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Pinball Industry News: March 2019 Re-cap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 32m·analyzed·Apr 2, 2019
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TL;DR

March 2019 pinball recap: Texas Festival record, WOz LE reveal, Multimorphic factory tour, Willy Wonka teased for MGC.

Summary

Jonathan Euston (Pinball Magazine) and Martin Eyre (Pinball News) recap March 2019 pinball industry highlights, focusing on the Texas Pinball Festival's record 500+ machines, Jersey Jack Pinball's Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Limited Edition reveal at $11,500, and Multimorphic's new in-house manufacturing facility showcasing innovative networked multi-machine gameplay. Key upcoming announcements include Jersey Jack's rumored Willy Wonka reveal at Midwest Gaming Classic (April 13-14) and Suncoast Pinball's Cosmic Carnival with artwork by Dirty Donnie.

Key Claims

  • Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Limited Edition priced at $11,500, limited to around 500 units with approximately 200 planned for 2019 production

    high confidence · Jonathan Euston reporting on Jersey Jack Pinball seminar at Texas Pinball Festival; Jack Warnieri stated pricing and production numbers directly

  • Texas Pinball Festival 2019 had record of over 500 pinball machines on display

    high confidence · Multiple mentions by both hosts based on firsthand attendance; Jonathan Euston documented extensively with video and photography

  • Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road LE removes the winged monkey mech from the original game due to mechanical reliability issues

    high confidence · Martin Eyre discussing technical specifications revealed at Texas show; comparison to original WOz design

  • Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory will be revealed at Midwest Gaming Classic on April 13-14, 2019

    high confidence · Confirmed by Kingpin (JJP distributor) according to hosts; Jack Warnieri will not attend MGC as he'll be at Flip Expo in France same weekend

  • Multimorphic has opened a new in-house manufacturing facility in Texas where they are building games

    high confidence · Jonathan and Martin visited the facility during Texas show week; interviewed Jerry Stellenberg on-site

  • Multimorphic demonstrated a new four-player networked version of Cosmic Kart Racing where multiple machines connect for competitive play

    high confidence · Hosts played the game firsthand at Multimorphic facility; four machines set up for head-to-head network play

  • Suncoast Pinball's Cosmic Carnival features artwork by Dirty Donnie and they have locked him down for three additional titles

    medium confidence · Suncoast booth at Texas show; visual identification of artwork style consistent with prior Stern work; hosts report on available information but phrasing 'it appeared' suggests confirmation pending

  • Pinball Magazine won a Twippe award for Best Pinball Publication at Texas Pinball Festival

Notable Quotes

  • “There's always so much stuff going on, but in this case, it's almost, I mean, it's great that there's 500 games, and you need probably 500 games because there's so many people there, but it's an illusion to think that you're going to be playing 500 games that weekend because you simply can't.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~22:00 — Captures the overwhelming scale and time constraints of Texas Pinball Festival despite record attendance

  • “The walk around video ended up being 45 minutes long just because there's so much to see and I don't want to rush around so you can't see what all the games are or what's going on there.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~24:00 — Illustrates the sheer volume and scope of games at the 2019 Texas show, a record for the event

  • “It's limited to around 500 units in total. Jack said in the seminar that they probably make about 200 this year, of which 150 or so were already sold, or were at the time.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~42:00 — Confirms Jersey Jack's production and sales strategy for WOz Yellow Brick Road LE

  • “So it was like network play. You basically have four players racing against each other, each playing their own pinball machine. So you need four pinball machines to make that happen, which is quite interesting.”

    Jonathan Euston @ ~85:00 — Describes innovative networked multiplayer feature of Multimorphic's Cosmic Kart Racing, unique in modern pinball

  • “If there would be an award for most innovative pinball machine, and I definitely think that Multimorphic should be winning such an award.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~103:00 — Expresses strong positive assessment of Multimorphic's innovation in the P3 platform

  • “Jack Warnieri will not be at that show as he will be at the Flip Expo show, which is the same weekend in France. Yes, where you and I will be at that show.”

    Jonathan Euston @ ~57:00 — Establishes that hosts will be attending Flip Expo and implies bonus podcast recording opportunity with Jack Warnieri

  • “The artwork is certainly highly identifiable as coming from him. I think it looked amazing.”

Entities

Texas Pinball FestivaleventJonathan EustonpersonMartin EyrepersonWizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Limited EditionproductJersey Jack PinballcompanyJack WarnieripersonMultimorphiccompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Multimorphic has successfully transitioned to in-house manufacturing at new Texas facility, optimizing workflow with floor-based production model

    high · Firsthand facility tour and interview with Jerry Stellenberg; description of manufacturing processes, bill of materials, modular assembly workflow

  • ?

    community_signal: Texas Pinball Festival VIP meet-and-greet with Munsters actors and Stern design team (Borg, Franchi, Sullivan, Thompson) sold approximately 60-70 packages at $150 each

    high · Hosts attended VIP session describing autographs, photos, early game access before public show opening; approximate 60-70 attendee estimate provided

  • ?

    design_innovation: Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road LE addresses mechanical reliability by removing problematic winged monkey mech while adding gold sparkle decals and updated electronics

    high · Martin Eyre detailed technical specifications from Texas show; described removal as solution to 'ball hang-ups or mechanical failure or sticking' on original design

  • ?

    event_signal: Flip Expo (Le Treport, France) scheduled same weekend as Midwest Gaming Classic with Jack Warnieri as guest of honor, positioning MGC as secondary reveal venue despite simultaneous major European event

    high · Hosts confirmed Jack attending Flip Expo instead of MGC; Jonathan anticipating bonus podcast with Jack at Flip Expo; described MGC reveal as likely outcome despite Jack's France commitment

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2019 set new record with 500+ machines, causing venue space constraints and discussion of potential future relocation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.278

0:00
Black Knight Sword of Rage revealed. Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Limited Edition revealed. The Texas Pinball Festival bigger than ever.
0:18
Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston of Pinball Magazine and I'm here with... I'm Martin Eyre from Pinball News. and we're here to look back at the wonderful month of pinball that was march 2019 exactly and what a wonderful month it was yeah it absolutely was um we've both been very very busy haven't we this this month absolutely i'm still catching up well me too there's so much to report and um we should probably start with some of the some of the great things that happened then Let's get straight on with The Texas show Probably the highlight of the Pinball season for us In the past week Or past month I should say We were both there Right We did a wonderful quiz We did And thank you very much to all the Very generous sponsors who donated Wonderful prizes which we were able to give away Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball American Pinball, Suncoast Pinball Multimorphic Pinball News, Pinball Magazine did I forget anybody? Spooky Pinball of course we had some really good stuff from then from everyone actually and Multimorphic, let's not forget Multimorphic who gave us I mentioned them but you didn't hear me I don't think I didn't hear that I was too loud but thanks to all those sponsors we had again a couple of tables full of stuff of swag to give away to people and the number of contestants went up again so thank you to all of them as well for participating in our quiz during the happy hour and kicking off the texas pinball festival seminar program so to speak and um yeah and the other highlight of the of the texas pinball festival was of course pinball magazine winning a twippy for Best Pinball Publication. Well, you kept that very quiet. I thought you'd have been out promoting that. I'm surprised. No, I'm a very modest man. You are. I think everybody agrees with that. You ought to win an award for most modest pinball person, I should say.
2:37
I can think of certain people that are even more modest than I am, but thank you. Oh, no, you're very welcome. As it's award season, let's give everybody an award. Right. But so, no, a huge thanks to Ed Van Der Veen, Kim Van Der Veen, and Paul McKinney. Huge compliments as well, because this year's show, as far as I could tell, went very, very smooth. There were a couple of changes compared to last year, or previous years, I should say, mainly being that the tournament area has been relocated to one of the rooms on the other side of the corridor.

high confidence · Jonathan Euston (Pinball Magazine founder/editor) directly states this; credited Ed Van Der Veen, Kim Van Der Veen, and Paul McKinney for show organization

Martin Eyre @ ~150:00 — Confirms Dirty Donnie's distinctive visual style on Suncoast's Cosmic Carnival

  • “They have a lot of stuff on the floor. They've sort of given over the whole floor to manufacturing pretty much, just a little meeting room where we did our interview with Jerry later in the evening. But the rest of it, there are no offices.”

    Martin Eyre @ ~79:00 — Describes Multimorphic's new facility layout optimizing manufacturing workflow with minimal bureaucratic overhead

    • Jerry Stellenberg
    person
    Cosmic Kart Racingproduct
    Suncoast Pinballcompany
    Cosmic Carnivalproduct
    Dirty Donnieperson
    Ed Van Der Veenperson
    Midwest Gaming Classicevent
    Flip Expoevent
    Butch Patrickperson
    Pat Priestperson
    Munsters Pinballproduct
    Marco Specialtiescompany
    John Borgperson
    Christopher Franchiperson
    Gary Flowerperson
    Pinball Magazineorganization
    Pinball Newsorganization

    high · Multiple mentions of record attendance, hosts noting show 'busting at the seams,' and prediction that 2020 could be last year at current Frisco Convention Center location due to growth

  • $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack selling 150 of approximately 200 planned 2019 Wizard of Oz LE units by announcement time indicates strong collector demand for limited edition releases

    high · Jack Warnieri reported 150 of ~200 planned 2019 units already sold at Texas seminar according to Martin Eyre

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Dirty Donnie transitioned from Stern Pinball (Aerosmith, Metallica, Crusher, Pabst Kang artwork) to Suncoast Pinball with multi-game commitment

    high · Hosts identified distinctive artwork style on Cosmic Carnival; reported Suncoast 'locked him down for three more titles'; hosts acknowledged prior Stern work

  • $

    market_signal: Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road LE priced at $11,500 described as raising eyebrows in community despite technical improvements

    medium · Martin Eyre stated 'priced at 11,500, which raised a few eyebrows' without detailing specific community criticism but indicating price resistance

  • ?

    announcement: Jersey Jack Pinball officially revealed Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Limited Edition at Texas Pinball Festival with $11,500 pricing and 500 unit production limit

    high · Detailed specifications provided by Martin Eyre based on Jack Warnieri's seminar presentation; 150 of ~200 planned 2019 units already presold at announcement

  • ?

    product_strategy: Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road LE positioned as modern-spec version of game with new Spike electronics, glossy thick decals, and updated cabinet design distinct from original release

    high · Martin Eyre emphasized 'brings The Wizard of Oz up to spec as if it was being released now' with comparison to direct-to-cabinet printing on original run

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Jersey Jack Pinball's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory game will be revealed at Midwest Gaming Classic April 13-14, 2019

    high · Confirmed by Kingpin (JJP distributor) according to hosts; described as 'not a reveal at Texas show' implying prior confirmation of MGC venue

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multimorphic demonstrated innovative networked multiplayer architecture with four-player Cosmic Kart Racing connecting separate machines for remote competitive play

    high · Hosts played four-player networked version at facility; competitive gameplay with power-ups and blocking mechanics described as 'frantic' and 'fast action'

    • 3:18
    Yes, I think there were kind of mixed feelings about that, but overall I think it was quite good. It gave them their own space and they were able to set up and run their own hours pretty much. I don't have to worry about what the show hours were, but it gave a whole load of space over to more vendors and more exhibitors and more games in the main show hall, which was certainly needed because the I guess the main theme of the show was monsters. And with apart from the the amazing number of games that Marco had on their stand, the monsters games, as well as a bunch of others, all of which were pre-sold in before the show opened. So people got a good deal on those and they agreed to have them played during the show. and then they took them away at the end and Marco didn't have to cart them all back or pack them all away. Well, that's a formula that they sort of perfected and that's how they're doing all these shows. So if you want to see Black Knight Sword of Rage at the MGC show, which is coming up, then people better order games from Marco so that they can pick them up at the show, at least so they will be at the show because if nobody would do that, I can't imagine that. But basically the number of games is determined by the number of games that they are able to sell.
    4:49
    Within reason, they obviously have a limit on space. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if all the games at the MGC from Marco were already pre-sold. But getting back to the Munsters and TPF, they had about 35 games on the Marco stand, or maybe it was up to 40. It was something very close to that. As I say, they were all pre-sold. And also in that area, they had two wonderful vehicles from the Munsters, the Dragula car and the Munsters Coach, which were both magnificent-looking vehicles. But I think you had some reservations about taking a ride in either of them. Well, from my safety point of view, I think they're absolutely terrible vehicles to be driving, in the sense that if you want to die a quick and sudden death, that's certainly the way to go.
    5:46
    Okay. Well, fortunately, they were only for exhibit, and there was nobody driving around in them, and very few people actually even got to sit in them. Right. But they did look absolutely great. No argument there. They were a fantastic backdrop to Butcher Patrick and Pat Priest Who were on the table there signing posters along with the Stern Pinball team Right, yeah There was a special VIP meet and greet on Saturday morning No, that was Friday afternoon, it started at 3 or 2 hours before the show opened and um so i think there were like um probably 60 70 people that ordered that that vip package um which was like 150 dollars and they well first of all they got in two hours ahead of everybody else and they got um a special um poster i would say um which months of artwork with um spaces for autographs by the entire design team and Butch Patrick and Pat Priest. And they were all sitting there during that VIP session as well. So people were lining up.
    7:02
    And after that, they could play the months without long queues, which were there the rest of the weekend when the show really opened up for the public.
    7:13
    Yeah, I thought it was a very nice session. It gave everybody the chance to have a few words with Butch and Pat, and also there was John Borg, Christopher Franchi, Dwight Sullivan, Jerry Thompson, I think. Yeah, those four. Her on the table from Stern. So, yes, they all signed the poster.
    7:36
    You get your picture taken or several pictures taken with them. So, yeah, a nice package if you're really a big fan of Munsters or indeed if you're buying a game and want to have some memorabilia to go with it. Right, and Butch, Patrick and Pat Reeves weren't the only celebrities at the show because there also was John Rhys-Davies, who we know from Indiana Jones and The Lord of the Rings and probably other movies and TV shows and such. Any other appearances, yes. Yes, he had a table set up outside in the sort of autograph session area where he was signing stuff. But I don't know whether it was a case with Butch and Pat, but John Rhys-Staves was charging for signatures. So were Butch and Pat. Ah, were they? Okay. or at least if you wanted a special photograph that was being charged but I guess that included an autograph as well yeah I guess it's part of the course these days if you want to get a picture those that sing as a free picture although I did manage to grab a quick picture well I found a very good way to work around that, that's actually quite a fun story Saturday morning I was I already had breakfast but I went down to the breakfast buffet in the restaurant and I noticed Charles Thomas in the line for omelets and about five people behind him was Pat Priest and basically just to sort of joking around I walked over to miss Pat Priest and I said like if you want to skip the line and go in front of my friend he can wait a little longer and um and it turns out she was actually in a hurry so she was very happy that she could um so charles was uh she was in front of charles and he was like i wonder if i can have my picture taken well since i just did her a favor by skipping the line there was no problem at all so we took a couple of pictures and no charge. So that's how you do that.
    9:52
    Very good. Okay. Yeah. Nice story. So that was, I guess that was pretty much all the monsters related things from Texas Pinball Festival. But there were plenty of other things to see there besides that game. It was absolutely an amazing show. They had a record number of games, over 500 pinball machines set up at the event which quite frankly I wrote this also in my report which you can read on pinball-magazine.com I see games in my pictures that I completely missed while I was walking around at the show and I was like oh I should have played that or I should have played that Well, there's always so much stuff going on, but in this case, it's almost, I mean, it's great that there's 500 games, and you need probably 500 games because there's so many people there, but it's an illusion to think that you're going to be playing 500 games that weekend because you simply can't. aren't true uh there there is a huge number there and as i found out when i tried to go around and video them all it takes a lot longer than you think even just to sort of walk around the show i um i went there about um half an hour before the first seminar started and i was because i was audio recording all the seminars and and taking pictures from them all i thought oh half an hour that's no problem i'll just walk around um do my video i'll have you know five minutes to spare go into the seminar anyway as it turned out um i looked at my watch and i was about halfway around the show and it was two minutes left before the seminar started so i'd already spent 28 minutes videoing and probably had about the same duration to go again but i had to stop and then i'll pick up again later right but uh the upshot is that the walk around video ended up being 45 minutes long just because there's so much to see and I don't want to rush around so you can't see what all the games are or what's going on there. So, yeah, that's an indication. I think that's the longest video walk around I've ever done. That's an indication of the show. Right, okay. So wasn't the Dutch Rainbow opening at the Ebola one two years ago? Wasn't that also something like that? Oh, it's going to have to be something like that. That would be because I've been having to walk up and down the stairs all the time. and going through the different notes.
    12:28
    So, yeah, there's probably about 10 minutes of stairs in that one. Okay. So, but now a very impressive show. As always, the quality of the games is very, very high at the Texas Pinball Festival. It's not like people bringing their junk games, trying to sell them off. We have a swap meet for that on Saturday morning, which was also a great success, by the way. But the games at the show, as far as I could see, very little games that went down due to a technical problem or whatever.
    13:02
    And as far as I could see, most games looked really in a very, very good shape. Yes, there is fierce competition. They have to win the Best in Show Awards, which are held at the close of the show on Sunday afternoon, because each of those comes with, obviously, Rosette, bragging rights and the winner gets cash prizes and they have different categories have about 10 or 12 different categories for games so yeah nobody wants to bring a game which isn't going to be in contention for those so yeah novelty, beautiful looking games and just general high exceedingly high quality restorations that's what you'll find at that show Right so highly recommended for everybody I already noticed that people are already checking for the dates for next year, which is March 27th to 29th, and they're already trying to reserve rooms at the hotel. Yeah, I don't know if there are actually any rooms available yet. They normally only open up about nine months before. Right. But keep looking on the website or on the Texas Pinball Festival Facebook page, and I'm sure the team there will let you know exactly when those rooms are available. And this could be the last year at that hotel. The show has become so big. They are sort of busting at the seams there. And they need to find, well, it's a good size now. But there's probably still room for expansion and more events. So it could be that they'll find a different venue somewhere else in the larger, greater Dallas region. Right. But as always, the problem with these venues is, if they're like a convention center, is it might be difficult to find hotels which are within walking distance, whereas the one at Frisco is ideal for that. So maybe they can do something at that hotel because they've got some lovely hotels nearby. Right. Well, what I'm sort of expecting is that after, or probably even before next year's show, I expect the hotel will reach out to them and see if they can discuss a new contract because I can see that this is good business for the hotel as well as for all the hotels in that area because I think there's like 4 or 5 hotels and they're all selling out because of this show so there might even be some sort of outside pressure from other hotels pushing them like no, don't let them go away keep them here because it's good business for everybody.
    15:40
    Absolutely, but there's also fierce competition from other hotels in other parts of the city or the region to try and attract a show that size. And if they can sell out the entire hotel easily, and they can, then hopefully other hotels will be keen for the business as well and be making an attractive offer. Well, they got probably a year to figure all that out, or maybe even more.
    16:11
    The next year's show will still be at the Fisco Convention Center, where it was the previous past few years.
    16:19
    But again, wonderful show. Let's talk about some of the other games that were there. Yeah, I was going to lean into that. so Jersey Jack Pinball was the only established pinball manufacturer I would say that revealed a new game although it was not exactly a new game but it was more like a new limited edition of The Wizard of Oz being the Yellow Brick Road limited edition yes absolutely, priced at 11,500, which raised a few eyebrows.
    17:00
    It's limited to around 500 units in total. Jack said in the seminar that they probably make about 200 this year, of which 150 or so were already sold, or were at the time. I don't know now whether they all sold out or not. the unique aspects of this game are really to do with the gold colour I suppose or the yellow armour on it legs and apron and all the gold sparkle that has been applied to not only the armour but also to all the wire forms in the game and on the play field under the clear coat as well which Mirko has come up with a new process for doing that in the printing of the playfield so that and that does look very nice i have to say right uh downside is well apart from the price is they they have taken out the winged monkey mech on the back which lifts the ball from the main playfield up to the witch's castle because that's always been a little problematic and so they i guess they found a better way of achieving that same thing that doesn't involve any ball hang-ups or mechanical failure or sticking.
    18:22
    Other than that, it looks really nice. It's very bright. It uses all the new electronics and hardware that they're using in games like Dialed In and Pirates of the Caribbean or Caribbean, depending on where you want to get your pronunciation from. And so that means it's got the new lighting in there, all the hopefully more reliable throughout than the original run.
    18:58
    So I think that's right in saying that's the only edition of the Wizard of Oz that's got the all-new electronics and cabinet design in it. It doesn't have the direct-to-cabinet printing that the first run of Wizard of Oz has had, but they actually phase that out later. But this has got the radcals, the very glossy, high-quality, thick decals that go on the side of the cabinet and look incredibly rich in colour. So, you know, it basically brings The Wizard of Oz up to spec as if it was being released now. I suppose with everything that you get in a modern Jersey Jack game.
    19:44
    Right. And so people were hoping that there might have been a reveal for what is rumored to be Jersey Jack Pinball's next game. and that's supposed to be Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
    20:04
    No such thing at the show. So some people might have been disappointed, but I guess word was already out on the street that that game was not going to be revealed at the Texas show. I think we even mentioned that it wasn't going to be the case. But in the meantime it has been confirmed That it will be revealed At the Midwest Gaming Classic show Which is the weekend of April 13th and 14th If I'm correct Yes, that's going to be A very busy show for game reveals Because it will be the first popular outing for another game Which we're going to look at a little bit later Right So But So That game Is I think it was Already confirmed By Kingpin Who is a distributor For Jersey Jack games That the game Will be revealed At that show So That should be On Friday The 12th I think The public Reveal takes place Interestingly Jack Warnieri Will not be At that show As he will be At the Flip Expo show, which is the same weekend in France.
    21:24
    Yes, where you and I will be at that. Right. And I'm looking in my glass bowl. I look into the future. I can see that we're probably doing a bonus podcast recorded at that show with an interview with Jack Warnieri. I think that's probably going to be very likely. and I think we can all guess what the subject of that bonus podcast is going to be. Yes.
    21:55
    But let's not get ahead of ourselves. That show is, yes, in northern France. It's exactly the same weekend as the Midwest Gaming Classic and where Jack is the guest of honor, I suppose. Yes. Again. He was there last year as well. Last year. Yes. As were we.
    22:17
    Right. Yeah, for me that's been a Returning annual visit I would say to the city of Le Trepore Yeah, I look forward to going there It's going to be a fun weekend I used to go there quite a lot Every year at least Mainly to play in the tournaments As much as anything But then after a few years I kind of let it slide While I went to other shows And yeah, so last year and this year Back again, so it's nice to be back at that show It's a very laid-back, very relaxed and pleasant weekend, particularly if the weather's good. Yeah, and just to put things in perspective, it's not a very big show in the sense that the number of games at the show, I think the past year was somewhere around 60 70 maybe something like that But it still great fun and it a real family show You see entire families just come in for two, three hours of playing pinball and then they move out and they move on with their regular lives. So it's not so much for just pinball enthusiasts just as there is a lot of locals just popping in for just playing a couple of games.
    23:37
    Yes, absolutely. And it's good to also mention that they've expanded the show the past couple of years and taken over a second hall, which is now where all the vendors go. So there's a free play hall and there's a vendor hall. And the vendor hall is absolutely packed as well. So there's plenty of opportunities there to buy games and parts and all sorts of memorabilia. while also playing some of the games in that room. But if it's just games you want to play and you're not interested in buying parts or spares or anything else, the free play hall is where you go. And if you want to play in the tournament, you can go and play as well. Hold on.
    24:19
    I have a ringing phone. Is that you? Yeah, it is me. Hang on. Actually, it's not me. It's our good friend Gary Flower calling How can Gary be calling? He must be on the way to the Midwest Gaming Classic By now, isn't he? I guess he is, yeah Maybe he's on one of these modern planes That he can call from the plane Ah, well he is always connected You know, I just hope it's not one of those Boeing 737s Or whatever they are You better check to make sure He's not on one of those Okay, well, let's see what he had to say I mean, we miss him quite so often And I think we can squeeze him in Because he's going to Yeah, yeah, come on Come on, let's do it So let's bring him in Here's Gary Flower Okay Oh, crap Hey, Gary Hey Hello Can't believe it He hung up on me again Did he hung up on you Or was it one of those 737s?
    25:18
    I guess we'll find out soon One way or the other For Gary's sake, I hope He just hung up Anyway So He might call later, you never know But Gary Flower For those people wondering who the hell is Gary Flower He will be I've had a few people ask that So Gary Flower will actually be At the Midwest Gaming Classic show And So you might actually See him I think he's occupying one of the registration desks or whatever for the VIPs. I'm sure he'll be introducing them as well in some of the seminars that they're doing.
    26:03
    Right. So let's give a face to Gary Flower and see him at the Midwest Gaming Classic Show. Yes, absolutely. And just on a side note, since we're likely to record a bonus podcast, just like we did last month or this month, whatever you want to call it,
    26:24
    we might actually, maybe we can see if we can include Gary reporting live from Midwest Gaming Classic in a bonus podcast. That would make perfect sense. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we can cover both sides of the Atlantic in one go. So, okay. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves with that. So there might be a bonus podcast, just as there was a couple of days before the Texas Pinball Festival, in which we had an interview with organizer Ed Van Der Veen, as well as with Jerry Stellenberg of Multimorphic. Speaking of which, while we were in Texas, we actually visited the new facility of Multimorphic, where they are now building games themselves in-house.
    27:18
    Yes, it was very new. They're still sort of sorting out things like the flooring, and the processes as well. They have a lot of stuff on the floor. They've sort of given over the whole floor to manufacturing pretty much, just a little meeting room where we did our interview with Jerry later in the evening. But the rest of it, there are no offices. everybody everybody's there from jerry and everyone they're all working on the floor so if there any questions come up when they're making the games and they can they can refer to him immediately without having to try and find him and um it was uh it was very nice nice facility he's got there you know they uh they were getting ready for the show while we were visiting so there was a lot of games being moved in and out and being prepared but they do have a good workflow it seems set up there it's not it's not perfect yet but it's almost um almost ideal and um jerry talks us through the the whole process really from uh the ordering and our design of parts the ordering uh the stock control the bill of materials and the manufacturing of assemblies and the entire game and the different types of modules that they had there and uh while we were there we were able to try out their new four-player version of Cosmic Kart Racing, which I think was pretty much new for them as well. They hardly knew how it worked. They had two machines off in a different part of the factory, and Jonathan and I played two more. So we were playing head-to-head. We were next to each other, and the other two people were next to each other, but we couldn't see them. So it was like network play. Right. So, and just to understand that for the people listening, this means that, so you basically have four players racing against each other, each playing their own pinball machine. So you need four pinball machines to make that happen, which is quite interesting. but it could be a very fun feature for a big change like Dave & Buster's or Chuck E. Cheese, if they would be into pinball of that sort. It's a different game of pinball than we've seen traditionally, I would say.
    29:45
    Yes, it's a bit like the sit-down racing games, where you're kind of racing against other people, except you're not all sitting next to each other or playing next to each other. So you could be in completely remote locations anywhere in the world, in theory. Right. And you could just make an appointment with someone like, hey, let's race cosmic card racing at such and such hour. And just make sure you get on the game. And then you connect through the Internet, I guess. And you're off racing against each other.
    30:20
    Yeah, you could have regular meetings, like leagues and things like that, set up. every Thursday night or whatever. At 8 o'clock, everyone comes together and they play against each other directly. Right. And at the Texas Pinball Festival, they had four games of cosmic card racing set up next to each other, so it was a little easier to find three players to compete against. And as far as I understood, it was a big success. Yeah, it seemed very fast. There's not a lot of ball-locking going on. It's fast action. You have to shoot the shots. that are lit to unlight them. You can earn power-ups to either boost yourself or block other players. And it was a very frantic, sort of frenzied minute or two minutes. I forget how long it was because it all goes by so quickly. And then you suddenly discover that you're first, second, third or fourth at the end of it. Right. So if there would be an award for most innovative pinball machine, and I definitely think that Multimorphic should be winning such an award.
    31:26
    Yeah, I think that was certainly the gist of Jerry's presentation, and was about innovation in pinball, and demonstrating exactly how the P3 breaks a whole number of molds in the way that it operates and the modular nature of it. But that game wasn't actually new, although the four-player version of it was, the connected version was. We saw two-player head-to-head last year, but the four-player is now working. Right. And I'm not sure it's actually been released yet. They did have other games there which were released. Right, and they even announced a new free game for people who are already customers of Multimorphic, which was a basketball-themed game called Hooping It Up.
    32:18
    Yeah. actually developed by one of their customers, I think. That's right, yeah, and wanted to give something back. So they made that game, and basically anybody who's got the Lexi Lightspeed upper playfield module, which is nearly all owners, I think, of P3 machines, that appears in their list of available games to either download or just to run once they've downloaded it, which is a nice little bonus for them, as well as the other games which are also out there, which we look at the Grand Slam Rally, was it? I can't remember the full name. Yeah, Grand Slam Rally, that's correct. Yeah, that's the pitch-and-bat type game. Yeah. I actually had quite a bit of fun playing that game, and I quickly discovered the best way to play it. Obviously, with the pitch-and-bat game, Well, last year that game debuted at the Texas Pinball Show, and in the meantime, with the pitch and bat game, usually you get one swing at the ball. In this case, they reduced it, or they increased that, you get two swings, or you get two flips, if you want. Two flips. Right.
    33:37
    And basically I found out that it's, instead of trying to swing for the ball when it's coming at you, when it's being launched, you actually have a much better chance for a better score if you just let the ball bounce on the flipper first. And then you have just that couple of one, two seconds extra, and then you can actually make the shot that you are able to make at that point. Yeah, there didn't seem to be any sort of timing restrictions So when you made those flips Right So you didn't have to flip as soon as the ball came to you You had a couple of seconds at least Right To let it settle And that was probably because the game would otherwise be too hard For some people But that was actually a fun game I played quite a few games of that While we were at the Multimorphic Factory And well, thank you for having us there, Jerry Stellenberg.
    34:41
    Much appreciated. And like we said earlier, we recorded an interview with Jerry, which was part of a bonus podcast that is available on our podcast garden page, I would say. So you can listen to that there and listen to what Jerry has to say about the future of his company And all that sort of stuff Yeah, I guess if you're listening to this, then you probably found that page already So it's the one before this Right, exactly Okay, so also at Texas Show, we didn't want to get away from that just yet Because apart from the Multimorphic Games, there are also a couple of other So we say up-and-coming companies looking to produce their titles, some further ahead than others, one of which was Suncoast Pinball. Right. And very good people, I would say, because they immediately sponsored our quiz, which is appreciated. They did. They gave us some nice prizes. Yes. Thank you. So thank you for that. And here's an extra plug. That's what you get if you do that. It's not a guarantee that you get that, but in this case, yes. So, yes, we're talking about the game called the Cosmic Carnival, which actually had been presented already at the Houston Arcade Expo in October of last year. But at that point, it was just a whiteboard.
    36:14
    Photos of that whiteboard have been floating around on Facebook and the Internet and so on. And now the game was Or actually they brought two games to the show But these games had a full artwork package Playfield cabinet, plastics, everything By Dirty Donnie Who we know from artwork like Aerosmith Pabst Kang Crusher Metallica All games that he did for Stern Pinball but he's now working for Suncoast Pinball, and it appeared that they even locked him down for three more titles.
    36:57
    Well, that's amazing. The artwork is certainly highly identifiable as coming from him. I think it looked amazing. Yes, it's a very good-looking game.
    37:13
    The game wasn't actually playable as such. you could flip it right but it didn't have any rules to it it didn't have any it had a music track i think playing but yeah but it was just generic so yeah it's just a big track to explain this to the people basically um if you push the start button there would a ball would be launched to the shooter lane which would then we auto launched and then you could flip it but there was no modes running no there was basically no code um they called this demonstration mode although i wasn't sure what it was demonstrating other than that you could flip the ball around um it did give you a chance to to try the shots and see how well it flowed i actually and ended up finding that it was a lot easier to it had a symmetrical layout with a ramp on each side and an orbit on each side and shots up into the pop bumpers in the middle on each side. I found it easier to backhand the ramps than to shoot them from the front, which I don't know whether is intentional, but it seemed to be an easier shot that way and less dangerous if the ball didn't make it up the ramp.
    38:31
    It's always a bit weird trying to flip a game with no rules because there's no reason to make any of the shots other than just to see the ball roll along the ramp and come back to the flipper again. So it wasn't hugely satisfying, but at least it gave you an idea of the play, playfield layout, and the artwork was obviously the main attraction. And they had a static image on the display on an LCD, which is in the back box.
    38:58
    Didn't do anything. Jonathan said there's just a generic music track playing in the background. But there you go. It shows you where they've got to so far. Yeah. So the number of shots on that game is not as many as you may have seen on recent pinball games from other manufacturers.
    39:19
    If you just look at the shots, it's sort of like reminding me of the late 80s, early 90s type of layouts, although this one was symmetrical. and I guess the proof will be in the code. Let's see what they are able to implement in terms of modes and obviously music will play a big part in it, voice calls, everything that really makes the game a game.
    39:54
    Yeah, you need a good production package in there definitely to bring the game alive because although it was fun to alternate the ramps a few times, it needs to be worthwhile and it needs to be clear what the rules are as well. But, you know, these guys know how to play.
    40:12
    It's already quite impressive what they accomplished so far, so let's keep an eye on them and follow whatever new developments they are coming up with, especially knowing that they are planning to have Dirty Donnie do artwork for more games, which means that there are more games coming from them, hopefully.
    40:31
    So Cosmic Carnival, first game from them, not to be confused with Cosmic Kart Racing or Cosmic Chaos. Right. Another theme which was at last year's show, I think. Yes.
    40:45
    Yeah, last year probably. Yes, that game was actually still, or game that Cabinet, I would say, is currently located at the Texas Pinball Museum, which is run by the same organizers as the Texas Pinball Festival.
    41:01
    And interestingly, they increase the number of games after the Texas show quite a bit at the Texas Pinball Museum, including quite a few rare games like the Big Lebowski, which will be on display there for a couple of months. So whoever is in the area of Miss Lodi in Texas should certainly give that a try on Saturdays when the museum is open.
    41:28
    Yeah, and of course, Ed Van De Veen talks to us all about the museum as well in our bonus podcast, if you haven't heard that already. And I think we both have reports on our respective website, pinballnews.com and pinball-magazine.com, from our trip to the museum to see Ed and Kim there. Right. So then let's talk about what their plans are. Right. But since we were talking about Suncoast Pinball, there was another new startup company, I would say, at the show, Haggis Pinball, all the way from Australia. And they were showing their Kelts game.
    42:08
    Yes. Not the game they intended to bring originally. They were going to bring Wraith. but I think it said about eight weeks ago they decided that that wasn't going to be ready in time wouldn't be able to do anything to do with it so rather than bring that they brought their second game Kelts which they put together in that short space of time built it in Australia, dismantled it there put it all into boxes, brought it over found a cabinet in Texas. I think it was a Star Trek cabinet. It was one of the youth, Valley Star Trek. And rebuilt the game in a couple of days just before the show, so it would be on their stand and ready to show. But it was still in a very early stage, shall we say.
    43:01
    Yes, I guess that's the best way to describe it. It was very early. it was a white wood, but I'm not sure whether the white wood was even complete.
    43:13
    I didn't get to play it, to be honest, because I was too busy going around the rest of the show. I don't think it was playable at all. At least not for the public. It might have been playable for the developers.
    43:28
    But, I don't know. Well, the layout looked really... Not just because it was in an 80s style cabinet, but the layout looked like an 80s type of layout.
    43:40
    Yes. Well, maybe that's where everybody's going these days, you know, after total nuclearization. Right, so there was a... And then we had the Baphia, and now we've got Suncoast with the Cosmic Carnival. Everyone's going back to the simpler, easier-to-understand games. Yeah, and the Whitewood did have an area in the Whitewood for a phone display, I would say. It's about that size.
    44:10
    Vertical, interestingly. So that's going to be integrated in the game at some point, I guess. Obviously, there was no artwork whatsoever.
    44:23
    I got the idea that the layout was... Well, they knew what they were going to be building, but the techniques used in how certain parts were cut out for metal rails,
    44:44
    it's very unusual to cut these parts out. And as I understood, on the production models, they will not be cut out. So I was wondering how many iterations of that playfield are they going through before they get really down to what it's supposed to be. And interestingly, since this is not flippable yet, at least as far as I could see, you might still be changing things on the playfield. because once you are able to flip it, you might find out or discover that certain shots don't work the way that you expected them to work.
    45:30
    Yes, I think listening to the seminar from Damien, I think they have gone through all that process of getting the shots and trying to get the ball guides, the flat rails just right so the ball flows and ends up going exactly where they wanted to go. He said that was the hardest part of the development process, was actually controlling where the ball goes all the time. It's not quite as simple. You can draw it on paper and then you flip it and it really doesn't work and you end up bending the flat rails quite a lot in order to make sure that the exit or the entrance is suitably smooth and directed without any nasty kinks that kills the ball momentum so I think it fair to say they still got a long way to go with that game before it anywhere near being in a position to build and sell which is fair enough because they're not taking any pre-orders. I think the pre-order model is now sort of universally dead in most cases, except for maybe one or two of the larger companies. Right. So I think they are very realistic about they will have to produce something and bring it to the market, and then it will either stand or fall depending on how well it plays. And that's probably a good situation to be in. Yeah. There is a plus side on the whole thing with Haggis Pinball, as Damien is producing or documenting the making of his games on video, and spreading these or distributing these on YouTube. So that might bring in a few more people to the hobby, and it's always fun for people who are already in the hobby to follow what he's working on and all the things that occur when you're designing a game and all that kind of stuff.
    47:31
    Yeah, hopefully it's not too scary. It doesn't scare people off from having a go. Right. But if people are interested in following what he's up to or what it takes to design a pinball machine, then make sure to follow Haggis Pinball.
    47:45
    Yep. Excellent. Okay. I think that's probably just... Oh, no, we've still got Chicago Gaming. You think we were done. We are far from done.
    47:58
    Chicago Gaming were at the stand, a massive stand, though, didn't they, at Texas? Actually, speaking of new games, I was actually heading for Oktoberfest, which was for me the first time that I got to flip it. Of course the game debuted at Pinball Expo last October but since then the playfield design has been slightly improved.
    48:25
    There was some more room created for areas where the ball should be shot and sort of captured to make sure that you actually make that shot and then it falls into a hole or whatever so it doesn't bounce out.
    48:41
    So the playfield design had been slightly improved. Code has been improved. And for me it was the first time being able to play that.
    48:53
    And I must say that I think it's an improvement over Houdini. okay not sure whether people might see that as a compliment but um obviously the oktoberfest theme got a lot of um negative responses people didn't get it but if you just see it as a regular carnival type of game with Houdini being their first game and the team still new to working together and the choreography of the game and all that kind of stuff I do see improvements in that on Oktoberfest there might still be room for a little bit more improvement in terms of choreography some voice calls using pinball terminology that I don't think that anybody outside of pinball will understand.
    49:55
    But that play field is really packed with shots and what you can do on it, almost to the point that I'm thinking there's too much on it. I mean, there are areas that I'm wondering, yes, it's great that you can do this, but did you really need it? And sure, it helps to make the game deep. But more importantly One should ask Does it make the game more fun?
    50:23
    Well I'm actually not in a position To answer that because I haven't played it Since Expo I was standing in line Several times to try and get a game But it always took about At least 20 minutes for a good Get on the machine So in the end I ended up going off And doing something else, shooting a video Doing a seminar or something like that Well, I noticed... I didn't get to play it. Yeah, so I noticed exactly what you were saying. Actually, I think American Pinball brought like seven Oktoberfest games and they were all played constantly, so that's a good sign.
    50:58
    It took quite a while before you got to play a game, so I was able to get into the main room and play the game before the show opened on Saturday morning.
    51:13
    So I played two different games. I think I played four games in total. And that gave me a little bit of an idea. And it was definitely more fun than I expected it to be.
    51:27
    Good. Well done, American Pinball. We'll see how the rules and the code on that game develops over the next few months. But the game is now going into production, they said, didn't they? Yes. and speaking of production there apparently we reported earlier on that they were planning to move to a new facility but although that was scheduled to take place at the end of last year so far they haven't moved no it did seem a little well no it seemed hugely ambitious at the time when we spoke to them at Expo that they thought they could get into that factory by the end of the year and start producing games that didn't happen and speaking to the team at the show, they reckon they will be in the new factory in the summer of this year, and they are going to have three production lines, they said. They're going to have a main production line, they're going to have a smaller one for other games, maybe they can do two different titles at once, and they are going to have a third line, which they said they might use for, or intend to use for either contract manufacturing for other companies or for producing redemption games, either under their own title or their own company, or for other companies, contract manufacturing redemption games rather than pinball. So they've got big plans to use the large amount of space that they will have in their new factory, which is in Palatine, some way away from their existing place. Right. So that's American Pinball's plans. and thank you very much for the engraved Oktoberfest tankard, which they gave us for our quiz. Yes. So you briefly mentioned you wanted to go to Chicago Gaming, so let's head there. Oh, yeah. Well, I thought they had a very impressive stand with three sides of a square packed with all their titles. I think there was like 30 games or so. I don't think it was that many but it was maybe 20 but they had all the Monster Bashes there, Attack from Mars and I think they had at least one or maybe two Medieval Madnesses which I think they're not making anymore at the moment Right, but they might also always go back into production but it was indeed an impressive stand, it was also very nice or smart of them I think to have such a sort of contained area with just nothing but their games, which is a good showcase for them.
    54:15
    Yeah, look, they weren't just there either. There were other vendors down there. Kingpin certainly had some games they did. They had Oktoberfest as well, I think, and the Jersey Jack games as well. They were big on those. and I was also to mention Cointaker also had Oktoberfest on their stand I can't remember if anybody else had an Oktoberfest but there were four of them I think on American Pinball's stand and a Houdini and the others were dotted around the hall on other vendors Right So kudos to Chicago Gaming and because they got I think they got great exposure of that. It was always very busy in that area of the show floor.
    55:09
    Speaking of Montsebes remake, Brian Allen, who you might remember as the artist who did the artwork for the limited edition of Highway Pinball's Alien, he came up with an alternative translight for the back glass, back box of Monster Bash, which is a limited edition run. I'm not quite sure currently on how many, how limited it is, the number of prints made. But if you're looking to replace the translight in your Monster Bash for this unique alternative transliterate artwork, which is basically the same situation, but drawn by a different artist,
    56:02
    then look up Brian Allen on the internet, and it should not be that difficult to find his website or where you can order this limited Monster Bash alternative transliterate artwork. Yeah, I think it looked really nice. It was a bit more scary, a bit more edgy, I suppose, is what you'd say.
    56:26
    Whereas the original Monster Bash, you know, is very, very true to the universal creatures or universal studio monsters. This one sort of makes them a little more sort of punky, a bit more scary. So if that's something you'd like for your game, rather than being quite so, it's not family unfriendly, but it's certainly got a bit more of an angle to it and yeah, I'd certainly like one if I had a monster bash Right, and even if you don't have a monster bash, you might just still buy it and hang it on your wall Absolutely, yeah Okay so moving on from that what else have we got with the other manufacturer? I think we've oh yes, also, yes while we're on the issue or the TPF. One last thing, I think, that we've got to mention is the launch of the new pinball publication, which was debuted at the Texas Pinball Festival and also available online at the same time, and that was Coin-Op Carnival. Yes, by Nick Baldrige. Brian Claytor and Nick Baldrige. Exactly, yes.
    57:41
    Yeah, as a pinball publisher, what was your opinion of it then, Jonathan? I like it. It's got an interview with Wayne Nines, which is very nicely illustrated by Ryan.
    57:57
    A subject close to your heart, obviously. Yeah. There's this other award-winning publication called Pimple Magazine No. 5, which is also featuring the career of Wayne Nines. But let's not plug that too much. um no coin of carnival is like um um well it's basically it's just wonderful and there are so many illustrations in there i mean um there's a lot of work involved for for ryan clader as the illustrator um as every page is requiring uh multiple illustrations i would say whether it's comic book form or just something to illustrate um the article where it's going with um he did a tremendous job it's completely full color um some people might be familiar with the uh the drop target uh zine that was published a couple of years ago sorry um this magazine has uh the same size, I'm not sure, that's like a half double folded letter size, I would assume it is, sort of, it seems, but completely full color with a paperback cover, but slightly thicker paper than the material in there it just looks very very nice there's nothing negative I can say about this other than I would have liked to see it might have been if it would have been the size of Pinball Magazine that might have been nicer but still it's a very very good looking publication and I started reading it and I haven't finished yet I obviously have other things to do as well But it's very interesting to see How they illustrated the Wayne Nyans Interview that they did with him I just I can say nothing but compliments And I take my hat off to these guys For starting this And I applaud them And apparently this is going to be A they're just going to do four issues and they're taking their time.
    60:31
    This is issue one and the second issue will be available in like two years. Yeah, that's the idea. They do it every two years. We did it as an article all about it, of course, on Pinball News where we interview Nick and Ryan.
    60:48
    But you can also find out more information about the whole Cornot Carnival publication and their plans for it on the cornotcarnival.com website where you can also buy it it's 64 pages in length in the first issue and they think that's probably going to be about the size of the next three they don't tend to rush these out but they think that every two years is an achievable production schedule given all their other commitments and their other lives. So this one's going to be around for a while. They're going to be doing a tour around the U.S. visiting various shows, coin-op and pinball and other types of shows, in order to plug it. So coin-op carnival.com if you want to buy one. We can also buy a lapel pin and a T-shirt from them as well. Yeah. And interestingly, at the Texas Pinball Festival, Nick Baldrige had brought his multi-bingo game to the show.
    61:57
    It helps if you're familiar with bingo games, which were... It looks like a pinball cabinet, but it's different. And this one is different in the sense that I think you can play 116 different games on that one, all based on classic bingo games with the rules as they are supposed to be played originally, like the original games. I gave it a try, and obviously there's no flippers in there. You just plunge the ball, and then it's supposed to fall down somewhere in one of the 25 holes on the playfield.
    62:41
    And obviously you try to aim for a certain hole and hope that you can nudge the game slightly, try not to tilt it, but to direct the ball in a certain direction of a certain hole.
    62:56
    But the rules were so complicated. Nick was explaining to me like, oh, you have to push this button now and then you have to push that button and that button. It was like more complex than Pirates of the Caribbean from Josie Jack Pimble at understanding how you should be playing that game. So it's probably not for me. Yes, I understand exactly what you're saying because I had the same experience.
    63:23
    Nick did take the time out to sort of explain. He said, you know, do you know anything about bingo? I said, well, I kind of know the basics, but I've always been a bit confused by this whole magic screen idea. And so he talked me through it. But basically he's got a physical play field, physical bingo play field with i don't know 30 30 different holes on it something like that 25 and 25 okay um and then on the on the back the back box is an lcd screen which is where all the rules and um the features are all implemented so first of all you pick which game you want to play and then as jonathan said you put in where you you simulate putting in lots and lots of coins in order to set up the game exactly how you want it and certain areas that are more valuable than others.
    64:12
    But that's already something that you have to understand. And of course it's different for each of the 116 games on there, so exactly how you do that and what features are available.
    64:23
    It's a very long-lived game. You won't get bored of playing it because every single game, you can go through every single game and every feature and you'll be playing it for the next 50 years and you still won't have played them all. Right, so the confusing part is obviously you need to know what you need to do on each game. But in this case, Nick had several drawers in the cabinet that you could pull open, and then there were several buttons that you could press. And you just have to know, like, oh, for this game I need to press that button in order to activate that feature in order to multiply my chances of winning this or winning that or whatever, or I need to shift a card or a line or whatever.
    65:11
    Yeah, press red, press green, press yellow. Why am I doing this? Yeah, exactly. It does actually make sense once you understand it, but it takes a lot of understanding. Right. But anyway, it was good fun, and it deservedly won an award at the Best in Show. presentation at the end of the show. Yes, I think it was... To Nick for that. Yes. So, then, well, there's two ways where we can go.
    65:42
    Now, we still haven't discussed Stern Pinball. We haven't. We should do that, because that was, I think, our number one headline, wasn't it? Yes. So, we shouldn't leave that till last. Well, actually, we are, but, okay. we'll have some other uh oh we've got plenty more to talk about yeah right right right so stern pinball uh aside from having a massive display at the texas pinball festival with the monsters um i guess the news that everybody had been waiting for was the reveal of steve richie's new game which is as we know now black knight sword of rage yes not black knight 3000 as uh People have been calling it without knowing exactly what it was. But, yeah, Sword of Rage is the game. It was revealed almost not quite the day after. It was revealed to distributors the day after the Texas show closed. Actually, it was revealed on the Sunday evening of the... Well, I'm not sure whether that actually happened or not. No, that happened. It was certainly supposed to. Oh, okay. That happened. We're going to... I was talking to a distributor who was watching the live stream from Gary Stern on the plane. He couldn't watch it all, but it happened. So 9 p.m., I think Chicago time, that would be, Gary Stern did a live webinar for distributors and dealers where he revealed what the game was, which models there were, pricing and all that kind of stuff. and that was rerun I think on the Monday after TPF and I think the game was revealed to the public on the Tuesday yes that's right so as expected the three versions Pro, Premium and LE like previous Black Knight games.
    67:48
    There's an upper playfield, but not on the Pro. So in that sense, it's a bit like Game of Thrones, but it doesn't have the upper playfield on the lowest model. Which is slightly disappointing, I guess. It is, because that's something you kind of associate with Black Knight games, the dual level. Right. Actually, I was hoping for a third level since it's the third iteration of the game, but sadly, no.
    68:14
    No. I don't think, I think after having monsters with a lower play field, unless you were talking about a second upper play field. Right. But then you get into the lower diminishing returns where you've got less and less space.
    68:27
    So again, on the upper play field, on the games, on the models that have it, that's where you can lock three balls and start a three ball multi-ball up there. And you can also lock three balls on the lower play field and then potentially have a six ball multi-ball on those games. each game has a very different art package the pro model is a lot bluer than the others almost lighter in colour than you'd expect from a black knight game which tends to be rather dark the premium model is blood red very much on the cabinet side with the knights doing a big swish of the aforementioned sword of rage and the LE model is I don't know what it's Flames I suppose is probably the best Fireballs is the theme for that but all three are all about battling the Black Knight raiding his castle and basically raising it to the ground right as as the storyline goes right so and uh the artwork on the game is by capno connor and i really have to compliment kevin because i think he really knocked it out of the park that whole phrase again yes um a lot of people have been knocking things out the park but i think certainly in this case yeah it looks amazing and uh and it's it's not like each each art package is just you know a slightly different or a color change from the other one you know that each model has a very very different look to it and um i think it's incredibly detailed and and yeah i it looks absolutely wonderful i can't think anybody could want anything more uh from this theme it just screams action battles rage fire you know So it's just all, it's a massive battle game as most Steve Ritchie games are, and that really conveyed well through the artwork, both on the cabinet and on the playfield and on the back glass. Right. So what I also like about this, let's call it the artwork package on the playfield, I would say, and the layout of the inserts is that there's clearly a reference to the playfield, the lower playfield of Black Knight 2000 yes with the lightning wheel right in the middle of it so that's a very nice touch I thought obviously you're battling the Black Knight and in this case the game actually has a Black Knight bash toy kind of you don't actually hit the Black Knight himself do you no you hit the target in front of it or his flail on the left ramp or his shield to the right. Yeah, and that flail was actually quite interesting because I almost don't want to call it that, but finally we see some innovation at Stern in the sense that this is a mechanism that we have never ever seen on pinball before and here it makes complete sense. It's something that, yes, it goes with the Black Knight and this could be a very interesting feature.
    71:46
    Do we actually know how it works? I suppose it rotates and it will either knock the ball back to you or it will knock it backward, depending on which way it rotates.
    71:59
    I believe it's both spin it and it's motorized as well. Yes. Is that right? Yes. And I guess it's weighted quite heavily, so it will have some serious impact with the ball when you do hit it. Well yeah if the ball hits it And basically It gets I expect it to be thrown basically in your face Sort of like Probably not what you Would want to do But oh well we'll see how it works We haven't seen any video of gameplay yet We're still waiting on that But I think that's coming up very shortly I think Jack Danger said he was going to Be streaming something The next day or two I think it's going to be much more recent than that, much sooner than that, over the next couple of days. Right, so I look forward to that. I'm very curious.
    72:53
    Also, compliments to the music soundtrack for the game, where Ian Scott of Anthrax had been asked to play,
    73:06
    to come up with the music for the game, including a modern iteration of the very famous Black Knight 2000 theme.
    73:16
    From what I heard on the promotional videos that Stern released, that sounded very impressive. I'm not a metal fan, but wow.
    73:28
    It's definitely a soundtrack that gets the adrenaline pumping. Yeah, I mean, as if the Black Knight 2000, One wasn't iconic enough.
    73:43
    One of those soundtracks you can hear from the other side of a show, pretty much, if it's playing. But this is a nice variation on that and gives it a bit more, I don't know, a bit more... Whereas that was a quite electronic sound, this is a lot more human, a lot more emotive, I'd say. Yeah, it rocks.
    74:07
    Yeah, well, hopefully. And let's look forward to hearing some of the other tracks that are in the game. There should be a lot of music in there. And, of course, some speech calls from some well-known people, too. Right. Steve Ritchie, of course, being the Black Knight himself. But also Ed Robertson of Bare Naked Ladies is doing voice work.
    74:27
    Yeah. I don't know quite what his character is in the game yet. I have no idea either. It must be very flattering to be the singer of one of Canada's most successful bands and then to be asked to do voice work in speech.
    74:43
    Yeah, absolutely. So we'll hear, well, as we said before, this is going to be featured in a very big way at the Midwest Gaming Classic.
    74:54
    Remember last year they had, was it Iron Maiden, I think, was it? Yes. And they had, what, something like 40 machines there. 30, okay. I think it's going to be about the same number if not more this year for Black Knight Sword of Fury Rage? Rage? Rage? No, Rage. I didn't get that wrong Ha ha Swords of Fury is the other game of course Sword of Rage Not sure whether they're going to have any limited editions or on the stand there at the Marco booth but they certainly have plenty of machines there and if you want to go and be one of the first to play it, that's where you need to go. Right.
    75:41
    Congratulations. Interesting it wasn't shown at the recent trade show in Las Vegas, the Amusement Expo. Yes.
    75:50
    I guess they're holding their fire for the big public reveal at MGC. If that's going to be anything like the Munsters, if we remember the reveal of monsters that was in Las Vegas as well I think which was very well choreographed in the sense that they had live streams and everything so if Stern is keeping that up then we're probably in for a real treat that weekend too bad we can't see it because we'll be in France at another show oh well, we can't be everywhere but talking about monsters the artist on that was Christopher Franchi who's Texas and I believe there's some news about Chris well the interesting thing was and I was sort of there when it happened during the show Christopher Franchi basically quit working for Stern but now that everybody's back home and tempers calm down if that was even the case. But it appears that he quit, but he's back.
    77:08
    So he didn't quit. I think this is probably not the first time. No, actually, the same thing happened last year also at the Texas Pinball Festival. And then George Gomez got on the phone and smoothed things out. I think this all has to do with Stern not being very cooperative with Christopher French. He's selling his own artwork at shows, which is obviously related to the themes that, the license that Stern is using on their games. And not everybody is supporting the idea that he's selling his own artwork, even if it's not the artwork that he did for Stern, but he's using elements of that artwork in different compositions and just doing like 25 unique prints that you can only buy at the show, and that's about it. And some people at Stern were, I'm not naming any names, were not that keen on that, and there was quite some heated discussion about that.
    78:13
    So that's where that's supposedly coming from. But apparently all the wrinkles have been smoothed out and we're back to normal again. Good. Okay. Well, one person who isn't at Sten anymore is their former director of operator sales. Distributor sales, yes. Distributor sales. Yes. Jim Bell. I was actually surprised to hear that he was being let go, Which is a pity because he was one of the Longest Employees working at Stern Pinball I think he was there almost as long as Shelley Sachs Yeah he was certainly a real regular Every time we'd go to the factory He'd always see Jim there and he'd be doing the factory tours Every Pinball Expo time It would be a shame to Go there and not see Jim anymore Yeah exactly but who knows He might find another job with someone else In the pinball industry if you will be interested in that. And, you know, various people who have left Stern Pinball have ended up coming back again, like Ray Tanzer, for instance.
    79:20
    So just because they're not there at the moment doesn't mean that they're not going to be back at some point in the future. But somebody who we will be seeing more of, I think, when we saw in Texas, and we also saw over at Arcade Expo in Banning at the Museum of Pinball over there, where I was before Texas, is Mike Vinicore, who is now the new public face of Stern at enthusiast and collector shows such as Texas Show and Midwest and Arcade Expo. He seems to be the Stern representative who's going to be appearing at seminars and giving talks and being at the stand and basically doing the kind of stuff that Gary Stern has been doing forever, pretty much, while Gary directs his attentions more towards the operator and distributor market and going to see those. So he'll be at the trade shows, whereas Mike will be at the enthusiast and collector shows. So expect to see a lot more of Mike. And he was, if he's not somebody you're familiar with, in his seminar at TPF with Steve Ritchie, he was talking about how long the two of them had known each other and Mike's been in the amusement coin-op business for 25 years at least and used to work with Steve over at Williams. I was actually surprised to find that out. I didn't know that. He's got a long history of working in the business, and so he's not wet behind the ears by any means. And, no, he's a very, very likable and talkative and knowledgeable guy, and he's very good at relating stories as well. So it's good to see a lot more from Mike. Maybe we should do an interview with him sometime.
    81:13
    Okay. Well, yes. Try and think when the next opportunity would be. I don't suppose he's going to be in France, but he might have other duties to deal with. There's also such a thing as a phone. I've heard of this. Yes. Tell me all about this once we finish this, because obviously we don't know anything about talking to each other over the Internet. No. So, right. And, well, there was quite a lot of rumors as well the past month.
    81:48
    Most of all, I think. Well, it's definitely not false that there were rumors. The rumors may have been false, but the news that there were rumors is definitely not false.
    81:59
    Do you want to take us through what's not true? Okay, sure. I will basically just address. There was a rumor that Dutch Pinball and their former contract manufacturer, ARA, had reached an agreement on settling their ongoing court case. sadly that's not true they are still as far apart as they could be and they're currently waiting for a final court ruling after they basically tried for I think the second or the third time to reach an agreement and they basically could not work it out so unfortunately the judge will make a ruling yes so sadly not true there has been a rumor that Chicago Gaming had bought the licenses for Alien and Queen from the Pinball Brothers who own the assets of the former Highway Pinball also not true, apparently both licenses have expired there is also a rumor going around that Fox is actually looking for a manufacturer to consider doing a new Alien Pinball. But I don't know whether there's any truth to that. I'm just mentioning it as a rumor.
    83:31
    I guess we'll just have to wait and see if anybody will act on that. Then there was a false rumor that the Willy Wonka game, which is heavily rumored to be Jersey Jack's next game, will be revealed this week, which is like the first week of April. And no, that's not the case.
    83:55
    No. There was also a rumor that Dennis Norpen had been ordered to come back to Stern Pinball to finish his Elvira game.
    84:06
    Obviously, Dennis is working for Deep Root Pinball, as we reported on earlier. He's working on two non-licensed games. I think he finished one and he's close to finishing the second.
    84:23
    But according to Dennis, the design for Elvira is done. The only thing that Stern had to look at was certain mechanical features, toys and how they operated and so on. But the playfield design is done, and the rumor that he was ordered to go back to Stern to finish the game, as far as I can tell, is not true.
    84:58
    That's my understanding as well. Right. And let me guess, because I got all my notes here, but they're a little bit of a mess. I think that's covered all the fake news, shall we say? Yeah, I think so.
    85:22
    So we can look at one more company who are intending to make pinballs, but so far haven't produced any, but have big plans. They've announced their first five titles they're going to be making over the next, oh, what, three years, I suppose. And that is, yeah, five titles, believe it or not. That's Pinball Buzz, who were the Pinball Adventures publisher, who, apart from producing various issues of their Pinball Adventures book, or is it book or magazine? I guess it's a book. It's a book. It's a series of books. It's supposed to be ten books. and they're also working on another series of books which is focusing on the best games by certain manufacturers. So there would be a publication about Godleap and one about Bally and one about Williams and so on. I actually covered that in my February summary newsletter. newsletter so if people are have subscribed to that then um you can look that back up but so this is a um the interesting part here is here we have a um a book publisher who is teaming up with um a pimple manufacturer and we don't know which one yet unless you do and i don't know yet but I don't we can speculate on that but we probably better stick to facts there's enough speculation going on that turned out not to be correct right so but they are teaming up with an existing pinball manufacturer and I knew of three titles that they are planning to make but you are already mentioning five so I leave it up to you to name these titles okay well according to their website which is pinballbuzz.com they said this year they're going to produce a game called Punny Factory I don't know what that is I don't know what punny means in this sense there's a little description of the game it says oh no there's been an explosion at the punny factory help Casey gather all the punnies and get that factory up and running again I don't know what a punny is but I guess it will be explained to you maybe it's something that's not in my sphere of knowledge but and then everybody's going oh you don't know what a punny is oh it's obvious well i don't know what it is so that's that game is scheduled to come out this year 2019 then next year there are two more titles one called sushi mania and one called ninja mania those two um scheduled 2020 and then 2021 i got another two games scheduled one called first class and one called canada a okay as in eh apostrophe um exclamation mark rather so i don't know what these games know how these games are going to look what we know how complex and how dissimilar they all are or whether it's like a re-theming it might even be a common playfield design across all of them and just a different package but yeah we got those five titles and that's what they're planning to do. It seems a very ambitious production schedule. Particularly as they're also doing the Pinball Adventures series and publishing books at the same time. Right.
    89:07
    I was going to say that, yeah. So it's very ambitious. I do hope that their games will be received a lot better than the Pinball Adventures book because that went really down in a bad way.
    89:19
    Yeah, it got off to a bad start. That's no question about that. I haven't seen any of them, so I don't know whether issues were improved with each subsequent issue, shall I say, and whether they got the printing quality and the editing up to scratch. and I like to think they did and it was just a rough start. So they obviously got a very ambitious and, I don't know,
    89:49
    a dedicated team of people working on all this pinball-related production. So we'll have to try and do an interview with the team over at Pinball Buzz and find out what's going on and how they think they're going to do all this over the next couple of years. there's a lot to find out there it will be interesting, definitely so I guess this rounds up our summary for March 2019 I think it does yeah as you've heard it's been a very busy month and an exciting one oh absolutely and the excitement will continue in the month of April as we are obviously like we just discussed we're going to get to see first gameplay videos of Black Knight Sword of Rage and we're also likely to see Jersey Jack's
    90:48
    new game which is rumoured to be Willy Wonka Indeed, yeah, so look forward to that and of course you and I will both be at the show in Le Trepot the Flippek Show show right and uh and so look out for our uh i don't know if we do we do a mid-month podcast why not i expect us to do a mid-month podcast with an interview with jack warnieri as well and uh maybe if we do our homework we might as well have some extra interviews as well yeah let's see who else is there and we'll get them on on mike and bring you all the latest news Right. And of course, we will have on our mid-month podcast, Gary Flower reporting from the Midwest Gaming Classic.
    91:35
    Yes, not exactly live, but he'll be there, bring us all the details and all the excitement of that massive show over in Milwaukee. Right. So that's it for this month. Thank you all for listening. And please visit our respective websites for further reports on the Texas Pinball Festival and the trip that we did to the Multimorphic Facility and the Texas Pinball Museum and all sorts of other stuff. So either that's pinballnews.com or pinball-magazine.com. And with that, we'll wish you a very, very goodbye from this special March edition of the Pinball Magazine and Pinball News podcast. So it's goodbye from me. And from me as well. And hopefully we'll be back next month and so will you. Thank you. Bye-bye.
    92:39
    you