If it's Beetlejuice, that will be my next purchase, my kid loves it, especially the musical but the movie too. I'll get her into pinball yet!

The rules write themselves! Spell B-E-E-T-L-E-J-U-I-C-E three times, and all hell breaks loose!

Rocky Horror Picture Show would be another solid choice in this vein.

Killer tomatoes or clowns or flowers, though? Pffft. At least they wouldn't have to worry about selling out on day one, I suppose.

I never watched anything Firefly, and I'm almost afraid to since I would apparently be disappointed too badly about how they didn't make more.

Have it set in an abandoned amusement park, right?

Imagine the game going dark, with some mode about to start, and Scooby saying "Ruh-roh!" Instant classic!

I had no question.

Were buyers from distributors even required to be Fang Club members? If so, how did that work?

Oh, okay, I never got that far with the distributor I tried, he wanted to still take care of previous customers first, so we never got to that question, and I went to the website after that, I wasn't about to chance waiting two days!

Although in hindsight, since it turned out he had some left after all, I should have bought two!

Gotcha, Chris! Hey, I hope you know there are no hard feelings on my end, and if I ever sounded critical it wasn't meant to be, I was trying to just relate my experience.

Creating FOMO is fraught with pitfalls on both sides! Imagine the chaos if they really tried enforcing the policy with distribs.

That panda thing in post 681 seems significant. Can't imagine what else a panda could mean. Well, except that production was moving to China, and it ain't that!

Edit: Charlie referenced a "Mr. Panda" in a post two years ago, so there goes that theory... Note I'm not up on my Spooky lore, never listened to the podcast, etc.

The horror... the horror...

Tropical Cop Tales? DELUSCIOUS! Thank you, 'preciate it!

And a free Wild Cranberry artisanal lip balm! Shit, yeah!

Ben sez not BJ, so I can relax, and my wallet can rest easy.

I just thought of another Adult Swim offering that would make a funny and, well, spooky pin.

A show with a lot of humor and a lot of creepy, practically disturbing content:

The Heart, She Holler

Seems right in their wheelhouse. Too bad that, like Tropical Cop Tales, it was just TOO weird to garner a large following.

Anyone who hasn't seen it and likes weird, over-the-top comedy should check it out! It'd be great, each mode could begin with an animated VHS tape insertion and Daddy giving instructions and advice to the player.

While we're at it, same goes for Dream Corp LLC. That one is more trippy than spooky, though. Each mode could be about a different patient...

Why? I mean, apart from some people liking horror?

Spookiness is spooky.
Horror is horrendous.

They are not the same thing, they both evoke fear but they come from completely different places.

Spookiness is fun, eerie, creepy.
Horror is suspenseful, startling, gruesome.

Horror can be presented in a fun way, true, but it usually isn't, except as parody. It's also desensitizing and unfortunate, I would say. Not a fan. The "fun" in horror is limited to those viewers who consider being scared to be fun. How could you make a pinball actually scary? (Apart from sticker shock!)

Spookiness is fun, too, but from the other direction, it's fun because it's dumb. Ghosts and monsters, as if!

I hope Spooky never does a full bore slasher theme. Classic movie monsters, though? Go nuts!

(Meanwhile, anyone wanna sell me a TFTC?)

I don't recall any of that, except maybe for Shaggy's laid back hippie-like persona and speech, man, and the fact that he and Scooby were always hungry, as if they had the munchies. Bit of a stretch. The originators in the 60s certainly weren't going to deliberately do anything that controversial and in fact denied doing so, when it was finally brought up years later as a rumor.

The same goes for HR Pufnstuf's creators, the Krofft brothers, and that show was trippy as hell. It's a bit harder to believe them, though. Come on, puffin' stuff? Wow, I never realized they only made 17 episodes. If you remember the show and haven't seen the Mr. Show skit "The Altered State of Drugachusetts" you just have to.

The Banana Splits was pretty bananas, as well!

I didn't think people who are high constantly had the energy to go out and chase spooks.

They certainly never showed him toking up or anything, not even an unexplained cloud of smoke in the Mystery Machine.

It isn't denial if the thing being denied is untrue.

You have got to be kidding. That isn't even Scooby Doo, it's a parody within a fucking Jay and Silent Bob movie.

Seems to me I nailed it, I said you have got to be kidding, and I was right! And if you look closely, that van did not say Mystery Machine.

We were talking about the original cartoons. Thanks for wasting everyone's time describing the extremely obvious process of posting, though.

Changing gears,

Don't be so sure, they already annouced one spin-off.

Hell, I'm a tail end boomer and I absolutely love Rick and Morty, the show and the pin.

I can see how people who suck at pinball might not like the pin so much.

But I've been playing pinball for over 50 years, and it's the most fun I've ever had playing.

Anything Spooky comes up with is sure to be a letdown after R&M, AFAIC.

I'm sure whatever it turns out to be will be awesome! But speaking just for myself, there is no other franchise that has been seriously discussed that I like anywhere near as much as I do Rick and Morty, and the pin integrates it so well that for me, nothing could compare.

Just as well, I won't be buying anything new for a while anyway.

Universal Monster Madness! Abbreviation UMM...

Just don't use, as theme music, the frickin' Monster Mash!

Or have them driving around in a van, searching for intelligent life!

The suspense has outworn my interest. Wake me when it's announced.

Scooby Don't.

If you really want a game based on solving mysteries in a van, from a show that is actually funny and not for little children:
MSEBE4C2D30D224757D9F70A57D1BCDEF215 (resized).jpeg

Ben, is it bigger than a breadbox?

House? I'd sooner buy House MD. Complete sets of targets to run tests and score a "Rare Disease Diagnosed" Jackpot!

house-md (resized).jpg

I hope that doesn't drag the game out to an hour, like it does the show! Golly, how many does the movie have?

If you can't buy one on their website, that means it is sold out. Otherwise, if someone somewhere is still sitting on a boxed one, does that mean it's still not sold out?

Yeah, and Spooky, the manufacturer, was the one selling them! When distros agree to take so many, the company considers them sold.

Listen, Spooky's website was sold out in four hours, their entire run of 750 was allocated. Why can't you let them have that?

Of course anyone can find any game they want somewhere, if they call everyone and wave money around. So nothing is ever sold out?

Downvotes simply register disagreement, don't have a stroke.

Why all the hand wringing? I'm looking forward to the reveal, too, but it's not going on sale immediately upon reveal, so chillax!

I had no idea how deciding what pin to buy next is so life and death!

But yeah, if I decide to read a thread that grows to 4000 posts of meaningless conjecture, that's on me! Go nuts!

And to be honest, I'm a little antsy to find out, myself. When Beetlejuice was on the table, I was more concerned how to come up with the dough, but that title has been ruled out, as I recall.

And under the pf sure looks interesting! Still, I can relax knowing I won't want a CE, whatever the title, so I don't even need to be on the ball like I was for R&M, no four hour "sellout" this time!

Okay, but "any time" sounds imminent...

I'll have you know, those characteristics are not mutually exclusive.

I wonder if the obscure, family-themed second title is Eraserhead?

I mean, what's more "family" than having a baby? Plus it's spooky!

spookyenuff4u (resized).jpg

It's the most popular cult movie for midnight showings, with weirdos dressing up and singing along and throwing different things at the screen on different cues, and all sorts of audience participation. I hear it's fun, never been myself.

Anything campy is more fun the more you watch it, much like a lot of comedy. I don't think anyone ever considered it to be superlative cinema.

Peppa Pig would be good, too, every target hit making a grunting noise would be hilarious.

Daddy, would you please hit all the blue targets?

All right, Peppa! SNORT

I just had a great idea! Were Spooky to "double theme" a future release, what could be more of a natural fit than Scooby Doo / Mike Tyson Mysteries?

It's so obvious, I won't bother to elaborate! But I know which one I'll buy!

Gotta say, Ultraman looks ultra rad!

What ever happened to Phoebe Cates?
https://www.distractify.com/p/phoebe-cates-now

Sounds like the same message to me! I think what he's saying is, as the hardware is identical on both games, there's no reason it wouldn't work, but don't come crying to us if it doesn't, or fries something!

If I were on the fence, perhaps lamenting the lack of a gameplay video, what I would do is go ahead and put down a deposit, and if I change my mind during the inevitable wait, I can always sell my spot. If the buyer can convince me that he's not just going to flip it, I'd even sell it for cost.

I still say Scooby Doo / Mike Tyson Mysteries would be a perfect dual release, and right up Spooky's alley!

I'm just not sure what the MTM equivalent of collecting Scooby Snacks would be, though...
perhaps picking up Pigeon's empty beer cans?

Sucks MTM got the axe, although four seasons is plenty of material.

Sock puppets

I mean, VHS is short for Very Hard to See, right?

Lots of people collect obsolete things!

Some VHS tapes on eBay go for over $10K!

When do we turn our attention to the NEXT next Spooky game(s)? Ultraman and Halloween have their own threads now.

Well, I do get that they are still "next" right now, and that their concurrent release is a special thing. Carry on!

Just want to get the Beetlejuice hype started back up, I guess.

Thanks a lot, the mere mention of those two words in sequence invariably sets off an hours-long earworm in my comedy-loving brain!

Woof woof! Woof!

Remembering the same commotion over R&M's build order, I'm almost glad I passed this time.

I'll keep telling myself that!

This reaction demonstrates the value of the manufacturer getting their own video out first.

I was enchanted by the look of the head, anyway. I'm sure I'll get a chance to play both versions, several hardcore Spooky collectors around here.

WAPP maybe. WAP means... uh... uh huh huh huh... something else already.

...or else maybe do a crossover? Bring a bucket and a mop for Weird Al's Polkaparty!?

polkaparty (resized).jpg

Family friendly: Scooby Doo
More hardcore: Mike Tyson Mysteries

They'd even be able to use the same van toy/mech! (apart from their decorations of course)

Shame we won't be getting any custom Pigeon callouts though. Still, he had enough great lines that it could be awesome. Norm's voice would be as great as Rick's (on R&M) for berating the player.

Almost a year in, R&M still cracks me up while playing.

The Scooby Doo/Mike Tyson Mysteries idea was not for a mash-up, it was for two titles on the same design like Halloween and Ultraman. Scooby for the family friendly crowd, and MTM for the folks who don't want a pin based on a show for children. And both shows prominently feature a van, so there you go!

And Norm had plenty of lines that would be great callouts, I'm quite sure. Of course it's a bummer that it's too late to have him create custom callouts, but don't let that stop you!

Mr Tyson would probably be happy to go along and record callouts for some $, seeing as how he let them make the show, which pokes a lot of fun at him, in the first place.

Just imagine being Charlie Brown.

I DON'T KNOW -- wait, sorry. I don't know if you can be sure a pin will be great just because it has what you think would be a great theme. To state the obvious, there are lots of great themes that wound up being very mediocre pins, and vice versa.

One thing I do know would be great about it is that on the show, the spookiness is always revealed to be shenanigans rather than supernatural, just like real life. It is rather interesting how they were able to drag that basic premise out for so long and still be mildly entertaining.

I wonder how it would translate to a pin though. Hit this target to pull the sheet off the guy? Collect Scooby snacks (yawn)? I'm doubtful that it's the gold mine for ideas that one might assume at first.

I would love to be proven wrong, though! A great pin transcends the theme, and I don't doubt that great creative minds could come up with something to make my concerns look premature.

That's a clue! They wouldn't need four programmers to rerun TNA.

Despite my earlier lack of imagination, I'm sure Scooby Doo has the potential to be a fine theme for a pin.

Maybe I was subconsciously having trouble picturing what could be spooky or at least edgy about a Spooky Scooby, seeing as how the show always resolves to everything having a mundane explanation, i.e. not spooky after all. Not in their wheelhouse, as it were. But that's just me overthinking it again, they'd use the pre-explanation ghosts and monsters for the art and it'd be fine.

I don't think including Scrappy Doo would help sales, though. A negative if anything. Didn't everyone hate those episodes?

If they've already hired programmers, it's probably too late to influence their decision, it's already made.

How about
1) option to put in real name
2) option to add picture of actual self
3) some sort of verification of 1 & 2
4) Key: option to auto-ignore anyone missing those three things

All optional, and see where it goes... I guess it would either take off or it wouldn’t.

I would hope it would, as most pinball people are genuine and friendly.