In our continuing coverage from IAAPA 2024, let’s take the opportunity to discuss pinball! Specifically the three pinball companies that went there – Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, and American Pinball.
For previous coverage:
Part #1: Raw Thrills; TouchMagix; Amusement Source; Wahlap; Alan-1; Night Heron
Part #2: Bandai Namco Amusement; Sega Amusements; LAI Games; UNIS
Note that all titles mentioned below are shipping, although there might be some delays for Metallica since that just recently started production and it can take some time for all buyers to get their hands on it.
Stern Pinball
Stern had a booth that was much like their other IAAPA shows, near Betson/Raw Thrills and with two rows of titles facing out towards the aisles. The main new release here was Metallica Remastered, which I grabbed some footage of to go along with the below tour:
Their full lineup looked like this:
- Uncanny X-Men
- Star Wars Comic Edition
- Deadpool
- Metallica Remastered
- Venom
- John Wick
It was cool to see Metallica Remastered here in particular, seeing as I only just missed that being brought out back at Pinball Expo. Other than that though there unsurprisingly wasn’t much new-new to speak of, with the likes of PE and even consumer technology shows like CES naturally being a bigger deal for them to present to home buyers. I was surprised by Star Wars Comic Edition turning up, but that was mainly because I thought it had gone out of production a while ago now.
Jersey Jack Pinball
Jersey Jack has not always gone to IAAPA, but they did come along last year, and this time they made a much bigger splash than normal with a larger booth and a major new product launch. Here, they wanted to showcase something that would make FECs take a hard look at the genre – not a new game, but a new system. Working with Creative Works and a company called Diverted River, they introduced the all-new Pinball XP at IAAPA 2024.
What is Pinball XP? You could call it Jersey Jack’s answer to Stern’s Insider Connected (which is what I was thinking when I filmed the booth below, before looking further into it), however it is a little bit different than that as it includes its own hardware, and the focus is more on redemption than it is general play features. I hadn’t heard of Diverted River before, but here’s a link to the press release about Pinball XP, and a relevant blurb on the features:
Key features of Pinball XP include:
- Premium package of five latest Jersey Jack Pinball machines
- 65″ displays showing live playfield action
- Skill-based digital ticket awards
- XP progression system with leaderboards
- Seamless integration with major cashless systems
- Full compatibility with Diverted River’s Takoha platform
- Jackpot ticket opportunities for outstanding play
Pinball XP will be available to all buyers sometime during early 2025. The first setup seen here was sold to Full Tilt Arcade & Pinball in La Porte, Indiana, with much of the rest of their booth contents bought up too:
Redemption for pinball has been tried before, even by Jersey Jack themselves, although not in this manner. Is this the key to finally getting more FECs jumping on-board with current pinball? Time will only tell…
In the meantime, JJP’s whole IAAPA 2024 lineup was as follows:
- Avatar: The Battle For Pandora
- The Godfather
- Toy Story 4
- Elton John
- Pinball XP
If any more information does pop up on Pinball XP, I’ll be sure to mention it on here at some point soon.
American Pinball
American Pinball were there too and a little hard to find, being on the outskirts of the Games & Arcade Pavilion, near UNIS & TouchMagix. They didn’t have any new-new game, which I wasn’t expecting given that they also didn’t have a new launch at Pinball Expo 2024. But, I did have a nice, long conversation with David Fix upon visiting their booth. I guess there is a bit of negative talk about AP out there online, but I haven’t had the time to follow any of it. They are selling Polycade in addition to pins, and they do have new games in development. I’d just hang tight for what is next.
For now though, this was their lineup (doubles up as almost their entire product range at the moment):
- Houdini
- Barry O’s Barbecue Challenge
- Galactic Tank Force
- Legends Of Valhalla
- Polycade
Overall, despite there being no new-new games from AP it was just nice to still see another pinball presence at IAAPA besides the ‘big two’ (they do usually attend with them though).
Stay tuned later this week for possibly two, maybe three other parts to IAAPA 2024: redemption/videmption-focused companies, and hopefully exA-Arcadia (permitting some licensing red tape being sorted out on one of their new games). If I can get more information or complete more videos, then VR and motion simulator attractions could be thrown in there too.
What have you seen from IAAPA 2024 so far that interests you the most?
