Your wish is my command.
LTG : )

Hey Jeff, thanks for all your feedback!

Thank you so much for saying all that, really makes us happy to know we accomplished what we set out to do. And of course very happy that you're enjoying the game!

You're overthinking the skill shots a bit, they're simpler than you describe. The 1-2-3 shooter lane skill shot gives you +1 Tach level for making the "1" zone, +2 Tach for making the "2" zone, and +3 Tach for making the "3" zone. If you make any of them, the skill shot point award is based on the Tach (after the skill increase). The flipper rev feature doesn't give separate points, it's a multiplier opportunity for whatever you wind up scoring in the shooter lane. You can't hurt yourself with the flipper rev... even if you over-rev and blow out the engine, you'll still receive whatever points you should get from the shooter lane skill shot.

BTW, I wouldn't be too quick to think that skill shot points are throwaway. I've earned 80 million from a single skill shot (including the left orbit Super Skill), and it's certainly possible to do better than that.

Looks fantastic, Yelobird ! Glad you're loving the game, and congrats on some cool mods! It's amazing how quickly you come up with those

Thanks #ferret you guys build a game full of inspiration so it was rather easy. In just 4 days all these were created and all 8 machines running day and night to build up inventory for what looks to be a Certain hit for AP.

Has anyone got their game that ordered them through Cointaker? I haven't heard a peep from them since ordering mine on day 1 .

After seeing this game, I am really looking forward to the next AP licensed themed game.

Both look great, API is so well made and a great company. What I really like, is its not another redone theme. I love Pinball, and the more the better. But props to API (and Spooky} for stepping out of repeat themes.

If you are in SoCal come check out the game at

Open Market OC
24100 Laguna Hills Mall Floor 2
Laguna Hills CA 92653

Open 10-6 Everyday

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Agree 100%

This game is really fun pin and it’s starting to become addicting. Once the next release incorporates enhancements mentioned by Josh and polish by Ferret, this game will feel complete. Then I need to add all the beautiful mods to my game and I am thinking about powder coating the hardware.

Came up with a few more ideas ....

Have players enter name at Start of game. Then every time player x appears, replace it with name enetered. Kind of like in bowling. You name each player before you bowl. Now the home screen reflects who is up instead of generic dweebs. As an added bonus - players name already entered, so as soon as game ends, the winners’ names (instead of entering initials) and high score screens are already populated. Mic drop. Will AP be the first pinball company to do things a better way? You’re welcome.


Another idea - add total number of flips beside each final score. This is an important kpi for HW and it should be reflected alongside player name, total time, score, score/time. My theory is that this game requires more shots to complete the final wizard mode than most. I’d like to know how many flips it took shown beside the score as another metric of progress. Say you and I scored 490M, but I did it with 1000 flips and you took 150.


Plus it is interesting to know minimum number of shots required to complete final wizard mode on any game. Example with fake numbers - MM takes 150, LOTR takes 280, HW takes 310 flips. So just as completing the race in record time is tracked as an achievement, maybe a new high score is added for fewest flips to become a pinball hero (Pinball Wizard ).

I love Stern and with 4-6 games a year they are putting out a wider variety of themes than in the past to appeal to different demographics. But they all still have a “Stern feel.” Just like BW, Gottlieb, etc. Not only to the flippers and other mechs but also game design. Keith, Tim and other new employees are starting to mix it up but are definitely still constrained to a design formula. The Stern feel is great but personally I enjoy variety in my collection. I bought Spooky’s first two games NIB but their design formula just doesn’t hit the mark yet with me - mainly playfield geometry. AP seems to have put it all together with HW. Hopefully it will only get better-and-better. I think it would be good to build on the momentum with another new game by early Q4.

What were you thinking on powder coat? Does seem like this game could use a pop of rail color. Blue maybe?

Same blue as on the apron ? Yes.

LTG : )

Or maybe chrome if it's a keeper.

Some i were considering:

1) all hardware - Hotwheel Orange semi gloss to match track shown by front legs.

2) all hardware - Candy Orange with metal flake for a metal vibe.

3) most hardware - Hotwheels Orange semi gloss but for front of game. Hotwheels Blue semi gloss to match apron - for apron, lockdown bar, coin door and frame and shooter housing. Shooter knob in red to match the pin striping. Of course, a matching pingulp needs to be created - stat.

Yelobird

I’ll give you an idea for a mod you can make and sell. If you make it, give me the first one. Source a semi-transparent blue plastic apron to replace existing metal one. Add some led lighting strips and tie it into the game with a wire connector. Reattach a new apron decal. BOOM! Goes the Dynamite! The light shining through might be enough to illuminate the printed instruction card already on apron decal The extra illumination would drastically enhance the appearance of the front end of cabinet too. I’d be willing to pay $200 for that (except I won’t have to ).

Interesting idea for sure and Always appreciate creative ideas as we love to create things others would like. As many of the parts they used for this game are fairly stock I wonder if a Stern translucent apron would fit this game? Can take a look at it. Thanks and Enjoy that great game and also Thanks for the code suggestions you have been providing!

Played this at Dave and Busters today. Hot Wheels isn’t my cup of tea but it was themed similar to the pinball with dinosaurs and trick courses. It’s nice to see new stuff out in the arcades!

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Good idea, but not the first: BOP 2.0 by Dutch Pinball already had this (not sure if that was with a full name, or only the 3 characters). Nice feature.

Last idea for the night. **** Spell RPM in order (not easy) and the advance bonus target (next to M target) would blink 10 sec, unless hit. A hit would awards 2x the RPM increase that would have occurred. This would be a lot like Centaur (one of my favorite games. In it you drop ORBS in order and receive an instant extra ball and it can be repeated unlimited times per ball). This would not be so generous, but you would be hitting 4 standup target in a row. it would be a nice nuance and something to strive for. What do you think? The game has almost everything in it possible, codewise. Why not toss in the kitchen sink? I want to make anybody who doesn’t own HW, jealous.

We have in fact tossed around ideas for what should happen if you complete R-P-M sequentially, or even sweep them (is that possible?!). Ya never know what might show up in a future code revision.

Was thinking about this game since I watched the DeadFlip reveal stream. I've been looking for a car-theme game for a while. This game hits all the cool-car buttons for me. I like a lot of the suggestions by @JeffSPinballPalace. And the mods introduced by Yelobird put it over the top; I just put my order in; along with the mods.

If I may be so bold as to state my personal observations and potential points for improvement...

1. As stated; there are like 400 cars in the game. This is great, seriously. I wonder if each player could pick a car out of a set of...say 10 different cars that would then represent that player (driver?). This car would then be displayed during the launch sequence; then each player (driver) would recognize their car to alert them of their turn. I have to tell you that sometimes during our pinball events players commonly forget which player# they are. Adding a player select-able car at the start of the game would solve this problem and show off all the cool car assets that are in the game.

2. Speaking of cool car assets...when collecting a car, that tire car carrier is really distracting to the view of the car itself. I would like to see the cool car that I just collected without the distracting background. I would suggest a less distracting background....please, we want to see the 400 cars.

3. The end of the spinner sound is really weird. Not sure how that even relates to the main spinner sound. Please, please consider updating this so that is sounds cool and not like I'm spatting a large bug beneath my shoe, maybe that is not the right analogy, but it's close. Please change.

That being said, I'm excited to get this game and, like you say, just have fun. It looks great, love the light-shows, customization by allowing your own HotWheels to be added, these things are really great and a new way of optimizing the assets of the game. Haven't played it yet, but bravo and well done AP.

Thank you for buying Hot Wheels! We hope you love the game.

We're not currently thinking of having player-selectable cars, although it's a possibility for future updates. We are improving the way that we present what cars each player has collected, to show off all the really fun cars that Hot Wheels has in their lineup. Mattel has shared lots of amazing cars with us. I personally have several physical Hot Wheels cars because they're neat, even though I'm not a hardcore Hot Wheels collector... but I love seeing the various cars that pop up during the game, they're just plain fun. (Yeah, I'm on the code team, but there's ~450 featured cars, I still get surprised!) I certainly expect that both Hot Wheels collectors and casual Hot Wheels fans will really love seeing all the different featured cars.

Also: we've tweaked the spinner sound for the upcoming code release.

Since I'm dancing around it: yes, there is an upcoming code release for Hot Wheels owners. Not a promise, but we hope to release it before the US 4th of July holiday. Lots of great improvements across the board!

Wow. You guys are on a roll. Thank you for adding some excitement during these trying times !

LTG : )

Come on, don’t tell us your not “play testing” those Hot Wheels cars around your desk. Lol. So impressed with the updates and mostly the API feedback. Rare yet Very appreciated. Have a great weekend and congrats to All that managed to pick up this great game.

Nice - guessing then if all goes well, that games shipping after 4th will have this code. Anxious to get my Hot Wheels and happy to hear about updates and polish being worked on for the game.

Tweak to the spinner sound ? hmmm intrigued

Very cool, thanks for the reply; This is really great having the game designers on the forum.

Another idea about user select-able cars just to get your imagination flowing some more...Each car could come with a perk in the game, for instance a twin turbo super car could have a perk that the turbo boost is longer (or better multiplier), but the downside is you need to hit double the pops to activate it. Each of the limited number of select-able cars could have a different perk and downside; of course a few standard cars might not have any perk or downside just to keep the code 'standard'. Perhaps another car would have a slower revving engine on the launch making the skill shot easier; you know that kind of thing.

Anyway, can't wait to get the game; and thanks again for having a positive attitude about customer suggestions.

That sounds a little too much like the steins in OKT.

I guess I’m unfamiliar with that feature of OKT. Was it that folks didn’t like the idea?

If that’s the case, no worries, maybe leave the perks out. All I know is that people are passionate about cars, and may enjoy the ability to identify with their favorite and express it.

Yet, most modern car racing games have some version of car performance values, I thought that might carry over well.

Is there (and if not a suggestion) a Houdini and Beer Wagon Oktoberfest car? Or maybe the occupied bumper cars from OF! ?

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All right.. all right.. you guys broke me. if I buy a Hot Wheels can we PLEASE get a Houdini update!

not at all, its really GREAT on OF !!!
the possibilities on how you wanna build your game are more than various, its very nice, a perfect feature, and not only for "players"

It it great of OKT but rosh has said they didn't want to repeat themselves that way on HW. It can become overwhelming and time consuming when someone stands there flipping through all the options trying to make a decision on location as well.

Lol Way to get er done! I see an update in your future.

We’re definitely not going to offer gameplay boosts based on a player-chosen car. That was considered and discarded pretty quickly, early in the design phase of Hot Wheels. It’s not that we don’t love that aspect of Oktoberfest, because we very much do... but we want all of our games to be distinctive. Hot Wheels is specifically intended to be about making the ball do its thing as fast as possible, and keeping your engine (Tach) revving.

Thanks for all the feedback, we love to hear it!

Oh, BTW, speaking of Oktoberfest car: right around the time we started the Hot Wheels project, I found a Hot Wheels Duck car. I snapped that up; it felt like the perfect transition from Oktoberfest to Hot Wheels. It was just sitting there front and center by my computer, yet none of my friends caught the hint when they saw it.

YES - that is the flavor of the game and goes with the theme AND makes it different from the previous two titles.

Making each game different than it's predecessors is the way to go. I want to see some new things and differences each time

From what I have seen Hot Wheels hits the mark. Can't wait to get my hands on mine when it comes. Have I said that before ? LOL

Might want to get a pair of these for your games arrival! It's Race Time.

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How many of the original 16 are in the 450? I realize there is likely a lot of licensing from the big 3 and VW that limits your use of them. Making those the "wizard" mode collections would be amazing (there are a few specific colors that are exceedingly rare as well).

Side note, I remember playing with my uncles hot wheels that were in my grandparents closet, some of which were the originals. If I could time machine back I'd tell myself not to crash those into the wall...

I have a NIB Hot Wheels and a NIB Houdini on order.

American Pinball sure are a class act. Not only do they welcome suggestions but they embrace those suggestions, if appropriate. How nice to have the team read, listen to and respect the views of us (soon to be) owners but, also, the views of those who may not buy the machines.

Well done American Pinball!

Roger

yes, i was with you & your quote of course

my answer is for Skogen

and than, yes its a clever choice to NOT make similar "power rules" on HW (just following OF)

No worries guys, I was just letting my imagination run wild. Good to know more of the game design background.

On a side note, my 5 year old girl loves Hot Wheels and was running in circles when we told her about the new game!

See this right here... The way American pinball attitude is towards their fans, customers and potential customers vs say some of the other pinball manufacturers makes me want to buy from them that much more!

Notice how many staff from Stern and JJP make themselves available here on Pinside for such things. I know Lyman and Ted Estes (thank you guys!) post occasionally but they aren’t speaking for the company in those cases. AP have without exception all been stand-up, fantastic guys who let their imaginations run wild when designing the games.

+1

i was beta tester for Ted & Joe on DI, these guys are also more than nice
its very important for us, customers, to have these people available here

Anybody wanting to join Ferret's club. Go to Ebay. Search Hot Wheels Duck. Hundreds to choose from.

LTG : )

Unusual Hot Wheels that I can’t afford. The last one was a johnny lightning release and inspiration for a full-size replica.

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Look in the background

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Oh hell yeah, need to get that Monkees car!

you found the AP easter egg

The four figures are removable. Maybe one could be painted to be Rosh ... Ferret ... LTG .... and Garage Monkey

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