Total Nuclear Annihilation production by Spooky Pinball

I'd say more of a proof of concept than a prototype. There are many aspects of what he has done that will likely have to change before the game goes into production. I would expect it will be more than a few months before we see a prototype that is more representative of what the production game will look like. Not saying it is going to be radically different, but this was a one off with no original intent to take it to production, so it was not engineered with that in mind. Add to that Scott has a full time job.

I have no inside info, but I'd imagine that TA would come after Alice cooper and whatever Ben is cooking up.

There's nothing wrong with offering feedback on this or any other game. It's a forum. Scott can make up his own mind of whether any of these ideas have any merit or not.

I agree with all except could be run side by side with other games. They have a 3 year contract to build Alice Cooper.

TA plan is to build batches of 50. Game is not finished and therefore no completed BOM. There are reasonable goals set for price bit no one knows at this time. One possibility to make cost reasonable is to drop the individual displays. I prefer they stay but there is a lot going on and cuts may have to be made.

Everyone should just relax a bit . Nothing wrong with posting suggestions here , but I do know that Scott is going to build the game he wants to build without outside influence . Scott is willing to let this game live or die based on creating the game to his vision of what he wants this game to be . Suggestions are fine , but keep in mind that Scott isn't listening .Nothing wrong with that either it is his game , and I hope that no one is offended by that either . Everyone will have have a chance to buy one of these , they will just have to decide if they like what Scott has done or not . As for price no one knows yet , Spooky still needs to assemble one and see how many hours goes into building one plus BOM . I am sure spooky will make an announcement when the final version of the game is ready and they have pricing figured out . Will it support a shaker ? Is a legit question . I don't know the answer .

I would argue AMH and RZ were both machines that more or less started as home brews and went into production, it also happened with Banzai Run.

Also, I want it with no backglass and sharpie on the playfield. It looks perfectly industrial like it is!

"If I had asked my customers what they wanted me to build, they would have said a faster horse" - Henry Ford.

One thing's for sure; they gotta keep that awesome rosh Sharpie art. "Ball Saver" = classic

I like the game as is. So cool and different! A future classic!! On list!!!!

When people see the final reveal it's going to sell like crazy, you can quote me on that.

$10K by Christmas.

Brad

I didn't mean to sound brash.. I just know that people like to armchair quarterback a lot, and for some projects clearly they need help. I just don't imagine Scott making many changes, if any. I also don't want to see this get delayed, people want it now.

I was just watching american pickers last night, and they brought up a fact that Dillinger wrote Ford a letter, thanking them for building a fast car so he could watch the other cars (police) fall behind you. I thought that was hilarious!
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/33693/

I like drop targets as much as the next person but they don't necessarily make it better. Stand ups are perfectly fine but this is coming from a Bally 6803 fan and a lot of those were built with stand ups.

Shaker is also blah in my opinion. If it's in there great, if it isn't great. I think some of us have forgotten this is supposed to be a throwback 80s style game.

The only addition I would suggest is maybe a headphone jack. Maybe some holograms and a disco ball too.

Fake, wasn't his handwriting.

About a month later Clyde Barrow sent a similar letter, though the writing on that one looked more like Bonnie Parker's writing.

LTG : )

Let's see...

Game cabinet came from a Dolly Parton...

"T/A" / T&A... there's a good joke there somewhere.

But I did play the game at TPF, and it's tits

Yeah, let's even further perpetuate the screeching grind towards Pinside becoming "Fluffy Pinball Safety Forum" where nobody can have an opinion.

Ban yourself, grow the hell up, take some responsibility, and if you have a problem with people, then put them on ignore. DUH.

In MOF we trust

Eightball Champ.

"In Scott we Trust!"

Wow, such an awesome idea. The best players will know how to press their scores up as high as possible before they kill the final reactor. Sort of like the challenge of the Donkey Kong kill screen.

Not true.
Star trek: mirror universe was best in show in 2014. Not production.
I think it must be "complete" which TA is not.

Wouldn't the best players just NOT destroy the final reactor then?

Isn't the final kill worth 9x? Player would have risk-reward of trying to TOTAN/woodchop the last reactor vs. collecting that final 9x jackpot. I'd think the scoring can be arranged to make the former decision non-lucrative. Also possible to add a special high score board just for those who finish the job and totally annihilate...

Pretty sure that's accurate, John. It's a rule I can understand and have maaaaybe about 5% disagreement with. "Complete" is kind of in the eye of the beholder ESPECIALLY when it comes to rules and code. If the thing is physically complete, has art and a final layout, and a fun ruleset in place, I don't think there's any reason to hold it back.

Buffy, for example, looked great, interesting layout, but I felt the shots were TERRIBLE, or the way it was sitting was terrible, and I played both of them. No clear goals in the code IMO, shots frequently returned STDM on perfectly made shots....just not even fun to play for me (Sorry if you post here, whoever is responsible for that thing..it just didn't vibe with me, which should be fine. I heard a TON of praise for it at the show, which is the only reason I played it in the first place...I know absolutely NOTHING about the show!) I'm sure it was in contention for BiS, but if I was a judge, it never would have won for those reasons. Which is probably why I'll never be a judge...among a million other reasons. ;P

I think Buffy won because it looks polished and has a complete-ish rule set.
Given it's a highly modified SOF; you may just be critical of it because of the base game.

Please don't take my comments to mean that TA deserved the critisim. It's a great game from a music/layout perspective. It definitely felt less complete only because it lacked any static art. That's probably why the judges didn't award it best of show. My assumption is they thought it would be back at a better state next year. Which sounds like that may be possible.

I don't remember any "production" machine winning best of show; unless it is modified from stock. So; not sure what TA will be in future years.

If they have to drop anything in the backbox for cost it should be the LCD display. Keep the individual score displays, maybe make them alpha-numeric so you can do more with them, maybe add another larger one at the bottom center (maybe multi-row even) for messages and status.

Way more retro-cool than a big dumb LCD that only shows a few video clippy things anyway. This simpler game doesn't need an LCD to show all the stats and movies, etc.

Fat chance that will happen!

The only suggestion I have is;
Somebody suck this man's dick

Get to it. Wear the green man-kini too.

Sorry you didn't get Buffy. Seems It doesn't resonate with a lot of people for some reason or another. There is a lot of code in there. It's not easy for someone to learn a game like Buffy in that setting, no doubt. At TPF I saw a few guys hopping on one of the machines repeatedly to explore the rules, which makes me happy.

Anyway, it's not a competition in our point of view. Everyone in the P-ROC custom area is on the same team. I built the SkeletonGame framework leveraging the code I built Buffy on. Scott uses SkeletonGame and gives back to that codebase. We all use Matt's amazing metal work in some way or another.

Let's kill this notion that there's beef that TA was robbed. No one cares about Buffy. In many ways the best custom in show award is really a second place award to Scott's very well deserved "most likely to actually be built by Spooky pinball". Scott rules and we are a happy family.

I really liked the sharpie playfield.

That will be the SLE

Yay P-Roc based custom builds

I care enough to ask some questions, because the presentation of the game is ridiculously good, and you're entirely right...I didn't really spend enough time to form a coherent opinion but damn...it bent me over BSD-style. PM sent!

I thought Buffy played awesome. I didn't know half of what I was doing but I had no issues with good shots draining. That game has a ton to shoot at and played like butter in my opinion. I like Buffy and TA a lot. Enjoyed both more then any of the newly released games.

Nixie tubes would be the shiz.

The only base that you should ever use to create your builds.

Really excited for this one! After Dialed In was revealed I thought a lot about how cool it would've been if they had gone more in this direction as an original theme...kept it a disaster/save-the-city game of course, but as an 80s throwback with lots of synthwave, neon, and Bladerunner dystopia-futura...saving Neo Los Angeles or wherever from a nuclear attack.

So I'm glad that someone is doing a true throwback 80s sci-fi theme. From what I saw in Texas, and everything I've read/watched, there's a very fundamental understanding here around which boxes to tick in order to evoke that very specific 80s nostalgia.

Difficult for someone to find enough Nixies to build production machines.
However, if Charlie (spooky) or Scott wants to use my Mirror Universe Nixie design... for Super LEs... let me know.

Yes, but the sickness of nixies in a new production machine...

KickstarterNixie_large (resized).png

Nixies would make a good topper. Cost could then be separated from base product, too.

Pin sales boil down to one thing - Will a 50 year-old man buy it?

It's the reason extremely well done custom games like Buffy get largely ignored while a POS brick-fest like Predator steals half a million.

On the face of it, in that case TA would probably be a bad candidate for manufacture, given the thumping synth / retrowave soundtrack, similar Hotline Miami type LCD graphics (and I suspect art package?), and what some older customers might consider an overwhelming light show. How many 50 year olds listen to or are even cognisant of that kind of music or new pixel shooter videogames?

The reaction to it at shows, from the recent streams and the almost universal excitement on Pinside at the announcement Spooky would manufacture it (certainly way more than for AMH / RZ / Domino's / Jetson's / Alice) seems to suggest otherwise though.

Sometimes people recognise good work, even if the theme or influences aren't a particularly obvious hit for the the market's primary demographic (middle aged men).

Besides, if this at an 'affordable' price, you don't need to market it exclusively to people whose kids are beginning to leave home and retirees sitting on a pot of gold, if it will appeal to a younger audience.

hey... I am not even 40 yet

Could always do an alternate art package for a gottlieb reactor (which is amazing one showed up at MGC last weekend. I grew up in arcades and never once saw one, only played it on atari 2600).

gottlieb_reactor (resized).jpg

ughhh stoppp i dont want any more reasons to buy this.

A large group of people lost their asses sinking money into a game centered around YOUR likeness. What does that say about your appeal to that demo? Old guys are hot for Ben? Hmmm...

I'm 52 years old, totally down for TA but as I said although I like the music a lot (would not change that) but would appreciate an alternate soundtrack (industrial) or the ability to upload custom music easily (i.e. Not programming).

It could be a nice addition to an already great pin.

Quick, lets make every 50 year old here watch rick and morty.

Read my mind. JJP Rick and Morty pin please.