There are some really good system 11 games. EATPM, Radical!, Taxi, Whirlwind, Mousin'. I could see all of these being remade.

But, and this is a big BUT... The current availability of Whirlwind and Taxi (3rd and 4th most produced games that are before Funhouse from 88-90 at 7,300+ ---behind Fire and Cyclone) are going to stop it from happening for now.

Once a solid few months pass along without seeing one of those two games for sale, then it might push the demand and price high enough to justify it.

For now, I don't see players condition games selling for close to NIB prices. Until that is a reality, a "remake" does not make sense, as there is no profit. You can buy a Whirlwind for 3K and a Taxi for less than that... Until those prices increase to 4K-5K or less for a beater or player's game, it is not going to be a reality.

That is the breaking point for a remake.

When beater MM, AFM, and MB machines were pushing 6-7K, the market took notice and made them both. If that happens in the system 11 market, the same thing might happen. I just don't see these sys 11 titles getting that high.

I'm going to divert from the point a little and may irritate some with the following...

The remade machines up to this point fill a pinball gap for the person that is not necessarily a true competitve player of the pinball. MM, AFM, and MB are ALL over the top and impressive machines for reasons that have very little to do with amazing pinball design itself.

There are so popular because they are the most ridiculous games up to that point in pinball. The artwork and sounds are masterfully integrated into those games. So, these machines are GREAT GAMES but IMO, they are just mediocre-to-very-good pinball machines.

If you strip away the play field art, the music, the insults and jokes, along with the animations and campy alien and medeivel humor, you are left with an ok design but very little for the pinball purist. I suppose this has some to do with the overall shot risk/reward point design in these titles as well. (It's fairly shallow.)

It took me years to appreciate AFM as a good machine and it is a ton of fun. It is the best of the 3 rereleases thus far but it fails to divert enough from the original game to offer the "grumpy old man pinball player" anything new and exciting. A new pinball enthusiast, or a collector, then there is certainly a buyer there.

So, back on point and aside from current market price, what system 11 game(s) offers such things to justify a remake?

I know most may not see it this way but hey, it's only pinball!

I would buy a system 11 remake for $4000! Sounds like a great idea

There is no profit to be made at that price. Ain't happening.

I would buy two at $3000!!!! Sounds like an even better idea!!!

I know Twisted Pins made molds for Taxi replacement spinout ramps and then disappeared. Does anyone know what became of the molds?

Looks like the red ones are OOS most places, Still available in blue

There isn't a single commercially available pinball machine for under $5,500 right now. What makes you think they could crank out some System 11 games for $1,000 less? It beggars disbelief!

What exactly is cheaper about those games than what they are cranking out now? Saving on licensing costs wouldn't get it done.

Oh my goodness. You $3k NIB guys are dreaming. Impossible. We'd be lucky to see it made in USA for $5k.

There’s no $4200 nib games.

Would you pay $5500 for a new taxi? That’s the entry level price for a pin now.

Just a heads up my fully restored taxi cost me $4750 all in. That’s $500 for a beater game, then a CPR play field, new decals, new spin out, toppper, legs, lockdown bar, etc. that not counting labor. A boutique run of taxi would need to cost prolly 7-8K to make a reasonable profit.

Nah. No way a boutique would be able to remake a williams game. But even then you are buying one of each of those parts. A company making the games would buy in bulk and spend way way less on those parts. If they can make AFM for $6500 then they surely can make a taxi for $5500.

I believe the BOM of taxi is likely higher than AFM. AFM remake uses an lcd which are miles cheaper than alpha displays. Taxi has huge injection molded parts like the spin out and topper which are expensive too. Coil count is practically the same. What on taxi is cheaper than what is on AFM?

I assumed the classic model was just running a regular dmd. I haven’t really looked at the AFM remake much. I’ve only played the le actually. I get it that those taxi parts aren’t cheap to us buying them after market but I have to believe that if we are buying them for $100 a piece that they can pump out tons of them for a lot less. Maybe I’m wrong. I assumed all the stuff on top of the playfield was fairly pricey on AFM. Plus it has more features like the motorized target bank etc...

Unfortunately, I doubt any Sys 11s will ever be remade because the cost (probably $6k) is not in line with the demand.

Such a great library. There are 1/2 dozen I'd pay up to $4500 for NIB. In my dreams.

I've seen NIB Black Knight, Diner, Earthshaker, Tommy, Game Show, TZ, and only the TZ fetched more than 5K. I know that's over a long period of time but NIB is not impossible for older machines. Remember, everything has it's top dollar. I mean think of it this way. A NIB Game Show is NEVER going to be worth more than a NIB Earthshaker. NIB has it's pricing tiers just like played machines.

My fault bro I didn't notice it was highly upvoted.

I cant see how a newly manufactured NIB system 11 would be 5k coming off the factory line.

NIB sterns are 5k and they have dmds, all kinds of mechs/toys and crap on them. A system 11 reproduction would be so much less sophisticated to produce I'd think.

Yes, but that overall cost would only be reduced a few hundred $ in the end. Would not reduce the price of NIB enough.

The cost of a sys11 and AFM can’t be $1000 difference. Seriously, let’s review:

Both have almost the exact same parts from a factory assembly perspective. Wooden cabinet, backglass, transformer, electronic components, legs, bolts, hardware, Playfield, etc etc .

Mech count: even though mechs and playfield parts aren’t the significant cost of a game, let’s do a count.

Taxi:
2 flippers
2 slings
2 ramps
1 catapult
3 kick out coil mechs
3 pop bumpers
2 trough coils
1 diverter coil
1 bell coil
1 knocker coil
Plastic set

AFM:
2 flippers
2 slings
2 ramps
4 Martian coils
1 scoop kickout
1 vuk
1 drop target
2 diverters
1 knocker
Plastic set

Where is the $1000? I just want to know even $500 parts worth of difference.

If you are in the manufacturing game, $1000 on a $5000 game is a 20% margin. My guess is stern likely profits after everything 1-2k per game. So yeah I mean I am pretty sure taxi and AFM gotta be the same cost BOM. So why again should taxi be $4k?

So at least you are now down to $6500 from the boutique run at $7-8K lol