Avatar! Judge Dredd! Saw! Murderous Insects! | Expo Part 2
On the way to Chicago Expo, Don goes to Arizona and plays Judge Dredd, and then visits the Electric Bat Arcade (Matt is jealous). At Expo, Matt and Don get hands-on with Jersey Jack’s Avatar for the...
Highlights
- Judge Dredd is ranked pretty high and is cheap, but can be dismissed if poorly set up. A well-maintained example with upgraded LEDs and proper setup is incredible and worth acquiring.
- Avatar has a lot of complexity with multiple ball locks (including one under the playfield), mini-playfield sections, and at least two different multiball modes that aren't immediately obvious.
- Jersey Jack put more decorative effort into their booth than Stern, despite having a much smaller physical footprint (roughly 1/4 to 1/5 the space).
- Avatar's design philosophy balances stop-and-go gameplay with flowiness, as stated in Jersey Jack's marketing materials.
- Electric Bat has approximately 100 people attend their Tuesday night league, described as potentially the biggest single-location league night in the world.
- Avatar and new games from Jersey Jack, Spooky, and other manufacturers represent a significant evolution in pinball design and layout philosophy compared to previous iterations.
- Judge Dredd can typically be acquired for under $4,000 on the secondary market.
- Avatar features approximately six flippers when counting the bottom two traditional flippers.
Notable quotes
“I am embarrassed that I ever even had a single negative thought about that game. That game is incredible, dude.”
“Do not get rid of this game... we need that game.”
“It reminds me of like a Williams game... you see that upper left, that upper playfield, you're like oh man what the heck, and then you spend all this time figuring out, you finally get up there and then it's over in like one second.”
“It doesn't feel assembly line per se. It doesn't feel like phoned in. It doesn't feel like any other game I've played.”
“I think you were saying before, how X-Men kind of feels like the future of pinball... we also kind of have a similar thing happening in Jersey Jack. And that's cool because I didn't expect that from Jersey Jack.”
“All of those layouts all the newest games from all of those manufacturers feel like a significant evolution to me.”
“Christopher Franchi, he nailed it. It looks great. It looks amazing.”
Entities
- Jersey Jack Pinball· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Pinball Expo· event
- Avatar· game
- Elton John· game
- Evil Dead· game
- Godzilla· game
- Johnny Mnemonic· game
- Judge Dredd· game
- Looney Tunes· game
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre· game
- The Shadow· game
- Twilight Zone· game
- X-Men· game
- Christopher Franchi· person
- Kale· person
- Pat Lawlor· person
- Rachel· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Electric Bat· venue
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