I hate Stern

[TripleT]

I can't wait until pinball makes a comeback and there are a dozen or two manufacturers.

The only downside will be having to get off the couch to play.

 

[Espy]

I can't wait until pinball makes a comeback and there are a dozen or two manufacturers.

The only downside will be having to get off the couch to play.

There are already two manufacturers

 

[David Pannozzo]

The Wizard Of Oz and Family Guy (STERN!!!!!!!!) are a tie of my most favorite games of all time, so I have to say I love STERN no matter what anybody says. And I've never had a problem playing a Stern game.

 

[warh0g]

I have not played a lot of Stern tables, but AC/DC and Tron were really good imo!

 

[Deltaechoe]

Stern would be a great company if their tables weren't so fragile, I've seen more stern breakdowns than I care to admit. The problem I have with stern is that I'm so used to the 80s era EMs so sterns end up being a lot less punishing and verge on being a bit too easy.

 

[Tom]

Stern would be a great company if their tables weren't so fragile, I've seen more stern breakdowns than I care to admit. The problem I have with stern is that I'm so used to the 80s era EMs so sterns end up being a lot less punishing and verge on being a bit too easy.

I have owned 7 stern machines and i havent had a breakdown or a serious problem with any of them.

 

[brakel]

Stern would be a great company if their tables weren't so fragile, I've seen more stern breakdowns than I care to admit. The problem I have with stern is that I'm so used to the 80s era EMs so sterns end up being a lot less punishing and verge on being a bit too easy.

80s era EMs? That's a pretty short list! A quick search of ipdb.org brings up a list of one EM machine released in the 80s. That would be Bally's Malibu Beach which was released in September of 1980.

 

[Mark W**a]

I found an Avatar pin out here.

It's lame. It's generic. Not much else to say.

X-Men is an awesome Stern. The design is very unique. Avengers and Metallica are just sort of OK in my book.

Wizard of Oz though blows them all out of the water. And I hope it kicks stern in the pants to start doing higher quality tables, with build quality and toys that impress again.

Old Sterns like Simpsons and Lord of the Rings show that Stern can do quality when they aren't "phoning it in" and cutting corners.

 

[Tom]

I found an Avatar pin out here.

It's lame. It's generic. Not much else to say.

X-Men is an awesome Stern. The design is very unique. Avengers and Metallica are just sort of OK in my book.

Wizard of Oz though blows them all out of the water. And I hope it kicks stern in the pants to start doing higher quality tables, with build quality and toys that impress again.

Old Sterns like Simpsons and Lord of the Rings show that Stern can do quality when they aren't "phoning it in" and cutting corners.

avengers isnt very good imo but metallica is great even if the code isnt complete yet.

 

[karl]

I have never given X-Men a good chance because It is full of toys that look like they have been picked up in a toy store aimed at 5 year olds and just glued them to the playfied (maybe unfair of me, but I have trouble getting past that because the toys are huge, right in your face and cheap looking).

If I had been a little bit more into the theme it would probably not bother me that much. I'll have to get over this and play one soon, if it is indeed as good as you say, Mark. After all, rules and/or how fun it is to play is the most important thing and my view of John Borg is a lot stronger after playing Tron and Metallica. Two fantastic and totally different games. Steve Richie does what he does and you know what you will get. John Borg seams to mix it up a lot more.(same as Dennis Nordman) He is not always successful but that is bound to happen when you take more risks. I agree totally about JJP is miles ahead of Stern though but the designers have nothing to do with that part.

 

[Sumez]

I found an Avatar pin out here.

It's lame. It's generic. Not much else to say.

Avatar is great! I really don't like the theme (but the sound is amazing!), and the cabinet does feel like typically Stern cheapish plastics, but the armor suit toy makes up for that, and the mechanics are great. Shoot everything to activate it, activate multiball and try to control which shots get duplicated and trippled. I like the flow of the ball on the table, even though it's very similar to what's seen on other Sterns.

 

[Sumez]

I have never given X-Men a good chance because It is full of toys that look like they have been picked up in a toy store aimed at 5 year olds and just glued them to the playfied (maybe unfair of me, but I have trouble getting past that because the toys are huge, right in your face and cheap looking).

Not unfair. It's most likely what happened.

 

[Espy]

Tried Avatar a few days ago. Was a bit surprised by how bare-bones it felt compared to other Sterns, playfield wise. There seems to be nothing special on the playfield aside from the armor suit which is just a toy. And only one ramp, which is unusual. Didn't play enough to get a good game going (I found it pretty difficult), but those were my first thoughts.

 

[ER777]

I was at an amusement park playing pinball this week and they had some 20+ tables of which all but two where Stern, most of them quite new. And damn, I hated them all! While the rule sets and play fields can be good, the mechanics are just crap. Flippers feel like they are using rubber bands - old dried out rubber bands, ball moves like it was underwater, precision is next to none with the ball enindg up at totally different locations when executing two almost identical shots. And most of all, the overall feeling of quality is very, very poor. Feels like playing a children's toy . I actually enjoy Stern tables more on TPA than IRL since on TPA there's at least a little less randomness.

After a couple of hours I gave up and stuck with the only Bally (Addams Family) and Williams (Monster Bash) tables. Such a shame there's only one pinball manufacturer these days

It sounds like you were playing on some machines with dirty mylar on the playfields and probably beat up balls. I played a couple machines like that and it makes the ball do weird things, occasionally even backing up like a spinning golf ball on the green. That's not the way Sterns usually play though.

I have to say I disagree with the overall sentiment, I like a lot of Stern games quite a bit. I very much enjoy LOTR, TSPP, Batman Dark Knight, and Tron LE is absolutely amazing. I even like Transformers quite a bit even though it doesn't seem like anyone else does. Monopoly and RCT aren't bad either. I kind of like the lighter and looser feel their machines have because it makes nudging easier. At a minimum I don't see it as a negative. One down side is some games (particularly TSPP and LOTR machines I've played on location) seem to have chronic flipper strength issues. Sometimes code not being updated is also an issue but all in all I think Stern makes mostly good games.

There are other manufacturers of pinball machines in the market now so hopefully competition will only make them raise their game.

 

[Shaneus]

I'm in somewhat of an agreement with the OP. I can never really articulate what it is that I don't like about them, but to me they always just feel cheaper, lighter and more toy-ish. Possibly because there are a number of tables that were clearly designed with the LE/Premium in mind and had stuff taken away for the Pro, rather than design the Pro and build *up* for the LE/Premium. But even then, while some games are okay (I was surprised with how relatively solid Metallica Pro is) a number seem subject to little things going wrong... loose plastics, airballs, faulty/slack solenoids, that sort of thing. Regardless of how much traffic they see, you shouldn't have things like underpowered (burned-out?) solenoids on a <6mo machine.

Hell, I have a local Metallica that had it's right flipper button popping off AND getting stuck (at different times) within only three months. Don't recall any Williams boxes doing that.

Oh, and their over-reliance on gaudy toys as well. AC/DC and Metallica are okay in that regard (except for the hammer in MET LE, I've heard some have issues) but Wolverine on X-Men and the different Transformers on Transformers (and the toy car?!?) just look damn cheap and ugly.

 

[Punisher]

IMO, the only Sterns that are worth mentioning are those made in the early 2000's, such as T3, TSPP, LotR, etc. They do have a fairly nice presentation, but it all went downhill with the later games. I admire the use of constantly showing your score and flashing how many points you earned below it. But they're overall... well, bland. Multiballs don't feel climactic like they were back in the day, etc.

 

[Sumez]

Punisher, play Spider-Man, Iron Man and AC/DC

I think multiballs stopped feeling climactic back around the mid 90's, but at least Iron Man does that well.

 

[Clawhammer]

There have definitely been some build quality issues with Stern in the past, although I would say on the whole the quality of their games seems to be rising (with a few exceptions). I find talking to people that those who start playing on Sterns usually think they 'feel' better and those who started on WMS or EMs or whatever think the opposite. I'm definitely in the latter but will admit that their quality is improving. I also have to give them credit for staying in business when pinball seemed like a sinking ship. I'm sure some of the cost cutting measures they implemented had to do with demand.

 

[jkonami]

I haven't really played a modern Stern, except for Ripley's (Like it) and Harley Davidson (Which is my least favorite "modern" table) in TPA. My general impression of Stern is this (except for Ripley's) is that they are all sorta generic feeling, it's a little bit like how I feel about Pinball FX tables. They all have potential, but the design is so drab for whatever reason. I think the best looking tables are the ones with punchy colors, and beautiful graphics/designs: Big Bang Bar, Pinbot, etc.

Now.. Stern made one of my favorite arcade games: Berzerk! I think I will always remember them for that more than for Pinball. I think of Williams first.

 

[Shaneus]

There have definitely been some build quality issues with Stern in the past, although I would say on the whole the quality of their games seems to be rising (with a few exceptions). I find talking to people that those who start playing on Sterns usually think they 'feel' better and those who started on WMS or EMs or whatever think the opposite. I'm definitely in the latter but will admit that their quality is improving. I also have to give them credit for staying in business when pinball seemed like a sinking ship. I'm sure some of the cost cutting measures they implemented had to do with demand.

I'd like to know what people (kids, hah!) think of the difference between Stern and WMS, at least, people who have mainly played new Stern more than WMS. I know that whenever I go from putting in time on an older WMS machine to a newer Stern, the Stern just feels so cheap and light like what a Chinese knockoff WMS table would feel like.