Spooky Pinball Buys the Rights to Jump In the Line for Beetlejuice; Wonderland Amusements Home Pin Videos; The History of Australian Pinball
By knapparcade
Here's some exciting news for owners and people who have ordered Spooky Pinball's latest game Beetlejuice. Back when the game launched, the folks at Spooky talked about how it was too expensive for them to get the rights to the Harry Belafonte song Jump In The Line from the movie for the game. Well, Spooky Bug continued to negotiate with the rightsholder for the song even though the pinball machine is already completely sold out and there was absolutely no incentive for him to do so...and he got it! Last night, Joel Engelberth and his brother Jared streamed Beetlejuice gameplay live on YouTube with special guest Bug from Spooky in his own special box on the screen providing commentary. That's when the acquisition of the rights to the song was announced. Jump In The Line is coming to the game as a brand new mode in a future code update. Here's Spooky Luke had to say on the subject over on Pinside: "I think I mentioned a few times that we were going to continue to negotiate and try to make it happen. I felt the first price given was an absurd amount. Bug has been working on it for well over a year and we finally were able to get a fair price and grab it for everyone. Still cost us wayyyyy too much money but happy to be able to get it lol. Bug goes through a lot trying to make these deals happen so buy him a drink at the next show for his troubles and our wallets!" Congratulations to owners of the machine. A great game just got even better. In other Spooky Pinball news, I believe that Spooky Luke went on to say in a different discussion that the Company's next game (strongly rumored to be based on the 1985 film The Goonies) is a widebody.
I shared this next article on Facebook yesterday, but it is so awesome that I wanted to share it here again for the people who missed it. It's a fascinating article about the history of the Australian pinball manufacturer, Hankin which built 1,150 pinball machines between 1978 and 1980, around 200 for each of its five different models. You won't believe how little they had to pay to license the rights to The Empire Strikes Back...one pinball machine! Iconic Australian-made pinball machines preserved for generations to come https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-12/pinball-machines-collected-nfsa-hankin/105971386
Earlier today, Stern Pinball released new code for its Star Wars: Fall of the Empire game, Version 0.92 - "Rebel Rebellion (Part 1)." Stern's Raymond Davidson and Jack Danger are going to stream the new code live from Stern HQ in a few minutes on the Stern Pinball Twitch channel. https://www.twitch.tv/sternpinball
I wrote a week or so ago that Wonderland Amusements, maker of the Alice Goes to Wonderland Home Pinball machine, has begun to ship games to customers. A couple of YouTube unboxing and gameplay videos of the game recently dropped. Here's vids from the Kongs-R-Us and TNT Amusements channels. As you will see Bee Kong's game ended up arriving with a warped playfield. Not good. From what I hear, some of the machines have the issue and some don't. For anyone who is interested, the game is now available to purchase on Walmart.com: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wonderland-Amusements-Alice-Goes-to-Wonderland-Pinball-Machine-with-LED-Lighting/19612551858?sid=401c0c7d-4439-4d8f-b9f2-969270028ec1&fbclid=IwdGRjcAQcRORjbGNrBBxE3WV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlPKevVFENrz58xzW2uJbURizP6gEuKJdtbs-BTnDfxR3G3dSH5Vj-tn_waA_aem_qZpbDDXqUxtEdXitOabfag