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Everyone wants a Stern...

The Single Pin Connundrum - Would You Have

  • Modern Stern

    Votes: 24 46.2%

  • Classic WPC

    Votes: 24 46.2%

  • What??!? Neither - I don't Even Like Pinball - What is this Mess?

    Votes: 2 3.8%

  • Put me down for Alpha Numeric

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • Click Click Click - EM's Please

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • Total voters
    52
@Poibug in thevinterest of the fictional debate, which way would you go if being forced into making an era choice. I totally agree, I would love a gorgeous EM in the ranks as well as a couple of others - but what era do you think you’d go for
 
Modern Stern games for me. They just have that much more longevity, especially in a single pin setup. Obviously there are a couple of stinkers but overall they churn out some cracking games. My favourite older game is still TAF but there's no denying it gets old pretty fast gameplay wise despite all its charm
 
James said:
@Poibug in thevinterest of the fictional debate, which way would you go if being forced into making an era choice. I totally agree, I would love a gorgeous EM in the ranks as well as a couple of others - but what era do you think you’d go for
Click to expand...

There is no straight answer.The best flipper set up by far is bally Williams,good luck holding up a stern flipper for three minutes if ya need to temporarily talk on the phone or summat. Plus with those bally Williams games, barring sound boardset at least I have a fighting chance at fixing due to full availability of schematics and being thru hole, not surface mount.Spike 2 is the exact opposite. Also stern code wise can be a nightmare.Just look how long it took bm66 to get to a good state,met etc.Let alone bug in EVERY game from Sam series aka wpt onwards.
And at times Sterns qc can be sub par e.g. cabinets cracking,ghosting inserts,ghosting etc.But there are some cracking modern games such as bm66, maiden, use of modern(ish) technologies LCD, leds, have IMO made games better.So in answer a combination of both?
 
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Loved the answer @Poibug - can't argue with a lot of the points there.

I am surprised to be honest at how the scoring is going - I expected it to be tight - but there is, it seems, a real 50-50 divide.
 
Combination and variety are the spice of life!

Going back to AFM - a really nice original ( non fade screen printed cab ) or a mint restored AFM are 6k plus all day long. Condition is always biggest issue with price variations.

As for games - I sometimes get as much buzz playing a 50's or 70's Gottlieb as a modern Stern. Noticed my 16 year old will never play my modern games but he loves a 1978 EM.

Also the classic Sterns around 1980/81 when set up correctly with rebuilt flippers etc are fantastic. Finding them is near on impossible - been searching for years for a few titles ( in great condition which makes it super hard ).

Not had a chance to explore other 80's games, Gottliebs and classic Bally's. Do like Centaur a lot.

The bigger the collection, the more variety I look for.

But, if I could only have 1 game, it would be a modern Stern as code depth would ensure longevity.

I have over 1000 games on KISS - not got close to Rock City and not bored of the game at all.
 
Replay said:
Going back to AFM - a really nice original ( non fade screen printed cab ) or a mint restored AFM .
Click to expand...

Genuinely 100% agree - super mint anything is always in a market of its own - top end collectors will always have the ability and be required to pay top dollar.

If I wanted a AFM that I could play right now though - I am confident I could flaunt that I had £4k to pick one up - I could - would people bet against that being possible? Would that have been the case 3 years ago?

On the flip side (get it... :P) - when I think about MM - probably couldn't get one at near £5k right now and that has been remade - so perhaps I am talking ********.
 
3 years ago AFM’s weren’t much more than 4k. It’s exactly 3 years this month since I sold mine for 4.5k, with loads of mods inc color dmd. Excluding the super minty ones, has the average AFM value really changed that much in 3 years?
 
I’m on the fence between Stern / WPC. My Stern’s get more play as the wpc’s shallow code means they don’t hold my attention for long. But the wpc’s artwork, toys, build quality, attention to detail and overall beauty and charm are well above Stern (there’s a few exceptions TSPP being one).
 
For me now unless it’s got a cool LCD screen it all feels old .... sad to say but the flashing lights and cool animations have sucked me in , apart from dialed in that was a stinking pile of horse poop ?
So in answer to the question I still love for example the shadow , TaF , guns BK2000 the list goes on and on , but looking at buying games now...... well it’s all about the new ones :)
 
Everyone likes new shiny things, human nature, sometimes them same people will move on to the next shiny thing very quickly , couldn’t resist Will
 
Surely it’s like many enthusiast markets, many want the newest, flashiest, new toys, others crave classics. Pinball would seem in rude health at the moment. I enjoy having 25yr age spread of machines.
 
It was, of course a tongue in cheek post - maybe I should have re-worded it to....

If you could only have one generation - hypothetically, which and why.

Bit more vanilla way of putting it.
 
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