Ghost Busters - 2016 - would you get it

[Cursed]

So........Ghostbuster the pinball........

Any good video footage of gameplay yet?

[GORGAR 1]

So........Ghostbuster the pinball........

Any good video footage of gameplay yet?

Steve Richie playing a Pro :)
https://www.facebook.com/sternpinball/videos/10154092960739244/

[swinks]

a guy did a interview with JT

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2016/04/19/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-ghostbusters-pinball-machine/#1b7a542235ce

or copied and pasted here


Faced with the rise of video games and the fall of the arcade, just a few years ago it seemed like the pinball industry seemed on its way out.

Wow have things changed. Today, pinball is undergoing a renaissance as new manufacturing startups enter the scene, competitive leagues spread throughout the country, and game designers begin to experiment with the classic formula. Case in point: The new Ghostbusters pinball machine (yes, it’s based on the original movie and not the reboot), which comes from Stern pinball, the oldest and largest company still making the games. To get a better understanding of the new game, I spoke to designer John Trudeau—an industry veteran who created classic games such as Creature From The Black Lagoon and The Machine: Bride of Pinbot—about what it was like making the game, and where the industry is headed.

So, tell me about the new Ghostbusters game.

Let’s see. What’s not new on this? We really had a great subject to work with. The movie was just full of material that translates really well to a game. Our question on developing the game was more or less what to leave out. We had a good time with it, that’s for sure. The genesis from the movie to the game was fairly smooth, actually. We have a couple of new features that we brought in that were perfect for the ghosts. We have magnetic slingshots that don’t have any physical moving parts. We put a magnet under the play field to pull the ball away from the rubber band instead of having a kicker in there. It looks like the ghosts control everything. We also have an EctoGoggles feature, which actually gives you, the player, an image on the playfield that’s kind of holographic. You see an animated ghost of some style. We’re still  playing on it as far as what we want to put in there, but you can shoot the ball right through the image. It’s pretty nice to see. You’re looking through a two-way mirror, essentially. You’re seeing the reflection of a LCD screen that’s actually above the play field.

It’s the Pepper’s ghost illusion, right?

I believe that’s what it’s called, yes.

It’s becoming standard to release multiple versions of the game. You’ve got the less expensive pro and then the premium/limited edition versions. Do you start with the basic model and then add on features for the premium ones, or do you start with the dream machine and then see what you need to strip away for the less expensive one? Which direction does it typically go?

Personally, I go with designing the full-boat game. It’s much easier to pull things out than it is to make space for something to go in. I’ll start with full-boat version, and then we’ll pick and choose and fight our wars that way as far as the budget’s concerned.
Recommended by Forbes
Veteran pinball designer John Trudeau was behind the new Stern Ghostbusters pinball machine

Veteran pinball designer John Trudeau was behind the new Stern Ghostbusters pinball machine (photo credit: John Trudeau)

Games these days are sort of iterative processes, even after their release, with code updates often adding new features. Do you usually know exactly what the code road map’s going to be when you first release it, or do you leave some wiggle room as people play with it, and you figure out what might work?

Pretty much both. We have a vision on top of where we want to go with it. Just X amount of time in order to get an operational game, and the goal is to get an operational game out, and then finish up all the little features that didn’t make it that we wanted to get in there originally, and then the updates come. Sometimes, not very often, if we get feedback and if we find something relevant that maybe would improve the game, it’s very possible that they could get pushed into a revision, too.

Pinball in the past couple of years has suddenly become very popular again. What’s it like to suddenly see this world suddenly become bigger than it’s been in a very long time?

It’s nice. I was around for the ’80s and ’90s when we were really putting out some fantastic games. Then I was also around when I got let go and I wasn’t producing any games for a number of years, and was fortunate enough to come back here at Stern. They picked me up off the street, from the gutter, and said, “How would you like to make pinball machines again?” I said, “Oh, okay.” I jumped at the chance, of course.

If you’d been out of the game for a little bit, was it hard to step back in? Is it a muscle you need to work on, or were you doing back-of-napkin designs the whole time?

Yes, and yes. It was hard to get in here. The first design I did for Stern was Mustang, and it was hard. The ideas didn’t flow as readily as they had in the past. To your other question, yes I was keeping my hands in everything. I designed a game for a group of fans in the UK. They’re still working on it eight years later but it’s coming along. I also did a theoretical design in software for Fox Sports for the 2005 All-Star game I believe, and they used it on television for one of their promotional commercials.  Which was kind of cool.

With Ghostbusters, you have this rich theme with a lot of memorable characters. What items did you guys really want to include but just didn’t have the room? What was left on the cutting room floor?

Oh, that’s a tough one. We got most everything in. Well, we still have the proton beams we developed for the game, but unfortunately due to budget constraints, they’ve been left off the games. They looked pretty cool actually, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Otherwise, you’ll be giving these people $10,000 pinball machines and they’re not going to like that.

For sure. Tell me about these proton beams. What did they do?

It was an image. They moved out from the side of the board. Of course you didn’t want to cross the streams, and they would control a little bit in, a little bit out. Then of course once you did cross the streams with them, it would go into a different mode altogether.  Nothing much was developed past the rudimentary stages, because we knew right off that they weren’t going to be on the game.

Tell me about the Slimer target. That seems to be an interesting, novel, new feature.

We were fortunate enough to get a mechanism that was simpled down a little bit for the lesser expensive model of the game. What it does do is it keeps Slimer activated. He’s actually in motion. We’ve got a LCD board on top of him with high-intensity green LEDs that light him up, and he comes down like a ghost. He hovers above the play field, and your object is to whack him with that ball as much as you can. As you’re whacking him, we’re lighting different arrows up in a green color, because every time you whack him, you get slimed. Once he’s been chased away, all this slime is left on the game for you to pick up, so you have to shoot all these game arrows.

One thing I think a lot of people noticed about your games is you sometimes put fun Easter Eggs in them. Is there anything people should be on the lookout for in Ghostbusters in this regard?

They’ll be a little black cat that’s walking around in various areas. I lost my buddy last year. He was with me for about thirteen years, so I said, “Let’s put tribute my old cat.” He walks around through to this place every once in awhile.

It kind of works with the Ghostbusters theme too, I guess.

Exactly. Purr.

Some of the startups in the space have moved to LCD displays, and you guys are still using dot-matrix displays. Could you talk about what you view as the pros and cons of each type of display technology.

Obviously the image is so much nicer on the LED screens than it is on the DMD, but also it take a lot more time in development to fill up that screen with something that’s worth looking at. Compared to the DMD, which is basically a monochromatic display with very coarse resolution, there’s going to be a lot of time and investment involved in getting a display like that up and running.

You mentioned making some back-of-napkin designs over the years. Is there anything else you’ve created, whether it was before you stepped out of pinball for a stretch or after, that you feel is a really cool design that is just waiting to be built?

I had some ideas and I’ve brought them in pretty much as I could into the games I’m doing now. The game I’m doing next, for instance, has some things that I wanted to do many, many years ago. The ideas are always there. I’ve got a couple little folders that are just full of sketches and early AutoCAD designs. They’re like my bank of good ideas.

A lot of pinball designers seem to have sort of trademark design touches that they come back that kind of make it identifiable as a game from that designer. What makes a John Trudeau pinball a John Trudeau pinball?

It doesn’t look like the last game. That’s pretty much for sure. I enjoy making different things. It’s a challenge for me. The part of the profession that I love is designing the game, and I try to do something different. I don’t want to get married into a style as it were. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but you’ll always know that it’ll be different.

So, what’s in your personal collection? Which games?

None. I don’t have them. I don’t have any games at home.

Well then, what games do you really admire throughout history?

I have a lot of favorites. I’d say the design staff at Williams was responsible for making a lot of games in the ’90s that I just totally love playing. Prior to that, it was a different animal. It’s funny how the game changes from decade to decade, literally. From the ’60s to the ’70s to the ’80s to the ’90s. Then the 2000s were almost nothing going on. Now it’s back again so it’s fun to see everything continuing to evolve so to speak

You look at a game from the ’70s versus ’90s, it’s very obvious how they’re different games. But when you look at the games from the 90s versus ones from today, they often look pretty similar. What do you think has changed about pinball in design from the ’90s to today?

Not a whole lot. There’s been some changes. It’s very subtle. The electronics for one is a the major change. We’ve made the systems more compact and much easier for the operator, hopefully. Giving them more options in the future to go to. The LCD, for instance, the new system has to be able to handle that too.

The evolution of the game almost went to a standstill through the 2000s because there was no competition with just one company out. I’m sure they were having a hard time just staying above water at some points. It doesn’t breed a lot of research and development. It’s kind of, “Give me the game but don’t spend any money” type of thing. I’ve been that way before too. It’s not fun that way.

Why do you think pinball is popular again? What is it that is causing a new generation to discover it?

I think that’s the answer. It’s a different generation. These are new kids. I’ve been to a lot of shows in the last year or two around the country, and I see eight year olds, ten year olds, teenagers, coming in by themselves, not being brought in by their moms or dads. They just come in and play because they’re finding out they’re enjoying these games.

I think pinball also is a an innately social game. I like to say that what makes it a great competition sport, if you want to call it sport, is… well, let’s say basketball. I play a game against the best basketball player in the world a hundred times and I lose a hundred times. If I play against the best pinball player a hundred times, I win maybe three. I get that lucky bounce and they get the bad bounce. There’s just elements of unpredictability, and that kind of evens the playing field to the point where it’s exciting.

Correct. You can have three identical games that will play totally different too. It’s just the difference in the tension of a rubber band or a switch adjustment. Nothing that’s out of specification but it’s just they’re different.

Yes! I like to say that you can be a good pinball player and you can walk up to any game and do good. But to be a great pinball play you have to know the ins and outs of that specific machine. And then to be a really great pinball player you need to know that specific instance of that machine and its quirks. I think those levels really make it fun.

You’re correct. That’s exactly right. If you’re going to play on a great player’s machine that he’s familiar with, you’ll probably get beat every time.

What’s your dream theme to build a pin around. If you could snap your fingers and build a pinball on any theme in the world, what would it be?

It would be The Beatles. I’ve been trying to get The Beatles since I was at Williams. Pretty soon they’re going to be gone, and I’ll be gone too. Then it won’t matter anymore. But I would still love to get The Beatles.

What would you put into a Beatles game?

Prior to being here at Stern, I was always thinking just one model. With Stern and the premium/LEs, I’ve now got three models to think of, which might lend itself to something a little more different. I always planned on making the early Beatles, up to “A Hard Day’s Night”. It would be a lot of black and white, a lot of early pictures from them at Shea Stadium, say, or Comiskey Park, that kind of concert footage and also that music that went up to maybe “Rubber Soul” or so and just make a nice selection of music from there. That would be my ideal.

At Williams we got as far as talking to Ringo Starr’s people. They were interested as far as getting him to do voice for the game, but nothing ever went past that unfortunately. Here, now with the three models, we have the opportunity to possibly do three different ages of The Beatles. Maybe one with the early, one in the center we do the “Magical Mystery Tour”/”Sgt. Pepper”-type stuff with the surrealistic type of artwork. And the last one could be “Abbey Road” where they’re doing their final studio presentation.

I’ve got to ask about the flipper gap [writer's note: John Trudeau is known for putting an extra wide gap between the flippers, much to the chagrin of many frustrated players]. Where does it come from and what you are thinking?

I don’t know if it was a conscious effort on me to actually open the flippers up on purpose just to open them up. I felt that the outside drains had, even if they were open, they just ate the ball so much. This way I kind of hoped, I guess, to give you some more adjustments to put on the outside drains. I like the way the games play. When you go down the center it’s just too bad.

There’s also the timing of the game. We do still watch the time. We don’t want the guy to sit on there for ten minutes. But then again, we don’t want them to be done in thirty second either. I guess that’s my style.

Where would you like to see pinball go in the future as the game continues to grow and evolve and is popular again?

What I would like to see, and I haven’t seen it yet, is young designers. I’ve gotten very few inquiries as far as what happens when I stop designing, Steve Richie stops designing, John Borg stops designing, or any of the other designers from other companies. Hopefully maybe there’ll be some other companies coming up that will take the load.

I’m very aware of the fact that there’s nobody to pass the mantle onto. I would like to see some young fellows with some great ideas. It’s a strange vocation, I guess you could call it. You have to have a little bit of artistic tendencies and game consciousness and also mechanical design ability. You can’t make something that’s just not going to exist in real time and real space. If you can combine all that together then you’ve go yourself a pinball designer.

Speaking of that, have you created an idea for a feature that looks great on paper and maybe even in renderings, but by the time you build a prototype it just didn’t work?

For sure. I made a pair of slingshots that changed their angles. The thinking was that these would keep the ball up in a certain area much more when the angle came down flatter. They just didn’t work. I built a full prototype of it and I played with it. I imagine there’s got to be some other stuff there that I didn’t like. With my reputation I’ve always been trying to push the envelope and experiment with different things. Some work, some don’t.

Back to your last answer. If one young designer shows some promise and wanted to apprentice under you. I’m not saying that’s not me. Believe me, I’m not that guy, but you want to spread the skill, you want more out there people doing this, right?

For sure. Somebody who has got to go and do it. To be proactive about it. You’re not going to get paid, probably, for a little bit and it shouldn’t matter. This should be something you just really want to do. In the beginning I got paid zippo also. I worked in the factory for a couple years, so I understand. That didn’t stop me. I just wanted to do something else and the design thing came around to me. It seemed to be the right move for me. I think there’s guys here, designers here, who would be happy enough to try and help someone out.

One last question. For people playing, what do you think is the best strategy for Ghostbusters to get the high score?

Get up to this one mode where the flippers reverse and and remember to switch your hands.

[pinsanity]

It’s becoming standard to release multiple versions of the game. You’ve got the less expensive pro and then the premium/limited edition versions. Do you start with the basic model and then add on features for the premium ones, or do you start with the dream machine and then see what you need to strip away for the less expensive one? Which direction does it typically go?

Personally, I go with designing the full-boat game. It’s much easier to pull things out than it is to make space for something to go in. I’ll start with full-boat version, and then we’ll pick and choose and fight our wars that way as far as the budget’s concerned.

Must be tough having to design the complete intended game first and then going head to head with the bean counters over what to cut back on for the Pro.

Steve Ritchie said he adopts the same LE/Premium first design process in his video interview a few months back as well.

Thankfully in the case of GB the differences are kept to a minimum.

Thanks for posting the interview.

[pinball god]

I would think an le/premium design would be done first after some culling from the proto and then further bits removed for the pro. But I read Borg starts with pro and then adds stuff. I wonder if this has any influences in model preferences between designer games? A lot of Borg game owners prefer pro's as the addons are not that critical to improving game play. I don't know if the other school of design lend themselves to more preference for le/prems???

[Caveoftreasures]

You are spot on about Borgys designs.
The Pro is always great with his designs and the add ons for the LE are usually not a huge difference at all.
I find most LE games play much slower cause the add on features slow gameplay right down. Then u are paying 3 or 4 grand extra for mild toys that don't do much and it slows gameplay so to me, buying a LE simply costs more and it's slower.

When Steve Ritchie did his original interviews about designing ACDC he said he designed two completely different white woods.

Now he is saying he isn't doing that anymore & he just adds or subtracts a few features. I think paying an extra four grand for a metal numbered plaque and a few extra features that slow gameplay down isn't a attraction to me personally. I always find the Pro very fast and the best value for money.
Don't get me wrong, the LE or Premium are fine machines, it's just great they design 3 games for 3 different personal preferences. Stern has copied from the car market & it works well.
This GhostBusters game has sure become very popular very quickly.

[swinks]

Deadflip did a video of Pro on site

&feature=youtu.be&autoplay=1&rel=0

[oldskool1969]

That looks really fun apart from the polarising light show  my eyes are hurting

[pinball god]

Starting to roll out pro's in the wild and at homes. Interested to see the comments

[GORGAR 1]

Starting to roll out pro's in the wild and at homes. Interested to see the comments

I haven't read any negative comments yet Rob :) I think your in for a fun beautiful game.  Everyone's saying the artwork in person is magnificent.

[pinball god]

I hope you're right, but it doesn't matter, I like pinball anyway so the risk of disappointment is minimal

[GORGAR 1]

http://youtu.be/luWdInTDJvs

[pinsanity]

Not going to comment on the gameplay or the audio since both the players were subpar and yet again the host insisted on talking over the top of the game audio.

I will say it is the best looking Pro model in terms of comparable features to Premium/LE in a long time.

Looking foward to these landing down here (particularly the Premium/LE range) and giving it a test drive.


But at 6:48-
That misspelt "reinforcment" insert pointed out a couple of months back has made it to production machines without being corrected. 

[oldskool1969]

I am looking forward to playing this as it looks like a drain monster and very very quick. My favourite type of game.
Pet hate is long games.

The light show doesn't look as polarising in this vid.

[pinball god]

Looks maybe too much of a drain monster. I too don't like overly long games but also don't like the need for the ball save to come into play nearly every ball.

Also gotta admit I'm keen on getting my LE.

There has also been mentioning of the slimmer not registering all the time. I dunno if that's true as even in this video it doesn't register but the hits do not seem to be good, strong, direct hits???