Glad to hear this. I couldn’t figure out why it was like but happy that was just a place holder.

Just a quick note that the Kingpin Signed Limited Edition Translites are 82% sold!

They also reserve a no obligation spot on the list for production Kingpin games when they become available. So if you are interested in the Kingpin project get a signed translite before they are gone.

Details on the translites are here: http://www.circusmaximusgames.com/product/kingpin-signed-limited-edition-translite

We also have Kingpin and Pinbo enamel lapel pins and Kingpin Polo shirts in stock too.

Thanks everyone for their enthusiasm for the project. It's much appreciated.

Paul

Out of curiosity, have you begun tooling and fitting out the production building you bought 2 or 3 years ago yet, if it's to start being manufactured towards the end of this year or early next?

There have been some upgrades and outfitting to the building, but we have several other options for assembly of the games that are being explored in detail.

These range from sub assemblies (from just minor to even some major assemblies) being assembled elsewhere with only final assembly done in our facility to entire assembly outside our facility on an existing assembly line.

Paul

Do purchases of Pins and Vids #4 help the cause? I just ordered a copy

Everything we sell helps out. We are restocking shirts that we've been out of stock on for a while, adding new Lapel Pins including Bally/Williams licensed enamel pins, and all sorts of new and historical items such as original engineering drawings, sketches, etc.

It's all part of the plan of generating ongoing revenue without taking preorder money.

I'm excited to get another game with Stan Fukoka art on it. Love his style.

We mentioned this in our seminar at SFGE a few weeks ago, and since it was mentioned in TWIP today too, I’ll mention it here.

We have an agreement with Planetary Pinball to acquire the Kingpin trademark.

We also recently partnered with PPS in order to bring Bally/Williams licensed lapel pins to the market, so look for those in the near future.

Paul

Just to be clear, PPS/ CGC is not making KingPin and you guys are still planning on doing it in house with P-Roc platform? correct?

It will be a Circus Maximus game. That doesn’t mean we won’t partner with someone to assemble it though.

It will continue to be a PROC based system no matter if it’s assembled in house or with a partner.

that is the important part to me!

What processor platform are you driving the P-ROC with? Thanks

It will likely be an UP board similar to what TNA and Alice Cooper are using.

Our Dev game has a bigger MSI cube in it, but it should be an UP when we get to production.

Thanks, since I've never seen inside those machines (too busy at festivals) could you give me a better idea? PC-103 style?

I really liked Intel's NUC idea, bought a bunch of those.

http://www.up-board.org/up/

I hope it has more than enough horsepower (and then some) to run a pinball machine like Kingpin.

Considerably more than Spike2.

I believe this is the same board that TNA, Alice Cooper, and others are using for their PROC games.

Our dev game is currently running on a Mini PC type system (I think it's an MSI Cubi?) but as we get closer to production and optimize everything it will likely be an UP board.

What's nice about this solution is that if UP boards become NLA, many PC/singleboard type computers with USB that's capable of running linux would likely be able to be substituted. Meaning we are not locked into using UP boards and owners should always be able to find replacement solutions without too much trouble.

Paul

Following up on what Paul said,

We can run the emulation on a Raspberry Pi pretty easily without any system lag. We're using a fairly beefy PC setup right now (compared to other single board computers) for rapid iteration of different ideas and such. Once the tech stack is finalized and we've got a pretty good baseline down, we'll start wrenching down on optimizations for the hardware set and target compute cost that we're trying to achieve.

We went through quite a few hoops getting TNA to run as well as it does on the hardware system it has. However, what ended up happening is we built something that is quite resilient, cost effective and has a very long shelf life. For example, the OS and underlying code has no direct ties to the hardware, so we could port it all over to something else if needed, or someone in the community could do it if we're not around anymore in the far distant future.

Those boards give us plenty of headroom, but you make a great point... Many times it comes down to how good the programmers and architects are. For example, you need to leverage as much hardware acceleration as you possibly can, and you can't be doing crazy things with asset loading when your slowest peripheral is the disk. It's a constant balance, but it's quite fun!

-- Jimmy

I played an original. It was collection worthy imo. Very fun pin.

One more day left for the August email update!

Any update?

I was out of the country around the 1st of the month when we normally send out update emails.

We will send and update out probably in the next week or two, I'm holding it for a couple new things I'd like to announce but want to make sure we have all our ducks in a row before we do.

Currently the game is scheduled to be at Pinball Expo in October and Free Play Florida in November.

Paul

Sorry if it has been said but is the artwork ( cabinet and playfield) will be as original or improved/reworked?
Thanks

The original artwork will be available on the production games, and there will likely be a different art package for on an LE type version.

But there will be at least one version available with the original artwork.

Stan Fukuoka, the original artist, is an advisor to our team and still has many of the original art used in the game.

Paul

AWESOME! I'm really looking forward to playing this.

It would be great if he could finish the cabinet. Too much empty grey...

Agreed, a little more would be nice, as long as it's not swirls and swooshes everywhere (like some of the Zombi Yeti and Dirty Donny stuff). I like Dave Christensen's concept side art for Kingpin, except I'm not sure it's a perfect match with everything else in the machine (playfield art, dots, etc)... plus that concept art looks like it was drawn with pastel sticks (hopefully the cabinet wouldn't look like that).

I believe it was actually crayon or wax pencils of some sort. Not Kidding.

We are in the process of cleaning up the Dave artwork and recoloring it. The intention is also have him do playfield/plastics to match the rest of his art.

Paul

pkiefert will you announce pricing at Pinball Expo and when you will start production?

Unfortunately no.

We'd like to think that we have learned lessons from previous companies mistakes... one of which was announcing a price before really having everything all nailed down.

That means we have to get pricing for all of the custom parts, and that usually means shopping each item to several vendors. And all of that can't happen until engineering diagrams are done for every part, along with several prototypes rounds from each of the said diagrams to make sure the parts conform to the engineering specs.

We were lucky to have some of the original diagrams for several of the common Capcom parts and a couple of the Kingpin specific parts, but there are still quite a few pieces on the BOM that have to go through that entire process before we really will feel solid with mentioning a price.

We want to get this right, and while we may be slightly overcautious in that regard, we don't want to create self inflicted landmines if we can avoid them.

We will likely announce some new partners in the project at Expo though and hopefully show off some of the new display graphics that are in progress.

Paul

Smart!

.... like the IPB BBB remake.

Compy pkiefert
Any chance of a few pics, info, or email update regarding Kingpin this week?
Thanks again for putting this pinball project together.

I know the answer to this one $50,000.0

We try and exceed expectations, so we can do better and remove two zeros. $50,000

We will send an update out before Pinball Expo.

Could we remove the zeros and change the US dollar symbol ($) to a Japanese yen symbol (¥)?

Did anyone receive an update?

I got the latest update from Circus Maximus this morning (via eMail). By the way, if anyone wants to subscribe to their mailing list, there's a sign-up button on their web page (http://www.circusmaximusgames.com).

Looks to me like it's going well. I get the impression they really want to "do it right" and put out a great game. No clarity yet as to when the games will start shipping.

I got the same impression, good to have an update. I imagine shipping estimates (as well as pricing) won’t happen for a while yet as once they have all the drawings done they still will need estimates, quotes, contracts, etc. I’m not in a rush as long as it’s getting done right, plus more time for the custom code to be built up.

Great update, really nice seeing the effort going into this.

Thanks for bringing this to Free Play Florida! Was BY FAR the highlight of the show for me and my kids. We had a blast playing it!

Any holiday updates?

Kingpin hats are now available here: https://store.circusmaximusgames.com/collections/kingpin/products/kingpin-pinball-hat

Oh, and we will be in Chicago next week. Can't imagine why...

Paul

Visiting my alma mater ?

LTG : )
Disclaimer : Say hi to Doug and Ryan for me.

I just had another thought.

Visiting my friends building their new factory ?

LTG : )
Disclaimer : Say hi to Nirmal and Dhaval for me.

we can only hope!

god PLEASE no!!!!

You got a better company to build them ?

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

LTG : )