The two home editions you saw are not full sized pinball machines. You are probably best to try a Metallica Pro or Iron Man Vault Edition to get the feel of what a modern Stern feels like for around $4700 delivered new in box.

I see you are in Illinois. You could go to the factory and take a tour and they would likely let you play a few modern games.

http://www.sternpinball.com/contact

Home editions have not been well received. Look at Stern's website at the Pro And LE models on their website under Games, Archive. These might be more of what you are looking for.
IMHO, Stern is producing way better games than in the past. Check out Metallica, Walking Dead, ACDC, Star Trek, Kiss and Game of Thrones

You played bad examples. I'm surprised you found a place that actually had those in stock.

Find a dealer with some of Stern's current commercial offerings and you'll be pleasantly surprised...

Yay! Kaneda is back! Woohooo!

You opinion is not shared by the majority. Please continue with your research.

A new Stern pinball machine is better than no pinball machine.

I'm guessing you didn't read his post closely. He's talking about "The Pin". His opinion IS shared by the majority when talking about "The Pin".

This is what you saw:

http://www.vendingtimes.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=EB79A487112B48A296B38C81345C8C7F&nm=Vending+Features&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=1AD2754B87B14A9B9CF1E01E3C4B2BCC

Like TomGWI said home editions have not been well received. Also the Avengers and Transformers pro pins are not the higher rated Stern pins. Both Metallica and the Walking Dead pro and premium machines have done well and have great code.

You should try to reach out to other Pinsiders around you...Maybe Peoria or Bloomington. They may be able to point you in the right direction of places to play or possibly invite you to play their collections. Your welcome at my place, but I am a long drive from you.

https://pinside.com/pinball/map

Stern games are fun and all, but can they beat the '96 Bulls?

Yep, you could tell just from the title of the thread.

The 2016 Warriors are making a pretty good run.

"Can they beat the '96 Bulls" is becoming pretty big on the interwebs. Pretty much every comment section (sports or non-sports related) has it. Pretty funny, actually.

Unfortunately there are very few distributors that have stores where you can try out pinball machines. Your best bet is to find a game on location or maybe a local hobbyist would invite you over to play a few games.

Bulls were a lot of fun to watch....Bulls win, they had Rodman

Stern's website lists all of their current games. There are several listed. Not sure what the confusion is.

Um where are you getting these titles nib delivered for 4.7k??

Welcome back to pinball.

Stern's real modern games are very highly regarded. Next time your are in Chicago, you should stop by Logan Arcade or Headquarters Lakeview to try out some of Stern's recent games.

Funny enough, had you played the full versions of Transformers or The Avengers, you would probably still would have been disappointed. Those games are dogs. But yeah, they're even worse in the stripped down versions.

Is the pin maps website still around? If so, you can see location pins near your house you can play.

yup. dude gets you to click though as much as you are gritting your teeth while doing so...

Possibly change the heading of the thread - sounds a bit trollish, hence the comparisons to resident trolls.

You just happened to pick the worst Stern releases in history as your first point of contact with Stern. They are not a representation of a Stern pin (more an abomination). Stern should buy them back from the retailer and destroy them as they do more harm than good.

There must be a barcade or dealer where you can try some "real" Sterns?

Mind readers

Also, the key to enjoying a game and not just mindlessly pushing flipper buttons is to have an understanding of it's scoring objectives. Also, there are sooooo many solid games for less than 3k right here from Pinsiders.

You're in Fairbury, IL... not too far from Chicago... should be a lot of chances to try out newer better Sterns either in an barcade setting or distributor.

Like the others said, those are not full size, commercial pins. Stern produces 3-4 real pins a year. I had a bias against them at first but eventually discovered they have created some great pins. Some not so great but to each their own. Rules are a lot deeper than older pins so great for the home. Just know that any new pin typically comes with early code and can take a long, long time to get updates. Stern also makes different models of a pin - Limited Edition, Premium, and Pro. The pro is the base model and premium/le come with higher-end features. For the cost of something like an Addams Family, you can get a brand new pro with a deeper ruleset and money left over for mods.

Take a 2 hour drive to chicago and then finds some nice places to play... Or maybe some pinsiders who invite you into their home. A well titled topic would help draw in the offers for either of those options.

Note: for location plan -- Pinball Map (http://pinballmap.com/chicago) lists 187 locations and 459 machines in the wild... I'm sure some people on here could point out the best places to play (well maintained, good selection) and might even join up with you to play.

Welcome to Pinside! There are a lot of great modern Stern games.

http://www.sternpinball.com/games

They are actively producing 9 different games and have a dozen or so recent (last 5 years) titles that are great fun. The Pin, was not their shining moment among collectors here on Pinside. It was an attempt at reaching a new market and didn't go over very well.

Good hunting!

hellcat_(resized).jpg

Addams still does it for me! Beware on the newer Sterns, often the software may not be completed for a very very long time. Stern has made some decent games for sure.

I agree this is suspicious. He includes the "sarcasm" icon in his reply. I've been here for years and I still haven't figured out how to do that. Not a noob move, imho. Dupe acct for some reason I don't understand?

LOL @ that license plate

"... not that there's anything wrong with that" – Seinfeld.

^^^ Really? It's incredibly difficult

Trying to figure out the hidden meaning of the account name.... I would have guessed podcazter or something like that

I think he's talking about whether the OP is Kaneda or not.

There is nothing wrong with the home edition Sterns.

They were not designed for hardcore pinheads.

They were designed to be UPS shippable.

They come with an in-home warranty, so a non-pinhead housewife can own it.

The regular "Pro" versions of Stern games only come with a 90 day warranty on the circuit boards and displays (and you still have to service those parts yourself).

Same mechs for the flippers, the pops and drop targets.

Same "Spike" kind of MPU with the LED lamps to light the backbox.

Lodemia is next to Fairbury in Illinois. I think this is probably just Kaneda's long-lost brother, separated at birth. There's gotta be more than one like him on the planet.

Welcome to Pinside - lodemia. As is said here, those home edition games aren't really the same as what existed back in the day. They were an experiment to see about creating lower cost versions of games for home-use. Stern puts out some much nicer stuff. See if you can find a Game of Thrones, Walking Dead or a Star Trek around town to play. They have many-many great titles that will all exceed your experience with those home-version samples but these are titles that likely to be on location somewhere around you right now.

Good Luck!

I like the Pin. I'd buy one if the price was reasonable...you could put one in many places you can't put a full size machine. I wish they were 2k NIB...id get one for certain.

LOL, Fairbury, the arm pit of Illinois. I swear the people there live in another world.

*frequently refreshing to spot new threads of a dubious nature*

That WTB Rocky plastics topic is suspicious, amirite?

The only reason I'm underwhelmed by the new Stern's is because they haven't really produced a game with a licensed theme I could really get onboard with. I think the games are great, but the themes for me are "meh" at best. I keep hoping for the rebirth of games with original themes, but those days are gone forever, over a long time ago...