That's a very good point, and something I think gets lost when people cite the "unlicensed era" - it's easy-ish to just draw some pretty pictures, plink a captivating bleep-bloop palette, and be done. When I imagine how Whirlwind might have looked if made in the DMD era, I'm not sure if the dots and animations I see in my head would translate well or not. And finding out if they would, takes talent and time!

But, counterpoint: it can indeed be done! Games like MM and AFM have a cast of unique original characters all their own which are approachable and ultimately memorable even when they're first unknown. Sure, they play off stereotypes and well-known tropes which make them familiar from the onset. But even aside from that, they have music and dots which are fully cohesive - so originality is not impossible. And while you keep attesting to the challenge of distilling a known toolkit of licensed assets into the pinball formfactor, and I don't doubt you in the least, I surmise from a technical aspect, an original work would not be any more difficult. Licenses give you limits; originals give you freedom. Both have boundaries.

The trick is creating an original work that feels familiar. As stated, MM and AFM are perfect examples of this. But even games like FH and WW, you can walk up and get an idea for what they're about: everyone knows about storms and carnivals. The execution gives those games a life and character all their own.

Spooky followed the same path, using the "haunted ____" trope. It has a few excusable weak points but it's a noble step in the right direction, and fantastic for a new builder. It takes time to put the whole package together, and it's a risk. But it's not impossible.

Also, remember this: every good license, was "original" once, somewhere.

Hah, that's a GREAT point: speaking from my own experience and perspective as a relative newbie, I didn't even think to cite it. When I downloaded an eye-patch version of Pinball Arcade to sample all the tables for comparison, and feel out different game designs and concepts, you know which ones I played first? The ones I never heard of outside that cloistered pinball universe: original themes! The last ones I played were licensed, and in fact I still don't think I've played Terminator.

Same in real life: at the Louisville Expo this year I never lined up for Last Action Hero, Starship Troopers, or (again, oops) Terminator. At Zanzibar in Louisville, the very last machine I tried was Walking Dead... I even tried Champion Pub first despite previously learning it in the app and hearing it's a dud in real life (which I found to be true FWIW). Also tried RFM. And replayed MM and AFM... all before giving Walking Dead a shot.

Even the first time I sampled a home arcade, which ultimately spawned this pin adventure, it was the same: "Addams Family? Meh, saw the movie 20 years ago. NASCAR sucks now. Hmm... what heck is Funhouse, that seems interesting...."

Now maybe I'm an outlier: my thinking is, given a selection of pins, I'll gravitate to experience the unique properties only available in pinball, before rehashing something I've seen elsewhere in another medium. And if a movie or band or whatever has no appeal to me, it'll be a tough sell to get me to pay to try it out.

That said, I don't mind being proven wrong: I don't much care for AC/DC and so that was one of the last pins I tried at Louisville Expo... only to wish I'd done so earlier And when I finally tried The Walking Dead, I ended up GC'ing it! But I think the "wisdom" that "people need a license to coax a try-out from them" is flawed.