65 Pinball Newsletters

I’ve been anticipating the latest album from Brooklyn’s Water From Your Eyes for most of the summer. Set to release on August 22nd, the experimental pop band has already released two strong singles. Life Signs made its debut in June, and this week’s featured song, Playing Classics, hit YouTube in July.

Water From Your Eyes first caught my attention with their cover of Chumbawamba’s Good Ship Lifestyle in 2024 (featured as Song of the Week during the Haggis debacle). Where some in the community wistfully recount their nostalgic memories of AC/DC or Guns n’ Roses, well, I had Chumbawamba.

Playing Classics is a nearly 6-minute powerhouse of art pop with a hypnotizing piano riff that comes in at the 1-minute mark. I love the attitude of this band almost as much as their music. It’s this inspiring brand of intelligent artistic swagger that comes across nearly as much as a statement of calm defiance as one of creative excellence.

And, in a fortuitous continuation of last issue’s notes on MJ Lenderman, he shows up here, too, as singer Rachel Brown acknowledged earlier in the year in an interview with Rolling Stone that they were in a relationship with Lenderman, so the summer of MJ continues.

Our biggest issue yet, with pinball stories you won't read anywhere else. This issue is chock full of pinball stories from all over the world. Full of beautiful film photography, illustrations, and cool writing -- it's the perfect addition to a gameroom. And at 19.99, it's probably the cheapest addition as well. All Pre-orders get our limited edition Satin print cover. For real, it has to be felt to be believed.

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This week marks the 65th edition of this newsletter since integrating it with Kineticist in 2023. Let’s say that each issue averages around 2,000 words. That’s 130,000 words of original pinball content, which exceeds the word count for the average novel. I sometimes joke that I should write a book, because in many ways, I already have!¹

One of my favorite parts of this work is documenting important pinball moments and then giving them context, making them easier to understand both in the moment and in hindsight. The goal amounts to maintaining a public, if sometimes opinionated, record of the industry and its extended community. Something potentially accessible decades from now, in a way that podcasts, forum threads, and videos can’t be. For this purpose, for now, the written word is king.

Our lead piece this week, Imaginary Hatchets, fits that mission. It’s a multipurpose article that’s a follow-up to my divisive 2023 writing on similar territory and a direct look at another example of the deceitful, anti-community behavior by one of pinball’s most prominent voices. It’s also a personal reflection on my history with him, and why I felt it was time to draw public boundaries. Maybe even challenge the community to think more critically about who and what we support, or at least the behaviors we endorse.

An early draft of the article used the title Hatchet Job, meant to be a play on the subject’s propensity for metaphorical hatchets, but it felt too on-the-nose and easily misread. The new title better fits the piece; it’s not a direct attack or an attempt to cancel, but a nuanced take on a conflict between content creators, contextualized by my direct experience with the main antagonist.

Because of its nature and lessons already learned, I’ve put this one behind a hard paywall to control its reach better.

It’s not because I don’t want people to read this. The opposite is true; I wish everyone could read it because I’m proud of my work and believe in the message.

But with increased reach often comes increased headaches, and in the words of Retro Ralph, I’m choosing to “protect my peace.”

A small barrier (our most popular subscription is $60/year) ensures readers come in good faith and with a level of investment in our community that helps keep this whole thing viable.

If you read only the article preview, the tl;dr of the news angle is that Chris Kooluris, through his podcast, Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast, lied to and misled his audience, attempted to manipulate Ralph publicly, and later admitted to it, but only after Ralph publicly called him out.

As I state at the end of the piece, “I have no hatchets to bury. Just an acknowledgment that whatever this relationship is, whatever his character is, it’s not working.”

Fun story — when I was first getting into pinball, I remember hearing the name Genesis pinball, vaguely knew it was old, like from the 1980s or something (just like me!), and for some reason made the connection that a Genesis pinball machine from the 1980s couldn’t be anything else but a licensed pinball machine based on the English rock band, Genesis.

Imagine my surprise and mild embarrassment when I finally learned there was no Phil Collins to be gazed upon or Invisible Touch to be heard, just a weird knock-off homage to a 1920s German expressionist silent film. Anyway, should you need to learn the rules to the 1986 Gottlieb release that has nothing to do with pop rock, Noah Crable has you covered in his latest tutorial.

In our final article for the week, check out Matt Owen’s recap of some of this summer’s major tournaments, including the Brisbane Masters, Pinburgh, and The BEAST, in the latest edition of The Score Card.

Speaking of tournament pinball, our friends at Match Play Events rolled out a neat new feature for their app that allows people to add YouTube videos of tournament streams to event pages and associate them with specific players and matches from the event. So, if you wanted to look up a replay of how Jason Zahler dominated a round or how to blow up AC/DC in a tournament setting, it’s now easier than ever. For those familiar with pinballvideos.com, it’s like that, but better.

This was initially planned to be a brief mention of Pinball Brothers’ Predator game being on the line (as of August 7th), but in a surprise move, Pinball Brothers sent notice to their customers on August 14th that, of the supposed 800 unit run, only 150 units remained and they’d only build them through the end of the year. For a game that was only announced in June of this year, it’s an unusual development, to say the least.

In the email we received, Pinball Brothers said they need to “update license agreements” to make room for new titles. My read is that the license probably runs out at the end of the year, which means sales have to stop. That’s not something you find out at that stage in the process, so I’m sure they knew this before launch. The shift makes me think sales aren’t where they hoped, and also makes me wonder if they had sold all 800 units on launch, could the Pedretti facility churn through that volume in six months?

The update also included an announcement that Pinball Brothers would absorb tariffs (for US customers) and international shipping costs, which can’t be good for game margins on what is already shaping up to be a low-volume product. Taken as a whole, it appears to be a possible fire sale aimed at injecting cash into the business to bridge the gap to their next title. Of course, this could all be wrong, but hopefully Pinball Brothers has banger IP for their next game because they sure could use a hit.

Earlier this month, Barrels of Fun released a major code update for their latest release, Dune. The most significant change (IMO) was the addition of custom callouts by voice actors Tara Strong and David Kaye. It’s my understanding that the Barrels team is targeting the end of September for the game to be “roadmap complete”, which means all content indicated by playfield inserts would be delivered. Once the game is considered roadmap complete, the team may add additional content as needed (including bug fixes), but that’s a bit more open-ended.

In a recent interview with George Gomez on the LoserKid Pinball Podcast, we learned a few more details about Stern’s planned Spike 3 rollout, as well as plans for future Costco home edition game releases.

On the Spike 3 front, we’ve already seen some components introduced in current release games, like the quiet power supply and improved menu system. Other changes will be phased in over the next few cornerstone games; some with the upcoming game and others in the following release. Expected changes include an upgraded sound system, display, more powerful processing, wireless headphone capabilities, and eventually a refreshed cabinet design.

Regarding the home games, Gomez indicated that he expected a third release sometime in 2026 and that it would likely be a “broad appeal family theme” before something pinball enthusiasts are more accustomed to seeing.

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 Arby’s.

Arby’s was founded in 1964 by brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel, who sought to offer a fast-food alternative focused on higher-quality sandwiches rather than traditional hamburgers. The first location opened in Boardman, Ohio, featuring roast beef sandwiches as its signature item. The name “Arby’s” derives from the initials “R.B.” for “Raffel Brothers,” not “roast beef” as commonly believed. In 1976, the company was sold to Royal Crown Cola. Can you imagine the ecstasy of going into Arby’s and enjoying an RC Cola with your sandwich? I can not. Although it faced financial challenges in the early 1990s, the brand diversified its menu to include items like curly fries, Market Fresh sandwiches, and signature sauces (e.g. Horsey). Today, with over 3,300 locations worldwide, Arby’s remains a leading fast-food chain known for its gauzey sandwiches and Ving Rhames’ proclamation that “We Have the Meats.” In Fenton Michigan, there exists a romantically adrift Arby’s that also “Has A Pinball Machine”.

Before getting into the machine itself, a quick Arby’s detour. As a kid, I played a lot of D&D at my friend Manish’s house. His parents owned an Arby’s and would bring food home for the hungry adventurers. But they ended up charging us for it. This confused me. I’d seen other stores toss out leftovers, but somehow Arby’s roast beef was too precious to be given freely. It gave the brand a strange, almost sacred status in my mind. I had a good five year stretch where I considered Arby’s an environment that would later be called “fast casual”. Eventually, I realized that Manish’s parents were just cheap (sorry Manish) and that put me off Arby’s for about thirty years. I am now ready to end that streak with a visit to the Fenton Michigan location.

This probably seems strange. A grown man wasting two paragraphs on Arby’s. But life is mostly strange, and often a waste. Have you found something you love enough to do forever without getting bored? I doubt it. Not even pinball holds up that well. Sometimes meaning shows up in unlikely combinations: treadmill chess, shower beers, or eating a gross roast beef sandwich while sinking five dollars into a Guns N’ Roses (LE) machine. Maybe that’s as close as we get to truly living.

The Arby’s in Fenton Michigan has a Guns N’ Roses (LE) that you are allowed to play. It’s on quarter drop. It is located at 3253 Owen Rd. They are open daily from 10am - 11pm (12am on Friday and Saturday!). They serve coke products.

Arby’s
3253 Owen Rd, Fenton, MI 48430
Website

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