Pintastic New England Website
First up today, I have the first gameplay video of the French manufacturer HEXA Pinball's new The 3 Musketeers pinball machine. The game was officially revealed during the recent Texas Pinball Festival and is scheduled to make its first appearance in the United States at the upcoming PinBrew Festival from April 10th through the 12th at The Church Arcade in Duquesne, PA.
PinBrew Website
The 3 Musketeers recently made its streaming debut on the "flipmaniafrance" Twitch channel. I don't think that I can embed Twitch videos here, so here is a link to the broadcast:
The 3 Musketeers Gameplay Stream
My one year of high school French isn't enough for me to absorb any new information on the game from the stream, but it was very interesting to see how it plays.
Next up is a quick update on Stern Pinball. Kaneda's Pinball Podcast recently shared a rumor that Stern is going to make a pinball machine for the soda brand Mountain Dew. I looked into it and the people who I spoke with said that the game is indeed happening and it will likely be based on the Home Edition pinball platform that Stern has been selling at Costco locations. I don't know if it will be an existing Home Edition design or something new, like a potential layout from a rumored future Pokémon Home Edition game. Again, this is just more rumors on the subject at this point, but I believe it.
Mountain Dew pinball will supposedly be a very small production run made specifically for the brand. I'm speculating here that it will probably be some sort of prize for a contest that it will hold, much like a promotion that Canada Dry ginger ale did with Gottlieb in France back in the 1970s. You still see those Canada Dry pins out there from time to time, like at the Silverball Arcade in Asbury Park, NJ.
Stern Pinball's next Cornerstone game is strongly rumored to be based on a cartoon version of the Transformers, with June production and a potential late May reveal.
Did you know that Mountain Dew actually created a skatepark themed with its brand for a promotion in New Zealand back in 2011? Below is video and some pictures of it. The Brand also sponsored a Stern Pro Event Pinball Tournament back in October of last year.
A little over a week ago, I wrote about an interview that Wonderland Amusements' Peter Gould did with the YouTube channel Kongs-R-Us. In it, he hinted that Wonderland is working on other types of arcade games beyond home pinball machines. Someone recently sent me a "leaked" picture of what one of those mystery games might be...table hockey. As you can see below, Wonderland appears to be working on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hockey game. I don't have any more details about it beyond the picture at this point.
I haven't written about the debacle that was Deeproot Pinball here in quite some time, but I came across an article from the San Antonio Express-News about the trial of the company's disgraced founder Robert Mueller earlier this week.
Mueller recently rejected a plea deal in his federal fraud case. He was charged with five counts of wire fraud. The plea would have had him plead guilty to one count and face 10 to 12.5 years in prison. By rejecting it, he's heading to trial later this year, where a conviction could mean 27 to almost 34 years.
As a refresher, in addition to starting a pinball company without telling any of his initial investors that was what their money would be used for, the SEC also alleges Mueller spent over $1.5 million of investor money on personal expenses including two weddings, engagement rings, vacation cruises, and a Hawaiian condo.
For those of you who aren't familiar with what happened with Deeproot, here's a great summary of the situation from CaptNRetro's Lost Pins series of videos:
Speaking of the great Lost Pins series, another new video just released about the Heighway Pinball mess:
Last up, I have an article about how the connected pinball platform Scorbit has launched the ability for players to partake in real-money pinball tournaments directly through its app.
Scorbit-enabled pins are now available at fifteen locations from California to New York with plans to expand to over thirty locations by the end of this month.
Scorbit launches real-money arcade tournaments at bars and arcades
