New Pinball Table Ideas? - Post 'em Here

[Danzig]

Whoa,,,,,,,, Legos? Such an obvious but most EXCELLENT idea Flynn. Can't believe I never thought of that one myself.

[pinballer]

Eh? Problem with Nightmare Before Christmas is that it really doesn't remind or feel christmasy at all (which is probably why some guys are suggesting it)

Its like making Grinch table with big green grinch background and he is building gadgets without anything actually referencing to christmas. Or like making Peter Parker table and calling it Spiderman table.

Its too late but if not classic christmasy table then even South Park would be better than Nightmare because South Park has more christmasy feel. the kids throwing snow balls maybe with plenty of people including santa featured. Muppets Christmas Carol would be another nice choice that isn't too cliche christmas.

Actually entire Muppets pack would be great. Maybe 4 tables based on movies (first, christmas, treasure island, from space, take manhattan, capers, new one all could be different) or maybe 1 based on muppet show or maybe even remaking GBA pinball table

EDIT: I remembered some other past or revived animations that could be used too. Im sure Rocky & Bullwinkle is cheap but id like to see some better remembered licenses and better table. isnt Beavis and Butthead coming back? Ren & Stimpy is another I remember. then there are Lucky lukes and what not. How about Gremlins for soft horror?

[Ex-Parrot]

Licenses that I'd love to see Zen tackle (but which, in all liklihood won't happen, for a variety of reasons):

Doctor Who - Classic era and Modern era tables please.
Elvira - She's a pinball classic, so a new Zen designed Elvira table would be very cool...I'd also love to see someone recreate Bally's Elvira & the Party Monsters. Elvira Scared Stiff would be cool to see recreated too.
DC Comics - I was always more of a DC guy. Yeah, I know, never gonna happen, but seriously, how great would a Batman table be. Just for starters...
2000 AD - Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, ABC Warriors, Slaine, Nikolai Dante, Nemesis the Warlock and Durham Red could all support their own tables. Hey, a man can dream.
Robert E. Howard's Pulp Fantasy characters - Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, El Borak, Bran Mak Morn, Sailor Steve Costigan, again, each could have their own suitably pulpy and atmospheric table. Heck talk to Dynamite and add Red Sonja to the list as well.
Universal Monsters - Either a mash-up table of all the most famous monsters, or better yet, a table pack featuring seperate tables for Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera and so on. A similarly themed Hammer Horror pack would be cool, too.
Indiana Jones - Love to see Zen's own take on the franchise. A recreation of the Williams Indy machine would be very cool too.


As for concept ideas for original tables, I'd love to see:

The Cosmos - A silver-ball tour around the wonders of the universe
How the West was Won - Wagon trains, pistol duels, indian attacks, train robbing, horse chases, cattle russling, bounty hunting, bank robbing, whisky swilling, plenty of scope for some wild western fun.
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth - Dinosaurs. Pinball. What's not to like?
911 Emergency - The Police, Fire Department, and Ambulance responding to the growing emergency of keeping your silver ball in play as chaos reigns all around.

[E113]

Let me start off by saying some of the suggestions I make I, or someone else, may have already suggested. I was just bored and decided to compile a list of what I'd like to see. Also, I want to apologize up front for such a huge post but like I said, I was bored and needed something to do.

First off, Disney now owns Marvel. That means with Zen having a Marvel deal, they may (or may not) have access to Disney material as well. If this is the case (them having access), here are some great ideas for Zen to think about for kid/family friendly tables:

Aladdin
Alice in Wonderland
DuckTales
Hercules
Lilo and Stitch
The Lion King
The Little Mermaid
Mulan
Peter Pan
Tangled
Tarzan
etc.

Disney also owns Pixar so that also opens up:

Cars
Finding Nemo
Monsters Inc.
Toy Story
etc.

Not to mention they also own Dreamworks which also brings to the table:

How to Train Your Dragon
Kung Fu Panda
Madagascar
Megamind
Monsters vs. Aliens
Over the Hedge
Shrek
etc.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I have a ton of other ideas for licensed products, although some of them may not be as easy to get a hold of (rights wise):

Assassin's Creed
Avatar: The Last AirBender
Castlevania (Symphony of the Night preferably)
Earthworm Jim
Final Fantasy (VII preferably, if Epic Quest does well with the RPG elements)
Futurama (my personal pick, my all time favorite cartoon)
Gargoyles (either the old 90s Disney cartoon or an original idea involving gargoyles in some way)
Halo
InuYasha
James Cameron's Avatar
Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
Legend of Zelda (doubtful, its Nintendo and I don't want to see any more exclusives I can't get on FX2/2.5)
LEGO (tell me a table built entirely of LEGOs with little LEGO guys running around wouldn't be epic)
Marvel vs. Capcom (I suggested this before)
MegaMan
Metroid (again, its Nintendo, so doubtful)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Prince of Persia
Resident Evil (would solve the "we want zombies" issue)
The Simpsons
Sonic the Hedgehog
South Park
Star Wars
Transformers (generation 1 preferably)

And then there's the non-licensed ideas that would be more practical for Zen to make (not needing licenses and all):

Carnival Games
The Cosmos (stole that idea from Ex-Parrot, love heavenly bodies and would love a table dedicated to them)
Olympus (a Greek God concept of some sort)
Sports Pack (a four pack of sports themed tables, example: American football, hockey, baseball and basketball)
Wild West (a gunslinger theme from the Wild West age)

[hectorpuppet]

Something I think would be kind of cool is to have a table that utilizes our XBOX avatars fighting it out in the same way as the characters on the Marvel tables. Whoever you fight could depend on whoever holds the top 3-5 scores on your friends list.

I know there's a couple of people on my list that I've wanted to deliver a virtual right hook to after they've beaten my scores...

Also, the board game Mouse Trap: The table starts out with a couple of targets and you have to "build" it as you go along.

Finally, my dream 4 pack of tables based on bands would be: Motorhead, Hawkwind, Parliament, and GWAR. One based on the movie Heavy Metal would be pretty great too.

On that note, please DON'T make an Insane Clown Posse table. It wouldn't be able to figure out how the magnets work.

[muffin mang]

I'd like to see a pinball table for young children. Ideally there would be no leaderboard or superscore for this one since I picture it to be quite a bit easier than the traditional Zen table. If I could design it the table would have no outlanes, two flippers and missions that focused on colors and shapes.

[chivato]

I would so love it if Zen offers us the opportunity in some ways or means to be involved with the design of a table. From my side I would be interested in just pitching ideas to Zen or to even teaming up with a group of guys/gals to work on the table layout and rule sheet/scoring strategy. I'm am sure that there are people around here that have the interest/background to look at the theme (no licensed themes - all original), sounds, music, 2D graphics and 3D modelling and what ever else is required.

Zen can even guide the process by e.g. inviting input over a couple of weeks:

Week 1 and 2 - theme, Short list themes and final selection.
Week 3 and 4 - layout and table dynamics (3D models and animations)
Week 5 and 6 - rule sheet and scoring strategy
Week 7 and 8 - sounds and music
etc.

So that after 2 months or so the community will have given Zen a clear idea of what kind of table they want and then Zen can put the pitched ideas through their magic table making machine . The community should off course also be involved in problem solving and Q&A and it would be really awesome if Zen could do a weekly blog documenting the process.

This is a great idea.
We need a community table.
Only problem is where there are many people there are many opinions on what is good.

[BarbieBobomb]

Freaking awesome ideas you guys! I always keep track of new table ideas and send them to the team each week, so keep them coming!

[BarbieBobomb]

On that note, please DON'T make an Insane Clown Posse table. It wouldn't be able to figure out how the magnets work.

I will do everything in my power to make sure ICP stays out of our tables... LOL

[Kinkimono]

As some others have mentioned i would love a Nightmare Before Christmas table.
Where the objective ofc would be to try to create christmas. Starting out with the whole halloween theme and gradually as you complete missions having the table looking more and more like christmas, in that halloweeny way ofc.

Getting goosebumps just thinking about it...

[satch]

Went into a comic shop for the first time in years today. And I see that Marvel is putting out a series of Stephen King's Gunslinger books. I definitely like Marvel a lot more now. The Gunslinger would be a SUPER cool table. The Gunslinger is actually a part of The Dark Tower series. You could make a crazy ass table based off of it. I bought the only issue they had, number 2 of part 5.

I would like to thank you guys that have mentioned the Gunslinger/Dark Tower Books over various threads. I had never heard of it. Being a bit of a fan of the old dollar films I looked it up. Now thanks to a workmate who has all 7 books I'm now reading my way through them (I'm on book 4 now Phweee).
And wow what a great Theme for a Table the Gunslinger would be. Please ZEN if you can get the License to this please make it happen.

[Postman]

I've been dying for a Gradius table as mentioned before (free plug ),
but in the spirit of Epic Quest, which parodied RPGs, why not a generic table that parodies shmups? (shoot em ups).

You could have boss fights, a black/white dynamic like from Ikaruga, Lolis from Deathsmiles, bullet barrages, huge spaceships, a force pod from R-Type, a giant battleship minigame where you need to shoot out all the guns.....

[BarbieBobomb]

I've been dying for a Gradius table as mentioned before (free plug ),
but in the spirit of Epic Quest, which parodied RPGs, why not a generic table that parodies shmups? (shoot em ups).

You could have boss fights, a black/white dynamic like from Ikaruga, Lolis from Deathsmiles, bullet barrages, huge spaceships, a force pod from R-Type, a giant battleship minigame where you need to shoot out all the guns.....

Dude... A shmup table would rock! I am a huge DeathSmiles & Cave shooter (I think the one I'm thinking of is called Bug Princess in the US) fan, so that would be a dream come true!

[Postman]

Ahhh sweet, an insider with a shared interest, we may now see this table happen

Mushihimesama is the game you are thinking of. I can also recommend some region free imports, such as Eschatos and Bullet Soul. They are a bit pricy, but well worth it for shmup fans.

A Cave themed table would have to feature blue and purple balls, a Treasue one black and white

[M33]

I'd like to see a Gold Rush theme table.

Four steps; Acquire money. Purchase land. Buy equipment. Then work your mine.

Watch out for TNT, land squatters, Kicking mules, etc

An ore cart would collect balls for multiball play
A target would set off an LED "explosion" under the ore cart, tipping it over.