In a twist of irony, Stern may be using Zeppelin as the code name for the Rush pin. That way they can sell twice as many games.

go back and watch their inauguration into the rock 'n roll hall of fame and you might change your view. rush fans are probably one of the most passionate groups of people that you will ever meet and to my knowledge no other band received such a resounding ovation even before the name of the band was announced. the fact they were together for 40+ years and did nothing but continue to build a larger fan base over the years (with parents bring their kids towards the end of their concert runs) speaks volumes

Predicted Reveal date: 12/11/2019
Updating to only include “Cornerstone games” According to Special when lit, the goal is 4 cornerstone games per year. This year we have Munsters, Black Knight, and Jurassic Park. A cornerstone game follows the pro/premium/LE model. On top of that, if you are only measuring time between cornerstone games launched in the past 3 years (after switching over to LCD), you come up with 138 days between launches. That neatly works out to… next week. I am officially predicting a teaser video on Wednesday 11 December followed by a full reveal on Friday the 13th of December… 2 weeks before Christmas. It is theoretically possible to get LEs to owners by Christmas.

Aerosmith 1/4/2017 (128 days after BM66)
Star Wars 5/31/2017 (147 days after Aerosmith)
Guardians of the Galaxy 11/2/2017 (156 days after Star Wars)
Iron Maiden 3/25/2018 (144 days after Guardians of the Galaxy)
Dead Pool 8/3/2018 (131 days after Iron Maiden)
Munsters 1/12/2019 (203 days after Deadpool)
Black Knight SOR 3/25/2019 (72 days after Munsters)
Jurassic Park 7/26/2019 (122 days after BK SOR)
Next pin: 12/11/2019

Fingers crossed for a Bryan Eddy Stranger Things… and fingers crossed for a local MD arcade to pick one up for me to play!

I've never heard that, but interesting if true. I can't imagine how the layout would equate, though.

I remember that, and most of that reaction was just because they had been trying to get them into the hall of fame for YEARS. I completely believe that Rush deserves to be there and has been very influential on rock in general, I just don't see a Rush pin thematically. We don't need another Rolling Stones.

Good idea. I'm not a fan of lower playfields, but there's got to be some depiction of the "upside down." Maybe they could at least lock balls below the playfield or route a ramp into an apparent solid area and then reappear elsewhere. Ideally, have a subway system with the balls able to emerge from several different places on the playfield.

Love the research!

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Ummm..... I think you're maybe looking for "The Upside Down"?

You sayin' there's something wrong with Underground?

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Stern couldn’t get the licensing so it’s “The Underground”.

It's a Stern, they don't knock it out of the park with sub-playfield action, so they'll probably call it "The Downstairs Mixup"

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Gary always says 3 cornerstone games a year. Not 4.

Agreed! Also, on the pinball news "brian-eddy-returns-to-pinball", the game is scheduled to release for 2019.
It would make sense, as for theme, Stranger Things looks good to me!

Honestly, I think Brian Eddy would be a better fit for TMNT than Stranger Things, assuming both rumors hold weight.

I still like a TMNT as a possibility, at some point...

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I brought my kids to Sabbath and Maiden concerts and they have done a Maiden so surely Sabbath before Rush.
BTW they love Sabbath and Maiden over Rush. I do like Rush though just my kids do not!

Rush makes some sense, Stern could save a lot of money on song licensing as they would only need about 4 (5 tops) of Rush's epic long tunes...

Saw these guys in concert a few years back--never seen or heard 3 guys make so much sound, ever. Great musicians.

A lower playfield wouldn’t be necessary to represent the Upside Down... in fact it would be much better to just have the GI change the lighting (say to an odd color) and have a change in the rules / scoring.

i like this idea better!

I agree - I could see that being pretty cool if done well. The tiny ball lower playfields like Munsters just do not shoot well, and are not fun...

Yeah, they could use reactive inks that are transparent or mostly transparent with normal lighting in the playfield and screened plastics, but become visible when green light or black light or whatever are added to the GI to give the playfield a whole different look when in "upside down" mode. Would work really well.

That's why the KRULL/Black Hole/Haunted House ones are the only way to do it right.

Its technically the upside down not underground. They could reverse the flippers or have a jm type magnet to represent the upside down. Unfortunately I'd expect a simple gi lighting change to represent the change between world.

With the Stranger Things theme I think a layout like Bonzai Run with a second vertical play field in the head box would be awesome.
Similar to the track that’s the upper play field, only tunnels for the upside down.

If the tmnt are not 90s and look like that I'm out. Stern don't let me down.

Maybe many things are double sided like the boxer on Champion Pub pinball, and they can rotate them 180 degrees along with new lighting to make the "upside down" world but on the same playfield.

I'm predicting a 2019 full announcement with delivery within the first two weeks of January.
The one thing I'm totally confused about it the game license but I predict it WONT be Ninja Turtles (however I do like the white board sketch behind the Black Knight).....and I think we all know it will be a licensed title.

After seeing the No Time to Die trailer and adds and now a special with James Bond actors (Daniel Craig, etc) doing a special... I'm leaning towards James Bond but I'd rather see Stranger Things.

Something should link any day now.....

Yeah yeah underground smunderground, it's all the same.

Hey wasn't there also talk about a Night of the living dead pin? Man that would probably be a must have for me. Make it happen Stern!

stranger things could be really cool if they did take a page out of the book that was gottlieb's krull with a completely separate playfield inside the cabinet but used a camera to display everything on the lcd panel, inversing the vertical and horizontal axises on the image so that everything was in fact upside-down.

of course this is a pipe dream because the costs would shoot the retail price over the $12K mark

Just thinking out loud . What if , in upside down mode the lighting changes the music changes and then all scoring is reversed , so you lose points for everything you hit but if you complete the mode you get all your points back . Let's say the mode goes for 90 seconds with unlimited ball saves ( but time only starts once the first switch has been hit ) That would make you decide whether to go for big points by hitting the main shots or sacrifice a smaller amount of points by hitting other shots and if you hold your flippers up you lose a lot of score very quickly so you can't cradle the ball and time the mode out . By the way I have had a few beers

Yeah. If TMNT got made, I'd be VERY surprised if were anything but the 80s/early 90s Mirage/Playmates/comics etc theme. You gotta try to capture and appeal to the adult home use and barcade crowd.

I believe Raw Thrills has made a somewhat recent fighter/redemption game with more recent TMNT art, but that's a different ballgame. None of those are going in home and all its gonna be almost entirely kids putting money in those. Stern would be unwise to do the same, I'd think.

I think there are clips of Night of the Living Dead in the new Elvira pin. Apparently it's a public domain movie , maybe it could be a good fit for spooky . But I could be wrong .

Umm......no

How about a Ozark pin? I love that show.

Yeah I think Stern have done their NOTLD with the clips in Elvira. Give me Stranger Things and TMNT.

Any ideas as to what the next Vault edition will be?

I gotta believe that Tron will be made as a vault one day and it definitely should be. Seems like the only vaults so far though are games that they need to get rid of extra parts that they have laying around. How cool would a vault TSPP or a LOTR be? I also think it would be cool to see them make some old classics and price them reasonable. I would buy a NIB METEOR remake right now.

Stern has released a game at CES, first week of Jan, every year for ~5 years I’ve been there... why would they change this year?

Would be cool if there were a "portal" shot on the PF, like you shoot it and the RGB lighting goes blue to simulate you being in "the upside down"

Then you have to do X things before portal re-opens and back to your world.

Guess we'll see soon enough.

Tron great candidate ... but wonder if it would still have SAM boards?

Started to re-appreciate some of the great SAM games again.

SAM games are bullet proof compared to Spike 1 and 2. Tick tock.

TRON
IM
AC/DC
SM

really? I've heard great things about the spike 2 system. I must admit I don't have any Sam games on route

For those of you not thinking a Rush pinball machine will not work, your obviously not aware of the band’s history and influences on music and musicians!
The fan base is incredibly huge.
Do a little research....
They have many songs that could be used
And the wide range of characters and artwork that they have used Over 40 years is like no other band. They use most of these in videos while on tour.
Yes , I’m a musician and a huge rush fan but, I can guarantee if they release a Rush pinball machine and it is done well , it will easily sell more then any other music pin.
Their fan base runs many generations and a lot of them are 40 and older with cash to drop.

Sounds cool.. The more I think about it, the more unique and awesome this pin could be... This has the potential to outdo star wars in term of a light show if done proper...

I can see Christmas lights strung around the playfield..

An illuminated portal wall..

Just so many ideas that could really be incredible

Not larger than Beatle's I'd bet. Look how that pin was received.

Stern has the Rush license.

You take an old pin, slap a few beatle's songs from their worst era of music, and charge a premium price for the game. I always wondered why it doesn't get more love.

If they put half the effort into the Beatles as they did Iron Maiden, it would have been a hit.

I guess we're about to find out how hardcore that fanbase is, then.

Stranger Things