So Stern Pinball is the biggest pinball company in the world. Yet, pinballs in general are hard to find at modern arcades (at least here in Australia). You will usually see one pinball if that, and the rest are classic arcade games or redemption-style games. It's usually in the pubs where you will see large collections of pins.

I also know in the US that the big arcade-chains like Dave and Buster's don't currently take Pinballs on because they are probably too expensive, hard to maintain and leave a big footprint.

I remember Bally/Williams used to create some Pinball-redemption games like Addams Family Values and so forth. With redemption games being the big hit with kids today (like it or not), I'm surprised that Stern hasn't tried to make stripped-down pinball-style redemption games on location.

This could be an alternative to their Home editions of games, whereas the redemption style-games would get the kids at the arcades, and then slightly-more featured versions made into Home editions to be sold at big-box stores. The kids would recognise the games from the arcades and would have more of a connection.

The simpler-style redemption games would be simple to make as just two flippers, a pop bumper or two and some gobble holes (and maybe stand-up targets) would be all that is needed as the intent is to get tickets or redemption points. They would also require minimal maintenance as there are much less things that can break.

I know JJP tried putting redemption ticket dispensers on some of their games, but those are too complex and deep for kids to play. I'm talking about games like Midway's Ticket Tac Toe (see picture).

What do you think? Do you think this would help get kids back into pinball in redemption arcades and maybe open the door for full-featured pinball machines to get back into places like Dave and Busters?

ticket (resized).jpg

Thanks everyone, I had no idea Stern they made any!

I do wonder why they don't make any more.

As for redemption games being a cancer, yeah I'm not a big fan of them either, but they are popular and I would rather play a pin-style one than a one-press button game.

Ah I totally forgot about Kooky Carnival.

How do you play it? Does it have flippers?

I forgot how lovely pinside is haha

Stern as a company needs to continue making profit in order to stay in business, they know that this current gold-age for Pinball is not for the long haul and they need to use these good market conditions to take some risks to make some inroads into other demographics.

I'm not saying redemption games is the only way to do it, I just highlighted that they were indeed popular (again, I don't care for them myself) and it might get them into big name arcade chains like Dave and Buster's to which they are not currently in. This would not affect their cornerstone pinball titles because that is their bread and butter and they make too much money on those.

But this is why they are still trying out projects like The Pin and Home Editions, because they know they have to get the younger crowds into pinball. If they don't they could be at risk of making budget games like Sharkey's Shootout again or worse, shutting down like they almost did a decade ago.

Yeesh, its such a Boomer thing to complain about things that don't actually affect you or aren't even marketed and manufactured with you in mind.

"Why the hell would anyone that likes pinball want or even think about this out loud?"

There, fixed it for ya.

Also its not like Pinball was ever used for anything other than home-use entertainment...

Flint (resized).jpg

addam (resized).jpg

malibu (resized).jpg

oz (resized).jpg

There can be only one! Haha