All their game trademarks are cancelled or dead with the exception of Legends of Valhalla which is listed under Riot Games.

Best case scenario, maybe Cuphead studios finishes their game and gets AP to release it under another label or something, but it would seem AP is no longer going to be selling games under their name. Someone please correct me if I am misinterpreting this.

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r.i.p I guess

It looks like the AP one was cancelled back in March? So I'm not sure that's any sort of death knell.

I saw that, and am wondering if there was some delay in getting this updated on the website as I would have for sure seen this months ago. It’s only being brought up now, so maybe there was some delay in getting this updated.

It would seem they had more or less decided to liquidate much earlier than we even realized and this whole year was just a push to sell existing stock. It could also be possible they just forgot to renew the trademark, as companies have done that before. Maybe the person in charge of this was let go. lol

They probably didn't assign someone the responsibility to renew the trademark. Probably someone they let go. I'm sure they will need to do this if they are going to sell any pinball machines and provide support.

I have a $5 wager with LTG. I'm hoping this company isn't dead and I'd gladly pay LTG $5 but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be collecting.

I already forgot the name of their new company that they do the contract manufacturing with, but its possible they are just switching everything over to that company now

I feel like I owe this company another purchase with how much morbid amusement they've provided me over the last few years.

This.

LTG : )

Given the turnover in employees far more likely it went to an email address that was not being actively monitored than it was abandoned on purpose. Not the first time we have seen this with AP.

Maybe they’re putting everything under the FUNSUP label?

Love that my AP games will be rare and collectible as people seek them out and are in diamond hands.

The only AP game that I have in my collection is Legends of Valhalla. I also happen to have an extra power supply other than that. I have no parts for this game most likely be selling this game at auction and get what I can for it.

What?

double in value by Christmas

Oktoberfest > Godzilla Premium

lmfaooo

Hot wheels will be the new transporter or tx-sector… that’s about it.

Wick sucks. DND sucks. X-men sucks. I’d take Hot Wheels over all of them.

QFT

It says right on your screen cap they didn't fill out section 8 which is required about 1/2 a year after the trademark is created. The point of section 8 is to make sure the trademark is active and not abandoned. This sounds more like forgotten or sloppy paperwork. They can still use the trademark / game name with it being abandoned, they just can't go after anyone for making a game with the same name while it's abandoned.

People may laugh at this, but when I think entirely objectively about how many games played and the amount of fun had... I could almost say I DID prefer OF over Godzilla!

Real bummer if they comit even less tot he brand, I thought their games were good even if the themes were only so so. I like Hot Wheels and just picked up GTF and am loving it. I think GTF is the best game they have made, the BETA code is very good and to me seems to have no issues that were noted before inthe game.

yall are doing something wrong.

I mean come on.. incompetent marketing and management is what sunk an otherwise viable business. And people are trying to read into them failing to maintain trademarks? It's not a big deal.. it's same ol shit, different day! Failure to maintain their assets because they don't know how to staff and actually execute as a consumer facing business.

Got confirmation that it was due to emails going to people no longer at the company and that they are looking to get the trademark(s) updated. They also said “new things are in the works”. Yeah. Ok….

FFS, come on AP….

Oh well…Mystery solved for now.

Yeah - likely true just another step in their incompetence not a larger business ending sign.

At least they are consistent in their incompetence. Sad to see what happened to this company that started with a bang, and now seems to be going out with a whimper.

Do hope we see Cuphead. While the theme does nothing for me, I'm sure Ryan and others poured their heart and soul into that game and deserve to have it seen and played.

What ever became of Joe Balcer?

I'm considering to pick up an Oktoberfest as one of my first machines. Never played one though. Will be buying probably 3 machines in the next 12-18 months.(Mixed of used and NIB). Gotta say, I'm one of the rare who does not really enjoy Godzilla. For me, it's a points collecting machine as most of Elwin/Negeale are and the modes don't need to be finished to pass to the next step which I don't really enjoy. I want something that force you to finish some tasks like FF or DP or TNA.

To my understanding, you need to finish all TENTs to access the final Wizard mode and this speaks to me.

My main concern, is availabilty of parts from now on. I guess coils and P3 boards are easy to source. But the lack of an Image(ISO) if your computer fail or specifically design parts is holding me. What are your opinions on that?
+ The guy selling one in my area is unreallistycally asking a 1000cnd too much even after 6 months for sell.

computer is known, there is a replacement available and the iso is available, but you have to ask AP for it.

Really? I was the impression that they were only selling you a new computer at like double the price of what is worth with the preinstalled software.

They would provide a downloadable link if you ask?
They may be out of business any day from now...that is where I want to make sure we would have a plan B if something ever happens.

The image is available and if AP was no longer able to provide them, others could. Worst case is you get another owner to clone the drive.

The LED boards are custom, but are just dumb boards, so not really a major concern. The ramps, wireforms and bar mech are unique to the game, but there have been no reports of issues with those. There are one or two other custom boards on the game, but they are dumb boards with common components.

There are always risks with any older game, but they are pretty minimal and probably less so than others, given the main control board is a P3-roc.

Thanks Rosh for claryfing! I may give it a try if I can make a deal with the current owner. This one I'm intrigued for years. Think AP did not get enough attention and made interesting machines in the beginning. Always attracted by Houdini and Oktoberfest but was never able to find one to try. For those "Dumb boards" no concern for me as I'm an electronic technician speciallized in QC and beeing a Repair responsible. With over 20y doing so, I learnt that everything can be repaired unless you can't find the parts. In this case, you need to custom make them or find equivalent solutions and that becomes another story...

I was mainly concerned about computer because I'm 100% hardware guy, but not really good on the software side.

Not if I get to it first!

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Then you're on the hook for tech support!

Couldn't be worse than it already is

That’s ultimately the beauty of this community when it come to keeping games alive. We have software people, electronics people, mechanical people willing to step up and find ways to keep there babies flipping. I’m making note you can do electronics

The list of unobtanium parts is lower now than it’s been in years. 3D printers have certainly helped.

DUMP the full SSD on your own.

People need to upload the disk images and the DMCA allows backups for repair.

Other pinball co's have the restore images posted. But still for repair needs to be all
https://tiltforums.com/t/pinball-repair-in-the-usa-what-s-broken-in-the-ecosystem/9774/13

Gone for a long time. Around when Hot Wheels started. Maybe with Home Pin briefly. No idea now. I hope working on designs he can sell to some manufacturer.

LTG : )

There are. Not necessarily pinball machines.

LTG : )

LOL...

It's been a while but some will remember..

Perfect opportunity to rebrand as German Pinball, to reflect where all the sales are, apparantly, happening.

Briefly looking into Studio MDHR there's no reason to think they care how quickly this pinball machine gets released. They like to take the sweetest of times releasing things.

Yup, I was told ONE pinball (likely Cuphead), and a few new “arcade products.”

My guess is that Cuphead might be the last pinball machine we see from American (or whatever they go by now) for a long long time….

Might depend on contract building. Only they know who has approached them, and about what.

I still think high tariffs might make building here favorable.

LTG : )

Feel free to contact AP about posting them, it would be inappropriate for me to share their IP. As I said, if we get to a point where they are not supporting the games . . .

As you know, anyone can clone the SSD drive, so whether it is posted or not by AP, rebuilding the system should not be a concern to someone considering an AP game.

Aside from software updates, is the image the same all Houdini's? i.e. Did the hardware change over the years?

American builds a quality game from a build standpoint - cabinets / parts / playfields all seem really good to me. Bally Williams has not been around for years and their games live on American games will keep working. I imagine American can contract build for people. Seems like they would be a good fit for DPX / Dutch if they ever want to make Back to the Future since the volume for that game would be way to high for Dutch to produce and tariffs would kill it from a price point in the USA.

I hope American stays around in some form, even contract manufacturer. CGC to date has only done remakes and they are a radio silent company too with crazy dormant times too. American just needed to partner with someone and be the manufacturer for them.