Newsbag: Pinball Updates; Level 257 Update; Jump Kick Boxer; NTG#27

Tis’ the weekend before Christmas and thus new game news is going to be rather slow but that doesn’t stop the internet for giving us a few things to chat about. There are a few pinball items to get to so let’s start with that.

Stern Releases Making Of The Walking Dead Pinball Video – While this isn’t the first time Stern has done this, it is always fascinating to watch these “behind the scenes” type looks at how their games came together.

Checking out The Big Lebowski Pinball Machine – Our friends at Arcade Hunters posted this extensive look at Dutch Pinball’s new The Big Lebowski Pinball machine, which has now landed in the US. Here is 26 minutes of the machine in all its glory:

Barry Oursler Joins Heighway Pinball – To Pinheads/pinball wizards (whatever you prefer to call yourself as a pinball fan), the name Barry Oursler should be familiar. Having worked on pinball games from 1979-1996, he had a hand in designing various machines which are still highly regarded today including Defender, Joust, PinBot, Doctor Who, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Junkyard and more.  He now joins the design team for Heighway Pinball which recently launched their first game, the original Full Throttle. They have Alien on the way, which Barry will be working on in addition to something else and in this announcement video, Andrew Heighway shows off the bare whitewood for the game, while also dropping the announcement that they will have Alien ready for April 2015. In case anyone was doubting whether Heighway Pinball would be a serious contender in the pinball space, well there are your answers 😉

Level 257 Update – Through the year we have discussed the upcoming Pac-Man Themed Restaurant opening up in Schamburg, IL. There isn’t much to update you on about it currently although more websites are starting to pick up on the news about it in general. The only new-news I can find is that originally they were targeting Fall 2015 as an opening date but apparently that has been pushed back to early 2015, according to their Tumblr site. Thanks to The Stinger Report for that link.

Jump Kicking A Boxing Machine – Unfortunately I am not sure where this originated from in regards to the original poster as it is being taken by just about everyone who is reposting the snot of out it. For the popular boxing machines, you don’t see this technique used on them too often 😉

What I Am Playing This Week – Not much new to say here – at home more Hyrule Warriors and I’m almost done with Shadow Warrior (stuck on a fairly ridiculous bullet sponge parade near the end; they certainly wanted to go over-the-top before the end). I did get to spend more time on Armed Police Batrider and Macross Plus at the arcade but I need to find a drill to install more buttons into the control panel for the cabinet I am using (a Mars Matrix which only had one button). I don’t have a controller for a PS3 I received otherwise I would give Twisted Metal 3 a spin, which is the only game I have for the console at the moment. I also will soon have my game room put together at my house, I finally will be able to do what I have been wanting to do for years and with receiving a replacement power supply for my Atari 800XL, I will certainly be giving that a spin again – if I find the time.

Name That Game #27 – For last week, we had a wide ranging quiz. Mr. Do! was a sorta-celebrity character back in the 80s, what was interesting about the it was that each game he starred in was a completely different kind of game. The one I posted was Mr. Do’s Castle which generally isn’t as well liked as plain ol’ Mr. Do! but I personally like Castle more as Do! was more of a Dig Dug clone and this felt a little more original, albeit much more challenging. I have never played BOTSS as it is fairly rare – I’ve never seen a cabinet in person or even in pictures of one in the wild. But I have a thing for mech games, plus there is that charm of flat-shaded polygons (running at a decent frame rate thanks to the arcade hardware). For the 3rd, I’ve never seen one of these in person either, but it was interesting for the mix of shooting game types it had (scrolling segments as well as single screen free-roaming parts).

Here are your answers, the first two were correctly guessed but the 3rd remained a mystery as an ultra-obscure game.

#1 – Mr. Do’s Castle by Universal

#2 – B.O.T.S.S.: Battle of the Solar System by Jaleco

#3 – Zodiack by SCO/Orca

And your mystery games for this fine week (I would do Christmas themed ones but there aren’t too many of those)