Looks awesome. Good job!

Hands down, as soon as there is a theme I love I will buy an AP

I just buy comet frosted led strip matrix and tie it to a GI bulb. I tried all the colors on trough and liked the purple the best because it’s a whiteish purple nothing over saturated and lights the encore area very well. Tends to be dark down there

But you own a Full Throttle? Hahaha just busting your chops DerGoetz

Your Welcome! LOL

Obviously, there’s a market for Pinstadium, since it has some big fans and is selling well. I am surprised to see it on a brand new machine, though.

Did you find that the built in lighting lacked pop or parts of the playfield were difficult to see? No judgement, just interested.

No prob. I very much like the product and have yet to see a machine that they didn’t look great on. Even new machines lack light in the middle of the playfield and I very much enjoy the middle main art popping. Houdini doesn’t need Pin Stadium lights. Then again, I should eat more salad, but damn I love steak! Haha

Sounds like AP's quality control and communication are top shelf. Wondering if AP is willing to make some Aliens and TBL's?

I know, right?

I was hoping that the all ramps gameplay would be killer. And I'm a racing fan. So..... initially Full Throttle sounded like a great idea.

Now that it has been broken down for over a year..... not so much. And watching the marketplace here on Pinside.... looks like you couldn't give the game away, even if it worked.

I hope that it will run again one day. All it would need then are all new and great rules and it could become a killer game..... killer game with kids coloring book art.....

All good man should we ever meet the first beer is on me.... as well as the joke, hahaha

I would love nothing more than to grab a beer with ya buddy!

Hold up fella's. I've got mad respect for both of you knuckleheads and I want in on those beers too.

You’re in!

We received our first two Houdini’s this week. One is on our showroom floor. Come by and play anytime if you’re in the area. The other was our first pre-order sold to our friends at Cidercade.

Hopefully we’ll be receiving more of our pre-orders shortly.

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Rosh standing ovation (sincerely) for the stellar communications in this thread. This is how you communicate with your customers. The transparency is so refreshing. Seriously, keep up the great work.

I was at AP when they had an open house a few months back. The defect playfields Rosh pointed out to us - and none of us could identify the issues. Really working hard to deliver quality checked games, even for us anal pinball enthusiasts.

I'm about to jump in and buy one NIB even though I swore no more only HOU. In other threads where quality is sub standard we say speak with your wallet. Well, I'm ready to speak with my wallet. Bravo team AP!

That rounded head shape is growing on me.

Great looking game.

There will be a Houdini at Padavans in St Louis this Tuesday if anyone want to try it out

Hope Houdini will come to Europe soon. Would love to see it in action and play that pin.

Any chance of getting the boxed dimensions... Picking up my game Monday or Tuesday from shipping depot

Larry with FlipNOut pinball brought his Houdini to Nashville yesterday for everyone to play and check out. I am blown away this is a companies first game. Looks great, plays great, code is good and will get better, tons of shots and cool toys and features. They priced it right for what you get and I personally feel like they hit a home run. It is refreshing to see a new start up do what they say and produce a quality game in a very reasonable time frame. Looking forward to adding one to the gameroom.

32x31

Ty

Will be in Indianapolis this coming weekend, any Houdinis' up and running in town?

I've glanced over the thread, but I wasn't sure the details on the instructional narration and if there will be a way to dial it back. Will there be something like a pro or novice adjustment in service that could lessen the amount of instructions for a home environment?

Game looks really awesome AP. Definitely thinking about bringing one home.

Brian

Flippers can cancel it out.

That's cool. I was just thinking some sort of adjustment that would cancel them by default. I need some more time on the game before I fully understand.

Brian

May I ask a question, Josh? I got on the list for a Houdini back in May (!), and I'm really looking forward to owning it. My dilemma is that I would really like the Magic Glass, Blades & Shaker Motor add-ons. I know you mentioned that pricing and availability are not yet finalized, but would you suggest getting the machine now and adding those accessories later or waiting for all of them to be built into it at the factory?

+1. Plus timing. I’m much further down on the pre-order list though, so I suspect the options will be available before my number comes up.

Rosh has stated at couple of times they will probably not ship the initial batch of games with the glass or inner blades; if you wait a bit they may announce in-factory installation but that’s never yet been mentioned as a guarantee. I think the glass pricing isn’t even set yet. So you may want to wait a bit

I echo this. A really fun game that already seems pretty complete. Animations are great, it's always clear what to shoot for. Very impressive. Try to find one to play for yourself.

Guys I will be putting out a Houdini on location this week somewhere in Nw Indiana. I will announce the location soon.
Been trying to get them spread out to some customers on locations.
1. Geeks mania-Madison WI
2.Analog- Davenport Iowa
3.Padavans St. Louis (I know Troy will be moving locations periodically with his Houdini)
4.D Men Tap on Chicago's northwest side (Gavin's Game Service)
5.Nw Indiana (Mine) Will post this week!
Pincades
JT

Rosh just a heads up. Played Houdini at 257 yesterday. A ball is stuck in the stage area - but it did not effect game play. Left flipper was a bit weak but we could still hit the shots. And the trunk lock missed almost every time so may need adjustment.

Game still played very well. As a side, it was being played a lot in the two hours we were there. Met a few other pinheads who made the trek to sample the game.

Thanks for letting me know. If you are talking inside the stage, that is probably normal, but I'll check it out and I'll adjust the flipper strength up (wonder if Joe was out there last, he tends to lower things to be just strong enough, and I tend to raise them to increase the action) and check the catapults, not sure if they moved machines around, but seems when they do, things need to be adjusted slightly.

The main advantage of getting from the factory, is not having to deal with shipping and install. Side blades are a little tricky to install, so frees you of the effort of doing it, but obviously plenty of people have installed them on their machines. I believe the blades came in late last week, not sure status on the glass. We are reviewing a few things with the shaker, so that is probably a few weeks out before it will be offered. The shaker motor will be plug and play (the T-nuts to mount it are already in the cabinet and the cable just plugs in about a foot away. I suggest you just wait and see when you hear from your distributor and see what the status is.

Besides the flipper escape there are about a dozen settings to control the verbosity of the voice calls. If you search back through this thread you will see some screen shots and there is also a video walkthrough of the service menu and you can see them there.

I was just wondering if you can make the default flipper strength to what you have been setting it at on location? haha...sorry Joe.

Thank you very much for the response. I will review the thread.

Brian

SDTM Episode 47: Houdini Pinball Machine Review Deluxe Edition

Greg and Zach travel to American Pinball to review Houdini pinball machine. Remember to share our video!

rosh thanks for the earlier tips.

3 of us went to 257 on friday and had about 40 minutes on it.

Good news is that all 3 of us liked it, felt it shot well, looked pretty, and is a great first effort. Some of the really tight looking shots (right inner orbit and milk can orbit) are actually more than makeable, and animations look better in the flesh, though could use some work.

Bad news is that the machine had some issues. Roll overs on inner right orbit, key lane, milk can and sometimes the strange double roll over on the left orbit weren't registering. That many meant there wasn't much of a game. Maybe activation weight is too high?

Also, the catapault into the trunk needs to be calibrated. Missed 100% of the time, hitting about half way up.

Played a solid hour today on it at level 257. The catapult into the trunk missed 100% as mentioned above. Caught it on camera as I videoed the session. Still an awesome game!

Thank you AP and Nitro , first Houdini arrived in Canada today!
The game came very nicely packaged with lots of goodies!
Most impressed with the flipper adjustment template!
Couple of tweaks and some more adjustments to come.
First impression, the pictures do not do this game justice, nicely built , forward thinking with the wire connectors to replace and repair the flipper and and other components!
All in all proud to be a supporter... Great job AP !
Great job Nitro
Big fan!
First NIB for me.. No disappointments!
Outstanding quality control!

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That’s awesome man! Looks nice next to that Pinball Magic

Does the game come with a knocker?

When is the launch party lol... Congrats looks awesome!!!

It's here ... Previously posted that anyone wanting to play it... Just PM me stop by have a game!
Gonna love it! Great game!

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Had a chance to play two different Houdini machines this week. One at DMen Tap in Chicago, and yesterday at Level 257. Games felt really solid and well made. So far I like the game, but I still find the shots just too tight. So many bricked shots just trying to hit the main ramp shot making it pretty frustrating. (I know I should just get good right?). I like how the objectives are pretty clear and the lock shot into the box is still satisfying. I kind of wish there was more of a ball save when the ball comes flying out of the scoop; been screwed on that a few times. Is there a super skill shot? The normal one is kind of boring.

So far so good though. Looking forward to putting more time and trying to get further into the game / modes. Both games had zero match games enabled and replay scores were set really high unfortunately.

Ball save times can be adjusted I'm sure. If I remember correctly, they mentioned in the SDTM review that AP is working on adding a super skill shot in a code update at some point.

Super skill shot is the target by milkcan. Super tough though and satisfying but switch better be pretty sensitive or the soft hit will not register

Oh sank you doktor!

Congratulations!! Enjoy.

There is no knocker, we have talked about, and it is certainly possible, we will later offer a kit to add one. We have put that on the back burner for now as we have higher priorities, as I am sure you can understand. My guess is we will revisit it in a month or two. Things like the knocker and shaker start off in the BOM, but end up getting removed based on other items we feel have greater value. For example, the themed spot lights, do we do those or a knocker -- which creates more value? I'm not saying that was the specific tradeoff, but in general those are the kind of discussions we have. At one point we were going with an 8 ball trough, since I wanted 7 balls in the machine, but that was going to cost a significant amount more then a six ball, so I would have to have been willing to give up something else of substance, so, clear choice was I'll get by with six balls (which believe it nor created quite the headache for me when we made the change).

Joe is going out there today to take care of it. He wants to give the whole machine a good look over, since it now has close to 2000 plays on it.

Tight shots, it is all in your head. Backhanding the right inner loop is actually quite easy. If flippers set correctly, you can typically also backhand the ramp. What I find hard is hitting the ramp after the milkcan loop to increase the playfield multiplier. It is not that the ramp shot is that hard, it is the 'panic/pressure' of needing to hit it right then that makes me miss it, typically badly, but again, all in the head, since there are times I can hit that ramp three, four times in a row. Pinball really is a very mental game.

I'll look at adding an option for a short ball save on the scoop when not in MB. Joe and I were talking about that not long ago. This is typically the kind of thing where I rib him about software having to compensate for his "design flaws". Needless to say he gets way more opportunities to rib me about software stuff.

No match yet, pretty sure I know what I am going to do, just have many higher priority items.

Super Skill is the magic target on the left side. There is an expanded skill shot in the works, not hugely different, per se, but will require more skill to earn items of greater interest/value, including a new feature for the stage. Right now I have it pencilled in for the March release. BTW, current skill shot gets harder on each ball, if you make it.

Seen the catapult throw into the box thousands of times and it never gets old.

Replay scores are probably at defaults, and those probably need to be re-evaluted based on the data we have collected. Other defaults might also changed based on data we have collected. Some of the locations have been great in sending over logs and stats for me to review, and in some cases I have recommended changes to their settings based on what I am seeing.

.

Speaking of locations sharing data, for any operators following this thread, here are some key metrics from three of the half dozen or more locations with machines.

Games: 1867, Avg Game Time: 3:38, Avg Score: 76156 ($1/game)
Games: 2142, Avg Game Time: 2:47, Avg Score: 53525 (entry fee games on free play)
Games: 1522, Avg Game Time: 2:54, Avg Score: 76120 ($1/game, 3 for $2)

Also, Josh mentions at around the 1:13 mark in your review that he's planning on "implementing a different skill shot"....one with more value. That's what I was referring to. I had to go back because I knew I heard something along those lines.

I love the tight shots!