Not only that but how many people want LOTR that don't already own one or owned one in the past? And then you get into how many of those can actually afford a premium+ price for a new one. I also don't think many locations want an old looking expensive game when they can get a pro with lcd, better sound, and modern theme for much less.

So far, it seems like the vaults are just low hanging fruit that Stern fills gaps in production to keep workers busy. New art/code is one thing but redoing an entire game and running on a different boardset sounds pretty complicated. Stern would also have to deal with licensing and that could turn into a headache if they want to do new art and code. I don't see the business sense in doing that for a very limited run.

LOTR was Whitestar wasn’t it? There’s no original LOTR SAM release..

SAM games where what, mono? But AC/DC, TRON, IRONMAN just to name a few sound great, night and day compared to Whitestar games. I’d happily take a LOTR and TSPP SAM vault if it ment they could actually happen and be released.

Yes, but I was responding to YOUR post a page ago where you inscrutably said "put them (LotR and Simpsons) on SAM."

I don't make the dumb statements, I just reply to them.

Well you replied to Tranquilize in the quote I’ve taken from you above but regardless I standby my original statement give me both of those on SAM.

Audio could be massively improved over Whitestar with better quality audio files and that’s all that really needs upgrading over the original, other than Hi Res art but that’s a given these days.

I would rather have the mono sound of SAM which sounds great on TRON, AC/DC etc over the flakey node boards of Spike2.

I found a simple solution for not caring about stereo sound on LOTR or any other pin. Just go deaf in one ear and then you get to enjoy mono for the rest of your life.

I wouldn't. Played a 70 minute game where I was two shots from Valinor, but the ring shot had become impossible. I'll take my chances with Spike boards.

So did I. Speakers are 20" apart and five feet from your head in a playing stance. It's irrelevant.

Yeah. I just can't see it. The theme is old and gone, the market has a bunch and we have a few people on pinside speaking up about it but where is this demand? I loved LOTR's and love my lotr but the theme isn't common place anymore. People are onto something new.

Not in this thread.....

Then why do vaults at all? The reason is to take pins that were\are very popular, and remake them (with some marginal improvements - see MM, MB, IM, etc).

LOTR and TRON certainly check those boxes and are great candidates for vaulting. Of course, they will still make new pins as well in addition to the vault builds.

I wouldnt count any of those titles though. The first work with the CGC business model where they dont make any BUT remakes (so far) and IM seems more like Stern using up spare parts than responding to a demand. If they cared about demand they would absolutely run LOTR, Simpsons and Tron but I still think those vault demands are way lower than the demand for new titles and themes. (Especially if we are talking in the wild)
I personally like a Tron with the 80s movie treatment like they did with Batmanor the upcoming Transformers but I'm not holding my breath.

The stereo complaints have always been recockulus. DE were in stereo...sound good?

I'm certainly not counting on them - but wouldn't be surprised if they did them either.

Stereo with a terrible sampling rate is worse than mono with decent sampling.

What vaults has stern done? They were good games but were they block buster sell outs or highly wanted? The tron vault/last run maybe. Otherwise it’s a game they can throw on the line in between their main titles to keep production. It isn’t for us hyper pinball people. If this was the case why would they vault Ironman.....again. Or comic Spider-Man. No one was clamoring for a Spider-man. With how many hou Lotrs are for sale, why isn’t everyone buying those instead of waiting for a vault?

Time for Van Helsing! I know it’s 15 years old but plaster Kate all over and charging warewolves n flying vamps w Kate n Hugh soundovers ,what more do you want in a pin? Long story line if it hits plenty to work with .Im a newbie but the bug is in me n thoughts keep moving toward that .Buds I just turned 50 picked up my first pin WOZRR as I finished basement finally and started looking for arcade games and watched MB LE trailer now I’m infected n wife wants to boot me out .Lmao

Welcome to the sickness...

Not if you use head phones.

This is true.
Also, what many people don't understand is that if a recording is properly done in mono, it will sound better than stereo sound being played in mono. This is due to the phase cancellations that can occur by combining left and right signals into mono that were intended to be separated in stereo. I wish I could buy music recorded like this. But not enough one eared gimps like me around to market it.

My dads nickname was Wild Bill just lost him to covid in late March God bless his fun loving soul!!! Love the name wear it well my friend !!!

National lampoons Vacation or Better off dead!

Kinda interested in this 80's Transformers remake/vault, I had forgotten about that rumor. Here's hoping it gets at least a small rules tweak to spruce things up a bit - I suppose that is wishful thinking.

Were there any rule changes with SMVE?? Of course TF doesn't compare to SM rule wise, so maybe there is a better chance they spend some time there...

No amount of awesome art can fix this game for me. It is literally the only pinball machine at the place I take my son to play and I still dont want to play it anymore. Piece of crap imo

At least the lro is better

My barber used to only have Avengers. I didn't even like looking at it, let alone playing it. LOL. They are both just horrible games.

I was thinking about a computer game theme that would be interesting and I remembered Shadow Warrior 2. That game had the most beautiful graphics I ever saw in a game. The Chinese landscapes and architectures where breath taking. Great music and also the humor. This would make a killer theme for a pin. You would play the main character - Lo Wang.

Next Stern title.
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The clear coat says.
Crunch, Crunch!

What sound does Stern clear coat make?

"Chip, Chip"

Stern would take an awesome theme like See and Say and screw it up. It would end up with the tired fan layout, 2 ramps, 3 pops, and a loop. Every mode will be a 18 minute long continuous mess with no clear goal and 18 lamps strobing 6 different colors. The worst part will come when they dont pay Fisher Price for total rights and use a voice actor to say "The cow goes moo" and its nothing like the toy we all grew up with and loved.

Also it will dimple and chip.

So why are you in this thread?
Bitch bitch bitch all day?

Yeah, how can he bitch about see & say? And oh this glorious voice acting!

(Hint: I think it's a joke.)

I'm assuming Stern won't announce the next pin until the majority of operators are opened again?

I guess I should have put up a sarcasm
Emoji.

this is the part where I caught on that it was a joke

The dumping on the usual things Stern haters come in here to dump in didnt seem too sarcastic but my bad.

Might have been worth checking his collection he owns 6 Sterns that’s 5 more than you and has owned a dozen other Sterns in the past, clearly not a Stern hater.

People always jump to conclusions here with the Stern bashing, likewise would it be fair to jump to the conclusion that your a Stern fan boy who gives them a pass no matter what?

Your 2 statements kind of negate eachother when I only own 1 Stern atm. Maiden, DP and JP are great games so I get sick of the tired Stern only makes fan layouts bs. Also fan layouts work when not over used. I said my bad. Very adult of you to persist though. Cheers

Also I took your advice. YOUR games and wanted list are almost exclusively Stern so who cares? A good game is a good game. Stern has good and bad like the rest of them.

And Stern games are actually playable in the wild. I never see Spooky, American or Jersey Jack games but in collectors houses.
Some CGC and older Bally/Williams (getting rarer) on location but Stern are obviously more prevelant on location than anything. I like whoever puts a pinball machine somewhere I can play it

Never seen a Stern pin with the new display on location, but played both JJP games and American Pinball

Bar by me has/had 6 new sterns, a WOZ and an Oktoberfest on the floor. Before the shutdown

Although I know there have been massive complaints on this; I've owned LOTR since Dec 2003 and have to admit I have never experienced "flipper fade." I don't know why

EDIT: My game has all the original flipper parts and have never been rebuilt. Yep, original coil stops too.

Most of my games are on route. Only the older wms games are at my house. I just pulled Wonka from the route and sold it. Here in the detroit area there is no problem finding pinballs to play...pre covid

Didnt say they weren't in ANY locations. Just not enough locations. I've still never played WOZ for example. Not that I've been actively searching it out but non Stern games are definitely more commonly seen in someone's house. Obviously this will vary city to city but I'd wager that less cities have public locations to play these titles than you might think. It's not like I live in the boons either. I'm 40min from Toronto

ammendment- Stern PROS are almost everywhere. I havent played anywhere near as many premiums and almost none in the wild.

If you ever come to Pittsburgh be sure to hit up Helicon Brewery- 35-70 games depending on the time of the year. Plenty of Pro, Premiums, and LE's. I have paid a game from all manufacturers there.

So the next stern is ninja turtles?

No turtles, led zepp please!!!!!!