Episode 48: Pinball Drama, Stern Hate, & the Sleeper Hit of 2025?!
The Flipside Pinball Podcast
1 hr 4 min
Summary
Retro Ralph defends Stern's cabinet changes amid community backlash, urges data-driven thinking.
Retro Ralph addresses community overreaction to 'Woodgate': Stern's cabinet construction changes revealed in Walking Dead Remastered (Premium/LE): arguing the modifications are logical cost-management decisions, not quality degradation. He critiques the pinball community's tendency toward extreme reactions based on incomplete information, defends Stern while calling for better manufacturer communication, and uses satirical AI-generated content to push back on narratives portraying him as a 'Stern shill.'
Highlights
- Stern's The Walking Dead Remastered (Premium/LE) uses a five-ply wood core with composite veneer and steel support brackets instead of traditional stapled-and-glued construction.
- The cabinet construction change is a manufacturing/cost optimization decision, not a quality or durability downgrade.
- Stern should have proactively published technical documentation or video explaining the cabinet and electronics changes to prevent community speculation.
- Retro Ralph experienced a CPU board failure on his Walking Dead Remastered (Premium/LE) that was resolved quickly by Stern via Flip N Out Pinball (distributor), without preferential treatment.
- Spooky's Evil Dead has a poor playfield latch design requiring someone to hold latches during reassembly: a design flaw nobody discusses publicly.
- The pinball hobby requires technical know-how and tolerance for maintenance; no pinball machine can remain fully serviceable-free indefinitely.
- Barrels of Fun corrected quality control issues with Dune and has handled customer problems appropriately despite the initial stumble.
- Ralph is developing satirical AI-generated video content parodying community discourse about Stern and pinball; he cleared this with Stern contact before posting.
In this episode, things get a little spicy 🌶️. We break down pinball drama that honestly didn’t need to happen, why it’s suddenly cool to hate on Stern Pinball, and whether The Walking Dead Remastered is actually better than people give it credit for. We also dive into Predator by Pinball Brothers and why it might be the sleeper hit of 2025 that no one is really talking about — yet.
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