Happy Friday everyone. Here's a couple of interesting new rumors to wrap up the week. First up we have one of the hottest topics of the week, Dutch Pinball and its new brand Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX).
After I received an anonymous e-mail that contained some new information, I did another trademark search late yesterday, I uncovered that not only does the head of DPX own the newly filed trademarks for Magic Girl and Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (RAZA), he owns the U.S. Trademark for another legendary zombie pinball machine (not about zombies, but one that doesn't die) - none other than Capcom's Kingpin.
The e-mail received said that if the yet-to-be-announced DPX Alice In Wonderland pinball machine sells well enough, the most likely second game to be produced by DPX will be Kingpin or Big Bang Bar. Since, Melvin Williams (the head of DPX) scooped up the Trademark for Kingpin after the previous rights-holders Circus Maximus abandoned their bid to remake the game. Moreover, Williams has stated on Pinside that he owns many of the game's original assets.
The Trademark for Capcom Big Bang Bar is currently owned by the Bally / Williams rightsholder Planetary Pinball (see below). I suppose that it's possible that DPX could reach an agreement with Planetary to build it.
A little pinball history...back in the day Bally Williams was supposedly going to manufacture Capcom's Big Bang Bar after it made its last conventional pinball machine Cactus Canyon, but they changed direction to Pinball 2000 in a last-ditch effort to save the company and we never got a Bally Williams Big Bang Bar. So it makes sense that Planetary Pinball would have the rights to it.
Let's handicap the odds of what will be made by DPX if it does eventually manufacture a second pinball machine. In my humble opinion, the lowest hanging fruit for DPX after Alice would likely be 1) Kingpin, 2) Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland and 3) Magic Girl.
Also of note related to the Magic Girl and RAZA, DPX currently owns a ton of Zidware and Deeproot assets for the game. Williams purchased the contents of the John Popadiuk personal storage locker that was recently auctioned off by people who lost money to Zidware. Furthermore, according to Chris Turner of Turner Pinball, the Deeproot assets for RAZA that he won in the company's bankruptcy auction were sold to Williams and DPX as well.
Now on to American Pinball, according to the recent Pinball News and Pinball Magazine monthly podcast, stated previously by Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Dennis Nordman is no longer a full-time employee of American Pinball. Nordman is expected to return to American as a consultant, IF AP decides to build the next game that he was working on for the Company - White Water 2 (WW2). There has been some talk on Pinside that the White Water sequel's Bill of Materials (BOM) was too high for it to be a profitable game at this point and it may never actually be made. Time will tell.
White Water 2 was supposed to be the next game manufactured by American, but supposedly that game was pushed back in favor of a licensed game designed by Ryan McQuaid. Kaneda's Pinball Podcast has stated that this game will be based upon the popular video game Cuphead.
American Pinball is hopeful that its next licensed game will be ready by the upcoming Chicago Pinball Expo, which takes place in mid-October. Some people believe that this is an overly optimistic launch date for the game.
