Thanks for supporting my point exactly.

Drooling. It's drool.

Without getting specific I can personally vouch for Dwight's passion in regards to pinball and the games he works on. I'm not asking that everyone agree with his approach on programming a game but I'm absolutely asking you to believe me when I say so much of his life is impacted by his passion, dedication, and time he puts into every line of code. There is ZERO question about it.

See, this statement is incongruous with his public statement previously that he considers Ghostbusters finished when he KNEW it was missing the "Are You a God" wizard mode entirely and was riddled with bugs (some of which are game-killing). Lyman? I believe he is consumed - possessed, even. Dwight? I love his game code logic (GoT is my favorite pin for the strategy), but he is not driven to polish his games. He has a good history of games by which to judge and it all speaks volumes about that.

I wish I had about 4 or 5 people arguing over my past coding projects. Let me see... um anyone pissed off with how the bank cashes their checks using a smartphone image?... <crickets> Damn it Lyman did that better too...

Here you go

Episode 76 – Dwight Sullivan

http://www.head2headpinball.com/2019/01/14/episode-76-dwight-sullivan/

Dwight is old
Munsters code outline
Lower Playfield
Super Jackpots
Munster Light shows
Star wars multipliers
Filtering feedback
Right orbit jackpots
Ghostbusters code

Honestly I have found Dwight's efforts on SW more engaging than most Lyman games; there are definitely pros and cons of the "40x" multipliers, but I have not seen a game encourage you to play as "badly" as SW does (with repeated shots to a standup 3 bank, shots to the tie fighter standup followed by pushing the button, trying to move your multipliers around while still making shots and keeping your multiplier going...).

What has Lyman EVER done like that? Lyman has done some great code, but SW seems great in its own ways.

There may be bugs in SW (I haven't seen anything that I know to be SW bug, I have had a few weird drains that I thought were due to switches malfunctioning on a route game I play...).

1:20 to 1:30 in the new Head to Head podcast sheds some light on the GB code and Dwight's intentions. Long story short, "Are you a god" wasn't supposed to be there in GB. Dwight now will have time to work on old code issues on his games once he is done with Munsters, because Stern now has 9 internal coders and 3 outside coders. Dwight is the last lead programmer to come off a project after all these new hires have come on, so he will have a lot of time to revisit code like Lyman has been able to do.

That's great news, and it makes sense to gradually give everybody some time to finish his games.

Your point seems to be you'll never be happy unless the code is done how you specifically want it. Many of Stern's games could never get updated again and be perfectly awesome as is, but people would still complain for an update, that's not needed.

about LOOPIN SUPERS in GB :

Thank you and thanks Dwight for doing the interview!

Below are some notes I took regarding Ghostbusters

1. Highest item on Dwight's list for Ghostbusters is to do something about the game being too messy, said too many things stack. Would like to see Loopin Supers played on it's own and not stacked with other modes, should be a moment type mode to get to

2. Library insert - was never intended to be a feature or mode (used as indicator to shoot for in Librian mode) but will now get it's own little rule

3. Are you a God? - First off Dwight said yes he is (good answer lol), never meant to be part of 1.0, putting Are You a God on instruction card was a mistake, doesn't know if it will happen...

4. We Came We Saw - could be more polished, should be worth more and be more interesting

Dwight also went into how he will have more time after Munsters to work on other stuff. He said that it took Stern a long time to get to where they are at today. Mentioned how working on Spike revisions impacted code updates and how George Gomez has worked on hiring more programmers. According to Dwight Stern now has 9 in house programmers and 3 external. Programming staff used to be spread too thin but now is better. Finally he mentioned that programmers now get time after a release to work on other stuff and that he will get that time after Munsters.

Thanks FPunch, Was there any info on GOT update?

Dwight mentioned he has done unreleased fixes for bugs to GoT, but said he could not guarantee/promise there would be another GoT update.

STOP TELLING ME TO GET CLOSER, I HAVE THE CHECK PERFECTLY FRAMED

On topic and more serious, anyone who doubts Dwight's passion for pinball should read his blog. It will quickly become clear that it's not an issue:

http://mypinballblog.blogspot.com

What a silly way to defend Stern. It appears that you're arguing that they don't need to complete their products as long as they are functional. Imagine an iron maiden album cover where Eddie's face is Grey and not colored because the artist didn't get around to finishing it. But wait, the album sounds great, so the art doesn't matter, right? Do you not assume that you will get complete animations when you buy a pinball machine that clearly involves a good profit margin for the seller? Or have expectations sunk this low?

i may misunderstand, or even more, my explanations were simply not clear (sry for that, i'm not english natural speaker)
seems we're on the same boat here, i'm NOT happy by the actual situation of the GB (that's mostly why i sold it)

Not my point at all, you missed it . People forever claimed ACDC wasn't done, it is. It is done and awesome. People want this or that tweaked, while nice, not needed. It's like so many expect "DLC" for stern games lol

He better do something with this game. Final season is right around the corner and would be a fitting end for both if it was completed. DO IT!!!!

Except for that "Oi Mania" thing, which does absolutely nothing when you're awarded it, unless the goal of Oi Mania is absolutely nothing, then finito.

But my original point was that Stern will never finish the animations in imdn. It's a shame that they have a history of not finishing even important things on their pins. It's great that they finished acdc in your mind, and maybe you consider partial shading and no color on some animations complete, but I would guess most, me included, would not. If you are completely happy with an incomplete product, that's great. I wish I could convince myself to be.

Curious, what animations aren't finished on imdn specifically?

I would guess most, me included, have no idea WTF you're talking about.

AC/DC is not done.

There will be another update to fix 'oi mania' and hopefully a surprise or two!

If the shading and some coloring on animations is your beef you'll be fine. Even if they do add this shading I imagine you'll want it done differently and still not consider it done. IMDN is still a top 3 coded stern at this point.

I appreciate you offering my opinion for me, but incomplete and complete are different. I have't offered any complaints about any completed portions of the game. Read my review of the game if you think I whine about things. The thread is about incomplete code and incomplete games and I merely mentioned this issue as one of MANY things Stern leaves incomplete. I still have the game and love it. My point is that it is disappointing that the company leaves things incomplete so often that we can assume that they are never going to get to many them, especially the smaller issues. Don't like my example? Choose another. Don't like me? Choose another pinsider. My argument isn't unique.

So if AYAG isn’t going to ever be in the game what is the current wizard mode for GB? I haven’t played it in a while so I’m asking out of curiosity and being a massive GB fan.

Don't take it personal man. I've been on pinside long enough to see lots of people nitpick over some super tiny stern detail codewise. Shading in one of the animations that I still haven't seen pointed out just seems super silly to me. I really want to go fire up my game and look for this animation with no shading.

"We are ready to believe you." is the wizard mode for completing all 9 modes. It is a deep enough wizard mode that it is a real accomplishment to make it, and many will never see it. I say this having never made it myself (stupid ballroom). If I am remembering correctly the bug is currently buggy and there is a good chance your game will crash.

I've done 7 of the 9 modes on my machine. I don't get to play it very much because it's on location. I have all of my games set to 1 extra ball and don't even remember what the factory limit is. If I had it set to factory extra balls I bet myself and a few of my regulars would have been there.

That said, I thought Are You a God was the mode for finishing the ladders. Seems like a fitting enough name. If it's "Believe" instead, what might the criteria be for Are You a God? All ladder modes and play Mass Hysteria? I was going to add Storage Facility MB to the list, but if you play Mass Hysteria I'd have a hard time seeing that happening without SFMB.

I just moved this game back to my main location and am very excited for it to be there. Where it used to be was not someplace I was able to get to more than once a month normally (unless going for a repair as well) where I'm at my main location once a week for a tournament. Looking forward to getting a lot more plays on this one. I've been hitting the right ramp a lot more recently, so finishing Gozer and Ballroom more often.

Are You A God could be awarded after WARTBY if you complete all the modes in the ladders. As it sits right now, you can time some of the harder ones out and still get to WARTBY. I want to see Are You A God in the game, but honestly WARTBY is very lackluster right now for a wizard mode. I would hope they improve it before adding another mode on top of it.

Ballroom and Gozer are really hard to complete. Lots of shots to do it and it doesn't help when you only get 30 seconds per mode to do it. You almost have to do it over multiple balls unless all your shots are perfect.

I think Gozer has one too many sequences. I had to get to it several times before I learned which shots add to the payoff, and which ones progress you through the mode. I have to say, I've been stonewalled by the Gozer target to the let of the pops plenty of times. I'm typically quite content if I can stay alive through the mode and it times out if I don't finish. That way I can either try to light modes again, or if I drain I have Stay Puft lit on the plunge. If the multipliers weren't such a huge factor, Stay Puft being lit would almost serve as a "you win" mode.

My buddy was joking at the last tournament. "My goal is to turn on 6X and just throw it into the pops. With how bad everyone is playing tonight, I'll probably win." Some games that was very true.

I've been there a few times, but never completed or crashed it.

no.

Right as long as you "stay alive" till the mode counts down it will move you on to the next one when you light it from the Ghost targets or on a future skill shot. That is how a lot of people get through those two modes because they are long. Maybe for Are You A God you have to complete them all, you would basically be a god if you could do it as the game sits.

Gozer is right ramp then Gozer shot, then right orbit, left ramp and left orbit in any order then another Gozer shot. Plus, you have opportunities to increase the shot value during the mode with other shots if you have a second or two to spare. That's a lot of work for 30 seconds even if you hit all the shots first time.

Well, now there's an idea for Are You A God. If you start all the modes, but time out just one you will get to Believe. If you finish all of them, you instead do Are You A God. Whatever the mode actually is, you could say AYAG is worth full value per shot. Believe would be reduced by 1/9 depending on how many modes you timed out.

You start the mode.. Gozer asks if you are a God.. A sound sample of Dwight proclaims - YES!. Game Over.

can we talk about T3 ? as may be we will get an update there
there're some bugs already knew from time, but not sure i've read something about the "add grenade" in the MYSTERY list
i suppose D. was initialy thinking of putting "grenades" in the game, working as a "smart bomb" with the pistol trigger !?

Finish the codes Dwight C'mon you slacker !!!

I love the Munsters look , the art is perfect but since he's on the software i will wait a few years and see if he delivers .

Why Stern Whyyy give Dwight another game while is last games needs lots of more love....

Lyman would have been prefect for Munsters .

Seems that Munsters code is shallow or basic enough for Dwight to say it’s finished after 1.0 and be correct. This is not going to be Star Wars.

He needs to polish GOT please.

got gb and munsters he's alone coding
but Sw he was with Waison Cheng same on lotr he was with keith johnson

looks like he needs to be helped by someone or he becomes a lazy bum

I have a feeling he does what his employers tell him and pay him to do...

that's why i will not buy a game he is on .

We really don’t know who is coding or helping, but I would think that Lyman being a world class player, he loves to refine. Seems to bug him when something it unfinished, an exploit or flaw.

There are few like that.

Dwight makes very fun games. I think most of this hate is overblown.

I really want to see Dwight knock it out of the park with the coming Ghostbusters update. It's not Dwight's fault for why Ghosbusters isn't finished, if you want to put blame anywhere place it on Stern management who at Expo 2018 admitted that they had to have Dwight on another game even though it meant Ghostbusters code would be delayed. Still...it's been 26 months since the last update.

With that being said on the Head2Head pinball podcast Dwight mentioned that after Munsters is complete he will have time to work on other items. He mentioned that other programmers have had time to work on other game code as they recently rolled off a project. Once Munsters is complete I would fully expect for Stern to have Dwight working on a massive code update for Ghostbusters...that's the hope at least.

the concern in that interview is he felt it was basically finished with only a few bugs, BUT if he updated and knocked it out of the park along with making Munsters awesome Stern and Dwight can only benefit. Hopefully it will come soon as 26 months is a joke.

How does code updates for aging product align with a business model and or get approved by leadership? No one on planet earth gives a crap about code updates for GB or GOT besides existing owners who have already paid for their game. There is zero return for stern if they invest in the time for Dwight (or anyone) to focus on older sold-thru product. Lyman is probably the exception who seemingly does updates on his personal time for stuff like Metallica. I am sure stern loves that! But to actually intentionally pay staff money and divert their resources from current upcoming projects that are actually supporting the business, that’s an uphill battle.

While I agree to a point there is no direct benefit, you have to think of the indirect benefits Stern gets by making current owners happy. With the sheer amount of competition (now and upcoming), and the new focus on the mod/accessory and "lifestyle" business, it is more important than ever to keep their current fan base happy. If you are happy with your current games, you are more likely to buy future titles, not to mention put some sweet side rails on and wear a hoodie with their name on it. That is a LOT of value to Stern with how their business model is evolving.