This Week in Pinball, we’re checking in and rounding up some stories from the last few weeks in pinball.
This Week's Edition
Song of the Week
We’ve got an incredible pinball-centric reader submission this week. Mirror Match by New York’s Lip Critic was sent to us by Matt A., and it’s a song (and artist) that’s difficult to describe. Rolling Stone called their sound “utterly demented” in a lengthy profile following buzzy SXSW performances in 2024—totally a band I would have chased in my own SXSW adventures in the 2010s. Mirror Match is a cacophony of hard beats, aggressive vocals, and post-internet digital sleaze. Somehow it works.
What’s arguably most impressive about this song (for this audience) is the accompanying playable digital pinball game, Doppelganger’s Dilemma, which presents itself like someone’s interpretation of a memory of a meme of Space Cadet pinball, which was released in 1995, about 3 years before the oldest members of Lip Critic were born. It’s even got a leaderboard, and as of writing, the top score is BSJ with 66,297 points.
I wonder if anyone here can top it?
Pinball News of the Week
Things have been quiet following Harry Potter, but here are a few recently published articles by us and other interesting developments.
Moving Units #2
Our second update of the sales tracker for 2024/2025 releases went out to paid subscribers last week. It throws a bit of cold water on the King Kong isn’t selling discourse found in various community groups and points to some of the challenges faced by boutiques. These are fun to put together, so join the club and take a look if you haven’t already!
Six Great Pinball Sound Designers Who Shaped the Sounds of the Game
Loved this look at some of the best pinball sound designers of all time by contributor Noah Crable. It’s a part of the game that most pinball enthusiasts recognize as being an important part of the package, but that doesn’t always get the same level of community attention as other elements of the design.
As an aside, I’ve been fortunate to hear some side-by-side comparisons of the audio packages from BoF’s Dune, which Jeff Dodson (Dirty Pool Pinball) has been helping with, and it’s given me a new appreciation for that part of the game. Maybe we’ll do a post about it soon!
The Electric Playground Announces King Kong Topper
“0% AI Assets!”
It was a bit of a surprise announcement from our friends at The Electric Playground the other week for their upcoming “8th Wonder” topper for Stern’s King Kong. It features a 10.5” LCD screen with custom, hand-drawn video clips based on classic King Kong movie posters, original artwork by Maria Keller, and base versions for under $800. My favorite detail of the release was “0% AI Assets” on the graphic.
For Amusement Only Games Announces Steelbound
Nick Baldridge and his games development outfit For Amusement Only Games (Drained) announced the upcoming release of their next title for the P3 platform, Steelbound. Steelbound follows in the footsteps of Stern’s D&D in bringing RPG concepts to pinball. In Steelbound, “the protagonist must choose the course of their future: continuing their education or starting a career. While navigating this new world, form bonds with others, enjoy leisure activities, and pilot a giant robot to explore dungeons, fight foes, discover treasure, and unravel a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the world of pinball!” The game features a ton of custom music from Charles Wolf and artwork from Jon Chad.
I’m pumped to see how this turns out.
Zen Pinball Announces Pin*Bot for Pinball FX
For fans of Zen’s Pinball FX series, they recently announced the latest Williams table to come to their line-up, the 1986 classic Pin*Bot. In preparation for the release later this summer, peruse our tutorial that we released at the end of last year.
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 Silver Ball Social Club.
Trippy.
Imagine you are a pinball. You are a small shiny orb, fast and relentless, subject to the incessant pull of gravity when not flung upward at harrowing speeds. Your world is confined to a tight rectangular space packed with narrow paths, obstacles, and an onslaught of lights. The lights, as a warped reflection of reality, envelop you like a kaleidoscopic cloak, dispelling any chill of loneliness. You can glimpse through the glass a world beyond. Or at least a ceiling with a few lights beyond. You collide constantly against barriers, yet are always willing to recoil for another try.
The joy in your life comes when a human pokes their head above the glass, looks down at you, and then rockets you up into the only home you’ll ever know. Are you sad that your movements are at the mercy of another? Are you angry that you can’t control your destiny and so just want to roar and crash and smash? No, neither. You are a collaborator, trusted, with shared goals that you’re determined to meet. You’re a happy pinball, and you are strong and sparkling, though a little dazed from being battered around.
Silver Ball Social Club has produced a pinball mascot that we think encapsulates this spirit of a pinball, and that’s why we’re happy to formally reward them as this week’s winner of the Location of the Week. Their mascot is damn happy. See it below marching off to work, in Vancouver, Washington, proudly carrying a banner proclaiming their affinity to pinball. There’s a look of serene optimism in its eyes. And it will have company (maybe even friendship)! There are 36 pinball machines at SBSC. Their formal opening is July 19. But informally, between you and me, they are open right now.
Happy Daze
So please, enough with the angry pinball mascots who look intent on smashing through the glass and rampaging through the countryside, tipping over cows, cutting hard s-turns in the creeks, and bouncing off ranch house roofs. Pinball is a game of joy and of friendship, and I think it’s time that we spent more time imagining ourselves as pinballs and then drawing them with smiles. Thank you.
Silver Ball Social Club
114 E Evergreen Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98660
Website
Links of the Week
Great new episode from Slam Tilt Pinball Podcast. Despite knowing all of the stuff they talk about, it’s still a highly entertaining listen. That’s a heck of a skill.
Speaking of great new episodes, be sure to listen to the latest from Wedgehead Pinball Podcast, covering Stern in the 2000s with Greg Dunlap, who worked in the industry at the time. Greg also founded and runs Tilt Forums, which I recently referred to as “obscure, even by pinball standards”. Whoops!
For the tournament pinball fiends, Wizards & Warriors dropped a new episode and interviewed 2025 Yegpin Women’s champ Leslie Ruckman
Dirty Pool interviewed one of my favorite guys in pinball, Manu Smith of Mystery Pinball Theater 3000
Pinball Roundtable returned with a new episode where they spread unfounded rumors about the TWIPYs, but also complimented my journalism skills. I’ll take what I can get!
Stern released the full making-of video for their Dungeons & Dragons game. A fun aside—the production company that produces these videos, Most Visual, also made this touching short documentary about Bill Wisener, the late proprietor of Bill’s Records in Dallas, Texas. Bill’s Records was a shop I frequented around the time when this video was produced and as you’ll see in the video it was quite the experience.
Poll of the Week
We asked this question on Facebook this week (Where are my pinball hoarders at? Who has games in storage and how many?), and I was shocked at some of the responses, so we’re gonna pose it here too.
Last Week’s Poll Results
“AI art looks like garbage and should not be used anywhere. There are too many talented people that can create much better images.”
“Any idiot can use AI. We're paying for artists. ”
“If used right it’s a good tool for an artist. Provided of course that it improves the art outcome, rather than degrade it.”
“Using AI is a slippery slope unless there are rigorous processes in place to limit the use of AI. We as humans have had an unfortunate history of ignoring the boundaries and letting technology run amok, so it is better to not use AI than it is to use it and run the risk of AI replacing its creators. ”
“AI is based on stolen work and a huge waste of energy. It is stealing jobs from artists and making climate change worse. No quarter on AI.”
“Generative AI, leads to degenerative art.”
“AI art is theft from other visual artists, plain and simple.”
“Do we really care? Feels like we are just looking for things to be critical about. We need machines that don’t cost $15k and then drop 30% in the first 6 months. If AI can achieve better economics, than I’m all in. Rise of the Machines!!!!”
“Ban photoshop? Ban printers? AI is a tool. If it helps the artist, go for it.”
“It’s a tool and a reality today. It’s like asking if we should have color tvs or EMs vice gravity or solid state. Technology evolves and with it the machines. It’s not a big deal and I’m unsure why all of a sudden it is.”
“As of right now, no. We’ve already seen what has happened!”
Thank you for reading!
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