itch.io

Thank you very much !! <3

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f

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just cat

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Ok letsgo

Srory, my phone malfunctions when it's in power saving mode, the camera keeps turning off, and I have to turn it back on every time.

(and for those who pointed it out: it's a refurbished phone. I've never had any sound with the videos I take with this phone. It's an ihpone 8 Plus.)

I'm scared, I still saw no one in this farm/junkyard. place ? 

only 9%battery left, I PRAY it will be enough to take videos, I'll post them 1 by 1 live (no time for editing sorry)

It's 00:38, I can't wait anymore, it's cold outside

everything you wrote 17 days ago was posted at the same time, maybe an itch.io bug ?

yes it was too long, on an app on my phone I edited the part where I walk don't want to waste your time (this is the reason I don't have battery on my phone anymore :/)

The guy at the youth hostel didn't wake up from his nap. I left without him. I finally found the dump in question, a kind of farm? There was no one there. I'm sure I saw something that looked like a pinball machine hidden under a sheet in a mobile home, but it was closed. 

I got scared when I heard a dog barking, so I left and I'll wait in my car until nightfall to go back. I hope I have enough battery power to keep you updated; I forgot my charger.

Quick video here

https://imgur.com/OjkVloV/embed?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fitch.io%2Ft%2F6011472%2Fappointment-with-stern-illinois-some-news&w=540

Well, I saw Richard, and it was really weird. At first he was very friendly, but then when I brought up the Junji Ito pinball machines, he stopped responding to me. He asked me to leave his shop without giving me any explanation, but he seemed... freaked out. I went back to my car, and he actually closed his store, lowered the shutters and everything. I mean, in the middle of the day ???

I also called Stern to find out if it was really worth making an appointment, and they pretty much discouraged me from coming. 

For the dump, I tried to go there, but when I put the address the parking lot guy gave me into the GPS, everything went haywire. I drove around in circles for several hours and couldn't find the place... even my smartphone had no signal, no wifi, no 4G

I was able to meet the employees at Spooky Pinball, but unfortunately they had never heard of those damn Junji Ito pinball machines. They were very nice and offered to let me try out their latest acquisition, "Beetlejuice," before it was delivered, but I admit I wasn't really in the mood for it. 

I still have to go to the dump/warehouse that Paul told me about, but it's quite far away, and since I haven't slept (except for a few hours in the car I rented at the airport), I'm going to find a hotel. I'm jetlagged.

While searching around Wisconsin, I stumbled upon this website: https://pinballsalvage.com/, but the manager, Richard Conti,  seems to have become a buyer/reseller of just about anything and everything (old video games, valuable jewelry, etc.). I'm still going to try to go to Cudahi to see if I can meet him. 

Sorry, it's not very convincing at the moment. I thought that by going directly to the United States, everyone would have heard about this pinball machine, but maybe this forum has had a magnifying effect...

Well... I went to Stern's headquarters in Illinois. 

It was closed for some reason, but I still managed to talk to Paul, the parking lot security guard, who came out to meet me. I don't speak English very well and he had a very strong accent, so I didn't quite understand why there was no one there in the middle of the week. I gathered that most of the employees had gone to a conference somewhere else, but I didn't catch the name of the city

When in doubt, I still told him why I had come. He had never heard of a pinball machine causing as many problems as the ones we are trying to trace, BUT he told me that most defective/unusable pinball machines were transferred to a kind of warehouse/dump in Wisconsin, a 4-5 hour drive away. He gave me the address, and I'm going to try to get there. If I leave now, I can arrive by 3 p.m. (it's 11 a.m. now).

I'm going to stop by Spooky Pinball's store . They seem to specialize in horror pinball machines, so they're bound to have heard of Junji Ito Pinball. I called them and they're ready to see me. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks ! My plane arrived late, I'll rent a car to go to Illinois after a power nap. I don't think Hideki's house would be a good lead, so many thing happens inbetween, I'm pretty sure his family doesn't have a clue where the machine could be now (especially if they are constantly moved from a place to another)

I spent my Monday making phone calls and writing emails, and I was able to trace where the package YOU sent me came from, at least the city. I then asked itch.io to formally identify your IP address. I'm leaving for the United States in less than an hour, and I'm going to make a detour to your place, we will talk, I will prove you it's not a simulation, I will save you

Could you tell us in which state of the US ? I'm coming to the USA to find it. I got enough of speculation.

Hmm, I had to check, and 15 minutes is the EXACT length of all the VFX sounds from the Junji Ito pinball machine that I found strung together...

As we aren't really sure WHERE the 3 machine + prototype are, it's absolutely possible that it's one of them,but equally possible that it's a fifth one we never heard about 

Can you tell us in what years the machine was at her home, and in which state of the United States did his father live, and ideally, in which state did the machine end up (or at least a clue about the buyer?), unless he threw it in a landfill?

I HAVE to see at least one machine. If it's true, 4 days left, still no real clue about where they are, but I may have a lead. 

I bought a ticket to the US, as according to reports that seems to be where at least two of the four machines are located. I'm writing from the airport, we're taking off in two hours.

Oh, personal attacks? Well, I'll tell you the honest truth: maybe you're right, maybe I'm not ONLY here to find the pinball machine, maybe I'm also feeding off parasocial relationships, and maybe what I'm really looking for is a little bit of recognition, because deep down I'm just lost in a shitty world, like a lot of people on this fucking planet. 

HOWEVER, I firmly believe that what is missing in our life is not virtuality, but rather the feeling of the physicality of things at our fingertips, the impression that our actions have consequences on the world. This is one of the ways out of the existential crisis we are going through.

So it may be ironic to talk about this on the internet, but I want to believe that this pinball machine exists, that it is physical, that it can hurt

And I pray that this pinball machine isn't yet another VR simulation that plays with our senses, just like those damn screens we stare at all day long, giving us pale skin and health problems. So if YOU VR theory apostles want to preach to your congregation, know that your damn black magic won't work on me,even though I'm afraid as hell to find out what you sickos are capable of doing to silence those who disagree with you

I digged hard and found an OST on a website specialized in pinball sfx. 

I made a copy in low res here if you want to hear this : https://benydanette.itch.io/junjiito-pinball-ost

Sorry for being away for so long, I've had some personal problems, I got fired from my job and my girlfriend left me yesterday. She was already pissed off that I forgot Valentine's Day, she accused me of spending too much time on this forum or looking for information and yesterday morning she received a package and this was inside. 

I don't even know what animal this is She went back to her mother's house

I mean, it's crazy. I didn't sleep all night. I'm pretty sure it's linked to this forum, I thought this community was amazing, but in the shadows people are trying to bully me

(also there are people who think that it's all just VR, you can find this here https://itch.io/t/5882163/all-just-vr  )

I won't talk about it as I don't believe in it, and I received multiple threat from people who believe in this theory...

Hi! Indeed, according to this : https://itch.io/t/5889447/ito-documentary-research
the early project was developed by Watanabe (with a first prototype, a mock up machine) then Sega decided to not release the project (so would have Stern as it's really niche as you mentionned) Watanabe would have paid to build 3 machines in China .

To my knowledge ; now we have 4 pinballs, one of them is in japan, at least 2 of them are in the USA (including one that may have been rebranded as an X-men pinball machine), and the last one is still not located !

done.

Used several tools, one of them (UniScribe) gave this : 

 "今の僕は 何をするべきだ" which means "What should I do now?"

but i'm not sure about the accuracy

That's an odd size, the standard size has been maintained for over 60 years for consistent playability.

A ball that is heavier than a standard ball weighing approximately 80 g increases the impact on beaters, drop targets, bumpers, and plastic components, accelerating wear and tear and potentially breaking certain parts ! 

If the ball rolls less freely (greater contact with the table), it can leave more marks on the decor, varnish, and inserts, especially if the surface of the ball becomes pitted over time. It slower the playing speed, gives less lively trajectories, and provokes unexpected behavior compared to the original design 

VERY WEIRD. A youtuber tested it (go to 15m29sec) and wasn't able to use it either, but worst it did something strange to its computer (something with noises / mono / stereo etc etc) 

The corrupted ito file has been updated on 2012-08-07

And the iceberg thread already mentionned this date... 

I tried to ask calcium_chan about this iceberg, where all those informations came from but I had no answer...

I'm digging the newspapers to see if something related to our case happened during that day in france , usa and canada, but I didn't find anything usefull yet.

The more we dig for answers the more we find questions ! (have a close look to the date !!)

I removed most of the noise, crop to let the voice only, put an EQ, tried to repitch it a little bit, but as a non english speaker, I can't figure out what the voice said

We need the whole community to give a ear on both version

what happened to Mike ? did he moved to Indianapolis around 2012 ? 

sorry to ask and i hope pls pls its Just me being paranoid, its been almost 24h without anyone posting, is everyone… okay ? Like no one has been hospitalized or disappeared or worse ?? Answer me guys im worry 

edit : nvm people are posting again lol i guess i'm just a bit ... worry about this whole pinball situation. 

Sorry for freaking out. I have received several threats from a pro-pinball-is-just-a-VR theory guy (whose name I won't mention, but I think he/she will know who they are). I think they know my address, and since then I haven't been sleeping very well. 

@calcium_chan : Please, what happened on 2012/08/07 ???  

(I installed it, I still try to figure out how this plugin works on Reaper.
I'll let you know you if I succeed in anything)

I wrote to the VST's dev on discord. Waiting for his answer. Also tried to catch his attention on youtube. (10 FEB)