Kickstarter: pinball machines customized by infamous underground artists

Fantastic idea! Top shelf underground artists COOP, Frank Kozik, Alex Pardee, Sam Flores, and Jeremy Fish teamed up with pinball hackers Tilt Warning Customs to build a classic pinball arcade. They've launched a Kickstarter and if funding comes through, they'll open at the FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco next year and either tour, expand to a larger venue, or both! "Bring Back the Arcade! Custom Pinball Art Show"

• [awjt]

  Apart from dude needing to CHILL off the SPEED, cool idea and I hope it happens.

  • [Tilt Warning Customs]

    Thanks to BoingBoing for the post.

    awjt, that’s passion!  Plus, I have an intense amount of energy, au naturale.  See the veins on the backs of my hands in the last scene there?  You can take my pulse with your bare eyes by watching them undulate.  Real deal Qi. Thanks to everyone for checking out our project. Peace. -Dave

    • [Mark_Frauenfelder]

      What a fantastic project. Congrats and thanks, Dave!

    • [Cowicide]

      Great work and idea, Dave!  But, you do know that Robert Crumb is still alive, yes?

• [Tilt Warning Customs]

  Mark, appreciate your support.

  Cowicide, I am aware R.Crumb is still kicking!  As are Robert Williams and Ralph Steadman.  I was just shouting out a few of my more well known favorites as points of reference, artists whose careers were most active at the same time pinball was at its most popular.  How did those elements of underground/outsider culture not crossover to one another when they were both as hot as they were?!  I simply can’t fathom the missed connection, seems like such a natural fit for both pinball and surrealist/low brow art.

  • [awjt]

    Also, while I totally dig the old school Gottlieb machines, have you considered having someone like Coop art-up a more modern game, with the split levels and digital backboard?  Or, better yet, team up with someone who can run a CNC and build your own custom machine from the ground up?  The newer machines are more fun to play.  Yeah, it’s cool to play the old ones too.  But the newer ones are more challenging and have more texture.  It would be killer cool to walk into an arcade someday and be presented with the full range of fun: custom old-school pinball, newer pinball, custom-created stand-up 8-bit games with brand new games.  I’d pay serious money to play those games and hang out in that space, as long as I could get a coffee and chill with my friends on some couches too.

• [Robert Sovatsky]

  This project is a bad idea.  The repainted games, while pretty to some, will not be fun to play.  Good artists are not necessarily good pinball designers.  These repainted classics will be shells of their former selves.  Case in point: Freak Out and Luther’s Vendetta.