Build a game based on episodes….
Pro:Bono #1
Premium:Bono #2
LE: waste of money

I certainly agree with you there Vic.
A rehash Met would do very well down under no doubt.
I am sure it would do extremely well for European sales as well.

Not sure that I would be down for a rehash of MET.
The original is Sooo good. Will be hard to match Lymans genuis.

I will admit to selling my MetLE to move to Spike games.
If the original MET came out in Spike , I still doubt that I would take it on.

As painful as it must sound for hardcore pinheads, A rehash or rerun original Met would sell truckloads worldwide if released in a budget Home Edition
With the right price and value features, strong marketing in the right places, would go very, very well.

Now as far as new music pin cornerstones are concerned if we are talking
Sabbath or Megadeth...... well that's insta buy for me !

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I don't think the rehashed Whitestar/SAM Spike3 pins would really affect their cornerstones much. Because a lot of the sunk costs were covered long ago, they don't have to sell as many to be profitable, and some of the titles waiting to go will be wildly profitable. I can absolutely see a more normal schedule of 3 cornerstones, a vault or two, and some contract/boutique pins, or maybe all of that in any given year.

Stern doesn't need to sell everyone everything each year, but they want to make sure to sell everyone SOMETHING every year. The bait is going to become very tempting, and the toppers, art blades and other accessories that weren't available in SAM/Whitestar are a whole new opportunity to make this tangent even more profitable.

If they had started production of the other games then yes but sadly that it is not the case. Your LE is last.

This was the model in 2017-2019
Several Spike games were being sold, a boutique or two sprinkled in and Metallica/Star Trek/Spiderman vaults were all available.
2018 was peak pinball shopping.

You know what would make crazy money. Elwin on Super Mario

If people are clamoring for a Zelda pin the Stern needs to knock on gottlieb's door grab the license for the layout of gladiators and make the Zelda pin that was supposed to come out in the 90s.

Been awhile since I've checked in here. Is the expectation that Borg is on deck for the next cornerstone? Any juicy/legit theme rumors, or just wishlists?

John Wick, Pokemon, Metallica 2, and Tron vault are the strongest rumors.

Of these rumors, Tron vault would be the one that would make me possibly interested. Metallica 2, if done, would have to be something special for me to even consider it. Will it be better than the first? I doubt it without LFS.

They are making a run of SE's to get the factory tuned up and running, then they are doing all of the LE's and then going back to making SE's. Same plan as always. I originally hoped to have my game by December or January. Now I hope to have it by Spring. No big deal.

I need to get some juices flowing for the next Stern pin-not interested in Pokemon or vault. I guess I need to look forward to the next Stern music pin? What will be the next Stern music pin that will get me excited?

I’ve been droning on in other threads about a few titles that I’d line up for. I think Stern could do these justice:

National Lampoons Vacation - Get Chevy on this!

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure - Keanu has been doing a lot of video game stuff.

Happy Gilmore - “I eat pieces of sh*t like you for breakfast!”

Meh, Meh, Meh, and Meh.

Bill & Ted's is a pinball adventure I may just be willing to take!

No thank you, gladiators is ok for gottlieb. the layout flows well but is boring. A new version could do it justice.

I'd hate for the good folks at Stern to have to be subjected to Chevy Chase.

Took the kiddos to see Wonka and saw the new Godzilla vs Kong movie trailer. All I could think about was Stern doing a Kong pinball to join the Godzilla in the line up. It really does make the most sense as many are burnt out on Superhero themes(cough-room for Superman and Justice League). Stern can make a classic Kong and then they can make a Godzilla v.s. Kong

I don't care as long as King Kong is made

One thing I would also like to see Stern do is a widebody-yes a widebody

Stern Widebody King Kong-yes please

Me after seeing JAWS gameplay video(I am a picky bastard)...

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Agreed.

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Also, Pacific Rim could be a franchise rife with toys and theme opportunity for a pin.

It's full of Robots and Kaiju Monsters, there's the Breach, and the mental Drift bonding process.

I rewatched Gladiator for the first time in forever. Holds up well. Could be a great pinball theme.

I'd kill for a pin based on the original King Kong.

I feel like when George talked about Team Elwin and the monster makers it felt like the next game would be another monster theme. Or he could be talking about another monster license as well.

Monster themes that could make good pins

Predator, The Thing, King Kong, Gremlins, Little Shop of Horrors

God of War, could be awesome

Clash of the Titans

Yes but if the breach doesn't eat the ball everyone will be out and skip the game.

Who do we think is "up" next as designer from Stern?

Borgie seems due

Re-run of MET seems imminent

Not sure how much Borg will have to do with Metallica if it's the same play field. My guess is he's on Pokemon which would mean technically two in a row for him.

I'll still be surprised if Stern is actually doing Pokemon right now. I'll be happy to see it happen, I just don't know if that's one of those themes people are just rumor milling into existence or not

Also we established Keith as the king of monster games. He should get the pocket monsters

Has any additional info come to light about the remaking of games that was mentioned?

Meaning are they redoing games as they were i.e. DMD games or are they updating them to LCD etc.

Would love a Ghostbusters especially since the used market on this title is still high.

Pokémon would pull in an unbelievably large pool of new blood. The thought seems to be painful for some but it is true…

I thought the rumour was that he's doing John Wick?

That’s what’s been going around. Plus Zach seemed to mention MET is kicking off Spike 3 so if that’s true it will be a new game.

Zombie Yeti had mentioned Elwin could have 4 games out in a year. With GZ anniversary being scrapped seems he might be on MET. Time will tell.

Doom would be cool also.. and Warhammer 40K

I shared this thought in the Tron VE thread, but definitely has relevance here.

Given Stern's latest announcement they will re-run high demand dmd games, Seth Davis' connections to Disney (owner of Tron rights), and the overall love of Tron as a game, it makes sense Tron would at least be on the short list. Between Ghostbuster, Tron and LOTR, Tron seems like the easiest fit to me. Ghostbusters is a killer theme, but the layout is not exactly a unanimously loved game. I would love if they fixed the airball issues with GB and replaced the dumbass euro lanes that ball hop worse than anything I've ever seen. LOTR seems like a real longshot given that the rights to LOTR were purchased by Embracer for $395m. I can't see Embracer re-licensing for cheap. My money is on Metallica for the first of these DMD re-runs, and I bet it happens in Q1 or Q2 of 2024.

For Pacific Rim you'd shoot balls into the breach during multi ball to seal it. LOL

I wonder if it's possible with the Stern IC Platform to allow two players to connect with each other and play in the mental Drift mode and accomplish things by hitting the same shots together in a certain time period or order to reach special achievements or unlock wizard modes?

Or if you can access the statistics of someone's saved game and if you can match their shots for achievements?

That might be interesting and unique to the game.

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King Kong would be great. Shogun Warriors would also be a nice tie in to GZ since he was their nemesis. They were a huge toy line from the 70s and Marvel did a comic run as well. They were some of the coolest toys at the time. I always wanted a couple, but their price tag was out of my grass cutting range. I am not sure if it was intended or not, but the Foo Fighter's "Foobot" sure looks like a throwback homage to the Shogun Warriors.

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Man I remember those! I think I had that one in the back with the yellow horns. So cool.

I don't know why you say GZ anniversary is "scrapped." This is from George Gomez: "We may celebrate anniversaries with Premium level art packages or create other Premium level editions like Vaults, or remasters."

https://www.knapparcade.org/post/stern-pinball-clarifies-what-it-meant-by-no-more-limited-editions-after-launch

What could happen within a one year period for Elwin games: JP 30th, Jaws, possibly GZ 70th (like JP this would just be different artwork, probably not much for Elwin to do) and possibly BTTF this year (this has been rumored for a while despite the recent Dutch rumor). That would be 4.

Bttf is DP 100%

Given the rarity of the Data East one, you'd probably have to at this point.

That was fast.
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there is a 100% chance of a Goldfinger bond in the works. Came out in 1964. NO WAY they miss that opportunity with the most high profile film that 100% should have been the LE or Premium art package.

wrt Pokemon, given the flow and unique layout of Foo, I'd be excited to have Jack lead up Pokemon. He's younger and would probably have more reverence to the property and experience.

Think there is enough interest for a Batman 66 re-run? Like many others I did not connect with the game at first and then the code became great.