Good morning everyone. Happy Friday. I'm going to start things off today with pinball news from Down Under. The Australian distributor Mr. Pinball Australia shared a couple of interesting things on its Facebook page this morning.
First up, they teased the long promised, highly-anticipated new run of Chicago Gaming Company's Medieval Madness. According to their post, that run is actually happening during calendar year 2024. I was wondering if CGC would get to it this year. It sounds like they just might.
"2024 Brings Back the Best Pinball Ever Made, Williams Classic Medieval Madness, More Details Coming Soon!"
To paraphrase a quote from the classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail "I'm not quite dead yet". In another social media post, Mr. Pinball Australia shared pictures of what appears to be New In Box Fathom Mermaid Edition machines from Haggis Pinball. I have no idea if these games have been just sitting around, like the one that recently went on sale at the former distributor for Haggis, Cointaker, or if they have actually managed build a few games during their recent financial "restructuring".
It's very interesting to see these NIB games and I truly hope that anyone who has given money to Haggis for either a Fathom or a Centaur is eventually made whole, but I think that the Company has a long road ahead. It's going to be very difficult to convince anyone to trust Haggis enough at this point to wire money from their bank to Australia in advance for a game.
If Haggis is somehow successfully able to raise money, in order to survive they may have to change their business model to build inventory that can be shipped instantly from distributors upon payment. That's the only way that I personally see this working.
The classic Holy Grail scene that I just referenced:
Move over Atari Hercules, there's a new huge pin in town. Sony recently built a giant pinball machine in Trafalgar Square in London, England to promote PlayStation. Check this thing out!
"Yes that's a giant PlayStation pinball machine and yes you can play it. 👀
Join us at the UEFA Champions Festival in Trafalgar Square where the highest score on Friday and Saturday will win tickets to the UCL Final."
Last up, Stern pinball launched new code for its James Bond pinball machines yesterday, Version 1.02. I don't usually mention code updates here unless they contain something noteworthy. This one seems to. It adds a new "Swipe-A-Ball" that allows players to press the button on the lockbar to "unlock" Bird 1 locked balls. It also adds 20 new Insider Connected achievements to the game. More to play for! Below is a description of the update:
"NEW CODE! Stern Pinball has posted new James Bond 007 code v1.02.0 for the Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition models. This code adds 20 new Insider Connected Achievements as well as a new Swipe-A-Ball rule! This rule allows the player to "unlock" any Bird 1 locked balls they have accumulated prior to starting Bird 1 Multiball:
Release the locked ball(s) by pressing the lockdown bar button during a multiball event (the green button represents Swipe-A-Ball is available).
- Note: Progress towards starting Bird 1 Multiball increases in difficulty upon each Swipe-A-Ball use.
- Added a Swipe-A-Ball rule adjustment. Default setting = "Any Locked Ball".
Settings are:
"Off" - The rule is disabled.
"Physically Locked Balls" - Only balls physically locked in the Rocket by the player are added into play.
"Any Locked Balls" - Any balls locked (either in the Rocket or trough) by the player are added into play.
"Physically Locked Balls + Stealing" - Only balls physically locked in the Rocket by any player are added into play.
"Any Locked Balls + Stealing" - Any balls physically locked in the Rocket by any player, or balls in the trough are added into play.
-Note: A Ball Saver starts at the beginning of Swipe-A-Ball that will save any earned locked balls, i.e. any stolen or unearned balls that are released/unlocked are not saved upon draining.
This code also adds numerous game enhancements, additional polish, game adjustments, and bug fixes."
Either way Haggis is dead. Who would even trust them enough to buy a pin from them even if they “restructure”.