History TroubledProduction / Pinball

** During this time, Popadiuk had undergone a CreatorBreakdown, writing [[https://www.reddit.com/r/pinball/comments/371838/major_issues_for_zidware_john_popadiuks_company/ a long, somewhat angry, somewhat coherent plea not to sue him]] and giving the people who pre-ordered his other two projects an ultimatum to switch to ''Magic Girl'' at a loss. Nate Shivers, of the Coast 2 Coast Pinball Podcast, [[http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-167-help-me-help-you-or-this-plan-aint-magic_48514 was livid over this statement]] (though Pintasia would then step in and ease up on those pre-orderers, canceling out the loss to switch over and providing Popadiuk with legal defense).
** [[http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/episode-197-an-evening-with-john-popadiuk_59362 Although he was interviewed on Coast 2 Coast Pinball]], Popadiuk otherwise fell silent, never answering customer emails and refraining from public appearances. [[CreatorKiller His reputation took a massive nosedive]], with angry Zidware customers colluding via social media to push legal action against Popadiuk, as well as create [[http://www.johnpopadiuk.com/ a website bearing his name]] to document the situation.

* ''Pinball/DemolitionMan''[='=]s backglass art kept getting rejected by the movie production team; actor Wesley Snipes, who plays Simon, was concerned about his Hollywood career and didn’t want Simon to have a crazed look on the backglass. Williams changed the art in order to appease him.

** A year later in June 2016, it was sadly [[https://images.pinside.com/a/cf/acf3335e3d733b1dc71f4844dfcf034bcca9b533/resized/large/acf3335e3d733b1dc71f4844dfcf034bcca9b533.jpeg reported]] that Homepin's programmer [[AuthorExistenceFailure was discovered to have passed away in his apartment]].

* [[http://m.imgur.com/ZyhhDtc In a Facebook comment]], programmer Lyman Sheats attributed the stagnant code on ''Pinball/TheWalkingDead'' to having to work on Stern's new Spike system, and a "botched" license with AMC.[[note]]The final game lacks footage and speech from the show; they instead used hand-drawn animations and [[NotQuiteStarring generic speech]][[/note]]. He's since released numerous updates to polish the game, with its reception now better than it was at launch. Fans who wanted to hear the cast [[https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/walking-dead-le-sound-replacement-v-09/page/1 have also updated their machines via third-party software to add speech back into the game]].
* Ex-Stern programmer Creator/KeithJohnson claims that ''World Poker Tour'' was plagued with issues at launch. Since it was the first game to utilize Stern's SAM system, it suffered from faulty hardware. It also had an "infinite multiball" bug that affected all future SAM games, which was never found until about two years later after the game was released. Also, Johnson and designer Creator/SteveRitchie had little creative control over the poorly-received art package.
* During a seminar at the Chicago Pinball Expo, game designer Creator/JohnTrudeau claimed that ''Wrestlemania'' was the byproduct of their original license for the game falling through ''shortly'' before production (though he didn't explicitly say what the license was). The game has since been immensely criticized by Stern's fanbase for the theme and design, and subsequently sold very poorly. However, Trudeau remains upbeat and proud of the final product.

* To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Stern unveiled ''Pinball/Batman66'', based upon [[Series/{{Batman}} the classic 1966-86 television adaptation of the comic]] starring Creator/AdamWest and Burt Ward. To say that the announcement was controversial (as much as it was exciting) is putting it mildly.

* [[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.pinball/Brmc4Jdbn3s/-gE4nMsfJE4J In a rec.games.pinball post]], designer Creator/SteveRitchie claims ''Pinball/PopeyeSavesTheEarth'' (released under the "Bally" label) was expensive because of custom tooling and molding. Frustrated Williams distributors, who despised the ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' theme yet were contractually obligated to take minimum orders of the game, threatened lawsuits; Williams ultimately removed the minimum games clause from distributors' contracts. ''Popeye'' was ultimately a flop, and its reception has been frosty.

Numerous indie pinball companies have entered the market, only to encounter a litany of issues in the process.

* ''Captain Nemo Dives Again'' by Quetzal Pinball was originally announced in March 2012, but changes to the operating system, playfield mechanisms and material, and the manufacturer pushed back its release date. November marked the time when the first customer would receive the game, which left many customers hopeful that the game would finally be arriving. However, ball trough and game decal issues delayed it even further. Eventually, the game was finally released in 2015.

** Their first project, ''Lost Vegas'', was announced in 2010 as a conversion kit for Bally's ''Music/DollyParton'' pinball machine, replacing the original artwork and sounds to a DarkerAndEdgier theme of strippers in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. About a year later, rough sketches of the backglass art were publicly released, though to vitriol and mockery among pinball enthusiasts (despite assurances that this ''wasn't'' the final product). The team quietly axed their initial artist, Stephanie, setting their eyes on Creator/GregFreres. However, when he was approached to join the project, Freres was too busy producing ''Pinball/WhoaNellieBigJuicyMelons'' for Whizbang Pinball, Creator/JerseyJackPinball's ''Pinball/WizardOfOz'' and later joining Stern Pinball's team. Although the software was allegedly finished, the prolonged search for an artist dragged the project to DevelopmentHell, and -- later, without much fanfare -- cancellation.
** The second project, ''Hammer of the Godz'', was a conversion kit announced in 2015 for Bally's ''Vector'' game. The game was loosely themed around Music/LedZeppelin (with images of band members, but original public domain artwork elsewhere to avoid licensing costs). Much like with ''Lost Vegas'' above, the art direction was immensely criticized ([[https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hammer-of-the-godz-led-zep-pinball-finally as shown in its Pinside thread]]). CPR's Art Director Stuart Wright didn't take the negative reception too kindly, much to the chagrin of customers. The project was later canned due to lack of interest.
* Production on ''The Crocodile Hunter Outback Adventure'', the intended first game of Australian-based The Pinball Factory, slowed to a crawl following Steve Irwin's untimely death in 2006; Irwin had provided speech and starred in the artwork. Although a whitewood playfield was finished, [[{{Vaporware}} no further updates materialized]].

** 2000 consisted of a poor-selling game lineup, including ''Pinball/SharkeysShootout'', ''Pinball/HighRollerCasino'', and ''Pinball/AustinPowers''. This forced Stern to utilize several cost-cutting measures (such as reducing their planned number of games from four to three per year, straying from developing unlicensed titles, and laying off twelve hourly-paid workers and three game design team members). In an effort to improve matters, Stern brought in Creator/PatLawlor Design to produce ''Pinball/{{Monopoly}},'' although it shows signs of the cost-cutting of the time.
** If 2000 was bad, then 2008 almost ''killed'' Stern. The year brought more mediocre titles, including ''Pinball/IndianaJonesStern'', ''CSI'' and ''Pinball/BatmanStern''. Stern's low prices kept them from turning a profit in their expensive-to-produce machines. CEO Gary Stern nearly sold his company if it had not been for investor Dave Peterson's intervention; the following year saw vast improvements to Stern's infastructure, marketing, social media presence, and a new business model consisting of a stripped-down "Pro" model geared toward arcade operators and more expensive, fully-featured "Premium" and "Limited Edition" variants for collectors.
** Behind the scenes, there was allegedly a power struggle between Stern's new Director of Marketing, Jody Dankberg, and Texan marketing/advertising guru Jared Guynes; the former ran Stern's social media with an iron fist, deleting any remotely critical comment and banning people from the company's Facebook page; the latter was fed up with Dankberg and pushed Stern to hire him. Pinball player and marketer Zach Sharpe replaced Dankberg in 2017, with Guynes assisting and Dankberg becoming Stern's New Director of Licensing and New Business Development.

** In September 2016, newcomer American Pinball hired Popadiuk to design their first game, ''Creator/{{Houdini}}: Master Mystery'', and committed to produce and distribute the Zidware games. Only ''Magic Girl'' was released, however, and in such an incomplete state; the software was bare-bones and the playfield had numerous design flaws. With just four months before ''Houdini''[='=]s reveal, American Pinball scrapped Popadiuk's work and hired Joe Balcer to redesign the game.

** In September 2016, an ambitious startup named American Pinball assisted Popadiuk in the production of a new game, ''Creator/{{Houdini}}: Master Mystery'', for which a working prototype and 25 copies had been produced. It was also announced that customers would be receiving their ''Magic Girl'' machines (with ''Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland'' and ''Alice in Wonderland'' forthcoming). This ended up happening in 2017, though what customers wound up getting was a very clear ObviousBeta of a machine -- unfinished software, design flaws, and mechanisms that were either not functioning or completely absent from the playfield.

** A surge of controversies followed: questions and concerns posted via social media were largely ignored or met with abrasive replies; there were accusations that Vonnie D's Kickstarter was filled with fake pledges; Upchurch was charged with synthetic drug distribution.
** As of 2016, the Vonnie D Pinball trademark is abandoned, and the company's social media pages have become ghost towns. Some hobbyists postulated that things could've been ''much'' worse if the project had progessed further.

* ''Pinball/CactusCanyon'' has the dubious honor of being the last conventional game released by the company, before the ill-fated ''Pinball 2000'' platform (see below). During the development of the game, Williams had their hands full with the aforementioned project. Because they wanted to ensure every single employee in their roster would be working on it, Williams gave programmer Dave Coriale around ''two weeks'' to complete the software for ''Cactus Canyon'' before rushing the game out the door. About 925 units were produced, making ''Cactus Canyon'' a rare game that's highly sought after by collectors, even to this day. The game was largely incomplete, with various unused game features, sounds, and animations were discovered in the game roms. Independent projects by hobbyists, such as [[https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cactus-canyon-p-roc-project "Cactus Canyon Continued"]] have attempted to add back in these unused assets and polish the game.
* The backglass art for ''Pinball/DemolitionMan'' kept getting rejected by the movie production team. Artist Doug Watson found out later that it was all because of actor Wesley Snipes (Simon in the film), who was concerned about his career in Hollywood and didn’t want his character to have a crazed look on the backglass. This led to Williams having to simplify the backglass in order to appease him.
* ''Pinball/PopeyeSavesTheEarth'' (released under the "Bally" label) became infamous for this - [[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.pinball/Brmc4Jdbn3s/-gE4nMsfJE4J take it from Steve Ritchie]]. Outside of its poor fan reception due to the game’s {{Anvilicious}} GreenAesop, clunky gameplay and strange usage of the ''Popeye'' license, things weren't going any better behind the scenes.
** Reportedly, the game was very expensive for Williams to produce because it required customized tooling and molding. But the primary reason for its infamy, as Richie detailed in the link above, was that Williams distributors had signed up to take minimum orders of every game the company made, and weren’t so excited when they found out that they had to buy a minimum number of ''Popeye Saves The Earth'' machines.
** Despising the license and fed up with the game's increase in price, multiple distributors threatened Williams with lawsuits and severing support with the company altogether. Williams promptly eliminated their minimum games clause in the distributors' contracts. The game has since been cited as "the beginning of the end" of pinball at the company, [[OldShame and hasn't been well-regarded]] among pinball creators and aficionados.
* The ''Pinball 2000'' game ''Pinball/StarWarsEpisodeI'', which resulted in Williams [[CreatorKiller shutting down their pinball division]] in 1999. It was discussed in the documentary ''Film/TiltTheBattleToSavePinball''.
** ''Pinball 2000'' itself wasn't exactly a total failure; the first game to use the platform, ''Pinball/RevengeFromMars'', was very successful and sold thousands of units. The platform itself was meant to rejuvenate the pinball market with something remarkable and innovative, since video games were now dominating the scene and arcades were closing. But the trouble began when Williams got the license for ''Star Wars Episode 1'' - the movie ended up becoming a critical and financial disappointment.
** Then, the game went through a very rushed and secretive production, with Williams having to increase the price of the game to pay off the licensing, which in turn caused lots of distributors to cancel their orders. In a strange turn of events, Williams’s ''own success'' [[GoneHorriblyRight ended up working against them]]. Arcade operators who had the company’s older, more successful titles on location -- such as ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone'' -- had little incentive to switch over to ''Pinball 2000'', since those games were still earning well since their release. Thus, Williams had great difficulty finding operators willing to upgrade to the newer platform.
** The game managed to sell moderately well, but failed to meet expectations. The costs greatly exceeding the prices in the market, Williams would go on to exit the pinball industry, focusing on the production of slot machines (ironically still incorporating many of their original pinball themes such as ''Revenge from Mars''). In turn, this [[WhatCouldHaveBeen killed off a handful of future ''Pinball 2000'' titles]], including ''Playboy'' and ''Wizard Blocks''. Several Williams employees -including Steve Richie and Creator/GeorgeGomez - were left unemployed, but they later joined Stern Pinball's team of programmers and designers and have been working there ever since.

** ''NBA Fastbreak'' was created in a much shorter development cycle than normal, as Gomez was working on a non-pinball arcade machine involving battling tanks. ExecutiveMeddling canned the tank project but tasked Gomez to make another pinball machine, with the time and money used in the tank game deducted from this new project's budget. (In other words, executives considered the tank game as part of the ''NBA Fastbreak'' project.) During this entire time, Gomez and the executives were constantly at odds regarding how the machine's scoring should function, with Gomez insisting on basketball-type scoring and the executives demanding normal PinballScoring. They eventually reached a compromise, with both options available and owners free to switch between them as needed.

* ''[[Pinball/FamilyGuy Shrek]]'' was originally intended to be a quickly-made, small-budget project using the design and rules of the ''Family Guy'' pinball machine, [[PaletteSwap changing the artwork and sound]], after receiving requests from operators to make something more family-friendly. Stern found itself staring down the legal gun barrel from both Creator/DreamWorksAnimation and Music/SmashMouth, the latter due to the machine's use of the song "All-Star." In order to comply with all of the rules set forth by both groups, from finding soundalikes approved by the voice actors of the movies themselves, to Smash Mouth's ban on {{Cover Version}}s (meaning Stern had to pay the record label for far more than what would've been needed to record Stern's own version), ''Shrek'' took twice as long as projected to complete and ran to the budget of a normal machine despite reusing a layout and rules from a previous machine.

* Some ExecutiveMeddling from AMC made ''Pinball/TheWalkingDead'' a real hassle for Stern in development. Stern initially had video clips and speech from the show, but shortly before the games shipped, AMC stepped in to request the removal of them. Stern then had to rush to replace the video clips with hand-drawn animations and the show callouts with [[NotQuiteStarring generic speech]] at the last minute, the latter of which fans widely criticized. Additionally, Stern's lead programmer Lyman Sheats had little time to work on the game because he was sent off to develop the company's new Spike system. Consequently, this led to slow development on code for the game and he made [[http://m.imgur.com/ZyhhDtc a post on Facebook]] bemoaning the whole thing. [[https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/walking-dead-le-sound-replacement-v-09/page/1 An update]] via third-party software was released by fans to add in speech from the show back into the game, and Lyman finally finished several code updates to give the game the polishing that it needed.
* According to ex-Stern programmer Creator/KeithJohnson, ''World Poker Tour'' was plagued with tons of problems at launch. Since it was the first game to utilize Stern's SAM system, it suffered from faulty hardware. It also had an "infinite multiball" bug that affected all future SAM games, which was never found until about two years later after the game was released. The artwork that was produced for the game left a lot to be desired (especially on the backglass) - which reportedly Johnson and Creator/SteveRitchie had little creative control over.