It now appears that there will be two unique pinball games for you to get your hands on around the beginning of 2012 – Jersey Jack Pinball’s Wizard of Oz and now John Popadiuk’s Ben Heck’s ZOMBIEADVENTURELAND Pinball. Who is John Popadiuk? He designed some great classics including Theater of Magic and Tales of Arabian Nights and he’s still quite interested in creating new pinball games for people to own. He’s now teamed up with the famous modder Ben Heck (who at one point designed his own Bill Paxton Pinball machine) to create a new machine with a horror theme. Seeing how the popularity of zombies continues in popular culture unabated, it seems like a pretty good choice for a theme. According to the webpage describing the game, “[it] will feature amazing hand-drawn artwork, stainless steel metal parts, multi-level flipper play, silkscreened wood panels, led lighting pcbs, illuminated playfield ramps and digital game parts all fitted with Mr Popadiuk’s signature electromagnetic accoutrements and mechanical wizardry!“Aside from that and the image above, nothing else is known about the game at this point although I’m sure we’ll be finding out quite a bit more come January when the game is placed on pre-order for the public to buy.
[Via Engadget]
Can’t….stand….zombies…anymore…more…played…out…than…Lady…Gaga…urgh….
Lol, I know the feeling. I haven’t cared for them in a while and it amazes me that they still continue on in popular culture the way they do. Maybe more people are starting to burn out on them?
Man, I’ve been burned out on them for at least 3-4 years now, and there just doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.
I don’t just understand the fascination with them–as far as cool monsters go, they’re about as lame as it gets (I wish werewolves were even 10% as popular!).
One explanation I heard given by the author of the popular World War Z book was that people are drawn to zombies as it’s the only post-apocalyptic situation they can “control” since you can shoot zombies in the head. I suppose so but it’s still gotten way out there – we have a local school where they have an after hours class on surviving the zombie hordes and supposedly it’s serious. I’m just baffled by that a little bit aside from the potential entertainment value there as people are spending a bit of time worrying about scenarios that will never happen.
I agree that zombies do seem like they’ve been overdone in mainstream media and pop culture but I’m actually excited for a non-licensed themed pinball. If you haven’t noticed, Stern only makes licensed pinball on a popular theme. While they don’t disclose the costs of the licensing fees, I imagine it’s pretty significant for ones like Transformers, Avatar, Simpsons, etc. I would rather see that money go towards adding more features on the playfield similar to what we saw in the 90s when Williams was making pins.
I can agree on that. I don’t really care what the theme is as long as it’s something fun to play. Although perhaps with zombies making it to pinball, it finally signals that the end of the zombie craze is near 😛
While we’re on the subject of questionable pinball themes, I want to throw out “Wizard of Oz”. I’m not disagreeing that it’s a great film and it definitely deserves to be on AFI’s top 10 films of all time but as a pinball machine, really? I realize that most pinballs today are either in bars or movie theaters (at least here in Northern California) but it just doesn’t seem like something the average pinball player would want to play.
Yeah I was thinking the same way. I don’t care for Oz and I don’t know how many may but the table still excites solely because of the features in place. I look forward to their non-licensed pin that will be coming afterwards
Hi…also I think the retro adventure “amusement” land part will be really cool for a pinball machine….maybe throw in some atomic green neon! Zombies just seemed a natural..as there are only a few themed zombie pins….Jpop