Was that before he walked away like a little girl?

Anyone got any thoughts on "LCD replacing the dot matrix display" which way do you think Stern will go? Dutch pinball with sega size display, showing a more traditional pixilated image? JJP with full LCD? Personally my pick is for a Dutch style display, might be a bit old school but I think it more of an evolution of the traditional dot matrix, were as JJP display is a totally different direction. Might need to start a poll on this one.

I'd like to see slightly larger than current DMD.

With a lot of basic colors, and the "BAM!" graphics this is the perfect theme for it. A good stepping stone pin before an all new one.

LOL. Come on Mike. I call BS. The polls here and my own personal experience show that over 50% of all GB have ghosting issues. Actually from my experience EVERY single GB I have seen has ghosting inserts. I think I am up to 12 GBs I have played now. Some are not super bad and others have chipped inserts/clear they are so bad; but ALL of them have issues and even GB built in the past month shows issues.

Of course it is your job to try and sell something but saying stuff like this is not going to bring you more customers.

For me, i dont care what theme, price, extra BS Stern wants to hand out. Until they come clean with the insert dropping and clearcoat delamination issues and prove it is fixed and that they are taking care of past customers, I wont be buying any game from them.

Luckily there are many other options now so plenty of places to go spend NIB dollars.

I like them both and I'm glad Stern is finally getting on board. But give me more interactive toys on the playfield along with code. That's where I want to see the money spent along with innovation.

So, SLE is way forward?

Put me down for an Aerosmith Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious LE

Toys, plural. Retaining the shot layout while changing everything else is not a re-skinned VE.

Put me down for one of those also.
Sure would hate to pronounce the name of that pin to friends after a few beers though!

I'm sure it's already set but wouldn't mind seeing a 24" or more monitor sitting portrait instead of landscape with robust speakers flanking it. My thought being that the real estate used on the monitor could be used top 2/3 for graphics and gimmicks while the lower 1/3 for scoring.

Of course the back box would still have a translight but smaller than in the past. Hopefully using leds spotted in specific locations for use during the attract mode. Time to scrap the cheapness back there.

Whatever they are doing will be the basis of games from now out. At least for a while. IMO, this is a great theme to introduce the hardware. Hopefully the system will have plenty of capacity. I would want plenty of Biffs and Pows on that monitor when certain goals and shots are met. And hopefully the rules will go deep. I'm one of those that did a couple cash out front deals and puckered up my sphincter waiting for other games. I won't do that again. But I do think this is something that I will strongly consider when it is a couple months into production.

No, there aren't. There's JJP who puts out a half-finished game every 4 years, and there's a bunch of other companies who don't have experienced software guys.

The only company that can consistiently put out good games, with the ability to produce the quality software today's players demand, is Stern.

I like how heaps of people were blowing up that hey shouldn't make a stripped out Pro version and now just as many are blowing up about no Pro version of this game.

After WOF came out many rgpers were ready to claim pinball oficially dead. Now we are complaining about what one of SIX manufacturers is selling off-cycle special edition. People are making it hard to appreciate the new golden age of pinball!

what are you talking about?

I can go order WOZ or Hobbit right now and have it well before BMDK66prem is available.
I can go order FullThrottle and get it in a couple months at most or direct from Cointaker right now.
I can go Aliens and guessing those will be availabel by year end also.
I can go grab a RZ which seems there are a handful of NIB available on the secondary right now.
I can go order Dominos and likely get it before the end of the year.

I would say those are lots of options. So far, none of those have damning pf issues and all of them have decent code or great code currently.

I don't think there's a lot of people "blowing up". It sounds like reasoned speculation about the future of Stern to me. There were three "new" games this year and only one had a pro so it's sounds logical. Maybe it's the voices in your head that are upset. Sometimes my voices get out of hand too.

Key words being stripped out. Make whatever version and name them in whatever superfluous manner as they see fit.

But the differences between the versions need to be cosmetic only, not ones that radically alter gameplay itself.

Anything else is simply shortchanging the relevant market segment.

On that note the nomenclature for the current models from Stern's latest offering sound almost as ridiculous as the naming conventions being used on AussieArcade. Super Limited Edition is almost as laughable as Super Moderator.

Almost...

I still wonder if they go cheaper on the B66 prices. They would get praise because it would subvert expectations. They would be lower than most competitors still and no one will notice till later that they have gotten rid of the pro. Current GB MSRP is pro/5995, premium, 7595, LE/8795.

My predictions are
Premium $6995
LE 8595
Super LE 9795

Just the thought of that seems something quite atrocious.

imho

Our Ghostbusters has zero issues.

At the very least it will be interesting to see what happens to US market sales when the inevitable 5 figure MSRP for the LE pulls into the station.

Most other countries outside of the US have experienced this "psychological" price point on both Stern LE and Premiums for quite some time.

Like I said, the polls show that 50% of them dont. I dont find that to be an acceptable ratio.

I also would say, 'give it time and more plays' Our did not have any ghosting till it got 500 plus plays. I think we got one of the better ones since the ghosting appears minimal and to have stabalized, but only time will tell.

We also have 2 SMVE which both have ghosting.

Sorry, none of the amateurs know how to make code like the Stern guys. Not even close.

I wouldn't call Keith Johnson an amateur....

I'd say Keith at JJP is the closest to Stern and he's definitely not an amateur. I wonder if it's a product of learning new tech as well. They have to get a few games in before they can work comfortably with their software.

Neither would I.

But they put out one game every 4 years.

You have not played them enough IMO.

Full Throttle code is fantastic and fits the theme and gameplay perfectly. Very well coded foundation that only needs minor polish and is apparentlty getting it. Same guy is coding Aliens and he definately knows what he is doing.

WOZ is well coded and complete(?)
Hobbit has pretty good code currently and appears to be getting regular updates.

Rz code is much improved since v10 and is getting real legs.

When I look at the Stern games of recent, only GB and TWD are what I would consider good code. The other games of recent past have some flaws, bugs, and are far from finished. (KISS I am looking at you currently)

AND the point is that they currently have 2 NIB titles available right now. Rumor is that #3 will be available in limited quantity before the end of the year...

Sad but true.

As an "LE guy" that likes to own LEs, these Super LEs kill the luster of the regular LE for me.

If I can't have a Super LE, then I don't have the crown jewel, and I'm less motivated for the "next tier" LE. Might as well save my money and get a premium down the road if the game looks good in reality.

I can't be the only LE guy that feels like this.

I don't want to sound crass but

Good points.

Thumbs up and I agree. But maybe this is a needed wake up call to the silliness that is the LE.

I will disagree. I've played plenty of the amateur games and they just don't have it from a code perspective.

You wouldn't consider GOT good code? It's genius.

Ultra LE
Ultimate LE
Extreme LE
The-only-one-produced LE
The-one-that-that-will-never-be-produced-but-you-can-preorder-it-anyway-and-recieve-a-certificate-of-ownership LE

I'll have to agree with Levi here, If you add up all the other pin manufacturers they still don't have as many available NIB titles available as Stern. I wouldn't call that much competition at all

^^^ This^^^

^^^and this^^^
This is exactly the same thing I was about to say.
Stern is saying that this LE will be "more dressed up" that their past LE models which is a good thing for LE buyers. The extras on the past few LE's that Stern made were getting rediculus because they just kept stripping LE features from the LE's with each new model that they released. It was getting to the point that their wasn't much difference between the premium models and the LE's. Just a different art package and a paper with Gary's signature on it.

I'm going to pass on the Super LE because of the rumored backglass, not happy with the crotch shot of Adam West front and center:

If they are getting dollars and have games available, I consider them competition. Definately more so than we had even 2 years ago and definately on the right trajectory where the pendulum could start swinging back quickly.

I can say that all those other ones currently have NO major issues, seem to have great customer service, and see to address any issues openly and quickly. I know where I prefer to spend any money. Granted I wont be buying ANYTHING before playing it (let alone knowing the price and seeing it, LOFL).

My "bat" instincts sense you should be in the select 30. Just a guess on my part.

I feel the same way.

Have to say I wasn't really very impressed with the artwork on the flyer release - I did a quick google search on "Batman 66 comic" and wow, there's some great vintage looking artwork done. I hope that's the real style they go with (or better) and not the dumbed down stuff taken from wherever they got the flyer release stuff.

LOL! What consistently good games from Stern are you talking about? The ones with playfield issues and / or incomplete code? Quality software...sadly not every game, not even a majority. Does quality software mean waiting 6+ months for a code update that may never come?

You love to bash JJP but the truth is they are making the most feature packed pins today with the deepest and most unique software offering. Quality over quantity.

Stern is falling behind and needs to step it up in both QA, value, and releasing code updates in a reasonable amount of time.

One would think you'd have the pull or status to get invited to have one of the Super LE's.

But your wife might like it!

You mean like the $8,000 machine that a bunch of drop targets and a dragon head that doesn't interact with the ball?

Where do I sign up for this?

I think the deposits are meant to go through distributors, like GAP, the OP on the thread.

The cost isn't the hardware, its artists that know how to the clipping, editing - JPD at Jersey Jack did a heck of a lot with commerical TV graphics in order to produce the content on WOZ and THLE. Is the time involved in the graphics and probably the expertise needed for content that has kept STERN in the LCD development phase for so long.

super le status. first 30 suckers to pay 10k. thats the invite.

It just makes more sense to buy older pins imo which is what im doing now.