We have been eagerly awaiting news on another pinball manufacturer getting their first product out the doors but it has been a little while since we had heard anything, until now. Pinballnews.com has an exclusive spread about the current situation at the Heighway Pinball factory, located in Merthyr Tydfil, UK. Delays for this game came into play when their factory was hired to do a special limited run of a few hundred custom pinball machines for an as-yet undisclosed corporation but with that out of the way, the focus is on getting Full Throttle out into the wild.
UPDATE: This trailer was just launched for the game, behold:
While I’ll leave the juicy details to their spread, some highlights:
The game is now in widebody format
The art package has been redesigned
Some of the multi-color LED effects are tied in with things like the Skill Shot
The graphics for the LCD which is located on the playfield have been redesigned and polished
They are focusing on making the first game very reliable to appeal to operators
Part of that reliability is to use inductive switches as opposed to wire switches
There is a toy bike that pops a wheelie on certain points
The game begins production in October with units shipping in November
On that last point, this really makes the end of this year packed for new pinball releases. I have to wonder if that is going to end up hurting one of these companies as here is the roster as I know it at the moment:
Jersey Jack Pinball – The Hobbit slated for November 2014
VonnieD Pinball – Pinball Gremlins slated for October/November 2014
Skit-B Pinball – Predator Pinball slated for October/November 2014
Heighway Pinball – Full Throttle slated for November 2014
Stern Pinball – They usually don’t announce new games far in advance but often they do have something new for the holidays (Star Trek was release this last November)
We have not seen such a packed shipping schedule in pinball since the 90s. Granted, for three of these companies it is their very first time out of the gate and from what we have heard they are looking at limited releases which are mostly filled with pre-orders. I don’t want to see any effort in this regard fail but either way we will find out by the end of the year what amount of games that the market can handle in regards to a simultaneous release schedule.
Here is a video that Pinballnews produced to show off the latest build of the game:
What are your thoughts?
