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Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PINcast July 2025 recap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 4m·analyzed·Aug 1, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

July 2025 pinball recap: Stern releases Star Wars Home Edition Plus and Jaws 50th Anniversary; Jack Danger becomes head of community.

Summary

July 2025 was a quiet month in pinball news, dominated by Stern Pinball releases and updates. Key announcements include the Star Wars Home Edition Plus ($4,799 at Costco) and a Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium Edition, plus Jack Danger's transition from game designer to head of community at Stern. Updates covered code releases for John Wick, Uncanny X-Men, Jaws, and Star Wars, along with news from Multimorphic (Romania mini-game, Portal playfield module), Dutch Pinball Exclusive (Alice topper expansion), Wonderland Amusements (production tooling progress), and Spooky Pinball (Evil Dead production at ~50% completion).

Key Claims

  • Star Wars Home Edition Plus is priced at $4,799 at Costco, $200 cheaper than the previous Jurassic Park Home Edition Plus

    high confidence · Jonathan Houston and Martin Neb discussing official Costco listings and Stern pricing

  • Jack Danger is transitioning from Stern game designer to head of community, leaving his current fourth game project to be finished by other team members

    high confidence · Stern's official announcement before San Diego Comic-Con, confirmed by both hosts

  • Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium Edition includes red armor, brass powder-coated wire forms, glitter on playfield, and a hologram sticker

    high confidence · Direct discussion of official 50th Anniversary edition features

  • Jurassic Park Home Edition Plus eventually sold at Costco for approximately $3,000 during clearance

    medium confidence · Martin Neb stating 'I think' regarding price point observed in past clearance

  • Spooky Pinball Evil Dead production is currently at ~400+ units of a planned 888 total, expected to finish by December or January

    high confidence · Direct update from Spooky Pinball production status

  • Jaws update on July 22 added new Final Wizard mode 'Smile, You Son of a...' that ends the entire game upon completion, not just the ball

    high confidence · Detailed code update review from Stern's v1.01 release notes

  • Wonderland Amusements built a complete game using production tooled parts and reports it plays stronger and more reliably than prototypes

    high confidence · Direct quote from Wonderland Amusements monthly newsletter

  • Multimorphic is now offering wide-body anti-reflective Pin Glass, which previously was not widely available at current price points

    high confidence · Martin Neb's analysis of Pin Glass offerings and comparison to PDI glass market history

  • A distributor told the hosts that Spooky could have easily sold 2,000 Evil Dead machines

Notable Quotes

  • “Well, try selling yours.”

    Jonathan Houston @ early segment on Star Wars Home Edition Plus — Highlights resale value risk of premium edition holders when newer, cheaper improved versions release

  • “It didn't put a lot of effort into that but I guess if you really like that image then that's the game for you”

    Martin Neb @ Jaws 50th Anniversary discussion — Diplomatic critique of the 50th Anniversary's simplified design philosophy

  • “So you have to add a whole new level of strategy to what you play and when you play it and how well you play it.”

    Jonathan Houston @ Jaws Final Wizard mode update discussion — Highlights the strategic depth added by the game-ending mechanic

  • “I think Spooky could have sold easily 2,000 Evil Dead Pinball machines because it's that good”

    Distributor feedback relayed by Jonathan Houston @ Spooky Pinball section — Indicates very strong market demand for Evil Dead exceeding production capacity

  • “The result was a machine that plays stronger and more reliably than any prototype we've had before”

    Wonderland Amusements (quoted by hosts) @ Wonderland Amusements production tooling discussion — Demonstrates successful transition from prototype to production tooling stage

  • “Software lagging on a new game. We're not likely to see any gameplay in August either, apparently.”

    Martin Neb @ Wonderland Amusements software progress discussion — Notes potential risk that Wonderland Amusements' October shipping target faces software completion challenges

Entities

Jonathan HoustonpersonMartin NebpersonJack DangerpersonStern PinballcompanyMultimorphiccompanyDutch Pinball ExclusivecompanySpooky PinballcompanyWonderland AmusementscompanyElectric Playgroundcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Jack Danger's new role as head of community includes resuming Deadflip Twitch channel streaming and broader pinball content creation beyond just Stern titles

    high · Official Stern announcement stating Jack will stream 'broader pinball and other content' on deadflip channel; hosts note this includes Harry Potter and upcoming Spooky games

  • ?

    event_signal: Wonderland Amusements planning larger booth at Pinball Expo October 2025 with completed playable games and expected first shipments to Kickstarter backers; major industry showcase

    high · Wonderland Amusements monthly newsletter update; hosts confirm October timeline

  • ?

    leak_detection: Dutch Pinball Exclusive/Melvin Brower Williams trademark filings reveal upcoming titles: Blade Runner (filed December 2024, published for opposition), Magic Girl, Retro Zombie Adventure, and collaboration with Planetary Pinball on 'Pinball Legends' mod series for classic Bally/Williams games

    high · USPTO trademark publications for Commons and Opposition; Multiple trademark applications filed for John Popper Duke design games

  • $

    market_signal: Distributor feedback indicates Spooky Evil Dead demand could be 2-3x actual production capacity (888 units), with buyers regretting not pre-ordering early; demand exceeds realistic production limits

    medium · Distributor quote relayed by Jonathan Houston; indicates strong market appetite but production constraints

  • $

    market_signal: Stern iterating on home edition consumer products with pricing reductions ($200 cheaper than previous model) and improved specs (larger screen), suggesting refinement of market strategy

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.192

0:00
New Jaws and Star Wars games. Jack Danger returns to streaming. New P3 minigame. Hi, my name is Jonathan Houston. I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine and I'm joined by... Hi, I'm Martin Neb, I'm the editor of Pinball News, and Jonathan and I are here to look back on all the exciting events that happened in the month of July 2025 in the world of pinball. And I say all the exciting events, but there weren't that many exciting events in July, so we should be able to keep this reasonably short. Yeah, especially if you look at the stream of new announced games of the past two months, then the month of July was relatively quiet.
0:56
It was indeed. Two of the new ones that came out are releases of existing games, or new versions of them. So not great announcements, but interesting nonetheless to see what happens in the summer months, which is normally pretty quiet anyway. So we might as well get on with it then and go to our very first headline, which is about some new games from Stern Pinball. Yes. Let's start with... Well, the Star Wars Home Edition Plus game, which is available to order from Costco at a price of US$4,799.
1:39
I was actually surprised to see Stern still trying to get this home model thing off the ground again and probably because they're like well, it's only five months to Christmas so we'd better get them in stores now Yeah, not sure anybody's going to hold on to one in a box until Christmas but it's interesting to see that they've made some changes minor changes but still of some import to this Star Wars Home Edition Plus compared to their last home model which was of course the Jurassic Park Home Edition Plus so this one is actually $200 cheaper than the Jurassic Park one so that Jurassic Park was listed at $5,999 on Stern's website but in reality it was available at Costco for $4,999 and as you just said the Star Wars the new Star Wars Home Edition Plus which means it comes with inside the connected that's for seven nine nine so a hundred bucks cheaper than jurassic park um but of course we've seen it seen this uh design before there's no there's really no change to the playfield layout on this compared to the previous home edition uh what is new though is um that it comes with a larger lcd screen it's now a 10 inch lcd screen compared to a little tiny thing that was on the the previous one i forget the exact size of it but it wasn't It wasn't impressive, but it means they've redesigned the back box in order to accommodate it. And it looks much more like a pro model, I'd say.

medium confidence · Anecdotal distributor feedback relayed by Jonathan Houston

  • Romania is a P3 mini-game created by Neil Wilson with 100% proceeds donated to Austin Pinball Collective and charity organizations, available for download at $125

    high confidence · Multimorphic official monthly update details

    • Star Wars Home Edition Plus
    game
    Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium Editiongame
    Evil Deadgame
    Portalgame
    Romaniagame
    Blade Runnergame
    Jurassic Park Home Edition Plusgame
    San Diego Comic-Conevent
    Ozzy Osbourneperson
    Neil Wilsonperson
    Melvin Brower Williamsperson

    medium · Price history comparison and feature upgrades suggest Stern testing consumer price sensitivity and value proposition

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jack Danger transitions from Stern Pinball game designer to head of community role, leaving his fourth game project mid-development to be completed by other team members

    high · Official Stern announcement before San Diego Comic-Con confirmed by both hosts; Jack Danger streaming at Comic-Con event in new capacity

  • ?

    announcement: Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium Edition released with cosmetic enhancements (red armor, brass wire forms, playfield glitter, hologram sticker) and new Final Wizard mode

    high · Official Stern product reveal and July 22 code update (v1.01) adding Final Wizard mode with game-ending mechanic

  • ?

    announcement: Star Wars Home Edition Plus released at Costco for $4,799, featuring 10-inch LCD screen and redesigned back box; represents iteration on Jurassic Park Home Edition Plus model

    high · Direct pricing and feature confirmation from official Costco and Stern sources

  • ?

    product_concern: Wonderland Amusements reports production tooled parts yield machines that play stronger and more reliably than prototypes, but software development lags; August gameplay video unlikely, creating risk to October 2025 shipping target

    medium · Wonderland Amusements newsletter indicates 'significant work still to be done with the software' and hosts note this as unusual development risk

  • ?

    product_strategy: Multimorphic Portal playfield module on schedule for late summer 2025 production start; orders being batched for sequential fulfillment

    high · Official Multimorphic monthly update; Texas Pinball Festival announcement

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Spooky Pinball's next title after Evil Dead is heavily rumored to be Beetlejuice, expected announcement late November or early December 2025

    medium · Martin Neb citing industry rumor; no official confirmation from Spooky Pinball yet

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multimorphic offering anti-reflective Pin Glass in wide-body format, filling market gap previously served by PDI glass at higher prices; represents competitive pricing shift in glass accessories market

    high · Martin Neb's market analysis comparing current offerings to historical PDI pricing and availability

    • 3:24
    Although it's, what, $2,000 cheaper. But, of course, it's not the same design as the pro model of Star Wars, the Steve Ritchie design. So this is the one which, was it Spider-Man Home Edition?
    3:41
    Yeah, I think so. So anyway, that is, as you said, going to be available or is available now, actually, at selected Costco stores in the US.
    3:56
    It may be worth, if you're not desperate to get one, maybe worth hanging around to see what happens to it. Because when it came to the Jurassic Park one, Costco were clearing those out at the very end to get them out of the stores. And they were available for around about 3,000, I think. so with the same with this one I don't know so that makes me wonder like why would if this didn't work for Costco last time around why would they jump get on board on this one well perhaps they sold enough to make it worth their while and maybe even at 3000 they were still making money on the game I don't know how much it cost to make the thing but it would be interesting to see well very interesting to know what the margin was on that price when it was trying and they're selling it for £4,999 they were clearing it out at £3,000 but I think that's kind of built into the business model for these big warehouse places that they make the money at full price and then they'll clear out the stock to make room later.
    5:14
    So imagine buying it last year at full retail price instead of the discounted one and now there's an improved model which is actually cheaper than what you paid.
    5:27
    Well, try selling yours. Yes, this is the Star Wars Home Edition, which before it was the Plus one. Oh, absolutely, yeah. I can't remember whether you could add Insider Connect to that or whether it came with it. Maybe it did come with it, but certainly didn't have the larger screen. So, yes, you're right. It's going to hit resale value, but I guess there aren't that many of those out there, so maybe there's a certain rarity to them as well. But anyway, as you said, good to see Stern still sticking with trying to sell home editions. And I'm not sure what the sweet spot is on price point, but it's still a significant amount of cash to pay, you know, $4,800 for its own model. Yeah. So, and, well, that wasn't the only reskinned game, if you want to call it that. There was also the new 50th anniversary edition of Jaws, which is a premium model for Stern in this case. with different cabinet artwork different back glass basically the back glass is also on the side of the cabinet the very familiar image of the shark going straight up to the woman it's a movie poster really isn't it yes so different cabinet artwork blood red armour brass powder coated wire form ramps Some glitter on the playfield and a distinctive 50th anniversary hologram sticker. Woo-hoo! Wow, that's the kicker. Yeah, playfield hasn't changed other than the use of glitter on the playfield print. But other than that, it's identical to the regular JAWS models, I would say. Premium and limited edition, that is, of course. but yeah okay well 50th anniversary edition so and apparently it's been doing well for Stern so I guess people were actually waiting for that to happen because obviously if you wanted a Jaws building machine you could have already gotten one yes last year yeah I have to say personally I preferred the cabinet artwork on the original game but you do get a few extras as you mentioned about the red armour and the brass powder coated wire forms and the glitter on the playing field on the new one so there's swings and roundabouts there but I first saw that game with the movie poster the iconic image not only on the translight but also on the cabinet sides and on the back box side and cabinet front and I thought oh, that was a, it didn't put a lot of effort into that but I guess if you really like that image then that's the game for you Right, ok well, so and then off to our second headline which is also regarding Stern Pinball we've talked about personal changes in the past.
    9:01
    This one, I don't think anybody saw coming, but we're talking about Jack Danger, who we all know as, well, he started streaming, he was the first to start streaming pinball on Twitch a couple of years ago. I even had an interview with him in Pinball Magazine No. 5.
    9:24
    That long ago. Yeah, that long ago, indeed. At some point, just for fun, he started also live streaming some of his ideas for Pinball Game Design and started building that basically live for everybody to see, which resulted in him actually being asked to become a game designer at Stern. and well, it certainly came as a surprise to me that he's now returning to streaming in a new role as a head of community but it also means he will no longer be designing pinball machines Yeah, and not even finishing the game that he's currently working on which is even more surprising because you think you see your baby, as it were through to birth and the game through to completion but apparently he's now taken on that role as head of community he'll be doing a lot more streaming and will be bringing back the Deadflip Twitch channel and various other outlets as well and the game on which he was working his fourth game after Jurassic Park Home Edition, Foo Fighters and Uncanny X-Men that's going to be finished by other people at the turn right, well the team obviously is probably still the same it's Jack in a different role but the rest of the team is still there so somebody else is probably as we've seen, a game once you've designed the game, that's not the end of your involvement in bringing it no, that's true there's a lot that needs to be tweaked and finessed in order to make it the best it can be and as we've seen in the past, what happens when that is either not done or rushed. So, yeah. It'll be interesting to see who's brought in to work on that now.
    11:31
    I suspect it will be George. Or John Borg. Could be John, but I suspect John's busy working on one of his upcoming titles himself. Right. It must be his time. I thought the timing was rather odd in the sense that this was just announced before San Diego Comic-Con, where Jack Danger indeed did stream for four days for Stern Pinball, various games being played at the event and recording videos and what have you.
    12:09
    But I figured like, okay, well, that's a four-day event. And then what are you going to do after that? I mean, yes, sure, there are more shows and so on, but to me it came across as if he was appointed this new position just for what he was doing at Comic-Con. But apparently that's not the case. No, the announcement came out just before that as well saying that he will be starting his new position as head of community with the San Diego Comic-Con show where, as you say, he did do a lot of streaming across the entire duration of it but according to Stern's announcement Jack's new responsibilities will include serving as an ambassador for the company elevating Pinball's visibility through community engagement strategic content creation these are all sort of very vague terms but sort of typical press race type of wording relationship building with the community Jack will continue to stream broader pinball and other content on the official deadflip twitch channel so presumably say broader content I mean not just stern well I can't wait for him to stream Harry Potter. Yeah, well indeed. And then the upcoming Spooky Game as well. Right, yeah, for example. Oh well, anyway, we wish Jack all the best in his new position at Stern and we look forward to seeing him at future shows. Yeah, we look forward to seeing more of him, I suspect. As he'll be there on our screens. Right, yeah.
    13:58
    Anyway, you were talking about San Diego Comic Con. Yes. And of course Stern were there. Yes, as every year for the past couple of I think five or six years already now this is sort of like an annual stop for Stern which is not surprising considering the fact that they have a lot of titles which are loved by the San Diego Comic Con audience the cosplay audience and so on all the superheroes and all that and as usual Stern was sharing a booth so not just a booth of their own but they have this record label which is heavily involved in heavy metal and harder rock type of music they had several artists signing autographs at the booth and a merchandise stand of course and besides that there's always the pinball launch inside the Marriott Pacific Ballroom where they had 30 pinball machines set up and again mostly themes that would appeal to the Comic Con audience so superheroes, Jaws that kind of stuff Yes, they mentioned about the tie-in with the record company. It made me wonder and think back, was that the show where Ozzy Osbourne was with Stern? Yes, that was two or three years ago, I think.
    15:45
    Yes, indeed. So some topical tie-in there. Yes especially with Ozzy Osbourne dying last week probably around during Comic Con his funeral was on Wednesday yes that right anyway so that most of our Stern Pinball news but we do of course have new code because Stern and their coding team are very busy working on updates for a slew of games so we can kick those off very quickly and before we started recording this, there was a massive list of all the update and changes made, and I just cut it all down to a few bullet points, basically, because if you have the game, you'll be able to read all about it on CERN's website, and if you don't, then you just want to know the key changes. So John Wick, a game which had been criticised in the past for not getting many updates, has had a big update on the 24th with version 0.96.
    17:02
    Stern seemed to have come into naming their releases rather than just giving them code numbers. So this is the Excommunicado release, apparently, which includes a lot of changes to the rules for various modes and multi-balls added the missing 7th addable faction perk award which we mentioned last month about adding faction perks but there was one missing which was the addable one but that's been added now. There's lots more speech, lighting effects, display effects, a new swiper ball mode which allows you to unlock any balls that you've locked for the red circle multi-ball at other points during the game so you can do that prior to starting Deconsecrated Multiball so that's a new feature actually I was going to say this code includes a feature or change which has been applied to all the other updates which is just a minor thing about Australian pricing Australia 6 pricing has changed but in fact John Wick is the only one that didn't have that change so maybe it was may be coming in a future one.
    18:13
    Uncanny X-Men. That had another big update as well, which was a follow-up to the previous one. This is called Days of Future Code Part 2. How many parts are there? It has lots of bug fixes. Well, we'll see, won't we? But it's still not there yet, because it's only version 0.92, so there's a way to go. That came out on the 22nd of July, but there's too much of it to go through, because there's so many changes, and all the money makes sense if you know how they used to work. So I won't go into that. Jaws, meanwhile, has had two updates in July. One on the 2nd, one on the 22nd.
    18:49
    The one on the 2nd added in support for the 50th Anniversary Premium Edition, which we spoke about earlier. And also added in the new Final Wizard mode called Smile, You Son of a... Of course, being stern, they can't actually put the final word into the title of that. So it just says dot, dot, dot. with three phases to complete and it's a timed mode single ball and completing it starts super celebration multi-ball and unusually and this came as a bit of a surprise to a number of people when you complete super celebration multi-ball it ends the game it doesn't just end the ball it actually ends the entire game so you have to add a whole new level of strategy to what you play and when you play it and how well you play it. So there's no point bailing out of modes if you were short-cutting your way to the end of the game and not getting the maximum points you could get. They also added in various competitive mode or team play game modes.
    19:58
    Two versus two, three versus one, two versus one and a whole bunch more. but that was in the first update on the second added some more stuff in on the 22nd so that's actually version 1.01
    20:14
    now and finally a very minor update for Star Wars yes that's right, the original not the home edition or the home edition plus which had a very minor update I don't quite know why they brought that out seemed to be something which was critical, so they brought it out on the 22nd of July as well, so a big code day. They just fixed a little issue in the test menu with an erroneous page that was included in it. So they whipped that out, and that was the totality of that update, and that wraps up our code updates, I think, for this month. Well, it actually wraps up our coverage of Stern Pinball.
    20:58
    Ah, good. OK, time to move on then. Who's next? Multimorphic in Round Rock, Texas would be next. Okay.
    21:10
    They are working on a well, there's a new third party game being released called Romania, as in Ro-mania.
    21:21
    Yes, very good. Which was created by Neil Wilson and 100% of the proceeds of the game will be donated to the Austin Pinball Collective and other pinball-related charitable organization. The game does require the drained P3 Playfield module and costs 125 US dollars. And that's without the Playfield module, of course.
    21:48
    Yes, it's just a download. Yeah, I missed the press release on that one. Do you know more about it? Yeah, it came in the monthly update from Gerry at Multimorphic, and from there you can follow the link through. And it's, yeah, I'll tell you the truth, I was so slow on the update, I didn't even pick up the Romania wording, pun, until you said it just then, being about the drained playfield, which is about vampires.
    22:30
    And, of course, Dracula and Romania. Yes. Got it. Sometimes marching a little bit slow. Well, it's late at night. I need more coffee. But anyway. Yeah, nice to see that. That's available for download. Looks an interesting game. It's just a fun little mini-game. so well done to Neil and nice to get these mini games available for Multimorphics P3 platform but there's more another one there's more obviously at Texas Pinball Festival or right before that Multimorphics revealed their newest playfield module for the P3, Portal based on the popular video game production still has to begin for that game but they're still on schedule for later this summer yes that's right as usual we produce them in batches so depending on when you put your order in you'll be in one batch or another and they'll be producing complete games alongside playfield modules but as you said It was always scheduled to start production towards the end of summer, and at the moment that's looking good. Right. So we look forward to playing the final production version. Right.
    24:02
    And last month we reported that Multimorphic, along with other manufacturers, but in their case, they're now also offering anti-reflective glass, and theirs is called Pin Glass.
    24:17
    Actually, they're now also selling corner cushions to protect the corners, which could get damaged when standing the glass upright on the floor. These are basically $10, $9.99, but U.S. sales only. However, that's not the most interesting news regarding Pin Glass. What I found actually far more interesting is that I think they're the only company that's offering pin glass in a wide-body size.
    24:54
    I don't think anybody else is offering wide-body, non-reflective pinball glass. So if you're looking, you certainly could get it from PDI, Pinball, I can't remember the word, it's sensible now, but it was called PDI glass and it was available, it was Roman over here in Europe who was sorting and selling it through pinball decals in the US, and that was available in regular and wide body, because I know quite a lot of people got the wide-body version of that. Okay. But I haven't seen that available for a long time, and it used to be quite a bit more expensive than other companies are now offering it. So I guess whatever technique they were using, which when I did the tests on various different types of anti-reflective glass, that was still the best one, produced the best results, was the least reflective.
    25:56
    But it was the most expensive as well, so there was always a trade-off between price and effectiveness. But, yeah, everyone seems to be selling anti-reflective glass now. But it's nice to see, as you say, that wide-body glass is available as well. I saw that on Facebook pictures of the two crates next to each other, and you can see that the wide-body glass is... Wider. About two inches and about two and a half inches or something, isn't it? Wider than the standard. but yeah, obviously look different in the crate to the regular ones yeah, nice to see that and that rounds it up for Multimorphic for now yes, of course yeah ok, so let's head on over to your side of the water and Dutch Pinball Exclusive of course with their Alice's Adventures in Wonderland game which, well it's coming, but it's coming slowly and there have been some delays on toppers. We know that.
    27:01
    However, in the meantime, they've been working with the Electric Playground. And you may remember the Electric Playground produced a number of toppers for different games. They started off and made a big splash with the Twilight Zone one, which had a ball on a wire form and a pyramid with an eye screen in it, which was kind of their breakthrough, I think probably their first topper, and they've produced a number of other ones since then, which have generally been met with good responses. Anyway, they've been working with Dutch Pinball Exclusive, from Melbourne, there, to produce an expansion, a topper expansion for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, because the game comes with a topper, which has the Cheshire Cat with screens for the eyes but now it's been enhanced much further with 162 controllable LEDs that match light shows the same light shows that are on the side rails or on the shooter lane and can also be fully customised because they've been working with Stumbler as well who was producing some of the electronics for the game and now you can use his mobile app and add your own lighting effects if you want to.
    28:30
    And the whole thing has a kind of arch that goes over the top of the Cheshire Cat, has a background to it, all of which beautifully illuminated with multiple LEDs, as I've just said, has original artwork by Marie Keller with supporting original Jabberwock art straight from Dutch Pinball, exclusive.
    28:54
    And there is a little motorised Jabberwock character that moves in and out of some of the trees which form the backdrop to 3D trees or perspex multi-layered and beautifully illuminated woods that are in the background and he is animated the arch which goes over the top can come with two phrases or you can you would be able to specify your own if you wanted to customise it even further and I think I only charged $30 for a customisation process so you can order it and say what you want it to say, see if it fits in there.
    29:43
    Yeah, full installation guide included, mounting hardware, electronics, and it's powered by the machine, so it turns on and off when you turn the machine on and off, which is always a nice feature. Some of these other ones are powered from the service outlet, which is live all the time. And apparently the whole thing's made in the US, so US buyers shouldn't have to pay any import duties on that. from a topic we will probably return to a few times, either in this pin cast or in subsequent ones. Right.
    30:18
    Do we have a pricing for this topper expansion? I actually don't have that at the moment, I have to admit.
    30:29
    I'm not sure whether it was announced or not. Well, don't pin me down on this one, but I thought it was only like 679 US dollars I think I read that somewhere but I haven't verified that recently so I could be wrong don't pin me down on that one what I read was I found it reasonably priced for well well, these top pricing these days, so to speak.
    31:07
    Yes, you're absolutely right. It says $599 for the first 100 units, but I think they're already sold out, to be honest, and $679 standard pricing after that. What a memory. I can't believe it. I was right. Still got it, eh? At my age.
    31:30
    Yeah, not bad. Yes, I hadn't clocked that, but yes. So there we are. If you have an Alice in Wonderland or have one on order,
    31:43
    it will hopefully come with the topper in time, because that is a part which has been delayed somewhat. So I think some games are shipping now with the topper coming later.
    31:55
    So it could be a triple delivery you can have the game then you can have the original topper and then you can have the expanded topper And as more news from the Electric Playground
    32:08
    they will also be launching a new King Kong topper in August. And that's all we know about it. Yeah, there's no preview pictures or anything about it. Well, only a very, very loose tease about what it might be. but I think it's fair to say it's going to involve a large gorilla and probably the skyscraper for him to climb up right more than that we don't know hopefully the gorilla will have a face yes unlike the Pulp Fiction yes oh well there's a little bit more news from Dutch Pimple exclusive Melvin Brower Williams filed a trademark for Blade Runner in December of last year already but it's just been published by the US Patent and Trademark Office for Commons and Opposition and there's also news that Melvin together with Planetary Pinball registered the name Pinball Legends as a trademark for apparently upcoming pinball mods that will be produced by DPX for various Bally Williams titles, else Planetary would not be involved so I know that Melvin's already filed trademarks for Magic Girl, I think, and Retro Zombie Adventure, Retro Atomic Zombie Adventure Land.
    34:04
    And I'm trying to think if there was another one or not, whether that was it. But yes, basically all the John Popper Duke design games have all been trademarked, or at least trademarked has been applied for, for all of them. Right. These things take time. Right. So, anyway, it was interesting to look up and see what pinball-related trademarks have been filed, to see what's up and coming. Okay. Well, that wraps it up for all the news from the Netherlands regarding Dutch pinball exclusive and Dutch pinball.
    34:42
    Well, there's another international party, I would say, sort of pendling between the US and Hong Kong and it would be Wonderland Amusements yes also producing an Alice in Wonderland themed game yes I know it's all the rage I tell you so their latest monthly update video or newsletter it wasn't a video it was actually a newsletter showed parts being made or parts that had been made using their production tooling. So rather than individual items,
    35:21
    they now have their tooling they intend to use to mass produce the game. So they've made some parts using that. They are still deciding on some of the colour choices for various parts, but that's just down to the material and the dyes that they use when they actually mould them. they did build an entire game using these production tooled parts and said the result was a machine that plays stronger and more reliably than any prototype we've had before wow, wow so that's good to know there was no new gameplay video this month they did say before that they were working on new code and it wasn't ready to show at that time but they would be in this month's update, but it wasn't then either. And they say significant work was still left to be done with the software. So that's not something we've seen before, software lagging on a new game. We're not likely to see any gameplay in August either, apparently, in the August update, which will be at the end of the month.
    36:32
    However, some good news is that they say they will have a larger stand at Pinball Expo this year. They launched last year at Pinball Expo with a cabinet, pretty much, a non-flippable game.
    36:46
    And at this year's Pinball Expo in October, they expect to be showing completed games and say that this is around the time they plan to be shipping the first machines to those who back their project on Kickstarter. So they still think they're on target to ship games in October and have complete games at Pinball Expo for people to play. So it's a lot of work to be done between now and then. We love the optimism.
    37:17
    Yes, oh, absolutely, yes. We've had no shortage of that. Right, okay. Then, well, this concludes it for Wonderland Amusements.
    37:27
    Heading back to the US, we have Spooky Pinball in Benton, Wisconsin. not that much news to report they're currently building Evil Dead as their latest game of course and they're about halfway through the production of the game they're now in the 400 something and the total production is 888 which means that they are very likely to finish production of this game either in December or early January. I believe the start will get two weeks off around Christmas. So there's no production in those two weeks, of course. The next title, heavily rumored to be Beetlejuice, is expected to be announced late November or early December.
    38:33
    And, well, most recently, I think yesterday, they announced they are looking for a new full-time in-house programmer. And there's even bonuses and benefits if you're willing to move to Benton, Wisconsin, or at least in the area so you can work in-house.
    39:00
    And you wouldn't be the first to do it. Others have done it as well. And if you're a programmer and you'd love to program upcoming pinball machines for Spooky Pinball, then just send an email to bug at spookypinball.com.
    39:19
    Yeah, bug the person, not bug the software. Right, yes. And that's basically all the news from Spooky Pinball. Interestingly enough, I spoke to a distributor who said he thinks Spooky could have sold easily 2,000 Evil Dead Pinball machines because it's that good.
    39:43
    And that popular, an awful lot of people kicking themselves for not buying into it very early on. but it's a tough call to make isn't it? It's quite a commitment and the theme is not for everyone but as we said before, when we saw it we had no particular tie into the theme, no love for it but hey, we certainly enjoyed playing the game.
    40:10
    I'm sure they could have sold certainly twice as many machines as they actually are going to make but do they want to keep building that game for well that's also one of the things that people have to take into consideration so and there was a little bit more news which I'm actually looking up no no no I thought I read something about the whoever will be making or designing the topper for the upcoming spooky game but I can't find any confirmation for it now so we'll keep that for you for next month oh I did say they did a social media post about the designer of the yes Gary J Tunicliffe yeah exactly whether that's the same guy who's doing the upcoming topper I don't know I don't either that's why I'm not confirming it no okay well in that case I think that wraps up all the news we have for Spooky Pinball this month we'll actually head back to Europe briefly to Hexapinball who of course are in the Bordeaux region of France and have been producing their space hunt game for quite a while and people have been starting to wonder whether they will be bringing out a second title well yes is the answer to that Hexapinball say they've started building the first prototype of their second title, and they got the team back together again, got the band back, and showed a picture of the three founders of Hexapimble all around the table, looking, presumably, at images of the new game. And, fortunately, there are no more details about what the game is, or when we can expect to find out more details of it, but all we can say is that they are working on a second game, And they've started building the first prototype of it. So good luck to Hexa Pinball. We look forward to seeing what they come up with.
    42:25
    Space Hunt was a very impressive game, especially as their first one. So we look forward to seeing what they can do with the second. I do know that somebody that we both know, and I will not mention his name, recently visited Hexa Pinball has knows more about the second game and I believe it has been confirmed that Hexa Pinball will be at the Dutch Pinball Open Expo again this year which is the third weekend of November if I'm not mistaking 23rd to 23rd of November in Veldhoven. I'm not sure whether they will be bringing any prototype or anything regarding a second game, but I know Hexapimble will be there.
    43:22
    It would be nice if they did a seminar, perhaps, and talked about the upcoming game. They haven't got it to bring yet. Well, that's all I got on Hexapimble.
    43:36
    Okay. Well, let's move on from one H to another H and put over on the other side of the world in Taiwan where we've got Homepin. And they've been producing the Blues Brothers game, which is, of course, the open source title, which people can add their own music and rules to.
    43:57
    But they have sent out a service bulletin for that about some MOSFETs used in the game, which are like transistors, but higher power and more controllable. They have been failing due to errors from the device manufacturers.
    44:15
    Mike posted that they have a big issue with fake devices. Not so much the HomePin had that problem, but in the market in general, there's a huge number of fake devices or misrepresented devices out there, transistors, MOSFETs, that kind of thing. and so they went to great lengths in order to make sure they got the parts directly for the manufacturer the MOSFETs directly for the manufacturer but it turned out the manufacturer made mistakes and under specced the MOSFETs so they are home pin and they are saying you should replace these five MOSFETs on certain Blues Brothers machines built up until the 24th of July after that they haven't been caught the problem and fixed it by getting higher rated devices but machines up until the 24th of July may likely have a problem which could cause devices or flippers or solenoids to jam on so there's only five of them that need to be replaced but of course not everybody can solder or source suitable replacement parts so if you can't then get in contact with Homepin and they'll work out a way of either getting you new boards or somebody to do it for you that's about all the news from Homepin I have at the moment, we look forward to seeing Blues Brothers I think, we'll have that at the UK Pinfest show coming up completely forgot about that yes, oh yes, looking forward to that. It's going to be a good show. And, of course, you'd better read all about it in Pinball News if you can't make it yourself. But, of course, we always encourage you to come along in person. Do you know whether the hotel still has any rooms available?
    46:16
    No. No, I'm afraid it doesn't. No. That sold out in about two minutes once bookings were opened up. So... And that's taking over the entire hotel,
    46:28
    which Phil has done for the past couple of years now every room is booked for the UK Infest show although that said there is usually a wait list because some people do cancel I don't think there's even a requirement to make a deposit or pay a deposit when you book a room so people cancel for free and rooms suddenly become available but yeah there is a wait list but it's worth getting on it if you are thinking of coming I have to check my calendar so then Pimple Brothers in Sweden what news do we have?
    47:10
    not a lot actually of course currently making the Predator game but not a huge amount of information about or videos of the game coming out there was a brief clip showing the multi-ball, one of the multi-ball modes from Predator which certainly looked very full on in terms of all the lighting effects but a bit too much for me personally there was a lot of strobing of white which is of course meant to simulate gunfire but it kind of made it quite hard for me to watch and I personally say either it needs to be in not such a darkened room or those effects need to be toned down a bit also in the video they show the Predators multi wrist gauntlet display you know the thing that on the bottom apron that has the rail LEDs in it that still wasn working in that video yet so I think there probably some way for the code to go and but I think it's looking like a nice game and we certainly look forward to seeing it, I don't think I don't know if it will be at UK Pinfest because we do have the UK distributor, Pinball Brothers Games Richard Warkade Specialist there we'll be reviewing the home pin game as well never say never but keep our fingers crossed and of course if we do get to play it you'll hear all about it in our next pincast moving to Barrels of Fun in Houston, Texas in the US of course the only news that we could find was that they will be hosting another Barrels of Fun factory tour as part of the Houston Arcade Expo which takes place November the 14th to the 16th which is the weekend prior to the IAPA show if I'm not mistaken and the weekend prior to the Dutch People Open Expo and that's all, so another factory tour and well we've taken the tour it was very impressive, very clean factory so highly recommended if you're interested in seeing how pinball machines are built. Very efficient factory, I have to say.
    49:37
    Yes, absolutely. And not too far from the Houston Arcade Expo hotel, either, where they host the show. So both within Houston, of course.
    49:49
    Okay, well, staying in the US... Actually, do you have any local news? Stay in the US, because it's... Well, say you're staying in the US with Jersey Jack Pinball, but the news from them comes from the Mina Lima store in London. I think they have a couple of stores in London, actually, but one of those got a Harry Potter collector's edition machine delivered to them, courtesy of Pinball Heaven, the UK distributor for Jersey Jack Pinball. It is now set up in the store and on free play for visitors to the store to play. and apparently it's very popular and there's quite a wait if you want to get on it so if you are in London and want to play have some Harry Potter and Harry Potter Pimple I should say and have some time then head on over to the Mina Liam store and just hope that you're not playing it because then there will be a huge line well I won't be playing it but yes it's an amazing store anyway to all Harry Potter fans will certainly not be short of things to engross them while they are waiting to play. So that is about the only news we get from Jersey Jack Pinball. Lots of publicity and social media plugs for the Harry Potter game and the team working on it and pictures of it in production in the factory. but no real news other than that so that's our Jersey Jack pinball news for believe it or not we're almost at the end already because the next companies there's actually no news and so we're going to do this really quick we're talking about Pedretti Gaming or Pedretti Pinball whatever you like obviously last month they surprised us the Ligabua pinball game.
    51:52
    But since then, it's been very quiet. Yep, no news either from American Pinball, who cut the prices on a bunch of their games for the 4th of July sales, which you mentioned last month. But after that, no more news. No news from Turner Pinball either.
    52:17
    I think... No, busy working on Merlin's Arcade. Which is scheduled to go into production, I think, somewhere around August-ish. So, that's... Yeah.
    52:33
    No news from Chicago Gaming, although it appears that the upgrade kit for Cactus Canyon which has been delayed a bit more and yeah it was supposed to start shipping by the end of June well June came and went and well July came and went and hopefully they are shipping about now but I have not seen any confirmation of that yet ok we'll bring you more next month no more news either from Pinball Adventures who mentioned last month you'd spoken to Andrew and we're talking about Elements the next game but I haven't seen any more information from them on their Instagram social media feed no news from Ramps formerly known as Tilt Pop with their road trip game. As far as we know, there is one prototype that was showcased at the Pimble at the Zoo, sorry, at the Beach Festival in February. And after that, it's been silent.
    53:56
    No news from Vector Pimble in Australia either. And the same goes for Bitronic in Spain, Cardona pinball SDR pinball in Spain as well Quetzal pinball although I know I do know they are working on a new game and that's all I can say so yeah ok so we get to other news and unfortunately we have to start off with some sad news about the death of a good friend of both of ours actually Rob Anthony of Pinball Classics and I think there was one other company name that he used but can't think of it right now yeah a legend in the pinball parts and repairs business used to frequent many shows including of course the Texas Pinball Festival where he had his own room and Pinball Expo, he also used to have his own room when he was back at the Westin but that changed a bit when he moved to the new location but yes, he's been ill for a while of course a big poster on social media with him and his dog, Antar and of course his previous dog, Taro, of course featured on a spoof magazine cover, didn't he? It was great fun working with Rob on that one announcing Pimple Magazine number four with the main interview or the cover story being an interview with Tarot that was an April Fool's joke for some years ago I believe and of course Rob was a seller of Pimple Magazine and your books as well so yeah he was a great guy the last time I saw him was at the Texas Pinball Festival and they even bought a Dragon's Lair miniature video game from him because in his booth he was also selling all sorts of pinball and arcade related merchandise if you want to call it that and I thought yes in my mind that will always be Rob Anthony's room that side room at Texas.
    56:33
    There has been a GoFundMe set up for him by JJ of Game Exchange in Colorado to help pay for some of the funeral expenses, the cremation expenses and also to look after future vet bills and that kind of stuff.
    56:59
    Yes, it's a very sad situation I think Rob wasn't married and didn't have any kids I don't think so there's quite a lot to sort out amongst his personal possessions although he'd been having health issues for some time I think his rapid decline came as a bit of a shock to most people I think it might even have come as a shock to Rob himself, no pun intended but from what I understood from a conversation that was a conversation of text messages right before he died he was texting with somebody that he was in the hospitals but he wanted to get home because he had stuff to do and doctors wouldn't let him go no he had apparently had a heart attack and so they were keeping him in for that but he was prior to that he had been very ill a couple of weeks before and been basically unable to move or able to get out of bed pretty much or do anything so that's why he ended up in hospital anyway we don't want to dwell too much I do have to say a huge thank you to JJ of the Game Exchange of Colorado for stepping in picking up Antar and taking care of things that had to be taken care of many many thanks for everything you have done for Rob and I know that sentiment is shared by many in the pinball community so thank you very much for yeah I was just saying if you want to help donate to JJ's go fund me fundraiser you just search for Rob Anthony and GoFundMe and you will find a link to it and we'll be able to make a donation because there are obviously an awful lot of expenses that are incurred and there's a lot to sort out as well at this point it is unknown whether there is a will and how the financial situation is and all that kind of stuff so hmm yeah okay well best of luck to those who have to work through that and our condolences to anyone who knew Rob and I'm sure you will be missing him every pinball show may he rest in peace indeed so on to slightly happier news I suppose in July we had the 20th Swavesey show here in the UK, but sadly it's also the last one, at least the last official Swavesey show. It was held on the 11th to 13th of July at the White Horse Inn in the Cambridgeshire village of Swavesey. You can read all about it in the Pinball News report, of course. But it was very successful. The raffle and individual donations as well raised over £1,600 for the Alzheimer's Society, which is, I guess, about $2,100. I can't remember exactly. About $2,100 US dollars. So a good sum raised and a great way to bid farewell to the Swayze Show. and thank you very much to Mark Squires for all his organisational skills and for everybody else who worked on the show running the raffle and collecting the prizes and playing in the tournament which was held on Sunday so everyone had a good time and we look forward to seeing what comes next and I guess that wraps it up for this episode we'll be back at the start of September with our next PINcast looking back at all the pinball events in the industry throughout the exciting month of August, which is summer month, so it could be a very short episode as well. We're not expecting any new game announcements as far as I'm aware of. Why do you say that? You never quite know. But anyway, until then, when we do come back with the next PINcast, from me Martin Aeop of Pinball and for me, Jonathan Justin of Pinball Magazine yes, we both hope you have an awesome August and we'll be joining you again next month for the next edition of the Pinball Industry News I do have a little household notification Pinball Magazine used to offer pinball posters and they've been taken off the website or the web shop some years ago.
    62:24
    I've received quite some requests from people like would you be willing to offer these again? Well the main reason they were taken down in the first place is because shipping costs for packages because posters ship in a tube which is considered to be a package became very expensive and it was with the current web shop very difficult to calculate the correct tariff so to avoid any miscalculations and whatever I basically took them down but they're back on the web shop if you're interested but the request is do not order through the web shop but send me an email instead and I'll get back to you with the proper pricing because that's still not taken care of and that wraps it up for this yeah I'm sure now definitely I'm sure ok well if we can have a final final then I'll just add in a big thank you to all the people who have contacted myself and said how much they enjoy listening to this surprisingly enough So thank you very much for your support. We keep trying to improve.
    63:48
    Yeah, well, we have to really, don't we? Anyway, yes, so thank you for the kind words, and we really will say goodbye for now. So until next time.