For years, a small group of pinball enthusiasts named Circus Maximus worked on a remake of the very rare Capcom pinball machine, Kingpin. For a while, things for that remake seemed to be on track, with a prototype game making the trip to the Southern Fried Gaming Expo and collectable translites with new art being sold. However, over the past year or two there hasn't been much word out of Circus Maximus, leading to speculation that they may have abandoned the Kingpin project.
It appears as though there may be a new party interested in remaking Kingpin. If I'm reading this February 2nd trademark application correctly, Williams and an individual in the Netherlands filed an application to use Kingpin in "Pinball machines, parts and accessories for pinball machines" and various items of clothing. Much like the Twilight Zone trademark application that I wrote about in my previous post, this is a very specific application, not some sort of large blanket filing.
In addition to the brand new live Trademark for Kingpin pinball, the database contains two dead ones, one that was abandoned in 2020 and one from Planetary Pinball that was cancelled in 2017. Neither of those filings resulted in a remake of the game. Perhaps the third time is the charm?
I don't recognize the name of the new applicant, but the fact that they are in the Netherlands jumps out at me. I wonder if this has anything to do with Dutch Pinball? I had heard rumblings about Dutch and a Big Bang Bar Remake, but I never knew if they were actually true. Here's another potential link to Dutch Pinball and Capcom Pinball remakes.
Only nine of this Mark Ritchie-designed game were ever produced, so it's exceptionally rare and may have a market. There's definitely a lot of speculation here, but is the first concrete reference to a Kingpin remake that I've seen in quite a while, so it's definitely something to keep an eye on.
