They silently retired it last year.

License expired they had the last run of pros last December

Great game, but a friend of mine with a VP claims the virtual version of the game is better, need to play it and see for myself!

Yeah, locally a Premium with 10 plays sat for 6 months at $7k. Crazy. Now you can't even get a Pro for that.

Cause they had so many problems with the ball lock.

I have zero issues with any of the features on my premium...including ball lock. Now maybe it was adjusted after it left the factory....but ir works flawlessly.

You got lucky! I would love to have a flawlessly working one. Who know, maybe some day they will revisit this. Not looking good at the moment.

So easy to get this game working perfect. Don’t be turned off by that in the least.

Pretty sure they only did pros due to parts and perhaps it was even the projector itself. They never were able to send me a whole populates playfield warranty replacement and ended up having me send mine to them to do a swap to new playfield. They said they didn’t have enough parts to build even 1 premium/LE.

Not exactly easy or something they could get right at the factory. The TK lock and the demogorgon mouth both require complicated adjustment to make somewhat reliable for many owners.

Fortunately, the projectors have proven to be reliable so far.

The will not revisit it.

My biggest issue with this game was the Demogorgan shot. If he's qualified and you make a decent shot, the ball should go in.

As-is, it felt like a carnival game that's rigged to make you lose.

Projector was really cool, works better than videos would have you think, hope someone gives that another try someday.

Wrong slow sellers get cut off early. The license is active between 5 to 10 years. Stern sees a high demand and resale going to high vault edition will be available. I had go to a licensing expo to setup 2 booths for a company

Stranger Things characters, Demogorgon, and map were available as pay DLC in the hit video game Dead by Daylight, for a couple years only. Nothing like 5yrs. They announced the DLC was going away, last chance, and then it was no longer available.

All I did was pull the Demo, take out the washers (to lower it) and from a cradle you can hit it every time. If the playfirld is freshly waxed its even better. It IS harder to hit ut on the fly but make able. My TK lock has worked near perfect right out of the box. Yes, a rattled shot or slow shot cab get rejected by the arm but clean shots are fine and even bad shots at least get virtually locked. With them exchanging hands now, my guess is many owners have put the time in to get it dialed it right. The game is outstanding. Thank God my wife fell in live with it early, or I'd be in the sane situation as others looking for one now.

If you work in the game, this will be the behavior. Not easy though, and takes patience. Once fixed, from a trap or on the fly from either flipper is very repeatable. This is key for the later demogorgon modes.

I agree with this but when the game came out, it was very popular on pinside to crap on the projector: It won't be visible in a normal environment, it was a rip off of Pinball 2k games like SWE1, it needed to be brighter, the bulb would quickly burn out, a different type of reflector material was needed, etc. Of course none of this was true, but I can see how based on the initial reception others might be reluctant to try it again.

Yes.. so many haters. There was a LOT of frustration, and the code was not good. Cleland code and set up right... she's bolted.

Unless you read the licensing agreement for this deal I don’t think you can accurately conclude it was 5-10 years. I’d note that on a YouTube video a Stern employee was answering a question about Metallica and noted it was selling well and Stern just extended the license. I’d estimate it was 2-3 years into the games production…

Regardless of that anecdote every license deal is different and unique as they all carry different stakeholders and approvals.

There is zero change the license was 5-10 years. Maybe 5 years from the start of development.

Licenses are usually 3 years with the main variance being if the timer starts when you sign (and dev time eats up one of the years) or does it start when you ship.

Covid also hit and closed down all locations 3 months after release. The early code was very basic which also didn't help. I hear people at league and tournaments talk about how they only got to play it in that 3 month period and hated it. Only now after nearly 3 years they are experiencing the final code and loving it. The location shutdown really killed the game I think.

If I remember correctly…when I bought my pro I was very surprised when I unboxed it turned it on and seen that the code was at .68. That’s the lowest number(of code)I’ve seen so far out of all my NIB Sterns that I’ve purchased so far. It was a fun code ride with this pin once Stern started dropping new code…it seemed like a different game every month for about a year. I’m definitely glad I decided to grab one while everyone was treating it like a POS.

I'm assuming your friend couldn't get a real STh. I have a bunch of VP games on my VP Cabs Vertigo and I can confidently say that no VP game beats a real pinball machine. Ever.

Also worth noting that (unless there's a second one out there) the VP stranger Things is an (awesome) original design, rather than a re-creation of the Stern pin.

So, I say try both. Good times.

My Ultra VP 6.0 comes today, definitely hoping its worth the effort
At least they got a goonies game

No, have owned both and I don't miss the projector. With the pro you can backhand the left ramp and don't have the pain of dialing the TK lock in either, people that say it isn't a pain probably got there game already dialed in. If I owned the premium or LE with it selling for big bucks right now then of course I would be saying you need to own that version.

Totally happy with my pro…no regrets.

After buying an Ultra VP 6.0 I can confidently say that virtual pinball is absolutely amazing with the right technology, and DOF + SSF devices. Absolutely awesome. I agree that real pinball is always better but it's been really nice to play fairly accurate simulations that never break down, requiring cleaning, and most of all that you don't have to pay for + move.

There's also some really cool virtual games that I think may even beat out the physical pin. This version of LOTR has videos that play along side modes perfectly, kinda reminds me of a LOTR with a JJP monitor. Picture is a little fuzzy and a bit too bright, looks better in person.

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Yeah, the more machines I get the more something always needs fixing! Right now my Dialed in phone has a big line down the LCD screen, and my Halloween CE still triggers ghost "skill shot missed!"
Ugh! Im also hoping now I dont have to spend uber billions of dollars on mods hehe.

I see you got your Escalera with a STNG strapped to it.

Its an opinion and you're going to get different ones...but for me...it was the premium or nothing. The pro just doesn't dazzle like a premium

Not at all, that projector isnt going to last forever, when stern decides to not support the warranty on those youll be SOL.

Magnetic ball lock and projector on screen drops and stand ups. Those are the two big things.

Lol...no we won't. I doubt the projector will ever fail...but they make tons of pico projectors that get smaller and smaller every year. The input is usb...so it would just be a matter of dialing in a new projector and possibly making a power supply.

I will let u know today. I have all mechanical machines. This will be my second virtual machine, will definitely post my thoughts. The first virtual machine I cant really count, it was a piece of crap

I'm surprised no one has brought up UVgate. UV ink was printed onto the playfield, but not advertised as a feature upon game release, then several months later, "Buy the UV kit to fully unlock the game at another $400!" or whatever the price was. Not sure if that had a direct impact on sales of the game but it was a sore subject for many pinsiders.

I ALWAYS said this was one of STerns BEST Games (Premium or LE) Todd

I think this is a perfect example of ....the game wasn't finished when released. I think they always had plans to do the uv...but they were still working on it...and had to get the game out anyway

It has custom firmware. Not just a matter of dropping in any replacement projector. Agree that they should last forever though.

This had little to no impact imo. It was $275 and it was just a way for the haters to hate more.

I'm pretty sure that Vertigo system is outdated & lacks a second screen for popper. Stranger things on VPX is absolutely astonishing!! Way better than Stern version. Yes it's emulation; but it comes very close once you start playing for a while. A lot depends on monitor used, video card, PC VPW is starting to do some really amazing stuff & it's all free if you're savvy enough to configure

I think so IMHO but it really doesn’t affect gameplay like AIQ for example that’s missing a super fun ramp. I do have to admit the one thing I wish my pro version had (like the le/prem) is the cool “swipe a ball” rule.

If anyone needs an LE, hmu. I've been playing around with selling it for a while.
I love it, but prices are high and I need room.