(Had to make a second post because apparently I reached itch.io limit of 20480 characters, it's been 3 hours I'm doing this, I'm too tired to continue today, see you tommorow, hope this attempt is not absolute garbage and that it will help)
| 1970s–early 1980s | USA (Stern Electronics / Universal Research Laboratories) | Poster (Hella Bic Claws) recalls researching Stern Electronics’ early video game work and their acquisition of Universal Research Laboratories (URL) in the 1970s.
Old forum discussions claimed URL invested heavily in advanced R&D, contributing to Stern’s later bankruptcy. Rumoured projects included advanced language models, a Deep Blue–like chess system, and a biocomputing chip using organic mouse material kept alive via chemicals to interface with electronics // scientific paper about living cells and biological mechanism note : no actual link with the pinball proved yet Discussion about Stern’s work on speech synthesis, notably in the arcade game Berzerk, which used a rare speech synthesizer for enemy taunts. Poster suggests Stern’s audio technology may explain reports of unsettling sounds associated with the alleged Junji Ito pinball machine Strange images in Hella Big Claws dreams - tried to draw them (Needs to know if it rings a bell to someone, no answer on Feb09) | https://itch.io/t/5902489/stern-electronics-inc-biocomputing |
| pre2001 - post 1998 | Yokohama Joypolis renamed "Joypolis H.Factory" | pixelized photo of a set of pinballs, one of them seems to display a spiral timing of the refurbishment suspicious according to Elvana (user) | https://itch.io/t/5908719/weird-joypolis-photo |
| aug 1996 | Indianapolis Central Library -- Illinois arcade fanzine called Arcaiders | an article written by Caleb Calloway talking about "Super-R U Pinball" described has : unreal, black and white, VERY weird sound fx, graphic SUPER weird, people with spirale faces, bottomless spiral pits, shadow shaped holes, Creepy Note : "Four curved paddles" in a pinball is an unusual design The title Super R U is a pun on "supairaru" which is the japanese word for "spiral" Twister "The pinball" machune by sega as a spiral in the middle. Theory by MeatCastle GameWare : What if Ito got the original germ of the idea for Uzumaki from this machine (or another like it), rather than the machine itself being base on the works of Ito? What if we're running into so many dead ends when we're looking to connect the pinball machine to Ito because it isn't actually an Ito machine - just a huge influence for a lot of his work? __ Stern's manual for the playboy pinball machine has a weird spiral icons. seems like there's a connection between the Ito machine and the Playboy machine. Joe Blackwell involved in both ? | https://itch.io/post/15443009/edit |