The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Who needs Nintendo Labo when you can create your own custom Nintendo Switch pinball controller for less than a meal for two at Nando’s!
Stemage was nice enough to provide a bill of material and schematics to make this cool DIY Switch Controller for USD$26!
source: Stemage
In Stern’s factory far, far away (from Australia), Star Wars Pinball machines are rolled off the production line in record numbers!
With Star Wars celebrating its 40th anniversary, Stern Pinball has come to the party with three machines (designed by Steve Ritchie) that will have every Star Wars (and pinball) fan drooling uncontrollably! So strong is the Star Wars franchise, the pinball machines are reportedly selling like hot cakes, with the 800 run of LE machines already spoken for! Shipping (to Australia) for the Pro model begins in July, with the LE and Premium editions to follow not too long after. Don’t fret about the Pro and Premium models selling out, Stern will build an unlimited amount of these machines to fulfil demand.
Talking to RePlay Magazine, Stern’s Director of Marketing and Licensing Jody Dankberg states that, “There’s been a lot of excitement and anticipation around this title, resulting in record sales for a game that had not even been seen in person. Everyone loves the original trilogy: It’s the basis for all things Star Wars. We felt that these movies helped us tell the best story possible while being able to use cool elements from the original films. The majority of our customers are nostalgic for those movies.”
For those curious to know why Stern chose to tap the original trilogy instead of Disney’s new Star Wars films, Dankberg told RePlay that the firm believes more customers are interested in the originals over the new movies. We reckon Stern have got that right!
Australian pricing for the three pinball models (including GST):
The force is definitely strong with these pinball machines!
source: Stern Pinball Inc.
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
Aerosmith, KISS, AC/DC and Metallica all have one. The Rolling Stones and Guns N’ Roses have one too.
Why doesn’t ABBA, who has sold more than 375 million albums and singles worldwide and been offered a rumoured nine figure deal to tour again, have a pinball machine on the market?
It’s hard to believe that Stern or Jersey Jack Pinball haven’t thought about obtaining the licensing rights for the Swedish super group that produced huge hits like Mamma Mia and SOS from 1972 to 1982.
Take a Chance On Me and Dancing Queen seem like perfect extra ball or bonus points sound cues for a pinball machine.
A DJ friend once told me, “There’s two types of people: those who love ABBA and those who love ABBA and don’t admit it.”
Some have called ABBA tacky; I think they were pop kitsch. And in all of that bubblegum kitsch, the music still brings joy to a great deal of people globally. Pop kitsch is ideal for an attention grabbing pinball machine.
An ABBA pinball machine would appeal to a large spectrum of music lovers. ABBA is a cross generational band. Ages range from teenagers to grandparents who love Dancing Queen. And the Meryl Streep film ‘Mamma Mia’ has strengthened people’s affection for a group that parted ways thirty-five years ago. However, ABBA never officially broke up.
I can just imagine a group of young people at an arcade or bar putting coins into an ABBA pinball machine, hearing Dancing Queen as their first game ball drops for play, “having the time of their lives.”
Whoa, what a way to start June!
Stern Pinball finally announced their new machine, the Steve Ritchie designed Star Wars! Funnily enough, the announcement came via a brief spot on The Star Wars Show (see embedded video). Stern has promised that Star Wars Pinball will take players to a galaxy far, far away! More information, photos and pricing to come – we can’t wait!
Stern’s new STAR WARS pinball machine makes a cameo appearance on The Star Wars Show!
source: The Star Wars Show
Also going all out was Jersey Jack Pinball. With the announcement that their latest machine, Dialed In! was in production, the New Jersey-based factory went all Hollywood by producing a very flashy and cool promotional video to show off Pat Lawlor’s brilliant original concept game. Mark our words, Dialed In! is destined to be a top 10 pinball machine of all time!
Jersey Jack Pinball’s DIALED IN! official trailer!
source: Jersey Jack Pinball
Wow, wish every month starts like this! Stay tuned for more pinball news!
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Pinball Press
Pinball Press brings you news from the world of pinball – events, product reviews/updates, interviews and the people in pinball!
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With the internet rumour mill running amok regarding Stern’s next pinball machine, we wonder if they will announce a new Star Wars themed pinball machine on ‘May The 4th Be With You‘ Star Wars day? We can only hope!
If you weren’t aware, there have been quite a number of Star Wars themed pinball machines over the years, from Hankin’s wide body The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Sonic’s Star Wars (1987), Data East’s Star Wars (1992) to Sega’s awesome Star Wars Trilogy (1997) and Williams’ Star Wars Episode I (1999) built on the ill-fated Pinball2000 platform.
If Stern does announce a new Star Wars pinball machine, then we cross our fingers that it will be a mix of the Data East and Sega Star Wars machines. Oh yeah, we would love some Dark Side and Light Side LE machines too – hope you are listening Stern!
What are your predictions for Stern’s new pinball machine? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.
May the force be with you!
One of our favourite Star Wars themed pinball machine, Sega’s Star Wars Trilogy
A close second, Data East’s Star Wars
You either loved it or hated Williams’ Star Wars Episode I
The first Star Wars themed pinball machine, Hankin’s The Empire Strikes Back
Straight out of Spain, Sonic’s Star Wars
source: Internet Pinball Database
SOCK! POW! ZOK! WHAP! BIFF! OOOOF! NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!
We enjoy visiting our friends at Zax Amusements. Not only is it fun to catch up with the Zax crew, but it’s also fun to gawk in wonder at the machines on their showroom floor. One machine that caught our eye was the new Batman 66 Premium Edition pinball table from Stern.
Batman 66 is the first machine that Stern has released with a full colour high definition (HD) LED screen integrated in the backboard instead of the traditional dot matrix display. We were quite impressed with the HD LED screen’s vividness and its animation – it captures the cheesiness brilliantly from the 1966 Batman TV show. We initially thought that the HD LED display was on the small side, but seeing it in action it actually suits the machine to a T.
The visual package of the machine is complete with the awesome artwork by Christopher Franchi. The purple and blue hues of the artwork on the cabinet are eye catching (they stand out from a mile away!) and the equally beautiful backglass (above the LED display) and playfield art just scream sixties kitsch!
Being pressed for time, we only had five games on the machine, so we thought we’d comment on our first impressions on how the machine plays rather than an indepth review on its many play modes and features. First things first, the (software) code is nowhere near complete, which shows. We noticed that there were no callouts at the start or during the game, which obviously took away from the Batman experience – the game seemed too quiet. The playfield lighting about three quarters of the way up was on the dark side, making the ball hard to see, but it wasn’t anything major that detracted from the enjoyment of playing the machine – again, this may be an easy fix with a code update. We absolutely loved the illuminated batphone target and the villain vision TV set magnet feature.
Batman 66 features many cool toys, but the one that truly stands out for us is the interactive KG Bird Crane Co crane toy on the right hand side of the playfield. Once initiated, it takes a hard flip to smash the “wrecking ball” on the crane (a bit like Slimer in Ghostbusters), which sends your ball careening all over the playfield – truly heart stopping play! As mentioned earlier, the animation on the LED screen is great, giving the player lots of feedback on modes and features at play. Each go we had we got a higher score as we got to know the features, modes and the general flow of the playfield.
Batman 66 (Premium Edition) will definitely appeal to Generation X’ers that grew up with the TV show, but it also has the general pulling power due to its brilliant presentation. Once Stern irons out the software code, it will exponentially enhance the cheesy Batman KAPOW experience!
Batman 66 (PE) is eye catching from any angle!
Oo’er, Premium Edition!
Batman In Colo(u)r!
Autographed by none other than Adam West
Taking it all in – it looks so cheesily good!
Flipper button seems in the right place… Love the side art!
The Bat Gadget selector is begging to be pressed!
It all STARTS here!
Let’s give Batman and Robin a hand in defeating their evil foes!
Here comes the villain vision TV set! Watch that magnet lock!
Let’s see what this KG Bird Crane Co can do…
Bash that (wrecking) ball on the crane!
No!!! The game should never be over!
Damn, we didn’t match on the Bat Score-Match-Analyzer. Ah well, another credit…
Thank you to Zax Amusements for allowing us to play the new Stern Batman 66 Premium Edition pinball machine.
It’s true what they say: it really is better to give than to receive. And that’s what makes this ‘Thrill Of The Chase‘ extra special, because I was chasing something for a very important person (hint: her name rhymes with Ms Ausretrogamer).
Ms Ausretrogamer loves ‘The Walking Dead‘ and she loves to play pinball, so we’re always on the lookout for TWD tables to play. We’ve travelled far and wide in our quest to kill those zombies, and we’re yet to get tired of it. It’s such a fun table, whether your a newbie or a wizard. So, while watching Ms Ausretrogamer clearing the prison yard and unleashing the Well Walker multi-ball, I made a decision – I had to get her a TWD pinball table of her own! But with only six months until her birthday, I had to move fast.
Searching far and wide, the pinball machine was secured. The next part of the plan was to get it delivered and setup without Ms Ausretrogamer’s knowledge. To keep her off the scent, a decoy birthday gift was created.
With everything in its place, it was time to execute Project Happy Birthday. Ms ausretrogamer was presented with the diorama, where not even Rick Grimes playing a Twilight Zone pinball machine gave her any indication of what was to come! Under the ruse of checking out the birthday decorations in the games room, the surprise was revealed and the look on Ms Ausretrogamer’s face was priceless! That’s when I knew, this thrill of the chase was totally worth it.
The decoy gift
Rearranging the fun factory
Space cleared next to Pin*Bot
The careful delivery – thanks to Skooota and Tony!
The surprise is set!
Even the machine knows it’s an important day!
Surprise!
It is not every day we get an invitation to check out and play a newly released pinball game. We were lucky enough last year to experience Game Of Thrones before its official release, and it seems that we got lucky once again! This time, Zax Amusements were kind enough to open their doors and allow us to have a bump and tilt on Stern’s new pinball machine, Ghostbusters.
Before we could get to grips on the new Ghostbusters Pro pinball table, Zax’s Business Manager, Phil Boniwell gave us a grand tour of Zax Amusements – let’s just say that we were like kids in a candy store! There were 1980s and 1990s JAMMA boards carefully stacked on shelves, a myriad of gun peripherals, control panels, Neo Geo MVS carts and an amazing array of arcade machines from all eras! We honestly didn’t know where to look – it was a 360 degree visual onslaught of the amusement kind! You can take a peek at the photos further down below to see why we went all gaga.
Once we wiped our drool and returned to Zax’s business showroom, it was time to put Ghostbusters Pro through its paces. So what did we think? Having played the pinball machine a few times, our first impressions were very positive indeed. Like with any new product, it was the visual and aural beauty of the machine that captured our immediate attention. Based on the original Ghostbusters movie, the colours, set scenery and characters on the playfield were an instant trip down memory lane. Not to be outdone in the sensory game, the sound effects, Ernie Hudson’s speech guiding you through the game and Ray Parker Jr’s Ghostbusters soundtrack were literally music to our ears. Stern have really captured the feel of the original Ghostbusters movie to a T! We reckon Stern has created another winner!
Thank you to the team at Zax Amusements for their hospitality (Scott Kellett rocks!). You can read more about Zax Amusements over here.
Z marks the spot!
Zak (Zax final boss) and yours truly!
Oh wow, OutRun 2 SP and Sega Racing Classic (aka: Daytona USA Mk II)!
THIS is still our all-time fave arcade driving game!
Kick it to Homer!
Now this is a reasonable price for a twin seat Daytona USA!
The great wall of PCBs!
You need guns? Zax has you covered!
Guitar riffin’
Dayyyyyytona!
You don’t control me!
A view to a thrill!
Silverball classics waiting for some TLC
15K out! That is perfect vision!
Time to flip some balls!
Oh wow, what to play next?
Our spidey sensors are tingling!
Who you gonna call?
I ain’t afraid of no ghost
Ecto-1 in glorious colour!
Let’s play Slimer!
Busting ghosts has never been this much fun!
Aim well and true!
This machine is flippin’ magic!
Ball Saved! Lucky break!
Keep your eye on the target(s)!
What has spooked Slimer?
Mmm, marshmallows!
The outlanes can be brutal – be ready to bump!
A row of beauties! It’s very hard to leave Zax Amusements!
Celebrating their 30 years in business, Stern Pinball Inc. is being quite active on their social media channels, releasing interesting facts about pinball. One that stood out to us was the unreleased 1990 pinball table based on the Total recall movie. Apparently, the Total Recall rare prototype never made it into production. Stern go on to say that “Designed to be a dual player team effort machine, it was ultimately scrapped for production and sent to the depths of the Data East factory. Sometime between 1996 and 2000 the machine “mysteriously disappeared”. Some say it went into the trash, some say it was broken down and forgotten. Some say that the machine made its way to places unknown and anyone who sees it in person is sworn to secrecy. No one knows for sure, and if they do, they aren’t talking.
Had Total Recall been produced as designed, it would remain today one of the most ridiculous pinball machines ever created. It was not meant to be, and will likely never be seen by the public again.”
We will definitely be keeping a close eye on these interesting and lesser known pinball facts coming from the great people at Stern!
source: Stern Pinball Inc.
Hey peeps, prepare to be absolutely gobsmacked! John’s Arcade together with Greg from Arcade Impossible, go on an exclusive access-all-areas tour of the new Stern Pinball Inc. factory in Elk Grove, IL.
This already awesome tour is made even more awesomer by having the famed pinball designer, George Gomez, as the personal tour guide – it doesn’t get any better than that! Whether you are a pinball fan or not, you will appreciate the behind-the-scenes of how pinball machines are made and distributed around the world. Grab the pop-corn as this great feature runs for 1:37:56 (to be exact), settle in and enjoy!