We May Get Another Stern Pinball Machine from Jack Danger After All; The Passing of a Pinball Legend; The Pinball Church & More...
By knapparcade
During a recent presentation at the Dutch Pinball Open, Stern Pinball's Gary Stern and Jack Danger gave a very interesting presentation. One of the most noteworthy things to come out of it was a section by Jack Danger in which he said that he is not completely done designing machines. He is going to create a complete, licensed game on his own schedule, showing how a whole game is made professionally, working with various people at Stern Pinball to design, build and code a game. Once the process is done, he will have created a fully playable pin with code, art, etc... It is unclear if Stern will mass produce the game, but it seems as though they will.
Sad news out of the world of pinball this week, the founder of the Italian pinball manufacturer Zaccaria Pinball, Marino Zaccaria passed away at the age of 89. I have come to gain a tremendous appreciation for Zaccaria's games over the past several years, particularly after having the opportunity to play the largest public collection of the Company's games at the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum recently. Zaccaria manufactured between 40 and 50 pinball machines (I don't know the exact number) in Italy during the 1970s and 1980s. If you've never had a chance to play a Zaccaria, you can check out most of its games, virtually at least, in the fantastic game by Magic Pixel, aptly called Zaccaria Pinball, on Steam and consoles.
As usual, during breakfast yesterday, I was scrolling around looking for cool arcade and pinball stuff to talk about when I came across the Facebook page for a new arcade that is scheduled to open in the Pittsburgh area in early 2026. This is no ordinary arcade though, it's a retro arcade housed inside a retired Catholic church - complete with the original architecture—stained glass, vaulted ceilings, and altars, but reimagined with arcade and pinball machines, and lighting creating a completely unique atmosphere. The Church Arcade is being created by members of the Pittsburgh Arcade Collective. They were kind enough to share the story of this new venture with us: In early 2025, core PAC member Jon expressed an interest in buying a building for our (PAC members) games to be in. His only ask was that we all help him do it with sweat and comradery. That was an easy "yes, let's do it." When he found this vacant church for sale, we knew it felt right. And we've been dumping time and sweat in ever since. We held a "very soft" opening private friends and family only event in mid September (this was where the current pictures came from). It was a wonderful event. But there is much left to do to be "open for real." Answers to common questions: 1. When will you open? - Early 2026 hopefully. We don't have a date yet. Still a handful of stuff to check off the list before we are ready to open. Follow The Church Arcade for updates. 2. What are your hours? - TBD. Again, follow The Church Arcade for updates. But we are likely leaning towards an event based/membership based model. This won't be a "show up any time you want" place. This will be a community model where we schedule get-togethers and you put it on your calendar. Think tournaments, leagues, theme parties, or private events and rentals. We are evaluating options. Let us know if you have a preference. 3. How much will it cost? - We haven't decided on entry fee amounts yet, but we do know all games will be on free play, so you pay one price to play all day (or for a designated time period). 4. How many games / what games? - We have a lot of games. More than 6 people have their personal games here and are adding more constantly. As of this post we have around 100 video arcades and about 30 pinballs, but that's growing daily. 5. Is this PAC's official location? - Yes and No. PAC is a community and not tied to any one location. The Church is owned by a core PAC member and populated by games owned by PAC members. But the mission of PAC remains the same - to promote the Pittsburgh arcade scene - not just the Church location. The Church Arcade is simply an extension of this mission, not a replacement for it. This influx of attention caught us off guard. We should have the official website live later this week. In the meantime, follow The Church Arcade on Facebook, or use the sign-up form on www.pittsburgharcadecollective.com for updates. We appreciate the overwhelming love and support and look forward to enjoying games with you in 2026. Thanks! The arcade is located on South First Street Duquesne PA. Below is a link to the arcade's Facebook age so that you can follow along as they get ready for next year's opening: The Church Arcade
The folks at the amazing Dutch Pinball Museum reached out to me yesterday to share a fantastic walkthrough of their location with the King of Flow himself, iconic pinball designer Steve Ritchie:
Pinball Brothers recently shared some great pictures of its latest game Predator being built at its Euro Pinball Corp. factory and of the game at the recent Dutch Pinball Open.
The folks from the pinball distributor Cointaker recently took a trip out to the Dutch Pinball Factory and shared pictures of the Company's current game, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on the production line.
We've been lucky to get so many looks at pinball factories this week. Here's another one, this time from Spooky Pinball. Check out all those Evil Dead pinball machines on the line. Spooky is working hard at finishing up production of that game so that they can start building the next one, Beetlejuice in early 2026.
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Download the video instead.