Pro Pinball: Revived & Remastered kickstarter link

Hey guys,

Just sharing some love from another forum (with the poster's permission... I assume that's okay?) regarding an upcoming Kickstarter for a remake/re-release of Pro Pinball. I've copied a post from said forum (www.pinballarcadefans.com), hopefully it's of some interest!

The thread.

The content (slightly modified for formatting as needed):
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Please follow the links below for more information on Silverball Studios' Pro Pinball : Revived & Remastered.


Official Website

Facebook

Twitter






General Information

Announced for : iOS, Mac and PC

Vote on which platform you would most like Silverball Studios to port Pro Pinball : Revived & Remastered to after iOS, Mac and PC HERE.



Pro Pinball Series : Revived & Remastered Kickstarter Campaign Upcoming!


Pat Lawlor and John Youssi



A sneak peak at the Pro Pinball Keyring that will be one of the rewards in Silverball Studios' forthcoming Kickstarter


KICKSTARTER LAUNCHES IN 3 DAYS (3RD SEPT)


Silverball Studios announced that they are launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the revival and remastering of the Pro Pinball Series – widely regarded as the best pinball simulation ever made.

The campaign goes live on September 3, 2012 with the team at Silverball looking to raise a minimum of $400,000 to fund this much anticipated project.

The team promises that with the funding received from a successful Kickstarter campaign, they will be giving the fans more than they would ever expect. The first promise made by the development team is that they will revive the series with a brand new ultimate Pro Pinball table. To do this in the most authentic way possible, the team has enlisted the help of pinball legend Pat Lawlor, creator of the best selling pinball table of all time, The Addams Family, and the highest rated pinball table of all time, The Twilight Zone, to design the new table and John Youssi to do the artwork.

The second promise, if the project receives full funding, is that the team will fully remaster the four original Pro Pinball tables for iOS, Mac and PC.

In return for their pledge, Kickstarter backers will receive a wide range of reward items, including signed boxed copies of the tables in the series - classic and new and the opportunity to appear on the back-glass of the new table drawn by the great John Youssi, the artist responsible for the back-glass artwork for The Addams Family, The Twilight Zone and Medieval Madness. Plus, the team is creating a series of solid metal Pro Pinball badges in Chrome, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These collector's items will only be available to the Kickstarter backers.

Also, Silverball Studios' recently mentioned that another one of their forthcoming Kickstarter rewards will let you join Pat Lawlor, John Youssi and Adrian Barritt (co-founder of Silverball Studios) for a special lunch in Chicago.

As for stretch goals, Silverball Studios is looking to offer support for Xbox 360, PS3, and Android as stretch goals providing they meet and exceed their goal of $400,000 and still have time to spare on their Kickstarter campaign.

This project is set to be a major milestone in the world of pinball and in light of the team’s passion for pinball games and the dedication of the fans of the original series, Silverball is confident that with the backing required, fans will not be disappointed.


NOTE : The development of the remastered four original Pro Pinball and New tables plus all future development WILL NOT be possible if Silverball does not meet their Kickstarter goal of $400,000.



Features, Developmental Details And Future Plans

Graphics Rendering : Silverball plans to stick with pre-rendered graphics as that will yield the best visual results. They are striving for perfection and believe they can get closer this way. However, if there's sufficient demand, Silverball would be happy to consider supporting real-time 3D further down the road.

Head 2 Head Mode : Silverball plans to bring back the Big Race USA Head 2 Head Mode. There's also the possibility that the new table may also end up with a Head 2 Head Mode as well.

iCade Support : Silverball is looking into possibly implementing iCade support for iOS devices.

Media Distribution : The new and remastered games will be download only, however Silverball will be offering boxed copies (and in some cases signed boxed copies) to Kickstarter backers. Also, Silverball plans to try to get Pro Pinball : Revived & Remastered on Steam.

New Exclusive Original Table : Silverball has enlisted the help of pinball legend Pat Lawlor to design the new table and John Youssi to do the artwork and since they will need a full year to do the new table justice, expect a late 2013 release.

Pinball Cabinet Support : Silverball will be building their own cabinet and look to implement most, if not all, of the following : 2 or 3 monitor support with a fully scalable and positionable Dot Matrix Display, support for both digital and analog nudging plus motion controllers, animated backglass, force feedback and LED-Wiz support. Also, Silverball would be willing to make high resolution Pro Pinball graphics available for anyone who wanted to decorate their cabinet with them.

Platform And Device Ports : Silverball plans to start with iOS, Mac and PC and get them spot on, then go from there. Which platforms they do next will be partly determined by the feedback they get. However, if Silverball are fortunate enough to sufficiently exceed their Kickstarter target of $400,000, then they will be able to guarantee support for other platforms such as Android, PS3 and Xbox 360. If Silverball just hits their target, their plan is to re-invest the income from future sales to port the game to other platforms, but that will take longer and isn't guaranteed.

Portrait View : Silverball plans to support 1080x1920 which, with pixel perfect pre-rendered graphics, should look awesome in a cabinet.

Remastered Original Pro Pinball Tables : Silverball plans to fully remaster the four original Pro Pinball tables which include The Web, Timeshock!, Big Race USA and Fantastic Journey to ensure that the original, and hugely popular, classics maintain their authenticity whilst looking and playing the best they can. Silverball plans to begin releasing the remastered tables in early 2013.

Screen Resolutions : Silverball looks to support resolutions up to and including 1080x1920 (portrait mode Full HD), 1536x2048 (new iPad) and even 2880x1800 (MacBook Pro Retina).

Second Monitor Support : Second monitor support is definitely a feature Silverball would like to support, but unless it's very easy to do, they'd want to prioritize porting to other platforms first.

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I'm not sure of whether they'll be able to raise the money (hell, $400,000 is a LOT) but I like what they're offering. A brand new table designed by legitimate pinball legend Pat Lawlor with artwork from John Youssi is a crazy, awesome thing. IMO it's great that they have people who were in the industry (it's rumoured there are also some other ex-Williams staff involved) and goes just that little step further than what FarSight have done, which (to my knowledge) haven't had any input from any of the great pinball manufacturers.

I'll be sure to update this OP with any new information (including a link when the KS goes live) when it's available.

Update: It's not looking real good (26/9)


Update #2: Not good.

No way this hits $400,000.

I loved these tables, though.

Edit: Pat Lawlor is doing the designing?

*Reaches for wallet*

Hmmm...prerendered, though? They need to put out some prototype footage showing why it's better to go that way rather than full dynamically-lit 3D. Sounds awesome otherwise.

I'll chip in some money just because of my love for pinball. Pre-rendered does sound pretty lame though.

Don't discount pre-rednered. Check out this demo they just put on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdun_RdmuZQ

The only thing you're loosing is complete freedom of camera angle. Meh. If the fact that it's pre-rendered improves performance, I have no problem with it when it looks like that video.

I used to love Pro Pinball. I will probably support this. It's great that they're still going pre-rendered.

epthegeek said:

Don't discount pre-rednered. Check out this demo they just put on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdun_RdmuZQ

The only thing you're loosing is complete freedom of camera angle. Meh. If the fact that it's pre-rendered improves performance, I have no problem with it when it looks like that video.

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Yeah, it does look nice, though I wonder if going back to such rigid fixed viewpoints will be difficult after being spoiled by Zen/FarSight's 3D cameras which mostly eliminates the classic limitations of view that older video pins have. Backed it for $50, anyway. Good luck to them, though it feels like the field is a bit crowded with excellent competition now.

Up to $20K, but... $380K to go. I dunno, guys, this might have been biting off more than you can chew. The lack of enthusiasm for it here really depresses me. Where is Pinball GAF?

jgkspsx said:

Where is Pinball GAF?

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400k is a pretty high goal for something many don't remember or have found better alternatives to in the last few years. They probably just came way too late and the pin fanbase is already committed to FarSight and Zen.

If this hits $400K, it's just going to be a kick in the face to how horrible FarSight's kickstarters are structured, as they struggle to pass $50K and promise similar rewards.

Timeshock! and the rest were great, great pinball games, and hold up to real tables, but I don't know... this is asking a lot more than I thought it would be. And there's not any fail-safe, like with the Defense Grid 2 kickstarter that wanted $1 million, but was going forward with just $250K as a backup plan, which it barely hit.

I guess having Pat Lawlor signed on to the new table counts for a bit more though, so hopefully that's enough to draw support in, as I'd enjoy seeing the new table made.

Honestly, when the talk of Pro Pinball coming back started, I imagined a tie-up with Zen or FarSight, using their tech and tools. I wonder if that could still happen in that way if this KS fails.

I used to love Pro Pinball to bits, bought the original PC games and own the Playstation 1 game as well (which was pretty good too, though the tables weren't as good as the two I bought on PC).

But today, I'm not so sure that I agree with them that using 2D graphics is a good idea. With modern screens, limiting yourself to 2D graphics is going to be a pain, and stuff like Zen Pinball shows that you're not really limited anymore by the 3D graphics to create great looking tables, while the lighting can be much better, and in particular the various dynamic views on to the table are a big win for the various screen modes, and a matter of preference per user as well (and even per table). And now I've seen Zen Pinball 2 on a 3D TV, I am convinced that Stereoscopic 3D rendering is the Future of Pinball Sims.

Personally, I would support kickstarting them to work together with Zen Pinball to recreate some of their classic tables as DLC for that game, as well as maybe produce new original tables.

This one seems like it may fail. Is there any risk to me if I pledge my $75? If it doesn't reach the goal, does my money get refunded?

added_time said:

This one seems like it may fail. Is there any risk to me if I pledge my $75? If it doesn't reach the goal, does my money get refunded?

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They only charge your card at the end of the kickstarter period and only if the project gets successfully funded.

Even if donations continued at this rate, they would only raise $360K. And presumably it will drop off past the first couple days. Sigh.

Up on Steam Greenlight now.

Seriously considering upping my contribution to $500. Nintendo really oughta kick a couple thou into this too.

Maastricht said:

I used to love Pro Pinball to bits, bought the original PC games and own the Playstation 1 game as well (which was pretty good too, though the tables weren't as good as the two I bought on PC).

But today, I'm not so sure that I agree with them that using 2D graphics is a good idea. With modern screens, limiting yourself to 2D graphics is going to be a pain, and stuff like Zen Pinball shows that you're not really limited anymore by the 3D graphics to create great looking tables, while the lighting can be much better, and in particular the various dynamic views on to the table are a big win for the various screen modes, and a matter of preference per user as well (and even per table). And now I've seen Zen Pinball 2 on a 3D TV, I am convinced that Stereoscopic 3D rendering is the Future of Pinball Sims.

Personally, I would support kickstarting them to work together with Zen Pinball to recreate some of their classic tables as DLC for that game, as well as maybe produce new original tables.

Click to expand...

Well, the good news is they're not entirely opposed to considering 3D if everyone really wants it that way, that is if it gets funded of course.

In the meantime, they posted an update a while ago:

Our cool iOS Pro Pinball Lighting Simulator has been submitted to the App Store. Hopefully it will be available in a week or so's time for you all to play with. PC and Mac versions should also be available after the weekend!

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So you'll (or I'll anyway) be able to see what they have accomplished in the 2D mode first hand. The lighting does look pretty impressive via youtube, and I'm sure there's tricks to implement some of the stuff you're talking about. Ultimately as important for them, is having it running on the various platforms, and it's possible a 3D lighting engine as advanced as they have made with the 2D mode would cripple a few of their targeted platforms.

Ok, that demo on Steam does actually look pretty great.

Looks like the glacial pace at which this is moving has spurred them into sweetening the deal with added Pro Pinball PC originals.

KS Update #4 said:

To help introduce Pro Pinball to a new generation we have just made the original PC version of Pro Pinball: Big Race USA available for FREE to all visitors to our main Kickstarter page!

In addition to that, a pledge of just $2 will get you downloads of the original PC versions of Timeshock! and Fantastic Journey when we hit our target!

Click to expand...

They should have charged $5 for that. Desperation.

Sigh.

Can kickstarters be retried?

They're made Big Race USA free on the main kickstarter page, to hopefully get more backers. Timeshock! is still my favorite table of theirs by far, but all their tables are pretty good.

jgkspsx said:

They should have charged $5 for that. Desperation.

Sigh.

Can kickstarters be retried?

Click to expand...

Yup, this is not anywhere close to as bad as the Wheel of Time kickstarter, which got like $1000 or less on the first day. They scrapped that one after a few days, too humiliating to see it finish with like 10,000 / 450,000 funded.

I think there's a chance for this to get to a decent number, like $200,000+ if the goal was lower, then there might be a final push to get it over. But you never know, other kickstarters have come back from just as far in the deep I think, though that involves a lot of intervention. Maybe there'll be a couple of really rich Pro-Pinball / Pat Lawlor fans who will take on the bulk of backing the new table if it comes to that... people do pay $10,000+ for real pinball tables! Not that this can compete, even with its credentials, but even if it fails, hopefully there's still a way to make it happen. I don't think a re-launch will be any more successful than what is going now, there's not really anything to indicate pinball fans can amass near a half-million in funding yet.

I hope this succeeds...but if it doesn't, we were trying to license these tables from Empire Interactive for ages with no luck, and we'd still be interested...

jgkspsx said:

Where is Pinball GAF?

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Well, I'd love to back this like I do with Pinball Arcade, but I have no interest in playing them on the systems they are going for. If they announce a XBLA or Wii U version, I'm there.

jgkspsx said:

They announced an XBLA version?

Click to expand...

FUCK YEAH!

So if I pledge $15 and this thing goes through I can download a copy for XBLA, right?

gar3 said:

So if I pledge $15 and this thing goes through I can download a copy for XBLA, right?

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Seems like that only gives you access to the new table that will be made especially for this.

jgkspsx said:

They announced an XBLA version?

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I don't think they realize what they are getting into there. You need a publisher, and development costs will be significantly higher than PC/iOS. If they don't already have an agreement with a publisher, they could easily fail to deliver on the XBLA promise.

In addition, Microsoft doesn't let you give out codes like Steam does. They give you a couple hundred or so (for company and press) and that's it.

Open Source said:

I don't think they realize what they are getting into there. You need a publisher, and development costs will be significantly higher than PC/iOS. If they don't already have an agreement with a publisher, they could easily fail to deliver on the XBLA promise.

In addition, Microsoft doesn't let you give out codes like Steam does. They give you a couple hundred or so (for company and press) and that's it.

Click to expand...

Then good thing for them they only have a couple hundred backers, lol! Other kickstarters like the Pinball Arcade ones have given 360 as choices for rewards though, and have 3x or more as many backers as this does so there must be a way, but I agree, it would be very unwise to list the platform if you didn't know for sure you had a way of getting it on there...

Minsc said:

They're made Big Race USA free on the main kickstarter page, to hopefully get more backers. Timeshock! is still my favorite table of theirs by far, but all their tables are pretty good.

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Not a bad idea - I downloaded it to see if it reminds me of the pinball in a good way. If it holds up, then I may back this.

I pledged $100 and desperately want this to succeed, but frankly it doesn't have a prayer. They should have started with remakes first. This "big bang" approach seems like biting off way more than they should chew.

Minsc said:

Then good thing for them they only have a couple hundred backers, lol! Other kickstarters like the Pinball Arcade ones have given 360 as choices for rewards though, and have 3x or more as many backers as this does so there must be a way, but I agree, it would be very unwise to list the platform if you didn't know for sure you had a way of getting it on there...

Click to expand...

You're right:

We've got some great news- we've worked out with Microsoft a way to award the Xbox 360 version of the Twilight Zone table as a reward to our backers!

Click to expand...

I'm guessing that this is related to GameStop being able to sell XBLA codes on their site.

Lighting demo for the remastered tables is now live on the main page for PC/Mac.

Thanks for keeping this up-to-date and on the first page, gents!

Is the version of Big Race USA on the KS page a remastered one (or at least, made more compatible or higher res for newer PCs) or the same as the one on GOG?

While I think they're being realistic in the amount of money that they need to get the game up and running, I don't think it reflects well on the typical KS model. They're more likely to get $400K if they improve the tiers slightly and lower their main goal (maybe $300K?). I mean, I'd be more likely to throw in a large sum if it looks like the goal will be met, but if others are like me and aren't sure they'll make it, they won't put it in in the first place.

I know that the money doesn't get taken from our accounts unless it's successful, but a lot of people don't know that and thus would be hesitant. If it was lower = greater chance of them making it = more people likely to back it.

Shaneus said:

Thanks for keeping this up-to-date and on the first page, gents!

Is the version of Big Race USA on the KS page a remastered one (or at least, made more compatible or higher res for newer PCs) or the same as the one on GOG?

While I think they're being realistic in the amount of money that they need to get the game up and running, I don't think it reflects well on the typical KS model. They're more likely to get $400K if they improve the tiers slightly and lower their main goal (maybe $300K?). I mean, I'd be more likely to throw in a large sum if it looks like the goal will be met, but if others are like me and aren't sure they'll make it, they won't put it in in the first place.

I know that the money doesn't get taken from our accounts unless it's successful, but a lot of people don't know that and thus would be hesitant. If it was lower = greater chance of them making it = more people likely to back it.

Click to expand...

It's the original version, along with the other two (Timeshock! and Fantastic Journey) you get for backing $2, which is a great deal - if this gets funded. Of course you aren't out anything if not, but it's sorta a long wait for $2.

The lighting demo is the only thing shown of the new versions, as they haven't decided if it's even going to stay 2D, but I feel it's too late to go 3D with all the additional platforms they have recently announced.

I remember I bought the 4 of them..and also a little gem called Tilt!..ahh the memories.

I totally support this project!

802 backers
$82,988 pledged of $400,000 goal
13 days to go

It's not looking good

Neuromancer said:

802 backers
$82,988 pledged of $400,000 goal
13 days to go

It's not looking good

Click to expand...

I wonder if they have a backup plan? Surely they could scale back the plans and do it for much cheaper.

Yeah, you have to think that the nostalgia value just isn't there to get that much money. It's also a problem starting with such a big amount, too... if it was smaller, people would be inclined to think it'd actually make it, thus actually putting their names down. But when it seems so far out of reach, most people are likely thinking "what's the point?".

added_time said:

I wonder if they have a backup plan? Surely they could scale back the plans and do it for much cheaper.

Click to expand...

They should just go with the flow and work with Zen, asking for significantly less considering the availability of high quality video pin sims in the marketplace. This thing was too late and had too high of a goal. While or after getting something out of existing platforms, they can work on releasing their tech and versions of the tables for less-capable platforms that might benefit from their modern take on prerendered video pinball.

The Web is my favourite pinball table of all time, real or virtual. Definitely going to contribute to this.

Updated the OP. The lack of posts in this thread seem to reflect the general disinterest on their Kickstarter:

Ok backed $10, lets go!

$100K pledged is a lot of money, especially for a company whose last release was Frogger Pinball on iOS. (Was that any good?) $400K was daft, as I said from the beginning.

Some more renders. Looks good!

Adrian Barratt of Silverball (original team member of Pro Pinball studio) was on this week's episode of One Life Left podcast, had some funny tales to tell of the old days - including Mario Pinball. He didn't seem particularly optimistic at the Kickstarter, so go and make the man smile.

Make us all smile.

Please do.

But there just ain't no chance

The thread title was edited (thank-you, mod!) but the thread hadn't been bumped for the update.

So, here's the update:


While they may have been genuinely accurate in how much money they needed to make the game, they were asking a hell of a lot to start with. Even half of that amount would've been gettable, so maybe they should've halved that and dropped the Lawler etc. new table idea and just concentrated on remastering the old games or something.

But, this is on their website:


I can only assume that their website used to link to the KS, so it's weird that image is posted. Also brings up the interesting question that of just how many Kickstarters have been created that could've just *not* been done and created under the normal game creation process (ie. without public funding).