The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 5

Neil and Scott review Expo releases with heavy praise for JGP's Elton John as best game of the show.

Synopsis

Neil McRae and Scott Rundle discuss recent pinball events including the UK Open, NYC Pinball Champs, and Expo. Primary focus is Jersey Jack's Elton John pinball machine, which Neil praises as their best game ever with excellent layout and code, featuring three multiballs and a Rocketman feature. They also cover Stern's Venom, discuss production delays for Spooky's Cactus Canyon and Pulp Fiction, debate playfield quality issues with Mirco playfields, and touch on community drama around forum moderation and game leaks.

Highlights

• Jersey Jack released two games in one year for the first time, showing production acceleration
• Elton John has approximately 1500+ LEDs underneath the playfield
• Elton John features three multiballs that must be earned through gameplay rather than awarded automatically
• JGP increased flipper power above 40 volts, requiring additional electromagnetic interference certification
• Pulp Fiction production is behind schedule; Cactus Canyon had supply chain issues with the topper and apron
• Venom was consensus least desirable of new game releases at Expo
• Elton John is a three-flipper game with significant layout differences from Spider-Man and Star Trek despite surface similarities
• Elton John wizard mode exists but was not fully coded and caused the game to crash during testing
• Mirco playfield quality issues are partly due to improper post installation techniques rather than playfield design alone
• Queues for Elton John at Expo were comparable to Pulp Fiction queues at TPF, significantly longer than other new releases

Entities

• Jersey Jack Pinball· company
• Spooky Pinball· company
• Stern Pinball· company
• Expo· event
• UK Open· event
• Cactus Canyon· game
• Elton John· game
• Fear of Magic· game
• Godfather· game
• Guns N' Roses· game
• Pulp Fiction· game
• Spider-Man· game
• Star Trek· game
• Venom· game
• Pinball Info· organization
• Ant· person
• Josh· person
• Neil McRae· person
• Rob Byers· person
• Scott Rundle· person
• Steve Ritchie· person
• Zeonic· person
• Mirco Playfields· product
• Interium· venue