Whoa Nellie already exists

A huge blunder by Stern, proved to the industry that absolutely nobody wants to revisit Woodrails or EMs

Sorry Dr. Frost; right answer, wrong reason. I am sure Stern made money on Whoa Nellie after reskinning it twice and some of us actually like that game a lot.

However the main reason not to do it is that whatever you come up with has for sure been done and probably a lot more inventively by one of the masters of pinball design.

Tons of killer EM games exist out there that most have never played. All kinds of weird features and layouts.

No reason to reinvent the wheel when most haven't even discovered it yet.

Retro pinball also tried it with King of Diamonds (a SS recreation of Gottlieb’s single player that allowed 4 players to play) in 2010 and used modern electronics, and they made all of 55 machines. If people want to go back to their youth, with a little retro, why not buy that wedgehead you played at the Bowling alley? That’s what I do. And my $$ goes a lot farther than NIB, but everyone needs that NIB rush at least just once in your life.

Ok, then, retro to you would be my Family Guy? I’m an early 60’s baby so that’s why the wedgehead fixation.

Production cost would make the retail price too high to sell enough units.
The audience would be pretty limited.
It would be a novelty, and could be cool, but wouldn't appeal to enough buyers and players.

Its a cool concept to think of but your timeline and facts are a bit off. Elder days of pins could mean 1600-1700's for many historians when speaking of bagatelle. More modern historians would still take it back to the late 1800's when America first entered the marketplace. Pinball and gambling were not synonymous with one another for much of the pre-war pure mechanical era and started to be produced around the mid 1930's after electricity was introduced into designs. Many manufacturers dipped their toe into the 'payout' world and some had great success (Jennings) but for the most part pinball was still a game made for amusement and only infringed on laws that prohibited the winning of a 'Free Game', an'extra ball' or some other prize. Hence why 'AAB' were popular for many distributors in certain geographical locations. There were plenty of gambling games of the day, (slots, trade stimulators) but payout pinball was not as wide spread or produced.

Most fans of early EM pinball I've spoke with say their favorite era is the 1930's. This is before the invention of the pop bumper when many designers simplified designs and over used pops in title after title. Of coarse there is no shortage of 50's, 60's and 70's EM fans. Myself included.

Because the buyer pool of people who would buy something like that is extremely small. Many somewhat recent games have teetered on the edge of trying that and failed, with maybe the exception of TNA (if you want to even put it in that category). Levi is right, if pinside ran a pinball company it would be out of business fast

I'm hopeful that you got more from my response than that.

I think you could really clarify the post by saying “build on demand” which is a more savvy way of saying…

But even then, no pinball company is doing “build on demand” at a onesie twosie rate on a line either, and you would have to be certifiably insane to try an hand assemble on that small scale and pay a decent wage AND keep costs in check.

Stern is doing batch orders and can’t seem to keep up with demand. Why dabble in small potatoes?

Whoa Nellie was a passion project by the Wiz Bang guys to re-theme a Gottlieb woodrail layout. I'm not sure how Stern got involved producing V2.0 but they did and of course it was used as a base for further small batch games like PCC and Primus. I don't think it was a blunder in itself but not a huge money maker either. The fact Stern was willing to be involved with Whoa Nellie V2.0 in the first place is interesting and to their credit.

In my opinion, I would have picked a different playfield layout but it is what they (Wiz Bang) had to work with.

The "remake a home pin" Star Wars - Heavy Metal seems like a better fit for the company and modern tastes in playfield design.

I read what you said, I just didn't want to point out that having a "side line" is an even more ludicrously out of touch with reality idea, and I kind of just ignored that part out of kindness. Pointing out that it was incredibly dumb just on face value alone was enough, but since you needed me to go into more detail, there you go. Nobody wants modern EM's, therefore having the incredible extra cost of having a side option dedicated for them is even more completely unnecessary.

Build one and prove your premise.

Nothing about making pinball is easy, but you are talking about the absolute simplest form of the game possible. So make one. All the parts are readily available, you can use the cheapest control system and computer options, getting it flipping in MPF will get you a good chunk of the way towards done.

Nobody is waiting around to make your passion project exist. You want something like this, and you think it's a good idea, do it yourself. Even if nobody else finds it particularly compelling you'll have one.

And the truth is nobody wants a modern woodrail, because outside of their historical importance and collectible beauty they don't provide much long last gameplay appeal vs what you'd have to charge to even break even to build a new one. But if you think I'm wrong the only possible avenue you have to see it exist is just do it yourself.

I have No Fear in my shop, it's NOT to my taste.

Don't worry, theres a ton of new games that aren't fan layouts (GZ, AIQ, Bond, ect) but OP will figure that out eventurally. No fear is definitely one of the quinisential fan layouts though lol. I actually love that game

Another classic