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Episode 91 - Stern's Dark Age: Pinball in the 2000s
PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago1 hr 1 min listen
Highlights
- Stern Pinball production runs in 1999-2001 were estimated at 800 units or less for early games, with Monopoly at 3,640 units representing a massive hit that justified the numbers.
- Gary Stern was extremely cost-conscious but necessarily so for survival, implementing standardization (black rubbers across all games, removal of slam tilt switches, wire-saving measures) that continued industry practices.
- Monopoly (2001) brought Williams-level polish to Stern games through typography improvements, distinct music cues per mode, and professional team (Chris Graner sound, John Youssi art, Greg/Louis software, John Crutch mechanics).
- Williams ownership deliberately prevented asset sale to successful operators like Roger Sharpe to avoid stockholders seeing someone else succeed with Williams IP.
- Lord of the Rings (2003, George Gomez) is the highest-ranked game of the 2003-2007 'hope era' at #14 all-time on Pinside; Simpsons Pinball Party ranks #34.
Notable quotes
“It's so cool because you can tell what mode is running from the other room because they all have different music cues.”
“You made a Williams game at Sega.”
“Look, I understand what you're saying, but you're talking about X amount of dollars that's coming off my balance sheet. And I don't have it.”
“I think that the ownership at Williams was not willing to sell the assets to anybody who would actually be successful with them.”
“Gary was a businessman who drove a hard bargain... there was a way that Pat wanted to do things and it wasn't going to work in this new context.”
“I actually used this example. I gave a presentation at the job that I worked at several years ago about how we could benefit from standardization versus writing bespoke software all the time using Stern as an example.”
Entities
- Data East USA Inc.· company
- Pat Lawlor· company
- Sega· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams Electronics· company
- Lord of the Rings· game
- Monopoly· game
- NASCAR· game
- Pirates of the Caribbean· game
- Roller Coaster Tycoon· game
- Simpsons Pinball Party· game
- Alan· person
- Alex· person
- Chris Graner· person
- Gary Stern· person
- Gene Cunningham· person
- George Gomez· person
- Greg Dunlap· person
- John Yossi· person
- Keith Johnson· person
- Pat Lawlor· person
- Roger Sharpe· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
