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Played a Stern Beatles.... Also, thoughts on other Music themed pins

Den - aka Wolfgang

Den - aka Wolfgang

Site Supporter
5Years
Joined
Oct 22, 2019
Messages
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Location
London (U.K)
Evening all,
I managed to play a Beatles machine the other evening; was at the place near Angel station in Islington (I have no idea why my mate's wife decided to celebrate her birthday in the Wetherspoons next door...)
Was a nice pin to look at; the gold sparkle (?) lockdown bar etc looks great in person. Was £2 for 3 credits and I was lucky enough to get a free game via points (I think) and then via score match at the end of a game.
I thought is was a fun game, however i didn't think the images on the lcd screen really added much and I would've preferred more of a varied mix of music from different eras (seemed to focus just on the early years?) - although tbf I'm not a huge Beatles fan.

Wouldn't mind tracking down a version for Visual Pinball, but talk of that is banned on forums/Facebook and not sure where to find it.

What are peoples thought's on this pin? ; would especially be interested to hear from Beatles fans - are you happy with the theme implementation and the choice of tunes?

On a related note, I'd be interested to read peoples thoughts on other music related pins from hardcore fans?
For example, I'm a huge Metallica fan and love the Stern pin; I feel like the theme was implemented pretty well and I'm pretty happy with the song choices (although would've liked a few more tunes in there from other albums, or maybe say swapped out The Unforgiven to say somethiing like Holier than Thou or Struggle within if replacing with another black album tune.

My thoughts on other band themed PINS (although I'm not as hardcore a fan an 'tallica):

AC/DC: Really like this pin and the song choices are great - plays really well and love the different GI schemes when selecting different songs.

Iron Maiden: Only fairly recently got in to Maiden - I'm pretty happy with the song choices (although whenever I've played one, the sound hasn't been on that loud). Fun to play, but I really need to spend some time on one to really asses if I really like the Pin overall.

Aerosmith: I've only had the opportunity to play this briefly once (anyone know where there is one to play?) - wasn't hugely keen on the artwork, but I found it fun. Song listing I felt was lacking a bit? ; no Dream on?!

Again, I'd love to hear from say massive AC/DC/Maiden/Aerosmith fans on what they think of the pins (I feel lucky that I really like the 'tallica pin - also that it's a SAM game, so emulated in Visual pinball too...)
 
It’s a great game at a stupid price. Really should be 5K.

Iron Maiden is fantastic
AC/DC is good
Metallica is good
Aerosmith is a turd.

Neil.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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Yeah the price killed it for me. Shame really. As for other music pins I like Metallica and absolutely LOVE Iron Maiden. Maiden is probably my favourite game right now, such a blast to play. I'd like another at some point
 
Zero interest in the Beatles game so can’t help there - sorry.

iron maiden is great.

ac/dc is incredibly well done

Alice Cooper isn’t in the same league but is good as a contrast

I like Aerosmith but I’m in the minority. Game times are long though. One based at my place 😉

Guns n roses. Some nice features but dreadful artwork

kiss. Not spent enough time on it

Rolling Stones. Plays better than it looks.
 
MET awesome
IMDN awesome
Beatles - fun but mad price
Aerosmith - OK but not a great fan of the band
KISS (Stern) - crapfest - dump one on me now (not really its a cracking game)
KISS (Bally) - iconic machine but will bore the pants off modern players. Still looks fantastic
ACNC - enjoyed the few goes I had but not on my hit list
GnR - sounds great but plays as it looks ie a clunker
Elvis - plays well as is a Steve R game but really one for the fans
Rolling Stones (Bally) - awful
Rolling Stones (Stern) - worse (ducks from Sgt Grizz wrath)
AC/DC - everyone loves the Acca Dacca - my favorite music pin
Nugent - Stern were clutching at licenses in the 70s! - played once at Expo. You are not missing out
Rock - quite fond of Rock but it dated VERY quickly
Dolly Parton - lovely game but most are won out

and the most crazy music pin...

any game that has the marketing slogan of "if its too loud you are too old!" has to be a winner!

hm.jpg
 
Metallica - Genius
Iron Maiden - Epic
AC/DC - Awesome
Kiss Stern - Hell yes please 😃
Beatles - Great package - nice 60s vibe, would have preferred if they played more of the tracks
Aerosmith- I would have bought this already except for:-
Jackie gets on my tits and the Dude looks like a lady reveal shots with the guy in a Tutu grinds after a while. 😬 . Having said that ....... the art pack on the playfield is extremely cool 😎That LE up for sale right now is an absolute bargain....
 
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I love AC/DC in all it's forms - and the number of different versions is impressive:

Two Limited Editions, the Premium, Luci, and the Pro, and then the LED Pro which I believe also had a swinging bell.
Vaults of Luci and the Premium (OK these were not so different from the originals).
And finally the Pro Vault which is a real upgrade on the original with the swinging bell and - thank goodness - revised art without the hard-to-like "Leering Face."

My favourite is the Pro Vault although most people seem to think that's crackers. I've played a mate's Back in Black lots - and several Premiums - and they're all fab, but for me the Pro Vault still gives the best, most exciting game.

The Good - all versions:

1. The music is perfect for pinball and integrates brilliantly with the game.
2. The toys: the cannon and bell are just the best. They may not be as impressive as collapsing castles or sinking ships but that's not the point. Most toys are stand-alone, dead-end streets. Eg. Hit castle until it collapses, get points, start again. Hit well-walker until getting 2 ball multi-ball, start again. With AC/DC the cannon and bell are woven into the rules - you have to use them all the time throughout the game, and using them cleverly is a huge part of getting a big score.
3. The rules. The main rules for AC/DC are actually simple and (to me) inspired. I do like score based pins and AC/DC is right up my street. I also like short, frequent multi-balls and this pin delivers. The elusive, gigantic-scoring song jackpot is awesome.

4. And for Luci the art - wished they all looked like that.

Not Quite So Good:

1. The lower playfield. Doesn't do much for me.
2. Over-stuffed ruleset. The main rules are great, but there's too many weird extras such as Album Bonus. There''s a Google Docs for AC/DC rules and it's 34 pages long. That's too long!
3. The cross-over ramp on the Premium. It just makes loading the cannon easier - doesn't need to be easier - and adds yet another rule.
4. And (this is trivial) that clockwork band toy top-right on the Premium playfield.

I bought my Vault NIB 3 years ago and I've never regretted it. Of all the Sterns I've been lucky enough to play AC/DC still stands way out in front as my all-time favourite.
 
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Metallica is fantastic
AC/DC is great too, although it took a while for me to get the rules (or enough of them for it to start to make sense)
Not played Kiss or Aerosmith
Beatles is fun but I wouldn't own one
I love GnR
I actually enjoyed Mick on a stick, but probably only had 10 or so games on it over the years.
Iron Maiden I've only played once at PinFest, so I had no idea what I was doing!

You'll not find Beatles emulated in VP, it's a spike game so not currently supported by PinMAME, the only Spike game playable is Ghostbusters and that was done using some funky reverse engineering of the TPA version, not the actual native Stern ROM.
 
just to throw in a curveball and I know this is gonna be controversial but bear in mind I own IMDN prem. But out of all the aforementioned music pins and I’ve played them all! for me GOTG with clellands custom code (slightly amended via Jim at myPinballs) is the grail music pin for me and would go so far to say it’s a veritable jukebox of ear candy IMHO. Best part is you not tied to one band but have the option from the movies awesome two soundtracks. Roll on GOTG 3 for yet more classic tune love.
maybe it’s the fact I love the theme, the mode based gameplay and the way it’s all been integrated into the pin. But the icing on the cake is the soundtrack from the ELOs mr blue sky which kicks off at the start all the way through to the end which plays out fleetwood macs the chain

I first bought a GOTG pro but loved it so much I managed to get hold of an LE c/o ChrisB and Jim over at myPinballs specifically adapted clellands code to work on there for me, what a gent. For me and Gabe this pin will always be a keeper.

Track listing as follows:
Mr Blue Sky
Cherry Bomb
Hooked on a feeling
Aint no mountain high enough
Come alittle bit closer
Moonage daydream
Lake Shore Drive
Fox on the Run
The Rubberband Man
Surrender
I Want You Back
The Chain
 
I may have been incorrect about Beatles in VPX it seems, I can see a couple of youtube vids of one, looks to be a non-public table though.
 
ChrisH said:
I may have been incorrect about Beatles in VPX it seems, I can see a couple of youtube vids of one, looks to be a non-public table though.
Click to expand...
Hi Chris, what it is, is someone recreated the table in VPX, but it doesn't use the Stern roms; the rules are just coded and someone released a Pinup pack for the video and sound (which I'd imagine is different than the Stern video but don't know)
The table was briefly available via the usual channels, but was then pulled (likely due to avoid a notice from Stern which is I understand what happened with Ghostbusters)
If anyone knows where to get the table feel free to give me a heads up if you bump in to me at Flipout!

*Haven't got pinup player installed on my cab yet; I haven't got the enthusiasm to mess about with that at the mo' but will do oe day for the PBFX Aliens pack alone..._Also for the Original Stranger Things Ver.2 table someone did which i hear great things about)

- Den
 
Surprised nobody has mentioned Tommy ! Or The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard to give it it's official name :cool:

One of the best DE titles. And even better with Chad's 5.0 code update from a couple years ago. Also featuring one of the best toys in pinball - the flipper blinders !

The music isn't to everyone's liking seeing that it's taken from the Broadway versions rather than The Who originals - and they have been given the Data East high octane treatment in places :rofl: But there is loads of it. To be honest I find quite a few of the original Who Tommy numbers a bit dirgy and depressing so I have no beef with the factory DE mixes.

You can of course chuck a Pinsound board in there and load on all The Who versions.
 
Den - aka Wolfgang said:
Hi Chris, what it is, is someone recreated the table in VPX, but it doesn't use the Stern roms; the rules are just coded and someone released a Pinup pack for the video and sound (which I'd imagine is different than the Stern video but don't know)
The table was briefly available via the usual channels, but was then pulled (likely due to avoid a notice from Stern which is I understand what happened with Ghostbusters)
If anyone knows where to get the table feel free to give me a heads up if you bump in to me at Flipout!

*Haven't got pinup player installed on my cab yet; I haven't got the enthusiasm to mess about with that at the mo' but will do oe day for the PBFX Aliens pack alone..._Also for the Original Stranger Things Ver.2 table someone did which i hear great things about)

- Den
Click to expand...

Actually that does now ring a bell - I'd have seen it was a non-rom / pinup table and ignored it and forgotten it ever existed :rofl:
 
I get the Pro, Premium, Le model but this is just daylight robber......
A case of change the Powdercoat to a different colour, change from gold to diamond or platinum. Reduce the numbers and Bingo 👍.
The Decals and Trans-lites look worse the more you pay also.....😬 where’s the logic?
For the wealthy though, a study was done that some individuals won’t pay for items that are too cheaply priced not matter what.... - I guess this may fall into that bracket. 🙄
 
kevlar said:
Didn't stop them charging 5k for a little square of Elvira's couch!
Click to expand...

no but I doubt that is mass produced I suspect they only sell that to order as it’s the same as an le but just with couch and signature so no extra cost to stern another game that has bombed though
 
Only 2 in the UK not popular at the min other than jp and maybe stranger things it’s not been a great year for stern
Bk3000 bombed
Munsters bombed
Elvira bombed or maybe just a slow start like bm66
 
I’d like an Elvira. Problem is not at 6k+ I’m struggling to think of many themes I would pay this for and even if I did then I’d still feel like I’d missed out on the premium version.
 
Do you think it would be an idea perhaps for Stern to now interact and have a Poll on Pinside?
For example:-
Themes you would most like to see in coming years......2022 etc.....
Next Vault release......
Pin Mechs most wanted
Pin Toys most wanted
Even an upload section for possible playfield layouts images etc......
Artwork etc.....
Of course, all subject to licensing constraints but....
Stern could view this, concentrate their efforts knowing they are designing what the market wants. They wouldn’t need to spill the beans as to what is getting built until release as could be anything from say the top 5 .......

Just a thought......
 
Stern have a problem, they have to keep churning out stuff, and the real question is, is there the market for it? Answer probably yes, but if they over supply, prices fall and then they have an even bigger problem.......
 
One things for sure, it must be a production and logistical nightmare juggling with so many current pins.
Especially when the Good Out starts backing up with boxes that ain’t shifting 😬
 
TRON is the best music pin and compared to today’s prices was an absolute bargain NIB.
 
J85M said:
TRON is the best music pin and compared to today’s prices was an absolute bargain NIB.
Click to expand...
Yeah.....I was too early in the hobby, missed out.
Movie was just made for Pinball, it’s got ultra cool lighting and sounds for sure 👍
 
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