It was mentioned last week that the world of pinball was ablaze with news, thanks mostly to the Pinball Expo 2013 event that was held in the Chicago area from the 16th-20th. Now that a few days have passed, here are some videos to be found from Youtube to show you what was on hand. Also I recommend this post at Pinballnews.com which has a detailed round-up of the news from the show.
Speaking of Pinballnews.com, lets start with a 15-min video tour of the show that they have uploaded. This is a fast walkthrough so Early on they show two of the largest pins to be made including Atari’s Hercules and ICE’s The Flintstones, looks into some of the parts areas from there eventually coming around to the newer Star Trek pinball and then into the custom pin area where we get a quick look at Skit-B Pinball’s Predator and surprisingly the Sonic The Hedgehog pinball which also was made by Skit-B. We don’t get to see that in action though. Numerous other custom projects are there, made possible by the P-Roc hardware. A new Cactus Canyon (Cactus Canyon Continued) with color screen and new software, a new Bride of Pinbot software build, a zombie-game that was still in whitewood stage called DeadPin and The Matrix. There is more quick floor walking leading to about 10 min in where there is a booth by Great American Pinball that was showcasing some impressive LED kits for various Stern machines and shortly after that is a walkaround the free play room :
Image Source: Pinballnews.com. The Sonic The Hedgehog pinball game by Skit-B Pinball. This is made out of spare parts from the Predator pinball machine, seems to be a homage machine much like their Duck Hunt pinball game they also built not long ago.
Followed by this touring video by YT user Gizmnoic. Shows the tournament areas which includes the new Star Trek pinball, many great classics that were found on the floor and about 9 min in he hits the area mentioned above with the custom pins. We get a better look at the Predator pinball machine, although sadly it was off in this instance. At 12:15 there are some more custom games including The Matrix pinball but you can find more on that below:
Here is a video by Dutch Pinball that shows off their upgrades to the Bride of Pinbot, which they are calling Bride of Pinbot 2.0. The video itself from the show but it is the same software that was seen at PE2013. Dutch Pinball is taking orders for this upgrade, which adds a display, new rules, sounds, etc. I’m still looking forward to the day that a non-licensed pin gets a mass manufactured release. Come to think of it, given that fans have shown how you can improve a game through the software side on this and Cactus Canyon, I’m surprised no one is trying that with the Doctor Who pinball, given that the show has a big 50th anniversary coming up next month.
Here’s a custom The Matrix pinball in action from PE2013. Looks pretty sleek.
Star Trek was getting a lot of attention at the show as seen above and here is a video where the Limited Edition was seen at the Stern factory. No gamplay, just the attract mode with the multi-color LED lighting:
I expect we will see a little more pinball love at IAAPA about a month from now, although that expo will not be anywhere near as pinball-centric.
