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This Week in Pinball we’re keeping brat pinball summer going another week and coming down off our summer sports high.

This Week’s Pinball Agenda:

• Song of the Week

• Pinball News of the Week

  • The Tour de Pinball: who is leading the pack in the lead-up to Expo?

  • Magic Tricks: New Pinball Magic gameplay tutorial

• Links of the Week

• Poll of the Week

Song of the Week

I want to keep the brat summer vibes going for one more week, so I’m turning to another rising female pop star who’s striking a chord with younger generations of music fans. Chappel Roan’s latest single, “Good Luck, Babe!” is the one that’s breaking new ground (446M Spotify plays), but for the Song of the Week, I’m taking it back to a slightly older cut off of her 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, called “Red Wine Supernova.”

It’s the song I’m probably most familiar with, and the magic-themed music video is appropriate in a week where one of our featured pieces is a tutorial for Capcom’s Pinball Magic.

Pinball News of the Week

The Tour de Pinball: who is leading the pack in the lead-up to Expo?

Can you feel it? Something’s in the air. Could it be the beginning of a new pinball release cycle? We’re 60-something days out from Pinball Expo, and the manufacturer news and rumors are starting to pick up. You can almost see the manufacturers jockeying for position like cyclists in the Tour de France, breaking out from the steady pace of the peloton to drop the competition on the way to a stage win.

It may not always seem that way to casual observers of pro cycling, but much like competitive pinball, there’s a lot of subtle strategy involved (including some fascinating team dynamics) that sees competitors collaborating almost as much as they compete head-to-head. It’s a cat-and-mouse game of positioning, mind games, and more, all in an effort to get just a single person over the finish line.

In the Tour de France, 22 teams of 8 riders each start the race. Each team is typically built around a leader (GC or general classification riders, like this year’s winner Tadej Pogačar), a Domestique (generalist support for the GC), and various specialists (sprinters, climbers, etc.).

There’s only one race winner each year (the coveted yellow jersey), but there are also a ton of sub-goals (best climber, best sprinter) that teams and individuals can vie for throughout the weeks-long race. It’s not totally uncommon to see entire teams built around achieving a single one of these sub-objectives (see Mark Cavendish’s pursuit of the stage wins record this year).

With that setup out of the way, I wanted to extend the analogy by taking a look at each of the major pinball manufacturers from which we could see games in the lead-up to Pinball Expo. If we think of Expo as the end of a Tour stage, where would each manufacturing team be positioned, and what objective could they be riding for?

• Stern Pinball: As is usually the case, Stern Pinball is a GC rider contending for the yellow jersey. They’re in the lead group but currently hanging back, positioning themselves to make their final move in hopes of winning the stage.

• Jersey Jack Pinball: In moments like these, Jersey Jack is also a contending GC rider. The Vingegaard (2nd place in this year’s tour) to Stern’s Pogačar, if you will. Like Stern, Jersey Jack is gearing up to make their move.

• Dutch Pinball/DPX: Dutch Pinball and their subsidiary DPX may appear to be leading the pack for the moment, what with their consistent teases of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but can they maintain the effort, or are they simply clearing a path for the GC contenders lying in wait?

• American Pinball: Arguably, American Pinball is running its own race. It is in the back, dropped by the lead group, but pushing for a finish all the same. Its eyes are trained on an objective, even if that objective is just an after-race beer at the hotel bar.

• Spooky Pinball: They’re back in the Peloton, far off the lead group but in the race, looking at building momentum for the next major competition.

Magic Tricks: Test Your Skills Against the Society of Masters and Defeat Magna Matra in Capcom’s Pinball Magic

We’ve got a fresh new tutorial from Noah Crable on Kineticist this week. In it, he reveals all the secrets of Capcom’s 1995 game, Pinball Magic. And when I say all the secrets, I mean all the secrets, like how a certain final boss mode works that isn’t covered properly in other published guides for the game.

Links of the Week

• Cary Hardy released the first part of his Unboxing the Truth mini-series on the Haggis Pinball saga.

• Multimorphic Pinball announced in an email to customers that they are officially starting Princess Bride production.

• Stern Pinball had a trio of notable announcements, like the release of a new official speaker lighting kit accessory, a major code update for John Wick, and the start of the “Month of Marvel” with Wolverine’s Boulevard of Love on Insider Connected.

• Speaking of Stern, they are also currently hiring for a couple of mechanical engineering positions.

• Dutch Pinball shared a teaser image (above) of their upcoming DPX release, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland.

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Editors note: This is, without a doubt, the least engagement we’ve received on a poll question to date. Last week was a bit of a creative risk (albeit fun to write), and it’s honestly a relief to be able to take a flyer on an idea and see how it plays out. Thanks for reading!

Which pinball podcast is the most brat?

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Pinball Nerds Podcast (1)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (9)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Electric Bat Pinball Podcast (1)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ BASH Pinball Podcast (1)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The Pinball Show (2)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Wedgehead Pinball Podcast (1)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Wormhole Pinball Podcast (1)

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