Posts Tagged ‘pintastic’

Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day, Gameplay: King Kong, Dune, Yukon Yeti and Ace High Plus commentary on Beetlejuice, Pokémon and Harry Potter (Trailers Included)

Posted: April 18, 2026 by datechguy in business, fun, pinball, special events
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

The intrinsic part of every Pintastic is gameplay so lets take a look at the actual gameplay of three new machines and one old one:

First let’s start with the new King Kong Game from Stern

This game surprised me. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, there were plenty of nice design features and shots and the more I saw it the more it seemed playable. It’s definitely worth your time.

Here is the trailer:

Next let’s take Dune from Barrels of Fun:

I found the design odd, and frankly my gameplay didn’t improve on balls 2 & 3 as we played a three player game. It was usually full but it’s a ramp game and I’m not big on ramp games. If you’re into the movie it’s worth a view but it’s not my cup of tea

Here is the trailer:

Next here is a blast from the past, Ace High from 1957 from Gottlieb

These games get a lot of play on day three when you have every machine full. You don’t get to the current pinball without these old games like this: It’s fun and great as an intro for kids.

Finally let’s finish with what I thought was the best new game of Pintastic Yukon Yeti from Turner Pinball:

I mentioned how much I liked the artwork in a previous video and the gameplay is just as good as the artwork. A lot of interesting shots and features that get more interesting as you play. I would have liked to play more but there were two drawback.

  1. There was only one copy of the game at Pintastic
  2. As the next video shows everyone else liked this game as much as I did:

Bottom line this game is as good as people think and it’s worth a trip to Tycoon Pinball in Manchester NH to play it.

The Trailer:

I should point out that while I don’t have gameplay for the new Beetlejuice, Harry Potter or Pokemon machines I did play them here are my quick takes

First Beetlejuice from spooky pinball

Beetlejuice looks good & has the feel of the movie but for some reason it didn’t really ring my chimes. Can’t really say way I found myself passing up chances to play it. From what I saw of the response however I was clearly in the minority.

and it doesn’t get cooler than this:

Here is the official trailer

Pokémon

I had a chance to play this a few times, there were lines but also quite a few of the machine there. The design itself reminds me of the games of the 70’s it’s very retro and very simple as if the primary audience are young kids who are into Pokémon who might not be into pinball. Put simply the game plays like the TV show and is all about catching Pokémon. It’s simple, it’s clean and with the uploads allowing them to add more Pokémon to the game I suspect it will be selling for a long time.

Frankly it’s nice to have a game with a simple rule set. Well done.

Here is the promo

Finally Harry Potter from Jersey Jack

I was surprised there was no Harry Potter in the Extra Ball lounge and there didn’t seem to be as many as I expected in the place so I only got to play it once. This is a deep game a VERY deep game. I suspect I will need to play it a whole lot more to understand it better but from the time I did play it I can honestly say this. I really got the feel of the movies playing this game. It’s design fits the subject perfectly and it seems to have a deep mystery around it. I suspect when I go to Tycoon Pinball next month I’ll give it a lot more time and will have a solid video to show but I suspect fans of the series will adore it.

Here is the promo

Jersey Jack on the side is practically a guarantee of a great pinball machine.

Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: Four Quick Clips

Posted: April 17, 2026 by datechguy in fun, pinball, special events
Tags: , , , ,
2

My very old camrea has a feature where it does a short video clip then a photo in sequence, there are times where I accidently put in that mode thus the short clips

This last one is technically not a tiny snip as described but it’s so short I included it here.

Previously:

Previously

Pintastic NE 2026 Video of the Day Extra Ball Lounge(s)

Posted: April 15, 2026 by datechguy in fun, pinball, special events
Tags: , , ,
3

Today’s Pintastic NE 2026 video is of the Extra Ball Lounge, although properly it should say lounges as it’s now four rooms.

That’s Daniel commenting and filming

Previously

Pintastic NE 2024 The Final Day Success!

Posted: April 16, 2024 by datechguy in fun, pinball
Tags: , , , ,

On the final day of Pintastic I woke around 7 (My son woke at five, went downstairs to play and then came back to snooze for an hour). The plan was to go downstairs, play a bit in the extra ball lounge, grab a bite of breakfast, pack and check out by 9:30 and then play we didn’t want to or couldn’t play anymore.

When I got to the Extra Ball lounge a few games such as Elton John were busy but the excellent Lord of the Rings was not so I took advantage of it.

There was a time when it would have been impossible to find this game empty as it’s, in my opinion one of the greatest games of all time, but then again two years ago you would never see a Willie Wonka empty either

Yet I saw it empty frequently.

Bottom line there were a lot and I mean a LOT of high quality new games there and as always the newest games get the most attention.

Traditionally the final tournament of Pintastic is the ladies tournament and that was no exception this year. I popped in to see it in full swing and spoke to the organizer, she was entered into the tourney as well so I filmed a bit as she played her ball then spoke to her at length when it was done.

Here are the trophies she referenced:

Longtime readers might wonder why I didn’t bring up a subject that I’m not shy about discussing or giving my opinion on, that’s rather simple, it’s pinball plus it’s a not my club, tourney or ox being gored.

Heading back to the Freeplay room I passed the vendor area where the Pinball machines were wrapped and packed and ready to go to the next show or back to the various showrooms. One of the things I noticed was I didn’t see the rental companies here. It could have been the economy or personal matters. After all Quigley’s cakes had to cancel for such reasons.

In the free play room the number of machines were slowly decreasing as the people who brought them packed up. I spotted game designer Steve Ritchie there signing a bunch of Elton John Pinball publicity shots.

He was packed and ready to leave but gave me a few minutes for a closing interview

I don’t know how many if any were sold at the show (I know Gabe bought one as it was in the Extra Ball Lounge) but either way it was a fun game to play and I thought I’d get some gameplay in before the end.

I had managed the 3rd high score the day before by the time I played that morning I had dropped to 4th.

Daniel dominated the high scores on that game holding 5 of the top 8 plus most of the mode championships but the #1 spot eluded him. Well there’s always next year.

By 2 pm they started shutting off machines. Last year I couldn’t find Gabe for the traditional closing interview, this year I found him but he was flat out however Michael was there as the 30+ EMP games were coming out of the club area one at a time to be packed and wrapped so we closed with him.

It’s a big difference between doing it all yourself and having a team so when you compare this video to closing videos with Michael from five years ago it’s a huge difference.

As we got up to leave the Rush games which had been there when we arrived were still being played. It was a tad odd to not be staying till the very last game was shut off as we had in prior years, but we had to be home in time for the 6 PM mass and the number and availability of Pinball machines all around the area had grown exponentially since the first time we attended a Pintastic.

It’s true you didn’t see too many pizza places with pinballs anymore but between barcades and arcades offering unlimited play for a flat fee and even some like Tycoon in Manchester that still work on the token based system there is plenty of pinball available within a 20-40 minute drive for us to enjoy with the prospect of a local club and barcade still in the cards.

That more than anything else is a solid sign that while Pintastic New England 2024 was clearly a success, Pintastic NE as a whole series of events to promote the hobby has been a bigger and resounding one.

UPDATE: By an odd coincidence this appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Pinball, and Stern in particular but the killer quote comes from Jersey Jack himself:

As digital as the guts of this thing may be, the experience is far from virtual.

You can see why, as wildly unpredictable as the industry has been, it requires a factory. “It’s such a handcrafted product,” said Jack Guarnieri, owner of Jersey Jack Pinball. “People forget, yet anyone who makes these things can tell you: build 10 machines in a row with the same parts and, depending how tightly a rubber is fixed to a post, or how a lever gets adjusted, that’s an assembly line full of small tweaks. It’s not a video game.

“And yet that’s also the best part — the randomness.”

Older Entries