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Pinball Industy News: November 2019 Re-cap
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago1 hr 22 min listenBy Martin Ayub, Jonathan Joosten
Martin Ayub (Pinball News) and Jonathan Joosten (Pinball Magazine) discuss the pinball industry news of November 2019, including Deeproot Pinball, Haggis Pinball, Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack...
Highlights
- Deep Root Pinball revealed Raza (Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland) at Houston Arcade Expo as their first game, with a March 2020 press launch planned in San Antonio on March 25.
- Raza prototype had a long sweeping right-hand ramp, colorful playfield, basic rule code with multiball modes, and limited sound/voice work, with expectations for improvement before launch.
- Haggis Pinball's Kelts game opened preorders on December 1, 2019 at $5,250 base price, with optional upgrades (personalized name $1,000, metal trim $500, themed toys $250) bringing max price to ~$7,000.
- Gene Cunningham of Illinois Pinball passed away; he owned Williams/Capcom remaining assets and built 183 Big Bang Bar games starting in 2003.
- Gene Cunningham's Big Bang Bar project caused him to lose over $100,000 because he insisted on using original Capcom hardware with security chips that were extremely difficult to hack, rather than adopting newer control systems.
- Jeff Teolis was confirmed as a voice talent providing call-outs for Raza, with another Texas-based voice actor also involved but unnamed.
- Deep Root planned a press launch for Raza on March 25, 2020 in San Antonio, followed immediately by Texas Pinball Festival (March 27–29 in Frisco), allowing attendees to travel between events.
Notable quotes
“The game has potential. There were some mixed responses online, but mostly by people who didn't play it, weren't at the show. So, okay, that's easy to form an opinion behind your keyboard.”
“Basically, pinball is hard. And setting up a factory that's supposed to be building pinball machines, that's a beast on its own.”
“I give credit to Stern. No matter what you think about their games, the manufacturing aspects is something that they are probably without a doubt the best in the industry.”
“He was a true pinball enthusiast, I'd say. And, of course, he has a collection or had a collection... Wizard Blocks, the third Pinball 2000 game. It contained the fourth Pinball 2000 game, Playboy. and lots of rarities that you hardly ever see anywhere else.”
“I have nothing bad to say about Gene Cunningham... Gene took me to Chicago. He took me to Foremost Plastics... He had such great stories to tell on the road.”
“I think the Big Bang Bar project... could have actually been profitable if he wouldn't have been so focused on sticking with the Capcom hardware system.”
“They physically take the chip and they start sanding it down from the top surface down until they get to the component level inside the package... to see where the connections exist inside. There was no way of reverse engineering it by interrogating it.”
Entities
- Capcom· company
- Deep Root Pinball· company
- Foremost Plastics· company
- Haggis Pinball· company
- Illinois Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams· company
- Houston Arcade Expo· event
- Pinball Expo· event
- Texas Pinball Festival· event
- Super Awesome Pinball Show· event|media
- Big Bang Bar· game
- Kelts· game
- Raza (Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland)· game
- Christian· person
- Christopher Frenchy· person
- Damien· person
- Ed Van Der Veen· person
- Gary Flowers· person
- Gene Cunningham· person
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Jim Petla· person
- Jonathan Houston· person
- Martin Ayer· person
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