I recently had a request for one of my recent "What I'm Hearing" posts for Chicago Gaming Company. Since I haven't heard a whole lot new since my last update on the company, I'm going to lump CGC in with updates on a few other companies as well.
Distributors are still being told that Chicago Gaming's Pulp Fiction Bad Mother Flipper Limited Edition models are on track to go on the production line in November / December. I assume that the Company will be pretty focused on getting those out initially, but at some point it still intends to do another run of Medieval Madness Remakes.
Since I just talked about Chicago Gaming Company, it makes sense to mention Raw Thrills / Play Mechanix next since they are the designer of Pulp Fiction. After the Pulp Fiction machines are done, Raw Thrills / Play Mechanix intends to stay in the pinball business. They have two more Mark Ritchie game designs already completed.
As for what the themes of those two games are, I personally do not know. However, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast recently reported that the next one will be based on the 2000 first-person shooter (FPS), Microsoft X-Box launch title "Halo". I have no personal knowledge about that, but it does make sense given Raw Thrills' recent success with the arcade shooter "Halo Fireteam Raven." That IP does absolutely nothing for me personally, I've never really played Halo. I'm not an FPS guy, they make me feel kind of sick. Having said that, the Fireteam Raven game is pretty cool.
Earlier this week, Raw Thrills / Play Mechanix revealed that their next title after NBA Superstars will be an arcade shooter called "Angry Birds BOOM!" I have included pictures and video of it below. The game will begin shipping and showing up in arcades this Fall.
I'm hearing that American Pinball's (AP) next game, which is almost certainly based on the 2017 videogame "Cuphead," is nearly ready. AP told distributors earlier that it is not bringing Cuphead to the upcoming Chicago Pinball Expo as many, including myself, had initially expected. I'm hearing at this point the most likely reveal date for the game is sometime in November with machines shipping to distributors in early December.
I have heard that Cuphead has American Pinball's best animations to date and that it has great art. This isn't surprising given the fact that the retro cartoon aesthetic of the game are one of the things that people like best about it.
The 500th Barrels of Fun (BOF) Labyrinth pinball machine rolled off the production line this week. Last I heard, as of early July, the Company had sold 822 Labyrinths out of the potential 1,100 unit run.
Let's say that they've sold 850 or so now (estimate), this means that Barrels is more than half way done with production of the game. Back in April, BOF told us that they are manufacturing approximately 5 machines per day. At that rate, it would take them 70 more business days to complete the current Labyrinth order bank. It's hard to say exactly when that puts the end of Labyrinth production and the launch of BOF's Game #2. I'd say we're probably looking at sometime in Spring 2025.
BOF's home show is the Texas Pinball Festival. The next TPF is scheduled to take place March 21 through 23, 2025. That seems like a logical place for us to get a first look at Game #2, for which I have no idea what the theme will be at the moment.
This morning, Pinball Brothers released a significant code update, Version 1.3, for its latest game ABBA. The Update contains a new Mini-Wizard mode called "Voyage" which features the song "On and On and On." Players must complete all five of the game's song modes to reach Voyage.
Last up we have a digital pinball update.
Zen Studios recently revealed the first of three upcoming classic Williams pinball machines coming to Pinball FX later this year in Williams Pinball Volume 8, the 1989 Williams classic Earthshaker.
