You guys keep saying 1984 over and over and it's getting a little Orwellian in here!

Concerning the rubbers on the inlane guides. Any possibility the ball comes down the inside inlanes, hits the rubber, and bounces to the other flipper?

That would be cool. Two inlanes per side and a chance to return the ball to either flipper from either ramp. I wouldn't put it past Trudeau. He thinks outside the box. I can't remember if the position of them makes it possible though since the pics keep getting taken down.

Beetlejuice has great toy potential. Imagine a magnet levitating a ball just long enough for a sandworm to emerge from one side of the playfield, grab it and disappear into the other side!

You win. Thread can now be locked.

I predict the new GB will suck. Not because of the all woman (attractive or not) cast, but because like so many movies nowadays, it will be unoriginal. This story was very well done long ago. Advancing the timeline of the franchise would have been a good idea. Maybe a story of passing the torch. I don't think a prequel would work according to the existing story. Even a storyline that ran concurrent to the original film but in a different town or country would have worked out alright. I just really don't feel the need to rewatch a movie I've seen already because of a gender swap.

To be fair, neither of these characters has been retconned into a female. In the case of both, the story is advancing and these are new characters. The woman Thor is only the latest in a list of, I think 4 now, to bear the name and hoist the hammer.

The game looks great. I'll have to look at it closer but the Pro doesn't look all that gimped compared to previous offerings from Stern. All packages are beautiful. The only think I'm puzzled about is the right ramp on the Pro. Looks like the ball goes up the ramp and just smacks that striker plate dead on. There doesn't look to be any flow there. Looks clunky and even with the metal guard, this looks like a high damage area.

Nevermind. After seeing the pics PinB posted, I can see there is a nice curve to that area to route the ball around and down the left ramp.

No spinners? WTF STERN!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding. First time in a long time it doesn't look the Pro is a sacrifice.

Remember how older Bally games had the option to turn off the sling coils? Personally, I feel like these are only going to be active in certain modes. It would be a welcomed change, In my opinion. How long has it been since we've had a variety in sling set-up?

My guess is they prevent an airball from landing there and getting stuck on top of the gate just below as it rolls down.

FWIW, I had two LAHs. This title has three magnets under the playfield, between the slings. Game has a 6 ball multiball and the entire time, those magnets are pulsing. I've never seen any wear in this area. Ever. That puts my fears at ease about that. What concerns me more is how consistent they'll be in "flipping" the ball. Because SDTM drains from these will suck

if it's anything like LAH, or the TZ mini playfield, it will be a lot less violent than traditional slings. IMO that's a good thing.

Not being a huge fan of GB or GOT, I can tell you that the art on GB makes it about 1000% more attractive to me. I've played about 5 games each on GOT Pro and LE and it's fast but there were just no interesting shots on the machine. The lightshow was obnoxious as well, to the point of it being an off-putting distraction. 10 plays was enough for me. Total bore, IMO. I'll have to play GB before commenting on that aspect but it won't take much to be more fun than GOT. Probably won't be as fast, but fast doesn't equal fun for everyone.

Well, damn. I guess I'll have to refrain from posting all of those off topic pics of honeycombs I was going to unload tonight!

Wow, that escalated quickly.

I looked it up too. Didn't get sick, but most of the pics are disturbing and on a computer screen, messed with my eyes. Maybe the strain on the eyes causes the nausea? The natural pics like honeycombs and wasp nests didn't bother me. The stuff photoshopped on people did.

Just fill it with Frank Zappa songs to fuck with people. Tell them it's really the GB soundtrack and see if you can get them to re-watch the movies just to verify!

I thought it looked great with the exception of that right ramp shot. Looked kind of like an orbit shot that goes halfway only to slowly roll back down. Totally kills the flow and point of the ramp as it doesn't even register as a shot and that's lame. I'd prefer to see it come down the left entrance in this case. That alone is a strong case for the Premium/LE model.

the bare metal lane guides are not much of a problem. Metallica has the same setup and it's fairly easy to nudge, you just need a different technique. With a post, you can give a little nudge forward to bounce the ball up. With the metal posts, you just give a little nudge to the side so the ball rolls to the inlane instead of outlane. It's a six dozen of one, half dozen of the other type situation, in my opinion.

I was thinking the same thing about the scoring not being in the code yet. Regardless, it won't change the physics of the shot. A ramp shot that bricks every time and then dribbles down the right side is not going to be a satisfying shot for me. Ever. Especially if it is an important shot that needs to be made often. The game already has several other stop/start opportunities and shots that don't flow, and I like that. But I like speed in ramps to flow.

Personally, I have no problems replacing coil driven moving parts with magnets. Less moving parts means less maintenance and less metal dust in the cab.. Those small magnets replacing traditional diverters really free up space beneath the playfield and can allow for some different ramp physics that you can't pull off with a mechanical diverter. Only a matter of time before there are diverters which can pull the ball up to another level/path instead of just changing direction.