It's official
phishrace
Game Innovator and Designer"
Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
video games. Oh well.
-phish
Drewscruis
> "World's Only Maker of Arcade Pinball Games Welcomes Steve Ritchie,
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
well there not the only maker of games anymore are they?
kbliznick
It's official, the PR person for Stern doesn't know pinball history
Steve did not introduce multi-ball (firepower was the first solid
state multi-ball, but there are many EM's with it)
Also is "transparent playfields" a reference to WPT? This would have
to go to maybe Gottlieb or Bally for the windows in games like Black
Hole, Haunted House, Elektra, or for full plastic mini playfields
maybe Zacarria for pins like Farfalla.
MRG
> "World's Only Maker of Arcade Pinball Games Welcomes Steve Ritchie,
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
BK3K
Del
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
Congrats to Steve ! ,
This just might get me back on the Stern Bandwagon =)
Pin-Del,
cargpb28
appetite4pinball
It sounds like he is also working with Dwight Sullivan and Ray Tanzer
on his next game. Between this and Jersey Jack, we should be in for a
great year of pinball!
SilverUnicorn
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
I think this can only be good for Stern. We'll see how much they let
out the leash. Congrats Steve!
Make a great one!
Chris
brokenvette
>
> - Show quoted text -
Maybe, if Gary and the bean counters will stay out Steves way. Sounds
like a bad rock band doesnt it. Gary and the bean counters.
citznfish
> On Mar 2, 12:50 pm, phishrace <phishr...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> well there not the only maker of games anymore are they?
I beg to differ. I haven't seen anything MADE by the other company
yet.
or, you could argue that those chinese companies are also pinball mfg.
Or zizzle. ;-)
mr tobias
With reference to the other threads on this subject, I don't think
rejoining Stern reflects badly on Steve at all. But it does highlight
Gary Stern's poor judgement in getting rid of him in the first place -
and in an apparently questionable manner.
I still believe it is a real shame SR's Avatar went into the trash
can. Looked a far more interesting layout than what we ended up with.
Lloyd Olson
"citznfish" <citz...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:88301b11-37db-4e4c...@u24g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
citznfish
It'll probably be pull out of the trash and retitled as a 2012 model
something or another.
Lloyd Olson
employees and subcontractors ( I think that is what Pat and Steve were )
what do you do ?
stern at that time had a dream team, some of the best there ever was in
pinball, designers and programmers. And still watched sales tank.
A lot of people here condemmed them. But it isn't stern's hobby, it's their
business. And there are times where you do have to make decisions.
Boycotting them, calling them dickheads, didn't change a thing. LTG :)
"mr tobias" <john_...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:36718b91-a35d-4aa7...@p24g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
Rob T
Glad it's official, but the article itself is horrible.
--
Rob T
This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com
machine.slave
is more" philosophy.. although I'm hoping they let him go balls-out
instead :)
MetalPin
Yeah, I have a little woodrail game from the 50s called Balls A Poppin
that spits a helluva lot of balls out. As a matter of fact I have
another game from over a couple decades later sitting next to it that
was a homage to BAP - Centaur. Regardless, it's great to see the KING
of FLOW back at it.
Michael
Rare Hero
Let's hope! I think the "less-is-more" thing is what was needed for
2010 for them to survive and they managed to make some pretty fun
games under that philosophy. ...but, if you're a homeowner or an op
w/ a 2010 Stern pin or two, you don't need another. I think Tron's
going to be a start in amping things up a notch - and Steve's game
will hopefully be even more advanced. Perhaps having him in-house vs.
contracted will allow for a better creation/designing experience.
Congrats, Steve! Have fun!
Greg
MS
- Drop targets
- Spinning toy like the TOTAN lamp
- Airball ramp as in NGG. Didn't Big Hurt have something like that
too?
- Also, I want a pony
Congrats to Steve for sure. I don't care what kind of bridge burning
there was in the past, it's good to see them make amends.
gpsdrew
and also to Stern.
I can't wait to see what the king dreams up...
Drew
beatmaster
well, i don't care what they had between them in the past,
just make an awsome game steve, innovation (if possible) and everything
that was missing from the last pins!
now what will be the next pin?
--
beatmaster
toyboy6
I'm guessing Gary was able to bring Steve back under his new "tier"
philosophy. Steve will now be able to design the pins he envisions
for the "LE or high end" tier. They will then decontent them for the
"standard" edition. At least this way Steve can see his ultimate
vision come to life in one version. I would guess that knowing how
full-out Steve likes to go, he won't be involved in any of the
"standard" to "classic" versions though.
The only wrinkle here is that Steve will have to be designing the
games with the knowledge they will have to satisfy more than one
tier. His designs will have to be such that they will be flexible to
meet both markets.
Time will tell...all I know is I'm looking forward to the next one.
I'm sure Steve has been dreaming of "new" things to add into a pin for
the last couple of years.
Scott
pinball94
I think that is an old press release. The cache says:
This is Google's cache of http://www.sternpinball.com/PR_13.shtml. It
is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Feb 21, 2011 08:00:13 GMT
Plus there was no mention of the great games he made for Stern in that
press release whereas the most recent one from prnewswire mentions
Elvis, Spider-Man and Terminator 3.
Pinballed
world is back and ready to rock! What a fabulous day for pinball all
around!
Thanks Steve...looking forward to your next designs!!! :D
Stan
Ceegary
Sorry, but I have to laugh at this line in th PR " Our goal at Stern
is to continually push the envelope of what is possible and has never
been done." The only think that has never been done in the first part
of the sentence.
GRY
`•Starfighter••
>
> Sorry, but I have to laugh at this line in th PR " Our goal at Stern
> is to continually push the envelope of what is possible and has never
> been done." The only think that has never been done in the first part
> of the sentence.
>
> GRY
Yeah... maybe... IF Gary just keeps running the Boat Anchor Division
and he leaves Steve alone to create. Maybe....
TheKorn
news:362ceb58-f6f6-4548...@t15g2000prt.googlegroups.com:
Congrats Steve!
--
Have a home video that's trapped on your camera? Want to share it on the
web or on DVD?
funrudy
<0d1a17cd-e466-4345...@a11g2000pro.googlegroups.com>,
SilverUnicorn <wms...@gmail.com> wrote:
+1,000,000 for Stern coming to their senses and hiring a legend!
Pinball ain't yet dead yet and it just got ALOT better!
Edd
Rompen
Also, when are they going to stop saying, "Stern is the only maker of
full-sized, arcade quality pinball games on the planet"?
This simply isn't true. There are several makers of pinball games.
Maybe they can say they are the largest? But not the only.
PinballSales Jack
booth about 30 feet away from mine in Vegas.
Congrats Steve, happy to help,
Jack
Rare Hero
> Congrats Steve, happy to help,
Nice. ;)
Greg
wesley
> On Mar 2, 2:25 pm, Ceegary <garyjma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Sorry, but I have to laugh at this line in th PR " Our goal at Stern
> > been done." The only think that has never been done in the first part
> > of the sentence.
>
> > GRY
>
> Yeah... maybe... IF Gary just keeps running the Boat Anchor Division
> and he leaves Steve alone to create. Maybe....
Glad he's back at Stern and wish Steve well and hope furture pins are
awesome!
vidgameseller
I imagine that Stern will keep saying they are the only maker as long
as its true. As of right now JJ has not made a machine yet, and until
he produces WOZ and starts selling them, then Stern is the only maker
right now.
Detroitboy
>
> - Show quoted text -
Well...with WOZ at $6500 you can bet that Stern will have a price
increase in addition to more "cheaper to make" parts.
Daniel Tonks
> "World's Only Maker of Arcade Pinball Games Welcomes Steve Ritchie,
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
Gee, the whole "cancel Avatar, don't pay Steve, tick off Steve, lose his
design, end up making another Avatar more than a year later anyways, have
second thoughts, re-hire steve" seems like a huge waste of time and money
now, doesn't it?
- Dan
kbliznick
> > Maybe they can say they are the largest? But not the only.
>
> I imagine that Stern will keep saying they are the only maker as long
> as its true. As of right now JJ has not made a machine yet, and until
> he produces WOZ and starts selling them, then Stern is the only maker
Not even talking about JJP or TPF
MarsaPlay- New Canasta
Retro Pinball - King of Diamonds Remake
Illinois Pinball- Big Bang Bar remake and soon to be Kingpin
Now these guys may be niche suppliers with small production runs, but
they are full sized machines, they have coin-doors for coin-op use,
and as of the moment none of these companies have shut down. They may
not have production lines running product everyday, but they have
produced pins and are still in business with plans to manufacture more.
Rare Hero
> MarsaPlay- New Canasta
Where can I buy one?
> Retro Pinball - King of Diamonds Remake
Have any been finished/sold yet?
> Illinois Pinball- Big Bang Bar remake and soon to be Kingpin
Boutique shop. They maybe sometimes make pinball machines.
:)
Greg
captkirk
As I see it, I hope Stern, using Steve's designs, rolls out some great
games this year. I also hope that Jersey Jack's WoZ is a
groundbreaking design and great fun!
I can't think of a better year for pinball.
captkirk
kbliznick
Not sure about Retro if they finally got some on the market but they
did have actual photos of actual machines being assembled (as opposed
to TPF's 1 cabinet)
If CPR would ever move forward with the Lost Vegas kit that would make
4 other manufacturers, but in the meantime they sit in the JJP and TPF
as potenial manufacturers.
MrBally
You have two great games by a great Company there.
Lloyd Olson
layoffs.
I'm sure if they could have kept everybody and done things differently they
would have. LTG :)
"Daniel Tonks" <dtonks@sunstormADD-DOT-COM> wrote in message
news:4d6eda90$0$65856$892e...@auth.newsreader.octanews.com...
c2
> On Mar 2, 4:12 pm, kbliznick<kblizn...@aol.com> wrote:
>> MarsaPlay- New Canasta
>
> Where can I buy one?
You know darn well Marsaplay manufactures commercial games.
Whats up with you? At one time you were a fairly reasonable dude. I'm
starting to think you're on Stern's payroll. This obsessive defense of
all-things-Stern is a bit much.
-Craig
Rare Hero
> You know darn well Marsaplay manufactures commercial games.
They made one game. Are they making more? Where can one buy one?
I'm serious...I just Googled "New Canasta Pinball" w/ the shopping tab
- nothing shows up. OK, they made one game...how can I buy one? So,
IMO- they don't count. :)
> Whats up with you? At one time you were a fairly reasonable dude. I'm
> starting to think you're on Stern's payroll. This obsessive defense of
> all-things-Stern is a bit much.
I just bring a touch of reality to a massively fanboy conversation.
If you read my Stern posts, I don't always defend them. Look up
anything I've said about IJ4 or 24....or typos in games.
Greg
chuck
> If you don't have money to pay
> employees and subcontractors ( I think that is what Pat and Steve were )
> what do you do ?
You offer them well below going rate and offer stock in the company.
Oh wait, are we talking about stern? ;-)
MB
>
> - Show quoted text -
1980
1993
1995-1998
2003-04
:-)
MrBally
> "World's Only Maker of Arcade Pinball Games Welcomes Steve Ritchie,
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
Gary: We just need Pat "Guitar" Lawlor and "Blue" John Popadiuk and
we're gettin' them next.
Apologies to John and Pat, I just wanted to mimic Elwood and that was
the best I could come up with.
Seriously, Welcome back to Pinball Steve..... Let the games begin.
MB
it's still STERN and it's still Pinball we're talking about here.
Though I doubt very much that Steve would have signed back on with the
"devil" without contractural guarantees of artistic freedom and a
great deal of control in the design process- this isn't Apple computer
and Steve R is not Steve J. He cannot save STERN (or pinball for that
matter) single handedly.
We all know what needs to be done for pinball to survive- and I don't
see Gary willing to "innovate". Steve is my fav designer as well- a
BK3K would be a no brainer for me- but its' still a clunkfest,
pixelated POS platform he'll be designing around. Spidey is a great
game- one of Steve's best- but I'm ready, in this economy, for
something completely new, not just new toys or shots.
Someone, somewhere needs to pull something special- ala PB2K. My money
is on the other horse in this race to perhaps bring some "ah...cool"
back to the game and locations.
`•Starfighter••
>
> Gee, the whole "cancel Avatar, don't pay Steve, tick off Steve, lose his
> design, end up making another Avatar more than a year later anyways, have
> second thoughts, re-hire steve" seems like a huge waste of time and money
> now, doesn't it?
>
> - Dan
Yep. Gary is the Charlie Sheen of pinball.
A true genius never needing to defend his vision.
-Mike
Dr. Dave
Playboy machine should feature Charlie instead of Hef! = )
They could incorporate his 2 Goddess (one a porn star, the other a pot
magazine bikini model) girlfriend babes on the artwork:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/charlie-sheens-first-twee_n_830048.html
And in case anyone was wondering....
Charlie's Goddess's Sleeping arrangement interview here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/charlie-sheen-goddesses-polygamy-_n_830010.html
DR
cody chunn
would have even remotely considered hiring Steve back. I have a feeling he
would have been quite happy with as few salaries as he could get away with.
-cody
"Lloyd Olson" wrote in message
news:1KGdnXyCw8TrfPPQ...@skypoint.com...
Mark
> on his next game. Between this and Jersey Jack, we should be in for a
> great year of pinball!
>
> http://www.sternpinball.com/PR_13.shtml
Ray works for Namco, Dwight for WMS Gaming. That is the old press
release when Steve join for T3.
http://sternpinball.com/Community/Blogs/news/4391.aspx
TG
> "World's Only Maker of Arcade Pinball Games Welcomes Steve Ritchie,
> Game Innovator and Designer"
>
> http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/world-famous-game-designer-jo...
>
> Dammit! I was hoping Raw Thrills brought him in to help out with the
> video games. Oh well.
>
> -phish
Nice to see Steve back in the saddle again and designing games!
Congrats Steve!
Gonna miss you in the Bay Area Steve, but I hope you still make it to
the area shows here.
Todd
EZ E
between a rock and a hard spot and the only reason he asked you to
come back is because he's screwed! Make sure he pays you before you do
the work. How do you design a game where Gary "costs" everything off
the game!!!!!! E
Greg Kemnitz
words they use -very- specifically.
The phrase "Stern is the only maker of full-sized, arcade quality
pinball games on the planet", if one interprets the plural use of the
word "games" as being more than one title, would I believe be
technically correct at this point, as the other potentially viable
contenders seem to, as of yet, have each only achieved at best a
single title in the category.
Stern would not, of course, be eligable to claim that "Stern is the
only full-sized arcade quality pinball game manufacturer on the
planet", but narrowly looking at it splitting hairs by the use of the
plural, aren't they technically correct?
Marketing types, I have noted, often try to spin their claims to their
best advantage. Sometimes they overstep what part or most of their
audience will accept, but generally perception is reality for the
audience. So if a claim is technically correct, and gives an
impression even more impressive than reality, many folks consider that
"good marketing".
Whether it is or is not is of course a matter of personal opinion
until the post game wrapup can see how reality played out through to
the end.
I hope we never have to see any more "post game wrapups" need to occur
on a pinball manufacturer. Too many of them have already gone that
way...
There is room for all of the current players (manufacturers) to carve
out their special slice of the market, and let the others have their
own segment. And each ones successes have the possibility of spurring
further success in their own market segment, as well as the other
companies segments.
A market with only one player has to create its own legitimacy. With
meaningful competition, they all do their part to create a viable and
legitimate market for their products.
On Wed, 2 Mar 2011 14:57:39 -0800 (PST), vidgameseller
<vidgam...@aol.com> wrote:
>On Mar 2, 3:30 pm, Rompen <rompe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mar 2, 11:56 am, kbliznick <kblizn...@aol.com> wrote:
...
>> Also, when are they going to stop saying, "Stern is the only maker of
>> full-sized, arcade quality pinball games on the planet"?
>>
>> This simply isn't true. There are several makers of pinball games.
>> Maybe they can say they are the largest? But not the only.
>
>I imagine that Stern will keep saying they are the only maker as long
>as its true. As of right now JJ has not made a machine yet, and until
>he produces WOZ and starts selling them, then Stern is the only maker
>right now.
Greg Kemnitz - KB0OSO - +1.763.548.2600 - g...@skypoint.com
Retrogameconnection
> Gee, the whole "cancel Avatar, don't pay Steve, tick off Steve, lose his
> design, end up making another Avatar more than a year later anyways, have
> second thoughts, re-hire steve" seems like a huge waste of time and money
> now, doesn't it?
>
> - Dan
I agree.
Sounds like poor management decisions at the very least.
cody chunn
vague term and could be argued from one end to the other.
-cody
"Greg Kemnitz" wrote in message
news:tem6n65vqrbus76i9...@4ax.com...
Lloyd Olson
"Retrogameconnection" <win...@ca.rr.com> wrote in message
news:d45eac10-87f8-4e28...@o30g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
Really ? They couldn't continue paying their saleries. What do you suggest ?
At the time it was the only decision, good or bad. LTG :)
goatdan
> - Spinning toy like the TOTAN lamp
Oh man, I HATE that thing. Please, no.