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THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: March 4th, 2019

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: March 4th, 2019

— This Week’s Top 5 Stories —

1. 2019 Rumor Roundup

Between Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast and Pinside and Facebook and other outlets, we’ve been hearing a ton of rumors of possible future releases!

Just in the last week, we heard the following titles being discussed:

Jurassic World (Stern)
Jaws (Stern)
Stranger Things (Stern)
Original theme (Chicago Gaming Company)
Harry Potter (Stern and others)

Of course none of these have been confirmed by manufacturers. So what do we make of all these?

We will focus on Stern for today. For Stern’s 2019 release schedule, it is heavily rumored that Steve Ritchie’s game will be next, and it is heavily rumored to be either the third Black Knight machine or the third High Speed machine. When can we expect to see it? Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast announced that he is hearing it would be revealed at Midwest Gaming Classic (April 12th-14th). If you remember, last year Iron Maiden was revealed on March 27th, and Stern then had 30 (!!) Iron Maiden pinball machines at Midwest Gaming Classic, so that timeline makes sense. Plus it is in Stern’s backyard, only a couple hours from Stern’s Factory.

The Dennis Nordman designed Elvira 3 has been confirmed by Stern and is expected to be released later this year as well.

This is where it gets interesting, because that leaves some “gaps” in Stern’s release schedule. And that is where the rumors above come in.

Odds of Jurassic World?

TWIP first shared the rumor that Stern may have acquired Jurassic World license to our LE/Insider supporters on July 14th of last year, then again on December 15th of last year after hearing some additional rumors. Will we see a Jurassic World pinball machine from Stern in 2019? TWIP says yes (confidence: 80%).

Odds of Jaws?

Jaws rumors have been around a loooooong time. TWIP shared Jaws rumors with our LE/Insider supporters on September 16th of last year, then more recently on January 6th. The rumors have been that Stern likely does have this license, but it is very watered down (pun!) to the point where it wouldn’t make sense to do machine. Will we see a Jaws pinball machine from Stern in 2019? TWIP says no (confidence: 70%).

Odds of Stranger Things?

This is the wild card. We discussed rumors with our LE/Insider supporters regarding the Stranger Things license on September 16th of last year, in the same correspondence where we discussed Jaws. At the time, Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast was reporting that Spooky Pinball had secured the Stranger Things license and that would be the next pinball machine from Spooky. In that correspondence, we shared that Spooky did not have the Stranger Things license, but that we had heard rumors that another manufacturer has the Stranger Things license. Will we see a Stranger Things pinball machine from Stern in the future? TWIP says…yes (confidence: 80%).

2. Oktoberfest Changes and Updates

American Pinball shared that Oktoberfest games are coming off the line for location testing! Check it out:

As they mention above, the first game went to the Louisville Arcade Expo last weekend. There are some changes – one that includes moving the “mustache girl” to be a little less visible – check out the pictures below of the game that went to Louisville! (Photos courtesy of Zach Meny of Flip N Out Pinball.)

3. Interview with Dean Grover on Little Kings Pinball Podcast

Our friends at The Little Kings Pinball Podcast interviewed Dean Grover on the podcast last week! For those that aren’t familiar with Dean, he is the lead coder on The Beatles pinball machine. It was a wide ranging interview where he talked about Congo, Spiderman Home Edition, Supreme, and many other topics. Here are just a few interesting tidbits:

ON SAFE CRACKER:

“[Safe Cracker] was going to be Monopoly originally. [Pat Lawlor] already had the backbox designed and the lights and stuff, they just changed it from a diamond into a circle…I think it was a license issue.”

ON WORKING ON THE BEATLES:

“[Stern] said everybody is busy on our cornerstone titles, this is going to be a Kapow title…

…there are some Seawitch rules in Beatles. A lot of the base scoring is actually based on Seawitch, how much things score…I can’t remember now, but I want to say an outlane was 5,000 points so that is what an outlane is, inlane was 500 points so that is what an inlane is. Pop bumper is 1,000, that’s what a pop bumper is. The spinner on the right is 200 points a spin. And if you light the four Beatles, that is four lights which makes it 1,000 a spin which is what happens on Seawitch.”

ON THE PROCESS OF PROGRAMMING BEATLES:

“…the rules get designed around a number of things. In our case for example, we had a set number of songs…there are now nine songs in the game. We had five songs that we only had a certain amount – I’m not going to say how much – but a certain amount of time of that song. So it is going to be a short song. Therefore, that is going to be a mode because you don’t want that in game play…so here are the five songs that become modes.”

Listen to the full episode here!

4. Riot Pinball Announces Legends of Valhalla

Riot Pinball, creators of Wrath of Olympus and Dead Man’s Hand, announced their newest creation last week – Legends of Valhalla! Check out the renderings and some artwork teasers below:

Join in the conversation here on Pinside! Riot Pinball isn’t sure if this will be only one pinball machine produced or if it will have a larger run of production. Stay tuned!

5. New Stern Accessories

Stern released a few accessories last week on their website. First we had The Beatles topper:

Then we saw the new Munsters Art Blades – check them out here!

What is the Future of Mechanical Theme Integration?

Identify the pinball machine pictured below for a chance to win a limited This Week in Pinball Lapel Pin! Drawing will be held monthly!

Last Week’s answer: Fathom

Email guesses to [email protected], correct answers will be entered into the drawing for the limited TWIP Lapel Pin!

CONGRATS to Kevin Peterson who won the February Lapel Pin!

— Presented by —

This Week’s Mod of the Week is the Walking Dead Pro Fish Tank Illumination from Mezel Mods!

Add lighting effects with our Walking Dead Pro Fish Tank Illumination! Each head on the backboard is individually illuminated based on game play. Note: this is an illumination mod, not an actual fish tank.