As long as it's not X-Men level bad, I'll deal. X-Men's callouts are unforgiveably bad.

Since Borg recycles his playfield layouts (X-Men is a mirror layout of Tron, Aerosmith is a re-use of KISS, GotG is essentially Metallica's) and this already features the X-Men disc, I REALLY HOPE TMNT is not re-using the X-Men playfield layout. Did not like. At All. Hoping for a new Borg design (it happens, I think Walking Dead was new, wasn't it?), but if it's a rehash, please not X-Men.

If any theme demanded subways it's this, but Stern doesn't allow them (even covert prohibition via with cost limits is still prohibition, Keith). I HOPE they happen, but not holding my breath.

Seems like a weird way to come out, but ok.

Ghostbusters and Metallica are *barely* subways. I mean, GREAT that they're there, but they're ball locks, mostly. Same thing with the 3 inch "subway" in Iron Maiden that feeds from the sarcophagus. Not really a subway. I'm not asking for the complexity of Star Trek:TNG, but a nice long subway or two would be nice.

It doesn't have to be A-to-B. The best subways have some level of staging or re-direction. I'm not expecting Stern to do DIVERTERS as well, but the best designs use them with subways.

The area behind the left 3rd flipper is a passage like beatles that either drops the balls through like Spiderman's right one or stages them.

Konami Track and Field with pencils, too.

He clearly doesn't hate them like he originally said he did, but I wish he did. I HATE them, as well. Might as well just put nothing there. It's basically an auto-complete for that zone anyway.

I'm assuming out of the van...essentially the van is the X-Men magneto lock.

It's an amalgam of a lot of Borg and Stern in general playfield tropes. The extra ramp on TMNT where the grandpa scoop means it will shoot a lot different than Munsters. The van lock and magnetic disc are straight out of X-Men. The 3rd flipper with a passage behind is more like Spiderman (which has that on the right and was designed by Ritchie).

Definitely inserts. Probably for modes. You can see the jewel look on them.

What's the abbreviation for this - TMNT is taken by the DE one.

STMNT (Stern TMNT)
NTMNT (Neo-TMNT)
TMNT2

Or...???

Yeah, getting a deadpool-ish vibe out of the progression dot laid over each character and a larger one for the wizard mode. Probably will need a pin monk color bracket for each of them.

You'll have to talk to Robin about that. TMNT is already Data East on pinside. Try hovering over the letters.

I like the way NTMNT looks, but TMNT2 is probably the best one.

This is a recipe for disappointment. What do you think this is, Game of Thrones?

Haha. I'm already on it. Putting finishing up Stranger Things brackets and mods on turbo to clear space for this. They MIGHT be RGB, but I really doubt it with Stern's record post-GoT.

That's a plus for the theme and players. RGB on the Pro and Prem/LE or just the Prem/LE?

DE TMNT has always been a dog on the secondary market, so if anything, I would expect this to further tarnish its long-term value since fans now have a choice of pins. The code would have to be REALLY BAD to be worse than the DE one, and I don't think that's happening.

Can you make the watermark a little more obnoxious?

Don't give him any ideas.

That's the real Italian Bottom. Whoa Nellie-style location improvisation to stand it up.

Non-resized feature matrix that's easier to read (click to load the full res view in your PDF reader)...

Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Feature-Matrix-1.pdf

Likely the spinner. They called it the Stranger Things spinner with a demodog sticker a demodog spinning target, so probably the same thing.

Not yet, but it can likely be yours soon for the low-low price of $499.97 as an add-on.

No idea, but wouldn't be surprised.

Compare the screen graphics to something early Spike like Aerosmith and it's come a LOOOOOONNNNNG way.

Pro Mid-June. Prem/LE July. Allegedly.

I thought the rusted habitrails were on-theme.

If you experience adverse effects, the network connectivity coming soon will allow Stern to soon offer an alternate soundtrack patch for the low, low price of $99.95 and install it for you.

All the animations on Aerosmith look like a basic flash game from the late 1990s. The characters have a few pieces per body (usually 2 per leg, 2 per arm, torso, head - I think some also have articulated wrists if I remember right) and are "animated" like puppets with 4-6-ish points of articulation where the body parts meet. LOTS of static images given motion by scrolling the foreground or background and adding the puppet band characters. VERY basic, and not in a cool way. They could have given 2D segmented characters a really cool look and even could have made that art style look like the original Parappa the Rapper, but that would have been much more work that what they put into it. 3D would have, too.

I don't disagree, but Aerosmith is completed and TMNT likely has some polish left to go.

Even if TMNT was locked as well, Aerosmith has a LOT more scene cheapness and general bad animation quality than TMNT. A LOT.

But TMNT isn't locked, so it will continue to improve. Aerosmith won't, so the gap will widen.

Meh, you did fine given what the progression points are standing for in TMNT. Like the theme or not, it's overall one of the best packages you've put together for Stern, IMO.

Carry on.

That's a very short list with, what, Lyman and maybe Tanio? That's about it, and Tanio is great, but very new.

Oh, right, I was limiting it to Stern. Rick has done great work so far, but he's also in the "very new" basket with Tanio.

Keith does unbelievable work for JJP now. His Stern work is still legendary, too. So thumbs-up on Keith, for sure.

Let's be fair. Saying there's "no reason" isn't true. There's no PUBLICLY KNOWN reason, but given the licensing issues with the song they DID talk about, it's very possible some or all of these decisions were dictated by licensor restrictions.

Some of the fake voices are more than fine. There's no "shitty beast and his friends" in the mix. So that's a plus.

Live stream confirmed that all the episode inserts mid-playfield are just white, so I'll have a color bracket (or brackets, depending on what I find under the playfield) for them. Helpfully, ZY outlined each insert with the color the insert represents, so that will make color choice a lot easier.

Weird. Early in today's stream Dwight specifically said the inserts were just white, no RGB.

EDIT: Confirmed White only. Colored for complete/fail is on screen only

Yes, that's what Dwight said. Inserts on PF are just plain white, but the SCREEN shows the colors. Glad to know I'm not going insane...

This is on the screen only. Playfield inserts are just white.

There is a physical ball lock under it, though. Not as cool as coming out of the van, but at least it's not a virtual lock.

Both ways and variable speed DOES make a difference. jjPotC's spinner is much wilder than a regular X-Men or Twister spinner. Probably where Stern got the idea once they saw jjPotC in motion.

I think that was more a function of the video quality of the stream. Color was probably bleeding into the white from the playfield. I noticed the effect, too.

They promised an "exciting gameplay experience" which Munsters is not. It's about as dull, repetitive and shallow as they come. When CASUALS at locations hate it in droves, that's a problem. Sitting right next to an Attack from Mars, which probably has LESS code, the AfM DESTROYED it in earnings, even the first week at the location I helped with.

Pretty sure the GI is just zoned single-color LEDs, not RGB LEDs. They've done that on a lot of games from X-MEN forward.

I don't think anyone's going to real court on this, but in the court of location customers Munsters already lost pretty much exactly for that failure to deliver an exciting game promised.

Well, that's a convenient thing to say, but it doesn't work for the majority of the areas of the US. Pinball saturation is anything but in 2020. There are SOME areas that have a wealth of location play, and others that have literally none for hundreds of miles. It's not always possible to play before you pay.

All I can say is THANK GOD Stern's casepack rarity scam failed on Beatles and sales bombed with the glut of golds left over after they shot their wad on the initial shipment, using up all the platinum and diamond bait. All three tiers have dumped in price as a result, and they'll likely never get to the 1964 total pins they said because the rest of the run won't happen.

Meh. Iron Man is a FUN, abusive short ride you want to do again and again, and the market finally caught up with it. Beatles is just sort of there. If prices go up on Beatles eventually, it will be from fans of the band (who are also dying off at an alarming rate, so...) who don't mind having a pin with a 1960's girl's lunchbox color scheme and not because it's an awesome hidden gem of a game.

The reason people are talking about it is Dwight did Munsters and TMNT and they blame Dwight for Munsters being a huge code fail stinkbomb, when I'm pretty sure most of that was a result of orders he got limiting him and not his inherent ability to code pins.

Star Wars had multiple runs.

Ghostbusters sold very, VERY well.

Both ended up with solid code.

Munsters is Dwight's only real stinkbomb in the last 10 years or so. You'd have to go back to Sopranos to have another not-great Dwight pin, and even that is WAY better than Munsters.

What you're shown on the stream is what they want you to see. The fact that they specifically don't want Jack to say what version code he's playing on the streams on is telling. He said they didn't want him to tell multiple times on the stream when people asked.

That said, it LOOKS more complete, but there are still a lot of janky things on screen happening with timings, etc that need to be cleaned up. But the only way to know for sure what state the code is in is to actually PLAY it hands on or watch a stream from someone not controlled by Stern.

Put down the alcohol, and step away from the bar. You're about to black out at this rate...

Did not click with me at all. The display work screamed cheap. I was shocked to find it was using panning stills for the historical concerts when there's PLENTY of footage out there that could have been used. Gameplay was just *okay*. Certainly not worth what they were, emphasis on were, asking.

And, uh...how 'bout them TMNTs?

That boot/reboot must have been later in the stream, I didn't see it. Thanks for posting the version they were using!

Dingleberry gave me a thumbs up, too. Definitely a weird positivity vibe happening...

Freeze spray or blowdryer. I'd try freeze spray first. LEs have exclusive art blades Pro and Premium owners can't buy (the official blades you can buy are different), so you can likely get a couple hundred bucks if you get them off in one piece so they can be re-used by someone else. I personally think mirror blades are a downgrade from the LE art blades, but it's your machine.

The ramp is the hard part. Once you have ramps with crossover ability (aka, an open area between them), you can craft a plastic/nylon passive diverter that alternates the ball path based solely on the ball rolling over it.

For sure the green T-molding is more on-brand. I'd definitely change it out, too.

The Stern one is like Drac-April with those radically upturned collars.

I mean, come ON @Xaqery, isn't this embarrassing? Have your art guys trace it if they have to. To have such a great overall package dragged down by such terrible art on a prominent character is a shame. The POCKETS on her outfit are even wrong. You still have time to fix it. 2020 Stern has 4x the resolution 1992 Konami did to work with and somehow Stern's still looks washed out and just completely...wrong.

TMNT_April_Comparison (resized).jpg

Taking @Eskaybee's comparison one step further, compared to the original cartoon, ALL the April art shown in the Stern pin still blows. April sometimes pops her collar in the cartoon, but they don't stand straight up like dracula's cape. She's also STACKED. Much more than I remember. Obvious in the capture from the first episode of the cartoon I used above. While the original and Konami game renditions are close, the Stern one looks like a completely different person we don't know drawn by an anatomy-challenged artist that thinks boobs are like sandbags, so they just left them off the character.

Supposedly. Short Pro run June, LEs July, Prem Late July/Early Aug. Socially distanced line stations are supposedly going to slow output until Stern figures out how to work well within the new station restrictions.

Easy-peasy. Just do it.

Add a blowdryer to soften the molding up a bit and it's even easier.

Stranger things, aerosmith. Stranger things you can get 3x with Prem/LE. Aerosmith you could get a double of double scoring (4x scoring) if you had the upper PF on the Prem/LE the Pro could only do a regular double.

Shredder would look wimpy with a feather on his head.

Go here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine

Search for "teenage" or "turtles" etc. All you'll find is the Data East one.

This omission also affects people's ability to add "for sale" ads to the marketplace. If you look at the dealer ads with NIB TMNT pins for sale, they're all linked to the wrong one, the Data East one, because the Stern one isn't in the database.

Ah, the jjPotC plunder paradigm...that would be very entertaining based on my experience with it on jjPotC.

They're finishing up a JP run, then first TMNT Pros start boxing Friday. LEs beginning of July. Premium end of July, Pros again in August.

EDIT 6/10: New JPs have been shipping this week, so the schedule seems to be on track.

Why live with a decision you regret? Just sell your GB Pro and buy a HUO GB Prem or LE. The cost gap will likely be even less than when they were new. The Premium version of GB is way bettter than the Pro, IMO. Make the change and leave the regret behind.

Bah. Just strip out the upgrades you love and move them right over to the Premium. No time like the present to be happier.

(And thank you for your support. )

I dunno. People are underestimating that variable-speed bi-directional disc on the premium, but it creates a LOT more ball action on jjPotC, so I wouldn't discount it. Plus the balls piling out of the van is cool...

I wouldn't bank on future value as part of the decision. Most LEs decline in value, or at the very least do not appreciate. For every breakout Tron LE or jjPotC LE there's an Transformers LE, Avengers LE, WWE LE, XMEN LE, Hobbit LE, etc etc.

At the very least mylar. Cliffy if you can swing it.

Supposedly the COVID considerations for the stations to minimize potential infection exposure is cutting their output from 50-70 per day to 20-30. But they just got restarted like 10 days ago, so hopefully they can get closer to normal output as they work through the new normal.

Deadpool is awesome and the code is pretty mature, but if you're going to make the change, get the Premium. Waiting until TMNT's been out for a while as you enjoy the proven awesomeness of Deadpool Premium would not be a bad plan.

If you have the dist slide the box off, it can be collapsed into something that should fit in your vehicle. Fort saved.

Maybe his daughter isn't a fan and wants a fort instead.

Sounds like late this week or early next.

Not anymore. He was released early (unless he's back in and I didn't hear about it). Talk about LIGHT SENTENCE.

EDIT: HOLY Crap. He's back IN? That's what the record seems to indicate now. Plus this facility has a COVID-19 outbreak, so it's not looking good...

Trudeau-Record_2020-06-15 (resized).jpg

The masks they're wearing are a LOT less effective if their noses are out of them.

I notice a lot of them have glasses and they're likely doing this because the mask is fogging their glasses. Stern needs to have a safety meeting with them and give them an insert strip (or folded kleenex works) to go under the top edge. This stops the warm moist breath from escaping the top and fogging your glasses when wearing a mask properly.
2020_06_15_Stern_Masks (resized).jpg

None of the ones I see in the Stern pics are N-95. They're just standard barrier type masks. Not nearly as restricted as a non-vented N-95. Pretty sure it's because of fogging, which is addressible if someone shows them how.

Production shipment schedule. June/July, August, Sept, Oct, Nov. It's a big title.

The last thing I want is a COVID-19 outbreak at Stern (and god-forbid any fatalities) leading to another shutdown while they address it. Proper mask wearing will help stave that off...

You shouldn't use internet tropes/memes if you don't know what they mean, because you end up using them wrong and looking foolish.

Doesn't matter. It obviously was fine for others. It's a SAFETY ISSUE, like not wearing a hardhat in a construction zone, except THIS ONE can kill many people, and not just one.

If they do have medical factors like this, they are especially susceptable to a life-threatening COVID-19 infection if exposed and they should not be out of their house and in close contact with others while the virus is still spreading. This is basic stuff.

Ok, Karen. <----correct contextual usage. Bookmark this post for future reference.

The irony of the question in this post doubles back in itself forever.

The turtle shooter rods look pretty cool, but Shredder looks like, well, he'd shred your hand with those angular edges.

Or green flippers with rubber the color of your favorite turtle.

So, maybe that means Pros 1st part until end of June, LEs until the middle of July, Pros 2nd part for a week or two, then Premiums end of July into Aug then finish out Pros?

Any chance this will have Midnight Madness in the future, or is that dead like Star Wars? I saw you said on the stream it doesn't have it currently.

Midnight Madness is one of the best things you do. Sucks that you had to take it out of Star Wars.

No idea. I assume is was a licensor approval thing, but maybe they were out of space? It's one of the bigger filesets (the biggest?) Stern has for their pins.

Whatever the reason, it sucked to have it taken out and now find out that TMNT won't have it, either. The TMNT one could be epic.

Munsters has perhaps the best theme integration of any Midnight Madness Dwight has ever done. It's fantastic. Which is especially ironic given how terrible the rest of the game is...

Or you could put Beebop and Rocksteady on rotating thick printed plexi so they can be changed out for two other characters as needed by flipping them around. Lots of possibilities, but it's a shame to waste the animated black knight head on a pin not many will see. TMNT will have a much wider audience.

Hard to tell the scale from that picture, which will be the important consideration.

Pros this week, mostly to operators/locations from what's been said. LEs first week of July. Prem Mid July onward. Pros for home August.

Probably better to put these in a indy tech thread, but you have a regular switch problem, not an opto. Ramps often have one switch that tells the machine a ball entered a ramp and another that triggers when the ball exits the other end. The EXIT switch is your problem.

Either you need to adjust the switch blade up or maybe you just didn't plug them back in when you put the ramps back on. There's a sub miniature switch where the plastic ramp turns into the habitrail on each ramp. THAT is the one that tells the machine you completed the ramp. It's also the one that's not registering. The reason it "fixes" it for a while is it takes some time for the game to decide it's not triggering and tell you it's not working.

jjPotC says "hi."

NIB CEs are over 20k now. USED LEs are selling for 12k-14k, which is at or more than what a new CE sold for last year.

It does happen, but it has always been a rare thing. No way to know ahead of time which LE will "hit" and odds are massively against you if you take that bet since so few actually do.

My exact thought as well. Wondered if I had missed the topper reveal somehow. Not hopeful it's much more than the Jurassic Park plexi one, though.

Is that 2 player cocktail just a drink stand now?

And domestic TRON LE.

Has anyone else had the video crash? At the end of one ball, it took a REALLY long time to clear the screen, then when it did, the screen went black in the center, and no backgrounds updated for the rest of the game. Points and message flags updated and animated over the black area, but the background in the center of the frame remained black with some white noise dots. Reported it, but it was strange...

TMNT_Video_Crash_2020_07_03 (resized).jpg

I also don't like how some of the lighting effects black out (or pulse slowly all the way to off then back) everything including GI. One of them turns everything off just after it lets the ball go on the left return, and you need to make the right ramp shot, so suddenly I'm playing Tommy and have to make the shot blind. They need to leave a little of the GI on for those that play in a dark room (or locations like bars).

It's obviously super-rare because it happened once in probably 100 games. I wish I had been paying closer attention to what was going on when it happened, but it was unexpected, so I didn't really remember what was running when the screen froze then crashed.

The arrow in the rollover lanes will also disappear when you make the skill shot up there until you move the "made" arrow with your flipper buttons. Not all the time, but often.