Medieval Madness Remakes

[Malibu-ss]

Hurry.........while supplies last!!


http://pinballsales.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=152&idcategory=

[Malibu-ss]

more info......
There will be a run of 1,000 machines, manufactured by Chicago Gaming Company, with the playfield produced by Churchill Cabinet Company. Doug Dubya from Chicago Gaming came to the stage to talk about his company's history in coin-op.

The game will cost $7,995 with a $1,000 deposit, the remaining balance being due 1 week before the game ships. Approval for the remake from Williams should be completed in 2 weeks. Existing PPS distributors will handle orders around the world. Warranty is 180 days on electronics and 90 days on playfield parts. Specific game numbers will be available for a fee and delivery is anticipated Q2 2014.

The only visible difference between these remakes and the original game is the remake will not feature Williams branding. Internally there are several differences. A new CPU board has been made with the drivers part of a large board set under the playfield. The game will have LEDs throughout and a shaker motor pre-installed. The game will have artwork decals on the cabinet.

[monsterbash]

[quote="Malibu-ss"]more info......
There will be a run of 1,000 machines,

I believe PPS has said there will be only 1,000 LE's but have not ruled out a run of more non-LE machines once they have tested the waters for demand.

[Malibu-ss]

hopefully AFM is next!!

[Malibu-ss]

I do not really understand limiting the number made...........make them till you cant sell them!!

[OnTilt]

Good for the buyers to limit them, bad for the sellers.
Should help keep the values up there by placing a limit on em.

[Malibu-ss]

pinball is not really an investment though......

[prock]

do they have the facilities to make them?

EDIT: I should probably read the entire post... I'd imagine the Chicago Gaming Company would have.  I doubt they have the line set up for something as complicated as a pin though.

[Freezie]

First of many game hopefully !

[Malibu-ss]

For those of you that missed out on the MMLE,you can now buy a MM remake for the same price.......without the gold,shaker etc
This is from Rick at Planetary pinball



Due to overwhelming demand for the Medieval Madness Limited Edition remake and to allow more people who may have missed out on having the opportunity to get an order in for the game, we have decided to announce a Standard version of Medieval Madness remake which can now also be pre-reserved with a $1000 deposit thru either Planetary Pinball Supply (www.pinball.com) or thru your local authorized distributor.

The Medieval Madness Standard will come with original trim, standard playfield clearcoat, and no shaker motor.

We are committed to insuring that people who desire this game which has been out of reach due to it’s popularity have access to the remake. The Standard Medieval Madness MSRP is $7995 and starting to build around the end of 2014.

We never imagined the level of support for the remake!

[madmanc]

I wonder what will happen to the values of the originals - my guess is that perfect games will go up, non perfect games will go down.

[Malibu-ss]

Some gameplay video

Here we have the PROTO Medieval Madness Remake (MMR) in action at Chicago Gaming in (Cicero, Il, 12/17/2013) - game plays well and software is being fine-tuned as needed, but all gameplay is that of a Medieval Madness game! As we have consistently noted, the objective for the MMR is to look and play as an ‘original’ Medieval Madness plays, while updating/modernizing some of the electronics. Some minor cosmetic changes (copyright notices, and lack of WMS logo) as required by WMS Gaming License terms.

You will see the small board in the backbox, that is the main processor board for the new generation control system platform that the MMR will be using. We’ve take the translite off so that everyone will see that it is indeed an MMR game playing. Additionally, the display is the LCD and looks great!

[Malibu-ss]

Some pics here:

http://www.planetarypinball.com/category/mmr/

[Bay78]

Yummy

[Freezie]

Not surprisingly all the boards are condensed to a small package !

[prock]

I believe they moved a bunch of electronics to a board thats attached under the playfield. Saves on a lot of wire that way I'd imagine.

[gms]

The way of the future. Processor with a com line to remote mounted local BI and BO (Binary in and out) boards. Just add another 4 or 8 spot board and give them an address.

[Bay78]

I can't wait until I'm inspecting my little board on the one in my basement   

[Freezie]

I believe they moved a bunch of electronics to a board thats attached under the playfield.  Saves on a lot of wire that way I'd imagine.  

Ahhhh, gotcha . Makes sense !

[Malibu-ss]

Planetary Pinball, Chicago Gaming and Stern Pinball announce Specialty Manufacturing Arrangement

CHICAGO, IL – MAY 14, 2014 – Planetary Pinball Supply (“PPS”), Chicago Gaming Company (“CGC”) and Stern Pinball, Inc. (“SPI”), today announced a specialty manufacturing arrangement pursuant to which SPI will make its manufacturing facility available to PPS and CGC to assemble their remake of the Medieval Madness (“MMR”) pinball game.

CGC, which has a long-standing business relationship with SPI, will assemble the game for PPS in SPI’s factory using SPI’s factory labor and production line assets. The game will be assembled with parts supplied by CGC which consist of original WMS specification parts combined with the new electronics and lighting systems designed by CGC. Final prep, packaging and shipment will be from CGC facility in Cicero, IL.

“We think this arrangement provides the best solution to insure the timely delivery of a high quality game for our customers who wish to own this legendary title” said Rick Bartlett, President of PPS.

“We have a long-standing relationship with SPI and its high capacity manufacturing operation will allow us to complete the MMR games in a timely fashion,” added Doug Duba, President of CGC.

“We’re looking forward to helping PPS and CGC exceed the expectations of Medieval Madness pinball enthusiasts,” said Gary Stern, President of SPI.

###

All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

ANNOUNCEMENT FAQ:

Q: What is the announcement?

A: The announcement is that Chicago Gaming Co (CGC) and Planetary Pinball Supply, Inc.(PPS) will be using the Stern Pinball, Inc (SPI) factory to assemble the Playfield and Cabinet assemblies for Medieval Madness Remake, using both original spec WEG (Williams Electronic Games, Inc.) Medieval Madness parts and newly-designed CGC parts (electronics and lighting systems). SPI will make its manufacturing facility and factory labor available to

PPS and CGC.

Q: Why would you do this as I thought CGC was making the game?

A: CGC is ‘making the game’ for PPS and, as such, they have designed, prototyped and tested the game. CGC retains responsibility for the BOM (bill of materials), overall QA responsibility for the game, as well as packaging and shipping. What is happening is that rather than build a pinball production line, we will be using SPI’s. SPI has a high capacity line and manufacturing operation.

Q: If you were picking a pinball manufacturer – why not pick JJP since you already have a relationship with them?

A: A number of reasons go into this – first we have a relationship with SPI as well and SPI has been doing contract manufacturing for many years, and is geared up for it whereas JJP is very focused on producing its own games (WOZ, etc). Additionally, the logistics between CGC and SPI already exist – trucks move back and forth between the companies daily, as well as the finishing up at CGC would not be able to happen if the game were assembled in New Jersey. There is a lot of sub-assembly that is being done both at CGC as well as with suppliers in the Chicago area, so this is another consideration.

Q; Why would Stern Pinball do this – helping out a ‘competitor’?

A: MMR is going to be built one way or another and SPI believes MMR fits into their contract manufacturing line of business, which helps keep its factory busy during breaks between Stern-branded games. Additionally, there is a reduction in market uncertainty by insuring the game comes out sooner than later, which helps everyone.

Q: What does this do to the schedule?

A: The great news is it firms up the schedule as SPI can build upwards of 200 games/week on its line and this will allow MMR’s to be scheduled to be assembled in one or more builds, which will help ensure that we will finish the LE’s before the end of the year – so it basically allows us to get a lot more games out in a much shorter period of time with a different ramp up. The initial games will slip a few weeks to get everything setup to run. Everything assumes of course the timely delivery of all quality parts needed to assemble the game from CGC.

Q: Does this change the plan for Pre-Production games?

A: The pre-production games will now be assembled at the SPI factory, to give the production line a warmup for starting the overall assembly of the first run. The pre-production gets pushed out a few weeks.

Q: What about the quality – are you sacrificing quality by going with Stern Pinball?

A: The quality of a game is a function of many factors including parts selection, design, as well as build quality. For the MMR, the assembly is using OUR set of parts and OUR design. As for build quality, the objective is to have the same build quality as the original Medieval Madness. Additionally, we will incorporate CGC Quality Control people into the SPI line to address and escalate any build issues. Finally, SPI itself has major initiatives focused on improving build quality, which will benefit us.

Conversely, there is a learning curve and a ramp up of building a new manufacturing line – there are people to hire, train, etc, and lots of design and working to get ‘things right’. Additionally, from all of our cumulative manufacturing experience, we all know that a new assembly facility would have ‘bumps in the road'. We chose this path to help avoid those bumps which would translate to delays that we could not predict and thus more uncertainty and delay in customers getting their games at the level of quality that they expect. Also, if you do not keep an assembly line running then you have issues with people not having work in-between, retraining … and potentially quality issues popping up from time to time. SPI’s assembly line does not have these issues and they can handle the capacity of the MMR games.

Q: When did this decision get made – have you been keeping us in the dark?

A: The decision was brought up in earnest in March, and we had initial discussions, including a list of concerns that we wanted addressed (many of the concerns that are being answered in this FAQ). We had some additional discussion between CGC/PPS/SPI management and PPS/CGC came to a decision in early May that this would be the best path for the customer.

Q: Does this mean Stern Pinball will be building all of the PPS/CGC games?

A: This decision is for MMR, that is the focus. There have been no discussions with SPI about building any more games. We will deliver MMR first, and then consider what the market tells us and proceed based on that.

Q: Why wouldn’t Stern Pinball just sabotage the game or the dates, etc?

A: SPI has a strong reputation and the industry is very small. Additionally, this supports SPI’s business in terms of contract manufacturing (assembly), and our customers are in many cases SPI’s customers and visa-versa – the pinball community is a very tight space, and any negatives like this would not serve SPI. CGC has an ongoing business relationship with SPI, providing Cabinets and Playfields for SPI games, so there is a strong business and industry relationship there. PPS has always been on respectful terms with SPI (and we are the exclusive provider of Gary Stern’s personal Jelly Belly stash!). In the end, the market players are embracing the ‘competition model’ – where players can both ‘compete’ but also ‘cooperate’ at the same time – a refreshing option in this case which we believe will benefit all of our customers.

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