Did they have the 3 tier system then.

2 years living on a giant bag of animal crackers and tap water, working everyday. Couldn’t afford tv. Saved every free penny for home deposit. In the end I got my wife and kids a home and a stable life.

Long story but happy ending. So I feel ya...

Not much talk about Godzilla lately, is that definitely pushed back? For a while it seemed like the leading candidate for what's up next.

Rogue One is by far my favorite Star Wars movie not from the original trilogy. Of course being that it ties in so closely with the originals didn't hurt.

I have enjoyed The Mandalorian too though, so if that is the next Stern release I have no complaints with it.

Yes, it was after AC/DC....I don’t think they were confident in X-Men’s sales, so they killed the Prem to create FOMO on the LE. Probably a good idea considering all the issues the LE had...bad aux boards, ice ramps not working right, Wolverine’s poor mounting & breaking, etc. A Prem would have had the same problems.

Crap, it’s really not BTTF?

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Pff.. Typical trustfund kid.

Chris always manages to have one of the first machines on location in the country. It's an awesome place!

My absolute go to for all things pinball in Pittsburgh. And beer. Because you can’t spell “Pinball” without “beer.”
Sort of.
Whatever.
Pinball and beer!!!

Then i have started to watch The mandalorian serie last night, just the first 4 episodes. As we said here, « ca casse pas 3 pattes a un canard! »
Will watch till the end of first season to get a better and fair opinion

You guys crack me up. Comedy gold right there!

Season 1 pace was very slow, especially at the beginning episodes.

I know the gig... Was operating a flying hot dog time machine amazing ?! Oh and shout out to @jeffspinballpalace.

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Not at all mate, just stating facts!

Posted this in the mando thread:

Thought you guys might want to see how Zen Pinball handled the Mandalorian license. Game was just released on the VR platform 2 days ago. Has a smaller upper playfield like the rumored Stern pin.

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Hahaha I actually just saw the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile while on a bike ride the other day. Sadly, this was not the gig. I was playing in a band at some event and the caterers gave us an entire tray of cocktail weenies. Little did they know they were saving my life haha.

Could be that we are miss-hearing the rumors out there - Is it possible we are supposed to be hearing Man Accordion ...
Sure, I guess some may hear Mandalorian but that sounds a lot lot like something else altogether.

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Also, could easily be “Myron Floren” that people heard.

I still believe it could be Back to the Future.
I was told that from someone who buys and sells over 500 (new and used) Sterns each year. We shall see. No guaranteed proof either way yet.

This has gone from slightly amusing to completely unfunny, back to to slightly amusing and now it’s almost becoming funny. This jokes been on a long journey and I almost honor its insistence upon itself.

Mandalorian is a great show for sure. It is different from the OG movies in that it's a little slower moving and focuses most of the time on a single plot line. The movies bounce around frenetically between a number of plot lines.

My opinion is The Mandalorian is a remake of the 70s TV show Kung Fu. Think about it. Mando is Kwai Chang Caine. Instead of being a bad ass monk trained from childhood as an orphan, he is in a similar situation as a bad ass Mandalorian. Caine was on the run after committing a crime. Same with Mando. Caine was chased by bounty hunters through the old west. Mando is chased by bounty hunters in the wilds of the Star Wars universe. Caine encountered new villages and people each week and often saved a town from raiders. Mando encounters random villages and new characters and saves them from raiders. Kung Fu was a show with a common thread, but new encounters each week. Mandalorian is a show with common thread, but new encounters each week.

I bought a X-men LE and a week later I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. I hope the code got better

Exactly.

One episode in season 1 was a lot like the seven Samurai movie.

But overall Kung Fu tv show.

I owned it too. The code got a lot better but still wasn’t the best. It had good elements like Villain battle but overall was still an uneven game.

It did get better.

It did not get good.

Which is a huge bummer because I was so ready to like it. Goodwill out the wazoo. But the atrocious callouts, and most notably Shitty Beast (TM) really killed the joy and immersion. Plus you pretty much HAD to make the captive ball conversion to Borg's original idea because the wolverine bash toy was failing from the day it was cost-reduced in.

XMEN changed more than any Stern has EVER changed. Where the game started and where it finished are dramatically different. A total overhaul.

It became a very good, very deep game, and with the after market sound package, no one has to listen to the call outs Rarehero bitched about ad nauseum.

I’d rather take Rotor Dave’s word for it. He owns well over 100 games and says XMEN might be his favorite.

And get a clue, there’s an after market sound package.

I'm not saying RotorDave can't like it. Some people swear Munsters is great, too. I wish them all well.

But the marketplace doesn't lie. If you follow the LE plate numbers, X-MEN LE changes hands a LOT and the price is a bit over a Pro for any other pin on most sale ads, which is crazy if you just go by the theme and massive amount of toys and ramps packed into the game. Many people do not own it for long, and that says dud in the lexicon of pinball ownership.

I'm also not saying you can't like it. That's the beautiful thing about pinball. Something for everyone.

I wonder if Stern will be announcing THE MANDALORIAN in two days, Tuesday May the 4th, also known as STAR WARS DAY, "May the Force be With You Day"...

It's all lining up...

huhu huhu good guess butthead... to bad it's not like Back To The Future. hEheHee Hee yeah yeah gigawats rule!

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Beavis and Butthead is LONG overdue for a pinball machine. And with Mike Judge trying to reboot it again, maybe the timing is finally right.

The Walking Dead and Batman '66 say otherwise.

I can hear the call outs now... "pin-BALLS" ... huhuhuhu you said BALLS....

"Frog baseball" mode would be amazing, "Hock-A-Loogie" mode I'm IN...

Principal McVicker should have the SHAKER go like crazy when he calls them into his office

The taunting call outs on a drain "YOU SUCK huhuhuhu"

The market may not “lie” about the $ “value” (perceived) of a game, but that has nothing to do with the games overall worth. You should know better. You sound very disingenuous, or simply ignorant of what the game became.

15k posts in the XMEN thread is a testament to the fact that the game was hyped to the hills and tracked closely at the very beginning by aLOT of people. You get one chance to make a first impression. After which people stop caring or just get lazy and ignorant, in terms of not keeping up with the games evolution.

After incredible hype, the game had shit code and QC issues out of the box. Then a small - but vociferous - group harped incessantly about the callouts, contributing to the massive letdown, and from then on the game had a poor reputation. After the long delayed “big attempt” to fix the code failed, most people just gave up, and rightfully so.

Then Stern released about 12 games - many quite good - over the next three years AND JJP and CGC came on the scene. XMEN’s reputation was already sealed and the hobby moved on.

And then they fixed the code in a huge way, and made the game quite good. And Fat Panda crafted a custom sound package with XMEN callouts from the licensed cartoons and cool music (Layla?! Who knew?).

So YOU may think it’s a dud, but many people think it’s quite good now.

Same old dude singing the same tired ass song. Learn a new one.

You can hardly compare the two (or three). You’re telling me that Lyman working his complicated shit out over time to ultimately deliver a solid game is comparable to XMEN? XMEN had a rookie pinball coder flailing horribly on his first try out of the gate , only to be “rescued” by another newb coder who just made things worse! Practically years later!

It took an army to get XMEN right. And they got it right too. Lyman is Lyman.

TP for my bunghole mode like creature where you're looking for TP instead of CFTBL.

Cornholio VUK.

"Dumbass" callouts on draining or tilting.

There's a wealth of lowbrow callout material that should be great in a pinball machine.

I had only played a stock pro at an arcade but just bought an LE with all the mods and sound mods. Very deep game, super happy with it.

Well, now you're making a totally different argument, admitting that the perceived value (measured in resale dollars) of X-MEN is indeed low, but the personal subjective value to you and others that may currently have it is higher.

You're completely allowed to do that, but it doesn't change the fact that the market (i.e. the majority) feel it's not great, even after the big code change. And, I concur. Played it before and owned it after and it's just a poor game. Doesn't come together. Incredibly surprising, considering all the toys and ramps it has. But thems the breaks. It happens.

I liked my X-Men LE. It was beautiful. I always enjoyed playing it. Wouldn't call it deep code, but more broad code. There's a lot of it, but it's more throwback strategy: Hit a shot twice to start its corresponding mode, then hit the required shots to finish it.

Layout is pretty damn awesome. Looks are a 10 IMO. Callouts though -- there are some of the dumbest, worst callouts ever created for a pin. Or possibly anything. The wolverine replacement is a must. I don't know why people replace magneto with action figures though. Looks super weird.

Dark Phoenix is amazing. Got there twice.

I'm writing this down, this is good stuff.

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Glad to hear it!! It’s also a very hard game to finish, and that no doubt contributes to some opinions. That and short attention spans. In this era where people run through games faster than a roll of toilet paper (but only play them 200 times!), a game that actually makes you hit challenging shots to progress probably doesn’t last long in many collections. Play better people!

I never said the value of XMEN was low. I agreed with you that the market is the market. But didn’t you hear? XMEN LE is now a $20k game. That what it would take to unbolt it from my floor!

Even the Mandalorian wants it to be the Mandelorean.

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So, finally Bill & Ted on Tuesday?

Which is great. You got a game you personally love, and that's mission accomplished in pinball.

Bill & Ted unfortunately missed the phone call when they were being excellent, however someone else did get a call from Stern...

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Ah well

As mentioned plenty of time to keep
Saving up and my current collection is safe

Now if BTTF was really coming

I’d be making some tough calls

Not much talk about Godzilla lately, is that definitely pushed back? For a while it seemed like the leading candidate for what's up next.

Looks like pushed back to possibly fall and God knows when next Elvira run will be.