ON A FLYER
Story dated November 6, 2005 .
The development of the first game by The Pinball Factory continues and some new pictures of the cabinet artwork have been released.
Now called Crocodile Hunter Outback Adventure the game is tied in with Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo attraction on Australia's Gold Coast and with his series on Discovery's Animal Planet channel.
The Pinball Factory's Wayne Gillard told Pinball News the artwork is"pretty much final" so we shouldn't expect any significant changes before production begins. This should be in 2006, having been delayed by the deal with Williams and the consequent need to manufacture parts.
Although the game in these images does not show it, the production game will still have the front speaker cutouts in the cabinet to provide surround sound.
Wayne also confirmed that at present the backbox is removable like the Pinball 2000 version and doesn't fold down onto the playfield like more traditional designs. One aspect that will be retained is the four button coin door controls for the menu system. This survived the Pinball 2000 changes and is well understood by operators and technicians, though the range of options is likely to expand.