To borrow a title from Saturday Night Live, here’s the Knapp Arcade “Weekend Update.”
First up, we have news about the defunct pinball company Deeproot. The former founder of Deeproot, Robert Mueller is now facing criminal charges.
Late last week, he was indicted on eight counts of wire fraud for allegedly misappropriating money that investors gave him to invest in insurance policies and instead using it to pay for marriages to multiple wives, vacations, a condo in Hawaii, his child’s private school and of course to fund the massive failure Deeproot Pinball.
Each count of wire fraud carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The criminal indictment comes on the heels of a civil action by the SEC attempting to collect more than $70 million, $52 million that was stolen, a $2.3 million civil penalty and $16.6 million in interest.
San Antonio Lawyer Facing Criminal Charges Related to Alleged Ponzi Scheme
According to an article by RePlay Magazine, Jersey Jack pinball is offering a special discounts on machines that it is bringing to this week’s IAAPA Amusement Industry trade show.
Specifically, JJP is offering $2,500 off on Guns N Roses, Toy Story 4 and Godfather games purchased at the show by commercial operators. In addition to these games, Jersey Jack will have its newest game Avatar at its booth.
Jersey Jack Pinball Offering IAAPA Special
The newly transparent Chicago Gaming Company provided a production update in the comments section of a social media post showing off how they add inserts to playfields.
When asked if Pulp Fiction Linited Edition machines were available in the U.S. yet:
“Not as of yet! We're hard at work on getting some international games out the door.”
When asked about the long-rumored new run of Medieval Madness 🏰:
“Medieval’s not in production yet, but I’ll be sure to get some behind the scenes stuff when it is!”
When a sked about the upcoming Cactus Canyon expansion?
“Working on it! Our engineers are squashing some unexpected bugs, so once that's sorted out we'll have a better idea of when we can expect to ship - it'll definitely be after the first of the year.”
“Here’s a peek inside one of my favorite places at CGC: the insert room!
After playfields are routed, they come to Ana in the insert room. With ten years of experience, Ana can tell by feel whether the routed holes will fit the inserts correctly. (If they don’t, the playfield is rejected and doesn’t move forward.)
She works in batches, doing a small section of inserts at a time. Glue is applied to the wooden openings, then the inserts are pushed in. The next step is to pound the inserts into place with a hammer and a wooden block so that they’re flush with the surface of the playfield. Excess glue is wiped off, and then it’s on to the next section.
When the whole playfield is done, it’s stacked on a rack to dry before heading off to sanding, sealing, and screen printing.
Check out the comments for a video of Ana installing a Roll Scene set on a Pulp Fiction playfield!”
Last up, we have speculation about whether we will see any new pinball machines launched this month.
A few weeks ago when I heard that American Pinball will be at this week’s IAAPA show I wondered aloud here whether they would finally show off the long-rumored Cuphead pinball machine there. At this point, I am leaning towards the answer being No. I’ve heard from multiple sources over the past couple of weeks that AP is in reeeeally bad shape financially. This is of course all rumors, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire… and there has been a massive amount of smoke here.
If we don’t get a new game from American, will we get one from anyone else in November? My crystal ball 🔮 says YES! I think that there is a very good chance that we will get at least a teaser for Spooky Pinball’s next game, rumored to be based upon the cult horror film series Evil Dead, this week. That’s a lot sooner than the December reveal that I had been expecting. I hope that it’s true and we all get something cool to talk about in a few days. I have heard great things about the upcoming game. People have been telling me that it’s Spooky’s best machine yet.
