Come on man! I want to hear how clear prevents dimpling!!

Lol- The clear coat on our cars paint jobs is to prevent door dings, right ?

Looks like something is there? Looks metal in one pic and plastic in another? 20200106_031043 (resized).jpg20200106_031012 (resized).jpg

Yeah, hard to tell. But if it's a thin metal protector and the white sticker goes over it, that's still bad (ball wear through the sticker) but a lot better and cheaper to replace than a destroyed ramp.

Yes it does. I took a hammer to my car the other day and it didn't even put a mark on it.

The projector is such a cool idea and I think it will look awesome with tons of amazing mode variables.
My only concern is ball marks and lines on those perfect white backings, I just can't see how they expect it to hold up ?

You were drunk and that wasn‘t your car.

Im way behind on the thread.....will we see some footage of the premium today?

Propably not official.

CES opens (for the public) tomorrow.

It‘d be better to show the game in a semi controlled environment then to let others do it under the bright CES lighting.
So... maybe we get something tomorrow?

I hope so but as others have said, its probably going to look a lot better in person than it does on camera. Im not gonna freak out if the camera doesn't display the projector well.

FWIW you are really wrong; not trying to be a jerk about it but this has been discussed a million times; a steel ball will win against clear and against wood. It is just a matter how much crappy wood will compress... some recent playfields look like the moon.

Whenever I think I'll never see anything dumber than what I've seen posted here before, some dark horse always comes from the back of the pack to destroy the field.

I'd venture to say no pinball flyer or promo in 50 years has featured a game with the playfield glass installed. That may be the slightest hyperbole, but it would certainly be a statistically irrelevant anomaly. In 15 years selling games semi-professionally, I've taken pictures of hundreds of games, and maybe twice featured playfield shots with the glass installed due to extreme laziness, a temporarily broken lockdown bar lever, or just an old-fashioned hangover. When you are trying to sell a pinball machine, it looks better with the glass off, simple as that.

You'd think with the waves of brilliant and wealthy doctors, lawyers, scientists, and internationally recognized intellectual geniuses who have been signing up for Pinside daily this place would be getting smarter, but it just seems to be the opposite. And it makes baby Jesus cry.

Amen

You don't see how a bunch of white stickers will hold up? I have games that are 40 years old that have old stickers on drop targets. They are a little dirty. They have faint dirt lines, pretty much at a uniform spot where the ball hits them. They are still fine. If I want new ones, I can spend about 50 cents a sticker and replace them.

I have a hunch this is a non-issue, and Stern will probably include spares of any exposed stickers like they always do, which can safely live in your HUO goodie bag for the next 20 years, providing you with the womb-like, comforting piece of mind that comes with knowing that decades from now when your stickers are in such bad shape that a dirty line is visibly distracting in your projected image, you can refresh them.

Interesting. How many games do you have on the Premium?

Agree non issue. If they get a little dirty after a butt load of plays wipe clean with Pinguard in 5 seconds. This thread is nearly unbearable.

Mylar is probably not going to work well though because it will affect the projected images.

Mylar is clear; but here is a thought... it probably reflects light differently than a sticker that is designed as a projector screen? Maybe some will not care for that look either...

We are talking about WHITE STICKERS. Literally the easiest and cheapest single piece of any pinball machine ever made to reproduce. Probably the easiest and cheapest single thing to reproduce in the history of anything in the known universe that anybody has ever needed to reproduce.

WHY WOULD ANYBODY EVEN RAISE THIS AS AN ISSUE?!?!?!?!

I'd wager to bet 95 percent of the people here could "reproduce" these with a white sticker sheet and an exacto knife or pair of scissors while also folding their laundry.

Clear plastic mylar material is shiny. Literally every projector screen in the world is matte finish for a reason. Glossy surfaces will glare and obscure the image. A regular flat white label sticker would be exactly what you want. Someone with a Silhouette Cameo could cut these to exact dimensions on a sheet in about 3 minutes and sell them.

Well, for what Stern is charging these days the white stickers should self-clean at weekly intervals, or perhaps be covered in some sort of formulated space-age polymer which repulses dirt so the ball never leaves a mark. Where's the innovation?!?!?!?!

This. Just replace or put on new stickers when the time comes. Zero reason to use mylar, and yes mylar is going to affect the projected image differently.

They are not "concerned about it." They likely aren't considering purchasing the NIB pinball either. Nobody who has any experience buying NIB pinball machines, or any other pinball machine in fact, would seriously raise "white stickers might get dirty" as an issue. People are just doing it to keep up with the joneses when it comes to irrelevant complaints about non-existent "potential issues."

Pinside has simply become a pissing contest to see who can come up with the dumbest possible critique about something that doesn't matter at all, to anybody. It's a contest in which there are no winners. You should be berating them for clogging up your precious thread with nonsense instead of giving me the "why are you so mean?" speech.

Amazed one can see anything considering CES is lit like the sun...

Then again, so are most Stern games. The example videos of STH Prem have the PF really dark, like "early Spooky" dark, so I wonder if they are deliberately undercranking it to not wash out the projector?

Yes projection mapping is awesome. But when say Magic Kingdom does it its in a controlled dark environment, with minimal light pollution, and they're using INSANE amounts of power.

Need to remember everything on a Stern has to fit within the overhead of that 48v PSU.

Anybody who saw Roger Waters' Wall show 10 years back can attest to how awesome this shit can be. Lots of potential there in pinball if they can get it right.

Pinball and OCD go together like bread and butter.

I can imagine seeing a laser style beam project different colored lines at the different target locations you are supposed to shoot...that could be cool. They would have to project it from an angle that mostly would not be blocked by the ball until the last bit of travel...probably mounted above the apron somehow. A multiball laser show under glass would be killer!

I think people are underestimating how difficult it is going to be to manage he ambient light affect on the screens. Both from the room and the machine itself.

But then again, I’m a snob when it comes to projected image quality. I never want to see the screen, only the image.

As it should be

So what you are trying to say is you agree with me, pictures without the glass are better.

Not trying to say it, it's what I said, literally.

Wishful thinking but hope they stream a prem/le. Probably going to be a pro though.

I think you're being a little generous. Are we talking butt tattoo wager?

Ken has a pro in his garage studio, so I assume it will be that........unless Brian Eddy brings a premium or LE with him. Either way, it will be nice to have Brian live and available for questions and comments.

I’m surprised they didn’t just use a matte ramp with paint on the backside. I would lose the stickers and just paint them. Lots of information on the internet that specific household paints have the exact same reflection, absorption as high end specialty paints and screens. If it gets dirty or chips just apply another coat.

This launch has been a complete shit show. From the leaks to the terrible pictures from CES. Do they even have a marketing department or do they just leave it to the influencers?

Of course they do. Those monthly SOTU fluff pieces can’t type themselves!

One thing we can all agree on,

Let's just be glad the artwork and backglass looks as good as it is... it could have been worse and Stern could have rehashed some old ACDC artwork to save a few bucks

StrangerThings-Pro-Cabinet-FF-4gnlkafad.jpg

it's the clear thats causing it, not the wood. all wood dimples.

if we were talking about cars you might have a point, but we're not.

drop a pinball from 2 inches on your car, does it leave a ding? didn't think so....

Emm, that's why i bought Luci
And actually i think Angus looks better than Sinead O'Connor's baby sister whose just taken a punch on the nose

I don’t think a co-op releasing a page or two a month counts

Never saw the show, but I'm going to assume that's the overused, cliched, "mental brain strain from telekinesis powers"? Cheaper to use fake blood than some cool CGI effect to convey the powers.

It’s hardly lit like the sun... the lighting in the convention center isn’t overbearing by any measure. It’s well lit and cool on the color spectrum, but I’ve never found it to be overly so. That said, Stern really needs a covered area to make the projected image pop. Any sort of external light is going to wash the image... even insert and GI lights are going to ding it.