Can confirm, nothing to worry about.

(P.S. I think the new Stern backbox/speaker panel design is the ugliest thing ever, I wouldn't buy one for half price)

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Speaking of DMDs specifically this time, they are almost (or perform) an artform in and of themselves. All those little dots making cool animations and sequences. When you put a normal screen in, anybody can make what is on there, it's the same as watching a YouTube video. It's basically now like a TV. It can display ANYTHING, and that certainly ranges from awful and outdated to modern and really really good. I am not a huge fan of modern games but I think JJP hit it on the head with making the display sequences modern and appealing (especially the high-definition aspect), especially the large screen. And what I've found with this 40-50 year old average design team members is that they're not as up to the modern times of producing a good image here as they think they are, speaking as a young person. Even if the smaller screen is nicer and easier to look at during gameplay, I too reminisce with the thought that the game looks 10 or 15 years old. Everything these days is big big big, and even the prices on these huge TVs and LED screens these days are insanely low. I remember back in the early to mid 2000's if you wanted a small flatscreen you were shelling out several thousand to get it. (Let alone the late 90's) Nowaways you get like a 58" flatscreen for like $500 - which shocked me when I realized. It is the new standard.

Stern is already lacking with this small screen, now it is crucial that they make sure they know what they are doing with it or they can easily make a lemon. They made the DMD look good but it is now insanely easy to make an ugly outdated looking design if you are not careful. It is VERY easy. It now has full transparency on your design, you have to get color and shading right, font, font spacing, postioning, etc., etc., since I am a designer myself I find myself often cringing at outdated or ugly design. Whether or not other people pick up on this is beyond me, but I know it must bleed over into the general population at least a little bit.

If what dung said is true and it looks like 2000's flash, that is disgusting. Regardless: Even if it looks good now, hopefully it ages well! Score reels are good at aging because they are incredibly simple and rudimentary... 2016 Stern LCD design may easily be very ugly in 2026 if it's not already. You may think it is easy to make good modern design choices because all of the companies are pretty good at it, but you must understand how many people these companies employ (Coca Cola, etc.) to make sure they are looking their best and are as modern as the rest.

If people think newer games are going to affect the value of older games you are simply mistaken.

Things like newer phones have replaced older phones and made them paperweights because they are an upgrade and a convenience, while older phones lack basic abilities. You do not see people scrapping their 60's Mustangs because they just released a new one with GPS built in.

Even old cars and pinball machines experience their dip probably about 10-15 years after they are made, but not because of specific cars or machines being released. I remembered hearing how you used to get laughed at at pinball auctions in the 90's if you bought a fully working nice Gorgar for $300. Now that game goes for >$1,000. Even if these DMD machines experience a dip in their value as an impact, I doubt this will be permanent. Or if it is, it probably won't be too low and is honestly probably for the best as they were overpriced to begin with. They will simply enter their "value is determined by the community" phase rather than "this machine is worth physically so much" phase, and whenever that goes to is what it will be. Look at EM and early SS machines, the community basically sets the entire pricing for them, they are physically probably worthless if this community did not exist (parts would have no use), and nobody has any clue what they were originally worth and if you look it up and adjust for inflation you will find that we are either buying them for way under the original price or way above for rare titles.

Don't mean to be rude, perhaps you're the old and outdated one? If you take your opinions as fact (and it appears you are), that is an incredible fallacy.

Guess what: In reality, a 90's pinball machine doesn't "out-fun modern arcade machine" to kids, and that is why the arcade machines of today earn 10x more than a 90's pinball machine will today, or even a 2016 pinball machine will. Doesn't mean they are fun to you and me (nor vice-versa, that pinball machines aren't fun to you and me), though, OF COURSE! Do you see what I am getting at?

You are trying to dictate what is fun to everybody like EM collectors while spouting your own garbage about what is good, when you are the EM collector to the kids of today. EMs are shit to you, and your games are shit to the next in line.

My Sky Jump has no value to you and your Monster Bash is a paperweight waste of space to most kids of today. Get off your high horse. This hobby is entirely opinionated, stop trying to dictate "facts" when it's impossible to do. People will like what they like, and once a pinball machine is a certain age and the parts inside become outdated and useless in any other application and the original first-owner investment becomes invalid or paid off, its value is entirely based off of how people and collectors receive it, or if it's an awful game, how valuable it is for parts for other games.

I don't think I have ever seen a more opinionated and hypocritical post before. Every single sentence is an opinion, and split down the middle you contradict your original statement. Let's count:

3) DMD pinball transcends being old and dated.

4) They're always exciting and fun.

5) A 90's pinball still out-funs modern arcade games.

Holy shit! World record!

(and this isn't trashing DMD games, this is meaning all pinball (including LCD games), no matter how new and fantastic you think it is compared to other eras of games, is entirely subject to the player even if they don't like ANY era)

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You're grouping collectors together again. There are a lot of people here who won't touch anything that isn't an EM and find DMD games not desirable at all. Then you have a lot of people who dabble in both, like myself. They cost less, yes, but that's likely because their is less of a footprint of EM collectors as opposed to DMD collectors, and also because the EM games were also originally a LOT less money to begin with. Although that value disappears over time as I said earlier, there is likely always some kind of link, or at least a thought process of what range it should be in. Another thing is parts, a lot of EM parts have a lot less parts and detailed playfield toys/assemblies that could be sold off - but - doesn't mean they're less fun.

No, it's because the first guy who bought it brand new overpaid at $8,000 and won't sell it for any less than $7,000 so he gets some of his investment back, then the next guy who buys it wants to earn a buck (and can) so he lists it at $7,200. Of course if one guy wants to sell the same game for $100 doesn't lower the value of the game directly, the value won't shift, value is all relative. Over time, the price depreciates especially as it passes from collector to collector - EM games started lower to begin with and have had longer to do this, and only started rising once "pinflation" began.

If you're bringing price in the mix, you're comparing apples to oranges. Obviously my game from 1970 is not going to cost as much as your game you bought 4 years ago brand new from the factory, it's 43 years older! More potential wear, no expensive circuit boards (value), and of course yours is just shiny and brand new which adds it's own premium (one that a lot of us laugh at as we watch you guys argue about it together).

Age = less value. (But doesn't mean they're less fun, a lot of people here enjoy a good EM game as opposed to a DMD game, EM games are more challenging, etc.) Seriously, look down the line. If anything, the nice EM games are gaining in value. The prices for restored 70's wedgeheads right now are through the roof.

2010 = 4-8k avg., now increasing because of sooper-dooper mega LEs
2000 = Couple thousand, maybe 3k avg.
1990 = 2-3k
1980 = 1k
1970 = $500-$2500
1960 = $500-$700
1950 = $300-$600
<1940 = Not much anymore, a lot of the collectors who are reminiscing with these games have passed away/getting too old, the pre-war stuff plummeted in value over the last 20 years I heard due to this

Cheap shot of the post: But hey, at least ours are finished (no "code updates" here!) and somehow flake stuff off the playfield less frequently than a 2 month old game.

Funhouse, Earthshaker, and Whirlwind bring the moolah in any condition.

You seriously haven't realized that it's just the factories continuously raising the prices and that the pinball sheep keep buying them? Considering how long a "I'M NOT BUYING STERN GAMES ANYMORE - HELP STOP THE MADNESS - SAY NO TO STERN'S PRICES" thread goes on 'round here, you'd think everybody would be on the same page.

If some guy (meaning a ton of DMD game pinsiders) pays $10,000 for a game brand new, he's obviously not going to sell it for $5,000 (or 6, 7, or 8k) only three years later. Of course the 90's DMD games don't cost as much, they've had a lot longer to depreciate in value, and the only reason the value gap was so close to begin with is because they made a rebound/comeback. As now stated, the bigger thing is probably how WELL the 90's games have held value compared (or ABOVE) to either original price point. You should be very proud of that value gap being so small, not chastising it for growing larger apart. (especially if the pinball big wigs blatantly keep adding hundreds or even thousands to new games prices, it's gonna grow apart regardless of how great DMD games are)

Hell, even if you locked each game at MSRP value, with how swindled people are getting on prices these days, you'd still probably be paying a ton more as is.

Well, let's just like what we like but stop trying to shove your supposed "facts" down people's throats. Your specific ideology consists of 100% opinions.

Wow, what a bummer! Kind of makes you surprised people keep buying them then, especially for heavily increasing prices. I'm out. Listen, I'm just a dude who can't afford any of this shit, DMD or LCD, but hopefully some of my posts have opened the eyes a little of others who shell out easily more than I've paid for my entire 25 game collection for one game which has the same exact stuff as a game from 20 years ago did. I'm honestly surprised the LCD thing didn't come 10 years ago, or at least 5 especially when it was already very easily accessible. You'd think, but apparently it took them a long time. People must have liked the DMD screens. They're actually older technology but it never really left the taste of "old" in my mouth and apparently was never a pressing issue. So, congrats to Stern on arriving in 2005. Still think they should have gone with the bigger screen like JJP for beauty over purpose, because it still screams "2001 gameboy screen" to me. Let's hope it's at least HD, because it definitely isn't eye-pleasing, even when the thing is turned off. Maybe they'll get up to the speed of their competitor 20 years from now. And I'm not even a JJP fanboy, again, can't afford either of them. But speaking as a millennial, if you put these two games next to each other, the JJP games will likely look cooler, more advanced, and newer - even if this game's theme wasn't Aerosmith! (I personally like Aerosmith, but wanted to make clear although the theme would also be an issue that my point was not based on that) Luckily Stern is mostly catering to people who still use Windows XP, but on route, I could see this hurting earnings compared to a JJP game. My peers are all about computer building and having large computer screens, high resolutions, and HD picture quality.

I know you older generational folks don't resonate much with the Game Boy, but even Nintendo's got it right (bigger screen is better), and it's actually really good 3D too!

Stern (added the first image of some good ol' WordArt especially incase they're using flash like dung said):

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JJP:
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"Too much" is based on perception, that's the problem. $8,000 (at least to me and a lot of others), is a hell of a ton of money. My grandma complains when I spend my own $300 on a game. I've found, even in myself, when you enter the hobby the personal value of the dollar goes waaaaay down.

A gambler never thinks the thousands upon thousands of dollars on a slot machine is "too much". Obviously they're entirely different situations and I am implying nothing there, just a reference. An alcohol thinks he's not drinking too much. A hoarder thinks he doesn't have too much stuff.

I am positive there are at least 10 people in this community that would give Gary Stern $15,000. And as we progress, I would not be surprised if that becomes the norm, as unfortunate as that is.

Yep, didn't imply that (or mean to), what I meant is that they don't bring in much less either.