Quoted from CrazyLevi:Huh?
Stern's problems history, going back through the DE days.
No top talent for design
Lower quality mechanics
Cabinet paint that flaked off
Low quality art
Spinners that don't spin
Terrible sound
This gradually started to get better with the release of Monopoly. "Code" has NEVER been one of their problems, and still isn't. Your average Stern game today launches with code that surpasses the complete release code of many 90s bally/williams classics. People still don't know what they are complaining about when it comes to Stern code. And they never will.
I'm not sure I agree that code was never a problem. At various times when compared with the competition of the time Stern/Sega/Data East's code was pretty weak.
The small DMD era games had some pretty great art and layouts at the time but the code wasn't very deep when compared with B/W FH, BOP, and T2 in the same period.
DE and Sega games also had this terrible habit of giving players multiballs. Good for new players but it gave them a reputation of being easy.
Stern has turned things around lately with the last couple of releases but are still capable of laying an egg with code. I played Kiss and WWE on release code and they were pretty bare.