This Week in Pinball, we’re making the jump to hyperspace now that our Star Wars embargo has lifted.
Song of the Week
There were a lot of directions I could have gone with the Song of the Week pick in this issue. Johnny Burgos’ Marvin Gaye-inspired track, Caught Up was a strong contender. But it’s new pinball release week, and I wanted to keep the energy up and moving instead. Snooper hails from Nashville, Tennessee, and Worldwide is the title track and first single off their upcoming album, Worldwide. On Worldwide, the Third Man Records (Jack White’s label) signed artist works with the well-regarded producer John Congleton, who has worked with a ton of my favorite artists (St. Vincent, Astronautalis, Future Islands).
I love it when artists I like work with producers I like because it tends to result in even better music. I sometimes wonder what this newsletter would look like if I, like a semi-famous musician, could pair myself with a good editor.
Why I’m Participating in the Back Indie Media Drive
This month, alongside a group of 34 indie publishers, I’m participating in the Back Indie Media Drive.
As part of it, I’m kicking off a conversation about how I’m thinking about my work at Kineticist and some of the directions I’m looking to take things. The simple fact is that, even though I’ve resisted the label of journalism or being a journalist for a long time, that is what we’ve been doing here. So, it’s time to lean into it. However, to see the vision through, it needs your support.
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Pinball News of the Week
Star Wars: Fall of the Empire is the Definitive Star Wars Pinball Experience
We traveled to Stern’s HQ this week to get hands-on time with their latest game, Star Wars: Fall of the Empire. Leading off the issue this week is our detailed review of our experience with the pre-release title.
Stern Releases Star Wars: Fall of the Empire. Everything You Need to Know
Our second Star Wars-focused article on the day is a more typical launch piece (we call them Hype Articles internally) that covers some of the context of the release, key details about the game, who made it, rules, marketing approach, and more.
Odds and Ends from Stern’s Media Day
This one’s for the subscribers only — a few odds and ends and leftover behind-the-scenes photos from Stern’s Star Wars Media Day.
Join the Kineticist PINQUEST League
I’m super excited to participate as the featured partner for September’s PINQUEST pinball league. PINQUEST is the brainchild of friend of the newsletter and all-around good guy Neil Shelton, who also was the one to take over Silverball Swag when that split from This Week in Pinball.
I tried to pick a diverse lineup of games with a few easy target scores and some that are more challenging. Download the app, sign up for a free account, tap “find a location” for a list of the official PINQUEST challenges, tap the league icon and start playing.
Our featured quests for the month include:
Avatar (JJP): 30,000,000
Pulp Fiction: 1,200,000
The Walking Dead: 110,000,000
Colin’s Challenge - Dune: 150,000,000
Top 25 scores plus 25 random players will receive a sweet Kineticist enamel pin.
I want one!
Learn more about PINQUEST here.
Save the Date for the Next Pinball Media Mixer at Pinball Expo
I’ve been getting a few questions about our annual Pinball Media Mixer event, held at Pinball Expo.
These things tend to come together quickly, so there’s not a lot I can say about it officially at this time, except for the fact that I’m excited to be working with a fantastic party host this year, and that we have our typical day, time, and location (Thursday, 10/16, happy hour time, Enterrium) locked in.
So save the date! Last year was a blast, and we’re hoping to create another memorable experience for you. I’ll share more official information as I can.
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 The Pinball Room.
A room of pinball
One of the less-useful features of Pinball Map is the ability to filter locations to particular types of places. This location type field, which anyone can edit, is not only limited to the location types that we admins deemed best to include, but also subject to the tagging whims of users. For example, we’ve noticed that people in Europe tend to tag nearly everything as either an arcade or a gameroom. If there are some machines inside an amusement park, instead of tagging the location as “Amusement Park” they’ll tag it as an “Arcade” (because the machines are technically in an arcade that’s within an amusement park). Which begs the question: Does the presence of a pinball machine turn any room - including a laundromat or a dentist’s office - into an arcade?
Anyway, it’s not a very useful field. And for some reason we have Restaurant as a location type, and also one specific type of restaurant as another type: Pizza Parlor. The some reason for that is thus: back in the olden days, we envisioned a scenario where a parent wanted to take their kid out for a treat - pizza and pinball - and we wanted that parent to succeed. We’re not sure if this scenario has ever occurred.
We might remove this “Pizza Parlor” location type at some point, but before we do it seems right to honor it right here and right now. The pizza place that stands out to me is called The Pinball Room, located within Boss' Pizza & Chicken in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Pinball Room has 20 machines, they host Belles and Chimes and many other tournaments, their machines span the eras, and the parlor has a pie called Founding Father that contains Canadian Bacon. How would the actual founding fathers feel about that (and why isn’t the name plural)? If I were to take my daughter here for a treat, and if I was not trying to manage my cholesterol, I would order The Guido, because I’ve never had a pizza with shrimp on it and my daughter likes shrimp. For pinball, I would play World Cup Soccer, and I would place my slice directly on the glass.
The Pinball Room
2111 South Minnesota Ave, Sioux Falls, SD 57105
Website
Links of the Week
Turner Pinball streamed their newest game, Merlin’s Arcade (which is also shipping)
Really enjoyed Don’s pre-Star Wars discussion podcast about the complexities of licensing
Punk Rock Pinball recapped the epic PAPA22 tournament, what with its 3 AM finish and all
In Before the Lock reviewed 20+ pinball mods
Speaking of licensing, Retro Ralph also went deeper on the topic in his latest podcast episode
Poll of the Week
Last Week’s Poll Results
“I think rules should lean less on going deeper, and more on trickier (like button-activated pathways at critical times). Lots of space for fun and fancy tricks there, while still be accessible to pick up and learn.”
“Pinball has always evolved. Modern pinball is just the current state of that evolution. With any luck it will continue to evolve and attract new players, and stay around for decades to come. I'm excited for the future of pinball. Plus, we still have new games with more of a classic feel being made, like Pulp Fiction. There's something for everyone.”
“I don't feel so. It's gets more innovative, which can only be a good thing and the standard of the artwork is truly stellar nowadays. At times, it's a case of information overload with regard to what is happening on the display screens - you can't hope to take it all in and not lose the ball - but it doesn't really detract from the experience of playing the game.”
“I thought that article came across exactly like an old uncle complaining about cell phones, or GPS in cars, or the internet..... "back in my day we walked across town and talked to our neighbors in person". Obviously everyone is entitled to an opinion, but arguing about advancing technology seems kinda "old man yells at sky"
“I have wondered how well a new “classic” game would do in today’s market. No LCD, single level, basic/easy to understand rules… I recently opted to get two classics instead of getting a new game.”
“I think the "fancy" in pinball brings you more immersed into the game. You are a part of it. You are brought into the world under glass. You are part of the story playing out. It's like that in modern video games as well. Arcade entertainment has evolved, mainly because the technology has advanced to create the ultimate entertainment experience. I like this advancement. No, you could not have that flirting scene in "Before Sunrise" with a modern game today, and that's ok. There are other games, such as pool, where you can still have small talk. Just my two-cents, for what it's worth.”
“I vote "No, it's not," with the caveat that I think the market still has a lot of room for less-"fancy" but still well-made machines. Between the success of "simpler" games like Pulp Fiction & Total Nuclear Annihilation, remakes of still-coveted '90s Bally-Williams games, and the continued popularity of earlier solid-state games for competition, I think there's a big opportunity for one of the industry's major players to start to put out robust, commercial-grade games with unique and challenging simpler rulesets, at a lower price-point than even a Stern Pro.”
“I'm saying yes only because I think more original content would be awesome. I know sales suck for anything not co branded (or whatever it's called) but like the author I don't care about any of the branding crap like call outs from a movie or artist; for me it's all about the shots, the art, and the playfield features.”
“Kinda sorta but no? Like I think machines like Pulp Fiction (no screen) are a great move and I would prefer seeing that in things like the HomePins, since those are not cheap. I also dislike the drive of having three different versions of machines, and the plebeians get the least loaded copy because it costs several thousand less”
“As much as I love the bling, pizzaz and cool toys modern pins have, there are many solid/states and EMs that are perfect and no more than they need to be (top of mind right this second are Mata Hari, Grand Prix and Panthera). Fancy seems to go hand in hand with complicated, too— some pins I’ve played for years now and feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface of their rules!”
“It's evolving, progressing and moving forward, which is no bad thing. The great thing about this hobby is you can still revel in and enjoy what's gone before, embrace the here and now and look forward with anticipation of what's to come.”
Thank you for reading!
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