Arcade1Up unveiled several new products this month ranging from cabinets that housed classic games like Marvel vs. Capcom to more innovative creations like Marvel Digital Pinball. The latter is the first pinball machine in the company’s lineup of digital pinball tables, and while we don’t know everything about it, we know the pinball specialists Zen Studios are working with Arcade1Up to create the digital table and that it’ll come with “up to 10 pre-loaded licensed titles” among other features. We also now know roughly how much it’ll cost arcade enthusiasts after speaking with David McIntosh, the marketing director of Arcade1Up’s parent company Tastemakers, LLC.
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ComicBook.com spoke to McIntosh about Arcade1Up’s newest slate of 2020 reveals shortly after Marvel Digital Pinball and the other products were announced. For this table, a first of its kind from Arcade1Up, the company has been working on getting it right for nearly two years. It’s currently leaning towards a price point somewhere around $500 or $600 for the table.
McIntosh discussed some of the considerations that went into the table when trying to make both digital and physical elements of a pinball experience work coherently with one another.
“That’s been like almost two years in the making to get it right,” McIntosh said when asked about the challenges of getting the technology right for the table. “The challenge we’re facing is closing the gap on virtual realism. When you stand at a virtual pinball machine, you pretty well know you’re playing virtual pinball. We worked with Zen Studios, the number one virtual pinball library publisher for virtual pinball library, sorry, in the world, and we’ve been working with them really closely for the last two years to try and develop an experience that integrates the library they have into the technology and the hardware that we’re trying to create.”
Continuing that thought, McIntosh went into more detail about some of the specific parts of the table the creators had to work on before ending with the price point currently being considered.
“So, the technology integration with the physical unit itself has been tricky,” McIntosh said. “Things like having the solenoids with the haptic feedback, so every time you press one of the flappers, you feel it, the vibration through the machine. It feels like you’re using a real pinball machine. So that on top of the 3D CGI animation within the game, we’ve spent two years to develop this, to make it feel as if it’s a physical mechanical pinball. Now it’s not, but it’s as close that you can probably get within a sub-$1,000 price point. And we’re leaning closer to five, $600 for this table.”
Marvel Digital Pinball isn’t available to pre-order just yet, but you can sign up on Arcade1Up’s site to receive more info when it’s available.
