I went in on a ST Premium.

I’m in no rush to get it.

Still not really sure where I’m gonna put it. I need to make room.

Hey, I have WoF to thank for teaching me the lesson NEVER to buy any games from Stern (or any other pinball manufacturer) based on promises, plans, expectations or the like. I only purchase after I have seen the final product.

Wonder if it was purely released to catch the Xmas feel good factor?

All those families who like and watch Stranger Things together.

'Hey kids would you like a Stranger Things pinball? '

As opposed to January.

'Hey kids, we spent too much over Xmas'!

If in no rush, why order it now? It’s a Premium. You could get it whenever over the next 3 years while Stern has the license.

Because he simply wants to have it fast and has the money to do so

Because he is in a rush.... for a premium.

what are we looking at here?

my imagination is running wild

They do not always finish their games, my CSI was absolutely incomplete and a general mess code wise and the reason I sold it. Stern has abandoned games before from a perspective of code.

That said, Stern’s coding over the last few years has been nothing short of absolutely spectacular. The chances of a major license like Stranger Things not getting a full code implementation seems rather remote. Still, Lyman is not coding this game and that does give me pause as he does code the “funnest” games in my opinion.

I wouldn't call The Munsters code spectacular.

Others would. What’s your point?

No it isn’t. It was ‘Sullivan-ized’. Lonnie is no better.

Yeah, I hear ya there. I can't really hammer Stern about code anymore, not after how they choose to finish Ghostbusters code. Yes it took nearly 3 years but not only did they deliver a final update they delivered a massive code update that added a ton to the game. Hell, they even added a bunch of additional topper effects to the game which never happens.

What I would be more concerned with is not if Stranger Things code will he completed but how well it will be completed. You can have 10, 20, 30, etc modes in a game but none of that matters if the mode choreography isn't there. Telekinesis Multiball is a good example of a mode with a severe lack of choreography. A lack of mode choreography seems to be the main complaint against Munsters. In the end some Stern games still end up recieving better code support then others.

How can anybody judge this game on .64 code? Is the true question; it’s unfair to the design team that puts all their hard efforts into the game.

Same. Appears that gate was cut too short on the end that goes through the bracket.

This is sarcasm, correct?

Because Stern released the game with .64 code - unfair to the design team perhaps, but that’s Sterns fault, not ours.

Meaning?

I don't get this either. Dwight games in general have been fantastic. Cool strategy and high energy choreography. With Munsters, I believe Gomez gave poor direction on this. He told Dwight to make a simple game and didn't let Dwight be Dwight. Munsters will get an update soon that will make folks happy.

Can you imagine if Lyman coded this game?

One of my favorite show-inspired licensed games of all time, TWD, is a coding and rules masterpiece in my opinion.

Combined with the brutal layout and design by Borg, I truly think they could have done an amazing job with the Stranger Things license.

Imagine if Stranger Things had the features of TWD.

Better yet, imagine if TWD had the features of Stranger Things. What if TWD simply had a large screen with a projector playing video clips, a ramp comes down, and you have to make it into a zombies mouth? And that was the main "feature".

Well, I think we can all agree that would be pretty lackluster.

Now, what if Stranger Things had TWD features? I don't need to list them all... You can picture how loaded that layout is. Combined with Lyman code, Stranger Things was really a prime candidate for another Borg/Lyman "dream team theme"

Oh well. It is what it is.

Just rewatched all seasons this weekend and it would have been cool to have that magnet lock maybe somewhere else and instead have pinballs coming out the backboard like the Demogorgons come out of the walls that would have been sweet!

Munsters is a Borg game.

Munsters is intentionally and as communicated beforehand more „T2 simple“ after people (including myself) shat on Star Wars Code being way too complicated.

So the only lesson (noone) learned:
Be careful what you wish for.

(For me I prefer Munsters over Star Wars codewise, so I‘m happy.)

What all this has to do with Lonnie, I have no clue.

I agree that Dwight is a great rules designer. Some of his games are my favorite, GOT for example. But he was a guest on the 24 hour stream that SpecialWhenLit did and he said again that there a NO plans for a Munster's code update. He went on to say that if there was one it would be several months out, but followed that up with "but it's not gonna happen". I really think his hands are tied on this one.

I think it‘s just done as intended,... wich is what they‘re saying.

Hs ha looks like a plastic steak.

Thats too bad. I am trying to find the the post where I saw it mentioned by someone usually "in the know". Guess it doesn't matter if Dwight himself already said no. Well, he didn't really say yes to Ghostbusters either until much later in the game so....

Stern needs to keep the lines running. Elvira was a sales disappointment, so the next game in the queue gets shoved out the door, ready or not. We've seen it many times before. Gotg comes to mind. That was an end of the year release too, wasn't it?

Feels like they're dumping this one...

I don't think so. The 12/23 launch date was planned for a long time. I bet part of it was to crank out some additional sales volume before the year end.

Dwight Sullivan does quite a bit of shallow coding. I had this debate in the Munsters thread when it was announced. Wasn’t proven wrong.

He’s no Mr. Sheats, that’s beyond dispute.

You’re joking right?

This and all the other borked shit Stern has released without proper testing: Black Widow ramp, Hulk mech (and general view problems) on Avengers, Katana Ramp On DP, Gene Head on Kiss, SW Death Star shot (and inner loop on pro), The spinning disc on X-Men, the Canon on ACDC (and drops), Sarcophagus on Iron Maiden, Turntable on BM66, Orbit in GoT, Ghostbusters (Lol)...

And that’s just off the top of my head. But Stern is so solid on everything else (general quality of materials and workmanship. “Fit and finish” if you will, that it’s pretty hard to fault Stern for a few borked mechs.

Shallow coding? Have you played GOT or SW?

My tutorial for GOT is 10 hours long. Haha

When given the opportunity and time, Dwight can code some very deep rulesets. GOT comes to mind... That ruleset is so deep it's insane. Star Wars is super deep and complicated as well.

Play Game of Thrones and Star Wars. Not shallow. George Gomez told him to make Munsters shallow, which was a mistake. Dwight mentioned this direction in interviews. Back to the Lonnie show...

Played the game last night and had a fun time with everything but the demogorgon which was impossible to get to eat the ball (huge fail there). I'll definitely play it more as there are a lot of other things you can still progress through.... and as of now I still have the one more game feeling since I want to progress through the modes and games.

Definitely seems like the game needs to have adjustments for positioning of the demogorgon to make the shot makeable... or else adjustments to the ramp. Very unfortunate the game isn't shipping with that being a makeable shot... or with the demogorgon designed to be much more forgivable.

ALSO... even if they "fix" this with code (multiple hits kill vs requiring a feed) it is still a huge fail if the player can't purposefully "feed" the demogorgon. It would be like being able to open the saucer in AFM but then never able to hit the drop in the back so you can get the explosion... ugh.

While I agree it’s not necessarily fair to the design team, once any product goes to market for consumers any judging of said product becomes fair game.

https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/jimwe5t/ratings/comments

Your ratings are a joke. You’re entitled to your opinion, but your ratings suggest you have an agenda and want to prove a point, rather than properly rate these classic games.

Star Wars and GOT are far from shallow overall, but they’re unbalanced enough to where one could completely ignore different parts of the code options in the game and still blow up in the tens of billions. Haven’t had much time on new Ghostbusters to comment.

Agree. It’s a copy/paste smear job.
Sad way to spend time.

Time to flag all of those.

Lol, all he did was copy/paste. AFM and MM are 1 and 2 for a reason. I agree in general that the new ones are better than the oldies, but MM and AFM are the best ever.

Speaking as a true pinhead, for me Dialed In just has this dorky vibe that I can’t shake. Part of it is the Lawler design aesthetic. Not his shots, but his artistic choices. Like the lightening bolt guy, and the chick in the back right corner, and Mr. McMomJeans. These “characters” remind me of a lame children’s TV show. Combined with a vaguely uninspiring theme, it just doesn’t call to me like so many other games do.

A friend of mine owns one, so I do get to play it. Shots are amazing, and I dig some of the true innovation. The rules are terrific. From a substantive perspective, there’s nothing NOT to like about the game (er, actually the callouts are below average), but it’s still a miss for me. That said, if they start selling in the low 6’s, almost have to buy one for the sheer value at that point.

Stern definitely has amazing themes. I’m in their target demo, and aside from an occasional “yawn”, I could own most of their games from a theming standpoint.

Stranger Things is a grand slam theme. I sincerely hope they do it justice. My first glimpse of the Pro suggests they have not. But it’s early yet.

Because it’s being sold for $6k-$9k. It’s open to judgement as an allegedly complete consumer product available for sale.

Like I stated in an earlier post, through 40 games and literally hundreds of shots at it, a friend and I yesterday had 5 shots actually go in the mouth. A success rate hovering around 1%-2%. On one ball alone we counted 17 unsuccessful shots in a row by me, all from a trap on either flipper. Two skilled players, playing at a location that sets up and maintains games in a meticulous manner that would make most people jealous. I'm not saying all games are like this, but it is my only experience so far, so that is all I can attest to.

My brother just bought Guardians for his family for Christmas. I probably put 100 games on that thing in 3 days! And that’s competing with 17 other people for game time. I really like the game. It’s not as “thematically” integrated as WellDoneZero would prefer but it really doesn’t matter with this game. And neither do the voices, which sound fine to me. And Cleland worked his magic as well, so that’s there too.

Frankly, I loved the GoTG movies. Laughed my ass off and just had a blast with them. But I couldn’t tell you the plot. Don’t remember much to be honest. Pure popcorn, ya know? So why should I care if the pin nails every last detail? Now, with some themes I DO care (Stranger Things being an example. Alien another)! But not with Guardians. It’s a freaking blast to play and highly challenging. And if you’ve ever seen an LE, it’s just drop dead gorgeous and the light show is outstanding.

I had the opportunity to play STs recently. I have to admit that I don't watch the show so maybe I'm missing something.

I thought the game had a reasonable art package and the lights were very good. The game play is pretty much a fan layout so nothing new there. The game I played did not have a projector but I don't think it would have made a lot of difference to gameplay. Central monster bash toy with ramp seemed like the bastard child of Iron Maiden and TWD.

Overall (IMHO) I think the game is solid enough if you like the theme and lack a fan layout game. I don't see this game in my collection anytime soon, or ever.

Is the shot like this?

As my Spiderman game says: "Play better!"

Same reason I bought Munsters while others are waiting on the sidelines for a code update.

I’m ready to play it when Stern thinks it’s playable.

If it gets better, it gets better.

Brian Eddy generally does good work.

Also I’ve learned with ghostbusters that waiting until everyone loves it (after the latest code update) can put you in a situation where the ones you want are all bought up and things like the special toppers, etc. become impossible to find.