Stern LE's probably offer more variety. Tough call

Williams

Williams all the way.

The Stern LE pins are more rare and that should help with resale for those who look upon pin buying as investments that are fun to play, rather than art on the wall. At this point in time the Stern big 3 offers more upside than the 10 plus year old WMS pins as more people have played them since they were more of them made and were in more public locations. Once more people find these newer Stern pins I think price will still go up more.

Of that list I'd go B/W but if for Stern you threw in SM or LOTR it would be a tighter race.

I'd go with a mix--MM, MB, and BIBLE.

I'd give the B/W games a slight edge here due to superior art packages.

IMHO Stern makes some great games and you've listed some of their best. But Stern's playfield art can't top the classic B/W tables. If Mettalica's use of hand drawn art is the new normal for Stern then this ranking might look different in a couple years.

B/W gets my vote, but you do make a great point. If the price for all of these machines was in the same price range, think you would have a lot more people getting the B/W's.

I agree, a mix of them. I'd pick different games, but the idea would be the same.

Still Williams but... it is pretty awesome that we can even have this conversation. As someone already mentioned...hand draw art and customs dots put the Williams games over the hump. Another BIG plus for the Williams stuff isn humor...Stern need to improve in this area. If Stern keeps going in the direction they are going in we could see a changing of the guard real soon

Hand drawn art and overall build quality put the Williams ahead IMO. But with Some of Stern's newer releases, I have to agree that they may finally be catching up!!! I mean, haven't they only had like 18 years to come up with better ideas??

Williams

2 years ago, I would've laughed at the thought that Stern could make anything close to the "Williams 3".
Now, even though I still favor the Williams machines, the recent Stern machines makes me really excited for the future of Stern that they've closed the gap a bunch...

Pains me to say this as I thought it would never be true. I'd have to go with the Stern games listed here.

Only Williams in that list I would want back is AFM.

In fact I think you could take either AFM/MM and swap those games with either AC/DC or Met. Either way, it would be a two Stern games to 1 Williams.

Of the six you listed, I don't care for TRON, AC/DC or AFM. I voted Williams because I would have 2 Williams' and 1 Stern (MM, MB, METLE). Maybe I'm biased though as I have two of those three (MB & METLE)

If you had put SM ( I know, not really an LE. It was an "only", though) in place of TRON I would vote Stern.

According to IPDB which has a ton of votes, the Williams big three are TZ, STTNG and TOM.

Just sayin.

I could sell my whole collection & keep just these 3. The real trifecta!

image.jpg

I think that many will take exception to what you are calling Stern's "big 3". Metallica just simply does not belong there. Tron probably doesn't either since SM and LOTR exist. The truly amazing thing is that these 15-20 year old B/W games can stand toe-to-toe and in my opinion defeat any Stern "Big 3" that you could come up with.

I don't dislike Stern games by any means. I've owned three of them. The nice thing about the newer machines is the relative trouble-free nature of them. And I like to play pinball much more than I enjoy fixing the machines.

I played MM and MB last week. If AC/DC or Metallica were there, I wouldn't have touched either one of the older games.

I completely agree with this! STTNG has been my favorite pin since it came out, but all 3 of these may challenge that once I finally get them all.

I voted B/W but only cause you have MET in sterns list. Replace that with LoTR or FGY; and I'll take stern everyday, any day.

I agree. Not sure why MET would be thrown in there at this early stage.

Either way, I'd probably still vote for the B/W Trinity, but it's getting really close.

I'm so glad and lucky that I don't have to make this decision in reality (I own AFM, MB, MM, Tron LE, AC/DC Premium and LOTR).

(I consider those the Trifecta from B/W and Stern)

the B/W games are not my top 3, so i'm in for stern with this contest.

Neither of those 2 sets would be my first choices.

If it were a matter of having to pic out of those to choices, I'd pick Williams.

I don't get particularly excited about any of the 6 machines in the list actually. And yes, I have played them.

Chris

Still have to go with the B/W pins, even though Stern has definitely closed the gap. There is something about the classic B/W pins that just seems so timeless. Art, themes, humor. Those are the three areas where they beat Stern.

Stern's are generally deeper pins though, and more challenging overall (generalization)

B/W is leading this poll by more than a 2 to 1 margin.

I suspect that's because of MOPLE. Still too new to know if they will do something special with it. If it had been one of the more established Sterns (IM, LOTR, SM) I think the margin would be closer.

_{Post edited by Erik : Oops I guess there's no IM LE .. should be tho}

My B/W tri-fecta is a little different than yours-

Judge Dredd, No Fear, and HS2

I think B/W still has it over Stern for overall design, rules and polish.

I haven't played Metallica yet. The other two are good but just don't get to the level of the best B/W. I'd probably consider MB the weakest of the B/W listed and would put IJ in my top three with MM and TZ.

But Stern gets points because they are still making games (need to step up on the software though).

I'm so glad and lucky that I don't have to make this decision in reality (I own AFM, MB, MM, TRON LE, AC/DC Premium and LOTR).

(I consider those the Trifecta from B/W and Stern)

I wholeheartedly agree with your top three Sterns ...

Stern_trifecta.JPG

SM, LOTR and Tron would allow me to vote for Stern.

Based upon your selections, B/W is the easy winner.

With the selection posted I had to go B/W. But the selection should have been.

Stern:
LOTR
AC/DC
SM (to be replaced with ST later this year)

B/W:
STTNG
MM
TZ

For me I would still take the B/W three but, once ST hits, I may tip to the Stern side.

Given the selections, not a whole lotta variety in the shot layout of either set. (OK, maybe Tron if you don't own a Funhouse.) Besides, LE aside, the Stern trifecta is really SM, LOTR and WPT. WPT is twice the game as Tron is--better flow, more variety, and hands-down far better/deeper/cooler rules.

eeek. No TZ or STTNG on my WMS/BLY fave list. Ever. And do you really think ST will come out this year? I could make good bank on the other side of that action......

Sounds like we have polar opposite tastes in pins, those are my 2 all-time favorite pins without question.

I'm hoping for a late fall/early winter ST but, who knows. I'd like them to get it out before they weigh in that Internet sales tax BS and drive the price up another 7-800 per game.

X-men LE and SM black would have been better choices than acdc le and met le.

Great point about being more rare! Never really thought of it that way. And they are brighter and more modern in the way of music, modes and Attitude, In my opinion.

Nastalgia VS Now.... Which are you???

Nostalgia plays almost no role in my decisions regarding which pins I like and buy.

I played pinball in the early to mid 80's. I missed out on the pinball resurgence in the 90's. So me loving pins like MM, MB, AFM, CV, SS, etc. have zero to do with nostalgia. I only discovered these pins when I got into the hobby a few years ago.

Pins like Space Shuttle and Black Hole, on the other hand, are nostalgic to me, but I still haven't owned any pin older than from the 90's.

I like the question, though it invariably opens up the taste-based nit-picking regarding who likes what. What's interesting to me is say I was asked this question pre-TRON I would've just laughed at how dumb a question it was; this thread topic makes me realize that Stern has some damn solid contenders lately! I remember when the only Stern I liked was Ripleys, ha.

Still I'm in camp Williams, just not as firmly as I would've guessed.

Nastalgia or not, the games from B/W era are now dated. The music, the style! But I was born in 81' so maybe it's a different viewpoint?

I like it when you visit "camp o-din".

Sterns for sure

IMO......Since ACDC is rated higher then both of those it would seem its fine where it is.

I'd go ACDC, Metallica and AFM. MB is a fun game, I'm sitting 4 feet from a pristine example, but it doesn't match any of these three.

I'm in camp "gimme great gameplay design". It's not necessarily occupied by just one manufacturer or era...and it might even contain a game that is neither made by Stern OR B/W...

+1

None of the above except AC/DC and MB....throw Lotr LE and SM and you've got something!

BW still edging in this poll to me but it is getting closer than it was 5 years ago. IMHO.

Bingo..........all day long!..........if people are being honest And the "ratings" are biased, outdated and really not relevant because of the agenda raters.....

Tough call, the machines these days are built with unrivalled technology, faster, smarter and maybe tougher.........the gap has definitely closed.

I would go the best of both worlds on this........its awesome to have that choice as well.