Steve Paradis sends word that his GoPinball forum is once again back online (minus the old posts unfortunately). Steve also provides a very public and candid apology/explanation as to the why the site vanished a few months ago, read the "welcome" thread for details. Be sure to check out his upcoming Future Pinball project based around "The Dark Knight" theme.

Lets try this again.

Many pinball owners have decided to replace their traditional incandescent playfield lamps with LED bulbs. There are several advantages to doing so including lower power usage, longer lamp life and a multitude of colours. However one of the biggest gripes with LED bulbs is that they just don't have the same feel as an incandescent bulb. One reason for this is that LEDs tend to have a digital on/off appearance in that the bulb is either on or off, there's none of the fading in and out that you get with a regular bulb.

One smart cookie has come up with a little circuitry that helps simulate this fading effect and might someday be hopefully included into the bulb itself.

Well... it seems that the big countdown on Stern's site was for a new site launch (and new logo), so no cup holders as I had hoped. Its great to see a fresh new look for the company and hopefully is an indication that they intend to stick around for immediate future. Strangely the shape of the new logo never even registered in my mind as being a flipper until someone else mentioned it, I think perhaps the flashing blue light in place of the ball somehow threw me off the scent or maybe Im just blind, the full logo with pinball is much easier to identify than the countdown logo.

As part of the new site launch, Stern are offering a chance to win an Iron Man Pinball machine... unfortunately you dont get to keep it as its only a loaner for one night, they are also supplying $100 worth of pizza and drinks so you can throw your own Iron Man party for your friends... or just for yourself if you dont have any.  :)

Go win a night of pleasure with your friends watching.

If you've visited Stern's website recently you might have discovered that its a little lacking in content. The site currently consists of a funky new Stern logo complete with pulsating blue light and a simple countdown timer. At the time of writing this news item the counter has only 13 hours and 45 minutes until the launch of whatever it may be that they are hiding behind the front page. Your guess is as good as mine but I've got my money on a holographic mind controlled pinball machine... with a cup holder.

Its the end of the world as we know it.

Gabe McGrath sends word that the Sydney Pinball Expo will not go ahead this year, hopefully making a return in 2011. Co-organiser Michael Shalhoub made the recent announcement: “It is unfortunate but this years Pinball Expo has been postponed till next year due to unforeseen circumstances. Originally, getting the right venue was a problem. There are many things to take into consideration making this decision, finance is a main issue. I didn’t want to turn the Expo into a auction like last year; I wanted it to be different holding it over four days and getting overseas guests to talk at seminars. I will be in Chicago later this year and will secure people for the Sydney Expo next year.”

More at Justonemoregame

Sadly, Steve Paradis has decided to hang up his gloves and remove the newly created GoPinball forums. The closure seems to be a result of controversy surrounding his support for unauthorised table mods and he has decided to call it a day. Steve's contributions to the Future Pinball community over the last 3 years have been huge, for which we send a big thankyou and wish him luck with the future. Hopefully this is not the last we see of Steve on the pinball scene.

Read Steve's closing comments.

If you have ever wanted to create your own 3d Models for Future Pinball its now possible thanks to the handywork of LvR (with creative input from Steve Paradis).

FPM Editor is a standalone software for Future Pinball v1.9 that allows you to convert Milkshape 3d models to a format that is compatible with Future Pinball.

A big thankyou to all those involved in the creation and testing of this software and for giving it away freely to the pinball community.

Go go get it.

Steve Paradis (AKA: Simplyus), prolific table designer and outspoken previous member of several pinball forums has recently launched a new forum dedicated to Future Pinball at www.gopinball.com

The new forum's rules are less rigid in regards to table mods compared to some other forums. GoPinball promotes an approach of respect and credit to original table authors however permission to mod is not an absolute prerequisite. Whilst this is polarizing the pin sim community to some degree, I feel it will help to foster more tables that would not previously been brought to light and provided the guidelines are followed I think the approach is reasonably fair. I do feel that where a table consists of all original content then the original table designer should be able to deny a mod request.

Good luck to Steve with the new site and I hope to see many of you there, lookout for me as "Gravy".