Kids had zero interest in Aerosmith. Adults had moderate interest. Both preferred KISS Prem when it came to dropping money in the machine. Aerosmith had the stern blades and looked about as enticing as it could. Didn't help.

KISS has almost the EXACT SAME SHOTS as Aerosmith. Toybox= Star Child Area, Center ramp=same, Right Ramp=same ramp on KISS, orbits almost the same except the left has one less pop bumper. Left scoop is moved slightly. It's a very slightly modified KISS with 6 ball at once multiball option rather than 3 ball with add-a-ball option.

Really? Wouldn't that require people wanting and waiting for a theme about cell phones and then being disappointed. I can't say while dreaming about a new Star Wars or Jaws, I thought hmmm I hope when they release my dream theme "cell phones" they don't screw it up!

And they went on to become........ what?

Data East - Sega - Sega/Stern - Stern.

LTG : )

You missed Stern.

You are right. Missed a Stern in there. I most humbly apologize for my pinball faux pas.

LTG : )

No you're OK. As long as some of us have been around we're usually happy for what we do remember.

You mean Stern Electronics / Stern Seeburg. And it's not the same company as Data East / Sega / Stern Pinball.

Yes, and they made Stars. Way better than what Chicago Coin had to offer. Unless you are looking for shooter games.

I've seen / played very few CC pins, have only worked on one. But yes their shooting games were pretty good, not quite Midway or Williams good, but still good.

Elvis, Dirty Harry

stern star wars. i cancelled my order after playing one. im slowly starting to like it,but still so dissapointed with what it could of been.

Nah man, Aerosmith is the bomb! Admittedly I had my doubts before I played it, but damn it's good. I actually love the theme. And my nephew (8 years old) is SUPER into Aerosmith (and KISS). I was looking after him tonight and he added Aerosmith to his Spotify playlist He's loving it!

I get what your saying, and it's funny. But anticipation is different than integration.

People were mostly disappointed by the theme itself, not the integration of the theme.

Transformers, Avatar, Batman (Stern).

I'm not saying SOME kids can't like it, only that on location Aerosmith Prem was like Kryptonite to kids, while WoZ and XMEN were played a lot at the same location.

Even after the new update? I didn't like my LE when I first got it, but the update brought some sig changes
I like it much more. I have played it like 100 times and still have not blown up the death star.. argh!

Its hard for me to decide. Game of Thrones was a massive disappointment. It is just such a complete miss visually, it is ok to play but fuck it's ugly and a complete waste of the theme. Star Wars comes along and its just as bad maybe even worse. After Game of Thrones it was no surprise they blew Star Wars so it was easier to take.

Apollo 13 - seriously. I’m a huge NASA and space program fan. Jeez, I even have an Atari Lunar Lander arcade game. I got A13 and sold it less than a year.

Transformers - Not a big fan here. It’s okay at best.

Avengers - This one was a complete shock to me. It sucks so bad I usually just plunge and walk away from it before my game is over at shows. I had such visions of a Black Widow LE.

There are others, but these stood out for me.

TH definitely seems to have a love hate relationship with players. I think it is outstanding, others feel that it isn't good at all (which I really don't understand but definitely hear so it is a real thing). WOZ is good, not quite as good to me as the TH, but good none the less. I have played Dialed In several times and it is good as well. JJP is batting 3 for 3 in my book. Looking forward to #4 for sure.

This.
Basically a retheme. With a few, very few changes. So no thought was put into designing around the theme.
More like "how can we make this a SW pin?"
" I know a LCD screen and a death star". " Yeah that's the ticket!"

Screenshot_20171010-005748 (resized).png

Yeah it's a standard SR fan layout...basically they're all the same this is nothing new(ha).

I couldn't agree more...the more and more I play TH the more I appreciate...I much prefer over WOZ

I would not trade my Hobbit for a WOZ, and there are some that would never trade their WOZ for Hobbit. Different strokes ... as the saying goes. Some have both (which isn't a bad idea)

As for theme and disappointment: I think Smaug was a bit of a let down, but overall the theme integration in TH is fantastic and certainly not a disappointment.

Not true. One is blue.

Alien was the biggest let down for me. Great theme but layout seems clunky.

Whoa Nellie!

Rethemed EM games are not original designed titles, regardless of improved artwork or updated electronics.
An EM game for price of a modern solid state machine as well.
No thanks, although I do like the backglass.

Just looking from that angle it could be a T3 or No Fear. I guess it is just the style of Steve Richie and if he is assigned the design that is what you get.

Any game that starts with ST and ends in AR WARS has been a disappointment.

Actually I think Stern would have been better off putting out Data East Star Wars again. That was at least kinda fun even though it was a bit clunky. Heck, it could qualify as an LE today.

Like others have said it's gotta be Game of Thrones and Star Wars. Favorite Tv show of all time and my favorite movies from my childhood. My expectations were way to high for both titles.

Game of Thrones... some of the best story telling we've seen in a long time. So many amazing moments in the show and they are nowhere to be found in the game. Feels like Dwight gathered up several GOT buzzwords and started coding. Dragon, Iron Throne, blackwater, Targaryen, Stark, Lannister, Hand of the King, Winter is coming.... ok I got it. Was hoping the game would draw you into this amazing story.

Star Wars... This one has been hashed over enough.

Wonder if a pinball company would allow us the buyers help them build a pinball machine. Use a system like UserVoice to track ideas and allow voting to help decide which features to go after. We could help with playfield design, art, coding ideas.

Or what if pinside as a whole planned a do it yourself pinball project? Surely we have enough talent and resources here to make this happen. No one profits from the project except where we source the materials from. I bet we could do it.

Would be Bally's Mr and Mrs Pacman for me, prolly because I'm a video game nerd and was hoping for more from this pin.

Is it too soon to talk about Predator?

Sad to say.. the hobbit. My grail theme ruined by a useless third flipper. How that one made it past whitewood is irresponsible.

I agree, that 3rd flipper always drove me crazy. I'd use it a lot trying to figure out why it's there. Finally traded the whole dang machine for a WOZ, all 5 of those flippers have a purpose!

I use the third flipper a lot. Perfect for nailing the captive ball, dwarf targets, and diverting to the left flipper instead of the right on left orbit shots. Really got used to it, and glad they kept it.

Stern Star Wars and GOT were disappointing. Great themes as a standalone but not integrated into the games very well by Stern. Could have been much better.

I was really hoping it would be themed after the original movie.

HobbitAnimated21 (resized).jpg

Which of the 6 WoZ flippers are you discounting as not having a purpose?

WTF? What 6th flipper?

Did you guys just play once and then bail? Hobbit's third flipper has a purpose. There are modes where you set up a shot to the upper flipper & then you can hit Smaug's targets with it. Sometimes one of his targets flashes light blue as the ball comes from the barrel bumpers - hit the blue shot! There's a Smaug flashback mode where you load the windlance from the right ramp, fire the ball to the upper flipper, then shoot Smaug with it.

Two flippers in the castle in my mind, one in reality
One flipper in munchkin loop
one flipper on upper right
Two flippers at bottom

Six flippers in my mind. Five in reality.

My problem is that Hobbit rules look great on paper with all the features and shots and multi-purpose drop target bank shots, but it just wasn't fun. Most of the differences were happening on the screen, which you can't watch much while you're playing and the stuff you're interacting with on the Hobbit playfield is a whole lotta same.

To you.

To me, it's the only game post-Metallica that's absolutely compelling.

It's a "quest game" ...it's not for everyone, it's not for tournaments, it's not for flow-hoes... but if you want an amazing cinematic experience with brilliant music, lighting and sound design, and a crazy amount of modes that are all pretty different - nothing tops Hobbit.

PinMonk What version of WOZ do you have with two flippers on the castle playfield?

Haha! My improved WoZ 2017. I was sure there were two on the castle in my mind.

I'll confess I wish there were two up there a lot of the time! The Rescue Dorothy multi-ball is somehow one of the hardest things for me to do in the game.

Yes, I get that, but you can hit all that from the other 2 flippers also......That 3rd really has no purpose

The problem I have with Hobbit is that I can play seemingly for ever on ball one, go through a bunch of modes, multiballs, and score endless jackpots, but when I finally drain, it feels like I haven't really accomplished much and my score seems disappointing.

So basically a video game with flippers. Made for video gamers turned pinballers.

Modern Era Pinball without question...Stern Star Wars

Other older notables - Gilligan's Island, X-Files!

Nailed it!

But I think we can drop the "modern" part now.