121 episodes tracked since 2023 about →
Episode 30 - Throwback Games
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago45 min listen
Highlights
- Total Nuclear Annihilation was designed by Scott Densey starting in 2015 as a homebrew project and Spooky manufactured approximately 550 units in the original run, with an additional ~250 in a rerun.
- The Beatles pinball machine featured the most expensive license ever procured for a pinball machine at the time (2018) and was based on a modified 1980s Stern Sea Witch layout.
- The Beatles was limited to 1,964 gold edition units and priced starting at over $10,000, more than double the cost of a Stern Pro at the time.
- James Bond 60th Anniversary was the most expensive game Stern has made (outside of Elvira editions) at $20,000, featuring a mechanical scoring reel in the backbox.
- Bond 60th Anniversary secondary market prices have dropped to almost half of the new price ($20,000) due to community backlash over pricing and design execution.
- Pulp Fiction by Chicago Gaming costs between $8,000-$8,500, placing it closer to Stern Pro pricing while delivering superior fit and finish compared to Bond 60th.
- Pulp Fiction features real reverse screen-printed mirrored backglass (not translite), swing-out light door with magnetic closure, and was designed by Mark Ritchie with sound by David Thiel.
- George Gomez tweaked the Sea Witch layout for The Beatles, making the upper loop repeatable, adding a spinning disc, multiball magnet, and drop targets that weren't on the original.
- A later software update added a 'classic mode' to The Beatles that disables magnets, the spinning disc, and multiball to replicate original Sea Witch rule set.
- Scott Densey is a musician who created the electronic house music soundtrack for Total Nuclear Annihilation, which was a key factor in the game's popularity.
Notable quotes
“The first time you play a TNA the sound is what immediately hooks you and I think honestly the sound is what made this thing become such a hit in the homebrew scene.”
“I live off the tears of pinball players and I love that because it's like that's me. Like I want somebody make games like that for me.”
“20,000 dollars for a pinball machine, regardless of licensing, regardless of anything, is fucking stupid. I hate it. That's the kind of shit. If every game costs 20 grand, I'd be like, ah, fuck this. I'd push them all out into the driveway.”
“If you're having to release a video on the day sales open showing that they are in fact physical reels: which this isn't something we're exaggerating, it's literally what Stern did because people were confused: you know, like you failed.”
“Pulp Fiction absolutely embarrasses Bond 60th in terms of overall package and effort put in it's insane seeing that thing and how cohesive the whole thing: like every piece of it thought was put into it.”
“That is the most thoughtful little touch I've ever seen on a modern pinball machine. This is the opposite of cost cutting. They're sitting there like, hey, we want a magnet. This is something that annoys me when I'm working on my games. And someone went, boom, you got it.”
“It's like they never disclose that kind of stuff. I'm just kind of guessing because it's like if you landed this license and you could use it unlimited for two years you would have made it a cornerstone game.”
“I don't want them to look at it and go the only way we can do these games is to charge this premium for it. And then they get blowback from the community. And then they go and they just throw up their hands and go well it just won't work.”
“I really wish it was a cornerstone. Why can't this be a game that is purchasable for like a Stern Pro price with a throwback layout that operators can buy?”
“It's simple. And so it's like it's not just recycled assets or recycled poses. It's like this new: it: it feels very much like a toy based on the movie and not just like oh we copied and pasted shit from the movie.”
Entities
- Chicago Gaming· company
- Pinball Life· company
- Spooky Pinball· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Iron Maiden· game
- James Bond 60th Anniversary· game
- Pulp Fiction· game
- Rick and Morty· game
- Sea Witch· game
- The Beatles· game
- Total Nuclear Annihilation· game
- Alan· person
- Alex the Waterboy· person
- David Thiel· person
- Franchi· person
- George Gomez· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Mark Ritchie· person
- Scott Densey· person
- Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead· venue
