Pinball & HDTGM Movies

[TopMoose 33]

I've seen people posting photos of the Shadow pinball machine here on the forums and on the HDTGM twitter feed and, as a pinball collector and someone who's interested in the history of pinball, thought I'd offer some insight into this and other relevant games.

 

As I'm sure you know, production companies often sell licensing rights to manufacturers who make toys, video games, clothing and, starting in the late 70's, pinball machines, to tie in to their movies. In order to time the release of these products with the release of the movies, development had to start a year or more ahead of time, so there's often no way to predict if the licensed products will be tied to a hit movie or a dud.

 

We pinball collectors have a joke that the worse the movie, the better the pinball machine.

 

Some of the highest-rated, most sought-after games include The Shadow, Congo and Demolition Man. Others, that aren't quite A-list but are still highly regarded include Barb Wire, and Godzilla (1998).

 

In Michael Shaloub's book The Pinball Compendium, Vol. 3, game designer John Trudeau reveals that his company, Williams, spent a lot of money on the licensing to Congo but none of the designers wanted to work on it. Finally, it got to the point where he was forced to design the game and he really hit it out of the park.

 

The Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter pinball machines are based on the video games, rather than the movies and the Judge Dredd, TMNT machines are based on the comic books. The Spider-Man game was released between the 2nd and 3rd movies.

 

Pinball machines based on movies HDTGM hasn't gotten around to yet include Flash Gordon, Johnny Mnemonic, Krull, and The Flintstones.

 

Of course, the rule doesn't always hold true. The Addams Family, The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean are all great movies with great pinball machines. the original Star Wars trilogy is great, but the three pinball machines based on them (by Hankin, Data East and Sega) are all pretty dull.

[Cockney Mackem 514]

Flash Gordon would be tremendous as a HDTGM podcast.

 

Do films still do tie in pinball machines, or is it only older movies that have them?

 

Also, is there an interest among collectors in pinball machines that have actually appeared in the movies? Like for example Maximum Overdrive?

[TopMoose 33]

Excellent questions, Mac!

 

The first pinball machine based on a movie - in fact, the first pinball machine with a licensed theme of any kind - was Bally's 1976 game Wizard, based on the movie Tommy (an obvious tie-in, because it's a movie about a kid who plays pinball). Roger Daltry and Ann-Margaret appear on the backglass, but other than that, the gameplay has little to do with the movie.

 

In recent years, Stern Pinball has done movie tie-ins with the Star Trek reboots, Avengers, Iron Man, Shrek, Nolan's Batman movies and Avatar. Their most recent is based on the 1984 Ghostbusters and they've also done some TV titles like Walking Dead and Family Guy. Jersey Jack Pinball has released Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit in the past few years and an upstart company called Heighway Pinball will be releasing Alien soon (based on the Sigourney Weaver series).

 

I don't know of any collectors who specifically look for machines because they're in a particular movie, but we do enjoy identifying the games we see in movies. Giancarlo Esposito gets attacked by a Night Rider machine in Maximum Overdrive (an original trucking theme, not related to the talking car TV show).

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

This is fascinating information - when you say 'pinball collectors', I assume that means you own multiple machines, or does that mean you're an aficionado on (what used to be) arcades? How much would one of those classic machines run you? How many do you own? They seem like they'd be a tough thing to have a large number of, given their size, but maybe that just exposes my ignorance.

 

OT: 'Krull'. Damn. That's just begging for HDTGM treatment. I have a buddy who loves that movie with all his heart. He'll be delighted to know that the pinball tie-in lives up to his standards.

[TopMoose 33]

I currently own four, but I also enjoy going out to local arcades to play (they still exist!). The games do indeed take up a lot of room and my current lineup consists of one in the living room, one in the dining room and two in the kitchen, in place of a breakfast nook. That's about all my house can handle.

 

Price depends mostly on the title and condition. Rare, pristine or popular games are more expensive, while a more common, beat-up machine will be a lot less. Also, the market fluctuates based on general interest in pinball at the time. Old electro-mechanical games (pre-1978 games with mechanical score reels) can range from around $300 to $1500 and modern electronic games are anywhere from $1000 to $6000. A brand new out-of-the-box stern runs about $6500. The current price for a Shadow or a Congo is usually around $3500.

 

Even though Krull is terrible player, it's a really rare title and sells for a lot when they come up for sale (which isn't often). The movie is just god-awful - remember the hilarious makeup effect on the cyclops?

[Bob Drillboids 181]

Awesome topic, TopMoose! Space Jam are Last Action Hero are another two pins based on HDTGM worthy films.

[TopMoose 33]

I forgot about those - thanks! A few others worth mentioning are Lethal Weapon 3 (they manage to make Leo Getz even more annoying), Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (a weird game with a mini Robert DiNero on the playfield) and Star Wars Episode 1 (which has a reputation as "the game that killed pinball" but isn't all that bad).

 

Ed: a movie with a pinball tie-in that would make an ideal HDTGM episode is Lost In Space (1998) starring Matt Leblanc.

[TopMoose 33]

Grease 2 (which is set in 1961) has a bowling alley scene featuring a Travel Time (1973), a Pop A Card (1972), an El Toro (1970) and three others in the background I can't make out.

[Chainsaw Starring Nic Cage 95]

My local movie theater has a Demolition Man pinball machine now, and before it had the Lethal Weapon 3 machine. And it made me realize...I just wish someone would have made a Crank pinball machine now.

[RyanSz 3140]

My local movie theater has a Demolition Man pinball machine now, and before it had the Lethal Weapon 3 machine. And it made me realize...I just wish someone would have made a Crank pinball machine now.

Would the plunger be a needle of epinephrine?

[Chainsaw Starring Nic Cage 95]

Would the plunger be a needle of epinephrine?

 

It'd almost have to be.