Line #20 Film/TiltTheBattleToSavePinball


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tilt_poster.jpg]]
2
3	->"Forget everything you knew about pinball. This is something entirely different."
4	-->-- Advertising flyer, ''Pinball/RevengeFromMars''
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6	''Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball'' is a 2008 {{Documentary}} by former [[Platform/AppleMacintosh Apple]] manager Greg Maletic.
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8	After blockbuster success in TheNineties, {{Pinball}} manufacturer Creator/WilliamsElectronics hit a major sales slump in the second half of the decade as distributors stopped buying new games. Threatened with shutdown, the pinball design team (led by Creator/LarryDeMar, Creator/GeorgeGomez, Creator/PatLawlor, and Creator/JohnPopadiuk) are challenged to come up with [[BreakthroughHit some kind of paradigm-shifting idea]] that will "save" pinball. Their response was a new platform called "Pinball 2000," which projected video images over the playfield and give a new level of immersion and activity. However, though the first two Pinball 2000 games (''Pinball/RevengeFromMars'' and ''Pinball/StarWarsEpisodeI'') were successful, Williams management decided to shut down the entire pinball division and focus solely on [[MoneyDearBoy more profitable slot machines,]] leaving the pinball industry at near-death.
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10	Interestingly, Maletic had originally intended only to create a documentary about how a product gets designed, and chose "Pinball 2000" because it was the most interesting subject he found. For casual viewers, ''Tilt'' is a short, intriguing glimpse into a critical period in UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame history. Pinball fans are advised to get the two-disc DVD set, as the second disc contains nearly ''six hours'' of supplementary material of interest to die-hards.
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12	----
13	!!This documentary features the following tropes:
14
15	* ExecutiveMeddling: Invoked repeatedly in the film.
16	** Williams president Neil Nicastro required "Pinball 2000" to be a convertible platform; this increased the system's complexity and raised the initial cost, but in theory would lower the cost of subsequent games.
17	** For ''Pinball/StarWarsEpisodeI,'' Lucasfilm required the game to be developed in total secrecy, preventing most of Williams' other developers from reviewing it and giving feedback before release.
18	--->'''Cameron Silver:''' "It's really hard to design a game by yourself."
19	** Similarly, ''[=SWE1's=]'' heavy use of Jar-Jar Binks was done at the insistence of Creator/GeorgeLucas, who was banking on his fate as a KidAppealCharacter.
20	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: The eventual fate of Pinball 2000; although ''Pinball/RevengeFromMars'' was a successful seller and ''Pinball/StarWarsEpisodeI'' broke even, president Neil Nicastro decided to shut down the pinball division just six months later.
21	* GoneHorriblyRight: This was the cause of Williams' sales problems in the mid-nineties -- although their pinball games were still popular money-makers,[[note]]the 1992 ''Pinball/TheAddamsFamily'' was the top revenue-generating game for four years in a row[[/note]] they were also extremely durable. Because of this, distributors, operators, and location owners had no incentive to buy new pinball games when their existing ones were still doing fine.
22	-->"Williams was competing with itself. All of the machines they sold in 1993 were still out on the street and didn't need replacing."
23	* {{Hologram}}: The "Pinball 2000" platform, which produced a psuedo-holographic effect by using a mirrored glass to display animations, scores, and other information from a computer monitor onto the playfield.
24	* {{Pride}}: This is speculated as why president Neil Nicastro ultimately decided to shut down the pinball division instead of trying to sell it off (as Williams did with [[Creator/MidwayGames Midway]] previously).
25	-->'''Roger Sharpe:''' "[In business,] you don't want to run the risk of being proven wrong. And if someone else can make a go of something that you have decided or determined is not viable... I don't know how well that sits."

Context Film / TiltTheBattleToSavePinball