Story dated March 5, 2006 .

Melbourne-based The Pinball Factory has announced plans to remanufacture
two classic Williams/Bally dot-matrix games.

The games in question are Medieval Madness and Cactus Canyon and the decision on which to make first was put to the vote recently on the company's web forum. After a neck-and-neck race, Medieval Madness was declared the winner.

The intention is to make 1,000 games at a maximum price of US$5000 each plus shipping from Australia. Buyers need to make an initial deposit of 50% of the game's price either directly with The Pinball Factory or through one of the company's distributors around the world. The balance would then be payable just prior to shipping.

With some potential buyers baulking at paying US$2500 up front, TPF distributor Pinball Heaven have started taking orders for the games with a deposit of only £200 (US$375), having pre-ordered a container of the games.

The Pinball Factory has the rights to remanufacture Bally games using the Bally name but Medieval Madness was a Williams-branded game and so would have to be made without the Williams logo. An alternative possibility is to produce it as a different model such as "Medieval Madness Gold" and use the Bally brand instead.

If insufficient orders are received, the project may be cancelled and all money paid would then be returned but if enough buyers are forthcoming - and at the time of writing , attention will then move on to the second proposed game, Cactus Canyon.

There is no intention to update the hardware design of the games, so they would be built using newly-manufactured WPC boards and would use the original software. Cactus Canyon may include a number of minor fixes to make the game code more complete but that aside both games are intended to be as close to the originals as possible. Changes to legislation since the originals were made may require the use of lead-free parts for games exported to EU countries and Illinois Pin Ball Inc's patent on the 7-opto ball trough may prompt a redesign of that part and provide the opportunity to address the problems with broken components and trough divots.

If buyers wish, they can specify their own modifications at build time and substitute the original stainless steel side rails and lock down bar for black versions for no cost, or gold for a US$200 premium.

The plans come as work on The Crocodile Hunter - Outback Adventure is almost complete, pending artwork approval. The game is expected to be released in June or July this year. The base cabinet design for Crocodile Hunter is identical to the Williams and Bally games with the exception of the extra surround sound speaker cutouts at the front of Crocodile Hunter. The backboxes are very different though.

The Pinball Factory are accepting orders for Medieval Madness from 1st March through to 30th April 2006 and we'll keep you updated on the project's progress. If it does go ahead, production is expected to take about six months.