Mars 2451 w/200 bill stacker.

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

Where are you going to have it?

I'm at 1,055 . I also want to win whatever it is.

Bowen is the dog's bollocks.
https://www.facebook.com/jeff.parsons/videos/10155378333576482/

At Comics2Games in Florence, KY. We have 14 games on site now. Zip code 41042 on pin map or pinball map under Cincinnati for address.

I called Kayte yesterday morning to place my order. Was completely unaware about the "record" status of pin 301. Then, on my way back home last night listened to this months Spooky pinball podcast and heard them talking about pin #301 getting some special items. FML!!! Always a day late and a dollar short it would seem!! Or is it just Murphy's Law again?

paid TNA invoice (resized).png
missed it by that much (resized).jpg

#302 is kind of like kissing your sister. Of course, so is #300.

Thank you for the Get Smart reference. I need to watch that show again.

What's with all the strange numbers? Aren't they building batches of 50? And at some point they'll do a last call and do a final batch of 50 and sell off what's left over time?

This guy gets it.

I think there is a bet going on as to how many TNAs are going to get sold. It was on a Spooky podcast when the orders opened up, I believe.

You are correct. Epthegeek's comment was that they will be built in increments of 50. Some of us that guessed weren't smart enough to think of that.

276 was the phone prefix in my hometown. Just popped into my head. I knew it was a dumb bid, but oh well.

But if I can play "well, actually" in hindsight, I think they're doing batches of 25 internally. They could've built 275 and also count Scott's unnumbered test game. It has a butter cabinet and everything! That counts, right?

So if they sell 500 (my guess) and there are 7.5 Billion people on the earth, that would be one for every 15 million people.

I wonder what will happen if Spooky is sitting on orders for say, 1500 games in a few months once the brain-virus that is the TNA experience starts to ramp up in the wild?

My guess is that Charlie would move to a bigger location and hire a few more staff!

They will hire more help, keep building games, keep adding to the facility, and try to be as honest as possible about delivery times like they always have been.

It would be awesome if that happens but in reality TNA is a different style game that won't be for everyone. Thankfully there are a few hundred of us that have been waiting years for someone to make something like this. I think 600-800 or so is very possible, especially if they keep the orders open for a couple of years and build them in batches in between their other production games once the initial orders are completed.

My guess is that someone, Stern or JJP will have an, "Oh shit" moment and reach out to buy Spooky and install Charlie as a VP.

IMO, the casual player is much better served by the kind of experience TNA offers... I think most "modern" pinball machines are barking up the wrong tree.

I hope Stern doesn't enter the equation with Spooky... they'd ruin it.

Danesi Lock replaced by 'Danesi on a Spring'

I'm always a bit surprised when I hear about how much casual players enjoy TNA. It's not that they wouldn't or shouldn't like it, but that they are often favoring it over the more "casual friendly" licensed games. I think that it shows that a license will always bring in a passerby's coin drop, but simple fun will keep someone in place.

What is a "casual friendly licensed game"?

An ordering process that involves a required video in which you have to beg to buy the game...

I wish every manufacturer would go the Spooky pricing policy. Here's what the game costs out the door. I hate having to call around distributors and finding out who will give me the best deal. It's annoying and pointless and just makes you feel shitty when you hear about someone else that got a much better deal for the same exact thing.

So if a guy were to order today what do we all believe would be the shipping timeline. More time more better to continue to add to my piggy bank

Well, it's looking like they've built and shipped roughly 70-75 since last September. Assuming that number is correct, you're looking at 70 or so after about 150 days. Math says it wouldn't be this year. But who knows

The second 75 should be built faster then the first 75 though.

Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. Anything that's big in pop culture. I like licenses, don't get me wrong, but that is only the reason someone will drop the first quarter. If the fun isn't there, they'll move on, especially in these days of $1/game pricing.

...you're discounting the positive glow it can provide if you're the guy who got a better deal though.

I dunno, I've been watching people on location and novelty seems to play a big part - for example, the Evel Knievel at 50 cents is still doing well despite being around heavy hitters like Star Wars or AFM.

I don't find any of the new games actually casual friendly. I think pinball people forget just how confusing these games are to people who don't play them, and often don't realize there are even rules, let alone ideas like "starting a mode".

Like Star Wars for instance, that game isn't remotely friendly to someone who doesn't play. What exactly are they supposed to figure out how to do if they don't grasp the basics already? We're talking about people who don't know you can start a 4 player game on a pin, who don't understand what "lock is lit" means. These lock in your multiplier rules are greek to them.

I would argue that some of the rules in today's games are difficult to grasp even for the seasoned players. I have family members come over and play occasionally, and they have no idea what locking a ball is, what modes are, what anything is really. Once I explain there is a rhyme and reason, a light bulb turns on in their head and they start to see it. You don't get that "coaching" with location play.

Great opportunity to use the lcd in attract mode to coach new players on location IMO. Explaining the basic rules.

GotG is though. Players instintively shoot at Groot, and then, well, keep shooting at Groot. That's the game!

I agree with you plus I think the pinball crowd has a much higher percentage of people onto those themes. Most of the regular people I know aren't into fantasy, space or comic book themed entertainment.

This is something Gary Stern has always banged home, and I think he's right, give the player an obvious thing to shoot that rewards them. Keep hitting Sparky and you fry him and get mulitball, great. Most Sterns are good about this. I suspect you're taking the piss out of GotG's code, but I haven't played it. Still, for new players that's good enough.

This is something Star Wars fails on too for new players. There's no obvious gimme shot.

Agreed. Take my Metallica example above. It's fine to teach people what to bash, but trying to explain the way you lock in lights on the different lanes and ramps gives me and the person I'm explaining to a headache. Once you grasp it the whole thing isn't hard, but that initial learning curve can be tricky. Especially on a Pro without the RGB inserts.

...and that is exactly where TNA shines. I had non-pin playing, no clue you could do multi-player games on a pinball machine friends over and this was probably the first machine they actually understood what to do. Hit these 3 targets until the blue dots go away, hit the ball in the hole, hit the ball to the top, hit the flashing white target. I think this is also the first game my 8yr daughter really understands what to do in.

Did you see the video that Scott posted on Facebook!? With the reactor number gradually counting down? Soooo nasty. Love it.

link ?

I agree non Pinball people enjoy the game. But the one Pinball enthusiast thing it has is using terminology specific to Pinball. “Shoot the scoop”. Is the one I think of. What’s a scoop? SP did he “shoot the hole”. But naming and labeling the hole or scoop is still best. Luckily someone can quickly tell what the scoop is on TNA. But other games with it hidden by a toy gets hard to figure out. Or actually using the term hurry-up...on the playfeild. Shoot the damm dog target until you loose points. Using hurryup is getting comfortable.
Ok off my soap box.
“Welcome to the future”

I see a lot of new players walk away after their first ball thinking the game was over. Had one guy do it to three games before I asked if he had some strategy for playing multiple games at once. Of course he said "multiple games... what are you talking about?".

I was going to say the same thing. Star Wars is so far removed from being casual friendly... it's too damn complicated.

Hell, I still have to look up rules on Stern games like ACDC and I've owned it for almost 4 years... forget trying to explain the rationale behind scoring to a novice.

Modern manufacturers are trying to give a game longevity by giving it the rules equivalent to the Iliad and the Odyssey. When in reality: the shots, playfield art, and - for the most part - movement of the ball is all the same. By trying to appeal to the tournament player mentality, they are alienating the vast majority of casual players.

The ironic thing is that a lot of serious tournaments have their best matches on classics or more simple DMD games now. The more modern games that are full of safe shots tend to play very long in tournaments, so directors are leaning on older games to keep game times down. And from a spectator's standpoint, games with randomness and some more wild action tend to be more fun and more dramatic to watch.

I love modern games, but it's so nice to see a game like TNA proving that there's not only space for something a bit more evocative of past decades in pinball, but that there's a real desire for it.

I'm not a tournament player and i love deep strategic games like GOT, SW, TWD, WOZ, etc... More food for thought: Lyman, Dwight/Ritchie, & Keefer games seem to require many many plays of deep thinking, understanding, and/or reading a novel to understand their games. While others, like Lonnie, focus on the simple rules of pinball. With so many pins too choose from these days, the diversity is a very nice appeal for home owners IMO.

As for TNA and topic at hand; i still need to get down to Ayce and give it a roll. I love what i see from all the streams though.

I think they've built more like 100-110. A lot of show/on location games have gone out ahead of the order.

Neil.

What's their typical daily yield? I thought it was around 3 machines per day, but I don't remember where I heard that or if I fever dreamed it.

https://www.facebook.com/scott.danesi/videos/10103187988218227/

The highest confirmed number on the list is #75... isn't it?

The hype is real, my friend. The hype is real...

Seriously though. If/when you do get a chance to play it, take a minute to watch attract mode (a few minutes actually). Then plug in your quarters, enjoy the music, and have a blast playing it. Bring friends.

They’ve done “out of order” builds to help load overseas containers or get games on location too though, so my game isn’t necessarily the count.