The Pinball Thread

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Right, gpod to know!
Just played quite a bit of Evil Dead pinball and it might be my favourite machine ever. It's got tons of gadgets, theres so much to do, artwork is great, callouts are amazing, and it plays incredibly well.

[Austin]

Evil Dead is good, yeah. I'm lucky to have one on location nearby. Get to play it regularly. If you like the films and you like pinball.. it's pretty damn good.

[Jeneki]

Thanos-chan, may I please have the ball back?


... No

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Hahaha
...
I just remembered I managed to get a ball stuck in one of the bumpers on an Avengers machine today. The staff member I asked for help was impressed

[DJ Incompetent]

I found a location test playable of Dune

Was this recently? Dunes started showing up at locally,

Half a month before I posted, yeah. But enough time for new things to happen. I thought it was supposed to come out october or something. oh well.

My problem with pinball is that I find it much harder than video games. I never feel like I'm in control of anything. Whenever I ask people what I should have done to avoid losing the ball, they tell me I should have just given the table a nudge, but it never works when I try. So while bare survival seems very challenging, making the ball go where I want (due to the missions) is even harder. Also, mostly I don't know what I'm supposed to do in the first place, while it seems obvious to the pros around me, who tell me "now you have to hit this spot here three times before the time runs out, then this will open up and you have to shoot that" etc

~ Nudging doesn't really work when you're reacting to what's going on. You need to be familiar with anticipating the trajectory of the ball. Playing a few credits on a table should demonstrate what shots and specifically, missed shots will result in a center-drain easily, and you will know to nudge (sideways, or slap the machine) as the ball is much further up the table to actually redirect it. For nudging the outlanes, a common foresight is if the ball is hitting the strongest center-upper part of the bumpers above your flippers, at least once each side. This is a tell the flipper bumpers will push the ball into outlanes, and you can nudge (upward) to use the rubber divider post to block it.

~ General goal is to aim at shots with flashing arrows (on the floor/table). Solid lit things are less priority than steady blinking things. Figure out where a mode start hole is and be sure to read the big screen when you do for special scoring instructions. Blinking arrows that are yellow or red are usually the most important; bigger arrow is assumed better.
Before you play a pinball, look at the table for indicators of "lock" or "light lock". The general universal lit color for lock ball shots is green. You mostly want to start multiball whenever you can, and locking three balls is often the most straightforward path to doing so. When mulitball is activated, often a jackpot special shot becomes available. Jackpot is often the highest scoring thing, if not the double jackpot or super jackpot.

~ The best path to scoring is to slow the game down by learning the skill techniques:

Live catch
Drop catch
Dead bounce
Post pass
Tap pass
Alley pass

As you learn these, you will become your own worst enemy for self-draining and will want to quit. Playing pinball entirely with these techniques tends to suck the fun out of the game. I had to learn these by attempting to adopt 1-2 skills at a time over a handful of credits. Keep at it, then develop your own hybrid playstyle. You'll probably lean on one catch or pass style above the others, just make time to at least practice all the skill inventory, then pick your favorite techniques (one pass, one bounce, one catch, etc). Some shots are easier when playing fast, and most shots will be easiest when you slow the game down by holding and juggling the ball consistently. And don't worry about the countdown timer hurry up shots in the beginning when you practice.

The biggest behavior you need to attune to is what does the ball do after you hit or miss a shot from a hold/slow speed or a fast/impulse speed. Then you can plan your nudging and table slaps around your behavior. This will change for each pinball table except for that one outlane drain flipper bumper habit described earlier, which should remain consistent on all tables.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Excellent post, man. I've been playing pinball for two decades, am still pretty shite, but this was a good reminder that I need to work on my technique a lot more consistently. I'm getting half-decent with drop catches, but as of yet, effective nudging still totally eludes me.
Also, I wasn't aware of colour coding/ green marking the ball lock holes!

Re: Dune pinball, i felt it was very strong on atmosphere, but otherwise didn't click much. Whenever the sandworm arises, you have to wait forever until you can continue playing, which is one of my pet peeves in pinball, but admittedly other people might enjoy that cinematic build-up more than I do.

[Austin]

Consistency is the biggest thing, and that involves doing everything in the book, along with a focus on slowing things down as much as you reasonably can.

[Jeneki]

Star Wars Fall of the Empire (Stern) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xP4HJzn60E

Another Star Wars game from Stern.

[Jeneki]

Was playing Legends of Valhalla tonight, and made it to the Loki fight. The game did its standard dramatic-voice intro "Loki! The god of trickery!" Played for a bit and the ball bounced towards the outlane. I saw Shield of the Gods was lit (outlane ball save) so I just let it go. And then Loki was up on the screen mocking me "I am the god of trickery!" and I didn't get the ball back.

I really hope that wasn't a one-off glitch and the mode is programmed to do that, because that's one of the funniest trolls I've seen in quite a while.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Star Wars Fall of the Empire (Stern) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xP4HJzn60E

Another Star Wars game from Stern.

It looks decidedly mediocre IMHO. The AT-AT "falling" when you hit the corkscrew ramp is a great idea, force ballsave looks neat, but that's it, and both are only in the premium version. What is it with Star Wars pinball machines, all of them either are super mediocre or look like total shite (like Stern's last Star Wars pin - did they have the intern do the playfield art?)

Was playing Legends of Valhalla tonight, and made it to the Loki fight. The game did its standard dramatic-voice intro "Loki! The god of trickery!" Played for a bit and the ball bounced towards the outlane. I saw Shield of the Gods was lit (outlane ball save) so I just let it go. And then Loki was up on the screen mocking me "I am the god of trickery!" and I didn't get the ball back.

I really hope that wasn't a one-off glitch and the mode is programmed to do that, because that's one of the funniest trolls I've seen in quite a while.

Heard only good things about this machine. I bet the Loki thing is intentional - I read Evil Dead has a mode (Evil Linda or something) where the ball save lights up randomly, but isn't active, and when you drain, Evil Linda will laugh you down.

[Austin]

What is it with Star Wars pinball machines, all of them either are super mediocre or look like total shite (like Stern's last Star Wars pin - did they have the intern do the playfield art?)

Stern's hands are tied when they deal with certain license holders. They'll literally get a small set of pre-made images and are stuck using them only. I don't think there are many (or even any) Disney-owned themes Stern has done that look "good" (or creative at least). It's why there's such a difference in art quality from games like Ghostbusters, Foo Fighters and 2013 Metallica, versus the art packages on John Wick, Star Wars 2017 and the Rolling Stones (2011).

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

What is it with Star Wars pinball machines, all of them either are super mediocre or look like total shite (like Stern's last Star Wars pin - did they have the intern do the playfield art?)

Stern's hands are tied when they deal with certain license holders. They'll literally get a small set of pre-made images and are stuck using them only. I don't think there are many (or even any) Disney-owned themes Stern has done that look "good" (or creative at least). It's why there's such a difference in art quality from games like Ghostbusters, Foo Fighters and 2013 Metallica, versus the art packages on John Wick, Star Wars 2017 and the Rolling Stones (2011).

Interesting - what changed when they did Fall of the Empire? Apparently, they were allowed to do their own artwork for this machine - which, IMHO, still looks a bit on the mediocre side... also, Avengers infinity War has as always excellent Zombie Yeti artwork on it?

[Jeneki]

I'm curious to see how evil those Star Wars pops get, on a machine setup for tournament play with no rubbers and max open outlanes. Seems like any sling hit will get super dangerous, as the usual strategy of upward nudges to get the ball above the outlanes will hit the pops instead.

[Austin]

Interesting - what changed when they did Fall of the Empire? Apparently, they were allowed to do their own artwork for this machine - which, IMHO, still looks a bit on the mediocre side... also, Avengers infinity War has as always excellent Zombie Yeti artwork on it?

It probably just depends on the deal that's struck up, how much freedom the IP holder wants to give Stern, how much Stern wants to pay to actually have said freedom, yada-yada-yada. On that last note, Jersey Jack Disney art packages have been a lot better than Stern's, but they also charge a lot more for their games, so maybe they're paying up, who knows?

Looking at the Fall of the Empire playfield again, I doubt they had a lot of freedom with regards to the artwork. It reminds me of games like Avatar, Iron Man and Rolling Stones, all fairly mundane art packages. "Here's some stock assets, just use those and copy/paste onto the playfield. Have fun, Stern!" - Disney

[Jeneki]

Winchester Mystery House (Barrels of Fun) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCTFemr_DVI

[Jeneki]

Some thoughts on newer pins at Chicago Pinball Expo:

Star Wars Fall of the Empire - Very fast twitchy game. I definitely needed to pay attention and be ready for quick ball returns, even on successful shots. The Death Star shot in particular where the first shot open it for ball locks, and that first hit will come screaming back straight down the middle requiring a quick reflex slap save.

Winchester Mystery House - Great atmosphere built by lighting and sound design. The layout is fairly complex and seems like it has a lot of content as you navigate the house, so I think a home owner will get the most out of exploring it. Barrels of Fun came out swinging on this game and I'm sure it'll be loved, but to be honest I think I prefer their previous game Dune.

Portal / Princess Bride - Two new Multimorphic games, and the first time I've seen a P3 in person. Portal has a lot going on and some neat ramps that move around and launch the ball around portals and stuff, but it's hard to follow what I should be doing and what's going on. Princess Bride is a bit more straight forward and has some fun scenes from the movie I appreciate. I don't think this platform is for me but I can see the appeal.

Predator - Quite a bit better than I expected. Collecting the characters and weapons appeals to me, however the replacement voices lose quite a bit of the nostalgic charm. The minigun shot and starting up that multiball is super cool and needs to be seen. The outlane ball save is pretty easy to renew, leading to some longer games.

Merlin's Arcade - Probably the biggest surprise of the weekend. Very smooth shooter and feels great getting combos. Mode stacking gets a bit crazy here, I think I started six modes at the same time and one of the Turner Pinball reps sort of slid over to watch the game explode lol. Probably not the deepest game and the theme is all over the place, but it's simply fun.

Space Hunt - Not going to lie, this game looks quite cheap. But it plays well and I was able to complete a few modes, and it has some neat ramps. I'd give it a few plays if I saw it in the wild but I don't expect it'll be a popular game.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The full size pin by Dutch Pinball, not the kickstarter pin by Wonderland Amusements. I have some issues with the cramped layout, most notably the left-most u-turn which doesn't return in a friendly manner. The magnet driven upper playfield is cool though, and multiball isn't hard to get going. A friend of mine really likes it so I'm sure it'll have fans.

Harry Potter - I honestly had no idea what's going on in this game. It just kept starting new modes all over the place no matter what I was hitting. The only parts I could figure out on the fly was some of the multiball locks and the Death Eater fights. Seems like a high dopamine game with lots of bling. If you want to feel awesome without learning why, this is your game.

No new pinball from American Pinball . They had a new skee ball thing they were showing off, which didn't interest me but if it helps them survive I can't fault them.

I'll also give a shout out to Big Trouble in Little China in the homebrew section. It looked so professional I couldn't believe it's not going into production.

[aak]

Played a Jaws machine in person. It was pretty fun. Sadly didn't have much time to actually learn the rules. I wish some of these newer tables had digital versions like the old Williams machines.

Speaking of, the place I went to had Medieval Madness in the pictures on their website but not on the floor. Very sad, I love that game on Pinball FX.

The tables I'd really love to see in-person are Addams Family, Taxi, and Black Rose. I've gotten pretty good scores on the virtual versions. I know irl pinball's way different, but I at least know the rulesets very well.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Some thoughts on newer pins at Chicago Pinball Expo:

Star Wars Fall of the Empire - Very fast twitchy game. I definitely needed to pay attention and be ready for quick ball returns, even on successful shots. The Death Star shot in particular where the first shot open it for ball locks, and that first hit will come screaming back straight down the middle requiring a quick reflex slap save.

Winchester Mystery House - Great atmosphere built by lighting and sound design. The layout is fairly complex and seems like it has a lot of content as you navigate the house, so I think a home owner will get the most out of exploring it. Barrels of Fun came out swinging on this game and I'm sure it'll be loved, but to be honest I think I prefer their previous game Dune.

Portal / Princess Bride - Two new Multimorphic games, and the first time I've seen a P3 in person. Portal has a lot going on and some neat ramps that move around and launch the ball around portals and stuff, but it's hard to follow what I should be doing and what's going on. Princess Bride is a bit more straight forward and has some fun scenes from the movie I appreciate. I don't think this platform is for me but I can see the appeal.

Predator - Quite a bit better than I expected. Collecting the characters and weapons appeals to me, however the replacement voices lose quite a bit of the nostalgic charm. The minigun shot and starting up that multiball is super cool and needs to be seen. The outlane ball save is pretty easy to renew, leading to some longer games.

Merlin's Arcade - Probably the biggest surprise of the weekend. Very smooth shooter and feels great getting combos. Mode stacking gets a bit crazy here, I think I started six modes at the same time and one of the Turner Pinball reps sort of slid over to watch the game explode lol. Probably not the deepest game and the theme is all over the place, but it's simply fun.

Space Hunt - Not going to lie, this game looks quite cheap. But it plays well and I was able to complete a few modes, and it has some neat ramps. I'd give it a few plays if I saw it in the wild but I don't expect it'll be a popular game.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The full size pin by Dutch Pinball, not the kickstarter pin by Wonderland Amusements. I have some issues with the cramped layout, most notably the left-most u-turn which doesn't return in a friendly manner. The magnet driven upper playfield is cool though, and multiball isn't hard to get going. A friend of mine really likes it so I'm sure it'll have fans.

Harry Potter - I honestly had no idea what's going on in this game. It just kept starting new modes all over the place no matter what I was hitting. The only parts I could figure out on the fly was some of the multiball locks and the Death Eater fights. Seems like a high dopamine game with lots of bling. If you want to feel awesome without learning why, this is your game.

No new pinball from American Pinball . They had a new skee ball thing they were showing off, which didn't interest me but if it helps them survive I can't fault them.

I'll also give a shout out to Big Trouble in Little China in the homebrew section. It looked so professional I couldn't believe it's not going into production.

Very cool report, thanks!

[Jeneki]

The Walking Dead Remastered (Stern) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T-wF75ErOk

I play the original often at a local pinball club. It feels more like a tournament game, given how risky you have to play to get anything going. I think I enjoyed it more before learning the rules.

Given the subject matter, honestly I prefer the original dmd to the remastered lcd. When it comes to gore, less detail is more.

[Jeneki]

Beetlejuice (Spooky Pinball) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-r7_oM-PcY

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

The Walking Dead Remastered (Stern) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T-wF75ErOk

I play the original often at a local pinball club. It feels more like a tournament game, given how risky you have to play to get anything going. I think I enjoyed it more before learning the rules.

Given the subject matter, honestly I prefer the original dmd to the remastered lcd. When it comes to gore, less detail is more.

Not sure who the new version is supposed to appeal to - you don't even get snippets from the series? (I also mostly prefer a DMD over sterile LCD monitors.) The new artwork in itself would be semi-decent, but it's much too colourful, not gritty, and doesn't fit the theme at all. The LED lighting in the siderails looks tacky. Sling head sculpts, eh, take it or leave it. Having Michael Roooker do the voice acting is a great idea though. Maybe someone will provide hacked code with Negan's one-liners...

Beetlejuice (Spooky Pinball) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-r7_oM-PcY

Looks great, if it plays anywhere near as well as Evil Dead, it'll be another banger.
I wish I could afford/ had teh space for Evil Dead and Godzilla machines...

[Jeneki]

American Pinball was acquired by a financial services company named JP Vincent LP.
Pinside link: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic ... st-9004240

For reference, here are the pins made by American Pinball:
Houdini
Oktoberfest
Hot Wheels
Galactic Tank Force
Legends of Valhalla
Barry O's BBQ Challenge

Edit for recent announcements:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic ... st-9019407
American Pinball will be releasing reimagined Bally/Williams pins. Use of italics with reimagined is from the press release, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what that means.

[Jeneki]

Pokemon pinball (Stern) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78q_9-6PBSY

A pretty major IP for Stern, so I suspect this will do well with operators on location play (Edit: users on Pinside are reporting the first few runs are already sold out through April, so this game is doing VERY well). The playfield gives me vibes from Junk Yard pinball.

In other news, I had a good night on Ghostbusters. The multipliers get out of control on this game lol.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Was playing the Switch 1 version of Xenotilt and achieved a new personal best score of 34,622,505 points with a #519 ranking overall on the online Switch Xenotilt Leaderboards as of today, 3/10/2026.

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As it is, Xenotilt is a hard pinball game to play with the given 3-ball limitation setup at the start of a serious pinball session -- managed to get a multi-ball session going on with 2 balls in play at the same time (am not quite sure how to activate a 2-ball multi-ball session though -- perhaps with getting 3 balls in a row on the mini tac-tac-toe type of playfield to start it?).
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Quite a fun pinball game with it's hard-edge cyberpunk visual aesthetics going on with it's overall 3-playfields tall table presentation setup (a subtle nod/tribute towards the classic PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 pinball game of Devil's Crash/Devil's Crush circa 1990).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Jeneki]

Yukon Yeti (Turner Pinball) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp4tFIWW2Tg

Looks like a spiritual successor to White Water. Turner Pinball is upping their game with all the sculpted terrain on this one. Previous games by Turner are Ninja Eclipse and Merlin's Arcade.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Yukon Yeti (Turner Pinball) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp4tFIWW2Tg

Looks like a spiritual successor to White Water. Turner Pinball is upping their game with all the sculpted terrain on this one. Previous games by Turner are Ninja Eclipse and Merlin's Arcade.

Oooooh White Water is one of my absolute favourites. Looks cool, agree though that callouts could be more energetic. Found Ninja Eclipse boring and not playing well at all, but if Dennis Nordman did the playfield design chances are it'll be a banger.

[1KMS]

Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators Ver.9.7 is getting ported to Steam and Switch.

This game is not an emulator, but a complete multi-platform port based on the original source code.

https://automaton-media.com/articles/ne ... 20-444046/

Fond memories of the OST, and counter-stopping the Gladiators table.

[Jeneki]

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye (Stern) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLx93Iiy5yw

Not to be confused with the 2011 Transformers pin based off the live action movies, this one is themed after the 80s animated version. I suspect Stern likes Decepticons more than Autobots, as Megatron and Soundwave have cool mechs that shoot balls, while Optimus and Grimlock are just sort of there.

Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators Ver.9.7 is getting ported to Steam and Switch.

Looks cool, thanks for bringing it up.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Yeah, not like I have much nostalgia for Transformers (it just wasn'tz as huge in Germany as in say the US), but Optimus Prime looks kinda ass and doesn't seem to transform (or possibly he does but only in the premium and limited editions). Rest is alright. Gotta say though that more often than not, nowaday's Stern tables look considerably worse than JJP's and Spooky Pinball's offerings. Not bad, but a bit basic.

[Austin]

Sterns tend to cost a lot less at the low end as well, so it’s one of those “you get what you pay for” sort of things.