Pinball

Pinside rating

This game has received 8 approved Pinsider ratings. 42 more approved ratings are needed to get a rating and for it to be eligible for the Pinside Pinball Top 100 ranking.


Pinside staff rating

None of the Pinside.com staff have rated this game. Sorry, no rating from us.

Your Rating?

You need to be logged in before you can rate pinball machines. No account yet? Registering only takes a sec!


Found 6 ratings (with comment) on this game

There are 6 ratings (that include a comment) on this game.
Currently showing results page 1 of 1.

List options






7.193/10
1 year ago
Just picked this up about a month ago and it is my first. Fun but challenging pin. Lots of side to side action and hungry outlanes as noted. I like early Stern and Bally SS games and I enjoy this one. Will help train my accuracy. I have it set to 5 balls, as the games are quick. On location I could see average players being annoyed at the fast games, but at home I find it fun to keep trying away at it.
9.880/10
1 year ago
Pinball by Stern. There’s no reason for confusion! If you want to avoid all the pinball pinball puns, just call it Pinball by Stern. That’s what it says on the backglass after all.
So… Nobody has rated or reviewed this game in five years, and then not that many in total have ever rated or reviewed it. Kind of sad it’s forgotten.
By way of comparison, there are only two copies of “The Pinball Circus”, with only one in the world available to play, and yet it’s got numerous great reviews! Just goes to show you, how an unproduced machine with many huge news stories can make a game famous and how everyone seems to have gone to play it. Then again, people are liars.
Back to Pinball by Stern.
I bought one recently, in Charlie Brown Christmas tree condition and Linus was right, all it needed was a little love, and $60 in parts. I’d like to go into more detail but that’s a pinball story and not a review.
Gameplay:
Deceptively easy looking, incredibly difficult if going for all the scoring opportunities, and can be a high scoring or low scoring game, all depending on your plunge of the ball and your skill with aiming the shots.
There are leaf switches hidden behind every rubber ring, except the five separate drop targets. These switches change all the scoring and bonus values with every touch, and they get touched a lot! Two, just above the slingshots on opposite sides of the playfield change the values multiple times with each hit, which is insane. All these switches also cause the playfield target and pop bumper lighting to go into strobe effect! NICE!
The pop bumpers kick the ball like mad and the slingshots can hit the ball all the way up the playfield on occasion! Slow the game down by catching the ball and you can get some skill shots in, but once any coil touches the ball, it’s rocketing everywhere again.
Yes, this is Stern Electronics first solid state machine, with Pinball (EM) being their first all original game.
Stern’s first games, Rawhide and Stampede, were initially released by Chicago Coin (CDI) before the bankruptcy buyout by Sam and Gary Stern. The third game, Disco, was designed under CDI ownership but not yet released.
Pinball (EM) was released, and then Pinball (SS), and finally Stingray. The next game would be their first big seller, “Stars”.
Pinball by Stern is rarely seen in the wild or otherwise. With a little over 1600 units made, it was probably even a rare sight to see in 1977.
History lesson over, it’s time for the sound and artwork:
Four chimes attached to a hollow wood box! If clean, adjusted, and tuned just right, they are awesome. They make Williams’ dings seem blah and Bally’s four piece chimes are really close, but a bit weaker with their plastic box. A good set of Stern chimes can almost put 1970’s Gottlieb with its amazing three chimes to shame… almost!
Artwork:
Ever imagine a giant pinball rolling down the street at you, taking out buildings and crushing everything in its path?
Someone at Advertising Posters Inc. did. And they made it disturbing and funny. CDI (Chicago Dynamic Industries) thought it was good too and circa 1974 or 75 commissioned this concept to appear on their Chicago Coin promotional posters. After the buyout, someone at Stern (possibly Sam) saw this old poster and said, “That would be a great theme for a Pinball machine!”
And it was!!!
Funny enough the playfield expands further on it, in top down view.
There were few made, and fewer that have survived. My Pinball was a rescue of a game nobody else wanted which is a shame. Then again, if I hadn’t been walking around saying “Good Grief” all the time and talking to my beagle, I would have missed out as well.
And now it’s one of my favorite games ever.
A true hidden gem.
8.556/10
7 years ago
Sound - Chimes! Four of them! Even the spinner has its own chime, which is so rewarding to hear when you are ripping it! The short song that plays at the beginning of a game really sets the tone. You are about to lose a bunch of quarters and it's going to happen very quickly!

Artwork - The retro 1940's cartoon theme is great - a giant invading pinball is steamrolling the city streets. Cars are racing away, people are diving into manholes and even the buildings are bending to get out of the way! Artwork on backglass is really well-coordinated with the artwork on both the playfield and cabinet stencils.

Lighting - Backglass lighting really compliments the artwork. Love the individually lit windows, the lit headlights on the 1940's automobile, and the glowing title of the machine emblazoned on the giant Pinball.

Gameplay - This game plays surprisingly fast, with lots of random ball movement. Expect lots of side-to-side motion of the ball, a formidable challenge when trying to avoid those nasty, hungry outlanes. Be warned, the middle pop bumper is completely unobstructed and can easily fire the ball straight down the middle! Ball times are very short, perfect for a home-use multi-player machine (no time for boredom to set in).

Strategy (Replay vs. Points) - If you are trying to get a replay, knock down all five drop targets (twice) to light the Special. To get the Special, you must sacrifice your ball in the lit Outlane.
If you are playing for points, use the lit rollovers to max the bonus to 100,000 while simultaneously trying to light the triple bonus.

Final comments - For Stern's very first attempt at a Solid State machine, they did a great job. It's a family-friendly theme with great EM sound, and is so much fun. Getting the Special is such an addictive, "I just won the lottery!" experience. I can't walk away, just one more game!
7.793/10
10 years ago
Pinball is the first game from Stern v.1 and the vastly underappreciated Mike Kubin.

The Pros:
A solid layout and chimes give this game a SS ruleset with an EM feel. I don't know what it is, but Stern did this combination better than anyone else (even Gottlieb!). Solid shots with a simple layout mean that the ball has to be controlled and aimed well. Light that spinner and rip that joker up! Evil outlanes gobble up out of control balls, soooo gits it right.

The Cons:
Is it just me, or does the saucer alley on the right seem to be a gaping maw of easy? That and the seemingly random awards from the saucer mean that you are shooting this thing all the time (even when you don't want or need to). EM Williams drop targets make me sad. The art package is OK, but not more for me. SS pax with an EM ruleset. Not interesting enough for me.

The Takeaway:
A good start from Stern and a solid introductory player. Find one if you can and play a game or three.

Update:
Different switches cycle the award on the upper right saucer. Makes this game rather random. The angles on this game keep the ball moving from side to side towards those hungry outlanes. Mike Kubin's first game is a simple and effective pinball design. Still lots of fun to shoot and if you are looking for a challenge in a quick game, this design will make you smile!
8.913/10
10 years ago
Great classic Stern. Love the art on the backglass and the theme couldnt be better! A great SS with chimes. I would totally own another one if givin a chance. If you find a EM version pick it up as there was only about 500 made. A great classic starter pin. If you find one play it.
7.433/10
11 years ago
Give it up for Stern's first SS Machine!
There are 6 ratings (that include a comment) on this game. Currently showing results page 1 of 1.

You too can add your own comment by rating this game! Click here to rate this game!

Over the years

Visualizing this game's rating and rank over the years

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/pinball/ratings and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.