Quoted from Who-Dey:The answer is simple. It's because pinball is as much about the artwork as it is the game itself. The old machines were all hand drawn artwork and that's one of the big things that made a machine popular and lured people to play it. I sit and just stare at my GB and my AS and look it over real good. It makes me appreciate the machine more because they are just beautiful looking.
Exactly. Pinball is so closely tied with nostalgia (as is arcade gaming), and as such, hand-drawn art was really the FORM for the arcades. It's really about staying true to the medium. Remember, back in the day of Atari, the box art/side art/etc WAS what gave us the imagination to want to play those pixelated, simple games. The artwork on the side of "Missile Command" puts you in the imaginative place of believing what you're doing is something of consequence. I mean, honestly the arcade game "Tron" sucks hard, but I'd love to own one just because of the cool artwork and design of the game! Same goes for "Dragon's Lair" (c'mon, it's not that great of a GAME, but as a work of art it's unbelievable!).
What's funny to me is that Gary Stern is often noted as being an incredible stickler as it relates to what HAS to be on his pinball machines to be "Sterns" (3 pop bumpers, 2 slingshots, etc...) and yet he seems to have been so slow to come around as it relates to understanding that the art aspect of pinball is every bit as important as the game mechanics and design. Personally I never even considered buying a Stern until MET came out just because I couldn't get down with the Photoslop stuff. Art + pinball cannot be separated in my mind.
