First Production Stern Pinball King Kong Rolls off the Line; Spooky Pinball Q1 Update; JJP Harry Potter Soon?
- Jason
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
This afternoon, Stern Pinball announced on social media that the first production King Kong Limited Edition machine has rolled off the production line at its massive Elk Grove Village factory. Stern shared a picture of designer Keith Elwin leaving a surprise autograph inside the game for the lucky owner.
"👀
First King Kong: Myth of Terror Island is off the line and ready to be shipped!"
Late yesterday, Spooky Pinball e-mailed out its first company update of 2025 for people who subscribe to its mailing list.
Spooky is ramping up production of its latest game, the hugely popular, sold out Evil Dead. I believe that around 150 of the total 888 machine run have been made thus far, give or take.
In addition to Evil Dead, Spooky is still making Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre machines. It currently has inventory of all three games ready to ship immediately.
Beyond that info about production, Spooky shared a ton of information on code updates for its games. It's amazing how long Spooky continues to actively improve the code in its machines. They even updated the code recently for Halloween and Ultraman, which were released like four games ago.
Spooky is currently working on its next two updates for its latest game, Evil Dead. These updates will include a new "sub-wizard mode" from called "Cheryl Multiball" and another multiball called "Henrietta Multiball."
Whew, all of this stuff is going to keep the Spooky folks busy for a while. We likely won't see the Company's next game, which is rumored to be Beetlejuice, until mid-to-late fall.
Spooky's next public appearance will take place at Pinfest in Allentown, Pennsylvania on May 2nd and 3rd. I have to work on Friday the 2nd, but as of right now I'm planning on driving down to the show for Saturday the 3rd. Hopefully I'll see you there!
Speaking of Pinfest, the distributor PinballSTAR Amusements dropped a note on Facebook a couple of days ago that has the pinball world buzzing.
First of all, Joe from Pinball STAR is bringing FOUR of what is possibly the most sought-after game out there right now, Evil Dead, for people to play at the show.
The part that has people talking though is the fact that PinballSTAR's booth will have the first public appearance of one game and another game that is not available to play anywhere else yet.
Some people are guessing that this brand new game will be the highly-anticipated next game from Jersey Jack Pinball, Harry Potter. The logic there is that not only was a public debut of a game teased, but Friday May 2nd - the first day of Pinfest - is the official annual "Harry Potter Day."
Now I said that some people are guessing this. I personally am not. With no inside info from PinballSTAR, I personally expect the two new games in the booth to be Barrels of Fun's Dune and Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade. I personally do not expect to see Harry Potter next week, but we'll see.
Whatever the games are, Two games that I've never played or taken pictures of before is a big deal. So I can't wait.
"SURPRISE !
Allentown Pinfest - PinballSTAR booth…
We always have the BEST, the NEWEST, the HOTTEST games in our booth !
Oooooooh we got a few surprises for you this year - you will see one game FIRST in public in our booth and another you won’t see anywhere else just yet !
So go ahead let’s hear your guesses ! What do YOU want to see ???
Want to buy a show game ? Email Joe at Sales@PinballSTAR.com.
In addition to the surprises :
Discounted show games include :
Funhouse Remake
Labyrinth
Avatar LE
AND new in box !
Elton John PE
Spinal Tap
Pulp Fiction LE
Play not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 !!!
Evil Dead"
UPDATE: I was right about one of the mystery games. Barrels of Fun said the following on Pinside a little while ago:
"Allentown is getting two machines, and other games are heading out to locations, collectors, and media folks."
