Avatar on youtube
Steven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD3gK23AUT4
Captive ball is back, only 2 targets on the right (which, IMO, is
better than a lot on the left and a lot on the right) and the right
orbit is therefor a bit lower I think (I like that).
3D backglass looks cool.
Nothing to see about gameplay yet.
pmwolf
That 3D backglass IS pretty dang cool.
Pete
miracleman
nice vid, thanks.
Unfortunately, isn't BMI gaming the guy who posted happy reviews of
his own company under a fake name?
Hate to see them get business from this exposure...
jackal2001
would have been nice to actually hear the machine
scooter
Pretty cool!! Want to see some more actual gameplay and sounds.
skbrothers
Backglass probably needs to be seen live to appreciate. Looks like a
big lenticular.
I don't know why, but I hate that style of pop bumper. Looks super
cheap, with the big flat top and a single puny LED sticking up through
the center.
Right at the 2:00 Minute mark it looks like someone spit (or worse) on
the playfield glass.
Overall the game looks pretty sparse.
Does the single ramp simply bring the ball around to the right
inlane? If so that looks pretty "Zizzle-ish" to me. Hopefully it
also loads balls in the back of the armor gun suit, to give it more of
a purpose.
Agreed on the lack of game sounds in this video. What's with the bad
lounge music? Where was this video shot? Maybe the noise from other
games made the game hard to hear.
Where the hell is Stern's flashy new marketing department on this
one? Seems like a very slow, disjointed release of information on a
new title.
Thanks for the vid.
Steve
underlord
Agreed...put the vids on Youtube just before or during title
release...waste of resources putting up ads after they are sold or
after production ends.
--Rick.
AFM_TZ
miracleman
> cheap, with the big flat top and a single puny LED sticking up through
> the center.
I don't mind either way, it's a trade off.
You get artwork there instead of a blank cap, but I was just wondering
this AM if it's possible to PUT regular bumpercaps on a newer Stern
then put the artwork plastic on top with longer screws?
Magic Mike
Won't be long now...
Mike
Magic Mike
I must say, they do have good taste in jazz music. Sounds like the legendary
Jimmy Smith.
Mike
HandsOfStone
Yawn...
Give me a WhiteWater or Funhouse over this any day of the week.
John
Jonny O
mr tobias
This is clearly an unofficial video. Stern should have put a better
one out in advance of this.
mr tobias
> Light <Insert Iron man or Avatar here> for fast scoring
If that's true then it's sheer laziness.
mr tobias
> Thanks for posting! I like the backbox and cabinet artwork.
I think this title looks more promising than Iron Man. There's a bit
more on the playfield, even if it is still slimmed down in comparison
to earlier Stern games, and I think they've used more imagination in
the design. Please Stern give it a decent ruleset.
The backglass artwork could draw people in if it's effective from more
than six feet away.
Adm56
Does anyone have any frame of reference on how much it costs to hire
an artist to do a game old school style? I just find it hard to
believe that it's THAT expensive (the creative arts always get screwed
financially compared to say an engineer or something) and I'd really
have a lot more respect for Stern if they incorporated some hand drawn
art in their designs...even when based upon a movie license the old
Bally and Williams handdrawn stuff just seem much more unique...
Lloyd Olson
bumper caps with longer screws. LTG :)
"miracleman" <psycho...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b5891b1e-b6bd-4127...@h40g2000pro.googlegroups.com...
Jonny O
> Does anyone have any frame of reference on how much it costs to hire
> an artist to do a game old school style? I just find it hard to
> believe that it's THAT expensive (the creative arts always get screwed
> financially compared to say an engineer or something) and I'd really
> have a lot more respect for Stern if they incorporated some hand drawn
> art in their designs...even when based upon a movie license the old
> Bally and Williams handdrawn stuff just seem much more unique...
Maybe there are some custom artists out there that could fill this
niche. It would be a new form of pinball mod'ing.
You could email Dirty Donnie and ask what his prices are. He did the
hellacopters, Metallica and Beatnik machines.
FTRMech
I like what I see aside from that hideous clear ramp...looks like a
rain gutter...would rather see a nice wire ramp, maybe anodized blue.
Would this be considered a "sample" game? If so I am curious about any
production version changes.
Max Badazz
> art in their designs...even when based upon a movie license the old
> Bally and Williams handdrawn stuff just seem much more unique...
I would love to see the 90's Data East artwork again (JP, TFTC, GnR,
SW, Tommy, LW3). To me, that was the best era of playfield artwork.
Chris (in NH)
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/maxbadazz
FS: NOTHING ! Everything is now gone...yea!
milt
>
> This is clearly an unofficial video. Stern should have put a better
> one out in advance of this.
Perhaps the game isn't ready for an official video. That is why Stern
hasn't done one yet. A band doesn't push the demos of songs from a new
album, they push the released songs :)
Kingpin
> > I'd really have a lot more respect for Stern if they incorporated some hand drawn
> > art in their designs...even when based upon a movie license the old
> > Bally and Williams handdrawn stuff just seem much more unique...
>
> I would love to see the 90's Data East artwork again (JP, TFTC, GnR,
> SW, Tommy, LW3). To me, that was the best era of playfield artwork.
>
> FS: NOTHING ! Everything is now gone...yea!
You may be the only person I know who prefers the DE art work over the
Williams/Bally 90's style. To each their own.
While I would like to see handrawn, I can't say it has a place in
today's market unless the title calls for it e.g. Simpsons, Family
Guy, etc.. IMHO if it was used on Avatar it would really date the
machine. It started as CGI and should remain in that realm.
Pinhead
>
> - Show quoted text -
Boring table!
Kingpin
Man it looks way too similar to Iron Man. Could be a good thing as
Iron Man is deceptively simple, but by the look of the character
progress ladder it looks like the focus is on the easy, up front,
gimmie multiball.
The progress ladder in Iron Man was the Mach I-VI and was more of a
bouns/Mystery/additive to whatever was going on: simple yet added a
lot of options. The Character Progress Ladder in Avatar looks like it
only starts Navi Multiball and that is a lot of PF realestate to
dedicate to an easy multiball (shoot all shots to collect all
characters and start multiball...LAME). The inserts above the
Character Progress Ladder look enticing as they look like the Wizard
mode. Iron Man did a good job with the same inserts and had some depth
based on how well each insert's objective is completed. Hopefully we
will see more of the same from Avatar.
Well the devil is in the details and if Lyman makes effective use of
the 'X" multipliers and Navi scoring (probably like Iron Man Scoring)
it could get interesting; especially if the Link is used to go between
the human world and the Navi world. That being said, that ladder may
drag it all down.
We can only hope and pray that Lyman adds some depth to the simple
layout.
Max Badazz
> Williams/Bally 90's style. To each their own.
Really? T2, IJ, Demo Man, Shadow, HS2, DH, AFM, BSD..there were some
dogs out there in that era. And I find that games like Flintstones
and Dredd remind me of that DE artwork. It's kind of hit or miss
Chris (in NH)
mr tobias
> Man it looks way too similar to Iron Man. Could be a good thing as
> Iron Man is deceptively simple, but by the look of the character
> progress ladder it looks like the focus is on the easy, up front,
> gimmie multiball.
>
> The progress ladder in Iron Man was the Mach I-VI and was more of a
> bouns/Mystery/additive to whatever was going on: simple yet added a
> lot of options. The Character Progress Ladder in Avatar looks like it
> only starts Navi Multiball and that is a lot of PF realestate to
> dedicate to an easy multiball (shoot all shots to collect all
> characters and start multiball...LAME). The inserts above the
> Character Progress Ladder look enticing as they look like the Wizard
> mode. Iron Man did a good job with the same inserts and had some depth
> based on how well each insert's objective is completed. Hopefully we
> will see more of the same from Avatar.
We could turn out to be completely wrong about this, but there are
some indications that the gameplay structure could be uncomfortably
close to that of IM. Those four standups on the LHS threaten a rule
structure that could so easily emulate that of Iron Man scoring. The
shape of the progress ladders could have been lifted from IM.
As I stated earlier, this game needs a decent ruleset. Iron Man was
rescued from potential mediocrity by an above average ruleset, but if
this assessment of the character progress ladder in Avatar turns out
to be correct such that the characters are completed so easily, then
in this respect it will fall well short of IM, which is not a good
sign.
Much may depend on the extent to which the ruleset is Lyman's work. If
it's mostly not, well.........
Rare Hero
there's a TOTAN-esque ball capture gate under the Jake/link toy....I
wonder how that's going to be used. That mech toy looks HUGE. Could
that giant thing actually move or sink into the playfield? What's
most intriguing to me is what the audio/video package will be like.
This will be the first Stern movie-based game since LOTR where they
had full access to all the sound/footage. This could result in a very
complete and nice sound package.
I think it's funny how people think collecting the characters is a
lame way to start a Multiball. How do you start Fellowship Multiball
in LOTR? COLLECT THE CHARACTERS!
I was super negative about BBH and IM before they came out ....and it
seems like the majority of players like both games (I LOOOOVE
IM) ...so - I'm going to remain optimistic about Avatar! :)
Greg
llabrevlis
> > You may be the only person I know who prefers the DE art work over the
> > Williams/Bally 90's style. To each their own.
>
> Really? T2, IJ, Demo Man, Shadow, HS2, DH, AFM, BSD..there were some
> dogs out there in that era. And I find that games like Flintstones
> and Dredd remind me of that DE artwork. It's kind of hit or miss
>
> FS: NOTHING ! Everything is now gone...yea!
Have to agree, the worst art on any WB game was better than anything
DE did. I got rid of a GNR partially because of how much I disliked
the artwork.
True, art is in the eye of the beholder, but there is a reason why
most of the Williams artists are well known and Data East's are the
opposite.
Dale
Pin Lord
> > You may be the only person I know who prefers the DE art work over the
> > Williams/Bally 90's style. To each their own.
>
> Really? T2, IJ, Demo Man, Shadow, HS2, DH, AFM, BSD..there were some
> dogs out there in that era. And I find that games like Flintstones
> and Dredd remind me of that DE artwork. It's kind of hit or miss
>
> FS: NOTHING ! Everything is now gone...yea!
IJ and Shadow are dogs artwise??? The Shadow minus the backglass has
an incredible art package! IJ looks awesome too IMO. AFM, BSD are
both great and fitting of their themes too. Did I misread your
post?? DM is an obvious dud artwise.
mnpinball
mnpinball
> Here's Avatar on youtube:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD3gK23AUT4
>
> Captive ball is back, only 2 targets on the right (which, IMO, is
> better than a lot on the left and a lot on the right) and the right
> orbit is therefor a bit lower I think (I like that).
> 3D backglass looks cool.
> Nothing to see about gameplay yet.
I would love to post this to facebook, but I refuse to advertise for
BMI.
Kingpin
> > You may be the only person I know who prefers the DE art work over the
> > Williams/Bally 90's style. To each their own.
>
> Really? T2, IJ, Demo Man, Shadow, HS2, DH, AFM, BSD..there were some
> dogs out there in that era. And I find that games like Flintstones
> and Dredd remind me of that DE artwork. It's kind of hit or miss
>
> FS: NOTHING ! Everything is now gone...yea!
I'll give you DH...that one goes without saying. BSD is on the level
with DE. DM and Shadow both have bad translites, otherwise they have a
nice art package. T2 is one of the better ones out there. IJ and HS2
are pretty classic
..and AFM..you're really going out on a limb there.
Nothing wrong with being a little different. I think I said somewhere
that the masses are asses ;-)
Kingpin
Good point, but the inserts for Fellowship multiball didn't take up as
much PF realestate. Also LOTR had a lot more going on PF wise compared
to the skimped down version of pinball we have now...apples and
oranges.
Let's hope for some killer rules....knock on wood.
Rare Hero
> Good point, but the inserts for Fellowship multiball didn't take up as
> much PF realestate. Also LOTR had a lot more going on PF wise compared
> to the skimped down version of pinball we have now...apples and
> oranges.
>
> Let's hope for some killer rules....knock on wood.
Yeah, I'm just sayin...we don't know how those inserts are going to be
used....if one shot is required to light each character...or maybe
each character shot starts up some mini-goals...maybe it's like IM
where you have to get all the characters in one ball...possibilities
are endless.
Greg