Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Blues Brothers pinball

No, I'm not ditching my project.. I'm just throwing ideas at the wall since Jimmy stated on a recent podcast (gameroom junkies) that one of his dream themes is the Blues Brothers movie.  Now I have to preface that this movie is near and dear to me (and ironically my wife is one of the VERY few people that hates it).  Not sure why, perhaps she thinks it's an insult to musicals?  Anyway, this is one of the few movies me and my dad really bonded with when I was a kid.  Being filmed in Chicago, obviously the historical factor alone is enough to like it.  In fact, sometimes I'll watch it just for nostalgic purposes (Oh look at how the highways looked back then).  In particular, the scene right before they get pulled over (SCMODS), just cruising on the highway listening to Sam & Dave - soothe me brings me back to when my dad would bring me to work with him downtown Chicago (3am), and he'd be listening to oldies and it was very dark outside.

Anyway, so I've thought about this the past few days, and I think the best approach would be Stern's jukebox concept, while pulling certain elements from the movie into the playfield.  If you look at Metallica, most things are based on album art rather than songs.  AC/DC, the bell is from hells bells (but also album art), and the canon is most certainly album art.

First and formost, targets should be heavily used (and re-used) in the game.

They can be used to collect items (beginning jail scene where the clerk is listing his items.. One timex digital watch, broken.  One un-used prophylactic.. one soiled.  boots, black.  belt, black.  one black suit jacket, one pair of black suit pants, one hat... BLACK.  One pair of sunglasses, 23 dollars and seven cents.. Sign here).

Targets can be used to spell "jake", and "elwood".

Targets can be used to collect band members (Murph and the magic tones, GI turns to red for the lounge, Mr fabulous plays classical music while the lighting flickers like candles.  Blue Lou and Matt Guitar Murphy Aretha Franklin sings and trivia video mode starts to gain those band members).

During Jukebox song selection, the quote "oh we got both kinds, country and western!" should play from bob's country bunker.

Orange Whip - I'm thinking a glowing orange drink with a slice of orange, sort of like lebowski's white russian.

Bridge jump scene (car's got a lot of pickup) - This should be similiar to the jump ramp on America's most haunted, but have it actually actuate and tilt up like in the movie.  There would be a wall in the middle, and the ramps would have to move up enough to clear it (so you'd have to time your shot.. Too soon, and the ball hits the wall.  Too late, and the ball doesn't make it up the bridge ramp).

Lastly, the car chase scenes are what made this movie memorable.  There's the mall chase scene at the former Dixie square mall in Harvey (new oldsmobiles are in early this year), and then the ending when they flee from the concert, and drive all the way to downtown chicago (driving down route 43, then to I-90, past McCormick place, through lower wacker drive, then under the EL-train).  I'm thinking 2 directions for this concept:
1. Simply have a dodge monaco toy.. Maybe have it as a scoop that ejects balls.  One thing is for sure, that engine sound NEEDS to be included, and a nice subwoofer speaker.  The sound of that engine is so low and gutteral.  Seriously, go back and watch it, I bet you'll find yourself imitating the sound.  Perhaps there could be some sort of multiball where there's specific colored balls that represent the cops chasing them (red and blue), and you have to manage to not drain your ball until all the "cop balls" drain first.
2. This gets a bit more elaborate.  There would be a mini section of the playfield (perhaps just an upper playfield), but it would be specific to car chase scenes.  I'd want to do an LCD screen for the back and side showing speed, and perhaps somehow do projection mapping on the playfield (the bluesmobile would be between the flippers), and the video would show turns, and you'd have to flip the ball to that side of the playfield (standup target, perhaps a spinner lane?).  You keep going as long as you keep making your shots.  As soon as you miss, the scene ends.

Last idea: If you're playing a multiplayer game, while the ball sits in the shooter lane, a clip of jake and elwood standing in the elevator at Daley Plaza tax assessor, and plays with muzak in the background until the next player shoots the ball.





3 comments:

  1. Love. This. Wow.

    Idea - As you "collect" band members, a meter raises incrementally from Goat Piss to Gasoline.

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  2. I'm glad I found your page. I had the same idea (but only just now), that BB would make a killer pin ! Probably a lot of licensing headaches to deal with, siince most of the movie involves other people's music. But, this is a pin I would not hesitate to spend big coin on.

    I like the car (ball) ramp jump idea.

    There are so many quotable lines from that movie, that it would make perfect sense in a pin.

    If you tilt, you could have The Penguin say "You are such a disappointing pair. I prayed so hard for you. It saddens and hurts me that the two young men whom I raised to believe in the Ten Commandments have returned to me as two thieves, with filthy mouths and bad attitudes."

    You could have a choice of what to shoot for " Country" or "Western", perhaps in a video mode.

    When the game was over, and you did NOT match, Jake could say "I hate Illinois nazis."

    I'm not a computer guy, but this could be hashed out in Virtual Pin first, pehaps. Have you talked to Jersey Jack about this ? Honestly, when WOZ came out, I was very skeptical, because the title and story are decades old. But, wow was I wrong ! It is a gorgeous machine, and if I could afford it, I'd own it. Maybe he would see the potential in a BB machine. Thanks again.

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    Replies
    1. I don't know how I missed your comment. I've played around with future pinball, and although I can lay things out I get lost in the scripting. Also I find the way you have to import geometry like toys through some weird modeling package to be restrictive, and building ramps and getting them to lineup is quite frustrating. Maybe someday I'll at least sketch out a layout on paper.

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