Let's kick things off with the big one from Jersey Jack Pinball. A week or two ago Kaneda's Pinball Podcast shared a rumor that JJP was working on a pinball machine based on the 80s and 90s rock band Van Halen (EDIT: and 70s, but that era pre-dates me so I don't think of them in terms of that decade). At the time I didn't write about it because I had always heard that the rights to Van Halen were a tangled mess, starting from the fact that the band had two different lead singers, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, and continuing into the rights to the songs themselves and the fact that Eddie Van Halen had passed away.
So I set out on my own to verify this rumor. I spoke with two very knowledgeable people on the subject and sure enough, Van Halen is indeed coming from Jersey Jack. I'd put the probability at 100%. I do not know the exact timing of the game, but I heard that they were getting approval from the Van Halen estate for aspects of the game already so if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say that this will be JJP's game after Steve Ritchie's Sonic the Hedgehog. That jibes with what I reported a month or two ago about the game after Sonic being a music pin. If that is the schedule, then Van Halen is Mark Seiden's game, his second after Avatar: The Battle for Pandora.
Music is obviously somewhat subjective, but I like Van Halen as a band. I personally have always been more of a Sammy Hagar than a David Lee Roth guy, but I like both. 5150 and OU812 were my favorite VH albums. What about you, are you a Hagar or a Roth person? What do you think of the theme?
Yesterday, Stern Pinball announced that it has begun selling its new Spike 3 Expression Speaker Lights as an add-on for games. They are currently listed on Stern's website for $199.99. I assume that they will be available to order through distributors as well.
The kits will not work on Spike 2 games. This means that they are only available for Star Wars: The Fall of The Empire Pro and Premium models, The Walking Dead Remastered Premium model and Pokémon Pro and Premium models so far.
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Late last week, Barrels of Fun launched a major code update for its latest pin, Winchester Mystery House:
WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE
CODE UPDATE: 4/29/26
The angry spirits have arrived in the second major code update for Winchester Mystery House® Pinball! This huge update features the inclusion of Echoes Wizard Mode, the emergence of Angry Spirits, and the Daisy Bedroom! And just as construction on Sarah's sprawling estate was never quite complete, we're always adding enhancements and fixes to the Winchester Mystery House® pinball machine code!
Echoes Wizard Mode
Collect 3 Mementos to qualify and experience a major earthquake that destroys the Winchester Mystery House tower. Clyde needs backup in the basement, and then it's a mad dash to the Grand Ballroom to expel what the earthquake let in.
Angry Spirits
Fail a mode and you've got company, unleashing an angry spirit into the house. Beware if you cross paths... or let too many into the house! If you're doing a little too well for their liking, then the angry spirits may ambush you! Watch out!
The Daisy Bedroom: The Shattered Threshold
Playable only after the Echoes Wizard Mode.
Beware! The earthquake cracked the walls and the spirits know it! Build a salt barrier fast to keep them out!
plus
Additional Enhancements, Polish, & Improvements
The folks at the LoserKid Pinball Podcast launched a new episode last week in which they interview Ron Richards of Scorbit about his company's connected pinball platform.
As an interesting side note, a listener wrote in to the show to tell them they had received Jersey Jack Harry Potter Collector's Edition Number 1,725. Technically there is not currently a limit to how many CE machines JJP will make, so it's interesting to look at the numbers of the games that are out to see where we are at. Historically, Jersey Jack has usually made 1,000 Collector's Edition machines so Harry Potter has already exceeded that, with probably a number of months to go before they announce last call.
Speaking of interviews, The YouTube channel RTX Pinball recently interviewed Multimorphic Pinball's founder Gerry Stellenberg about the company. They get into an interesting discussion at the 38 minute mark about licensed versus unlicensed games. Gerry stated that the company has plans to continue to make both going forward.
Last up, I have a quick note from the world of digital pinball. Late last week, Zen Pinball launched three new Bally Williams "tables" for its Pinball FX platform: Williams' 1990 game Diner, 1985 game Comet and 1987 pin Fire!. I played all three of them this weekend and they're great. Supposedly Zen also has Bally's 1993 pin Judge Dredd in the works.
