I wonder where that leaves me in the remake tech support world ?

LTG : )

The deflationary pressure on nice pins is about to go nuts.

I say 90% chance Twilight Zone is first based on some rumoured ramp orders going around a few months ago.

That would be one hell of a first remake for a different company.

LTG : )

Whitewater remake first thing out of the box!

Interesting. CGC will be a tough act to follow.

I was just thinking to myself that there aren't nearly enough pinball manufacturers...

Tinfoil hat theory time.

CGC lost the rights to do remakes at the end of 2023. CGC knows this and has the factory churning out Cactus Canyon non-stop to eeek out the last meat on their existing license. They switch over the Pulp Fiction full bore January 1st 2024 and the new manufacturer starts selling new pins (presumably Twilight Zones due to months old ramp order rumour).

CGC losing the rights and a different company making pins starting January 1st would fall in line nicely as the reason for CGCs manufacturing delay on Pulp ficiton.

Ouch, so no more MMr from CGC as they "promised"long ago.

I can't see Stern or JJP do the new remakes as they have their own IPs/licences, so maybe PB/Pedretti?

That's the only reason CGC lost the rights to build remakes, so I'm hoping Planetary went with a solid company that can stay on schedule. I guess we'll see in a few weeks. I just hope the new company can build close to CGC (they build an incredible machine)!!!!
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Here is the supporting documentation for that different manufacturer to be making Twilight Zone first.

https://www.knapparcade.org/post/rumor-a-large-order-has-been-placed-for-twilight-zone-pinball-ramps?fbclid=IwAR2XXlOfQIlLZKm6Ssir9jmnaVE6wNFHY13P5YRZJS7gwFPUAll8XfW3hwQ

Article from a year ago talking about a large order of 1500 Twilight Zone ramps being placed.

give me TOTAN!

Hopefully its an existing manufacturer?!
AP/JJP lines need to stay busy with the poor sales.
Stern lines need to stay busy due to drastically increased production capacity coupled with downturn in overall pinball sales.

IDK how I feel about this one. Id almost rather wait on CGC and know its gonna be solid, than question if quality goes downhill with another mfg.

I have 2 CGC remakes (CC and MM) and they're nicely-built games for sure, but holy crap is CGC slow to get anything done! I look forward to seeing someone else that can actually crank stuff out!

Even more evidence for Twilight Zone.

Back in February... CBS re-registered- Mark For: THE TWILIGHT ZONE™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of pinball games; pinball-type games; pinball machines.

https://uspto.report/TM/97785880

Still leaves me wondering where this leaves me.

Bay Area Amusements became Planetary Pinball Supply which lead to me doing tech support for CGC and the remakes, and I still do for Planetary Pinball Supply.

And even though Pulp Fiction is Play Mechanix and CGC, I'll be doing tech support for Pulp Fiction.

So I may have more to do. Or less to do. If more I'm glad jjp dumped me.

Sure is a crazy way to start a Tuesday.

LTG : )

Planetary owns the rights, correct? Wouldn't that give them the ability to assign different machines to whomever they see fit to manufacture them (he said, still hoping for that MM remake)?

This and the upgrades and toppers they came up with for the remakes were pretty great also.

Wonder if CGC still have a licence for releasing the extended CCr code later on. Or maybe the new deal is only for "new" remake titles, not affecting ongoing ones.

as a MMr owner, I am happy.
as a MMr owner without a topper, I am sad.

I'm still hearing that another run of MMR is happening "sometime next year". I'd love for MMR to be the first one this new company cranks out, but more than likely its one we haven't seen before.

Maybe there is hope for MMr now.

would love a Attack From Mars Remake missed out on that one.

MMR, Indiana Jones, and Twilight Zone would all be fine by me. But I'm going to need a bigger house.

Great news!

I honestly hope that they remake the games that just didn't get enough release. Twilight zone might be popular but we have to admit there are just an absolute boatload of them at all times. I'm always confused why we need more of these machines where 10k+ were made. There are so many locations I can play TZ but there are a lot of amazing games I can't find in locations or get at home.

Scared Stiff, Cirqus Voltaire, Theater of Magic would find a lot of sales for Bally games. There are just never enough and they just aren't affordable when you consider age and condition these often come up at. I'd buy a remake of any of these over a 30 year old partially shopped version at the same price. All of those often show up for $8k or more.
No Good Gofers, Arabian Nights, White Water all popular but not many made plus no attached IP license to get.

I get doing remakes of the popular stuff but there were a lot of great pins that just didn't get enough produced. I mean who wouldn't buy a modernized Big Guns or Grand Lizard? So many of these games are hard to find in even decent condition.

CGC isn't gonna hand over their work to a new company. The new company would have to put in significant development for any new game.

If you're gonna do that, are you going to pick a game that someone has already made and sold 2000 of in the last 10 years, or a game that hasn't been made in nearly 30 years?

It made sense for CGC to manufacture another 500 or so MMRs since they already had designed it, but i don't think it makes sense for a new company to touch any of that, assuming CGC in fact owns the electronics designs, sw, etc.

Please some company pick up LTG because he is literally one of the greatest assets to this community and is amazing with tech-support. If anyone has ever had the pleasure of him helping you fix your machine, he is AMAZING!

This will still be done by CGC

not if they've lost the license right?

Hypothetically... if it were Twilight Zone, a known wide body... who has the ability to make widebody machines right now? JJP has dropped a few. Spooky has recently dropped one with scooby Doo... Pinball Brothers did it in Alien (I think the older one was a widebody)... and Pendretti gaming is/has combined with Pinball Brothers and has licensed Twilight Zone stuff before. https://cointaker.com/products/twilight-zone-pedretti-topper

So... my shot out of left field tinfoil hat prediction is: Pinball Brothers/Pendretti gaming newly manufactured Twilight Zone machines announced in 2024 based off of:

Knapp arcade Article about different manufacturer making B/W Remakes:
https://www.knapparcade.org/post/announcement-of-new-pinball-manufacturer-for-bally---williams-remakes-to-come-before-end-of-2023-pr

Knapp arcade article about 1500 Twilight Zone ramps being placed about a year ago:
https://www.knapparcade.org/post/rumor-a-large-order-has-been-placed-for-twilight-zone-pinball-ramps?fbclid=IwAR2XXlOfQIlLZKm6Ssir9jmnaVE6wNFHY13P5YRZJS7gwFPUAll8XfW3hwQ

IF it is Twilight Zone (a widebody) only a few manufacturers have this ability currently in house (JJP, Spooky, Pinball Brothers)

ONE Company has licensed Twilight Zone Pinball Stuff Right Now- Pedretti Gaming
https://cointaker.com/products/twilight-zone-pedretti-topper

Pedretti Gaming has merged with Pinball Brothers
https://www.pinball-magazine.com/?p=5081

Prediction: Pedretti Gaming/ Pinball Brothers manufactured Twilight Zone announced in January 2024!

I'll take my "people's choice award" plastic pinball trophy award for this post when it comes true and mount it proudly above my toilet.

That’s how it seemed to be worded in the article.

Just being able to timely deliver pins is more than enough.

No one has said they lose the license. Also was the agreement full exclusivity of all Bally/Williams tables for CGC to have? That seems unlikely, if anything each pin is a separate agreement with the speed at which CGC got them out. It makes little sense for them to have made a binding agreement with CGC for all their licensed titles when it would take decades to get to them. They probably were merely partners making agreements on a per pin basis. And none of us would know the agreement terms, for all we know CGC can still be churning out more MM, Cactus Canyons, and so on that they already make.

I wonder what this means regarding spare parts for CGC pins?

Also the new company - they should not stop just to acquire B/W rights, but instead license also certain old pirate-related title from JJP/Disney and start cranking them up! JJP would then be true to their word of "not looking to the back mirror" and users would still get their GOAT-pinball.

Knapp just posted a statement from Planetary saying that they are still working CGC, but sounds like they are going to be doing remakes with someone else still. So essentially they are parting out their licensing it sounds like.

Like with the Funhouse kit, or the Fathom project.

Lots of great pinball machine options to consider. Kits, or games.

LTG : )

I assumed that they didn't do some kind of all encompassing BW/Williams exclusivity deal with CGC, so it makes sense if they can part out the games and such to other manufacturers as they see fit.

not if they release games in a timely manner

What santa is onto here could make so much sense given the slight hint from people inside the industry about stuff they have seen and mentioning "Big" Tz fits that hint.

Indiana Jones: the pinball adventure is a rare game with elevated prices. Is there trouble with this IP?
TZ is a fantastic game but you can purchase a used one for less then a new one would be now.
I know it's not apples to apples but how many people, in this market, will pay 9-11k for a new one when we can get a good used one for less?

Why doesn’t JJP or Stern buy these rights to build classic Williams/Bally’s
Would be crazy watching stern pump out thousands of a new remake in only a couple weeks time!

my money is on Stern. they've got the excess capacity and the the know how to hit the ground running on this. Would be a win-win for them and customers.

It's only the prices I'm worried about. :-/

This - new company new pricing.

I hope not. That would be a silly business decision. TZ is readily available at a reasonable price.

I am on team stern. Main complaint I have with them is their games a lot of times feel cheap based on the mechs, flat plastics, toys, etc. But if they're doing remakes, and do a faithful reproduction, all that goes away right?

price... Anybody can decide to be greedy. But at least with Stern's economy of scale, the cost to manufacture is lower, so the theoretical minimum MSRP is also lower.

I don't see Stern engaging in something like this. Why would they want to compete against themselves?

Yes they did it once a long time ago. Things are different now.