What do you think is whispering?

I can read punctuation

a ninja turtles teaser would be oh so nice right about meow...

I think this is spooky's they teamed up with AP with....

EDIT: opps not AP, CGC

Really? Man I’m not digging that art, gives me thunderbirds vibes.

I thought Spooky teamed up with CGC & Ben Heck

Oh sorry, yes it was chicago gaming. And ben heck supposedly already did the game or had wanted to but they couldn't afford the license at the time.

What's the likelihood Stern will remake LOTR with a spike system? Has this already been confirmed? I read something a while back and can't find it now.

No one knows. I'd love a vaulted LOTR with improved artwork -- either better resolution or even a new art package (like Alan Lee or something). Price of used machines is hitting $7K+.

Spike is the only LotR that makes sense because you get rid of the flipper coil fade and add color screen, LED lighting, stereo sound, shaker motor, network connectivity, plus a new high res art package etc. There are too many positives to a Spike LotR Vault, and Stern would sell a TON of them, especially with the Amazon LotR series coming.

Stern denies everything until the day it comes out. They denied Luci vault was even possible literally days before it was announced. Gomez has said that if the market is demanding something, they will find a way to do it. With the crazy prices of used LotRs, the market is clearly sending a "buy" signal and has been a while now. I just wonder how far into the HD graphics re-do Stern is already for the spike version...

I doubt Spike would have capability to drive HD graphics LCD
I guess it would not be difficult to add required hardware.

However only Stern Pinball knows what options they MAY take.

1. Lotr Vault VE
2. Lotr 2020 Spike 3 Flagship re-boot

Perhaps there needs to be a poll ?

I'm guessing a pretty even split at this time.

My preference would be for a Hardcore, new system ( Spike 3) Lotr re-boot.
LCD display, Upgraded audio, new art etc.

Edit
I was way ahead of myself there,, Lotr
Was Whitestar

https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4858

Technically 720p is HD. Spike displays are 1366x768, so they are already doing HD.

And doing an entire LotR reboot instead of a Spike Vault version defeats the purpose of taking an established, well-loved, deep, tested ruleset and just giving it a graphical and tech makeover. It can be relatively simple and straightforward, and most of all relatively CHEAP to produce. All the R&D is paid for, and there's a huge market ready to lay down Premium money for one or ten thousand. If "vault" is blowing your mind, think of it as Stern's in-house CGC-type game.

Guys what are you expecting? If LOTR is really getting remade. It will be based on Spike 1 Hardware with a standard red DMD, using the existing animations from the original game.
Renewing the license for a theme like LOTR isn’t cheap. Expanding the license to also use movie clips is even more expensive.
If they are going to use a LCD, they will most likely create their own animations like an BKSOR or Deadpool. But doing this would also require changed playfield artwork. But I highly doubt they are choosing this path.

If Ironman vaults with original boards why would they vault lotr with spike?

My dream is stern starts making old parts for their old games again which would maybe mean keeping old boards in vaults... maybe when the license holder of lotr needs/wants money they’ll be cheap enough for stern

Since Amazon is doing a new LotR series, it is unlikely that the rights are easy to re-acquire right now.

Unless the original deal Stern made included the rights to re-run the manufacturing (which is also unlikely at this late a stage), they are probably out of luck (at least for now).

Iron Man is SAM. LotR is much older Whitestar system with known problems like the irritating flipper coil fade. Again, the point is not to deliver a problematic LotR, but the game that's awesome and time-tested in a much more reliable and full-featured (stereo sound, color HD screen, LED lighting, factory shaker support) package to maximize "do want" sales, and there would be a LOT.

color dmd?

I predicted the week before Christmas that the next STERN pin would reveal on or about 6 May. Keeping fingers crossed.

Except that your math doesn't work. If you expect 4 "cornerstone" games a year, you can't separate releases by 139 days.

To get 4 games a year, you only get 91 days between releases...even at 3 releases per year that's only 121 days.

this shutdown will most likely alter the number of games released, will it not?

Noone expects 4 cornerstones a year.

It's "three". -> 3

And yeah I know, they postponed Munsters to January 2019 and Stranger Things "kinda" was Christmas 2019, so that was "four", but that would make 2018 "two".

I don't want to be negative, just realistic. I think we get 1 game this year. We really need to see how this plays out. I am worried that even when locations are allowed to open, we will be limited to how we operate games. Everyone will struggle and dropping cash on new pins when you are either shutting off or removing 50% of the games isnt a smart move. As for the home market, until we see how bad the fallout is, people may be reluctant to shell out 6k to 10k for a game when they could lose their job without notice.
I do believe the smart play for Stern is to revisit a few popular games if the demand is there.

Well, the person I was referring to DID say the goal was four, and even if you change that to 3, his math still doesn't add up. Never mind the virus screwing everything up anyway.

I think we will be lucky to see 2 cornerstones this year.
1 vault maybe

Ok, yeah I didn't read the citation whe he cited himself. XD

But yeah, then Special When Lit ist wrong. The goal is/ was "about" three Cornerstones per year (since about GoT time) according to Gary.

We have 4 in 2019 (with Munsters "delayed" from 2018 due to Beatles), 2 in 2018, 3 in 2017 so this is still kinda right.

(No matter what Podcasters say, what a "cornerstone" is, is clearly defined by Stern. Elvira, Beatles and Batman 66 is not it.)

And yes I also suspect we'll se less this year.

At this point you aren't vaulting a game, you are re-creating it. sounds like Stern wouldn't make your money back from the the labor to do so, unless the game was pretty hefty on the price tag.

I love LOTR along with other games I'd love to see redone but this is Stern, and they aren't going too far back into their catalog. also licensing for lotr, sounds like a pita, it was done at one point, but who knows if they'd all sign off on it again.

It's much easier than what CGC is doing (well). Stern has all the mechanical designs for every component on the playfield. The game rules are time-tested. Graphics need to be re-done and plussed up to HD (LotR has pretty simple dots). Rules need to be ported. That's it. They're not redoing the game from scratch. The R&D is done and paid for, which is a decent chunk of the process that's "free" for the vault.

Video assets for the screen and converting white Star to spike? That’s 6-12 months Dev time easily. Let alone the wiring and lighting changes because of the board change

I just don’t see it being worth it. Look at Ironman. I thought they’d update to spike so they could do more new vaults editions and they didn’t. They kept the Sam board set. Just proves it isn’t worth remaking a game from scratch. And that is an easier less populated game.

They’ll re-theme Flight 2000 as COVID-19 and use the top locks for the economic lockdown stages....

SOLD!!

Let’s see some more ninja turtles leaks.

Now with some places going back to work i wonder if stern is one of them. I know Colorado made some changes as of Monday

Mmm would be nice to have some good/fun news to see!

Iron Man vault has 1/10th or less the demand LotR Spike would have. Converting THAT would have been a waste of time and money, totally get why that didn't even enter the conversation at Stern. LotR vault would sell more than Munsters, Elvira, and Black Knight:SoR combined - a whole YEAR's slate.

For LotR Spike, 6 months I could see to get the job done. 12 months would be generous. Depends on how many people are assigned to getting it done. And of course they could do a one-off, or make conversion tools to allow other WhiteStar games like Simpsons Pinball Party and Harley Davidson (don't laugh, 3 editions prove HD fans have no pinball taste and money to burn) to get a Spike vault. Simpson Pinball Party, especially, would likely have LotR vault numbers as a Spike vault.

Sure you can add one yourself. But Stern won’t ship them from factory. They are always just using red.

spike 2 with just the color dmd art?

I mean how many people REALLY want to buy a lotr for 7-8k? Tron was in the same boat and how many "vaults" do you think they sold on that final run.
I would love to see some games redone but from a business standpoint, I just don't see the profits of it being worth it.

How did the LOTR vault rumor start? Was it just because of that one person who designed alternate side art and an alternate playfield? Then people mistook that as official?

If a LOTR Vault were to happen I would 100% be in on that.

LOTR and Tron have been rumored for 3 years or so? I've heard them many times. I had people tell me to sell my tron as the vault was coming and cash in....ehhhh glad I didn't

Given how packed the LotR playfield is compared to current Premiums, plenty. They're paying around that for nice examples of a 20 year old pin now. A Spike LotR vault would have the raft of improvements already mentioned, only some of which you can only kludge onto an original LotR with varying levels of success, and some you can't do at all (like stereo sound). LotR Spike vault would destroy Tron numbers, utterly. It's the safest bet in Stern's currently non-spike vault. Simpsons Pinball Party is second.

I have no idea why you're pumping LOTR spike, but it would suck ass. At least it would bring down the price of the original. I could see LOTR SAM, maybe. I'd take the flipper fade any day to have a real board to work on. Just wait till the spike boards start to fail. You're a pinball guy... shouldn't you know this? Old boards fail. They need work. They need upkeep. The icting for LOTR is because it's from the era where common sense went into design. Spike vaults would be horrible. It might be unpopular now, but I'll send you back here in ten years.

I’d buy both LOTR and TSPP but put them on SAM, I’ve had enough of Spike and node board failures.

No matter how durable SAM is, you're never getting stereo sound out of an original LotR. Ever. There are other advantages you get with Spike that you won't have on an original LotR. I'm fine with rolling the dice because the list of improvements is LOOOOONG. If you want to stick with the limitations of the original SAM release, that's fine. There are thousands out there for you to buy and fix up.

Once the LotR Spike is released, those ALSO FLAWED originals will be a lot cheaper for you. <- Why you should want LotR Spike

Haven't had a node board failure yet and we've brought in and heavily routed 10 Spike pins to date. Zero node board failures. I had to do the service bulletin to stabilize the diode on 3 of them, but still, zero failures. I'm not rah-rah Spike, but I'm also a realist. A Spike LotR would shut a LOT of people up the second they laid hands on one.

I'd buy one right away

Just like the stock market: buy what you know is good, not what you "think" is good.

Bookmarked.