Have you played to all this games? Sounds like a quick shortcut to me.

Another point to highlight..

TNA
TBL
Archer

What do they all have in common? Passion projects designed and prototyped without the overhead of a company burning through your money. They were all projects flushed out by the designer with their own money and resources before building/joining a company to build them.

HWP, Suncoast, Zidware, Homepin, and almost spooky... all struggled with burn rate while trying to get their products to market because there appears there is a notion you need to be a factory to be taken seriously. Spooky held to their guns, stayed as small as possible, and supplemented themselves with free labor and side work, to weather that part of the storm. Suncoast seemed to be 'right sized' and not taking the bait of trying to put the cart before the horse.. but I guess just weren't capitalized enough to get multiple games to market.

Amen.
People also say they want healthy choices from the vending machines in the break room at work. They don't really want that either.

Tone trolling?

I feel empathy for anyone employed who lost their job or benefits. I don't feel empathy for the company itself because (a) it's not a person and (b) it seemed like super amateur hour decisions were made all over the place from whomever was in charge. And here we are.

Theme isn't what killed this game.

The buying pattern in this home owner nib fueled market is...

Hype on rumored details...
.. hype on theme and the hook it has on people...
..... hype on looks...
Rush to buy as soon as possible based on that pent up energy and desire to have it in hand

Original themes miss on most of that. And even rumored dev team can only carry a title so far (bksor).

It’s a tall high to climb as an original title... and the pattern is people are buying games on looks and themes.

Theme has a huge part of initial sales, but overall sales are based mostly on gameplay and emersive experience. Dialed in was rejected by many, but sales are still trickling due to Pat's design. I think a startup with an original theme that kicked ass would do very well. Cosmic Carnival is just such bad design. Even if it plays well, I'd rather pick up a system 11 that would play as well if not better for a third of the price.

I get what you saying but fail to see why you involved Spooky in that.
You're referencing first timers and Spooky already had two games out at this point and both the subsequent games you mention were commission builds.
No one was expecting Dominos to be some kind of grail pin.
It was a commotion as a promotional item for a fast food pizza chain.

Message from Suncoast:

https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/this-week-in-pinball-september-30th-2019/

It is with a heavy heart that Suncoast Pinball announces we will be shutting down pinball operations. Due to unexpected delays, higher than expected costs and other factors, continuing is not financially viable for us. We have filed chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize our company and allow us to pay our debts in a timely and appropriate manner. We have managed to fulfill all orders with the exception of 4. Those customers will be included in the bankruptcy so they can file for a refund under the appropriate steps. We do have some parts and might be able to finish a few more machines down the road if anyone would prefer. Right now our focus is on reorganization. We wish everyone the best and hope those who have Cosmic Carnival will be able to enjoy it for years to come. We will still try and support current games for as long as we can and to the best of our ability.

That sucks for those 4 folks. I know from experience, it is very hard to get your money once the company files bankruptcy. I have about 3 companies who owe me money and I have never seen a dime.

Too bad. Good on them for going under without screwing over their entire customer base. It looks like all customers will be made good except 4, and they are asking them to go through Bankrupcy court for recompense. They never took pre-order money. It's sad to see them go under but at least they didn't screw over a gazillion pre-order customers.

Sad to hear. I have respect for those guys for going out and trying to do it. More than I would have the balls to do. I played a few games on it. I think if they would have had a better layout, it might have had a chance. Everything else about the game was pretty nice.

Do any distributors have any of these on hand? Man, if so one would have to guess they're going to take a real shellacking trying to liquidate em.

Can Any owner Please let me know what software they are running on their game? My game as received is running version .99 From the download link I received long ago just never jumped on it it appears they are up to version 1.0.4. Is that the current update and do you notice any change from original? Thanks to Anyone for feedback.

I would think you could still call support and get a link to the latest

Tried emailing a few times. My guess is they have more pressing issues at this point. Just seeing if Anyone was running something other then the delivered beta .99 software. Thanks.

I would think the opposite.
If the company is really going bankrupt how many of these actually got made?
I’m guessing it’s not all that many finished games.
It’s instantly become a rare pinball machine.

I bet the 4 people who lost $ 6,000 don't feel as sympathetic as everyone else. Even though it's not Zidware, Dutch, Heighway, or Skit B dollars, it's still full 100% loss to a few poor folks...

As they say 'pinball is hard' and should be left to the ones who are already doing it successfully, I've personally had enough of seeing this over and over and being on the losing end of a few myself.

Four people ordered and paid for games they aren't getting and were told to file for refunds against the bankruptcy proceedings. This never goes well for people waiting for products, since creditors (banks and landlords and parts suppliers) and lawyers all are paid ahead of them. If any distributors actually have unsold games they should be able to sell them easily just due to the rarity.

your comparison is kind of one sided. The 2 games you stated from Spooky were not ment for the public. They were promotional games released for a specific purpose. You did not include the actual games they made that were for the public, AMH, RZ, TNA, ACNC.

And technically Spooky has made more games than JJP. So you would have to include JJP as a boutique manufacturer as well. Which they don't have the best track record with good playing games either. WOZ (overly complicated and confusing light display, layout is clunky and just not fun), Hobbit an all around disaster (hardly anyone can figure out what the hell is going on, layout is boring and uneventful). Dialed in (one of the few games that actually guides the player in understanding what is going on, theme is kinda shitty, but way better than the first 2), POTC (looks great, layout is great, but so overly complex, so many elements of fun are lost). Wonka (to early to tell on rules yet, layout is ok, art is meh)

I see your point, however remember the Studebaker Wagonaire? That's how I see this scenario. Rare VS desirable I guess is the argument to be made. I dont ever see this title becoming the new unobtanium.

Does anyone have the link for the update and is it still active? I am to be grabbing a machine soon and worried it will be on old code.

I guess time will tell.
It will be interesting to find out how many of these actually wound up getting made.
I know the planned production was only going to be 100 machines.
If the production is really low, I would think it would still be a sought after pin in some circles.
Magic Girl is basically unplayable and it brings good money.

The number I heard thru the the “grapevine” is that 7 Cosmic Carnivals were built...not sure if this is accurate or not. This would not surprise me as I played one on location here in Pittsburgh and unfortunately the gameplay, build quality, and overall feel is very disappointing. It really is a bummer because the theme and art package is fantastic. I was really rooting for Suncoast but it truly is awful to play.

Rare doesn’t mean anything if it’s not desirable as well

Nobody’s throwing around too much money to try to get a Team Mafia.

if those numbers are remotely accurate, what degree of credibility do you give this post from 40 days ago? sounds like they made at least 80-4=76.

Like I said...not sure of the validity of the number I was told. Currently there are 3 Pinsiders and 5 locations that have one...I guess that makes at least 8 if those are still current. No matter what the number, we can safely say it is very very low.

Add that number to the dozen listing distributors at the bottom of this page holding stock. I am fairly certain they hit 75 if not a few more. Just because the market doesn't have them doesn't mean Suncoast did not sell them or so the distributor shelves would say otherwise.

Dunno at least two distributors sold their demo as soon as suncoast declared bankruptcy. Not saying there are only 8 but 80 seems high. Also why are their unfilled preorders if they knocked out 80 machines?

Yes, I’ve played every game on that list.

I specifically mentioned those games because they were contract builds for people who wanted to get into the pinball business. Jetsons was supposed to be a sales juggernaut. Neither game was designed by Spooky.

As for Spooky, every game they’ve made has been better than the previous one. They’ve got the process down pat now, which was my whole point. It’s a package.

Fair enough and agree we may never know. As Jon the owner some months ago posted with pictures how many they sold we can assume he was being honest which he has not proven to be anything but. I was simply pointing out they had Many distributors and many per contract purchased several inventory units to sell. I intend to hold on to my game personally as I find it fun.

I respect your opinion and I kind of agree for some of them. Same as reviews, it’s your opinion.
If you have played all the games great.
Pinball is hard yes.

Bummer, if they end up liquidating their stock I'd totally buy a playfield to hang on the wall.

Even if the layout of Cosmic Carnival wasn't trash they would still have gone under...

Stern is the King of the land of pinball.
All other companies are basically fighting for bored and impatient Stern pinball customers' spare change...

P.s... namaste

I got mine. #40. I actually like the machine...all except the power switch on the back of the backbox. Anyone wanna buy one?

Can you tell me what come you are running? Thanks

I can tomorrow when I am back to where the machine is.

It was sad today as I drove past the Florida facility as I have a few times in the past. There were never many cars there but today I only saw a moving truck in the parking lot,

you should go in and try and buy a playfield from them before everything is gone - cash is king

Cool idea. Those might sell ten years from now. "Remember these guys?" personally, I loved the game Cosmic Carnival and hope they live forever!

Probably unwise for a company under chapter 11 to be selling stock under the table for cash.

I know, I know...but if the bankruptcy involved a detailed stock list of inventory it might come up in court.

Something similar happened with skitb.

Got my machine yesterday. This is the one that was at the southern fried gaming episode. Wireform is broken and will need to be welded. Game was on .91 software. I pulled the sd card and put in a new one in flashing it with the .99 software that is on the cosmic carniva shared drive. Then updated that to 1.04. Thing is, when I enter the service mode, it still says .91 prototyotype for the version? wth

I wont pretend to know anything about this game like if the code has to be incrementally updated or not , but did you confirm that the .99 actually took? Is there a factory reset? If so do it and then try flashing again.

Somehow I missed this fiasco till today. It's amazing anybody else even tries anymore.

.99 had to take. I pulled the original micro sd card from the raspberry pi and set it aside. I took a brand new one, burned the .99 img to it and insterted it. Fired up the game, went into the menu and the service menu says .91 prototype for the version. Odd, but if you turn it on without the sd card the game doesn't boot so the update had to take.

Maybe wherever you got the file for .99 was labeled wrong but it actually .91 ?

Saying suncoast posted the wrong file? Doubtful.

That said the game does show differences so def not the same version.