STERN ANNOUNCES KISS PINBALL

[Rock-ola]

05-05-2015 07:55 PM
Stern Pinball release a video previewing their upcoming Kiss pinball. We've got the video and examine the game's new features.

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[Itchigo]

I don't get it.They want to maximize profitability, but they keep doing themes that require huge payouts. Yes, I know- brand recognition..... I want to play the "latest Stern table" because it's a good game, not because of the theme. Why can't they do a theme like Jersey Jack did that doesn't require a big payout?

I'm not sore that they took a younger kid over me a couple years ago, I just don't get why we can't do any original ideas anymore in this country?

Example, I have a VPtable I started a while ago. It could easily be a real table. General Egyptian theme. No huge payout, maybe for any photos, or artwork, hardly the same as AC-DC.

:End Rant:

 

[sleepy]

The reason for KISS is because "it's retro". They are a fun theme for pinball,
but before this announcement, last night I was asking myself, sleeoy, why the fuck don't they do a Dark Side of the Moon machine, or a composite of classic Floyd?

 

[sleepy]

Not to diss you Itchigo, and I do agree. I miss those original pinball themes that don't make a rerun out of staying at home watching t.v., or last years movie.

They could update a Williams Blackout with some new tricks and make it the DSOTM machine. But that is different. DSOTM could easily be the next Twilight Zone, a machine with a theme that I also like. But usually, I'd rather play an Eight Ball Deluxe, Centaur, Embryon, Electra, etc.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I agree. When I think of my favorite pinball machines, very few are outside intellectual properties, since I never did get the whole Addam's Family pinball deal. Star Trek TNG would be the lone entry... maybe the old Bally Space Invaders machine. And let's not forget that there's already been a KISS pinball machine. That's something Stern forgot when they put out that Rolling Stones abomination they released a few years back.

 

[Itchigo]

NP at all Sleepy. I'd like to see that, but let's face it. Pink Floyd isn't the "slam bang" kind of music that goes with pinball. While Kiss and AC-DC do have the type of music that could work well with a game, they cost an arm and a leg be cause of the rights. Don't get me wrong, I love Floyd!!

Many of the best games out there have a "fantasy" theme. Target Alpha, Vector, EBD, Taxi, High Speed, Lectronamo, Nine Ball, Black Knight, I could go on. They are not based on a TV show, or other. That means someone thought of that on their own... To bad they don't work in radio...., or TV...., or?


Dammmit!! Now you have me thinking about a Floyd table!! You know what it's like to give me ideas? Shit gets blown up!

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Paragon. That was a table ahead of its time. It's one of the few tables of that era that had a ton of stuff to do. Clear out the multiplayer targets, hit one saucer to win a free game, hit the other to build up points and of course that glorious moment when you would be guaranteed 20,000 bonus points each ball if you could just... get... the bonus score... up to 20! Now that's a pinball table!

 

[bha19]

I don't think we would ever see a Pink Floyd table. I know when WKRP TV series released their box set they could not get the rights to Pink Floyd which was key to the most popular episode of the show. Maybe pinball would be different.

 

[Itchigo]

Paragon: Another one that's not based on anything. Paul Faris even put himself, and his wife on the backglass. First table with inline drop targets. Great one.

 

[Shooby Doo]

A big market for Stern's new machines are doctor and lawyer types who want a pinball machine in their man-cave / pool room, but aren't necessarily pinheads, so these hard-rockin bands from the 80's are the perfect nostalgia-makers. For a regular pin-head, you have to like the band or you won't want to play it (at least me, I have no desire to play AC/DC or Metallica, and now KISS). In other words, new pins aren't being made just for true pinball fans, but for people who have the money to blow on extravagant things. Gary Stern mentioned they are a fairly high percentage of their sales these days.

Something I've never understood and hasn't been explained: The original Bally "KISS" plays "Sweet Georgia Brown" when you start a game. The next table Bally released after that was "Harlem Globe Trotters", and it doesn't play "Sweet Georgia Brown". What the hell is with that?

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Hell, I'm a Stones fan and I wouldn't play that Stern abomination! Shooby's explanation also makes clear why they made a NASCAR table! The Globetrotter's machine I played as a kid always started out with "Sweet Georgia Brown". Well, as far as those machines could play music. I think I played the old KISS machine maybe twice. Didn't like them, didn't like the table. I don't think the new one's gonna be much different.

 

[sleepy]

I didn't get the Addams' Family pinball deal either.
The family is still holding the stipend money for the film and the game, the patent for the in-line drops, the squiggly lane, and 6 of the machines of which you speak highly.

Say hello to my little friend (the source material).

 

[sleepy]

I probably should explain that picture. It is of my old man's prosthetic right hand which he acquired in 1962 as a one-handed garage mechanic.

He was friends with Rip Torn.

The Thing Bank was a novelty toy that was produced during the t.v. series run in '66. I wanted the machine to use that bank mech of The Thing, but with a recreation of my old man's prosthetic hand, to pick up the pinballs.
I suggested adding the magnet to my old man's "hand", to make it work.

I wonder why the The Thing pinball box was pink? In the t.v. show, the box was of a highly polished casket wood dark.