Stern Pinball Begins Shipping JAWS 50th to Distributors + Walking Dead Rumors; New Williams Table Coming to Pinball FX; King Kong Topper; Game(s) of the Day
By knapparcade
It appears as though Stern Pinball has begun shipping at least a few units of its new JAWS 50th Anniversary Premium pinball machine to distributors. Yesterday evening, the Ohio-based distro Tilt Amusements shared a neat high-speed unboxing video of the game. According to the distributors who I have spoken with, Demand for JAWS 50th has been strong. Stern is scheduled to do a second production run of 50ths this fall. https://tiltamusements.com/ In other Stern Pinball news, though I wouldn't exactly call it news because it is mostly rumors at this point, after speaking with several people I am 100% positive that we will see a remastered version of Stern's 2014 pinball machine The Walking Dead. What I am not sure about is whether that game will be Stern's next release or if that will be John Borg's upcoming Star Wars pin. Stern has a hole in its announced production schedule in August, so something new is likely being built then. I'm kind of leaning towards the Star Wars cornerstone coming in August and Walking Dead in October. The Remastered Walking Dead will have an LCD display and Insider Connected with achievements and badges, like all other recent Stern releases. It will continue to have the core beloved Lyman Sheats code, likely with enhancements by someone like what Raymond Davidson did for the recent Metallica Remastered. There has been some speculation that the remade game would be based on the IP's original Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. I have read a ton of the original Walking Dead comics. I bought the Compendium Volume 1 and Volume 2. Man those things are big. Volume 1 was 1,088 pages! If you haven't read them, you should check them out. I have not heard anything definitive about whether the remake of the pin will be comic or still based on the AMC television show. One thing we know is that the widely panned art will likely be different. We'll see...
Zen Pinball recently shared a teaser of for a new Williams table that it is releasing on its Pinball FX virtual pinball platform next week. It's about time guys lol, the Bally Williams license for digital pinball has been languishing for months with nothing new. That's a far cry from when Farsight used to release a new "table" every month for The Pinball Arcade. Zen posted a clue about the upcoming table's identity on its Facebook page: "Here's what you know so far: it was manufactured before 1990, and sold over 3,001. " Any guesses as to what it is? We'll know for sure on July 17th at 1:00 PM Eastern.
The aftermarket pinball topper manufacturer, The Electric Playground (TEP), has begun teasing its upcoming King Kong "8th Wonder" Pinball Topper. Scheduled to be released in August, the unofficial topper for Stern Pinball's latest cornerstone game King Kong appears as though it will play video and come in two versions - a base topper priced at under $800 and an "LE Mirror" version. From the website: "To whet your appetite, here a few of the custom features we’ll be including in this topper: - A tastefully placed 10.5” (diagonal) LCD screen featuring custom hand-drawn and animated video clips based on classic King Kong movie posters, with the ability for owners to “Bring Your own Video” using the easy to access SD card. - Original artwork by Maria Keller, no AI junk here! See the teaser graphic for an early look at the topper artwork, designed to compliment your machine. - The Pro/Premium version of the topper will be available for under $800! - For LE owners, we’ll also offer a custom mirrored edition upgrade to compliment your lovely backglass. The upgrade can be added when you check out. - 25 total units will ship in August. - Super easy 20 minute installation, interactive with the machine. More surprises to come!" The King Kong “8th Wonder” Pinball Topper will officially launch in August 2025. Waitlist members will be sent the link 4 hours ahead of the launch so that they have the opportunity to grab one of the first 25 units shipping by August 31, 2025." I will report back here when more details are released.
Game(s) of the Day: 1982 Bally Midway Satan’s Hollow cabaret arcade cabinet. Designed by Bill Adams, who also worked on other games including TRON, Kick Man and Spy Hunter. Satan’s Hollow is a Galaga-esque fixed shooting game that uses the same type of flight-stick controller that was used in TRON (which came out that same year) but in red instead of blue. The cabaret cabinet is the rarest version of the game. As seen at the Morristown Game Vault in Morristown, NJ. PatmanQC, who sadly recently passed away, made a great YouTube video on the game.
Yesterday, July 9th, 1981 Nintendo’s iconic arcade game Donkey Kong 🦍 was released in arcades in Japan. It was released later this month, July 31st, in the United States.
Donkey Kong’s designer Shigeru Miyamoto had originally intended for the game to be based on Popeye, with the role of Mario played by Popeye himself saving Olive Oyl from Bluto. However, a licensing deal with King Features for the characters fell through.
The game went on to become one of the biggest video game franchises in history, grossing over $4.4 Billion Worldwide.
I’ve seen a LOT of Donkey Kongs in arcades over the years. This reminds me to grab some updated pics with the new phone next time I see one.
