American Pinball Partners with Planetary Pinball Supply to Produce Classic Williams and Bally Games
American Pinball and Planetary Pinball Supply announced a long-term partnership today under which AP will manufacture, sell, and distribute classic Williams and Bally pinball machines under license.
The deal covers seven titles, though specific games and production timelines haven't been announced yet.
"Our owner, Bryan Vincent, is a huge Williams and Bally fan, and we wanted to bring some great games back to the community and to operators," said Ron Lindeman, President of American Pinball.
The press release uses the word "reimagined" rather than "remakes," and that's intentional. I checked in with Lindeman, and he clarified that AP plans to offer both: traditional remakes for customers who want that new-old-stock feel, and reimagined versions with new elements—additional mechs, updated code, enhanced sound and video.
So rather than competing head-to-head with CGC's remake approach, AP appears to be carving out a slightly different lane. Same Planetary license pipeline, different product strategy.
"AP has a reputation for delivering quality games, and PPS is thrilled to be working together to deliver timeless classics to today's players," said Rick Bartlett, President & CEO of Planetary Pinball Supply.
No word yet on which seven titles are in the agreement, or when we'll see the first one. Stay tuned.
Colin is the chief pixel pusher at Kineticist. He's a lifetime gamer who became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (the EM version). Since then he's bought, sold and repaired many machines, competed in all kinds of tournaments, and contributes to This Week in Pinball, the New England Pinball League, and Pin-Masters of New England. Previously, Colin spent over a decade working in marketing for agencies and tech startups. He also started and ran a music blog, happy hour website, and wrote a regular craft beer review column for Central Track in Dallas. Once aspired to be an artsy film director.
