There’s a few of these videos kicking around, mostly from Stern and previously of which the four part Transformers Pinball Documentary series was king. Starting with a teaser trailer about a month before they even started work on it, going in to feature design, game concept, strategic runs, bonuses and much more right to the aesthetic creation, music and all the moving parts, there was about seven videos related to it that made for addictive viewing. Proper interesting stuff, and although I have no evidence to support it this is what I imagine Raynulds does when he’s at work and not spinning wax.Recently the Transformers series was topped however, with the release of the AC/DC Pinball video. Some of the best shots we’ve seen of the teams building the physical machines (including in this case the 12″ woofer) and a pretty cool insight in to the ‘playfield’ level designs. It’s just an astoundingly creative process of “hey let’s put cannons in”, “lets make different songs be different levels” and “what about a magnetic bell?” then working out how to do it. Best of all the father of the project (dubbed ‘The King Of Pinball’) is an avid AC/DC fan, you can tell he’s having fun.
In the same way that King Of Kong (more on this another time but if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend doing so) brought the incredible boring world of ‘competitive gaming’ (vintage) out in the open to an unrelated audience and created a brilliant film, (who knew Donkey Kong scores could get so emotional?), Bang Back: The Pinball Movie looks to have found an equally captivating main subject. The documentary was set to focus on former pinball champion Rick Stetta (featured in Sports Illustrated as the greatest player in the world) who quit playing professionally to look after his disabled wife. Unfortunately, this trailer appeared about four years ago, and nothing’s been heard since, but we’re hoping it’s still in production.