And install them?!? I need 4. Also I’ll drink beer while you do it. Haha

As long as you share your beer we can do it! I kinda figured maybe LW3 would have got bought and went to a new home after the KY show.

Stern seminar at TPF starting now. https://www.twitch.tv/texas_pinball_seminar

Anyone can ask them where the f**k is the book celebrating the 30 (now 31) years of Stern I preordered eons ago?

Brian Eddy joins Stern as Sr. Game Designer

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Probably sitting on Gary's coffee table in the same state it was when you backed it on KS.

That is something you want to buy?

OMG. This is fantastic.

Very cool congrats!

It's great but can we get code done Lyman style MUCH faster?

They have the designers.

Can’t we be happy about something for once

That might be the most exciting thing I have heard so far this year, Brian is simply awesome he’s either designed or coded some of my favourite games ever made can’t wait to see what he can do with a new game

I don’t see why Eddy couldn’t do an Elwood and make up his own rules for his own games, heck Eddy could probably code the thing himself too.

Indiana Jones, The Shadow and didn’t he code Funhouse? All 3 of those are pinball greats, very exciting to see Eddy return to pinball, well done Stern!

Everybody bitches about Stern code non stop.

It's great that Eddy is coming on board at Stern.

I'd buy an Eddy/Lyman game.

Or the theme has to be phenomenal to accept less than Lyman.

Best use of real estate ever: The Shadow. Welcome back, Brian Eddy!!

And put him with a great theme and Lyman! Oh man.

Wow, Brian Eddy is an aggressive hire. He had a whole other career outside of pinball.

The hiring keeps going, and we know some software guys were brought on recently, and we know Lyman isn't retiring, and there could be more code guys coming in. Either way Stern is showing some optimistic future projections.

Not I, good sir.

I agree totally. Stern has got some serious serious talent on board!

I think stern had enough of all the bad publicity going around and companies competing and now there useing their market power to come back hard it looks like stern is fighting back with the heavy artillery keep watching at this rate they will put balls back into pinball

Well, they did have to fill Trudeau’s empty spot

Ah man, seems wasted for him to go to stern. He'd have a much bigger game allowance at JJP.

Well, seeing that Stern isn’t publishing the book, probably an irrelevant question to as George Gomez.

Good to know that you know better than Brian where he should be employed.

Wow, this is very big news. My 2 favorite games, AFM and MM, were designed by him and coded by Lyman. I would love to see them team up for another masterpiece.

Don't get too excited.

The last year or just over has seen them:

- Release BM'66 with barely any code and not enough engineering time (left ramp wireform and rotisserie).

- Release Aerosmith with good (for Stern) release code ... but now hasn't been touched in a year, even the bugs.

- Release SW with disappointing art and probably the most minimal features and toys of any recent game, with what looked like a slightly modified ACDC layout.

- Release GotG with probably the worst release code ever, which to this day still remains awful, and a layout where the lower 2/3rds of the pf is essentially a carbon copy of Metallica and the top is very similar.

- Reveal a slide of a commercial topper at Expo (which has disappeared since), and talked about Stern Army.

Eddy, and the software side hires, are definitely very capable, but they're entering a company that has been a continual disappointment of late. Only Lyman has really provided much reason to be optimistic.

I don't know. Me personally like to see more new designers, guys that know the possibilities of today and tomorrow, not just use the experience that they have. Some of the best games of the older designers are what they did when they were younger.

I think JJP is going the right direction with that, let new guys try their hand and passion at a machine. That way we will get more innovative products. Let's be honest, who wants to have another MM ? You could just get AFM

Lawler, with a free hand, did Dialed In .... I think the worry is that it's just a waste, as Stern have opted for rehash after rehash.

That combined with a bunch of industry veterans going to DeepRoot in the twilight of their careers and very few expecting something to come of it, means people are understandably prepared for disappointment.

The veterans know how the ball bounces back.
Its not the shots that makes a good machine its to understands the physics of the bal thats makes the flow.
Balls bounce/rolls back and this can make your ball get stuck hangup or drain.
You need the feedback from veterans for the little last 5% to make the the game 100%.
Like Ghostbusters one of the best games from the last years but the wide space between the flippers destroy's it wil be a classic.
A new designer can be fun but you still need a veteran to clean it up.Look at the new Pirates from jjp, Patt lookt over his shoulder i am shure he did.

Correct. At JJP, you can do a LOT more with your game. No game in recent memory from stern can stand up to JJP pirates. Brian Eddy can do well at stern since its a lot of his old coworkers work there, but its wasted potential. Every stern is a rehash and the code is lightyears behind JJP.

If I hear in the interviews how Eric Meunier thinks about ball returns and different ways the ball should flow, I think he knows exactly what he is doing. The old designers go by experience, the new ones by passion, you can hear that in everything they say and do.

Look at the programmers. No doubt Lyman and Keith are great, but at the end of the day their respective games have a similar feel to them. Now Josh Kugler is a new programmer as is Ferret here from the forum and look what they think of. Pinball needs that, not every time the same same.

Damn Stern put out FOUR sweet games in a year?! Who else is doing anything like that?

And now Eddy is back?!

Thanks for the hype rubberduckie I was starting to feel a little blah about the whole Pinball thing.

No doubt, you buy a game from one of these other companies and you have to wait a year to get your game, and they only make one game per year. Stern makes 3-4 games a year and you can get one delivered to your home as soon as they reveal it pretty much.

Quantity over quality? The 4 to 1 ratio isn't doing well for the pinheads.

Great news that they hired Brian eddy but the spike system in my opinion is crap. If they go back to a truly reliable and easily servicable system (what they say the spike system is supposed to be, which is bs) that would be amazing news. this "lets throw unrepairable $200 node boards at your game till it works properly" approach to service is for the birds. Its all good till your warranty is up so just remember to "unload the node" before that time comes. If these node board replacements were $25-$50 to replace than fine but $200-$300 each is ridiculous. Hey Stern i love your themes, rules and games overall but please ditch this cheap junky system your running and charging an arm and a leg for. Get on top of things and be the industry-leading entity you should be.......

I like my Stern games personally, never had any problems yet.

Yep and I can get an Awesome Stern for $3,000 cheaper.

I totally get everyone here is a rich ass and they spend more than 3K on toppers and armor as soon as they buy a game, but seriously, 3K is a goddamn lot.

FYI, as of last week, in Germany a Dialed In LE now costs less than a Stern LE, the DI standard, less than some Stern Premiums. JJP PotC LE also costs less than a Stern LE.

The $ has dropped against the €, and JJP have little to no mark up that they charge to rest-of-world distributors or resellers. Unlike Sterns, where a huge margin is added.

Speak for yourself.
Games like Walking Dead, & ACDC with super-deep rules, and an exciting fun factor are already proven.
Pirates is NOT. While it does look neat, the rules come across as being about as fun as reading an encyclopedia.
Maybe you're right, and maybe Pirates will become the best game ever made but at this point, it's a little early to tell.
And a bit of a dick comment in a thread about Stern and the positive announcements/progress that they've announced this weekend.
But hey, I get that some people just aren't fans. I say they can have they WoZ, Hobbit, Dialed In and Pirates pins. Have fun with those!
At least you have 1 proven, and 1 maybe good game in that bunch.

Let's hope his talents produce great games wherever he is. I see the budget point but I remain optimistic of pinball in general. i just have a feeling we are in for some great games as players and buyers. Kind of like the golden age of pinball is here.

Even arcades are hot. It is the golden age to me. Walking around banning on Saturday. I felt the magic.

I see your point, I should clarify. TWD is an amazing game, but 2014 was a long time ago.

You can still buy TWD, MET, GOT, AS, KISS, AC/DC, GB, BM66, and others so why not add one of those greats to your collection? There are lots of great games to choose from so im not sure why you are complaining? Every game that Stern makes isnt going to be a home run. No other pinball company can match that killer lineup of games and they cant compete with Sterns prices either and thats a fact!

TWD was NOT great in 2014!!!
: )

SPIKE isn’t crap. Gomez promised documentation on the NODE boards at TPF, so they will no longer be a closed box for repairs or mods. He also reiterated that the node board failures were an early issue, and bad node boards have dropped off almost completely.

Please stop making sense. Your hurting some Pinsider’s heads.

No offense but it won't be the first Gomez promises something and fails to deliver. Lets hope they stick to a timely schedule.

Amen.

I’m not concerned. They’re making a lot of moves lately. We all know Stern’s not the fastest company to change, but they do move eventually. No company lives in a vacuum forever.

Actually I like my Sterns a lot.

When I'm looking to buy a game I pay attention to:
theme and licensing (fe custom voice work of involved people, artwork,music ..)
layout
rules and scoring
fun vs risk factor
spare parts availability in the future (a company that sells a lot of units is almost equal to parts availability)

JJP is well designed, beautiful, toys... but to me the fun and wow factor is completely missing..
WOZ: ok game
Hobbit: played it a lot of times but I just get bored with it, even in the middle of a multiball..
Dialed in: certainly the better one to me but certainly not something I would buy due to the theme
POTC: really great effort but they missed out completely on the license part

I have to ask.....What are you smoking?