I was not a fan of the new star wars machine. Super disappointed that they were so lazy on art direction. But that's not the mini screen's fault. I think with the right use the mini screen could be really cool. Like a security console telling you which target is your current goal.

Grim Dog what do you not like about the visual art direction on the Zen Table? I thought they did a pretty good job. Lighting was a bit blown out but shape language and color scheme seemed pretty on point to me.

GOTG (resized).jpg

I wonder if the quality will be back in check for the next game? Just found a ghosting insert on my new Star Trek made in May 2016.

Does it really matter what their next theme is? We all know there is a good chance it will be over priced and the market will be underwhelmed with the product. Typically competition breeds quality and innovation. JJP and CGC products are innovative, fun pins, both provide excellent support, and the quality is 10X Sterns at the moment.

I'm not sure how CGC modding old games is innovative. I think they have done a great job, but it plays pretty much like the original with some extra bling modding. Doesn't qualify as "innovative" IMO.

couldn't disagree more....innovation comes from many forms....clearly its an innovative business model that they have executed very well. Both CGC and JJP have taken pinball to another level in terms of quality.

So...you like it?

I dunno, Nordman designed games tend to have more interesting toys than Ritchie designs. But Star Wars is a surprising low in the toy department, on a license that should have had the COOLEST Force-powered toys to interact with, not a tie fighter on a spring and a kind of random small LCD on the PF.

Haven't heard that comment about SW before

I'm not your mother. You're an adult? I'm partly confident that you can find out everything for yourself right? If not then don't air sarcasm on other people's predictions from behind your keyboard. Or get more resourceful. You pick.

I'm not trying to be a smart arse but just answering the title question of the thread from a source to give some fellow pinheads a heads up. Bloody pinside. Someone starts a thread asking what the next game is. People try to answer the best they can and.... we'll we all know what usually happens.

That's the problem with some people on this forum. They spoil it for themselves really. In answer to your q I'm not 100% on the lead coder. Hence why I didn't blab out a speculator. I heard it's ropp but like I said not sure on the coder.

Ugh. Lonnie??! Way to ensure GotG software will never be fully fleshed out. Hype meter down. I hope you're wrong, mom.

Heard Lonnie also.

Borg Lyman is always the 1st choice. Ropp has done some good work with Borg though.

Lonnie ranges from weak to *okay* generally, but he has a reputation for just not finishing off games and leaving them with annoying bugs. KISS has a BUNCH of annoying bugs, few of which were actually addressed in the tiny 1.28->1.30 update that took almost 18 months. Avengers, yuck. Transformers, yuck. Mustang, yuck. Star Trek and Iron Man - actually these are probably his most "finished" machines.

So, Lonnie is kind of a crapshoot with strong negative leanings for blah software, and a likelihood not to "finish" the software off by clearing known bugs. Not exactly my first choice for GotG.

I don't totally hate it. I like the art on the cabinet and backglasses. I like the rules so far, animations and sound calls. But I fawking hate how cheap and uneventful the playfield looks. Art direction on the playfield is god awful. Design is boring. Toys are nonexistant.

You know why GB looks so damn awesome? Like stern actually gave a shit for once and decided to try? Because when GB was released, was right at the time DI was going to be announced and stern knew they had to up their game to throw some of the spot light off JJP. Once that threat was passed. They started cutting down the toys again and making fields look boring empty and cheap. BM66 is an empty piece of crap that doesn't work for shit with physical design problems. AS is pretty empty looking. Plays ok, but doesn't blow my balls off. GB was the first time I saw a Stern game, and was blown away by how it looks. So much going on. overall look is fantastic. Soooo fantastic it had me buy one, even thou the shit ass boardset design, with no schematics.

Nope not my mother, she's smart enough to be able to tell the difference between a genuine question (what I asked) and a sarcastic one.

I have heard rumours for months GOTG was going to be using Elwins Archer layout it's even been posted in this thread by a couple of different people, you appeared to know something different, I was genuinely curious what you knew/had heard, hence my question.

And just for the record if I was being sarcastic I would have added

That's why I asked in the first place, I was hoping Johns response would be anyone but Lonnie, certainly taken some of the excitement out of GOTG for me.

And with all of that it still plays like sh*t, IMO. It's most likely the best looking, most full featured Stern game ever, with the best animations and sound, but is an awful game to play. I'd take SWLE over GB without hesitation.

Yeah, it is annoying that he hasn't finished KISS and AS has similar issues.

Both are great games but as the home collector market continues to grow, please finish games!

As for GOTG.

Will now wait until code is done....

out of the box it plays like shit. But like most games you buy, new or used, you spend some time tweeking it out and it plays 1000X's better. You guys think you can just buy a game, set it up, half ass level it and think you are good to go. That's not the case. Leveling and dialing in a game takes HOURS...upon HOURS to do correctly. Most collector games from people that don't know what they are doing play like ass. A lot of you guys buy these NIB games and they don't play correctly at all. Shots are sloopy, back isn't leveled correctly. Loops and ramps are not smooth transactions. Tons of things that need to adjusted. But I understand. Some don't know their games play like ass and don't know how to address it. Some don't want to know because they are just used to throwing money at something and having it be done for them. But in this hobby. you HAVE to have a certain level of knowledge to keep your games playing correctly. Just like owning a car. You have to know more than just starting and driving. You need to know how to put gas/oil in. You need to know where the spare and the jack is if shit goes array. Need to know what sounds and smells to look for if shit starts going downhill.

I said they did a great job. I'm sorry I didn't sufficiently worship them.

GB is Premium is beautiful

The toys, features, art, theme... it's a slam dunk!

But it plays like a turd (IMO) & pfffft that red DMD is so aged looking.

Hopefully whatever Stern does next is more like Aerosmith: custom molded toys + fantastic art

The flipper gap and ladder progression are the two things that hurt it most. If the gap were less, I could deal with the progression, but it always feels like a chore to play it well, and the bonuses are way out of balance. Crazy thing is, it's the one people are most drawn to in the locations that have it, even though it's the hardest and least noob-friendly.

This I agree with. My Getaway plays like ass but I know it's the fact that I haven't done anything to level it or dial it in. It's not that the game is bad.

I read early on the JT gap was accidentally doubled

Meaning when working in CAD someone made revision after revision & at one point accidentally applied the gap change two times.

Not sure if that's true but I also think I read of some folks measuring other JT games & confirming this rumor of the gap distance being an error (above & beyond the standard JT increased gap)

I don't doubt it was an error, but whether it was or wasn't, it's locked in at this point. Carrot flippers look wrong, so I wouldn't try to "fix" it with those. All of that said, I would play GB all day long before Batman'66 in its current state.

And the tight right ramp entrance...

Never really understood the skillshot either...

The crazy part is you can select the video mode start and if you plunge right, make the shot without even touching the flippers. I start almost every game with 64 million or 128 million ESP video mode points as a result.

I don't think the right ramp is tight, but it is about 1/8" too steep, so a lot of stock rejects. Once I lowered it with a slightly shorter post, that issue was resolved.

Right Ramp Pro is much tighter

GB is the winner of games that requires the most adjustments to be fully playable.

This is not a compliment for Stern

Lol.

Ah...no. I spent HOURS upon HOURS tweaking, leveling fine tuning, swapping crap playfields, lowering the right ramp so you could actually make the shot, adjusting subways so the ball didn't get stuck, changing the angle of the scoop eject so it didn't shoot sdtm, removing factory Mylar so the right loop registered, tweaking scoleri drops, adjusting slimmer level so he didn't wipe his ass over New York and so he would actually regiter hits, tuning the auto plunge so the ball didn't hit Marshmallow, installing airball protectors.......and after all that it still played like sh*t. Hours and HOURS.

But that's ok, the game wasn't for me. I sold it. Glad you like it, but don't give me that patronizing bullsh*t that it's because I don't know how to tweak a game. You have no idea.

well you missed the main and most important thing out of all those adjustments, you didn't adjust the flipper angles. Which is the SINGLE more important thing you can do to make GB shoot smooth.

And why the shit would you have to change the angles of the scoops. The settings let you adjust the power of the scoops. You should have no reason those balls shoot down the center. Little software adjustment and never happens ever.

never had a problem with the subway getting stuck. don't have problems with staypuft getting hit, never have a problem with that upper corner switch not registering, so I didn't have to deal with that.

Didn't need airball protectors because I bent my targets forward and added foam.

Adjusted the spiral ramp, cut the blue rubber down 1/4", lowered the top of the ramp down, lowered the exit of the ramp down. Adjusted the sidewall metal guide so it's as tight as spandex. It's still tight as shit and can make the shot 50% of the time now. Out of the entire game, that is the only shot that should have been turned 5 degrees more clockwise. Would have made it a much smoother and angled properly shot. All other shots flow like butter. If you angle your flippers correctly like all other games are and not sagging down in the outhole.

If it's anything like SW, software adjustment does nothing. I had to change the angle of the scoop to avoid the cheap drains on almost every eject, at almost every power. Really frustrating.

What ever happened with the rumor of Angry Birds? I still think Angry Birds would be awesome if done right. Very colorful and it would appeal to the younger generations. With the new LCD, it could be a winner?

I have heard that Stern buy up a lot of licences that never get used/see the light of day. Jurassic World was another licence I saw mentioned a lot at one point. Guess licensing doesn't cost that much if a company can afford to sit on a few at a time and never use them!?

Resident Evil was mentioned for years....Fast and the Furious also.....

Someone posted a while back Mustang was originally going to be Fast and Furious but Stern couldn't or didn't get the licence for whatever reason, no idea how much truth is behind that but I remember reading it as I was disappointed at the time because I would buy a Fast & Furious pin in a heartbeat!

it's not. I adjusted down to 15 and the scoops are perfect. As long as your game is perfectly level like it should be. Front and back.

Maybe it will be a pin based on Stephen King's It?

Yeah... That didn't work on star wars. And a kickout set to 15 seems a little slow to me. Had it on 25 and it seemed slow.

I love the gameplay on GB. Primarily because its different. Love the ramp shots on the premium/LE and don't mind the linear progression now that Dwight has done a good job of almost finishing it up.

Theme is huge but the features and gameplay make it one of Stern's best sellers ever.

Let's hope they take a cue from what "packing" a game can do for sales.

The magna slings are great. Tournament play? I don't give a shit.

Lonnie makes GOTG a NON no brainer now.

Really like AS but much of the rules are cut and paste from Kiss? Just better integrated and polished?

So there was no sarcasm in your original comment? Ok you keep telling yourself that

Changing the gb flipper angles stuffs around with the entire geometry of the game by the way. Just saying.

You've never done a flipper rebuild? Your flippers will never go back in the exact same angle. When I got my IJ back from HEP, I had to relearn all the shots. It kinda is what it is when you do maintenance or try to tweak a game.

I am not sure if you are being sarcastic or not but in case you are not, you can adjust the flipper angle and make it almost identical every rebuild. You just have to loosen the allen head (or bolt) on the flipper shaft and adjust. Re-tighten and flip away!

yes, but plungers and stops are sometimes off a hair from before. Very very difficult to get it tightened on the shaft exactly the same as well. Just the slightest degree difference, makes a ton of difference in gameplay. My GB flippers had to be moved up 1/4". Made all the difference in the world. Went from shots hitting the walls and then going around loops, to nice smooth transactions. Clean backhands (which were impossible with early factory flipper settings). Stern must have learned they screwed up stamping the alignment holes, because later models came out with flippers adjusted to closer to what I did on mine.