Quoted from vid1900:Pinheads are oldschool and don't want anything truly innovative.
So true! Trudeau wanted to make something different with his WWE Mini Playfield. In the pinball magaine interview he was very, very proud of it.... but actually anybody doesn't like it.
One really nice, but only tiny innovation was the "Gift of the Elves" reward system a combination of mission accomplished and hardware (lit inserts) - okay maybe it is the same like on JM or maybe some other machines, but I think it is special und I am wondering why they did not use this concept in other machines.
In general software wise Stern or better the software developers invented so great things... i.e. VIP passes, ...
But the biggest contribution (not innvation) was keeping pinball production alive, like many other said. At this time I have four Stern pinball machines and enjoy playing a lot of their other machines.
And I am aware that they pretty often reused ideas... like spinning discs, button on lockbar, special use of magnets,...