To me the tell is when you look at the new vendors getting into the hobby... they are not coming in with two or three products anymore... they are coming with dozens... and lots of inventory. That takes signficant sales. These guys arent folding... they are expanding.

ASP keeps growing across the board. The demand is out there... and not just in speculation buyers. Everywhere you look you see people landing their first game...

The growth is real.

Programmer who later got to lead his own game projects. Dunno if they expect him to carry both bags

He did both on the shadow, and I like that layout better than MM and AFM

As a younger person who has been in the hobby for about 7 years now, it is really amazing to me the change that has happened over that time. Right after the recession, where pinball almost died, you saw Jersey Jack arrive... very similarly to how in mid 80's Data East arrived right after pinball almost died in 1983-1985. As everyone knows pinball rose to the highest popularity of all time in 1992. At that time you saw a couple of new pinball companies show up, like Alvin G. and a couple of smaller European companies, and right now we are seeing an explosion in the number of pinball companies being started. We also saw at that time pinball being very popular with the general public, with lots of licensed themes and tons of people playing pinball. I feel that this is very similar to what is going on right now but we have not reached the climax of it yet. Its crazy to me how popular pinball is right now. Many people around my age(21) love playing pinball, all of my coworkers love going to downtown pinball bar and in the past 2 years 3 or 3 new local pinball locations opened up with 10+ well maintained machines. As a part time employee of a semi-local pinball business I can really see firsthand how insanely popular it is! All in all, it seems like this is the cycle for pinball. It happened in the late 70's early 80's and then in the early 90's. Its taken longer this time, but it seems to be happening again.

Cracks me right up. Attack From Mars and Medieval Madness, you see any similarities?

Fact of the matter, when game designers experience something that works and sells, they want to lean on it for future designs. You feel pride in a great idea, feature, concept etc. You want to see it out there.

Have you played The Shadow? Brian Eddy was far from a one-trick pony. He designed and/or coded some of the greats, can’t wait to see what he’s got left in the tank.

Great news!

I imagine he has at least a few tricks left in the bag since his pin design career was cut short.

Oh. My point was, solely, that obvious heritage between pinball machines is not a "Stern is cheap" thing. It has always been like that. For a reason.

Wish he worked for JJP, but then he'd probably get stuck with a shit license/theme.

So which is better?

JJP with more BOM and crap license,

or

Stern with killer license and 2 ramps.

JJP only has one dud theme: DI. For $8k+ people don’t want an original theme featuring Momjeans McEighties.

AFM only has 2 ramps. As does MM.

I’m not disagreeing with you, but around the time Eddy started designing games for B/W, they too were really cutting back costs. Look at Scared Stiff or MB. Very simple, yet highly sought after.

I’d rather see him work with quality source material, or original themes.

Those games make a new Stern look like a zizzle as far as toys and quality goes.

This statement is untrue by 50%.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but as far as I recall, AFM has the left “giant lobster” ramp, and the right “cow” ramp. Unless you’re counting the lock diverter, but that’s not really it’s own “complete” ramp.

Maybe quality, but MB or SS aren’t any more “complex” than say, Star Trek. They just have really lush sound and art packages. Something that (imho) Stern lacks in.

I’m just saying, AFM is a surprisingly simple game that gets by on a fantastic IP and rules. Complexity doesn’t always equal a better gaming experience.

It depends on the audience. A far worse playing Star Wars with a ton more crap all over the place would have gone over much better on Pinside.

Attack from Mars has a center ramp.

If you only count ramp returns/ball guides, you'll have a pretty hard time finding many games with >2 ramps.

I can't believe we're even debating this.

Oh come on you are now putting Shadow ahead of MM? You may want to find a local MM and put a few quarters in it!

Why must his opinion match yours?

AFM has 3 ramps. The left and right of course, and the ball lock shot either locks a ball, or goes up the ramp and around, depending on the diverter.

Only one of these two will happen.

When you're talking pure design? Absolutely. The upper playfield on Shadow is great. The inner loop is great. The mode start can be a tough shot. Ramp diverters are great. MM is the most basic fan layout ever, BUT great code, sound, and dots kind of make you forget all of that. The only strong mechanical/design features on it are the trolls and the castle that falls apart.. everything else is REALLY vanilla. It's successful for the same reason that AfM is: Great theme and the art and sound to support it. Shadow, design wise, is far better than either.

I think this is great news for Pinball. I own MM, AFM, and TS. I'm really looking forward to what he's going to do.

Yeesh... tough crowd! Simmah down now, Stevevt! I concede on that technicality. That tiny diverter ramp is tucked away so well, it’s easy to overlook. I never really considered it “it’s own” ramp, but you guys have me convinced.

Moving on, I’d be curious to see what types of games Eddy would bring to the table. 2/3 of his own designs are non-licensed. Seeing that the market can sustain new non licensed games, however unlikely it would be, I’d like to see something original from him.

Jesus, dude.

Just a good buddy I like poking fun at. He still claims Taxi was the best pin ever made! Lol

I agree this is great news for Pinball. Next important topic where are we on that new Elvira?

But the tax cut means Armageddon, didn't you hear?

Press release from Stern: http://www.sternpinball.com/community/accomplished-game-designer-brian-eddy-joins-stern-pinballs-game-design-studio

LOL @ "lifestyle entertainment brand"

"Stern Pinball, Inc., the world’s oldest and largest maker of arcade-quality pinball machines, today announced the hiring of Brian Eddy in the role of Senior Game Designer. Brian is best known for the design of two of the most iconic games in the history of pinball, “Attack From Mars” and “Medieval Madness”.

Brian brings a unique and diverse experience to Stern Pinball. He started his career as a game programmer prior to focusing on game design. Over the course of his career Brian has worked on games for a variety of platforms and markets. Under the Midway Games brand, Brian developed coin-operated video games such as “Artic Thunder” and modern-day console games for the Xbox and PlayStation. Most recently, Brian led a studio at Zynga that designed Facebook and mobile social media games.

“Brian is an incredibly talented designer with strong creative leadership skills. He has had consistent success in a variety of diverse entertainment design environments. We are very excited to add his talents to our studio as we continue to grow our unique lifestyle entertainment brand,” said George Gomez, EVP and Chief Creative Officer."

Brian Eddy has a historically great track record for making some the best pins. He really has a great mind for pinball but was cut way too short. This can only be a great thing for Stern and PinHeads.

Great pickup for Stern. Brian Eddy is a legend, even though he has only designed a few games. But what games they are! Can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Only two games ???

Any chance of AFM 2?

I know RFM was done but talking about a proper sequel to AFM?

Or guessing there would be PPS restrictions?

download (resized).jpg

I just don't see why Stern would have any interest in these kinds of fantasy nostalgia sequels involving veteran designers - they've shown zero interest in this in the past. The closest they've done is T3, and at least that was based on a new movie.

Releasing Mars Attacks or MAdness in Medivial Times really does nothing for Stern except provide free advertising for PPS games. They can do just as well with a completely new original theme or more of the same when it comes to licensing.

This AFM 2 stuff is strictly Fan fic.

I don't understand why there's even interest here. Are we really so bankrupt when it comes to ideas that all we can hope for is a sequel to an old game?

I don't even understand how that's an actual question to Pinsiders.

It’s working for the movie industry...

Will he do Elvira?

Both points are true.

Welcome back Brian Eddy. MM/MMR is a fantastic machine.

Hard to imagine they'd try to license MM or AFM from PPS, or that PPS would grant that license to Stern if they asked. That's about as likely as Stern suddenly getting interested in unlicensed themes. The smart money's on them putting Mr. Eddy to work on their next licensed theme. All good with me, license may restrain the art package but it's not likely to restrict his game design or coding which is what we're all excited to see.

That said, I'm holding out for The Shadow 2 with new Baldwin callouts.

I guess he does The Beatles or Elvira.

I think Elvira is a Dennis Nordman game like Woah Nellie.

You mean like BK3000?!

Afm and MM are non licenced game's.
So he can make a Martian Attack or a Mediëval castle or something whitout having licence problems.

Elvira playfield design is already done and complete by Dennis Nordman and will be a modern game executed by Stern. Most probably in the pro/pre/le setup. Just waiting for code. This is confirmed by Stern.

In the meantime at Stern.. 'so we hired Brian Eddy'... "Please order some round star burst inserts... orange, red, yellow... 50000 of each'

Awesome news about Brian joining the team !

So Cool

Wishing Brian and the engineering team to really engage Spike 2,3,4 ? to ensure reliability and support.

To me this would be highest priority.

The cool thing with so many awesome designers/coders at team Stern now some serious milestones are achievable !

Go hard Stern

The original did not need a license, but I would think any “sequel” where you want to re-use some artwork or call outs would probably need a Williams or Midway license.

Sure a “new” original medieval or space theme could be done without license...

watch out, Attack from Medieval Madness will be out in 2019!

or Attack from Medieval Mars