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Tariff Hangover
Hangover Pinball | Tariff Updates | Harry Potter News | Domains and New Games | Pinball Circus at Pintastic | Location of the Week | Links | More!
Colin Alsheimer
April 11, 2025 • Time to Read: 18 minutes
This Week in Pinball we’re mentally hungover from all the tariff news and getting ready for lots of travel to see upcoming game releases from Barrels of Fun and Stern Pinball.
Lots to cover this week, and there are a lot of images and videos, so you’ll want to pull this up in a browser. There’s no way I’m getting this under the 95kb limit for Gmail before it gets cut off! Plus, the comments from last week’s poll are great, and those are at the very bottom of the page.
This Week's Pinball Agenda
Song of the Week
You know, for a newsletter that’s ostensibly about pinball, I put an outsized amount of time and effort into finding these weekly song picks for you. It helps that it’s fun for me, of course, but like anything else there’s a whole process behind it. Mostly, it involves actively seeking out a lot of new music, and when I come across anything that grabs my ear, also being strict about bookmarking it for later reference.
Some weeks, this exercise is more fruitful than others. A week or two ago was arguably the most productive session in the history of this newsletter, where song after song after song was making it into my saved list. The first share from this crop was last week’s pick, Blest by Yuno.
The second is this bopping track by Australian artist Skeleten, called Love Enemy from his most recent album, Mentalized. Much like Blest, Love Enemy puts me in a better mood after listening. Watching the music video also makes me want to be a tall lanky dude for a day, but we won’t delve much deeper into that.
Sponsor of the Week
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Pinball News of the Week
First Look: The Hangover Trilogy Pinball
Leading off, we’ve got an interview with TWIPY winners Brian Soares and Reby Hardy, plus the first photos of the latest custom game from the duo, The Hangover Trilogy Pinball.
My Tariffs Have Tariffs
The industry has seen several official updates this week regarding the impact of Trump’s new tariffs on the production and sale of pinball machines. I think it’s important to note that we started the week (mucho tariffs for everyone) in a much different place than how we ended it (mucho tariffs for China, smaller tariffs for everyone else). And we still don’t know what the market will look like 90 days from now.
Here’s a quick timeline of events:
April 2nd: “Liberation Day”
April 3rd: Wonderland Amusements responds to a comment on their Kickstarter page that they “will handle the tariffs at whatever the rate is when the containers are received.”
April 7th: Dutch Pinball says they will prioritize production of non-US game orders of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and warns customers to prepare for cost increases if tariffs are still in place when US orders ship.
April 7th: Barrels of Fun states that they are attempting to “hold the line” on pricing for now, with pre-purchased parts stock in house for the next game already, but things are subject to change.
April 8th: Jersey Jack Pinball notifies their distributor network that they can begin accepting reservations for Harry Potter pre-orders.
April 9th: Trump announces a pause on most tariff increases for 90 days, as well as tariff increases for China.
April 10th: Pedretti Gaming announces that there will be no price increases for orders of its Funhouse Remake game.
What a lonely marketing asset.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. Why is Jersey Jack in this list? They didn’t make an official statement on tariffs! And you’d be right to think that. However, the way the Harry Potter update was rolled out (solely through JJP’s distributor network, backed by limited official marketing assets) came across as rushed and atypical for a standard JJP release. Plus, we had founder Jack Guarnieri just the other week talking about May/June launch dates and how the rest of the company wasn’t on the same page yet. It was not a conversation that would imply imminent reveal.
Given the timeline and tactics context, my pet theory is that the announcement was driven mainly by tariffs and future market uncertainty (and, of course, the fun of messing with the upcoming BoF and Stern launches). From my vantage point it looked to be a situation of “fire what we have now” to secure some firmer financial commitments instead of waiting till the game is ready for a proper reveal at a time when the markets could be well and truly borked.
Which takes us to our next story…
What Domain Purchases Could Reveal About Upcoming Games
There’s a transition here! One of the first to lead the charge on the Harry Potter rollout was Flip n’ Out Pinball, which had also managed to snag the exact match domain name, harrypotterpinball.com. That move was enough of a novel play (for pinball at least) to get some folks in the community asking questions and finding a few other rumored themes with domains already purchased. Curious!
This sent me down a deep rabbit hole, where I was eventually able to cobble together a list of domain names relevant to pinball fans that have been registered at some point between January 2023 and today. Including:
Not listed are a bunch of domains registered for games that have already been released, like dndpinball.com or jawspinball.com, for example.
Are these domain registrations indicative of games in development and rumored, or is it just hopeful fans collecting domain names?
Honestly, it’s probably a mix of all three. I laugh as I write this because it’s something I do often. You may notice gooniespinball.com redirects to a familiar destination, and just the other day, I picked up zidwarepinball.com. I do not own any of the domains listed above, however.
Stern Vaults Rush
That’s it. That’s the Tweet.
Pintastic New England Shows Off Pinball Circus Homebrew
In a surprise move, Pintastic New England announced that it would showcase a homebrew version of Pinball Circus, the so-called holy grail of pinball, built by prolific homebrew builder John "Lin" Manuelian. Some may remember that this game attracted some attention at last year’s Pinball Expo, where it was briefly on the show floor before it was removed due to a rumored cease & desist order. It’ll be available for play all weekend on the Pintastic show floor for those in the New England area.
John Manuelian shows off his Pinball Circus build. Thanks to Erin Seiden for the pic!
New Games Inbound
Next week, I’ll be flying out to Houston to visit Barrels of Fun for their game release and then to Chicago later in the week for Stern’s next release. I’ll try to get a newsletter or something out recapping my experiences, but with all that travel, it’s no guarantee.
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, Scott writes about Fuddruckers.
There’s a Mando here somewhere!
Anyone who spends more than fifteen minutes with me quickly learns that growing up, my family ate out for dinner six days a week, sometimes all seven. Weeknights were reserved for fast food staples like McD’s, BK, Taco Bell, Popeyes, and A&W. Come the weekend, we’d upgrade to spots like TGI Friday’s, Applebee’s, Chi-Chi’s, or Outback Steakhouse. On the rare occasion we ate at home, dinner meant Costco taquitos and a banana. Neither of my parents cooked, so this was just kind of how we lived. Among all these dining experiences, though, one place always stood above the rest. It was the perfect encore to a Tom Hanks matinee, and, if you were on your best behavior, might even be followed by a trip to Blockbuster Video (we watched a lot of movies). It was a place where entire sides of beef were displayed along the path to the cashier, like something straight out of Hellraiser. That place was called Fuddruckers.
Founded in 1979 by a former karate instructor, Fuddruckers carries a name that, disappointingly, stems from some inside joke among airline pilots. The chain was born from the earnest belief that America was in desperate need of a “better burger.” But here’s the thing: there will always be a better burger. Stop chasing the hypothetical and love the burger you’re with. Still, Fuddruckers got one thing undeniably right, they had a small arcade tucked into the corner, a feature most fast casual spots did not successfully execute in the '90s. And in that modest game room, I thrived. I happily dumped my parent’s quarters into Operation Wolf, Hard Drivin’, Xenophobe, and The Addams Family (the only machine I remember playing in the 90s). Then, with unwashed hands and a heart full of victory, I’d clutch a greasy burger dripping in cheese sauce and call it dinner.
Now that I have my own kids, we mostly eat at home. I cook vegetables for them and make sure to check the internal temperature of the meats I serve. Our dinner menus tend to repeat over and over again. Is this better than the childhood I had? I'm not sure. We talk at the table, but it’s usually just about what our cats are doing at the time. I read to them before banishing them to their rooms, but the books seem to drag on and on. Will they look back on this as a happy, memorable time when they really got to know their dad, or will they become one of those college kids that go wild on sugary cereal because they weren’t allowed to have it at home. Only time will tell.
According to your Pinball Map, only two Fuddruckers locations still have pinball machines. Incredibly, one of them happens to be the very spot I frequented as a kid: 40955 Van Dyke Ave in Sterling Heights, Michigan. These days, it houses a single, lonely machine: The Mandalorian (Premium), a game I don’t even particularly like. And yet, I can’t think of anything I’d enjoy more than pressing my cheese-slicked fingers onto its crusty flipper buttons.
Fuddruckers
40955 Van Dyke Ave, Sterling Heights, Michigan
Website
Links of the Week
Buffalo Pinball streamed Multimorphic’s Portal
Check out this rare find: a James Earl Jones-owned Data East Star Wars!
Erin Winick Anthony chronicled her time competing in the Texas Women’s State Pinball Championships
Pinball News discussed tariff developments.
Nudge Magazine interviewed Lloyd Olsen.
The Pinball Show discussed the decision to wind down The Pinball Network (TPN).
Jamie Burchell launched his new podcast, The JBS Show with Jamie Burchell
Poll of the Week
Last chance to guess! What's the next Barrels of Fun game?If you guess right we'll put you in a raffle for some BoF stickers and maybe a t-shirt if we have your size. |
Last Week’s Poll Results
“They will be temporary and markets will adjust. Americans have been getting hosed for decades. Pinball will be the least of our concerns if things don't change.”
“As someone who works in supply chain management, I’m already seeing the significant impact these tariffs are having on prices. Wages have not kept up with inflation for a very long time, so as people have even less money in their pockets, discretionary expenses like pinball will take a hit. A totally unnecessary bullet in the foot of American manufacturing to own the libs.”
“This will hurt every manufacturer but will possibly kill all EU companies as the majority of the market is in the US not Europe. Will anyone keep their order for Alice at $15K?”
“The silence on this issue from every single manufacturer is absolutely deafening. If they're not internally freaking out right now, they are absolutely wishcasting. Unless something changes, these next few releases could be the last from each manufacturer with a reasonable price-tag. Jersey Jack in particular is in an unbelievably bad position, given they gambled (incorrectly) on raising prices an exceptional amount at the tail-end of COVID, and didn't correct it. Unless the tariff situation changes, this could be the worst thing to happen to pinball since the dark days of the '00s.”
“America will not be able to domestically produce all the components required to manufacture a pinball machine. Thus, producers will have to pay the increased costs of imported parts and this increase in cost of manufacturing will be passed on to consumers, both domestic and foreign. Predicting a significant shrinkage in the market, a real shame as this industry hasn't looked so healthy and vibrant for a generation. Extremely disappointed.”
“Canadian here, I love the USA with all my heart…. But that tariff crap with hurt both of us tremendously, nobody will win in our hobby… nobody, I own 14 games and I’m not planning to add no more games for a while. Regards”
“A 10% Tariff will increase prices in Australia by close to 25% due to Tariffs inbound on components and adding a further 10% outbound. Trump is a Goose. Not a Golden one either. He will make Millions if not Billions of people suffer worldwide for a small percentage of Americans of which only 1/3 of probable voters actually voted for him. Let me add that that America is still only a dot of the worlds population.”
“We survived Biden's dementia-fueled economics policies, which gave us 9% inflation and 7% interest rates on home loans. Trump's actions can't be any worse than that. If you get bummed out listening to the so-called News, take a break and play some pinball, you will feel much better; I know that I do. Hank 714”
“Impossible to avoid when at least 50% of the necessary electronics and electrical (motors, switches, etc) are from suppliers off shore. That said the 10% tariff will only affect the manufacturer cost price of the item which is nowhere near 10% of the finished machine cost of going out the door. Manufacturers that blindly add 10% to their finished product are either stupid or lazy or both as they will simply hurt their market share. Builders like Stern will understand their real costs and pass on only what is necessary on the finished product, probably about 3-4%.”
“Name me one industry these WON'T have a negative impact on? Pinball is no different, we're all screwed by this boneheaded move.”
“Globalization is here to stay, and Trump’s tariff fantasies are outdated and idiotic. I learned about supply and demand in high school economics, and this goes against all of that. “Trust Trump” is the most hilarious response to the uncertainty. America and our retirement accounts will be bankruptcy stop #7.”
Time for the leopards to come out and feast.”
“This is 2025...trade occurs in a 'global' marketplace. The recently applied tariffs are punitive in nature and only serve to negatively disrupt commerce across the full value-chain (that was working just fine). The pinball industry is not immune and regrettably will suffer. It's a matter of basic economics.”
“Keep politics out of fucking pinball!!!!!”
Thank you for reading!
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