Played a half dozen games on it, and it was fun. Couldn't hear a thing but it shot well and as Neo says - the games on the left were far better than the ones on the right.

FWIW, I loved the center targets. Blasting them and trying to pick up the ricochet was fun and exciting. Nice touch.

I was told by someone close to AP that the machines at MGC were on old code.

Later on saturday the motorized tank version had a ball hang up just inside a ball gate. I tried shaking it loose pretty vigorously but I noticed the head really waving around a lot more than I would have liked, so instead of possibly breaking it I asked Dave Fix if he could free the ball. Sadly, he couldn't find the key for it. Didn't get another chance to play after that

Since it was the tank game - they probably didn't have the headbox bolts in. The head is not very secure without the two bolts (which go through the back similar, but different, to a modern stern)

If by chance I win the raffle, bought 10 tickets. I’ll sell the LE I have coming and donate proceeds back to project pinball.

I’m looking forward to some tank punishment ala STH in your face target bank

That's AWESOME!

Geez Doug. I thought I was a baller at 1 ticket.

Literally!

That's a nice idea. I bought some raffle tickets too and I also have an LE coming - if I win I will do the same as you.

I only bought 1 ticket, right after I placed a deposit for a Deluxe. If I were fortunate to win, I would donate back my deposit and propose to take a Deluxe instead of the SE so Project Pinball would realize a higher donation.

I’ve been inspired by these posts.
I’ll make a straight donation since raffle sold out.

Amazing....they can not do a single marketing piece without some mistake....like "Tuesday April 3rd"......(april 3rd is today, monday)

Tuesday is April 4th. At least stuff was spelled right tho

I will say this, the fact that he is streaming a competitor and guesting their employees is good for the industry. All companies are making money and aren't going away.

Maybe the reveal is in 2028?

Doesn’t matter Rick. Gotta love what the $$ is going to and it’s about the giving heart brother. Hope they keep crushing it.

Doesn’t matter. I’m happy.

That is indeed cool. It might also indicate that they don't see this game as a threat.

Danger already had a thriving business streaming and promoting games by various companies before joining Stern. My guess is that a contingency of him joining Stern was that he’d be allowed to continue streaming for other companies. I doubt it has anything to do with whether or not Danger or Stern see GTF as a threat.

He has said this very thing on stream. He said Deadflip is separate from Stern and was agreed to when he accepted a job with them.

Also Stern is selling them faster than they can make them, and I think they're happy to see the growing audience regardless because it's good for them long term. It's not a zero sum game. The demand is still growing and factories being busy = healthy industry. (Imagine what Stern prices would be like if CGC/JJP/Spooky/AP/MM weren't also pumping thousands of new games into the channel to satiate demand)

Jack has also said on stream - when a person buys one machine (any manufacturer) it doesn’t stop there so if Stern has a lot of quality offerings everybody wins.

Until I hear publicly from some higher ups at Stern that they are just delighted that deadflip continues to feature other companies' products I'm not going to assume that they are.

It seems a little odd to me!

If they didn't support it they could always tell him to stop doing it or lose his job, so while they might be delighted they are probably okay with it.

IMO If JD continues his career w/ Stern this unfortunately is a conflict of interest.

I'm convinced upper management eventually will strongly request that he discontinues DeadFlip; he's now property of Stern. He does have a choice do DeadFlip or design for Stern

Property of Stern? Have you reviewed his employment agreement? He did have a choice and he choose Deadflip AND Stern. Seems pretty clear.

I get what you mean, but I was originally slated to buy Foo. Then I saw Karl's stream of Godfather and took my money and bought GF instead. I'm no longer getting Foo.

So in many cases, it is a zero sum game, at least for plebs like me.

Yeah but Stern still has more orders than they know what to do with... They're still selling more than they were a year ago, and the year before then, etc...

At a certain point it doesn't matter if they lost a sale if they can't keep up with production

There's enough obscenely wealthy nooblers in the "hobby" to even things out for the manufacturers. You know, the guys who buy every new pin that comes out and have $150,000+ of SPIKE/SPIKE II games in their house (none of which have more than 32 plays on them).

It's pretty simple it's a branding thing; I'm small time & I've been asked in the past by my management to not get involved with other market competitors.

And yes when you work for a company they kinda indirectly own your ass.

His surname is literally DANGER. Stern knew what they were getting into.

People often negotiate deals to continue doing something else they were already doing on the side after they start with another company. I know plenty of people who have full-time executive/sales leadership positions that do contract work for other companies too - it's not like it's never been done before. He's a great embassador for the entire pinball "lifestyle" industry.

Does the industry allow artists to do work for other manufacturers? Do pinball designers contract with more than one company at a time? What’s the difference with Jack’s arrangement? I’m sure he’s happy to know that we’re all so interested in his terms of employment. Fak.

Depends upon the arrangement.

Dirty Donnie decided to take a (probably paltry) check from Suncoast for that Cosmic Carnival fiasco and was never heard from again in the industry (to the detriment of pinball; nobody does rock-themed games like he does).

Nordman seems to be working for 6 different pinball companies at a time, all the time, and nobody seems to bat an eye.

Yeah, but that dude drives pinball machines around that can shoot at things. Would you tell him what he can or can't do?

When you’re big time (visibility of the Deadflip brand in this hobby) you have more bargaining power. I think Stern knows they’re lucky to have JD on their side. If Stern didn’t hire him to his terms somebody else would.

If you work for a shitty company. And btw, this isn’t your father’s work environment anymore. The labor force is much more transient and willing to change employers for better deals and conditions. Gone are the days of 30-40 year veterans climbing the corporate ladder and being owned by the man so they can collect a pension someday.

.

See so many complaints about the 3D printed parts. Are the tank and other parts going to be actual resin/plastic casted pieces in the final production or they really plan to release the game with giant 3D printed plastics?

All indications point to them being 3D printed, unfortunately.

But hey, they have a nifty lunch box you can buy!

Stern would probably prefer Jack only stream Stern games. But as others have mentioned, Jack said his contract explicitly allows him to continue to promote other companies.

Not the only manufacturer to take that route. And 3D printed parts CAN be great if done properly. The per part cost will be higher but lower NRE. So for low enough volume, it makes sense...

What other current manufacturers use 3D printed parts?

Spooky stopped using them

Yup, but they did for a while. Again, just saying it can be done (but certainly has limitations)...

Yup, but they did for a while. Again, just saying it can be done (but certainly has limitations)...

And American used to have real molded sculpts

Spooky stepped up, AP took a step back

Danger, is obviously an alias to conceal his true identity. Has anybody checked the Pinball Database Most Wanted list?

It’s been asked and answered many times here. They confirmed those 3D printed parts are final production parts.

Yeah, I think once Stern no longer has 1000’s of back orders this streaming policy will change.

The problem with this though is there is high competition for very few pinball design jobs

If you're a middle manager or similar? Sure you can jump around every few years (the only reliable way to get a big raise anymore)

It's really simple he's assisting American Pinball it's an endorsement for potential buyers to purchase a new machine yea Sterns totally cool with that