Consider me naive if you want,... but in my humble opinion, this is basically one of the best looking pinball machines of all time. Knocked the artwork completely out of the park.

"One of the best looking pinball machines of all time"

Couple things that jump out at me.

1. He's just getting started, this is how good a machine looks when he's just in the early part of his pinball art career....

2. JPop is a moron

If I had anything to do with it, I'd just have Zombie Yeti do about every other game, and ask him for a recommendation of an artist he respects that would be willing to do similar work... but perhaps has a completely different style. Between the two of them they could make some really legendary designs in the next few years for Stern.

Use the guys that were doing the cut & paste style to help out the animation team that's working on the LCD stuff.

That works so well on pinball machines because you spend so much time staring at the playfield. The more busy it is, if it's styled right and not just a mess... the better it is because there's more art to find as you play it.

Back when they started it they essentially were in a position where they couldn't stay in business at the prices they were selling games like... Spider Man and Lord of the Rings for. So instead of choosing between stripping the games and pissing off people who want full featured games... or raising the price 2 grand and pissing off people who don't want to pay it.... they just did BOTH.

Kind of brilliant really if you think about it. Seems to be working well for them.

If you can't afford it, don't buy it. No reason to get upset about it.

I'd imagine they'd probably RAISE prices if they didn't have the pro money coming in...

I don't buy NIB because I can't afford it. I don't feel bad about it though; when I was a kid in the 80's hell I didn't know anybody, ever, that owned their own machines. It's a rich man's hobby and always has been.

It's kind of a different thing because they weren't vastly different.... but if we're going there, they did it with EM machines for years, they'd make 2 player, 4 player, 1 player... add-a ball versions of the same game with slightly different backglasses. Then, like now, I'd say that's great, more choice for different consumers. Some states needed Add-A-Ball games, some places needed replay games, some locations liked 4 player machines, some preferred the cheaper 2 player version.

Basically Gary Stern is very old-school.

I think some of the people involved VASTLY underestimated Gary's business skills. Not only is he pretty good at what he's doing, been involved with several companies and seen it all in the industry... the new investors a few years back kind of molded Gary into an even BETTER businessman and took the company into high gear.