I tried it. It was nice and felt the volume was fine but I just have no need for it.

Using headphones depends on your setup. For my house they are a must. Not only do the games sound better and bring out subtle differences you can't hear without them, but my game room is right next to my den, so it helps tremendously with people trying to watch TV in the next room.

I did not watch it. Is there more man hours in a pinball machine then a Ford Taurus?

That's good to know.

The one I tried must have been defective.

I would love the option of using headphones at my local arcade! I actually waited to try out ST until the people on the surrounding machines were done playing so I could play ST and hear everything that was going on.

As being the person who PUT the armband on Gary, he requested it himself, as he did just a few hours ago so he can receive the hotel benefits offered by all attendees who have it. Any other questions.....

I think you will see this happening in the next 12-14 months and agree that it is necessary.

Place them in those kids shows on Nick. Show One Direction playing them.

Is there another one?

I think you will see this from both Stern and JJP.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a machine sitting on the set of one of the late night network shows in the near future.

If they could get a slot on TV to show a celeb a few shots. Get some celeb endorsements. That could flip the whole business model. I saw a picture of slash from guns and roses with his wozle. Stuff like that.
In fact on the stern website they should have that Star Trek actor Karl in a big pic next to his Star Trek le and then a big blog post about it - interview about his love of pinball.

Whoever does their website needs re-assigning.

I used headphones for the first time a year or so ago. I was at a place that had a half a dozen Pinnovators conversions on both BW and Stern pins. I was amazed at the difference. I heard fidelities and nuances on pins that I didn't hear before. That coupled with the blocking of outside noise made a big difference in the playing enjoyment to me. I would love to see headphone jacks on everything made from now on. The price of NIB stuff has jumped quite substantially over the past couple of years. There must be room somewhere in those budgets to add a jack.

I would never wear headphones for on location play.

Some players wear headphones while playing the location WOZLE at Town Hall in College park, MD.

Might be good if you explained why.

The armband gave 25% discount on food at the hotel, and he ate lunch right before going on.

Gary was super friendly, hanging around the event the entire weekend chatting with everyone and playing games. It isn't the first time I've heard him talk, and while it almost appeared he was to ramble with is slant on alcohol, in the end he presented one of the most lucid explanations of the state of the pinball economy that I've heard, and that includes pages long threads on forums.

Centering his talk on alcohol with pre-70's anecdotes of alcohol+pinball and modern barcades tells us things haven't changed that much (perhaps implying the 80's arcades were an aberration?). His standard emphasis of the very tight demographic of his customers (30's-50's white males) is true, and the demographic for EMs has aged out because the collectibility of pinball machines is centered around what people played when they were young. He played pinball in bars as a kid, and he's seeing young women playing games in barcades today. It's positive to think the demographic is expanding, but overall the message appears to be accurate... without public games, there will be no new blood into the hobby to keep demand and values up when today's core demographic ages out. Jack agrees with this view 100%, and we see efforts like Heighway Pinball designing games for operators.

In the mean time, the collectors are the bread and butter, and Gary acknowledged that collectors are partially responsible for barcades, filling the gaps that operators left behind.

Yea unfortunately Gary was not in the mood to deal with tough questions, and I think the audience knew asking them would get the standard brush-off. As mentioned earlier in this thread, Gary doesn't really know what's going on in the software group, but he did hire one more developer, so that's a positive action by him. I'm thinking any editorials we have as customers on past games need to be directed more toward the software group, who needs to in turn justify to Gary the time they need to finish things off. At this point it is a reflection of the individual software guys as much as the company, so if Waison, Lyman and co want to have their names attached to incomplete games, that will just hurt their own reputations.

Gary hung out with us and played pinball. He was back at SPF on Sunday playing pinball and taking in some of the tournament finals. Very cool. He was playing a lot of the EMs.

It's simple, I'm never going to be out in public, with my back turned to the room concentrating on something, wearing a pair of headphones that ensure I have absolutely no idea what's going on in the environment around me. Never, ever going to happen. Headphones for on location play is a total non-starter for me. I doubt I'm alone.

same for me. as a matter of fact , I dont understand how people walk around in public with headphones on. crossing a street and not being able to hear is very questionable. then, of course, I have it in my genes to always watch my back. I also always sit with my back to the wall at a restaurant. Its something my uncle vinny taught me early! lol

Where did the STLE gameplay go? I'm not seeing it on Papa TV's Twitch channel?