Gottlieb tried this in 1984 by re-releasing 3 classic EM's in digital format. Royal Flush Deluxe, El Dorado City of Gold and Jacks to Open. Didn't work out so well.

Ever heard of Capcom's Breakshot? Another throwback failure.

Though I've never played it, I looked over the rule set for Catacomb and find it very fascinating. I think I would really get a kick out of that game with its gorgeous playfield and cool sounds (that I have heard on youtube).

Ultimately, it would all come down to price. If priced at 2k I'd buy a couple probably; I'd certainly buy re-made classic Sterns before I bought The Pin (and I did enjoy The Pin win I played it at CES by the way).

Star Gazer for me.

Disco!

Problem would be that Stern Electronics and Stern Pinball are different companies.

I would be a buyer for a Classic Stern Re-run. Insta-buy if it were a Star Gazer, Big Game, Dragonfist, Nineball or Catacomb.

Now, if Stern decided to go cheap and use plastic playfields or something similarly stupid, I would be out.

Marcus

No

Some of those were good in their day, but I would not pay big money for a new one

But if someone released updated Williams sys 11s I would take a look
Eg BoP

Seeing how bally / stern used the same CPU for 93 of their early games (see alltek board)
http://www.allteksystems.com/products-mpu-replacements.html#mpu

I believe they used a common driver / lamp board, about all you'd need to recreate these is a main transformer, wiring harnesses, playfield, backglasses, plastics.

I think the better question would be, would you pay for a an cabinet, electronics, and then on a yearly basis pay for a populated playfield (voted by buyers)? I would be in for a bally vector, embryon, flash gordon, or stern lightning

It would depend on the price. If it were priced like "The Pin" then put me down for a Catacomb.

That's at least two of us who would go NIB Catacomb for $2,000 - $2,500.

Probably wouldn't buy one. Good for nostalgia but that's about it, for me.

I would buy a rerun of Ironman.

That's for darn sure.

I thought breakshot was fun and the new eldorado, 1984 was a bad year for games.

Don't see it happening. It's like if Williams or Bally went back into the pinball industry.

Three of us!

Make that four for CATACOMB

"Prisoner 1 is escaping"

It's typically smarter than the people playing it. Rule set was miles ahead for it's time.

Nice idea but it would never happen.

At least there are plenty of older Sterns available for restoration. It would probably cost the same to have one restored (within reason).

Guys, these games are out there now for good prices and repro parts are becoming available to make them new-looking if that's what you need. A little "character" is OK on these classic titles too.

Classic Sterns are a blast to play....just pure, skill-based pinball.

Me too

Catacomb is pretty expensive.

Star Gazer and Iron Maiden are expensive and very hard to find. I've come across many Catacomb machines, most of which were around $1,000.

I'd love to buy a new version of a classic title...like Stern Stars

Seems Star Gazer would be the obvious choice for good sales. Seems very sought after and not easy to find in nice shape... or any shape for that matter.
Still don't know if I'd buy one though.

You really want a "classic" for 6 or 7 grand ?

There is your first problem. Won't be prices from back then.

LTG : )

Agreed; but those games were so dramatically simpler they should be cheaper to build than modern pins. I would assume they could have them at the same price point at The Pin (as The Pin seems like it would actually be more expensive to build than some of those older simpler pins).

If they can sell the Pin for $2,000 why not a simpler machine like Star Gazer or Catacomb?

I would definitely be in for some of these. I have owned or / own most of the list but yes. They coud make these new very cheap. I know most folks who come and play my classics side by side DMD's; at the end of the night end up in a war on my classic sterns.

Classic Stern Junk....

Retool the line. Upgrade the electronics. Etc. Etc.

No way it would be cheap.

Cheaper to just build a new game.

LTG : )

Same thing they did for The Pin. No difference; they'd just be doing a full size old school machine presumably at the same price point as the far more advanced and complex The Pin price point.

I guess the truth is none of us but Stern and Gomez know how much this would cost to do. We all know it is not going to happen; just dreaming how cool it would be to be able to open up a NIB for a 33 year old classic game at a good price point.

Big Game. I would be in depending on price.

The dream:

Standard "Sega Classics" Cabinet
Interchangeable playfields - All with a standard connector(s) for easy swaps
An LCD monitor in the backbox to replicate the different backglasses
Reasonable price (Ha!)

Basically Hyperpin in the backbox, but with real playfields.

Take my money now!

As everyone mentioned earlier, it would come down to price. I would probably be in for a Nine Ball or Seawitch.

If they were to not only include the original rules, but make a new deeper ruleset, kind of like what was done with JackBot. that way you could play the game the way it was originally imagined, as well as a fresh new deeper ruleset.

Actually this would be technically possible with a P-ROC board and would be an intriguing project.
If you stuck with one manufacter and line like Early Sterns, it might be possible.
Hmmmmmmmmm

This would be do-able, but it would probably require a modified Alltek board with more durable switches to choose the games. Those slide switches usually are not rated for constant use (for instance the ones we use at work are rated for 300 operations).

Many of the classic Stern backglasses are not protected by copyright, so they would be cheap to reproduce (or maybe make a combo backglass like Galga/Ms. Pacman has on the video games).

Catacomb obviously would be the hardest to repo because of the backglass game. Viper would be tougher too because of the turret. Otherwise, most of the games would be not too difficult once you had the playfield.

Some people are already getting ready to make up a Star Gazer from other Stern parts. Already have Stern Backglass for sale for a year: Star Gazer, Nine Ball, Seawitch, & Catacomb. Marco Speciaties is selling them along with some international agents. Star Gazer playfields will most likely become available this summer from me & then Seawitch playfields.

There's no sense in reproducing an older Stern title that's already been done. If Stern made a tribute game that incorporated the best features of all the old Stern classics into one new game, I bet they could sell enough of them to collecters to make it worthwhile. Cool old art, modern electronics, no ramps, and no licensing fees might bring a neat game to market for reasonable $. Maybe the first "old" game with a shaker motor just for fun.

Bally reissued some of their most popular games (like Fireball Classic), with new more reliable electronics and sound in the 80s with success.

With a BOM under $1000, there could be some money made, IF there is enough demand to make it worthwhile.

well if anyone is looking for a Classic Stern I have a working one.

pinballbystern2.jpg pinballbystern1.jpg

Are you manufacturing new playfields, or still sanding down old ones?

This would be a cool idea. Basically P2K but with classic playfields. The initial expense to the consumer would be high but then all you would have to do is purchase a new playfield. They could get around the DIP switch reliability issues by using USB to upload the game code as you swap playfields.

These days you shouldn't have to change the game code when switching playfields. Make a game with a basic software framework and each ruleset stored on NAND. We're only talking about simple logic for maybe 30-35 games once the basic software engine is written.

The software for the whole system would be less intensive than a Wii. Most of the engineering, as usual, goes into the real time drivers for the playfield, not really in the software to process the logic.

Not P2K, but more like Hyperpin where you are emulating the game for the rules/scoring, but playing the game for real on the real playfield and interfacing it with the P-ROC.

You can do this with visual pinball/vpinmame/hyperpin and a P-ROC board. Figure out how to connect the playfield to the P-ROC for the drivers.
Setup hyperpin to select the game
Create versions of the games in VP to bridge to the P-ROC versions on an SSD.

When you would turn on the game, you'd see a scrollable menu on your backglass. Select the game, it would display the full backglass on the backglass monitor. The only thing I'm not sure of is if the P-ROC can handle UVP or directB2S backglasses. I would imagine that is possible too so you see the scoring displays on the backglass.

Its possible.

It's possible but the wiring interface on existing playfields is not consistent. There would have to be some intermediate work to bridge that gap into a single physical interface to the driver. This might be possible with a car stereo style adapter harness for each playfield. Stick that adapter harness on the playfield connector once and you're all set.

Great. Now I want to find an old blown out game and see if I can make this happen. Too many projects.

No I would not buy one. Not because I don't think its a good idea to bring
back classic (and very successful titles). The build quality would have to be
comperable to the originals. Something modern Stern games lack.
Steve

If you look at the Stern MPU-200 games ONLY as a start, they should all have the same wiring harness.

http://ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&mpu=34

20 possible games to swap in and out of a cabinet. I think this would be a great start.

The one big flaw in the plan is that there is only one source for fully populated playfields as of now. The whole plan, though technically feasible even as a DIY, depends on having fully populated rare playfields.

Yes, that's absolutely true.

But the concept it real, so it could be used for another group of games that might be easier to find populated playfields. Can you say Gottlieb system 1?

Those would certainly be easier to come by.

Almost half of the M-200 Sterns, which are most certainly the more interesting titles (Meteor and later), are widebodies. Kind of throws a monkey wrench into the mix......