It turns out that Stern & Jersey Jack Pinball aren’t the only companies with a new pinball machine to reveal this week – relative newcomer, Barrels of Fun, just dropped a trailer and info on their second game, DUNE. Let’s check it out.
DUNE Pinball
Based upon the recent movies (which aren’t quite done yet, as there will be a part three, which is based upon Dune Messiah), which in themselves are based upon the epic sci-fi novel of the same name, this is one IP that I’ve long thought could be a great table. Here’s the quick tease:
DUNE Pinball – The Cabinet
As of this moment, there is one model listed for DUNE, which is not showing the full price (deposit is being taken for $2,000; Barrels of Fun’s Labyrinth is listed at the same distributor for $10,450), but they are limiting it to 1,000 units. I would say this looks comparable to a Premium model from other companies.
DUNE Pinball – The Game
The playfield captures the main elements that you would expect to see with the license (the Freman sietch (caves), a thumper, the blue glow of the spice eyes, a spice harvester, and of course, sandworms). I’m not sure if the one sandworm platform “swallows” the ball or not, but it has a magnet and moves, which looks cool.
Per the email I got from CoinTaker, here are the features:
- 3 Flippers, 6 Balls
-Horizon Atmospheric Lighting (HAL) - An All-New RGB LED Low-Profile Inner Cabinet Lighting System for Arrakis Day / Night Lighting Effects
- All-RGBW LED Playfield Insert Lamps & General Illumination Lamps, and Playfield Apron Flood Lights
- EverGloss High-Gloss Decal Art with Metallic-Embedded Details
- Infinity Glass (Anti-Reflective Glass) Thunder From Down Under Shaker Motor
- Factory-Installed Inner Blade Art
- 15.6” HD LCD Display flanked by 5-1/4” Kenwood Full-Range -Stereo Speakers with Interactive Full RGB Illumination
- JBL STAGE 8” Cabinet Subwoofer
- Polyester Metallic Powder Coated Cabinet Armor & Matching Speaker
- Panel with Laser-Cut Sandworm Pattern Speaker Grills
- 14.9” LCD Backboard Playfield Display for an Expanded Universe Under Glass!
The artwork on the apron is also really nice – in my opinion. I’ve read all of the mainline Dune books (through the end to the series that Brian Herbert finished, but I didn’t read his many intra-trilogy books), and so it captures my interest. I highly doubt that they’ll movies beyond Messiah though (maybe Children of Dune), as the series gets pretty weird from the 3rd book on, beyond where most non-sci-fi fans would probably enjoy.
The game is shipping “later this year,” perhaps this Summer. I’m guessing they decided to get this out before the other big names drop, but it’s still a surprise to see a smaller pinball maker grab a license of this size.
All I would hope for is that the game works out from a technical side without needing to be babysat. I’ve come across Labyrinth a couple of times and it was a great game – when it worked. The one at Pinball Expo had some issues – but again, I hope that they’ll have fixed that and brought it all up to a commercial arcade spec. Granted, Barrels of Fun doesn’t appear to be targeting operators but collectors, but I still think you build with the assumption it’ll be in an arcade, and go from there.
We also now have a full look at the game thanks to this official trailer. I don’t care for the tag line “the power over spice is the power over everything” myself – the original “He who controls the spice, controls the universe” conveyed the same idea but in a more succinct way. Anyways, this shows how you want to train like Paul Atriedes, moving your way up on his particular hero journey. I like the ramps and how the ball flows with that, and the sandworm ball lock does swallow the ball – which is a cool feature and has an extra surprise you’ll want to watch the whole video for. I’m also surprised by how many ball locks this has.
The part from this that made me think “wow, that’s cool!” is how the Pain Box feature works. I won’t spoil it here in case you’re still reading and haven’t watched yet, but that is a very clever use of the middle button. There’s also a screen in the back of the playfield, which I hadn’t noticed from the previous trailer.
After watching it, I’m much more sold on this now than I was before. It’s just too bad that I can’t trade a Mandalorian for a Dune (unless someone out there wants to… I won’t say no :P).
What do you think about DUNE coming to the pinball scene, finally?
