As editor of Pinball Magazine I came up with this idea to surprise Robin and Martijn, the founding brothers of Pinside, by showing up with a surprise guest: Gary Stern! 
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More details and pics below.
Quoted from Whysnow:So you are telling me Gary Stern is now on Pinside
I was afraid to ask. 
cool stuff!
I was just joking about Gary being on Pinside. We all know that would never happen and we have already heard 'the talk' so probably not much to add. Now get some of the designers and coders on here and that would be something to talk about!
Quoted from Rensh:Gary stern is in NL?
+1 
I've been planning this for the past two weeks. There will be a full 'making of' article on the Pinball Magazine website soon. And it was fun! Gary had a great time and so did everybody else. We first had dinner at Robin's place where his wife cooked a delicious lasagna. Great dinner conversation. After that Gary went to play some pinball in Robin's game room. Then we moved to The Koog, which is the shared game room of Robin, Martijn, Egbert and Udo. Only a few people got a hint that they might want to attend and those who did certainly were glad they did. Some had to leave early, others later and eventually we ended up with Helen de Haan - Verbeek, Robin, Martijn, Gary and me hanging out with Gary doing most of the talking. Think of it as a personal Q&A with no time limit Very interesting stuff. Robin had great questions for Gary too. When we finally left I brought Gary to his hotel and he'll leave for London in a few hours.
I have to thank Gary for being so cooperative on this initiative and Robin as well for canceling his original plans. It would have been a bit sour if Gary ha showed up and he would not have been there... More pics coming up.
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Martij (left) and Robin (right) listen to Gary talk pinball during dinner at Robin's place.
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Playing some Star Trek Pro
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Group photo at the Koog game room. Gary played all of the Data East and Sega games that were present as he hadn't in a while.
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Gary talks, everybody else listens
I have a question. How good of a player is Gary. Does he have some skills. I have always wondered and have always wanted to meet him and play a game with him. He is truly a pinball legend and hopefully someday I will get the privilege and honor in meeting him. Good Stuff Guys(:
Quoted from pinmister:I have a question. How good of a player is Gary. Does he have some skills. I have always wondered and have always wanted to meet him and play a game with him. He is truly a pinball legend and hopefully someday I will get the privilege and honor in meeting him. Good Stuff Guys(:
I bet Lyman lets him win the Stern employee tournaments...
Quoted from dmesserly:I bet Lyman lets him win the Stern employee tournaments...
HaHa-Number one rule of successful businessman or employee-"Make Your Boss Look Good."
Quoted from pinmister:I have a question. How good of a player is Gary. Does he have some skills. I have always wondered and have always wanted to meet him and play a game with him. He is truly a pinball legend and hopefully someday I will get the privilege and honor in meeting him.
Gary will be the first to say he's a terrible player, or as he often says: representing the drunk player. I played him on Spiderman last night and he didn't do well. However, it seemed to that he can easily improve his skills if he would practice some pinball basics, like catching the ball and such. He said he would ask Lyman for some tricks
What a great surprise to get to meet Gary! I was distracted by a game on a pin when he came in, and didn't realize it was him at first. So it took a while for the penny to drop. I feel ashamed! 
Lots of nice stories, and fun facts about the pins in De Koog. Gary is a really nice guy!
What a great evening
Something tells me listening to Gary talk at dinner is eerily similar to any of his expo talks 
.
Growing up in the factory, Harry Williams, his dad, and keep going to the quarter mile of wire.
Great photos and times. I like how the kitchen/dining area has the look of an Ikea showroom 
Since bucket list was mentioned above; I recall the day I met Bill O'Donnell (Sr.) I was 16, I went up to him and introduced myself and put my hand out and he actually shook it and talked to me for a bit. I believe his was the first millionaire's hand I shook. Back when a million bucks was really something.
Quoted from frolic:Something tells me listening to Gary talk at dinner is eerily similar to any of his expo talks
Growing up in the factory, Harry Williams, his dad, and keep going to the quarter mile of wire.
Oh no! Everyone seems to think that, but this was not my experience. Sure, there was lots of reminiscing about the old days (but only when I asked him about fun things like the backstory on TYFFASI). But Gary has opinions about just about everything in pinball and even stuff on Pinside. He finds a lot of the speculation on here pretty funny. What's even cooler is that he's also a good listener and was very interested in what Martijn and I had to say. Can you believe that?
Quoted from MrBally:Great photos and times. I like how the kitchen/dining area has the look of an Ikea showroom
Haha, not really. Only the plates, wine glasses and mirror in the pic are Ikea. However, If you would swivel around 90 degrees and look at our kitchen it's 80% IKEA
Quoted from MrBally:Since bucket list was mentioned above; I recall the day I met Bill O'Donnell (Sr.) I was 16, I went up to him and introduced myself and put my hand out and he actually shook it and talked to me for a bit. I believe his was the first Millionaire's hand I shook. Back when a million bucks was really something.
Wait, are you saying Gary is a millionaire? Oh no, there's so much more I could have asked him 
Quoted from koen12344:What a great surprise to get to meet Gary! I was distracted by a game on a pin when he came in, and didn't realize it was him at first. So it took a while for the penny to drop. I feel ashamed!
Lots of nice stories, and fun facts about the pins in De Koog. Gary is a really nice guy!
What a great evening
We will not hold it against you, Koen!
Quoted from robin:Haha, not really. Only the plates, wine glasses and mirror in the pic are Ikea. However, If you would swivel around 90 degrees and look at our kitchen it's 80% IKEA
Believe it or not, the lamp shade over the table is why I mentioned it since it reminds me of the HEKTAR lamp that IKEA sells here in North America. I first saw it last week at the store by my house.
For me, the real takeaway from this is how aware Gary & the rest of Stern Pinball are aware and lurking on Pinside. He made mention during a recent talk that they are not deaf to the criticism out there. I'm concluding from all of this that the decisions they make are far more complicated than we understand.
Gary.... my advice to you is PLEASE COMMUNICATE with us better. If software takes longer than we expect, if there are problems that have come up, have someone explain that. The "radio silence" is not working. Thanks for reading, Gary .
Quoted from MrBally:Back when a million bucks was really something.
Truly spoken like someone with too much money. 
(I have no idea. Just seemed like an odd thing to tack on..)
Quoted from robin:What's even cooler is that he's also a good listener and was very interested in what Martijn and I had to say. Can you believe that?
Tell Us more.
Quoted from frolic:For me, the real takeaway from this is how aware Gary & the rest of Stern Pinball are aware and lurking on Pinside.
+1
Quoted from scooter:Tell Us more
Indeed, I've love to hear more of what was discussed.
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