I’m in the club! Just brought a Comic Pro home yesterday. Family played all day today-even skeptic wife and daughter had an absolute blast!
My first pinball machine. I did a ton of reading on here deciding what to buy, thanks to a great & helpful community.

Awesome to hear! Welcome to pinball and Pinside!

congrats and welcome!

So many people with their new Star Wars pins...by the time mine comes in March it will have been 7 months since I bought it. Anyone else waiting on Stern to build theirs?

Which one did you order?

SW Pro original art. It's getting harder to wait the closer it gets!

I hear you. Congrats!!

Heard on the rumour file that SW comic pins will be produced in very low numbers this year if at all not sure but came from a distributor
When will Stern finish producing this title as it is 3+ years now?

You can call Cointaker seems like they have in stock. Great to deal with too.
https://cointaker.com/t/stern-pro

I have a distributor about 30 minutes away from me that I have already sold 2 used games to. He is an awesome dude so I wanted to buy from him. I know that if I have any troubles he will make it right for me.

That's why I bought one when I did. I figured if I only ever buy one NIB pin it should be Star Wars as I am a huge fan of all things Star Wars and the game is freaking awesome. I have a feeling that they probably were able to extend their normal 3 year run because of the comic art package and Star Wars The Pin.

I'm working to replace my fork ramp (bent...) and it looks like the bracket is bent as well, so I'd like to pull the whole mech to confirm. However, it looks like the rail for the inner loop screws into the fork ramp bracket on the top side. Does anyone have any tips on how to remove that plastic to the left of the inner loop to access those screws? This thing is killing me...

Check that it's not 2 connected to the rail, but 2 others. Here is a pic of the plastic I need to get under.

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As an update, I was able to remove the plastic by removing the death star via pulling the set screws on the back of the shafts. Then I had to remove the top half of the ramp by the 2 Phillip screws and loosening the 4 nuts on the sides. Overall a pain just to get those thru bolts. All because my fork ramp was poorly made... One pivot hole was 2mm lower than the other in front. Yikes. The replacement looks much better though I'll have to polish before putting it in.

PXL_20210111_025331906 (resized).jpg

We are 45 minutes away from Star Wars returning to its rightful place inside the Top 10 (probably in the Top 2) in the Pinside Top 100.

Should create quite a stir once people notice. Can’t wait for all the haters that have never played it, or played it once on location 3 years ago, to flood it with low ratings to knock it back down the list.

But for at least 7 glorious days, it will be there for all to see!

You deserve a medal SWfan for your unrelenting campaign. Thank you from a massive SW fan from down under!

Just trying to do my part... but it is humbling to receive your praise even if I am not worthy of it!

It was definitely a team effort!!

I think we may have broken the Top 100! It’s still not up as yet.

When the "escape" insert is lit on the right outlane, aren't you supposed to get the ball back?
I sometimes don't. I see the lit insert and do not nudge, but when the ball goes that way I don't get it back.
Anyone else?

Looks that way! All though to be fair I wasn’t sure if there is usually down time when it resets... but now it’s been long enough that I think we broke it...

Look, guys...I love SW and I have the LE. It's an awesome game and most likely never leaving my collection. But let's be honest here: In no way is it a top 10 game, no matter what the cabinet art is.

I don't see why not - it sure is to me.

I could see someone liking other pins more at first, but for a home pin; between the theme, the rules, the sound, the lights, the art, the hyperloop, even the video mode... good luck finding something better.

However, the game is polarizing because it has short ball times with hungry outlanes and lots of direct rejects if you miss your shot (as opposed to a game like Jurrasic Park where if you miss your shot the ball tends to just wander into another area of the playfield as opposed to straight back to the flippers).

However, I think with the right set up and some time with the game, it is easily a Top 10 pin. Even the guys on SDTM-A Pinball Show have backpeddled considerably from their initial rating of a "B-" to now rating it a "B+" but saying that in terms of overall game enjoyability, it is an "A."

-

p.s. @Beelzeboob's current collection of pins is insane and in great taste, so if anyone's opinion on this should be trusted, it's his. However, apessino has a collection that is right there too! As always... to each their own!

We did it!!!!

Wow....

Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, thanks for the kind words. I'm a ridiculous Star Wars fan (don't get me started on all the overpriced crap I've bought since Disney took over), and I preordered the LE without seeing it. I went through the typical Pinside trashing when the game came out and, of course, doubted my purchase for about five minutes. But as always, it has turned out to be a great game. It's just that I can probably think of 10 games out of the top 50 on the Pinside list that I think are more worthy of a Top 10 designation. That's not a slight on SW at all.

Here is what it comes down to for me...

Theme: A+ without a peer. Not sure this is even arguable (and I know some people don't like Star Wars, but those are definitely the exceptions not the rule).

Look: Beautiful pin in the home setting that certainly isn't going to be anything other than admired by others and has a wow factor with the rails and mini-LCD screen, etc.

Play: This is where I will fight to the death on why this is a Top 10 pin IMO. It has so many ways to play it that gives a great deal of variety in spite of being a typical fan layout. I also think it is one of the best pins to install a shaker motor as it brings the Tie Fighter "bobblehead" to life, as well as the video mode-- in addition to adding to overall gameplay in more typical ways.

The three main ways to play:

1. You can just play to try to hit the Hyperloop shot and enjoy the heck out of it when you hit it. Then, even after hitting it, you can get even more enjoyment by adding balls before it times out (my personal best is 4 balls going at the same time-- which is absolutely thrilling). This has to be one of the best, if not the best, multi-ball modes in pinball.

2. You can focus on trying to finish all of the modes. Which is rewarding because beating any of the modes is rewarding in of itself, but you can also "just unlock" all of the modes and you get to fight the emperor which is also awesome.

3. You can focus on getting a high score by moving the multiplier. This risk-reward way of playing is VERY unique, and is by far the best integration of a center button in pinball. It is also the reason most who don't like the game don't like it. But there is more to pinball than high scores (see above), but if you really want to get that high score, you're going to have to regularly take your hand (and attention) away from those flipper buttons. Totally different gameplay, and hitting a 40x shot (that you caused to move to the right shot) is awesome!

Given the fact that the shots are smooth and fast (inner loop has to be as fast as pinball gets), it makes every way to play more satisfying.

Conclusion: I can think of other pins I may rather play 1-2 games on, but none of those games have the variety of Star Wars. Do I like games like Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars and even Elvira HOH better than Star Wars? Probably for the first game or two, but not for hours. What about Jurassic Park or AIQ? Those layouts make me jealous every time I see them... until I am on my third game and am sort of sick of hitting the same shots over and over. The genius of Star Wars is that all of the shots are smooth and none of them (other than HS ramp) are necessarily that unique... but hitting them when you have to, without bricking or hitting the wrong shot... that is unbelievably rewarding.

If you think there are 10 games that offer all of what I just said about Star Wars, I'd be surprised.

Huge SW fan and a pro owner here. We love the game and it's probably never leaving. That being said, I'm with beelzeboob here. Our family bought a pro due to the mechanical inconsistencies of the hyperloop ramp/entrance. It's extremely cool but complete downer when it fails during a game. We really don't care where SW rated, it's a keeper to us!

I have never had my hyperspace ramp fail. Not once. Either I got lucky, or maybe they corrected something by the time the Comic Art version was released?

I prefer SW to IMDN and I prefer IMDN to JP2. Therefore, SW > IMDN & JP which have been in top 10 for quite awhile.

In conclusion, SW = top 10 pin for sure. Probably a top 5 for me personally. I’m debating if I want to sell one of my Elwin games to get a comic premium.

"Can’t wait for all the haters that have never played it, or played it once on location 3 years ago, to flood it with low ratings to knock it back down the list."

It's already started...

Someone just added a rating for SW Comic Premium (without comments) and rated it a 4.0.
And now another (with the comment "I really don't like this pin") who rated it a 2.8.

Keep in mind that it takes a rating above 6.77 to make the Top 300...

For context, just those two ratings drop the average rating from 9.001 to 8.611 which will drop Star Wars from being rated 2nd, to being rated outside of the Top 15!

Haters gonna hate!

I agree it's not about the art and I think it's silly that games like SM (and SM Black) have two separate designations. It's just a f-n art change. But however I don't make the rules this is the way Pinside has designated game ratings.

Anyway (to me) art is important but lower on my list. I don't think SW Comic is any better than the LE or the original premium versions. But to me the pin had gotten a bad shake that for some reason people had voted it down for whatever reason. No way in hell that a dozen Spike games were rated higher than SW that means the only Spike games it was beating was WWE and maybe Kiss. Come the hell on SW is not the worst Stern game since WWE. I bought SW comic and I could have got anything up to and including Elvira and I picked SW without hesitation to me it's one of the best pinball games.

The crazy thing to me is that this is a website we go to because we are hobbyist who like hearing what others have to say. It is supposed to be fun and positive. In what universe is someone visiting this site and feeling the need to rate a game a 2.8, just to offset other genuine views? How is that rewarding for that person? This game is probably going to get a dozen bad ratings today just because people don't "like" seeing it rated so highly. (And a lot of these people who are going to vote today have probably never even played a Comic Art Premium.)

If you don't like the game, rate it accordingly, but don't sandbag it just to artificially have your rating influence the overall rating more than it should (because no one can ever give a game a score higher than 10/10, which is only one point above the mean whereas a 2.8 is more than 6 points below the mean). If we are being honest, no modern day Stern should ever be less than a 6/10. They are all excellent pins in a vacuum-- even the "bad" ones.

Honestly, what does it matter? It's a silly popularity contest. I haven't looked at the Pinside top 100 even once in the 9 years I've been on Pinside. I don't care what other people like, I only care about what I like. I'll come to the various threads for the pin to get opinions of early adopters, watch videos, or play it myself.

IMHO SW is a shit game on location--but a top 10 home game--due to its difficulty. And I say that because I absolutely hated the game playing it on location, but decided to give it a chance at home after enjoying Jack Danger disect it ... Now it's securely bolted to the floor w/ an overpriced R2-D2 topper to weigh it down for good measure

But isn't the problem the same with fan boys who own only 1 maybe 2 pins and rate them as close as possible to 10? Have they even PLAYED other games?

What about campaigning to have a game rated highly so it makes the top 10? Same bias but the other way. It's just as invalid.

Just because you own a game doesn't make it the best out there. In reality until you've owned a few dozen games over time how can you be realistic in your assessments?

Also evaluating a game over months in a home environment is not the same as walking up to a game and playing 3-4 games in a bar. You don't get as much time to figure things out so first impressions can be a killer sometimes.

I personally couldn’t give two shits about the ratings.

BINGO!!

One rating I saw for SW premium had it rated at 5 when all other pins he rated were at 8/9/10 and SW premium was rated lower than South Park. It's obvious these types of ratings are a just a torpedo to SW for some reason. Someone has it rated below Vacation America etc..

It's just sour grapes or something that people down vote this or any pin. I didn't love XMLE all that much, I lost money selling it but I still feel like it had a lot to offer and gave it a solid review not as great as Tron or AcDc premium that came out at the same time but still not bad.

there are games that I don't really care for like Stranger Things or GnR that I don't even rate because I feel like there may be something I am missing or that I don't really know the game well enough to speak about it's rating.

This is a fair point except for two things. One is that if someone only owns 1-2 pins, those 1-2 were probably "10"s to them, or close to it, or they wouldn't have bought them. Secondly, as I said, giving a pin a 10 is only 1 - 1.5 points above the mean. Giving a pin a 2 is 7 points below the mean. I have no issues with anyone voting legitimately, regardless of the number-- my issue is people thinking the game is a 7, but rating it a 3 just to artificially lower the mean.

I have a soft-spot for the rankings because I recently got back into pinball and things have really changed. The Top 100 list gives me an idea of what games are generally viewed as being good, so that I can seek them out on location and judge for myself. I am sure others use it for that purpose as well. Not gospel, but not manipulated.

Star Wars, in particular, seems to have gotten a bad rap early on and I just think it should be rated in a fair way. That's it. Whenever I see a high (9+) or low (<7.5) rating, I always click to see where that person has other games rated. If it seems to fit that person's ranking, even if they don't agree with mine, I am 100% okay with it. It's when they have Star Wars rated lower than pins that are CLEARLY inferior just to push a narrative that I get annoyed.

Now, do I really, truly care... no.

But do I get annoyed with people intentionally underrating it? Yes.

I just can't imagine looking at the Top 10, seeing a game that I view as overrated, and then submitting a rating of 3 to try to undermine it/make my vote count more. As I said in a different post, a rating of 6.77 is still OUTSIDE of the Top 300.

True and there are categories like lighting, video display, sound, art, theme integration (etc.) and in order to give SW a very low rating you'd probably have to give it poor marks across the board. I mean if you don't like the rules (Bonus X) then give the rules a 2 but you can't give theme integration or video display a 2 because it has 500 movie clips for god sake it's just about the definition of 5 stars for display or theme and the lighting and sound effects are top marks.

I completely disagree... I played my Star Wars Comic Premium today AFTER the new rankings came out with it rated #2 and it was so much better than when I played it yesterday and it was ranked 48th...

I have a couple pair of custom slingshots I made. If anyone is interested pm me.

slingshots (resized).jpg

Personally I would put SW at about tenth. It is a very under rated game. The haters will all chime in and knock it back do to the 20s or even 30s.

I agree. I love it, but it's definitely not the best ever, mostly due to the very vanilla layout. For me, it would likely land somewhere between 10-20, probably on the high side of that. It's good to see it get some love and respect though. It was crapped on for way too long, and doesn't deserve that.

Is this true? I thought you had to beat the mode to unlock it, which would explain why I have never been even close to the Emperor. How do you open all the modes without finishing them? Hmmm.

If you get the battle of Endor, for instance, you only have to get to the battle for that to count toward unlocking defeating the emperor. You don’t have to beat the Endor mini-wizard mode.

Of course, you have to beat Boba Fett and get 100 tie fighters, etc. too, but for Endor, Hoth, Death Star and Tatooine, you only have to make it to the final “battle,” not win them.

OK, Thanks for the info.

All this talk about artwork is secondary to the game itself. After all, it was based on a live action movie, so I for one feel that the art on the original is appropriate. It looks great IMO