Great time for us all to enjoy pinball. I remember 1994 when pinball was slowing down and machines were not selling. If forced BW to make some of the greatest games ever and most of them did not sell well. Time will tell.

My Aerosmith reset again last night.

This time it was not during multiball...

Nope, all I did was hit the CIU to add time to a mode right when it ended & the end mode score animation was generating.

The game got confused & shut right the fuck down.

Thats at least 2 shut downs in apx 585 ish games. Maybe more, not sure if it's happened to unattended guests.

Figured I'd go play TWD instead but that thing can reset during Horde if stacked w/madness too so I went to my Golden Tee.

My TSPP, FGY & LOTR never reset. Only new Stern games.

I had my own "Dark Night for Stern" last Saturday.

I own quite a few of their pins, LOVE them to Death and they will never leave my house. But what I saw and played on Saturday will never get into my house. I had skipped on the last 3 Stern titles already due to their current poor build quality and seeing this broke my heart.

Dimples like I have never seen on a new title and of course, ghosting.
And it was obvious that all money went into buying the license, not the BOM.

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Cheap will catch up. Too many issues and too many alternatives these days. I know there is not an alternative for Stern’s pro model yet from a selling price standpoint. Really is that such a great value when hearing all of the issues and seeing pictures like the 1 above? Better off buying HUO games and saving a little more to buy from another company.

I've never seen dimpling like that. I own an SWLE and the CC looks awesome (thought I have less than 100 plays on mine). The build quality on the LE is as good as any Stern I've purchased in the past 5 years.

I understand the knee jerk reaction regarding the BOM, however the hyperdrive and LCD are expensive PF "toys". The hyperdrive is amazing. I just had a great game and Tie Fighter MB is awesome. The images and original sound track are also incredible. Call outs are sparse, but I'm told that's going to improve.

If my PF ends up looking like your photo, it will suck.

snaroff

What is madness? I've owned two TWD's and never had a reset.

I've also never had Stern reset problems. If Spike machines are still using cheap power supplies OEM's in China, then maybe some power supplies are flaky? Who knows.

snaroff

You may ended up with a great quality pin and have nothing to worry about. Yours has no ghosting and no dimples? Well, neither does my GBPrem - whilst the GBLE here in town has terrible ghosting. It almost seems like there are two sources for playfields that Stern uses. One has great quality, the quality we all love and expect, and the other is cheap as crap.

Was the PF you posted from a "Pro"? Curious.

snaroff

Just an FYI, people seemed to think I was making it up that Stern weren't selling very well in some overseas markets.

Well, GotG is ~€570 cheaper for a Pro in Germany, than Aerosmith / SW. Over €700 cheaper at Premium / LE level than BM'66 / SW / Aerosmith.

There has been no major shift in exchange rate since SW / Aerosmith, and if anything the machine probably has slightly higher bill of materials. Contrast this with the continual slight price increases in the US.

Mark up is still huge in EU markets, but this is a major price cut, and would not have happened if Spike 2 machines were selling well.

FYI, the German market for Sterns is probably almost as big as the rest of Europe put together.

Yes, a Pro, sorry should have stated that, hence my comment on "low BOM" as well - I bet the Prem/LE kicks much more ass

That should buff right out.

I didn't realize they used the melted vador mask from the new movie in the pro art

I assume that's on location? I'd say that stern should send them a new game but I'm guessing the next one would do the same thing. I recently got a SW premium from a show and it has a decent amount of dimples but nothing like that. Is it from the ball bouncing off the tiefighter?

No, you just keep playing it and the whole playfield will eventually be a solid dimple and you will never know

That's insane!!!! I wonder what caused that?

No, all of the playfield looked like that. Hard to get photos because of the glare, sorry. And yes, location game, they had it for around 2 weeks from what I was told.

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If that would be a Golf themed game I would call it a feature, on the other hand....

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Some of those larger craters look like the clear is actually rupturing slightly at the edge, the indent is so deep, as some of the early BM'66 pfs were.

Maybe someone accidently slipped in a balsa wood playfield by accident.

Mine was played none stop at a weekend show and then has been at my house for a week. It has some dimples but nothing that resembles that. That one has to have a playfield with crazy soft wood or a clear coat issue. It would be interesting to see what Vid, Neo, or Kruzman think happened.

Regarding nothing to compete with Stern Pro at least TNA is within $700 if a pro cost, and with topper, PF supports, upgraded side rails, full color LEDs.

I’m not saying the cost of PF supports $70, topper $xx and improved side rails $xxx would equal $700 but it’s conceivable if Spooky had stripped the game like Stern does with the pro that it could cost $5700 ish.

My TWD and GOT both looked really bad like that at first but believe it or not after nearly 2 thousand plays they are starting to look better. I have no idea if they will ever smooth out totally or not but it looks more of like a very fine orange peel right now instead of the craters that they used to have at first. It doesn't bother me as much as it did at first because it doesn't look nearly as bad now and appears to be heading in the right direction. Hopefully after about 25 thousand games it will be as smooth as glass.

Like somebody said earlier...Stern is now using balsa wood in their play fields....lowered their BOM significantly.....

That was always my favorite line of BS.

oh man, this thread makes me feel like a gawker at an accident - I can’t not look at the latest posts. Like any pinhead I’ve thought about buying an NIB Stern often, even ordered one once, but then backed out. Not being able to decide between pro and premium, no theme which really tickles my fancy, kind of light on toys and mechanical gadgets (at least the pro versions) have prevented it so far. But all these issues with playfields (in my view the pf is the crown jewel of a pin - how can you cut corners on that ?) and then these concerns about the long term viability of Spike...what’s a poor pinhead to do ?

If there is a corner which can be cut, Stern will find it.

They must be cutting corners on a selective basis then?

My ASLE PF is as good as any I've owned. My GBLE PF dimples a whole lot more, hard to tell if its like that SW pic above because sometimes it can look better or worse with pics versus in person. Especially when you put the magnifying glass to it.

Since Gary said they could "put a box of blinking lights on SW and sell........" maybe they are using the older crap PF's for some of that SW run?

This can happen in older homes it happened to me till electric company put new line from poll to the house

Maybe, but still disconcerting.

I walked up to it and almost fell over - in person it looked worse than what the photos indicate.
The photos were taken from the very perspective of the player - this is what you see.

And I counted 3 ghosted inserts.

Where are all the dimpling is normal and that will smooth right out over time? That playfield should be replaced. No one would call that normal that actually owned a pin that look like that. I wonder what will happen long term I think it will completely break down.

I wonder if Stern would replace that playfield? I've only got anecdotal evidence as well, but the two SW Pros on route near me look nowhere near that bad after 5 months of play. Still plenty of noticeable dimpling, but nowhere near that bad. My SW Premium at home has far less dimpling, but also far less plays so probably not a good comparison to route machines.

Sounds like a positive development for the European market (and for Stern). From what you posted earlier about Stern's European pricing, it sounds like they were way out of step with JJP and CGC.

This is the "cratering" I've been talking about. This is not normal dimpling that will smooth out. A playfield that looks like this will always look like this. From what I've heard, Stern is using different playfield suppliers....so, you got lucky and got a good one on your SWLE. It's a crapshoot when you buy NIB if you're gonna get a crater playfield or a normal one. I've seen lots of SW's on location - some are smooth and nice, some are lumpy. They're not equal, and don't let the "it'll smooth out crowd" tell you it's no big deal.

That destroy the Death Star picture hurts to look at.

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I played a SW pro on route over the weekend, and took a good look at the playfield. There were no craters to speak of, but there was no gloss at all either. It was dirty, but I wouldn’t expect the colors to look so “flat”, ever. Has anyone seen any recent Sterns do this?

Artwork is very uninspired. Too bad.

Game played OK - it’s fast alright - but I’d need way more time on it to determine what I think. I didn’t have that “one more play” feeling, like I do when playing most new machines. And like I do with AS for exampl.

I dig AS, but man that thing feels rinky dink when you nudge it. As someone joked, I’d almost be tempted to put weights in the bottom to give it a more solid feel.

I have noticed this on my SW Pro as well...like a thin layer of 'dullness' for lack of a better term. Strange as my GOT & GB were both shiny

Yeah, the one I saw was just odd. Like someone printed the art from their home printer and pasted it on the playfield. Most Sterns have nice, glossy playfields.

Will yours shine up with a little Novus and wax?

Darth needs some Clearasil

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I waxed it fresh out of the box, and waxed it again later.
Probably used Novus 1 but not 2.

I've seen two different TWD's reset within 24 hours

25+ miles apart

The next day I spoke w/the operator (a fella who visits here) & the dude said Stern is aware of the issue.

I'm glad you & others have yet to experience a modern Stern reset

So count your blessings... There's a reason you read about Stern power resets on Pinside. Because they happen.

So much for all the people who clam dimples will blend in over time. There is no way to ever make that blend. More garbage wood from Stern.

First of all that camera is magnifying those dimples and making them look a little worse than what they actually are, and that playfield will in fact look better the more it is played. I know this because my TWD and GOT both looked really bad like that and now they have around 1700 plays on them and they look pretty damn good. I don’t know if they will ever smooth out totally or not but I have a feeling that they might eventually down the road. Even if they don’t it’s not a big deal because my playfields look gorgeous right now the way that they are. When the playfields are new they look really bad for awhile I will admit but they absolutely start looking better with a bunch of plays on them.

I agree. I have never had a ball deviate from divots, but have had them deviate with Mylar I have placed to protect certain areas of the playfield. Divots are so over rated. Get over it!

That camera makes it look worse than it really is, and I’m sure he worked hard at getting that perfect angle in the perfect light and just the right magnification etc. nice job though buddy!

Not true everytime I took a pic of the dimples all over the playfield the cam never picks up the true amount. Point is that wood on the specific game is garbage and cutting costs.

Darth Vader's face in the picture above would look terrible no matter the angle or light. Most peoples games are not looking like that at all. This guy just got a bad playfield, it's just that simple. I would not be satisfied with that level of quality if I had a game do that in 2 weeks and I would ask for a replacement.

Possibly true but I can tell you from experience that my TWD and GOT both looked really bad and they look 100% better now after 1600-1700 plays on them. Not sure if they were that bad or not but they had some massive crater like dimples in them. I do believe the camera makes it look a little worse because he is zoomed in big time when he took that picture.

I believe the guy said that in person it was worse than on the pictures.

He can say whatever he wants, doesn't make it true. Just believe whatever you want to believe I guess. My belief is the camera makes it look worse that what it really is and I also believe that it will get better the more that it's played. I believe that because I have personally experiencd what he is looking at with 2 of my games and they look good now. I'm not saying that is normal or ok or anything like that, just telling you what my experience was.