What Might An All-Stern Season Look Like?

CC13

New member
Sep 1, 2012
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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?
 
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sotie

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Aug 30, 2012
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Wait, when are we getting AC/DC and Metallica? (I just wanted to be the first to say it before someone else did) :)
 

smbhax

Active member
Apr 24, 2012
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Personally I would have more Stern Electronics games and less Data East / Sega, but still, oooh.
 

Rudy Yagov

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Mar 30, 2012
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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).
I would argue that they're BOTH underrated. Checkpoint is my favorite DE machine, and I'm even looking to buy one.
 

CC13

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Sep 1, 2012
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Wait, when are we getting AC/DC and Metallica? (I just wanted to be the first to say it before someone else did) :)

Well, I was trying to keep this in the realm of something that FS could realistically do with what they've managed to do already in terms of emulation, to say nothing of the Kickstarters you'd need for those two (I hope that the bands prove reasonable, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it).

Personally I would have more Stern Electronics games and less Data East / Sega, but still, oooh.

Hmm? I had 8 Stern Electronics decks against 4 Data Easts and no Segas (albeit soon to be one), so unless you're opposed to having DEs in general, I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here.

I like that you mixed some of the oldies as well.

Stern v1.0 really was severely underrated in their time. Myself, I think it was mostly a matter of poor timing; many Stern v1.0s had rulesets that pushed the boundaries of what a pinball machine was expected to do, but since Stern got their pinball kits from Bally, many of their tables had that same feel, resulting in Stern getting written off as a poor man's Bally.

I like a lot !!!!!:eek:

Thanks for the words of support, wolfson!

No Addams Family? :p

Oh, you!

Add in Iron Maiden, Quicksilver, Orbiter 1 and, Viper Night Drivin' to fill it out, and it'll be perfect.

I'll see what I can do! Now that I think on it, Viper Night Drivin' might be a better choice than Striker Xtreme for the May pack...

I would argue that they're BOTH underrated. Checkpoint is my favorite DE machine, and I'm even looking to buy one.

Sweet! Checkpoint does look to have its charms, but it does seem to be a bit of a one-shot wonder, at least from the videos I've seen of it. Still, I wish you the best of luck in tracking down a Checkpoint in good condition.
 

smbhax

Active member
Apr 24, 2012
1,803
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Hmm? I had 8 Stern Electronics decks against 4 Data Easts and no Segas (albeit soon to be one), so unless you're opposed to having DEs in general, I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here.
Ack! I don't know :eek: I think I just saw the words "Data East" and "Sega" and got scared. ; )
 

Kolchak357

Senior Pigeon
May 31, 2012
8,102
2
It's a tough list to make. Most of my favorite Sterns are heavy licenses. But I would be very happy with any of those table packs. Nice blend of new & classics thrown in there. I also agree with your choices of potential kickstarter pins. TSPP and LOTR are two great ones and the themes are so popular that I think their kickstarters would be successful. Nice to see a wish list or future release guess that is actually in the realm of possibility. Well done sir.

Now back to my fantasy world. It's a shame that we may never see tables like AC/DC, Tron LE, Spider-Man, Family Guy, Elvis, Pirates OF The Carribean, etc. Well, you get my point.
 

Mark W**a

Banned
Sep 7, 2012
1,511
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No more older Sterns for me. Flight 2K is -ok- but it's no Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe.

Sea Witch and then I'd say that's enough older Sterns for me...

As for newer stuff: I'd like to see Monopoly, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Tales from the Crypt, Simpsons Pinball Party (KickStarter), Lord of the Rings (Kickstarter), Family Guy (Kickstarter) and Metallica.
 
N

netizen

Guest
No more older Sterns for me. Flight 2K is -ok- but it's no Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe.

Sea Witch and then I'd say that's enough older Sterns for me...

You say that now, but wait until Catacomb is in your face, muahaha!!
 
N

netizen

Guest
Played one. Not a fan.

I did like Lightning, but that wasn't even a choice on the classic Stern poll.

Yeah Lightning is a table that probably should have been on the poll, It is fast. Catacomb just has obscure rules that are deep by it's times standards.
 

superballs

Active member
Apr 12, 2012
2,654
2
No more older Sterns for me. Flight 2K is -ok- but it's no Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe.

Sea Witch and then I'd say that's enough older Sterns for me...

As for newer stuff: I'd like to see Monopoly, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Tales from the Crypt, Simpsons Pinball Party (KickStarter), Lord of the Rings (Kickstarter), Family Guy (Kickstarter) and Metallica.

My mind read this post in my own voice it was so close to exactly what I was going to say.

I'd love to see South Park though. Not the most inspired table but the callouts are awesome.
 

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