Spooky Season

Keeping with the spirit-lifting vibe that we established last week with this selection of Brooke Combe’s How Can I Tell You, a one-off single release that’s a follow-up to her well-received 2025 debut album, Dancing at the Edge of the World. In both the album and the single, the Scottish singer works with producer James Kelley (The Coral), and I feel like if I squint, I can hear the pop stylings of one of my favorite Coral songs, Dreaming of You.

Anyway, I can’t stop listening to this one. Put it on as a palette cleanser when you come off the work day and head out for your Halloween shenanigans.

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On Sunday, Spooky Pinball dropped their much-anticipated teaser trailer for the hyper-hyped, long-rumored Beetlejuice machine, which follows up their successful release of Evil Dead last year. We don’t see a lot in the teaser, other than some obscured Christopher Franchi translite art and a demo of a new tech gimmick in the game, branded as Spooky Speak. To say the teaser was well received would be an understatement. While many distributors have been building interest lists for the better part of a year, it’s likely all distributor-allocated games (Spooky reserves some number of games for direct sales) are already spoken for with deposits paid. So pre-pre-sold out, as some have been saying. The game itself won’t be fully revealed until November 14th.

I have some questions about this approach, and earlier this week, I sent a note to Bug at Spooky asking a few questions, but I have not received a reply as of publishing. Besides some blocking and tackling details, the two big things I wanted to know were if he had any regrets about not increasing prices and/or unit count for a game with such strong demand, and if he was concerned at all that the game could be entering overhyped territory.

On the money side of things, much like the discussion about Barrels of Fun’s Winchester last week, as a small business owner, it hurts to leave revenue on the table. Imagine what the team could do with an extra 250-500 units sold; the investments they could make in their team, research and development, marketing, and more.

On the hype side, the risk here is that if Spooky doesn’t totally knock this release out of the park (and in the public comments I’ve seen by the team, they seem to be very confident), they could face backlash. Very few people have seen or played the game yet, and imaginations in the pinball community tend to run wild. The things people imagine this game should be may be beyond what any company could ever deliver.

Regardless, the game is already basically sold out, so all the hype has done what it’s supposed to do so far. Whether the game delivers is something else entirely, and what I’ll be watching for on reveal day and beyond.

Not to be outdone in the season of Spooky game reveals, Stern Pinball released the trailer for their long-rumored remastered version of The Walking Dead. We’ll get more details early next week (November 4th, to be precise), but we do know that the game will be offered in Premium and LE trim levels, much like Metallica Remastered, which was released last year.

The thing that’s interesting to me about this release is that it seems like an odd choice for the second remastered game from Stern. Mainly because the IP of The Walking Dead is played out by now, but also because copies of the original 2014 game are not hard to find on the secondary market and don’t really command a price premium, unlike the original Metallica. Pinball Enthusiasts are quick to bring up names of games they’d like to see remastered at some point, and rarely is The Walking Dead mentioned in shortlists.

But, it’s got a Lyman Sheats code base, it’s well-loved by tournament players, and a Borg-designed layout that, since Stern still employs him, can be easily revisited. I would imagine the license is affordable, and there’s always going to be a base of demand for NIB games from new pinball buyers or the home collector base. Including Insider Connected and associated achievements means some locations will snap it up, too.

I’m curious who they will have on code, what they will add or tweak from Lyman’s work, and what kinds of geometry changes will be introduced by Borg. I’m sure it’ll be a great release for them, but it’s just an odd choice from where I sit.

Be sure to catch up with our recently published tutorial for the OG game!

The last of our spooky-themed pinball tutorials for the month is a detailed look at the 1998 Williams classic, Monster Bash. I love playing this game whenever I get the chance!

Resident virtual pinball expert Noah Crable reviews the latest Bally/Williams recreations from Zen Pinball on the Pinball FX platform, which also look to be the final releases in this series for 2025. What could we see introduced in 2026?

Finally, here’s a selection of my favorite photos from the disposable film cameras we handed out at the Pinball Media Mixer this year. I get a little sappy in the write-up, but having two years now of these amazing artifacts from the pinball community is practically priceless.

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 TGI Fridays.

It’s Halloween, so you might expect this part of TWIP to be spooky or seasonal. It’s not. We’re talking about TGI Fridays. What started in 1965 as a sleek Manhattan bar for singles has since evolved into a global, neon-lit temple to ranch dressing. The chain kept its red and white stripes, its unwavering commitment to sauce innovation, and its bold promise that every day could somehow still be Friday. Fridays and I go way back. It was the crown jewel of my childhood weekends, a big deal in small ways. As a grown man, I like to think my palate has evolved. My last visit to a Friday’s was an ironic date in the mid-2000s, the kind where both people pretend they’re above it. But, tonight I learned that there’s a Fridays in Canada with a single pinball machine, and suddenly I’m twelve years old again, thrilled by appetizers and noise.

I’ll spare you the suspense and get right to the pinball. This particular Fridays has exactly one machine, Transformers (just the PRO). Maybe that disappoints you. Maybe you’re muttering, “The PBM location of the week should be transcendent. It should move me,” while glaring at your spouse. I get it. Not everyone finds charm in the idea of pinball hiding inside America’s fast-casual dining chains. But what if I told you this Friday’s sits inside an Embassy Suites whose lobby overlooks Niagara Falls? Would you soften your tone a little and apologize to your spouse? The view is spectacular, the menu laminated, and both are satisfyingly fine.

The TGI Fridays by Niagara Falls is located in the lobby of the Embassy Suites at 6700 Fallsview Boulevard in Ontario Canada. It carries a 2.1 star average on Yelp, with a recent review claiming that their burger smelled bad.

TGI Fridays
6700 Fallsview Blvd, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 3W6
Website

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