With complete respect to Stern and code programmers no matter how many others may be hired, I have one single word:

"Slow"

Many games less than 6 months off the assembly line since 2000 before "vaulted" had very minor improvements, if at all.

The machines that received "love" were the ones that the community or operators backlashed.

There needs to be more quality control regarding features and function of code, even if 3-4 machines are running on the assembly line.

Stern's game needs to "stepped up" fast or they have the potential of losing a vast amount of their market. It has been in degradation.

I will give an example personally. I was not going to consider purchasing a MET Premium, because I had to wait two years for the code to get ironed out.
This is unacceptable.

Stern it is your move.
"Walk the walk, with talk the talk"

What if I have a Wurlitzer 1015 or original Bally EM slot machines?
Am I still reliving my youth?
These actually were before my time.

I collect to save part of coin operated history.
Not much else.
I love to see children's and even adult's faces on things that have never seen.

How do you know I do not have a MET Premium sitting NIB unopened in my home right now?

How do you know what other Stern's I may or may not have owned, played, or tested in my lifetime?

There are quite a few assumptions here.

I guess I remain an "uninformed collector", know nothing about the operator world, and have a biased opinion of Stern operations.

Guys, seriously, I am just calling the situation what it is now, not ranting or complaining. I base my opinion on first hand interactions like this one and personal reviews of individual titles.

I am not a B/W fanboy, nor against Stern, they just need to tighten the screws. They are being sloppy. Williams had the same problems and got chastised by operators before correction, several times...

If a person underestimates the concern of game code as "not important", the are making a huge mistake. Sometimes this can make or BREAK a title in success. It can even turn a sleeper into a hot hit with skill.

It is not a subjective "opinion" to note that if a individual collector shells out $7k for a toy whose basic functions and features do not work right out of the box, the game resets due to dead end code, or the game gets confused because it does not know it is supposed to do, equivalent to a lost ball search. Something is seriously wrong.
Nor should it be accepted by an operator who loses money and cannot begin to recoup his investment because the game will not work properly on a route and has to be constant maintenance checked every 12 hours.
Would a person buy a brand new motorcycle in which the engine does not run?

There is no excuse of corner cutting here.

People applaud programmers like Keith Johnson and Lyman Sheats for a reason.

If Stern does not care how many Metallicas that have sold, then the situation is even more screwed up than I noted. Metallica was one one of their more successful titles, with higher productions than MANY machines. Not evaluating what they are doing improperly alienates markets, loses customer confidence, and ultimately causes financial failure.

Once again it's Stern's move.
I hope they pay attention again to history.
They have been here before.

There are over 20 titles that "need the love" before Iron Man.
There are all sorts of nuances all the way back to Austin Powers.
Unfortunately, it is more likely that an individual enthusiast will personally do the work one day.

Did you know that only in Western culture "concerns" or expressing ones opinions are generally labeled as "bad" requiring some type of constant "apology"?
(Not considering places like North Korea which is not a full West culture anyway)

You cannot improve something you do not know exists.
Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to business models.
It's an ostrich sticking its head in the stand, if ignored.

Many of the improvements that have occurred in sequential release runs of Stern titles were a result of people speaking up with good ideas, explaining a problem, and doing something.

That's what I did for LOTR before I had to take a raincheck on pinball to complete career responsibilities.

I guess that occasionally applies here in these forums under some circumstances.
Let's all talk about the latest and greatest LED mod instead.
(Face palm)

I am going to cross check...
Either way, good one.

I was not the only one by any means, just one of several working with Stern, after I made some observations and reported them.
They just pinged me back and said, would you mind helping use some more you seem knowledgeable?
I said no problem, as I WANT people to get what they pay for (I have said this somewhere...).

Things continue to be taken out of context.
I remain committed when time avails to diagnose issues that cause significant challenges in game shot flow, mechanics, or gameplay.
I speak up, clearly enunciated the problem, and use technical definitions when possible for manufacturing and design.
I am not a code person, but I know when things are not right, especially if it does not follow the ruleset or game mode intent.
A good example was Roadshow that was a mess out of the gate in 1994.
Yes, Bally/Williams made mistakes too.

This counterpost is once again an example of some type of general angst to turn this forum into a bar room brawl.
I do not understand why, except to generate false drama.
If you ever decide to meet me in person, you might have a different opinion.

"Dance with the devil, at your risk, in the PinSide Zone".

P.S. I look forward to finally having the time to open my box.
I would like to do it right this time, and appreciate the moment, not like setting up a machine on a route.
It has been a LONG time since I decided to buy new machine.
I do wish I had been more aggressive back in the early 90s with purchases now.

It's the time required to require, evaluate, recode, test and release.
Recode and test is the consuming part if the same coder wrote the original release.
It is not written from the ground up its augmented and merged most of the time. Sometimes Stern has too go back to the designer to figure out the original intent as a pinball machine is a team effort. Even the best coders need guidance, instead of just creativity. The problem becomes time priorities on construction, because by that time the machine has already "moved on". Special editions of titles or additional production runs sometimes warrant improvements. The more popular a machine the better the chance it might get fixed.
If a trademark license deal lapses, there lies a major issue, people get sensitive to that kind of stuff...
If it a brand new feature ("call" or "callout"), more potential issues, but sometimes the proprietary does not care.
But, how does the new "call" integrate with other features? Does it balance the game? Does it work properly? More testing and integration...
We are not generally talking about scoring here exclusively, but hard coded "modes".
Simpsons Pinball Party based on code revisions when Stern got going were pretty aggressive, but they did it before the license elapse.
Just an example.

The only other way is "community or operator uproar", which clearly here is frowned upon as "Western Culture Whining".
"Stinkers" do not get fixed, although sometimes a code overhaul could drastically improve matters.

There are no major limitations on modern memory of "EPROM game code equivalent use" (The intent is not to get technical here, that could be explained in other postings) that is used by Stern now unlike the late model BLY/WMS era.
Hell, you could "bluetooth" pinball machines with wireless updated code if it was implemented now, completely feasible, but adds to cost.
Imagine a little wireless antenna sticking out the back of a pinball machine...
Road Show is a good example of a machine that maxed out the available space in game code memory of its day, today it would not be a problem.

"He Rides Again"!

Get your Official BK2K T-shirt!
$14.95
Call 1-800-347-5300
Sizes S-M-L-XL

"Give me your MONEY"!

You need some source code to start with.

Bingo!

They are not "off kilter" completely.
The process must revert back to their time commitment for code of what they did in games such as TSPP and LOTR for example.
They pushed pretty hard to fix the problems based on operator feedback, and limited numbers of collectors who bought the games NIB.
NIB box sales for private collectors for both titles was much less than today (not considering the re-runs).

Stern continues to rush code out the door at times, and not always even fully play rest games on location, and let designers take notes.
It is just not happening anymore.
Two weeks is not enough time on location, and you cannot just do it on the factory floor with people that are familiar or designed the game.
That is not a proper evaluation.
It's hard to be objective.
They even used to "call in" good players and announce, "hey we are putting a sample game at X location, would you come by and play it and give us feedback"?

When the code is weak, you cannot "blow it off" and say that day "we will fix it later".
BLY/WMS got into trouble doing that too, especially during the final years starting in 1995.

The short answer is going to be if the game is more than a year old, drumroll....hold onto your butts...

Wait for it...

NO.

They are focusing on the grand future!
Not the past errors...

Generally, I feel fortunate of they do a rerun, because it leads to potential opportunity to have code improved.
Otherwise, it is like pissing in your own pants expecting it to keep you warm in the long run.

Stern has additional opportunities to direct and improve their public relations, if they choose to do so. Home market is not the entirety of production anyway, but certainly approaching 40% or more these days. Seems a bit narrow minded.

Nearly everything on PinSide is misinterpreted.

I guess we can let distributors and operators do the the talking, they listen to them more closely based on sales and "experience".

I recently was explaining the value of the SAM remote controller system for puposes of technical work, not just for ease of use, and the value to adopt this same PCB card to SPIKE systems. They never even considered it for this purpose for some reason. They listened.

There has already been discussion based on concerns with GB and commitment to the development of a "polished" product. Two years is an awfully long wait to fix something after release, if it sometimes ever happens.

Not everyone...
Generally, the older the collector (not necessarily physical age), the more time is spent evaluating. It is not always about the money but the build quality and software revisions when it comes out of the gate from ANY manufacturer.
Risk in pinball collecting is like any other hobby. You figure out who you can trust.

Don't start smoking the Stern chronic too soon...it is dangerous for your wallet.

I can vouch the code is being worked from Stern direct. However, I will cannot vouch on the quality of the next release, how far they will go, or when they will decide to release the update. It keeps being side by sided by other game priorities.

However, code does not fix issues for assemblies or shot design.