OUTSTANDING EFFORT, Todd. This is why I am still collecting machines after nearly 30 years. I always wondered if the Critical Mass pinball design would ever be explained. Black Hole and Gottlieb Star System 80 owners should be rejoicing everywhere around the world.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Thank you Todd for caring so much about the craft. I apreciate the love you have for pinball machines and games in general.

@tntamusements

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the comment!

Thank you todd for all your hard work! Im sure people will be watching your vids for historical info on your games long after were both gone!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

:-) As LONG as that's 50 years from today!

Lovely piece of history about two pinball machines :) thats why these are very special thank you for sharing @tnt...

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed the video John!

Amazing, amazing piece of history right here. Thanks for sharing these stories with us!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your comments!

Very cool video, black hole is one of the coolest games of its era in pinball.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you! We had fun making this!

Critical Mass looks like a very fun game, I can imagine what it would look like if it was produced and what the playfield art would look like.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

One can only imagine!!

It's great hearing from experts in the playfeild. Thanks for sharing

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

Incredible!

@tntamusements

4 жыл бұрын

:-)

Nice video and it's great to see the CM functionnal at a show. Happy to heard that the original "CRITICAL MASS" voice message is clearly audible :-) Sure we known the source... Very god job Eric !

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

:-)

I actually know where the prototype is stored. If you look carefully at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when theyre putting away the Ark in storage, look in the far corner, you can just see the corner of the head!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

:-)

@SagePatrynXX

7 жыл бұрын

I Hope they didn't run over it in the 4th movie :P

That is amazing, so cool WOW!!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

VERY neat curtain pullback on the industry!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Yes...it does help explain things better!

It's going to be tough to top this video. It's a masterpiece for sure!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you Glenn!

Todd, enjoyed the video very much.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Awesome video, great history lesson.... :P

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

I bet this guy has spent more hours working on this one never-produced Critical Mass pinball machine than I did on the nearly 90 pins I've fixed up in 35 years. Incredible.

@tntamusements

5 жыл бұрын

He did...just pure love for the machine!

That's an amazing piece of pinball history. Quite a unique prototype machine, that Critical Mass. Too bad about that Dragons Lair 3 level pinball that never had a chance to have it's vision realized. Great interview and interesting how the concepts for the game were designed on a napkin in a bar.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed the video!

Got my pizza ready and time to kick back & enjoy over an hour of T-n-T!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Hope you enjoy it!!

Oh wow!! Had I had my Black Hole last year when I came to the show I would have liked to have gotten the apron signed.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Not sure if he is coming back to any shows anytime soon!

Nice video love to story of the black hole and the editing

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

Thanks for sharing this! I have always had a huge interest in Gottlieb pins throughout the 80's! Such great gameplay and fantastic themes!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

Really cool. I hope he publishes those sketches and documents on IPDB. As a designer, it’s always inspirational to see napkin sketches that become full on products.

@tntamusements

4 жыл бұрын

Maybe he will read your comment!

Awesome history

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Agreed!!

@panthera654

7 жыл бұрын

A big thank you to TNT for covering these machines, making this video, and allowing Jerry and I to talk about the machines. The history is finally able to be shared.

@kenanderson6813

7 жыл бұрын

Eric you are my hero

Dragons Lair pinball.... O.M.G.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

never to be seen again!

Fascinating though I wish they had gotten designs for the play fields and plastics. Amazing regardless

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

Great video Todd. A lot of talent and dedication to the preservation of these marvels. I am really impressed by the factory like quality of the restoration job that Eric did on Critical Mass. This is more than impressive. Fabulous.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks...and yes...its very impressive!!

Hi Todd, I remember I used to play this game in the mid eighties, when I was growing up in Sydney Australia, thanks Todd for bringing up memories again keep it up😊 Hey Todd, I just wondering for some reason I just remembered where are you a guest as a customer in American Restoration a couple of times,I think it rings a bell that you were in the show? Thanks again

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Never a guest but would love to be one day!

Nice in-depth story about those machines (which look like new in the video). Maybe in the future a story about that other rare prototype pinball Machine named "Krull"?

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

WIll do more as they pass my way!!

Thank you Todd, for doing this. otherwise this machine, would of sank without ever being appreciated. What dedication, and perseverance to bring this back from the dead. I wonder what the future holds for this machine?

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed the video! And Eric really stuck with this too...glad we can now share it with thousands (who will veentually see this video!)

Ahh! so system 8= 8KB! That makes sense! Amazing info and what a couple of legends Jerry and Eric seem to be. I love machines like Spirit and Genesis. Can't play Genesis to save my life but great when someone lights the machine up!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Yes...we try to show the great points in these more obscure games!

How could anyone dislike this video?

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Trolls!!

@BAKU2K2

7 жыл бұрын

TNT Amusements Inc, It could either be Curt, 90's Williams fanboys, GRC Pinball, or extreme video game nerds.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

:-) I am sure all of the above!

Just came across this gem, shared by a good friend. Love the story and in depth information about a great game, and an unknown game. Also, the business case is interested as well, the actual testing and market comparisons going on. I get the feeling much of this is skipped these days?

@tntamusements

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comments...appreciated...and yes, things are alot diffent these days with these machines

Critical mass is a great story

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Yes...it deserved to be told!

Great job Todd and Eric on the video and the game. They are both fantastic people that have a great deal of love for pinball.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you Jim!

Awesome! Been waiting for this vid. Thanks! Love me some Black Hole. Great game!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

You will now learn lots of new things about that Black Hole!!

46:27

46:14 Game Starts

just think now getting to say "i've played Black Hole: Critical Mass" is considered bragging rights in the pinball community

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Yes...not many people will ever get to play this...only if Eric brings it to a show.

Hi Todd, Awesome pinball machines and video 😊 it amazing that you guys keep those old machines alive, and the care and attention that is put into doing so. Your videos just keep getting better and better, the kids were amazed at critical mass and black hole ☺

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for your comments Anto!

2:03

Always have alot of interest watching or hearing the masters describe how they came up with the games :O watched this fron to back without skipping a beat :)

@SagePatrynXX

7 жыл бұрын

ahem you do seem to call Frank, Curt alot :P, kept thinking is Frank still filming?

over an hour! yeehaw!

@utubepunk

7 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Todd. Great weekend viewing!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

This took some 12 hours of edits and fixes...but its done!

@utubepunk

7 жыл бұрын

Deducting points from Critical Mass for not using Frank's battery board (TM). 😆

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

:-)

@utubepunk

7 жыл бұрын

And I watched it it all!

LOL, maybe you should interview people in some quiet room next time, could barely hear what Selak said thee a couple of times over that loud gameroom buzz :P Also: MAXIMILIAN!

@SwedishEmpire1700

7 жыл бұрын

Btw, with that Gottlieb document being signed, what will happen to the game if Selak dies? If they cant sell it legally thanks to that contract would his relatives need to trash it or something? And here i thought Gottlieb was dead since 1997...

@panthera654

7 жыл бұрын

If something happens to me, the game will donated to Tim Arnold and his Pinball Hall of Fame. He would have to come to PA and pick it up. Ha ha.

@SwedishEmpire1700

7 жыл бұрын

Phew, thank god, i thought it was some sort of "Dead-End" deal for the game.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

Sadly, that just wasn;t an option at the show.

Can captions be added? It's a bit hard to hear the voices from all of the background noise.

@tntamusements

6 жыл бұрын

There may be a button on bottom right to add close captions.

Todd you need to buy a couple wireless mikes and patch them directly into your camera!!!!

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

yes...we will have to look into that!

@pinballdan

7 жыл бұрын

It will be NIGHT & DAY...Audio will be nice and clear with almost no background noise...Anything is better than built it camera mikes that are designed to pickup EVERYTHING! i think the lapel mikes you wear would be the best....

Are those Atari pop bumper caps I see on the Black Hole prototype? Did the designers have to scrounge around for the parts to assemble the game?

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

I do not know...maybe Eric does?

@BAKU2K2

7 жыл бұрын

TNT Amusements Inc, Those were Atari pop bumper caps and a stern bumper cap in the upper right hand corner.

Gottlieb should have taken that machine into production. We have seen many mediocre machines coming from them but from that era there were many good ones. Critical Mass could potentially be a perfect succesor to the Black Hole. Just looking to the fact that Black Hole had almost 9.000 made would justify a good reason to let this one pass. When I look at IPDB Black hole came on the 10th place when it comes to production numbers. They also rejected many of John Trudeau's designs unfortunatly and all those concepts were destroyed

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

yes...its sad it never got made....

@panthera654

7 жыл бұрын

10th place still isn't bad. Thanks for looking into that fact. I stand corrected. They did reject a lot of John's designs for various reasons. Fortunately for the pinball community, John took lots of pictures of his prototype games. I'm glad he shares them with the community. Yes, a lot of games from that era are under-rated.

@RobbyKingPin

7 жыл бұрын

What's even more sad for Gottlieb is the fact that they never got such a high production number ever again after Black Hole. I also noticed Jerry is uncredited in the list of IPDB but the site offers an option to submit changes to rectify that. www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=307

It's interesting but if he's not going to sell it, why even bother contacting Gottlieb to get permission to use the logo and whatnot? I can make a pinball machine for my own personal amusement and put every copyrighted work I can find on it. The copyright police aren't going to raid my basement. I say forget the logos and start cranking them out to sell to serious pinball enthusiasts.

@tntamusements

7 жыл бұрын

I doubt this could ever be reproduced...as costs are so high...its probably a good guess to say Eric spent some 200 hours overall on thsi project too!