Big Bang Bar
Capcom, 1996
Wizard Blocks
Williams, 1999You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider ltg.
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Quoted from Rdoyle1978:So did the whole collection just go up and get sold to another buyer? A Single buyer, I mean?
There was a sale or two. Pinball Spare Parts in Australia bought what was left ? Then PPS bought remaining assets in the bankruptcy sale. They left Gene keep the pallets of toilets.
LTG : )
Quoted from dougram69:Some environment background to give the new folks some understanding of the parts desert we were experiencing at this time. William has closed it’s doors. Parts availability is non existent. Some distributors have small amounts of parts left in existing inventory.
When Williams shut down. A 30 page fax of parts went to distributors. A lot of parts were sold then. Prototype Safecracker playfields, etc. etc. You can read about some of it on Rec Games Pinball.
LTG : )
As I recall there were four groups involved in making BBB over the time. Problems always arose with them or Gene. Kerry Stair being the last. I believe he thought he'd assemble a couple, didn't know it would be all of what was left.
During all that time. They called me or emailed me on a regular basis. Gene had two original BBB's. They were disassembled. Stuff lost, didn't know where stuff went. Being I had an original. I was contacted a lot for into or pictures.
LTG : )
Quoted from Whysnow:What is the best way to get a video up? Can they be uploaded to pinside?
Can't be loaded to Pinside.
Put on Youtube and post link here.
LTG : )
Quoted from dougram69:It was always a barter system or a carat he would dangle in front of you. This way he would get what he wanted, not have to pay you
Every time they contacted me for pictures or help. They always said to let them know if I ever need anything.
Of course they didn't say they'd do anything about a request, even if I offered to pay.
I kept helping. Hoping people would get their BBB's.
LTG : )
Quoted from jchristian11:The games were $4,500 each, half down up front.
I remember the start of that. Half now to be held in escrow. Balance when games were finished.
I don't recall any actual escrow, and within a year balance was requested.
LTG : )
Quoted from TenaciousT:So Dayhuff - how did you come by the BBB Translight ?
They used to come up on Ebay regularly and he may have bought it from Mike Pacak or Gene Cunningham.
Capcom had made 3,000 of them. So they were around for a long time. Might still pop up on Ebay, etc.
Capcom had a goof when they had them made. The screen for "BAR" didn't go with the other screens, hence the Big Bang translites.
LTG : )
Quoted from Compy:Of course, I have time and retrospect on my side. Given where Gene was at in 2006 and the lack of technical resources, it would've been very very difficult.
He supposedly had at one point found the original designer of the chip. And he could make it again for $15K. No idea if it ever got further than talking when Gene looked into making Kingpin.
LTG : )
Quoted from Ballypinball:he said they had sanded the FPGA or reverse engineered it for Kingpin
Gene thought the same chip in Zingy Bingy might not be locked so they looked into getting it. It was locked. Then he talked about using it and sanding ? it, to what, look inside ? That is when they found the original designer and looked into him making them.
Quoted from metallik:But would it be a Capcom or a WMS BBB?
Hard to say. There was one Williams BBB not finished when they closed.
Quoted from chad:The price for King Pin was at or about $8000 a game.
They were talking $7500. Everybody that got BBB for a lot less howled even though they doubled their money on BBB at the time if they sold them. That probably slowed things down as far as making KP and trying to get people to put money up front for it.
LTG : )
Quoted from flynnibus:Pretty much same story as kingpin
Kingpin was more developed than BBB. The ones most people have played didn't have the ramp optos and other things not working.
The one I had here, we got everything working. The game is a blast.
LTG : )
Quoted from dsuperbee:He wasnt the first rgp troll either. John shields had him beat by a good amount of time.
John was unique. Always going on about Pakis. Even hitting a Pakistan newsgroup. People there wondered who he was. Someone posted he escaped from a pinball newsgroup.
LTG : )
Quoted from Rondogg:Does anyone know how much truth there is in this theory, if any?
None.
dmarston touched on it.
What I once heard from a famous programmer is simple. Stern wasn't building what he needed to sell. Jack had built up quite a market with Pinball Sales, and he knew what he needed for them.
LTG : )
Quoted from JustEverett:The BBB I've seen has the neon green with the orange rings around it, but in the thread I've seen another style that doesn't have the orange rings.
Quoted from Mr68:The orange rings were an after market mod owners could purchase and install. As soon as I saw them it was a no brainer to add them to my game.
The slot cuts in the tube for those rings was an original design and can be seen in the 1996 model. The story goes that the orange rings were also a part of the original design but the Capcom bean counters cut them.
After Capcom closed. Pictures of at least one BBB appear that had the orange rings.
Bean counters also removed the bar with stools that you'd jump the ball from stool to stool around the bar. The tube dancer went in that spot instead.
LTG : )
Quoted from TreyBo69:Can you describe this toy more and/or share photos? Is there another similar toy on another game? I'm just trying to picture it in my mind. The player had to pop the ball around to get it somewhere?
I've never seen a picture or design of it. Or anything like it.
My understanding was it would be a half round circular bar. With 4 or 5 metal poles ( stools ) sticking up around it. The ball somehow got onto the first stool, and from there by flipping the flippers, like the mini playfield on TZ where you control the magnets flipping the ball by the flipper buttons, you'd have to jump the ball from stool to stool around the bar.
The Capcom guys had some amazing ideas, most of which aren't known or we'll never see. Greg Kmiec had that prototype Red Line fever at Expo with a moto cross handle bar on the lockdown bar. Rob Morrison was playing with a three tiered ramp that could move. They had the rogues of the industry that didn't fit in at other companies and they knew they were in trouble and were turning these guys loose to see what they could come up with to keep Capcom pinball going. Capcom Pinball will probably be the biggest what could have been, in the history of pinball.
LTG : )
Quoted from TreyBo69:Maybe each stool had an electromagnet on top, and the stools would move up and down powered by some sort of motor and mechanical gearing.
My understanding the stools were fixed, didn't move.
And maybe they couldn't get it to work ?
Quoted from Luckydogg420:Could the designs still be around? Did the capcom IP get sold and is it possible that it's in a stack of paper somewhere? Or was that something that would have been lost in the fire?
No idea.
littlecammi let me know NBA Fast Break has something similar where you jump the ball from hole to hole.
LTG : )
Quoted from RobertWinter:For anyone interested in discussions of BBB buyers during this time (2005-), I have opened up my BBB forum to everyone for viewing. It is located at http://www.robertwinter.com/pinball/bbb/forum/index.php
I took over the hosting of a BBB forum when the Bearcave guys exited the project. Sadly, I do not have any of the posts from their forum.
I completely forgot that I had also started a forum for the possible Kingpin remake. What little content there is may now be viewed here - http://www.robertwinter.com/pinball/kingpin/forum/index.php
I've still got those bookmarked from the good old days.
Shop out pictures of both here - http://ssbilliards.com/shopped.html
LTG : )
Quoted from Bryan_Kelly:As a show of good faith Pinball Inc. will make a one time offer to resolve this matter. The offer is as follows:
Wow. James was getting screwed huge. Yet he knew Gene was broke. And he figured a way out for Gene, to help Gene.
Gene should have took it.
LTG : )
Quoted from jibmums:Can someone in the know please explain exactly what this is?
gary was a troll on RGP. Somebody there came up with a translator to decipher him.
LTG : )
Quoted from jibmums:Can someone in the know please explain exactly what this is?
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.pinball/c/H1Efgx8ElhQ/m/ylnRWi_9ygoJ?hl=en
LTG : )
Quoted from Pbpins:Is Steve Tsubota still into the hobby as he seems to have gone dark here on Pinside for years?
Pre covid he was still at shows. So I'm sure he is still active at least with his own collection, etc.
LTG : )
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Hopkins, MN
Victoria, BC