the people who rethemed a mustang into Ferris Bueller. not entirely a homebrew

That is a flipping tragedy. I saw it at Pintastic, wasn't impressed.

All new art, sculpts, and they redid the sounds and dots. It’s not entirely original, but I’d say they did enough to make it “homebrew”

Looking at the homebrew list I sort of see the issue, not a strong field this year.

Did you see Elf? I played it at TPF and it had great flow.

I dont think it was nominated.

Not saying rethemeing a game doesn't take talent and hard work because thats where I struggle is art wise with my games, but an actual homebrew built from scratch with thought going into layout design, circuit designs, making things work ect. isn't comparable to a retheme.

Should be separate categories. Just my 2c

Agreed. Re-theme should be its own category. FBDO is a GREAT re-theme, but it doesn't deserve homebrew.

I don't think there's enough rethemes or all original games to really divide them up. And then it gets complicated with what do you want to classify something like Dukes of Hazard. It's a Paragon retheme, but with new mechs and software. It becomes a Ship of Theseus issue

To me what pushes it over the retheme-homebrew line in the sand is that they redid the dots and sounds. So if you had never seen a Mustang before, you honestly wouldn't have a clue it was a retheme. I don't care if they didn't design the circuits, because that's not what makes a game fun (though it can be fun for the homebrewer to work on)

Regardless, the homebrew category is always a tough one. Different types of projects, wildly different states of completion, limited exposure to people voting, etc...

I own one of the 2 Ferris Bueller pins (The other is owned by Brian Soares of Gameroom Pinball who built and coded the pin and also is a Pinside member).

At the TWIPY's Jack Danger basically said what TreyBo69 posted above. They purposely combined the categories because the lines are blurred between whats custom/retheme/homebrew.

Here are pics of FBDO. It took close to 2 years from concept to completion and has 100% custom dots, sound, artwork, plastics, sculpts, callouts, modes, armor, translite, etc. Brian added some sounds where none were triggered and redesigned some items above and below the playfield. Even the start button was re done into the Bueller Home intercom panel.

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That's a great looking re-theme. Well done!

They should have made this...nine times... I want one

I am still wow'd everytime I see Sonic Spinball. That is one heck of a homebrew. Wish he could add artwork like FBDO, but in understand why he chose not to, and the hand drawn doodles add a sense of charm to it.

Wow, that is a great retheme well done to all involved.
Amazing job ....

I was going to enter Jaws this year but due to no retheme category, and after being shafted a bit with Mad Max last year I decided not to. They didn't put up the nicer pictures and full details last time around and so felt like I was just a "filler". Steamboat Willy was fantastic imo. Extremely well executed.

I'm doing another retheme this year, maybe next time around ...

Anyway here is my post event submission.

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Probably why he won best homebrew last year...

I do like they changed the category to it can only be entered once and it's up to the creator(s) to choose when or if they want to participate in the contest. I think that's a good rule for the people who want to take the award seriously and helps deal with the issue of homebrew projects being in differing states of completion

Good for him. I dont keep up with TWIPYs....so....yep!

Ferris sure looks like mustang to me! IMO combining retheme and from-scratch homebrew is like judging between Andy Warhol and Monet. Sure, they’re both art. But they really have nothing in common. From my view, if it doesn’t involve cutting a playfield with new geometry is not an original pin. Don’t get me wrong, Ferris Bueller and Billy Madison are beautiful machines and they deserve accolades but judging them against the homebrews in this year’s collection is a weird. Regarding Elf, last week was its first showing. Bob can enter for next year and I hope it does. I played the heck out of it and it’s a great machine: geometry, rules, craftsmanship, assets, it’s the real deal. I hope it wins next year.

Another thing that would help the category, would be to require a short video of gameplay which people could view on the this week in pinball site. That would allow people to make a better comparison between machines. Two static pictures doesn’t do any of the entries justice

By the way, here are the results

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Enjoyed Greek God's a Bunch at expo last Oct!
Nice game and work.

42%? Really? Was there a massive online campaign that I missed?

It's a theme hobby. Children of the '80s have hit peak nostalgia age. See also: people offering Stern first-born children for a new Back to the Future game.

Thanks Eric! I hope to take it again next year. Made a ton of changes in the last three months getting it ready for another show. It’s a substantially better game now compared to then.

Who doesn’t like Ferris Bueller’s Day off? Can’t argue with that choice of theme. 42%. Huh.

There is a fundamental difference between homebrew and re-theme. One is a pin from scratch, the other a make over of an existing layout.

FBDO is a fine re-theme and shows a lot of effort but not the same as a "homebrew"

Known theme.

Redo yours as Clash of the Titans and your percentages would triple, just because of familiarity

I played both your game and Bob's and I do have to say I was surprised that Elf didn't take it. But like you say your game stayed up all weekend, which is more than I could say for a lot of games throughout a lot of the categories. That, and Billy Madison looks and sounds incredible.

Ultimately I would have sided with Elf just from the sheer scale of everything and originality and am looking forward to hopefully seeing it again if Bob chooses to bring it back next year.

Definitely looking forward to news on this! Congrats on the win.

PinMonk Or maybe this one!

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Is their video of Elf anywhere?

I'm shocked that nobody in here has mentioned the second place winner, Cuphead! Great theme, combined EM gameplay with modern video, and was *actually a homebrew*.

That is pretty awesome!

very nice work...love it

I love how it has a very distinct Gottlieb flavor but makes great use of electronic effects. I noticed the spinner with dice animation, autoshooter? and color change in the lighting when a ball was locked, just a great effort all around. I'd be happy to play this at a show!

CupHead is the real deal. I hope I get to play it at a show. It's been fun to read about its development and see the software side come together.

Yes. She's married to a WWF wrestler, they stream on Twitch and usually pull over 100 viewers.

It's just a popularity contest. Bud Light is the most popular beer but that doesn't mean it's the best.

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Cool. Thank you for the context.

I would love to see video of Elf as well. I searched the Homebrew subforum, the whole forum, the machines tab, and then did a youtube search, and I'm not seeing anything. Anyone have a link?

I really hesitated getting involved in this discussion, but I truly dislike the slander that takes place on pinside constantly. It is the primary reason why I rarely post. First off, I just want to say EVERYONE in the "home brew" category did a terrific job. I truly appreciate each design. Billy Madison and Cup Head are great games.

Yes, Reby is married to a famous pro wrestler so what? The woman is extremely talented in her own right in many areas. She didn't promote this game for TWIPY awards. No one outside of the pinball world knows what this is anyway. I'm sure she mentioned the game in August after the TWIP article and then in November we streamed once, but that's about it.

For those that don't know me, I've made about 100 re-themed games to date from basic changes, to adding sound to changing all the game code using pinball browser (minus changing the rules). This includes Expedition Of Gold for Reby's husband a few years back which also drew a lot of interest. My background is in engineering so I do understand why true programmers would be upset, but there was well over 1000 hours into this game between us, so it wasn't a simple decal swap or vinyl wrap. This game was shown at Pintastic New England last year and during that show we had about a dozen interviews, taping for an upcoming TV show, took photos with the game so yes most people really liked it. I'm guessing it was related to the theme, great music and quotes. So many people thought it was next up from Stern. On top of that Bowen Kerins taped gameplay for PAPA.

Now to be fair, if you're going to share shitty zoomed in game images, why don't you at least show the how it actually looks and all the customized features.
Hopefully some of you will appreciate our work.
https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/revealed-ferris-buellers-day-off-pinball-by-brian-soares-and-reby-hardy-interviews-pics-and-more/

I'm sure This Week in Pinball, (who runs the TWIPS) did a feature article on everyone in the homebrew category right?

I guess you could ask him

This game was great! I spoke to the builder for over 30 mins. Very impressed!!

Would love to play Cuphead!

This actually has nothing to do with any amount of work put into a game at all. It has to do with the term "HOMEBREW". In my opinion, this is NOT a homebrew, it's simply a "retheme" or a "hack" of an already designed game. Can a hack/retheme be amazing? Certainly it can be! Remember the Trilogy Brewing Co machine?

In this case, it is an amazing example of a re-theme or hack. It does not have an original layout. Nothing wrong with that... just not a homebrew in the "I started from scratch" traditional definition of the word. For me personally, the "new layout" of a homebrew is just as important as a theme. It's 50% of the adventure.

Refering to the recording industry... you're "breaking up the Sampling so hard it's now an original work"...? That might be valid here but, it's a stretch. Let's not also forget, "imitation is the greatest form of flattery". We're all here to discuss pinball, not to bash anyone's hard work.

Exposure to the great and unique features of each of the machines was minimal in the voting section. I don’t want to disparage anyone’s thousand plus hours of work. Any rethene or from-scratch homebrew is a labor of love and Herculean effort of perseverance. But, I think there are ways to make this category more interesting for the pinball community and leave the creators with a greater sense of fairness. Constructive criticism. 1. Strongly consider splitting the retheme and from-scratch homebrew machines. 2. Have a standard format to present the homebrew machines. I would suggest four photographs, whole playfield, whole machine and two pics that focus on special features. 3. Have a standard length text to accompany the photographs. 4. Include a YouTube length of gameplay five minutes or less. Doing these things would let the voting members of the community really dig in and look at the machines closely if they choose to. This would dissuade criticism of one machine having an advantage due to a larger social media presence.

Like the original Rush homebrews: it's based on Getaway but a new upper playfield and all new art, dots, sound. But not built from scratch like Mad Max or Undertale etc, but definitely qualifies.

I totally agree. Very valid points and I like your suggestion. I guess it's a matter of recommending it the TWIPY committee for future years. I've felt the criticism of my re-themes in the past and I can understand from the standpoint of making it from scratch. The work all of you have done isn't lost on me