The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 32: The Xmas Special Bah Humbug!

UK pinball hosts discuss quality concerns, market saturation, and Stern's European expansion plans.

Highlights

• Scott has experienced mechanical issues with nearly every new-in-box game he's purchased, including House of Horrors, Cactus Canyon remake, Alien, Metallica remake, and a worm issue with a recent unnamed game
• King Kong game required trimming of the motorized arm and has a broken radio control servo board, making the arm non-functional
• Stern is expanding operations in Europe and has hired John Buscaglia, who is relocating to Amsterdam to lead regional efforts
• European and UK secondary markets are experiencing severe price depression, with games selling at 'rock bottom prices' and some dealers dumping inventory quickly
• Walking Dead remake is selling 'like hotcakes' with many US and UK distributors sold out of Limited Edition units
• Star Wars is running on an illegally imported machine and Stern won't send code fixes
• Spike3 hardware has significantly better audio quality than Spike2, partly due to processor differences (possibly featuring Raspberry Pi)
• Aerosmith cabinets (Spike2 era) had widespread cabinet joinery failures where corners would split due to insufficient glue application
• Walking Dead remake ships with incomplete code and artwork pending licensing approval, similar to Dune's launch
• Jaws has recently risen to #1 on Pinside 100 and is experiencing a competitive resurgence with tournament play