Doesn't get any better than that! Have fun, need updates

I make no promises, but I'll do what I can!

Where is the pic of the laser emitter and the close up of the vuk

Ya out of all the pics posted(which I'm grateful for) I would mainly like to see those two

Everyone keeps quoting 799 made. The total number is correct..BUT... 400 went overseas and those machines won't be converted back for U.S play. That leaves 400 for U.S, and North America. I'm not saying its going to be a met frenzy, but I forsee these drying up NIB sooner than later. You might be able to pick up a HUO version if someone needs to move a pin for financial reasons or to pick up a different pin or pins etc.

PLEASE pardon these pics. I actually had a really nice camera ready for this exact moment. When I got back to the hotel I saw that my camera was in the wrong mode and was not opening enough to get light in. ALL of my high res pics of the game did not come out exposed. Still, I maniputaled them as best I could in photo shop, which had produced a grainy result. Still, I think you can see everything I mention.

The only thing we dont know at this point is WHAT the "laser projector" looks like, if there is a lens of some kind, etc. From what I could see with my naked eye, there is an opening in the apron that allows light to pass out of it. Behind the apron I could see a large mechanical wheel. Perhaps there are small openings on this wheel that make the stars... who can know for sure?

Anyways, here are some pics.

LASER STLE.jpgVUK 2.jpgVUK.jpg

That's your opinion. And mine. But it doesn't change the fact that a Pro with fiber ramps isn't a LE. It doesn't have true code intergration, drop targets, the moving recognizer, DP Mulitball (heh), and the "upgraded" playfield artwork. And it doesn't change the fact that people ARE paying 3000 extra to get it.

My wife told me today she wants STEE, Tron LE, Metallica Pro, and STTNG in our living room. I said fine, but it's going to be a modded Tron Pro, because the difference between that and the Tron LE will completely pay for Metallica Pro. Not that we can afford all these games, but just to illustrate a point.

I've heard some people pay quite a lot for DP with multiballs.

Just saying ...

rd.

That is one beautiful pin! Can't wait to see it in person.

Man these are great! thanks for posting them A+ reporting from the show and thank you again! if you have any other picts post um.

So is the LE at the expo?

Nope!

Bummer. Well I'm not there anyway

I wonder how many people got that joke. LOL

So, uh, on a game that has been criticized for being a near clone of the Spider-man layout, they decide to remove one of the few unique differentiating design features... and replace it with the exact same style of flat loop VUK that has only ever been used before on - get this - Spider-man?

Sometimes I think my jokes fly over the heads of some Pinsiders.

Good to see a couple of people picked it up.

rd.

its in sttng too and other games.

I see what you're talking about in STTNG, but those are essentially completely enclosed boxes and I don't really relate them so much with the "open" SM (and ST) VUK "slinger" design... like I wouldn't relate the STTNG or SM/ST styles with a standard wireform VUK, even though they do the same thing.

Regardless, it's not exactly something new on Steve's part.

And what does the VUK actually do differently - or how does it add value for Premium/LE buyers - when compared to the Pro's saucer kickout?

im an le buyer and could care less as long as there are wire form ramps im good

Newb Q - what is a VUK?

Vertical UpKicker. Its where the ball shoots up into the smaller-like curly metal habi-trail thingies.

I'd like to know, appears the answr is "feeds the metal ramp to left flipper". really nothing?

Sending it back to the left flipper really does nothing much in reality but SR said in that little factory blurb that "now all shots can be linked to combos" (paraphrasing badly) when asked about the VUK.

So perhaps he is saying that now a shot to the VUK will continue a combo streak as it will be "fed" back to the left flipper. I know... big deal right? Still it means there will at least be another code update to accommodate this.

Ya it's a bummer the vuk doesn't launch to the warp ramp; but it will still flow better than the pro. The kickback vuk on the pro doesn't always go to the inlanes and its just not as smooth as a web slinger. Not a big difference but better flow is always better right?

And we keep forgetting what else Steve added to his design...the color changing led 'shields' indicator on the apron. Now that looks bad ass. But as always, it will come down to code. I hope they're allowed to spend a good year on STs code like Lyman did for ACDC.

I was surprised to see you own an SM so I thought you'd like this design since its so cool on SM, but that's not the vibe I'm getting from you. Instead I'm getting this weird vibe that your scared ST will be better than SM. I can't speak for the LE, but the pro is definitely better. May want to sell SM now before its too late!

I got it loud and clear, in both holes.

Well played Wolfman!

rd

SM is the best,ST could even be better!

Search through my posts. You will find that I have never yet sold a pinball, and the first one of mine to go will be BDK, not BSM. So resale value of my collection is not a concern (now I may have pegged your point wrong there, but I'm not sure why else I would be "scared").

My *problem* is Star Trek is one of my absolute favorite themes, and I can't say that about very many Stern games. (Otherwise I would own more.) I was expecting something great in the layout department from Steve after 20 friggin' months development time, and instead he phoned it in and created a near clone of SM (seriously, overlay the schematics from one on top of the other and it's indisputable).

No one with a small collection like mine can afford to have two games with the same basic layout. So yeah, I'm pissed about that, because I expected more. And then he adds a SM-style slinger to replace one of the very few unique design ideas? Geez.

Perhaps I'm just a bit grumpy right now. So many new pins coming out... and I don't feel like any of them actually want my money!

so much truth here for me it hurts.

Funny. The layouts are the same but it feels a lot different. One of my buddies that doesn't really care for SM, loved ST. But I see your point. The layouts are similar.
A big difference I note is the ST is about 10x faster. I maybe over exaggerating but the venom shot from right flipper is slow and the ST warp ramp fires right back at you.

Have you looked at any videos (pro and LE) or read the reviews? Looks to play, feel, and look nothing like SM. but I respect your judgement as it is very viable. Time will tell once you get to play it. I love what Steve did to ST. No actors on the pf; looks like a pin you would see inside the Star Trek universe; its got all sorts of interactive moments (lighting, fire button, away team, vengeance, shields, laser power, Etc...). One last piece missing, code code code...will they deliver or fall flat yet again.

I wonder if the new placement of the left asteroid will block the players view of the WARP ramp?? If so then there is no need for the chase lights.

Also on LOTR.

I just noticed that in Bakushan's pictures above the left asteroid is in a different position in both pics. Have they decided where to put it??

Why? They usually don't play the same. I have MB, MM and AFM. Similar fan layout. They really don't play very similar, especially AFM.

I have yet to read a review by anyone familiar with both ST and SM say that they play or feel the same.

I think if you take away the theming elements from both (art, lights, audio, dots), they would end up feeling very similar as whitewoods. Same number of shots. Almost the exact same shot location. Same three-flipper arrangement with the *exact* same side ramp shot angle. This isn't just the old argument of one fan design looking like another, this is actually SM's layout with some adjustments. With the unlimited creativity that can be expressed in pinball designs, in a 4 game collection there's no room (in my opinion) for two games that offer nearly identical challenges.

Is ST's layout better than SM? Very likely - I know when I revise something, it typically gets better. Like the change to the behind-the-upper-flipper-shot, which was originally created for SM but done too late to enter production. And if I didn't already have SM, I really wouldn't care one iota about the similarities. But I do own that game, and since SM is a very recent title and also very popular design, doing what essentially amounts to a re-theming this soon seems... cheap. Even lazy.

This is, of course, merely my opinion, based on the unfortunate coincidence of already owning a great game that happens to have been the basis for another game featuring a theme in my top five all-time favorites. So, I reserve the right to be personally disappointed!

Thank god they're not both whitewoods.

I understand where you are coming from for sure.

But as you can see from my collection, I personally don't get bothered by having similar PF designs in my collection, as long as the game plays great, has interesting rules, and a good theme.

I can't believe that SR didn't put the pop bumpers right in front of the flippers on the playfield.

I've said this many times, but pop bumpers are so boring. Where is the creativity? Invent something new for Christ's sake!

Pop bumpers defines pinball. But you want new...

Color changing inserts and GI
Interactive lighting outside and inside cabinet
Star field lasers

I hope they start producing new pins without them... this way I can stop f-in buying them and save for retirement!

Their were Pop Bumpers before their were flippers.
I love it when the ball gets caught up in a Pop Bumper frenzy

Yep... there is nothing better than having your balls bouncing around in a frenzy!

OK. You gotta think outside the box. Pinball is about the ball getting rocketed around, I agree. but the same old round bumpers arranged in threes on every machine? C'mon!

Imagine a Outlane you could shoot up that was extra wide and had slightly angled slingshots on both sides going all the way up and the goal was to get the ball by nudging, to a ball accelerator at the top that would send the ball down the other side of the machine at break neck speed.

How about a rotating scoop? You shoot it and it catches the ball at playfield level and spins. Flipper button triggers a fire of the ball like a cannon.

how about a cannon mechanism where the goal is to fire into a second cannon etc.. Zig zag up the playfield.

When will they give the player control over magnets as a shield or whatever?

Pinball design is ridiculously conservative is my point. I have a hundred more ideas.

I think Oz is onto something here!

Oz, were you hanging out with Python this weekend?

Look at P3

Um, Steve Ritchie in ~1980 in Black Knight, and repeated many times since then.

Apply to a company, start your own, or develop prototypes in your garage just for fun (that's how Lawlor got his start, so don't think I'm being abusive). Ideas are cheap, implementing them in a commercially successful way is HARD.

The way things have been going at Stern the team will be lucky to get one dog year to finish the code... What the heck is up with the slew of unfinished or poorly finished games lately?

Ironically Avengers is the least appealing in terms of play and physical polish (just my opinion, and the opinion of many others...) is the only one in the last while to have had reasonable code soon after release...