Yeah, thanks for remembering that. Chris had a hard time with that one.
11.03.2026 00:56
👍 1
🔁 0
💬 0
📌 0
Yeah, thanks for remembering that. Chris had a hard time with that one.
Things certainly got a lot looser when it came to licensing in years afterward.
Like I've said before, all people wanted to do was move the little racecar around. Or the doggie. That's about it.
Which always confused me, because he's NOT the antagonist in the game. It's the other landlords. What was his purpose anyway? Was he a rival billionaire you eventually challenged like a final boss? Nope. Although that would have been fun.
Hasbro REQUIRED that he be called Rich Uncle Pennybags. (He became "Mr. Monopoly" years later when they realized that's what everyone called him anyway and ignored Hasbro)
He couldn't drink, couldn't hold weapons, didn't do nearly anything. Except, obviously, own your asses because he was rich.
It's also important to note that Hasbro was VERY strict on Monopoly licensors. Artwork was scrutinized heavily so you stuck to the style guide they provided. We had a CDROM of clip art which helped. The most interesting were the explicit rules about Rich Uncle Pennybags*.
Monopoly playfield art, at the "pencil" stage. Elements are discussed and insert positions are locking down but things like text on the inserts aren't put in yet. Those can go in when the "keyline" screen is prepared. April 2001, about halfway through design.
Monopoly #pinball. Working with John Youssi was a highlight of my career. He listens, he lets you brainstorm and ramble, and he quietly takes notes.
Then he disappears for a few weeks and comes back with something like this. Simply incredible.
Holy shit that's totally it.
Stern's marketing material was pretty dry. WMS was a bit goofier at times and I don't think it was all by design. To wit: this is set that the internal team built for the Jackbot promo video. Woof.
We called that the Buggy Whip Paradox.
"Were the largest maker of pins on the planet!"
"Well, sure, you're the ONLY one."
Stern Monopoly pinball machines coming off the assembly line, August 30th 2001.
#pinball
Pat Lawlor, in his family room at home (aka PLD HQ), hacking the playfield wiring on the Monopoly Pinball prototype. July 2001.
#pinball
Continuing the Brian Schmidt rock fest, there was this band your parents liked and they covered Brian's theme from a Williams video game.
youtu.be/KTcw1rMdldM
In an alternate universe this is the Williams company Christmas party in 2008 after bringing pinball back from the dead and dominating the coin-op industry which never died. Oh well.
Closeup of Williams' Cyclone playfield. Python liked this overhead style of showing little people running around the amusement park.
Youssi's note to himself: "Research Python's people in Cyclone and other games"
Thankfully he had the taste to... not do that.
Roller Coaster Tycoon pinball concept art by John Youssi. Pencil on vellum. 2002-ish.
#pinball
THAT's what I'm talkin' about! Rock on, sludgepushers!
Small corners of the old wacky internet remain and I'm here for it.
One cute tradition in Bally games was that ranking mechanic outside the actual game score. Was Gorf the last to do this? I kind of miss it.
I'd write a Home Assistant interface so you can flash every light in your house when you hit a super jackpot. Make the roomba come out and do a dance.
I'm so glad Jean-Paul survived in Pinball this far.
We hired him at Williams to work on Pinball 2000. His first day was 10/25/99... the day pinball was shut down. 😬
Bally was making so much money in that era they were doing all kinds of wild things. Buying a health club chain. Buying Six Flags. Getting into the restaurant business. It was nuts. All then it all imploded a few years later.
Was this before or after the TomFoolery experiment? Bally bought Barnaby's pizza and experimented with a few hybrid arcade+restaurants in Chicago and southern Wisconsin. It didn't last long. I still have some tokens. It was 15 years before Dave and Buster's.
forums.arcade-museum.com/media/ballys...
Awww don't make me dig out that whiteboard photo.
To be fair, nobody played a lot of Jackbot either.
WMS definitely got the hard coat right by the mid 90s.
Gottlieb used to throw shade by saying "our playfields never need cleaning!". Our response was "sure, because nobody plays your games."
That playfield looks pretty nice for being over 30 years old. 😳
