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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zombie Aladdin" data-source="post: 141024" data-attributes="member: 4242">Okay, I see what you mean now. Pinball used to be everywhere in Los Angeles as well, but it was largely before my time. I do at least remember frequenting an arcade in the San Fernando Valley called All Amusement Fun Center that had 12 pinball machines including The Addams Family. It closed in the mid-2000s and reopened in Burbank, but the only machines it currently has are The Lord of the Rings and--you guessed it--The Simpsons Pinball Party. It's dwindled ridiculously in Los Angeles as well but seems to be making a slow comeback. I'm not sure if Pinball Arcade has any bearing on it, but I'm sure it must have at least a little bit, as smartphone games are very popular here. (As an idea of how pathetic the pinball scene in Los Angeles is, LA is the second most populous city in the United States, but the Los Angeles Pinball League sent only one person to Pinburgh, who was quickly eliminated. The Orange County Pinball League and the Inland Empire Pinball League each sent 5 by comparison.)I actually spent quite the while trying to figure out what happened, because the dropoff in public pinball in Los Angeles seems more extreme than in most other cities, and it happened sooner (around 1995). I then found out it's a combination of waning interest (I'm sure everyone here understands that), Los Angeles culture working against the nature of pinball (everyone is in a hurry around here), competition with mobile gaming (mobile gaming can pass the time waiting for things which pinball was once used for), and most importantly, the rise of private collectors who buy up as many pinball machines in public as they can afford (some of whom, but not most, think they're doing a favor by "rescuing" these machines from the abusive masses).I think The Simpsons Pinball Party will sell well. There is no doubt about that. Based on what I see just hanging out at locations where there are multiple pinball machines, people passing by WILL gravitate to The Simpsons Pinball Party first. They recognize Bart and Homer and such on the machine artwork and want to give it a try--they like The Simpsons, so this must be good, right? This machine could even become Pinball Arcade's killer app. There is one major hurdle though: The license for the show. While viewership is now pretty small compared to the likes of Family Guy or The Venture Bros., it is still a very familiar and well-liked franchise for most people, and FOX is going to wring as much money out of such a deal as it can. FOX knows The Simpsons Pinball Party will succeed. If there's going to be a massive amount Farsight needs to cough up for The Addams Family, it's chicken feed compared to The Simpsons Pinball Party. I'd guess it would be in the millions of dollars.That being said, The Simpsons Pinball Party would be something I would want to see show up on Pinball Arcade the most. The rules are designed to be played at home, where you can play again and again. It's really beginner-unfriendly (I watch people who haven't played much pinball play this game, and they are done within 60 seconds--they wind up frustrated, but that's another issue), meaning you have to play a lot to do decently at it. Its wizard mode is extraordinarily difficult to reach. Lastly, the machine is full of mechanical parts that can break down, even more so because of its popularity: Most Simpsons Pinball Party machines I see on-location have weak flippers, unresponsive flippers, stuck flipper buttons, a stuck captive ball, broken switches and/or inserts, a nonfunctional garage door, a weak plunger, worn down artwork, a damaged DMD, broken kickouts, vandalism and graffiti, or most often, some combination of the above. Considering the sheer difficulty of its wizard mode, which requires everything to be in perfect working order (as you have to activate everything on the playfield several times), I don't see any Simpsons Pinball Party machine NOT needing maintenance along the way. It would be perfect to be able to play on one that will never break down.Given no limitations, the other machines I'd like to play on Pinball Arcade are very recent machines: AC/DC Limited Edition, Star Trek (Stern), and The Wizard of Oz. I know this cannot be done right now though.Incidentally, as I'm waiting for the Wii U version to come out, I would also love to see a pair of Wii U exclusive tables: Gottlieb's Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: Mushroom World. If Nintendo helps promote these tables, it would help sell the rest of Pinball Arcade by itself. The Wii U userbase right now is rather small, but by the looks of things, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. 4 will come out before Pinball Arcade, and the userbase will expand dramatically by then.By the way, arcades themselves have been dying out around here, leaving mostly chains. There are also far more Chuck E. Cheese's type arcades around here remaining than Dave & Buster's. Chuck E. Cheese's seems to have some interest in putting pinball on its locations though. I'm not sure why Dave & Buster's doesn't. (Or Boomers, for that matter.) Public pinball in Los Angeles now seems to be played mostly by either curious people or small children, which may explain why The Simpsons Pinball Party and Pirates of the Caribbean dominate. Pinball, without arcades to be at, has moved largely to bars, bowling alleys, laundromats, movie theaters, and pizza restaurants. Regency Theatres, a local chain, is in fact a PAPA sponsor and has at least one pinball machine at every location. Round Table Pizza is also a big supporter of pinball with a machine at about half of its locations.</blockquote>

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