That looks like it would be a more useful size. Maybe they will offer a range of display options like Heighway in the the PRO, Premium and LE lines.

So why is SM VE $3800 more retail than this game. $3800!?

Coin doors are expensive!

If they are planning to leave the PRO market and it's price point, that will open up the door for a Spooky or other manufacturer.

It's very uncluttered looking

the-pin (resized).jpg

The bottom easily drops out, so it the same as working on Hercules.

Hey vid, is that playfield made out of plywood?

I think they said it was MDO plywood, so the 2 outside faces have a ply of MDF on them.

The Pin was an interesting way to test out Spike, MDO, compact lighting boards, and probably a few other things that were bleeding edge in 2011.

The ultimate goal was to make a real playing pinball machine, that was UPS ship-able.

It's only a two-player according to the apron, making this the first two-player game made in 40 years?

Another thing I noticed by reading the apron, is that there is no ball launch rod or button. The only button on the front of the cabinet is the start button, and you launch ball into play by pressing either flipper button.

Perhaps the commercial LCDs is larger to accommodate more players, and to justify higher price and provide a better experience.

Looks pretty cool. This could end up being a fun game to play if it is complemented by simple but well done software. I suspect this game will ship with completed software, and updates for only bug fixes and minor changes.

https://offerupnow.com/item/detail/156983546/batman-pinball-machine-unopened

Capcom Flipper football.

I meant real pinball games, not novelty head to head.

But then I suppose a "home" game is a novelty...but this one looks a little different.

I just vomited in my mouth a little bit....No, a lot! Ugh What a UGLY excuse for a "pinball"? machine

Speakeasy was only around 35 years ago, but yeah.

Looks pretty decent to me, layout looks great compared to the other Pin models. But the price seems way too steep still. I hope they sell well myself, so lightly used models are plentiful and drop into the $1k-$2k price range...

Guess I'm stuck hoping for a Chinese manufacturer to make some original licensed, super cheap machines and open up the market some...

If the game shoots well, who cares. See iron man.

Looks like a fun game for someone with money who wants a cool game option for their home.

I still don't know about the retail price of this compared to SMVE. I mean you can buy 2 of these at $3800 for the same $7595 retail on the VE. I know the VE is better, but double? Seems like Stern is overcharging the VE buyers to supplement this new "the pin".

I hope it sells well and gets more folks into pinball.

Edit- Stern also had someone spend time to work on code for this? Any other stuff that needed to be cleaned up ahead of this?

Just curious, do you feel the same way about the regular Spider-Man VE? If not, what makes this so ugly to you? Anyone else feel like they could articulate what feels "off" about this if you feel the same? Genuinely curious.

I personally think that if they had just kept the speakers in the normal spots on either side of the display that people would be reacting quite differently, the display would just look like a tall DMD, instead of oddly floating. I also think we're so used to a coin door that things look broken without, though obviously for home use it's pointless, and an obvious place to save money.

But the rest, it's got real legs, normal sized playfield, art package is basically the same as VE, maybe even a little better in some ways since it's not such a literal re-skin, it just doesn't seem like something that would get such a reaction. So I'm thinking it's gotta be those unfamiliar details triggering folks.

The cabinet is always the ugliest thing about these home pins and this is no exception. In this case No coin door and no ball launch button or shooter rod makes it look cheap and unusual to me, and yes the screen size and placement is odd. If the casual home buyer will care is another matter.

I do think the exclusion of a shooter rod, and the odd "press either flipper button to launch ball" thing is a poor choice for a corner to cut for this machine. The shooter rod is part of the classic pinball experience that anybody with even a fleeting familiarity with pinball expects.

It's doubly funny because of Gary's insistence over the years that all machines have shooter rods, even when it was utterly pointless, like World Poker Tour. I think there's a post somewhere from Keefer or Ritchie ranting about that.

When you're cost cutting you gotta be firm though. Obviously this isn't what Stern pays, but to get a full shooter rod with housing from Pinball Life is $25. http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=527

If you want modern multiball you need an autoshooter anyways, so that's dollars saved skipping the shooter rod. Still, at least a launch button would be nice. Plenty of great games with launch buttons.

The Pin was two player game also. I'm pretty sure sure this is The Pin version 2.

Thinking about this further, I wonder if it was a deliberate "line in the sand" to keep the game from encroaching on the Pro territory. If it had a regular shooter, and the speakers weren't gimped you'd look at this and think "if they can make this game for this cheap, what am I paying for on the Pro?" Let alone the Premium.

Always dangerous when you introduce a budget line, it can make your regular line look overpriced if the value equation doesn't play out. Sorry car analogy coming. It's like deliberately undertuning an engine (or sometimes just straight up underreporting the horsepower) on a cheaper car to keep it from eating into the more expensive model's sales. Gotta protect those margins. It's like BMW balancing the 328i, the 335i, and the M3. Easy to spend $10k more on the 335i, but it's not like it cost them that much more to make the engine. The 328i is creeping up in horsepower, but because they made it a 4 banger now there's a snob factor with the 6 cylinder engine that keeps the 335i set apart.

"Real machines have shooter rods!" could be the way you keep this Pin from feeling a little too good.

I think you're right. The speaker placement is odd, but that aside it really doesn't look bad to me. It's not like coin doors are aesthetically marvelous, though some of the older ones can be nice looking for what they are.

It's relatively easy for pinsiders to spot where costs were saved, and those missing or altered elements are not acceptable to hobbyists. But this machine isn't for hobbyists and if it is priced accordingly it seems like it could be a successful product to its target market.

To me, the price the retailer was asking is the problem.

Bally Spectrum did not have a shooter rod or launch button, but I don't think anyone was worried that Bally was cutting corners.

You pressed the right flipper and the ball launched.

Whats old is new again......

spectrum_2 (resized).png

Give it a few weeks and it will be $2499 at Amazon and Sam's Club

1783472495baa071fd6117850869220ffd0e2683 (resized).jpg

This is just another clue to what we've been discussing here. The different manufactures and high prices are beginning to saturate the market, their only hope is to grow the hobby to sustain these levels. Good luck with that...

Thanks for the history lesson grandpa. Gottlieb also did a few of these in the 70s, this isn't news.

We are talking about 2016. Every pinball machine made since 2000 has had a shooter rod. For a lot of the general public - the target audience for this product - a plunger IS pinball.

People saying it sucks before even seeing one or playing one isn't a valid comment on this machine.

Full Throttle Does not have a shooter Rod
TBL also does not have a shooter Rod

I think a pinball is pinball.

Alien won't either, and we're using the launch button for in game feature, ala MM troll bombs or items in Monster Bash.

I don't get the immense negativity on anything that is not considered (by some) a fully fledged pinball machine.

Bahaha

Not true.

That's Pinside.

Just a bunch Negative Nancys, constantly menstruating, and eager to describe their flow in detail to anyone who will listen.

My kids would love this. Curious to see what the gameplay looks like, and size comparison in a line up.

It's the same cabinet size

Isn't this just a mirrored TF layout? Hrmmm.

This would be a great small pin for a lot of people to keep at their office as well, I note.

If they hit the $2,500 shipped point and the game is fun I can think of the perfect spot for one.

Alvin G went plungerless in their '93 hit Punchy the Clown. So the idea has been around for quite awhile.

punchy (resized).jpg

Interesting, reminds me of the super low run Costco versions of IM and BDK from long enough ago now that many people here won't remember them .

But designed from the ground up as a home pin this one won't have the baggage of being an "inferior" version of another game. The layout might be fun, for the right (low low) price I would buy one used and not feel bad about myself

It'll never be as great as Vacation America.

People will need to play Version 2.0 of "The Pin" to understand what direction Stern is going. They know their market extremely well, and are expanding beyond the more serious or affluent buyers, back to potential family machines.

Collectors will not be happy with this machine in their lineup if they are a traditionalist. Many of us simply don't care for many modern Sterns either. There are generational changes now in the market now well beyond the scope of this response.

If an enthusiast just wants to play something, they won't care.
Fireball Home Edition sold exceptionally well with over 10K units.
Sears carried it too!

Happiness is a plungerless Punchy.
At least AGC Punchy came with a manual, goodies bag, extra fuses, regular coin door, and everything else that a normal pinball game had installed. It even had a ticket dispenser already full of tickets from the factory!

This system works very well, and most non-pinball enthusiasts don't even know what a skill shot is on a game.
You cannot miss what people don't know.

On the other hand, if enthusiasts actually think about it, Stern has been reducing basic features on games for nearly 5 years, one at a time.
That is of course unless you buy the "premium" game.
"Pro" games do not even come with a manual!

What is the chance this "Home Edition" SM will include a manual for MSRP at $3700?
Hmmmm....

s-l1600.jpg

If it wasn't for home machines I may not have gotten into the hobby. I have very fond memories of playing a Rapid Pinball Star Explorer my dad brought home for the family in the early 80's. I have no problems with them.

Stern really stepped it up and made it look much more like a standard pin with the backbox.

untitled (resized).JPG

It was the legs that bothered me the most on the first Pin.

When I see a young kid who has no idea how to play pinball, they walk up and hit the flipper buttons. Takes them a min to realize there a plung button or rod.... At least with this they automatically get a ball in play for a newbie kid

It looks much better than the original "The Pin" but note worthy that it is $500-$800 more as well.

What I am puzzled about is a pro GB MSRP is $5995 for example and for argument sake this Spiderman "The Pin" has a rough MSRP of $3500 which is roughly $2500 less than a pro. It is shaped very similar to a pro cabinet wise and almost full sized backbox with a colour lcd. Downsides are mdf playfield and mdf cabinet and speaker in the front. It has needed licensing, programming, design, art (which does look pretty good) and probably has some slimmed down mechs ????

Maybe a refined "The Pin" with a ply cabinet and playfield, 2 x speakers in the backbox and a plate where the coin door is (so people wanting that classic look could add a coin door) and premium / le mechs and then you would nice machine with maybe some selling potential at say about $4k MSRP.

I bet the new pro (if they still do it) with a LCD will probably have a MSRP of $6250 - $6500.

Jody and his Marketing ????

Funny, there's a public pic of this before Batman66, yet supposedly all the BM66 LE's and "Super LEs" have already sold out, sight unseen.

Stern should have just used their BM66 strategy and released a Photoshop flyer and called this model a "Super Pro" and Limited it to 240 models with zero pictures of the machine. Would have sold out in hours like BM66.