Dirty Pool Podcast - Ep32 - Gerry Stellenberg and the Multimorphic / P3 Platform
Multimorphic VP Gerry Stellenberg explains P3 platform design, adoption barriers, and technical innovation.
Dirty Pool Podcast - Ep32 - Gerry Stellenberg and the Multimorphic / P3 Platform
▶ Full Dirty Pool Podcast Playlist The P3 has carved out a very different lane in modern pinball. Swappable...
Synopsis
Gerry Stellenberg, VP at Multimorphic, discusses the P3 modular pinball platform's design philosophy, technical architecture, and market positioning. He explains the P-ROC board heritage, ball-tracking systems using infrared grids, flipper mechanics, playfield modularity, and addresses community skepticism about whether the LCD-integrated P3 is "real pinball." Key themes include the challenge of gaining operator/collector trust for a novel technology, the gap between exposure and adoption, and how Multimorphic iterates on hardware reliability while remaining bootstrapped.
Highlights
- P3 has shipped for approximately 9 years, with original prototypes dating to 2012
- Multimorphic offers modernized P-ROC boards used by other manufacturers including Dutch Pinball, American Pinball, and Spooky Pinball
- P3 flipper assemblies today are 'probably the most reliable in the industry'
- The wooden rail warping issue that caused roller wear was resolved four years ago (circa 2020)
- Nine unique physical playfield modules exist for P3, with 27 total games available (including add-ons)
- Heist module has the most add-on games, with eight or nine experiences available
- P3 pricing is around $11,000 for a full module plus new cabinet, similar to traditional pinball
- Ranger in the Ruins roguelike module add-on costs around $150-$179
- Ball tracking system uses 24 infrared emitters and detectors to track multiple balls simultaneously
- Multimorphic is a bootstrapped company, not venture-backed, limiting placement and marketing reach
Notable quotes
“I am a technology guy bringing ideas founded in logical technological roots to industries that I really think need a little bit of nudging forward.”
“It's still got a physical pinball, flippers, rolling over a surface, interacting with physical mix, ramps and loops and targets. It's got theme, artwork, sound and video just like all the other games. It costs about the same as all the other games.”
“If you shut your eyes and walked up to any machine and played it, you would feel the exact same flipper mechanics.”
“We're a bootstrapped company. We're a team of people super passionate about pinball who have crafted this business. We've crawled. We're barely walking now.”
“People walk up to it with some hesitancy. They see the screen and they question whether or not it's real pinball.”
“We spend actually more time designing the physical aspects of a pinball machine than the LCD screen.”
“The first time I played a Multimorphic was at TPF, which was like a month and a half ago, which is crazy because the Multimorphic platform has been around for 14-15 years now.”
“Alexi Lightspeed was our first design. People kind of look at it and think it was a demo game. But I think it's still one of the best pinball playing experiences that we or anyone has ever created.”
Entities
- American Pinball· company
- Dutch Pinball· company
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Multimorphic· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Turner Pinball· company
- TPF· event
- Alexi Lightspeed· game
- Final Resistance· game
- Heist· game
- Portal· game
- Princess Bride· game
- Ranger in the Ruins· game
- Weird Al· game
- Brad Albright· person
- Chris (Turner)· person
- Gerry Stellenberg· person
- Scott Denesi· person
- Dirtypool Pinball· person/media
- Buffalo Pinball· person/streamer
- P-ROC· product
- P3 platform· product
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