Episode 65: Fallout Pinball Rumors, Goonies at Expo & Another Pinball Company?!
Fallout is coming… and if the rumors are true, Stern might be about to drop something pretty damn wild. On this episode of The Flipside Podcast, I’m fired up and we’re covering a TON. We get into everything we think we know about the rumored Keith Elwin Fallout pinball machine, why I still don’t think Elwin has made a bad game, the rumored lower playfield, vault, Nuka Cannon, possible Stern pricing changes… and whether Fallout could be one of those games people buy simply because Elwin’s name is on it. But that’s just the beginning. We also talk about the Pokémon Home Edition showing up at Costco and why, whether you want one or not, I actually think products like this could be incredibly important for bringing new people into pinball. Then we go down the rabbit hole of affordability in this hobby. I talk about Pawlowski Pinball’s mission to build a legitimately GOOD affordable pinball machine, the newly announced BUMP 001, and the bigger question: Do we really need ANOTHER pinball company making $10,000+ machines? And somehow we still have more… 🔥 Spooky Pinball and the heavily rumored Goonies machine 🔥 Could Goonies actually show up at Pinball Expo? 🔥 Why I’m nervous about Back to the Future and Dutch Pinball 🔥 My Transformers Megatron Cannon problems 🔥 New Transformers mods and the transforming Optimus Prime ideas 🔥 Bon Jovi, Barrels of Fun and the problem with unpredictable delivery timelines 🔥 Tim Sexton’s awesome interview with Jamie from JBS 🔥 Why new players matter WAY more to the future of pinball than we sometimes realize 🔥 And why there are officially WAY TOO MANY FREAKING PINBALL MACHINES coming out right now 😂 Plus, because this is The Flipside, I eventually completely derail the show talking about Cannon Beach, getting older, working out, energy drinks, friendships, life priorities and apparently everything else bouncing around inside my caffeinated brain. So yeah… pretty normal episode.
Kineticist’s take
Fallout pinball rumors, market saturation concerns, and emerging affordable pinball manufacturers.
Synopsis
Retro Ralph discusses upcoming Fallout pinball by Keith Elwin at Stern, addressing community skepticism about recent Stern releases and speculating on the game's rumored features (lower playfield, vault mechanism, Nuka cannon). He also covers Pokémon at Costco as a market entry point, critiques the need for affordable pinball machines, and introduces Polowski Pinball and a new manufacturer called Bump as potential market disruptors.
Highlights
- Fallout is the next Stern game, designed by Keith Elwin, and is 'probably coming out sooner than we think'
- Fallout will be based on the TV show, not the video game
- Rumored Fallout features include a flipperless lower playfield (wasteland/vault), vault door ball lock, and a Nuka Cannon
- There is a rumor of a Stern price increase for Fallout, though the timing may be poor
- Keith Elwin has never made a bad pinball game
- Tim Sexton left Stern to work at Play Mechanix, leaving John Wick code updates incomplete
- Pokémon pinball machine appeared at Costco with a slightly tweaked layout from the Pro/Premium/LE versions
- Polowski Pinball has been developing affordable pinball machines for 5-8 years with a target price of $3,000-$4,000
- Bump is a new pinball manufacturer making 100% mechanical pinball machines, with Bump 001 as their first project
- The pinball community feels overwhelmed by the volume of new game announcements (Multimorphic, Bon Jovi, Transformers, Beetlejuice, Yukon Yeti all recently)
Entities
- Bump· company
- Flip N Out Pinball· company
- Multimorphic· company
- Play Mechanix· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Wonderland Amusements· company
- Beetlejuice· game
- Bon Jovi· game
- Fall of the Empire· game
- Fallout· game
- Iron Maiden· game
- John Wick· game
- King Kong· game
- Pokémon· game
- Transformers· game
- Yukon Yeti· game
- The Flipside Pinball Podcast· organization
- Keith Elwin· person
- Midnight Plunger· person
- Polowski Pinball· person
- Retro Ralph· person
- Tim Sexton· person
- Zach Sharpe· person