Who are you again? I feel like I have met you before?

I don't talk to strangers... Ritchie said in an interview that Gomez designed it. I believe it was on the Spooky podcast but not 100% sure where he said it.

"A game without a coin door is not a proper pinball machine, nor is it classified as an industrial quality amusement device."

- TBK

If someone can cite a home model pinball game ever created which equals the quality of construction comparative to a commercial title, feel free to share it with the community. I have not found one, and I have played most including foreign manufacturers.

I played it yesterday for the first time. A wonderful machine for $1000.

Would be much more attractive if it offered something that othe machines dont, like open programming or a catalog of mods you can buy and install. That might make a $2k price tag.

In other words, this is a complete failure at $3,500-$4,000.

i have played it. it is a neat game. fast but the price tag is high. too close to the price of a full size pin. i feel there is no collector value in it either. great effort on artwork etc. i would have liked to see the pops closer to get more action out of them.

True. Think about the extremely mint used games you could buy for $3700 and the price for this game becomes crazy. There was just a mint Sopranos in the marketplace for $3500 with a ton of extras. Hell, de batman is better and you could get a mint one of those for $1500 less. Plus it will hold its value when you try and sell.

All this is going to do is burn newbs hard who leave the hobby altogether when they try to sell and realize they've been conned.

What about Captain fantastic and Fireball? Didn't both of them come in home versions that were pretty much full featured? I could be wrong as I'm not well versed on their different models but I thought they were pretty much all there.

Fireball was different not sure about captain fantastic

I believe amh has a mode or two that traps the ball behind the 3 bank like you are decribing

Captain Fantastic was an EM.
Captain Fantastic Home Model was a very weak early SS.
I will let you discover the significant differences in quality of construction, features, and gameplay with a couple of videos...
You might be surprised at the differences.

BTW, Fireball Home Model was substantially worse.
ALL primary features from the EM were stripped out.
It was not even a semblance of a husk from the original game.
No zipper flippers, no spinning disk, no skill shot, and on and on...

However, at least the price reflected the reductions of features.
The only real bonus is they did come with a solid wood cabinet though.
They were cheap from Sears, especially during final closeout.
Under $250.

Is this the same as Spider-man VE, just without the coin mech?

Negative

I played this last week in Germany. The game looks nice, again, I like the back box made of one piece of art, although speakers in there would be nice. The apron is great, the play field looks good, there are a bunch of shots. It is al about getting the four villains. Where Doc Ock gives you a multi ball quite quick. The special multi ball where the ball is trapped in the middle is nice. Although when playing with more than one player this can be sometimes frustrating that you trap the ball there and the other player gets the multi ball. There is no reset on that position. Also the slingshots indeed work only together, when playing this is only a minor thing.
On the negative side.
The LED display is very bright! Animations are ok. I do not know if the brightness can be adjusted. The speaker placement is terrible. The build quality is very 'light', you notice this when playing. This is not a heavy machine that you can bump. You can lift this very easily. So in my opinion this is not for pinheads. The size is also smaller, so this would be for the kids, but spending that money on a machine for kids that rather have a much cheaper PS4........I do not know.....

"Education is the key to success and prevents errors in judgement."

Spiderman Models.jpg

Looks good that way side to side. I would not buy it.

I got to play this game for the first time at Texas Pinball Festival. It was pretty fun. I liked it much better than Avengers "The Pin" also at the show. I would say it offers a lot more value than The Jetsons as the two games are very comparable in complexity yet this one is much cheaper. Anyway, Pinside has not yet made an entry in the database for this game. Is that something that any user can do or do I need to request it be done by a moderator?

Honestly, the playfield looks like it would be a lot of fun to shoot. It's not like it's lacking shots compared to other more simplistic Stern games (Avatar, I'm looking at you). I'm interested to see what the rules entail (looks like there are playfield multipliers that I can see), and I'm curious to know what the modes are like and how many there are. The one video I saw doesn't really show much. $4K is tough to justify with some of its inherent limitations (can't route it, software options may be limited), but I'll be interested to see how long these are manufactured and whether the price eventually drops (be it via liquidation or not).

Above, Avatar is in no way simplistic, just because it doesn't have the second right ramp does not make it easy or simple. Have you made the final battle?

Way too many times.

I watched the DeadFlip video thinking there was no way I'd like the new Spiderman 'Home' edition.

But it actually looks like a lot of fun!

I think my kids would like it for the slightly less complicated, more straight-forward nature of the shots, rules, etc.

I think I'd actually consider buying one, especially if they can be had for enough off the MSRP.

I am looking for a Kooky Carnival arcade game. Any leads would be appreciated. Thank you

I ended up picking one of these up. Received it today so I haven't had much time to put a lot of games on it (currently at work as of typing this), but I figured I'd post some details for those curious. I'll be posting photos as well eventually for anyone interested.

General details:

- Game comes shipped in a box like any standard Stern machine and is packed the same.

- Head comes detached. This was unexpected and allowed me to move the game home in my car as opposed to having to borrow a truck or van from someone.

- Game is super light. Moving up stairs is fairly trivial compared to a standard machine.

- Glass is standard size, so you can replace it easily or swap out with anti-glare glass of your choosing.

- Playfield is full size and the same material as used on standard Stern machines. Cabinet is smaller, just barely larger width and length-wise than the playfield itself. Top of the backbox also sits a foot or so shorter at the top than that of a standard machine.

- Backglass comes off. It's held in at the top with a plastic cover and two screws. Would have been nice if there was a third screw at the center as the plastic cover seems kind of flimsy. Just have to make sure you have the plastic cover on tight.

- There are two windows at the rear of the cabinet. One compartment has the connections that go from the backbox to the rest of the cabinet. The other compartment houses the tilt mechanism. Standard plumb bob/ring assembly.

- Game uses standard size Stern legs. No stock protectors of any kind on the cab. Game comes with standard size black bolts already screwed in.

- Inside of cab has four leaf switches (two for flippers, two for start and plunge buttons respectively) and the front speaker. Rest of cab is entirely empty.

- Playfield pulls out similarly to early solid states.

- Lockdown bar is a new design and is held in place with two screws at the front of the cabinet. Design is such that you don't need to leave the screws in place to keep the bar in place, though you would probably want to keep them in if you have kids on the machine.

Some brief first impressions:

- Playfield is fairly bare. You could see this in videos, but it feels more apparent when looking at it from the player's perspective. Only one toy (Doc Oc). On the plus side, there's a lot of room under the glass and great potential for mods.

- Game plays slow out of the box compared to normal Sterns. Not sure if there's a lot that can be done about this, but to be fair my legs are stock out of the box, completely flat at the moment. I need to raise the legs up in the back so the downward ball movement is faster. However, in its current state the upward movement is slow to my eyes.

- Ramps are a bit clunky, but you could already tell that from the existing videos online.

- Playfield is dark. GI lighting is using a two-LED, clear-domed setup with cool-white bulbs. They are in standard bayonet sockets though, so it's likely you can swap the bulbs out for your own flavor. I will try to swap the existing ones out for the same type in a warm color and see if it helps the lighting.

- Backbox is really bright and it's lit up at parts standard cabs aren't. As a result glare on the playfield glass is worse than a standard game. Invisiglass isn't helping it all that much. I still have to see if a DMD glare guard can be mounted, but it's possible it might not.

- Front speaker actually sounds better than I anticipated. I still would have preferred it to be mounted in the backbox, but it's interesting having the sound coming from right next to you instead of several feet in front of you. Also, sound adjustment is done by holding in both flipper buttons outside of a game. This brings up a menu, and pressing the right flipper button lets you go to the volume settings.

- DMD is a mixed bag. With the [likely] cheap LED panel they are using, the lights blended together and I had to wear my glasses to see them clearly (I don't have to do this with a standard DMD). The colors work well though and the animations are pretty good. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

- Had a mechanical issue already. On Ball 2 or 3 of one game, the ball kicked into the shooter lane wall hard enough to fall back into the trough. The game didn't recognize this and refused to kick another ball out. No ball search occurred. Had to take the glass off and lift the playfield and manually activate the trough kicker (no coin door, so I couldn't just open that and reach in).

- Some of the shots are pretty fun. The Doc Oc bank is really satisfying (both before and after you penetrate the drop targets), and the Venom loop is cool. MJ faux-captive ball shot is neat too. Can't see it being used on a full blown standard game, but I like it here.

I'll post more opinions as I actually spend more time with it. I plan on streaming it regularly, so I'll definitely clock some time on it.

I added a bunch of photos to the machine's page on Pinside for anyone that's interested what this thing looks like inside and out. Link: https://pinside.com/pinball/archive/stern-spider-man-home-edition/gallery.

Some other things that happened this morning:

- There's a trimmed down software adjustment system, along with the normal diagnostics for testing. Game modes have difficulty settings (though most are set on Hard by default), extra balls can be turned off, etc.

- Backbox light can be lowered or turned off completely. I'm not sure if this is a normal Spike feature (this is my first Spike game), but it eliminates the complaint I had earlier where there was too much glare on the playfield glass. Also, I tried my DMD glare guard and it blocks the DMD glare fine.

- My speaker died already. I was under the game leveling it while the game was on, then I heard the speaker start giving this constant, faint popping sound. Now it won't play any audio at all, just this constant popping. Spike board has a headphone jack on the main board, so I was able to wire in some external speakers, so audio is still good--my speaker is probably toast.

- Machine's mechanics are extremely loud. Both slings always fire at the exact same time, and two of the pops do the same. I suppose due to the cheaper quality of the material in the game, there's much less noise suppression. I live on the second floor and my neighbors probably think I'm drilling into the floor or something, it's that bad. Just a FYI for anyone that lives in an apartment and on a higher level. I don't have as much of an issue with my full size machines.

I put a lot of games on it this morning. It is fun, but I do have a lot more to say in terms of the build quality of the machine. No time right now though.

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IMG_0045 (resized).JPG

Very cool; looking forward to hearing more! This could end up being the real SMLE

Not necessarily better, but appreciably more rare. Bummer about your speaker. I tend to turn games off for any sort of adjustment, honestly this just reinforces that habit. Its crazy it happened though; could be a wire came loose and is an easy fix?

Hi All,
We put one of these guys in our showroom. We call them granny grabbers. It is the kind of thing grandparents purchase for their grandchildren.(our price is lower than others mentioned) My expectations were pretty low. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised. It is a great game. I am an old timer so maybe that has something to do with it. The game is straight forward and keeps coming at you. Reminds me of some of the e.m.'s I have love over the years. The game is sturdy and the color and dmd are fun. We have sold a few since the release. All those customers seem t love the pin. Heck I put one in my collection too. I play the hell out of it. It does give a good value.

-Jerry

I would imagine the sweet spot for this would be in the 2K-2.5K range.

It'll definitely be less common, for sure. I should note that my playfield says #76 or so out of (I will have to double check this)--160? My machine was also manufactured in December, 2016, so it's been sitting for a while. It makes me wonder how many total machines have sold.

Yeah, it was surprising to me. I've never flipped off a game just to level it and have never had an issue until now. I did notice there's pretty much zero grounding inside the cabinet itself, so that could be what ended up causing the speaker to go. Definitely not a loose wire, unfortunately.

With the current build quality and the amount of cost cutting done (more on the specifics later), I agree with this statement.

Now i have seen some gameplay i like it even more.
Great game, i like it more than Spooky games so far.

I am seriously considering getting this. I live on a 2nd floor apartment as well. I'm not a fan of "modern" or DMD games, but this looks like it's not too difficult to figure out. If I can find somewhere to put it among my other machines, I'm in!

"Sweet spot" or "can't make them fast enough but don't care because they aren't turning any profit" range?

This game isn't for most of us on pinside. Most of us would prefer to have a better, older game or put the money towards a better, more expensive game. This is marketed towards people that want a pinball in their home, currently have zero, want a NIB with low chance for problems and aren't willing to drop six grand or go to the trouble of buying a nice used one.

Understood, but at 4K I see another "The Pin".

I don't envy the folks whose job it is to sell them.

huh never realized my thread/pics weren't in this

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-pin-spiderman

I played this a bunch at CES. Actually enjoyed it. If the street price was right, it could be a great game for my friends houses who aren't into pinball but I force it on them and their kids

It's not bad, but it's priced at double what's fair for what you get. Played it a few times at Pinball Showdown and there are a few things I like on it (the ball lock is cool). It's just too much money for such a simple game.

It would be amazing if they had swapable PF's since they are pretty basic wiring wise....ugh man lots of potential. I need to swing by the local game distrib. they had a "the pin transformers" they couldn't sell....maybe the price is better.

It's a fun game, but be warned, it is loud. The slings and two of the pops always fire at the same time, and the noise suppression in the cabinet is horrible compared to a standard full-size pin.

While I don't feel this current model is for "most of us" on Pinside, I do feel with the rising cost of NIB Pros, there is most certainly a potential market for a more simplistic, cheaper NIB alternative in the $3.5K - $4K range (shipped). Stern is heading in the right direction with this and it's a major improvement over the pre-existing "The Pin" models, but there's still a ways to go.

I have an issue with the cheap, cost-cutting feeling across much of the playfield, as well as the overly simplistic rules. And I don't mean that as in, "Oh, there aren't enough toys or features", but as in things don't feel secure and they cost-cut screws that would normally be there on a regular game, things like that. For instance, the ramps are flimsy and have zero support, so when you get airballs they just wobble back and forth. The turns at the ramp entrances are also clunky, and there are a lot of screws missing all over the cabinet leaving things less secured overall. For instance, the backglass trim only has two screws on it and the material is cheap. I could imagine some kid in a home scenario getting on top of the game, pulling at it and it snapping in half, causing the backglass to fall over and potentially break. Or another example on the playfield itself, with the plastics only being secured with two nuts or screws, which leaves them having no support in the center, which in turn may leave them prone to breaking easier than on a standard game. Then there are things like the slings and the pops firing at the same time, which to me is an odd choice because they still went with a separate coil design (each pop and sling still have their own coils). Get each of these firing individually in the future, and you have a more solid-feeling gameplay experience.

In terms of rules, what's there is a solid base, but there needs to be at least a couple of more modes (six would be ideal). Some variation in them would be preferable, and if they aren't going to be overly complex, they need to at least increase in difficulty on successive plays (which they currently do not).

A machine like this doesn't need extravagant toys or anything, it just needs to feel solidly built and parts on the playfield need to feel secure, and it needs a solid base from a shot and rules perspective. Once they nail that, I really think they could have something that many of us would want to buy for the price. Avatar/NBA/Iron Man era Redux, basically. I'd be OK with that for the price.

It is another, "The Pin". It even says so right on the front of the included manual.

I actually kind of like this concept. I am no newbie - I've been playing pinball for the past 40 years. I do prefer the early SS classics, and have absolutely zero interest in modern games, but this one seems to hit a sweet spot for me. I currently have 5 machines, ranging from 1976 through 1989 (Night Moves). 3 of my games are from 1980/81.

Modern games are way too complicated for me, this one has a great look to it and seems not to be overly complicated, and a good way for me to have the NIB experience.

I ordered one today after watching the 2 hour Dead Flip video for the second time. The game seems like fun to me. I don't care about toys, and multi-levels, and this seems just about right for me to be a part of the modern pinball experience.

Is the price a little high? Probably, but I wanted it. And the best part is, I can now post some new material on my YouTube channel.

Here's a highlight of akm crushing it on our Twitch channel a few days ago. Decides to play "one more game" and puts up 16+ million

I just watched this today on my lunch hour?

You did?

Did I?

Don't know I posted as a question. That's what happens when you're supposed to be working but you browse pinside on the sly!

Just curious, since the cabinet is pretty much empty anyway, I wonder if a person could install some sort of noise suppression in the bottom of the cabinet? Maybe a slab of Roxul insulation (in a sealed lawn & leaf bag) could be set into the bottom of the cab. I'm sure someone will come up with a much more elegant solution.

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Hi @akm,

Is the manual available anywhere on line? I've ordered mine and am awaiting delivery, but would like to get to know the machine before it arrives.

Also, is there any type of power switch on this?

Last question: Everything I've read shows the weight as 250 lbs, but that isn't right, is it? I'm wondering if I'd be able to get this thing together by myself.

I'd appreciate any info. BTW, love the video. I've watched it several times since yesterday!

- No manual scan anywhere as far as I can tell.

- Power switch is on the right of the backbox like with normal Spike system games.

- Machine definitely does not weigh 250lbs. It is very light. You shouldn't have any issue getting it together by yourself.

Thank you.

I played this machine a few months back and I was so impressed by the "Save Mary Jane" captive ball feature on the playfield.

To those who haven't seen it yet, the ball in play is "trapped" between two posts and used temporarily as a captive ball. Very cool IMHO!

Question: Is this the very first time this feature has been deployed? If so, well done Pinball Scientists!

That temporary captive ball feature sounds really cool! I saw this game yesterday at Dr. Scott's, right next to an Iron man, KISS, a beautiful Metallica, and shoot, another game I can't think of. It looked like a toy, and was basically priced the same as the Iron Man. They did not have a SMVE but I couldn't think of a good reason why someone would buy this thing.

I have never been too excited about playing anything less than a commercial game, but this particular game is fun to play. At the pinball showdown it received as much love as any other game on the floor. The captive ball feature is a novel idea, I like it.

The reality is there is a whole set of people who will only buy NIB and for those people this game is significantly cheaper than a Pro. As yourself why would someone would pay $6700 for a SMVE when you can get a 2007 SM for $2k less? Answer is the same: NIB. People love to pony up hundreds or thousands of extra dollars for a nearly identical game as long as it comes in a cardboard box. Once you are comfortable with that, you will be a lot more comfortable with the price point on this SM variant.