Hope someone I know buys it...would love to play it when it's out.

Sweet!

I'm happy to see an original non licensed theme.

It is exciting to hear! I just.....I just hope hobbit ships so we can see this thing soon.

looking forward to seeing more. If they are already at this stage, hopefully the game will ship next year

Good article. I think I'll be forced to sell another pin to help fund JJP #3!

Make it STTNG. Don't see how you could get rid of anything else. Nice collection!

An upper right flipper...awesome.

Man they loved that one didn't they? Probably would have busted a nut if 6 pop bumpers were mentioned

Yeah, STTNG and TZ would be the ones to go if that were my collection. (Wait, if that were my collection they would never appear in it to begin with!) Heck, just replace one of them with a WPT now, and still have room for the Pat Lawlor game!

Pat Lawlor + Complete creative freedom + JJP's higher budget = total awesomeness (Lawlorsomeness?)

This will be interesting - love TZ.

Great news.
I try to ask a few top level questions when considering the value of something to the pinball community:

1) Is this good for the growth of pinball?
2) Will this help add to the body of american art history known via pinball?

With regards to licensed rehashed fan layout themes, I have these three questions:

1) Is it good for the growth of pinball to keep churning out licensed themes based on movies/music/tv shows?

2) Should pinball still be considered an art form, when it re-uses a licensed art theme? Is that art? When I look back on pinball machines re-hashing movie art 30 years from now, will I feel like that machine's art package is capturing the look, feel, and sound of 2015?

3) Is it good for pinball to keep re-using nearly the same fan layout and just change the theme every few months?

I'm happy for Riot, Spooky, and JJP for having the cojones to do a non-licensed theme. Are these the only three companies willing to try it in 2015?

-mof

_{Post edited by mof: added spooky (3)}

I'm saving money just in case

Let's see how they sell. I love Lawlor games (mostly)...it will be a potential hit with people who are already pinball fans/collectors. It's potentially meaningless to anyone else. Ops are unlikely to buy it because it will be expensive AND an unknown. So, it's highly unlikely that it will sell as well as a beloved license - but, should be cool regardless.

I'm very interested in Pat's pin and will probably have an early order for one to go with WW/SC/NGG/Monopoly.

I suspect it will sell well based on PL alone, but if it doesn't, it may be the end of the road for non-licensed pins from the big guys.

Will be interesting to see what theme they choose. It could sell well if they choose a hot but unlicensed theme (e.g. zombies playing off the success of TWD). For a classic unlicensed theme, MM played off the success of Monty Python, so it's been proven it can be done with a classic theme too. Here's hoping that Lawlor and Youssi put their creative minds together and come up with something special.

Another thing to consider about unlicensed themes in 2014.

Q: What's the #1 way to get visibility into your pinball machine in 2014?

A: Be a part of TPA

22,000 reviews, 5mil-10mil downloads.

If I were launching a machine in 2015, I'd *make sure* that I gave TPA the rights, and a free pin to include my unlicensed game for free to get exposure. Hopefully JJP, Spooky, and Riot will jump all over the opportunity.

-mof

_{Post edited by mof: added spooky (3)}

Agreed 100%

Why no love for Spooky? They're shipping an original theme right this minute, you can order one and have it actually appear (within months, not years). People are posting pics of their delivered games.

Wow. Sounds like your picking out a lawnmower. Your list reminds me of the scene from Dead Poets Socienty where the textbook suggests measuring poetry on a graph to determine its "greatness"

I have 1 question that I ask:

Is it fun.

Spooky? Haven't heard of that one -- please link the thread of people getting delivered games. thanks...

Thanks, that makes 3 vendors willing to risk it on original themes.
-mof

Some people have great passion for lawnmowers.
I have great passion for pinball.

One of my hopes is that 20 years from now, when I look back on all the pinball from 2000-2020 is that it's not all rehashed movie/band/tv-show themes using the same fan layout (with 3 exceptions). That's not a future I want to see, and we only have 5 years left to fix that future.

From the interviews I've listened to -- that's the future Python wanted to see. New tech. New ideas. I hope more people share his artistic passion for pinball...

-mof

You've never heard of Charlie from the Spooky Pinball Podcast and how he's started a pinball company? They're first game is Ben Heck's "America's Most Haunted" ...it's been talked about a lot for a while now...lots of videos. They've shown a proto for their next game, "Pinball Zombies From Beyond The Grave".

If someone in the pinball universe hasn't heard of Spooky, it's time to crank up the advertising and promo videos!!!!

Surprised you could be on Pinside so much without knowing about this. They need to work on their marketing apparently.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/final-art-for-americas-most-haunted-pricing-info/page/17#post-1813091

So, in other words, like a BBB?

Cool! Bring it on Mr. Lawlor!

I think Jack wants to sell more than 200 units.

Yeah, but over *1000* collectors are currently in line waiting on a BBB remake right now, right?

So, looks like it will be a winner!

I don't know how many people want a BBB...but it's an irrelevant comparison. We *know* what BBB is, have played it and/or seen it and can make a decision on whether we want it. No one knows what Pat's JJP game is, so there's no telling who wants it.

Not an irrelevant comparison. The majority of collectors prepay for games they have never played or seen.

The majority of people that bought MMR, never played a MM.

The majority of people that bought BBB, never played a BBB.

The majority of people that want a CC, never played a CC.

Collectors are guided by other collectors.

Interesting, if true.

I would not buy a remake of a game I hadn't played, but I've bought 5 (6 if you count Hobbit) NIB games. That seems to be a contradiction (and probably is), but I also can't imagine I wouldn't have played a game that anyone would remake these days.

Uh, what's your source for that data? Because I find that difficult to believe. I know one person just posted that in the thread, but that strikes me as the exception to the rule.

I think you might have forgotten about Jpop and "original"…..

All that to learn that it has an upper right flipper?

Cool link OP. That was a nice, quick & informative read. Thanks.

And we already knew that...

It is irrelevant because those games all exist. Even if you haven't played them, you can look at pictures of them or watch videos of them. We don't know what Lawlor's game is right now...you can't compare something that exists to something that doesn't. Get back to us when we know what this game actually is.

Another original theme with new tech scheduled to ship in Nov - Full Throttle

Modular playfield assemblies
Inductive rollover switches
LCD mounted in middle of playfield

viperrwk

Another original theme with LCD mounted in middle of playfield: Quetzal Captain Nemo.

P3. Nordman. Original. Awesome. Times two actually with Cosmic Cart Racing being the second of the two modular first releases.

--
Rob Anthony
Pinball Classics
http://LockWhenLit.com
Quality Board Work - In Home Service
borygard at gmail dot com

Happy to hear anything new from Pat Lawlor. Sounds like progress is being made. Time will tell. A whole lotta time.

I hope so it has been six months.

If the toy on it is anything like Family Guy's, I'm in.

Full Throttle has my attention. Great theme (for me) & some cool design, love the LCD in playfield!

Yeah. Apparently Magic Girl has had the artwork tweaked and finalized recently. Interesting, as it looked better than any pinball art I've ever seen in it's earlier form over a year ago....

Captain Nemo looks more like a winner to me on design and play.

Unfortunately, no one can buy it unless they were in on the pre-order.

Oh my gosh, I just realized that PL's new game will most likely also be equipped with an LCD screen(because, why wouldn't it be?).

Can you imagine all the easter eggs he'll probably ask to have put in the animations?

Has anybody guessed what the "third disaster" actually is yet?

sharknado