Reveal of deeproot by TWIP

2021 Update

So sad to see Deeproot fold in a scam-like way. I was rooting for them because there were some good ideas and who doesn't want another successful pinball manufacturer in the market releasing pins every year? I'm letting this post stand as a window in time and for the optimism and excitement I had, rather than trying to revise history...

Original Post:

On September 22, 2020 This Week In Pinball (TWIP) dropped a doozy of a post. A pinball company called Deeproot was set to reveal some of the innovation they were promising as far back as 5 years ago. However, the planned reveal did not go well and it appears deeproot has more work to do yet. However, Jeff at TWIP did release some material that looks intriguing to me. What follows are my thoughts about what I observed in the post and the accompanying photos.

Image courtesy of This Week In Pinball

The game presented was Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (RAZA), and the first area I wanted to focus on is the Pinbar. I absolutely love this concept! Borrowing one of TWIP's photos, I turned it 90 degrees and numbered specific features so that I could explain why I think this is great. Pinbar is a touch display. The most obvious benefit of Pinbar is having it located right in front of the player. When playing a game, a player is looking down at the flipper most of the time, which means Pinbar is in a  player's field of view for most of the game. On to the features...

Modified from an original image from This Week In Pinball

1. "200 tickets" is mostly likely an achievement or objective within the game, since the setting is in a theme park. This is very helpful...it reminds me of collecting dwarves in The Hobbit.

2. Reset Game: not sure about this one.

3. Volume: I like the fact that the volume can be adjusted in front as you play instead of opening the coin door.

4. Player 1 Ball 1: pretty easy to see whose turn it is and which ball you are on.

5. Playfield multiplier: again, pretty handy to have your playfield multiplier right in front of you as you flip instead of having to look up.

6. Bonus multiplier: see #5. Awesome.

7. What's Next: how cool is this? The game is telling you what to shot for next instead of flashing arrows (which tell you where to shoot but not why) or something on a screen when your attention is focused on the playfield. It's kind of interesting that it looks like a deck of cards.

8. Magna Save: conveniently reached with the player's thumb, which may be quicker than taking your fingers off of the flipper button and reaching for another flipper button or a center button.

I really love the Pinbar, there's a lot of information that can can absorb without taking your eyes completely off of the playfield. Hopefully this thing is durable, I can't imagine the cost to replace a custom part like this.

Some of the other innovations I didn't really have an opinion on (although I'm definitely not sold on the appearance of the wrap around back display, I'd opt for the standard backbox), but tilting the glass up is friggin' fantastic!

Photo courtesy of This Week In Pinball

I absolutely despise the old "open the coin door, pull the lever, remove the lockdown bar, put the lever back, close the coin door, and slide the glass out 3 feet without torquing and shattering it" method of removing pinball glass. Gas assisted struts that simply tilt the glass back? Genius. Obviously this wouldn't be very helpful in a game with hardware in the backbox that would need to be accessed, a people with low ceilings would be out of luck. But I absolutely love this.

Finally, my thoughts on deeproot's upcoming release titles...

Image courtesy of This Week In Pinball

If this is Goonies, it's a no-brainer. What a license! I'd want this title bad, and so would a lot of other people. It doesn't fit my monster theme - unless you count Sloth - but I love the movie and it would be great to follow the map to One Eyed Willie's treasure while dodging the Fratellis. A pirate ship, booby traps like the pipe organ...this would be a great game. Throw that Cindy Lauper song in there, too!

Image courtesy of This Week In Pinball

Yukon Yeti would probably be my second choice from deeproot's lineup, because a) it's a sequel to White Water and b) I love Dennis Nordman game designs. I would need to see more than what is shown here, but it certainly sounds intriguing to me.

Image courtesy of This Week In Pinball

I think I'd be leaning more towards Machine Age than Magic Girl because of the Dennis Nordman factor, time traveling, dieselpunk, three first ever mechs, and video game quality art tips the scales in its favor. But that Magic Girl art...wowza!

In conclusion, I hope deeproot gets things figured out and can get these innovative features and intriguing games to market. Pinball is steeped in nostalgia, and change, though inevitable, can be hard for people to accept. There's plenty of The Addams Family and Lord of the Rings machines out there for those who pine for the past. Indeed, many modern games don't deviate much from those classic designs in order to perpetuate the pinball experience. For those who grumble that pinball doesn't need video or phone interaction, that it doesn't need to change at all and we only really need to be able to hit a ball around, just think about that for a minute. Deeproot is not changing the fundamentals of what makes pinball special - the analog experience of hitting the ball with flippers and having it bounce off of things - instead they are offering to keep that the same and change other things that have little impact on the game play itself. Their games will still give you that analog experience. Personally I love the fact that deeproot is taking risks in an attempt to move the hobby forward. Without innovation and new ideas, we'd all be playing electro-mechanical pinball machines...