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Getting Our Retro Pinball Fix At Rosstown

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When we visited Marcus for his Rosstown Retro Pinball Arcade competition in September last year, we were gobsmacked by the sheer number of classic titles that were available for play. When Marcus mentioned his new IFPA endorsed Rosstown Retro Pinball Tournament for 2017 and some new additions to his marvellous collection, we had to get him to tell us more! So here it is, take it away Marcus!

Rosstown always prides itself on having a collection that not only includes classic pinball machines from well-known manufacturers like Gottlieb, Bally and Williams, but also from the lesser known ones such as Zaccaria, Playmatic and Atari. Speaking of Atari, after searching for one of their machines for a number of years I finally found a superb 1978 Atari ‘Superman’ machine in good working order to add to the Rosstown classics collection. Atari pinball machines are rarely seen, even in private collections, and even if you’re lucky enough to stumble upon one – it’ll likely be in a non- or semi-working state. So it’s a rare treat to be able to play this working ‘Superman’ machine – it’s a wonderful pinball table. The backglass is faultless and the playfield is bright with no wear. The widebody (typical of an Atari pinball) makes sure there is plenty to do with some great long spinner shots on each side.

Atari Superman

The other new addition to the Rosstown line up is Bally’s ‘Vector’ from 1982. This is another hard to find machine that had to be added to the retro pinball collection. The outstanding feature on ‘Vector’ is its flip-o-meter that calculates the ball’s speed up the ramp and into the energy containment unit (ball lock). This game oozes cool features that were ahead of its time, thanks to its innovative design team. This machine has an elaborate (and perhaps wicked) drop target sequence that allows the player to shoot for the vectorscan ramp. The player must knock down the three drop targets in order, and if they fail, then another 3 pop up – talk about ramping up the difficulty! ‘Vector’ keeps the player on their toes by ensuring that they think and choose their shots wisely.

Bally Vector

With Atari’s ‘Superman’ and Bally’s ‘Vector’ added to the Rosstown Reto Pinball line up, it has made the IFPA sanctioned tournament even more interesting. As part of the Rosstown tournament, each entrant plays every pinball table in the collection to earn qualification. Qualifiers are spread across monthly sessions running from April to August (5 months), with the 12 highest ranked players being invited back to compete in the September finals.

Bayside Pinball Club’s new beer, Plunger Pale Ale!

But it’s not all serious. At the last qualifying round players got to enjoy the new pinball brew, Plunger Pale Ale produced by the Bayside Pinball Club. Let’s just say that the beer went down a treat and was the perfect tonic to let the players relax in-between playing some serious pinball. For those of you that haven’t entered the tournament, you better hurry as there are only three remaining qualifiers in June (17th), July (15th) and August (19th). For further details on the IFPA sanctioned Rosstown Retro Pinball tournament, head over to the Aussie Arcade forum. Flip it, flip it good!

 

The Force Is Strong With Stern’s New Star Wars Pinball Machines

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In Stern’s factory far, far away (from Australia), Star Wars Pinball machines are rolled off the production line in record numbers!

With Star Wars celebrating its 40th anniversary, Stern Pinball has come to the party with three machines (designed by Steve Ritchie) that will have every Star Wars (and pinball) fan drooling uncontrollably! So strong is the Star Wars franchise, the pinball machines are reportedly selling like hot cakes, with the 800 run of LE machines already spoken for! Shipping (to Australia) for the Pro model begins in July, with the LE and Premium editions to follow not too long after. Don’t fret about the Pro and Premium models selling out, Stern will build an unlimited amount of these machines to fulfil demand.

Talking to RePlay Magazine, Stern’s Director of Marketing and Licensing Jody Dankberg states that, “There’s been a lot of excitement and anticipation around this title, resulting in record sales for a game that had not even been seen in person. Everyone loves the original trilogy: It’s the basis for all things Star Wars. We felt that these movies helped us tell the best story possible while being able to use cool elements from the original films. The majority of our customers are nostalgic for those movies.”

For those curious to know why Stern chose to tap the original trilogy instead of Disney’s new Star Wars films, Dankberg told RePlay that the firm believes more customers are interested in the originals over the new movies. We reckon Stern have got that right!

Australian pricing for the three pinball models (including GST):

  • Star Wars Pro $8,350
  • Star Wars Premium $10,800
  • Star Wars Limited Edition (LE) $12,500

The force is definitely strong with these pinball machines!

source: Stern Pinball Inc.

 

Why Isn’t There An ABBA Pinball Machine?

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By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

Aerosmith, KISS, AC/DC and Metallica all have one. The Rolling Stones and Guns N’ Roses have one too.
Why doesn’t ABBA, who has sold more than 375 million albums and singles worldwide and been offered a rumoured nine figure deal to tour again, have a pinball machine on the market?

It’s hard to believe that Stern or Jersey Jack Pinball haven’t thought about obtaining the licensing rights for the Swedish super group that produced huge hits like Mamma Mia and SOS from 1972 to 1982.

Take a Chance On Me and Dancing Queen seem like perfect extra ball or bonus points sound cues for a pinball machine.

A DJ friend once told me, “There’s two types of people: those who love ABBA and those who love ABBA and don’t admit it.”

Some have called ABBA tacky; I think they were pop kitsch. And in all of that bubblegum kitsch, the music still brings joy to a great deal of people globally. Pop kitsch is ideal for an attention grabbing pinball machine.

An ABBA pinball machine would appeal to a large spectrum of music lovers. ABBA is a cross generational band. Ages range from teenagers to grandparents who love Dancing Queen. And the Meryl Streep film ‘Mamma Mia’ has strengthened people’s affection for a group that parted ways thirty-five years ago. However, ABBA never officially broke up.

I can just imagine a group of young people at an arcade or bar putting coins into an ABBA pinball machine, hearing Dancing Queen as their first game ball drops for play, “having the time of their lives.”

 

Stern Announce Star Wars and Jersey Jack Release A Flashy Trailer For Dialed In!

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Whoa, what a way to start June!

Stern Pinball finally announced their new machine, the Steve Ritchie designed Star Wars! Funnily enough, the announcement came via a brief spot on The Star Wars Show (see embedded video). Stern has promised that Star Wars Pinball will take players to a galaxy far, far away! More information, photos and pricing to come – we can’t wait!

Stern’s new STAR WARS pinball machine makes a cameo appearance on The Star Wars Show!

source: The Star Wars Show

Also going all out was Jersey Jack Pinball. With the announcement that their latest machine, Dialed In! was in production, the New Jersey-based factory went all Hollywood by producing a very flashy and cool promotional video to show off Pat Lawlor’s brilliant original concept game. Mark our words, Dialed In! is destined to be a top 10 pinball machine of all time!

Jersey Jack Pinball’s DIALED IN! official trailer!

source: Jersey Jack Pinball

Wow, wish every month starts  like this! Stay tuned for more pinball news!

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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!

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Pinball Innovation: Flipping At The Bleeding Edge

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Imagine if we had a crystal ball to see into the future to see what pinball machines would look like – what would we see?

The future of pinball depends on innovation to ensure it remains relevant. Innovation can be obtained via the use of current and emerging technologies, and unlike the end of the 20th century, the technology is already available for pinball manufacturers to leverage and perhaps get an advantage over their competitors.

The current leaders in pinball innovation, Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) have not only forced their competitors to innovate just to keep up with them, they are constantly pushing themselves to come up with new ideas for their pinball machines. JJP’s Dialed In! was the first pinball machine to feature Bluetooth® connectivity that provides new capabilities (like controlling the flippers) through a smartphone. Innovation never ceases, so pinball manufacturers need to keep up or risk perishing.

Jersey Jack Pinball’s Dialed In! is the first pinball machine with Bluetooth connectivity

With all this talk of innovation one wonders what current or emerging technologies can be used to catapult pinball machines to the bleeding edge. There are current technologies that pinball designers and manufacturers can leverage to provide a better and immersive experience for their target market – be it the player, operator or collector. The advent of cloud computing has allowed a myriad of services to be used, from big data to  streaming analytics and real-time telemetry monitoring via Internet of Things (IoT) to deliver innovative products and services.

First things first, what the hell is this Internet of Things (IoT)? In a nutshell, it is a system of ubiquitous sensors connecting the physical world to the Internet. Although things, Internet, and connectivity are the three core components of IoT, the value is in closing the gap between the physical and digital world in self-reinforcing and self-improving systems. IoT creates these systems by connecting things, animate or inanimate, to the Internet with unique identifiers that provide context, giving visibility into the network, the devices themselves, and their environment. Equipped with rich data sets and using advanced analytics, IoT can give us enormous insight into our world, and this is where pinball manufacturers can differentiate themselves by providing IoT-ready pinball machines and mobile applications that can provide telemetric real-time data analysis and information, event processing, pattern analysis and recognition from a player, operator or collector’s perspective.

Pinball manufacturers in the 21st century that want to stand out from the crowd could enrich the pinball experience with a number of innovations using IoT, like:

  • Geospatial awareness – a geo-location broadcast (to a smartphone app) to ensure players know where to find and play a particular pinball machine
  • Fault tolerance with predictive failure on components using telemetry sensors
  • Health monitoring on key components with real-time component status and diagnostics reporting (on screen / email report or via smartphone app)
  • Playfield Analytics that gives the user a rich set of dimensional (per ball / per game) information on:
    • Playfield hot spots to show the area where the ball spends most time
    • Statistics on shots, play and modes, providing shot accuracy (%)
    • Ball speed in kilometres or miles for the speed demons
    • Time per ball and points per ball
    • Shot reaction time to measure how fast a player reacts to hit/flip the ball
    • Track use of machine (in tournament mode) and provide the player their score via smartphone app

Innovation should improve and enrich the experience of pinball by providing deeper real-time insights about the machine, either from a player wanting to know how hard they hit the ball or the operator acting proactively on fixing a component before it fails.

For pinball to remain relevant, manufacturers must challenge the status quo by pushing the technology envelope to keep players, collectors and operators flipping for longer. Long live the silver-ball!

Which pinball innovation tickles your fancy? Tell us now on Twitter or Facebook.

 


Dirty Donny’s Blacklight Rebellion Art Show Conquers Australia

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He came, he conquered, we talked, we drank, we played pinball and we bought some very cool art!

Dirty Donny’s Blacklight Rebellion Art Show / Book Signing at the Kustom Lane Gallery was a resounding success. Held last Friday and Saturday, the event saw Dirty Donny’s art and book on show – ready to be bought and signed by the great artist. Among the cool stuff were two of Donny’s famous pinball works, Stern’s Metallica and Aerosmith.

The crowd were kept entertained with free-play pinball (thanks to Geoff from Pinball Perfection) and a well stocked Tiki bar. With the event being intimate, attendees had access to Donny for a great chat and to also get their art, book and even pinball parts signed! It was great seeing Donny being accessible to his fans (us included!) – Dirty Donny Gillies is one awesomely cool and humble dude!

If you missed out on Dirty Donny’s art show at the Kustom Lane Gallery, then let our highlights make you feel like you were there!

The great Dirty Donny Gillies was always available for a chat!

The blacklight made Dirty Donny’s art pop!

The famous Screaming Hand!

There was a lot of interest in Donny’s work on Stern Pinball’s Aerosmith LE machine!

Lots of interest in Metallica too. Donny’s art on these machines is iconic!

The crowd mingles and admires Dirty Donny’s art

There were a number of original and print works available to buy

It was a good night to chat, admire art work, have a drink and play pinball

Supplier of the event’s pinball machines, Geoff Wills from Pinball Perfection with Dirty Donny
image source: Pinball Perfection

Dirty Donny was busy signing books, art and pinball parts!

Roast’em!

The event also allowed us to catch up with great friends! Big thumbs up for an awesome evening!

Hardest decision we’ll have to make – where to hang our cool Zodiac print?!

Dirty Donny Down Under

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Get your calendar out and mark it busy on May 26 and 27 as the awesome artist, Dirty Donny Gillies will be at the Kustom Lane Gallery for his “Blacklight Rebellion” Art Show and Book Signing. If you are a fan of Dirty Donny’s work, then come on down to check out his stunning art and for a meet and greet with the great artist.

Oh yeah, for those of you that love Dirty Donny’s superb art on Stern’s Metallica and Aerosmith pinball machines, then you will be in for an extra special treat thanks to Skott Kellett and Pinball Perfection‘s Geoff Wills!

Event: Dirty Donny Gillies “Blacklight Rebellion” Art Show and Book Signing
Where: Kustom Lane Gallery – 535-537 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn VIC 3122
When: Friday May 26 from 7:00pm; and Saturday May 27 from 6:00pm
Cost: Free entry!

We will be snapping lots of pics at the event so make sure you follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!


source: Dirty Donny

source: Kustom Lane Gallery

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