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  • TWIP – Luci Vault Edition, TWIPY Results, deeproot: New Hires and Five Days, Tron VE Rumors

TWIP – Luci Vault Edition, TWIPY Results, deeproot: New Hires and Five Days, Tron VE Rumors

Stern Announces AC/DC Luci Premium Vault Edition

Rumors of an AC/DC Luci Premium Vault Edition started swirling last Thursday after a website in Germany posted one for sale.  On Friday, Stern confirmed this information on Facebook, stating:

“SHE’S BACK! Back by popular demand, Stern announced at the EAG show in London that a small production run of AC/DC Luci Premium Vault edition games will be available in mid-February.

Most of you remember the dynamic cabinet, translite and mini-playfield art package. Please see the attached photos.

Luci game play and rules remain the same that Steve Ritchie, Lyman Sheats and their team created for popular AC/DC Premium.

Luci has the 12 great AC/DC hits from our AC/DC games.

Luci’s price is the same as the standard AC/DC Premium Vault released last year.

As the market continues to grow. Vault titles are a great way to capture new end-users attention and sales.”

 TWIPY Pinball Awards Show Results

Did you miss the TWIPY Awards?  You can watch the show on Twitch with all the comments and bantering here, or check out the video below:

(Note: there is a section from 16:00-22:00 where the audio cuts out because Twitch mis-identified a section as containing copyrighted material (which in the appeal process to retrieve the missing audio))

Straight Down the Middle: a pinball show

The time and effort that Zach and Greg have put in for the TWIPY Awards has been ridiculous and VERY much appreciated.  They have spend dozens and dozens (and dozens) of hours on creating the video montages, preparation, ideas, phone calls, emails, text messages, etc. in working to make a great show for the TWIPYs.  And it is for the love of pinball and the pinball community.

HUGE thanks to Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle: a pinball show (YouTube, Twitch, Facebook) for all their hard work and efforts to make the show a very special and fun event!!

IFPA State Championship Series

The US State Championship Series happened last weekend!  43 states plus Washington DC held their finals on Saturday, January 20th.  Congratulations to all the winners!!  Check out a list of (most of) the winners here!

The State Champions are now qualified to compete for the US National Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday, March 1st.  The winner of the National Championship wins a new in box Stern Pro Pinball machine!  For more details on the National Pinball Championship, click here.

EAG Expo 2018 Report – Pinball Magazine

Super Pinball Pong Pong Bar – New Machine!

Jonathan Joosten from Pinball Magazine posted a huge update from EAG Expo which took place in London January 16th-18th.  Read the full update here.  As part of the update by Pinball Magazine, they mention seeing an advertisement from Wee Chin Electronic Machinery which appeared to show a pinball machine in a head to head style cabinet, similar to 1983 William’s Joust.

Pinball Magazine reached out to Wee Chin Electronic Machinery, and posted an update with more details on this machine.  Click here and scroll near the bottom of the article to read the details.   One of the details is that Wee Chin Electronic Machinery plans to be in booth #605 at the Amusement Expo in Las Vegas at the end of February, and plan to demonstrate the game at that show!  Check out a picture of the machine here.

deeproot Pinball Update – Three New Designers, the Five Days of deeproot, More

This Week in Pinball previously released an interview, backstory, and general timeline of deeproot Pinball, a company that is looking to become a major pinball manufacturer:

This Thursday, we have another EXCLUSIVE with deeproot which will include:

  • New hires, including three additional experienced pinball designers

  • The Five Days of deeproot: schedule and more details

  • Updates for Zidware customers and submitting questions to be answered on an upcoming podcast

  • Follow up interview with Robert Mueller of deeproot Pinball

Visit This Week in Pinball for all the info on Thursday.

Pinball Bulbs – advertisement

Pinball Bulbs SALE:  Visit Pinball Bulbs and enter promo code “ThisWeek15off” to save 15% off everything on the site!  

That includes their Mini Virtual Pinball Machine, which comes loaded with:

  • Pinball FX2

  • Pinball Arcade

  • Ikaruga and Proycyon (shooters)

  • Visual Pinball – MAME (ROMs added by user)

  • Customer front end so no computer or technical skills needed

  • Full online support fort your specific machine

  • Real Analog Nudge

Click here for more info and pricing, and watch the video below to check out more about this machine!

Bible Adventures Pinball Update

Have you heard of Ben Heck?  He is a tech hobbyist and regarded by many as an all around genius.  He is the host of The Ben Heck Show on Youtube (check it out here).  He also came up with the concept and game design for Spooky Pinball’s first game – America’s Most Haunted!

Have you heard of the Bible Adventures Pinball idea?  Ben Heck has been talking about it for years – here is a long Pinside thread about it.  No one knows exactly how serious Ben Heck IS about actually going forward with the idea, but last week he posted this picture with the caption “LET THERE BE FOAM CORE!”  He also posted that he’d like to have the following toys in the game:

  • “Rotating scoop (as pictured) Holds 3 balls and can eject them at any angle”

  • “Crumbling walls of Jericho (rear orbit)”

  • “Samson above pops shaking pillars (that might change the path of ball on ramp shots)”

  • “Some part of the PF that cracks open and reveal a path for Exodus MB”

Who knows how far this somewhat controversial pinball project will go – we’ll keep you updated!

American Pinball Production Begins/Resumes

American Pinball shipped a few games at the end of 2017, but then things were pretty quiet shipping-wise for a couple weeks.  This week American Pinball posted the following on Pinside:

“…games are again leaving the factory. A few have left and about a dozen more are ready. There are another half dozen that went through inspection today [Friday] and will be packed up tomorrow (Saturday) and a half dozen waiting for spots to open up in the inspection area…”

For previous TWIP coverage of Houdini, check out our Houdini DEEP DIVE here, and our interview with playfield designer Joe Balcer here.

We saw the first Houdini unboxing video from Zach with Straight Down the Middle: a pinball show (YouTube, Twitch, Facebook) – check it out below:

Speaking of Straight Down the Middle: a pinball show, Zach and Greg went up to the American Pinball factory last week and plan to be posting a full review including a machine overview with Joe Balcer and Josh Kugler – check it out on their YouTube channel soon!

Finally, here is a Houdini stream from Zach on one of the very first production Houdini machines – check it out!

Zombie League All Stars and All Star Baseball

Zombie League All Stars and All Star Baseball are new pitch and bat games from Gizmo Game Design and manufactured by Valley Dynamo.  All Star Baseball started shipping in December and Zombie League All Stars are supposed to ship this month.  For more details on these machines, click here!

Tron VE Rumors

Here at TWIP we hear many rumors from a lot of different sources, and we try to sort through them to figure out which are credible and which are not.  Either way, when things are rumors they are labeled as such.  Last week we heard a few rumors surrounding a possible Tron Vault Edition:

  • RUMOR: Tron VE may implement an LCD screen instead of the Dot Matrix Display of the original Tron

  • RUMOR: Tron VE is not on the radar for at least 24 months

As mentioned about, these are rumors that seem to be credible, but are still rumors.

Victory Laps – End of Post Bonus

  • Batman ’66 received another code update to v0.86 – check out the details here!

  • ColorDMD announced their next game – The Lost World!  Check out the announcement here and the video teaser here – available January 24th!

  • Did you know Planetary Pinball sells illuminated flipper bat kits with different colors and lighting effects?  Check them out here!

  • Spooky Pinball released another closeup photo of Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle on Twitter – check out the pic here!

  • Owlnonymous posted a video/stream showing off the new code on Total Nuclear Annihilation – check it out here!

  • A new video with more details and an overview of Homepin’s upcoming machine, Thunderbirds, was released last week – view it on YouTube here!

  • The Chicago Gaming Company released a Service Bulletin regarding the Solenoid Driver Board on Attack From Mars Remake – click here to view.

  • Remember how Jersey Jack Pinball said there were 3.25 sextillion gameplay variations on their new Pirates of the Caribbean?  Here is the math!

 

MATCH! – Next Game…What is Coming Up on This Week in Pinball

  • Around the Playfield with Head 2 Head Pinball coming tomorrow

  • As mentioned above, an exclusive with deeproot Pinball is coming on Thursday

  • In the coming weeks, we’ll have a thorough “beginner’s guide” to virtual pinball buy a guest poster

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Confidential Information – TWIP Policy

We do NOT share any confidential or “off the record” information without permission from the source of the info, either publicly on the TWIP website or to podcasters, etc.

Have a scoop or anonymous rumor?  Email us at [email protected]

Upcoming Games and Rumors

Stern Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Aerosmith

  • AC/DC Vault Edition

  • Star Wars

  • Guardians of the Galaxy

  • AC/DC Luci Vault Edition <-NEW

Announced/Confirmed

  • Elvira 3

Rumors of Future Titles

  • Deadpool?

  • _______ VE?

  • The Munsters?

  • Iron Maiden?

  • The Beatles?

  • Jurassic World?

  • Pulp Fiction?

  • New Ka-Pow Title?

  • Steve Ritchie Unlicensed?

  • Keith Elwin Game?

Spooky Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Rob Zombie’s Spookshow International

  • Dominos (*contract game)

  • Jetsons (*contract game)

  • Total Nuclear Annihilation (*contract/house game)

Announced/Confirmed

  • Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle

  • Ben Heck’s game

American Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Houdini

Dutch Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Bride of Pinbot 2.0

  • Bride of Pinbot 3.0 (on hold)

  • The Big Lebowski (production issues)

Circus Maximus

  • The Pinball Circus Remake

  • Kingpin?

Silver Castle Pinball

  • Timeshock (coming soon)

Jersey Jack Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Wizard of Oz

  • The Hobbit

  • Dialed In

  • Pirates of the Caribbean

Rumors of Future Titles

  • Toy Story?

  • Willy Wonka?

  • The Muppets?

Chicago Gaming/Planetary Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Medieval Madness Remake

  • Attack From Mars Remake

Rumors of Future Titles

  • Monster Bash Remake?

  • Cactus Canyon Remake?

  • Big Bang Bar Remake?

  • Theatre of Magic?

Heighway Pinball

Most Recent Titles

  • Full Throttle

  • Alien (shipping)

Rumors of Future Titles

  • Queen?

  • Barry Oursler Licensed Theme

  • Barry Oursler UnLicensed Theme

P3 (Multimorphic)

  • Lexy Lightspeed

  • Cannon Lagoon

  • Cosmic Cart Racing

Homepin

  • Thunderbirds (coming soon)

Phénix Pinball

  • Olympic Goblin

Deeproot Pinball

  • Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland?

  • Alice in Wonderland?

  • Magic Girl?

  • Houdini?

**TWIP dreams of the day Harry Potter Pinball will be added to these rumors. Ms. Rowling, I’d be willing to ride the Knight Bus without taking dramamine if you approve this!

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