Definitely not the cabinet

I hope to see many of you at our seminar on Friday night.

Here is a sneak peek

houdini-wrapped (resized).png

When I have more time I'll respond to more items

There was no shooting anything until two weeks ago and no playfield with Leds until this past Monday. . Never had a wired whitewood.

Three magnets

Yes, chain not right look/color, what we could get for now

Yes, shots are tight, takes a few games to get the feel, can then be made regularly, some teams will be made, remember what I said above about how long we have been shooting it. the jail/magic shop hole requires banking a shot off the stage or stage rubber or some luck off the pops, by design.

catapult in action

There will be settings to adjust power. We are in the process of doing testing around its performance under heavy use and over time. We also have tracking on the success rate, which at TPF was approaching 95% and that was on close to 500 throws. I've also added code that you still get credit for the lock (when that is the purpose of the throw), even if it misses.

I'd say there is a decent chance Houdini will make a limited appearance at MGC on Saturday. If it does, it will be just one machine and we will have it on 2 ball play to try to give as many people as possible a chance to play. I'd like to avoid one ball play, since be a real bummer for someone to wait in line and get a house ball. Of course if we find ball/game times are too long, we will change that. I've considered adding code that if you first ball is more then X minutes, you don't get a second ball, but probably won't have time to do that and properly test it.

One of the machines at TPF had a bad power supply, that ultimately crapped out and we replaced with a spare. That one was not consistent until after we replaced the power supply. It was making us crazy as to why one was hitting it nearly every time and the other could be great 10 in a row and then come up totally short or totally long. Never going to be 100%, but I think we will be happy if we are consistently over 90%.

I'd hate for someone to be in a really cool mode and suddenly have the game crap out. But certainly an option we can look at.

I think that is a little too short, I want folks to get to see the catapult in action or the stage mechanism, which has a curtain that opens and closes and once inside the ball can disappear and/or appear. It is also where the primary modes get started, including straitjacket multiball (and for anyone who gets that at MGC or other shows we are at, you have to go for the hanging/inverted version).

Joe spent time looking at how to make the original playable, but ultimately decided it was best to just start over. There were parts of the original art I really liked and some parts no so much (like not really looking like Houdini). Ultimately, completely starting over on everything made a lot of sense, there was just too much baggage otherwise.

Game is running on the multimorphic board set (e.g. p-roc), with all inserts being direct wired RGBs.

That is what I had mentioned above, just not sure I have the time to implement and test before MGC, have a few other things higher on my list.

We are working through our show schedule and that is certainly one we are looking at. Our goal is to do our best to get to the bigger shows in each region of the country and certainly down the road we would like to get Houdini to the other side of the pond.

Just some troublemaker we know, who is going to show up at our offices earlier than I would like

At MGC will be set to one player, one ball, but if that ball is less that X seconds you will get a second ball. Have not decided on X yet.

After a long discussion I was out voted, and it will be one player, two ball. We of course could change that based on what we see happening.

Likely

I'm saying that those games have a majority of shots that then feed the ball nicely right back to the flippers, in MM, almost every single shot will send the ball safely back, heck, even fall backs from the ramps are set up to be sure they feed back nicely, and I think the pops also do that, can't remember for sure. The only risky shots are the castle gate/draw bridge and the trolls.

The return that feeds the right inlane, comes into play in only a few situations as it is a return from the upper catapult and that is only used during a couple of modes, or a sneak in to the upper vuk when lock is not lit, it is not a classic shoot this ramp and feed back to the inlane. The main ramp will feed the inlane and the lower left loop, just above the sling, is a tricky shot to hit, but it will also feed the inlane (but must be followed by a shot to the ramp to have any value to the player). There are three shots, the orbits and right scoop, that will feed past the slings to the flipper.

My experience in playing the game, is that it is not the easy flow of a MM, LOTR, RS, etc. so not saying no shots flow back, but it is not the type of game where you can sit back and just let the ball come to you and flip, not if you want to make the key shots it is a game that will require flipper skills (bounce passes, drop catch, chill, catch and shoot, etc. ) to get deep into the game.

Right now we are we are trying to work through the logistics to be at both shows. Challenge is there are also a couple of east coast shows before or at the same time.

Right now game has quite a few insults thrown at the player, just because those were easy to come up with when I did the first round of voice calls -- or maybe that is just my sense of humour.

In all honesty coming up with the voice calls is in many ways harder than coming up with rules. That is one of the biggest downsides to an unlicensed theme. Not like I can sit back have a few shots of tequila and watch a movie over and over again to find great call outs. I don't have Harold Ramis or the Coen brothers writing for me.

As I said, lots of insults like that right now, but only when deserved and there are a few compliments as well. I think my favorite right now on a quick drain/ball save, is "Seriously?", maybe it is just the way he says it. But funny how a single word can carry so much weight. Although I also like "you've got to be kidding me"

Every show thinks they are the best and/or the most important for us to be at. Which I think is great, shows the passion that is out there. As I've said, our goal is to get to each region of the country. Easier said then done, but then again, people said you could not get a machine from nothing to a playing prototype with full art in four months . . .

We are building some more prototypes and getting distributors on board, to help make it possible to be at as many of these shows as possible. I believe we have four shows tentatively planned over the next few months. Keep in mind, I used to live in Atlanta and have family there and Jolly our sales guy lives in northern California, so that may give you an indication of some of the shows we are looking at.

Right now we are just trying to work through the next few. But since I head to Maine for a week or two each summer, I am pushing for it, since I can hopefully time it to do the show while I am already out that way.

I'm sure it will shock no one that my primary focus is on the ruleset and making fun for the novice, but provide a lot of breadth and depth for a player/collector. If you have read the basics of the rule set, posted in my record setting long post earlier in this thread, it will give you a sense of where I am going with it. Of course at shows, few if anyone can get a true feel for the ruleset, which is why I chuckle when I read comments about the rules coming out of a show, I'm thinking "dude, you barely scratched the surface, you have no clue what is in there". I've also had heated discussion here on rules "Rosh, the secret missions are way too complicated, needing to hit three specific shots in a row, it should be just one shot" and I'm responding "jail escapes are hurry-ups and are one shot, secret missions are combos, and yes if you want to complete that phase of the rule set, you will need to be able to make the combo". Now I do understand the concern, since you can start the first secret mission very quickly and easily at the start of the game (the combo then remains active, with inserts of a specific color guiding you, until it is completed, at which point you can start the next), so I can see the confusion that a player totally new to game, as everyone is at that point, thinks that should be there focus vs starting a 'stage mode', which would be more of the primary objective and those have a lot more variability (and points) to them. Secret Missions are there for depth and to give a player more things to think about, focus on and strategize, e.g. focus on a combo when you have gotten the playfield multiplier up to 2x/3x/4x. Secret missions also have a mini-magician mode as well, and is needed to earn a houdini letter). Certainly possible for shows we will change that up a little to help.

On the radar, sure, almost every day we talk about themes for our next game, both licensed and unlicensed. However, 99.23% of our focus is on getting Houdini to be a kick ass game and get production started. Oh, and getting it out to shows so more folks can experience the magic

To be clear on this, American Pinball is NOT taking deposits and no deposits given to a distributor are flowing to American Pinball. We are not taking pre-orders and are not selling direct.

We absolutely have plans to do so, and I have a few reach out to me, and I have directed them to Jolly who is handling distribution. Not surprisingly our first focus is first on North america, since there are also legal and regulatory issues we will have to work through going overseas. We certainly have some time before machines are rolling off the line to address this. We are very pleased to have so much interest in Houdini.

I suspect we will start doing some location testing after we get through the next set of shows.

Often you can use an opto to handle that wide entrance, but given what else we have going on in that area, there was just no place to put it.

The build quality is of very high importance to us. No way the company will survive if the quality sucks. From what I have seen so far, the cabinet and playfield quality are excellent, and very much where we want them to be. The prototype playfields are showing more dimpling that i would expect after just a few thousands plays, but that is due to us having to go with a quick cure hard coat, given the time crunch we were under. I've been assured that the final playfields will be superior.

He was very much interested in the afterlife and was very much a believer in contact in the beyond, but he did spend a lot of time debunking and exposing fakes and phonies. The game features a 'seance multiball' that captures his interest in the afterlife, it features his Mother, which is whom he was hoping to connect with. So while the seance mode does not necessarily focus on the debunking aspect, he does fit in with that aspect of his life. With various aspects of his life we are taking some literary license, such as his time as a spy (which is not universally accepted). I'm sure some will find how we treat some aspects of his life, not up to their expectations.

American pinball is not taking pre-orders and not taking money. It would be basically impossible to keep distributors from compiling lists of interested customers and/or taking small deposits to confirm true interest, and I don't think we ever said we would not allow this, and we have chosen not to try to stop it. At some point distributors will need to decide how many they want to initially purchase, and I'm sure they would like some gauge of genuine interest. Most distributors will happily add you to a list without a deposit. Obviously there is a segment of the community that wants to be first in purchasing machines and it seems this helps them do that.

Personally, I would never buy a machine until I have played it and it is available, but that is me, and everyone here is a grown-up (well some don't act like it) and make their own choices. Of course I get to play Houdini every day and it is continues to challenge and entertain me. Just can't figure out how I still can't master the simple shot to the ramp after the lower left loop to increase the playfield multiplier, clearly I have a mental block about it, but at least hitting that tight right inner loop, has gotten pretty common for me.

Not yet, but there will be. Lots to work out with getting games overseas, dealing with regulations, etc.

No money is flowing to American Pinball. AP is not requiring deposits or payments of any kind, nor are we telling distributors they should or should not be doing this. They are independent businesses and we have placed very few requirements on them at this time. It is certainly possible that will change in the future. Any deposits made are with that distributor. If you don't like a distributors terms, I am certain you can find one whose terms are acceptable to you. If we find a distributor is misleading customers and providing false information, they certainly could lose their right to distribute the game.

At this time is seems most folks are comfortable making deposits with distributors to hold their place in line vs sending money to a manufacturer, and given what was have seen the last few years, that certainly makes sense and it is one of the reason we decided to not be selling direct or taking pre-orders. If you are not comfortable with the terms of a distributer, I suggest finding one whose terms you are, or wait until games are ready to ship. As Larry indicated a few posts above, he does not require that, and that is certainly the case with other distributors as well. Obviously each distributor has different dynamics in their business.

I certainly understand the concerns people have with a new company, and I certainly don't take offense. We have tried to look at recent history and do things in a way that most folks will find acceptable. Obviously, like everything else in pinball, not everyone will be happy or agree with our decisions, whether it be our sales model, game design, rules, etc.

Now you will excuse me, the game's narrator just said "Magician three is now up"

Gates of that nature create a whole new set of issues since they can be more prone to double switch hits as the gate swings back, and while that can be a challenge on a ramp, it is a far bigger challenge to manage with a loop. While the aesthetics of two switches may not be ideal, so far they seem to function quite well.

I'm still pushing for it, but so far we have not been able to work through logistics to make it work.

Well, while it does not show it when entering high scores via the spirit board if you do go to where the Z would be you can choose it and it will display in high score. So we did not put any Zs in the game, you did plus I did that so terry from PBL would not get mad at me

Posted this in the Allentown thread but wanted to post here as well.

What a great and exhausting show
want to thank all of you who came by to play Houdini. I know the line was often long, but I think most found it was well worth the wait. And clearly some of you did since you kept coming back to wait and play it again and again.

It has been a lot of work to get it to this point and seeing people's expressions when seeing the catapult throw the ball close to two feet in the air into the trunk or playing straitjacket multi-ball with both reversed and inverted flippers was quite rewarding. Joe balcer thought I was insane when I came up with reverse and inverted, but seems those "brave" enough to try it have really enjoyed it.

The grand champion score was set four times, the last time being the third to last game of the show, which was a great way to finish.

Was really impressed with a couple young kids who had skills better than 90% of the adults. One made four straight shots to the inner loop that some say is "too tight".

I want to thank Joe Newhart and the team from pinballStar. They did an amazing job in hosting us and did everything they could to make it a great show for Houdini -- well except for killing the power before I could pull off the final audiits, but I'll get them at some point. The last time I had looked the catapult throw was succcesful 94% of the time and there was around 450 games played (was set to two ball play play to help keep the line moving).

Was great meeting so many if you and thanks again for playing.

Rosh

Just landed back in the Windy City and were told 40 minutes until our gate is ready, the joy of travel.

As far as the right inner loop, I've pulled some data from the logs I was able to pull off before the machines was pre-maturely shut down, so I do have a pretty good chunk of Saturday's data. Tomorrow I will pull some numbers as best I can on the different shots and we can see how tough it really is. Keep in mind data on some shots is not as clean on others given things like falls backs on ramps, vuks, bounces on switches, and cleaning that is not worth the effort, but data in inner loop (getting past the bend) and standups is pretty clean, so be interesting to see, betting the numbers will be surprising to those who think it is so tough. Like I said before I saw a 10 year old make it four times in a row, I then told him he needed to re-light the lock, watched as he made perfect passes between flippers to then relilight and then made inner loop on next try, and immediately repeated that and got trunk multiball. Blew my mind. His dad was damn good too, and although his dad had a higher score the kid had a longer game. So, just saying.

Was also fun watching one guy's wife/girlfriend also get trunk multiball when he had a sub one minute game. Sounded like his whole day was goInc that way.

I did check catapult performance before shutdown and 93% of the time it was a successful throw into the trunk, which I'm pretty pleased with.

As far as blades, TBD, but we will be looking at that soon.

Again, thanks for all the play, suggestions and feedback, very helpful for me to see you guys play and to hear your thoughts and ideas. I got a lot of new ideas over the weekend, just wish I did not leave my notes in the hotel room , but I'll remember most of it.

Looks like they found us a gate earlier than expected.

I certainly saw more than a couple of women out play their man.

Whether it was you I referring, I won't say . Regardless, glad to hear she "thought it was fun and arcade worthy" and that you put down a deposit.

we may limit it to 6,000, but certainly not 600

We have no limit planned at this time and hey, I'm not busting my ass creating a great rule set to be on that few number of games.

Over the last 6 weeks I have been to three shows and talked to hundreds of pinball enthusiasts, and at least 75 times I have been asked a question such as 'is this the LE' or 'how many models will there be' and when I answer there is just the one, 100% of the time the response back was along the lines of 'good, I hate the multiple model thing'. So, from where I sit, it is clear that the market does not want it, but clearly some companies believe it is a good thing, at least for the bottom line.

As the person creating the rules and writing the code, I can't imagine having to do it for two or three versions of rules and mechs, and then keeping it all straight, let alone getting it completed (needless to say, but I'll say it, pinball code can be extremely complex).

I always thought the original intent of more than one model was to have a lower cost model, with less complex toys that would work well for operators vs collectors who wanted more. But even if that was the original intent, that does not seem to be where it has evolved to. But as we have seen with the airlines and other businesses different levels of service/product, obviously can have a benefit to the bottom line and often the customers have not real say in the matter.

Personally, I'd rather see some machines that are designed/geared for the street but still great at home and for collectors and vice versa, since there are plenty of LE games out on location, so clearly some operators what the full loaded games for their locations. We have seen some very basic games come out, that I would say were geared more towards the non-enthusiast market, that some collectors still wanted. Joe Balcer is very focused on making Houdini as reliable and street friendly as possible, for example, you would need to remove nothing from the playfield to give it a good cleaning. At the same time, I have been focused on making sure the game is fun for novices, enthusiasts, and the hard core skilled/strategy guys. Of course no game will ever make everyone happy.

I can understand how manufactures want to maximize profit and I can see a place for add-ons that provide the 'bling' or extras (invisiglass, toppers, etc.) or even certain features that are not core to the games functionality (e.g. shaker motors when not really critical to the game) that some folks want and others don't really care for, and if that kept fully functional and developed games at a more affordable price, then great.

I also don't get how those who are paying more for an LE often get their games after the standards/pros/etc. Seems if you are paying more, you should get yours first, but thats just me.

Obviously I don't make all the decisions here at American Pinball, and some of the comments above are my views and I'm not necessarily speaking on behalf of AP, but I think you have a sense of the things that I will continue to push for and be vocal about.

I agree with most of what you said. As I said, businesses will do what ever is best for their bottom line and future success.

Id like a model where game functionality is not differentiated for the justification of having different versions.

Put forward a complete game that meets that definition for a majority of the marketplace and then provide the means for those who want more.

You certainly may lose part of the market, where your price point is too high to provide the complete game, and I'd rather see that than strip out a $100 part to justify two models and now it is a $2000 difference to get the complete game as created by the design team.

I guess I want the old school model a design team had a budget and a price. They created the best game they could within those constraints making the decisions that had to be made. They put forward that offering and the marketplace decided.

Provide add-ones to enhance games with the items the marketplace views as nice but not essential (and yes, obviously what is essential is not universal agreed).

I would argue that rails that protect the cabinet by the flipper is more important than blades, and you may see it the other way. But in either case they are not essential to game play so if it came with just one of those, which ever if us likes the other can get it as an add-on, but neither of us has lost game functionality.

With today's collector there is a desire by some for more aesthetics, but the one model should be what the majority find a complete game and if it that is the case the market should be receptive if priced accordingly.

This landscape is changing all the time, different companies approaching things the way hey think is best resulting in the marketplace getting more choices, and that's a good thing

We certainly appreciate all the help and effort from Pinnovators, unfortunately the Pinnovator board is optimized for the traditional pinball two speaker and subwoofer configuration which is not the right design for our six speaker sound system.

Our goal is to be shipping before end of year.

While I've been pushing for it, does not look like we will be there this year, with what we have going on at that time.

game at PNW will likely be the same machine. We are working through some changes to the ramp and playfield, but machines with the changes are not likely to be ready in time for PNW and SFGE.

Sorry for the issues, the game is still very much a toddler, and I think it has decided to misbehave since I am not there. I do know it has had a few hundred plays this weekend. It has been reported to me we had a bad opto in the subway that was causing some issues, a jammed trough right when Jim went to grab dinner, some ball hangups, as well as a blown fuse. Had not heard about a VUK issue, could be related to the opto or I've seen the ball go into the vuk, bounce up and get stuck on the edge of the subway. Normally a nudge will take care of it, but we have a fix in the works.

I appreciate all the feedback.

Once you know where it is, it is pretty easy to spot, but I may look at 'flashing' the current ball to help draw attention to it.

With the larger, color displays, I felt it made sense to do something a little more creative and that tied in with the steampunk vibe, but that was no so radical it would piss people off. Pinball people like evolutionary change, not revolutionary.

I was going to not comment on this, but . . .

Just like here in this thread, this concept is not universally loved here at AP. So, I'd say, despite what was said at PAGG, I would not consider this as a done deal as far as being included (improving playfield lighting will certainly happen). Personally, I am pushing it for being an add-on. If we went that route, I would still code for it, so it is interactive with the game, meaning dimmed during game play, turning yellow then red when a timer is running low, flashed when appropriate as part of a lightshow, etc. If it is included, we would certainly offer an option to disable it (e.g. always off, only in attract), it could also be easily replaced with other T-moulding.

Best story I heard from PAGG, was a guy played the game the first day and had a short game, struggled to hit the shots, came back the next day and a huge game (12 minutes he reported), easily and consistently hitting the inner loop, the ramps, etc. . So he turns to Jim and says, not sure what you changed last night but it is like a totally different game, I can make all shots . . . ', so Jim replies, nothing was changed. Obviously I play the game a lot (talk about a huge understatement), sometimes I can step up and hit that inner loop, ramp, etc. consistently and sometimes I can't hit anything. But that is what makes this a game you want to come back and play. It challenges you, where with some games, every shot is easy and flows and that can get monotonous and boring.

In general, it did sound like you west coast guys had no issue hitting that inner loop shot, but some struggled with the ramp, seems the many of East coast players struggled with the inner loop but had no issue with the ramp. As I like to say, it is a mental thing, It is easy to psych yourself out on how narrow it is and just not be able to make it. Those who don't think about that, lie kids, have no issue hitting it.

We will improve lighting in the lower half as well a some spots to better light the stage and the trunk. Not helping right now is that the inserts in the chain links are amber, not clear as they should be (we could not clear in time for the first prototypes), so that makes even those inserts darker then then they should be.

This six speaker sound system is great, you will really like it when you get to hear it in a better environment. That prototype also does not have the correct amp in it yet.

Part of that is the factor of the mode nature, part of that is wanting to tie in the theme, regardless, some of the features already have a flipper escape or speed up (e.g. secret missions, jail escapes, bonus), and I'll be adding flipper escapes in most places.

Thanks, I'm pretty pleased with the defined rule set, and considering the code is only 29.87% finished, it is playing pretty well.

Real happy with how the main score screen came out. Needs a few tweaks. Some of the animations are basically done, some are part way implemented and some are nothing more than place holders. Challenge is I have to design/storyboard all of this before the artist and animator can do it, and often I then have to do part of the animating. The large, high resolution screen really increases the amount of work vs a traditional DMD.

Seen it a thousand times, does not seem to get old.

There are no posts, well, just 2, I think you meant stand-up targets But at least those get you to Seance Multiball

code is now at 29.96%

Great Pizza at Lou's Maltnatis, (and not too far from Expo) but I typically get takeout

Things are quite busy. We have two shows this week so I have been squeezing in some new stuff and working through code issues. We have been adding staff to engineering and production teams, and are in the process of getting the factory re-worked. We have some more prototype games being finished and will soon start on a set of sample games. It is still our goal to have machines rolling off the line by end of year. That is obviously a huge challenge and an aggressive goal, but as the head coach of my favorite football team likes to say "if folks aren't laughing at your goals, they are not big enough!".

As far as how many games per day, there is an old saying in business forecasting, "give a date or give a number, never give both".

Hopefully I will see some of you in Atlanta this weekend. Joe Balcer will be up at the NWPinball show as well.

Yes, which at this point is a well traveled machine, having been to Texas, Milwaukee, Allentown, Dixon and now NW. The plan is for it to get updated code, however, we will disable some modes for the show.

No Limits, initial price is $6995

It is on our list to do, hopefully after these next couple of shows we can take some time to make some quality videos. Of course not even sure a video can properly capture the sound quality, but certainly better than a video shot at a show. I'm pretty happy with the audio so far, however, we are also far from getting the sound package fully implemented. Lots of cases were modes should have their own track, but are still using of the main tracks. Lots of missing sound effects, fanfares. flourishes and the timing and ducking on many of them that do exist need to be tweaked to get the right balance and timing. And we have still only done the first set of sound calls.

Waiting to hear from Jolly, distribution guy, what the second half of the year will look like. Pretty confident we will be at expo.

That figure is an action figure made by a company called Accoutrements, who does all sorts of historical figures. They are pretty hard to find these days since they are a one time release, and can be a little pricey since they are a collectors item. I did find one that was not too expensive since it was in damaged packaging. I keep it on a shelf above my computer as inspiration and a reminder to do right by Harry.

houdini action figure (resized).jpg

There are three new houdini movies in the works, one of which is based off of this book. Hopefully it will be more accurate than the others.

http://deadline.com/2016/11/daniel-trachtenberg-harry-houdini-film-lionsgate-noah-oppenheim-1201860559/

some info on the others here . . .
http://deadline.com/2015/12/houdini-movie-the-witch-of-lime-street-stx-1201667453/

As soon as I typed that, I had to double check the packaging to make sure it was not a subconscious thing, since I am considering using it for a topper (having him hanging upside down in front of the backglass). Was wondering how long it would take someone to pick up on that, looks like it took a whole 10 minutes.

Originally on the playfield where we have the planchette (the quija board pointer) we had thought of a having Houdini hanging in straitjacket over that scoop shot, but Matt from Back Alley convinced us that given how small he would be, he would look more like a caterpillar in a chrysalis. That is when I decided that a hanging Houdini would be a great topper. I do have to say I was surprised to find that there was a Houdini action figure.

It is something we have talked about, but have not made a decision on. More important things on the agenda right now.

I think there is little doubt he will swing, but as you can tell from the unopened package I've not tried it yet. As far as a tilt, pretty funny idea, and would not shock me to see someone do as an after market thing, now that you have suggested it. Of course they would need to find or create houdini action figures first.

Bangerjay had done a tilt bob helmet for his olympics. Where the tilt bob was suspended from a helmet a foot in front of your face, and you had to hold your head still to not tilt. I watched my buddy CraigC play a 10 minute game and never tilt, and I could not last 15 seconds (of course I was drinking tequila).

To make one more comment on this, he was a very strong believer in the afterlife and spent a lot f time in hopes of being able to communicate to his mother in the great beyond. He also had a secret phrase he shared with his wife Bess, so that she would know it was really him if she tried to connect with him via a seance. Magicians gather every year, at his grave site, on the anniversary of is death (halloween), to performa a seance, so, it is an interesting thing that he was a strong believer, yet spent so much time debunking fakes.

Want to thank all of you that came by to play Houdini at SFGE and PinballNW. I really enjoyed talking with so many of you at SFGE and appreciate all the kind words about Houdini, as well as ideas and suggestions. Also want to thank those that came to our seminar, and were willing to list to me talk for an hour (especially since its as dinner time), but hopefully you found the jeopardy style of our talk fun, and heck, free T-shirts are always great.

While there was always a line at SFGE, they were not so long that I'm pretty sure anyone who wanted to play, was able to get a chance with out too long a wait and I certainly saw many players coming back to play again and again. I want to think Flip N Out pinball for hosting us and the SFGE staff, who were great hosts as well. Also want to thank Marco specialities for giving me a nice comfy stool on Sunday so I could sit but still talk to those on line and while playing, since my legs had turned to jello by that point. Also want to thank Nitro for hosting Houdini, Joe, Jolly and Dhaval up at the NW show.

I only have the stats for SFGE, but there were over 450 games played when I left Sunday afternoon, and the catapult fired with 96% accuracy. I won't have data from the NW show until the machine makes it way back to us.

The great folks from pinball undesirables, did stream Houdini play for about 3 hours. They have given us a copy, and we will pull some sections of it and post it in the not too distant future, so those who have not seen Houdini in person can see some game play. We probably need to hide the faces of those playing to protect their identities, so will take a little bit of time until we convert the format, crop, edit, etc.

Now back to the code . . .

Joe only reads pinside when I point him at stuff, so I'll pass it along. I know he enjoyed talking with you and others out there in the pacific northwest. I heard you and a pretty good game when you played, and glad to hear you enjoyed it.

As everyone knows orders are going to distributors and not us, but feedback I've heard from our distributors after each show has been great as far as what they are hearing from their customers and the numbers putting down deposits and/or putting their names on the list. That kind of feedback only further fuels our desire to make this a kick ass game.

While we obviously can't take every suggestion or idea and fold it into the game, I do get some great ideas from talking to folks, wether for modes, or features or voice calls, etc (often on ow to help make the objectives more clear). When you live and breathe the game all day, every day, and know it like the back of your hand, shows provide a great way to see the play of the game through the eyes of others. I think I had wrote down about three dozen ideas based on conversations or just watching game play relative to making things better. So, again, I want to thank those that took the time to talk and give me their thoughts. For those at the NW show, or at SFGE, who did not get a chance to talk with me, feel free to PM me with your thoughts.

You are probably thinking about the cheap piece of plastic on the jpop version of the playfield, that was scrapped. You will find the chinese water toture tank not he backglass, we looked at putting one not he playfield, but for a variety of reasons we chose not to.

Started working on the water torture mode yesterday.

Someday, but the underside of 'hand wired' prototypes are not something we would want to show off. Plenty of things still changing.

It is the marquee over the theater, and has a few uses, it shows next illusion/escape to be performed at the stage, the current status as far as which illusions/escapes have been performed and it is where the timer is displayed when performing an illusion/escape. It is possible it will go through some modifications.

The first or second player up has a pretty good game and hits on a good range of the features, so, if you got through the first 20 minutes or so, you probably got a good feel for the game as it stands now, with 36.47% of the code completed.

We knew we needed magnets so we worked it out to that we could also design it into the art as far as putting the magnets in his hands, which enhances the effect as sometimes you will see the ball jump between hands during seance multiball. There are three magnets, and they are used at other times as well

in most cases, there is a quite a bit of movement within the curtain

gee, go away on vacation and the thread gets busy. Been gone for 11 days, and today was my first day back in the office. Walked into my office and it went from having one Houdini machine when I left, to now three, crammed in. They were getting the line set up when ownership decided to re-do the floors in the factory since they were looking pretty beat up, and it was either do it now or, well, never, so they had to clear out half the floor at a time so all available space was used to store stuff and some was just loaded on trucks and parked. Was good for me to not be around while they ground down the floors, patched them up and put on a new finish. Heard it was pretty nasty. Certainly looks a lot better as you can see. As soon as that is done they can start setting the line back up.

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Also upon my return, were the first prototypes of the 'spotlights' we will use to help light up the playfield. These will go through plenty of changes, but I'm pretty pleased with how this first iteration came out.

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A few other tidbits . . .

Code continues to progress, now at 64.37% I did code up most of the video mode while I was on vacation Soon I will have to shift gears from working on 'game play' to 'infrastructure', things like coinage/pricing support, code updating, and audits so we can put machines out on test.

We have been expanding staff and that will continue.

We have still not set up distribution outside North America, but it is being worked on.

As far as some of the shows. We had to slow down on that for a couple of months, it is very hard to make progress when we are flying all over, and when you throw in vacations, there would have been just too much time away at a time that it is critical for us to be moving things forward. We have also reached a point where the prototype games are different enough from the various revisions of the physical machine that code is not going to be compatible much longer.

Have not gotten an update, but our plan is to have a distributor in that part of the world. I hope that by expo we will have this figured out.

I know Joe has mentioned he would like to get to that show. We are starting to look at the fall schedule, only thing for certain right now is Expo. As we get test machines out to distributors that will make it easier to have Houdini at more shows. Probably more likely Joe can get to some shows in the fall than I can, they barely let me leave the office to go home at night (and that is only because they know I will still be coding when I get home), leaving the State, not sure they will let me do that for awhile

67.23%

Minions was far more about the journey, then the level of code completion, and always will be. One of the joys of doing a one off, the only guys you need to please are the three amigos.

Done is a relative word and can mean lots of things. I can assure you the code is not done (if it was, I would not be sitting at my computer on a such a beautiful day), and we did have to make some minor changes, to meet the BOM target, and there are other minor things being worked through, but none of that is on the critical path to production, at least not yet.

I would not call it accurate to say production is underway, at least not by my definition, which is machines are being assembled and rolling off the line. If your definition is that parts are being ordered and/or made, well, then yes, underway.

We are still on track for games going out the door by end of year, which is what we have always said was our goal. However, if I was a betting man, which I am, I would bet we will see some games on location before the anniversary of Houdini's death (Halloween). Keep in mind there are hundreds if not thousands of things that need to come together, so there are plenty of opportunities for bumps in the road that could cause delays. However, we have a very experienced team (well, other than me) and they are very much on top of every little detail. I do remain optimistic that there will be a decent number of Houdini's home for the holidays.

quality over quantity -- absolutely and that is why you have never heard us ever say X per day or even give a specific date games will ship. We need to crawl before we can walk, and walk before we can run.

Oh, for you international guys, last week they were installing 220 volt lines/sockets in the final testing area, so, take that for what it is worth. Lots still to get into place before we will be ready for international, but, at least you know we are making plans.

Removing any of the main toys, the Catapult, the Stage mech, the marquee monitor were never part of the conversation.

Changing the quality of the cabinet, backglass, playfield also never part of the conversation.

I suspect very few folks will notice the changes, since sometimes it just using a different metal on a mech where what was done was overkill, or it was removing something that we had hoped to do but had not even made its way into the game yet. Although we did change some things that are obvious, such as the ramp now being a wire form at the end, but that was not a cost driven thing.

A couple of weeks ago we did a sound session with a lot of folks to do audience sounds, and we did a variety of versions of booing and heckling. Likely hear some boos anytime you fail at an escape/illusion, not just when you drain, but may depend on how badly you failed and how easy/hard the mode/illusion was. I don't plan to have boos when doing one of the five movie modes, since I don't think you had a lot of audience booing during silent films, except maybe when a villain was on stage, and we focus on Houdini, who was always the hero.

Thanks for these suggestion, I'll let my sound engineer figure it out and I'm sure he will use other sources like those, but, using folks in the office for part of the audience, lets them be 'in the machine'. Plus, I don't think we will find a pre-recorded clip of an audience chanting "hou-di-ni" or hecklers calling him out by name, etc.

On an unrelated note, we did just post some positions we are hiring for . . .

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/american-pinball-is-hiring#post-3926483

the magic shop can be entered either by pop action or by rebounding it off the stage curtain or off the rubber to the left of the stage. In addition, shooting through 'stage alley' (the shot just to right of the left orbit), when the stage is closed, will typically rebound off the stage and into the magic shop hole. Shooting into an open stage, via stage alley, doubles the value of all scoring in that mode.

The three green standup targets are also hit via pop action, but, you can also complete those by hitting the white 'magic' standup targets located on both side on the lower playfield. Also, entering the magic shop/jail when escape is not lit, will add an escape letter.

As I said, the the magic targets will light the next ESCAPE letter and if all escape letters are lit, they will then light SEANCE letters and if all of those are lit, they will then light FILM letters, if all of those are lit, they will just award points (oh, and the magnets under the hands will mess with the ball any time magic targets are hit). The magic target insert lights in the color associated with which items it will currently help (green for escape, teal for seance, blue for film) Those magic standup targets are also active during most stage modes (red) and film/movie modes (blue), typically they will 'advance' you one step through the mode, but only once per mode.

The 2 switches in the left orbit are there to help insure you get credit for the shot given how wide it is, there is no room for an opto which would be what would typically be used across a wide opening.

We should be publishing a complete list of distributors soon. Some have announced here on the forum. I've not really kept up with who and who is not on the list, so I can't really comment on it.

You are not exactly making a great case for me to continue to post updates Would not shock me if at some point I am asked to stop. Obviously it is a two way street, and if trolls turn things ugly, it is hard for a manufacturer to want to be participative in a public forum.

Did come in this morning to find over 250 new voice calls waiting for me and a handful of new art elements for me to animate. I'm a little behind where I want to be on the code, primarily around the mini magician and the master magician modes. There are also a few other missing items that I've not gotten around to yet, things I consider lower priority right now, but will soon need to be addresses. Of course there rare going to be a lot of clean-up items (e.g. text formatting, etc.) and I'm sure as the machines start to get played more, various bugs will be uncovered. I should soon have a machine with one of the new playfields and new lamp boards, both of which are slightly different for the prototypes, and therefore will require some code changes.

Parts continue to arrive daily, unlike some companies our goal is not to build machines until we have all the parts. Stacking half built playfields against walls in hallways and bathrooms, does not help with a quality build (or so I am told by our production manager). Not sure how many more things we are waiting on, but the assembly line itself is looking great, as they are now doing the set up of workstations.

We have new staff joining us almost every day. Parking is starting to become an issue around here.

We are still very much on track for machines shipping this year.

We have talked about this, and while I am not 100% ruling it out, I doubt it will happen this year.

Because the place is under construction and a mess! More important is that we can't risk any secret stuff accidentally being captured in the background getting published. You know how you guys study photos looking for clues about stuff.

I promise you guys at some point in the not too distant future I will post some photos of the factory.

We have not done any updated videos, and not sure we will before Expo. I will say the lighting is significantly improved and the art in the lower portion of the playfield was lightened up as well. In my opinion lighting is no longer a concern.

After expo, we will look to do some higher quality game play videos with the right setup that can really show game play, animations, etc.

I do say I enjoy that thread has briefly detoured into Opera and the greatness of LTG.

While personally not a big Opera guy, one of my oldest friends, has written a couple, so it is nice to know that there are still fans out there.

Reality is at this point the prototypes would not be 'playable' as code has changed to accommodate playfield and lamp board changes, so those games would have a variety of odd issues.

The ramps and subways came in late last week. I grabbed some photos before it got inventoried and put in the parts cage, so for those who like photos of parts . . .

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Top secret stuff in the background, had to hide that. This is the shipping and receiving area of the factory, which naturally is is also where the parts cage and the burn-in areas are near.

The last section will be a wire form, if you look the return portion it is half of what it was. We needed to keep the upper half plastic to still have the drop to the pops, and we also found if we made it a wire form where it crosses over the other wire form that feeds the catapult, there would not be enough clearance for the ball. This will transition to wire, right over the stand-up targets in that section, so it should be better aesthetically and should provide better visibility to the Stage Alley shot, which is the best way to start modes at the stage, since it doubles the value if you enter the stage via that shot.

While not as exciting as ramps, grabbed a quick pick of this when walking through the factory.

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I have now seen it over 5000 times, and while I don't quite get the same thrill as I did the first 1000, I still watch it each time, just to see if it makes it, and there is still a little bit of a 'so cool' each and every time.

Looks like the pop sub assembly station has completed quite a few pop mechs and those are ready to get moved to the station on the assembly line as needed.

Note that we are using lugless coils in most places which reduces risk of electrical issues and speeds up assembly on the line. All coils, except flippers, are 23-800

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running the calculations, stand by . . . .

84.786%

Was walking through the factory today, grabbed a couple of quick photos . . .

Given these bags of sand are half empty, the rest must be at the start of the line . . .

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These huge pallets of color displays were being delivered, glad I'm not the one who has to break these down and put them in the parts cage, although some will go right to the back box line where they are needed.

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Sand inside a pinball machine would probably be a bad idea, although love the idea of the hourglass. Love all the guesses on the sand, none are correct. Although the actual use for the sand is far less interesting, I think I'll leave you guessing for now..

Plastic indeed, but no longer chrome as it was in the prototype, now a more appropriate aged look, although I am sure some will want it even more weathered then this. I happened to grab this photo today while I was at the office . . .

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We are very much on track to be shipping machines this year.

Here are a few more photos I took today, legs, rails and some heads on the backbox line.

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Yes same exact color as before for all armor (legs, lockdown bar, head brackets and lollypop side rails). For those who were at SFGE, those games had the wrong color legs, and wrong style of bolts.

There has been a change made to the legs and leg placement so that that game should be properly level when all leg levelers are fully in. Now this is a Balcer designed playfield, and Joe likes his games a touch shallower then many of you, so some of you will find that all the way in is not quite what you want.

Hey, I did not name, names, so you sorted or outed yourself But you do know I will never let you live it down, no matter how much moonshine I might absorb, well, I guess if you sell 500 Houdini's I'll let it go

There was very little support for it internally, I personally was not in favor of it, and the main proponent did not put up much of a fight. It would have been very hard to fit it into the BOM, and no way could I see doing that vs things we would have to drop. Could it come back as an add-on, possibly, but I doubt it.

Not sure what are plans are, have not been paying attention, been focused on code

Here is some 'parts porn' for those who like that (Lower portion of trunk, part of the stage). . .

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Not "parts porn', but here is a photo some of you have been waiting for . . .

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Here is where the sand ended up. This "sand box" will now head to the front of the line. I'm sure someone can figure it out now. If not you can ask me at expo!

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Considering they just ground down the floor and resurfaced it, damn right we will

Wrong!

Wrong

Wrong

As I said "Start of the Line"

Someone is on the right track.

While I would love that for tailgating, for playfields we use these . . .

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DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

The box of sand, sealed with a rubber top is used for hammering in T-nuts. While it helps protect the playfield, what is more important, is that it dampens the sound. Anyone who has hammered in T-Nuts knows it can be pretty loud and since on the line it is being done all day long, well, you can understand why reducing the sound is a good thing for everybody.

Morning all, just a few quick thoughts before I head over to expo.

Magic glass is incredible, while I am no expert on the other products, they put a sheet on my machine one day and didn't tell me, I went to go do reach down to do something and smashed my hand into it, did not even realize it was there. One of the three games at the show has it so I am sure someone can give an unbiased assessment.

I'll post some of the photos from our expo presentation when at my laptop with decent internet., I think it may have been recorded, I'll find out.

Quick answers…

Yes, these are final versions, one of three games has the side blades and magic glass add-ons (we also planning for a shaker motor).pricng not yet set for those items.

Not sure where the glass is being made.

I'll take some photos and post when I can.

Shaker , blades and magic glass can be purchased individually.