Does anyone else remember Borg taking 2 weeks vacation right when they started production? Just more proof he doesn't work with his programming team once his game is finished. We all like to blame stern and waison for how this game developed, but I blame the designer. No more Borg games for me til xmen gets its final polished update.

In the email conversations I've had with him, it seems exactly the opposite, plans for combos doing more damage to villains, deadpool, stacking, etc. Not sure what is going on over there...

-Wes

And that may very well be the problem. STERN may not know what is going on. How you can put out a product and not finish the software with no alternatives is basically FRAUD. I know it probably wouldn't hold up in court, but in the court that is my house, no further machines allowed.

Team problems?

Why should the costumers care what the fuck the reason is??? They payed thousands of dollars for these.

Just finish what you started or watch your company die in a few years.

But combos dont do more damage, deadpool is not in the game; stacking they finally got right - except that you cannot stack finished modes with unfinished ones. I'm sure these were Borg's wish items too but if the designer doesnt work with his team, these things get left in the dust as we've seen with xmen.

If we stop buying these fucking games till they are complete then they will get the message. Look at all the other companies coming out of the wood works who actually want to make their customers happy.

You can stack finished and unfinished heroes. Not sure what you mean.

I don't know enough about the inner workings, but in September he had mentioned discussions with Waison about new additions and updates to the wizard mode. Whatever the reason may be, and there is plenty of speculation, it does appear that xmen may be no longer on the back burner, but instead in the freezer.

What? Really?

-Wes

To be very technical there is a huge difference between "solo" and "lead", as not one of the games you mentioned was a solo effort according to IPDB:

Tron Legacy "Software by: Lyman F. Sheats Jr., Lonnie D. Ropp, Tom Uban"
Transformers "Software by: Lonnie D. Ropp, Waison Cheng"
X-Men "Software by: Waison Cheng, Mike Kyzivat, Lonnie D. Ropp"

Lyman obviously had several notable "solo" projects before he joined Stern, so I assume you mean "at Stern" for both guys. So obviously Waison did have some experience before X-Men, enough to get him lead on XM, but still had two others involved in the code. Any one of the three could pick it up to finish it off.

Nope. Sure cant. Unless you turn stacking on; then you can stack everything. But with the default setting of not stacking heroes, you cannot stack a finished mode with an unfinished one.

Although I would still be disappointed, I think doing at least a few things would be greatly appreciated, and would make me open to another NIB Stern. Other small additions which make sense are Magneto MB progression save, and noted bug fixes. I can't beleive I am saying this, but if there was no Deadpool, but they did the above noted things, I'd be ok with it as being finished. This should not take that long. PLEASE Stern throw us Xmen owners a bone and agree to finish the game off.

I don't know if this is the best place to post this in regards to X-Men code being a worry of ever being finished but I will start here. I spoke to Borg today about the X-Men code and of what he told me that I can quote him on about the code as far as its state of being finished is this sentence direct from John himself. This is in regards to Steve's comments about the chances of X-Men getting another update.

"I have no clue where Steve received his info from but I'll ask him when he gets back from his vacation."

After talking to John, as a Wolverine owner from the very beginning, I felt like X-Men was still going to get more attention before it is called finished.

Right on Stratman.

Please be true! Please be true! Please be true!

Maybe if I close my eyes and click my red ruby slippers 3 times together, I will get finished Xmen code...

Or maybe a new WOZ LE version!

Interesting. Hopefully Borg proves me and others wrong and a completed xmen code package is finally delivered. *crossing fingers* with high hopes and low expectations.

Spider-Man?
Batman?
24? (re-wrote the rules/code after Dwight Sullivan left)

Well, for what it's worth, I don't think John considers the game finished and I think he wants to see it reach it's full finished potential as he does with all of his games. I know that he takes the code on his games very seriously. John seeks to own the games he designs and he is a player so he is often in the same boat as the rest of the owners. I'm sure he gets frustrated when his game isn't getting code time or is left with things to do just as I am sure he fights hard and in every way he can to get a game he designed to a see a satisfying completion. Every fight can end in a loss though, so all we can hope for is that John can find a way to get resources on X-Men before it gets cold knowing that he hasn't given up on the X-Men at this point. If he hasn't, I won't either.

Reread it; I said since the budget era.

I don't think Borg has any clout with Stern. Its a shame too, I love his games and he is my favorite designer, but I don't think he can do anything to get Gary to have the code finished.

As I mentioned in another thread, I was the one who asked Steve the question on Friday night in Houston. The way he responded made it pretty clear that no code updates were coming. After apologizing for it (he literally sad he was "sorry") he did back peddle a little bit and said he would be very surprised if it had another update.

I am sure he was in the room for meetings about this code situation and is plenty in the know. I hope he is wrong but he was so certain he must know in my personal view.

No.

Well musketD says they are working on xmen code. And he MUST know more than Steve Ritchie

But It does make me wonder how Steve knows about the future of xmen and Borg doesn't. My best guess is that Steve has all the members of the xmen team tied up in his title that he feels no one will be taken off of st to work on another pin.

I don't think Borg really knows or has any say on who works on what code. Once he's done designing it has always sounded to me like he was done with the game. Ritchie always talks about the code on his games, might be why it usually gets finished sooner or later.

I hope musketd is correct, but if he didn't hear that straight out of the mouth of GS I think the person who told him may have wrong info (unless it is GS I doubt they know as much as Ritchie).

if code not fixed will never own another stern game.

Hmmm. It's controversial, but I think you're on the right track, SKB. I hypothesize that since the XM team is on ST and Steve is so passionate about his games getting the best possible press (as he should) I think he's "trapping" the XM team on ST to make sure they focus completely on it and not giving any time for them to work on something else until their forcibly moved onto the next title.

Borg definitely doesn't have as much stroke around Stern as Ritchie does, which I feel bad for because Borg has always been faithful to Gary and stuck designing for him when Ritchie and many others left. Ritchie is the King and all, so Im thinking he's using his stroke with Gary (not that he'd care either way) to lock the XM team on ST.

Either way, the whole thing stinks on ice. Someone who has good rapport with Gomez, or Ritchie or Ropp need to be very direct in getting details on the whole future of the current code library.

Thanks for the info. Please Borg push for the XM code to be finished it is such a great design finishing the code on it would likely put it in with some of my favorite pins of all time. I was so disappointed when I heard SR comments regarding the XM code it felt like a punch to the gut. I own both ST and XM and I have no interest in having all resources on the current release ST if that means leaving other previous releases unfinished.

Please Stern, allow at least a few members of the XM team finish this one out and let the ST team continue working on it in the months to come to get it finished. We are fans/buyers and what many of us want most of all is for the games we buy from you to have great rulesets that are complete within a year of their release.

I'm sure if Jim Lee knew what was going on with unfinished code on X-men, he'd be pissed. Jim would pull off a ton of last minute deadlines the night before and that was some of his best work while with Marvel. My point is Jim would get the job done and I wish Stern could do the same.

Cobiha_Cabo_by_jimlee00.jpg

Damn! Been reading the follow up from what Steve said in Houston. I was hoping to hear something good soon. What a flush

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Some people take pride in the quality of their work. It seems like Lyman is the only one at Stern with this concept. So much tension could be eased with good communication.

It would be a shame to not finish X-MEN. It has such great potential, I still play mine regularly and I still think it has the best looking playfield of any Stern ever made.

I bet they come back and finish the software in anticipation of the movie next year. May be a few months though...

"Days of Future Past" is our only hope towards a new code

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So you're saying it would be a financial boon to Stern to release enhanced code for an in-production game to coincide with the release of a brand new blockbuster movie based on the same theme rejuvenating sales of said pin, and increase sales of all future releases by restoring faith in their existing customer base? That would make too much sense.

You are right. It probably won't happen.

What does finishing code and a new movie have to do with one another? Hasn't stern moved on from producing these? They already have your money, don't see how a new movie changes a thing.

I hope they finish the code ASAP. Pretty bad policy to have options on a machine (e.g., combos/ xtra ball) and not have it work. Poor and lazy work ethic, IMO.

They could re-run pros off the hype from the code update and from the hype of the new movie. Still money to be made. Also, during the re-run time, use that time to get code updates for other games. Win win!

This is a biggie; if you build it (good), they will buy

This game is really fun even without finished code, but I think it could be a top ten game if they polished it up.

Finally took some pictures of my machine with all the chrome pieces on... just need to get a lighted shooter rod and I'll be done

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x-men-2.jpg

x-men-3.jpg

Chrome makes it look really nice, seeing your pictures makes me want to get a Wolverine

Wooooowwwwwwwww That looks friggin awesome!

Thanks I was a little disappointed with the pictures, as the chrome doesn't look nearly as good as it does in person, like Rcade was saying.

Yeah, the light needs to hit it just right in a photo for it to really convey how amazing it looks in person.

....man....you're killing me on the fact that I haven't chromed my coin door yet. It looks sweet.

I also do like how the blue buttons looks in contrast to the chrome sides. Gives off a very "Ice" looking feel to it, I kinda dig it!

It sure looks good with the chrome.

But it would look even better with 2.0 on the display when you fire it up.

Thanks man!

Yeah, it's tough to find the right angle for the pictures, oh well.

Now that I've seen Mike Chestnut's work first hand I understand why he's so highly recommended. If you decide to chrome the coin door I would definitely go that route. If you don't mind being without a coin door for a couple weeks you could get it done pretty cheap too.

What did you do for the backglass? It really "pops".

It's a kit from Flipper Fidelity...

http://www.flipperfidelity.com/products.php?cat=Animated%20LED%20Backbox%20Light%20Replacement%20Panels&itemId=97

If I see them at a show I might just have to pick one up.

Right on, Michael does really nice work.

That's bitchin, one of the best looking pins ever.

That's freakin bad ass Keebler! Mind sharing where you got the chrome set from?

Thanks

I got the legs from PBL, and the hinges from Marco... the rest of the parts were chromed by Mike Chestnut. He does amazing work and his prices are very reasonable.