The “Superbowl” for pinball known as Pinball Expo came and went this past week, with several new pinball titles promoted and various other announcements featured. With everything now out there, let’s see what went on at the show. Note that I was not in attendance, so this is a curation of news from various sources to catch you up on what went down. Hopefully nothing big was missed, but if so, let us know and we’ll add it afterwards.
What Is Pinball Expo?
Now in their 42nd year, Pinball Expo is organized by Robert Berk, who also runs Past Times Arcade in Girard, OH. It brings the “who’s who” of pinball together, right in the heart of the pinball capitol of the world. It isn’t just about the big guys though – it also sees a variety of indie/homebrew pins, pinball modders & distributors, the occasional arcade company, seminars with the people who create the games, and plenty of tournaments. It isn’t the only pinball-related convention out there, but tends to garner most of the big announcements. In a way, it’s kind of the IAAPA for the pin-niche.
Here’s a tour that’s almost 1 1/2 hours long:
American Pinball
As the first PE under the new ownership(new team seen above), American Pinball was there in force, primarily showcasing their new Cirqus Voltaire Reimagined. It was joined by a single Galactic Tank Force: Victory Edition and Houdini 100th Anniversary Edition. They won Best Booth of the Show, which I believe is the first time they have done so.
At Games
AtGames has been doing these virtual pinball machines for a while, although I have to admit that I haven’t kept up on their latest releases. As such, I had not heard of the Sea of Thieves design that you see above. Also as you can see, you can play other tables that don’t fit with the hardware skin. I would assume that the TMNT layout in an original one, instead of a license of Stern’s design from a few years back.
Barrels of Fun
Having released Bon Jovi earlier this year, that was their showcase game, which was also joined by a Labyrinth. Their Mechanical Engineer and his brother also made a homebrew Attack On Titan that won nine awards. You have to wonder if they might make it a reality at some point.
HEXA Pinball
While I believe that their Space Hunter game has been available for a while, the new The 3 Musketeers was on hand and garnering attention at the HEXA Pinball booth. Like a few other boutique pin makers on this list, I’m not sure if there are many (or any) of these games on location out there, with a stronger focus going towards collectors. Photo credit: Aaron @ We Buy Pinball.
Jersey Jack Pinball
Sonic The Hedgehog was naturally their star, since it’s a huge name and it’s JJP’s latest game. Some of the biggest news hit during the Jersey Jack seminar however, where after providing insight into the development of the game, and recognizing the many team members who made it possible, “The King of Pinball” Steve Ritchie announced his retirement (jump to 32:58). He’s moved to Nevada and will enjoy living retired life. Here’s a brief clip of their booth (Facebook)
Multimorphic
For those looking to see the newest games out of Multimorphic, Dungeon Crawler Carl and Ender’s Game, Multimorphic was there and as they usually do, they cover their games with canopies. It’d be nice if all pin makers did that or something like it, as tradeshows always have flood lighting. The attention that these two games brought to MM made them much busier than I recall seeing in photos or from when I went to PE. Here’s quick footage of Ender’s Game.; and a seminar about Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Myth Pinball
I had not heard of this company before, but they had a new title called Battle Stations, a head-2-head game. It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of these, although there was a different one setup in the homebrew area.
Pedretti Pinball
If you are in the market for an alternate classic remake, Pedretti has Tales of the Arabian Nights, which also saw some long lines at the show. This has also been enhanced with the Scorbit app for score tracking.
Spooky Pinball
There was very little media of Spooky that I could find, probably because they didn’t have any new-new games that debuted at the show. Beetlejuice was there of course, earning praise as it always seems to. I hadn’t seen the cool looking boxes that they ship it in, as seen above. Photo via Cranston1944 on X.
There was this AMA with “Bug & Franchi” of Spooky, hosted by Retro Ralph though:
Stern Pinball
I had surmised in the most recent Arcade Update video that Stern wouldn’t unveil anything new-new at Expo, since they just barely released Fallout. I was wrong, as they surprised with AC/DC Remastered. It was not there at the beginning of the event, but was brought in late Friday. Aside from that, stopping by their booth offered various other in-production games, as well as a Laser War, probably the same one I played when I visited Stern recently.
Turner Pinball
Turner Pinball isn’t mentioned here often as they tend to do very small runs of games, focusing on the collector market. Their latest game, Yukon Yeti, had a ton of attention, although with only a few machines, this meant long lines. From looking at comments, people thought it was worth the wait. More pics at We Buy Pinball – plus a little video.
Homebrew Pins & Misc.
Note that you’ll need a Facebook account to see most of these:
A 1930s Pinball Setup By No Flip Pinball
Akira Pinball – This took home several awards (Instagram)
Ayscrim Pinball with mini-backboxes
Dead Flip’s Whitewood Game Won An Award
Monster League Hockey – Video of it – Longer, better video from Knapp Arcade
PinPal Headphones Adapater – I think this is an early build
The Simpsons Homebrew – Roger Sharpe giving it a play
Misc. Seminars
There are way too many of these that Pinball News has been posting to share here, so check out their YouTube channel for the whole gambit. Here are a few highlights though:
Presentations & Awards:
Pat Lawlor & Roger Sharpe
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of operating pinball:
That’s all for this year – did you get to go? If so, what was your favorite part of the show? What do you hope to see out there?
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