noone's cousin
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Quoted from TheLaw:Yes I'm sure we're all clambering for that universally loved ending to GOT!
(today I learned clambering is spelled with a b!)
learning-is-fundamental (resized).jpg
you CAN teach an oldlaw a new trick!
with everyone bitching and moaning about dimpling on the playfield, ramp flaps and the projector not being bright enough, I'm surprised that no one has noticed that stern has cheapened out on the code side as well. past pinball offering have awarded 2 or 3 credits for a grand champion score, but on ST it's only a measly single credit?!?
stranger things - grand champion score (resized).jpg
what's next, a 1/4 or 1/2 credit for a regular high score?
Quoted from dsmoke1986:Damn, nice score! How did you blow it up? Did you go heavy multi ball or modes or both?
not my score. I was using the image that Coolpinballdino posted a few posts above
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-stranger-things/page/91#post-5404567
Quoted from littlecammi:When playing premium or LE Stern requires using a Bell + Howell Tac Visor for projected images to be legible on the screen.
Tac Visors will be available in the Stern accessories store. Not sure if they will have limited edition number stickers on them.
or you could get the B+H tac glasses. this way you can look like pc principal from south park
tac glasses (resized).jpg
pc principal (resized).png
I called them out on what appeared to be a pitch black or really dark room, but they panned the camera back to reveal that the room was really well lit (they were just using green screen tech to make it appear dark and moody).
with that said, the projector did well on the 3 main panels, demigorgon and the drop targets. the ramps, not so much due to their angle and how far the [white] stickers run up them.
they did have issues with the game itself in the first 5 minutes of streaming and it took them a few minutes (and glass off) to correct the issue. personally, I think that all of the cheapening out on the BOM is coming back to bite stern as the reveal didn't show the game in the best possible way. additionally, due to the fact that the game wasn't leveled correctly, ramp shots were rejected consistently and it just looked like the game was brutally hard (way too many SDTM drains by brian, jody and jack). why you wouldn't take an additional hour prior to streaming to make sure that everything was set up correctly and working the best that it could still baffles me.
finally, another thing that really stuck out was fit and finish. there wasn't any gap between the left panel and the center panel (which lowers to reveal the demigorgon), however there was about a 3/32" gap between the center and the right panel. that really cheapened it for me given the cost for these machines.
the theme integration appears to be right on the mark and code updates will only make that better. yes, there were a lot of placeholder animations but those that were complete were very well done. I especially liked the animation with the notepad with the numbered list and the 20-sided die roll to award you your reward.
as a few others have pointed out, there are a lot of shots on recent stern machines that come down and hit the top of the slings, rather than roll directly to your flippers which result in ricocheting into the out lanes a majority of the time.
Quoted from DeadFlip:I'm guessing it might be a setup thing? I had to shoot if a few times, same with Mike.
The game was noticeably leaning left but no one fixed it so we just rolled with it. haha
Any reason why the time wasn't taken (by Stern) to ensure that the game was set up properly before your stream started? Given how hyper critical pinside is in general, I would think that it would have been in their best interest to ensure that everything that they could control was done correctly. (It's not like this was a last-minute event.)
cooked71
I made sure to use proper capitalization, grammar and punctuation so that you can sleep tonight
Since pinside is informal, I tend not to capitalize the first word in any of my sentences and only where necessary, but I see that this has upset you greatly.
a friend and I played a pro on location on Saturday and put 18 games on it. I managed to score a hit 3x out of about 200+ shots at the Demogorgon. even after scoring those hits, it didn't feel satisfying, more like disappointment in the way the game has been constructed.
<begin soapbox rant>
I can't believe that some people here think that any company shipping any product that is DOA straight out of the box is acceptable. yes, I get that we as owners should know how to fix basic things (when they go wrong) to avoid costly repairs. however, that doesn't mean that we should have to play the role of technician straight out of the box.
if your brand new microwave, tv or videogame system were DOA straight out of the box, would you feel the need to break it open and start troubleshooting it on your own? I don't think so.
<insert cargument>
even if your $9,000+ base model car that you just drove off the lot died within 6 months, I'm guessing that you'd be right back at the dealer pitching a fit over the fact that there's no way that this should happen.
the fact that it has become acceptable to say "because it's pinball" has become synonymous with "you will need to adjust and fix things in order to enjoy your NEW purchase" is truly crazy. it's this type of mentality that has allowed [some] of the manufacturers to continue to get away with shipping games that "are a box of lights" at launch, take upwards of a year or more to get to v1.00 code (though still not complete) or remove a major feature via a code update rather than correct the physical issue just to name a few things that have occurred over the past 2 years.
and yet we (as a group) still continue to throw money at these companies for fear of missing out
Quoted from kpg:This is the worst new Stern release thread in the history of Pinside.
see ghostbusters and batman 66 also
Quoted from balt:This photo shows the projection alignment and focus screens. I was surprised by the large shadow on the right ramp. The projection area on the right ramp is much smaller than the white area available.
I'm not. the projector is not positioned exactly in the center under the apron, but rather above the left flipper so the metal portion of the ramp and the stand-up target in front is going obstruct the projector's ability to [map] the areas behind those. if they had move the projector a bit further to center, it would have decreased this [dead zone] area.
alternatively, they could have had 2 projectors working in tandem. however, that would have increased costs and the alignment would have be more finely tuned.
there are a couple of arcade games (darius I, II and burst) that come to mind where they are using 3 monitors and mirrors to create a display that equates to roughly a 40:9 aspect ratio (2 monitors positioned directly facing the player and a 3rd between them that is directed upwards towards a mirror to create a seamless image between the 3 displays)
darius (resized).jpg
Quoted from Rockytop:I've had an STLE since launch, and it's a beautiful game for sure, but I really like the LE packages Stern has done lately.
- mirrored backglass
just to be clear, stern hasn't produced a true backglass since STLE. all of these so-called backglasses since are simply a translite glued to a piece of glass
Quoted from kpg:Come on dude. We know Stranger Things wouldnt have a sparky, hammer or a snake.
Imagine if Stranger Things had the effort, creativity, and amount of detailed interactive objects on it. You can only imagine how sick the machine would have been if it was mechanically and creatively equal to MET. That is the point.
MET is the Lamborghini equivalent of a pinball machine
STh is the Chevy Camaro
I think that you mean that ST is the chevy malibu.
given how little is in a pro ST, it doesn't even deserve the [muscle car] analogy
Quoted from Coindork:Can you imaging playing a game like CFTBL if it didn’t have plastic ramps?
It would be unplayable.
I'm not sure if I agree with that statement. I own a CftBL and I could see wire forms working instead of the plastics. the problem with the plastic ramps is that as they get all scratched up with ball trails, the transparency of what's behind/underneath them diminishes greatly.
swap out for a new set or flame polish the old ones and all of the sudden it becomes a whole new game (for a while
the reveal was all playfields have UV ink on them. the disappointment was the fact that stern wants all owners to pay an additional $279 for a UV light kit (which includes a new apron and (8) playfield plastics with UV ink on them. it installs using 2 nut drivers and a screwdriver. the fact that the kit includes a new apron either indicates very poor planning on stern's part or this was part of the plan all along equaling a new low in raping the customer even more (especially the LE buyers
link for kit:
https://shop.sternpinball.com/collections/accessories/products/stranger-things-uv-lighting-kit
it's amazing how disappointing jack danger has become since becoming a stern employee. he's towing the company line so everything is rah! rah! stern now
Quoted from Zablon:What is the need to replace the apron? The video doesn't show any art work glowing on it? Are the lights mounted to it?
yes, it looked like 4 UV strips were attached to the underside of the new apron
I'm surprised that no one has pointed out the fact that stern is sticking it to the pro customers even more since the pro kit includes a plastic apron and the premium/LE owners receive a new metal apron for the same price
given that the injection molded apron has a much lower material cost, you would think that the pro kit should be at least $30-40 cheaper
Quoted from flynnibus:How would this changed anything though?
Would someone NOT had bought the game because a future kit was coming?
It doesn’t matter to which version you bought because all models have it...
And anyone who didn’t buy the game... still can if they want to.
So how would the outcomes changed if this was on the feature matrix?
There is all this angst about people somehow being screwed because it wasn’t listed... yet... there is zero penalty for not knowing. So how are they impacted in any material way?
The only thing that would have changed is people would have been bitching every day for the last 6 weeks “when are we going to see the UV kit”
I think that the general perception is that a majority of the people here feel lied to and/or taken advantage of. had stern been up front and stated (at launch) that the playfields had UV ink but an upgrade kit would be required to take advantage of it (or even stated that there was "something" but that would require an additional purchase to unlock) and giving everyone a head's up, it would have allowed them to determine if they wanted to move forward with their purchase.
doing it the way that it was revealed, was VERY similar to how capcom released the marvel vs. capcom title where all of the bonus content was already on the disc, but you had to pay to unlock it and again something that was not explained prior to launch (again, the point being content created and integrated, but requiring an additional purchase to unlock).
if Whysnow 's numbers are accurate, (300 or so pro machines and 200 premium/LEs sold), maybe this is the wake-up call that stern needs to stop screwing over it's customer base.
yes, pinball has been making a comeback in bars but the truth is that a majority of owners are the home user. nickeling and diming that segment of their market that aren't going to recoup their costs (or a good portion of) from coin drop may make them re-think purchasing future titles, knowing that even with an LE, that initial $9,000+ purchase price isn't the [full] price
edit:
Durzel beat me to the punch with many of the same points that I was attempting to make
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