Correction: Seven are taken, five are not.

If you listen to the early stuff that they said, the plan was to make 12 samples and *then* decide if they should build it commercially. The *anyone who wants one will get one* was that if it made it to production they wouldn't be artificially limited like say Magic Girl.

Speculating, but a big part of why they are only commiting to 12 samples is that the original pinball circus is a novelty more so then a game. The team is going to try incorporating ideas that python continued to have long after he stopped work on the original. The samples will vary as they try to incorporate the different ideas. If the final product is *fun* and they haven't run out of funds we very well could see production. Until they get to that final product though people should sit tight.

I think many of us simply heard what we wanted to hear--that they would build as many as the potential customer base wanted. I know that I always assumed that they would be building pins after the prototype(s), but from what I gather now, that was never a sure thing. Hopefully it all works out and the original team will be able to bring it into production after the prototypes are complete. What a great effort though to bring Python's vision to life even if just for 12 prototypes!

Congrats to Jim and Paul and team. Making 1, 12, or 100 is secondary to the fact they are doing this for Python. People who do good things in the hobby, take financial risk, and do hard work deserve our applsuse.

Clap clap clap

Joe

If they DO move these to production, Joe, will you be a reseller / dist?

Of course I would love to, but I haven't discussed that with James, nor frankly does he need it - They will sell out in a day. I would however be happy to host the games at my East Coast shows to get it to the masses as I have done with others. But other than that - no plans for anything. They aren't even making the game yet. If you were asking because you think my appreciation for the effort is driven by a business relationship - absolutely not - just pure respect brother. : )

That's exactly what they told me at the show....

Looks great so far!

Thanks Joe

It has been a lot of fun doing the software on this game and working alongside the other members of the team. Its a new platform to program on, and surely programming the mechanisms on a "traditional" single/double level pinball machine makes you take different things into consideration compared to when you program for four layers. Its like inception with pinball.

As others like yourself here have stated, we're simply keeping a promise. I'm quite fortunate in the sense that this has been so much fun, rather than work, along the way. The best part about the entire thing isn't even getting to work on pinball, or that feeling you get when you ship a bunch of new code to the game, fire it up and it all just works (mostly).... its the Python stories we all share with one another while we're in the shop working. When thinking about the memories, stories and what we as a team are ultimately getting out of this project, I take pride in the fact that we have something that no other pinball company in the world has.

For Python,

Jimmy

Amen to that!

Make his vision become a reality.

Congrats on the progress to date. Best wishes on the rest of the project too!

Played it last night. Game is unbelievably fun, and it doesn't seem close to being finished. Here are some bullet points I can think of off the top of my head:

- The game is HUGE. Like, the size of a standard size refrigerator.

- The flippers are VERY far apart, which leads to lots of quick drains. The good news is, the ball save seemed to last forever, so even though your balls would drain quickly (hey-OOOO), you could hit the ball launch button and still be on the same ball.

- Getting up to the clown is tough! But hitting those shots in succession to move the ball from one playfield to the next is extremely satisfying.

- The snake button is on the control panel to the right. James said there will be an option to have it placed by your crotch so you can, ummm, control the snake with your, uhhh, you get the point.

- The snake can only be activated at certain parts of the game. Wasn't able to figure out when, just kept cranking that button if the ball was going to drain. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't.

- James said they plan on making the ramp from Pinbo to the giraffe playfield completely interactive with the DMD! Python said he wanted players to be able to control the ball as it sat on the ramp using their flippers. So, as soon as you hit it up there, a game will start up on the screen. For instance, there's a clown riding a unicycle and you have to roll the ball left and right using magnets under him as he jumps! Very cool!

- The hanging acrobat girl is a nice touch and I'm hoping she interacts with the ball in some way once it's done.

- There is a spinner wheel near the upper left-hand side of the machine that moved periodically. Again, its exciting to see how they implement this in the final game.

- Now for some bad news. And I know this was just a small sample time frame to judge, but from the time I got there until the time I left about four or five hours later, there was never a huge crowd around the game. Many people here have expressed interest in buying this game if it ever gets produced past the 12 prototypes, but the team has said they would only do it of the interest was there. Hopefully the lack of attention at Expo doesn't give them the impression no one wants it. I'll admit, it's a novelty game that RIGHT NOW isn't as deep as a game like TSPP or WoZ. But even if they make 150-200 more of them (see: AMH), I'm sure this would appease the people who have said they would buy one.

I think what the team is doing is really cool. They are keeping their promise to someone they really cared about. We need more people like this not only in the pinball world, but in the real world in general! If they do decide to stop at 12, I'll be disappointed but completely understand and support their decision. I'm just glad I got a chance to play one of the prototypes, and will hopefully get a chance to play the finished product someday.

Anyone else spend some time with the game? What are your thoughts?

It was pretty cool to see, & I was also surprised that people weren't paying more attention. I guess it doesn't really look like a pinball machine and doesn't have the marketing hype of some of the big-name titles, so unless you were looking for it, it would have been easy to overlook. The quick drains were kind of frustrating and the learning curve was a bit steeper than I thought it would be. I agree it was cool to get the ball farther and farther up the various playfields.

I also hope they can get enough interest to mass-produce these. It's certainly a different type of game than a modern Stern, but it's fun and definitely executes the theme well.

YES YES YES Please implement this crotch button as I KNOW it was Pythons original idea.

I've heard him say this on a few occasions and has him discussing it during interviews that are still available for download on the internet. I can provide links with time stamps if there are non-believers out there.

This button NEEDS to be apart of this game as it was one of Pythons wishes and one that he was most proud of. It would be a major let down to exclude this button and not very respectable in the memory of Python.

i really think that snake needs to be moved down a little more. The way it stands it makes the game very unplayable. Due to the fact that when the ball hits it, it dies and drains. Very hard to get any kind of play going on a regular basis. But with the snake moved down a little more and the flippers slightly closer together, it can be playable and have the snake be a very valuable tool.

I've played a couple of games on the game. While there was not really a cue, it seemed to me the game was played all the time. When someone walked away, someone else tried it right away.

I also think the snake mech would improve gameplay if positioned a bit lower (and the button to activate it closer to your thumb). In the current position I would say the game is a drain monster and I completely understand why Williams' people removed the mech and put the flippers closer together. Maybe it could also work with an eddy sensor in front of the snake so it will kick whenever the ball comes near. It may not have been what Python wanted, but after interviewing Python for over 50 hours I can safely say he was more a conceptual designer and by far no designer like Steve Ritchie. The guy would do a basic drawing and then someone else had to make it work. He thought each and every of his ideas was a goldmine and frankly they were not. He always needed a Mark Ritchie, Barry Oursler or John Trudeau to get a decent playfield layout going. Interestingly it is unknown with who he worked on Pinball Circus. All I know is that he worked on it while working on Popeye (Barry Oursler) and there are several reasons why I will rank them with a similar grade in their current state. Both games have the view blocked from many shots and that just doesn't work in pinball. Players want to see where the ball is going. Maybe the second playfield could be made from clear plastic, which may help, but the elephant is also blocking the view quite a lot. That's not as easy to "fix". I've expressed my ideas with James as constructive critisism and seriously hope he will find a way to make it all work.

Maybe the snake needs to be made of some material with a bit more bounce, like rubber.

The ball doesn't actually hit the snake, there's a rubber wedge underneath it that makes contact with the ball. I believe the current mech is more prototype than production.

the snake is just a 1" rubber ring around the bottom of the snake. The top of the snake is the molded piece.

Any new news with the Pinball Circus project?

Sign me up !!!

Well, the team made it very clear that if anything new came up, they for sure wouldn't be posting here. Got sick of all the negative attitudes, I think.

Hopefully something comes up. I played this game at Expo this past October and even though it wasn't close to being finished, I still had a blast.

I thought it was announced that this would probably not proceed into production past the 12 prototypes. I gave up on it, stopped saving my money for it, and went elsewhere with my pinball dollars. This fell off my radar until I saw it kick up on the first page of Pinside.

It's not that it won't proceed to production, just that they won't know the feasibility of production till then - market, BOM, all associated costs, etc. If they can get it to production with a viable model, I am sure they will.

On their facebook page:
It has come a long way in the first full year. We've finished the hardware for the first proto-type and we are starting on the second game which will have all the exciting updates.

No.. just some people finally realized what they meant when they said it the first time. That production decisions would be made after the initial samples were engineered and built. People thought it was a given and just a sequence thing... when in fact its a 'build some samples, then shop the feasibility of production'

Any info bump?

Bump

They have said they will not post updates on Pinside. I have not seen any Facebook updates lately though.

Chris

Why? I thought they were giving us regular updates at one point.

QSS

Cast and characters has changed.

Spend about a month here and you'll see why.

Lots of whining about expensive toys.

Seems like a lot of people like to work others up on this forum and "Monday night quarterback". Some key people just decided to take their ball and go home. Kinda sad as others like to be informed and to see what is going on. I wish the best for this project and hope they do a production run when finished if they have the means and capability. I'm in this hobby for the love of pinball and some of the really awesome people in this hobby as well. I know owning a Pinball Circus would be a dream for a lot of folks, myself included. I enjoy the game every time I've had the chance to play it.

I played the "nowhere near complete" prototype at Expo in October and it was a blast! Only game I consistently kept going back to play.

If I won powerball or other big lottery I would fund it myself just to see it get completed. A 1000 machine run should satisfy the hobby.
Mike

+1

Never played BUT from watching youtube videos, I am hooked! Build it for 10k or less and you have a guarenteed sale right here.
Mike

Did you watch videos of the original or the remake? The remake is going to have a lot of differences, the most bizarre being the snake between the flippers you control with...well...your crotch.

I watched original, I have seen pics of the "python" in the middle of flippers.Looks interesting.
Mike

I don't Facebook.

If this does get made, I hope it gets posted here. I'm in if they decide to make it. I have a spot for an upright pin. This would fit in nicely.

It's about the size of a refrigerator. Wide is an understatement.

When I framed up my basement, I originally was going to put a pop machine in that spot. It's 41" wide. Pinball has taken over my entire basement. It'll take this spot too. I hope it gets made!

''Pinball Inc has commissioned the legendary pinball artist David Christensen to do the artwork for a pinball backglass. This is the pencil drawing he submitted to us this week. It is amazing that he is in his seventies and can still do such detailed work.'' Not know if its for their own gameroom or for a future project
https://www.facebook.com/PinballInc/photos/a.311873845571952.72252.246443058781698/972771312815532/?type=3

DC_(resized).jpg

Ahh.. King Pin is #2 after Pinball Circus

Wow! Amazing detail.

He's still got it!!!
The center building looks like the Dennis Hotel in Atlantic City that, ironically, Bally bought in 1977 and converted to a Casino-Hotel.

Any information on this project anyone?

Hi boys ! News for the project?

I'm curious too. Were the twelve samples built?