Quoted from PanzerFreak:Great points. I feel the same way. With Stern there is no guarantee how well a title will be supported code wise and that alone makes buying one of their games a risk. If a games sales are not great to Stern they typically don't offer deep / complete code for the game.
Also, even though some Stern games offer a good amount of modes it doesn't make them interesting. There's a big difference between deep code that is boring and deep code that offers unique / interesting rules.
Personally I think Keith Johnson creates the deepest and most interesting rules in pinball. Thankfully JJP's CEO realizes the importance of deep / interesting code for his customers. Sterns CEO doesn't and therefore only some of their games are offered proper code support (often with programmers working off hours from what I read on here) while other games are simply not completed.
Not to beat a dead horse. I have XMLE and STLE and for the first 1 to 1.5 years the code was broken. Code was eventually fixed to be good, but if it had been an orphan game like WWE or Avengers who knows? Also the code is still not 100% done and may never be revisited even for known bugs. For example if the ball save kick back on STLE misses a save, the software can know this and just feed the ball back (a virtual save) but it doesn't.
We have a game like Tron which had great code and yet it was still given the tune up to spiff up the graphics and some rule corrections to tighten the game.
I can buy a game that can sit in my house for a decade. If there is a progressive code update and tightening of the code (even if it takes time) it would be a big deal for me, and my $7K machines.
I love IM and won't sell it. But there is a bit that could still be done to improve on the code to bring it up to Tron level.
I'm not saying any game code will ever be perfect, but Stern seems to think if it's OK than it's done. I'd rather see the bar set higher.
I do understand that Stern is coding for 3-4 games a year. And that they like to keep moving. But the pins in my house are here for the long haul. I'd prefer a bit more effort and a bit more code updates.
It's understandable from Stern's perspective that improving code is at the bottom of their to-do list. But there might come a time that OK code is not good enough for me to send any more $7K checks their way. I do like the games I have, but going forward with Spooky, JJP, Heighway (etc..) if they ever start producing games, Stern won't be the only game in town.
I'm sure Stern won't miss me. I'm just one person. But if others feel the same it could make an impact on their bottom line. I understand that polishing code for Stern means spending money. But IMO they need to do more in the code area.
And I am not anti-Stern. I own 7 Stern (down from 8 a few months ago) I bought XMLE, Tron, IMVE, and STLE all in the past 3 years. I'm sure there are much better customers than me. But I'm just saying that's 4 games $24K in the past 3 years.
Tuscaloosa, AL
