Phew, 12 more days of fresh new ideas and someone just not repeating the same thing over and over beating a dead horse

(mod edit. Keep it clean)

Posted this elsewhere but got the call yesterday from distro to pay up said he didn't know exactly when they were shipping but are on the line and is expecting Stern to start collecting funds any day now.

Rotor Dave got OWNED

That's why he doesn't. He sells to everyone, hence multiple price points. I would imagine that many operators would lean towards the pro since it's cheaper, easier to maintain and therefore more of a money maker. Granted there aren't as many arcades as there were 20 years ago so those who used to go out to play will stay at home. Which is why some of the "lite" models will go to consumers too. Not everyone can spend 8 grand on a machine, not matter how much of the designer's true vision is involved. I don't get why you have to put-down the pro model. Spend your money how you want to and don't worry about anyone else.

I'll miss you the most jeffspins12

I don't think we was putting down the Pro model, he was responding to the guy that said "buy the pro and don't look back" and he said buy the Full and don't look back . .

When I did the Stern factory tour last year Gary said that collectors have kept him in business and his people employed as arcades are very niche and do not represent much of his business at all

Rotor Dave said ' pinball machines are made for location use and not for rich dudes ' what an incorrect statement are we in 1990 again ? ?

This isn't necessarily wrong. I think that Gary still focuses more on operators than collectors. Those are his people and who he cares about pleasing. He knows them and has a history with them. Collectors treat him like a rock star, so he tells them what they want. I haven't been around pinball long, and don't know him personally, but what little I've heard him say and what I've seen how his company acts publicly reinforces this impression I have of him.

I think GB is a machine that Gary focused on collectors primarily to capitalize on that license. Just my opinion though.

Pro.. as in 'professional'.. as in 'full time in the industry' aka the Commercial Operator product

Dude.. you really need to do some homework.

Gary is actually 100% the opposite of what you've said. He argued (and still does) that if we don't have location pinball, then pinball becomes a collectable, and as we all die off, so does Pinball. He argues that you need location pinball to keep creating the next generation of hobbyists and people buying based on nostalgia, etc.

Gary has long been a stick in the mud when it comes to acknowledging the importance of the home market.. only in more recent years has he softened his approach and acknowledged that home is a leader in some geographies. It was JJP and the new investors that had Stern to pivot to really try to address the home NIB buyers as a dominate market.

The current tiered product line is the attempt to serve both markets and their needs. The Pro was built from the start to be the Route game.. a product without the bells and whistles that were pushing prices up when Operators were more price sensitive then the luxury home buyers.

Stern was struggling to keep what they thought the price point operators needed... and still try to build games that collectors were begging for (and JJP proved there was a market for at a premium price).

For those who like to see more, just upload some more video/pic of the GB PRO before being totally chromed.

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Here's a video mixing lot of game play, ok that's a really poor game play i know ^^ sorry ^^

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Probably right on that one, Ghostbusters was a huge hit and has remained popular since its release, i doubt there are many players out there that didnt grow up with Ghostbusters, so it has a HUGE nostalgic place for a lot of pinheads I'm sure.

I'm a younger player and I enjoyed Ghostbusters about 10/11 years after its initial release and I remember being entertained and having all the toys as a kid, it's a everlasting licence from generation to generation.

(Edited content)

Gary likes to please as many people as possible, but he definitely has a pecking order in place. He caters to the following in this order:

1. The operator
2. The distributor
3. The home collector

Gary doesn't make all the decisions though. But Gary himself, he is an operator first type of guy.

Then this is why pinball machines will become just a "collectible" in future years, a couple of decades, who knows.

There aren't enough millennials playing pinball on location, and never will be, to support the hobby into the next generation of "hobbyists and people buying on nostalgia"

Then again, I won't really care 20 yrs from now

Watch Gary Stern's talk during SFGE (also in 2013)

You'll see where Gary was still heavily humping his Operators are #1 for the future of pinball message. Jump to 23min mark if you need to skip over his story telling at the start.

And note, this is a very soft message compared to his past lectures.. where prior he would even say Home Buyers are not the first audience.. it was Operators. In the recent years others have forced him to change and change to where we basically are now.. which is they acknowledge based on which Geography you are talking about, Direct to Home sales is the dominate consumer. But Stern is adament that they must still create products for the Operators... and the Pro is intended to be that game.

Yup... and anyone who has listened to him talk over the years has no confusion over this. It wasn't Gary that pivoted their model

I get it man, I do see where you are going with this- I am sure Gary would love to see more operators pop up and see that they are successful. By him wanting to cater to operators first (or at least claim to) this is his business side where he's trying to grow that side of his business, because he knows it isn't making him much money or accounts for much of his revenue. He cannot tell operators they aren't much of his concern anymore, because that would put a nail in the coffin.

I truly believe he does want location pinball to boom - and it just might again, thanks to barcades. But the collectors are keeping him in business, and he has publicly stated that collectors and HOU machines account for 80% of Sterns revenue. He knows he doesnt need to do much to grow the company with collectors, as licenses like Ghostbusters will organically bring business without him even trying much.

But its true that location pinball directly affects Stern's business in the future. They did great in the 90's because location pinball and us young guys popping quarters in the machines and making location owners big $$.

Now we are grown up and the business has shifted- us young guys have money to buy their machines, and they are selling them to big kids who played in the arcades. Without location pinball for kids now, what happens to Stern later? This generation won't grow up to buy pinball machines if they don't have locations for that nostalgia we are looking for now. Kids later on will have memories of Xbox and PS4 online and iPad apps as we stand. You better believe he wants to focus on operators first right now.. and hopes to see a boom and resurgence of location pinball.. so I can agree with you there..

do you have any idea, on how long it took people to convince Gary that collectors mattered? he was all about ops and making games that made money on location. Didnt' give a crap about the home collector market, as they were a very small % to overall sales. It wasn't until other people became partners, that he was forced to cater to the collector market. He might see the light now, but it was an uphill battle the whole time.

I am willing to bet money from collectors and seeing that bank account grow gave him all the convincing he needed.

maybe, but I bet you would be surprised on how many are still bought by ops. Still a huge % of sales to route. And majority are still Euro sales.

I encourage you to seek out all the Gary talks you can find... you will find its very hard to teach an old dog new tricks. The guy was literally BORN into the operator model, and has done it his entire life.

It was this very inability for Gary to acknowledge this market potential that caused the creation of JJP.

They only acknowledge the dominance of direct home buyers in select markets (like the US). In other markets, the split is still very different.

Gary is certainly happy to cash in on LE sales revenues and the higher margin these other product categories are giving him - that doesn't mean he will change what he thinks is the core biz. Pretty sure he'll take this mantra to the grave.

And to the point of this thread tangent... why the Pro is the Operator game.

Luckily he adopted the super priced pin model and using broken light node boards

But... the home/collector/LE/Prem come with coin doors and cash box's

Just got my Pro today and I'm liking it... a lot. A few things to note:
It shipped with Code V 1.05. Anyone else seen this before? Stern's website only lists 1.04.
I've had some airball problems, including some jumps over the outlanes (which gets old fast). Seems like the worst airballs are off of the scaleri bros pop-ups and the standup by the left lane.
Coil power on the flippers on "normal" setting is crazy powerful... I had to dial it down (which helped with some of the airball problems). No problems whatsoever hitting anything even with the coil pulse power set down.. still tons of power. This is the first time I've ever had to set my coil pulse power down (or up, as far as that goes).
Game is just brutal out of the box.. short ball times, crazy outlane drains, and center drains. While I have been resisting bringing in the outlane posts, I just may do it.
Here's a pic!

Greetings Eric! Received my pro yesterday (thanks Curly at Little Shop of Games) mine came with the 1.05 code as well. Have had a few air balls too. That is the only noticeable issue out of the box thus far, other than I suck at it. Best, Charlie

Because some people make their kids pay to play, duh !

Cant they just do that in an Arcade?

It gets better! I sucked so bad at GB the first week or two i had it, so bad that i had almost regretted getting the game because it was so brutal with the airballs and cheap drains and I just wasnt enjoying it. i can report that it is much better now after having broken the game in more (i've had it for a month now). I can get Mass Hysteria nearly every time now when I play, and my typical game lasts 10+ minutes. with scores of 500-900 million. the outlane drains don't seem cheap anymore, and i got a good feel for when to give it a little nudge to reduce the middle drains.

Can you advance through the modes at all or do you still tend to only see "Dog" and "Librarian" ...have you advanced to Marshmallow Man yet?

You will always see dog/librarian/we got one (?) first as they are first in the latter. Unless they add rules for each, the ladder gets harder as you go up so there's no way of randomizing modes.

Gary was at my house a few months ago. He said that the future of pinball is pinball on location. Without location pinball, the hobby will die. Long after home owners lose interest, quit their machines and move onto their next 12 month fascination.

Of course Stern is going to take money that is thrown at them. But they know that when this bubble bursts (and it probably will) they need their bread and butter customers, the operators, to keep the business afloat.

Thanks for your valuable contribution to the hobby.

rd

Yup...n00bs can only get you so far.

Gary of all people should know that pinball collecting isn't a 12 month fascination for most....doesn't he notice that he's been seeing the same people (customers) at shows for decades?

Yes, he doesn't see all the burn outs that jump in for a year and then fizzle.

I don't think that they should randomize the modes. The ladder stuff is cool. It's pretty neat how it rolls automatically from We Got One to the Sedgewick Hotel into He Slimed Me and so on. You still get a choice of which ladder to jump into.

Linear games don't usually get to me, I own a PM, but this is sort of wearing on me just a touch. But I agree it's a progression and happens that way. I just know that rarehero, and many others, had stated he wanted to modes randomized

you will always have to start with Spooked Librarian, Who brought the Dog, and We got one. Personally i've gotten to Back off Man, The Ballroom, and Gozer the Gozerian on each opf the ladders. I havent beaten Back off man or Ball room yet, but close! I rack up all my points from shooting super jackpots, or collecting gear awards from hitting the left ramp over and over. I'm getting better at Gozer Hurry Up, Terror Dogs, and collecting the Scolari Brothers jackpots. hit Left captive balls to light multi ball and just catch a lot of ghosts, and try to do 10% skill shots when you can if you've already got a high score going, or work on those bonus multipliers. Start scenes from skillshots or light them from pop bumper awards instead of chasing slimer away. There are plenty of points to be had without clearing the ladders. Shooting at Slimer alone is not very rewarding, and when i do hit him, i just go for the slimed shots right away to light up the super jackpots. Also, if you can setup playfield multipliers x6 before going into Multi ball, you'll score huge! Also, if you start a scene and dont quite finish it, i believe it lets you pick up where you left off if you happen to start it again later in the game.

Believe it or not, they actually had a model BELOW Pro for Batman: The Dark Knight. It was called "standard" and could actually have been purchased at Costco. Therefore, Pro WAS an upgraded model at one time.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=5583

It would be nice if that was at least an option under adjustments. It certainly would not have to be factory setting.

Put a post between the flippers.

Same as putting $400 in a pile and setting fire to it.

For MET, to get a specific #, you paid like $200 more. For an upcoming title, I have indicated I was 666, if the LE goes that high, which I doubt.

That #2 kiss is for sale. I went to that bar to play it, it's not a very good game. Guy has it listed on this site just reduced. Was gonna buy it till I played it. Also big turnoff that #2 is in a bar. Crazy

I got Metallica LE 66 ... Cause they only made 500 and I couldn't get 666

rd

Yea I doubt IM will get up to 666, and even if so, would probably go to the band, but one could hope!

no it's not. It's like putting $400 into an envelope and sending it to me with the playfield to fix.

I'm drunk

I think for $8 you can get a custom LE badge on ebay

Its not broke, Its designed that way. I played the game and didnt feel like it was a big deal.

I was talking about having to fix it after people decided it was a good idea to put a post between the flippers