The U.S. is the same. People from Florida and Texas especially, have their "opinions" on things and love to spout them.

Dude, just stop talking. Nothing to be gained from this. Did you spend a large part of your childhood growing up in Florida or something?

I did find that funny. It was only a matter of time.

Not you, but some other Florida based pinsiders love to bring politics and religion into the conversation every chance they get. Plus, on several of the local radio stations here, they play a game called Florida/not Florida. You have to guess if the crazy shit went down in Florida or anywhere else.

I see North Carolina is making a push to join the list.
I'm going to start calling people from
Florida, American Bogans. (The panhandle is their main habitat)

Well, looking at your Avatar, it appears you and your significant other still have all of your teeth. So, that kind of works against your claim.

Are there any shots of the playfield with the glass off? The glare makes it impossible to see much detail. It could really use some pdi glass.

Did you happen to take a head on overhead pic? Hard to see all the detail from the side.

Looking at this pin, it reminds me of a late 80s early 90s data east.

If you could get a close up of the upper playfield that would be cool. Hard to see what's going on up there from the video.

New planes run on Commodore 64, the ones 10 years old run on the Vic 20. Geez, keep up man.

Dodgers are gonna kick their butt. I got tickets to game 2 of the World Series.

Last year, when I was at Expo, saw the Dodgers Cubs game 1 at Wrigley.

Well, it was nice of Homepin to finally credit Ben Heck. Of course, he did it in a backhanded way basically pointing out that he thinked Bens system sucked.

It's like the guy in the office that steals your lunch out of the break room fridge and then blames you for not putting enough mayonnaise on it for his liking. Bogans. Sigh

And that is a great mantra to live by if you are a union longshoreman. Not so much if you are a salesman trying to represent a new pinball company.

So essentially this is his strategy to sell his product?

Well, good luck with that.

From what I saw of Thunderbirds, I would say that he's got a lot of tinkering ahead of him to fix that mess.

I think you're getting ahead of yourself. Mike has got a long way to go before he can be classified as a pinball manufacturer.

A troll with a podcast and a Magic Girl pin?

I would not put it past him.

Maybe so. But My TWD premium has a mono dmd and is way better than any pin with an LCD color screen that has come out. It really comes down to the layout and rules. There are a bunch of dmd games out there that I would buy before even considering the newer LCD color monitor pins. They have been pretty disappointing so far.

I never liked the name Homepin. Pinball collectors want a commercial grade piece of arcade equipment. Even if the games end up being that, it still doesn’t sound good. Noone wants a “home” pin.

Not seeing the relevance to the discussion.

That’s what makes TWD the best pin ever made. Stern makes games to make money for operators on location. I like those types of games.

Again, I don't see the relevance. Now if it was called Williams Home pinball then ok. When I think of a home pin, I think of Fake Elvis "Alive" and "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy". The name homepin implies a cheaper toy for the home market. I'm not bagging on it, just stating the obvious.

In the end, it doesn't really matter because apparently the game sucks. I trust RotorDave's opinion. He had the game for weeks, and danced around his opinion of gameplay. It was pretty obvious he didn't want to say anything bad about it, but also didn't want to lie about it either.

So why isn’t there a container scheduled for Australia? Why schedule containers elsewhere first? Pretty flimsy excuse to say your games are sitting here but you can’t have them because we would rather ship new orders somewhere else, first.

Edit: I remember Dutch Pinball used that same excuse. Gotta fill up the container before sending any out.

Homepins’s new marketing slogan:

It may not be very big around, but at least it’s short.

So I googled Wilfred Brimley, who has been old for over 40 years. I Remembered him as an old man in a retirement home waiting to die in the movie cocoon. Turns out that he was only 49 when he filmed that movie. Not much older than I am today. Diabeetus will mess you up.

Have you played it? Have any games been delivered to the States yet?

I thought the main market was supposed to be Australia? It's pretty sad if Mike can't even get 30 or 40 Aussies to buy his game to fill up a container.

As a longshoremen, I can tell you that's exactly what we do. All of our scrap metal is shipped to China, processed into giant rolls of steel and aluminum, then shipped back. The port of LA/LB which is massive, leases its docks to many Foreign shipping companies and only one or two American companies. Not only that, our country subsidized a Japanese company (gave $2 billion) and Chinese company($1 billion) to upgrade their operations to full automation, thus resulting in the loss of hundreds of good paying American jobs.

My port. Then sent by rail or truck to each city.

Depends on quantity. Maybe $250-$300 each

Well, most games probably go to Sydney, with Melbourne and Perth making up almost all of the rest? The problem IN MY OPINION, wasn't that pre-orders aren't willing to pay a few hundred bucks for shipping from the port of entry. They PROBABLY don't want to pay $1500-$1800 for air freight from China. I SUSPECT, if all the pre-orders agreed to air freight, another snag would arise to prevent Mike from following through. Clearly Mr. Bally offered free shipping knowing full well that he was calling Mikes bluff, IN MY OPINION. Does anyone actually believe Pre-order games are really sitting in boxes waiting for shipment? IM GUESSING Those games, if they exist, are chasing new money.We've seen it all before with MOST every other pinball company not named Stern.

Note: CAPITALIZED words and question marks cover my ass from Mike threatening a libel lawsuit because he APPEARS to be TRUMPIAN in his business dealings.

You may call people naive for pre-ordering, but I don't see how you can put the blame on them for Mike's questionable actions. He deserves respect when he keeps his word. Building custom made parts in China does not factor into it. He has not delivered and that is the problem. Whether he is a scammer is open to debate. Lauding him because he could have run with all the cash and delivered zero is a pretty low bar, don't you agree? And this is yet to be determined.

Maybe I"m reading this wrong, but it sounds like you are punishing him for complaining, and saying he ain't getting shit until he keeps quiet and kisses your ass. I've seen this tactic used so many times in my life. A person looking for any excuse not to come through invents one.

If you just read this thread you can see where Mike is contradicting himself. He offered ridiculous air freight terms but then said he would still have to figure out all the taxes and tariffs, and had no timeframe for that. The other option was to wait for enough new Australian orders to fill a container of games and then if there was room hitch a ride. If there was no room then wait for a future container, rinse and repeat. So both options allowed for unlimited delays at Mikes discretion.
Edit: he was looking for future orders to subsidize the shipping of pre-orders.

Re-read Mile’s posts, or mine just above. Mike has not given any real shipping options yet.

Mike won’t allow this option. It was already suggested by Mr. Bally that he could arrange shipping but Mike put the kibosh on it.

Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

Comparator gate.

You're being to kind. I played this for the first time yesterday and I can honestly say that it is probably the worst pinball machine I have ever played. Just awful in every way. Sorry, I really wanted to like it and hopefully Mikes second effort will be better. Who designed this machine anyway? They should be ashamed of themselves. And what is with that center ramp? Whoever came up with that took the word "ramp" too literally. Because it feels like a wheelchair access ramp taking the ball over the pops and for some reason dropping it in the top lanes. The ball coming up from the playfield during multi ball that was supposed to be so cool was completely underwhelming. Mike said that he accomplished his goal of the game being fun for two guys having some beers and playing it half pissed in a bar. You would have to be fully pissed and consume many euphoric narcotics to get that feeling while playing Thunderbirds. Sorry to be so harsh, but there is no way to sugar coat just how awful this game is even though Rotordave tried so unconvincingly to do so. Really shallow code is the least of this games problems. Oh the humanity.

Dave, this game isn’t for anybody. You were put in a bad spot. I can only imagine how you must have felt when you set it up and put a few games on it. Something like, holy crap this game is bad. What positive things can I say about it?

Everybody respects your opinion, and your opinion on this game perhaps makes or breaks Homepin. I feel bad for Mike, but he should have spent the money and hired an established designer. Thunderbirds in its current state never should have been green lighted for production.

I appreciate the honesty in this post. Hope it works out for you and Homepin.

Exactly. When I played the game the flipper buttons did not feel good at all. As your only interaction with the game, it's kinda important to have them feel good to the touch, and they don't. It's not petty at all.
Clutching at straws? That's hilarious.

Have you played the game? The buttons are the least of its problems.

When I played, it seemed like I was able to repeatedly lock a ball, eventually drain a ball, locked ball then releases, then relock the ball. Rinse and repeat. Must have done it at least 5 times. Definitely need to adjust code to make it harder to utilize this strategy.

The one that was at the Banning, California pinball expo October 21 of this tear.

O.K. I will say something nice.

As far as the orange dmd, it looked much brighter and more vibrant than any other dmd I have seen on a game. It really stood out. I wondered if it was a different design than a classic dmd, or else perhaps runnng at a higher voltage? Curious if the brightness will affect longevity.

Understand, that Mike is out there. He can't be bargained with, he can't be reasoned with, he doesn't feel pity or remorse, or fear, and he absolutely will not stop, ever, from coming back here and posting in this thread.

Exactly. I don't think Mike has done anything to warrant that kind of response. He is trying to make a go of it, I hope he can pull it together.

I hate silicone.
It doesn’t bounce right. Rubber is and will always be king.

Do we have to?

He might have to start working at 7-11 if he can't unload them. It's like a scalper loading up on Blue Oyster Cult concert tickets.

Does this have anything to due with the fact that Thunderturds is the worst game rated on pinside and honestly It's rated too high at that?

You couldn't have said it any better. It really is the worst pinball machine ever made.

Well, what did you think?

I’ll bite. Tastes yummy. But is it new material? Game looks kinda familiar. And who is the hater? The critics who tell it like it is, or the unofficial company pitchman who blasts anyone who dares say less than flattering remarks about your mate or the abomination he created.

Ya can’t polish a turd.

Consider yourself lucky.

Who is the designer? Hopefully not the same guy who designed thunderbirds.