we all know and love the big beautiful color dmd that's oversized so if you're out there and you want a medieval madness you've got a pony up contact a distributor now they also had the long-awaited uh lyman sheets add-on code uh kit for cactus canyon which actually has a different saloon mechanism that you can add on physically changes uh the way that the game plays specifically around like the bark shot which is really cool I got to play it got to check out some some of the new modes some of the new call-outs because it's got brand new call-outs and animations we've never seen before and of course the vision finally being completed that was Lyman sheets original vision for this game so definitely give it a chance if you have a cactus Canyon obviously ten additional modes is something you're gonna want in your life if you are an owner of cactus Canyon but otherwise definitely check it out any chance you can get and that was it for Chicago gaming company homebrew section is always one of my favorite and i think categories at all these conventions a little sparse this year i think there was only four maybe five machines but we had tony hawk mad max was very impressive uh there was an adams family black and white which it's still adams family the same gameplay you know and love but the attention to detail aesthetically that this was done literally top to bottom head to toe uh and the black and white color scheme really beautiful artwork greatest showman's another standout saw that at expo last year it's great game but again smaller footprint this year than i was kind of expecting from the homebrew crowd but that just means the mad scientists are still busy back at their labs trying to create some amazing pinball for us later on in the year and overall texas pinball festival felt a little bit thinner this year in terms of total pinball machines available to the public there wasn't as many big huge new company announcements this year as previous years but it was still a very enjoyable experience i had a blast as always i still love the carpeting that does huge wonders for my legs and my knees after being on my feet for three plus days playing pinball non-stop there were a couple new vendors and uh marketplace items out there that i did come across while i was out here at texas pinball festival uh multimorphic has their own version of invisible hd glass whatever you want to call it I think they're calling it pin glass plus they were taking on-site orders for $150 which is crazy reasonable especially considering other manufacturers are selling you know similar products for the above 200 price point pin lights were here my personal preferred vendor for stadium lighting I think they're just an exceptional value bang for your buck and they just work amazingly well so I was happy to see them on-site physically represented with a vendor booth and I know a lot of people that are just huge fans of the product and a couple other vendors seemed like they were missing I heard chatter amongst everybody that maybe some of the overseas vendors got hung up in the airports because there was definitely some holes especially in the back corner where there was things roped off for a vendor display but there was absolutely nobody there in fact there was this kind of cute little drawing pad area where people are drawing different characters and on a notepad instead of where the vendor was supposed to be but overall Texas pinball festival another amazing experience wasn't as big for huge announcements but as far as solid pinball gameplay where else can you get it one is big of a year for huge announcements but it's terms of a solid well-run organized show can't ask for anything more so guys let me know in the comments below what was the standout for you whether it be a game you played or announcement you've heard coming out of Texas pinball festival this year you enjoyed the content make sure the like button share this video with your friends if you found the information helpful. And as always, thanks for watching guys. It really means a lot.