Gotto be Levi

Ok I will take your word for it FB

Yes proud Stern Fanboy here-always have been always will be

After rewatching the stream the game is a little better than I thought . Seems like it’s really built for head to head/ tournament play . I just don’t see the real theme integration into the modes . Its like a modernized early Solid State pin . Get combos , multipliers , get points , hear zeppelin while doing it . No real theme or story to the modes like maiden . Excited to play one , just don’t think it would last long in my lineup

Awesome that you think it's cool that Stern laughs at us for coughing up the big bucks while getting less-and-less every release. You must have money to throw away to have that 'tude! Not me, I like to get something great whenever I cough up 7k or more!

Since I love LZ, I might still hang in there for the Premium I have on order, but I'm going to play the Pro first and if it's a dud, my Premium will go to someone else.

I’m 39. I have heard most of these find a million times. Had no idea they were all LZ. Now I get it. Wow pumped out of nowhere for this pin.

I will never understand the Ph D of Art scholars that come out of the woodworks for 1-3 weeks after every new pin release. I LOVE the art on all three of these. Love the directness and how crazy different and distinct they all are. That said, F the art... it’s background to me. The game looks fun as hell and the music kicks the ass (who knew!? Not me)

Sure stripped pro’s suck but that’s nothing new. Pro’s are for OPs like me.

My only problem? Getting one during virus times for my location sucks because it isn’t viable until traffic recovers a bit more.

I absolutely will be looking for one of these secondhand as the virus continues to fade away. If it is as fun as it looks and the music keeps growing on me I’m sure I’ll pickup a second one for home.

Cheers to all. No stairway.

I'm in on an LE, but actually really like the prem artwork. I think it would work really well with an orange powder coat that matched the lettering in the art and similar t-molding (which could be easily done by the owner) and that would help tie it in better with the topper also.

Everyone has different taste-hell you were willing to fork out $10,000 for Rick and Morty? Really? I am sure the game has great integration(I am one of Scott's biggest fans) but is that theme worth $10,000+? To some it is and to some it is not. Same thing goes for LZ-some people see the value some do not. With no offense intended-I think R & M is worth $6000 tops.

Now here come the thumbs downs from FB's

After seeing the awesome gameplay, it's the only thing left for people to rag on.

I was letting the cynics get to me, even being a big Zep fan, but holy shit does it look like a blast to shoot.

Rick and Morty is a stunning accomplishment...well worth the money I paid. Best theme integration, best cabinet, best playfield, best audio, best light show OF ANY GAME I've purchased in a very long time. The theme integration is AMAZING. An amazing game that I will play the hell out of AND will be a great investment, since the number of games in this country will be very low and the show/game will only grow in popularity. My first Spooky game...not an early Spooky adopter or "fan boy". Just know a great game when I see it!

You can't be a fan of Scott if you don't understand why it's worth 10k! Butter cab is just stunning...

Did you guys try and get the stream blessed before you did it? You’d think a stream from the license holders channel would be allowed. Or at least able to be worked out with twitch or FB to get the bots turned off. Sucks you had to deal with that. Game looks fun as hell.

Anyone have a link or know of a future source that will drop soon? I am in for an LE and had to work late last night. F!!!

All of this is how I feel about Zeppelin, actually. Different strokes.

You should probably not watch and just pleasantly surprise yourself when you get it. You'll be glad you did.

I will take that title. It’s growing on me.

Here’s the real question . When these games start arriving , are the playfields going to be full of issues , or has stern addressed it ? Because that’s also factoring into my decision to pull the trigger on a premium

I would expect more of the same until it goes away (if it goes away). Hoping for the best.

More Flo than Alice's Diner.....

go look at stern AIQ thread there are still issues.

The way combos are implemented is really cool. The 4 band member inserts are tied with the 4 target banks. A single combo into a bank increases that band member by .1 and a double combo increases by .2, etc. When all four band member inserts are lit solid you can shoot the Icarus to start the playfield X. The X value is all the band member values multiplied together. Example 1.4 x 1.6 x 1.1 x 1.9 = 4.6816 which I assume would be 4.7x playfield. I remember Tim saying that shooting the Hermit on pro or Hot Shot ramp on prem/LE both before and during playfield x adds time to the base time.

Stream made me go from definitely not to maybe a premium in my future. I love Ritchie games and the fun factor on this with the music, lights and flow looks to be there. The art is very meh for me, but I think the Premium with the side rails would look pretty good in person.

So, the new Expression Lighting System is going to be available on the pro.

Guessing this is going to be on every pin going forward?

No more pinstadium on newer games?

I think Stern did a great job with the assets with its limitations and had to turn this into a pinball machine. I’m surprised that they did not utilize Icarus coming up from the bottom of the playfield heading towards the sun. Then again this is about Led Zeppelin and not the myth.

I’ve always thought music pins are super hard to do. Everybody loves to listen to music. Most people like listening to music when they’re playing their pins. If you have bands like AC/DC or Iron Maiden and Metallica, they have elements of the evil hell theme and mascot like Eddie or a hot rod-esque feel. This might help the designer to come up with a design theme to support the band and its music for the theatre of the pin. Think Alice Cooper, Kiss or Rob Zombie.

Over at Jersey Jack GNR, has their skeleton stuff going on but that’s about it. They knew this and with Slash, emphasize the whole concert feel. It appears that this was the same issue with Stern and Led Zeppelin. It became the World tour of those decades and it’s concert footage, as there’s not much to work with. Even the Beatles, was subject to a time in their career and emphasize that in the pin.

I’m kind of hoping not on every game going forward, don’t think every theme needs it.

Might be a bit over the top for every game to have all these lighting systems.

Brushing up on my infinite series expansion rules from Calc II to learn better scoring techniques

Wasn’t it Mel’s Diner and Alice, Flo and Vera worked there?

Been a long time since I’ve seen that show.

Just watched the stream again on Stern Insider. I like the flow and smoothness of the shots. Definitely looks like SR. Fast, flowy. I really wish I was into the theme more though. I like LZ, just not a huge fan as it was a little before my time, but I can see why people will like the game. For the limited assets it looks like they had to work with, it seems like a fun shooter. Really wish the blimp did more than just sit there though. How cool would it have been to fill up the blimp as a physical ball lock and then hit the raised spinner/magnet bash to release the balls? Or have it travel over the playfield and park in front of ramps to fill it up...like a floating, physical ball lock. Oh well, guess the BOM has limits.

Doubtful since they can’t even get their marketing PF’s correct. These were both a Pro and Prem in their release videos. (Go to the post below to see pics).

It hasn't been an issue for the last 5 pin releases. On mine anyway. LOL

"BOM has its limits".

Not a hater, just don’t like what I see. I own many Sterns and music themed pins. LZ is one of my favorite groups which I have listened to daily for many years. Isn’t this game supposed to be for me?

I won’t be buying LZ pin, but I have no doubt the game is selling great and hope it does well. I want one of my neighbors to buy one so I can play it. All that doesn’t change the fact that the art packages are lazy and bad.

You said it, "different strokes".

The only opinion that matters is your own.

I buy a lot of Stern games, I just don't like this one for the layout and lack of theme integration, forget the artwork, and i'm thinking the bottom line for me is I'v been done with Steve Ritchie layouts. They are about the only pins from Stern i haven't purchased in the last 7 or 8 yrs.

I've had SM and AC/DC so i'm good. But it's a "flow monster" amongst many other "flow monsters".

I consider it a blessing and a curse that I’m an “audiophile”. It means that I’ve devoted time and money into putting together a system that allows me to listen to music in a manner that is better than 99% of those out there, closer to what the producers, engineers, and musicians intended. I enjoy listening to music, but I am very particular about it. I have a hard time just having it on in the background. I need to sit in my sweet spot and really listen to it. It’s a bit of a chore that is worth it. It’s also the reason why I rarely listen to music in my car, and never wear headphones at the gym (my massive over the ear headphones would look ridiculous and would not work well with sweat).

So regrettably I’ve never listened to music and played pinball at the same time. I’ve never owned a music pin because I’ve never liked any of the offerings to this point enough to want to own one. Led Zeppelin however, this is what I am looking forward to the most with this machine, the sole purpose of playing pinball to kick-ass music.

With LZ, like Gary once said about Star Wars, "I could put a Star Wars wrapper on a box of lights and it would sell out".

No doubt LZ fans are gonna like an LZ pin.

You’ll enjoy it. You might need to add the subwoofer or upgrade the audio. Especially, if you’re an audiophile.

What about a pin based on the tv show “ Different Strokes” .....

Poor theme integration? I'm just not seeing it.

Tilt animation: A record spinning on the floor for the warning. It slows and falls over = Tilt
Match sequence: The iconic Physical Graffiti album cover shows the match numbers in the doors, then the album rolls out of the sleeve to reveal the match.
Gold records and platinum records awarded during songs that become the end of ball bonus.
Concert clips that have been "acidified", LOL
Lots of usage of the Led Zep font style
Free game animation looked like a door opening up to a backstage entrance.
The LCD surround is like a stage with speakers on the sides and lighting rigs overhead.
The two mini-wizard modes are called Top of the Charts and World Tour
The wizard mode name is unknown but the insert is a Zeppelin with a ?

These are all things that scream Led Zep. They were a band that toured and made awesome music. Not a movie, not a comic book, not a TV show.
The only negative I can see is the overuse of the Zeppelin but that doesn't really bother me too much.

Heard it again today that there may be a hidden Easter egg for the wizard mode.

I kind of hope the Stern lights don't put Pinstadium out of business. They are the greatest in customer service and truly value their customer.
I'll also put in a good word for Pinnovator's in case you want your LZ to kick butt.

Still hundreds of thousands of existing games for them to go into.

Big LZ fan and not a big fan of this LZ pin. Still want a music pin in my collection at some point. Hoping for Queen to be done and done right.

I'm on board for Queen. It seems PB has that license.

I am too!

I'm out.

What you don’t want a new Zaccaria pinball machine?

Anyone have link to stream

Too bad I’d buy one too but Stern ghosted me on my JP premium playfield issues. My distributor just shrugs shoulders no impact on him. Now you have to battle to get an unpopulated playfield.

So cynical Boobie!

Out already and you haven't even seen the new Alien. Lol

I thought the same thing after I saw GNR. Then, when LZ dropped I thought, "Uh-oh."

However, both of these companies you referenced are hole-fillers. It's a good strategy for a small operation to find a missing feature from an established industry leader and then solve a specific problem that's been overlooked—and then sell into *their* (not your) existing market. You'll make money for a while but the real goal is to pray that your product is defensible so they are forced to acquire your company. If you’re product can’t be patented then you’re on a shorter path as the moment they notice you becoming successful the larger company will have a build-or-buy conversation. Generally a larger company would rather build their own solution and use your work as a stepping stone for their own product development. Ultimately the Stern and JJP versions are much more elegant than the bolt on version by Pinstadium as they have the advantage of integrating during the manufacturing process.

You’ll notice that Stern has let Pinstaduim set the market price. They followed right along. That has to sting.

There of course is still the existing market of pins out there but now, suddenly, the Pinstadium market is no longer growing as these lights become standard. That’s not great for business. Without new hole-filler products revenue will surely diminish.

The good news is that smart founders have a way of righting their canoe when the market get choppy.

Well yah that is correct... damn Im old.

Yeah, I was quite pleased with the LCD work - a lot more Zep assets there so there must have been distictions in the license on when and where certain pieces could be used. But the animations imo are light years ahead of where AIQ was at release and capture the spirit of what most people think of LZ.