I would have loved a mall bash similar to midevil madness. I think it could still be done with the projector. But would have been awesome when the ramp comes down the demogorgan turns around and you fight the mind flayer.

They came in on Monday.

Got to play the Pro version on site yesterday, here are my first impressions after several plays:
-High risk targets are worthless as far as points go, just stick to the ramps.
-Like y'all have been discussing, it may be a setup issue...but I found the demogorgan shot impossible, so did my wife, and so did the other few people we watched play. I had to have made 3 dozen attempts and didn't sink it once.
-Current code is Alpha at best, the few callouts there are are not balanced with the music (Ball save callout is super loud compared to music that can barely be heard).
-Playfield looks like garbage! Dozens upon dozens of what appear to be bubbles or pit marks, clearly some really poor clearcoat, see the photos below.
-Ball doesn't seem to exit from the right orbit very smoothly the majority of the time.
-Least satisfying ball lock...ever...

I will say this, the video clips, other than the cheesy demogorgan coming through the wallpaper, are pretty cool and well done.

I really wanted to dig on this title, especially with the theme and all. Hopefully some code revisions will fix the unbalanced scoring issue and add actual callouts. Maybe I'll get a chance to play a prem/le sometime, but the pro title leaves a lot to be desired.
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Dimpling.

Say what?

Those are Sterns official dimple viewing sunglasses. View your playfield with them on and suddenly the dimples disappear!

ghosting?!?!

Hard to not have dimples when 100% of the dog-sphincter shots on some machines ricochet off the target, smack the glass and then land on the playfield.

New Sterns dimple wayyyyy more violently - more and deeper craters - than new CGC games AND older Stern games.

My brother’s new GoTG already has the gash dimples recent Stern’s are know for, and lots of dimples in general. Far worse then my new MMr. And my XMEN LE playfield, which I have no idea how many total plays are on it, looks practically new. It has dimpling, but you have to down real close and look from an angle. Something is definitely different about Stern playfields in the Spike 2 era. In short, they suck.

The cheapest beatles was like 7k+ and you got 5-6 songs.... You think for $100 more you're going to 10 songs and modes?

It seems the beat part aboot DLC are the unrealistic dreaming that comes with it.

Today's stern and JJP games playfields are going to dimple. No matter what. CGC and Spooky seem to have it figured out and their PFs don't dimple or have pooling/chipping near posts. (a very small run of TNA playfields had some issues, but spooky took care of it very quickly)

Yup. Craters vs. dimples. All playfields dimple, but the well made older playfields you really has to specifically look at the right angle in the right light to see it. The best Stern PFs I ever saw were my WOF & BDK. They were like slick glass...zero dimples, even if you looked hard. These new mushy crater playfields have been happening since around X-Men. It’s inconsistent though. Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re bad. I had a STLE with a very nice playfield, no craters...a friend a few towns over got one that looked like it had herpes after 80 plays.

Is it allowed to talk dimples without vid1900 around?

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My TNA dimpled as the Sterns I had. Then again it was #36 I think and don‘t care. Wouldn‘t use a protector.

My TNA dimpled just like my brand new GOTG and the AFMR I had. It's least visible on my TF that has the most plays (dimples has smoothed out) but remember when I got my Stern Trek that every fly ball made what looked like a crater. Barely notice these days.

My Tron (2nd or 3rd run) that sat in a box for 5 years has got a very good cure and is not as noticeable.

Yeah, that's the word I was looking for! But in this case, it doesnt appear to be caused by the ball, but maybe that's me? The dimples seem waaaay to small a diameter to have been caused by the ball, but who knows.

This was only the 2nd day this machine had been on site...still really disappointing one way or the other!

Drop a ball on the PF and increase the height one inch for each drop. The dimple grows as the height increases. One inch looking like a speck of dust up to a groove you can feel with your finger. Do this under the apron close to the PF graphics, some clearcoaters are for obvious reasons not a detail oriented underneath the apron.

Or don't and just play pinball.

Why does this nonsense refuse to die? Put away your magnifying glasses, and take out your dollar bills and flip.

Yeah, sorry about this nonsense. I truly can't give a fuck as long as the game plays correctly.

If you don't own the game then how is it disappointing to you? All games dimple, some dimple more than others, just a part of pinball when a steel ball impacts a wood surface.

Because older playfields didn’t crater & turn into lumps. New ones do & cost $6k-$15k.

The playfields haven't changed. You have.

Try to remember when pinball was fun.

They have. You’re being disingenuous and spreading disinformation.

Pinball is fun. One can have fun playing pinball and critique the sub-par quality new machines. Walk & chew gum.

The playfield quality is all over the place on the new Sterns. I have personally inspected new machines at multiple locations and the playfields range from good to terrible in terms of dimples, pooling, and chipping. Stern really needs to step up their QC.

Great movie, what was it called again? Ahh yes

They Dimple

One thing is for sure - the font artist sure loves their exclamation points! They are on almost every insert! Makes it so much more legible! Especially when there are so many inserts to begin with!

I really wonder what process is in place for art review. You see a lot of just weird stuff in the art, there is really no excuse for this stuff to be in the final product.

But Final Showdown doesn't. You'd think that one would!

Just pointing it out is all, maybe I'm just new...but I hadn't seen anything like this before. Also, no magnifying glass needed, the playfield looked like a cheap car that'd survived a hail storm...rather imposibble to miss.

But yeah, I didn't buy one and will continue to happily flip on site

The effect was visible within 2hrs of play on our local one. It's definately dimples from balls.. presumably due to the drop targets and stationary targets around the shot entrances.

Because on this title and example.. it was extreme compared to other recent titles. It was notable, even if it doesn't bother you.

risk of dimpling is a legitimate reason not to buy a new pin.

And seeing an unsightly dimpled pin in an arcade or bar points to a high risk.

Brian Eddy games from 25 years ago have way more going on than Stranger Things. Williams/Bally hasn't made a pinball machine in 21 years now and they're still the king. Pretty sad.

And now you know why Levi doesn’t care, because he doesn’t buy them.

Totally agree. Now, if you don’t care you don’t care, but you take your chances either way with Stern’s.

We need Vid back!!

Those are called dimples. Are you new to pinball?

Those dimples aren’t bad at all, look about the same as the machine I care for.
...and to those claiming this is only Stern, and CGC or whoever is better, you’re wrong.

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These tiny little pin pricks are what you guys are getting all worked up about? Looks fine to me.

Dimpling isn't real. You guys are all insane, and ruining pinball.

Beatles has 8 songs. 5 song modes shown above flippers plus Can’t Buy Me Love, Help and Taxman.

Speaking of pricks...

No, narcissists like you who think YOUR way to “hobby” is the only way are what ruins pinball. Have some fucking respect for the people who buy machines. They’re part of what keeps these companies alive so you can run around putting quarters in games. Pinball doesn’t exist on route alone. Everyone here plays a part in making pinball still exist. So - if someone is spending money on a machine, whether it’s an operator or homeowner, quality is expected. Stop insulting and gaslighting people for having expectations and principals.

Kinda surprised so many guys would want this pin in their home. There’s a nearly bald, 12 year old girl with a nosebleed on the translite.

I couldn’t look at that translite in my lineup every day.

If he never buys games (and I wouldn't know one way or the other), that would definitely explain why he has no issues with any Stern games. Completely different mindset. I'm way less picky when games don't cost 6 grand+ ...the bulk of my collection was had for under 1k. No expectation for them to be flawless.

I'd take it over NASCAR, Big Hurt, SWE1, Demo man and maybe a few others but each to their own.

After sweaty old man nips, anything is possible!

Hope you enjoy your new game.

OK, i will not buy this pin because i have no relation to the serie.

But when you like this pin and you are worried about the translite. You must not.

A swap is easy to do, making new translites is easy to produce.

My AC/DC has Helen, my SW has a picture from the internet.

A damn strong 12 yo I might add. I love all the art packages but you know, taste and all that is individual.

oh god, another thread about dimpling. I skipped to the last page to hopefully read about people's opinion on the game and I got a bunch of dimpling talk.