(Topic ID: 128038)

What has Stern innovated in the past 20 years?

By rai

8 years ago


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  • Latest reply 8 years ago by markmon
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    #164 8 years ago
    Quoted from smassa:

    FYI....Data East is Stern.

    Well that's not true but good try.

    #167 8 years ago
    Quoted from Tux:

    OMG, I hope Multimorphic does JAWS!!!!!
    I'd love to see Bruce swimming up to hit the playfield on the dispay with a rumble of the shaker motor. If any company makes Jaws, the toy I want to see more than any other is a magnet. It would be a ball lock. One ball lock would be one barrel. Another ball, another barrel. With a third barrel, the disc housing the magnet would sink below the playfield, release the balls, and rise up again, starting multi-ball.

    I hope they have the P3 at Expo. Not much excitement for them but I hope they can make a go of it. Where are they based? Texas?

    #185 8 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    the only one that has innovated anything in the past 30 years, is P2K. and P3.
    Other than that, nothing really has been innovative since the ramp was invented. Maybe a little credit to Data East for introducing the DMD.

    and solid state flippers.
    and stereo sound.

    #191 8 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    Solid state in general. and only one to really have true stereo sound was again Data East.

    I think Data East made quite a few contributions to pinball. They did some interesting things with toys that continued after Sega bought them. I also personally liked Sega's backbox but they abandoned that by the end of their run. Maybe someone can enlighten me as to why.
    I believe Stern was held back in the 2000s from delivering too many innovations because they were trying to just stay solvent. Now is the time where they will prove themselves as innovators with the renewed interest in pinball. They've already streamlined the electronics with the Spike. I hope they come up with some interesting ideas since they have new competition.

    #198 8 years ago
    Quoted from CaptainNeo:

    if you are talking about the bowed head that is known as the showcase head. It's because the design was crap. If you didn't pay attention or didn't know how to put the arms out. you crushed the entire front of the head. It sucked and a PIA to work in.

    Ok, I never had any experience with it but knew it was unloved. Thanks.

    #247 8 years ago
    Quoted from WesleyCowan:

    DE/Sega often copied B/W re: technology and haven't innovated very much.

    I would argue that Data East were the ones innovating new technology and B/W were just waiting to see if it was popular. Then they would take their superior layouts and art design to make better games.

    One thing I would like to see Stern do is change up the layout on the lower playfield. Someone can correct me but have they done anything different down there since Wheel of Fortune?

    #256 8 years ago
    Quoted from Baiter:

    2015 there remains a fair number of pinball fans who are perfectly content with the 1992 DMD, so yes, pinball was and still is somewhat segregated from the rest of the technology world. The biggest issue in 1992 was that you couldn't do full color hi-res animations as you see in WOZ and TH... Perhaps a better gauge is video games, 1992 being the time of PS2... only years later did we see the likes of HD TV, X-Box, PS3, etc... all these advancements required faster CPUs and graphics hardware, and early versions required huge heat sinks and internal fans on the processors, something pinball manufacturers try to avoid due to noise and longevity issues.

    ummm... 92 was not the time of PS2. lol

    #286 8 years ago
    Quoted from flynnibus:

    The first bit is where lore kind of blurs the lines. Stern Electronics basically folded up.. the core people (Gary, Joe K, etc) get together later with Data East to start a new pinball division.. which at the end of the day they pull together the same core of vets from SEI/CC to form Data East pinball (hence why people draw the line from SEI->DE) but is really a new venture with DE. Then DE falters, the pin division gets sold off to Sega, which after they retreat... Sega sells the division to Gary.. and Gary forms SPI. But DE->Sega->SPI was mostly just changing the sign over the door.. the pin division had been largely autonomous under both Japanese orgs. The bigger delta was when Joe Kaminkow left in 1999.. as JoeK really was the leader/core of the game design and licensing in the DE/Sega era.
    RGP was much more fun in the 90s when you actually had the industry watercooler action happening

    This is what I mean when saying that DE is not the Stern of today or even the Stern of 2001. Joe K left in '99 and then John Borg made his last machine in 2001. Borg had designed the first four machines of Stern and then didn't design another machine until 2008's Indiana Jones. 2001 was also the first time Pat Lawlor designed a machine for Stern and pretty soon they were having a Bally/Williams reunion. So Gary may be the constant through all of those years but when talking about design and innovation, there was a significant change after the name changed in '99.

    #290 8 years ago
    Quoted from Captain_Kirk:

    What the heck did Borg do between 2001-2008?
    I hadn't noticed that gap before.

    I was wondering that too. Did he still work for Stern?

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