WIZARD WORLD AND THE MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION PARTNER TO HOST AN EBAY FOR CHARITY AUCTION WITH ONE-OF-A-KIND BACK TO THE FUTURE™
2-in-1 PINBALL AND ARCADE MACHINE ATWIZARD WORLD CHICAGO, AUGUST 18 – 21
The future is now! Custom made and autographed machine to be auctioned with all proceeds to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
LOS ANGELES, August 9, 2016 – Wizard World, Inc., (WIZD) the preeminent producer of Wizard World Comic Cons across North America, is partnering with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to auction off a custom-made and autographed Back to the Future™ 2-in-1 digital pinball and arcade machine, created by VPcabs. The machine will be donated by VPcabs and autographed by cast members Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. VPcabs will be debuting the 2-in-1 digital pinball and arcade machine, along with its digital pinball machine (pictured above left), at Wizard World Chicago, August 18 – 21.
eBay for Charity will begin the auction for the custom-made and autographed 2-in-1 digital pinball and arcade machine on Saturday, August 20 with 100% of proceeds going to the MJFF. Both the Back to the Future digital pinball machine and the 2-in-1 digital pinball and arcade machine were developed by VPcabs via a licensing agreement with the NBCUniversal Brand Development Group.
“We are continuously grateful for every unique partnership that helps speed a cure for the estimated five million people worldwide who live with Parkinson’s disease,” says Debi Brooks, Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, The Michael J. Fox Foundation. “By connecting Back to the Future fans to our community, we do more to speed research toward a cure and move closer to a future without Parkinson’s.”
The custom-made and autographed Back to the Future 2-in-1 digital pinball and arcade machine features:
- Original Back to the Future artwork, custom designed to make this machine one-of-a-kind
- Laser engraved plate autographed by the 3 cast members
- Limited edition 1 of 1
- LED buttons, Joystick and trackball
- Orange Electroluminescent molding
- Wizard World Logo on the front of the machine
“We are honored to partner with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and help raise money for such an incredible cause,” says John Maatta, Wizard World President & CEO. “We are also excited to share this unique experience with our fans in Chicago.”
The auction will begin at 11am PST on Saturday, August 20 at this link: http://www.ebay.com/rpp/bttf
Wizard World Chicago
Located at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, Back to the Future stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson will join previously announced guests including Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Carrie Fisher (Star Wars), David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), the cast of Netflix’s “Marvel’s Daredevil” including Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/The Punisher), Elodie Yung (Elektra Natchios), and Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple), and more.
To purchase Admissions and VIP Admissions for the event, set for August 18-21, and to view the schedule, location, show hours, hotel & travel info, please visit: http://wizardworld.com/comiccon/chicago
About The Michael J. Fox Foundation
As the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson’s disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition today. The Foundation pursues its goals through an aggressively funded, highly targeted research program coupled with active global engagement of scientists, Parkinson’s patients, business leaders, clinical trial participants, donors and volunteers. In addition to funding more than $600 million in research to date, the Foundation has fundamentally altered the trajectory of progress toward a cure. Operating at the hub of worldwide Parkinson’s research, the Foundation forges groundbreaking collaborations with industry leaders, academic scientists and government research funders, increases the flow of participants into Parkinson’s disease clinical trials with its online tool, Fox Trial Finder, promotes Parkinson’s awareness through high-profile advocacy, events and outreach, and coordinates the grassroots involvement of thousands of Team Fox members around the world. https://www.michaeljfox.org/
About Wizard World, Inc. (OTCBB: WIZD)
Wizard World, Inc. produces comic, gaming and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate the best in pop-fi, pop culture, movies, television, cosplay, comics, graphic novels, toys, video gaming, sci-fi, gaming, original art, collectibles, contests and more. A first-class lineup of topical programming takes place at each event, with celebrity Q&A’s, comics-themed sessions, costume contests, movie screenings, evening parties and more. Wizard World has also launched the Wizard World Store, CONtv, a digital media channel in partnership with leading independent content distributor Cinedigm™ (NASDAQ: CIDM), and ComicConBox™, a premium subscription-based monthly box service. Fans can interact with Wizard World on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and other social media services.
Wizard World 2016 schedule available at: www.wizardworld.com/wizcon.html.
About VPcabs
VPcabs offers the most advanced pinball machines on the market today. With VPcabs you can play hundreds of pinball and arcade games on one amazing machine! Featuring the amazing Pinball FX2 games from Zen Studios. We have a dedicated manufacturing facility in Cincinnati Ohio. Unlike any other machines on the market, we stand alone in quality of construction and have the best customer service in the industry. https://virtualpinball.com/
About eBay for Charity
eBay for Charity is a platform that enables members of the eBay community to donate to causes in the U.S. and abroad. Sellers can donate anywhere between 10-100 percent of the proceeds and buyers can add a donation to their purchase during checkout. To date, more than $650 million dollars have been raised on eBay for Charity. For more information, visit www.ebay.com/charity.
About the Back to the Future™ Franchise
From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future is the original, groundbreaking adventure that sparked one of the most successful trilogies ever! Starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, the phenomenally popular Back to the Future films literally changed the future of the adventure movie genre. Powered by innovative special effects, unforgettable songs and non-stop action, Back to the Future is an unrivaled adventure that stands the test of time. Back to the Future immerses you in all the breathtaking action, groundbreaking comedy and sheer movie-making magic of one of the most brilliantly inventive, wildly entertaining motion picture triumphs in Hollywood history! http://www.backtothefuture.com/
About NBCUniversal Brand Development
NBCUniversal Brand Development drives expansion of the company’s intellectual properties, franchises, characters and stories through innovative products, kids and family content, and experiences globally. Along with franchise brand management, NBCUniversal Brand Development includes three lines of business: NBCUniversal Consumer Products, Universal Kids & Family TV Productions, and NBCUniversal Games and Digital Products. NBCUniversal Brand Development is a business segment of Universal Filmed Entertainment, and part of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA).
This game takes place at a point in time where the name Batman is known by both criminals and hunted by the police as a vigilante but he is still at the beginning of his time behind the cowl since not only is Gordon still a Lieutenant but one of Batman’s standard gadgets, a smokebomb, is described as still being in a trial phase when used to subdue the thugs. Problem is, the thugs weren’t the only ones after something precious being kept by the mayor as Catwoman, or as the game initially calls her, a cat woman, is after a digital device.
Batman: The Telltale Series does something few other games revolving around the character do by placing a heavy emphasis on the amount of time spent as Bruce compared to Batman. This is demonstrated by a pleasing sequence during the initial conflict with the armed robbers as the scenes shift from the action back to Bruce recovering from his latest outing while talking, and being treated by, Alfred. This is also reflected well in how Bruce feels more at home in his bat cave, where he is in control, than anywhere else as those around him vie for his attention and power.
Choices made by the player so far are rather interesting and smaller in scope for the moment as players can either choose to attempt to placate a mob boss, be extremely aggressive as Batman, and even select between who to trust with vital information but for now these various choices don’t seem to play a major role in how things unfold in this first episode. This means that Realm of Shadows serves as something of a building block for everything that is to come and thankfully it manages to pull it off extremely well by introducing a number of characters that will play a major role in the future, be it friend or foe, and an intriguing storyline that fans will want to keep an eye on.
The exploration sequences also seem to have a bit more heft this time around as Batman, at least in this first episode, is able to examine the scene of a crime and can link together various pieces of evidence in order to piece together roughly what happened. This puzzle element is extremely small but it is a nice touch considering many would be hoping for some detective sequences here.
As for the voice work this title sports quite a few familiar names who come to work well with the cast of the game, including Troy Baker as the voice of Batman himself and a few other actors that certainly live up to the reputation of the characters they are portraying. It is worth noting that the game does explain that the batsuit features a voice modulator to lower the sound of Bruce’s voice but I found it to be rather iffy sounding in more than a few situations.
After being informed that Vault 88 was as far from finished as vaults come, with only the entrance area fully functioning in an effort to put up a front for investors, players must use the Workshop mode to clear out rubble, remove various debris, and activate the rest of the wings of the Vault that stretch all the way into a subway system and even a shop, making it hardly the safest and secure place one would expect.
These variables are chosen before every test and range from simply providing a better taste to a fountain drink machine to completely suppressing the drinker’s appetite and even going so far to draw images out of a dweller’s brain using an eye exam machine or simply generating a pleasant aroma from a workout bike. Depending on what players choose from with these variables the Overseer will either be happy or so angry she will leave the vault entirely thanks to the results and put the player in charge of what she deems a failure and letting players proceed to simply treat the giant area as any other settlement.
It is unfortunate to say that this also means that the game’s incredibly faulty snap building mode plays a big role in how much you’ll enjoy actually crafting rooms and hallways for your settlers to travel through since it continues to rely on how iffy the system is, often refusing to place pieces how you wish to or simply not being able to put them down altogether thanks to unseen obstacles. One major addition, at least for gamers on consoles such as myself, is the Vault-Tec population control terminal that allows players to create little quests through the VIP tracker to show exactly where your companions are, meaning if you managed to send someone off to an unknown settlement and lost them, they can be easily found now.
