They did do this with iron man and a lot of pinheads didn't like it. I like IM I think it has a good classic feel like a system 11 pin but with a DMD and a lot cooler toys

I couldn't agree more with this. I hate the stern enclosed pop bumper design on so many games where there is only 1 exit. I prefer a more random ball movement, like big game.

Totally agree with this too.

- unclear rules, I hate it when you have to remember how many times you hit a ramp, orbit or whatever, or stop and wait for the system info. give me an indication on the PF, maybe something like a little led display, insert or something.

- virtual ball locks
- ramps with no ball action, just straight shot back to an inlane.
- video modes

- no creative shots. I don't care how deep the rules are, if I don't find a shot interesting, I sure as hell won't want to hit it multiple times. I would like to see more shots like sweeping drop targets, bank shots, etc.

I really dislike "bash targets" that you have to hit X number of times before anything happens.

To me, there's nothing more satisfying than a drop target that disappears when you hit it.

The price is way to high for nib.

Unfinished software is the main reason i wont buy nib, even when i had the money. If i spent a few thousand euro i dont want to wait for an update. Or even worse, not getting any update at all.

I must be the only person who likes video modes.

Digitized movie clips on DMD instead of custom animation. They look HORRIBLE and you cannot tell what is going on in them half the time.

Nope, I like them.

Lack of great ramps in a game like POTC which I thought would have been designed better and faster.

Stop blaming Photoshop. What you really mean is lack of 'drawn' or 'original' art.

When you work with a major brandholder like Disney (Tron), they send you a 50 page style guide for their brands. You essentially can only work with the photos they provide, the 3D models they provide, etc. You can lose the license or approval if you deviate from the guidelines. Essentially the artists are forced to composite theme/direction artwork (colors, shapes, etc) with very strict images that are hand-picked by the licensee.

You can do awesome things in photoshop using drawing/painting digitally. If you want to see awesome photoshop creations check out deviantArt or other websites where people 'paint' digitally, producing some incredible artwork. The Photoshop program itself isn't the problem, its the guidelines/licensing/restrictions on the artists.

Ha, I loved this......I can't believe NGG has the only fake knocker that almost sounds better than the real deal and it hasn't been perfected since.

Digitized movies on the DMD is the one of worst things. And when / if we go to LCD screens it will be even easier for them to put movie clips. Dots are dead in the future. Very sad.

I agree! I really like IM as well for that very fact.

^^^^^ must work for Adobe

I like certain video modes. The one in FT is my favorite part of the game. It never gets old!

X men with the easiest extra ball hit in the history of pinball .

I don't mind digitized movie clips on an LCD, they'll actually look like a movie clip and not a random blob of orange and black.

TAF from the skillshot I think is easier

I hate how modern pins cause us, who profess to love pinball as a group, to quibble, bitch and moan about each@new title that arrives.

+1 for virtual locks.

I want to see my ball physically locked on the playfield somewhere.

I like them too, but there are good ones (Fish Tales) and horrible ones (Champion Pub).

The lack of accessibility of the pop bumper bulbs because of all the stuff on top of them.

Oh, I don't know. Some really are crap like CV and maybe AFM, but some are really entertaining like CFTBL, CP, FT, IJ (2 of the 3), TS.

If I am reading this correctly, are most of this complaints about stern games?

Dan

Mr wizzo, it looks like that. But there is not much choice to bash other companies which make modern pinns, yet.

I hate the part when the machine yells out, "You're getting old! You've got gray hair!"

It's funny. I didn't think about specific manufacturers until I read through the posts. I was thinking more about design than sales and marketing, engineering, quality control, customer service or pricing.

Dan

video modes, except for swing from the riggings in BR.. that one is good.

Games that last more than say 10-15 minutes on a regular basis. To me, they are then not fun, but more of a chore.

Price!

- Lack of multi-level play field - without being open
- Same format over and over
- Bad artwork
- Pinballs with barely discernible differences in theme
- Breakability

Virtual Locks.
Stern's Replay Knocker.
Overly complex ruleset. (I'm a simpleton)

The use of photos instead of real artwork

1. No more risks taken in pinball PF design. Some strange things were tried in earlier machines and while some were silly, some made the game what it was(awesome and unique).

2. Licensing from tv shows/movies/as seen on TV products. It's being overdone. We have no idea what's going on Xenon, but damn do we love it. It makes you imagine a bit. Barracora just has cool artwork and weird sounds, and that's it. And I would love to have one. The backglass is beautiful and isn't a composited image of various things.

3. Stern's guilty of this one: too much semi-transparent surfaces. Pinball machines didn't always look like high end gamer PC cases.

Stern simply continued doing what they did when they were Sega. That goes for theme choice, quality, artwork and a lot more. I'm not saying that is good or bad, although I agree 100% with your post. It's just the only thing they seem to know how to do and somehow manage to stay around.

Not what I hate (and not representative of every modern pin), but what makes them so NOT like a good classic pin:

1) Long ball times
2) Complicated rule sets
3) "Art"
4) Fit & finish
5) Value

Contrast that with countless classics: Brutally short ball times, straight-forward rulesets, art that told you someone really gave a damn, outstanding build quality (think early 80's, 70's, 60's and before), and value that said you got more than what you paid for (from an operators perspective these were huge revenue generators). I can't speak from personal experience on the last point, but considering how few pins are routed now versus then tells me that this is self evident.

This is my major gripe.