Hard to judge the quality of the playfield art until higher res overhead shots are released. But they really went to town with the colored inserts and hyperspace blue. A little splash of starry black might not have hurt in a space-themed pin.

Having seen the GB art I was hoping they'd pull off another licensing miracle and get permission to do something similarly cool with the Star Wars license, but not to be. Now looking forward to seeing how it plays, and what use they make of the video screen.

Based on these high-res playfield pics, it looks like the Cowardly Lion is on one of the pops. My kind of Easter egg!

Nice, must be funny for your friend to see his artwork pop up on all kinds of crazy Star Wars merch. If he is OK with you sharing, it would be fun to hear this thoughts on the playfield design.

Has anyone spotted head-on, high-res pics of the Pro/Premium/LE translites yet? I scrolled through a few of the Star Wars threads but couldn't find any.

I heard the went with a John Mayer soundtrack instead. Really changes the whole vibe of the game.

It's important to everyone, but if Stern got the Star Wars license I'm going to go out on a limb and guarantee they also got the right to use Star Wars music. Disney's not going to let them make a Star Wars pin that plays Van Halen riffs when you blow up the Death Star (as awesome as that sounds).

Sorry if it's been addressed already, but any predictions on when premiums will ship?

This KISS Army you've constructed pales in comparison to the power of the Force.

Have you contacted your distributor to see if you can work something out regarding the express shipping charge you paid? That would seem fair since they did not ship you a playable machine.

That's possibly a leveling/adjustment issue, one I've played on-route doesn't drain SDTM off the Death Star loop (ball save off targets and straight down right outlane is another matter ...)

Maybe the machine you were playing wasn't set steep enough? But there's definitely still some hectic side-to-side action on this game, if you like to cradle up after every shot you'll have to earn it.

So are you up and running?

It's European.

I have to believe they'll fix this particular issue quickly. They're going to sell a ton of these to operators. And from the operator's perspective the coin drop is kind of a big deal.

Not listed in the feature matrix. And the released side-by-side playfield pics show identical targets under the little screen on the Pro and LE/Premium. So unless there's been a major change of plan in the last few weeks, this is incorrect.

Were there drawings floating around before the reveal?

I imagine you're safe then - hard to believe they'd toss new mechs into the Premium/LE design this close to production. Though that's still infinitely more likely than a price drop!

I wonder - GOT Premium has very different play due to the upper playfield. Time will tell but it doesn't look like SW Pro/Premium play will really be that different.

800 LEs have to run first before any Premiums are produced.

Seems reasonable the lead designers might get one of each game they create - that'd be like Stern giving them what, a $3k bonus per game (that's my guestimate of Stern's cost per game)? Not prohibitively expensive.

Will be interesting to see if that means the coin drop issue is fixed too.

Bummer, I'd like to think that Gary could cough up two Star Wars Premiums for Steve and Doug after all they've put into the game. But I guess that goes along with the fact that pinball is a niche market that has contracted violently over the years and there are probably still more skilled designers/coders than there are positions, so there's probably not much upward pressure on salary and bonuses.

But enough about that, let's talk Star Wars. Anyone tried playing with the brand new code yet?

They dialed this back in the 0.84 code - shorter window so much less pounding.

Shadow video mode dodging daggers is simple but fun.

Shoot Whysnow a PM, he seems to have checked it out:

How about Mystery -- is there something going on when it takes a minute to pick your award beyond an extremely weak use of the screen (they couldn't be bothered to animate the selection process award)? Like should I be tapping the flippers or center button at some point to influence the outcome? I guess it gives you time to shift the lane multipliers around but otherwise it seems lame.

Thanks - good to know you get all three I guess. I still think it looks like crap, hopefully they'll tune it up sometime down the line after they're done coding modes and fixing bugs.

I kind of pictured you playing (and Pinsiding) in one of these:

anewhop (resized).jpg

It seemed like a pretty far-fetched rumor that they'd add a significant new mech at the 11th hour. When people were complaining about GOT being too sparse didn't they just tweak the artwork and toss a decorative throne onto the back of the playfield? I'd rather they not slap in some additional stuff that hasn't been play tested and might make the game play worse than the Pro.

It's like amateur hour in here. Those are clearly plans for the first (fully functional) Death Star. I'm embarrassed to have to state something so obvious, but the Bothans died acquiring plans for the second (partially constructed) Death Star. Which is not to be confused with the third Death Star as seen in The Force Awakens. Eagerly awaiting the next installment to see what they do with the fourth Death Star.

Maybe they'll just swap in a 2D Tie Fighter plastic (think Mick-on-a-Stick) that'll be cheap to replace.

It also details the Emperor's secret plan to get Luke to make out with his sister. Classic Dark Side prank.

Rogue One was technically proficient, and after the Original Trilogy, any half-way decent Star Wars is good Star Wars. But it lacked dramatic tension because you knew the entire time exactly where it was going. It was also a bit too grim and self-serious for a Star Wars movie -- just imagine watching it immediately before Episode IV, talk about a shift in tone.

All of that said, the Darth Vader fight sequence was bad ass. So check that out on YouTube even if you're not interested in the rest of the movie.

Force Awakens was a rehash (or homage if you prefer) but I still loved it. Coming off of the prequel trilogy the bar was low, but they managed to capture that "Star Wars" feel better than George Lucas has since 1983. I get all the criticisms but would still give it a solid recommendation.

I'm with Jason Mantzoukas on the prequels - heard an interview where he described taking his girlfriend to Phantom Menace and weeping in public afterward (at age 30) because it was so, so bad.

You're not in the minority, it was very well reviewed. And it's worlds better than the Lucas prequels. Just predictable, unnecessary and lacked that "Star Wars" feel that Force Awakens had in spades.

But enough about that, when are we going to see some LE play footage?

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if billions of points suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

The hyper loop is pretty cool. It would get old to have traditional locked balls circuiting the entire game, they're making good use of it IMO.

Metal habitrails and ramps are nice.

Death Star underwhelming but will presumably look somewhat better when it actually lights up.

And then I guess some may strongly prefer the alternate art skin on the Premium or LE.

I think that's the full list of possible reasons to upgrade from the Pro.

Good advice for anyone. Watch some video and then go play for yourself. Trying to decide if the shots are "satisfying" or the "world under glass" is satisfactory based on someone else's opinion is pointless.

Have some Skittles™ and try to relax! You'll be playing before you know it.

Skittles (resized).jpg

[EDIT: derp, I don't own the game and got a couple of things wrong, thanks Phbooms for corrections in the following post]

Those are mostly menu settings. On some people's machines those avoid SDTM drains, YMMV as each game is a bit different and ball trajectory is also defendant on your playfield angle/level. Basically you'll need to do some tweaking/"dialing in" to get it playing how you like (true for any NIB pin). I would have thought the Tatooin coil and the scoop were one and the same (in which case he probably saw different people using different settings) but I haven't looked closely.

Software version should be displayed on startup. If you don't have the latest you update with an SD card. Don't feel bad if you have to do that, as with any brand new game several more revisions will (hopefully) be forthcoming so you'll have to do it soon enough anyway.

Oh, and the soft flipper strength is a preference but the thought is you're less likely to get air balls and broken plastics. Makes sense to start there and turn it up if the flippers are too weak to make ramp shots.

Thanks for corrections!

Post some pics and gameplay video once you've got it up and running!

If you find yourself starting a sentence with "Not to be a ...", there's a pretty good chance you're being one.

I'm not paying $400+ for a topper but I hope it's cool for those that are into this kind of thing. And it'll be interesting to see if people are able to make alternate use of the topper outputs for something more ... economical!

So it is a MB lock, it's just a non-traditional and very short-term one (this was my take-away from the Dead Flip video, but I wasn't certain). Which is good because it would be pretty annoying to lock a ball to two early and then have them circulating for the rest of your game. Also I imagine coil life might suffer if they were active basically all game, every game.

[EDIT] Oh yeah, of course the hyperloop is also used when you collect the hyperspace hurryup (the ball will make a circuit of the hyperloop and then drop off in the right ball return). So most people should see a ball or two go round during the course of the game, even if they don't make it to multiball.

It's cool you're running those polls but please stop advertising them so frequently in all the SW threads. You've got good intentions of helping improve the game code, but it's starting to feel like spam.

I keep getting a loading error. Probably just a bad connection or I'm getting blocked by a firewall or something, but if it's possible to later post this video on Youtube that would be awesome!

Did you blow up the Death Star? If so can you post a video and if not, any chance you'd consider taking the glass off and triggering the Death Star explosion mechanism through the settings menu or by manually triggering the modes? I'd love to see what it looks like and I imagine a few others here are interested as well!

Isn't that what the standup targets under the mini LED screen do?

It's a forum, not reasonable to expect people not to share their opinions (whether positive or negative). Spamming negative opinions in a "Fan" thread isn't cool, but there are like six SW threads going so there are places for both excitement and grievances to be aired. An owner of the game is hopefully not going to be swayed by complaints from someone that just watched a Youtube video, and likewise someone that played a game and knows they hate it shouldn't order one just because you or I think it's fun to flip. Different strokes and all that.

More specifically, Aurich's entitled to like whatever kinds of pinball layouts he likes for whatever reason, and it's OK for him to share that in a generic thread like this. Just because he's sick of Steve Ritchie designs and is feeling nostalgic for early-80s layouts doesn't mean you or I have to be. There's plenty of room under the pinball tent for all of us.

I heard it was more of a "cutaway" design, as well as a touching tribute to Kenny Baker. Leaked prototype pic:

kenny-baker-r2d2 (resized).jpg

Ahah, so more like this then:

R2-KT_meeting (resized).png

Unless R2 can serve drinks, pick locks or shock furries, I'm out.

I'm picturing this:

SW_Party_Article1 (resized).jpg

Always goes to the left flipper on the Pro route machine at 1Up in Denver. Maybe the range of adjustability varies game to game, or between the Pro and LE?

On a single game, no less.

I'm going to try one of these when my Premium shows up:
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1082-pin-mods/01064-nudies-clear-shooter-lane-eject-protectors

Not sure what other Stern games you have, but the newer ones have a plastic version of this pre-installed:
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2711
to keep the legs from touching (and scraping up) the cab decals. By design, they should keep the legs from touching the body of the cab when the legs are fully attached.

Yeah, jar155 is definitely not a fan of pretty much anything about the new SW, if he now owns one I’d be shocked.

Some Premium/LE ramps have malfunctioned under the newest code. Don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Pros.

I respect that, and I also respect your right to just straight up not like SW. If you don't like the bonus multiplier mechanic (and you care about your scores, which I think you do) then you're probably just never going to enjoy the game all that much. At least you played it a number of times before reaching a final judgment, which is more than many people commenting negatively on the game bothered to do.

They're still trying to sell SW Premiums. I'm sure this will be a high priority as far as their coding resources go.

Mine Premium doing that with 0.92 as well. I quit playing until Stern comes out with new code (or until I get clear advice from Stern that it's OK for me to revert to 0.89). Hope they get this fixed quickly, I want to play!

If nothing else, at least we've got an answer to your question about why Stern wouldn't want to open source their software. If they can destroy boards with official software releases, no need to give everyone else a shot at it.

OK, now this deserves a thumbs-up! I'd love to have seen the look on your wife's face when she heard the news.

Can someone with a SW Pro post pics of the current bracket situation? Was reading a Stern cabinets thread and it came to my attention that the Pros may not have the same souped-up brackets as the Premiums/LEs?

Sorry, I wasn't specific enough in my original post.

As TheLaw guessed, I was asking about the corner brackets that hold the cabinet together (not the latches that latch down the lockdown bar, which I agree are pretty cool). On SW Premium and LE they're more heavy duty than what TheLaw is showing there on his Pro.

Not my pics, but here you go!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sterns-new-cabinets/page/41#post-4041007

Haven’t heard of this happening before - have you seen other reports on Pinside? Is it only with GOT or an ongoing issue? Was it fixable (ie could he adjust the mechanism so as not to destroy the replacement decal?)

I’m another that actually prefers the new lockdown bar system. But it would be a bummer if it’s damaging some decals.

When you say you checked the cabinet and it's dead level, do you mean you're leveling with the level resting on the cabinet? You always want to level a machine with your level resting directly on the playfield (not on the glass or the cabinet). I would check that first.

Helpful! You don't have to like the ramp, but the common complaint with it is that it's a super-challenging shot to make and that you get roll-backs on what feel like solid shots, not that it always drops SDTM when it releases a locked ball. Based on the fact that people aren't constantly complaining about this specific issue, I'd guess it's either leveling or something else specific to the angle or adjustment of the fork ramp on his machine (hopefully something user-fixable, whatever it is), since most Premium's don't do this.

New update on SW code and accessories in the "Stern State of the Union"
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-of-the-union-address/page/5#post-4109053

To summarize:

• 1.0 code is due in "early December" (before the new SW movie is released), but no additional details on what's in the code so we'll have to wait.
• No accessories/topper until after the holidays (and no firm date provided).
• There's a new (I think?) making-of video:
  

Hopefully the leveling will work for you! I haven't poked around with the underside of the fork ramp, but I think a few people here have so hopefully someone can give you some pointers if needed.