NEW GAME ROUND-UP


Date: 15th June, 2014

Stern Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball are the only companies actually making machines in any quantities at the moment, but there are several others on the brink of producing their first game who have made recent announcements.

One of the earliest to show their hand at short-run pinball manufacturing was Skit-B with their Predator game, first announced in June 2011. Although a sample game has been shown at many pinball shows, and despite stating four months ago that it was "mission complete", none of the 250 machines appears to have shipped yet.

But that didn't stop Skit-B announcing their second game last weekend at the California Extreme show, and shortly after with a promotional video on YouTube.

Skit-B's Kevin Kulek revealed that their next title would be Experts of Dangerous, featuring Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from the Discovery Channel's show Mythbusters.

Skit-B's second title, Experts of Dangerous
Skit-B's second title, Experts of Dangerous

Experts of Dangerous
Experts of Dangerous translite

Although not an officially-branded Mythbusters game, Experts of Dangerous is the name given to the pair's offshoot venture, and the theme is bound to be heavily based on their on-screen exploits.

The title was announced in a video on YouTube which has since been taken offline pending a decision by the licence holders on how they are going to promote the game.

No pricing or predicted availability has been announced yet, but in an apparent bid to get the ball rolling faster once the design and coding is complete, Skit-B has contracted manufacturing of the game to Jersey Jack Pinball in Lakewood, New Jersey.

Meanwhile, a new pinball start-up based in Colombia, Missouri, Vonnie D Pinball, announced at the end of June their intention to build pinballs, starting with their unlicenced Pinball Gremlins title.

Vonnie D' Pinball Gremlins logo
Vonnie D's Pinball Gremlins logo

The game design is mostly complete and the team released a simplified playfield layout which shows it is a three-flipper widebody game with some interesting features and shots.

Pinball Gremlins' playfield layout
Pinball Gremlins' widebody playfield layout

To help them bring the game to market they have teamed up with game designer Barry Oursler to lend his know-how and eighteen years of experience making pinballs for Williams.

A prototype playfield being populated with inserts
A prototype Pinball Gremlins playfield being populated with inserts

As interesting as the game and the team is, their choice of Kickstarter project as a means to fund the company and sell their games attracted a lot of attention.

Setting an ambitious target for a start-up company with no track record of pinball manufacturing of $100,000, they were offering a range of machine variants from $6,500 for a standard up to gold accented model at $10,000.

After a slow start and doubts about whether the target could be reached, a number of purchases of the $10,000 gold edition and the $9,000 limited edition models during the last few days saw the total reach $104,050 when the fundraiser ended.

Regardless of whether the target would be reached or not, Vonnie D have pledged to bring a prototype Pinball Gremlins machine to Pinball Expo in October.

Over in Europe, Dutch Pinball have been showing the progress they have been making with their The Big Lebowski pinball.

The Big Lebowski translite image
The Big Lebowski translite image

Their latest videos reveal the cabinet, backbox and translite artwork, along with the size of their colour display to go with their earlier reveals of the playfield layout.

The color display
The colour display

Cabinet side art
Cabinet side art

Backbox side art
Backbox side art

The playfield has a number of custom mechanisms, including an upper mini-playfield and an under-playfield bowling lane viewed through a clear window.

The mail playfield
The mail playfield

The Brunswick-licensed mini bowling lane
The Brunswick-licensed mini bowling lane

Pre-orders for The Big Lebowski are currently open, and the Dutch Pinball team anticipate it will be available in the second quarter of 2015.

We'll keep you up-to-date with all the developments from Skit-B, Vonnie D, Dutch Pinball, and the other new pinball manufacturers right here at Pinball News.


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