I think I am a troll when it comes to the completeness of Xmen code.

Sort of a self-realization / confession. Sorry if I have pissed anyone off.

Reading the uproar about ST just reinforces my belief that to be a contrarian on Pinside is a good thing.

Hope so. Ill gladly pick up an LE NIB for $6k in 2015. I think the game looks pretty sweet and you know SR put in a lot of love. Is a 20 year old wide body - that was made by the thousands - with a reputation for being somewhat difficult to maintain really a better buy than the 2013 premium redux, which figures to have a trick or two up sleeve?

Don't worry, everyone trolls XM at one point or another it seems, haha

Maybe I'm magic but my TNG has been pretty reliable over the years

Reliably awesome, reliably fun, reliablly running.

But I am also on the cheerleading wagon too for it. Its a great game and I say that in most of my posts, potential is there to be amazing. That's why it bugs me SO much that Stern has treated it like such an afterthought.

Not a single day has passed where I've regretted buying my TRON, and I think this machine will be just as good for me. I just hope the callouts are actual movie lines and not stupid voice actors, or my wife will have my ASS.

I agree. I think it will play the same as Spiderman.

More than a LE and no pinballs.
$9,995.00

https://store.qmxonline.com/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation-Enterprise-D-Artisan-Replica_p_181.html

enterprised_ws_left.jpg

Amen.

Great shot.

But the TMP Enterprise will ALWAYS be the best looking starship in scifi to me.

To think I got banned for my opinions of a well known new game , can we at least moderate fairly ?

Actually it would help that ST playfield a great deal if the lights were turned down. Waay, way down.

Please guys can we not go to a prolonged negative back and forth stuff taking over a topic/thread. Let us pinball addicts talk about the new release without having to sort through all that.

I hope one of the modes involves trying to get Kirk laid with as many alien babes as he can before the time runs out.

I was just thinking about how there are possibilities for some REALLY cool lighting FX if they embrace the color changing insert LEDs in an artistic way. For instance, how cool would it look if when you destroy the Vengeance & the inserts make a ripple explosion effect (yellow and orange maybe) that emanates from the ship outward.

There's the ladder of inserts that represent weapons/power. That would be cool if when those inserts are all charged, they pulse (white/blue or white/red) & the fire button also pulses the same color to clue the player that the FIRE button is used for that particular playfield feature. AC/DC's fire button is a color-changer, so I imagine ST's will as well.

Ads. Looks like the sides of the head on the LE light up...

StarTrekPro_WEB_BANNER.jpeg StarTrekPREM_web_banner.jpeg StarTrekLE_web_banner.jpeg

Lots of speculation about what these new ST pins might play like, STTNG, AFM and SM etc and that's fine its all part of the fun of discussing the new pin in town. My guess is that the pro, prem and LE will play exactly like the new ST-pro/prem/LE does........bet I'm right enjoy it for what it is, the new SR ST.

Hope there is one on route near me to play soon, can't see too many making it to Wellington but you never know.

No, it's just a poorly done Photoshop job. These cabinet photos are a concoction of various elements and computer graphics, and someone VERY crudely simulated chrome backbox trim on the LE model photo.

I own 2 of the last STERN LEs. I hope that every game that comes out will be awesome and great. But if they show pictures of a game and I don't like what I see, I have every right as a potential customer to criticise what I see. You are the so called fanboy here. You have faith in STERN and Ritchie, that's your right, but please don't insult people that only judge what say see so far. If you like what you see, give us your opinion. But let us also give our first impressions.
When I saw the first Met pictures I knew I have to own one. That's not what I thought about the ST Teaser:
Stern released what looks like a simple, ugly cheap game. I don't like how say praise every small thing to heaven in the feature list. They make themselves ridiculous with that.
But the layout looks proofed to be fast and fun.
The lightning could be awesome and the rules can be great, but that are things we don't know for now, and with the new coders here it's a risk.
I see nothing so far that let's me want to buy one. With the today pricing, games have to be perfect in every thing. And sry I can't see for now why this should be the most expensive STERN game.
No one has played this game so far, it can be good it can be bad, what I have seen so far let's me think it will be mediocre and for sure not one of the top ten games. But let's hope for the best.

No nothing on the head, but the cabinet has: Animated Backlit Laser Cut Enterprise LE Side Armor!

I can't wait to see this pin in my gameroom with no other lights on.

Edit: Just noticed the LED strip on the inside of the LE cabinet on either side! Cool. Scotty, please beam me to the end of October so I can have my machine now!!

#1 most requested mod. I love it and want it.

Wow I actually like the flyers

the Vengeance Model looks pretty badass

Im in the for LE. Have a feeling its going to have some awesome surprises. Inner sides are gonna have running lights or lasers?

phasers.jpg

Exactly. I don't think anyone knows what you will actually be getting. These are all just PS images. It may have chrome trim on the head, it may have blue. If you look at the bottom of the spec sheet, **all subject to change.
You may think the inner walls have laser cuttouts, but the spec sheet says "animated side armor". Again who knows what you will actually get.
Stern probably hasn't even built a fully complete LE or premium. They just do whitewoods or throw the pf into an IM cab and test it like that.

Hey remember all the stern videos that were released for TFs said 6 balls shooting at you??? Ya, well uh that never happened either.

No, the difference is about $1500 when you factor in three year inflation...

BTW, who's tiki?

That's only if you ordered well over 2 years ago (and isn't time worth money?). For the last 2 years, it's $500 difference.

BTW, who's tiki?

You need to ask?

TikiRoom.jpg

I like the fact the cabinet does not have any actors faces pasted on it and the backglass could be changed out with an alternative translite if necessary to remove all traces of actors.

My preference would be the Premium cabinet (more art, less giant "Star Trek" lettering) with the LE backglass. That way it works for any era of Star Trek!

For those that don't like the translight on the premium, just make your own. Hell if Stern can pull cab art off the internet, so can we. Now you can make your own matching translight. StarTrek_04.jpg

As much as I would love an LE, looking at the finances tells me that even with selling my STTNG, it would just be too big of a hit to order one now. The premium is almost in the same boat, so not much better there. So realistically and responsibly, I have to seriously think about the pro. I'm very back and forth on it and keep talking myself into and out of it. Here's my thinking outload...insights to help me think clearly are more than welcome!

I like the pro artwork quite a bit. Honestly I like all three almost the same with the LE getting the slight edge. So that's not a big issue. Pouring over the spec sheet, I had missed before that the Vengeance IS still animated in some way, just without the crash effect. Any thoughts on this? I'm guessing it may be similar to destroying a UFO on AFM where-as the LE would do that plus crash?

The only true gameplay difference seems to be that upkicker. Looks like on the pro that shot is just a saucer that would fire back at the flippers. The LE lists it as a 2-way deflector ball eject / VUK. So sounds like it can either go the same as the pro, or fire it up the warp ramp. That's a cool trick, no doubt...but doesn't seem to quite as big of a gameplay changer as some of the changes in previous pro vs LE games. There is also the kick-back, but I'd be surprised if they didn't have a normal ball save that would be qualified in the same way instead. Assuming they have that, I guess that's not a big deal to me. Am I missing any other actual gameplay differences? Any thoughts on how much these things will really affect the play?

The rest of the differences seem to be all aesthetic and lighting. As an owner of a Wolverine and an Avengers LE, I adore the color change capabilities and would certainly miss that. For me, this may be the biggest bummer of not getting a premium or LE. It will also be very interesting to see what they do with all of those color changing inserts. That said, as the main 7 emblem shots will still be color changing, I am guessing those will be the ones used to the greatest extent. The others may just be extra eye candy. An Enterprise model (and probably even asteroids) can easily be added...I'm guessing these will get modded even on the LEs anyway. The other lighting extras sound great too, but probably not a deal breaker.

So I'm not sure if these things really add up to a $1700-$3100 difference. Right now I am leaning towards just getting a pro and giving it a shot. Maybe I'll regret not getting the extras, and in that case it shouldn't be too difficult to upgrade to a premium down the road, or maybe even an LE if I get real lucky. But I'm starting to think an upgrade might not be necessary. Afterall it wouldn't be all that much of a price difference to get both a Trek pro AND a used Metallica pro rather than upgrade to the LE. That kind of puts it in perspective I guess...LOL!

Sorry for the book, like I said just thinking outloud and trying to either justify losing the toys and getting the pro or justify the serious butthurt our finances will be in if I spring for an LE instead...haha!

Based on the last couple of launches, how long do you think it will take before we see some gameplay video? Don't they still put test machines on location?

The premium and LE will play exactly the same. No PF differences.

Yea, that would be the best but that translite will not be available. At least there are nice alternatives being made for Star Trek. I just hope someone make a mod for that fugly DMD cover on the premium since it only looks good on the LE.

I'm talking about the pro. Sorry for the confusion as I sometimes just said LE to cover both LE and premium. I realize those two are the same playfield. In this case I'm saying the pro lists an animated Vengeance, so it still must do something, just without the full crash that they premium/LE has.

There was another thread where someone talked to Stern and they had not yet filmed or plan to film any game play footage any time soon. As with every stern released, you will see game play footage from cell phones before stern releases something. Supposedly the Pros will start shipping on the 23rd or at least that is what others have been saying.

Here you go:
http://www.pinballnews.com/games/startrek/index3.html

I STILL can't believe I drew a schlong on the pro playfield!!

Stern had a post on Facebook several weeks ago with a picture of Steve Ritchie standing by the end of an unseen Pin. The caption was something like "Steve making a video talking about his new Pin."

Thanks...I know I read that but here's the part I somehow missed:

"The USS Vengeance model is indeed animated, just as we suggested initially. On the Pro, the ship is activated by a solenoid to rock and shake, while on the Premium and LE a different mechanism rocks the ship side-to-side and also slides it nose-down towards the player as it 'crashes' into the playfield"

That answers that question at least!

Yeah, who the heck would want the primary characters from a given theme anywhere in/on the game. Just clutter.

Just speculation but I suspect Stern was planning to rely heavily on the LCD for bringing in the theme and material from the movies (and they saw less need to plaster characters on the playfield artwork or with toys.) When they decided late that the lcd could not be ready in time (and pulled it) they surely didn't want to go back and redo artwork to compensate. Hence, weakly integrated theme.

Jedi, thanks for your entire post, which almost exactly echoed my thoughts. I've already ordered what I believe was the Enterprise model missing from the Pro (made by "Futura Japan"?). If the playfield looks like I think it will in a dark room, I'm almost sure that I'm in on a Pro. I don't mind waiting a few months to see and play it in person, but I'm much more excited now than I was before the announcement.

I wonder if SR is upset that the LE's did not selling out like they did with the Metallica's LE? I remember reading somewhere on pinside he was really up set that the Metallica sales beat AC/DC.

AC/DC is the biggest selling Stern, I doubt he's bothered about Metallica LE's selling out quicker than the AC/DC LE's

I'm glad all that babbling did some good at least! At first glance the pro seems really stripped down, but I'm finding once you really break it down, you find that it will have the vast majority of the same gameplay. It's not nearly as bad as losing the lower playfield in AC/DC, or the Nightcrawlers/moving ramp/spinning disc on X-Men, or the many games they took away controlled diverters to cripple orbit shots. None of the shots are being lost or compromised here, which I appreciate!

It's missing alot of bling and cool effects, no doubt, but it looks like it will be no slouch either. While I'm bummed about not being able to afford an LE/Prem, I am really warming up to the idea of the pro. The fact that the premiums exist (if I would choose to upgrade) really helps ease into that decision.

talking about it and gameplay footage are two different things. i don't think you will see a Lyman Sheets playing ST video anytime soon.

METLE sold as well as it did BECAUSE of ac/dc and how the LEs went up in value.

Possibly disappointed but he obviously can't control the pricing and he must recognize that is the largest factor (IMO) on how fast these LE's sell out (not to mention there are 799 versus 500.) It's not really comparing apples to apples.

Looked to be no different from Stern's other early videos of the designer talking about their games...and yes those videos included footage of the game.

Stern takes a lot of shit for their photoshopped art (and deservedly so) but on ST that's actually the best part of it! The playfield art is the worst thing I've seen since Sega called it quits. The lower half looks like some sort of failed Flash game experiment, and the upper half is no picnic either. Especially disappointing considering they just knocked it out of the park with Metallica.

Ah yes. How could I forget the 300% inflation that the country has endured over the last 3 years. That's HYPER inflation Tiki...Or as you better understand it: "Hype".

If you take that same $500 bucks though, you'd have to multiply it by 3 or 4 to pay for the uptick in Stern LE prices. Avengers LE basically shipped at $6,700 last December. So that's +$500x2 in 9 months to buy they new Stern LE. TF and Tron LE's ahipped in the 5'a and XMEN in the mid 6's. Did somebody say inflation?

Oh, Tiki is this dude that has a gooood deal on some land...Rio Rancho Properties if I'm not mistaken.

Yes the lower ~1/3 is terrible. It's just bad. At first I thought it looked like a poor take on IM, then I realized it looks more like a horrible alternate version of the "crotch" area on BoP. WTF?