— This Week’s Top 5 Stories —

1. The Beatles Revealed

Last week, a website called The Beatles Store released the video promo for The Beatles pinball machine, which is the upcoming machine from Stern/Ka-Pow Pinball.  It is a reskin of the Stern Seawitch, and according to The Beatles Store article, there will be 1964 total machines made, with 1614 of those being a GOLD Edition, 250 being a PLATINUM Edition, and 100 being a DIAMOND Edition.

Here is a snapshot of The Beatles:

Physical differences between Seawitch and Beatles Playfields:

• A spinning disk with a magnet in the middle

• A magnet in the top middle of the playfield

• Lite Mystery stand up targets at entries to left and right loop (these were just posts on Seawitch)

• Mystery Award stand up

• A Super Jackpot shot behind the drop targets on the left side

• Additional spinner on left side of pop bumpers

HUGE thanks to Tommy Skinner of This Flippin’ Podcast (Podcast Garden, Facebook) for the following additional differences!

• Behind the drop targets on the left that have a Super Jackpot target behind them, there appears to be a path for the ball to return to the left inlane (see pic below)

• “There is now a one-way gate in the shooter lane.  Previously there was no gate there so a shot under the upper right flipper went back to the shooter lane for another plunge, now with the gate, a soft plunge is a skill shot, and shooting that under flipper shot appears as though it will likely just return it down that same path.”

Songs included:

• All My Loving

• Drive My Car

• I Should Have Known Better

• Ticket to Ride

• It Won’t Be Long

• (One (or more) other ones?)

Features

• LCD Display

• Multiball(s)

• Songs are modes?

• Wizard mode?

Pricing Rumors

OMGosh the pricing rumors are EVERYWHERE for this release!  This close to release, most rumors end up narrowing quite a bit but the pricing on this machine is harder to figure out.  We can only report on RUMORS at this point.  We are hearing is that distributors will obtain the Diamond and Platinum Editions based on the number of Gold Editions they take.  The Diamond and Platinum Editions can then be sold at the distributor’s discretion.  The Gold Editions will sell for a relatively normal amount, between 7-10k.  (Normal for what pinball machines cost today, anyway.)  Expect the Platinum and Diamond to be…quite a bit more.  Again, these are just RUMORS so take them with a grain of salt.

When will we find out more?

During a Google search for Beatles pinball, the link to The Beatles Store article states it is “Coming November 6th”, and we’ll probably hear more between now and then – we’ll keep you updated here on TWIP.

Expect to see and hear more about this machine from Stern in the coming weeks!

2. The Beatles License

Many rumors have been floating around over the years regarding the Beatles license, and regarding other pinball manufacturers that have looked into making a Beatles pinball machine.  We can now share some interesting information regarding other manufacturers that have gone after this title in the past.  Please note that this does NOT mean that these are applicable to Stern’s license deal, as things of course may have changed.  But here are some interesting notes from other manufacturers:

• The other manufacturers were approached by the Beatles licensors, and the manufacturers did not think the license would be very difficult to obtain (though of the manufacturers we discussed this with, prices for the license were not necessarily discussed)

• There is a group of licensor representatives that meet 9 or 10 times each year, and they had to vote unanimously to approve any license related items

• Any videos from the Ed Sullivan Show were not available

• Any concert videos were not available

• Album cover artwork (stills) were available

• As far songs, 15 seconds were available (or a short portion of the song was available), but the full songs were either unavailable or much more expensive

• A manufacturer was only allowed to make a certain number of the pinball machines, with the number tied to a year of importance for the Beatles (either 1964 or 1968, etc.)

• The machines could not be used for public performance, meaning they were not allowed to be put on location – though enforcement of this policy seemed to be a bit of a gray area

It will be interesting to see how the license deal that Stern/Ka-Pow has with the Beatles compares to these.  We should find out soon!

3. Stern Machines to go Online in 2019

Huge thanks to Ryan C. with the Head 2 Head Pinball podcast for catching this tidbit during the George Gomez seminar at Expo last week. You can catch the full seminar here, but one of the most interesting parts was this portion:

[Gomez talking about new technology initiatives] “For example, this coming year, your Stern Pinball machines will hopefully be online.  That is one of the initiatives [they are] working on right now.  Your code updates are going to happen sort of like they do for your computer, where if you tell the machine, “yes, you have the right to update”, then at 2:00 in the morning while you’re sleeping it will download the code and all that nonsense with USB sticks and SD cards will go away.  There is some other stuff beyond that is coming that is even cooler, but first step is to get us to that point.”

The code updates will be helpful, but the most interesting part is what they may have planned beyond updating the machines – we are very interested to see what they come up with going forward!

4. Elvira 3 Rumors

The new Elvira machine has been one of the more interesting Stern Pinball machines.  It was confirmed early on at the Texas Pinball Festival in 2017, and is one of the few machines from Stern that was confirmed early.  We are now hearing that Elvira 3 may be one of the Stern releases in 2019, tentatively scheduled for reveal in the fall of next year.

5. Multimorphic P3 Updates

Multimorphic sent out an update last Monday which shared new cabinet artwork for both Lexy Lightspeed – Escape From Earth and Cosmic Cart Racing!

The update shared:

We’re just back from the Houston Arcade Expo, where we announced a number of exciting new additions to our product lineup, all of which were on display on our machines at the show:

– New cabinet artwork for Lexy Lightspeed – Escape From Earth– New cabinet artwork for Cosmic Cart Racing– A high-definition backbox display– Software updates

Check out all the details and see additional pics here!!

Identify the pinball machine pictured below for a chance to win a limited This Week in Pinball Lapel Pin!  Drawing will be held monthly!

Last Week’s answer: Jurassic Park

Email guesses to [email protected], correct answers will be entered into the drawing for the limited TWIP Lapel Pin!

— Presented By —

This week’s Mod of the Week is the Pinball Trough Lighting Kit from Lermods and Mezel Mods!

Check it out!!

Stern Pinball

Most Recent Titles

Aerosmith  |  AC/DC Vault Edition  |  Star Wars  |  Guardians of the Galaxy  |  AC/DC Luci Vault Edition  |  Iron Maiden  |  Deadpool

Announced/Confirmed

NEW–>>  The Beatles  |  Elvira 3

Rumors of Future Titles

Primus?  |  The Munsters?  |  Steve Ritchie Black Knight 3000?  |  Superman 1978?  |  Beetlejuice?  |  Godzilla?

Jersey Jack Pinball

Most Recent Titles

Wizard of Oz  |  The Hobbit  |  Dialed In  |  Pirates of the Caribbean

Rumors of Future Titles

Willy Wonka?  |  Toy Story?  |  Guns N’ Roses?

Chicago Gaming/Planetary Pinball

Most Recent Titles

Medieval Madness Remake  |  Attack From Mars Remake

Announced/Confirmed

Monster Bash Remake

Rumors of Future Titles

Cactus Canyon Remake?  |  Theatre of Magic?  |  Big Bang Bar Remake?

Spooky Pinball

Most Recent Titles

Rob Zombie’s Spookshow International  |  Dominos (*contract game)  |  Jetsons (*contract game)  |  Total Nuclear Annihilation (*contract/house game)  |  Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle

Rumors of Future Titles

Licensed Title  |  Scott Danesi Second Game

American Pinball

Most Recent Titles

Houdini

Announced/Confirmed

Oktoberfest

P3 (Multimorphic)

Most Recent Titles

Lexy Lightspeed  |  Cannon Lagoon  |  Cosmic Cart Racing

Team Pinball

Most Recent Titles

The Mafia

deeproot Pinball

Announced/Confirmed

Fire and Brimstone  |  Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland  |  Magic Girl  |  Alice in Wonderland  |  Dennis Nordman Unlicensed  |  Dennis Nordman Unlicensed 2

Circus Maximus

Announced/Confirmed

The Pinball Circus Remake  |  Kingpin

Homepin

Most Recent Titles

Thunderbirds

Rumors of Future Titles

Unlicensed Title

Suncoast Pinball

Announced/Confirmed

Cosmic Carnival

Great Lakes Pinball

Announced/Confirmed

Exposé  <–NEW

Haggis Pinball

Rumors of Future Titles

Unknown

Pinball Brothers

Rumors of Future Titles

Queen?  |  Barry Oursler’s Original Theme?  |  Playboy?

Dutch Pinball

Most Recent Titles

Bride of Pinbot 2.0  |  Bride of Pinbot 3.0 (on hold)  |  The Big Lebowski (production/legal issues)

Silver Castle Pinball

Announced/Confirmed

Timeshock

Phénix Pinball

Announced/Confirmed

Goblin Contest

The Pinball Company

Rumors of Future Titles

Scooby Doo?  <–NEW