I haven't spent a lot of time on either one but found them very different.

Gameplay wise, the newer Stern machine (I played a Pro) was super fast. I would have compared it more to Iron Man than anything else. My ball times were really low. The ST:TNG felt like a much longer, deeper game - closer to LOTR or WoZ.

Artwork wise, I'd call it a wash with a very slight preference to TNG due to the source material. I dislike the translights on all four machines. Lighting considered, I'd give the overall appearance to STLE.

Toy wise, I like the interactive Vengeance ship but dislike the drop target ball lock. It's hard not to enjoy a good cannon shot. I'd say it's a tie there too.

So in summary, it just depends on what you want to add to your collection.

I consider STTNG to be one of the best games of all time, so that a pretty high pedestal to put anything up against. I previously owned an STTNG, and I now own an STLE. With the current software, I'd say STTNG is the superior game by far. ST has a lot of potential, though, so we'll have to see where they go with it.

I personally like ST:TNG better, I feel the layout is more fun and the audio clips are great. The new ST definitely has more modes and "stuff", but ST:TNG's overall package was just crafted amazingly well.

STLE is the better game for me, STTNG is great but is a 90's games and the new ST just has the lighting and SFX plus super fast gameplay and flow to really make it feel futuristic to me. I love both but STLE wins.

Well written comparison. I agree with you on every area, though I think we need to wait on Music/Display integration and game play until we see the final STLE code. And I give STLE the nod for the better backglass, especially since it is an actual backglass. But even though I agree with you that TNG is probably the overall better game, I decided that STLE was going to fit my game room better.

I had an TNG until a few months ago. But even with all the game has going for it, and the fact I've always been a Trek fan, it was tops on the list of machines that had to be dropped from the collection to make room (essentially for STLE).

A few things went into that decision:
- my wife never liked the game because she thought it was slow, which she blamed on the wide body, and this was low on her keep list even though she likes the show and theme. Realistically, this was the primary factor in the decision to sell it, though we would have kept the machine if we had more space.

- I really enjoy the modes of TNG and the toys, but wanted the speed and flow of STLE.

- getting back into the hobby after a long absence, I wanted a next generation machine and another Stern. STLE fit that bill and the "bling" and light show was an added bonus.

- TNG can be a beast to clean and maintain. It was always the game I dreaded working on.

- despite our fondness for the theme, TNG was always played less than any of the SS games.

I will miss the music of TNG - it is much more familiar to me than the music of the JJA movies - and it seems to fit TNG better than the music of STLE fits it (lack of title theme really hurts in the stock sound).

With current code I personally prefer STTNG

Just the opposite for me. STTNG is my wife's favorite pin ... well at least until we got a WOZ. I've also had some non-pinhead friends over and they break evenly between preferring the WOZ or STTNG. STTNG does have the immersion factor that you do not see in most pins. As you stated, it feels like you are part of the action.

We went to play STLE a bit this last weekend. Not one of the family members were that impressed with it. I thought it was fun and the speed is impressive. If it were a bit more immersive, I'd want one.

I own both. Given how much more I paid for it (!), I'd like for STLE to be the clear favorite, but right now it's not. I hope and nearly expect that will change with better code.

As its stands STTNG. And since its my all time favorite pin and the one I've owned the longest, its going to be hard to beat. I do think that some kick ass code for ST (any model) could get it up there as a contender, it still wont be better though.

STTNG is way better !

I own four (TZ, IJ, STTNG and WOZ) and like them all, but I can understand why they don't appeal to some people. To me, they are a nice change. I'm glad there are both formats and appreciate having variety in a collection. I don't think I know anyone personally who owns only widebodies. It would have to be a fairly small collection, particularly of DMDs.

I think STLE is much flowier than STTNG. STTNG has the clear widebody pace where it's easy to miss the tight shots, and the ball floats around the large empty central pf for a bit. STLE has the ball coming back to you much faster, with fewer but wider/easier-to-hit shots. I think the STTNG artwork has a much nicer feel to it as well.

That said, I'm not really a fan of either game, in case anyone needs to be reminded.

I own my ST (LE) now for a couple of days and find it great to look at but the play rules seem to be very repetitive.
You all are waiting for a code update, did Stern promise to send one out? and if so, what do you think, hope or know what Stern will implement in a new release?

The speech will not beat the gameplay that STN offers, to my opinion... STN is rule-wise still the better game.

Ty, so the question remains, what are the hopes that people here have for the new code, if any?

My current line up is WW, AFM, SGate, STTNG and STpro

Everyone who comes into my house plays STpro because it is so bright and flashy compared to other games. I put shaker, mirror blades and flipper lights, backbox and undercab lighting. Everything else is dim by comparison.
Sttng has the best sound of all my games for sure...maybe I just like Picard's voice. I don't really think that STTNG compares with STpro. More like in my line up STTNG compares to SGate and STpro compares to AFM.

Some of us look past the bright shiny lights and really care about the actual gameplay. Some of the comments above reflect this.

I agree that ST is and looks great, still i want to know which code release would make it a better game compared to STN, rule-wise

If I were forced to sell due to finances... STNG would be the last to leave for sure. Now that I have all the actor's signatures on the translate; even more so. STLE's BG is nice... but given it's a glass; it's hard to get actors signatures on it.

STNG was my first machine; so it has a special bias in my heart. I just like the rule set and the art for the most part. STLE is a nice attempt; but the source material is suspect for a true trekkie.

thanks.
I'm still planning for a phase 2... just need to get the garage clean from the marathon that was Phase 1.
This three day weekend helped a lot; Tonight I hope to get the shelfing finished in the garage so I can put the MU and STLE on legs. Everything else is on legs and running.

It just goes to show that personal preferences vary widely. Stern Star Trek grabbed me immediately, but I have never been able to get into Star Trek Next Generation enough to want to own it, despite playing it dozens of times.

I attribute my preference to my general lack of skills as a player. For me, the tight shots in Star Trek Next Generation are infuriating and the shots in the Stern Star Trek are more achievable and thus less likely to invoke frustration. This same reason could be the basis for an excellent player to prefer Star Trek Next Generation over Stern Star Trek.

Also, I don't think this is just about Star Trek Next Generation vs. Star Trek LE. I don't think you would get a significantly different response from a discussion about Star Trek Next Generation vs. Star Trek Pro.

There is no comparison IMO stng is far superior .

If you're disdainful of bright shiny lights maybe pinball isn't the hobby for you.

STTNG by far

I put off buying STTNG for a long time, mostly due to the translite. Now that I have it, I really enjoy it. I like how it is set up hard, as it needs to be a drainer, as do most of SR pins. The toys, molds, mechanics, are all over the top, as was the case with what seemed to be the pinnacle for this within the superpins. I only wish starting a mode was more difficult, as in you have to do something before it's ready to start.

I haven't played a lot of ST, but since code is such a big factor these days, anything is possible there. Look what happened with ACDC with a recycled T2 PF. I think there is a low chance the same thing will happen without Lyman or Johnson doing the code, but who knows.

Meh, I was about to get into a whole other subject on why STTNG is better due to quality, but I'm not in the mood to fence fight about that over hashed subject anymore

I like ST Stern over STTNG , ST sucks me much more in the game as STTNG does

STTNG has grown on me. The first few times I played it, I didn't understand all the hype surrounding the game. Now, I will play it any time I see one. It's a fantastic game. I have a ST Premium coming to me sometime in the next 7-10 days, so I'll have more to say on that after I log more games on it...But STTNG is a really wonderful playing experience. I don't think I would prefer one over the other.

Both are great games BUT .... I owned STTNG for a while and when playing that game it truely puts you IN THE GAME. You become ONE with what's going on and are a part of the adventure. Don't get me wrong, ST is a lot of fun, it's NEW, bright, fast and a TON of FUN .... BUT .... it's not STTNG which is one of the greatest games of all time.

i am ridiculously biased because STTNG is my favorite show of all time, and i have not played ST that many times, but i'll add as honest an opinion as i can muster:

ST:
+ FAST!
+ satisfying layout
+ great flow
- a little bit sparse in terms of features and toys.
- layout-wise it feels like a slightly stripped-down version of STTNG's layout. Same ramps, same flipper shots, same orbit, same bumper and rollover lanes, but without the under-playfield diverters, transporter, cannons, and borg backdoor shot.
+ the shot into the lane under the upper-right flipper is cool.
- terrible playfield graphics. looks like a high schooler armed with a pirated version of photoshop.
- lackluster DMD animations
+ great light show
+ cool Vengeance toy
+ very good build quality
+ awesome cabinet

STTNG:
+ great flow if you are ACCURATE
+ punishing as hell if you're not
- gameplay can be a bit "stop and go" with modes starting, cannons loading, etc.
+ great DMD animations. I know ColorDMD is not a stock item, but it's kind of silly that the 20 year old game has color animations while the 1 year old game doesn't.
+ it's a Williams SuperPin. One of the biggest, baddest, sturdiest, most elaborate and feature-packed pinball machines ever made.
- it can be a pain in the butt to keep working 100% due to that complexity.
+ but the problem is usually just a dirty opto!
- some optos are a real pain to get to.
+ most fun pin of all time to mod ... an incredible array on the market, and tons of DIY options as well!
+ extremely elaborate and varied gameplay: 7 missions, 3 side missions, 4 different multi ball modes, 6-ball Final Frontier, not to mention Maximum Acceleration mode, video mode, and the cannons.
+ packed with great features and toys.
+ the Picard Maneuver (left orbit to Delta Quadrant ramp) is one of the most satisfying shots in pinball. It also happens to be the shot to collect the super jackpot during Borg Multiball.
+ entire main cast (plus Q!) doing great custom speech just for the game.
+ humor -- Data's "if you had propelled the ball on the proper trajectory..." speech, and the ability to hit both flippers to cut him off with Picard's "THANK YOU Mr. Data."
+ best integration of theme i've seen. Toys, cast, modes, animations, dialog, depiction of the alien species ... all spot-on. you can tell it was designed by someone who followed the show closely. Even little things like the Romulan mission -- the Romulans are completely in character by not directly threatening the Enterprise, but passive-aggressively trying to force the Enterprise to leave due to their "training exercises". And even better, during the mission, you have the option of calling on the Klingons to help you, which is exactly what Picard did in a similar standoff with Romulans in the episode "The Defector".

I like ST, I really do, but honestly, this is like asking me to choose between my kid and someone else's.

I am currently working my way through the whole series with my kids. I haven't seen most of the episodes since they first aired. I was surprised by how bad some of the early first season episodes are. I also forgot just how damn annoying Wesley is.

The main reason I prefer STTNG is that the game is just much more varied. There may be more modes on the new game, but they all feel the same. There is also no reward for completing the modes. I love how you can collect the artifacts on the older game and then increase your bonus when you get to FF.

Seasons 1 and 2 are brutal. it improves tremendously with season 3, and continues upwards in quality, peaking at season 6 and falling off slightly in season 7. I would say skip the first two seasons, but you miss the introduction of Q and some other recurring plot threads. There are only a handful of good episodes in the first two years. Conspiracy, Measure of a Man ... other ok episodes are Datalore, Hide and Q, Arsenal of Freedom, Samaritan Snare. If you want to do an abridged version of the early years i would endorse that.

My kids are only 10, so they enjoy even the bad episodes. We're in no hurry, so we'll probably watch them all. We are currently about halfway through the first season.

At the same time, my daughter is also watching all the TOS episodes with me. She really likes them. My son doesn't care for them, but he has watched the 2nd - 4th TOS movies with us. I didn't bother showing them the first one, as I don't particularly care for it, and I think they would find it to be too slow.

Not surprisingly, they both love the J.J. Abrams reboots.

Buddy, I just bought this machine late summer, and had probably turned down 3-4 since I have been in pinball solely because of the theme and translite. I was as anti-sttng (show) as there was, and even the mention of buying this machine to my wife and friends would get a "nerd" response instantly.

Thanks to the new movies, and the alt translite my friend did, I was able to overcome this. I don't care about theme for any other machine, and own DM, TS, LAH - a ton of super bad movie themes, but nothing put me off more than the STTNG theme.

Glad I did get passed this, as the game is solid and clearly one of the best ever. I don't believe in the long run ST will be able to reach that level.

The alternate translite looks great. I prefer it over the actors.

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