Fallout Pinball Production Pictures; Goonies Pinball & New Movie Now on Same Schedule?; 30 Years Ago This Month
By knapparcade
Happy Friday everyone! This afternoon we got our first look at Fallout Pros on the production line at Stern Pinball. The few Premium machines that are out there on location right now were prototype builds. Everything that goes out of the factory to distributors for the next couple of weeks should be Pros.Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Download the video instead.
And Fallout Pros starting to show up everywhere, including The Pyramid Scheme in Michigan, Helicon Brewing in Pittsburgh, Wizard's World in Ft. Wayne Indiana and "The Basement" in Toledo, OH to name a few spots (thanks to Toledo Pinball for sending over the picture). Unfortunately, I don't think that there's any within driving distance of me yet (New Jersey). If you know of any let me know because I'm probably playing on location somewhere tomorrow.
The Pyramid Scheme
Wizard's World
Helicon Brewing
The Basement
Word broke yesterday that Warner Brothers studios has decided to push back its new Gremlins movie, tentatively called Gremlins 3 at this point, from Nov. 19, 2027 to Oct. 6. 2028. While this news may be disappointing for fans of the Gremlins franchise it is probably actually good news for Spooky Pinball, who is rumored to be working on a Gremlin's pinball machine. With The Goonies lined up to be Spooky's 2027 release, that likely puts its Gremlin's pin in line for a 2028 release...right when the hype for the new movie will be at its peak.
With my massive collection of historic industry magazines, I've been meaning to write more about pinball history here (if there's any interest). So earlier this week I picked a random time period in the past, 30 years ago, and checked out what was going on with the pinball and arcade businesses three decades ago this month. I've been sitting on this, but if I'm going to do it I have to get it out in September or else it doesn't make much sense lol. So here we go. 30 Years Ago This Month: Pinball and Arcades in September 1996 Thirty years ago this month, the September 1996 issue of RePlay magazine landed on operators' desks with two stories that would reshape who made pinball machines in America. Here's a look back. Two pinball manufacturers at turning points The month's biggest pinball news was structural, not a new title. On July 25, Sega Enterprises (USA) and Capcom USA announced their intention to merge the pinball operations of their two Chicago-based companies — Sega Pinball, Inc. and Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. RePlay reported that Sega Pinball held roughly a 30% market share, while Capcom had only entered pinball in 1995. The stated goal was economies of scale and a stronger combined position. Both sides stressed it was a true merger — the result jointly owned rather than an acquisition — and Sega's Al Stone cautioned it was "not yet a done deal by any means." Well, he sure was right about that...the merger never happened. Capcom exited pinball before long, and Sega Pinball itself was sold to Gary Stern in 1999, becoming Stern Pinball. The other landmark was the end of one of pinball's oldest names. At an August 5th public auction in Chicago, a newly formed corporation called Gottlieb Development LLC bought the assets of Premier Technology — the maker that had built games under the Gottlieb brand — for $1.9 million. It was the only bid. Premier had gone into liquidation, and RePlay noted the new buyer was tied to Mondial, Premier's former partner under the Gottlieb Electronics name. Gil Pollock was brought on to liquidate assets and police receivables, and the piece pointed operators to the old Bensenville, Illinois building for spare parts. Premier/Gottlieb never returned to production, closing out a lineage that reached back to the 1930s. The state of play: what was earning Even as its manufacturers consolidated, pinball was far from dead on route. RePlay's Players' Choice charts, an operator earnings poll, told the story: The month's highest-rated new pinball machine was Williams' Tales of the Arabian Nights (TOTAN). Coincidentally, this month 30 years later, Pedretti Gaming just launched its TOTAN Remake. On the best-in-operation pinball chart, Bally's Attack from Mars sat near the top, trailed by Theatre of Magic and the astonishingly durable Addams Family — 54 months on the chart. Sega's Twister and Apollo 13, the Gottlieb/Premier titles Big Hurt and a new entry in Mario Andretti, Capcom's Breakshot, Bally's Whodunnit, Williams' Star Trek (30 months) and Bally's World Cup Soccer (25 months) filled out the list. On the arcade game charts themselves, Atari's Area 51 led dedicated games and Sega's Gun Blade New York topped the deluxe pieces, with Daytona USA, Time Crisis, Ace Driver and Cruis'n USA close behind. The software poll was a murderers' row of the mid-'90s: Tekken 2, Soul Edge, Sega's Die Hard Arcade, SNK's Metal Slug and King of Fighters '96, Golden Tee 3D, Marvel Super Heroes, Puzzle Fighter, Dungeons & Dragons '96, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat. The September 1996 RePlay Magazine Cover story was about Capcom's Flipper Football, which ironically many say ended up being the final nail in the Company's coffin. Word was that Capcom Pinball had both Big Bang Bar and Flipper Football ready to go and chose to go with Flipper Football first. That's September 1996 in a nutshell. I've included a bunch of images and advertisements from the period below. If there's interest from people, I can make these historical looks back a regular feature here.
