A planned remake of Big Bang Bar, one of pinball’s most famous “almost didn’t happen” machines, has become the center of a public dispute between UK-based Team Pinball and Italian manufacturer Pedretti Gaming.
Team Pinball published a statement outlining its version of events, claiming that a prototype machine it purchased and developed for the Big Bang Bar remake project was later retained by Pedretti Gaming. According to Team Pinball, the dispute has left the company approximately €90,000 out of pocket and has ended its involvement with Pedretti-branded remake projects.
It is a messy story involving rare pinball history, remake rights, prototype ownership, development work, and the sort of relationship breakdown that makes the phrase “business partners and friends” sound like foreshadowing.
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A Rare Game With a Complicated Legacy
Big Bang Bar already has one of the strangest histories in pinball. Originally developed by Capcom Coin-Op in the 1990s, the game was completed around the time Capcom’s pinball division was collapsing. Only a small number of original prototype machines were made before the title failed to reach normal production.
That scarcity helped turn Big Bang Bar into a cult object. It later received a limited remake run through Illinois Pinball, but even that did not make the game common. For collectors, Big Bang Bar remains one of those machines people talk about in slightly hushed tones, as if saying the name too loudly might add another $5,000 to the asking price.
Because of that, rumors of a modern Big Bang Bar remake have drawn interest for years. A new production run would be a big deal for collectors who want the game but do not want to compete for a tiny pool of expensive originals and earlier remakes.
Team Pinball’s Role With Pedretti Gaming
Team Pinball says it worked with Pedretti Gaming for several years, providing hardware and software support for Pedretti’s remake and upgrade projects. That work reportedly included software, animations, and circuit board designs for Funhouse: Rudy’s Nightmare, Whirlwind: Total Chaos, and the full Funhouse Remake machine.
Pedretti Gaming has positioned itself as a modern remake and upgrade-kit producer, working on updated versions of classic Williams-era games. The company’s projects have included Funhouse and Whirlwind upgrade/remake products, and more recently a planned remake of Tales of the Arabian Nights.
According to Team Pinball, its relationship with Pedretti was once close and positive. The company described the partnership as more than simply transactional, saying it considered Pedretti both a business partner and a friend.
That tone makes the public statement more striking. It is not written like a minor invoice disagreement. It reads like a relationship that broke badly.
The Big Bang Bar Remake Collaboration
Team Pinball says the Big Bang Bar remake project originally involved three parties:
Pedretti Gaming would handle manufacturing.
Team Pinball would handle software and electronics.
Melvin Williams would handle prototyping and redesign work.
According to Team Pinball, the original collaboration later broke down after disagreements between Pedretti and Melvin Williams. At that point, Team Pinball says Williams had already completed prototypes and held the related paperwork.
Team Pinball says it continued working with Pedretti on other projects after that breakdown. Then, in October 2024, Team Pinball says it purchased one of the original Big Bang Bar remake prototypes from Williams with Pedretti’s knowledge and agreement.
The understanding, according to Team Pinball, was that it would finish the game’s software and electronics, provide manufacturing PCB files, and receive royalties for each machine sold.
In other words, Team Pinball says it bought the prototype to keep the project alive. That is the sort of sentence that sounds heroic until the invoice arrives.
The Prototype Sent to Italy
Team Pinball says it later shipped the prototype to Pedretti’s facility in Bagnatica, Italy, and traveled there in person to help finalize the machine using version 2 PCBs.
During that process, Team Pinball says Pedretti updated several physical elements of the machine. Those changes reportedly included cabinet work and replacing a blank whitewood playfield with the final printed version, which Team Pinball says had been designed in collaboration with Williams back in 2022.
According to Team Pinball, the game was close to completion at that point. The major work remaining was software polish and final adjustment.
Then communication reportedly slowed or stopped. Team Pinball says it initially assumed the delay was connected to Pedretti’s production work on Predator. Later, the company says it was told the Big Bang Bar remake would be postponed to 2026, which it accepted.
The project, at least from Team Pinball’s perspective, was delayed but not dead.
The Dispute Over Returning the Prototype
The central dispute is ownership of the prototype.
Team Pinball says it asked Pedretti to return the prototype so it could continue polishing and finalizing the software. According to Team Pinball, the intention was to send the machine back to Pedretti afterward, consistent with what it saw as normal working cooperation.
Team Pinball says Pedretti refused.
The company claims Pedretti first said the prototype could be returned if Team Pinball paid for cabinet swaps, playfield changes, and other development modifications. Team Pinball says it was disappointed by that request but willing to pay, because the request seemed to acknowledge that the prototype still belonged to Team Pinball.
Then, after another period of silence, Team Pinball says it was ultimately told the prototype would not be returned because Pedretti considered it Pedretti property.
That is the core accusation. Team Pinball says it bought the prototype, developed it further, sent it to Pedretti for manufacturing preparation, and then could not get it back.
The Claimed Financial Loss
Team Pinball estimates its loss at roughly €90,000.
That figure reportedly includes the purchased prototype, custom electronics, colored DMD frames, PCB development, and years of software development.
The company also says it has agreements, screenshots, photographs, and development records supporting its account. Team Pinball stated that it does not currently plan to pursue expensive legal action, but wanted the pinball community to understand why it is no longer involved in the Big Bang Bar remake or other Pedretti-branded projects.
That last part matters. This is not only about one machine. Team Pinball’s statement also raises broader questions about supplier relationships, prototype ownership, royalties, and trust in the boutique pinball remake market.
Why This Matters for Pedretti
The timing is not ideal for Pedretti Gaming.
Pedretti has been building its name in the remake space through projects like Funhouse Remake and Whirlwind: Total Chaos. It is also tied to the newly announced Tales of the Arabian Nights remake, another high-profile title with a lot of collector interest.
That puts the company in a sensitive position. Remakes depend heavily on trust. Buyers are often asked to pay deposits or make purchase decisions before many machines are in the wild. Partners need to trust that development work, hardware files, prototypes, and royalty agreements will be handled cleanly.
A public dispute over a rare prototype is exactly the sort of thing that makes collectors start reading preorder terms with both eyes open. Horrifying behavior, really.
To be clear, Team Pinball’s claims are one side of the story. Without a full public response from Pedretti or legal findings, the allegations should not be treated as proven fact. But they are serious claims, and they come from a company that says it worked closely with Pedretti for years.
What Happens to Big Bang Bar Now?
The future of the Big Bang Bar remake appears uncertain.
Team Pinball says Pedretti indicated at one point that it had decided not to manufacture the game. If true, that would leave the project stalled, at least in the version Team Pinball described.
Meanwhile, rumors and collector interest around Big Bang Bar are unlikely to disappear. The title is too rare, too famous, and too financially tempting for the conversation to simply end. In pinball, no game is truly dead if there are collectors, rights questions, and enough people willing to put deposits on things they have not played yet.
Still, Team Pinball’s statement adds a major complication. If the software and electronics team behind the prototype is no longer involved, and if the prototype itself is disputed, any future remake would raise obvious questions about design continuity, code ownership, hardware ownership, and whether the finished product would reflect the work already completed.
A Dispute Bigger Than One Game
The Team Pinball and Pedretti dispute is about Big Bang Bar, but the implications are broader.
Modern pinball is increasingly built on partnerships. One company may own rights, another may manufacture, another may code, another may design boards, and another may provide parts, art, animation, or support. That can work beautifully when everyone is aligned. It can also become a spectacular paperwork bonfire when expectations are not written, understood, and enforced.
For collectors, the story is a reminder that boutique pinball projects are not only about themes and toys. They are also about trust, ownership, contracts, timelines, and support.
For Pedretti, the dispute arrives at a moment when the company is trying to build confidence around high-profile remake projects. For Team Pinball, the statement appears to be an attempt to explain why a long-running collaboration ended and why its involvement with Big Bang Bar is no longer continuing.
For everyone watching from the outside, the lesson is simple enough: rare pinball machines were already complicated before the remake era decided to add international development disputes to the ruleset.
And somehow, that still feels very on-brand for Big Bang Bar.