I actually find Barry O’s to be a pretty fun layout. My buddy has one so I play it often. The code isn’t great and the animations are terrible of course but it’s charming in its own way. The bad is the drop target design and the angle you hit them keeps breaking. Sauce targets break a lot as well.

Im a software engineer, so if the new AP would open source that code I’d join a community effort to improve it for sure. I think the bones for a fun game are there.

Thank you! I am super excited. We will be communicating regularly with the community to keep everyone informed.

Here’s hoping for some out there themes.

Fight club
Grandmas boy
M.A.S.K.
Dead Space
Zelda

I'm going to miss the holiday sales AP had on machines and parts.

And the Obscure Theme of the Year Award goes to....

Grandmas boy has probably as large of a cult following as The Big Lebowski, it’s just for a generation younger

Has the new owner (congrats, btw!) talked at all about the elephant in the room at all? You've got a game in the facility with assets and everything presumably ready to go in Cuphead, any information on if that is possible to release or is that dead in the water?

Hello Bryan,

Will you be considering DennisNordman and ‘White Water 2’? A lot of pinheads would be anxious for that title if announced (myself included).

Personally, Disney’s Jungle Cruise would be a dream theme, with all the dad jokes included from the ride.

Hoping your company produces top quality games and fun themes! Good luck

This!

Bring on Yukon Yeti!

Bryan,

Any chance you could release actual sales numbers of machines produced by AP? This might help, if you do try creating a collector piece with Barry O's

WOW, some wonky theme suggestions listed above! Do you all not remember how AP ended up where it is?? Are these troll suggestions??

Let's Learn from history so we are not doomed to repeat it ...

2017 Houdini (387 copies on the Pinside map)

2018 Oktoberfest (223 copies)

2020 Hot Wheels (371 copies)

2021 Legends of Valhalla (166 copies)

2023 GTF (184 copies)

2024 BBQ (34 copies)

AP Chart (resized).jpg

Pinside map data is not the full picture of sales totals, but it gives us 'self reported data' to make some observations. We each have our own opinions of the layouts and rules of the above games, but AP should have been growing over the years and not the complete opposite trend direction. Their most popular game was their first in 2017!?

Themes matter and Oktober/Valhalla/GTF/BBQ were not it.

I don't remember an owner of a new pinball company being this engaged here since the deep root guy !

The enthusiasm is refreshing. And Shadow 2? Chef's kiss!

Oof!

That was the only theme that was of interest.

Look at Spooky - get the theme right and the rest follows.

His first call should be to 20sideddice

Dudes got lots of good ideas

Let's get "Fish Tails 2" on the production line!

Agreed, it'd be a slam dunk!

Definitely felt like a nail in the coffin when old AP moved on from Mr. Nordman, along with the opportunity to do White Water 2

You guys are right. They should immediately bring back the mind behind galactic tank force; this is the best path to success I could think of!

Agreed! I’d be in on a White Water 2 or a Fish Tales 2, although that was a Mark Ritchie game.

A respected designer that already knows the system, and has a theme that pinheads are clamouring for? I think it's a good idea that would be an easy win to get things started in a positive direction.

AMpinball congrats and love what you have to say thus far! On my second Houdini and not letting it go this time. Tough game and many people feel. It’s just one shot too many but I like the challenge, but I’m excited to see licensed titles.

Everyone will have an opinion, but as someone who’s run a number of businesses try to stay to to your beliefs

Listening & not dictating will be key to your success but think you have made a strong move in putting yourself out there to inside community!

All the best

Not is a position to disuss that right now. I am learning and gathering information. Thanks!

I am a huge Whitewater fan and its in my collection. WW2 would be interesting - Dennis is a legend and fantastic designer. Again, there are a lot of options and we are evaluating everything, but remember we are limited to the number of titles per year we can/will produce.

I can check but I am pretty sure its less than 150. We may only at best produce 40-50 more. Once the playfields are gone we are finished. Final production numbers will be between 125-200 units. Hope that helps.

I remember when Dennis was still there and my son and I visited the factory. We got to see his office and he asked my son if he wanted to design machines someday. He showed him his construction paper/cardboard "whitewood" of what I'm pretty sure would have been White Water 2. It was PACKED!

Hopefully we get to see it in the flesh in the future. White Water is a really fun game.

Sell some of the playfields to cut the number down

Agreed, not sure why it was never produced, even if it was re-skinned as a "themed" game

Did the white wood look like this? Only photo I could find.

White Water 2

Surely, he at least applied? (Unless, of course, he is convinced that NO-body can execute his clear vision of future pinball perfection.)

Yes! But I remember it looking way more crowded. Like, "Pat Lawlor Twilight Zone" crowded!

I was given the impression, by a well known person in the industry, that this was already in the works with one of the "other" Texas pinball companies and gonna happen.

If there was EVER a game that could use the benefit of a re-skin for another theme, this would be it.

I love Barry O., he was a personal friend. The man loved his BBQ, his wife, pinball and their cats. However, the game is just a horrible theme with horrible execution. It really could be a good "street level" game with a proper theme and coding.

Is the TZ playfield really considered "crowded"? I don't think so. But I'm also in the minority in that I think it's kind of a stinker. Great theme, mediocre gameplay. Flame on!

Constraints are good, in general, and can lead to creative solutions. When there are no limits, you end up with GTF and it's ridiculous, expensive tank head and cheap-looking non-interactive tank treads, etc when that money could have been put into a few molds instead so the toys didn't have to be badly 3D printed.

It's funny, cause when I bought it, I wasn't even sure I'd put the treads and turret on, but I did. Now, when guests come, they love it, especially when I fold it down. You're probably right in that pinball buyers weren't interested, so it was a bad financial decision. But non-players get a big kick out of it.

First game played at my place too. People are drawn to it. I had originally ordered a deluxe, but was sent an LE instead since they needed to move machines. Even changed the gray PC to a red metallic flake to give it more of that old antique tin toy look.

It's fun and funny, but it came at the expense of making the game a hit. The price was too high and the quality of the toys was too low. It would have been better to offer those as optional accessories, or not at all. Selling a whole lot of THE GAME is always the goal, and they lost sight of that, especially with all the money they wasted on terrible cosplay "actors" that they could have done better/cheaper as animations.

And I do still believe GTF could be a moderate hit with more software polish and some playfield tweaking. It's weird that AP gave up on it and moved to BO BBQ for an even bigger fail.

It would be interesting to see Balcer doing pins for the new AP. He did some good pins at the beginning of AP, and WoZ was an incredible first pin for JJP. People forget that he is also co-credited with Simpsons Pinball Party. Could he revisit Simpsons and do a Treehouse of Horror anthology pin for the new AP? I'd like to see that! He's rotting over at Raw Thrills, not involved with pinball to my knowledge, unless it's covertly assisting with the new Halo.

I know Studio MDHR’s side of the Cuphead story, but not American Pinball’s. AP does not look great in it though from what I’ve heard. It’s a shame they blew a great license.

I dunno if the new company can unburn that bridge, and maybe it’s better they just go their own way at this point.

The one I feel bad for is Ryan McQuaid, he got a raw deal from what I can tell.

I would rather see new designers like Ryan get a shot at this point than keep going back to the well of the old school guys. Dennis is a legend, but at some point we need new talent to be fostered, not just turning back to the same hired guns.

This is the problem and not directed at you specifically, but having someone,"dive in and fix code" doesnt seem like a great idea from a support standpoint. Better option is to bring back those who made AP a real up and comer, until the "fix" was in.

they can add settings to more parts of the code (that can lessen the need for some mods / hacks)