As for a home player with limited spaces, kits are a great idea.  Pin2k really did a good job of allowing for quick swaps.  Heck, I don't even care about the cabinet art.  Give me a playfield and translite and away I go.  If Wizard Blocks does ever become reality, it definitely won't be cheap just due to the low volumes.  I would love to see 2-3k units of Wizard Blocks but I'm guessing more like a few hundred.

Sam

I think $3k for a kit is reasonable.. I'd rather pay that than $5k+ for a whole new machine

I also think a kitted option would open up their home-use market, as not everyone has room for more than one machine

Quoted from machine.slave

I think $3k for a kit is reasonable.. I'd rather pay that than $5k+ for a whole new machine

I also think a kitted option would open up their home-use market, as not everyone has room for more than one machine

and that makes sense for the Sterns of today and such (but if Wizard Blocks gets made it'll be $5K+ for the kit)

Quoted from SquidVicious

(but if Wizard Blocks gets made it'll be $5K+ for the kit)

WHERE DO I SIGN???!!!!

D

Quoted from SquidVicious

and that makes sense for the Sterns of today and such (but if Wizard Blocks gets made it'll be $5K+ for the kit)

Wizard Blocks is different. P2K games require much more expensive development due to the full colour animated effects, much more complex than a DMD. Also, there are only a limited number of surviving Pin2k systems that a WB kit could be sold for. In other words, the market is limited.

If Stern did their own kits, with their own system, they could produce as many as the market would bear, and not be limited to the number of existing systems already out there.

Quoted from jonny_eh

Wizard Blocks is different. P2K games require much more expensive development due to the full colour animated effects, much more complex than a DMD. Also, there are only a limited number of surviving Pin2k systems that a WB kit could be sold for. In other words, the market is limited.

If Stern did their own kits, with their own system, they could produce as many as the market would bear, and not be limited to the number of existing systems already out there.

Right but their system isn't designed to do what you are stating so they would have to re-engineer it at at least a fairly hefty price tag and with the current market that makes little sense (plus you would have to incorperate (at least initially) some of the extra costs into the kit costs)

Quoted from SquidVicious

Right but their system isn't designed to do what you are stating so they would have to re-engineer it at at least a fairly hefty price tag and with the current market that makes little sense (plus you would have to incorperate (at least initially) some of the extra costs into the kit costs)

It's not really that much of a stretch when you think about it.  

As long as the board set is the same for each version, say TDK and WOF.  I don't see any reason you couldn't just unplug all the existing connectors, and swap PF's between those two machines.  We've see that multipile version of software can work on exist boards ala FG/Shrek.  So take a WOF PF and drop it in a TDK and change the software and boom your done.  

So all they would have to do is add molex connectors into the existing harness to make it easier to remove the PF and then maye those soem kind of rails that P2K had on the bottom of the PF to make it easier to take a PF in and out of a cabinet.  

Doesn't seem that far of a stretch to me.  

I think that technologically it would be quite inexpensive to develop this system.

Requirements: Stern Pinball cabinet with complete S.A.M. or maybe even Whitestar board system.

Product development costs: Playfield design, Software development.

Cost to develop each new design?? Probably not much lower development cost per new system than any new machine, except  possibly maybe for cab art or translight.

Market: With the option of buying complete OR kit, bigger in the short term. Longterm depends on how much they think it will take away  from complete machine sales which is higher ticket, so probably higher profit per unit if margins are equal.

Quoted from machine.slave

I think $3k for a kit is reasonable.. I'd rather pay that than $5k+ for a whole new machine.

Agreed. Even $3K is hard to swallow since you lose what ever machine you had to make a conversion from. The math for me is losing the ability to flip RFM on + $3K = Wizard Blocks. Not worth it.

$3K can buy you a pretty nice machine and $5K a really nice machine.

Here is the impossible math to grasp. RFM + Nucore Conversion + Wizard Blocks at $5K is more than a Medieval Madness.

You only lose RFM for a little bit though, you at least still own it. It's not like you have to sell it and never see it again. That has value, lots of value.

Quoted from jonny_eh

You only lose RFM for a little bit though, you at least still own it. It's not like you have to sell it and never see it again. That has value, lots of value.

I just like to flip on the switch and play my machines. I gave up on Mechano as a form of entertainment 40 years ago.

If space isn't an issue, you could try the full game instead of kits.  But WB at 5k is hard to swallow.  Pat Lawlor has always said that Wizard Blocks isn't remotely close to being finished whereas IPB has said the opposite.  I think I would believe PL on this one.