Stay tuned??

They may be there just to help direct the ball down the outlanes. I believe this is due to the game using double inlanes, a first for a standard body game according to John Trudeau from his "Flippin Podcast" interview. John had to use steel plates next it the outlanes instead of traditional wood rails to accommodate double inlanes on each side.

To me, honestly, it looks like the Cirqus Voltaire setup, which was then changed later in production to a more 'standard' setup. That little black post to the outside, and then the rubber. At some point, someone didnt' like it, and instead of re-desigining the whole thing, said, 'Let's just put a wireform down there.'

Does anyone actually know what the "don't cross the streams" feature was supposed to be?! Every time this is brought up someone just posts that same image from the cad with zero explanation.

Discussion was made with thoughts that a mode would require one "not" to cross the beams, with timer and shots moving them closer together.
And/or another, in a wizard mode/ending where now one needed to cross beams to defeat ??? Staypuff?, the game would work to slow/impede this goal.

That isn't Comic Sans. It is a comic style font, but not Comic Sans, which is way worse.

Still on the fence on whether to buy my Premium now, or wait a week...

Robert

Whats the rush, they wont be making them for months

At least by then you will see some gameplay

that will give you time to check out Alien as well.

I wanted to clarify my statement that Comic Sans is way worse than what is on the playfield. I didn't word that very well.

"I looked at the font, Ray!"

wouldn't it be awesome if dont' cross the streams was a 2 ball multiball, but if the two balls hit each other, it would lock the flippers out and start you back with just one ball. It wouldn't be possible to do this, on this machine, but still would be cool. P3 could pull something off for that, as long as the dont' touch area was in the whole middle of the playfield.

They could possible do that with the captive balls.

I just made a comment about you in the other ghostbusters thread.

They could but wouldnt' really be crossing the streams then.

Yea, but I can say I bought one and be part of the crowd...and then make posts like:

"I paid yesterday, where's my game?" or

"When is the code going to be fixed, this game sucks!"

Robert

Love it.

Anyone think the Premium/Pro will have some sort of optional side rails with flipper button protection/shields like the LE?

Thought they made something like this for Walking Dead.

Also, I'm sure the topper for this is going to be incredible.

Haha touche

Well the live stream tomorrow should give us all a better idea of how the table plays, the Pro model anyways

The rush is that I have to order now to fix the exchange rate. It's expensive enough already. Ordered mine.

It looks great, but still missing the red color like Magic girl.

They are catering to the 40% of the pinball sales market which is the collector market.
Choice options makes more money (in the larger scope), rather than focusing exclusively on operators and limiting budget choices.
The entire demogrphics have shifted.
Price and model choice is actually good for operators and collectors, but the market is starting to transform again into something else now.

I think Stern must only make one playfield model with all the toys and standard display.
For the le added a color display, different trim, real chrome backglass, added different art on the playfield and backglass and cabinet.
Then you have a real super duper le machine that make the extra dollars count.

But i have to say that the pro gb give me a real good feeling for now.

Whats more amazing to me is that people here made it through life to a point where they can afford $5-$9K toys.... yet still have no understanding of basic economics.

Has this been psoted here yet? Live play of the new game!

Yes, old news.

Your post is in complete contradiction to itself. If they made a single model, it would be the premium eliminating the option for a cheaper pro model. If you don't like having multiple models then pretend the pro doesn't exist and buy the premium. That's where the single model price point would be. Since you're interested in the pro - that's where your post contradicts itself.

Everyone wants the Premium at a Pro price. But if that was possible we'd see competitors offering that.

I can just never figure out the guys that complain about having too many choices!?!?!?

If Stern decided it could/would only make ONE version of each title, I guarantee 40-60% of the customers would be in an uproar!

Either they would be pissed at the "stripped-down games" or pissed that Stern had priced them out of the market with $9K toys, etc.

I don't agree, for decades there was never a complaint about one title at one price. In recent times when LE and modding became a thing, it started as, and largely continues to be geared solely toward cosmetics rather than game play features for everyone but Stern. In other words there is no uproar about lack of game play options in WOZ, TH, AMH, RZSSI, WNBJM, FuTh, P3, TBL, Predator, MG, AIW, RAZA, TS, WOOLY, etc.

Really? I think there are most certainly uproar about the lack of gameplay options on AIW, RAZA, predator and MG!

But serously, you are comparing apples and oranges in much of your list.

As soon as one of those other boutiques can deliver a pinball machine for under $5k (and ONLY by tweaking cosmetics) then let's talk....

has anyone even confirmed Stern is really making Ghostbusters? I think it's all hype.

Supposedly it's all been a hoax, someone hacked Stern's Facebook page, created incredible lifelike CGI to look like a lot of their employees. Now some people on Pinside are trying to cover it up and they call these bozos who conveniently show up to deal with the problem with a fake, electronic light show. I don't get it.

Brad

it must be a hoax. Upon my further research, it looks like hand drawn art and a unique playfield layout. Obviously this not the work of stern.

Or the vast majority of the market would stop dead in its tracks, and Stern would correct or go out of business.

Sorry man, I just don't see the justification in the price increase that all started with ACDC.

Every single person complaining about this really wants the full game at the pro price. Period. They're all a bunch of cheapos that see the Premium and want it but are already priced out and are mad that they're "stuck" with the pro, which is probably barely in their price range. They remember the days of buying lord of the rings for $3000 or such new in box and assume that's where we should be. I assume as time moves forward, these guys will be priced out of the hobby and we won't have to hear from them anymore.

You call them a bunch of cheapos, then go on to say their mad cuz they've been priced out in the same sentence. Maybe when they are priced out of the market you and your rich friends can start a new pinball company cuz stern may not be able to survive without all us cheapos. Anybody who wishes half the pinball community to disappear because they complain about the fact they may be priced out of doing something they love can go $×€¥ themselves imho.

I actually didn't say any of that. And stern is catering to those that can't afford premiums by offering a pro model - something no other company is doing. I didn't say I can afford the premiums or les either. I simply understand the business model and am thankful for having the option to buy a pro rather than go on and on and on complaining that I wish there was only one model.

This is designer dependent from what I have heard. I know of at least one designer who has stated that they go the opposite way. Not sure if he has said it publicly so I won't say who.

Not sure how it even makes sense from an engineering perspective to go the opposite way? You build a Pro, then say "Hmmmm .. I need to add $500 more to this game .. " and then start seeing where you can add more stuff, and/or change stuff? That doesn't sound likely. I thought I also heard Ritchie before also say you build the LE, then cut it down.

Now if the only difference is art, art add-ons, additional aesthetics, etc, then yes, I could see how. But changing/adding ramps / mini playfields / adding toys that affect gameplay .. I don't see how it would be possible to do it that way.

I heard that Borg does the Pro first and then adds onto it for the LE/Prem while Trudeau & Ritchie do it the opposite way.

I'm not really making any comparisons, just stating the fact that offering a single model in a title doesn't result in uproar over a feature list because there is nothing to compare it to. No one ever claimed that SM or LOTR had too few or too many features, it was designed exactly the way it was shipped... nothing added on like an extra appendage or chopped out leaving a gaping hole in the playfield or ruleset. GB does a good job of retaining similar game play amongst the models, but the differences are significant enough where some controversy is inevitable, controversy that doesn't exist with single model releases. All that is independent of price discussion.

So those were games when stern was trying to keep full featured releases and was starting to go out of business. After this came games like 24 with super flat cheap looking plastic toys. Designers were fired. Lyman wasted off. Now stern provides two skus. One for the budget that is equivalent to what they had to cheapen games to if they continued to make one model cheaper type games (the route they were taking before they got investors). The other sku is the premium / le that is the full featured game without all the stuff that stern had to remove to keep in business. This game is what the designer had envisioned but it costs more. It's a great compromise.

Must not pull the trigger on this GB, must wait for J-A-W-S !

People seem to have short memories about this whole pro/premium strategy. You are absolutely right about all the grumbling that happen on back in the day about the stripped down games. I'm sure a search on rgp will turn up plenty of threads on games like 24 or BBH. At that time the collectors were begging for a two tiered pro/premium type game to keep the option of full featured games viable.

Fast forward a few years and now a bunch of guys are denouncing the strategy. I don't want to see the return of the "good old days" ca 2009 when we weren't even sure if stern would make another game.

Okay, well then I heard the same thing. Wasn't sure where, so didn't want to spread things if not.

I don't think you think of it that way. You design the game first, and then you say, "Okay, well what if I put a real lock here instead of a virtual one, what would be cool?" or "Can I add a spinner or two?" or "What can I do to change this rule up a bit and make it different?"

I think it also shines through in Borg's Pros versus Premium designs. For instance, Tron LE and Tron Pro play very similarly, but have just a few tweaks here and there. Metallica, other than the physical ball lock, is quite similar. X-Men and the Walking Dead are also quite similar.

The games that are designed the other way around tend to have a more dramatic feel between LE and Pro I find. It isn't a bad thing, it's just an interesting note I think.

Metallica, twd and xmen pro vs le arent similar at all. In fact, those have some of the most changes of any pro vs le model.

Metallica: snake jaw, hammer, real ball lock those are quite different in game play.

Xmen: moving ramp, spinning ball release and playfield spinner, pop up trolls. Really big differences.

Twd: raising ramp, drop target on Woodbury, crossbow, extra magnet on well walker. Another huge set of differences.

ST pro / premium are both great. Not missing any gameplay features but lots of eye candy make the premium look nice and can't really be added to the pro (like the laser and color changing inserts).

See, and I guess I disagree. The snake jaw in Metallica is just a moving part to block a shot, but it's the same basic shot. The hammer is a physical ball lock that is otherwise a virtual one.

I always forget about the moving ramp on X-Men, although a lot of people don't like it so I feel like it's a wash anyway. The playfield spinner is not that crazy different than a magnet. Yeah, it's cool and I like watching it. Two "trolls" are also neat, but easy to add on instead of cost out, and the times they pop up in the game are not very often.

For The Walking Dead, I feel again like the only major thing is the crossbow. An extra magnet or a drop target in a certain spot is not a major thing.

Maybe it's just how I look at them, but I always feel like the gameplay elements in Brog's Premiums are less of a "game changer" than on the Pros, they are more just about just adding nifty ball interactions. In the other designer's games, I feel like the elements are a big part of the actual gameplay, like the mini-playfield on ACDC is a bit part of how you try to score points.

I don't know, perhaps I'm crazy.

different EFFECT - but in the sense of design/physical characateristics... they are very similar. Replace active component with static one in same place, etc.