That, plus the fact that the info of the order of ramps itself is a rumor. It's a rumor, based on a rumor. Perhaps Rick was waiting for all the other parts vendors to be completely out of stock on their ramps as a way of cornering the market on his B/W license and making himself the sole supplier for all parts companies.

Besides, that 1,500 number seems a little small for a remake run, doesn't it? Based on sales of their previous remakes, I'd think their initial order for a TZr would be a bit higher. How many CCrs, AFMrs, and MMrs were made? Does anybody have those figures?

No offense, but don't most new Stern's have like 13 different multiball modes? I know GZ is way up there. Seems like every shot in modern Sterns has its own multiball mode. I think TZ has four total, different multiballs. And talk about grinding, some of the Stern games that are just simple fan layouts make you shoot the same five or six shots 40 or 50 times on your way to said multiballs. That's why I don't automatically love every new pin that comes out. The older B/W games are shallower rulesets, and are therefore shorter games, sure. But all the newer games do is layer modes under more shots and deeper rulesets. Same number and types of shots as the older games, you just have to rinse and repeat more. That's just not my cup of tea. Finishing a TAF is like a 30 minute process, finishing a GZ is like an hour and a half. Don't get me wrong, either, I love GZ, hope to own a premium someday.

There are lots of games, old and new, that most people love that I don't, and vice versa. I'm sure you can say the same, too.

Wait 20 more years and see if that is still true with your MBr. It's a simple factor of time and use. On the other hand, with my TZ, once I initially fixed all the issues it had when I got it from the previous owner and gave it a full deep clean and shop job, I haven't had to fix anything on it in since. The only times I've opened it up to work on stuff is to add functional mods, really. That's been just about shy of a decade now, and that includes taking it to multiple pinball shows over the years, too.

Personally, I think TZr is kind of a mistake without some kind of marked mechanical improvements or huge addition of some kind. I'd think if it came with a whole new style clock mechanism, mini switches on the upper playfield, 3rd magnet, and perhaps some sort of exclusive added features or modes solely for TZr, then there might be a better market for it. There are a ton of TZs out there already and it's fairly easy to find a nice enough one for around $8500 or so in most areas. Most people that want a TZ have one, or have had one. I think they'd have to under cut current market value by enough of a margin to make it worthwhile for someone to forgo an original one for a new one.

Plus, they'd have to make the new one absolutely dead reliable. With a TZr being available, there would be a great chance that someone who's never considered owning a TZ(due to them being notoriously tough to work on for many reasons) buying one of the new ones and getting themselves into a mess they didn't expect. If the clock starts giving them fits, or the gumball machine starts acting up, or whatever, you're going to see a lot of complaining and buyer's remorse out there and it might end up doing more harm than good for future releases of remakes. There are collectors who only buy new machines because they don't have a mechanical or electrical bone in their body and don't want any of the headaches of working on or maintaining a pinball machine. Could you imagine how they'd feel if they had to start working on a game with the reputation TZ has? Ain't gonna happen, especially if they change some of the mechs/circuitry to something different from the original so that none of the original parts work and nobody knows all the tricks to get it working just right. That'd go over like a fart in church.

I'll go ahead and place a bet:

If TZr is going to happen, in order to really set it apart as a "new" game, I'll be they make the clock a full LCD screen. They could use something like this to make it happen. ebay.com link: itm

It'd be cool as all get out, sure, but I'd imagine it'd be a lot to do, programming and interface-wise. Still a decent possibility, though. I'd be impressed if they did it...

That trademark listing shows that it was previously a 1B trademark and is still going to be a 1B trademark. A 1B is an "intent-to-use" trademark. If it was 1B before, when Farsight had TZ in the Pinball Arcade, and also when Zen took over the B/W license for virtual games and it got kind of lost in limbo, then it's most likely that CBS is merely continuing the trademark claim to retain ownership of it. Because, if you don't re-up it every x number of years, you lose it. Kind of like how Sony keeps making Spider-man movies. It's part of their contract with Marvel that as long as they keep making Spider-man movies every so many years, they keep him. Otherwise he defaults back to Marvel, and now Disney as they own Marvel, for now.

Coincidental as far as timing, but I still say inconclusive.

TZ's never had a topper from the factory. What toppers are you talking about?

Oh, that's a guarantee. Toppers are basically free money for manufacturers.

It actually takes very little to really dial in a TZ and make it very fast. My first pin was a TZ that needed a lot of love and had some extremely unique problems that I've never heard of or seen since and I knew nothing about fixing pins then. But I got it done and my TZ plays super strong, reliable, and fast. I've got the playfield angle fairly high, too, to compensate. It's still fast.

Cactus Canyon wasn't a dud. It got cancelled, as did all regular form-factor pinball at Williams, in favor of the Pinball 2000 format games. Code was largely unfinished on those 903 games that got made. That's why CCC was such a huge deal. It really fleshed out how great a game CC could have been if Williams didn't shut it down midstream. It being remade allowed for those that had always wanted the game to finally own one, and a brand new one that was complete, at that.

I still think TOM is the better remake right now. Zero licensing issues, you'd only have to deal with PPS.