So, I've been having a think about this... so excuse my brain dump while I clog up this thread with ideas that have probably been suggested/designed anyway.
First, the obvious:
* Palm trees that flop down when activating some mode
* Thunderbird 2 ball lock (obvious)
* Starting multiball could involve hitting five in-line drop targets (like the Master of Puppets drop targets on Metallica), with each one having the Thunderbirds numbers 5-1 and each time you hit one,
it says the number and has the horn/trumpet sound.
* I think a shaker motor, even as an additional extra, would be a very clever option... especially for launch sequences!
* Headphone jack (not a biggie for me, but I think it'd be appreciated for a lot of folk
* Dimmable DMD? Perhaps even some kind of VGA output for testing/diagnosis?
* Not sure how software updates would work (if at all) but the easier the better for the home user. USB, I guess?
* Lots of Lady Penelope/Parker humour (obviously!).
Things that may not be so obvious/feasible:
* Playfield having a photo/drawing that lights up for each mission, just like the IR control centre:
* I was thinking of some kind of vertical habitrail that goes up, *outside* the backbox (via magnets, kinda like the supercharger in The Getaway/HS2 I guess) to represent the launch sequence and possibly the start of multiball. Think it would be cool to see something that goes outside the playfield, but might not be technically possible. This could perhaps even just be a trick with the backbox, where there's only a single ball self-contained, but there's a trick where a ball hides in the playfield and it only looks like it goes into this habitrail. (I just realised this could be done almost like the catapult launcher in Medieval Madness, but with an outside ball. I guess it would have enough velocity to make it up something vertically?)
* Ball lock that involves some kind of rotating panel
like in the launch sequence in this video.
* Somewhere on the playfield (maybe a toy) with a reference to Lady Penelope's car and the gun behind the grille.
I'd also love to know who the designer is, but I understand if that's still under wraps for the time being. I suspect I have an idea (if it's an experienced/well-known designer) but I'm not putting any bets on it. Do you know when you'll be able to tell us who it is?
