Who’s working on what? (20+ new pinballs in 2015!?)

[kevin the 1984 kid]

Cool artical from the pinball Magazine:

Who’s working on what?
On this page you’ll find an overview of what the various manufacturers, and other pinball related projects, currently are being worked on. Whenever possible there is a link to a detailed article or website. In some cases it may just be rumours… News will be reported in the month it was news. If a manufacturer is still working on a specific game the next month, it won’t be listed unless there is new news to report.



Summary (monthly news listed below):

1. Stern Pinball: Latest games include Star Trek, 50 years of Mustang and The Walking Dead. It has been confirmed by Gary Stern that the AC/DC license will expire at the end of 2014 and there will be no other versions of that game. John Trudeau’s new game is scheduled to debute at shows in January 2015. Stern have also been contracted to assemble the remake of Medieval Madness for Planetary Pinball. During Pinball Expo 2014 Stern Pinball announced Whizbang’s Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons for the spring of 2015, although no pricing info is available yet.
   Unconfirmed rumors of upcoming titles: Iron Maiden (supposedly designed by Steve Ritchie). For whatever it’s worth: on Facebook George Gomez, Stern’s VP of Game Design, asked what people thought of Guardians of the Galaxy. At the 2014 NW Pinball & Arcade Show pinball designer John Popadiuk confirmed he was unable to secure the KISS-license after displaying his KISS-prototype at the Midwest Gaming Classics show. He had been informed the license had been secured by Stern since then. Please note that Stern have not confirmed they secured this license and we apologise if a previous listing may have given the impression they did. If true, it would most likely be a title for 2015. On the Pinside Forum former pinball designer Mark Ritchie has been briefly rumored as the designer of this game, but when asked about it at Pinball Expo 2014 Mark denied being involved. If any of these rumors are true the most logical designer to be working on it would be John Trudeau.
2. Jersey Jack Pinball: Current game being manufactured is The Wizard Of Oz and the 75th Anniversary edition of that same game, while The Hobbit has been announced for late 2014. The Hobbit will be available in a regular, LE and Smaug Gold edition. After displaying a prototype of The Hobbit at Pinball Expo the feedback on the playfield art resulted in new playfield art. There will be other modifications to the game as well. JJP’s 3rd game will be designed by famed pinball designer Pat Lawlor with artwork by artist John Youssi. David Thiel has been announced as JJP’s new sound and music designer. JJP will also handle the manufacturing of Skit-B’s Experts of Dangerous (see below).
3. Spooky Pinball: Developing two games: Ben Heck’s America’s Most Haunted and Pinball Zombies from the Grave. AMH is finished in terms of code and design and is being manufactured and shipped. During Pinball Expo 2014 it became clear that the game will have a limited run of 150 units. PZFBTG has temporarily been put on hold in order not to compete with The Walking Dead by Stern. Spooky Pinball will also be manufacturing Riot Pinball‘s Wrath of Olympus game, for which a minimum of 100 orders are required. The maximum number of games game will be limited to 250.
4. Dutch Pinball: After upgrading The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot with new rules and a dotmatix display (with the best animations in pinball ever), they are now developing The Big Lebowski. Two prototypes were revealed in September 2014, followed by displaying three playable prototypes at Pinball Expo 2014. Of all new manufacturers The Big Lebowski made the biggest impact: a strike. The game is scheduled to be available mid 2015.
5. Zidware / John Popadiuk: Still working on Magic Girl and Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland. Both games are limited editions and apparently sold out. There are rumors of John working on a new Alice in Wonderland game. When John worked at Bally in the early ’80s he already did a white wood for a game based on the same theme. In April 2014 John showed an impressive looking Kiss prototype game at the Midwest Gaming Classics show. This mockup game was built to show the band what such a game would look like. However, while officially unconfirmed it appears that right after MGC Stern Pinball persued the KISS-license and managed to secure it in June 2014. John will no longer develop his game any further.
6. Planetary Pinball: Announced to remake Medieval Madness in a limited edition, as well as a standard version. The game will be manufactured at the Stern Pinball factory.
7. Skit B Pinball: Have been developing Predator for the past two years, as well as a few titles that may just be one-offs. Predator is close to being manufactured, which is actually sourced out labor. This allows the design team to focus on a new title: Experts of Dangerous, based on characters / personalities from the Mythbusters TV show.
8. Multimorphic: Developing Lexy Lightspeed – Galaxy Girl and Cosmic Cart Racing on their very innovative P3 platform. Lexy Lightspeed, a Dennis Nordman design, was displayed at Pinball Expo 2014 and looked very impressive.
9. Heighway Pinball: Developing Full Throttle, a motorbike racing themed game, for 2014. Recently several positive changes have been revealed, such as the playfield becoming a wide body and improved artwork. The design team also picked up on feedback after displaying the game at the UK Pinball Party 2014, resulting in a further improved game displayed at Pinball Expo 2014. The game can now also be pre-ordered. During Pinball Expo 2014 Andrew Heighway announced the second game for Heighway Pinball: Alien, based on the 35 year old movie and to be designed by Dennis Nordman.
10. Homepin: Developing Thunderbirds for 2015. The company is currently setting up a factory in China where the games will be manufactured.
11. Riot Pinball: Have been developing Wrath of Olympus for quite some time using the P-Roc system. Spooky Pinball have announced they will manufacture the game if there is demand for over 100 units. The Riot Pinball website also shows a sketch of an Alice in Wonderland playfield design as being a work in progress.
12. Quetzal: Are still working on Captain Nemo, with a limited production of 30 units.

 

[kevin the 1984 kid]

1. Circus Maximus Games: Have announced to be working on Python’s Pinball Circus, a rare and unique Python Anghelo design based on The Pinball Circus from 1994, which was never put into full production. While Python passed away in April 2014 it was his wish to see the game get a proper test run and production. An incomplete prototype of the game was shown at Pinball Expo 2014.
2. Silver Castle Pinball: another new startup company, like Dutch Pinball based in The Netherlands, planning to build a physical version of Pro Pinball’s Timeshock! In 1997 this game was one of four PC pinball simulations developed by Pro Pinball. At the Dutch Pinball Open 2014 a whitewood prototype was shown. The team have had some support from a wellknown pinball designer, who for now will remain unnamed, who helped to improve the flow of the game.
3. Farsight Studios: Developing a coin operated version of the popular Pinball Arcade app, which is to be housed in a Virtuapin cabinet.
4. Whizbang / Dennis Nordman: Their Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons has been announced to be manufactured by Stern Pinball in 2015. Designer Dennis Nordman, one half of Whizbang, is currently also working on a new pinball design. He prefers to not announce anything until things are finished.
5. Marsaplay: After New Canasta, the first pinball with an LCD screen in the backbox, the company launched a virtual pinball machine called Pinball 42. The game includes 5 tables, including a Terminator 2 rip-off called Hell On Earth, although that game was removed from show models at tradeshows.
6. The Rebel Unit: On Pinside’s forum this company introduced themselves and claim to be working on a pinball design. It is supposed to run on board by Multimorphic and some of their own. Their first game is supposed to be Wrath of Cthulhu, of which some cabinet photos have been released.
7. Vonnie D Pinball: New company that are working on Gremlins Pinball. They raised $ 100,000.00 to finance this project using Kickstarter, which is where you will find more info as well. In case they succeed former pinball designer Barry Oursler may become part of the team to improve the game’s design.
8. If you think this is all, guess again. These are just projects that have been publicly announced (or leaked). There are several other projects being worked on below the radar, which will be added once they have been publicly announced.

 

[DRANO]

Nice to have this all in one place. Thanks!

 

[jlm33]

Nice summary, thanks. Regarding Quetzal Pinball:
"Quetzal: Are still working on Captain Nemo, with a limited production of 30 units."

30 was the initial limit. As a lower number of people preordered (I am proud to be one of them !) only 14 will be made. I hope to get mine soon.