![]() With many street locations – arcades, barcades and bars – being either closed or having capacity, social-distancing or sanitisation regulations to enforce, pinball operators were having a torrid time. With pinball design and manufacturing, machine shipments and component supply chains all being hit by the coronavirus, the summer was a quiet time for new game launches. The $7,999 price tag included a ‘white glove’ delivery and set-up service, with the game being built-to-order at the end of 2020. The heavily stylised cabinet, backbox and playfield artwork together with models of Nelson and Taarna above the two ramps and inner cabinet artwork made this a unique game aimed squarely at the collector market. Their new Heist! game comes with its own playfield module featuring an extending ball-grabbing crane which can protrude beyond the module and onto the main playfield, as well as being able to move left, right, up and down, and having an illuminated bash target at the end. The notification about the cancellation of the Deeproot Pinball launch eventĪnother manufacturer denied the ability to show their latest release to excited fans in person was Multimorphic, who are also based in Texas. ![]() With the virus spreading fast and restrictions on both travel and the size of gatherings being imposed, Deeproot bowed to the inevitable and pulled the plug nine days before the event was due to be held. Guests were flying in from around the world to assemble at Deeproot’s San Antonio headquarters on 25th March where the game and the design facilities would be shown. The timing of the release was unfortunate as the intended public premiere of Hot Wheels at the Texas Pinball Festival couldn’t take place once the show was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Īnother Texas-based event which had to be cancelled was Deeproot Pinball’s launch of their first title, Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland ( RAZA).ĭeeproot had big plans for the unveiling of their production-ready RAZA game, having shown a prototype at the Houston Arcade Expo the previous November. We’ll have more on that later, along with your chance to vote for the Pinball News Game of the Year, but let’s begin our look back at the events of 2020 with the new titles unveiled during the year from a seemingly ever-increasing number of manufacturers. With Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, Chicago Gaming and American Pinball all located in the greater Chicagoland area, the state-wide stay-at-home order on 21st March brought the vast majority of pinball manufacturing to a sudden halt.ĭespite that interruption and the lack of collector or trade shows, the industry restarted, new pinball titles have been successfully launched and sales of games into the home have boomed. Unsurprisingly, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 impacted on the pinball world in many ways too. By mid-January the first tell-tale signs surfaced of what was soon to radically change many aspects of our lives and dominate media reports throughout 2020 and far into 2021. What started out as a seemingly ordinary year soon turned into anything but. At the end of last year’s review when looking ahead to 2020 we predicted, “ This is going to be quite a ride“, and by just about any measure 2020 has been an extraordinary twelve months. ![]()
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