The Name of Jersey Jack's Connected System?; Rumor About American Pinball's Next Title; Rumor About a Future Barrels of Fun Game
By knapparcade
Hooray for March. Hopefully that means no more 20" snow storms here in the Northeastern U.S. Here's the first News update of the month... First up we have a new trademark filed by Jersey Jack Pinball. Yesterday JJP filed a trademark for something called "Jack In The Box." The trademark filing describes it as follows: "Downloadable computer software for interfacing with pinball and arcade game machines; Downloadable mobile applications for interfacing with pinball and arcade game machines; Downloadable computer game software; Downloadable computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones" It sure sounds this is the name of JJP's answer to Stern Pinball's Insider Connected. I hope so. I would love to be able to get achievements on Jersey Jack games. I am hopelessly addicted to hunting for them on Stern games already. The more, the merrier.
Next up we have a rumor about the potential first game from the new American Pinball. We already know that AP's first game under new ownership is going to be a reimagined Bally Williams game under license from Planetary Pinball. The question has always been, which game? According to the latest episode of Retro Ralph's Flipside podcast it may be the 1997 Williams John Popadiuk game Cirqus Voltaire. As long as Pedretti Gaming hadn't already claimed that title from Planetary, they are rumored to currently be working on remakes of Tales of the Arabian Nights and Theatre of Magic, Cirqus Voltaire seems like a very logical choice for American. It has high resale values. Below are the episode that I referred to and a couple of pictures that I've taken of the game on location over the years.
Next up we have a rumor about Barrels of Fun pinball. The Kineticist reported late last week that author Matt Dinniman dropped a bombshell during a recent interview that a pinball machine is currently in the works for his Dungeon Crawler Carl series of books. After that news broke, the pinball community chimed in and talked about how the new Barrels of Fun designer Karl DeAngelo is a huge fan of the book series, to the point that he actually went as "Dungeon Crawler Karl" for Halloween. I have to agree with the sentiment out there that it makes a lot of sense that Dungeon Crawler Carl may be Barrels of Fun's next small-run game, along the lines of Karl DeAngelo's current game Winchester Mystery House. I hope so. I've had Dungeon Crawler Carl on my to read list for a while now. After hearing that it may be a pinball machine, I dove into the first book of the series and finished about 40% of it this weekend. I really enjoy it. If Barrels of Fun is going to make a Dungeon Crawler Carl game, it most likely will not be next. Expect a bigger license from Barrels at some point mid-year, possibly The NeverEnding Story, or something that catches us completely by surprise.
Dutch Pinball recently announced that it has experienced another setback in its production of toppers for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. After its supplier informed them of a major delay with the PCBs that it needs for the Cheshire Cat's eyes it has decided to develop its own PCB solution. Needless to say, that will take time. Below is Dutch's official announcement on the situation: "Dear Dutch Pinball Partner, We would like to provide you with an update regarding the topper production status. As you know, we finalized the selection of a new vendor for the sculpt components. While that process is on track, we are currently facing an unexpected delay related to the eye display PCBs. The originally ordered PCBs had an 18-week lead time and were placed well in advance. We have now been informed by the supplier that delivery has been postponed from January 2026 to May 2026. This is, of course, highly disappointing. Immediately after receiving this information, we initiated the development of our own PCB solution. Prototype boards are now in production with our own supplier, and we expect to receive the first samples by the end of next week. After thorough validation and testing, we will proceed with full production. This additional development step requires extra time and resources, but it gives us greater control over the timeline. Once the prototypes have been validated, we will be able to provide a more accurate delivery forecast. If performance meets expectations, we anticipate delivery earlier than May 2026, which is the revised date from the original supplier. All other topper components are being aligned with the updated schedule to ensure readiness. We will ship in larger quantities as soon as the electronics become available. We fully acknowledge that this delay is our responsibility and does not reflect the standards Dutch Pinball stands for. Please be assured that every customer will receive their topper. Alice units currently in production will ship without the topper, which will follow separately once available. We sincerely appreciate your patience and continued support. We will keep you informed as soon as testing results are available. Hartelijke groet, Herzliche Grüße, kind regards, Barry Driessen"
This morning Multimorphic sent out a new Company Update. It is currently producing the fourth batch of modules for its latest game Portal. It recently released a new code update for the game that contains "new configuration options, multiball and jackpot enhancements, updated item and bonus scoring and a number of bug fixes." In the update, Multimorphic stated that its next game will not be ready to reveal in time for the upcoming Texas Pinball Festival, which takes place March 20-22, 2026 in Frisco, TX. Below is a new video from Multimorphic's Kevin Manne showing off the latest Portal code: