Really? I mean, I liked the movies too, but I think people are overstating the theme here. It's a classic, but hardly some pinnacle of incredible ideas. And I definitely wouldn't call the second film a classic at all.

I think there are a lot of fans, and it's got a bit of a timeless aspect to it, a recognizable logo and theme song, all that stuff.

I'm just tired of the "I'm gonna buy it day one just on the mention of the name!" mentality. And Stern doesn't exactly have a sterling track record going right now of instant hits. Game of Thrones is going over like a wet fart right now, and people freaking love that show.

It's fun to speculate, knock yourselves out. But maybe calm down how you hype yourself up, because you're just going to disappoint yourself when the real game doesn't look like what you dreamed up in your head.

They practically made it already!

Hot Doggin

This thread is funny to me, only because people are already so passionate and worked up, and it feels like they've already moved on to the next pin from Stern, that isn't even announced, and might not even be real. (I happen to think it probably is based on what I've heard, but still.)

To me it's less about Ghostbusters, and more about how disappointing people are finding the GOT announcement, so they're already looking past it. That's Pinside though!

I was a kid when Ghostbusters came out. 7 or 8 probably. I had the tshirt, I loved the film, and I watched the Real Ghostbusters Cartoon. I love campy horror pins. It's a good concept.

I'm just not at all convinced that Stern will do it justice. They've dropped the ball so much lately. Honestly they haven't done a great pin IMHO since Metallica. I had a Star Trek, and maybe if I had bought it later instead of early when the code was lame I would have liked it better. But I was utterly tired of it by the time the new code came out, and it didn't fix the fundamental problems anyways.

Mustang and WWE were terrible packages for me. Mustang played okay, but didn't grab me. Can't stand Kiss, and I thought it was bare looking. Still have to play it, but I'd never get one. GOT might be fun, but man, the art is so bad I can't imagine spending real money to actually own it.

Stern is feeling less and less like a company keeping the pinball torch alive, and more and more like the company that's just trying to keep the line running, and isn't willing to back their people in doing things right. I think everyone at Stern is talented, smart, and passionate about pinball. But it's hard to see it lately.

Hey, maybe Zombie Yeti does the art and it's awesome, and the toys are cool, and it's a hit. Or maybe the license cuts the balls off, it's full of bad sound alike actors, and that damn theme song plays all the time.

Or maybe they don't even make it! Little early to be too into it for me.

Good thing I kept reading before giving into my downvote reflex!

Hey, they pulled the bulb and replaced them with a couple LEDs on the corners of a PCB, keep up!

No seems about it, that's it, dead on. Stern is all about the cell in the spreadsheet, nothing else comes close to that.

Hey, commercial company trying to make money, that's fine. But man, they flip us the bird every chance they get. Collectors don't count for shit to them, it's obvious. Reading George Gomez's comments to that guy in the Avengers code thread is just more evidence, man that pissed me off this morning. Your game has bugs, that have existed for years, and you're just gonna tell someone to deal with it because it's your game? Okay. The Thor flasher bug has been fixed for ages, no one can bother to test it and release a code fix? Okay. They don't make money releasing a fix for an old game, so they don't care. Got your cash already, thanks suckers.

It's all about the management. I don't put this on Ritchie, or Lyman, or Lonnie, or anyone. Even the programmers or designers who aren't my favorite as far as their styles etc are all really passionate pinball fans. But Stern the company? Hardly. Bottom line, pump and squeeze. This move the new factory just means the pressure is on to do that more and more. I wonder how we're going to look back on that move.

You guys have fun speculating about Ghostbusters. I hope they make it for you, and it's awesome. Me? Not gonna hold my breath, I'm done with expecting things from Stern, it's just a recipe for being let down. If they make a great game that I want I'll just wait until someone buys it and gets tired of it and sells it to me HUO. First buyers of Stern games are gamblers, no thanks, been there done that, never again.

If they're selling it for more than NIB I have a simple solution, I don't buy it. I don't need any pinball. I have lots of good games already, and there are lots of great games I haven't owned out there still. I don't really care about some new hotness. I don't need to own the latest game, especially when it's from Stern, and buying brand new means you get a shitty half-baked product. For their prices they can keep that.

I see people say "I'm never buying NIB again! Unless it's ... MY DREAM THEME". I just laugh at that. It's like an alcoholic who says "it's only a couple drinks a day, I have it under control". I don't care what the theme is. Keep your half built shit. I know I can buy it used later from someone who can't help but buy it. Go for it guys, who am I to tell you not to? You're my suppliers if I ever want a game later!

AMH?? No.

But we all expected GOT to try and one up Hobbit, with the dragon-focused fantasy themes. I think that's one reason people were so disappointed in the presentation.

I don't get the hate for the female cast. What's the problem? It's not like they're going to use the old cast. Obviously a new film will require new actors. And they're women? So ... ?

Why is an all woman cast a gimmick, but an all male cast isn't?

Ghostbusters is about a group of people who aren't even sure they really believe getting sucked in way over their heads.

And of course saving the day.

They're Everyman characters. Not superspy icons like James Bond.

Anyways, word is the game is old movie. So who cares.

It's a stupid cash in remake of an old movie franchise. I can't even work up any emotion over it one way or the other. If it's good and funny I'll watch it at home probably. There hasn't even been a trailer yet AFAIK, so just seems waaaaay to early to get worked up over it.

I'd feel just as ambivalent over an all male remake. Another remake. Yay.

Companies are just less and less risk averse now. Stick with the tried and true, cash in as best and fast as you can, and keep moving. It's no different than pinball being all licensed titles now. Is what it is.

There are worse movies to reboot than Ghostbusters. Just like Stern was smart to bring back Kiss. I can respect both things, even if I don't really care for either move. But I dislike Kiss, and I was a Ghostbusters fan, so I guess there's at least a chance I win on this one.

Well if you're going to do movie scenes just go hi rez.

I'm just not really sold on movie clips being awesome replacements for proper hand animation.

Hobbit is doing a pretty nice job, easily the best example out so far. Some of it works pretty well too, JP did a great job. Smaug flying up and spinning the gold out into the extra ball (I think) was great.

But for instance, Bilbo walking around reading the contract in his house? Zzzzz.

I look at a game like Metallica, which has IMHO the best dots ever done on a game, and I'd take them over movie clips. And the beauty of that is they're short. Frying Sparky is the longest clip I can think of. Punchy, fast, to the point.

Now I have a ColorDMD, I'm not watching them in red. Give me colored animation, dots or otherwise, and I'm gonna be stoked. Doesn't mean movie clips can't work, I just think they're not a slam dunk.

I dunno, it's a case by case basis. I think of Ghostbusters and there's obviously some good stuff. But it doesn't strike me as enough for a whole pin. I could be wrong! Hell, I'm not at all convinced it's going to have an LCD screen. Gonna just wait and see. Easy enough to judge without even seeing things, but not particularly fair or useful.

My guess is that Ghostbusters is going to be done by the Star Trek / WWE team.

Evidently it wasn't actually hard to do.

Not by much though!

Everything is a rumor until they announce it. Could always be canned before it comes out.

Trudeau got saddled with some shit themes after coming to work at Stern (Mustang and WWE), so hopefully with an actual good license he can shine.

I'm more interested in who's doing the code. It's not Lyman. I presume it's not Dwight Sullivan since he's finishing GOT. So Tanio/Lonnie/Waison, solo or as a team?

It's definitely Trudeau, that's confirmed. He's a designer who tries different things. I respect that, but I don't always dig what he comes up with. Because he's not predictable though there's no reason to judge before you see it.

I do not believe you will see Lyman on this title. Other than that I couldn't say. Stern shipped GoT with real code, will they continue that trend?

Yes, original film.

No. Wouldn't make any sense anyways. New movie, new plot, new characters. Way too much work.

The art leaked. If you were at Expo you might have seen it, it was never on Pinside to my knowledge. Just like if you were in the right place at the right time you might have seen Alien art that hasn't been made public. Pays to hit the big shows!

Other than that I couldn't speak to it.

Trudeau game. Guessing Waison/Lonnie/Tanio, but I don't know.

It's a cool theme, and will have good art. I'm sure it will be well received. Personally any game that doesn't have Lyman on code from Stern is one that I will take a nice long wait and see attitude with. Been burned before, don't intend to be again. Don't care what the theme is. Art is important. Playfield and music and sounds are big. But code makes a game a keeper or not.

That's just me though. Kiss is selling well with unfinished code, so I guess plenty of people just don't care.

Hey, your money.

If I want to buy a cool game just because it has an awesome theme and art I'll pick up another 1980 era Bally, spend way less, and know that the basic code is intentional and fun.

I'd like to buy another Stern game, still waiting for one I like to come out. Last one I bought was Star Trek, and that ended up being a mistake (I know some people love it, code never worked out for me), so for me at least they haven't done a compelling game since Metallica.

This whole buy it and see how it turns out thing? Pass. No matter what theme. If GOT is the start of shipping games way more finished then great, that will be a big help. But talk is cheap, gotta see actions.

I didn't sell Star Trek until the latest code. Which is starting to look pretty final frankly. Wasn't feeling it. And that's the gamble. Will the "base" code at shipping turn into something more magical. Lyman isn't the only programmer in the world who can do that. But sometimes it feels like it.

I really like the programmer, Brian and I get along. He's a sharp guy. But I'm not the programmer, so honestly it's not my role to speak to.

I love that people are stepping up to support Alien and getting in early. Don't get me wrong. But you'll never see me encouraging it or asking people to do it. Not because I don't have faith or anything, but it's just simply not my style, and I'd feel like a hypocrite saying to people to do it for this one game because I'm involved.

Obviously I want the game to sell well, my payment is in royalties. By all means, buy it! But I'm totally good with the idea of earning support, and if you want to wait to see it first then by all means do so. I haven't even been asking about the LE sales, I have no clue what % are sold already. I don't need to know. My sense is they're doing well and will sell out once we can show things. If you really want one then you might want to pay attention at the very least. But that's up to you to decide.

I'm sure a topper like that will exist. For $500 aftermarket. (I'd add a laughing smiley but I'm serious.)