Winchester Mystery House Pinball Tutorial (Flip N Out Pinball, 2025)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·29m 39s·analyzed·Dec 5, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Flip N Out Pinball tutorial showcases Winchester Mystery House mechanics and early code.

Summary

Joel Engleber and his brother from Flip N Out Pinball provide an in-depth tutorial of Winchester Mystery House Pinball (Barrels of Fun), the ultra-limited game with only ~500 units produced. Using Relic #1 (the first machine made), they showcase the game's innovative mechanics including a rotating turntable, 13 planned room modes, Pepper's Ghost effect, and dynamic playfield paths. The tutorial covers layout, skill shots, room navigation, multiball modes, and several completed room modes while noting that code is still early and many rooms are not yet implemented.

Key Claims

Winchester Mystery House has only ~500 units produced
high confidence · Joel states 'There's only 500 something of these made' and references it as 'Relic number one' (the very first game produced)
Carl D'Angelo designed the entire Winchester Mystery House game
high confidence · Joel directly credits 'Carl D'Angelo, the guy who invented and designed this entire game' and references Carl appearing on a prior stream to explain rules
The game features a rotating turntable that changes ball paths dynamically
high confidence · Joel demonstrates and explains: 'This entire thing back here is a big turntable. So that entire section back there will turn and change the ball paths' with multiple visual demonstrations of how the same shot produces different results based on turntable position
The game has 13 planned rooms total, with some still in development
high confidence · Joel lists rooms shown: Foyer (start), Venetian dining room, Kitchen, Twin dining rooms, Basement, Daisy's bedroom, Sam's room (not shown). Rooms not yet in code: Sarah's bedroom, Hall of Fires, South Conservatory, North Conservatory, Call Room, Witches Cap. He states '13 of the special things' with a mini wizard mode to follow
The game is still in early code during this gameplay session
high confidence · Joel repeatedly notes 'very early on in code' and at the end states multiple rooms are 'Not in the game yet. Will be soon' including Sarah's bedroom, Hall of Fires, South Conservatory, North Conservatory, Call Room, and Witches Cap
Winchester Mystery House features a Pepper's Ghost optical effect
high confidence · Joel describes the mechanic: 'Right now there's a scoop there. Other times that'll be like a horseshoe' and earlier mentions 'there is a Pepper's Ghost uh situation with a mirror' in the upper playfield area
The game implements a navigation system where players can walk different paths through the house to reach different rooms
high confidence · Joel demonstrates hitting color-coded shots (red, yellow, blue, green) to navigate to different rooms, and explains players can use keys to unlock alternate rooms or sprint through by holding the button

Notable Quotes

“This entire thing back here is a big turntable. So that entire section back there will turn and change the ball paths. And that's what makes this game absurd. Um, there are essentially three entrances in the front.”
Joel Engleber @ ~12:00 — Highlights the signature mechanical innovation of Winchester Mystery House — the rotating turntable that dynamically alters ball routing and shot variety
“So, you would have to feed this and then hit it with the upper loop. But instead, I started the plague multiplier. There we go. That got that doll. And there we go. I've collected all the dolls.”
Joel Engleber @ ~48:00 — Demonstrates the dynamic, mode-specific mechanics and how different shots can trigger alternate outcomes even during mode play
“When you play this in a dark basement, it is so freaky.”
Joel Engleber @ ~39:30 — Commentary on the atmospheric design of the Basement mode with audio and lighting effects, emphasizing thematic immersion
“Every mode feels so different than the one prior. Um, and it's hard. It's hard and it's challenging. and my brother and I just absolutely had a blast playing it.”
Joel Engleber @ ~51:00 — Overall positive sentiment on game design variety and difficulty, emphasizing replayability and enjoyment despite challenge
“fantastic job Barrels of Fun for giving a new designer a chance to do something amazing.”
Joel Engleber @ ~52:30 — Recognition of Carl D'Angelo as a new designer given opportunity by Barrels of Fun, suggesting this may be his first published game design
“If you're in on one, you're lucky. You're lucky that you got one. I think you're going to love this game.”
Joel Engleber @ ~51:00 — Strong endorsement of the limited production game, reinforcing scarcity value and desirability in collector market

Entities

Winchester Mystery House PinballgameBarrels of Funcompany Carl D'AngelopersonJoel EngleberpersonJared EngleberpersonFlip N Out Pinballorganization

Signals

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event_signal: Flip N Out Pinball's streaming of Winchester Mystery House (Relic #1) is serving as de facto public tutorial and promotional content for the limited-production game, with Carl D'Angelo appearing on prior stream to explain rules
high · Joel mentions Carl appeared on second stream 'to explain all the rules and all the things that we missed.' This tutorial video is structured as educational content for the community about early-code gameplay.
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design_philosophy: Carl D'Angelo's design approach emphasizes dynamic, context-sensitive mechanics (turntable changing paths, multi-state ramps/scoops, mode-specific shot variations) that increase replay value and discovery
high · Joel repeatedly demonstrates how the same physical shot produces different outcomes depending on turntable position or mode state: 'Same shot in the middle, which used to be a loop, is now another horseshoe. Same shot again, but it's a different horseshoe.'
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market_signal: Winchester Mystery House's status as ultra-limited (500 units) and appearance of Relic #1 in public streaming reinforces scarcity narrative and collector desirability
high · Joel emphasizes multiple times: 'There's only 500 something of these made,' 'This is Relic number one. This is the very first game produced,' and concludes 'If you're in on one, you're lucky. You're lucky that you got one.'
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community_signal: Carl D'Angelo appears to be a first-time published pinball designer given significant opportunity by Barrels of Fun, suggesting strategic hiring/mentorship by boutique manufacturer
high · Joel explicitly states 'fantastic job Barrels of Fun for giving a new designer a chance to do something amazing' and the design scope (full game with 13 rooms, innovative mechanics) suggests major career opportunity for D'Angelo

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:05

Look everyone, we have guests. Hello, my name is Joel Engleber and this Hello, my name is Joel Engleber and this is the Flipping Out YouTube channel. Thanks so much for clicking on the video. Feel free to check us out live every Wednesday night. My brother and I stream every Wednesday night from 10 to midnight. And recently we've been borrowing this. This is Barrels of Fun latest game. Very limited game. This is latest game. Very limited game. This is Winchester Mystery House. Um, there's only 500 something of these made. And this is Relic number one. This is the very first game produced. Zach had it at um, uh, Chicago Pinball Expo. A bunch of people played it there and then Barrels of Pun went over the game and ended up sending it back to Zach and Zach gave it to us so we could stream it. Um, so very early on in production, very early on in code, but the goal with this tutorial was just to give you a baseline, a solid idea of what's in the game. Um, we've streamed this twice. Uh, if you watch the first stream, you'll see like a real reaction to Jared and I, you know, exploring this game for the first time, being surprised by a lot of different aspects of the game. Um, loving every minute of it. And then the second stream we did actually had Carl D'Angelo, the guy who invented and designed this entire game. He was on the stream with us and helped design or explain all the rules and all the things that we missed. So, first and foremost, Carl, fantastic job. This game's awesome. Second, I apologize for everything that I say wrong during this tutorial or miss out or leave out. So, Carl, feel free to correct anything and everything below in the comments. Uh, that's what they're there for. But huge shout out for Zach and Nicole for letting us borrow this and uh streaming it and having a great time. Um, yeah, let's dive in where I normally begin, which is which is shots and layout. This is this alone is going to be a challenge. Um, so, you know, inlay outlay on both sides. Nothing crazy there. Um, there is a physical ball return over here on the left. Another thing I'm going to show off when I start the game is the apron itself has lights. So, down here in this region, it'll actually shine player one. Well, I can show it right here. So, player one and then it'll say ball down here. Ball one. So even down here below down here in this area, it'll like change and act as a timer counting down, which is just a really cool effect that they built into the game, which is kind of neat. So to continue with the layout here, oh boy. Okay, there is a captive ball right here. You're going to use that to do a bunch of different effects that I will explain. Then you have the left ramp. You can backhand the left ramp and that'll feed all the way back down to the left flipper. uh otherwise you go at it from the right ramp. Then you have the the uh the seance room or the seance table. There are three inline drop targets that you're going to hit down. And once you do that, the ball will go back here. Then it'll kick up here and then it actually locks right there. So very cool mech. Uh there are times where you're going to hit the captive ball and it'll drop all three targets and that'll be an easy way to get a ball locked up there. Uh very very very cool mech. Then we have there's three drop targets here from the side. So the plunge is really what you're going to be shooting for there, trying to hit one of those three targets, which is pretty neat. Then you have this left upper left ramp, which you're going to hit with the upper right flipper. Most of the time it's going to feed down this really cool wavy wire form feed the right flipper. But there are times that is the door to nowhere where there's a diverter back here and the ball will actually drop down. One thing you can't tell is there's an orbit or there's a path that goes all the way behind all that and it'll feed the left flipper. And so there is uh a few instances so far in the game that'll do that. And now the fun begins. All the stuff that's up here. There are three drop targets that'll be used to spell key. That's how you'll unlock all the different rooms. Um there is a target, a very important target if you care about it. Right there. That is the the playfield multiplier target which you're gonna have to hit from that upper right flipper. There is an upper left flipper here. And so there are most times when you flip with this flipper, there's a loop that you can do over and over and over again or sometimes it'll divert and then come down the left side. Um there are other times where that path isn't there. And you're asking, "What are you what are you talking about? What do you mean the path isn't there?" This entire thing back here is a big turntable. So that entire section back there will turn and change the ball paths. And I'll try to illustrate that or explain that. And that's what makes this game absurd. Um, there are essentially three entrances in the front. So, you kind of always have an entrance here, always here, and always here. And depending on what is going on with the ball path, the ball will do something different. So, right now, this thing's down, which I'll it's the tower will go back up when I hit start. But like right now, the ball path will go back, hit a target, and come back down. There's other times where the ball path will do that. There are other times that the ball path will do that. It all depends on where the turntable is at any given moment, which is ridiculous and amazing. Um, if you look over here, we have a Pepper's Ghost uh situation with a mirror. Um, there's a magnet, so the ball will be stuck or held back here multiple times uh and we'll drop the ball down to the flipper or stop the ball for different moments. So, that's a really cool thing to look at. Um, right now there's a scoop there. Other times that'll be like a horseshoe. So, I'll try to explain it as we go. Target-wise, there's the let me uh what is it? Annunciator. There's a target there that you're going to hit a lot. And that's how you call spirits. There are four or five. There are five instrument targets. One, two, uh, three, four, and which one am I missing? Right here. Five. There are five instrument targets around there. You're going to use those to allow you to drop targets uh or light the ability to drop targets. We're going to we're going to go through that and you'll use those targets in different different points in the mode. Uh there's the far right orbit shot. It's a very important shot that is consistent. It's going to go back here and feed that magnet or it might go all the way around and feed the left flipper. You have this upper right flipper which I was talking about with some important shots there that you're going to have to get dialed in and loop. And then you have this right ramp. Most the time the right ramp is the best way to feed that upper right flipper. That's the best most consistent way to do that. But of course there's a diverter here. So there are certain times where that diverter will go down allowing the go the ball to go all the way back and then fall behind that tower right now that is currently down. Um I think that was most of it. Oh, then there's another important target right here. The help target. The help target I'll explain. That's a way to get help during modes. If you hit that target, it'll call a ghost and the ghost will slowly come and when it gets to the room that you're in, that's when it'll give you one of the shots that you need for that room. Um, yeah, and then you have the plunge. You have the plunge. So, I think that's most of it. There's a spinner here, which is awesome. I don't know. That's a lot of the mechs, but hopefully when I explain the gameplay here, it'll it'll make a little more sense. So, let's go ahead and hit start. Winchester. Okay. So, let's look right Winchester. Okay. So, let's look right here. We have a map. We have a map to the the the hotel or the house. Um, right now we have the V Venetian dining room lit, which is yellow, the kitchen, which is blue, and the twin dining rooms, which is which is red. If you look up here, we have red, yellow, and blue lights shot. So, or lit. So depending on which come in which come in which light you hit is what room you're going light you hit is what room you're going to because right now you're starting in the foyer. So if I want to play twin dining rooms, I want to hit the red shot red. Hit red. That'll start me down the path to the twin dining rooms. Otherwise, um you have a key. If you look right here, you start with one key. I can hit the action button and that will unlock another room. So I now have zero keys. What did it unlock? It unlocked the basement. So, if I want to go towards the basement, the green room, I need to hit the green shot. So, you can be consistent with how you play the game or how you how you navigate around um the playfield. Uh if you look right here, you can see that it is scrolling the skill shot. So, max advance or points. So, depending on what you see right here, that's the thing you're going to get. So, let's see if I can Got it. So, I hit I just got one of the skill shots. So, now that I'm in it, let's figure out which room I want to go to. Let's try going towards the red room. So, I'm going to hit the red shot. That locks me in the path of going towards the red room. While I'm doing this though, I have While I'm doing this though, I have these white shots. And these white shots are just building up the value of the mode when I get there. See how my light is slowly getting towards that? Let's try. Let's keep hitting some white shots there. I have a spiderweb award, so the ball is going to stop. You can see it back there. So, I'm just building up the value of this. And then once I get to the room now, you can see that my shots are lit red. So, any of those three shots will start that mode. Uh, what I can do instead though, if I really don't want to play that mode, if I hit key down all three of those key targets, that'll give me another key. So you can see I have a key here. What I can do is I can I can hit the button and say I don't want that room. I want to go to another room. So now I'm actually going towards the seance room. So you can like work your way around the house. Let me spell key again so I'll have another room. So when I get to the seance room here, this is something where it's like how much do you want to build your points? How much do you want to walk around the house? So that's something that Carl said like so now I'm at all green. So, I could go to the seance room or I could say, you know what, I want to go towards the kitchen. Or you can hit the left ramp and if you have other rooms open, it'll change it. But otherwise, if I say, "Yep, I want to go to the kitchen." You just hit the button. So, I started here. I walked there. Now, I'm going to the kitchen. Now, if you're saying, "Hey, the heck with this. The heck with this. I don't want to actually build up my value." You can push and hold the button. Then, you'll just sprint. That's the way I look at it. You sprint towards the room. So, you see how all my shots now are are blue. I'm going to go ahead and hit a blue shot and that'll start my mode. So, I'm going to actually start the kitchen mode. There we go. The hungering flame. Shoot There we go. The hungering flame. Shoot the red shot to distract, then shoot blue shots to extinguish the oven. So, the blue shots are what you need to hit. So, start. So, shot number one is the red one. So, this a multiball. And while this is going on, I need to hit all the blue shots. So, if you hit if you Trying to get that upper. Oh, this is a jackpot shot cuz I've hit that right so many times. See how it goes behind? So, I need to get to get the blue shots lit. I have to distract her. So, I have to hit the red shot again. That'll relight the blue shots. Remember, this a multiball. So, this would be pretty chaotic. There's a blue shot. Here will be a blue shot. Come on. Nope. That wasn't enough. There we go. Nope. That wasn't enough. There we go. And then let's hit the red shot. Come on. The oven must The oven must I'm trying. I'm trying. There we go. I'm trying. I'm trying. There we go. I need to get the blue shot again. Oh, I I need to get the blue shot again. Oh, I missed my button. Come on. There it is. And come on. There we go. Once you do all that, now because it's still two balls, I need to hit this shot to get rid of the ball. Come on. So, you need to do that while in a multiball. That'll lock that ball up and then do it again. And that's how you would beat the mode, which is kind of nuts. Um, so that'll get you back down to one ball play. So, very unique mode. So, that room, the kitchen is done. So, now I'm back in the same place. Which direction? Where do I want to go? Let's go Venetian. So, I'm going to hit the uh the yellow light. I keep hitting the enunciator. The question is, what does that do? If you look in the upper right, there's this thing, this 13. And one of the 13s that we have to do is summons. So, to summon something, you hit the authenticator annunciator. That'll light a shot green. And if you notice, it keeps moving around the playfield. I don't want to do green. I want to do Let's get it to a safe spot. There we go. And now, if I did that, I just summoned one ghost. So, it's kind of a hit the annunciator, then hit the flashing green light. If you do that 13 times, that's how you'll qualify the 13 summons. Let's go ahead and do the yellow room. So now I'm walking towards the yellow room. If I don't care about points, I'm just going to hold the button and sprint. Now I'm at the yellow room. So let me go ahead and start a mode. I'm going to get a mystery reward. That was why I had a a purple light over there. So let's check out this mode. Flickering flame. This is another really cool light show here. You're going to see all the shots are like a flame type shot. So once you've hit it once, it'll dim So once you've hit it once, it'll dim down and you go ahead and hit it again. You have to light the There we go. Two of those. Then we need There we go. Two of those. Then we need to hit these blue shots. Come on. Come on. Throwing the ball is quite challenging in this game because we got this wire form in the way. But reit the flames. So, let's light But reit the flames. So, let's light them again or let's hit them again.

15:34

Multiball. Okay, this is a very cool multiball. Um Okay, this is a very cool multiball. Um I do think there's currently Nope, it should. Okay, so I want to hit blue shots. So, let's hit a blue shot. Remember, this is a multiball over here. There we go. Blue shot is a jackpot. There's another jackpot. And you do it until the red is lit. Once red is lit, you want to hit this far right shot. And it's going to go all the way back, which is a super jackpot shot. Then, let's do another few blue shots here. If you want to call spirits to get more jackpots, you hit that that uh shot over there. Come on. Just Just hit the spinner shot, which I can't even throw. There we go. There's another one. And then we got to get this up here. Come on. Come on. You can do it. There it is. And then we got to get that. Nope. And then we got to get that. Nope. Okay. One thing I did do though is I hit Okay. One thing I did do though is I hit the the playfield multiplier up there. I'm actually going to try to hit it again because then it'll get to 3x. That's There we go. This is where all the points are. Let me hit that blue. All right. Now I got my super jackpot lit on this far left lane. So, let's hit some blue shots. Okay. I also being that the playfield multiplier is going right now. I'm going to show that real quick. So, I hit all my blue jackpots. So, all these points are sitting there and they're being collected. And then there's a point where I have to cash them all in. So, let's actually hit this super jackpot. I think I think my throwing it is confusing it. There we go. It That's where it went to the door behind and dropped down, which is a really cool shot. Now, shoot the the spiderweb before it's too late. I got to hit that right shot to claim all my points. So, I got all my points. Otherwise, if you never hit that right shot, you lose them all. So, I'm still in a multiball. But, it's a lot of that. It's a lot of hit jackpots, then shoot, focus on the red jackpots. Uh, the first time that tower fell down really was such a cool surprise. Um, another multiball we can work towards is if you move your flipper buttons, you can see op. And you see how those move? So, let's let's keep where the P isn't lit. If I hit the left ramp, oh, guess what? It goes below the the switch. So that won't work. So if you want to use one of the the habit trails or the wire forms to light your switch, you got to hit the hard shot. We got to hit we basically need to feed this feed that to drop it down and then hit that side ramp shot, which is quite hard to do, but it's a lot easier when you uh throw the ball and then that'll roll over. So I have spelled open. Once you spell open, you're going to see these two outside shots are lit blue. You're going to hit one of those. The turntable's going to turn real quick and it wants you to shoot a shot right up the middle. And that's how you start the basement or the wheelbarrow multiball. Really quick, what's cool about this multiball is you got to focus on the spinner. The spinner is how you keep the pressure on the boiler down. So spinner lowers pressure. Red is how you um you keep the the spirits away. So, we got to use the blue light to relight it. So, this is multiball. And then while that's while I can, I need to hit my spinner here. There we go. To lower the pressure. If you notice, there's a red dot here. And that red dot is trying to work its way all the way down here. So, it's moving. It's going to keep working its way down to the basement. That's where I am. Unless I hit the red the red um arrows. Oh, here's another red dot trying to work its way over. So, that's what the red arrows for. We got to got to hit our red arrows to keep them from being um from getting to us. And then you relight your spinner with the blue shot. And then you try to uh there you go. Lower the pressure on the boiler. And you can keep doing this as long as you don't uh explode the boiler. So, very unique thing of you got to you got to slow these down if any of the spirits ever get to you uh the multiball ends or um if your boiler explodes. I have a a super jackpot behind that I have a a super jackpot behind that tower. So, very unique stuff. Very unique multiball. I'm going to go ahead and drain out of it. So, I've shown you the Venetian dining room. I've shown you the kitchen. I've shown you seance multiball. I've shown you wheelbarrel multiball. Let me show you one more mode. one of my favorite mode in the game and it's scary. So to do it right off the bat, uh you can go ahead and use your key to unlock the basement. So the basement is what we want to shoot for and the basement's green. So we want to go up the green side. So green. So green. There we go. I light all my arrows. So I'm starting to walk towards the basement. I can walk. I can build up my value of my mode here. But if you're worried about draining, just hold the button down and sprint. So, now I'm at the basement. Do you see all my arrows back there? My stuff is green. Um, one thing I haven't mentioned is the spinner right now is flashing. That is you can increase your spirit That is you can increase your spirit energy and that's what this meter is. That's how you you build that up to work towards um I'm pretty sure that's your um your multiplier. But anyways, let's go ahead and get into the mode. All right, warning. It's going to get scary here, so heads up.