A Clue or Another Trick From Barrels of Fun?; News From Pedretti Gaming & Pinball Brothers
- Jason
- May 14
- 2 min read
Yesterday, Barrels of Fun, shared a really neat new video that appeared on Adam Savage’s Tested YouTube channel. With just under 7 Million subscribers, that's a pretty great place to show off their new game.
From my perspective, the video was great in a number of ways. Beyond giving us background on Barrels' newest game Dune and its development, we got a great look at the Company's factory...and maybe a sneak peek at something we weren't supposed to see?
I never know what to think about the tricky folks at Barrels of Fun when it comes to teasing upcoming pinball themes. They had people thinking that they had the license for the film The Fifth Element for a while. And not long ago they left some pretty obvious clues in pictures that alluded to the 1985 film The Goonies. Well, at the 12:50 mark in the below video we get to see just a sliver for a second or two of what appears to be a pinball cabinet featuring the art for a game that looks like The Goonies. Is this an intentional clue, a slip up, intentional misdirection??? I have no idea, but I thought that it was worth mentioning.
Also yesterday, the European pinball manufacturer Pedretti Gaming, shared pictures of its FunHouse Remake being shipped out of the Euro Pinball Corp. factory. That's cool in itself, but at the bottom of the post they seemed to reference the article that I wrote here earlier this week about them producing a remake of the 1996 Williams game Tales of the Arabian Nights with the following quote:
Stay tuned for more updates—exciting things are on the way! 🎉
"I can neither confirm nor deny."
Hmmmmmmm
Pedretti Gaming's Euro Pinball Corp. manufacturing partner, Pinball Brothers, also briefly teased its next game in the return of its Company Newsletter earlier this week.
"We’ve been deep in the bunker, designing, building, testing. A massive project is in motion, and an action-packed machine is taking shape."
The Pedretti Clue is Fish Tales. The existence of "fish tales" cannot be confirmed or denied in terms of their truthfulness, because the term suggests exaggeration or fabrication.
That snippet of cabinet art had to be on purpose. No way they’d leave a game under wraps right next to one they’re shooting. Why even risk the production crew leaking that info?
While the lack of "elegant" gameplay is a point about the video of Dune.... 7 million possible non pinball players just saw something that they have no idea that it may or may not shoot wonky, if shots are narrow, or even care what Pinball guys views are thankfully!
Smart play by Barrels, and a great way to show fellow geeks what's going on, and under the hood. This is nothing but a win for Barrels, and if even if a handful of those subscribers buy one, then double win for Barrels.
I watched the video with the Mythbusters guy. His childlike enthusiasm for all things mechanical was definitely on display...but is it a good idea marketing wise to put out yet another (and I realize they aren't all official) video with lackluster gameplay? Having to take off the glass to demonstrate even the basics looks really bad.
And I already know all the excuses..bad player...not dialed in for the shoot.... prototype etc. But there is no getting around the fact that a lot of the major shots are at funky angles and look VERY narrow. Any I've yet to see anyone get any flow out of this thing.