Make Your Choice

Song of the Week

I might lose some cool points for this pick (if I had any to begin with) but that’s OK. For our first newsletter of the new year and the one where we announce the opening of the 2024 TWIPY Awards voting ballot, I thought it made sense to lead with something that’s pure goofy cheese, the 2003 smash hit from The Darkness called I Believe in a Thing Called Love. 

I’d say remember this vibe as you’re perusing the TWIPY voting form. Let’s have some fun with this!

Sponsor of the Week

This Week in Pinball is gladly sponsored by our upcoming edition of The Pinball Community Awards, aka The TWIPYs! This year, we’re running The TWIPYs live on February 22nd, 2025, at The Wormhole in Houston, TX.

Limited tickets are available now. 

If you were a paid subscriber, you wouldn’t see this ad! Sign up for $4.99/mo to support our work and receive other perks like access to our private Discord chat.

Pinball News of the Week

2024 TWIPY Awards Voting is Now Open!

No need for long-winded prose on this one. If you’ve been following this newsletter this past year, you know we’ve been working on a refreshed version of the TWIPY Awards. Well, we finally finished building the ballot and a few other things, including updates to award categories, a new logo, and more, which we covered in a recent news update over the holidays.

We also created a handy voting guide (published both here and on twipys.com) that covers more information on all of this year’s awards categories and nominees. Give it a look if you need help deciding who or what to vote for.

Special thanks to this year’s generous sponsors: Stern Pinball, Planetary Pinball, MAD Pinball, Pinball Collective Australia, FAST Pinball, The Pinball Room, Silverball Swag, and Blake Dumesnil Designs.

Voting runs now through January 20th, 2025. Get going!

Stern Teases Dungeons & Dragons Pinball Machine

We’re expecting more information on this game sometime today (Friday) but in the meantime, if you didn’t see the teaser Stern shared earlier this week, have a gander at our article, which links to the trailer video and covers the few scant details we currently have on the game.

Next week, I’ll be seeing the game in person at Stern HQ, so more to come!

Jersey Jack & Pedretti Possibly Tease New Titles

Not to be outdone, two more pinball manufacturers possibly teased new titles in the wake of Stern’s Dungeons & Dragons news.

First, Jersey Jack shared an old photo indicating that the long-rumored Harry Potter game might be closer than ever. Or it’s just some clever trolling by the down-the-street competitor to Stern.

Then, Pedretti Gaming shared a cryptic teaser image that may or may not indicate the next Bally/Williams remake title in the works, rumored to be Tales of the Arabian Nights or Theatre of Magic.

Homepin Starts Shipping Blues Brothers Games

Shortly before the Christmas holiday, Homepin founder Mike Kalinowski told customers that Blues Brothers machines were in the final stages of testing and would ship soon. At the time, Hompepin wasn’t sure if they would get anything out the door before the New Year, but according to a post shared in the early hours of the 31st, early build machines were starting to ship.

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, Ryan writes about Sparks Pinball Museum & Arcade.

I differ from Scott in that I’m not from Michigan, so maybe I can’t speak to locations in and around Detroit with the same sense of familiarity. But that’s okay, because this column is mostly about pretending to know about a location, and I’m great at that. You just have to look at a map, scan some pictures, load a website, ignore all doubt, and then you’re all set.

When Sparks Pinball Museum & Arcade was first submitted to Pinball Map, my first reaction was “dupe” because I thought it was a duplicate location. And in a sense it was! But not in the sense that I, and perhaps you, first thought. See like, this is Sparks’ second location! Their first location is within Premier Lanes in Chesterfield, along the northern crust of Anchor Bay. They have 41 pinball machines there, and I for one thought that was the breadth of their collection. But they surprised us all and opened up a second venue, this one in Troy, which is 25 miles closer to Detroit’s central business district and is literally where Scott grew up.

The new spot is in Oakland Mall and has 57 pinball machines spanning from A to W (Ali to Winner). I can only imagine little Scott, prior to growing up and moving away, marching through this mall in his Docs looking for a fun place like Sparks Pinball Museum & Arcade or perhaps looking for exactly Sparks Pinball Museum & Arcade, and yet not finding it or its likeness because all were decades away from existing. So Scott, not knowing exactly what was missing in his life yet sensing deep within his chiseled chest a void about the size of a pinball, would wander onward into the Hot Topic in unit 360, put on his black vinyl apron and nametag, and commence his shift. (That is not a joke - Scott worked at the Hot Topic in this mall.)

Anyway, now it’s there, and while I can’t speak for Scott, I’ll definitely check it out next time I’m in Troy. They offer a $22/day pass, and well as other price tiers, and have non-pinball games like skeeball.

Sparks Pinball Museum & Arcade
412 W 14 Mile Rd, Troy, MI 48083
Website

Links of the Week

• LoserKid Pinball Podcast interviewed Stern’s Seth Davis.

• Pinball Map made a guest appearance on the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast

• Match Play Events shared some interesting end-of-year stats on Facebook, including the eye-popping factoid that there were 2 people in 2024 who played over 2,000 games of competitive pinball!

• Speaking of year-end roundups, Pinball Map also shared theirs. Seems like location pinball is in a good place!

• The IFPA also provided some end-of-year stats in its annual State of the Union, showing a 22% growth in registered events and a 17% growth in unique players.

• Nudge Magazine released the first episode of their new podcast, Nudgecast, with an interview with Stern’s Jack Danger.

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

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