Hype Cycle

I generally try not to repeat artists for our Song of the Week picks, but I’m breaking that soft rule this week to highlight another favorite from Magdalena Bay (we shared Domino in an edition last fall) called Death & Romance. The video is an 8-minute bizarre sci-fi adventure that’s easily one of the most creative visual spectacles I’ve watched in some time. It helps that the song is as catchy as anything, too, which is why it’s often one of the first things I watch when firing up my YouTube playlists.

It’s kinda hard to accuratly describe what is going on in the video, so I’ll borrow a quote from the Pitchfork review of their album as it’s the only thing I’ve seen do it some justice.

“The setup for Magdalena Bay’s new concept album, Imaginal Disk, begins somewhere that looks like the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey, except that co-producers and songwriters Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin have identified the missing evolutionary link connecting primates to humans: an extraterrestrial LaserDisc, inserted into the forehead. When Tenenbaum’s character, True, comes due for a hardware upgrade, her body rejects it. This next part is a little unclear, but according to the band she must then relearn “what it means to be human.””

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This recently published update has generated some interesting discussion among the extended Kineticist community. In it, we break down the releases of Turner’s Merlin’s Arcade and Multimorphic’s Portal through the lens of broader media coverage and how that can illustrate why it’s so difficult to make original IP work in pinball.

Matt Owen has spent enough time banging on Stern’s Dungeons and Dragons to warrant a full-fledged review of the gameplay experience, which we published earlier this week. Matt does a lot of work in games journalism, so it’s great reading his perspective on this title, which is arguably Stern’s most advanced exploration of the pinball / RPG / video game mashup experience. While he’s largely a fan of the experience, he also highlights a few opportunities for improvement.

Barrels of Fun launched a new program that will provide Labyrinth owners with an opportunity to win a copy of game release #2, whenever that should materialize. Our article provides more details, plus a few other notes of interest from their Texas Pinball Festival seminar.

The cat is finally out of the bag on Jersey Jack’s next game. Founder Jack Guarnieri sat in on Mark Seiden’s Avatar panel at Texas Pinball Festival, and he took the opportunity to reveal to the world that Harry Potter would be their next game release, coming sometime this spring. He also mentioned that the company had secured “all the assets” for all of the films (presumably, he means the mainline franchise and not spinoffs like the Fantastic Beasts series) and that it has taken him 10 years and millions of dollars to secure the rights.

Anyway, most of the pinball commentariat derided the marketing move, and while I understand why on the merits, the fact is that even when JJP had nothing of substance to show anyone, they still managed to dominate most post-show conversations. So, yes, they were questionable tactics, but undeniably effective results.

Congrats to Team Spooky for selling through their allocation of Evil Dead games at TPF. I hope to get some time on this game at Pintastic soon, but from all reports, people are really loving the experience of this release.

As an industry observer, the positive response to the CGC release of Medieval Madness Merlin Edition was surprising to see. Not because it’s not a great game that people really enjoy, but because it’s a nearly 30-year-old title that has already seen several remake runs in the last decade and, save for a few changes on the margins, is the same game it’s always been. But in this industry, good news is good news, and it’s encouraging to see pinsumers eager to gobble up a new release.

Response to MMr Merlin has been so strong that rumors are already circulating of an additional run of Merlins (maybe 500-1000 more), plus the possibility of a run of standard edition games on top of that. But I have to ask, in today’s pinball market, are there really 2,500+ ready NIB MMr buyers out there? Count me as skeptical!

A fun personal moment to highlight from the last week is being announced as an official special guest for this year’s Pintastic New England show. It’s my home show, which makes the recognition a little extra special! For those in the New England area, come say hi and hang with the New England pinball community April 10-13. I’ve been going for years and it’s always a fun time.

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 Graveface Museum.

Having young children has been a stark reminder that man is inextricably drawn to actual violence. It’s not necessarily a desire to commit violent acts, but more of a need to push the envelope of awareness until you find something that truly scares you. As children, we fear monsters. As tweens, they fascinate us. As teens, we wear them as protection. As adults, we create them. And sometimes, we become the parents who defeat them. That’s a lot of head space for monsters to take up. And hey, I think I get it. While I wish life was an endless parade of comfortable beds, vigorous exercise, an honest day’s work, and our favorite snacks, this would eventually get boring. We need monsters to slide out a crusty limb every now and then to sort of nudge us out of the doldrums of clean living. If you are in need of such a crusty limb and you also enjoy pinball, you could do a lot worse than a visit to Graveface Museum.

There are two Graveface Museums, one in Chicago and one in Savannah Georgia. Both have pinball machines, but the one in Savannah has 12 pinball machines, so that will be the one that I fixate on. Before you are permitted to play pinball at this museum, you must first crawl through rooms filled with “actual artifacts and decades worth of research on topics ranging from true crime, cults, sideshow history, 1950s roadside attractions, secret societies, and the occult”. This place has a John Wayne Gacy collection with over 10,000 items in it. What have we learned from these items? I would love to get a one paragraph summary. Did John Wayne Gacy play pinball? Did he like Seinfeld? How would he summarize his fans in one paragraph?

After you figure that out, you get to play pinball. And boy howdy, it’s SOME pinball. Each of these dozen machines is horror themed. Which, to be honest, is about as much horror as I can handle these days, but I do love a good themed lineup. The collection begins with 1979’s Gorgar and ends its reign of terror with 2021’s Halloween. So, there’s some real variety in there. As you play, take a moment to reflect on the horrors you've just experienced at the museum. Have you gained any insights into the human condition? How will you apply this newfound knowledge? In horror films, the nerd or 'expert' character often uses this wisdom to try and save the group, only to meet a dramatic end moments later. The one who usually survives is the more detached character, pushing forward with nothing but peace and freedom in mind. Which character will you be?

Graveface Museum (Savannah) is located at 410 East Factors Walk, Savannah, GA 31401. Our website claims that most of the machines don’t work, but they are all on free play, and accessible once you pay the $20 admission fee.

Graveface Museum (Savannah)
410 East Factors Walk, Savannah, GA 31401
Website

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