America's Most Haunted Promo Video

[frolic]

Thanks. I guess a lot of people think anyone can make a pinball, but its far tougher than most can imagine to get the secret sauce right.

I still think jpop will come through.

I guess we'll see if Heighway will deliver a quality product, so they'll be in the mix as well. They are aiming at operators, so I believe they will create a product that has mass appeal. It's also a bigger operation than some dudes in a garage, better financed. There probably is a multi-million dollar barrier to entry for the pinball business still.

 

[DRANO]

I think the key is to note which teams have real designers.
Stern, JJP, Zidware all have designers at the forefront.
SkitB is headed up by competition level players... so maybe they'll have some insight.
For the most part, the rest are all tech guys or tech-based startups. I know one of them is partnered with Nordman, but I'd be really leary of the rest.

Coming from a creative background myself, I fully appreciate the balance of having designers as well as engineers partnered together. Many of these PROC based startups seem more "engineered" than designed.

 

[mwong168]

Ben Heck just posted some new artwork pics for America's Most Haunted

Backglass isn't quite finished yet but this will give you a very good idea of how it's going to look. I included a composite photo of the new cabinet for the full effect.

The tombstones and the "wall of ghosts" still need to be re-done and the title graphic needs some tweaks. Just wanted to show everyone what we had before the holiday break.

First 20 games will be a "Founders Edition" with signed artwork, numbered plaque and special price of $5750 (Just like Kickstarter!) People already on our pre-sale list have first priority for deposits. After that, price reverts to $6250.

Want in? Already on the list and ready to get started? Email kt@spookypinball.com or visit http://www.spookypinball.com/games-swag for more information.

 

[spiroagnew]

Heck was interviewed on Episode 46 Coast2Coast Pinball. He came across as pretty peeved at the public for not "getting" his original photo artwork for the pin. Also, during conversation, Heck stated (without being asked) "If I had to build the game over again, I would change...", followed by him listing off three specific areas of the game...before host Nate Shivers cut him off, attempting to stop the bleeding that was occurring by Heck shooting himself in the foot (I have the impression he would have kept listing things off). The game ain't even 100% built yet or even in the marketplace, and Heck is already lamenting flaws that slipped through? Not good PR. Shivers cut him off by saying "Woah, lets not talk about that, let's sell some games first..."

Love the way these guys are driven by public input and being transparent, but if the guy building the machine has regrets already, I'm not betting that this machine will be a winner.

The podcast interview can be found here: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-46-evening-with-ben-heck-or-americas-coast-haunted_7051

 

[TwilightZone]

It looks very, very amateur and that's being nice. Not impressed at all. My opinion doesn't matter as I'm not their target market. It will be interesting to see how many of these small run games are an actual success and produce a good game.

 

[REVOLUTION]

Ben is an amazing engineer......... that is all.

Unfortunately, he's terrible at design and art direction. I've thought this even back in his console modding days. I was actually excited to hear he was "leaving" the RAZA project.

This game reminds me of some kids in a clubhouse pretending to be game designers. It's neat if they're just making a one-off in their shop like Ben did with his Bill Paxton pin (which was horrible to look at and play, but a pretty impressive feat nonetheless). Since they're trying to market this game for sale though.. they need to be prepared to take some flack. Especially when you compare with other boutique designers like Skit-B or Zidware.

 

[frolic]

I would never get that new backglass with a fat ugly girl on it. The hippy chick before was far better looking. Last thing I'd want staring out at me all day.

 

[mwong168]

Here are some new game play videos posted of this game

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mEPvn_gScH0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LHxT4j6O-30[/youtube]

 

[g-man]

Yeah, that bg artwork looks bad.

The characters are clearly a rip-off of Scooby Doo. The text is what really kills it. I'm no artist and I wouldn't have chosen that font or style. Blech !

And furthermore, what ghost hunters would carry a big-ass camcorder around ?
I've watched enough TAPS and Ghost Adventures to know that its all about EVPs and thermal cameras.

And those callout....yikes ! Sounds like they just got some friends to do them.
Watched the second video and at the very end after draining, the callout goes "That is so lame". I think that says it all.

But let me just add that I think what these guys have done is pretty awesome anyway and a helluva lot better than anything I could do or would want to attempt to do.
I'm just a guy in a restaurant who can't cook, but knows lousy cooking when he tastes it.

 

[Luckydogg420]

Ok, so on a scale of 1 to 10; this is not a 10. But that's ok. Did anyone expect this to be "the best game ever"? I mean its way better then I could do, but I'm also not a pinball designer. If you think of how many bad games have been made since the 80's... Is this the worst? No.

Congrats to the designers on creating a new machine and bringing it to market. Hopefully they sell enough to make a second, and learn from the mistakes of the first.

If this was beside a shaq attack or a raven, I bet it would look good, In comparison

It's not my first pick, but I would give it a try if I saw one in the wild.

 

[Murrsky]

It would be quite interesting to have a different art package with the theme, see if it gains any traction?.... agreed though, it's close but no cigar.

 

[Luckydogg420]

I just noticed pricing and final artwork on pinside

$5995.00

 

[spiroagnew]

Better art package. Looks good.

Interesting to note that the female psychic (in purple) was originally a weathered, old witchy-type dressed in baggy clothing. The Pinside horndogs voiced their displeasure, and they re-drew the character as the busty redhead you see above. Probably the same guys pleasuring themselves nightly to the Elvira boob re-theme.

Honestly.

 

[frolic]

Better art package. Looks good.

Interesting to note that the female psychic (in purple) was originally a weathered, old witchy-type dressed in baggy clothing. The Pinside horndogs voiced their displeasure, and they re-drew the character as the busty redhead you see above. Probably the same guys pleasuring themselves nightly to the Elvira boob re-theme.

Honestly.

Well, here is the first version, then the second version. She started as a hippy girl. Then it went to ugly girl. Then it went with a cougar. Cougar wins .

 

[g-man]

Contrary to prevailing opinion, I personally like the first backglass much better. The hippy girl made more sense than the pseudo-gypsy girl that has replaced her. And since they are clearly emulating the Scooby-Doo foursome, and already have a hot, ditzy blonde, then what they need is a Velma, not another hottie.

Plus, I liked the expression on the face of the lead investigator dude on the first backglass. Don't know why they changed it.

That said, it's still awful.

 

[mwong168]

Some old news and updates on this I found on the pinside thread.

Diagnostic Menu
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH0Kg1OLLIw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Ben has even made his source code available for download too.

For best results, open the PDE file in Notepad++ and set language to C. Alt-0 collapses all functions and makes it easier to navigate.

http://www.benheck.com/Downloads/ben_code.zip

Getting very close on the game. Putting in the wizard mode audio and animations this weekend. Need to add some ending credits so if you beat the game, you see the name of everyone who helped along the way!

This may change slightly, but the grand whopping total for assets is 1013 audio samples, 15 music tracks and 490 DMD animations.

This zip shows how the single SD card for assets is arranged

http://www.benheck.com/xfer/card_contents.zip

 

[Chris Bardon]

So it looks like these are actually starting to ship out to people based on pinside, so spooky would be one of the first of the recent "boutique" manufacturers to actually ship a game. Say what you will about the quality of the game, but the fact that they have something that they can start delivering is pretty amazing. The game actually looks like it could be a lot of fun-anyone know if any of these are coming north of the border?

 

[mwong168]

There have been a few good videos of AMH game play shown here

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=80ci47Xsfqo[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GNz6oBgRcEc[/youtube]

 

[Chris Bardon]

I saw that PAPA had one now-looking forward to seeing more of this game. It actually looks like a fun machine-anyone up here decided to get in on one?

 

[Fifty]

I think it looks like fun too. DMD animations are good looking as well.

Does anyone else think the habitrails are unusually noisy?