Pinball Magazine and Pinball News recorded a new pinball podcast in which the news from the pinball industry from April 2018 is summarized:
- HeighwayPinball is liquidated
- Thunderbirds is in production
- Iron Maiden LE revealed
- and more
Categories: News
The in-depth pinball glossy (more like a book)
The 12th annual Flip Expo was held April 21 and 22 in Le Treport, France. The show is organized by the Association Silverball. Pinball Magazine was present for the fifth time. Do also check our coverage on Phenix Pinball’s Olympic Goblin, which was presented at the event.
The free play hall with the tournament area in the foreground
Part of the vendor hall, which had 8 rows of vendors
Flip Expo is hosted in two halls. In the main hall the free play area, tournament area and kitchen can be found. In the other hall all vendors have their stands. As this is a rather large gymnasium hall, the vendors have plenty space in their booths to display their merchandise. Zpeakaboncks probably had the largest stand. Aside from a huge display of all sorts of pinball parts they also displayed nine relatively new pinball machines: The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, Dialed In, Pirates of the Caribbean* (all four by Jersey Jack Pinball, Total Nuclear Annihilation*, Rob Zombie Spookshow International*, The Jetsons* (all by Spooky Pinball), Alien LE (Heighway Pinball) and The Big Lebowski* (Dutch Pinball). JJP was heavily represented with games as also Christian Lienard had a booth with four JJP games and another Dialed In was present in another stand. The games marked with an * were shown for the first time in France and there were constantly people waiting to play them. Of coarse there was also the Olympic Goblin prototype Phenix Pinball, which is made in France.
Jack Guarnieri (JJP) gives Olympic Goblin a shot
Jersey Jack Pinball’s Jack Guarnieri was the special guest at this year’s event. Although he didn’t do a seminar, he was present both days and talked to everybody who approached him. Pinball News and Pinball Magazine were able to interview Jack in a relatively quitarea outside the venue. Inside it was very noisy and awfully hot due to beautiful sunny weather. The entire inteview is available as a free audio podcast. I the same podcast the event itself is also discussed as well as Phenix Pinball’s Olympic Goblin game.
Check out the combined audio podcast of Pinball News and Pinball Magazine covering Flip Expo, Jack Guarnieri interview and a review of Olympic Goblin
The entre weekend was very warm and sunny, causing the temperature in both halls to go up. Saturday was by far the busiest day, although Sunday wasn’t too bad either. People were still coming in on Sunday afternoon two hours before the show would close. For many coming over to play some pinball is just a fun activity in their free time, but they’re not going to spend the entire weekend at the show.
Saturday evening the show closed and organized a banquet for all vendors, volunteers and those who bought tickets for this banquet. As the weather was so nice, the banquet was held outside in the open air. A catering service brought in a huge grill on which chickens, hams, sausages and steak were grilled. About 150 people joined in and the ambiance was simply great. Absolute wonderful evening that reminded me a bit of the victory dinners for the Asterix comic books.
The banquet on Saturday night
There were tournaments held on both days, but I didn’t follow any of these. I did notice that unlike previous years the game line-up in the tournament area was the same both days. On previous editions the Sunday would see some games move from the free play area to the tournament area and vice versa.
The number of games in the free play area was about 40, and included some rare electromechanical gems like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Charlie’s Angels. Most games were solid-state and wide variety of more modern pinball games. The newest games were all to be found in the vendor hall.
Having attended this show several times, this year’s edition was a very good one. The only complaint is the temperature in both halls due to the sunny weather, but other than that nothing but compliments to the show organisation. I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition.
For more details and photos, see Pinball News’ show report (coming soon).
Categories: News
Olympic Goblin (Phenix Pinball) report (part of Flip Expo 2018 report)
Editor
Posted on April 21, 2018
Olympic Goblin as presented by Phenix Pinball at Flip Expo 2018
While Pinball Magazine usually doesn’t review new pinball games, it is always interesting to play new games and report on them. Just before Flip Expo 2018 I had the chance to play Phenix Pinball’s Olympic Goblin. Pinball Magazine reported on this game two years ago, from the same event, when it was still in early development. Since then the game came a lot closer to a finished product, although it’s not completely finished at the moment.
Full playfield of Olympic Goblin
Olympic Goblin is intended as a simple game, a throwback to the days of electromechanical pinball in terms of rule sets: easy to understand, difficult to master, but with a modern twist. Just like on most electromechanical games, most of the rules are indicated on the playfield. On Olympic Goblin mostly in a visual way. The game is about a green Goblin character who is apparently competing in some Olympic tournament, although the sports practiced aren’t actual Olympic sports. There are the following game modes: Get the pigs, Win the race, Eat em all, Beat em all, and the victory stage. All modes are played in order. The game starts with Get the pigs.
The upper playfield area with the three droptarget banks, pop bumpers and rollover lanes
Get the pigs
Above the flippers is an image pictured of the Goblin grabbing two pigs. The pigs, and most other collectible animals, are represented by drop targets. There are three banks of each three drop targets on the playfield; one on the left, one in the middle at the top, and one on the right, opposite of the drop targets on the left. To Get the pigs the lower drop targets on the left and right bank start blinking, as do the pigs portrayed in the image above the flippers. Shooting the lower left drop target collects the pig pictured on the left, and vice versa for the right pig. The pigs, and other animals in other modes, don’t have to be collected in order. When both pigs are collected a short fanfare sound is played, the drop targets reset while the ball is still in play and the second mode starts immediately: Win the race.
Win the race
Eat em all
Beat em all
Victory
Again the concept is similar: this time four drop targets will be blinking and need to be collected. When completed the game moves on to the next round, Eat em all, where five drop targets on the left side of the playfield need to be shot. When completed the game moves on to Beat them all, where five drop targets on the right side need to be completed. When you get to the podium modes all drop targets need to be completed to complete a stage on the podium. When completed these stages also award an Extra Ball or other awards.
Lit lane for 1000
At the top of the playfield are four rollover lanes named Corrupted Judges. The goal is to collect all four. Unlike the game modes, these rollover lanes reset after every drain, so ideally they must be collected on each ball. The rollover lanes can be moved around with lane change. Each collected rollover lane enables an increased lit score for certain pop bumpers and rollover lanes further down the playfield. What’s interesting about that is that each rollover lane is connected to certain popbumpers or rollover lanes, but when using lane change the lit increased values also move around across the playfield. So in order to collect 1,000 points at the inlane leading to one of the flippers, you have to flip a few times to light up that inlane first. Obviously, when more top rollover lanes are completed, the less lane changing is needed to illuminate a certain lane that the ball is about to roll in to.
As far as game rules, this is about it. There is no multiball or wizard mode. An easy to understand concept, probably fun for kids to get acquainted with pinball. The game is likely intended to be operated in arcades, camping sites and redemption game centers. A ticket dispenser would be recommended to make the game more interesting for such redemption centers. Tickets could be awarded for completing each mode, where the number of tickets awarded increases with each mode. But at the moment such ticket dispenser isn’t part of the game yet as ticket dispensing games are not allowed in France.
Also interesting to notice is that the game has two “slingshots,” one above each flipper, but they don’t contain a kicker. Despite the lack of a kicker the do bounce the ball around quite good.
Inside the backbox: a PinSound audio board and a driver by Pascal Janin’s Flippp. The display is by Boston Pinball Company.
Ever since the first images of this game were published the artwork has been criticized by many. Yes, it’s a different style than we’ve been used to on most modern pinball games, but the game isn’t trying to compete with those games. What matters is whether kids find it attractive. Pinball Magazine also found out that due to the use of a PinSound audio board, the music and sound effects are fully customizable. It might even be possible to send in custom artwork and have that applied to the game.
Flip Expo was held April 21 and 22 in Le Treport, France. Other new and uncommon games present at the show include: Total Nuclear Annihilation (Spooky Pinball), Rob Zombie (Spooky Pinball), The Big Lebowski (Dutch Pinball), The Jetsons (The Pinball Company), Alien LE (Heighway Pinball) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Jersey Jack Pinball). JJP’s Jack Guarnieri is also present at the show.
Categories: News
Martin Ayub (Pinball News) and Jonathan Joosten (Pinball Magazine) joined forces in their first combined audio podcast. The idea was to turn Pinball Magazine’s monthly news recap into a podcast where both reporters discuss the latest developments in the pinball industry. This first episode discusses all the news coming out of Texas Pinball Festival and the Iron Maiden reveal. What was supposed to be a 10-minute first show ended up running over 2 hours, but it was fun to do. Hope it will be fun to listen to as well 🙂
Categories: News
Mockup cover for Pinball Magazine No. 5 (subject to change)
Pinball Magazine is now taking advertisements for Pinball Magazine No. 5! If you’re offering any pinball-related products, parts, services, organize a pinball show, offer pinball on location, run a barcade, have a pinball related podcast, or something else pinball related, Pinball Magazine No. 5 is the best place for you to advertise and reach all these dedicated pinball enthusiasts.
Pinball Magazine did send out a newsletter to potential advertisers about advertising in Pinball Magazine No. 5. In case you didn’t get such an email notification, you may either not be on our advertiser’s mailing list, or the email bounced. Please send an email to: editor @ pinball-magazine . com (no spaces) so I can direct you to the details on the content of issue 5, Early Bird advertising rates and such. Please note: the back cover and inside covers have been reserved for previous advertisers. Pinball Magazine No. 5 will hopefully be printed and available in April 2018.
Here’s a tip for those interested in advertising, but not capable of making a proper advertisement: On fiverr.com it should be really easy to find someone who can make you an ad for just $5. Look at the Advertising or Graphics & Design section.
Categories: News