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The Ultimate Pinball Wrist Piece

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If money is no object, then we would love to have this pinball piece adorn our wrist!

Hautlence’s Playground Pinball wristpiece is the ultimate pinball watch that doesn’t tell the time but does play a mean game of pinball! With intricate Swiss mechanics controlling the spring loaded plunger and awesome spinning elements, the watch also has sink holes for points and two prominent pop bumpers with multipliers!

The Hautlence Playground Pinball may be missing flippers and may have more in common with bagatelle than pinball, but who cares, it’s still bloody cool! Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, you could buy 5 Stern Pro pinball machines for the price of this wristpiece!

image source: Hautlence


source: Spiral Magazine

 

May The 4th Be With You: A New Stern Star Wars Pinball?

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With the internet rumour mill running amok regarding Stern’s next pinball machine, we wonder if they will announce a new Star Wars themed pinball machine on ‘May The 4th Be With You‘ Star Wars day? We can only hope!

If you weren’t aware, there have been quite a number of Star Wars themed pinball machines over the years, from Hankin’s wide body The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Sonic’s Star Wars (1987), Data East’s Star Wars (1992) to Sega’s awesome Star Wars Trilogy (1997) and Williams’ Star Wars Episode I (1999) built on the ill-fated Pinball2000 platform.

If Stern does announce a new Star Wars pinball machine, then we cross our fingers that it will be a mix of the Data East and Sega Star Wars machines. Oh yeah, we would love some Dark Side and Light Side LE machines too – hope you are listening Stern!

What are your predictions for Stern’s new pinball machine? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.

May the force be with you!

One of our favourite Star Wars themed pinball machine, Sega’s Star Wars Trilogy

A close second, Data East’s Star Wars

You either loved it or hated Williams’ Star Wars Episode I

The first Star Wars themed pinball machine, Hankin’s The Empire Strikes Back

Straight out of Spain, Sonic’s Star Wars
source: Internet Pinball Database

 

The Time Mattel Made A Pinball Machine

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What the hell – Mattel made pinball machines? Well, A pinball machine! Yeah, that’s right, Mattel dipped their toe in the pinball market with their one (and only), Las Vegas Pinball!

We only ever associated Mattel with the Intellivision and our fave childhood action figures, Masters Of The Universe, so when we stumbled upon this anomaly, we thought we’d let the rest of you know (Ed: unless you all already knew!).

Before you get excited, Mattel Electronics’ Las Vegas Pinball was never intended for commercial use, hence why you may not have seen it at your local pinball parlour. The playfield is standard fare for a pinball machine of this vintage (the late 70s) – couple of pop bumpers, slingshots and four stand-up targets to keep you flipping.

The interesting part about this Mattel pinball machine is the ability to select one of three game versions (similar to modes on modern machines), Beginner’s Luck, Cool Hand or High Roller. Coupled with selecting the game version, Mattel also included a handicap switching system, allowing players to select a choice of  3, 4, or 5 balls for their turn at play. This feature allowed competing players to give any player a handicap advantage of one or two extra balls, if desired.

Mattel had another cool feature called Double Or Nothing, which could only be used once during a game – prior to shooting a ball into play, the player presses a button on the front of the cabinet to activate this option for that ball only. Then, lighting all four targets doubles the player’s score. Failure to light all four targets penalises the player of all the points earned on that ball. Sounds pretty cool to us!

Which ever way you look at it, this Mattel Electronics Las Vegas Pinball machine was quite nifty for its time – we just hope we find one in our travels so we can have a go!

Have you played this pinball machine? If you have, tell us what you thought of it on Twitter or Facebook.

source: IPDB

Ben Heck’s Mini Pinball Kit

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We are huge fans of Ben Heck’s creations, from the giant Game Boy to the awesomely cool portable Atari 2600. This time around, Ben and his team have hit the mark with the Mini Pinball machine, which they aim to turn into a kit for us to use and enjoy! Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long.

After watching this update video, we must say we are quite excited about the prospect of having a mini pinball machine in our games room! We eagerly await future updates on this amazing bit of kit.


source: The Ben Heck Show

 

Australian Jordan Tredaway Wins Division B At PAPA 20 World Pinball Championships

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Young Australian pinball wizard, Jordan Tredaway wins the PAPA 20 (Professional & Amateur Pinball Association) World Championship B Division!

The 16 year old Melbournian showed poise and maturity beyond his years by beating veterans double and even triple his age from across the globe in the world’s most prestigious pinball championship. We managed to grab Jordan as he was tucking into a well deserved dinner to ask him how he was feeling right now, “Ecstatic! Feels like a dream come true”. Also flying the flag high for Australia was Martin Robbins, whom also had a fantastic tournament.

14 year old Jordan (JTH) smashes Game Of Thrones at PAX Aus 2015

Jordan’s PAPA 20 (Division B) win was just reward for his hard work and consistent pinball tournament wins in Australia. We first met Jordan at Supanova in 2015 when he won the Under 18s Pinball vs. Supanova Championship at the tender age of 14! With his current IFPA world ranking at 231, we are pretty sure that this win at PAPA 20 will propel him in the top echelon of pinball wizards, and who knows, perhaps an A Division win at next year’s PAPA 21!

The PAPA World Pinball Championships is the most renowned event in all of competitive pinball which is held annually in Carnegie, Pennsylvania USA.

PAPA 20 competition floor!

Jordan in action!

Martin Robbins keeps an eye on the standings, while Jordan keeps an eye on the competition!

Jordan Tredaway, PAPA 20 Division B World Pinball Champion!
image sources: Martin Robbins and Carme Martinez

Jordan’s impressive points tally in Division B at PAPA 20

 

PAPA World HQ Site On The Market!

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REPLAY FOUNDATION OUTGROWS WORLD HEADQUARTERS
World’s Largest Pinball Tournaments to Continue

With PAPA 20 around the corner, Replay Foundation, the NPO that operates the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) brand of tournaments, has just announced that it is placing the PAPA World Headquarters, a facility in Scott Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the market. This facility currently houses more than 700 rare and valuable pinball and arcade games in the Replay collection.

PAPA Buildout – January 2004

Since its founding in 2011, Replay Foundation has operated two of the largest pinball tournaments in the world, the PAPA World Pinball Championships and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship. In 2013, the PAPA World Headquarters, which opened for the first public PAPA event in the Pittsburgh area in 2004, was donated to Replay Foundation and used to operate these events. The Pinburgh championship quickly outgrew the PAPA World Headquarters facility and was moved to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, as part of the annual ReplayFX event, starting in 2015.

PAPA 7 – September 2004

PAPA 9 – August 2006

This reduced the headquarters to hosting only one public event each year, and that event, the PAPA World Pinball Championships, has exceeded the facility’s capacity for the past several years. Consequently, the headquarters is being put up for sale on the commercial real estate market, effective immediately, with a transaction expected to close sometime after the PAPA 20 event this month. Replay Foundation will not be reducing the size of its collection, nor are there plans to discontinue the PAPA World Pinball Championships.

PAPA 13 – August 2010

PAPA 19 – April 2016
source: PAPA

“We recognize that our followers have thirteen years of nostalgia and great memories of the headquarters, but the facility has hit its limits in terms of attendance and logistics, and of course parking was always a nightmare,” said Kevin Martin, chairman of Replay Foundation. “We are very optimistic about the continued growth of our events and the PAPA brand, and we look forward to making further announcements regarding PAPA 21 and next year’s Circuit Final.”

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

 

 

 

Clever Marketing: Using Pinball To Promote A Credit Card

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So how does a bank promote their new unlimited cashback credit card for us to notice it? They tap into popular culture and see what is currently hot!

As we all know, pinball is going gangbusters all around the world, so Standard Chartered Bank thought they’d cleverly use a pinball playfield, not just as a metaphor, but to get their message across about their new credit card – a simply brilliant piece of marketing! We may need this credit card for our next pinball machine purchase *winks*

Keep flippin’!


source: Standard Chartered Bank

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

 

 

 

Resurrecting Alien Pinball

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One of the most anticipated pinball machines in recent memory, Alien by Heighway Pinball, is finally starting to ship!

The shipment of Alien pinball machines is at a trickle for the moment (only a couple have reached their customers), but here’s hoping Heighway Pinball can start cranking up production and get those Alien beauties shipped out at a hundred per month, just like they mentioned not that long ago.

To whet your appetite and possibly fill you with dread (just like the movies did), Heighway Pinball has released a new overhead gameplay video (see below). Quite frankly, the video has wowed us at how great the whole package looks and plays; from the smooth and fast playfield, the lighting, toys (the Xenomorph picking up the ball off the magnet is just superb), to the atmospheric sounds plus the call outs just round out to what amounts to be a very special pinball machine.

Don’t forget, on March 6 (US time!), Dead Flip will be live streaming Alien pinball gameplay on Twitch!


source: Heighway Pinball

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

 

 

 

Magic Girl Pinball Appears After 5 Years

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Some 5 years in the making, Zidware’s disappearing Magic Girl finally appears in a magical puff of smoke!

With only 20 Magic Girl machines assembled (by American Pinball) and only a handful more in existence, Chris Kooluris was one lucky and extremely patient customer that decided to share the moment he picked up, unboxed and assembled his ultra rare beauty.

But it seems that this Magic Girl will again be disappearing. Chris has decided to part ways with his special machine, so if you have a cool US $45,000 (or best offer), head to his Magic Girl eBay auction now!

This is about as close we will ever get to seeing, let alone playing John Popadiuk’s Magic Girl.

image source: Chris Kooluris (Facebook)

source: eBay

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter

 

 

Jersey Jack Pinball Is Calling All Pinball Enthusiasts

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When Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri puts out a call to all pinball enthusiasts, we sit up and take note!

The Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) team will be keeping busy in March as they hit the event circuit by attending the Louisville Arcade Expo this coming weekend (March 3 – 5) and then the Texas Pinball Festival (March 24 – 26). JJP will be taking their finest games to these mighty fine events – we just wish we could be there too!

Finally, we had to share this great pinball note from Jack Guarnieri about Dialed In!:

“As most of you know by now, our newest game, Dialed In!, is designed by the legendary Pat Lawlor, himself. This game is special for so many reasons, but the story of how Pat became involved is special, and one I thought you might enjoy.

In 2011, I found myself renting a building from Pat in Harvard, IL for JJP. I knew he had been retired for several years, but welcomed him to see the work we were doing and shared our vision. Pat saw that vision come to life with our first game, The Wizard of Oz, and grew excited. He began to toy with the idea of returning to pinball design – one day.

By late 2013, after expressing his interest, we made Pat part of the JJP team – a pivotal decision for the company. The idea was simple: design an unlicensed, original game – something directly from Pat’s imagination.

Fast forward to the birth of Dialed In! What a game. I have to tell you, the result is amazing, and the reaction of people who’ve played it has been incredibly gratifying and such an affirmation of Pat’s genius. In it, we’ve built a game with groundbreaking technology and features never before seen in a pinball machine.

Ever the dedicated pro, Pat has been visiting the game in the field, studying it and making signature tweaks. I can’t ever remember a new game having received such care and attention.

As we near production, we want to give everyone interested in owning a Dialed In! an opportunity stake their claim now on this historic game with a completely refundable deposit of $250, and balance due upon game production.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this offer and stop by our upcoming events (more below) to experience Dialed In! for yourself: a game that embodies true passion for a game we all love.”

Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri at the Australian unveiling of Dialed In!

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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!

If you have any pinball news to share, hit Pinball Press on Twitter