I find it frustrating that people continue to compare unrelated not comparable products. At least pick a game from the Xbox platform. All this does is confuse the issue.

I actually read it twice.....

Thumbs up that I skipped over about 2000 of the posts here, I just keep checking in thinking maybe I will see post that it is available now.

Come on Fatttrain must have said something that "enlightened you".......his posts are always so brilliant.

You did better than I did.

So over the day I calmed down a bit about the anger that we still don't know what's going on at STERN. To be fair I think they did a good job with AC/DC, Star Trek and many other games I owned and played.

Sry X-Men guys and owners of other STERN games that are waiting for their big update. But from all the last STERN games, I think Metallica is left behind in the badest shape. And I just want to know if STERN has got the message!
I am upset about that the STERN customer service wrote me months ago that the update would be ready soon, and now I asked them and I got no more answers back. I didn't spam emails, I asked in november (Patrick Powers: "The “End of the line” mode still isn’t in the software but it should be coming soon.") and I asked 2 weeks ago, I asked nice and polite if the promised update will come in days, weeks or months? Got nothing back!
If they can't answer this, it's my right to be angry. And if they can't answer on their facebook page, or in an email, I think pinside is the right place to complain about this in public. If that goes on the nerve of some people here, I am sry.
Even a "We don't know, it's ready when Lyman says it is." as an answer would be have been enough for me.

I wrote here again just to say one more thing and then it's enough. At the beginning I was happy about every inside information a few guys here leaked. But in the case of Metallica it doesn't help anymore if people are starting new rumors every week that this will be the week the update will come. If it doesn't come it only boils the anger up.

I have the double whammy... I'm waiting on my WOZLE and Metallica update. Wonder which one will come first. Both have turned into a family joke. I think they're only laughing at me though.

Stern isn't forcing anyone to buy their games... If you don't like the product, don't buy it. If you want a game with finished code, wait till the code is finished (if finished) then buy the game. Problem solved.

Last night while playing Metallica , The mystery gave me "light Extra ball" . That was cool .

The question that's starting to trouble me though is whether waiting for the code to be finished to see how it turns out will also mean waiting for the game to be out of production. At first the idea seemed silly to me but now I wonder..

(In Jeff Goldblum voice) Code..uh uh uh.....finds a way.

No way. Stern's licenses usually last 3 years if I remember correctly. We haven't even hit the end of one year in production. Also, the second this code hits, sales will spike. Happens with every big Lyman code release. Spider-Man went back into production....BDK went back into production...AC/DC took off big time. Tron Pro got a boost - dunno if that was due to code or just people discovering the game late.

so we might get one last run of Tron?

Did Stern advertise when accepting preorder's that the game will be sold with an uncompleted halfway functional code? No

These folks bought and pre ordered in good faith and their games should have been delivered in the manner as advertised with minor code issues & bugs to be addressed in additional updates. Not releasing a game that coding makes it only 50% of what was actually intended.

Sorry Gary, you fucked up here you know this so just man up and fix it, and maybe an official statement on the subject to those who were loyal to you might clear up a lot of rumors and subdue the masses. Until then every other comment or rumor on it is just double hearsay.

It is this type of attitude that allows companies like stern to get away with their shitty business practices.

I think you're making that up.

Thanks. Will do.

Companies sell products all the time that have unfinished software. Stern has a long history of this. You have nine games, so I assume you were well aware of this before you purchased your game.

Games that were mostly done when they shipped include AVE, TRS, IM and BBH. All have very simple rules. Is that what you want? You can't have it both ways. Deep rules or finished simple rules. Pick one.

Doing a factory reset will increase the chances of this happening.

I just want to know when we are getting our next music themed pin............ Iron Maiden............BRING IT STERN

chris

I've only had mine a few days and got extra ball and add fuel a couple times. Was totally shocked. I also added the metal up post instead of the plastic one. I seem to be having the opposite effect as others. I'm now getting way more orbit rejections.

No, Tron's done -but there were like 3 or 4 more "last" Pro runs when it was assumed that Tron demand had passed. If I remember correctly - the version with cars instead of bikes, the decal cab version, the Clu translite version, and the girls translite version.

Finished product is what we all would like, it does not have to be immediate as we all know games like LOTR, TSPP and others have had several years of updates that followed however they were shipped with well more advanced coding then what Metallica was. Also if he plans on dropping the coding support on a game that was just released under a year ago which had no updates in the past 6 months at all to only give one final update which history shows they normally update for a few years, then that would be a major mistake by them. If they wanted to go simple route, then shit remove more the half of the useless inserts and switches and just put figures there.

For the record, I bought mine two weeks ago off of another disgruntle stern buyer who may never purchase from them again knowing the code was poor and advancement would soon come which I can wait on and yes I have 9 games still that doesn't mean having one incomplete when all is said and done is acceptable from a company who is still in business.

Well, the MYSTERY scoop is where you collect the extra ball; but extra ball is not a random award the MYSTERY will land on. Add Fuel does come up once in about every 20 or so awards.

False. Light EB can be awarded thru mystery.

That's an over-simplification of the core issue. For those who want to play a NIB Stern before buying, with completed code, what are your options?

Issue #1: Play before purchase - I'd be surprised to find a new Stern on route within 200 miles of me. If you do find one, what are the odds the operator has updated code? Worse, after code is finished 1+ years later, what are the odds the game still works 100% to get a proper feel of it?

Issue #2: NIB - LE's tend to sell out well before code is finished. Production of Pros are very close to end of life before code is complete (1.5 years is not uncommon for completed code). Maybe you can find the occasional NIB at a distributor warehouse by that time but it's generally a catch-22 for high-demand titles.

In the end if you want to stick with a "never buy until code is finished" you'll typically be hunting down an HUO well after the excitement of the new title dies down and, say, 3-4 more new titles are released in the mean time. If demand softens and more NIB are available at a distributor, Stern will have even less reason to finish off code because they have no more incentive to manufacture them. It's going to be a perpetual issue.

waiting.jpg

Huh? In over 600 games it's NEVER...EVER come up as an award for me? Do you have a Pro or Prem/LE? Maybe there's a difference as I have a Pro.

My son actually got an EB in the mystery scoop once. It's a Pro and I have seen FUEL 2 or 3 times as well.

Premium.

I've had it awarded twice - note it does not award you the actual EB - just lights it. You have to shoot for mystery again. It's possibly more common just after updating software as I think it might auto adjust the percent chance based on the # of total EB's awarded. I haven't seen it in months. Course I've played like 3 games in the last months or two...

This brings up another thing I hope is altered when code drops next year - lighting the EB with captive ball hits isn't horribly effective imo... you have to hit the captive ball a ton for coffin MB, so you're almost guaranteed an EB lighting just by playing the game. EB should be only combos or ramp shots or pop hits or something else that's kinda optional, not the main and most lucrative MB in the game. Just my two cents of nitpicking. I'm running out of things to nitpick since there's basically no news here...

LMAO

I would have to see this to believe it.... Its either in the 1.22 code or its not...factory resets wouldnt make it just appear

I've seen eb mystery once on my le.

Same.

Know what i find funny is everyone saying, "hey stern, we're not buying anymore games until xmen and metallica get updates!" and stern is all like 'Oh yea? i see you're boycotting threat and raise you one mustang50 pinball! what now?!!'

haha im just messing around. back to the thread...

I will buy this one blind, even without any code

I'm running 1.22 pro machine which I have for just about two weeks now, he has gotten the extra ball once, and I have seen fuel at least twice maybe three times. The only additional settings done is the custom music which I added with pinball browser.

The thought is the EB randomness is auto adjusted so the more EBs you collect, the less frequent mystery hands them out. The least amount of EB percentaging is on a fresh machine.

Ok..i guess that makes sense..I was basing my opinion on my own experience with 600 games on my pro without a mystery EB, and from every met owner complaining that mystery is 98% 500k and 2% fuel...never heard another owner state that they have received EB until now.

It's possible. I saw one on 1.16 and one on 1.22.

Since the animation 99% of the time is likely skipped because mystery is always 500k, I think more people may have had it and just never knew it, simply assuming the EB light came on came from the captive ball.

The mystery scoop only awards "light extra ball" when you are having a horrendous game. You pretty much need to drain the first two balls after the ball saver expires to get it. I'm running 1.22 on an LE.

I would expect myself to get it much more often in that case haha

I got *light extra ball* as the Mystery award only one time since June. It was in December, and during a kick-ass game.

My buddy got me a metallica pinball at the Chicago Expo. It was my first game with that ball in the machine, and it was that ball into the mystery scoop. I thought it might be something special with the ball that i finally got that award, but I never got it again.

700+ games and only got it once. Plenty of horrible games mixed in there.

I know your messin', but I don't think Mustang is going to be a good seller. People seemed to have warmed up on ST, but I wasn't impressed at all playing it. Glad I got METLE.

This game has so much potential and I love my LE, but I'm almost sick of waiting. I still recall all the "in Lyman we Trust" talk before this game was released, and while I haven't given up faith yet, history is making me a "little concerned".

The problem I find with Metallica as it stands with current code is that once you've have a game (especially a good one) theres just no reason to fire up another game straight after. Tron and SM on the other hand I find myself hitting start over and over again.

C'mon Stern. Hurry the hell up.

Just crushed a great 250 mil game. Man the game has potential, but after an endurance round of all the MB's and crushing 85 mil out of SnD, you get the ball trapped on a flipper take a breath, and realize that you've made progress to nothing. At all.

Haha similar posts at the same time.

The reason I never feel the draw like Tron is that on Tron, you're always soooo close to making something happen. Metallica feels like you're starting a new game every time a MB ends, so there's no reason to hit start again.

On the plus side, re-enabling the up post changes the game a lot... kinda like a code update I guess? It sure makes multiballs more controllable, but it cuts down on the ripping fast orbit shots :\

Yep. I think thats what I was trying to say. Classic timing on posts haha

I just had an amazing ball one and started seek and destroy and I shit you not the fucking slingshot launched the ball clear over into the right outlane. I got to watch the intro, then the queued up replay animation, THEN the ball ended.

Then, on ball 3, the damn 3rd coffin lock was lit but wouldn't register at all (locks 1 and 2 were perfect.)

I am not turning this game on until code is out.

Stern, for the love of anything that is good release the damn code. You don't need to do all of the updates at the same time. The people that talk shit will still talk shit. The way to fix your image issue on pinside is to have better communication with your customers ('look out for heavy metal mutants' does NOT count) and commit to finishing code on games faster than you have in the past. He'll, I would be happy with just one of those two simple requests.