DMCA

What does a song by the Village People have to do with the Led Zepplin gameplay video not being made available?

I don't understand why you feel the need to be so condescending and insulting. Come to SoCal and let's play some pinball. Let's talk about things we like or dislike, and talk together about why we like or dislike certain things about each game. I love to get pumped up for a title. at the same time, I can't pretend that certain releases are "awesome" just based on cool themes. Themes do matter, but for me, I always prefer a clever design with lastability in my home collection; not a generic layout over and over with a different theme. I am kinda bummed that SR seems to have "mailed it in" on a bunch of his games in the last decade. If you disagree with my opinion, that's alright with me. I respect your opinion if you think this game is a gem by Stern. I love stern pinball. I own two of their games. I am just bummed about this game because of the potential that I believe they did not maximize. Seriously, Led Zep could've been a masterpiece in the right hands. I mean, just look at what Elwin did with Maiden. Very few pinballers LOVE the Iron Maiden music/band, but it is very well received because the PF is cool and fun, the sound is really good, and the art is custom by ZY, who is an artist master IMO. I guess what I'm saying is that even if the theme is not uniformly LOVED, most home collectors will still like a game if it has good PF layout, art, and a good sound and voice package.

Also, how would it help me to understand your post/opinion if you type slower? whether you type 50 words per minute or 5 words per minute doesn't change the message you deliver on this forum. Also, I would appreciate if you wrote your post with a crayon and uploaded a picture for me. In fact, I would like to see your thoughts on the game generally, written in crayon on a legal pad.

What do you think about the game? do you like the PF design, the art, the features? If you do, why do you like those elements? Led Zep was big before my time, but I still like their music. I suppose I just was hoping for a better design and art package, and better, less generic art.

Looks like the VOD of today's stream is on the Stern Insider page - only need a free basic account.

So you have to sign up to see the game being played?

Rofl.

Shots look rad (even if I think the "center ramp accessible from all flippers" is...not accurate) and the light show is killer. I do wonder if there is currently enough variety of objectives (for example, I like how the modes in Maiden make me combo or go ramp/spinner, etc. but I couldn't tell if that was the case on Zep) but I think that can evolve with code. Honestly my only gripes on the stream are that the sling and spinner sounds are almost *too* modern - they just don't fit the rest of the vibe. Also the British lady from Maiden for callouts would've been more fun, but that's a minor quibble.

Still, this looks like a party, the kind of thing I could have a lot of fun with post-covid when we have friends over. Not sure I am bold enough to go NIB without playing yet but I can probably convince myself for the sake of the soundtrack.

Remember when wonka was called a Pat lawler greatest hits....This is Steve Ritchies greatest hits IMO all his killer shots are there...I love how the flow and combos tie in a lot of ways...this is his opus...I own a jjp gnr le and love it I'm as excited to shoot this as any because this is got more flow than Alice's diner.It's also growing on me in its looks.Gnr is great but this looks great in its own way to me.Like someone said it's more a pinball machine...gnr is more of a new thing altogether.Bravo Steve

So, all these songs are on youtube anyway, and yet people can't stream a pinball with them in?

And Stern restricts who can watch a stream?

Do they want to, you know, actually sell these games???!!

Well we’re now at Step 3. So we can talk about game play and move on from the meh art... and game play looks crazy freaking awesome! Flow flow flow. Raised spinner looks fun to rip. Light show looks incredible! (And I have a GNR and love it too). Yay 2020 pinball!

I know we’re not supposed to talk politics but I’m voting opto spinners for President in 2024.

Personally the raised spinner looked meh...... what is it supposed to be? If it was a Zeppelin rising up that would make sense. Or some other iconic object. But it’s literally nothing.

And no kinetic feedback at all. If you miss, it’s a bricked post shot, if you nail it it’s a Shot to nowhere.

Still think the game will be fun to play.

Loved the jukebox song selection with the album covers - that’s the best song selection I’ve seen so far.

Nice flow/Alice's Diner reference

After a joint policy statement, the Coalition for Sweet-Ass Sound Effects has jumped aboard the campaign at a leadership level. Where do I volunteer for canvassing?

Last night stream did nothing for me (and I love the band and SR's past work). As much as I want to get excited about LZ, it's really tough!

Even KISS has the levitating ball traveling across the backboard, Gene ball lock with spitting/spinning the ball out. LZ has a spinner magnet...AND YOU ONLY GET IT ON THE PREMIUM/LE! OMG the bar is low.

I still own/love STTNG...a much richer pinball experience on so many levels. For us old timers, SR set the bar very high 30 years ago. Just sucks that SR now works for a company controlled by bean counters. The bean counters were/are necessary...especially when Stern was struggling. Now that they are thriving, they should give their precious designers more freedom to innovate (both time and BOM budget). Thank goodness for Spooky and JJP who are trying harder. Here is a reminder of what SR created 30 years ago!

Fanboys response will be “You suck this pin is awesome!” You like me do feel let down by this. LZ is one of the most coveted licenses ever for a pinball game to many. I started collecting last year and I own 2 Sterns and have a deposit for EHOH.

I have been a LZ fan for decades and this just seems like a standard shooter for a standard license. LZ deserved so much more. I to love Iron Maiden layout and game. I would own one if I liked the band but I never did. It’s a music pin and for me to dish out money I have to be a fan of the band.

I also really like dead pool, but I am a DC fan more. I own BKSOR premium and it was my first Stern NIB purchase for me and I love it. Yes it’s a standard layout but for me it goes well with BK and BK2000 in layout and improves greatly on the artwork but still respects the history of the license to me.

Expectations were high for me because of the emotional attachment to the music of LZ, but I still tried to keep those expectations grounded to a wait and see. I was very worried Stern would be able to pull it off with the bands album artwork from a graphic design side.

Regardless if Sterns hands were tied by LZ, I myself was let down and this just doesn’t feel like a true LZ game to me. Metallica, IM, Aerosmith, and AC/DC feel like the bands game but LZ just feels like a pin with no feel or soul of the band TO ME. This is not as bad of a disappointment like the Beatles, but to me it is worse because I love Led Zeppelin and really wanted this to be great.

Just a pin with LZ clip art and their faces, LZ IV symbols and the Hindenburg pasted all over it, with Icaruss on a stick and here’s your LZ pin. If you like it fine, but there are many like me who are disappointed and artwork is important as is theme integration for one of the best bands of all time to many.

This is AC DC all over again which by the way is simply a rehash of T2 where as LED ZEP looks like nothing else the KIng has ever done before; this game looks like flat out fun to shoot and play. I predict all these naysayers will be the same people on the hunt for this game. I also predict this being a classic just like AC DC was. Can’t wait to get mine
Thank you to the whole entire team at stern that poured their heart and soul into my dream theme

Amen Derek

I now know what the whole DMCA thing was all about with not being able to stream licensed LZ songs. I wondered what was going on and now it makes sense. Still a great stream and I really enjoyed it.

STTNG is in it's own category. It is and always will be Steve's true masterpiece. It is a 'Super Pin' after all and to me is the best pinball machine ever made. I do not think I will see another pinball game surpass STTNG in my lifetime.

Anyone know the time stamp for shots going through the spinner and up the ramp, someone said it was done on the stream but I’ve not been able to find it yet.

And is the center ramp makeable from the 3rd flipper like stern advertise or is it more of a rebound shot like the left ramp on Star Trek from the 3rd flipper?

It appeared to me that a shot through raised spinner hit the Ikarus located directly behind and made it jump up to the glass. That looked quite cool.

Maybe the center ramp from the spinner and upper flipper shots are more, “awesome if they happen, but not likely” type shots.

But you can hit Icarus any time.

It just looks cool hitting it through the spinner. I hope they add rules that in certain situations you have to hit icarus through the spinner for a super jackpot or something. That would be fun.

I saw a 3rd flipper shot up the center ramp in the stream. Couldn’t tell you when except that it was the first 1/2 hour.

For those watching the VOD of the stream, the audio dramatically improves around 44 minutes in.

The only thing I may want to see is some more synchronization of the side RGB lights during certain modes/songs. They have it changing color schemes so quickly it looks like a rainbow show. May have rainbow show for few songs and then do some cool synch with just a few colors for another mode. TNA is probably the best example I can think of for what I want to see.

Agreed. Although I did see one song (can’t remember which one), where it was all blue to start and was thumping with the beat and really stood out from the other songs. More of that please.

GNR crushes it in this dept, so let’s see if stern can make at least a similar experience. Good but in a different way.

No way to watch the VOD antwhere? Damn missed out on the stream yesterday due to the time difference...
Really bummed out that it's not available anymore

If anybody has it available to see anywhere, PM me please
Can't buy it since COVID killed our locations for the time being but still would like to get hyped about it!

Stern's website. Click Insider. Free account gets you in.

Unpopular opinion: The Icarus logo is one of the worst logos ever created and I would not want it front and center on anything I own.

Woohoo! Thanks man!

I was super disappointed by the Beatles during the reveal and stream. I thought it was such a poor decision to basically reskin seawitch. Then I play it a few times at the arcade, played it a few more times a couple weeks later and really started liking the shots and flow. I watched the special on how it was made and why the chose the path they did. it opened my eyes a bit. I thought if i find one reasonable I’d buy it. I did and Now I own one! It’s awesome, like having a classic great shooter in a modern pin. Neighbors and family love it. One of my most played pins. Might not be a keeper but definitely happy we have it.

LZ I will need to play before buying. Luckily I have 2 friends buying it so I should be able to in the near future

I love the original art of Icarus and I love the ancient Greek story that went along with it. It is an interesting story as Led Zeppelin originally intended Icarus to be used for their record label logo(Swan Song Records) and not a logo for the band. The Led Zeppelin Icarus logo was picked by Led Zeppelin to be the logo for their record label, Swan Song Records, launched in 1974. Zeppelin launched Swan Song to promote Zeppelin works as well as the music of other bands. The most well know band to sign with Swan Song (besides Led Zeppelin), was probably Bad Company. Swan Song also released music for the solo careers of Jimi Page and Robert Plant after the breakup of Led Zeppelin. In 1983, Swan Song Records closed its doors. It does still exist to distribute reissues of old music from earlier years of the label.

The Led Zeppelin Icarus symbol is actually based on a sketch done in 1869 by artist William Rimmer called “Evening (The Fall of Day)”. The sketch is currently being displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The Fall of Day.jpg

Nope. I'll continue to use JJP Fanboys. What the hell is wrong with calling them fanboys?

Anyway where and when might we see the stream from yesterday without having to go on social media which I do not do and never will. I might go on anti-social media. U sign in and nothing happens. Sounds beautiful.

the problem with a band like LZ is that it has so many stages and there is so much history to cover vs GNR (and I have a GNR sitting in a port somewhere) who really did a handful of albums and then stopped. Hard for a designer to get what everyone wants and he has to take his own path on it. I'm not an LZ fan but it looks like it ticks the boxes, but id have loved Stairway but understand its not a pinball friendly tune, sure if you have the band work with you and they are into pinball its going to be an entirely different situation. I'd have loved to have seen the celebration day artwork but that's because its the only artwork I could pick out as LZ.

Having watched the game I really like it, typical Steve flow, Tim with a new take on rules and aligning them closer to the song, some superb fast shots, and a lot of speed on the ball, I think this will be great with a few buddies and a beer and a great tournament game. Will pick it up in the new year. Huge congrats to Steve, Tim, Ray and the rest of the Stern team.

Would love to know what mechs and iterations of the layout where scrap due to cost.

I do like JJP FB! It’s growing on me!

$39.99 Ha Ha

Well you are still just the Assistant JJP FB Chief, Panzer is still the Chief of the JJP FB's.

Having just watched the stream on Stern Insider.

I think Ritchie, Sexton and the rest of the team have to be commended.
I had my doubts with the Theme but they have pulled this off. The Electric Magic Spinner is fun for sure and well integrated.
Pin is a flow monster and looks highly addictive. Appears much attention to detail has went into the shot geometry.
Love the animations of the tour plane, Zeppelin launch and psychedelic band footage.
I'm in on an GnR LE but have to say, this looks to me, a much better shooter.

Trying to think who is the Chief of Stern FB's?

It was Whodey(RIP-good buddy) now chuckwurt?

Haven’t seen worse artwork on a pin since No Good Gofers. Could LZ art package get worse? Well if you said no, you are going to be surprised. I give you the Stern topper sitting atop their pinball machine. The topper shows a giant zeppelin in a style and colors of a tropical drink. The translite has a classic zeppelin line in black and white line art. Who thought it would be great idea to show 2 zeppelins stacked atop each other? The person designing the topper either had no idea what the translite would look like or knew but he didn’t care.

We know the person doing the cabinet artwork didn’t care as he put a zeppelin on both cabinet sides, both head sides and the cabinet front, for a total of 5 zeppelins. The playfield guy didn’t care either, but he cared less, as he only gave us 3 zeppelins between the center playfield and 2 apron cards. I kind of feel bad for the designer of the translite now as he was only able to add 1 zeppelin. There is a molded zeppelin flying over the playfield. As mentioned the topper designer added 1 zeppelin. So my constructive design critique is, don’t put 11 fucking zeppelins on a single pinball machine. Also if you have 10 zeppelins that look one way, don’t add another in a style that doesn’t match.

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How many times have you commented about the art work on this thread? I feel sorry for the horse laying on the ground getting beaten while laying lifeless.

dd.jpg

I like the stream enough to consider a premium at some point. I’ll just need beer to go with it.

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Topper pic just came out. That was a new straw for me.

We were trying to confuse the bots but after we got caught we just said eff it. Ha

Really simple for all the haters-If you do not like what Stern did for Led Zeppelin-DO NOT BUY IT

Stern is laughing at these threads and LZ is selling like HOT CAKES-I have confirmed this with several distributors.