Damn, I thought that was the official playfield reveal!

What I thought was cool was the ball launch. On ball 2 the ball went one way, but on ball 3 it was diverted somewhere else. Can't think of any other machines that launch the ball to different parts of the playfield.

Baywatch does = 3 different places

That's because peoples jaws were dropping and they were speachless.

Some call it teasing I call it and =

The feed off the plunge looked a little dicey. Looks good, seemed to shoot pretty well, and sounds/music worked well. I find guitar solos a little odd for the era, but whatever. Hopefully some future vids give a better presentation than a cell phone gives.

Looks promising, packed playfield looks great, cant wait to see this thing flip and see some detailed gameplay.

Looks great until I get to that orange eye sore. This is 2017, that display should absolutely be color.

Playfield looks pretty dark, but I'm liking how much stuff is jammed under the glass.

I've noticed all your games have 'eye sore' dmds. You should sell them all if they hurt your eyes. You can buy at least 5 or so lcd games.

I think it looks great. If he sells a bunch I think he could work something out with ColorDMD to provide a solution for the color display.

My newest game was made in 1997! If youre looking for technology from 1997 wrapped in a new package, all power to you.

Also, color DMDs are made for T2, JP, and SF2. So half my collection will have color displays.....

I look for rules, layout, shots etc. All unproven on Thunderbirds. But it's never about display personaly. I have 20 games and only woz and hobbit have an lcd. It's icing on the cake but it's not a deal breaker if a game had an DMD. New or old.

Damn!
Love that control panel DMD Thingy!

It reminds me of a later Data East game somehow (and I don think that's a bad thing, I like several Data East games).
Looking forward to see how the rules, flow, sound, etc. are.

The art is better than I expected.

Re: the monochrome DMD - yeah, it's a shame, but shit happens and it's understandable that it didn't happen in the end, given the circumstances.

I doubt pin2DMD / pinballSP etc will have too much difficulty making their existing systems compatible with it, so it's not like it's stuck with monochrome.

There's some random Thunderbirds photo's in this album
https://www.facebook.com/pg/NewcastlePinballAssociation/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1319477

This link is the correct one, that last one is this year's line up
https://www.facebook.com/pg/NewcastlePinballAssociation/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1319498291512013
544847421

It's plenty bright enough in real life

Does the TB2 model light up?

No more pics or videos from pinfest? It would be cool to see more of the game.

Starts in a few hours. East coast of Australia on Saturday.

looks good, this game screams blue apron!

Be great is some of the Aussies attending pinfest can post some early reviews on pinside.

Photos, videos, reviews, ill take anything at this point

No lights under the in/out lane?

The game looks sweet! Those palm trees add a real nice touch. Nice way to take a vintage theme into the 21st century.

Do we know who designed it yet?

Hopefully some vids posted up in the next few hours, guessing both machines will get a work out over the 2 day show,
cant wait to see more

Some early reviews and comments coming in on the Aussie Arcade forum:

RGR:
"Played tag. Full report tomorrow. Will take pics and a few game play vids and put them on YouTube. Can't live steam as the reception is too bad. In short, sounds good, looks good, some interesting shots, big flipper gap, smooth ramps and started multiball . You loose locks if you lose your ball. Locks do not carry over."

PinSinner:
"I didn't get a chance to play it last night, but watched some of the other guys have a quick game or two. I'll get my first chance to flip it later on this morning and will have more to say then. I am most looking forward to learning the objectives and I hope Mike can spare a few minutes to explain them before my first game.

I can say that it looks fantastic in person. I got up close to the playfield and cabinet, and love the hand drawn and inked caricature art style. The colouring and shading looks great in person.

There is so much that Mike has packed to this machine. A left to right moving (HOOD) target, a bank of three (FAB) drop targets that engages the mechanical ramp, pomp bumpers etc. Lots of other stuff including a number of spotlights, mole target and plenty I didn't see in action. Also there are lots of little details like the palm trees and the LED strip on the centre ramp are a nice touch. The EL's also look great in person and anyone who intends on putting TAG on location will really benefit from the EL's while the machine in attract mode.

I can't comment too much on gameplay and that will have to wait until later on this morning. The centre ramp is clever. I have not seen a ramp quite like it, the way that ball exits at the top and the ball drops back down through the rollovers and swings down to the flippers.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting a few games in this morning. Cheers "

I don't want to start more shit but wasn't a certain persona non grata in the design community?

I can't wait to hear it play as well as see it. I may just have a place for this game in my living room.

No. Mike has denied that and it is obvious is wasn't him. This game works.

I don't know if there was any truth to that rumor or not which is why I asked. And if it turns out to be as good as it looks, it won't matter.

I am just really pleased with the way Mike has presented this project while it was being made despite all those that tried to bring him down.

I guess it's the large figurines in the artwoek but I keep thinking Experts of Dangerous when looking at the styling.

newgameroundup12 (resized).jpg

That sucker right there is jammed packed! It's a world under the glass as every pin should be. Bring on the gameplay video

TAGs (resized).jpgTAG (resized).jpgTAG apron 1 (resized).jpgTAG apron 2 (resized).jpg

Looks like there is an objective based replay (international rescue)...not based only on score or match

Well, it does have a wider than normal Flipper gap....

I'm all for that no matter who designed it.

These narrower and narrower flipper gaps of today where the ball can barely fit thru are for wimps.

looks like the inlane plastics are different between the 2 games - are they still deciding on which ones / approval etc?

Looks cool!

I'm on the hook too...

Team America

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I can't begin to fathom why this is hand drawn when the models and puppets are so much a part of the show and when you have nearly local access at WETA in NZ.

That center ramp is genius!

practically extinct and currently an endangered species.
back in the day, we used to call that a "special".

pf_ebd_LI (resized).jpg

pf_playboy_LI (resized).jpg

Ummm... yeah, LED lights are shiny, but...
Watch it again...
Ball gets hung up in there *twice* when the balls have plenty of velocity... Yikes.

I do like how the output from the ramp can be: 1. rollover lanes -or- an 2. orbit...

-mof

It only got hung up there because the guy didn't hit it hard enough. Once it seemed to bounce back.

But I do love the fact it doesn't use the generic ramp habitrail return and drop in the inlanes that makes so many of today's games tedious and boring.

so is the centre ramp like a hump - if it is - it is a clever solution to get the ball to the back when there are lots of things there