Skip to content
Erika's Pinball Journey
Erika's Pinball Journey
11 videos tracked since 2026 about →
Copied!

Winchester Mystery Hoax | Ep. 3

VideoAnalysis updated today

Winchester Mystery Hoax | Ep. 3

From the creator

In this episode, Manu and Erika discuss the true story of Sarah Winchester, pinball at FANIME, and the LGR pinball machine. They delve into the debunking of the Winchester Mystery House story and...

Watch on Erika's Pinball Journey

Highlights

  • Winchester Mystery House haunted-by-ghosts story was fabricated by the family that purchased the estate after Winchester Mystery House died, to attract tourism and visitors.
  • Winchester Mystery House was an innovative architect and engineer who implemented cutting-edge technology including indoor plumbing, forced air heating, gas-powered lighting, and intercom systems: not a superstitious woman fleeing ghosts.
  • Winchester Mystery House used her house to provide shelter and medical care for women in need, including those requiring abortions (which were illegal at the time), demonstrating she was protecting vulnerable people rather than confusing spirits.
  • Barrels of Winchester Mystery House pinball game faithfully reproduces the tourist myth story of the Winchester house, not the actual historical truth about Winchester Mystery House.
  • Erika is bringing Stern's Pokemon pinball machine to Fanime anime convention (May 22-25) as a cross-community outreach effort, with sponsorship from Rewind Pinball, a new pinball dealer.
  • LGR (Clint Basinger), a major retro gaming YouTuber with 1.8 million subscribers, received a Star Wars: Fall of the Empire of the Empire premium pinball machine from Stern for a three-month review loan.
  • LGR's Fall of the Empire pinball review video garnered 32,000 views within eight hours of posting, demonstrating significant audience interest in pinball from the retro gaming community.
  • Rewind Pinball sold out of their Winchester Mystery House pinball machines within 24 hours.
  • Stern proactively reached out to or responded positively to LGR's inquiry about reviewing a pinball machine, demonstrating Stern's strategic marketing efforts to reach larger YouTube audiences.
  • The 'room that goes nowhere' at Winchester Mystery House (a door opening to a drop-off) was created due to earthquake damage to a porch support structure that was never rebuilt, not as an intentional ghost-trap mechanism.

Notable quotes

“The family that owns the house now, the estate that owns the house now has nothing to do with Winchester Mystery House. And so they needed a reason to have people come to visit. And thus they made up the story of Winchester Mystery House being told by a medium.”
Manu
“Sarah had more money than most people back then. She was so incredibly wealthy. So, Erica, do you think she could afford a chandelier with 13 candles if she wanted? Not a chandelier that's there that has 12 candles and then some busted up add-on candle.”
Manu
“this is not the first time that people from the retro community have kind of crossed over to say, oh, pinball, hmm, right? This is not the first time, but this has got to be one of the largest, most popular YouTubers putting up a 17-minute long video about a pinball machine.”
Manu
“I can't wait to see how big of a hit the Pokemon pinball machine from Stern is going to be when it's there. Because nowhere else in the world does it fit better.”
Manu
“Clint is an American YouTuber who focuses on video game reviews, retro computing, and unboxing videos. His YouTube channel of the same name has been compared to Techmoan and The 8-Bit Guy.”
Manu
“he reached out to Stern and said, hey, I'd love to do a review of one of your games. And they were immediately like, yes! I'm sure they looked at the number of subscribers and they were like, yes!”
Manu
“Stern Pinball, this video is already sitting at 32,000 views, and it's only been up for eight hours as of our recording. This is marketing genius, right?”
Manu
“I'm so grateful to Adam at Rewind Pinball for... indulging or like, what's the word? Yeah, to help me bring out this fantasy and show people this world that we love so much.”
Erika
“Everyone who works at the Winchester Mystery House has to stay on script. They cannot vary from script.”
Manu
“There's nothing that really compares to actual physical pinball, the balls banging around on the table and stuff like that.”

Entities

  • Barrels of Fun· company
  • Dirtypool Pinball· company
  • Rewind Pinball· company
  • Stern Pinball· company
  • Fanime· event
  • Fall of the Empire· game
  • Pokemon· game
  • Winchester Mystery House· game
  • LGR (Lazy Game Reviews)· organization
  • Pinball Minority Report· organization
  • Adam· person
  • Brad Albright· person
  • Clint Basinger· person
  • Erika· person
  • HomegrownB_DUB· person
  • Jeff Dodson· person
  • Manu· person
  • Python Anghelo· person
  • Winchester Mystery House· person
  • Zach Sharpe· person

More from Erika's Pinball Journey

→ All content from Erika's Pinball Journey
Contact us about this coverage