Last year we broke the news that Silver Castle Pinball would be making a real, physical version of Pro Pinball's Timeshock! game. Now we can reveal details of the brand new art package to be used on the machine.

It's hard to believe, but apart from the playfield, the only artwork in the original Pro Pinball computer game was a backglass image used during the initial menu options.

In order to build the real game, the Timeshock! theme of travelling through different time zones in Earth's history had to be portrayed in newly-designed art on the cabinet sides and front, and the backbox sides. And all of this had to be in harmony with the image used for the backglass.

So here is the cabinet and backbox art to be used on the new Timeshock! game.

The cabinet left side
(click to enlarge)

The cabinet right side
(click to enlarge)

The front of the cabinet -
the large fireballs match the positions of the start and ball launch buttons
(click to enlarge)

Silver Castle Pinball's Jurgen van Dulst told us about the new art package. He said, "We wanted to have separate art for both cabinet sides, to show as much of the [different] worlds as possible. Both side are also stitched together to give it this surrealistic and time-travel look."

The artwork has been created by Dutch artist Richard Benning. Jurgen told us, "His surrealistic and futuristic style exactly matches what we were looking for, since we feel Timeshock! can be described with these terms as well. Jean-Paul de Win, known for his pinball art in The Hobbit and The Big Lebowski, art directed Richard from his first sketch to the end result, by giving ideas, fine-tuning compositions and advising on colour. He also slightly re-designed the logo and integrated it with all of Richard's art-pieces."

Jurgen said the team showed Richard the many different styles of pinball art found in their gamerooms to give him a good feel for how his design would integrate with the rest of the game. "We love little details in these art-packages, which you might only discover on a second or third look. But most of all we wanted Richard to use his unique style and ideas", he said.

Once the cabinet artwork had been created, Richard designed the backbox side art, with the colours matching the dominant hues of the cabinet art.

The right backbox side art

The left backbox side art

The five Timeshock! artwork pieces stitched together
(click to enlarge)

Which brings us to the backglass image.

Although this piece of artwork already existed from the original game, Jean-Paul explained the challenge that posed. He told us, "First of all, we wanted the art on the cabinet and backglass to match. So if we were bringing in a new artist with his own art style to do all the art for the cabinet, it would mean that they would have to re-do the backglass as well."

"The second and just as important reason was that the community felt the current backglass was beginning to show its age and could use an update. After taking it up with our licensor and explaining our reasoning for wanting to make this change, they also felt it was the right thing to do and gave us the go ahead."

"Like the original backglass, we wanted to show the four different time zones. On the original this did not feel really clear, so during our first session with Richard we came up with the idea of having the time machine in the middle of a ‘stitched’ world of different time zones."

Here is the result.

The new Timeshock! backglass artwork
(click to enlarge)

Richard told Pinball News, "I'm an illustrator with a background in education and science. So when Jurgen approached me about doing the cabinet artwork for Timeshock! I didn't only see this as a unique chance to further expand my experience in the entertainment industry, but also felt an immediate connection to the theme of the game. Working together with the motivated and inspiring team at Silver Castle Pinball, as well as receiving Jean-Paul's professional input and having a broad creative license, made the past months into a very pleasant experience for me."

At this stage it hasn't been decided whether the game will use a translite for backbox image or a piece of printed glass. Test will be undertaken to see how these and other printing methods perform before a final decision is made. But this art package has been signed-off by the licensor and is now considered final.

A visualisation of the art on the game

A visualisation of the right side

Silver Castle Pinball say the current prototype game will use decals to apply the artwork to the cabinet, but at the same time they are looking into different printing methods to find the best balance between printing quality, colour reproduction, scratch resistance, and the most reliable and practical way to apply the art.

That's all for this update. We'll be back with more news from Silver Castle Pinball's Timeshock! project as the game progresses.

© Pinball News 2015