Dialed In bro...cost less than your BM66 did too!

Listen, Batman 66 owner...you be quiet. Star Wars has released two films in the last 18 months that have killed it at the box office. The New York Philharmonic is playing the entire score with 4 Star Wars films while the film is playing in the background. It's still a HUGE part of pop culture, so this pin is truly mirroring what's important in pop culture now.

But purple Batman in tights? Not so much.

You are the one that bought BM66.

To prevent this thread from becoming just a discussion about the new star wars pin, any discussions specific to the new star wars pin should be directed here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-announces-star-wars-pinball/

@o-din, what would you suggest for a hip new theme that would appeal to the current pinball demographic?

Same Old, Same Old

The second you bought BM66, this broken record you constantly repeat was rendered NULL and VOID.

Find some other windmill to tilt on.

Social media fights!!!!

Modern theme...

There's nothing new under the sun. We have come too far and no new original ideas are left. We must go back to go forward. We must devolve.

Devolve (resized).png

Come on buddy, you're just going to piss a bunch of people off and work yourself into frustration. Eventually Nimble is going to have to step in and convince you to take a break. If this is just a ploy to get him to take you to El Fartolitos just let him know.

Yep , sounds like he crying out for a burrito

I enjoy your posts O-din, but your complaining about themes is about a stale as the themes you are complaining about. Plus it's not really accurate. Just looking at stern recent several titles you see a nice mix of throw back themes and modern stuff from today's pop culture and media.

SW (old theme, at least has new movies out)
AS (old band but still making music and relevant)
BM66 (old but you loved the theme and bought one)
GB (old movie, I agree with you on this one)
GOT (new theme, completely relevant)
KISS (old, not real relevant)
WWE (still current even if you hate it, relevant)
WNBJM (cool theme, who hates melons?)
TWD (completely relevant)
IM (new movies, completely relevant)
Mustang (just a bad theme all around)
ST (new movies, completely relevant)
MET (still going strong, relevant)
AV (new movies, relevant)

Old money buys old themes.

Didn't exclude myself from my own comment.

Yes, but when pinball reflected pop culture it was aimed at teens/20 something's that ate up that stuff.
Arcades no longer exist
That demographic isinterested in other things
Manufacturers also churned out more product. . 10 games per year, you don't like a theme, wait amonthand anew game comes out

Times change

New themes:
Snowflake Parade
Deadly Weekend(Chicago theme)
Road Rage
Facebook n Friends
Who Dat?
Babies Daddy
Not My President

Hahahaha, man... hilarious list Vdojaq.

Actually, the first licensed pinball was 1960's Gottlieb "Wagon Train" featuring the star of the show Ward Bond on the playfield.

It is only sad if you find current culture engaging. I don't.

Mainstream movies mostly stink today. Music totally blows. The only thing that feels exciting to me is TV. Been lots of good unique TV the past 15 years.

Like Stern's new machines?

Isn't that exactly what Dialed In's phone theme does?

It's called nostalgia. One of the biggest parts of pinball for me is nostalgia factor. Old classic themes have that in spades.

Themes like Star Wars, Star Trek, Batman, Indiana Jones, Flash Gordon, Terminator & even old action movies (eg. Demolition Man, Judge Dredd) all hold a special place in my memories growing up. This makes them far more suitable (to me) for a pinball machine theme. Since pinball is primarily a Gen X hobby, it makes sense that manufactures are appealing to their largest market.

Themes like The Hunger Games, Twilight, Maze Runner, Divergent and whatever else teens watch these days, just don't do it for me. I'm sure the above mentioned properties are equivalent to Star Wars and Star Trek in the minds of Millennials, but as pinball themes are a thumbs down for me.

With that being said, there is a big number of new themes ripe for pinball (lots of Marvel & DC stuff that no doubt will translate to pinball really well) Just nostalgia is a big part of pinball.

I would rather have new "in-house" fantasy/sci-fi themes then just current movie/comic pinballs.

Where are the games like Swords of Fury 2? Arena 2? Dungeons & Dragons 2? High Speed 3? feels like they had better imagination back in the day.

funny, I am just glad there are so many pinball machines being made! up to me if I want to buy them or not.

I think we upset one already.....

I'd love to see newer, more adventurous licenses, but millennials are way, way poorer than baby boomer collectors so that's unlikely to happen. Still, there are plenty of great licenses that are still fresh right now, and stuff coming up that'd be terrific and timely. The boat's already sailed on Stranger Things, unless season two is a hit, but Black Mirror, Silicon Valley, Steven Universe, American Gods, Rick and Morty, and Archer are all still floating around in the cultural consciousness. And there's loads of good movies coming soon that they could jump on, as well. Baby Driver, for example, or Atomic Blonde, or Ready Player One, which I hate but would make a great pin. Or a modern music pin - synthpop is huge right now, get Chromatics to score a pin, or the Gorillaz. It's not like we're wanting for options.

Ummm yeah,
I'm going to have to call a big fat "B.S." on that one buddy...

How about a "Married With Children" pinball? There could be some great audio callouts with this theme!

Well the old themes are selling and selling very good. After all who has the extra cash to buy these expensive toys? I would say most people from there late 30s on up. Why do most people buy pins? Because they played them when growing up. What themes will appeal to them? Themes from---------------- when they were growing up. Keep in mind I'm talking about the majority of pin owners. Yeah I know there are many people just getting into the hobby but you got to go where the cash flows.

Lol,
I'm sure many people (and a few mods) on here would love for me to do just that when you start soundbombing O-Din's infinite looping this-is-what's-wrong-with-NEW-pinball top 40...errr...make that 80.
(Now hosted by Noone! )

Music-wise, sure you are up on the latest alt rock stuff, I'll give you that.
Butt,
Pretty much everything else we jabber on about/care about, ends up being an unaired episode of...

IMG_5804 (resized).JPG

Don't worry Spicoli, you'll always be my Ralph Story!

Now let's log off, go get that burrito and possibly some "old-timey" bowling afterwards. At least the girls in the surrounding lanes will find your views on current culture somewhat interesting.

That's because you already owned all the ones you played as a kid. I'm getting to that point myself. I never played the B/W DMD titles as a kid and now want to play them for as you said new experience. BuT a lot of people are still searching for that one game they remember playing in the arcades.

^
This a thousand times over. New themes, ideas, good interactive toys. Hell, rehash some of the bally classics. Those games had some major originality, just no technological horsepower.

We need an "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" pin. Between Charlie's illiteracy, kitten mittons, Dee being a bird, Frank's various shell corporations, Mac's, up until recently, denial of his sexuality, RumHam, Jersey Shore, the Waitress, Dayman, Nightman, Dayman Musical, dancing your ass off to save the bar, Paddy's Pub, that poor lawyer they harass, offering millions to Joan Bovine Javi to purchase his arena football team, Shadynasty's, toeknifes, piss can, huffing glue and eating catfood to fall asleep at Charlie's, the McPoyle family, Project Badass, Lethal Weapon 5 and 6, Thundergun Express, buying a billboard, prime beefcake, doing crack so that one can collect welfare, Charlie's mom and her job, Mac's mom and her cigarettes, Mac's dad, Charlie needing to be knocked out when leaving Philadelphia, and beating Wade Bogg's beer drinking record, an excellent pinball machine is somewhere in that mess .

I think the reason we see older themes is due to pinball's demographics ... the primary players and purchasers of these machines are mid-late 30s on up. Fortunately, it seems that pinball is catching on with the 20-something crowd, so I do agree, somewhat, that they need newer, fresher themes.

Nailed it. Oh man a Chromatics-scored pin?! I love that band and even I know I'd fall asleep...

Your first sentence nails it. Who's got the money and interest in blowing $5 - 8K on a big heavy light-up flippy machine? Not millennials. I'm a Gen-Xer (I think? I'm 38) and I didn't have the cash to buy one when I was in my 20s and 30s. So they have to come up with themes that please their audience. Another Avengers pin seems like a no brainer (maybe this one will be fun?) or Guardians ... or how about the Muppets ? I would love that

Anyway, there is so much fragmentation in interest, there's no 1 theme that would be a top seller - and they have to sell as many pins as possible, so I think they're sticking with the golden oldies at this point. Alien was (is) a great theme, so is Houdini (not really a Boomer theme either), and I think it is awesome that Jack has the balls to do Dialed In. I am so thrilled about Lawlor's new masterpiece... I just wish I could afford it!!

The goal is to get the right Themes in an Arcade, and people come and change a 10 into quarters and play. Or pay by the Hour,whatever.
The Game Parlor needs to return in a big way,and it can't.

Do you have a source for this info. Ken?

haha

I'd love to see a modern music pin, though, especially something that adds to the barcade ambiance. That was one of the big draws for my non-pinhead friends for PinOut, the cool Chromatics-y music. Something that would be cool would be a "remix" pin, where every shot you make successfully adds to or remixes an aspect of the music (I've always thought this would be a good crossover with Spectrum), so you're hitting target banks to add drum beats, shooting long ramps to add stems, etc.

Yeah the sequel is the best one. Frank Grillo is a bad ass.