The Loneliest Voyage

I thought we’d be skipping This Week in Pinball due to a lack of news. That sure changed quickly.

This Week’s Pinball Agenda:

• Song of the Week

• Sponsor of the Week

• Pinball News of the Week

  • Haggis with a heaping side of Haggis

• Links of the Week

  • And more Haggis for dessert.

• Palate Cleanser(s) of the Week

  • For a balanced diet.

• Poll of the Week

  • Yeah this is Haggis too. Hope you like Haggis.

Song of the Week

I had pegged The Good Ship Lifestyle by Brooklyn indie-pop act Water From Your Eyes earlier this week before any Haggis Pinball news broke.

Released on July 9th, this catchy cover caught my ear by activating a corner of my cranium that has been dormant since roughly 1997, when the original track was released on Chumbawamba’s smash album Tubthumping.

Pay close attention to the lyrics.

According to liner notes on the album, The Good Ship Lifestyle is about “lifestyleism”.

Following the news that Haggis Pinball is closing up shop, the song's story takes on a slightly different meaning.

Now, I picture the owner of Haggis Pinball, Damian Hartin, as the captain of The Good Ship Lifestyle on his own sad, lonely journey through the world of entrepreneurship and pinball manufacturing.

Pinball News of the Week

Haggis Pinball Goes Dark; Enters Liquidation

I will echo some of the sentiments shared by Cary Hardy in his well-timed update video in that I do not enjoy writing these kinds of updates. No reasonable person wants to dance on anyone’s grave. As a fellow pinball enthusiast and entrepreneur (it sounds silly to say that sometimes, but it’s true), I have an inordinate amount of empathy for Damian, his efforts, and all affected public and private stakeholders in the Haggis operation.

I’d much rather be writing about Haggis’ successful efforts in building a pinball business in Australia than their failures, but here we are.

Most of the pertinent details are in the linked article above (alsosee Pinball News for more background info), which I wrote and edited in real-time as Haggis started pulling the plug on operations on July 17th.As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I had been holding off on pushing too hard on the Haggis story, as without official comment from Damian or anyone directly involved with the business, it all felt a little too one-sided.

But it was squarely on my radar, so much so that earlier this week, I was reviewing associated DNS and business records to find any solid fact to work from and had noted 8/2 as a possible date for movement, as it was when the haggispinball.com domain was set to expire. However, it all moved faster than expected as people started noticing the website had been made private and almost all associated social media accounts had been deleted.

I still don’t feel like I have all the details—the who-knew-what-when kind. For example, did Damian already know the company was in trouble when he accepted pre-order money for Centaur Revisited?

Regardless, as the leader (or “captain” as referenced above), Damian shoulders much of the blame for the decisions that got them to where they are today, and the impact that has on his employees and customers.

I’m also unsure how to think of Planetary Pinball Supply’s role in this story. As the authorized license holder for most of the Bally/Williams catalog, it was their choice to do business with Haggis in the first place.

Are their standards so permissive as to put their intellectual property assets in the hands of an unproven manufacturer with zero prior manufacturing or pinball industry experience? What did they think was going to happen?

After reading and watching a bunch of interviews with Damian over the years, I do think he got into this business with good intentions as most people do. But, like the captain of the Good Ship Lifestyle, he seemingly concocted his own faulty reality, confident he’d eventually find land, but never did.

What a lousy week for pinball.

Links of the Week

Take a trip down memory lane with some of these Haggis Pinball interviews.

• Made in Australia: Haggis Pinball (AusRetroGamer, 2019)

• Episode 285- ChrisThePintern Chats With Damian from Haggis Pinball About CELTS! (Pinball Nerds Podcast, 2019)

• Episode 453: “Damian from Haggis” (Kaneda’s Pinball Podcast, 2020)

• Haggis Pinball Announces Fathom Revisited (This Week in Pinball, 2021)

• My Interview with Haggis Pinball (Cary Hardy, 2021)

• Episode 304: Fathom Revisited by Haggis Pinball (Pinball Profile, 2021)

Palate Cleanser(s) of the Week

• An in-depth review of every (playable) pinball machine at Cleveland’s Superelectric Pinball Parlor (there are some funny takes here!)

• Nudge Magazine (sponsor) shared some highly compelling ideas around making competitive pinball a more interesting and approachable esport that might attract more casual players. I think a lot of these ideas would work!

• Pinball Shenaniganshad a conversation with Mike Hanley, who you may recognize as the goalie from World Cup Soccer! These kinds of easter eggs are so fun.

Poll of the Week

If you were financially affected by this development, feel free to share your story, and I may include it in a follow-up story next week.

Last Week’s Poll Results

Are you in or out on Godzilla 70th Anniversary Edition?

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ In (33)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Out (66)

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