Quoted from pinnyheadhead:Hey if you don’t like MUN that is ok. But stop with the Stern is making JJP and Spooky lower their quality, code and what they want to do. It is just a built in excuse for failure for them. They are kind of doing it on their own which sucks IMHO. I find no joy in saying that like folks seem to find joy in saying Stern sucks.
More on the other companies you mention - man I think that Spooky games just aren’t fun. I like fast, exciting, fun pinball with great themes!! AMH, RZ, and AC fall into those categories? AC is getting better recently, but I wouldn’t say it is great by any means. And I remember when folks were paying $1000+ Over retail for RZ when a game was about to be delivered. Ouch! So how much are Spooky games now? $7000ish with shipping or something? If you or someone else don’t like MUN one could go out and get other Sterns like SW, DP, IMDN, ST, or BM Premium models or get now or .........AC.......months from now?? What’s would you pick? What would others pick?
Put any of those stern games on location and they kill. AC, RZ or AMH on location? Eh not so sure that is a good idea?? That would only work with a certain operator from WI who says he doesn’t do location for the money anyway?? And Charlie - get the friggin games out the door! I was at TPF when he announced AC. TPF 2018. Are they all delivered yet? Having a game come out over a year later will have folks forget and not care about it, not because of pinball ADD either. I had friends sell their AC deposits at a loss. That’s not good. I am only here on this earth like 80 years or so , a year and a half of my life is a long time especially to wait for a toy.
And I just don’t really dig JJP games either and really don’t like their pricing. Again - I like fast, exciting, fun pinball with great themes! JJP has Woz, Hobbit, DI and now Wonka. Any of those work for me? DI is ok, but the theme? Uggggggh! LE’s are low $7k’s now, way off their $9k pricing though. That is a big hit to take to make a statement that you are supporting a company that loves and cares about pinball. The pricing got lowered to $7500 for Wonka, but they have not got it out the door yet. Hope Wonka would be good for me though. $7600 is up there but better. JJP was at $8500-$12500 with POTC compared to sterns $5600-$8800. JJP better have a lot more toys, switches and stuff on the PF for that much more on their pricing. Stern are a lot of bank for me, but JJP game prices?! I ain’t paying $9500 for a pinball game. I can afford it also. But they really fall short on the things I look for in pinball. And Let’s put woz on location - well if you think that will make more money and have less problems than a DP pro be my guest. And WOZ YBR is now $11500 with no monkey. Woz better have good code. Like perfect! And yeah, Jack - games out the door! Don’t announce, take a year to start games out the door and then a few months after announce the next game. You are killing your business!
I did mention a lot about location play - I would love to see how the quality of JJp or Spooky lasts at a barcade. I have seen play counts of sterns not just on PS, like that ST, but from a real operator and they hold up well. Wonder how JJP or spooky would do? For me - Location play is a true test of quality and durability, not sitting in someone’s basement getting hundreds of plays here and there. Stern, love them or hate them, does well in the on location department and brings money for operators and pinball to the people.
Oh Stern has show specials also. Can’t afford $5600? Buy a demo one at $5000 through Marco. CGC is doing some of this also. I applaud them for that.
And code? Well if it is not deep enough then folks should go ahead and beat the low code game then. I have had folks tell me Iron Man has shallow code. Yes true. I asked them if they beat Jericho. Only like 1-2 did. And One person replied “what’s Jericho”. Likely they are not playing pinball and typing too much “lack of code” comments on Pinside or they are in the basement working countless hours fixing an older game they own from back in the day, from a time when games were built with super quality and like tanks.
To each there own though and folks can like what they like and that is fine. Sorry MUN isn’t what you wanted. I say that in a not snarky way. Like I know SW was tough for folks since the movie line is “their thing” going back 40 years of their life. I wanted SW to be like...........!! Stern messed it up! I say that even though I own and like SW. I understand. I get it. We want things to be “our way” in pinball and may have money in hand, but we really just get what a company and their employees deliver. The stakes go up as prices go up also. I could buy and try a game five years ago for $4500. What has happened to pricing?! We wish MUN is like more IMDN or TWD or TZ even but all we got was this MUN. Not for everyone like every pinball that comes out. I like it though.
And sounds like I rant but I respect your opinion. Stern needs to improve and other companies need improvement also.
If i wrote a post like this i think it would be word for word exactly what you just said. You are absolutely spot on dude. There's not one thing that you wrote in there that i disagree with. Well done Sir!