Even though Stern didn't do a reveal at TPF...Stern did take a shit ton of brand new machines for people to play at TPF. They supported TPF just fine.

This looks amazing!

Cannot wait to see gameplay and see the game in person.

ALL LICENSES. It's your problem that you don't understand the reality of how this business works and took it as a personal insult that there was no Maiden reveal in Texas. You can't just force the licensor to OK a reveal "because there's a show coming up and some dudes will be annoyed."

And stern had plenty to show/announce at TPF to anybody who was paying attention.

Imagine if Maiden would have got the radio exposure it demanded. Maidens huge without it and the reason why is the frickin music.

Nothing to to show? Maybe they were giving away something good I didn't see, because their booth was packed the full show. They had big distributors with a booth full of new titles. They had new software they were showing off.

By your standards, American Pinball didn't have anything to show either.. neither did JJP. Only P3 and Circus Maximus.

WTF are you talking about? The stern booth by Mirco/Fun was gigantic. Nobody supports shows like Stern does. They had tons of games, speakers, designers, coders, etc there.

So...go to your core audience that buys your machines or go to a publication where the vast majority of the readership will look at it and say, "oh, neat" before moving on. Satisfy your base first. It's just like Microsoft digging in with ESPN and other networks to announce the Xbox One. They lost the hardcore base by positioning it as a mainstream/entertainment product rather than a gaming product.

The game looks great. The method of reveal is a little odd. I know they've had IGN running their reveals for a while, and that's ok. It's not ideal, but it works. Going to Rolling Stone won't improve sales or harm them, but it's just a sign of misplaced priorities.

Depends if you think a big pinball show is as important as releasing shit on the internet. I don't go to TPF, no one I know that collects games does because we live 2000 miles away. We all have the internet and people are calling me aboot this today.

Seems like putting out a kickass game and killing it for the reveal are the right priorities. I think your priorities are a little misplaced if you are still harping on TPF.

I've gotten like 10 texts from metal friends who don't give a shit about pinball. They did something right.

Harping. Ok, dude. You get so crazy sensitive about every slight at Stern these days. Look, we get it. You have buddies there. Drop your hackles, nobody wants to harm them. I've mentioned no new Stern stuff at TPF a single time and you have a mild heart attack. I'll remember not to bring up their Expo absence when they favor a reveal in GQ two weeks later. I'd hate to see their self-appointed white knight suffer any further trauma.

I do understand how it works, probably far better than you do. I've worked with licensed content a lot over the past decade. And no, I didn't take it as an insult. Keep rolling out the strawmen, it's about the only thing you do well around here when you get grumpy.

Take it to PM guys, need more IMDN!

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You've mentioned it like 5 times. Today. And the White Knight stuff is cute - go dig up all the great stuff I've said about Ghostbusters and other Stern garbage.

I thought the TPF stuff was hilarious, as I do all of these minor things that people take as personal slights from any pinball company, not just Stern. They are running a business bro, they aren't trying to upset you. I've also found the show fetishing of recent years very odd - used to be pinball just went about its business. Now, people seem to think if it doesn't happen at a show, it doesn't happen.

So are you gonna buy one of these things or what? I'm considering it, trying to see if the bean counting makes sense.

This doesn't look anything like as tight as the Congo ramp behind the pops. It looks like an easy shot. Looks more similar to JP's left orbit through the pops shot (which isn't tight).

I guess the term "preaching to the choir" is lost on you.

In case you hadn't noticed... the expansion in the pinball industry in the last decade has been OUTSIDE the traditional base. They've been EXPANDING the customer base and selling to those guys.. not just the old dude who fixed up sys11 titles.

The pinside audience will be placated with Deadflip and it will seek out all the media whereever it is. This is a captive audience, they don't need to 'satisfy them' first.

"Hey Rolling Stone, we really want you to promote this piece... but you have to accept it's not an exclusive because we need to launch it on this dutch website first... you cool with that??" LOL

Since Stern slaughtered it with this reveal there's gonna be a lot of White Knighting going on in their defense. Haters should probably take a couple days off.

Oh. You ate one too?

Or at least some Pamprin.

Haters. You're something else.

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Jack has the stream tonight. I wonder if we'll see Elwin absolutely demolish his own game as well. It would be nice to get a peek at the premium, even if just a quick glance, but I imagine that will follow the standard reveal timeline. We should see the pro played tonight, hear a bit about premium/LE, see the premium/LE photos in a few weeks, and then get a premium/LE stream soon after that.

Amazing looking game!! but...no "Where Eagles Dare" mode?

Will this be posted somewhere later? I'm still at work at 3:30 CST.

They were smart to go colorful with the art package. It retains the Iron Maiden look, but it shies away from being too dark or violent. I think that really matters. ZY is a got dang master. It's crazy that he's so good at this being so new to the scene.

What are the chances this will be available (at least to view) by Allentown?

That’s what, 6 weeks from now? I’m sure there will be several in the coin taker booth.

By then people will be jonesing for the next game.

Pretty high. The game usually makes the rounds within a couple of weeks after the main gameplay reveal. The pros are already on the manufacturing line, and I imagine they'll be shipping in early April. LEs will be on the line in April too, so the game will be getting out there really soon.

Jack always archives the good stuff to his youtub channel

usually deadflip has youtube or twitch replays of his big stuff

Have you seen the crowds that band still draws in South America? It's insane. Tens of thousands of people. And it seems like every single concert goer is singing along with the band word-for-word .

Metal is alive and well everywhere except the USA for some reason (it's still OK here, and bands like Metallica still draw larger crowds, but metal is nothing like what it was back in the 1980s when these bands were selling out arenas). I don't like to live in the past with music, but it sucks that the entire genre is pretty much in limbo these days. There are some good bands out there, but I can't believe that some of these bands play at some really small venues ... they deserve larger crowds .

Thanks all

Because in this country we've allowed a giant pussification to happen, and now we have a generation of softies that is afraid of rock/metal and would rather hear the Imagine Dragons bang 1 drum and chant "Thunder" 45 times in a song.

Stern should earn some respect here.

They gave spooky TPF, and exactly 1 day (Monday) to gather up as many uninhibited non refundable deposits as possible.

They could have dropped maiden at any point during this window to deliver a blow, but didn’t.

Worth a few points of goodwill in my book...

I like that song lol

Just to clarify...

Metal is better than ever... but the landscape has changed drastically.

Instead of 10 bands selling out arenas (1980's), you have 5,000+ metal bands worldwide playing live in clubs, which means most major cities have several good local metal bands they can follow. The variety and interest has never been bigger.

I could name 100 not good, but great metal acts since 2000. And yes, just like ANY genre of music, 98% of it is copycat.

-mof

More likely Spooky fit their timeline to Stern's schedule as well. But all the same, Spooky is no threat to Stern's bottom line and makes no sense for Stern to not be friendly with them, etc.

Apparently it's not a magnet, rather the 3D target that Keith developed for Archer. Still very cool.

You will have to remove the clear plastic ones then you can glue your own in place.

For those of us who didn't follow the Archer build, where would I find information about what this means?

Hrmm... no mention of custom audio callouts yet. Wonder what the tone of the voice callouts will be?

The more accurately you hit the shot, the better. Close to center scores better than the outside edge.

Sparky, doing an impression of Jackie, doing an impression of Eddie.

I know this is crazy, but you don't have to think about pinball in terms of companies. Sometimes it feels like high school kids arguing about bands, except instead of talking about albums they like or don't they want to fight about record labels.

"No, fuck you, Def Jam sucks, only assholes listen to Def Jam records, Atlantic is where it's at!"

I thought Star Wars was a disappointing mess, utterly let down by how it didn't do justice to a favorite theme of mine. It sucked, and that's my take. Other don't agree, and that's the amazing thing about opinions.

Iron Maiden look amazing, really hot, super interested to see more. It wasn't at TPF, the teaser video was a joke and ... it doesn't matter. Game looks great.

The fact that they're both Sterns doesn't mean a damn thing to me. Whoooooo cares? Stop treating these companies like sports teams.

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Spike 2. Where the power budget is so tight, adding a single mod can damage the machine - G. Gomez 2018.

I like colourful, but they're really over-using purple. Ghostbusters, BM'66, Aerosmith, GotG, Iron Maiden, even SW. It'll probably be all over Elvira / Beatles too.

Albeit, this is a rather better 'house look' than the hideous clip art mixed with stock images and textures from the bad years.

Probably doesn't help that the competition are either in or about to enter a glut of purple, too - Alice Cooper, MBr, BBBr, potentially Kosmic Khaos.

P.S. I love purple, but there's such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Can't believe they didn't go for the obvious and make 666 LEs. They could have had 166 more expensive LEs sold and EVERYONE would have given them a pass on the quantity because for Iron Maiden, the number is a natural.

Maybe they'll wake up and fix it.

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Looks a bit like Elvis, not?

Luck will eventually run out. You just need more exposure.

Can't wait to play this....oh, wait....I have to go back to the A Dark Night For Stern Thread....

That artwork looks amazing ...but did we really think it would suck if they did Iron Maiden?

.....and the ramp shot through the bumpers ... the one in Congo was one of my favorite shots, so this layout is already batting 1.000 in my eyes without even seeing it in action.