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Pinball Industry News: August 2019 Re-cap

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago2 hr 1 min listenBy Martin Ayub, Jonathan Joosten
From the creator

Lots of news from various pinball manufacturers, including a statement by JJP's Jack Guarnieri.

Highlights

  • Jersey Jack Pinball experienced clear coat chipping and wrinkling issues on a small minority of Willy Wonka machines, with the company actively working with affected customers on case-by-case basis
  • Dutch Pinball recovered games from ARA contract manufacturer after full payment settlement and has begun shipping to customers through CoinTaker distributor
  • American Pinball has ceased regular production of Houdini machines; only remaining stock is with distributors
  • Clear coat curing time and composition on modern playfields is poorly understood and may be affected by health/safety regulation changes eliminating hazardous chemicals
  • Jersey Jack Pinball shipped Willy Wonka limited edition units and released three code updates in August (version 1.13 most recent)
  • Dutch Pinball renewed Big Lebowski license with Universal for one additional year (through end of 2020); Universal prefers one-year extensions over long-term deals
  • Wizard of Oz version 7.02 added feature allowing player additions beyond standard ball-in-play system when no players are on final ball
  • Dutch Pinball has estimated 100+ sets of game parts in inventory and is evaluating multiple facility locations for new assembly operations

Notable quotes

All right, well, first off, I just want to apologize for the delay in speaking about this matter publicly as we sorted through things internally.
Jack Warnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball
The number of actual cases we have seen with true playfield chipping is extremely low and we're in the process of developing a program for anyone with documented damage and we'll work with those customers on a case-by-case basis.
Jack Warnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball
We have no reason to believe any games out there in the field are inadequate in any way, shape, or form. You should continue to enjoy and play your amazing games.
Jack Warnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball
I think we're finding now that's not the case, and maybe in some cases these will never be entirely hard. I think it might very well be a case of not applying too many layers, because the more you apply, the softer the bottom layers will end up being.
Martin Ev, Pinball News
So if you're going to put a post on it and tighten it down and start twisting it, You can expect some slippage to occur.
Jonathan Houston, Pinball Magazine
What I understood is looking at Multiple facilities or Buildings that would become The new Dutch Pinball assembly facility, so to speak.
Jonathan Houston
I mean the idea is that if you take out let say that BolinMac is a mechanism I just grabbing out of the sky a number But if you take out a mech you can't reduce the price of the game with $2,000.
Jonathan Houston
What we don't want is a situation where people who bought a $25,000 game are now rooting for Dutch Pinball to fail, because that way their game will keep its value.
Martin Ev
I was a bit confused, like, why would this be worthy of a press release? Because to me it's almost saying, like, our product is no good. We have people in place to support you when it breaks down.
Jonathan Houston
Having a good backroom support staff is vital for any company. And the more machines you sell, the more support they are going to need.
Martin Ev

Entities

  • American Pinball· company
  • ARA· company
  • CoinTaker· company
  • Dutch Pinball· company
  • Jersey Jack Pinball· company
  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Universal· company
  • Dutch Pinball Open· event
  • Pinball Expo· event
  • Big Lebowski· game
  • Houdini· game
  • The Wizard of Oz· game
  • Willy Wonka· game
  • Barry Driessen· person
  • De Waal· person
  • Jack Guarnieri· person
  • Jonathan Houston· person
  • Martin Ev· person
  • Pablo Padilla· person
  • Pat Powers· person

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