Would NBA Fastbreak be a licensing nightmare?

Nolan

Nolan

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Jan 19, 2014
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I LOVE Gomez tables, and I love Basketball, and I love NBA JAM (sounds like the same announcer), so this is near tops of my wishlist next to The Sopranos.

With the Players association and the NBA itself, how likely do you guys think it is we will ever see this table ported to TPA?

Looks and sounds so damn good.
 
Dedpop

Dedpop

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Jun 3, 2014
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It's pretty impossible to license for TPA but the table is not bad (I enjoyed playing it in Poland in a bar).
I love NBA too but what's funny It's as far as I remember it's all about soda, hot dog and pizza... (really ! check the modes)
So no jamal Crawford, Durant or Manute Bol in it...
 
dtown8532

dtown8532

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Apr 10, 2012
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Licensing nighmare? Yes. It's also not a very popular table...which is good if you want a real one because NBA Fastbreak is probably the cheapest of all the late model Bally/Williams pins.
 
Tann

Tann

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Apr 3, 2013
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FS has already said that NBA Fastbreak will never be in TPA.

It's also not a very popular table
Click to expand...

I played it a few times in late 90's but it was quickly replaced by Monopoly in my arcade room. Never knew why... NBA Fastbreak was a lot of fun.

But Monopoly is possible in TPA. :)
 
Nolan

Nolan

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Jan 19, 2014
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Looks like the price is ~3k?

Never actually played it, kind of a scary proposition to drop 3k on top of shipping it to Maine and end up not digging it.
 
Nolan

Nolan

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gooche77 said:
I guess NBA Jam is still the only place to get my Detlef Schrempf fix.
Click to expand...

I was a big Kemp fan back in the day so I used the Sonics a ton, and for some reason all my friends called him Delete Shrimp, and thought it was HILARIOUS.
 
shutyertrap

shutyertrap

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Mar 14, 2012
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I love this machine, and asked Bobby in person about it. Short answer, not a chance in hell.

FarSight used to do a football game, and Bobby said dealing with the NFL and the Players Association was not pleasant. It's not that they are difficult, it's that they want a lot of pieces of the pie. In the case of NBA Fastbreak, you are dealing with a decades old roster and any deal that was made back then has long since expired. So rather than just dealing with the PA, which would be a catch all umbrella for anything today, you'd now have to seek out individuals and sign each and every one of them. And trust me, there are a ton of names in that game.

As for the table's popularity, it's understandable. For starters, if the flippers weren't at full operating capacity and couldn't get the ball up the center ramp, the table was toast. It was also common that the mechanism that shot the ball into the hoop from under the rim would fail, which also gimped the table. In other words, it was not a friendly table for operators to have on sight. The other thing was that the scoring was pure basketball. It's not like WCS 94 where there's your typical score, and you can score goals. Kinda threw off the casual player, and made bragging rights fairly tame when you could say your high score was 62 points.

What I didn't know until recently was that two machines could be linked together, and then you could go head to head in a scoring battle. I would love for the opportunity to play it this way. In other words Nolan, you'll be wanting 6 grand so you can buy 2! And I gotta say, in terms of machines that would be plenty fun for replay value at home, this is one I'd want. I played the crap out of it in Visual Pinball, and it'd be a great 2nd or 3rd table. Like I said, it doesn't score in a traditional manner, so if it were your one and only table, I'd look at something else. But next to another table? Oh hell yeah.
 
Espy

Espy

New member
Sep 9, 2013
2,098
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shutyertrap said:
I love this machine, and asked Bobby in person about it. Short answer, not a chance in hell.

FarSight used to do a football game, and Bobby said dealing with the NFL and the Players Association was not pleasant. It's not that they are difficult, it's that they want a lot of pieces of the pie. In the case of NBA Fastbreak, you are dealing with a decades old roster and any deal that was made back then has long since expired. So rather than just dealing with the PA, which would be a catch all umbrella for anything today, you'd now have to seek out individuals and sign each and every one of them. And trust me, there are a ton of names in that game.

As for the table's popularity, it's understandable. For starters, if the flippers weren't at full operating capacity and couldn't get the ball up the center ramp, the table was toast. It was also common that the mechanism that shot the ball into the hoop from under the rim would fail, which also gimped the table. In other words, it was not a friendly table for operators to have on sight. The other thing was that the scoring was pure basketball. It's not like WCS 94 where there's your typical score, and you can score goals. Kinda threw off the casual player, and made bragging rights fairly tame when you could say your high score was 62 points.

What I didn't know until recently was that two machines could be linked together, and then you could go head to head in a scoring battle. I would love for the opportunity to play it this way. In other words Nolan, you'll be wanting 6 grand so you can buy 2! And I gotta say, in terms of machines that would be plenty fun for replay value at home, this is one I'd want. I played the crap out of it in Visual Pinball, and it'd be a great 2nd or 3rd table. Like I said, it doesn't score in a traditional manner, so if it were your one and only table, I'd look at something else. But next to another table? Oh hell yeah.
Click to expand...

So no score at all - just baskets? That is a bit strange.
 
S

soundwave106

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Nov 6, 2013
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Espy said:
So no score at all - just baskets? That is a bit strange.
Click to expand...

Yep. Might be why I never saw it around. :D

Saw a lot of Shaq Attacks in this area back in the day. I'm not a huge fan of that table either, but I imagine that is a far more obtainable basketball themed game than NBA Fastbreak!
 
shutyertrap

shutyertrap

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Mar 14, 2012
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Espy said:
So no score at all - just baskets? That is a bit strange.
Click to expand...

Yep, you score baskets in a couple of different ways. Completing loops, shooting combos, doing hurry ups. For example (if memory serves) there's a mode where you score layups for a limited time by just shooting the ramps over and over, and it feels like when you combo the peasant ramp and damsel ramp back to back on MM. This is very much a flow table, not a catch and shoot. At the same time you are scoring, so is the AI. You have a 24 second shot clock for most of the modes. Much like MM, most of the loops and ramps require 4 times of completion to earn that mode. Once all the modes are earned, you can win that game and move onto a different team. Or I think that's how it works, I'm very fuzzy on this as it's been a while. The main goal of the game is to win the championship which is very satisfying. You earn a ring next to your initials for doing that.

When I was a kid, I had this basketball 'board' game, which was a cardboard base that had holes cut all over. You played with a ping pong ball, and it would roll around and land in one of the holes. Each hole had a little metal tab that when flicked, would send the ball flying toward your hoop that stood like a real one on either end of the court. NBA Fastbreak reminds me of this, and the tension you'd feel of needing to make the basket before the other guy did.

While playing this table, you'll get a constant feeling of anxiety when for some reason you can no longer hit that one shot as the 24 second timer counts down. Flip side, is when you suddenly hit the groove and just crush it over and over, racking up a bunch of points. It's what I love best about the machine. It truly is unlike any other table's scoring, yet very satisfying. I know it's not kosher to say, but download this thing in VP and get a feel for it. You're either gonna love it or hate it, but give it a few dozen plays before deciding.
 

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