This would be amazing. I don't really see any downside to them releasing the models, either.

Still 26 entries available. Crazy it’s taken this long to sell 200 entries. FF LE sold out in 30 mins. Godfather under an hour. 3 bond 60ths. This really surprises me. https://projectpinball.rallyup.com/galactic-tank-force-signature-edition-pinball-machine-raffle/Campaign/Details?fbclid=IwAR3SLZ12GIAdeWfYyYEeUJTReOG6Di9kHRWt0CsaKP7o2FCU9bQQ51u1KSE&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Not super surprised. Game is somewhat polarizing. If you like it, you've ordered it. If you havent ordered, you probably don't want it. Some exceptions. But 200 people willing to gamble on it. Maybe not.

Conversely, I assume 95% of people would like to have a foo fighters, even if it's not their top choice.

Exactly. If you’re gonna price with the big boys, you need to build like the big boys.

At this stage I’m not a buyer, but if I was a buyer I’d be excited to see what the mod community has in the pipeline. Maybe a game at this level shouldn’t have “rough” 3D prints - but that horse has left the barn.

I’d be willing to bet Lior, Tdiddy, Back alley etc are all brainstorming early ideas. Doubling down that some of those will be insanely good.

Just bought a raffle ticket. Games worth $200 entry and it’s for a good cause.

Hindsight is 20/20. It's the tank body on the LE and Signature LE that make the game a hard sell. Normally the LEs are the most desirable, but in this case the Deluxe is the one to get. There is an old saying that some people have a face that only a mother could love. There may be a handful of people out there that actually like it, but for me I would honestly be embarrassed to have one in my gameroom. On the other hand I would gladly take a Deluxe if I won it in a raffle!!

Agreed. Franchi art on deluxe is amazing. AND…it doesn’t look like a giant tin toy. Not always a good thing.

After playing at TPF, I read about the 3D printed parts and I thought "no it doesn't". Then I played it again at my dealers showroom and they were in fact 3D printed. But they look pretty good. You really got to be on the look out to notice. But I would prefer molded at this price point. Definitely not a reason not to buy as modders will come up with options that looks better anyway.

Despite not liking the tank body at all, I bought a ticket too. Project Pinball is an amazing charity. They not only place the pinball machines in Children's hospitals around the country, they also maintain them. That second point is critical or the machines would be pushed into a corner and unplugged the second they broke down.

The Deluxe looks absolutely fantastic to me; WAY better than the LEs.

I don’t know if I’d be embarrassed to have an LE in the gameroom, but it’s certainly plausible.

I believe there may be multiple different colored robots as they appear on screen as you go through the game. The actual robot figure has a gauge or something cutout on the chest, among other cutouts, on the model that are then lit different colors to "match" for the specific robot you're fighting, unless I'm mistaken - but that doesn't really come close to the metallic on screen representation. Maybe some of the on screen graphics are placeholders or something...

The robot is the worst looking toy in the game, still hoping that what we're seen may not truly be final finishing for production versions. Again though, I still come back to it being better than a butyrate shrinkydink from a Stern Pro, and easily modified or replaced if it still bothers you. I know this is more money, but it's a boutique game and definitely has more in it than a Pro.

The Deluxe is a beautiful package on par with some of the best looking pins ever. The speaker panel may be the best ever. BBB, BKSOR LE and the new Fathom Mermaids come to mind for other beautiful games. The cabinet art on the LE is not nearly as cool, the tank thread panels are meh at best and the worst part is the turret. From my perspective, I love a good topper and this game would be one that could have an amazing factory topper. Instead you have a turret that is 95% hidden when the head is up and the tip that you can see above the head while playing the game amounts to the worst topper in recent memory. What would be awesome is if they came out with a really nice Stern or CGC level topper for the Deluxe version. Not sure that would go over big with the LE buyers though.

Fundraiser is now at 100%. Great job!

Oh, and it used to take weeks or even months for a typical Stern raffle to sell out with those guys. Recent raffles aren't the norm...

This taking a couple days to close out at a full $200 entry price is still pretty crazy.

Love the LE. Will be a unique pin in my collection. My son built many model tanks years ago so some added nostalgia.

I placed a deposit for a Deluxe and bought a ticket. First time participating in one of these raffles.

When do they draw ?

It’ll be next Sunday at 8 Eastern if I recall correctly.

Not exactly. Had no idea of a raffle until now (darn) and still considering GTF down the line.
Just not a week one purchase at this time.

Maybe the guys that did the Twilight Zone topper can give this one a go (assuming AP is not gonna do a topper for it, it's a good candidate

I don't think I'm a topper guy, don't really need a giant name or logo that's already on the backglass.. but it seems like we are in the golden age of toppers. MMR, Mando, Rush, PF, twilight zone.. hopefully Godzilla will be good.

Well, site says Sunday May 7th at 8 EDT based on the end date of May 5th. Since it already sold out, do they move the drawing date up?

I do what I can. Not really interested in GTF for myself, but I did go ahead and buy a ticket. Glad to see it wrapped up finally. To me it does show the lack of interest in GTF compared to other current releases.

Sold out I just tried. Great cause!!

They did. It’s next Sunday at 8.

Got to play it a bunch at MGC. The charm really works in person.

I enjoyed the game at TPF and would love to get some more time on one. Deluxe cabinet looks great but I'm a fan of the Tank. Had to try my luck at the raffle, hoping to be able to park a tank in the kitchen

Well doy. Where else would one park it?

Amen to that, 11 days ago:

Ok, the cheap and dirty way to clean up 3D printed parts... buy a jug of uv curable resin... pour it in container in a darkened room (close the drapes and blinds) then dip your PLA+ parts in resin, take outside, let harden in the sun. Ok, that got rid of some of that layer line look. Now paint it if you want, but if you used clear resin, you can kinda quit right here. You can use your wife's UV nail hardener light and UV clear nail polish too. Either way you get a more smooth finish on the PLA+ printed parts. Pretty sure pinballs hitting it will eventually chip it off, however, in HUO who knows? Sanding it first gets it smoother but results depend on resin's ability to fill the gaps due to a bigger final filet radius between layers. I remember a day when guys started printing gee gaws and mods using FDM and the initial response from the community was totally negative, layer lines being the big give-away. I thought a well printed and post processed mod was better than all the "found art" junk that guys were shoveling into their Twilight Zones... (rockets and robots and pyramids, oh my!) and Circus Voltaires and Theater of Magics and Adams Familys (Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh, my!) but it took a long time for people to accept custom printed mods, and now, well they think we can live with OEM's using the same technology.

Ive used the spray on automotive clear before on the 3dp b66 batcave mod and that helped alot. Doesent completely eliminate the ridges, but certainly makes it smoother and glossier.

3F1AA105-6BCB-47E1-8D3F-1AA6795E1320 (resized).jpeg

Guess the judges weren't put off by 3d printed toys...

Just take 320x240 images and nobody will know it's 3D printed:
https://www.american-pinball.com/games/galactic-tank-force/#images-9

Hopefully they come back to Orlando this year with GTF.
pasted_image (resized).png

Played a bunch of this at MGC. Really liked it. There weren't too many airballs when I played, and no balls off ramps. The 3D backglass was really cool. I did feel that the back corner magnet catch goes on for way too long. I played at the very beginning of the event and the very end, and they seem to have held up well. I could see some flipper fade and upkicker fade toward the end though.

I will most likely be picking up a deluxe later on down the road. I probably would have ordered one, but in an unexpected turn of events I ended up coming home with a GZ Premium.

We do like the drinky winky around these parts!

Exactly how big is that trophy?

Sweet! I like it when unexpected things are fun congrats

My post MGC comments about GTF now that I've played it. I only got a handful of games on it and most were on the motorized tank version which I think was not sitting at the proper pitch (just a hunch I have). Game played well. Lots to shoot for. Cow target was cool. I didn't have too many airballs and I didn't notice a lot of dimpling on the playfield either. 3d printed toys didn't look horrible but its still a very high eyebrow raiser for me given the price of the game. Lots of live action clips played on the screen. Probably the least flowy game out of all the new releases. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, but worth noting. Obviously a show environment is not the best place to get a good idea of how a game is. I would say its EASILY the best AP to date and probably the only one I would ever consider owning.

The 3d translite looked really cool. Great 3d effect with lots of layers. Certainly you get a little of the fuzziness as you'd expect with a lenticular but it was very very cool. Tank cabinet and treads...yeah thats an easy pass. Deluxe is 100% the way to go if you are interested in this game.

The good news is all the new games are pretty darn good, including bond 60th. I think for me, with what little time I was able to get on everything, GTF was probably my least or 2nd to least favorite. I can see people really enjoying it, but if you are like me and you have to be choosy about what games you buy, it is officially off my radar. Not a bad game by any stretch, I think all the owners will enjoy it greatly.

Wow GTF! officially launched, released and is in production now. It is real and is already playing at the big pinball shows. Maybe AP can bring 10 or so games to each show in future to keep lines short. Hopefully we will soon see this pin in the 20 largest pinbars. In the meantime, AP is making hardware and software improvements daily.

Most of the lines at MGC were pretty short. The only issues we had were some people with no etiquette hitting the start button over and over. For the most part it didn't take long to get on games. I don't know how many people were there but since the event was spread out over 3 floors and nearly every room it wasn't majorly congested which was great tbh.

Saw Franchi's internet wife yesterday. Wife says "Isn't that the lady that pinball guy was talking about." ha

pasted_image (resized).png

Sorry man, gen-x born & bred. Everything sucks until proven otherwise. I don't make the rules, I just live 'em.

If nothing is bad, how do you know if anything's good?

oK, i've finally got to play the crap out of this at MGC.

I have to say, I liked it more than I thought I would. It had very early code (there was 6 code updates since the code they brought to the show) so it was more primitive than it should have been, but still fairly well rounded. Depending on what game you played at the show, had totally different experience. If you played the one on the right, then you probably had a bad experience. Right flipper was weak, game wasn't level, so the orbits were clunky. If you played the games on the left. Shots were smooth, flippers were strong, and all around smooth experience. I enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing the polished version of the machine, but I like where it's heading.

P.S. I still wish it was Fallout 4.

I'll take a vibrant two-dimensional image drawn by arguably the best artist in pinball over a dull, jagged, monochromatic robot in a stiff pose.

Traditional plastics just "look like pinball" to me. Sure, I'll take the premium mechagodzilla over a flat plastic, but this robot ain't that.

Judging from how crazy people are going over PF's barbie dolls on a lazy susan, yeah, there was some low-hanging fruit to be found with a GTF topper. Rotating light-up tank turret like a Dalek, ice cream boob with a cherry nipple on each side of it, count the money.

Is there ANY reason why you bring a machine that has old code to a show, where the point is to showcase it so that you can generate sales?`
Isn't a code update done relatively quickly? Am I just out of touch if I cannot understand this at all?

Anyway

Im very excited for the proper gameplay reveal tomorrow.

There is no reason it should have old code. Except the show people didn't bring the new code with them. Huge misstep on their part. Just like setting up the machine. No machine should be off level at a show. NONE. This is the time people will base an opinion about your game. You want it playing as best as you can the entire show. A bad impression will be hard to change down the road. marketing 101.

No idea what he's talking about with old code... that's not what we understand and the programmer would have told us to update our game from the week prior when he was standing over it or talking to us every day since

maybe only some had old code then? because I was told what things should be lit and what animations should be happening with the newest code, that was NOT in the games I was playing.

Maybe they were talking about things yet to come...