I grew up with The Munsters and love the theme, but I'd have to play it first. It could be super fun and funny, or it could be GB-linear or SW-mathchess with Dwight at the helm.

For me it's completeness & concept. When Lyman's games are unfinished, you can still see the concept forming...and for me, I always like Lyman's approach to game design. I haven't gelled with Dwight's game design concepts since he came back to Stern.

Not sure about the rest of the country, but in Chicago The Munsters was on every day in syndication in the early 80's. I watched it every day along with The Monkees & Lost In Space.

I was aware of Svengoolie but didn't really pay much attention to it. Bozo the Clown was a real Chicago staple, though! Friggin' 10+ year wait for tickets!!!!

They've tried rebooting it so many times and it never works...there was a TV movie with Edward Hermann as Herman in the 90's, the Wayans were working on a movie version that ultimately didn't get made, there's the Mockingbird Lane pilot that tried to make them more serious and dramatic....just let it go - it was what it was and it was a perfect element of its time.

Addams Family was an old B&W sitcom...then became a smash movie and the #1 selling pin of all time. Spooky-Funny has always worked well for pinball...if done right, this game could be “Stern’s Addams”.

I’m just saying - Spooky campy comedy works for pinball. Not saying the game will be good or sell well...just saying it has potential to have the same vibe, and that’s a vibe people find entertaining.

You’re still doing your “I hate comedy” schtick? It’s not funny.

Well, old white men buy pinball, so it will probably sell fine to home owners. I think it will be appealing on location, too, even if people don't know the theme well...they'll see funny monster people and give it a shot.

Dwight’s track record of Linearbusters, Game of Math, and Math Wars puts me in a solid “wait and play first” category.

They always have multiple games on the line...nothing is really ever competing with other games. More titles = more possible sales from different demographics. Deadpool will be in production for 3 years, so doubt they’d delay a game due to sales of another. If people want Deadpool they’ll want Deadpool. If they want Munsters they’ll want Munsters.

Finally.

Cool story, bro. What a joyless life...

Well that's not true. Every model has an LCD, and the SE and LE have a giant color LCD that blows away anything Stern's done with their iPad screen.

It's OK, but it's still a small and oddly proportioned screen. Wide aspect ratio is so much more preferable for pinball. Clips are clips, they're not new art/design like MBr. B66 is prob the best Stern LCD so far...none of them have quite nailed a style or format that works or feels polished or modern.

They literally all have LCD displays.

Addams was a game changer. No Game had a mode structure leading to a wizard mode like that before. No game incorporated movie content & custom dialog like that before. No Game had hidden magnets that F’d with the ball before, or a game controlled flipper, or a mysterious toy reveal like Thing...or or or - the game was full of fun and surprises, and almost every game after it used it as a template.

You’re rewriting history a bit. In 2010/11 Stern had scaled down so much, their only designer was Borg. Their only programmer was Lonnie w/ Lyman helping a bit as freelance. Collectors HATED Stern games of this era. They hated Iron Man. They thought Tron was a joke. They didn’t get popular until later when people realized they were fun. Even low run LE’s like Stones & Avatar sold slowly & are said to not have been finished their production runs.

Stern brought back Steve Ritchie for AC/DC as a counter to JJP’s announcement of the company & WOZ. Stern didn’t have a real resurgence until AC/DC became a massive unexpected hit. The collector hype from AC/DC & Tron LE’a value spike led to LE’s selling well to speculators and flippers, even if the games were bad. Even those sales booms weren’t a real representation of the pinball resurgence, which really started a bit later with a mix of marketing, better themes/art, pop culture, nostalgia, streamers, tournaments and barcades.

That is true, but your facts and timeline are wrong.

Says who? Forum posts don’t have time limits for responses. I don’t live on Pinside anymore lol....I’m not likely to participate as though it’s a live chat. I was enjoying time with loved ones last nite.

Once again, you’re wrong. Sowwy.

Not entirely true. There are still long delays for code. Batman 66 has taken years to get close to complete. Kiss just got an update. GB owners keep wondering out loud.

As for quality, while Stern has had ups and downs, none of my SAM era Sterns ever had splitting cabinets, insert problems like GB’s initial run had, or soft crater mush playfields.

HYPEY THE ---ing HYPE GRANDHYPER PINBALL HYPER is about to hype it!

Even though I think the B&W should be the LE and not the Premium, it could look really cool. I think people forget that the GI & inserts will introduce tons of color into the gameplay. We'll just have to see how it looks in action to truly judge what a B&W modern pin might look like.

It sucks in color!

Perhaps there’s a language barrier here....let me try something else: A BOBBALEE BOBO, ABOBBALEE BO.

Awful game, total waste of a great license. Munsters won’t have a bad fake voice problem.

Having to fix horrible sound packages on $6000-$9000 games....bullshit.

Off topic posting is against the rules!

Let’s only speak of the wonderful Munster family!!!

I think they all look great but I am LOVING the B&W version the most. It looks clean & classy, true to the license, and I like how the color splashes come from the LED lighting vs. the "artificial color" of the color versions. I think the art of the characters & composition of the translite/cab are the best of the bunch.

Good reveal!

I love the laugh track! Feels like you're playing a 60's sitcom!

I think it's the best thing they've ever done, it makes me happy! Laugh track is pushing me toward a purchase!

Not even remotely. Bobalee Bobo sucks cuz it's a bad voice actor imitating Rooker horribly. Munsters had a laugh track. It fits the theme perfectly.

I keep noticing more excellent touches. Love the xylophone sound that goes with the left ramp shot...it's like the ball action is scored live. Perfect!!!!

FGY has a metal ball, NOT plastic. If you played one with plastic, the owner changed it.

It has color. From the lighting....and on some text & toys. Looks incredible!

That was the right move. Sound perfect to me.

It doesn’t look dull at all. It’s extremely sharp. And if you look at the Color versions, they sorta look like he did it in B/W first then colored it to look like colorized B/W film.

FG only uses two buttons, but you play upper and lower at the same time for Stewie Multiball. The extra set of buttons is the only thing I'm scratching my head about on this game....doesn't seem like it needs them, but I guess we'll see if there's a real gameplay reason for it.

You see vibrant, I see "busy". Resolution has nothing to do with vibrancy. You can watch beautifully shot B&W movies on a 4KTV. Light, shadow and cinematography can be gorgeous in black and white. Just depends on the artist. Anyway - I think all 3 versions look great. Glad there are options for all tastes.

Pro tomorrow.

Think about how it will look during gameplay with colors shooting out of the inserts and flashers, colored light playing off of the toys, plastics, etc. It's going to be really beautiful in action.

There are little colors peppered throughout, like the text...I personally appreciate some color coding in inserts. Herman's inserts are green (and he's a lock which is traditionally green), Lily is orange, Spot is red, Grandpa is purple, etc. I think clarity is sometimes better than the ability to be ANY color. Some inserts are clear, so those will be multi-colored...and hopefully with just a few being clear, color changes won't be confusing like they can be on some "anything can be any color" games.

The cabinet has green logos. The playfield has color text, inserts, and lights. The clips on the LCD are B&W with some subtle mostly monochrome color. It all works together quite well - it’s not going to feel out of place at all.

There are only a few hundred between Super LE & LE, and Premium didn’t sell at all while the code was in shambles. I’m sure it picked up recently with better code..but with that roll out and no Pro, it’s impossible that it’s sold more than the top sellers: TSPP, LOTR, AC/DC, Metallica, GB. It probably didn’t sell as many as lesser sellers like the original Batman Dark Knight.

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LAUGH TRACK FOREVER!!!!!

I watched 5 Munsters episodes last nite...non-stop laugh track...it's part of the experience & the pin captures it perfectly.

It's similar to other comedy TV show games....no real story, just enjoy the iconic characters & their scenarios through pinball gameplay.

Unlike movies, sitcoms generally don't have a story arc...but they have memorable music, characters, one liners, and situations. That's what they have to work with...they have 70 episodes of a 55 year old show to work with, it's not like they can script something new. I noticed the Hurry Up was "Herman is late to work"...so, it'll be like that. Each little area will have snippets of "story" based on the characters.

No “Hello Nurse” in the reboot. It’s not the 90’s anymore.

Search Deadflip on YouTube. He uploads them all there after the Twitch stream.

Sonic Pinball would actually kinda make sense...since he's often rolled into a ball, moving super fast, and traveling on loops & corkscrews. It would translate to pinball well. They could even ship it with blue balls!

"Depth" as a guarantee of fun is a myth. "Shallow" as a critique without context is lazy. Game design (code) must match playfield design. Play the game first, see if it all works together. The initial complaints about Iron Man and Tron were "it's shallow" ...then they became mega hits, because the code design gelled perfectly with the playfield.

I mean, sometimes depth works. For a trilogy like LOTR or Hobbit, depth makes sense and I love it on those games....but I also love games like Tron and IM.

I get the feeling that the B&W Prem is going over very well. People seem to be cancelling LEs cuz they like it better. Head2Head's poll indicates people like it better. 181 votes, 35% for LE & 65% for Prem!

LE can still sell out with more people prefering the Premium. LE taps out at 500. Prem only has to sell more than 500 to show that more people like it.

Layout similarity is irrelevant when playfield designs don't exist in a vacuum. They all have massively different rules, which makes the rhyme and reason for everything you do completely different, and thus the game feels different - not to mention any slight differences in geometry will make the ball react in drastically different ways. Critiquing a game for a similar layout without any other context is the laziest of pinball critique.

Yes, Dwight explained the combos in the Premium game stream. I don't remember all the details offhand, but there's a combo meter on the bottom of the LCD.

If you’re upset at the thought of more people being able to enjoy a thing, time to re-evaluate your perspective on life.

If it was well into production & people had plaques that said 500, that would be shitty. The game hasn’t gone into production yet, and the info from Stern always says “subject to change”. So, it’s changed. Very slightly. It’s still the same game with the trim and bonuses that buyers are theoretically buying it for. A few more of them won’t change any buyer’s experience with it. If resale is a worry, I don’t think 500 vs. 600 will make a bit of difference.

Yup, and when they get bored and sell it for the next "fix", I'll be there to swoop it up cheaper...bwhahahaha!!!

Set the game up harder if it's an issue.

They always set up games super hard, so....shouldn't be an issue.

Iron Man & Tron have relatively simple "wizard" modes to get to...no one cares, they're super fun.

It's literally the reason Stern can stay in business. Instant sales at an inflated price up front from wealthy pin maniacs who've never played it. You cannot get those sales without an LE concept. Without LE, people can just wait. When people wait, nothing is on the line. If nothing's on the line, you're wasting money. Those first sales are out of the way & most likely cover all production costs...so all Pro and Prem sales after that are pure profit. If the game is a bomb and post-LE sales aren't great - they're onto the next game & still selling the other games that are in production. Love it or hate it, it's precisely why we still have Stern Pinball.

Where do you get that number from? 500 x $9000 = $4,500,000. Even if only half of that goes to Stern after BOM, distrib cut, etc....

That defeats the point of marketing a limited product to people who don't want to miss out on getting one. The right number plus the right hype = SALES without questioning the price, quality, or even if it's a good game.

Sure some people might buy Premiums at launch, but there's no incentive. Easy to say "I'll wait and see". The second word gets out that a game sucks or has issues or bad code, Prem/Pro sales stall....but you'll always have people who have to get the LE if the number is low enough...and those people will pay a super high price without a care.

Yup, and that was due to AC/DC LEs gaining so much value, so they figured the demand would be there for Steve Ritchie hype.

Remember, in 2010 the ONLY designer was Borg and the ONLY programmer was Lonnie (with Lyman working freelance). Today they're in a bigger building with TONS of staff. Why? Constant flow of $$$$$$$$$$. The 3-tier structure with LE's that usually sell out up front is what has allowed for that. People used to WAIT & play games first. Then maybe buy if they like them. For $3500. Now they buy them for $9000 before they ever touch them. That consistent guaranteed income (then the following income from Pro/Premium sales for as long as popularity keeps them selling), then repeat with the next launch is what allows them to exist with the amount of employees they have now. Without this marketing strategy, they'd be closer to what they were like in 2010 or perhaps gone.

That's true, but everyone who loves Pinball Arcade doesn't spend $9000 on games they've never played. Only LE hype marketing & those susceptible to it is what moves those machines.

That's Munsters for me! I'm still waiting though! It helps that the Premium package is my favorite, but I'll never buy a launch hype LE ever again.

That's you. There are a lot of younger people who didn't experience the golden age of pinball for real. The Pinball Arcade is how they discovered the classics, and is part of the recent pinball popularity uptick.

Well, at the time, here's why IM didn't sell:
-People considered it an Austin Powers retheme with less stuff
-No traditional modes when that's what people expected in games
-No price drop to reflect the "cheapness" of the BOM - buyers resented such a stripped down game selling for the same price as previous packed games.

It took YEARS for Iron Man to finally be appreciated for what it was: FUN. Then it started to sell. Stern can't wait for a game to make a reputation...they need sales up front. That's why we've got LE's now.

Actually TF didn't sell out...those things sat in warehouses forever and were drastically price slashed to finally move them out. There definitely were pre-release hype sales (me lol) ...but it fizzled quickly due to design issues, code issues, and TF fans hated the fake Optimus voice.

That IS cheap and ruins the game. Happened to me on SW. Poor design and/or build standards. IM’s magnet causing a drain is different. That’s based on the risk you take by hitting Monger straight on. Monger “attacking” back is a feature. A scoop kicking down the drain is a defect.

To some extent. Usually games are designed in a way that the scoop will always shoot to the right spot. There shouldn’t be any variation in the design & build...yet a lot of recent games have had STDM issues from scoops or saucers. When many units of the same title have that as a consistent problem, that’s something that wasn’t quite tested and tweaked before mass production

300 BIB LE
200 LTBR LE

Luci was a Premium, never an LE. Stern has never released another LE after the initial run of LEs, only Premiums have had art variations like Metallica "Monsters" Prem, TWD "Fish Tank" Prem, Spider-Man "Premium Vault".

Every pinball machine has a "main theme" loop, that then changes to different music for different modes. This is no different and I find it so strange that this gets brought up every time a game with iconic music comes out. It's just like any other pinball machine, except music that matches the theme...which is GOOD. If a Munsters game DIDN'T have this music, I'd never consider buying it. If you're a big Munsters fan, I can't imagine you'd find the music anything but perfect.

Lyman created pure art with Met Prem/LE’s color GI FX. No one else has been able to touch it.

Yes, I hated it and cancelled my order. It’s just color bomb blasting & is a great example of less is more...none of the subtlety and nuance Lyman put into Met. I was gonna get MBRLE & sell my original, but after playing & hating the clown puke color show, I decided to keep my original.

No, Munsters only has white and green. Tastefully done. MBR is overkill. It dilutes the games natural color scheme and color coding in a full wash of color non-stop. Now, to the game’s credit, you can change it back to the standard light show - but I have that already, so I just wanted to stick to what I had. Plus after being used to how an original feels, I really didn’t like how the remake felt to play in comparison. Scoop was shooting STDM, too...never happens on the original.

For the record I have a MMrLE, so I’m not anti-remake at all. If I didn’t have a MB already, I’m sure I’d be happy with a MBr.

Again - I have an MMr.

Again - I pre-ordered MBrLE and was going to sell my original.

Please absorb the facts before slinging insults.

It's not over the top at all. The color has meaning and adds a vibe to the mode that it becomes active in. Fade to Black fades to black (well, blue). Fuel looks more firey. Enter Sandman gets all spooky looking, etc. MBR is just a non-stop wash of color...it just lacks focus and seems random.

Literally didn't say anything about this.

Yes, I know that....but then it just turns it into the game I already have. So, decided to just stick with that.

Also it’s based on a horrible movie no one likes....and the rightwingers hate Alex Baldwin. The excellent gameplay wasn’t enough to jack the price up. Aurich’s alt translite made the game more palatable for the Baldwin haters....I feel like it got way more expensive after that.

Monsters Bash (easier wizard mode) is achieved by just playing all the modes and collecting the monsters. Monsters of Rock is achieved by completing all the modes (collecting the instruments). Not sure if Munsters has completion goals for the modes....so they seem different in that respect.

ROTFL WHAAAAT!?!?

I’m dying, this is some next level trolling or something....

Great Borg games: Metallica, Tron, Iron Man, many would say TWD. F*cking X-Men!?!? I mean it’s not as bad as GB, but that’s some bottom of the barrel action as far as Sterns go. I’m dying at the thought of someone willingly playing that game still & listening to Shittybeast’s horrible voice.

Dang, I already forgot about GOTG...yeah, that might be worse than X-Men lol...but, it doesn't have a horrible toy that if not mounted an exact certain way to the millimeter totally ruins the game. I'd put Avatar way up...after IM. It's essentially the same type of game style as Tron and IM. One ramp drops it down a bit, but it's very fun and the rules are a bit better than IM, actually.

Did anyone complain about the bar target on Met Prem/LE? I rather like it...I find the Fuel "bar" satisfying to hit. Many games with individual target banks are coded so hits to any of them do the same thing, so I don't think it's really a big deal.

I'm pretty sure games like Batman and Iron Man, you don't have to hit the exact target to light the exact insert letter...you can hit a target to the side of the one you "should" hit and it'll count it...but I think games that do this then require more precise hits when you have to do it again later.

It's still a shot that's too close to the flippers that gives you an instant multiball. Bad toy + bad rules = something I'm not spending another $100 on lol

From the guy who rated Metallica a 1 & plenty of other excellent games 3 or lower. You absolute hypocrite.

Since Hilton hates great games and loves shitty games, that doesn’t bode well for Munsters. If he likes it, it probably means it’s terrible. Sorry Stern, you’ve got the wrong shill on this game!!!!

I’m not sure what the point of comparing two totally different games is supposed to accomplish.

Code + playfield must work in tandem to create a great game. It can be simple
or deep...those terms in a vacuum don’t mean anything. Iron Man & Tron are super simple but extremely fun and addictive. The playfield/theme/rules all work together. TSPP, LOTR are very deep but also work due to the design/theme integration/rules. I haven’t played Munsters yet, so I can’t say if its simplicity is IM/Tron fun or a bust...but I feel like a lot of people are critiquing based on terms without context & without playing to see if it all works in a cohesive & fun way.

That was the case when Stern released POTC along with the 2nd movie. It was a phenomenon and people loved Depp’s character. The movies now are a joke and people have more negative feelings about them (and Depp) than positive.

Seth MacFarlane plays Roger on American Dad.

Using a lockdown bar button for weird scoring shit is my least favorite trend in pinball ever. It's always convoluted and confusing, and most people who walk up to a game think it's the start button.

The only thing I use it for in AC/DC (besides firing the cannon) is to add-a-ball in multiball...or I just slap it till it runs out when I'm draining my 3rd ball.

Hobbit I use it to pick the skill shot I want, or slap it when it's purple for points.

What does that even mean? “Less code”? I swear, people don’t even know what they’re talking about when it comes to code anymore.

Code = gameplay design. Gameplay is either great or not. Simplicity or depth is irrelevant. Either one on their own don’t make a game fun. Great coding = great game/rules design that works well with physical design & theme. Bally/Williams games are pinball perfection. Always have been. It’s odd to see people who know these games and what they accomplished are now acting like they’re shit. They are the standard all new games have to live up to. There’s no such thing as “less” or “more” code.

Batman was shipped as a prototype that Lyman had barely had any time to work on.

Munsters is exactly the game Dwight wants it to be.

Totally different situations.

Yeah, Lockbar is crinkle/matte & rails are gloss black. Once again Stern proves they really don’t know how to make luxury games...they just know how to charge you for it!!!

Right? 3 hour review to get to another B...lol