Late last week, Melvin Williams, head of the Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) division of Dutch Pinball applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a trademark to create a pinball machine based on the science fiction film Blade Runner.
Released in 1982, the Ridley Scott directed film stars a young Harrison Ford. It appears as though this specific trademark is for the original movie and not the more recent, 2017 remake Blade Runner 2049.
It sure seems as though DPX plans to be around for a while, because it is about to start its 500 unit production run of its new game Alice's Adventures in wonderland. In addition to Alice, Dutch is rumored to have the rights to the following games:
Main Dutch Pinball's rumored license for a pinball machine based on Back to the Future
Trademarks for various John Popadiuk designs such as Magic Girl and Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland
Trademarks for the super rare Capcom Pinball games Kingpin and Big Bang Bar.
Whew, that's a lot of potential themes for new games.
During Alice's Adventures in Wonderland's reveal, DPX stated that it expects to begin shipping games in January 2025 and to get them out at a pace of 30 to 40 games per month. If all 500 units sold as purported, at that pace it would take them over a year to build the full run of Alice, so I wouldn't expect to see a Blade Runner pinball machine any time soon, but it is interesting to see that we might get one someday.
Tears in the Rain multiball with a projector that makes it look like there's a downpour over the entire playfield as you have to keep the balls alive long enough for Roy's life timer to count down before ending with "Time... to die..." Wow, that would be awesome.
Plus the visual and audio design would be amazing. Nicely modded Tron tables with modern lighting and sound are just incredible. This could out do that and then some.
That’s actually pretty cool, the only issue is that based on their history we won’t see this actually announced until the 2030s lmao
I think it's long overdue.....I'd do a cityscape with the Tyrell pyramids dead center with the ramps running through it. The blimp in the background with an LCD running ads, just like the movie. The spinner craft above to the right or left of the pf that acts as a physical ball lock. An ACDC like cannon on the right shooting the stand ups, with Deckard's gun on the outside of the cabinet like Dirty Harry or the Shadow. I would also have a jump ramp like NF.....to simulate Deckard leaping from one building to the next. I'd put 3 hidden popup targets on the pf, one as Roy, the other as Priss and Leon....sort of like GB or MM.
While it has a strong visual identity, I never quite saw the appeal of this as a pinball theme. There is a real lack of action in the movie. Good luck with the rule/mode design