Rumor: Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball is on the Line at JJP; Big Spooky Update; Holy Frijoles
By knapparcade
The pinball world is likely to heat up as we approach the end of the May. Over the next several weeks we will likely end up getting a whopping three new games. I heard an interesting rumor this afternoon that Jersey Jack Pinball has paused tours of its Elk Grove Village, Illinois facility because its next pinball machine is already on its second production line. That may mean we'll see Steve Ritchie's Sonic the Hedgehog pin sooner than I had expected. Right behind that will likely be Stern Pinball's Transformers by Elliott Eisman and a new Bally Williams remake from Pedretti Gaming.
Yesterday's YouTube stream from Bug at Spooky Pinball contained all sorts of awesome updates on the company. Here are my notes: - Production is currently dedicated almost entirely to Beetlejuice, with a target of roughly 100 games per month (subject to fluctuation). They're now building in the upper 200s. Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, and TCM are still selling through stock as fast as Spooky can build them, and Bug joked he wishes he had a 13th month in the year just to catch up on non-Beetlejuice builds. - Shotgun handles for Evil Dead — all 300+ shipped. Bug said they lost money on these and likely won't do another mod that complex. - Dead Bars for Evil Dead — all 398 shipped. Currently pulled from the website while they sort out future production. - Dead Bars for Looney Tunes & TCM — confirmed in development. These will convert the white apron lights to RGB. Ben has finished his portion of the code; Eric Priepke is handling programming. - New LCD screens — the upgraded display in Beetlejuice is being tested for compatibility with older Spooky games as a retrofit option. - A large quantity of Dead Ring speaker ring for undercab lighting is arriving from China soon, with testing planned across multiple games beyond just Evil Dead and Beetlejuice. - Spooky Luke and Bug have been slowly working on an original game that he and Luke plan to fully complete and sit on for a rainy day. - Bug said that he would generally like to keep Spooky's production levels at right around where they're at. Whew, that's a lot of info. Kudos Bug.
Next up is a local news segment on the amazing collection of pinball machines at the Holy Frijoles bar in Baltimore, Maryland. They were kind enough to give my friend Rob and I a tour of the place on an arcade road trip several years ago. It's a must-visit if you're in the Baltimore area.
We also got another local news piece on Next Level Pinball's massive arcade in Oregon earlier this week: Oregon museum houses one of the world’s largest pinball collections Hillsboro facility features 238 pinball machines and 265 arcade games with flat-rate admission
Last up, Stern Pinball streamed the latest code update for its Pokémon pinball machine: