# KEEPING THE BALL ALIVE REVIEW

**Source:** Pinball News Website  
**Type:** article  
**Published:** 2021-01-12  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballnews.com/site/2021/01/12/keeping-the-ball-alive-review

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## Analysis

A review of the long-delayed Kickstarter book 'Keeping the Ball Alive: 30+ Years of Stern Pinball' by Paperflock Inc., which took 1,551 days to deliver (October 2016 to January 2021). The reviewer details the book's promise, production failures, and substantial quality issues including poor editing, factual errors, wasted opportunities in the manufacturing section, and inconsistent formatting across machine documentation.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Paperflock's Kickstarter for 'Keeping the Ball Alive' launched October 14, 2016 with a $50k target and 444 backers — _Reviewer directly cites Kickstarter project launch date and backer numbers_
- [HIGH] Initial estimated delivery was May 2017, but book was not received until January 12, 2021 (1,551 days after payment) — _Reviewer provides explicit timeline and delivery date_
- [HIGH] Postage and packing costs increased from estimated $14 to $85, raising total book cost over $140 — _Reviewer states received invoice amount and original Kickstarter estimate_
- [HIGH] The book contains multiple factual errors, formatting inconsistencies, spelling and grammatical errors throughout — _Reviewer provides specific examples including Checkpoint DMD error and 'Bottom Above' formatting mistake_
- [HIGH] The 57-page 'Making of a Pinball Machine' section lacks explanatory text and reads as page-filler with repetitive factory photography — _Reviewer describes three consecutive photos of hand soldering and criticizes lack of context or detail_
- [HIGH] Slash (Guns N' Roses guitarist) provided foreword but has since created an actual pinball table with Jersey Jack Pinball during the time it took Paperflock to produce the book — _Reviewer explicitly notes the irony of Slash's involvement with competing manufacturer JJP_
- [HIGH] The book is 248 high-gloss pages with dimensions approximately 310 x 265 mm (12.2″ x 10.5″) — _Reviewer provides specific measurements and page count_

### Notable Quotes

> "I received my book today, January 12th, just 1,551 days after paying!"
> — **Reviewer**, n/a
> _Highlights the extreme delays in delivery from initial Kickstarter pledge_

> "Rather than admitting defeat they made excuse after excuse before finally giving up all expectation of their ambition and simply wanting to get the project finished by throwing hundreds of photographs at the page without any thought behind it."
> — **Reviewer**, n/a
> _Summarizes the reviewer's assessment of Paperflock's approach to completing the project_

> "My biggest regret isn't backing the project in the first place, but the fact that my name is actually printed in it, so some people may think I actually endorse this book in its current form."
> — **Reviewer**, n/a
> _Expresses the reviewer's frustration at being credited in a book they believe is of poor quality_

> "To me this is the biggest wasted opportunity to showcase all the expertise in both design and assembly it takes to manufacture pinball machines in bulk."
> — **Reviewer**, n/a
> _Identifies a specific missed opportunity in the manufacturing section content_

> "If it was the 'first ever used' what 'standard DMD used at the time' is it half the height of?"
> — **Reviewer**, n/a
> _Example of factual inaccuracy in the book's 'Fun Fact' section regarding Checkpoint_

> "Even in this they manage to get the order different for each machine thus making it hard for a quick-glance reference, and the information is often buried in some obscure, partly hidden part of the page."
> — **Reviewer**, n/a
> _Demonstrates poor editorial consistency in formatting machine specifications_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Paperflock Inc. | company | Publisher that launched and produced the Kickstarter book 'Keeping the Ball Alive' |
| Stern Pinball | company | Subject of the book; covered from its Data East roots through Sega acquisition to modern operations |
| Martin | person | Editor of Pinball News who requested the review |
| Slash | person | Guns N' Roses guitarist who provided foreword to the book and later created a pinball machine with Jersey Jack Pinball |
| Zombie Yeti | person | Stern Pinball artist whose exclusive artwork was offered as a Kickstarter bonus tier |
| Gary Stern | person | Stern Pinball executive featured in book photographs including at Playboy Mansion |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Competing pinball manufacturer mentioned as having collaborated with Slash during Paperflock's delays |
| Pinball News | organization | Publication whose editor and reviewer provided this analysis |
| Data East Pinball | company | Historical predecessor to Stern Pinball, covered in book's historical section |
| Sega Pinball | company | Historical pinball division between Data East and modern Stern operations, covered in book |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Kickstarter project management and delays, Book publishing quality and editorial standards, Stern Pinball history and documentation
- **Secondary:** Pinball manufacturing processes, Stern Pinball factory operations, Pinball industry historical documentation, Factual accuracy in reference materials

### Sentiment

**Negative** (0.15) — The reviewer is sharply critical of nearly every aspect of the book's execution, quality, and content delivery. While acknowledging a few interesting historical points in the first chapter and appreciating the photo reproduction quality, the overwhelming assessment is severely negative. The reviewer describes the book as 'a shambles' and expresses regret at having their name in it.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Paperflock Inc. failed to deliver on Kickstarter commitments with massive delays (1,551 days) and quality compromises, suggesting project mismanagement or capability overestimation (confidence: high) — Project launched October 2016 with May 2017 estimated delivery; book finally delivered January 2021 with numerous production failures
- **[event_signal]** Pinball News published detailed book review providing industry accountability and quality documentation (confidence: high) — Pinball News editor commissioned and published comprehensive critique of Kickstarter book
- **[market_signal]** Significant cost overrun on Kickstarter shipping and materials ($85 vs $14 estimated), raising final product cost to $140+ (confidence: high) — Reviewer received invoice for $85 postage vs $14 originally estimated during Kickstarter campaign
- **[product_concern]** Book's manufacturing section (57 pages) represents wasted opportunity with repetitive factory photography and no contextual information or educational content (confidence: high) — Reviewer notes section includes three consecutive photos of hand soldering with no explanatory text about manufacturing processes, materials, or timelines
- **[product_concern]** Published book contains systematic factual errors, grammatical mistakes, formatting inconsistencies, and missing information despite being a commercial product (confidence: high) — Multiple examples cited: Checkpoint DMD logical error, 'Bottom Above' typo, inconsistent machine specification ordering, missing features for Laser War and Secret Service

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## Transcript

As one of the first in the UK to receive my copy of *Keeping the Ball Alive – 30+ Years of Stern Pinball*, Pinball News’s Editor, Martin, asked me if I would be interested in writing a review of the book.

To fully appreciate this review first you need to understand the journey it has taken to get this book.

On October 14th, 2016 a Kickstarter project was launched by Paperflock Inc. to produce a coffee-table-style book documenting the thirty years of Stern pinball.

[![The original Kickstarter project](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/09-keeping-the-ball-alive-1024x576.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/09-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

The original Kickstarter project

The cost for just the book, with no frills, was $55 (£40).

As with the majority of Kickstarter projects, you could pledge extra to get additional bonuses, including such things as T-shirts, jackets, exclusive Zombie Yeti artwork, posters, a dust jacket signed by Stern’s designers and even Slash’s signature. Prices for these went as high as $2,500 (£1,850)! Estimated delivery was May 2017.

I opted for the basic package of just the book and was excited to see that they reached their target of $50k pledged from 444 backers just 2 weeks after launching, and that the book was indeed going to be made.

At first updates came regularly from Paperflock, but then excuses were made as to the delays. Then there was just radio silence.

As the weeks, months and YEARS passed, I had given up hope of ever receiving my book and put it down to experience.

Then, in November 2020 Paperflock announced that the end was in sight and they were confident of being able to print and ship the books in time for Christmas.

I then received an invoice for $85 (£63) for postage and packing (against an estimated fee at the time of the Kickstarter of $14) taking the total cost of the book over $140 (£100).

I received my book today, January 12th, just 1,551 days after paying!

[![The subtitle has now changed to 30+ years of Stern Pinball](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/08-keeping-the-ball-alive-1024x640.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/08-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

The subtitle has now changed to 30+ years of Stern Pinball

So was it worth the wait?

The package arrived in a standard USPS priority mail cardboard box. Despite the outside being slightly damaged, the book was well protected in bubble wrap & paper and was undamaged.

[![The shipping box for the book](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/03-keeping-the-ball-alive-1024x626.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/03-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

The shipping box for the book

The book itself is approximately 310 x 265 mm (12.2″ x 10.5″) and comes with a glossy printed dust jacket.

[![The Keeping the Ball Alive book by Paperflock](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/01-keeping-the-ball-alive-1024x640.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/01-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

The Keeping the Ball Alive book by Paperflock

Underneath the dust jacket, the front cover is plain black embossed with the same logo.

![The embossed front cover under the dust jacket](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/04-keeping-the-ball-alive-892x1024.jpg)

The embossed front cover under the dust jacket

There are 248 high-gloss pages. The printing of all the original artwork and photographs is of a high-quality with good definition. I actually prefer that the older photos show their age and were obviously taken at a time when photography wasn’t as advanced for the general public. They still portray their subjects perfectly.

The content itself is split into three parts. Keeping the ball alive – *30+ Years of Stern Pinball* (35 pages) , *The Making of a Pinball Machine* (57 pages), followed by the machines themselves listed chronologically from 1987-2017 through the different iterations of the company: Data East Pinball, Sega Pinball & finally Stern Pinball (141 pages).

After a foreword by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who rather ironically has managed to get involved with Stern’s rivals, Jersey Jack Pinball, and create an actual pinball table in the time it has taken Paperflock to produce this book, we move on to the back story of how Data East Pinball came in to existence.

I found this part of the book by far the most interesting and engaging, with various quotes from various Stern insiders and lots of previously unseen pictures and photographs of Stern employees mingling with celebrities, including Gary Stern at the Playboy Mansion – thankfully fully-clothed.

The next section entitled *The Making of a Pinball Machine* is 57 pages of photographs inside the modern-day Stern factory. At least I assume that it is the modern-day Stern factory, as there is not a single word explaining what we are looking at.

To me this is the biggest wasted opportunity to showcase all the expertise in both design and assembly it takes to manufacture pinball machines in bulk. It comes across as simply page-filler – there are three consecutive photographs of a gloved hand soldering a wire to a switch!

They could have gone into detail of how many miles of wire are in a machine, how long it takes to assemble a machine, how many pop bumpers Stern use a year, the options are almost limitless – and all ignored.

The final section was what I was really looking forward to, detailing every machine made by Data East/Sega/Stern since 1987.

I was expecting pictures of prototype designs, whitewoods, failed experiments, details of the designer, who did the artwork, the music, maybe even some anecdotes specific to the game (e.g. Did you know that the Guinness World Record for marathon pinball playing was achieved on a *World Poker Tour* lasting over 30 hours?).

We get none of that.

What we get is one or two pages dedicated to each machine with photographs and artwork thrown at it with no proof of thought having gone into it. Almost every machine has multiple pictures of the cabinet from a slightly different angle, but not in close up to be able to see the detail on the backglass.

You do get a ‘Fun Fact’, although the use of both the words ‘Fun’ and ‘Fact’ is open to debate. Here’s an example from Checkpoint. “*The game had the first dot matrix display (DMD) ever used on a pinball game! it used a ‘half-height’ DMD as compared to the standard DMD used at the time*.”

[![The page for the game Checkpoint](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/05-keeping-the-ball-alive-1024x758.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/05-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

The page for the game Checkpoint

My question is this; If it was the “*first ever used*” what “*standard DMD used at the time*” is it half the height of?

The whole book is filled with similar inaccuracies and errors, and they’re just the ones I spotted at first read through without any insider industry knowledge.

Almost every machine does have a ‘Features’ list, consisting of number of flippers, bumpers, ramps, slingshots\* and balls in multiballs.
\*I have not found a machine detailed which did not have 2 slingshots.

Even in this they manage to get the order different for each machine thus making it hard for a quick-glance reference, and the information is often buried in some obscure, partly hidden part of the page.

I say “*almost every machine*” as they do not have these listed for the very first machine they document, *Laser War*, or indeed the next, *Secret Service* (they both have 2 slingshots). There is no real excuse for this. They have pictures of the machine so could count themselves, or even just use Google.

Throughout the book there are many, many formatting, spelling and grammatical errors.

[![Part of the page for Stern's Indiana Hilton Jones](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/06-keeping-the-ball-alive-768x1024.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/06-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

Part of the page for Stern’s Indiana Hilton Jones

[![What is "Bottom Above"?](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/07-keeping-the-ball-alive-1024x698.jpg)](https://www.pinballnews.com/site/wp-content/uploads/learn/keeping-the-ball-alive/07-keeping-the-ball-alive.jpg)

What is “Bottom Above”?

There may well be spelling or grammatical errors in this review (unless Martin has edited them out), but the difference is I am not publishing this in a book and expecting to receive a profit (although any donations would be happily accepted).

Overall, the book is a shambles.

It does have a few interesting points and pictures, but these are almost exclusively in the first chapter.

It seems that after starting this project, and receiving the money, they realised that they were not capable of producing what they had promised and panicked. Rather than admitting defeat they made excuse after excuse before finally giving up all expectation of their ambition and simply wanting to get the project finished by throwing hundreds of photographs at the page without any thought behind it.

If the book became available on Amazon – they have already hinted at another run – I would expect it to sell for a maximum of £25, and even then, not get any more than 3-star reviews.

My biggest regret isn’t backing the project in the first place, but the fact that my name is actually printed in it, so some people may think I actually endorse this book in its current form.

_(Acquisition: raw_text, Enrichment: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 0d1c6a23-cc56-42ed-9363-7e4ee736580b*