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VONNIE D PINBALL announces PINBALL GREMLINS

Luckydogg420

Member
May 12, 2013
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Edit, added link to kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20 ... ll-machine


I thought this was an interesting strech goal

"The custom boards on our machine have an included Wi-Fi card. We’ve developed a method for creating an Internet connected pinball machine that could be used for worldwide online tournaments and for tracking player stats across a network, and possibly even online player versus modes."

Can you do this with any other games now?
 

Vengeance

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
1,990
138
63
Keswick, ON
Luckydogg420 said:
Edit, added link to kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20 ... ll-machine


I thought this was an interesting strech goal

"The custom boards on our machine have an included Wi-Fi card. We’ve developed a method for creating an Internet connected pinball machine that could be used for worldwide online tournaments and for tracking player stats across a network, and possibly even online player versus modes."

Can you do this with any other games now?


RFM had that capability with Nucore, but speaking from a competitive point of view, tracking high scores across games is stupid.

Pinball is a physical experience, and that changes drastically from machine to machine, you can setup to NIB Sterns side by side, and they will play entirely different. Tilt settings, flipper alignment, post gaps, rubber, etc, etc.

I can understand why people would think that getting pinball's onto the internet might be a good idea, but you will never produce any useful or meaningful actual competition from doing so.
 

Fifty

Active Member
Apr 22, 2014
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Ottawa, Ontario
The concept is cool, but it is flawed. I cannot see this working for tournaments.

I was thinking it would be useful to see how many machines are out there and their locations, how many are being played "now", and I could see it escalating into a repair tool. For example, one of your slingshots die and the pin signals an online shop to email you with a quote for a part replacement.

It would also allow you to see if your scores are below average. You would have to weed out the cheaters, but I'm sure a good baseline could be established.
 

frolic

Member
Nov 19, 2012
686
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Tdot
1 machine has fresh coat of wax, the other doesn't, 1 was waxed today, the other waxed last week. All those machines will play different and no way to tell the difference by the software.
 
Still, I like the concept. Lights going out, flippers getting crosswired during the game. Gremlins messing with your scores. All interesting ideas... I think there's some good stuff in there, even producing a first game is fraught with problems.
 

frolic

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Nov 19, 2012
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Of all the boutiques, I have to give it to Spooky that they at least create their games and THEN take orders. They seem the best organized, and they are still struggling to produce machines in any sort of quantity.
 

REVOLUTION

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 13, 2012
2,314
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GTA
www.pinballrevolution.com
Pavlovpinball said:
Still, I like the concept. Lights going out, flippers getting crosswired during the game. Gremlins messing with your scores. All interesting ideas... I think there's some good stuff in there, even producing a first game is fraught with problems.

I definitely agree, the concept is great. It would definitely give the game some "personality". Also putting the game up on Kickstarter was a great idea, I'm curious to see how this goes -- I don't think there's been a pin offered on Kickstarter yet.
 

frolic

Member
Nov 19, 2012
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Dunno if that Kickstarter is going to help or hurt. Right now they've sold 1 machine and we can all see that.
 

Fifty

Active Member
Apr 22, 2014
605
149
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50
Ottawa, Ontario
Yeah, the video is terrible. Ambient fan noise humming throughout, eyes to the left reading the prompter the entire time. No cuts to concept art or cuts to anything else that would at least break up the monotany. Boring. I managed to get to the 4 minute mark.

My only concern are the colours. It looks really dark right now. I like colours that 'pop', so if it's all different shades of black and brown throughout it'll just be way too dark.
 

brad808

Member
Feb 28, 2013
656
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Brantford
The concept is there, I like it. The whole gremlins idea is a cool one. Unfortunately I don't see this coming to fruition. The terrible video doesn't help either ;). At first I just assumed the one guy was talking into another camera that they would cut to.
 

Vengeance

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
1,990
138
63
Keswick, ON
Of all the boutique pinball companies to pop up, really the only guys who are doing it right are SkitB and at this point to a lesser extent the guys doing Big Lebowski.

Reason for the is, they didn't come to market with their hands out, or with nothing.

In SkitB's place, when they first started taking deposits they already had a working whitewood that had been out to a few shows for people to see. For me that created confidence because hey at least I know in some capacity they can at least build a machine.

That plus the very low required deposit of $250 made it an easy project to jump on.

Similar to the Big Lebowski, while they are requiring larger deposits then say SkitB, they have already come out with a little bit of actual gameplay footage, and since this isn't going to be only a small run of 200 or less, have given the general populace a chance to sit back, watch and wait to see what come to fruition, meaning you can eventually get a TBL with very little risk.

These guys basically need you to pay for the entire machine up front, have nothing to show in the way of gameplay, no working prototype and a really bad video to try and convince anyone to shell out over 7K to buy their machine. It doesn't fill me with the warm fuzzies that they know what they are doing.

With 0 history behind them, I don't see this kickstarter succeeding, but who knows.
 

WARLOCK

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
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The Bluffs, Scarborough
Vengeance said:
Of all the boutique pinball companies to pop up, really the only guys who are doing it right are SkitB and at this point to a lesser extent the guys doing Big Lebowski.

Agree 100%.

Only these 2 companies so far for boutique's have shown us a product that I would purchase.
Skit-B for sure and hopefully Big Lebowski soon enough.
 

jlm33

New Member
Apr 26, 2014
5
0
1
Begles, France
Vengeance said:
Of all the boutique pinball companies to pop up, really the only guys who are doing it right are SkitB and at this point to a lesser extent the guys doing Big Lebowski.

Hum...

Of all the boutique pinball companies to pop up, really the only guys who successfully produced actual games are...
Ben Heck (America's most Haunted) : his first games have been shipped already
Antonio Ortuno (Quetzal Captain Nemo in Spain) : the first games are produced as we speak, and I receive weekly updates.

I am on Skit-B preorder list. Just pass judgment until I see Predators shipping.

But I agree with everyone that this Kickstarter campaign is poorly planned.
 

Luckydogg420

Member
May 12, 2013
825
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I checked in on their progress today. Currently 35% funded, with 8 days to go on their goal of $100 000. Looks like they've sold 4 machines.

It's now featured as a "staff pick" so they will get a little more exposure
 

Luckydogg420

Member
May 12, 2013
825
24
18
Kitchener
Wow. They reached their funding goal in the last hours with just over $104 000.


The kickstarter project sold less then a dozen games, I wonder how large their production run will be.
 

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