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Bonus Podcast: Joe Kaminkow & Gary Stern on The Beatles: Beatlemania Pinball
PodcastAnalysis updated yesterday54 min listenBy Martin Ayub, Jonathan Joosten
Joe Kaminkow (Ka-Pow Pinball) and Gary Stern (Stern Pinball) comment on the newly announced Beatles themed pinball machines.
Highlights
- Joe Kaminkow and Gary Stern worked for over a decade to secure The Beatles licensing deal for Stern Pinball
- The playfield design is based on the 1970s Seawitch game, modernized with contemporary technology and rules features
- Production is strictly limited to exactly 1,964 units (matching the year Beatles came to America) across three tiers: 100 Diamond, 250 Platinum, and remaining Gold
- The game features nine Beatles songs (originally eight, with Tax Man added late in development)
- Chris Franchi created the initial presentation artwork (cabinet and backglass) that secured Apple/Beatles approval
- The licensor (Paul, Ringo, Olivia Harrison, and Yoko Ono) approved gameplay, art, sounds, and display elements, with a playable prototype flown to London for their review
- The game will ship immediately with most units sold within weeks; production runs 1,000 units initially in blocks of 10 to dealers/distributors
- The Beatles playfield includes wood grain visible in artwork, representing a deliberate retro design choice contrasting with recent Stern games
Notable quotes
“This is going to be made as Beatles. This play field is only going to be used for Beatles. And we're only making 1,964 of them.”
“I probably have eight personal friends that are like, please put me on the list to get this game. And that's never happened in anything I've made in the 40 years that I've been making pinball.”
“We could have never made this game 10 years ago. There was just no possible way. Our sound wasn't that good. Our display wasn't that good... our printing technology for the play fields could not have made a game that looks as good as this game.”
“this might be the last pinball I ever make. We'll see. But if it is, damn it's a good one to go out on.”
“If there was a culmination of a career, getting this title would be it.”
“There's only 1,964 of them for the year that Beatles first came to America... We make normally three times that, two to three, four times that many of a game.”
“This game's perfect for all of them. It's very approachable. The casual player in the street... will be able to walk up to this game and know what to do... yet there's plenty of added rules and deep rules for the better player.”
Entities
- Pan Am· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- The Beatles· entity
- CES Show· event
- IAPA/IAPTA· event
- Beatles Pinball· game
- Seawitch· game
- Apple Corps· organization
- Chris Franchi· person
- Cousin Bruce· person
- Gary Stern· person
- George Gomez· person
- Jerry Thompson· person
- Joe Kaminkow· person
- Kevin Murphy· person
- Tim Grover· person
- Kapow· product_brand
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