Before I start in earnest, I would like to note that 'Stern' is being used in its broadest sense here, incorporating not merely Stern Pinball, but also Stern Electronics, Data East Pinball and Sega Pinball. Anyway, I got the idea for an all-Stern season in light of how well Flight 2000 has gone over so far on the forum. I don't think anything like this is remotely realistic, but it's always fun to play "What If?", at least for me. I will assume 2 successful Kickstarters and 8 two-table packs, for a total of 18 tables. Now, let's get started!
December 2013: Catacomb & Tales from the Crypt - Christmas is a hard holiday to theme a TPA pack around, so instead, I took a Nightmare Before Christmas approach, transplanting my ideal Halloween pack into the holiday season. This pair would make for one of the deepest 2-packs in TPA history–I still don't fully understand Catacomb's bagatelle mechanics, while Tales from the Crypt has possibly the most well-considered spread of modes in the entire Data East lineup. If we're lucky, we might even actually see this pack in time for Halloween...
January 2014: Checkpoint & Laser War - As we ring in the new year, FarSight will ring in a couple of new beginnings as well, bringing us both the first Data East pin and the first DMD pin ever produced. Admittedly, this is a much more rules-light pack than my last one, but that may not be the worst possible thing. Checkpoint and Laser War aren't the most well-regarded pins you'll ever find, but their historical value is hard to top (also, Laser War looks like it might be an underrated gem).
February 2014: High Roller Casino & Seawitch - Much like the two tables I selected for this pack, the month of February often gets overlooked. While Punxsutawney Phil rolls the dice on an early spring, we'll roll the dice in the underrated High Roller Casino. Meanwhile, a razor-thin margin of defeat has made Seawitch into quite the bad romance for its partisans, so why not turn things around close to St. Valentine's Day? The animal kingdom may still be hibernating, but that doesn't mean that pinheads have to!
March 2014: Big Game & Star Gazer - With the weather about to take a turn for the decidedly more pleasant (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), this pack has a decidedly outdoorsy theme to it. Let Harry Williams take you on a safari adventure in Big Game or take a break from actual star gazing to work those spinners and drops in Star Gazer. The great outdoors now has the perfect pinball companion!
April 2014: Lightning & Meteor - They say that April showers bring May flowers and nowhere is the first part of that saying truer than with this 2-pack! Lightning's combination of split-level play, tense bonus balls, playfield multipliers and those classic Stern Electronics voices makes for a perfect storm of pinball action, while Meteor rains down 4 banks of drop targets along with a spinner worth up to 2K/spin. Ride out the storm with two of Stern Electronics' most well-regarded tables!
May 2014: Freefall & Viper Night Drivin' - Now that the April showers are done, we return to a more outdoors-themed pack, but with a bit more of a sports theme this time. Freefall is an interesting pseudo-sequel to Flight 2000 with a tricky shot to the ball lock launcher, while Viper Night Drivin' is a cool, underrated Sega deck with a neat glowing balls gimmick. Both of these tables catch some flack, but Freefall actually looks pretty fun to me and Viper Night Drivin' looks like a blazing-fast table if you set it up right. This may not seem like the most exciting pack, but we don't want to upstage next month's offering...
June 2014: The Simpsons Pinball Party - This might be the one Kickstarter table to get funded faster than TAF. I'm not sure they'll ever make a deeper table than TSPP, with its six wizard modes, five regular multiballs and near-infinite stackability of modes. If you can reach Super Duper Mega Extreme Wizard Mode, you are most definitely a pin-fu grandmaster. Overall, this table is a must-have for TPA.
July 2014: Monopoly & Time Machine - Thanks to American cultural imperialism, July is now America Month in TPA! Monopoly brings Pat Lawlor into the 21st century and was quite the appropriate topic for his Stern debut, given the state of pinball at the time, while Time Machine lives up to its name, with game play revolving around locking balls in America's '50s, '60s and '70s for multiball. These are also both severely underrated decks from what I've seen, so getting both of them out at the same time could help them get a bit more love.
August 2014: Nine Ball & Sharkey's Shootout - This all-Stern pool pack may raise some eyebrows, but I actually think these two tables offset each other's weaker points pretty well. Nine Ball has a very interesting layout, but also has some bizarre rules that may turn off more casual players. Meanwhile, Sharkey's Shootout has the familiar layout of Eight Ball, along with a few neat extras, but is generally not as widely remembered as some other Sterns, even though it looks like a decent player. Overall, this should be a fun little holdover until you see what I have in store for September...
September 2014: Lord of the Rings - I think we all knew this was in the works for an all-Stern season at some point. With Jersey Jack's The Hobbit hopefully coming out around this time, the time should be right for an LotR Kickstarter to succeed and look good doing it. Much like TSPP, this table simply has everything; with five non-wizard multiballs (three of which you must complete to reach Valinor), seven modes leading into There & Back Again, the Gifts of the Elves (eventually culminating in Ring Frenzy). the goal of destroying the One Ring and, of course, the ever-elusive Valinor, this should keep the fans entertained for a long time after its release. LotR is a bullet-proof top 5 modern Stern and would be my personal choice for the one difficult-to-impossible Stern table if it should come to that.
So what do you guys think? Did I do a good job of drawing up an all-Stern season or could I have done better?
December 2013: Catacomb & Tales from the Crypt - Christmas is a hard holiday to theme a TPA pack around, so instead, I took a Nightmare Before Christmas approach, transplanting my ideal Halloween pack into the holiday season. This pair would make for one of the deepest 2-packs in TPA history–I still don't fully understand Catacomb's bagatelle mechanics, while Tales from the Crypt has possibly the most well-considered spread of modes in the entire Data East lineup. If we're lucky, we might even actually see this pack in time for Halloween...
January 2014: Checkpoint & Laser War - As we ring in the new year, FarSight will ring in a couple of new beginnings as well, bringing us both the first Data East pin and the first DMD pin ever produced. Admittedly, this is a much more rules-light pack than my last one, but that may not be the worst possible thing. Checkpoint and Laser War aren't the most well-regarded pins you'll ever find, but their historical value is hard to top (also, Laser War looks like it might be an underrated gem).
February 2014: High Roller Casino & Seawitch - Much like the two tables I selected for this pack, the month of February often gets overlooked. While Punxsutawney Phil rolls the dice on an early spring, we'll roll the dice in the underrated High Roller Casino. Meanwhile, a razor-thin margin of defeat has made Seawitch into quite the bad romance for its partisans, so why not turn things around close to St. Valentine's Day? The animal kingdom may still be hibernating, but that doesn't mean that pinheads have to!
March 2014: Big Game & Star Gazer - With the weather about to take a turn for the decidedly more pleasant (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), this pack has a decidedly outdoorsy theme to it. Let Harry Williams take you on a safari adventure in Big Game or take a break from actual star gazing to work those spinners and drops in Star Gazer. The great outdoors now has the perfect pinball companion!
April 2014: Lightning & Meteor - They say that April showers bring May flowers and nowhere is the first part of that saying truer than with this 2-pack! Lightning's combination of split-level play, tense bonus balls, playfield multipliers and those classic Stern Electronics voices makes for a perfect storm of pinball action, while Meteor rains down 4 banks of drop targets along with a spinner worth up to 2K/spin. Ride out the storm with two of Stern Electronics' most well-regarded tables!
May 2014: Freefall & Viper Night Drivin' - Now that the April showers are done, we return to a more outdoors-themed pack, but with a bit more of a sports theme this time. Freefall is an interesting pseudo-sequel to Flight 2000 with a tricky shot to the ball lock launcher, while Viper Night Drivin' is a cool, underrated Sega deck with a neat glowing balls gimmick. Both of these tables catch some flack, but Freefall actually looks pretty fun to me and Viper Night Drivin' looks like a blazing-fast table if you set it up right. This may not seem like the most exciting pack, but we don't want to upstage next month's offering...
June 2014: The Simpsons Pinball Party - This might be the one Kickstarter table to get funded faster than TAF. I'm not sure they'll ever make a deeper table than TSPP, with its six wizard modes, five regular multiballs and near-infinite stackability of modes. If you can reach Super Duper Mega Extreme Wizard Mode, you are most definitely a pin-fu grandmaster. Overall, this table is a must-have for TPA.
July 2014: Monopoly & Time Machine - Thanks to American cultural imperialism, July is now America Month in TPA! Monopoly brings Pat Lawlor into the 21st century and was quite the appropriate topic for his Stern debut, given the state of pinball at the time, while Time Machine lives up to its name, with game play revolving around locking balls in America's '50s, '60s and '70s for multiball. These are also both severely underrated decks from what I've seen, so getting both of them out at the same time could help them get a bit more love.
August 2014: Nine Ball & Sharkey's Shootout - This all-Stern pool pack may raise some eyebrows, but I actually think these two tables offset each other's weaker points pretty well. Nine Ball has a very interesting layout, but also has some bizarre rules that may turn off more casual players. Meanwhile, Sharkey's Shootout has the familiar layout of Eight Ball, along with a few neat extras, but is generally not as widely remembered as some other Sterns, even though it looks like a decent player. Overall, this should be a fun little holdover until you see what I have in store for September...
September 2014: Lord of the Rings - I think we all knew this was in the works for an all-Stern season at some point. With Jersey Jack's The Hobbit hopefully coming out around this time, the time should be right for an LotR Kickstarter to succeed and look good doing it. Much like TSPP, this table simply has everything; with five non-wizard multiballs (three of which you must complete to reach Valinor), seven modes leading into There & Back Again, the Gifts of the Elves (eventually culminating in Ring Frenzy). the goal of destroying the One Ring and, of course, the ever-elusive Valinor, this should keep the fans entertained for a long time after its release. LotR is a bullet-proof top 5 modern Stern and would be my personal choice for the one difficult-to-impossible Stern table if it should come to that.
So what do you guys think? Did I do a good job of drawing up an all-Stern season or could I have done better?
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