Did We Just Get a Sneak Peek at Stern Pinball's Upcoming Spike 3 Larger Screen?; Another Hint from Pinball Brothers
- Jason
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
Happy April Fools! Yes today is April Fools day. I thought about trying to fool my high school son that he had a snow day, but I felt bad so I decided not to lol. Social Media is filled with April Fools jokes from various pinball companies and other entities. I'll include several of them below.
The jokes are funny, but I wonder if we all just inadvertently got a look at Stern Pinball's long-rumored larger LCD screen that it supposedly is going to include on pinball machines with its new Spike 3 system? The following fake pins were shared on the Dead Flip Pinball Streaming Facebook page this morning.
Notice the difference in the screen size and speaker shape in the first several images from the current Stern Pinball design shown in the latter images? It's hard to say if this is a sneak peek at what's coming in Stern's next rumored release, King Kong "Myth of Terror Island" by Keith Elwin, but it could very well be. Or this could just be nothing.
It's fun to speculate about. What do you think of the larger screen? I wonder if taking some of the head real estate away from the speakers will have an impact upon the audio. If this is really the design, Stern might be changing the type of speakers that it uses?
Word is that the game is pretty much done, well obviously the code isn't completely done, so let's call it launch ready. Despite some talk that we won't see it until may, my educated guess at this point is we will get to see the game in April. We'll see.
Here's Stern Pinball's official April Fool's joke:
It's time to go bananas for the ape-themed pinball the world has been waiting for!
The First Primate of Hollywood, The King of the Great Apes...Ed! Featuring moments you love and treasure from the beloved 1996 classic, including Matt LeBlanc’s most famous catch phrase: “I'm going to spank that monkey!”
Ed Pinball is packed full of major league fun and is a sure-fire home run from Stern Pinball!
— with Matt LeBlanc.
And a good one from Phantom Tilt Pinball
So proud to announce that we have acquired the legendary, storied Aussie pinball company HAGGIS PINBALL along with all tooling and assets smartly hidden away and protected by pioneer and visionary Damian "King of Pinball" Hartin.
We will be re-launching the manufacture of Centaur: Revisited back under the trusted household name of Haggis Pinball - an international institution of the pinball world.
This is not without some adjustments, we heard your concerns about "alleged' playfield bubbling and can confirm the rumours that we are partnering with Gorilla Glue to ensure every Centaur: Revisited comes with a playfield bubble repair kit.
Message us directly to get your name on the list and be first in line to receive your stunning new Centaur game! On the line Q4 2025!!!
Here's one from Retro Ralph:
“He might not be the ape you wanted but he's the ape you're getting.”
If I come across any other April Fool's posts, I'll add them here.
In other news, Pinball Brothers shared a picture of the speaker that it is using in its upcoming game this morning with a message that further reinforces the rumor that it's next game is based on the 1987 film Predator.
"If it can’t handle bone chilling 80’s sounds then it’s not for us."
No coin mechanism? How cheap can stern get?
What, no She-Ra pinball as well? 😂 😂
The screens are not utilized well enough already, so slapping a bigger screen on it doesn't help. I much prefer a slimmer DMD height screen. At most make it wider like Dutch's Alice. I want to be able to glance during game-play to see what is happening; I don't want to search around a large screen to find that info.
Wow, I think you’re right on the Spike 3 tease. That’s a lot of photoshopping of the screen, speaker, and backglass dims for what should just be a fake theme. Also, the art for They Live is incredible. I would buy.
the speakers would sound awful