Song of the Week

Taking a break from our normal cadence to highlight a submission that came to us from Stemage (you may remember him as the audio/music guy for Jersey Jack's Avatar: The Battle for Pandora). It's a recording of one of his bands (The Arkadian) doing an 80s metal rendition of the theme to Banzai Run at MAGFest 2026, and it's arguably the best version of the song I've ever heard. Stemage leads on guitar, and he wails.

They're looking for other songs to cover (they've also done Monster Bash and Swords of Fury) in hopes of putting together a full set one day. If you have a classic pinball song you'd like to see done up in 80s metal fashion, send me a note, and I'll pass it along!

And if you want a more traditional Song of the Week pick — here's Silversun Pickups, "The Wreckage", another I've had on repeat for a few weeks (and scope the Jack Black cameo), but that I don't know if I'll get to feature here.

Pinball News of the Week

Get Ready for Dungeon Crawler Carl

Get Ready for a Dungeon Crawler Carl Pinball Machine | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/dungeon-crawler-carl-pinball

Last week, we published our piece on the possibility of a Dungeon Crawler Carl pinball machine, and since then, the pinball community seems to have caught DCC fever. People are discovering the books (and audiobooks), connecting over existing fandom, and getting genuinely excited about a DCC pin. Even outside of pinball fan communities, I see people fired up about this one.

And it's a rare kind of excitement. This isn't Pokémon fans learning how much a modern pinball machine costs and backing off. This is book nerds who know what a pin costs and want one anyway, because it's a theme that speaks to them. I don't know if I've ever seen this kind of nearly universal positive reaction to a rumored pinball IP. I've also seen a lot of people expressing real purchase intent — not the "I'd buy that" passing internet comment kind, but the "how do I get on a list for this" and "I just contacted my distributor" kind. I even put myself on an interest list with Mad Pinball, just in case.

Whoever has this IP, every signal I can see (our own website traffic included) says it has a ton of potential.

Dungeon Crawler Karl, coincidence?

Most people seem to agree it feels like a Barrels of Fun pick. Lending some fuel to the fire are multiple photos of Barrels game designer Karl DeAngelo dressed up as the main character from the books for Halloween. I do want to stress that there's been no confirmation that Barrels has the IP. In fact, I received an anonymous tip that DCC is not Barrels — but the tipster didn't respond when I tried to get more information.

What's most exciting to me about a DCC pin (besides genuinely enjoying my read of the first book) is that it challenges the predominant story of what makes good pinball IP. DCC isn't a nostalgia property. It doesn't have a movie or a TV show (yet). In the grand scheme of licensable franchise entertainment, it's barely a blip on the radar. But if the pinball community can get this excited about a theme like this, what else would they get excited about that we're not even considering — because our collective frame of reference is so narrow? Between DCC and the early success of Pokémon, what this tells me is there's room in pinball for new ideas and non-traditional buyers. We don't have to live in the nostalgia cycle forever.

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 120 paying members that make it possible to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

If you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

More Insight Into the DPX / Dutch Pinball Fallout

Buried in the latest Pinball Magazine & Pinball News PinCast was a detailed look at Dutch Pinball's decision to part ways with Melvin Williams and wind down the DPX entity.

As the podcast hosts put it, the split was mostly driven by Dutch Pinball's new investors. After meeting with Melvin, they weren't interested in producing RAZA — nor in splitting profits with him under existing agreements. The tariff situation on US-bound games added further uncertainty. Melvin was given an ultimatum: accept new terms or leave. So he left.

In conversations with the PinCast team, Melvin said he was "blindsided" by how it happened. He'd known about the new investors and welcomed the capital injection, but the new terms were so unfavorable, he couldn't accept them. He said he'd "never forgive the way he was forced out." The DPX brand, which Melvin and Barry created together, appears to be finished — Melvin said he wouldn't allow another game to be produced under it.

The American Pinball offer came fast. Brian Vincent reached out just 16 minutes after Melvin posted his departure announcement. Melvin was keen to stress he didn't leave DPX because of American Pinball — the offer came after. As creative director, he'll oversee all game designs (his own and from other designers), working mostly remotely but traveling to the Palatine, Illinois, factory as needed. He and Brian plan to do a seminar at the Texas Pinball Festival to talk about the new American Pinball.

Meanwhile, Dutch Pinball says existing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland machines will continue shipping, though toppers face an additional delay of up to three months due to a supplier issue with the display board used for the Cheshire Cat's eyes.

Multimorphic Says No New Game for TPF

Multimorphic has established a bit of a pattern for announcing new releases at the Texas Pinball Festival. Not this year, according to their latest official update:

They're plenty busy otherwise — batch 4 of Portal game kits is underway, and a new code update (v1.2.3.0) brings enhanced multiball and jackpot mechanics, adjusted scoring, and bug fixes. They'll have a more relaxed TPF presence this year, showcasing existing P3 games and taking pre-orders for their PinGlass+ anti-reflective glass.

Pokemon Keeps Rolling

Speaking of counter-narratives — remember all the people who said Pokémon wouldn't work? That it's just a kids theme? Seems like it's working just fine.

The game is rumored to be sold through well into later this year, with Stern already committed to multiple production runs. Pros are starting to hit locations now (I'm already seeing four in our location tracker), and we've seen a noisy spike in secondary market prices for the LE, with talk of prices hitting $30,000+ for a single game.

About those secondary LE prices — it's really hard to tell what's real and what's podcaster/distributor hype. I see a lot of people talking about crazy numbers, but I don't see a ton of receipts. The closest I've found is a confirmed eBay sale for $20,102.01. On Pinside, the median asking price for an LE has already dropped from a high of $32,000 to $15,500 (not far above MSRP), and there's been only one confirmed sale — the seller was asking about $21,000 OBO, but the final amount wasn't disclosed.

With the exception of a few one-offs in the Pokémon collector space, I have a hard time seeing LE secondary prices reaching the heights of some early predictions. Maybe for very specific numbered machines tied to very specific characters (after all, it only takes one buyer to make a market). Otherwise, it seems a bit suspect.

The Pinball Music Video Leaderboard

The Pinball Music Video Leaderboard | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/pinball-music-videos

One of our original writers, Brian Saa, is back with a fun one — a ranking of music videos that prominently feature pinball machines. Brian scores each video arcade-style and crowns a Grand Champion (spoiler: it's Plastilina Mosh's "Human Disco Ball," a video about the emotional bond between a player and their favorite pin). Along the way he surfaces some surprising picks, including a Blackstreet video that's somehow tied for the 29th most expensive music video of all time, and a Yello video that gets disqualified for committing crimes against a Williams machine. A perfect rabbit hole for your Friday.

A Couple of Quick IFPA Updates

Congrats to Daniele Acciari for his fifth major championship win at INDISC, and to Jason Zahler for taking the 2025-26 North American Pinball Championship. Big kudos to our own Noah Crable, who seemingly came from nowhere to finish second at NAPC, knocking out the vaunted Eric Stone in the semifinals. We'll have more complete write-ups from Matt Owen soon.

Links of the Week

• Neil Druckmann digs Nudge Magazine: The Last of Us creator showing love to the pinball hobby. That's a nice endorsement.

• Pinball Pete's in East Lansing sued for refusing to hire petite woman: Not the kind of headline you want associated with your arcade.

• Dirty Pool interviews Ron Richards of Scorbit

• JJP trademarks a potential connected system name

• Nudgecast interviews David Van Es; hints at BoF's next game: Speaking of Barrels, the Nudgecast drops some hints about their next game — and it’s probably not DCC.

• John Borg already working on his next game: Borg says he's already into his next design, with another starting soon. The man does not rest.

• IFPA launches the Quarter Drop: The IFPA now has a quarterly newsletter. I like this for them.

• Indie Arcade Wave chats with Pinball Hans about Hyper Beer Co: Pinball Hans (TM) talks about opening his arcade in Anaheim.

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes YouTube.

• We have a Pinball Memes group on Facebook.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

One of those songs I'm not entirely sure how I found, but I've been obsessed with it since I did. Haute & Freddy are an LA-based duo — Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp — who just signed with Atlantic Records, with a debut album (Big Disgrace) dropping March 13. This is pure 80s new wave energy run through a modern filter, and the band described it perfectly: "That bustling street, grime of the city, crowded dance floor, ready to forget the world kind of feeling." Someone in the YouTube comments nailed it: "The singer is like if Cyndi Lauper and Columbia from Rocky Horror had a kid." That's exactly right. I haven't been able to get it out of my head.

Pinball News of the Week

The TWIPYs Were Really, Really Good

The 2025 TWIPY Pinball Awards: Full Winners and Recap | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/twipys-2025-recap

The 2025 TWIPYs came together, and I'm proud of what we made. We co-produced it with BASH Pinball, filmed across five North Carolina arcades, and deliberately stripped the show down to seven categories focused entirely on games and the people who make them. No sponsorship segments, no ancillary categories, no bloat. We wanted a show that was creative and fun, and that's what we built.

Evil Dead swept three awards (Best Theme Integration, Best Art Package, Best Sound), Harry Potter took Game of the Year, and King Kong claimed Best Rules and Best Playfield Layout. The interviews were the real highlight — genuine conversations about craft with the designers and artists behind these games.

I'd rather make something weird and specific that we believe in than something safe that checks every box.

That's the creative energy this year. If you missed it, go watch it.

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 120 paying members that make it possible to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

If you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Melvin Williams Lands at American Pinball

Melvin Williams Joins American Pinball as Creative Director | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/melvin-williams-american-pinball

Melvin Williams has been named Creative Director at American Pinball, and we wrote up the full story this week. The short version: Melvin left DPX after disputes with new investors, and now he's leading the design team and creative vision for AP under new owner J. Bryan Vincent. His actual mandate is leading AP's remastered Bally Williams games and new licensed titles. But Melvin also still holds the IP rights to RAZA — the game he was reportedly near-complete on when DPX folded — and other JPop designs like Magic Girl and Space Mission X. AP's owner has said they have no plans to build it, but I don't know why you hire the guy who was working on revisions and holds the rights if it's not at least being entertained. The full piece traces the whole arc.

The Hype Index Got an Upgrade

How the Hype Index Got Smarter | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/how-the-hype-index-got-smarter

Something I've been working on quietly for the past few months: the Hype Index has been rebuilt from the ground up. New composite scoring that weighs multiple signals together, era-based nostalgia modeling (Star Wars rates "Multi-gen" for a reason), cultural pulse tracking, and your user vote is finally a real component of the rankings. The catalog is up to 2,300+ tracked IPs with over 90,000 community mentions processed. Still a work in progress, but the rankings are meaningfully smarter than what we started with. Wrote up the full story of what changed and why. Go vote on something.

Links of the Week

• Will Malone's pinball postcards — Photographer Will Malone is running a year-long daily postcard project and Day 46 is pinball-themed. Beautiful work. Originals available for $5. Double Negative Dispatch

• Engadget on Pokemon Pinball — Mainstream coverage of the Stern Pokemon reveal, leading with the animatronic Pikachu and Master Ball plunger. The $6,999-to-$12,999 price range showing up in Engadget is interesting exposure for the hobby. Engadget

• "So You Want To Be A Stern Dealer" — Lock Is Lit Pinball on the TiltTrek channel breaking down what it takes to become a Stern dealer. YouTube

• Pokemon at NY Toy Fair — Knapp Arcade's hands-on report from the first public showing of Stern's Pokemon at the Javits Center. Knapp Arcade

• TWD Remastered Premium added to Stern Rewards — The Walking Dead Remastered Premium is now available through the Stern Rewards Program. IFPA

• Winchester Mystery House patch — The latest update adds the 13ths Wizard Mode, unlocked after completing all 13ths progression objectives. Also adds map trails showing visited paths, new Wildcard mementos, and a bunch of bug fixes. Barrels of Fun

• Erika's Pinball Journey x Erin Winick Anthony on Pokemon — Erika and Erin Winick Anthony talk through their experience with Stern's Pokemon. YouTube

• Five Minutes to Tilt: Eric Meunier — The Dutch Pinball Museum's timed interview series sits down with JJP's Eric Meunier. He talks about navigating secrecy in game development — including keeping things from his kids — and reveals the codename behind Harry Potter. YouTube

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

A boxing match in an arena, set to music. Felt right for Pokémon week. "Death Punch" is a bonus track from the upcoming deluxe edition of Surgery And Pleasure, the 2025 release from Boston-area band Vundabar. Dropped about three weeks ago and I’ve been looping it ever since.

Pinball News of the Week

Stern Reveals Pokémon Pinball

Stern Pinball Reveals Pokémon Pinball | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/stern-pinball-reveals-pokemon-pinball

It's official. Stern Pinball has revealed Pokémon Pinball — a Jack Danger and George Gomez collaboration, based on the '90s animated series, with every visual asset supplied directly by The Pokémon Company. Pricing remains unchanged from prior cornerstones, there's an animatronic Pikachu, and you can catch 180+ Pokémon. Nintendo's first pinball license in 34 years is a big deal. We've got the full breakdown — design team, pricing, hype cycle, Betson leaks, AI fakes, and what it all means — in our launch article.

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 120 paying members that make it possible to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

If you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) Is No More

Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) Is No More | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/dpx-is-no-more

Dutch Pinball Exclusive is officially done. Founder Melvin Williams is out at Dutch Pinball after new investors entered with a different vision for the company. Melvin says Alice and his other designs are his own IP, and he's looking for potential US manufacturing partners to continue his pinball journey. More details in the article.

RUMOR: Dutch / Stern Team-up for BTTF?

RUMOR: Dutch Pinball Partnering with Stern Pinball to Produce Back to the Future | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/dutch-pinball-partnering-with-stern

Related to the DPX news — we reported on a rumor Wednesday night tying Dutch Pinball to Stern Pinball in a potential partnership to produce the long-rumored Back to the Future game. The rumor stemmed from comments by CoinTaker owner Melissa Marquette — CoinTaker being a key Dutch Pinball distributor — who confirmed the claim on Dutch Pinball's Facebook page before deleting her comments and issuing a denial to another outlet. Dutch Pinball hasn't commented in either direction. Make of that what you will.

The Pinball Bet

The Pinball Bet | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/the-pinball-bet

I really enjoyed getting to know Francis Wisniewski while working on this profile. He's making a seven-figure bet that the Pinball Capital of the World deserves a world-class place to play — and he's building it. 120+ games, grand opening set for April 2nd in Stone Park, just outside Chicago. We talked about his background, his vision, and why a gap this obvious has gone unfilled for so long.

TWIPYs Debut Tomorrow!

Instagram post

Good news, everyone — we found Matt! The 2025 TWIPYs debut tomorrow (Saturday) at 7 pm ET on the BASH Pinball Podcast YouTube channel. It's everything I've ever dreamed of for the TWIPYs and then some. Get ready.

Links of the Week

Chances are, most of your favorite pinball creators have Pokémon reveal content out today. I haven't been able to watch 'em all (see what I did there), but here are a few of my usual faves:

• LoserKid interviews Pokémon’s design team

• Cooltoy has a review (and some gameplay videos in his channel)

• Fox Cities Pinball captured the game demo from media day

• Travis Murie gives an overview for The Pinball Company

• Nudge Magazine has their review plus a smattering of fun pics from media day

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

I've been sitting on Wet Leg's "pokemon" for too long, trying to time its hatching just right. Turns out the timing worked itself out — Stern dropped a Pokémon teaser just as this newsletter was coming together (more on that below). "pokemon" is off Wet Leg's well-reviewed sophomore album Moisturizer, and besides the thematically perfect title, the video imagines an absurd take on incubating a human-sized Pokémon egg. It's a shiny evolution of Wet Leg's already impressive music video catalogue.

Pinball News of the Week

WE LOST MATT

So we were gearing up for the TWIPYs on Saturday. Our regularly scheduled date. But uhhh, we lost one of our co-hosts, Matt. Like, straight up disappeared. Fellow co-host Don is out looking for him now.

We think he'll show up, but just in case, we're moving the TWIPYs to next Saturday, February 14th. More in the video.

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 120 paying members that make it possible to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

If you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Stern Teases Pokémon Pinball

Literally breaking news, so adding this one in at the last minute. Stern dropped a teaser confirming their Pokémon pinball machine is coming soon. Not much to go on yet — it's about 18 seconds — but the egg has officially cracked, and we’ll get more next week.

The Score Card: States & Starfighters

The Score Card: States & Starfighters | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/the-score-card-states-starfighters

Our first Score Card of 2026 recaps all the winners from the 2025-2026 IFPA State/Provincial Championships (no small feat to track down for author Matt Owen) plus a quick rundown of the first Stern Pro Circuit event of the year at Starfighters Arcade.

No More Opt-Outs for IFPA Tournaments

Update from the IFPA on opt-out policy - Update from the IFPA on opt-out policy

www.ifpapinball.com/update-from-the-ifpa-on-opt-out-policy

Some people wanted me to write a full article on this. I'm not — here's why.

I mostly see it as an administrative change. One of several since OBX. I get why some people seem upset, depending on where you look — opting out was a way to protest IFPA policy without giving up participation in events, and taking that option away stings. But the practice was starting to be abused by top-ranked players, and it was creating problems with event results well beyond the players doing it as a form of protest.

What's also worth noting is that new board members — people who are well-respected in the community themselves, like Travis Murie, Kaylee Campbell, and Ashley Weaver — all expressed support for the change. That context isn't as clear from the IFPA's own update, but was revealed in additional community discussions on Discord.

As someone who's made a number of, well, vaguely controversial decisions in a leadership position, I'm probably more inclined than most to zoom out here. And the bigger picture, in my view, shows an organization that is making an effort to adapt to player feedback — even if it's slower than some would prefer, and not fully aligned with any one camp. Change is a gradual process. If that process ends here, players will be right to question the IFPA more broadly. I don't get the sense that's how this plays out, though.

OBX Incident Makes National News

How a trans woman's removal from a restroom tore the world of competitive pinball apart

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trans-bathroom-dispute-competitive-pinball-north-carolina-rcna255248

Speaking of the IFPA — the OBX Fall Flippers incident made national news with an article on NBCNews.com by Jo Yurcaba. It's great to see this story get more visibility, so let me get that out of the way first.

Now, let me rant for a small moment.

If you're a regular reader here, you know we've been covering this story extensively since day one back in November. So the proud-of-my-work guy in me is a little miffed that NBC can jump in three months later, call it an exclusive, and not even nod to the reporting that helped give the story legs in the first place.

But, you know, we're a bootstrapped pinball publication with not even a fraction of NBC's resources. So I guess it's validating all the same. /rant

Give it a read — it gets perspectives that only someone with a nationally recognized outlet in their title would've been able to secure.

New Code & Revamped Audio for Labyrinth

Excited to see Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth get some code polish, including a revamped audio treatment from sound designer Jeff Dodson. He streamed the game with all the new updates last night, too, if you're curious.

JJP Launches 3D Game Viewer

On January 31st, Jersey Jack Pinball launched a novel way to interact with a pinball machine prior to purchase: an interactive 3D Game Viewer. It's got an AR component, so you can theoretically use your phone to see how the game looks in a real physical environment (in my testing, I found it a little clunky).

Mostly, I think it's an interesting way to experience a machine pre-purchase, and I'm curious to see if the JJP team iterates on it — it's the kind of thing that would be easy to build on as they get user feedback. When I checked in with the JJP team, they said they aren't making forward-looking statements on future use but are actively collecting community feedback.

Camping Trip Kickstarter

Admittedly, this share is a bit of a curio, even for pinball. Camping Trip is a long-term (12+ year) transmedia storytelling project from Ithaca, NY resident Abel Sureshaw. What began as an "indie rock, Pee Wee Herman-inspired concept album" by their folk punk family band the Newman Brothers has since sprouted a fully illustrated children's book, a concept virtual pinball machine, an in-development homebrew machine (debuting at this year's Pintastic), and an in-development live musical theater production. What a concept.

Abel has about three weeks left on a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a vinyl pressing of the album and a physical copy of the children's book.

As an Ithaca College grad who loves pinball, music, cool art projects, and has a toddler at home… I backed the Kickstarter.

Links of the Week

• Dirty Pool interviewed Christopher Franchi

• Pinball News is on top of changes happening at repro playfield producer, CPR

• Check out this concept pirates-themed Lego pinball machine

• Pinball Studio Podcast interviewed Retro Ralph

• Jack Danger answered some more questions

• Abe Flips released the official trailer for his Mastering Pinball series

• Pokémon (not the pinball) is getting a Super Bowl ad

• Oft-rumored pinball theme He-Man is getting a new line of action figures ahead of an upcoming live-action Masters of the Universe movie

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

Portland, Maine's Weakened Friends released their third studio album in October 2025. Despite the local proximity, the band wasn't on my radar until their single "Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out)" crossed my desk this week. I was immediately drawn to lead singer Sonia Sturino's vocal intonations—squint and you'll hear shades of early Gwen Stefani, like an alternate universe where Gwen forms a grunge/alt-rock band instead of a punk/ska one. Notably, Buckethead (I know some of you are fans) makes a guest appearance on album track "NPC".

Pinball News of the Week

American Pinball Revived; Now Under New Ownership

American Pinball Under New Ownership | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/american-pinball-under-new-ownership

The big news of the last few weeks has been the purchase of American Pinball by J. Bryan Vincent and his family office. We covered the initial news and then did a follow-up Q&A with newly anointed President Ron Lindeman.

14 Questions with American Pinball President Ron Lindeman | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/american-pinball-questions

In the meantime, new owner Bryan Vincent has been actively answering questions on Pinside and making the rounds on other podcasts. They all seem to be saying the right things, but as always, the proof is in the pudding.

Some readers were astute enough to question whether American Pinball would still be using Aimtron boards in its games moving forward. In follow-up discussions, it seems the answer is "yes."

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 100 paying members that make it possible for us to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

If you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

IFPA Announces Additions to Leadership Team & Mission Statement Changes

IFPA Announces Updates to Mission Statement & Leadership Team | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/ifpa-new-team

We published an update today on recently announced changes to the IFPA leadership team and revisions to its mission statement. We also asked the IFPA team some important clarifying questions about the news.

9 New Pinball Rumors!

Roger Rabbit, Grateful Dead, and 7 More Rumors

twip.kineticist.com/p/roger-rabbit-grateful-dead-and-7-more-rumors

Funny story with this piece. I shared it earlier in the week with paid subscribers. That very same day, someone registered kineticistpinball(dot)com alongside neverendingstorypinball.com and theneverendingstorypinball.com. I guess we struck a nerve.

Moving Units Update #5

Moving Units: '24/'25 Sales Tracker (#5)

twip.kineticist.com/p/moving-units-24-25-sales-tracker-5

Another paid subscriber exclusive—the fifth update of our Moving Units series, where we track the performance of all 2024/2025 commercial machine releases to see what's hot, what's not, and other takeaways from the numbers. We'll be adding 2026 releases as those come out and slowly retiring 2024 tracking as the sales cycle for those titles winds down.

Pokémon Watch Continues

I've lost track of how many times various pinball media outlets have proclaimed Stern's rumored Pokémon launch as "imminent"—but it feels like almost once a week for the last month or so. Obviously, nothing has come out yet, and this pinball media outlet has no clue when it's coming (or even if it is, in fact, Pokémon). I will say that if we don't see a teaser today, then we could see one next week. Or maybe the week after that. And if not that week, pencil in a week later.

Maybe we need a Polymarket for pinball releases.

TWIPY Voting Wraps Up; Show Coming Soon!

If you missed our email earlier this week, 2025 TWIPY voting is done. Thanks to everyone who participated. We hit about 90% of our vote goal, which I'm very pleased with.

Is it lower volume than past TWIPYs? Absolutely, but that was expected. Fewer categories means we're pulling from a smaller potential voting pool. It also means creators, mod makers, locations, homebrew designers, and others are far less incentivized to promote the show and its voting season to their own networks—audiences we wouldn't be able to reach on our own. This is just how these things work.

And since we moved to an independent, sponsor-less format, there's no longer an obligation to optimize for reach in order to help advertisers justify their spend with us.

I'm trying to keep my own expectations at bay, but I'm quietly excited for what the BASH Pinball team has planned for the awards reveal. I also had a chance to review the voting results this week, and even that felt more authentic and legitimate than years past. The final results feel more like a reflection of how the hardcore pinball enthusiast community really feels about where these games are. This year, you voted because you love pinball or because you're a fan of one or more of the games. That's it. I find that more than a little refreshing.

Keep an eye out for the debut of the 2025 TWIPY Awards video on February 7th at 7pm ET on the BASH Pinball Youtube channel.

Links of the Week

• Experts say this “pinball technique” will help your sex life 🌶️

• Nice to see fellow pinball writers at Nudge Magazine zoom out from arcade coverage and cast a momentary focus on the ongoing ICE strife in their home state (Minnesota). I’m thinking of them today.

• Wild Dog Arcade unboxed a rare Winchester Mystery House.

• Flip n Out Podcast interviewed American Pinball’s new owner Bryan Vincent.

• Thanks to everyone who rolled through their TWIPY votes live, including Joel & Jared and the Pinball Nerds Podcast

• Niel McRae unboxed a Walking Dead Remastered

• PC Gamer discovered Pinball Map

• LoserKid interviewed artist Randy Martinez 

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Last Call for TWIPY Votes

Quick PSA: TWIPY Awards voting closes at midnight tonight (US Eastern).

Here's the thing—some of these TWIPY races are really close. I'm talking single digits. While a few categories have clear frontrunners, most can still swing depending on how the final votes land. So if there's a game, manufacturer, or designer you want to see take home a TWIPY this year, now's literally your last chance.

We're at about 70% of our 1,000-vote goal. That means we need roughly 300 more to hit the mark. Our email list is in the thousands. Help us get there?

One more thing: I'm genuinely excited about what the BASH Pinball Podcast crew is putting together for the awards show. They've got some ambitious ideas—the kind where you're not totally sure it'll work until you try it. That's part of the fun.

Vote here — polls close at midnight ET tonight.

Missed my BASH appearance last week? Watch here — we talked about the show and had some fun with the "budget" discourse.

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

Have you seen the Millennial Optimism trend? It picked up steam toward the end of last year—Gen Z waxing nostalgic about early-2010s Millennial culture. Skinny jeans. Stomp-clap indie rock. Those heavily filtered Instagram photos. As a (now old) Millennial, I get it.

As one YouTuber put it: "People miss a time when they felt happy about the future, or imagine that there would be any kind of future, when they didn't wake up every day and ingest new man-made horrors beyond their comprehension."

Josiah Gogarty, writing for GQ, made the case that this is more than a flash-in-the-pan TikTok moment. The nostalgia cycle is moving on from the '90s and 2000s, and with the world seemingly on fire, younger generations are starting to embrace the Millennial Cringe ethos over the sharp-edged cynicism that dominates today's internet.

Radio Free Alice is a new band from Melbourne with just one EP—2025's Empty Words—but "Rule 31," a one-off recorded while touring, sounds like the bands I was listening to heavily in the early 2010s. Interpol. Two Door Cinema Club. Bloc Party. That tracks, given they worked with producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, We Were Promised Jetpacks) on the album. Same lush, crisp guitarwork. Same serious-but-earnest delivery.

The song hits the Millennial Optimism vibe, maybe without meaning to. It channels the era's sound, but in a longing, world-weary way—like it's looking to the past to fix the malaise of the present. There's optimism there, but it's the kind that knows better.

TWIPYs Voting Open Now!

TWIPYs 2025: Voting Open Now | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/twipys-2025-voting-open-now

2025 TWIPY voting is now open. We'll be collecting votes through January 20th.

If you've voted in past years, you'll notice we scaled way back. Seven categories, all focused on commercial releases. No homebrews, mods, or content creator awards this time.

A few things drove this. The hobby has gotten a lot bigger and more diverse since 2017, when the TWIPYs first started. The various scenes we used to cover—homebrews, streaming, mods, location play—have matured to the point where doing them justice requires more resources than we had available this year. Last year took 11 committee members and dozens of volunteers just to source and vet nominees across all categories. Add in the production side (results show, trophies, live event, sponsorship sales), and it was a lot.

So this year we went back to basics. Fewer categories, a pre-recorded results show in partnership with the Bash Pinball Podcast, and more breathing room to figure out what the TWIPYs look like going forward.

Voting has been strong so far. I'd love to see us hit at least 1,000 votes this year, and thanks to the streamlining, voting takes 5-10 minutes max.

Vote here: https://twipys.com/2025-twipys-ballot/

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 100 paying members that make it possible for us to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

If you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Pinball News of the Week

Since it's been a while between newsletters, I'm leading off with a couple of fresh stories we published on Kineticist this week, then recapping a few pieces from the holidays you may have missed and clearing out a few other odds and ends.

New Interview with Sterling Mitoska

A Chat with Pinball Prodigy Sterling Mitoska | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/sterling-mitoska-interview

Matt Owen got a chance to talk with Sterling Mitoska (you may have seen him on social media as Sterling Plays Pinball), the teenage pinball prodigy tearing up the IFPA rankings charts in his quest for a future top-3 rank. He talks about favorite games, competitive motivations, and more.

Is IPDB Dying?

Is IPDB Dying? Visualizing the Slow Death of a Pinball Institution | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/is-ipdb-dying

We take a detailed look at some concerning trends for the stalwart pinball database, IPDB.org. Updates are down. New game listings are down. Search traffic and visibility too. Is the site on its way out? How much longer can the community count on it as a resource?

What We Did on Winter Break

While I haven't published a newsletter recently, we've been busy. Besides getting TWIPY voting ready (thanks for the help, Will!), we've published a handful of new pieces on Kineticist.

Ranking the Best Pinball Machines of 2025

The Best Pinball Machines of 2025 Ranked | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/best-pinball-machines-of-2025

Some Spooky Pinball fans got big mad at this article. Talk to author Matt Owen about pinball for a few minutes, and he'll no doubt profess his love for 2024's Evil Dead release. But as he explains in a later edit following social media backlash: "After taking a beating in online comments, I would like to clarify that this list only includes pins that were announced in 2025. In my opinion, Evil Dead was the best pin announced in 2024, but here, I'm focusing on games that were announced in 2025. Sorry, Ash."

Final Edition of The Score Card for 2025

The Score Card: Season's Endings | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/the-score-card-seasons-endings

Matt also gave us the final edition of The Score Card for 2025, recapping Free Play Florida, Pincinnati, and the Winter Bash tournaments.

Confirming Resident Evil Pinball Rumors

A Resident Evil Pinball Rumor, and the Swiss Company Behind It | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/resident-evil-pinball-rumors

In mid-December, we tracked down the people behind the new Switzerland-based pinball manufacturer, World Pinball, and confirmed that work is underway on an upcoming Resident Evil release.

Since publishing, we've learned a few more specifics:

• A Limited Edition trim limited to 300 copies

• A Stars trim limited to 12 units, each personalized for a member of the Stars team from the game with their own color

• A Raccoon City Edition limited to 30 units

Both the Stars and Raccoon City trims will have all options included, plus an unknown "mystery option."

Walking Dead Remastered Stumbles

Walking Dead Remastered Shuffles Out of the Gate | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/twdr-shuffles

Finally, we covered some of Stern's struggles with the launch of The Walking Dead Remastered, with some optimism for what might be coming in future code updates.

Clearing out the Notebook

A few other things that have been on my radar the last few weeks.

American Pinball’s Pending Revival

Just when you thought they were dead—American Pinball is making noise as a potentially viable manufacturer again, with a fresh logo and a call for applications across the pinball production spectrum. I've had some talks with people behind this revival, and while I wish them the best, I remain skeptical. Look for a new game announcement sometime this year.

IFPA Continues Making Changes

In an update shared on January 1st, the leadership team behind the IFPA published a new Code of Conduct and continued refining its Diversity and Inclusion code, while addressing questions about Women's Division events in 2026 (unchanged) and whether a new WAB will be formed (not in the same way). I'm expecting more details in the coming weeks as the new board is finalized and announced.

New Causal Competitive Pinball Association Forms

Podcasters Punk Rock Pinball launched their own IFPA-style entity called the Punk Rock Pinball Association. It's focused on casual competitive play, meant to complement the IFPA rather than compete directly. Their stated goals of growing competitive pinball nationwide and creating meaningful opportunities for beginner and mid-level players are commendable.

Links of the Week

• Silverball Chronicles released the second episode in their series covering the history of Jersey Jack Pinball

• Super cool: reader Derek, who some may know as a commissioner in the San Francisco Pinball Dept., was interviewed on the Team Coco Podcast

• Tournament pinball app Match Play released its annual stats review, noting a 23% increase in tournaments from last year, but also pointing to the first signs of player attrition. In March, October, November, and December, more players became inactive than new players arriving for their first tournament.

• A feel-good story that’s close to home: a small regional pinball location (Mystic Pinball) that closed during the pandemic is set to reopen this spring. Now called Mystic Cat Pinball, the venue will still feature pinball, plus a full bar. I have fond memories of competing in and hosting tournaments at the venue as I was getting into pinball.

• Dirty Pool interviewed Scott Danesi

• Multimorphic launched a new series about servicing P3 machines. Nick Baldridge discusses the ball trough in the most recent update.

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

December is peak list-making season, and I’ve been sifting through the major ‘Best Song’ rundowns to see how our Song of the Week picks measured up. This year, we decidedly leaned into highlighting new and novel over comforting and familiar. Across the best of lists for Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, Rolling Stone, and Stereogum we hit on 12 different tracks (including the one I’ve highlighted for today’s newsletter, B A D I D E A from LA’s Militarie Gun). There are at least another dozen or so we missed on, because I had them saved for eventual use but never made the final call.

Our hits (where we overlapped with critics):

• Lip Critic - Mirror Match (critics chose Second Life, but both tracks were released as a single)

• Pulp - Spike Island 

• SPELLLING - Portrait of My Heart

• Wednesday - Elderberry Wine 

• Turnstile - Seein’ Stars (most critics chose Never Enough, but I’m giving us this one)

• Die Spitz - Pop Punk Anthem (Sorry for the Delay)

• Nation of Language - Inept Apollo

• Water From Your Eyes - Playing Classics

• Momma - I Want You (Fever)

• This is Lorelei / MJ Lenderman - Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version)

• Gelli Haha - Bounce House

• Militarie Gun - B A D I D E A

Our misses (great songs that we flagged but didn’t end up including):

• CMAT - (Jamie Oliver Petrol Station or Euro Country were my picks)

• Scowl - Not Hell, Not Heaven

• Alex G - Afterlife 

• Sudan Archives - (I was partial to MYTYPE)

• Remember Sports - Bug

• Geese - (100 Horses would have been my pick)

• Softcult - 16/25

• Clipse - (E.B.I.T.D.A would have been the pick)

• Viagra Boys - Man Made of Meat

• Just Mustard - WE WERE JUST HERE 

• Greg Freeman - Gallic Shrug

• Lambrini Girls - Cuntology 101

• Hayley Williams - Mirtazapine

Pinball News of the Week

IFPA Outlines Early Changes After OBX Fallout

IFPA Outlines Early Changes After OBX Fallout | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/ifpa-outlines-early-changes-after-obx

Earlier this week, we followed up on some IFPA statements from before the Thanksgiving holiday as we continue to track ongoing changes from the OBX incident. Expect more reporting as the situation evolves; right now, clarity is limited, and timelines are uncertain.

Hey! Don’t Skip This!

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We rely on just 100 paying members that make it possible for us to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

So, if you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

TWIPYs 2025 Announced

TWIPYs 2025: The KISS Edition

twipys.com/twipys-2025-the-kiss-edition

Yesterday, we officially announced the return of the TWIPYs for the 2025 edition, and yes, there are lots of changes! This year, we’re zeroing in on the commercial games categories and pairing the usual public vote with a special episode of one of my favorite podcasts, the BASH Pinball Podcast. Embrace the change! Look for ballots to open on January 5th.

Stern Cabinet Changes Surface As Walking Dead Remastered Rolls Out

Stern’s latest release, The Walking Dead Remastered, started shipping recently, and units are making their way to public locations and home collections. Notably, this rollout is happening while display assets still carry the “Pending Licensor Approval” label and before Stern has released any official gameplay media.

Based on photos I’ve seen circulating, one interesting detail people are starting to pick up on is that The Walking Dead Remastered appears to mark another phase in the gradual rollout of Spike 3 changes. TWDr seems to have quite a few changes to the standard cabinet design. Even Stern’s recently released service manual for the game seems to indicate there are changes present that need to be communicated to customers differently.

Cabinet parts references coming soon

While admittedly not a tech person, what caught my eye most of all was the changes represented in the photo above. Coming from a Premium version of the game, it shows a larger cutout groove at the front of the cabinet, as well as a larger-than-necessary cutout for the flipper button mech, which itself appears slightly reconfigured.

The larger cutout groove looks designed to support upgraded expression light rails (like ones that can support external lighting as seen in TWDr’s LE trim), but what’s the larger flipper button cutout for?

Could we see expression lighting come to the flipper buttons in future releases?

New Topper Release from TEP

As a dude who mostly works with words for a living, I appreciate someone who can run with a tongue-in-cheek copy bit. The Electric Playground’s latest non-licensed topper release is very obviously meant for Star Wars, but licensing being what it is, it has to be marketed as a product for your “home space-toy collection.” I laughed out loud when I read the product description. I think the topper looks cool, it’s offered at an attractive price point ($799), and I like the ability to customize further with figures or pins. If I had the ceiling clearance, I would definitely look at buying this for the Star Wars game I’ve got at home.

Super Pinball Adventure Launches

Save 30% on Super Pinball Adventure on Steam

store.steampowered.com/app/3684910/Super_Pinball_Adventure

For those of you who enjoy pinball in all its forms, digital or otherwise, check out this new indie game, Super Pinball Adventure, from developer tombasche. It’s currently on sale for $3.49 on Steam, and I’ve confirmed it runs great on the Steam Deck. And after playing the first few levels this week, I’d say I’m casually amused by the game itself. It’s a light, puzzle-y pinball rift that’s great for short sessions, and I look forward to digging into a few more chapters over the weekend.

The View from Outside

Not sure if this will turn into a regular column, but I like looking for stories outside of the pinball bubble that may impact pinball in some way now or in the future. A couple of stories seemed worth flagging this week.

Kill Bill in Fortnite

Quentin Tarantino Never Thought Lost ‘Kill Bill’ Chapter Would Get Made — Until Fortnite Stepped In: ‘I Sent Them the Script’ and They Said, ‘Let’s Do This’

variety.com/2025/film/games/quentin-tarantino-kill-bill-fortnite-yukis-revenge-crossover-1236593116

I’m frequently on the lookout for stories like these, where creative IP that overlaps with the interests of pinball enthusiasts is licensed in non-traditional or innovative ways. Given the success of Chicago Gaming’s Pulp Fiction pinball machine, I found it interesting that Quentin Tarantino was able to negotiate a deal to bring Kill Bill characters (and extended media) to Fortnite. The signal this sends to me is that Tarantino IP is “open for business” and that it might be time for a pinball company to explore the feasibility of obtaining the Kill Bill license, as there could be strong audience/IP alignment there.

Netflix Agrees to Purchase Warner Bros

It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion

www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081

In more entertainment news, I could see Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. having some downstream effects for pinball manufacturers, particularly on the licensing front, depending on how everything shakes out. My understanding of licensing is that it’s a very relationship-driven business, and larger mergers/acquisitions like these often serve to disrupt existing relationships or change the focus of business agreements as corporate priorities change. Many current pinball manufacturers (Spooky, Jersey Jack) have had success mining Warner Bros. IP for games. Will that continue with Netflix at the helm?

Links of the Week

• LoserKids interviewed Stern’s John Borg

• Dirty Pool interviewed Spooky Pinball’s Bug

• Stern launched X-Men accessories

• BASH Pinball Podcast told us why lightning flippers suck

• RetroRalph beat Stern to a Walking Dead Remastered stream

• Indie Arcade Wave talked with Ed Owens, homebrew developer behind Ghost in the Shell

• Wedgehead Pinball Podcast made a case for ballsaves as pinball’s biggest mistake

• Punk Rock Pinball talked about their favorite albums of the year! More pinball/music crossovers!

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

In the name of brevity, here’s a quick Song of the Week pick that you can play over pints with friends and family at the pub. It’s a live version of Vicar Street Days, one of my favorite tracks from Scottish folk-punk band Brògeal’s debut album, Tuesday Paper Club.

Pinball News of the Week

RIP Marino Zaccaria

Marino Zaccaria, Co-Founder of Zaccaria Pinball, Has Died | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/marino-zaccaria-dies

Marino Zaccaria, a European coin-op industry titan and one of the co-founders of Zaccaria pinball, passed away at the age of 89.

Black Friday Weekend Only! 20% off TWIP Subscriptions

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2025 Pinball Black Friday / Cyber Monday Deals Tracker

2025’s Best Black Friday & Cyber Monday Pinball Deals (Updated Live) | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/2025s-pinball-black-friday-deals

We're tracking deals from nearly 50 different companies in our Pinball Black Friday deals tracker! Updating it regularly as we come across more hot deals.

Links of the Week

• NYC Pin Pod discussed OBX a second time 

• Pinball Nerds Podcast also discussed OBX in a Patreon-exclusive episode

• Pinball Profile interviewed Stern’s Kyle Spiteri

• Gary Stern & Jack Danger spoke at the Dutch Pinball Open

• As did Steve Ritchie

• Cool Toy reviewed the Pin-Level

• BASH Pinball interviewed Brad Albright

• Buffalo Pinball streamed Portal

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

The last few weeks have been a lot. So I’m returning to our list of 2025 finds for a selection that I haven’t had the right moment to feature in this space. Here, I’m highlighting Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman Version) by This Is Lorelei, which was released in March of this year.

In past issues, I’ve noted the year of MJ Lenderman. Recently, we’ve featured solo work by the artist, collaborations (Wednesday, Waxahatchee), and affiliated groups (Water from Your Eyes). Dancing in the Club is his cover of a song by This Is Lorelei, which is the solo project of Nate Amos, who is one of the founding members of Water from Your Eyes.

MJ takes Nate’s original track and strips it down to its essence while amplifying its raw emotional core. Now, instead of an experimental pop song hidden beneath layers of production tricks, it’s a tender tale grounded in the messy realities of people and relationships.

In my own moments of stress and overwhelm, I often find music to be a salve. This one has been my pressure release valve this week, as it strikes all the right notes of the moment and helps me get into a headspace where I can process the news and moments of the week to bring them to you in this newsletter format.

Pinball News of the Week

I’m going to catch up on a few stories that we would have published in our issue last week, before diving into the meat of the still ongoing IFPA story.

Spooky Pinball Reveals Beetlejuice Pinball; Sells Out Promptly

Spooky Pinball Reveals Beetlejuice Pinball | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/spooky-pinball-reveals-beetlejuice-pinball

Last Friday, November 14th, Spooky Pinball revealed the much hyped Beetlejuice pinball machine. Most of the game’s official 999-unit run had been pre-sold through Spooky’s distributor network in the run-up to the announcement. Around 70 units were made available for direct purchase through Spooky on release day, and those were claimed within a few minutes. From what I’ve seen, community reactions to the game (including by some who played the game at a midnight release party hosted by Don’s Pinball Podcast) seem largely positive, with some expected backlash from pinball enthusiasts who were unable to secure their own copy of the game.

I haven’t played the game yet, but the marketing felt excessive given the known supply constraints. Much of the pre-release hype seemed intentionally manufactured, and when combined with a large salvo of promotional content, it creates a situation where the awareness and demand for the game far outstrips its supply, which risks angering potential customers. With this game, Spooky probably could have dialed back its marketing efforts by half and still sold out.

You’re Able to Read This for Free Because Others Are Paying for It

The This Week in Pinball Friday newsletter is free for all to read — but that doesn’t mean it’s free to write.

We have over 100 paying members that make it possible for us to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce regular columns, and more.

So, if you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

New Edition of The Score Card: Pro Circuit Showdowns

The Score Card: Pro Circuit Showdowns | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/the-score-card-pro-circuit-showdowns

Lost a bit in the shuffle this week, we published another update in our ongoing The Score Card series, where we cover the world of competitive pinball tournaments. In this issue, we recap September’s major competitions, including the Stern Pro Circuit Finals and the Pinball Expo FlipOUT tournament.

IFPA Embroiled in Ongoing Controversies

Developing: What’s Going on With the IFPA and the OBX Fall Flippers Event? | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/ifpa-obx-fall-flippers-event

Since this story broke the week of November 10th, most of my time has been spent tracking its developments, talking to people involved, and writing a series of stories whenever my understanding of the situation or the broader information landscape changes.

Above, I’ve linked to the first of 4 stories that we’ve published so far, and I expect we’ll publish more in the coming weeks. I recommend starting with that post if you’re not up to speed and reading the others chronologically.

• Developing: What’s Going on With the IFPA and the OBX Fall Flippers Event?

• An Update on the IFPA and the OBX Fall Flippers Event

• New Information and an IFPA Statement on the OBX Fall Flippers Incident

• IFPA Women’s Advisory Board Resigns; Issues Statement

The 10,000-Foot View

The long-running OBX Fall Flippers Tournament at Flippers Arcade in Grandy, NC, dealt with an incident of hate and discrimination when an employee of the arcade physically and verbally confronted a trans woman when that player tried to use the on-site women’s restroom. The IFPA's response missed the mark and exposed deeper communication and process issues within the organization. Statements released by the IFPA were met with ongoing, and sometimes intense, community backlash, leading to the resignation of the remaining members of the Women’s Advisory Board on November 19th.

I’m intentionally glossing over a lot of nuance and detail in that summary here, but if you want to understand the full scope, read the articles above.

What Comes Next

I still don’t think this story is done yet, so I’m continuing to follow it and will publish more as I learn it or as the situation changes. At this stage, the big piece I’m watching for next is how the IFPA decides to move forward, specifically how they learn from this incident and evolve the organization to better incorporate a diversity of voices in decision-making, strengthen processes and procedures that align with the organization’s stated mission, and create a more collaborative and productive communications environment for all team members.

Loose Ends & Developments

Here are some of the developments I’m tracking outside the main narrative:

• Some readers asked about the decision to publish the Slack conversations. I verified the material, redacted unrelated personal details, and confirmed with multiple working journalists that publication in this context was appropriate. The one thing I’d do differently is catch a phone number missed in the first pass, which I corrected within 30 minutes.

• As of this newsletter’s publication, there is a petition on change.org with 1,370 signatures asking the IFPA to reverse its decision on OBX and de-sanction the tournament.

• The organizers of this petition have been conducting an outreach campaign to various IFPA sponsors to put additional pressure on the IFPA to accommodate a list of formal requests.

• Various tournament organizers, players, pinball venues, and community spaces are responding in different ways. Some individuals are suppressing their IFPA profiles, some TDs are canceling IFPA-sanctioned tournaments or removing IFPA association entirely, and others are refusing to submit results of completed tournaments for processing. Many others are continuing on with business as usual.

• A lot of people are in limbo until the IFPA responds to the advisory board resignation and outlines how it plans to move forward.

Links of the Week

I want to start by highlighting the only 2 other pinball content creators I’ve seen who have discussed the OBX incident and ongoing IFPA issues in any meaningful way. If you are a content creator who has covered this, and I’m not mentioning it here, send me a note so I can see it and maybe highlight it in a future issue.

• NYC Pin Pod covered their local scene and discussed the OBX incident 

• The Slam Tilt Podcast released episode 259 on Thursday, where they also discussed the OBX incident and IFPA response

• Wizards & Warriors interviewed IFPA president Josh Sharpe before the controversy broke

• BASH Pinball Podcast interviewed artist Brad Albright about his work on Monster League Hockey

• Grownup Adjacent Pinball Stream shared a Barrels of Fun factory tour

• Indie Arcade Wave interviewed Big Trouble in Little China creator Kyle Smet

• The Great British Pinball Podcast discussed the Beetlejuice launch

• Spooky Pinball streamed more Beetlejuice gameplay footage

• Google built a self-playing pinball machine (and one of our readers was involved with the project!)

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

I’ve been sitting on LA-via-Boise’s Gelli Haha’s debut, Switcheroo, for too long. Released on June 27th of this year, it’s a fever dream of a dance record and one of the most playful albums I’ve listened to all year. It’s like what I can imagine a trip to a McDonald’s play-place on acid with an endless supply of Skittles might feel like.

With not-so-quiet confidence, Gelli Haha let their freak flags fly, and it’s refreshing seeing an artist reinvent themselves (singer Angel Abaya released a radically different solo album in 2023 before moving to LA) in such an infectiously joyful and silly way. As Harry Tafoya noted in their review for Pitchfork, “She may be weird as hell, but from here on out, defensiveness will have no place in Gelli Haha’s universe.”

“Bounce House”, an early single off the album, feels like an appropriate selection in a week when the predominant discourse was about a game having too much color and when no one seemed to be having very much fun.

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We have over 100 paying members that make it possible for us to curate the best pinball content each week, do original reporting, produce our regular columns, and more.

So, if you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, it starts at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Pinball News of the Week

Stern Pinball Reveals The Walking Dead Remastered; Controversy & Debate Ensues

Stern Pinball Reveals The Walking Dead Remastered | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/stern-reveals-walking-dead-remastered

There’s never a dull moment in pinball, as they say!

This week, Stern Pinball revealed The Walking Dead Remastered, the updated version of the Lyman Sheats-coded, John Borg-designed game from 2014. We’ve got all the release details in our launch article, so pull that up if you want a just-the-facts take.

Since the reveal, much has happened in community discourse about reactions to it, along with some minor controversy.

A Note on the Coding Team

First, there was some confusion about who from Stern was involved in updating the game's code. Metallica Remastered’s marketing leaned into promoting Raymond Davidson’s efforts on that project, so many speculated early that fellow programmer Elizabeth Gieske might be leading the charge. Including us! In an early draft, we used Elizabeth as a placeholder and neglected to remove that detail upon publication, even though it wasn’t included in official announcements.

Later, Stern confirmed with me that longtime team lead Mark Guidarelli is heading up code on The Walking Dead Remastered, with support from his team and John Borg.

Too Much Color?

And this is where the discourse exploded.

Colorful playfield

Since no one outside of Stern has seen or played this game in person yet, and because most of us had a picture in our heads of what this game should look like before release (anchored by the 2014 game and dreams of a comic-inspired version), the most immediate reaction by the community was to the game’s unorthodox approach to the art package. Those reactions, at least online, skewed decidedly negative.

When I first got our press kit photos, my immediate gut reaction was shock and confusion. It’s not that the art was technically bad; it’s just that it seemed completely incongruent with the established tone of the IP, and more specifically, that of the first few seasons of the mainline Walking Dead TV show.

Even in the first three seasons of the show, a diverse color palette might look something like this.

A more typical color palette, however, looks like this, mainly a range of desaturated earth tones and shades of grey.

If you look outside the mainline TV series and head into comic territory, or even some of the spinoff series, you get more color, but this game is not based on those things.

Walking Dead comic cover art

Promotional material for the spinoff series, Dead City

Regardless, it’s only a pinball machine, one that’s subject to creative impulses, licensor requirements, and other business needs. These games almost always look way better, or at least less offensive, when you see them in person. Once that happens, usually the art of the game becomes less of a talking point.

For all the people who didn’t like the art initially, I’ve seen quite a few who are excited by it or coming around to it on repeat viewings.

Woodbury Sign Mix-up

The last note that’s worth digging into for release week is this little bite of controversy around the Woodbury sign on the game.

Apparently, the version of the sign used in promotional photos (Nov 4th, above) was traced back to an old community mod by maker Joe Kace from about 2014. This detail was pointed out to the Stern team by Joe on Facebook within hours after launch. I’m told that the Stern team reached out directly to Joe to resolve shortly after it was brought to their attention. New photos (Nov 5th, above) show a modified sign, which is what will be used for production games.

How did it get into the game in the first place? The team drew inspiration from both The Walking Dead show and sourced imagery from the original game (some of which may have included mods) to make this version, and they were not aware of the provenance of that particular item until it was pointed out. Honest mistake.

Look for Stern to stream gameplay footage on November 14th.

Spooky Pinball Teases Spooky Speak Feature and Original Music

Full disclosure: this clip was first shared by Anime Dude’s Pinball Podcast. We re-uploaded it sans watermark for a cleaner look. Aesthetic crimes are still crimes, but we’ll take the heat in the name of art.

The video showcases a neat gimmick (nay, innovation) that Spooky Pinball has been hyping from their upcoming Beetlejuice release. Dubbed Spooky Speak, it lets players talk to the game and have it talk back using audio clips from the film. Seems like something that could be fun for those who have picked up the game for a home environment.

Speaking of hype, Cary Hardy was kind enough to share his exclusive piece of pre-release content freely with the pinball public in a YouTube video. It contains one of Brady Hearn's custom audio tracks, “Till Death”. It sounds very Beetlejuice-y.

Barrels Winchester Stream Results in a Cool Gameplay Insight

Earlier this week, the Van Nuys location of AYCE Gogi was fortunate to be one of the first public locations with a Winchester. They streamed it through On Tilt pinball, with game designer Karl DeAngelo along for the ride. Given that many are accustomed to seeing Karl defeat games with superhuman ease, some were surprised that Karl seemed to struggle to find his shots (he did still blow the game up on his first playthrough, to be clear).

After chatting with Karl about his experience playing the game on stream, he attributed missed shots to it being a new copy of the game he’s never played before, and also, “unlearning muscle memory from the many hours of playing the prototype I have at home.”

Could We See a New American Pinball Release in 2026?

Alright—last morsel of info for the week. This Facebook comment by American Pinball has been making the rounds in various pinball communities. It is in response to a comment on a post about a recent new hire. While it’s sounding increasingly likely that we’ll never get a production version of the Cuphead game that’s been in the works for years, we may still see a new release from them, based on a new license, in 2026.

However, with most of the experienced team gone from the company, who is left to design and build it?

Pinball Map Location of the Week

Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new or interesting pinball location each week. This week, Ryan writes about Hotel Xcaret México.

Somewhere in this luxury arcade are pinball machines

You find yourself at this time slipping on a light sweater to help you push through today’s Autumn breeze in relative comfort. A few leaves fall past, nearly hitting you. A drop of rain shatters on your skulltop, straining your tenuous sense of warmth and comfort. Your boots squish into a rotting pumpkin.

You might like the idea of Autumn, but “actually, this sucks,” you shout.

And like magic -- like an unspoken wish fulfilled by a jinn -- you are whisked away to Quintana Roo, which is a state in México. In this state lies the Yucatán Peninsula. Think Cancún. Think Tulum. And breathe, the Mayan Riviera. Before you can even replace your loafers with flip flops and your sweater with a tank, you find yourself checking in at the front desk of today’s Location of the Week, the Hotel Xcaret México. It’s a luxury, all-inclusive, family-friendly, gastronomical, sustainable, respectful of Mayan culture, 5-diamond resort nestled in a jungle on the beach.

You’re not scared by this unexpected teleportation, and most importantly you’re not mildly cold. With that discomfort addressed, you snap your fingers and order a Pina Colada. It’s free, basically, paid for via the room fee.

As you swim from pool to pool beneath the fronds, barely touching concrete, barely touching your mouth to anything other than colada, you spot an extension cord snaking through the jungle beyond. You follow it and soon find yourself in an opening. The sunrays illuminate a mini Mayan temple with two blasphemous pinball machines perched atop. A Premium Bond and a Premium Jurassic Park. Both Premiums, as mentioned. You mount the steps.

The rest is history. You GC both machines. You swim some more. And then when it’s Spring again you teleport back home, having now mastered it on your own. You leave a 5 star review, because Hotel Xcaret México is really nice. In your review, which in a way is this column you’re reading now, you also remind others to double check that they still have pinball before booking because who knows.

Hotel Xcaret México
Carretera Chetumal - Puerto Juarez Km 282, Playa del Carmen, Q.R. 77710
Website

Links of the Week

• Nudge Magazine wrote about Dwight Sullivan’s annual Pinball Expo gameshow

• Jersey Jack is giving away a Guns n’ Roses

• Retro Ralph reacted to The Walking Dead with a few drinks in him

• Death Flip (not to be confused with Dead Flip) is doing a super cool screenprint poster drop with art inspired by Transporter the Rescue

• Marco Pinball uploaded a whole bunch of homebrew showcase clips from this year’s crop of Expo games

• Dirty Pool dropped a free SFX kit for homebrew makers and went way into the weeds with Brad Albright on Winchester art

• Multimorphic streamed 1.0 Portal code with Kevin Manne and Ian Harrower

• Enzo talked with Kyle Smet about his Big Trouble in Little China homebrew

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

Keeping with the spirit-lifting vibe that we established last week with this selection of Brooke Combe’s How Can I Tell You, a one-off single release that’s a follow-up to her well-received 2025 debut album, Dancing at the Edge of the World. In both the album and the single, the Scottish singer works with producer James Kelley (The Coral), and I feel like if I squint, I can hear the pop stylings of one of my favorite Coral songs, Dreaming of You.

Anyway, I can’t stop listening to this one. Put it on as a palette cleanser when you come off the work day and head out for your Halloween shenanigans.

We rely on support from paid subscribers

I haven’t really focused on driving paid subscribers until recently. Towards the end of the summer, I had a conversation with my wife where I said, “If I can’t get up to 100 paid subscribers by this time next year, what are we even doing here?” Well, thanks to your support, we’re over the 100 paid subscriber count—well ahead of schedule.

Shifting our model to focus on subscriber support means I don’t have to chase sponsors, can better weather the storms of AI and eroding search traffic, and pursue a goal of editorial independence.

So, if you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, they start at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Pinball News of the Week

Spooky Pinball Teases Beetlejuice and Pre-Pre-Sells Out

On Sunday, Spooky Pinball dropped their much-anticipated teaser trailer for the hyper-hyped, long-rumored Beetlejuice machine, which follows up their successful release of Evil Dead last year. We don’t see a lot in the teaser, other than some obscured Christopher Franchi translite art and a demo of a new tech gimmick in the game, branded as Spooky Speak. To say the teaser was well received would be an understatement. While many distributors have been building interest lists for the better part of a year, it’s likely all distributor-allocated games (Spooky reserves some number of games for direct sales) are already spoken for with deposits paid. So pre-pre-sold out, as some have been saying. The game itself won’t be fully revealed until November 14th.

I have some questions about this approach, and earlier this week, I sent a note to Bug at Spooky asking a few questions, but I have not received a reply as of publishing. Besides some blocking and tackling details, the two big things I wanted to know were if he had any regrets about not increasing prices and/or unit count for a game with such strong demand, and if he was concerned at all that the game could be entering overhyped territory.

On the money side of things, much like the discussion about Barrels of Fun’s Winchester last week, as a small business owner, it hurts to leave revenue on the table. Imagine what the team could do with an extra 250-500 units sold; the investments they could make in their team, research and development, marketing, and more.

On the hype side, the risk here is that if Spooky doesn’t totally knock this release out of the park (and in the public comments I’ve seen by the team, they seem to be very confident), they could face backlash. Very few people have seen or played the game yet, and imaginations in the pinball community tend to run wild. The things people imagine this game should be may be beyond what any company could ever deliver.

Regardless, the game is already basically sold out, so all the hype has done what it’s supposed to do so far. Whether the game delivers is something else entirely, and what I’ll be watching for on reveal day and beyond.

Stern Pinball Teases The Walking Dead Remastered

Not to be outdone in the season of Spooky game reveals, Stern Pinball released the trailer for their long-rumored remastered version of The Walking Dead. We’ll get more details early next week (November 4th, to be precise), but we do know that the game will be offered in Premium and LE trim levels, much like Metallica Remastered, which was released last year.

The thing that’s interesting to me about this release is that it seems like an odd choice for the second remastered game from Stern. Mainly because the IP of The Walking Dead is played out by now, but also because copies of the original 2014 game are not hard to find on the secondary market and don’t really command a price premium, unlike the original Metallica. Pinball Enthusiasts are quick to bring up names of games they’d like to see remastered at some point, and rarely is The Walking Dead mentioned in shortlists.

But, it’s got a Lyman Sheats code base, it’s well-loved by tournament players, and a Borg-designed layout that, since Stern still employs him, can be easily revisited. I would imagine the license is affordable, and there’s always going to be a base of demand for NIB games from new pinball buyers or the home collector base. Including Insider Connected and associated achievements means some locations will snap it up, too.

I’m curious who they will have on code, what they will add or tweak from Lyman’s work, and what kinds of geometry changes will be introduced by Borg. I’m sure it’ll be a great release for them, but it’s just an odd choice from where I sit.

Be sure to catch up with our recently published tutorial for the OG game!

New Monster Bash Tutorial

Rock Monster: Learn to Play Williams Monster Bash Pinball | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/monster-bash-pinball-tutorial

The last of our spooky-themed pinball tutorials for the month is a detailed look at the 1998 Williams classic, Monster Bash. I love playing this game whenever I get the chance!

Pinball FX Elvira Reviews

So Fun, They’re Scary: Elvira Table Reviews on Pinball FX | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/elvira-table-reviews-pinball-fx

Resident virtual pinball expert Noah Crable reviews the latest Bally/Williams recreations from Zen Pinball on the Pinball FX platform, which also look to be the final releases in this series for 2025. What could we see introduced in 2026?

Photo Dump: All our Favorite Photos from Pinball Media Mixer 3

Photo Dump: Scorbit x Kineticist Pinball Media Mixer 3 in Photos | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/pinball-media-mixer-3-photos

Finally, here’s a selection of my favorite photos from the disposable film cameras we handed out at the Pinball Media Mixer this year. I get a little sappy in the write-up, but having two years now of these amazing artifacts from the pinball community is practically priceless.

Pinball Map Location of the Week

Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new or interesting pinball location each week. This week, Scott writes about TGI Fridays.

Somewhere in this Fridays is a pinball machine that seemingly no one has photographed

It’s Halloween, so you might expect this part of TWIP to be spooky or seasonal. It’s not. We’re talking about TGI Fridays. What started in 1965 as a sleek Manhattan bar for singles has since evolved into a global, neon-lit temple to ranch dressing. The chain kept its red and white stripes, its unwavering commitment to sauce innovation, and its bold promise that every day could somehow still be Friday. Fridays and I go way back. It was the crown jewel of my childhood weekends, a big deal in small ways. As a grown man, I like to think my palate has evolved. My last visit to a Friday’s was an ironic date in the mid-2000s, the kind where both people pretend they’re above it. But, tonight I learned that there’s a Fridays in Canada with a single pinball machine, and suddenly I’m twelve years old again, thrilled by appetizers and noise.

I’ll spare you the suspense and get right to the pinball. This particular Fridays has exactly one machine, Transformers (just the PRO). Maybe that disappoints you. Maybe you’re muttering, “The PBM location of the week should be transcendent. It should move me,” while glaring at your spouse. I get it. Not everyone finds charm in the idea of pinball hiding inside America’s fast-casual dining chains. But what if I told you this Friday’s sits inside an Embassy Suites whose lobby overlooks Niagara Falls? Would you soften your tone a little and apologize to your spouse? The view is spectacular, the menu laminated, and both are satisfyingly fine.

The TGI Fridays by Niagara Falls is located in the lobby of the Embassy Suites at 6700 Fallsview Boulevard in Ontario Canada. It carries a 2.1 star average on Yelp, with a recent review claiming that their burger smelled bad.

TGI Fridays
6700 Fallsview Blvd, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 3W6
Website

Links of the Week

• Business Insider published a mini-documentary on the history and current state of pinball. It’s fine. If you read this, you probably know most of the info already.

• We Are Pinball shared a new interview with BoF’s David Van Es.

• Speaking of BoF, Dirty Pool talked with lead coder Eric Priepke.

• Cool segment from PBS Wisconsin featuring Rachel Ristow and her work with Ladies Flip Wisconsin

• LoserKid talked with Karl DeAngelo about designing Winchester Mystery House

• Pinball Nerds Podcast chatted with Glenn Waechter about his work on Monster League Hockey

• Cary Hardy made a 7-minute dick joke

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results (Poll #1 - AI Disclosure)

Last Week’s Poll Results (Poll #2 - More Winchesters)

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

When does an “Official Visualizer” become an “Official Video”? The pattern for most musicians these days seems to be to release a visualizer video for a new song—something as simple as a quick looping animation —and then follow that up with a more produced music video. In the case of Gabriel Jacoby’s latest the one, it’s labeled as an “Official Visualizer,” but it’s more of a music video. Jacoby lip syncs, there’s a loose narrative, dancing, and fancy camera work. Maybe it’s a subtle meta commentary by the artist on the silly hoops most artists have to jump through to get their work in front of modern audiences.

Steroegum recently described this track as “an immediate mood booster,” and I agree. It’s the perfect track to end our post-Expo week and take us right into the weekend.

We rely on support from paid subscribers

I haven’t really focused on driving paid subscribers until recently. Towards the end of the summer, I had a conversation with my wife where I said, “If I can’t get up to 100 paid subscribers by this time next year, what are we even doing here?” Well, thanks to your support, we’re up to 99 paid subscribers —just one more to go before hitting that goal, well ahead of schedule.

Shifting our model to focus on subscriber support means I don’t have to chase sponsors, can better weather the storms of AI and eroding search traffic, and pursue a goal of editorial independence.

So, if you enjoy the work we do here, and you haven’t upgraded your subscription yet, they start at $25/year, but most people join at $60/year. Get exclusive content, access to our Discord, and the self-satisfaction of supporting an independent pinball publication.

Pinball News of the Week

Pinball Expo 2025: A Year of Mystery and Magic

Pinball Expo 2025: A Year of Mystery and Magic | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/pinball-expo-2025

I spent most of my time at Expo (besides the Media Mixer and AI panel) waiting in lines and tooling around the show floor with contributor Matt Owen. After a couple of days to rest and recover, he dropped this recap on me, where he covers all his thoughts on another successful Expo year. Astute readers will notice he doesn’t spend a ton of time on the homebrews, which is by design, as he’ll have a dedicated article covering those games coming soon.

New The Walking Dead Tutorial

Walker Bait: Learn to Play Stern's The Walking Dead Pinball | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/the-walking-dead-pinball-tutorial

I think it’s been almost a year since we last received a game tutorial from OG contributor James McFatter, so I was stoked to receive a couple of new write-ups from him the other week. Stern’s The Walking Dead is up first, and even though we didn’t get a remastered reveal at Expo, you can still dive deep on the rules while longing for those sweet, sweet code and geometry updates from the (rumored) pending release.

Moving Units: The State of Barrels of Fun Post Winchester

Moving Units: The State of Barrels of Fun Post Winchester Launch

twip.kineticist.com/p/moving-units-bof-winchester

The first of our subscribers-exclusive Moving Units updates for the week takes a detailed look at the state of Barrels of Fun pinball following their successful launch of Winchester Mystery House. We also get some updates from CBO Brian Savage on how BoF’s manufacturing capabilities have expanded since the company launched two years ago.

Moving Units: 2024/2025 Sales Tracker (Update #4)

Moving Units: '24/'25 Sales Tracker (Update #4)

twip.kineticist.com/p/moving-units-24-25-sales-tracker-update-4

And our second Moving Units piece is the 4th update on the year to our tracker, looking at the performance of 2024/2025 releases. You may be surprised by what we pulled for Star Wars: Fall of the Empire numbers, considering some of the podcast buzz.

Leftover Thoughts from the AI Art in Pinball Panel (Plus a Poll)

Had a great time participating in the AI Art in Pinball panel. Thanks to Joe Ciaravino for moderating and to my fellow panelists, Ian Jacoby, Brad Albright, Jonathan Bergeron, and Brian Allen, for a nuanced discussion.

I think if I had one final point to make, it’s that over and over again, we see examples, not just in pinball, that consumers do not like generative AI use in creative work, or at least, generative AI outputs being presented as human outputs. Some companies are starting to recognize this, too. Some stories we exchanged in our prep for the panel:

• Friend, a wearable AI device, received massive public backlash to its large-scale outdoor advertising campaign in NYC.

• Mr. Beast had to pull an app that uses AI to generate YouTube thumbnails

• OpenAI’s SORA had to adjust its model after its first users mostly leveraged the tool to generate copyright-infringing videos featuring SpongeBob and Pikachu.

• Hollywood was recently up in arms over the introduction of Tilly Norwood, an AI actress

• Swifties got upset at Taylor Swift for using generative AI in a recent marketing campaign for her new album

• DC Comics said they won’t support generative AI

• Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams, had to ask people to stop sending her AI videos of her Dad

• Spotify came under the crosshairs earlier this summer when viral band The Velvet Sundown was found to be AI-generated

• Pew Research recently found that 76% of Americans say it’s extremely or very important to be able to tell if pictures, videos, and text were made by AI or people, but only 53% are confident they could.

In the panel, I had mentioned a poll we ran here in 2024 asking who would be the first manufacturer to use large-scale generative AI in a production art package. Following our conversation, an audience member asked me to follow up with a new poll. Who would be the first to disclose it? So I’m adding that poll here.

To take it a step further, I’d love to see more manufacturers taking a page from DC Comics and making public statements about their positions on the use of generative AI in creative commercial work. I think most of us would prefer it not be used at all, but if it must be, it should be disclosed up front so consumers can make a more informed purchase decision.

Pinball Map Location of the Week

Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new or interesting pinball location each week. This week, Ryan interviews Hans Milberger, owner of Hyper Beer Co.

Pinball Hans (right) making dreams come true

Ryan: Tell us a little about yourself, Hans. 

Hans Milberger: I have been a pinball and coin-up enthusiast pretty much all of my life. In fact one of my first memories is my mother picking me up from the nursery at the bowling alley (which I didn't like) and treating me to a few arcade games. I recall playing a ball bowler and a driving game with slot cars, I was 3. I started my first operating venture in upstate New York back in 2008 with a mall arcade and mini golf course. My first NIB pinball machine was "Shrek". I am now in SoCal and have 7 locations and am on the precipice of opening my own arcade/beer bar!

How long has Hyper Beer Co been in the works (including in your dreams)?

I've long dreamt of having my own place as soon as I started collecting pinball machines in the year 2000, an addiction that continues today. Corporate jobs and family commitments kept me from taking the plunge, and now I am in a place in life where the dream is now possible. This was expedited when I became fast friends with one of my location owners who owned a brewery, Asylum Brewing in Anaheim, CA and a type 23 liquor license which allowed him to open multiple tasting rooms under it. So together we created Hyper Beer Co. Games Pinball Beer.

Describe Hyper Beer Co.

19 pinball machines from my collection of 125 (and growing) and about 30 other types of arcade games including Skee-Ball, Drivers, Rhythm games. The pinballs will be rotated regularly and feature machines from the 70's, 80's, 90's and current. A few titles in the initial lineup include: Jaws 50th, Flight 2000, World Cup Soccer, Pin*Bot and many others. The vibe of the place is retro 70's and 80's and our tap room walls are paneled floor to ceiling with wood paneling found in dive bars and home basements throughout the country. On the paneling are several old back-lit beer signs, some with motion effects including the "holy grail" beer sign, our 5 foot long Hamm's "Scene-O-Rama". The taproom features mid century modern bar stools and a CD jukebox.

Was there a painful permitting process (sorry, I’m an urban planner, so have to ask)? 

It has taken more than 2 years to get through the process with the city (my career is retail construction management) and even with all of my experience it was still a very arduous process. First we had to gain City acknowledgement of our use, which required a CUP (Conditional Use Permit) that includes a comprehensive design, construction, parking, operational plan package, letters to hundreds of neighbors and finally a public hearing. We received unanimous Planning Dept. approval last December which then allowed us to apply for our building permit, which took 6 months to secure. Construction started in July and completed about a week ago.

When people think of Anaheim, they probably think of Disneyland. Tell us a little about the area where Hyper Beer Co is. Is it inside Disneyland? 

Hyper Beer Co is located in the charming and historic Anaheim Packing District, where more than one hundred years ago train cars were packed with citrus to be shipped all over the US and beyond. We are located at: 150 W Center Street Promenade which is the very first street built in Anaheim. We are a short 2 miles from The Magic Kingdom and there is a lot to do and see in our bustling neighborhood.

What are some of your favorite machines to play, and are they at Hyper Beer Co? 

As a kid I grew up playing EMs and we have 1 of 55 Gottlieb King of Diamonds remakes by Retro Pinball. A very tough and fun game with those brutal 2" flippers. We have a Pulp Fiction which is one of my favorites and we're going to install The Electric Playground topper. Jaws is one of my favorite current titles and the 50th Anniversary Edition is gorgeous! We will be adding the DPX title Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in December as well.

Does Hyper Beer Co have just pinball, or other games as well? 

19 pinball machines and 30 arcades including several original classics such as: Centipede, Frogger, Defender and others. We have a Star Wars Battle Pod and a pair of OG Japanese Mario Kart drivers as well as some unique and interesting Japanese rhythm games. Air hockey, Skee-Ball, Jet Pong, basketball and of course a few claw machines to round things out.

Will you be hosting tournaments and launch parties and stuff? 

Yes! We have two tournaments already scheduled, our Star Wars Fall of the Empire launch party tournament is: November 22nd, and we're hosting a Thanksgiving Eve 12:00pm - 12:00am "whatever" fun tournament. Our plan going forward is a monthly tournament.

How many beers will you have, and will you have other drinks (and food)? 

We'll have 6 - 8 beers on tap including hazy and west coast IPAs, pilsner, blondes and a brown ale as well as brewed cocktails and seltzers. For non-drinkers we'll offer a nice selection of N/A beers and craft soft drinks and sparkling water. We won't have food service at opening but soon after and plan to offer gourmet sausages, chips and popcorn.

Are you going to continue operating machines at your other (7) locations? 

Yes, my operating company The Games People will remain as will my 7 current locations.

Anything else you’d like to share? 

I welcome all pinheads and their families to use Disneyland and/or Hyper Beer Co as an excuse to visit beautiful and non-humid Anaheim, CA a short drive to beaches, mountains and the desert and please ask for Hans when you visit!

Hyper Beer Co.
150 W Center Street Promenade, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website

Links of the Week

• Enjoyed this write-up on Pinball Expo and Winchester Mystery House in Endless Mode

• Orby and Joe Ciarvino’s team-up in the Pinball Nerds Podcast is the most high-energy thing you’ll listen to all week

• Cooltoy took a Revenge from Mars (Pinball 2000) and dropped it into a regular-sized pinball cabinet

• Dirty Pool talked with Winchester UI & 3D designer Joshua Clay

• Last reminder to go check out Pinball News for all the recorded sessions from Expo. I spent most of Monday catching up on some sessions I missed attending live

• Ian Jacoby (Nudge) was grumpy at Expo but still took some rad photos

Poll of the Week

Our second poll of the week. Earlier this week, I asked our Facebook community how many additional units Barrels could have sold of Winchester if they knew ahead of time that the response would be so positive. On the one hand, part of the reason it sold so quickly was its perceived scarcity. On the other hand, if I put my small business CEO hat on, it’s painful to leave so much money on the table when every dollar that comes in counts.

I was surprised by the poll results and by how many people thought BoF could have sold 501+ additional units of the game. I chose 251-500 myself. So with all that said, what if BoF could run more games? How would you, the pinball fan or collector, react?

Last Week’s Poll Results

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

I don’t really have time to do my usual crate digging this week, so I’m dipping into my playlist of 2025 finds — basically the one I save everything remotely interesting to before figuring out what makes the cut for this column — to see if there’s anything fun to come back to.

When I flagged Turnstile’s Seeing Stars back in June, I was struck by the uncanny echoes to 80s bands like The Police (big fan) and how much it made me want to dance. Then I started reading about Turnstile’s evolution from a crunchy hardcore band to something with more popular aspirations. Frankly, by the time I got to them, I dismissed it as being too mainstream to share with you. But this track, a combo of Seein’ Stars and Birds, off the most recent album, Never Enough, I keep returning to. I think it displays the range of Turnstile’s capabilities — nostalgic arena pop rock in one half, high-energy mosh fest on the other.

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Pinball News of the Week

Barrels of Fun Releases Winchester Mystery House; Promptly Sells Out

Barrels of Fun Reveals Winchester Mystery House | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/barrels-of-fun-reveals-winchester-mystery-house

We told you something might be coming last week! Barrels of Fun followed up with a full reveal of game number three, Winchester Mystery House, at the 13th hour of the 13th day. The big surprises were an extremely obscure license (read all about The Winchester Mystery House), designed by the renowned Karl DeAngelo, and with newcomer Jeff Dodson on sound (reupping our interview for a fresh look), plus a total volume of only 525 units.

It promptly sold out (or sold through, for the nerds) within about 24+ hours. It’s more than likely sold out now, though.

I haven’t played it yet, but I hope to at Expo today. What’s interesting is that both David Van Es and Karl DeAneglo are big theme park guys, and Winchester Mystery House was one of the inspirations for Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. That attraction shows up often enough in our Hype Index to see there’s demand for a game with that IP, so I ask the question: Is Winchester Mystery House a backdoor Haunted Mansion pin? Disney licensing is notoriously difficult, so this has to be the next best thing.

A few more pieces of content worth exploring if you’re interested in the Winchester story:

• Winchester Mystery House Pinball - Conversation with David Van Es and Karl DeAngelo

• Winchester Mystery House Pinball Featurette

• Winchester Mystery House Pinball Official Gameplay Video

• For more on Winchester Mystery House, watch this short William Shatner-narrated clip

Scorbit is On the Verge of a Breakout

Over Ten Years in the Making, Scorbit is on the Verge of a Breakout  | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/scorbit-breakout

Enjoyed chatting with the team at Scorbit and writing about their startup journey that’s led them to the current moment, where they are rolling out a massive new update to their platform to enable a slew of new features (digital payments, NFC tap pads, pinball tournaments where you can win money) and more. I’m very excited about these changes and hope they catch on, because if they do, it could be really good for pinball.

Overheard at Expo 2025

I’m a little bit light on time today after our Pinball Media Mixer event last night. I flew into Chicago at 2 pm and was at the venue for setup with the Scorbit crew by 3 pm, so I haven’t had time to walk the show floor or talk to many people yet. But I’ve kept up on a few of the major developments so far.

Stern Launches and Updates Things

Stern launched King Kong accessories and rolled out home leaderboards through a revamped premium membership tier of Insider Connected (called All Access). I don’t have strong feelings about either at the moment, although my immediate reaction to All Access is that Stern isn’t delivering enough customer value for the current price point ($99.99/yr).

DPX Announces RAZA & Questionable Loyalty Scheme

I guess the big news here is that Melvin Williams, owner of Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX), finally announced the long-rumored RAZA (Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland) remake as the next title in the queue for the company. They are targeting 333 units for the game, with a May/June 2026 launch. He says his focus is still on finishing up their run of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is scheduled to be completed in March of 2026. Importantly, because DPX offered customers refunds if their pre-ordered Alice game didn’t ship by January 2026, this takes us to the next announcement.

In order to keep pre-order customers engaged and minimize the impact of refund requests, Melvin also announced a scheme where customers who took delivery of their pre-order would get first dibs on the next Dutch Pinball release.

Now, I’m sure this is perfectly well-intentioned, but man, it's giving me some Haggis vibes. The cynical take is that DPX is essentially incentivizing the current game that they can’t hit deadlines on, for a chance at a game made by a sister company, which hasn’t been announced and will be released at an unspecified future date (to his credit Melvin did throw out Expo-time 2026 for that release but we know how these things go in pinball). I guess if it works, more power to them, but it rubs me the wrong way.

HEXA Announces The Three Musketeers

France’s HEXA Pinball has a larger presence at Expo this year, mostly showing off more copies of their 2023 release, Space Hunt. They also used the opportunity to announce their next licensed title, The Three Musketeers, due to release at the Texas Pinball Festival in March 2026. While not exactly an A-tier theme that pinball enthusiasts might be clamoring for, this makes all the sense in the world for an upstart French pinball manufacturer, and I’m excited to see what they do with it.

Pinball Map Location of the Week

Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new or interesting pinball location each week. This week, Scott writes about Neon Moon.

The start of a new pinball adventure

In his 1974 masterpiece, Working, the great Studs Terkel wrote: "Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” The work of brain barfing a location of the week without reprieve for the last 89 fortnights or whatever can often be described as a sort of life. Maybe I’m sad about my circumstances and I get to project that onto a lonely airport with a single broken pinball machine. Maybe hunger gets the better of me and now my corner of Colin’s newsletter is devoted to the history of Arby’s and the pleasing fact that one of them includes pinball. In these moments, my day is filled with meaning and I am astonished. However, there can be a torpor (what is torpor?) when locations of note show up that provide clear value to the community (e.g. house many pinball machines), but lack the hooks I need to transform these articles into a sort of therapy for myself. How can I process my own feelings against a blank slate of immaculately maintained modern Sterns? This week I am here to tell you about a brand new pinball mega location with 60+ machines. It is called Neon Moon.

Neon Moon is located in Johnson City Tennessee, the true birthplace of Mountain Dew and a town that looks like it would be comfortable having ZZ Top show up to play songs for Marty McFly. Fans of pinball will find Neon Moon a perfect place to press well-worn buttons with confidence and denial. People will fall in love at Neon Moon. People will use its bathroom under duress. People will receive phone calls here that change the trajectory of their lives. Neon Moon will become a daily elsewhere for the local population, providing a neutral spot to politely end a relationship, or simply a dry, air-conditioned room to practice stacking multiballs.

At present, Neon Moon has 55 machines listed on Pinball Map, though the lineup will expand past 60 at launch, featuring the full Stern Insider Connected roster (plenty of LEs) and a few aging marvels like Varkon. They will have tournaments. I’m guessing there will be canned soda and a breaded section of chicken that you can purchase. You know this type of place. I can’t help but picture some kid in Johnson City stepping into Neon Moon and seeing more pinball than they knew existed. They’re about to start the same obsession the rest of us once did, and for that alone, Neon Moon deserves to be celebrated.

Neon Moon is located at 1805 North Roan Street in Johnson City, Tennessee. They are officially open to the public on 10/30. So, get extra wear out of your Halloween costume and show up in full garb. People will applaud your effort.

Neon Moon
1805 North Roan Street in Johnson City, Tennessee
Website

Links of the Week

• Pinball Roundtable went live from the expo floor last night

• I don’t remember if Pinball News uploaded panel sessions this quickly last year, but damn, this is some great work. Check out their feed to see what you’re missing.

• LoserKid talked pre-expo hype

• Stern released a new episode of Ask Jack Anything

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!

Song of the Week

I flagged Chalk’s Pain a few weeks ago because it had some Nine Inch Nails industrial electronic rock vibes, and everyone at the time was talking about Nine Inch Nails and their new work on the Tron: Ares soundtrack. The music video is what really sold this pick for me, however, as they fully lean into that 1990s/2000s vibe. They even shot the whole thing using the same camera used in 28 Days Later (2002), the Canon XL1, which was first released way back in 1998.

Chalk is a duo (they were a trio, but their drummer recently departed) from Belfast, and they are set to release their debut album sometime in 2026.

Pinball News of the Week

Barrels of Fun Teases Someone (or Something?) New

Hmmm

Is the Barrels of Fun team back up to their old tricks? A moment ago, they shared an update on the Barrels of Fun Facebook page, inviting you to visit the page at the 13th hour of the 13th day (Monday, 1 pm CT) for a new team member announcement.

Some will note the callback to their original launch campaign for Labyrinth, which took the pinball community on a journey of hints and puzzles before the final reveal at the 13th hour of the day. In all likelihood, this is just a simple personnel announcement, as the graphic notes. But maybe it’s something more than that?

Pinball Legends: Nailed it?

This feels off.

We called it. Pinball Legends turned out exactly how we predicted. But did the production team nail it, too? I don’t think so, and here’s why.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, it feels like a miss. Cary Hardy’s involvement as lead messenger is a nice signal boost, but I’m not sure he or his core audience totally understands or appreciates this type of product. Obviously, the pinball market is not a monolith, and just because you are a pinball fan doesn’t mean you are a fan of pinball-themed collectibles. This mismatch tells me the creators don’t fully understand what they are making or who it’s for.

This feels like more of a box-checking exercise — and, in my best Bruce Nightingale voice, a caaaaaash graaaab — rather than something that respects, honors, and builds on the legacy of these characters and brings something artistic and truly collectible to the market.

Take, for example, anything you can find at a place like Sideshow, like this Limited Edition collectible action figure of The Dude. Similar price point to the larger-scale Pinball Legends, with orders of magnitude more detail, artistic merit, and character than this line appears to offer.

What I might have done is partner with an artist already steeped in the world of collectible action figures and toys, have them create a new design that was more of a riff on the B/W characters, and then produce those in partnership with someone like Lior. Then present it in a format or with packaging that enhances the collectibility or uniqueness of the product itself, opening the door to crossover opportunities with collectible markets, not just hardcore pinball markets. As presented now (as someone who does and would buy things like this), it’s cringe-level hokey that probably won’t help move these things the way they could have.

I would also have gotten a bit more creative with the rollout campaign, partnering with less obvious creators with audiences more receptive to this kind of release (Cooltoy and Nudge are a few who come to mind).

And don’t even get me started on the convoluted Pinball Legends Club / Pinball Legends Patreon (?!) thing.

This is what frustrates me most of all. The idea is cool. It should exist. But it could have been so much better, in a way that injected some artistic pop culture energy into what is otherwise a dusty corner of pinball history.

Chatting Dune Sound Design with Jeff Dodson

Diving into Dune Sound Design with Jeff Dodson | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/jeff-dodson-dune-interview

Paid subscribers received this interview with Jeff Dodson (Dirty Pool Pinball) earlier this week. It’s been fun to see the immediate impact he’s made on the sound design for Dune pinball, which, for pinball, was already in a good place to start. This is also contributor Noah Crable’s first interview for us, which is exciting in its own right.

New Star Wars: Fall of the Empire Tutorial

May the Force Be With You: Learn to Play Star Wars: Fall of the Empire | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/star-wars-fote-tutorial

Speaking of Noah, he wrapped up a new tutorial for Stern’s Star Wars: Fall of the Empire this week so that everyone can learn to play it before Expo, and as it continues its public rollout around the country.

The Score Card: From Chicago to London

The Score Card: From Chicago to London | Kineticist

www.kineticist.com/post/the-score-card-from-chicago-to-london

Final major piece for the week, as we clear our pending content banks before Expo, is the latest update in Matt Owens’ regular series (I think we should start calling these columns), recapping recent major happenings in competitive pinball. In this edition, he recaps PAPA 22, CLEPIN, and the UK Pinball Open.

Pinball Media Mixer 3 Sold Out

See? The anxiety was unwarranted. The Media Mixer sold out. Now I get to worry about everyone actually showing up and having a good time. You can still add yourself to the wait list here Scorbit & Kineticist Pinball Media Mixer 3. If we’re able to accommodate more of you, we’ll let you know.

Pinball Map Location of the Week

Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new or interesting pinball location each week. This week, Ryan writes about Push Start Play.

Thanks to Jared Guynes for the photo, if he reads this

Sometimes, in order to identify a location of the week for you, we dive like Uncle Scrooge deep down into our location bin like a porpoise, and burrow through it like a gopher, and toss the locations up and let them hit us on the head. And then we sometimes find, pressed into our foreheads, a rare doubloon. It may not be worth much on the surface. It might not have 50 pinball machines, but only five. It might be in Alaska, or Key West. But if we inspect it closely, or just completely make up some things about it, we’ll find that there’s something special about the place that’s worth sharing.

But then there are other times when a new place in Texas opens up that has 61 mostly-LE machines and that makes it the de facto location of the week. That time is now. Welcome, Push Start Play, to your new home in Lewisville, Texas. Push Start Play appears to have lodged into an old Planet Fitness, which was vacated after everyone in Lewisville got buff and they had no more customers. In case you care, Push Start Play has a lot more than pinball, including old fashion arcade games, precision hoop games, games where you pretend to drive, miniature hockey, and skee-ball.

Unlike a rare doubloon with only five machines that needs a unique feature like a t-shirt club at the end of a seven mile bridge (see two weeks ago) in order to capture our attention, Push Start Play immediately commands a flock based on the heft of its catalog. Their 61 machines is twice as many as any other location in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It costs $12 to enter and play things, though pinball, as we know, is a premium product, and so the machines also cost $1 to play via card. This is the only week that it will claim the title of location of the week, so it’s a good time to go.

Push Start Play
1165 S Stemmons Fwy Suite 192, Lewisville, TX 75067
Website

Links of the Week

• Always appreciate when Stern shares our work in their monthly newsletter. I especially dug the snazzy upgrade to using anchor text links in this edition!

• Speaking of Stern, they are vaulting Elvira.

• Friend of the newsletter Glenn Waechter released a new song he created for the upcoming homebrew game, Monster League Hockey.

• Check out this trailer for a digital pinball game that makes you mad.

• Congrats to new Spooky team additions Casey Butler (previously a programmer with American Pinball) and Don Garrison, currently of Don’s Pinball Podcast. I’m not sure that Don is technically a Spooky employee at this time, but he did buy Spooky founder Charlie Emery’s house, so that says something.

• Alice Goes to Wonderland (remember them?) will be at Expo, and they released a production update this week where they show off the unboxing and setup of the game.

• Barrels of Fun added a new mini-wizard mode and, importantly, Barrel Ball, to Dune, which we’ll be playing at our Media Mixer.

• Nudge Magazine read the best argument for AI art in pinball and found it unconvincing.

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading!

More ways to connect:

• We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and sometimes Reddit and YouTube.

• We have regularly updated Song of the Week playlists on Spotify and YouTube.

• If you create content, products, or other things for the pinball community, join our Pinball Media & Creators Discord group.

Weekly Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our work. All notes are appreciated!