Not sure I understand what you are saying. Are you saying Kiss is a better built machine? If so I'd say they are built exactly the same probably. I don't think AS is cheap in quality at all. As far as artwork goes, AS is amazing and better than Kiss. Pretty sure that Aerosmith also has color changing LED's.

Might want to check out this thread; the little fire next to the topic means it's hot with lots of activity.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-aerosmith-pinball/page/41#post-3648700

I won't get to try it out for another week, but what I've seen in video and have heard from people I trust, it sounds like it's going to be a good bit of fun. I was worried that the layout being so similar to KISS would turn me off from it (I don't like KISS at all), but everything I've seen points to a game that's better thought out from a code and overall design perspective.

Visually, I think it looks really cool. Great art and I still think that the Stern LCD size and placement is far better than what anybody else is doing.

Put some games in last night

Liked it a lot more than I thought I would.
Thought it was better than kiss.
Eager to try an LE/Premium

Same, I got to play it yesterday on location and enjoyed it a lot. Really like the elevator scoop shot, and again love the multiball ability of risk/reward similar to mustang. Had 5 balls locked and chose to keep building for that 6th lock and drained. Was able to get it on the next ball but damn that was hard to control anything, still always fun to have a 6 ball multiball again. Don't know what good scores are on it yet but I was able to put up 126 million for GC on the one I played.

meh

126 million is a good score. If you want to improve the score, stack Sweet Emotion with a multiball.

Here is a successful approach to Aerosmith.

01. Start with "Walk This Way", and make as many shots as possible. If you complete the mode, you will earn super ramps for 1.95 million per ramp (x9).
02. Switch songs to "Last Child" and complete the modes. This will earn super orbits.
03. Then lock 5 out of 6 balls for "Toys in the Attic" Multiball.
04. Start "Sweet Emotion".
05. Start 6 ball Multiball and start making ramps and orbits to collect all super shots.
06. Work on the remaining songs.
07. Add initials to Top Score list at end of game.

Current GC on at Nickelrama Arcade in Garland, TX is 485 million.

In order to make the top 4, players must post 206+million.

Marcus

Thanks for the advice

I haven't played the machine but the animations look like a horrible beta of guitar hero. Can anyone comment on it? I feel like Sterns difficulty to transition to the new LED screens is showing.

It looked much better to me in person than I expected, but again like all pinball I'm not really paying attention to the display while playing. The occasions I did look up what I saw looked good and information was easily conveyed.

The Sparky voice callouts are horrid on this game, wish they would have done something different with that.

Layout feels just like Kiss yet is intriguing enough to play... on location.

The animations look basic to me, but that's better than distracting or confusing. I think that JJP does a better animation package, but I'm not bothered by what I've seen In Aerosmith or Batman.

Either way, I'll miss good dot art, but if it means I never have to see animations like we got with KISS or video rendered in dots, I'm ok with that.

Great info, will be there tomorrow to try it out

i played AS over the weekend. i did have my hesitations at first about the screen animations and shots. i will say i am happily surprised.

artwork is good. thought it was going to be too distracting. isnt at all. much better in person than pics. shots are really good. very fast play. the ball and the toy box has a couple modes. 1 is to lock balls in while the other is the ball is suppose to hit the jester. the call out even says so. the voice for the jester is ok. can be changed in code so no big deal for me. i like the option to build your multiball to 6.

i really didnt notice the animations on the back box. i was busy watching the playfield.

the machine is built solid. metal ramps are solid. music is subjective to every person so i am not going to address that. code is pretty good so far.

I also got to play it a Rock Fantasy Sat. in Middletown. (Thanks again Steve) My impression was I liked it, not sure if enough to own it but it was fun. It did have some problems w/the ball getting kicked into the box every time(some misses)and also ball was getting stuck in opening of elevator shot. The display reminded me of the old Beatles and Archie-cartoons on tv. (For those old enough to remember : ) I also didn't dig the sound/voice of call outs, but overall had fun as the wife also.

We also played Kiss and Ghostbusters and didn't enjoy them at all. Maybe would have if knowing what shots to shoot for, but Aerosmith kept calling us back. Also enjoyed Batman 66 and again probably more fun if we knew what we were shooting for. Just my take.

Love Aerosmith! I also had the same feeling about the animation...It might change with time . I hope..

Can you name another pin with as much art continuity between the LCD animation and the rest of the custom-drawn art package?

So much easier to photoshop everything and then play some old concert footage on the LCD which Stern did not do. Stern needs some serious credit here for a job well done and I'm not a Stern fanboy by any stretch.

What did you expect, one hour of full original color animation at the same quality of the Playfield?

It's clear the animation has a playful nature that matches the rest of game and was probably necessary to do it that way to have any chance of meeting the budget. I'm not saying the game is perfect in every way, just that this is the first serious effort to release a game for a new platform that obviously made a serious effort to have a consistent original drawn and animated art package across all elements of the game - not easy to pull off.

Don't expect it, but would love it if one showed up at the Ohio show in a couple weeks!

There's several on location around columbus already.

I played it the other day an LOVED it. To me it is the best first impression I have had of a game in a long time from any manufacturer. Not a big fan of the band but I could see owning one. Nice playfield, artwork and sound. As for the dots, I would say this is the best game ever. The screen and animations are spot on with what I have always thought an LCD on a pin should be. The size is just right and the animation are cool and funny too. The display content is light years ahead of WOZ and TH already.

The gameplay is really fun already. I liked some of the rules that are in place. I watched a friend cancel multiball a few times to pump it up to a wild 6-ball multiball. To me I take an MB when I can get it, but I want to get the 6-ball next time I play. Lots of potential for this game. The Pro is very complete and sturdy feeling. I would like to try the Premium and LE!

Apart from the song Dream On, I absolutely can't stand Aerosmith's music, and have no interest to play this pin.

That being said, I think AS has one of the best art packages I've ever seen on a pinball machine. I certainly hope Stern continues creating machines that look like Aerosmith and Ghostbusters. I love my ACDC Prem and STLE but, in terms of artwork, they look pretty lame compared to some of Stern's recent efforts.

Competition among pinball manufacturers is a good thing.

Anyone get to the final wizard mode yet?

I own Aerosmith and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's actually better than I expected. I'm not really sure what all the complaints are about the animations, I actually think they look fantastic in person and fit the theme really well. I also like how the band plays to the music on the screen.

The jacky toy is really neat and offers a nice risk vs reward. Love in the elevator multiball has a nice light show and some cool animations to go along with it. I also like the various rules to each mode including multiballs. On top of all that, the game is out right gorgeous, it's a definite hit in my book and I'm not even really an Aerosmith fan, although I don't mind them.

I've actually been surprised by just how not into it I am and how it seems no one else feels the same way. Don't like kiss and it feels very much like a mildly improved kiss. I went to play it on location and only played a few games. Went back a couple weeks later, did the same, and stopped again after a few plays to play wheel of fortune of all things (which, admittedly, while not new, is new to me).

I think one issue is that getting the six ball multiball was too easy and not that big of a payoff. Mustang, which I don't like all that much, is at least hard to get six balls and a huge payoff for pulling it off. It's weird, because one of the things I think I don't like about kiss and now aero, is that the modes feel so arbitrary and just shoot colored lights with little rhyme or reason, yet I don't feel this way about star trek which I like a lot more. Theme isn't the reason because I don't care about any of the themes I've mentioned.

No game is going to please everybody, but theres also alot of Stern hate on here so don't forget that too. Theres alot of people on this site that would complain if it was the best game ever and had a million dollars stuffed inside the cabinet just because its made by Stern. Aerosmith is a cool game!

Can I have some of what you're smoking?

LOL

Haha if you like that washed out, oversized split screen mess, I want some of what your smoking.

Seriously though, lots of people were looking at AS for the first time and I overheard nothing but favorable comparisons to WOZ as far as the screen size and content goes.

The Medley Tour Wizard mode a few times, but the wizard mode for completing all the modes and MBs has the "Optimus Prime MB" progress block on it. Can't miss out on completing Elevator MB or you end up in Elevator MB purgatory when you complete everything else just trying to relight and complete that MB.

FWIW, I was one of those people that was really not impressed with the animations when I saw them in the promo videos. I think they look great in person now that I have seen them.

I got a chance to play it this past Saturday. Trent has put AS Pros at Pins Mechanical, Level One and Arcade Super Awesome here in Columbus. Beautiful art - I love Dirty Donny's stuff! Cool screen animations, even though the animation of the band is a bit Simpsonesque. I really liked the flip of the ball into the toybox. It missed a couple of times, but the playfield was a little steep on the one I played. You can definitely feel the Borg layout ala Kiss/Metallica, but it doesn't bother me or feel too much like the other playfields. The light show and the sound are definitely a nice step up for a Stern Pro machine (you even get a spinner!). I like it, and I think it would look great in my basement with my Metallica Pro (separated by the Skateball, of course, as I think the crazy art on both DD machines would clash and be too much for my eyes to handle next to each other). Jacky and Sparky could have a screaming match if you have both playing at the same time. Overall, I am impressed with the Pro and look forward to playing a Premium or LE. But, as with MET, I think the Pro will be the best value and show this over time. Glad to have lots of pinball choices here in Columbus, Ohio.

IMG_0273 (resized).PNG

Just curious if anyone else felt like you could see a difference in the clearcoat on the game. To me it looked visibly thicker and smoother than Got, Spider-Man VE, GB Premium, and BM66 that I have on location near me. It also looked thicker to me than the clearcoat on my WWE LE. I just use those titles to compare to because it seems to be when Stern began to have their clear coating problems although I have never heard of a WWE with any issues that could just be from lack of WWE out there. I know I've heard and seen the problems on the rest of those titles though.

Boy, I hope this gets sorted as it puts me off completely from buying one.

roadblock (resized).jpg

Thanks Xerico. I was waiting for someone to give me clear condensed rules, so I could finish my "playfield rule cards" Mine's in next week!

AS-ruleCards (resized).jpg

This seems like a good thing - otherwise you would have already made it to the wizard mode, and then it would have been too easy.

Roadblocks are never fun. They are like narrow highways that go nowhere; just keep chugging along doing the same thing over and over in hopes to reach an end.

To add to that. There's really only 3 objectives in the pin: play (and complete song modes), play (and complete toys mb), play (and complete Elevator mb).

I like where the game is at for release code, it is fun and has potential. But, it needs more breadth, scoring opportunities, strategies. Less one lane highway driving; more off ramps, twists, and turns.

Made my way over to NickelRama was a madhouse in there lol. Hit 272m on AS, is a really fun machine to play kept my attention which is hard to do I tend to get board of games quick. Just missed getting to the wizard mode was one mode away would have liked to see what happens there but all in all solid entry there is definately a strategy to get higher score and a good risk reward for those who are patient and can stack a mode and multiball. For the first code out a real nice surprise like the layout of the machine has some nice flow shots and overall a descent art package. Thumbs up for me find it a lot better than KISS and that has more mature code in it.

But, do you honestly believe given Stern's history that more will be added than what is already there? I certainly would not bet money on it. Heck, for all we know Lonnie may never work on it again (moved on to next game already?). We don't know what goes on over there behind closed doors, but we do see the end result (ST and KISS). Plus, there's been little in the way of game code updates in 2016-17.

Code updates seem to have become luxury now, not a given.

Rob

How long was TF out for before they fixed the Optimus Prime Multiball? Not sure it was really fixed just made easier since people were complaining about it.

I believe this game will get the needed updates. It's too cool not to!

I'm hoping it does too, but time will tell.

Rob

Here's a few that I'm sure not many people know about:

IMG_5618 (resized).PNG
IMG_5619 (resized).PNG

I sure hope so but many have been burned before believing that. As far as we know Stern is now releasing games more software complete at launch but then won't develop rulesets much further (besides bug fixes). We've already seen this with other new Stern releases. It sadly could be another form of price cutting, kinda like how the cereal companies charge the same price yet provide less in the box (except Stern is also charging more...). I hope I'm wrong.

Aerosmith looks cool but I'll wait and see how the code on it develops before even considering purchasing one.

There's a big difference between a game that offers a set of complete basic modes and another that offers unique and deep code that also add personality to the game.

Thing is, they are not shipping with more complete code. Lonnie has always had fantastic release code. Transformers, avengers, Star Trek were terrific out of the gate, but they never blossomsed into something unique. Lymans code is typically shallow out of the gate but matures in time.

It seems there is a difference between a player and a programmer. It seems the player, Lyman, will analyze the table and get a feel for its flow, dimensions, personality, brutality , Etc. then, he'll come up with unique rules that support the design of the table. we don't see that kind of dedication, or Eye so to speak, in some of the other programmers that can give a table it's own unique rule set.

Now don't get me wrong, as I stated before, Lonnie has terrific code out of the gate and I like what he does with a majority of his code. He's very good with choreography, affects, scoring balances, and overall theme integration. I would just like to see a player/programmer take that code and run with it, adding breadth and dynamics. And, that's why Lonnie + Lyman had some outstanding games together.

By the way, the only X factor in this whole code situation is Dwight. He's added an extra element to stern games that has been much needed and very welcoming. I would love to see what Lonnie , And even Dwight, could do with their code post release. And I think that's the frustration we see as collectors because programmers like Lyman and Keith Johnson, Who are damn good players, will continue to develop code post release.

TL;DR the thread (I intend to go back though - this'll be my place holder). Toy chest with the kicker was cool, being able to gamble and hold the balls for the multiball was cool..otherwise it was like metallica and kiss had an ugly lovechild. No need for it here. Angles on a lot of the shots made it tough, but they were reminiscent of kiss as well.

FYI. The toy box kicker is adaptive. Over time it learns to shoot more accurately and will adjust if it becomes weak.

Yeah guys think phantom flippers on monster bash they take awhile to learn before they even work y'all need to chill the toy box is one of the coolest toys ever made too