Late yesterday, an anonymous participant in the Pulp Pictionary Pinball Facebook Group shared a supposed leaked photo of a teaser for a Chicago Gaming Company remake of the 1990 Williams pinball machine Diner. It has since been deleted from the page, but the screenshots that were taken while it was up remain.
I thought about ignoring this because I don’t believe it whatsoever, but I’ve got time on my hands this morning so let’s discuss and debunk this rumor one step at a time.
First of all, Chicago Gaming Company is currently building Pulp Fiction machines and they haven’t even started building the anxiously awaited Bad Mother Flipper Limited Edition machines yet. Furthermore, from a production standpoint CGC still has customers waiting for Cactus Canyon 🌵 machines that were literally ordered years ago.
Beyond the fact that there’s no manufacturing capacity available, Chicago Gaming is still working on the expanded code for Cactus Canyon with Josh Sharpe. Josh actually shared the below picture of a never before seen mode from the upcoming code expansion on Pinside the other day and stated that he’s hoping for it to be done sometime this summer, if not then by the end of the year. CGC is using programming resources for that that they wouldn’t use on a Diner Remake.
So from an allocation of resources standpoint, a Diner Remake doesn’t make sense at all.
Next up we have the persistent rumor that Chicago Gaming Company’s next Bally Williams remake for Planetary Pinball is going to be the 1993 Bally Twilight Zone. I know for a fact that CGC has the rights to and has actively been working on a Twilight Zone remake. Twilight Zone is next, not Diner.
Last but not least, let’s take a step back and look at this logically. How many Bally Williams games are more popular than Diner? 20? 30? I like the game, but why on Earth would Chicago Gaming remake Diner before dozens of other titles? It doesn’t make any sense at all. Not to mention the fact that CGC barely communicates with customers and the general public. Why would they make a Diner teaser years in advance of a potential launch? They wouldn’t.
The only thing that lends an ounce of credibility to the Diner Remake rumor is that it is a Mark Ritchie game. Mark was also the designer for Pulp Fiction, so he clearly is linked to Chicago Gaming right now.
I would be absolutely shocked if a Diner remake happened, but at least it gave us something fun to talk about this morning :).
Huh weird coincidence. I was walking past a local bar the other day and noticed they rotated in a... Diner! Hadn't seen that in the wild before. Will have to give it a play.
Who are the owners of all The Addams Family IP?
And this doesn't even address the pent up demand of both Medieval Madness and Attack From Mars which are proven titles, that they've made before, and would essentially print money for them without risking an unknown market for a less popular title.
I love Diner, but even if it made sense to do a remake, the 5 "customers" could/would probably need a refresh (or at least a cleanup of problematic stereotypes - lol).
Take my money! I want a new Diner!