same way I felt about Rolling Stones.

I have played two of them now. I love the music, but the songs change so rapidly that it give me a headache. I do like the voice that tells you what to shoot at next. Any amateur can walk up to this machine and catch on to it's rule set as if it was an integrated tutorial, and even the playfield targets light up to assist the player to succeed. Also, a brand new machine is so "Kieth Stone Smooth"... the ball just glides gracefully like a deer jumping a fence.

Q. The ball behaves erratically near the flipper drain. Is there a magnet there?

Biggest waste of a pinball cabinet EVER! Ugly as heck, cheap too, and plays like a clunky hollow P,O,S. Those Zizzle pinball machines play better and look better quality. The Worst looking plastics and playfield in pinball history. The DMD amimations are terrible and seem unfinished. Art, if you could call it that...absolutely horrible, I mean HORRIBLE! Sounds are ok, but I agree about the music changing way too fast, makes it annoying. I would rather have my teeth drilled than ever play it again. I am going to the shop that has it on display this Friday. I am going to cringe when I walk in the front door. I hate it that much, but I love pinball. Thats what makes that "pin" so WRONG!

Sympathy for the Devil ???

Gosh Erak, we are going to hurt Steve Richie's feelings, and risk losing our pinside Karma. But, I too have a problem with the artwork. All of the late model Stern machines tend to remind me of a Chrysler PT Cruiser that has been "wrapped" in company logo art like Red Bull or Skoal. It's not really art, it's "clip art". For Steve R's sake, I would say that I'd rather play RS than visit my dentist... (my dentist won't take quarters anyway).

But Steve Ritchie isn't responsible for Rolling Stones? In fact, Rolling Stones is what happened after Steve left, right?

On a side note, you are using the abbreviation RS for Rolling Stones, but that is for Road Show. I don't think Stern Rolling Stones has an abbreviation.

I did not know that Steve Richie left Stern... what was his last game? I am a new pinhead. I incorrectly use RS for Rolling stone.

Steve Ritchie was designing Avatar when he suddenly left Stern. Well, in fact he wasn't "at Stern" at the time, because he was working from his own company Steve Ritchie Design.

He has now been hired as an employee (as has Lyman Sheats been yesterday) and will be working on upcoming titles. Rolling Stones was not a Steve Ritchie design.

As for the abbreviations. No worries but if you notice your abbreviations are being pointed to the wrong machine you may reconsider using that to avoid confusion. You can also prefix any abbreviation with an underscore character to avoid it being picked up by the auto-linking system. Otherwise people will be confused

On a side note, you are using the abbreviation RS for Rolling Stones, but that is for Road Show. I don't think Stern Rolling Stones has an abbreviation.

Rolling stones does have an abbreviation it is "P.O.S"

On RGP, I frequently see TRS being used for the new The Rolling Stones pin. I think this is a good abbreviation because the Bally version has "Rolling Stones" on the backglass and cabinet, no "The" anywhere.

I actually traded out my IM and Avatar for The Stones. All three games are very similar, but the stones plays better than these two games. Flame suit on and have a bucket of water and a fire extinguisher next to me!

The Stones has Great Music, very fast gameplay, smooth ramp shots. Reminds me of GNR and Elvis. Now I like musical pins. I have a Tommy, Elvis. GNR and now Stones. See where I am going with this. Hoping for Metallica of OZZY pin one day

Long live Rock n Roll

HaHaHa, erak! Now if I can only get you to channel your anger into making me a sweet 'Army of Darkness' out of a MM! Fingers crossed..
I will even throw in an original 'Captain Supermarket' poster as well as the matching Laserdisc! Long live the Bruce!

Hey GAP.. Is that you Lonnie Ropp?

I played TRS at TPF and was underwhelmed. It played ok. Music was very good. There's just nothing on the playfield... it doesn't really do anything cool. Dancing Jagger was ok, but being out there the whole time is a bit much. Don't care for the plastic figures.

Spoke with Steve R. and have high hopes for a return to full-featured pinball at Stern.

-Craig
WOZ #83

Stern has not made a decent pin since spiderman all others that they made are cheaply made pins.

Spent some time on one last night and agree with the consensus, there is some minor fun to be had, but that quickly wears off and becomes bland. Seems like it was actively designed to be easy and comprehendable to the average nonpinhead. Problem was that the replay value just isn't there at all. I mean that center ramp has to be like 4 in wide and the most pointless and unsatisfying ramp ever found in a pinball game. No challenge at all, my first game was 90 million, and I am NOT a highly skilled player.

Oh yeah, Hi to all the pinsiders out there! Newbie here, longtime follower of the site, finally joined up.

Stern has not made a decent pin since spiderman all others that they made are cheaply made pins

Almost true, I also like spidey a lot and was playing it today but in terms of cost it doesn't look expensive to me.

I own and like CSI. I accept that many others don't like it so you may not think it is a decent pin but I don't accept that it is cheaply made. It has a real ball lock, spinning centrifuge, magnets and the attention to detail is admirable. Look at the detailed art and the 3 level slingshots for example. It didn't seem to Help Stern sell many.

I agree with you that there has been a gradual reduction in quality toys though, although some play well as games.

agree with the consensus, there is some minor fun to be had, but that quickly wears off and becomes bland.

I also agree and wouldn't want to own the game but I also think it be good on site. Games like IM, TRS and Avatar are great for a quick competitive blast. On other games like POTc or LOTR ball times are often just to long for a 4 player game in a lunch break.

You know one would kind of figure since the games are cheaper -material /less design, depth = less design hours $ less art dept hours etc etc.
One would expect the price of a new in box pin to also drop yet in the last few years prices have gone up to the $4000 USD and more.
Is it the middle men those who receive the games from the factory and sell them in there zone the ones who keep the prices at the current level or is it across the board ?

Now I like musical pins. I have a Tommy, Elvis. GNR and now Stones. See where I am going with this. Hoping for Metallica of OZZY pin one day

In that case you gotta track this one down. At least for the metal reference:

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=Heavy+Metal+Meltdown&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#1150

I guess I'm in the minority on this one. I HATED it when I first played it. Once I learned the rules however I think it is a solid game. It did take 60-90 minutes of play to finally warm up to it. I would actually look forward to playing one if I saw it.

I don't think I like it enough to buy it, but I liked the rules. Sure it was just shoot a shot to start the mode, then hit the shot some more, but I thought it was easy to follow. I liked the l-i-c-k-s mode, I liked alternating the ramps.

However, the center ramp is WAY too easy. I was talking about how easy it was, and to prove a point I hit it 14 times in a row. I did miss the 15th, but I think that was out of boredom

I like TRS a lot more than Avatar, I think Avatar really sucks, and I don't have enough time on IM.

In terms of theme, I hate sci-fi, so not into IM, I think Avatar is ugly as all hell, and I hate the rolling stones. As games, I give the edge to TRS.

If you don't have a good number of games with this title, I can understand the WTH attitude, but give it another shot and play a while.

@GAP, There is actually a Metallica pin out there. Not mass produced though. It was customized from an Earthshaker but all art, sound ect. had been redone and is a pretty cool machine. I played it at an expo a few years back it was very popular.

Link to video of machine:

Okay, then TRS it is! I have added the abbreviation to the database.

Someone should say to the design team of TRS... "There are worse pins out there... Don't be discouraged!". We need you to continue the tradition of pinball, make us proud.

I played RS as well and I actually thought it was fun. The music is great and the gameplay is smooth and fast. I know there is not much to the playfield but as a whole the game is pretty fun. I would play it on location if I saw it. I liked it better than IM and in some ways better than my Avatar Le. I am still newer to pinball though so that may be a huge part of it.

Rolling Stones does have an abbreviation it is "P.O.S"

Now thats funny

I laughed about the "P.O.S." comment too... I sure hope the guys at Stern aren't reading this!

I played it the other day for a few mins. It seemed cool for a stern.

Like they ever read anything we posted on Faceplant or the their website...this game is proof of that, eh? 90% of us were hoping for TRON (which they're working on now that POS is out), but the general response to this new one was a collective WTF?!?

Quotes from the Players:
(at the tourney)
Deathsave: "Why did they paint Mick wearing that awful yellow shirt?"
LaughingOtter: " Yeah, and Charlie looks like The Mummy!"
DJ Rekles: "I didn't know they recycled the artwork from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein..."
Seagull: "Mick's moving kind of slow these days, isn't he?"

No wonder Jersey Jack is off to a good start. We'll see if Steve Ritchie and Lyman Sheats can save what's left of Stern. That's gonna mean Stern having to almost totally backing off on creative control or Steve Ritchie'll leave. That's not a bad thing, people. Steve Ritchie having creative control, that is...

I laughed about the "P.O.S." comment too... I sure hope the guys at Stern aren't reading this!

I hope the guy's at Stern ARE reading this. Maybe when they see what the fanbase thinks of their terrible games, they will start to change the way they do things right from the drawing board.
Of course, this isn't the first time a Stern pin has been bashed. Some of their pins are alright imo.

Oh, they are! It just was too late for them to turn back. They were "Thelma and Louise" and we were the Grand Canyon and we all know who won on that little excursion...

Well, played it ages ago and was not impressed at all. I know we are in a difficult economic environment but I really dislike the over use of cheap plastics. Bring back metal rails and ramps for a start. I would not pay these prices for a lack of quality. At least competition has forced Stern to change their strategy so hopefully the next couple of years will be interesting.

Stern has made some good pins, but the last few seem to have gotten "cheaper lookin, and like less thought was put into the actual design. Lets just slap some stickers of what ever is current and the people will play and buy attitude needs to stop. And the Rolling Stones? Current? No... would a kid go to the local arcade (if any)and say" Man, I really want to put money in that Rolling Stones pin!"

I can't comprehend what they were thinking, unless it was to design a horrible pin that would ruin a companies reputation and create a loss of revenue? I don't think that the price of this pin in latter years will ever increase in value. I also don't think that many will be produced, I am going to compare it to Lost in Space, Bad licence and less than 1000 made, but the price is still low because it sucks.

Maybe it will do well on the tournament circuit, but only because its the "NEW" thing out. Not because it is good or plays well.

Stern really needs to design their next pin with gameplay and quality in mind. Because I really think they have a flop on their hands with TRS. And another pin along these lines with some stiff competitition on their way will really hurt Stern.

The competition is bringing new life back to pinball and I expect to see some good games come out over the next few years as they fight for market share.

The big big question is....Is there enough market for them both to share?
The market has been shrinking for years now. Sterns days were numbered before Jack even came around.
Some say yes and some say no. I say it's going to be really fun to watch ether way.

If they both run themselves out of business in a shrinking market then......our collections value will rise because of it.

If they both survive....our collections get better.

We win either way.

I think there is enough room for two, possibly three (clutch the pearls!) companies to share the wealth. Hype alone can get you only so far.. Hype with delivered goods that put previous hype to shame- will always get my paycheck every time!! No matter what company is putting it out. Quality is quality!

Besides, my house needs an extra room anyway. Pinball is the perfect excuse!
Win-Win indeed!