I think everyone can agree on this; pins are too damn expensive right now.

You'd think everyone would agree, but there are always those that guys that show up, cheerleading the manufacturers and acting like these current machine prices are fantastic and reasonable.

"You think pinball is expensive? Try collecting airplanes. My 2004 Hawktail Elite cost me $98,000! Pinball is one of the cheapest hobbies ever!"

That's funny because the Hawktail Elite is a piece of crap.

The WoZ got plenty of attention at SPF too - although a slightly different crowd with many more women and young girls playing. They also brought in a 75th red version to make three WoZ in the room. By Sunday I was able to walk up and play many games with little or no lines. It is a fun game, but not my style (to each his own). There is plenty that I like about it and plenty that I don't. I still just don't like the big monitor or the way it was implemented. The backbox looks more like a home brew virtual pin to me than something that comes from a manufacturer. Aside from the full screen animations I still scratch my head wondering what all of those split screen items have to do with the playfield. It is just not intuitive, pleasing to the eyes or what I would have wanted to see for the most part. I'd rather see the effort spent down on the playfield than with a display. In this age of PS4, Blu-ray and big screens in every house, they just don't have the budget to make graphics that are any more impressive than Dragon's Lair or a PS2.

Even though this game and the big monitor are not something I would buy, there are plenty who love it and I still have fun playing it. This is an exciting time for pinball with so many choices. It is nice to see someone developing a pin that looks different than the "standard" pinball to help draw in new players. As I mentioned, WOZ definitely drew a different crowd of players.

BTW I limited myself to one game on STLE, because I want to wait and play on my own. By that point the software will be a little bit more evolved. The speaker lighting and backbox flashers among other things were not enabled yet on the one at SPF. I mostly want the NIB opening to be a little more special by not playing too much before hand. Even though there was a long line all the time, I could have played before and after hours as a staff member at SPF. What I saw of the game and heard from the players only further confirmed the LE was the proper choice for me. Can't wait!