Dispense beer tickets

The text is printed on the same plastic that's above the rest of the rear portion. That part of the plastic has no other art or fill so you see the floating text above the playfield, you can see it from the side in the post #103 screencaps. I think it looks great in person.

I can attest to the fun of Canon Lagoon. Although it looks really simple, and it is, it is also extremely entertaining. Much like the simple smartphone games that everybody plays ad infinum. Gerry is right, facial expressions and body language don't lie. Everyone I saw, adults included, were having a blast playing Canon Lagoon. All you pinsiders with small children or grandchildren could benefit from having one of these. How many stories have we all read on here about kids coming over to y'alls houses and after one plunged ball losing interest in your pinball machines? You have one of these set up and that would disappear. One thing that really stood out to me was how much CL looked like it came straight out of a Dave and Busters. Take that for better or for worse. Remember that "What would it take to get pinball back in D&B" thread? This is your answer. The good thing about this machine though is: once the kids are done with it it's back to LL:EE, CCR, or whatever infinite amount of games are on the horizon; or, just maybe, those kids may eventually want to play a grown up game like you. This could potentially expose and inspire a whole new generation and demographic to pinball. The amount of work this man has put into his product is nothing short of astounding. I applaud you sir and wish you continued success. I can't wait to see what's next from P3.

Ah-HA! I see it now! Well, man, it looks great. Nice touch. ...and thanks for the explanation, Law!

I have 3 boys - ages 11, 9 and 4. I've been trying to get my kids interested in pinball for years - esp. LL-EE as I have pre-ordered. They haven't showed much interest until I showed them the 5-in-1 video with Cannon Lagoon. Now they're hassling me to find out when it will arrive. I'm not a huge fan of redemption games in general but it's definitely hit the mark in my household.

I think you've just found another use for Canon Lagoon

Only tickets? A can dispenser isn't *that* far from a ticket dispenser, right?

Adult mode wasn't on yet

Innovation!

Why all the static about a "redemption" game anyway? You are still playing a game at home...do you disable the "Special" that awards credits on your other machines because you don't need credits? You don't have to open a ticket redemption area in your home and fill it with chinese toys...what am I missing?

Found this on Pinball News, showing a walk-by of the Multimorphic booth:

Rory

Cannon Lagoon looks really bright and modern in that video, much better than the pics above.

I'm sure I saw one or two people with video cameras at Gerry's reveal. They did the PF swap in litterly 2minutes. three connectors at the back of the module... and a couple of levers in the front and it pulled right out. That 2 minutes included the lockdown bar and PF glass. Flipper swap out too like 30seconds... one connector and one "door".

Flipper buttons are listed in the intro movies for the games. I don't specifically remember but one is the standard flipper and the other is a lane change button. I think the third button is only used for single handed accessibility mode.

Their production prototype in the booth had some big bug eye buttons installed it instead of the traditional buttons. Looked prefect for some oddball or child's game.

Some footage of Lexy found on Youtube -

#t=07m35s

Some of this I posted in another thread but it seems appropriate here.
I had the chance to hear the Multimorphic presentation at TPF and then play some games on Lexy, as a result I am very impressed. The tech and features are outstanding and I thought that Lexy game play was very good, the interactive playfield was certainly unique. I will be watching to see where they go with bumpers or other mechanical devices over the LCD portion of the playfield (that was where it misses the mark for me).
I see real promise in the redemption arena with Cannon Lagoon, it think that was a smart direction and a better target audience. I think quick, easy service/repair via the modular design could bring pinball back into places like D&Bs.
As far as making a purchase, the price point is a bit high but not a deal breaker, tech is cool and currently the game play is good but in the end the video game aspect left me missing the traditional playfield experience. I wish the team the best and will follow along with the progress but at this point I don't see one in my game room.

There is a little bit of a chicken and the egg thing here. Developers need to know there is enough of a market and marketplace (e.g. enough machines sold, and an effective way to sell them) to justify the effort to create a game where they are comfortable they can get a return on the effort. As your comments indicate, the sales of machines is impacted by the number of games available.

If you look at iPhone as an example, there were really very few apps in the store when it launched (the company I was with at the time was one of them), but it did not take long after that for there to be a ton. The tools for creating those apps also improved, etc.

I know there are developers working on some games, but I think once units start to ship and Gerry has more info on the catalog/store process, etc. You will see and hear more about what is being worked on and the pace of development of those games will increase.

In response to the desire for third party games, some developers who were interested in being third party developers have become first-party developers instead. That was my experience, anyway; after attending Expo to show off Buffy in October and getting the chance to play a lot more P3, a week or so later I made the decision to join the Multimorphic team to help move the P3 forward.

I am one of the anonymous developers proud to be working for Multimorphic on Cannon Lagoon (among other games/projects). "In-house" game development is awesome from an organizational and structural perspective. Lots of groups working on things in parallel and a lot getting done very quickly. The software framework is stellar.

While Cannon Lagoon was already in active design and development when I joined the team, the CL game people played at TPF was created by a team that has only existed for at most six months, with members doing exclusively after hours/part-time work. That's a very fast turn around time for anything, let alone pinball. It's only possible because we didn't have to invent a new cabinet, power distribution system, driver boards, control system, or programming framework. We just did the fun stuff. I think anyone out there who is making a game from scratch that they intend to sell commercially is doing themselves a disservice to not consider targeting the P3 platform. It rocks.

This is totally true. At $2k-ish, I'd buy just about any new P3 game unless I knew it sucked. The value proposition for even a decent game is there initially. However, if there are 10 games coming out a year from different people, I'm not gonna drop $20k on stuff I can't confirm I'd like. I can only hope it gets to the point we can pick and choose at this level.

By far LL-EE was the best thing at Expo this past year! Loved it

No doubt about this. The panel was incredible. Outside of how many incredibly innovative and useful features P3 is bringing to the table, the game design, art direction, sound design, and many other aspects of Lexy Lightspeed are terrific.

How cool would it be if the Zen Studio team got together to produce something for P3. Not so much an interactive "real" world like LL, but recreating a fictional pinball playfield with all sorts of cool special effects like on a Zen playfield. Instead of a virtual ball, it would be the real ball. Would be a match made in heaven.

Several people have mentioned that they would like to see Pops "floated" over the playfield. Gerry communicated that this is not only possible - but they have done it. Never fear - I suspect we have only begun to see the possibilities of the platform.

In any case, this platform truly offers unlimited potential - and I agree the value of the platform is unsurpassed.

Looking forward to it's release!

I've always loved P3 and always said it's the next step for pinball. only pinball out there with real new innovation. But i'm unsure about having the redemption game as the second kit a good idea. I was really hoping for another game like the Cart racing and lexy to sell the system. Get enough cabs out in the wild, with 2 very full games. The more base systems out, the more potential for the expansion modules. Not sure about the redemption yet, but I have to play it in person to really know. I think what a lot of people playing it enjoy, is the fact that you can figure out what to do. It's not a complex cluster fawk of ???? like hobbit. As much as complex rules are great for a home environment. You still have to have some easily laid out objectives that you don't have to sit and analyze to figure out. The redemption looks pretty clear cut and easy to understand. Which is great for a demo introduction into the platform. Still love the work your doing. Fantastic work.

Thanks very much for the video, this game looks really fun. It was obvious from the video that beginners could instantly understand what they had to do, achieve some simple goals and have fun with this game.

On another note, how reliable are the latest prototypes? I haven't heard any reports of any problems during the show, were there any issues?

Agree completely.. A Zen pinball type situation with a static pinball playfield displayed but with flourishes and animations would be a great example of the platform that still looks like pinball first and foremost. LL to me with its zooming and videogame like levels isn't as relateable to me personally I guess.

Someone should port virtual pinmame to the P3 platform. Physical meets virtual.
Much better than those other platforms which try to simulate a physical machine with lcd monitors.

It would probably end up being less work to recreate the classic games in new code for the platform specifically. We found that the majority of the work we had to do to make a game "feel" right when being controlled with PinMame was adapting the interfaces to the new hardware, tweaking timing, etc. With the new code, you are not far from the enhanced version of the classic game that really shows off the platform's capabilities.

Imagine taking a classic game like Elektra and using the lower video screen playfield to descend into a video focused lower playfield that could change throughout the game. You still have an upper playfield module that gives people the ramps and such. So you could rewrite the rules for Elektra in a long weekend and then continue on from there to extend the game in cool new ways. The LCD screen has got to be used as a rich, dynamic canvas for artwork if it is really going to impress. Every mode, stage, heck, even player, should influence the canvas to really set it apart from traditional pinball art and design. Real-time, high definition content is baseline expectation in an arcade game these days. The challenge for making cool games for the P3 won't be the upper playfields, that's easy, it will be the creation of the rich display content that takes the player to a unique and different pinball game experience. Ask any video game designer how much content is required to make a game that really wows the user. The P3 has the challenge of the biggest dynamic canvas in pinball. No small feat, but definitely a unique way to differentiate from all the other pinball games being developed nowadays!

I hope that the P3 makes it to the NW Pinball Show in June. My kids have yet to see it in real life. They are big pinball fans and also enjoy video games a whole lot. I am interested to see what they think. To kids with less preconceived ideas of what pinball MUST be, it will be all about "is it fun?" or "do I want to play it again?" The engineering feat alone is impressive to me, but I think that kind of stuff is cool anyway!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

Says no pinball manufacturer ever. This is the part I understand the least about 'third party'. The upper playfields require all the disciplines that a normal playfield needs (mechanical, electrical, fabrication, test, supply chain, assembly lines, etc..) Just 1/3 of normal. Who other than P3 is going to really make upper playfields as a commercial endeavor?

Sorry, easy wasn't the right word. I mean confined/defined. I should say that of everything in a P3 game I feel that is, for me personally, the easiest part to conceive and design. You know the space you have to work in and what you have available to you for inputs and outputs, etc.

But I do agree with you with regard to getting the upper playfield manufactured professionally. Many people could probably design it using templates and a library of readily available parts as a starting point. But a central source for the manufacturing of the upper playfields would ensure that they were done well. The last thing you would want is your beautifully produced game content to be brought down by the mechanical portion being subpar.

Aaron
FAST Pinball

I'm probably in the "traditionalist" category but I also LIKE the dynamic content and do think it is an important part of the concept. That being said after playing a couple games I did feel like there was a "gap" between the flippers and the upper playfield. The dynamic content allows for scoring opportunities but it doesn't interact with the ball if that makes sense. Breaking the crates was cool the first time I did it but it didn't stick with me. These are not criticisms just my observations. I was impressed with the presentation and the things I read here, I do think you are on the right track. I think you will sell games, right now it isn't the right game for me but never say never.

still has more going on and more on the playfield than AFM.

and basically every "fan" layout game

Hmmm you bring up an interesting point, is it real or simply a perception based on visuals. I really had to go back and think about what I felt while playing. I do think the position of the wall modules may make the area seem longer than it really is. I think that visually the eye is drawn to the LCD and with the rather pastel image colors it exaggerates the distances, a bolder or more dimensional image might "shorten" the gap because most other machines the space seems more proportional (other than AFM which does feel barren).
The more I consider it I think the relatively "flat" image with the "abrupt" vertical elements of the back playfield are causing the illusion I experienced. I compared images with P3 and std pins and it really depends on what is on the display.

Side bar, one thing that my wife mentioned and caught my eye during the presentation was the ball trail, she didn't like it but I found while playing I didn't really notice it as much. Is that something that a user could turnoff?

For sure, it will never be what everyone wants in a single game. I only focused in on the rich content as a *must* have because it would show off one of the platforms greatest assets. But you are totally right, it is all about the games being fun.

Aaron
FAST Pinball

Sorry guys, I just can't read through all of this....I've been off the boards and trying to catch up but....yeah being gone for a week is killer. Is there any kind of realisitic timeframe for release of the P3? We keep seeing more and more and more added to it, but when will the thing be an actual, viable product for us to purchase? This was the third TPF appearance, and AFAIK I still haven't seen anything on any kind of concrete timetable for release..

I gotz first dibs yo!
Ok... maybe not first dibs.

Is this what people are referring to when asking for parts of the upper pf to be extended onto the lower? That would certainly help bridge the disconnect between the upper pf and the screen.

I have no idea about the engineering involved, but why couldn't ramps extend down onto the screen from the upper PF? Or spinners, or divertors, or standup targets, or toys? Toys could cover some of the pop up scoops, so you're shooting into a mouth (like kiss) or a trunk instead of a blank plastic scoop.

Here's the ROCs gameplay at TPF as well

there are always hiccups

This can be done:

It's probably that plus the fact that the module playfield is static and not luminous like the front part of the game. There is a stark transition. I noticed in the video just above that all the renderings of the game have the module playfield matched with the screen playfield , when in reality this is not the case and can't be completely overcome due to the lumosity transition even if you had the exact imagery; it just gets that much worse when they areas don't even look the same in something like LL where there's different modes creating an even larger aesthetic difference between the module and the screen. I.e., there's a lot of disjointness going on.

I think maybe this is why a Zen pinball style approach might work for some people better.. While you can't fix the luminosity transition, having a static playfield matched between the screen and the module at all times, but then use the ball trails and side effect animations to bring life to the display might be a good approach for a future module.

This is also why maybe I personally like ROCs more as without the playfield module it is more visually appealing. However, picking at that for a moment. At what point does the physical ball not even matter.. I can't imagine the fun factor of ROCS being that much different if it was just a virtual pin?

Anyway, my "not an art director" opinion. And someone who hasn't played one.. So maybe you have to take these comments with extra large grains of salt.