It's real, but I wouldn't hold your breath until you see games shipping, these guys haven't proven themselves yet, and stopping work on Pinball Circus to go down the Kingpin rabbit hole might not inspire confidence. I don't like the new art they're trying to do for it either.

We'll see if there's a legal fight too, it might get messy.

Put it this way, I think Kingpin is a fun game, even with software that's not 100% baked, but the entire project isn't something I'd be an early adopter on.

http://www.circusmaximusgames.com/product/dave-christensen-kingpin-limited-edition-backglass

Sounds great. I wish you luck, to be clear. I don't like the new art, or your choice of artist and his baggage, but as long as the original is an option who cares? I can't imagine the original wouldn't be an option at least. King Pin is a fun game, I'm a fan of it, and Mark Ritchie, more people should get to play it, hope it works.

It's just that I'm keenly aware of how hard it is to actually build pinballs, having had a front row seat to the process. It's one thing to cobble together a prototype with parts borrowed from Steve, it's another to go into production. The legal waters with the Capcom games are also very murky.

I think people have a right to be cautious these days, that's all. In general, not because of anything shady about you guys.

I don't see that thread or know what it is, would help to link it, since it's not on the front page after checking. But this isn't an official Planetary thread, I don't see any reason why these multiple discussions shouldn't co-mingle. It's all relevant to the world of remakes. The murky Capcom waters apply just as much to Planetary and Big Bang Bar. It's not at all clear that Gene actually had any rights to sell on that one. Rick seems to have indicated that he can do it, no idea what that really means.

The story I heard, from a good source but grain of salt, is that Gene had a handshake deal at most, and no one from Capcom gave a crap really. I think the fact that he had existing parts helped too, but I dunno if that's really relevant. I don't think Gene had anything that he could transfer to Planetary. I imagine Rick is too smart to just build Big Bang Bar out of the blue, and he's hinted that he could do it multiple times publicly and privately, but I'd personally want assurances that the legal stuff was free and clear from anyone doing Capcom games before I bought. Should be easy to just say so if it's aboveboard.

Not saying Capcom would come repo your game or anything mind you. Just that we've seen what happens before. TBL had a great prototype, lots of promises about manufacturing, and then the license stuff changed, the manufacturer turned out to not be so awesome, it's just a tricky business. Heighway had their own factory, were shipping a game, did the Bacardi thing, plenty of good signs. Enough to get me on board, that's for sure. Then look at how it's gone.

Frankly more credit should be given to this AFM remake, it's gone pretty damn smooth all things considered. Maybe some issues with the orange or a few defective playfields or whatever, but they're making games pretty drama free and that's no small thing.

Ugly ties to white supremacy. And no, I'm not just talking about the Mata Hari dagger story, though it's more interesting with that context I guess, since it made zero historical sense on the game.

Didn't read it online, have nothing to link. It's enough that I want nothing to do with him, others can make their own calls on it. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything I dunno, my source for it was good enough for me, but yeah, I can't cite anything.

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm not interesting in debating white supremacy of any kind. Anyone who supports it can kindly f—k off.

Honestly I wouldn't want a King Pin with new art from anyone really, the point would be to have the game that already exists. So what I've heard about the artist isn't really relevant, my bad for even bringing it up, I shouldn't speculate, not really fair, I apologize for that.

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PP&Product_Code=PPS-KINGPIN-BG&Category_Code=BKG

Or it might not, I dunno, just saying.

I don't think Rick is dumb, and the stories about what Gene actually had are just stories. I have pretty solid second hand info, but who knows. Maybe Gene didn't have shit and Rick already went straight to Capcom.

I'm just playing anti-hype man, because I feel like this community sometimes just refuses to learn from the past, so someone's gotta be the grump to balance it out.

So glad this thread is titled "no more speculation"