how about looking at the macro picture.

during 2012, the stock market finally broke out above the highs that existed before the 2007-08 banking/housing crash when fortunes were cut in half and confidence was shattered. took five years, but by 2012-13 what was lost had been recovered. baby boomers could now feel more comfortable buying 5K+ toys.

Hilton, why would you attempt to make the micro argument/point that there are individual cities/territories better off today when, as Jonathan points out, the overall picture for location pinball is abysmal.

I'm sure a lot of locals are pleased with the fact that you have played a part in seeing that the Madison landscape is what it is today. you deserve a merit badge for that, even though you are no boy scout.

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further, there is a difference between operators of the past who purchased and vended machines as their primary business vs some of the 'operators' of today who are just using bars to house their collections which have outgrown their primary residence, while struggling to net something less than minimum wage.

despite whatever resurgence is taking place, the socal location pinball scene remains virtually dead. ayce gogi, a two hr drive thru LA traffic, currently has ~20 machines.

growing up in the south bay area during the 80's there were 100's of machines at the Redondo Beach fun factory. today, it is all redemption games. the bally alladins castle at the del amo mall. the sega center at the old towne mall. the south bay galleria had ~40 machines. small biz arcades in strip malls. a machine or two in most every 7-eleven and liquor store. the differences between then and now remain staggering.

or their kicks on route66.

Hilton, you weren't even born yet. how could you be in that pic ???

i read the news today, oh boy.

i imagine for some, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive.

im sure some of the 40K pinside members must feel there are some beatles songs they might consider 'pinball' music. but for me, even given their tremendous catalog, i don't have any beatles songs on my 'pinball' playlist, let alone the number required for a pin. quite a number of their songs are not the right tempo for pinball and/or lack the booming bass people seem to be excited about recently. despite their early R&R/pop hits, i cant bring myself to fancy them when playing the silver ball. on the other hand, the b52s with their party tempo and driving bass lines, translate better to pinball.

looking at the 10 greatest beatles songs as determined by rolling stone magazine, there is only one up tempo song.

10 while my guitar gently weeps
9 come together
8 let it be
7 hey jude
6 something
5 in my life
4 yesterday
3 strawberry fields forever
2 i want to hold your hand
1 a day in the life

at least somebodys finally making a beatles pin... yeah, when im 64.

just think how that might have worked out ... thousands might have had an alien pin, $2.5M might not have been flushed down the toilet, and you would have two years of your life back.

excellent interview with roger sharpe on licensing from 2014:

http://pavlovpinball.com/pinball-licencing-101-how-much-why-and-harry-potter/

>>> roger confirms that companies are not paying over $100 per game for most licenses. if still the case, a license for a limited run of 500 games would be <$50,000.

“$100 per machine? I have never done a license at that figure for a pinball machine,” he says. “The profit margins just don’t make sense. All the licenses I have done with pinball are for far less. I would find it hard to believe that either Stern or Jersey Jack would ever commit to spend $100 per game.”

“I have heard that some companies have spent triple digits (i.e. over $100 per machine) for a licence when they didn’t need to."

“Pinball is something of a speck on [the licensors] balance sheets,” he points out. “Even back in the day, the amounts that were generated from pinball tended not to be as significant as the money earned from T-shirt sales or action figures."

>>> roger explains why people fell for HPs alien and DPs TBL:

[the license] gets you immediate recognition and attention, says Sharpe. “Look at Dutch Pinball with The Big Lebowski, and at the positive response Heighway Pinball received when it unveiled Alien.”

But he points out that a good license doesn’t guarantee success. “The license gives you a semblance of credibility whether you are a new or an established company, but you still have to carry it through. A license doesn’t automatically give you credibility, just instantaneous recognition.”

nice to see at least two of us share this sentiment. pinside already does a great job of keeping people at bay by encouraging the silliness of rumor/speculation/fantasy over truth/facts/reality. we need more hard-hitting, investigative, substantive reporting about what is actually taking place. we dont need more fluff about what may/may not be taking place in the future.

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