Short & Sweet

Song of the Week

Lately, I've been completely immersed in Art d'Ecco's newest album, Serene Demon, released just a few weeks ago on February 14th. One track in particular, The Traveller, has captured my attention.

Initially, I was drawn to its irresistible dance beat, reminiscent of my favorite indie tunes from the early 2000s and 2010s. But beyond the infectious rhythm, it's the lyrics that have truly resonated with me. They beautifully explore the transformative power of travel—how opening yourself up to new experiences and perspectives can profoundly alter your outlook on life and the world.

The song’s visual companion adds yet another layer of artistry. Directed by John Smith (Strange Process), the music video is a mesmerizing creation, featuring footage meticulously rotoscoped, processed through vintage analog video hardware, and painstakingly crafted frame by frame. The aesthetic strongly channels iconic 80s vibes, evoking memories of David Byrne and Peter Gabriel at their creative peaks.

If you haven’t yet checked it out, it's well worth the journey.

Pinball News of the Week

Retro Ralph’s TWIPYs recap gets the top spot this week. It’s like a mini-documentary of the weekend of fun TWIPY events, and I want to loop it over and over again. We’re already starting to plan for next year, so if this looks like a fun time (it was), pencil it into your calendar for 2026!

A Night at the 2024 TWIPYs

The whole TWIPYs weekend is still a bit of a blur for me. Things are different when you are running the event versus attending, as it means my focus was more on making sure guests were happy, handling logistical details, extinguishing fires, and less on content capture. Fortunately, though, others were on the case, like our own Matt Owen, who wrote a recap of the awards show and detailed all the night’s winners.

Or Ian Jacoby of Nudge Magazine, who captured some excellent photos in a piece published to Nudge last night.

And, of course, there’s the Retro Ralph video, which gives the best look at what the entire weekend was like.

That said, there are a few other things worth highlighting from the weekend:

• Our album of rare game photos from The Wormhole’s Vault

• An update on the status of Billy P. Ball, Pinball Degenerate mascot and star of last year’s The Degenies.

• Eric Stone’s weatherman skit for the location awards.

• The archived TWIPYs live stream (part 1 and part 2). Despite early technical troubles (an internet outage in the area), we recovered and persevered!

• Nudge Magazine also recapped parts of the TWIPY experience on the latest episode of Nudgecast, including part 2 of the Kaneda interview.

Barrels of Factory Photos

On the Monday following the TWIPYs, I was fortunate to revisit the Barrels of Fun Factory while killing some time before my flight home. They let me run around with my camera, and I was allowed to take photos of almost whatever I wanted while workers were on the line. This article contains a handful of my favorite images.

Also, here is a follow-up to last week’s tease on BoF’s “something new.” They did, in fact, show us a new project during the TWIPY factory tour on Saturday. Since we all signed NDAs, I can only speak of it in generalities, but I can say that we did see a game, but it’s not game #2, and I would be extremely excited to see it hit the production line at some point in the future.

An Open Letter to the Pinball Community

Finally, let’s wrap this week with a piece I was pleased to publish, coming to us from Enzo La Pegna, who is part of Australia’s Pinball Collective (TWIPY Trophy Sponsor) and who you may recognize from appearances on Gonzo’s Pinball Flipperama. What Enzo highlights isn’t anything new to anyone who has been in the pinball community for some time, but it’s still worth having a frank conversation about.

Not only is it something I’ve experienced firsthand as a creator in the space, but it’s also something that comes up frequently in conversations I’ve had with other industry professionals and content creators. It’s an easy thing to dismiss or rationalize, but it is a problem and prevents many from participating in the community as much as they might under better circumstances, and that’s sad.

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 Bite Me Cake Co. / Flip-A-Coin Arcade Bar in Pueblo, Colorado.

February is the shortest month of the year. But it doesn’t have to be. A prophecy was once foretold by Aluminarf the Sterling that could change the course of the calendar. Aluminarf couldn’t talk or spell well, but he could make a duck beak shape with his hands and then kind of quack his hands like a talking duck, which his disciples took great pride in translating into prophecy. This one went like this:

Woe, if a pinball place aligned with the leanest month and coated in frosting had a fully maxed out line-up at the stroke of midnight on the eve of the next month (e.g., March), dawn will open its bleary eyes to a new machine, and thus… a new day.

But what does that mean, and why am I still reading this? Well, I’ve been querying the DB, and I have the answer to that first question. First off, aligned with the leanest month for sure means a pinball place that has one machine per February day. That is 28 machines. Coated in frosting. This likely refers to a bakery of some sort - a place that spills frosting either accidentally or intentionally. Lastly, fully maxed out is an easy one for me since I’m from Southern California and have been neck deep in maxed-out culture for my entire life and career. In this case, it means playing all the machines at the same time.

If we put these three clues into Excel the formula would be =CONCATENATE(B1, “ with “, A1, “ where “, C1) and then if I asked Elijah what it could mean, he would say, “What do you mean? It clearly says a bakery with 28 machines where all the machines are played at the same time at midnight on February 28.”

And Elijah would be right. So here we are, in Pueblo, Colorado, at Bite Me Cake Co. / Flip-A-Coin Arcade Bar. There’s frosting everywhere, but most importantly, there are 28 machines and a shiny dial of destiny. Only we and we alone (we meaning 28 pilots of fortune) can, tonight, fulfill Aluminarf’s prophecy. At the stroke of midnight, all 28 machines must have a ball in play (no draining), and if his duck hand was right, then we’ll wake up March 1 to a new EO declaring February as too short no more.

So, in short, that’s why Bite Me Cake Co. / Flip-A-Coin Arcade Bar is this week’s Location of the Week.

Bite Me Cake Co. / Flip-A-Coin Arcade Bar
223 South Union Ave, Pueblo, CO 81003
Website

Links of the Week

• Speaking of Enzo, he interviewed Stern’s Waison Cheng about the Uncanny X-Men code

• Wedgehead Pinball Podcast discussed women’s competitive pinball

• The Economist published a short piece about pinball

• Flip N Out’s Joel & Jared streamed Dungeons & Dragons with lead programmer Dwight Sullivan in attendance.

• LoserKid’s Josh Roop published another update on the pinball marketplace as part of their new pinball market trends series.

• There was a minor controversy in the largest Pinball group on Facebook (Pinball Enthusiasts), which 2024 TWIPY winner Cary Hardy covered in his latest video.

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

Thank you for reading! 

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