There are thousands and thousands of good licenses out there. Why do we need to have ones that been done already?

Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Back to the Future, FFS pick something that's at least original even if it's a license.

This grown man has seen all the Toy Story movies multiple times, and I'm sure as hell not ashamed of it.

I like some 'adult' themes just fine, my personal pinball that I'll never make is full of witches and black magic. But nothing wrong with a great family friendly theme that can also appeal to adults.

Why assume? They showed DI at Expo last year, looking pretty solid, and then shipped it when they did. No reason to think they couldn't just repeat the same schedule with #4.

Nah, you don't need to be logged in to watch. Just hit the URL.

I could bitch about the price or the reuse of a license, but instead I'll say while it's not something I will buy I wish JJP the best of luck.

It's cool that if you have the money you can pick between games as diverse as this one, with triple digit Keefer mode rules, or something as simple as TNA. What a time to be alive.

It's not POTC he insists. Go hide your head in shame somewhere.

Haha, just got back from soccer practice and this thread exploded. I'll catch up on the video and good stuff later, but just have to say it's a pleasure seeing lots of positive attitudes for once after a pin reveal.

Haha, nope. JJPOC looks great! Can't wait to see more, but I watched some gameplay video and it looks super cool.

Keefer is a mad man, 105 modes, 22 characters, it makes Stern's half finished and abandoned code look really bad.

But my TNA deposit is for a game I'm way more excited for. JJPOTC isn't remotely like it. It's also more money than I want to spend on a pinball right now.

None of my TNA thinking has changed one bit.

At the end of the day it's 'shoot the lit shot' most of the time for any game. Sometimes you get real gems, like Alien Invasion (and hey, guy who programmed that seems relevant here), but modes are modes are modes, only so many ways to slice up the same cow.

Difference to me, without playing it, is POTC playfield looks fun, and Hobbit's has never done it for me.

There's always tomorrow.

Gary at Expo is always one of my favorite things. That photo is great, the photo of him with TBL is great, but nothing will top last year for me.

I was at the back of the room by the doors for the DI reveal since we had to bail early for the Alien party, I was standing with Kelly, the animator on Alien, and Ed Robertson, everyone's favorite naked lady, and right after they pulled the cloth off the games and the room was trying to decide what they thought Gary came walking up the aisle, wearing those bright red glasses, and walked out the door. The timing was just classic.

That's my new life goal, to show up to my competitor's big reveal, so I can walk out on it right as they have their moment.

The sad thing is it's even dumber than people realize when you see it all from the inside, I learned that first hand. You can use this, but not that, and you can do it this way, but not that way, and you're told one thing from one person, but then you're dealing with approval with someone else and the rules have utterly changed on you.

Or you think "I have the movie rights, so I get all this stuff", but then the music is actually from a different sub company than the film, and was licensed to the movie, probably in some scheme to make profits look lower and avoid paying out percentages, and you need another $50k for this, and another person to approve that, and it's just a web of BS.

You can use this actor, but not this one, because the second actor is British, and has a totally different contract.

I suspect though that the things I learned with Alien are even crazier with modern films like POTC, because on the these old movies the contracts weren't written with all the modern digital media and licensing in mind. No way something like a huge budget Disney franchise isn't loaded with all kinds of detailed legal language for this that and the third. You can use this specific likeness, but not the person in motion, or whatever.

Personally I think NOT having a ton of film clips and re-used movie lines is great. I'm sure the JJP team chafed at restrictions, who wouldn't, but it means they got creative and did their own thing, instead of just playing back pre-canned stuff.

It's time these LCD games figure out their own footing, beyond being glorified DVD players. DI was a huge step in that direction, I imagine lessons learned there were a big help with POTC. JJP definitely has the edge on this stuff now in my mind.

I'll take 1200 custom callouts over a bunch of movie lines I've heard before any day. I'm not a POTC buyer, too expensive for me, but I feel like we should be defending custom work over recycled work wherever we can. Watch the movies if you want to hear the lines, let the game be original and new.

Oh man, don't get me started. At least on these modern titles you're pretty much able to get some nice high rez marketing material. It took literally months to get someone at Fox to hunt down an image of the original egg poster that was even usable quality, and not a grainy postage stamp jpeg.

I don't want to derail things too much since this is a JJP thread, so I won't post a bunch of stuff here, but one of the craziest things about the "grainy black and white photos from the 1970s" was all the concept posters they included for some reason. I think this one is probably my favorite:

ALIEN_KEYART02 (resized).jpg

It's kinda cool in a "huh, things could have been utterly different" kind of way, but yeah, wasn't exactly *useful* in any way.

That's the full resolution by the way, Pinside is not shrinking it. Whole folders full of stuff that size, barely big enough for a website slideshow. Even if you're not a print expert I think you can get that trying to put that on a playfield would be an exercise in frustration.

Guys I know a little something about pinball licensing negotiations now, all the desire and good will to do it right don’t mean anything sometimes. It’s rarely as simple as you think it should be. Just the nature of things.

Pinball is special to us. It’s no different than a T-shirt or a lunch box to other people when it comes to business. Just another licensing deal. You get what you get. I’d just make your peace with it, I’m sure the JJP people got whatever they could, clearly they worked hard on this game.

Good. You whiners should save some money and buy a bluray boxed set. You can watch all the movie footage you want. Save yourself 9 grand, and spare everyone else the litany of complaints.

This is a pinball, not a movie player, get over it.

I don't think it's weird at all.

At the end of the day the reality is what people really crave is atmosphere, the feeling of the theme, living the game, world under glass, blah blah blah.

There's a reason Tron, a game with a not particularly inspired layout and ruleset, is so well loved. It would be one of my hardest games to sell. It just feels good to play. The soundtrack, the lights, the callouts, the feel of everything is just pitch perfect. It doesn't need an LCD screen.

Batman 66 is all about the cheese. It's campy and corny and bright and colorful, and the LCD works great for it. It's like a live action cartoon. The way the screen is set up like a TV is perfect for the feel of the show, and the memories we have. (I haven't even played the game, only saw it at the first Expo reveal, and yet I totally get it.)

The truth is the Pirates movies aren't really all that good. IMHO they just got worse with each subsequent release too. The first is pretty fun, and then you kind of just go along for the ride, and take pleasure in the ridiculousness of it all. But the last thing I actually want is to watch a bunch of movie clips. Hobbit was bad enough, those were shitty movies too. Watching Bilbo walk around his apartment reading the contract? So incredibly lame.

The point is to play the game. That should be obvious, but the way people talk in this thread you'd think they were just going to turn it on and watch it. Does the game feel like a fun ride? Are you in the world? Is the rocking upper playfield ship more interesting than passively watching a ship bob around on the LCD screen?

If JJP does a good job then the game will be better off for being less about the films, and more about the game. If they don't, then they messed up, but the lack of assets won't be the problem. These aren't quotable films. When Alien was under development all people wanted to know was if "game over man!" was going to be in the game. Heard it 100 times. (It is for what it's worth.) I don't see anyone actually talking about must have lines and scenes, just some general angst that the assets aren't there.

What exactly is it you're dying to see and hear every time you play the game? Because I have no idea.

That's high praise from a good player.

Come play my TNA. I'm beta testing stuff from Scott all the time, which means I have an excuse to wipe your score after you leave.