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Hands-on with D&D | Greatest Showman Interview | No Easy Fix for AP | Location of the Week | Links | More!
This Week in Pinball, we’re starting off the new year with a rush of activity.
This Week's Pinball Agenda
Song of the Week
Look, I don’t know that I will ever get a better opportunity to use Wonderboy by Tenacious D than the release week of Stern’s Dungeons & Dragons game, so I’m running with it. If, for some reason, you haven’t heard this song at any point in the last 24 years (!!), you owe it to yourself to give it a listen.
The music video, directed by Spike Jonze under the alias Marcus Von Bueler, is a Dungeons & Dragons-esque adventure that sees Jack Black’s Wonderboy team with Kyle Gass’ Young Nasty Man for an epic fantasy quest to defeat an evil Hydra. Appropriate, right?
Sponsor of the Week
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Pinball News of the Week
First Impressions of Stern’s Dungeons & Dragons Game
I was fortunate to be able to visit the Stern Pinball factory this week to get some hands-on time with their newest release, Dungeons & Dragons. Read the full piece for my complete thoughts (including a juicy note on the prospects of DLC), but the spoiler is that I think this could be Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan operating at the peak of their powers.
Interview with The Greatest Showman Design Team
Author Matt Owen spent some time chatting with Jeffrey Jones and Lisa Sue Jones, the creators of The Greatest Showman homebrew game, which won “Best in Show” and “Best Homebrew Pinball Game” at Pinball Expo, and is now up for a 2024 TWIPY Award. Read the full conversation to learn about the origins of the game and insights into the development process.
No Easy Fix for American Pinball
EVP David Fix is out at AP.
A lot of news dropped this week regarding the embattled American Pinball. First Pinball News released the story about David Fix’s departure (positioned as a mutual parting of ways by Fix) and the layoffs of most of the remaining staff with any pinball expertise. Any sane person would rightfully assume that American Pinball was finally and officially cooked.
However, in both the Pinball News piece and a follow-on piece published by Knapp Arcade, it’s been suggested that AP might see a path forward that sees them release Ryan McQuaid’s first game, Cuphead (even though they just laid him off), and transition into a contract manufacturing facility for other pinball companies.
This strikes me as fantastical thinking. I guess it’s possible they could find a way to cobble together some units of Cuphead based on Ryan’s designs, but who is going to take a chance to buy an AP-produced game at this point?
Similarly, I find it difficult to believe that any current, knowledgeable player in the pinball industry will truly trust the husk of American Pinball to produce a competent pinball product, particularly given the shortcomings of at least the last two major releases by the company. I certainly wouldn’t be looking to enter into a business agreement with the current leadership group of AP, given everything I’ve heard of their business practices to date. I think most in that situation would be better off trying to stand up their own manufacturing capabilities or exploring contract manufacturing relationships with other companies in the industry, but what do I know?
Visual History: A Story of Pinball Innovation in the Early Solid State Days
This is a quick one, but I love these historical footnotes of pinball production. It comes to us from a friend of the newsletter and is actually a piece that was originally written by pinball aficionado John Smout in 2004. Sadly, John recently passed away, but we are happy to give some of his writing a long-term home and share it with a wider audience.
Pinball Map Location of the Week
Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new pinball location each week. This week, Scott writes about The Ex Servos in Australia.
The Shoalhaven Pinball League logo, which meets at The Ex Servos
One thing they don’t teach you in pinball map school is how challenging it is to choose the location of the week. As a global pinball tracker, we receive dozens of new submissions each month. The world is immense, and even after grappling with that vastness and its associated challenges, another hurdle emerges: most location owners rely on Facebook pages as their 'websites.' Since LinkedIn is my only social media platform (let’s connect!), I’m often out of the loop on what these new spots are all about. This leaves me combing through places with actual websites, searching for something that sparks joy. It’s a process that can take literal hours and feel like emotional weeks. But tonight, something truly special stood out—a meat raffle.
The meat raffle that captured my attention (and my imagination?) is taking place in Australia at a new spot called The Ex Servos. Let me tell you, I went down a deep rabbit hole trying to figure out what this place is all about. It turns out The Ex Servos is similar to the American Legion in the United States—a gathering place for ex-service members to relax, enjoy some shrimp (perhaps fresh off a barbie), and maybe even play a little pinball.
Back to that meat raffle though. Held every Thursday and Friday, this raffle gives participants the chance to win either a bag of groceries or a "share" of over $1,500 worth of meat trays. What exactly constitutes a "share" remains a mystery. Another mystery–would I be allowed to play pinball at The Ex Servos? I’m neither Australian nor a veteran. Could I abandon my job and family to fly halfway around the world for pinball and the chance to win meat? Would I make the trip only to find myself turned away? I needed answers, so I emailed the fine folks at The Ex Servos to find out.
Scott: Hello. I like pinball and also meats, but I am neither Australian nor a veteran. Am I permitted to play your pinball machines without being a member of your club?
The Ex Servos: Good afternoon Scott, Thank you for your enquiry regarding the use of the Pinball machines at the Ex Servos. The Pinball machines are located on the first floor of the club near the Galley Brasserie restaurant and are available for public use. You do not need to be a member of the club to play, however you will need to have a valid photo ID to enter the club.
There are no restrictions on club membership apart from being 18 years of age and having an Australian address and ID to join. Under 18 years must be always accompanied by a responsible adult whilst in the club. Membership is currently $5 for 1 year, $12 for 3 years and $18 for 5 years.
There is a Pinball League that runs on Wednesday at 7pm, Friday at 7pm and the first Saturday of each month.
Pinball machines can only be accessed during operational hours of the Galley Brasserie restaurant which are 12pm-2:30pm Wednesday-Sunday and 5:30pm-8:30pm daily. We hope to see you soon!
So there you have it. Name one other place in the entire world that allows you to play pinball while you win meat. You can’t, can you? Sorry to be antagonistic about this, but I’m proud of The Ex Servos right now and I want that to come across in TWIP. They served their country. They served their meat. They welcome you to play their pinball.
The Ex Servos is located at 157 Junction St, Nowra, NSW 2541 in beautiful New South Wales Australia. They have Mousin’ Around and a weekly raffle for bags of groceries and also meat.
The Ex Servos
157 Junction St, Nowra, NSW 2541, New South Wales, Australia
Website
Links of the Week
Vic_VP captured possibly the best gameplay audio of the Pro and Premium versions of D&D.
Barrels of Fun shared an end-of-year wrapup on Facebook. Highlights include a timeline of games shipped from February (100) to October (559) and that they are working 3-5 years out on infrastructure and IP.
Wonderland Amusements (the company working on an 80% scale home pinball machine) shared some early art from their in-development game Alice Goes to Wonderland and teased an upcoming Kickstarter campaign for the initial launch.
Cary Hardy toured the Spooky Factory
Few more updates from the D&D media session worth checking out - Cooltoy, In Before the Lock’s chat with Brian Eddy, Don’s Pinball Podcast conversations with Brian Eddy, Elizabeth Gieske, George Gomez, Retro Ralph, and Cary Hardy, and Joel Engelberth’s first impressions.
For those of you hankering for a different approach to IP in pinball, someone has recently finished creating a Taylor Swift game, which is a one-off retheme of a Brunswick Alive, which was a home machine released in 1978.
TWIPY Awards Updates of the Week
Voting is open through January 20th 2025
While voting is underway, thought we’d go ahead and create a quick TWIPY Awards update section to share a few notes along the way.
We’ve almost surpassed last year’s vote total in the first week! This is super encouraging, and we’re excited to see so many people participating and having fun with the voting process. Make sure to get your vote in if you haven’t already!
We’ve made some changes to the voting ballot (primarily additions) over the last week, which are documented here. If you need to change your vote in light of these changes, submit another form with all your new picks, and we’ll reconcile at the end.
We’re currently working with Cauldron Falls Trading Co. on creating the trophy designs for the awards, and we hope to share more on that soon.
Expect to see TWIPY 2024 merch soon, courtesy of our friends at Silverball Swag.
Tickets are still available for those who want to join in on the fun live and party with us at The Wormhole in Houston (plus a few other pinball-focused activities).
Poll of the Week
Are you in or out on Stern's Dungeons & Dragons? |
Last Week’s Poll Results
“Assuming the Dungeon Master (DM) doesn't railroad the experience too much, it's some of the most fun, spontaneous, collaborative story-telling there is. Lots of wild times with friends that I'll never forget. Really taps into that creativity, wonder, and freedom of thinking you've forgotten was your way of viewing the world when you were a kid, before society does its absolute hardest to squash it out. Playing as an adult is still a ton of fun as it encourages you flex those often forgotten/ignored creative muscles and solve unique problems that often don't/can't exist in the real world. I'd also certainly not be the first to argue that tapping into a creative state like that allows it to be more readily accessible in day-to-day life, making one a better problem solver and more fun collaborator.”
“I’m a grown ass man!”
“I’ve been waiting on a Swords & Sorcery game for many years. Excited to see what they have made!”
“I want to play this game, and I hope Stern doesn’t make same huge mistakes that they unfortunately did with Uncanny X-Men(honestly that was an absolute fiasco) unfair for consumers.”
“Kind of! My first-ever campaign has been on hiatus since last year, as our DM is Going Through It. But we’re all still in touch and I’ve absolutely loved it. ”
“I have never played D&D. I was aware of it in my high school days also noted its rise in popularity and in pop culture over the past decade or so. As a theme of Dungeons and Dragons it should serve well as a world under glass. The rules and code will certainly be interesting. I will look forward to playing it mostly because of the lore, rules and code. The concerning part will be the layout design. Rehash of AFM might do but will surely need far more innovation and tweaking to sell at today’s NIB prices. -ESA ”
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