American Pinball News; The Lego Pinball Rumor; New Modes for Winchester Mystery House & More
By knapparcade
Friday, Friday, Friday! Happy almost weekend everyone. I'm going to start today's news off with information coming out of the new American Pinball. Earlier this morning, AP shared a cool picture of its new 100th Anniversary Houdini pinball machine on the production line at its Palatine, Illinois factory. I love the new cabinet art by Christopher Franchi. The game is shipping out to customers and distributors now. In other American Pinball news, they recently gave us some details on the upcoming new code update for Galactic Tank Force (GTF), which is "coming soon." The new code will include - A new Tank Zuku Mini Wizard Mode that players reach when they get through all of the tanks. - 2 New extra balls, one comes from battling tanks and the other comes from finishing missions (the game currently only has one in it). It will be user adjustable. - A new in-game status menu - Lots of lighting tweaks and bug fixes This will be the first of several code updates for the game. Future updates will include additional gameplay improvements and the final Wizard Mode. Beyond this new code, American is going to release a new center tank sculpt by Lior's The Art of Pinball to replace the one in the original game. This new and improved tank sculpt will be pre-installed on all new GTF new machines. The new GTF machines that AP is building will also include new armor powder coating. Lastly, AP is also working on a brand new topper for the game, which will feature art from Christopher Franchi. The topper will have a few unique configurations). American Pinball plans to bring the new and improved Galactic Tank Force to its booth at the upcoming Southern Fried Gaming Expo, which takes place in Atlanta, Georgia from July 31st through August 2nd (https://gameatl.com/ ). Between all this and American's announced upcoming "Remaster" of Bally's 1997 Cirqus Voltaire the folks over at AP have been busy.Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Download the video instead.
Since I published yesterday's article containing a rumor that Jersey Jack may be working on a game based on Michael Jackson, I've done a lot of thinking and research on the idea. According to everything that I've read, the license for a Michael Jackson pin would likely be mindbogglingly expensive. Now that hasn't stopped Jersey Jack in the past, they were able to pay big bucks for the Harry Potter license - but that doesn't mean that it's not an obstacle. Also, some of his songs, particularly Thriller, are said to be very complex to license. Would JJP be willing to make a Michael Jackson pin that is missing a major song or two? I'm not sure. One thing I do know is that I still believe a Van Halen pinball machine is coming from JJP. Some people didn't read my previous article and just assumed from the headline that I was switching my prediction from VH to MJ. That's definitely not the case. I strongly believe that we are getting JJP VH and that we might get a JJP MJ.
Rumors and speculation about future products aren't limited to the world of pinball. They happen in all hobbies...like Legos for instance. Talk in the Lego forums is that the company is going to release a functional pinball Lego pinball machine on July 1st. According to the chatter, the kit (#11374) will contain 2,274 pieces, include two minifigures - a Light Blue Astronaut and a Light Blue Spacebaby, be for builders who are 18+ and cost $199.99. So keep an eye out for that this summer. I'm very curious to see what it looks like and how it works!
Last up, we have a new code update for Barrels of Fun's latest pinball machine Winchester Mystery House. I've actually been talking about this game all week after having personally played it for the first time on Saturday. What a fantastic game. The theme integration is absolutely amazing. I love the art and the music and the unique playfield layout. Yes it's hard, but not every game has to be super easy. IMHO this game is a home run. I've included several pics that I took of the game that I played at Scrappleland in Brooklyn, NY below. The new code contains more rooms in the house for players to explore - adding Sarah's Bedroom and the iconic Hall of Fires: SARAH'S BEDROOM Henry has taken possession of Sarah. Free her from his control! HALL OF FIRES The Cinder Man comes... Douse the fireplaces quickly before he sets the room ablaze with supernatural flames! Below are two videos on the new code, the first from Jeff Dodson, the game's sound designer, on his dirtypoolpinball YouTube channel and the second a stream of the Sarah's Bedroom mode from the "Pinbolls" YouTube channel.
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