The first half of 2016 saw us take P3 prototypes to more events than we've ever attended in a calendar year. We wanted to reach as much of the US as we could without sacrificing significant development time and without blowing our startup budget. Thank you to the organizers of all of the shows we attended and their help with various accommodations:

Florida Arcade and Pinball Exposition
Texas Pinball Festival
Midwest Gaming Classic
Pin-A-Go-Go
Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown
Bat City Open
Pintastic

Our show schedule slows down for the remainder of 2016. We plan to attend:

ReplayFX
Pinball Expo
Houston Arcade Expo

We're also planning to get machines to Canada, a few countries in Europe, and both Australia and New Zealand.

The excitement and enthusiasm shown for the P3 continues to grow, as evidenced by its reception at each event. As expected, most pinball enthusiasts gravitate to the traditional shot layout and deep ruleset of Lexy Lightspeed - Escape From Earth, but what I find fascinating is how many people come back repeatedly to play Cannon Lagoon and ROCs, even after being hesitant to try them in the first place. Ultimately, pinball is about fun, and we all have different opinions on what makes games fun. The new technologies and multi-game capabilities of the P3 allow us and others to build a library of games with something (and eventually many somethings) for everybody. Here are some videos of young children enjoying a couple of the non-traditional P3 games (posted with permission from their parents):

Cannon Lagoon:

Barnyard:

... and here's a re-post of our 5-game promotional video so our new readers can see examples of all of our current games:

Thank you for your patience and continued support as we work through the pre-production process and pave the way for building and shipping production P3's. In the last update, I stated a goal of having sample machines assembled by the end of June, but we're unfortunately a few weeks late. All major platform sub-assemblies are now out for fabrication, and we're currently working on inspection guidelines and assembly and test instructions so we can build the machines as efficiently as possible as the parts arrive.

A question I'm often asked is "How will the production machines be different than the prototypes?". Some of the major differences are:

- Finished parts (ie. polished, anodized, baked, painted, etc, as appropriate)
- Playfield rollers and deweighting configuration
- New playfield support brackets
- Industrial playfield display
- Flipper assembly enhancements allowing game-specific artwork inserts
- New coin door and service button configuration
- New, more efficient audio amp
- Re-designed button box mounting interface (no external screws)
- New speaker panel (shorter and with swivel brackets) and flush-mounted speakers
- New backbox lighting configuration (fewer failure points)
- LL-EE: Spaceship is now geared instead of direct drive for smoother, more consistent, and faster operation
- LL-EE: New mini-LCD (better reliability)
- LL-EE: New reverse-o-matic configuration (for manufacturability)
- LL-EE: New mini-LCD surround artwork

Many also ask why we changed these things instead of just getting the machine into production and starting to generate sales and revenue. There are a few reasons. Some of the changes improve manufacturability, some improve reliability, some lower the build costs to help us meet our pricing goals, some are for security on location, and some improve user experiences. Every change was evaluated relative to need versus want, and we're confident we've made the right choices. We know you're all eager to see the P3 reach production, as are we, but shipping a machine before it's ready would be a costly mistake. That's one of the main reasons we're not specifying exact ship dates, and we're not requesting payments until we're ready to build your machines. All that said, we're already working with our earliest customers to plan for machine shipments; so the finish line is fast approaching.

The most intriguing part of the P3 is its multi-game capabilities. It's the only physical pinball machine ever developed with the ability deliver a diverse multi-game experience, and it's that ability which redefines the value proposition of owning pinball games. While we'll have *at least* 5 fully developed games when P3's start rolling off of the assembly line, the full P3 ecosystem will grow and mature over time. We continue to get inquiries about our development kit, with many developers expressing interest and/or starting to develop games for the system. As games are finished, the value of owning a P3 grows. As more customers buy P3s, the market opportunity for new games grows. With that in mind, we're spending quite a bit of time and effort developing tools and infrastructure software and processes to support the P3 ecosystem. While the machine and games are the visible products, they're only part of the whole story. There's a ton of behind-the-scenes work in progress. It's work that no other pinball manufacturer is doing, and it's necessary work to make a platform machine like the P3 successful.

As always, thanks for following along and supporting us throughout this process. If you haven't yet reserved a machine and wish to do so today, please fill out and return the attached form either electronically or through the postal service..

- Gerry Stellenberg
Multimorphic, Inc.