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Attack From Mars Pinball Promo Video – It’s deliciously cheesy

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You all know how much we love the Attack From Mars pinball machine – we love it so much that we jumped on-board and bought the Attack From Mars Remake back in 2017.

This machine is one of those timeless classics which always comes up in many ‘top pinball machines of all time’ lists. Our interest is always piqued whenever we find information or other content about this game, so when we came across the original promo video, we thought we’d share it with you all. The promo video is just as cheesy as the actual theme, which makes it perfect!


source: Jan van den Munckhof

 

Underpin: A Physical Undertale Pinball Machine!

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Checking out all of the custom and homebrew pinball machines showcased at the 2017 Midwest Gaming Classic (MGC) event, Kelly Corcoran (aka: Gornkleschnitzer) was inspired to create a physical Undertale pinball machine!

Making pinball machines is not an easy feat, but when you have talent, passion, perseverance and patience, anything is possible. Having all of these traits in abundance, Kelly commenced this project by choosing a theme and then creating the playfield design utilising Visual Pinball.

For those that want to nerd out on the specifications, Kelly initially set the game up to be driven by a Raspberry Pi 3B, but then ran into serious performance issues when trying to push full-screen animation (via the Allegro video game library) to the LCD. The Raspberry Pi setup was superseded with a full desktop motherboard inside the cabinet. The playfield is controlled by a trio of Teensy 3.5 boards.


source: Kelly Corcoran

With the Underpin machine being completed two years to the day, it was apt that the Undertale Pinball Edition custom pinball machine made its debut at the 2019 Midwest Gaming Classic event. Kelly advises that there are modes and features that still need implementing with a future software overhaul, but the entire experience had been massively fun and frustrating, but the custom pinball creating bug has bitten hard. We can’t wait to see what Kelly comes up with next!

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press is here to spread the word on everything pinball across the known universe. For business / PR email: [email protected]

Follow Pinball Press on Twitter and Facebook

 

 

 

[story source: Pinside and HackADay]

 

Enter A World of Pure Imagination with Jersey Jack Pinball’s Willy Wonka and the The Chocolate Factory

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Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) has unveiled their latest and possibly their greatest pinball machine, the Pat Lawlor designed, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!

The unveiling took place earlier today (April 13 – Australian time) at the 2019 Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in front of a jam packed crowd and streamed live to tens of thousands around the world via the awesome Buffalo Pinball team.

This pinball masterpiece was designed by the legendary Pat Lawlor, designer of Dialed In!, Twilight Zone, and over a dozen other classic games, including the best-selling pinball machine in history, The Addams Family. With this kind of pedigree, we always knew that JJP would not disappoint with a Willy Wonka pinball machine.

All three models of the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory™ pinball machines include:

  • four flippers
  • six balls
  • a captive ball
  • seven magnets
  • the Everlasting Gobstopper™
  • the Most Secret Machine™
  • Oompa Loompa™ camera sculpture
  • 7” Wonkavision™ LCD
  • a 27” HD LCD screen with interactive 3D animations
  • and candy-colored LED light shows

Gameplay features four multiballs, collecting Wonka Bars™, spelling Scrumdiddlyumptious™, touring Wonka’s Factory™, and a host of other goodies to lead you down the chocolate river to three wizard modes, including Pure Imagination™. Scenes and dialogue from the original 1971 film directed by Mel Stuart, starring Gene Wilder are showcased bringing this exciting theme to life. This pinball machine is the epitome of the old pinball adage, ‘a world under glass’.

The Australian (AU$) pricing for all three models is as follows:

  • Willy Wonka Standard Edition: $12,490.00
  • Willy Wonka Limited Edition: $15,490.00
  • Willy Wonka Collector’s Edition: $19,990.00

From first impressions, Willy Wonka looks terrific and seems to have all the hallmarks of becoming a pinball masterpiece. We honestly can’t wait to enter this pinball world of pure imagination with Jersey Jack Pinball’s Willy Wonka and the The Chocolate Factory!

image source: Jersey Jack Pinball

 

Stern Pinball Releases Black Knight: Sword of Rage – A Game 40 Years In the Making!

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Stop the press peeps! This new Steve Ritchie designed Stern Pinball machine has been 40 years in the making. The iconic pinball character, the Black Knight, returns to entertain a new generation of pinball players with the third game in the Black Knight franchise, Black Knight: Sword of Rage.

For the first time ever, players will explore, discover, and unlock the secrets of the Black Knight universe.  Navigating through these dark, mysterious, and twisted realms, players will uncover foes, demons, riches, and secrets in their quest against the Black Knight.  Black Knight: Sword of Rage pinball machines will be available in Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models.


source: Stern Pinball

“There’s nothing more iconic in the pinball universe than the Black Knight character,” said Gary Stern, Chairman and CEO of Stern Pinball, Inc.  “Created by game designer Steve “The King” Ritchie, the Black Knight has always taunted and antagonised players to battle him and now, for the first time, players will be able to fight back.”

Stern’s Black Knight: Sword of Rage Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models feature stunning and distinctive hand-drawn art in homage to this pinball icon.  Each game features a custom sculpted, interactive, and multi-functional Black Knight bash toy. This interactive Black Knight toy features a bi-directional motorised flail, a glowing RGB helmet with individually controllable expressive lighting to interact and taunt players with custom speech, and a sliding coil-driven shield that will bash and block your shots.

All models include the distinct “Magna-Save”, a player-controlled magnet used to prevent a ball from draining, and timed resetting drop targets.  In addition, Black Knight: Sword of Rage features a legacy sound package composed and performed by Scott Ian of Anthrax with Brendon Small, adrenalising the audio experience for players on their journey, and custom speech by Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.

The Premium and Limited Edition models both feature a transparent upper playfield with a distinct 3-ball lock mechanism, giving players the ability to achieve a 6-ball multiball.

The Limited Edition – 600 units globally – includes additional unique features such as an exclusive mirrored backglass, anti-reflection pinball glass, shaker motor, exclusive custom art blades, a custom autographed bottom arch, a sequentially numbered plaque, and exclusive battle art custom themed cabinet artwork.

Complementing the immersive theme and exciting gameplay experience, Stern Pinball’s powerful SPIKE™ electronics hardware system enables high-definition graphics and innovative animations on the high-definition video display.  SPIKE™ reduces system complexity and energy usage resulting in enhanced reliability and simplified servicing. The state-of-the-art electronic system also powers a high-fidelity 3-channel audio system that is three times more powerful than audio systems of previous generations.

Pricing and Availability:

Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (we’ll update this post once we have the $AUD pricing)

  • Pro Model: $US 5,999
  • Premium Model: $US 7,599
  • Limited Edition Model: $US 8,999

Black Knight: Sword of Rage pinball is available through authorised Stern Pinball distributors and dealers around the world.

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press is here to spread the word on everything pinball across the known universe. For business / PR email: [email protected]

Follow Pinball Press on Twitter and Facebook

 

 

 

Homemade Pinball Machines

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Here we were thinking we were cool making our own pinball machine using the PinBox 3000.

Well we’ve been shown up by the MuruzCe Fun Education Turkish YouTube channel! Check out their very cool homemade pinball machines – we love the implementation of their multi-ball! Amazing stuff!


source: MuruzCe Eğlenceli Eğitim


source: MuruzCe Eğlenceli Eğitim

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press is here to spread the word on everything pinball across the known universe. For business / PR email: [email protected]

Follow Pinball Press on Twitter and Facebook

 

 

 

Doom Pinball: A One Of A Kind Pinball Machine

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Imagine if you will, Doom, one of the best First Person Shooter (FPS) video games of all time, was somehow turned into a pinball machine.

Well, imagine no more, as Pinsider Bonnevil69 has created a custom pinball machine based on the brilliant game Doom. If there was a video game that was perfect for a pinball theme, then Doom is certainly it!
This labour of love took some time to be made, but boy oh boy, was it worth it. Using Mutlitmorphic’s P3-ROC pinball control system as the brains of the machine, Bonnevil69 also used  the pinball programming Skeleton framework to build the software and ruleset of the game.

Our only wish would be for this machine to be mass produced, but alas, that will probably never happen.

[source: Pinside]

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press is here to spread the word on everything pinball across the known universe. For business / PR email: [email protected]

Follow Pinball Press on Twitter and Facebook

 

 

First Impressions: Stern’s The Munsters Pro Pinball

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When Stern Pinball Inc. unveiled their latest machine, The Munsters on January 8 at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, it generated such a buzz in the pinball world, that the Limited Edition (LE) models sold out worldwide almost instantly!

We may not be able to experience the glory of the LE machine, but when Zax Amusements invited us to the unboxing and the offer to play The Munsters Pro pinball machine, that was definitely an offer we could not refuse.

With The Munsters, Stern promises that we will be transported to 1313 Mockingbird Lane, joining the entire Munsters family, from Herman, Lily, Raven, to Spot and Grandpa in this cool haunted pinball adventure.  Stern Pinball’s Chairman and CEO, Gary Stern succinctly put it like this, “The Munsters are iconic and timeless, and it was time to create a pinball experience around this freaky-fun family.  With beautiful artwork inspired by the supernatural family, this theme is perfect for a pinball machine” – we could not have said it better, really!


source: Ausretrogamer – Facebook

As this machine is still evolving (with its code base), we can only offer out first impressions based on the current Dwight Sullivan code. As a lot of you know, we are huge fans of John Borg designed machines, with The Walking Dead being our favourite Stern machine in recent times. The excitement for The Munsters has been brewing for a little while, and with Borg designing it and Christopher Franchi on art, we knew we were in for a treat. Our only apprehension was with Dwight Sullivan being on code, but that may have been down to us being mediocre players that don’t necessarily like playing games with deep rulesets. To our pleasant surprise, the design and ruleset (so far!) of The Munsters is pure damn fun! We love the fan layout, with each shot feeling great when hitting targets, Grandpa’s ball scoop, the Herman bash toy and of course the two ramps, especially the 180 degree high speed gravity defying right ramp! Oh yeah, the visual look of the machine speaks for itself, so Christopher Franchi should be commended for his stunning and distinctive hand-drawn art.

This is where the magic happens!

After playing The Munsters, we can safely say that on first impressions, we really really like it. The theme integration is awesome – we never get sick of the artwork, the LCD visuals and the sounds from the TV show. The game made us feel like hitting the start button immediately after we drained our last ball from our previous game, so the game did have a high replayability for us – which is good news for operators routing this machine.

We also asked PAPA 20 Division B World Pinball Champion, Jordan Tredaway to give us his first impressions from an expert player’s perspective – he was quite open and upfront stating that the game shot well and hitting the ramps felt good. That’s a big plus coming from a champion pinball player.

There will never be a pinball machine that will make everyone happy, but just like everything else in life, variety is the spice of life, and in this instance, gives us the option to try all these new pinball machines to see if we like them or not. As it currently stands, we are big fans of The Munsters Pro and cannot wait for the Premium model to land in Australia – that lower playfield and of course, that beautiful black and white artwork has us intrigued!

If you are yearning for some fun pinball action, go and play The Munsters! You never know, you may just like it.

A big thank you to Scott and Phil from Zax Amusements for inviting us to check out and play Stern’s The Munsters Pro pinball machine.

 

 

Belles & Chimes Melbourne – A Pinball Group For Women

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Pinball should be enjoyed by all, so it was awesome to find out that there is now an official Belles & Chimes Melbourne chapter up and running!

If you haven’t heard of Belles & Chimes, it is a pinball league for women that started in the US, with chapters popping up all around the world, including Melbourne – which is simply awesome news.

The Belles & Chimes Melbourne chapter is open to women (cis and trans) and non-binary pinheads of any diverse background and skill level living in this great city. The inclusiveness of this group ensures that everyone gets to experience and enjoy playing pinball.

Belles & Chimes Melbourne will have meet-ups as well as their own tournaments in the near future, so if you are keen on pinball and would like to get involved, join their Facebook group to keep up to date and follow them on Instagram.

For more information about Belles & Chimes and chapters around the world, check out their site.

Pinball enjoyed by all!

 

The Munsters Pinball Unveiled at CES 2019 in Vegas, Baby!

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Stern Pinball keep pumping out pinball machines with themes that strike a chord with a lot of you out there.

Their latest pinball machine, The Munsters was unveiled to much fanfare at CES 2019 in Las Vegas earlier this morning (Australian time). With Jack Danger’s Dead Flip Twitch channel live streaming the reveal, there were lots of eyeballs around the globe glued to screens to check out what Stern had delivered – they weren’t disappointed.

We can safely say that Stern has released a machine that will have mass appeal for operators and home collectors alike. The best part of showing their new title was that all three models were available to be checked out and of course, played. The Pro, the Premium and the LE (Limited Edition) were all there, with their distinct packages, garnering a huge buzz online, both on social media and forums like Pinside – which is exactly what Stern was aiming for!

Oh yeah, a bit more detail regarding this new pinball title:

There are three machine variants of The Munsters; there is the Pro, Premium and Limited Edition (LE). Aside from each having distinct cabinet art, the Premium and Limited Edition versions contain some cool extra features with the most obvious one being the mini-playfield under the centre of the main playfield. The mini-playfield contains miniature flippers with it’s own tiny ramps, including a wireform one (ramp) with an upkicker and its own multi-ball – how cool is that! The entry level Pro model doesn’t have the sunken mini-playfield, but all three versions share the following features:

  • A left ramp that lifts up to reveal a Spot (dragon) toy you can bash with the ball
  • A right ramp that Stern describes as a “turn-around, flip-up ramp”
  • A large Herman Munster with a magnet to catch and throw the ball around
  • A “Zap” button on the lockdown bar
  • Built in metal protector on scoop
  • Unique cabinet art for each model, with the Premium version having a full black-and-white art package
  • LCD screen in the backbox with custom graphics and scenes from The Munsters TV sitcom

The Limited Edition (LE) model will have a production run of 500 units, which we have been informed have all been sold out worldwide – now that was quick!

We must say that the Premium’s black and white colour scheme is cool and quite refreshing, which may polarise hardcore pinheads (we love it!).

The Pro version will be available in Australia from the end of January, with the (already sold) Limited Edition coming in March and the Premium in mid May. We can’t wait to check these out in the flesh and give them a flip! So, which one appeals to you?

The Munsters Pro model

The Munsters Premium model

The Munsters Limited Edition (LE) model

image source: Stern Pinball

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press is the coolest PR & Social Media engine that drives awareness to your pinball related products, events, news, podcasts and streams!

Follow Pinball Press on Twitter and Facebook

 

 

Merry FlipMas: Pinball Gifts For Any Occasion and Any Budget

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Do you like pinball? Do you have a special someone in your life that is into pinball?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, then we have some really unique and cool handmade and vintage pinball related gifts (to suit any budget!) so you are all sorted for Christmas (or any other occasion)!

Oh yeah, just click on the link or photo to take you straight to the product item.

Attack From Mars Shadowbox Art

Same Player Shoots Again Enamel – Pinball Pin

3″ Vintage Reproduction Williams Electronics Manufacturing Corp. Pinball Company

Guns & Roses Data East Pinball LED Backbox Display light box

Gottlieb Haunted House Pinball Shadowbox Art

Vintage 70s Pinball Wizard t-shirt

Pinball Flipper Pendant Necklace in Brushed Pewter

The Machine: Bride of Pinbot Williams Pinball BackBox LED Display light box

Mini Virtual Pinball Machine

The Walking Dead Pinball – Pile of Skulls: Pinball Flipper Bat MOD

25 Cent Pinball Arcade Video Game LED Night Light

Pinball Flipper Keychain

Pinball Pop Bumper Button / Keychain

Pinball Addict Necklace – for her (or him)

Pinball Obsession Greeting Card

Pinball Addict 3″ Embroidered Patch

INDIANA JONES The Pinball Adventure – keychain (gold)

Midnight Pinballing (Giclée Fine Art Print)

Shaky Pinball LCD Handheld Game

Tiger Electronic Vintage Handheld Pinball LCD Video Game – 1987

Miniature Football Theme Pinball Machine Clock

Night Shift – Pinball Oil Painting

Twilight Zone Pinball pin

The Addams Family Pinball LED Illuminated BackBox 3D Art Shadow Box – deluxe limited edition signed numbered

Solenoids & Asteroids – limited edition Pinball themed silkscreen print

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press is the coolest PR & Social Media engine that drives awareness to your pinball related products, events, news, podcasts and streams!

Follow Pinball Press on Twitter and Facebook