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FULL THROTTLE: |
| Date: 19th April, 2013 Last weekend at the German Pinball Open in Berlin, a prototype of Heighway Pinball's Full Throttle game made its first public appearance, and naturally Pinball News was there to cover it. Plus, we have big news of two new team members as preparations begin at the company's new factory. The Full Throttle game the team brought to Germany was a flipable sample designed to show the look and feel of the eventual machine, while demonstrating the kind of lighting effects the RGB LEDs can achieve and the flow of the playfield design.
Missing from this prototype were the game's two main mechanisms - the pop-up spinning bumpers and the chain drive ball accelerator. However it did include the production plastics which replaced the placeholder design seen previously.
The RGB LEDs proved to be very efficient at completely changing the colour of the game while providing good levels of general illumination.
Head of the company, Andrew Heighway was there to point out the game's features and invited visitors to play it for themselves.
We also got our first look at the LCD panel's dashboard design which will convey the essential information to the player, such as their score, the ball number, credits count and their progress through the various features.
We then asked Andrew to demonstrate the game by playing it, while we shot a video. Here's the result.
The team also had a couple of flyers which announced the game pricing, a special introductory offer, and a Limited Edition version of the game.
To celebrate this first public showing of Full Throttle at the German Pinball Open, a special factory-direct price was offered for pre-orders made at the show in Berlin. The back of the flyer expands on the company's modular system - offering separate pricing for the generic cabinet/backbox and the game-specific playfield/code/artwork.
It also details all the features of each part and what's included with each separate package. The final flyer announces a Limited Edition version of Full Throttle. It is planned to make 250 Limited Edition models which will include a number of enhancements to the playfield and the trim, and adds a shaker motor and a goodie bag of Full Throttle branded items for around a €1,200 ($1,564) premium.
In our coverage of the German Pinball Open you may have seen this picture of Full Throttle being set up.
The backbox was being attached by two of the newest members of the Heighway Pinball team, Janos Kiss and Romain Fontaine, and we can exclusively bring you details of their background and respective roles at the company. Janos has been working with Andrew over the past couple of months at their base in South Wales.
Heighway Pinball officially announced Janos's arrival with the following statement:
The second new team member is Romain Fontaine.
Here's how Heighway Pinball announced Romain joining the company.
In our update at the end of last year, we revealed details of a potential base for the company at a factory unit in Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. The deal for the factory was signed earlier this year and the company has begun preparations to move in and get ready to start manufacturing games.
We'll be back very soon with much more from Heighway Pinball about their Full Throttle game and their progress towards starting production in their new factory.
© Pinball News 2013 |
