Harry Potter Presentation by Jersey Jack Pinball Next Week?; Predator Pinball Playfield Picture; New Website - What Do You Want?; King Kong, Alice & More...
- Jason
- May 30
- 4 min read
The other day I wrote here about how a distributor listed Jersey Jack Pinball's upcoming Harry Potter pin on a list of games that it is bringing to the upcoming Southern Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta on June 20th and wondered if that would be the machine's first public appearance.
Well, now the folks at the awesome Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show are hinting that Harry Potter may be at their event, which takes place from June 6th through the 8th at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center in Washington - a full two weeks before Southern Fried! Here's what they had to say on Pinside late yesterday:
"Speaker announcement: Erik Meunier
Eric is a game designer for Jersey Jack Pinball. He’s been on the design team for The Godfather, Guns’n’Roses, Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Dialed In. Erik will be talking about game design, Jersey Jack Pinball… and if we are lucky, the new Jersey Jack game!"
So you're telling me there's a chance...that we'll see Harry Potter next week? Very cool.
Beyond the possibility of seeing a presentation on and the actual game Harry Potter for the first time ever, this year's Northwest show is shaping up to be HUGE. As of two days ago, they stated that they have 460 games already volunteered for free play at the event - the most ever in its history. This total includes 18 Premium and Pro King Kongs - Stern Pinball's latest, and Barrels of Fun's new pin Dune.
The design team for King Kong, including Keith Elwin, Rick Naegele, Harrison Drake and Jerry Thompson will be presenting at the show. As will David Van Es and Butch Peel from Barrels of Fun pinball. Boy, I sure hope that these presentations are being streamed.
The aforementioned free play games also includes one of the largest collections of Zaccaria arcade games ever seen in public. As someone who loves playing and taking pictures of rare games, that's right up my alley. I'm making myself want to fly out to the Pacific Northwest lol. Hopefully I will make it one of these years.
UPDATE: I've been told that Harry Potter Collector's Eedition showroom games are shipping to distributors as early as next week.
Here's a link to the show website for anyone who is interested in more information"
And a link to my article about the Southern Fried Gaming Expo earlier this week:
Harry Potter Pinball to Make Public Debut at Southern Fried Gaming Expo?
Speaking of Zaccaria pinball, if you're into pinball and have never played some of the super cool pinball machines that the Italian company released in the 1970s and 80s, definitely make sure to check out the Zaccaria Pinball game on Steam and consoles. A company names Magic Pixel recreated every single Zaccaria pinball machine ever made, and there's a lot of them, as a digital pinball table.
Magic Pixel just announced that it has launched its 100th Steam update to the game and announced that it is nearing completion of a complete reworking of the code for the game, its 5th major revision to it since it was launched 12 years ago. The game now features a whopping 160 digital pinball tables, including a new remake of Zaccaria's Magic Castle (see below).
Here's some breaking pinball news. An hour ago, Retrocengo shared a picture of a part of the playfield for Pinball Brothers' new game Predator on his YouTube channel!
Next up, we have Stern Pinball. It's Friday, so that means we get a look at what is currently on the production line at the Company. Not surprisingly, it's their newest game - King Kong.
Every time I think that it's done, I keep adding to this article lol. Next up is Dutch Pinball Exclusive's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Yesterday, they shared pictures of the game on the line at their factory.
Below are pictures of the twenty-fixe Alice machines that are destined for the United States being built. They are undergoing final testing before they are boxed up and should be ready to go by next week.
Work has already begun on the playfields for the batch of games after these.
Now I have a sneak preview of the work in progress that is the new an improved Knapp Arcade website. My sons and I have been creating an all new website from the ground up. First and foremost, don't worry the core blog that you are currently reading will always remain free - I insisted upon that.
Not only that, but the ad that you see shown at the top of the sample page below won't fill the page with garbage pop-up videos and interrupt the text every five lines. It's one simple ad without cookies or anything like that, that I want to use to promote arcades, mods, games, pinball shows, relevant stuff like that. I tried using conventional ad services on my website a couple of years ago and they had to be way too intrusive for the the money to be worth it for me personally. So if you're reading this now, nothing will change for you. Having said that, I want to add more stuff to the website A LOT MORE.
This is where you folks come in. I need ideas. What features would you like to see implemented on a new pinball and arcade website? Let your imagination run wild. It could be things that you've seen in the past that you like or something completely new. Let me know in the comments section below or shoot me an e-mail at knapparcade@gmail.com . Thanks!
Last up, I have today's featured Game of the Day.
I was thrilled to find this game at Pinfest. One of the rarest Gottlieb pinball machines ever produced, 1971 Bristol Hills two-player electromechanical add-a-ball pinball machine.
110 units built. Designed by Ed Krynski with art by Art Stenholm.
This game is the add-a-ball version of Gottlieb’s much more common Snow Derby (1,050 units) and Snow Queen (1,480 units). It was specifically built for Bilotta Distributing of Newark, New York. Bristol Hills is the name of a resort in that area. Replay pinball machines were banned under New York State law at the time, hence this add-a-ball version.
As seen at Pinfest in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
460 games, 263 of which are pins
Looking at the NWPAS game lineup, the vast majority of Zaccaria games are video arcade games, not pinball. Only 3 Zacc pins listed.
Looking forward to the new website!
Thanks for all your posts
How about readers send you pictures of their unique/modded machines or collections, and you group and feature them? Or show a picture of a machine in a famous arcade and let people guess where the picture was taken (then reveal the answer)?
Website is going to be sweet, keep at it! Nice Friday article today as well 😀