I really hope JJP isn't banking on Pindemption being a hit.

I personally believe that they are solving the wrong problem.

Finding a sexy way to link ticket spewing to an entirely new mode of gameplay doesn't fix why pins aren't accepted as redemption machines.

Maybe they will get peppered here and there, but that's a negligible increase.

To beat redemption games, pinball itself has to change, not just the software or the way tickets are awarded.

I don't have the silver bullet, I wish I did. I just know that when we see it, we will all know it. That feeling hasn't happened with pindemption.

I actually believe Pinball doesn't need any kind of concerted effort to "save it". This is probably too philosophical for a lunch break post, but what most people considering "saving" pinball is to return it to some previous state where there were lines of pins in arcades. That is more nostalgia than anything.

JJP may initially sell a handful of incremental sales from ops interested in trying Pindemption, but I don't think that Pindemption will drive any type of organic growth for JJP.

We've been indoctrinated into a world where we expect to look at something and instinctively understand it. One of the reasons that Apple has done so well is that there were no instructions. Everything was intuitive. You pick up an iPhone and you just instinctively understand what to do.

When you walk up to a redemption machine these days, the entire concept of the game makes sense. There is no reading and no rules to figure out.

Compare that to pinball, where even with dumbed down software and a LCD screen full of instructions, a WoZ playfield is a complicated beast.

Let's contrast that to one of the machines I see a lot of in arcades, and also one of my personal favorites, the Big Bass Wheel (pictured below). There is literally one input, and one output. It's almost impossible to not understand that game.

I LOVE pinball, but I'm still more likely to stick a buck into the Big Bass Wheel than a pindemption machine, because I am there for a different reason. Make Pindemption work with the LCD turned off, and I might start to shift my opinion.

tl;dr - Trying to modify a pinball machine to serve as a redemption machine is a bit like trying to make a car also work as a boat. You can technically do it, but you end up with something that does neither job very well.

This is all my opinion, I don't work at a pinball company.

Big Bass Wheel, as promised. I love this game and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

big-bass-wheel-pro-jackpot-ticket-redemption-game-baytek-games.jpg

Totally agree that could be cool, but my point is for that to be a successful redemption game, that's what the game would need to be stripped down to.

3 targets at the end of an otherwise unpopulated flat play surface that you flip pinballs at to stop the reels. If the game lasts more than 15 seconds, I feel like it wouldn't be successful. No other targets, no other distractions.

Redemption is a really interesting model psychologically. The games I see most copies of are the games that don't require any thought and make both parties (the op and player) feel like they've won every time. No matter how many tickets you win, with a traditional pinball machine the ball always drains eventually and that feels like you lost.

Agreed.

I was thinking about some ideas today, like your slot reel idea. I was thinking of some kind of Simon/guitar hero game where you have 4 colored buttons in front of you, and a Rube Goldberg style play field with elements that can be controlled. You press the colored buttons in the sequence shown on the screen, guitar hero style, and then the game "plays" the sequence you put in. If you have hit all the right buttons at the right times, the correct gates/toys on the play field are activated at the right times and you get to watch the ball roll through successfully. Hit the wrong stuff and it takes alternate paths that don't score as much. Each level has more button presses than the last.