Have you played an AMH? No offense to spooky. The game is pretty good. But it really feels homemade and not very smooth or tight. Using B/W parts doesn't automatically make a better quality machine.

The BOM on a Stern is really no one's business or concern. They build the machines and choose to sell them for whatever they want. If they are priced too high, no one will buy. Someone buying any product shouldn't have any concerns as to what the manufacturer paid for that product. It's just no one's concern. Stern is not a non-profit organization and under no obligation to justify their price with BOM costs. If the prices are too high, dont buy. That simple.

Don't forget, a $2000 machine does not profit stern $3000 on a $5000 sale. They have to absorb all the development costs that went into the machine as well as the labor costs to assemble and the costs of just keeping the business running (managers, electric bill, etc).

Finally, just because something changes, people should stop assuming the only reason is to cheapen out and save money. A good business should constantly be asking why something is done the way it's done and not just be doing it that way "because that's how we've always done it." An example here is the lockdown bar assembly. Why is the lever better than the clasps? Both hold the lockdown bar in just fine. Why is moving the power switch important? When the old days half the circuitry was in the cabinet maybe it made sense. But now when all the circuitry is in the head it doesnt make sense to have the switch way out in the cabinet.

If I were at Stern, I would be questioning a lot more. Looking at the components in the backbox itself, there is no reason to have the backbox head be so damned tall. The boards dont fill that area up any longer. You could have an arcade style marquee, a display, and a half sized head. Sure that would be cheaper, but its wouldnt be just to save money. It would be less weight, more convenient to handle, and the only reason not to do it is "because that's how we've always done it", a very stupid reason. I'm sure if stern ever did make such a change, it would be considered only to cut costs as if the extra $3 of wood was going to make or break the company.

I didn't say every decision wasn't to cut costs. The pegs were done during the slow time where stern almost went out of business. Most the other decisions don't seem like pure cost cutting measures to me.

I don't think the power switch movement is a cost cutting measure. They probably redid the board set and realized the power requirements were different. Someone probably asked why they need a power brick in the cabinet and if it made more sense to put the switch next to the boards that were being switched. I'm sure some old fart in the meeting was trying to say that's not how thing are done but he probably couldn't come up with a valid reason other than that so it got moved.

Nor was the back box redesign. The back box is simply what it needs to be for a pinball. Why does it matter if it's made of wood or not? Who cares?

I think the quality of the cabinet decals is far better than the quality of the art on say lord of the rings or nascar or Simpsons. So yea, you should love the cabinet decals.

Doesn't spike reintroduce stereo sound?

Bye

1992 was the time of the SNES. 1995-2001 was the time of the ps1. So Id say you're way way off lol.

After playing around with game of thrones, it looks like stern has innovated a bit on spike. It has all 5v low voltage flashers. It makes sense since you don't need 20v anymore to make a decent flash lamp flash.