FunHouse: Rudy's Nightmare (also known as FunHouse 2.0: Rudy's Nightmare) is an officially licensed Game Mod kit for the 1990 pinball table FunHouse, developed by the Italian company Pedretti Gaming. After being revealed
in late 2021, the majority of kits began shipping in 2022.
Rudy, the talking dummy from the original game, has been having bizarre nightmares. A twisted version of his fun house haunts his dreams, filled with all manner of strange things: villainous clones, unsafe rides, and living hot dogs itching for a fight are just a sample. At the heart of it all is Evil Rudy, a giant head that takes over Rudy's position on the playfield and may very well be a split personality of his.note Naturally, Rudy wants to wake up and get back to normal — and the only way to do so is to plunge into his nightmares and conquer them.
The game itself reuses the playfield from FunHouse but features entirely new rules that repurpose many of the original game's shots. The biggest are the addition of various modes representing Rudy's nightmares, which are accessed through the Mystery Mirror scoop and can be stacked. Getting through all of them lights the final Wizard Mode, named for its goal: to "Defeat Evil Rudy" once and for all.
The actual mods included with the kit include new artwork, an entirely new speaker panel (including an LCD screen to replace the original game's simpler sixteen-segment display), replacement CPU and sound boards, and an updated Mystery Mirror that contains a small display screen. All of these are designed to be removable should the owner want to revert the table back to its original state. In addition to the new rules, there's also an option to play the original FunHouse (with the game emulating the original software and sounds).
FunHouse: Rudy's Nightmare contains examples of:
- Action Commands: During "Haunted Roller Coaster," the flipper buttons correlate to different directions (the left button turns left, the right button turns right, and both at once make your ride vehicle jump). When one of three arrows correlating to these directions appears on the display, the player must hit the correct button(s) in increasingly short order to progress and earn more points.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Downplayed. While not every ride in the nightmare fun house qualifies for this trope, it still contains several dangers — a haunted roller coaster, a gang of evil clones, and a dunk tank that uses acid instead of water.
- Anthropomorphic Food: The mode "Hot Dog Combat" revolves around Rudy fighting an oversized hot dog with arms and legs.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: "Haunted Roller Coaster" requires the player to follow green-colored arrows on the display. Red-colored ones prematurely end the mode instead.
- Difficulty by Acceleration: "Haunted Roller Coaster" (a Video Mode which uses the flipper buttons for Action Commands) requires increasingly stringent reaction times as the player progresses.
- Dynamic Akimbo: Rudy, the game's protagonist, stands front and center on the backglass with his hands on his hips.
- Evil Doppelgänger: "The Evil Clones" unsurprisingly revolves around a group of malevolent Rudy copies who chase him throughout the fun house. The player must destroy each of them by making certain shots to finish the mode.
- Evil Laugh:
- Evil Rudy, the main antagonist, frequently laughs at the player when he appears on the display.
- A number of songs in the game's soundtrack that are associated with various evil characters contain sinister laughs. These include "The evil clones," "Want a balloon?," and "Melt the clown".note
- Evil Sounds Deep: Evil Rudy has a far deeper voice than his regular counterpart.
- Excuse Plot: The premise, as established by the manual, is very rudimentary — Rudy's having nightmares and needs to conquer them (as well as his own evil self) to wake up.
- Homage Shot: The mode "Don't You Want a Balloon?" opens with a scene lifted straight from It — a Monster Clown appearing inside a sidewalk sewer grate.
- Match Sequence: The game shows an animation of Rudy holding his stopwatch as one hand spins around rapidly, eventually stopping on the match number.
- Monster Clown: Implied with the clown that appears throughout the game, which is consistently treated as a threat. The beginning of "Don't You Want a Balloon?" positions it as Pennywise in a shot directly referencing It, while another mode tasks the player melting it in acid. Both modes use songs that repeatedly play Evil Laughs.
- Pie-Eyed: The living hot dog in "Hot Dog Combat" has pie-shaped eyes, tying into its overall design resembling an old cartoon character.
- Shout-Out: The logo for "Hot Dog Combat" uses a font that heavily resembles the one used for early Mortal Kombat games. Fittingly, the display animations for the mode emulate a 2D fighting game.
- Video Mode: "Haunted Roller Coaster" uses the display for a mini-game that relies on Action Commands. The player must move their coaster car in one of three directions by pressing one or both flipper buttons shortly after being prompted, or else the mode ends immediately.
- Wizard Mode: Finishing each of the primary modes lights "Defeat Evil Rudy," a three-ball multiball dedicated to doing just that. The display indicates which shot to make to progress, though shooting (Evil) Rudy in the mouth is always an alternative. If the player loses all but one ball, the mode becomes a Timed Mission that ends in failure if the player can't make the next shot before the clock hits zero.
