# X-MEN Pinball - Behind the Scenes at Stern Pinball

**Source:** Stern Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2012-08-10  
**Duration:** 8m 30s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgGxOEjec_g

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## Analysis

Stern Pinball's behind-the-scenes video for X-Men pinball showcases the design and development team explaining their choice to base the game on classic comic book aesthetics rather than movie themes, due to richer material and 50+ years of lore. The team highlights innovative mechanical features including a magnetic Wolverine target, a moving Iceman ramp, and a complex Magneto multiball system with spinning disc technology. The game is positioned as accessible to casual players while offering strategic depth for experienced competitors, with extensive character representation from X-Men lore.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] X-Men LE will have more mechanisms than any other LE game Stern has made before, possibly more than any LE game the company has produced — _John Borg, lead designer, directly states this in video_
- [HIGH] Team chose comic book aesthetic over movie theme because there's 10 times more material in comic book style guide than movie style guide, and comic books have 50-60 years of content vs only three movies — _Development team consensus on decision-making rationale_
- [HIGH] Wolverine mechanism went through 5-6 iterations during development — _John Borg describes design evolution in video_
- [HIGH] The Iceman ramp features a moving mechanism that shifts from one side to the other, with a metal truck section added to the plastic ramp — _John Borg describes this as a new innovation not seen before in pinball_
- [HIGH] Magneto multiball uses a spinning disc magnet that grabs and spins balls in a circle, with center ball remaining stationary while others orbit — _Designer describes Magneto multiball mechanism in detail_
- [MEDIUM] Comic book-based pinball machines haven't been done in a long time, if ever — _John Borg's assertion about uniqueness of approach_
- [HIGH] George Gomez was a big X-Men comic book fan when he was young, influencing the comic book aesthetic decision — _Team mentions Gomez's fandom as context for decision_
- [HIGH] The game features shots for 12+ characters on the playfield: Beast, Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, Storm, Magneto, Phoenix, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Gambit, Lady Deathstrike, and Juggernaut — _Designer explicitly lists characters in video_

### Notable Quotes

> "There's probably 10 times more material in the comic book style guide than there was in the movie style guide. The artwork is just so colorful and brilliant and the characters are so menacing."
> — **John Borg**, Design philosophy section
> _Explains core decision to pivot from movie to comic book theme_

> "The last dozen games we've done have been all movie titles and you're limited in what you can do. Otherwise, it's all going to look like a movie poster. It's timeless. After the movies are gone, comic books are going to keep reissuing and will be forever."
> — **John Borg**, Theme discussion
> _Strategic thinking about long-term relevance and differentiation_

> "We actually sculpted Wolverine. It's got a magnet out in front of it, so when you hit it, it moves a little bit and then the magnet grabs the ball and flings it back at you. You feel like you're battling Wolverine."
> — **Designer**, Wolverine mechanism section
> _Describes core gameplay moment and thematic integration_

> "The LE is going to have more mechanisms in it than any other LE game I've made before, maybe any LE game that we've made at the company."
> — **John Borg**, LE features section
> _Indicates unprecedented mechanical complexity for X-Men LE_

> "I cut a section off of the plastic ramp and I've added a metal truck which I think is a really cool idea and I've never really seen that done in a pinball machine before."
> — **John Borg**, Iceman ramp discussion
> _Describes novel mechanical innovation on Iceman ramp_

> "The game is going to appeal to the hardcore players as well as the novice player. There's nothing that I don't like about it."
> — **John Borg**, Final thoughts
> _Designer expresses confidence in broad appeal and personal satisfaction_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| John Borg | person | Lead designer of X-Men pinball; responsible for layout design, mechanical design oversight; legendary Stern mechanical engineer with 37+ year career |
| John Rothel | person | Mechanical engineering manager at Stern Pinball who provided mechanical design support to X-Men project |
| Mark Galdez | person | Dot matrix animator on X-Men pinball project |
| Mike Kizatte | person | Programmer/designer on X-Men pinball game; one of two new programmers initially on project |
| Chang | person | Programmer on X-Men pinball project; one of two new programmers alongside Mike Kizatte |
| Mike Reovel | person | Outside engineer working on one of the LE game mechanisms for X-Men |
| George Gomez | person | Stern Pinball creative leader; described as big X-Men comic book fan when young, influencing aesthetic direction |
| Dave Lynn | person | Sculptor who created the Magneto sculpture for X-Men pinball |
| X-Men Pinball | game | Stern Pinball game based on Marvel X-Men comic book property; features comic book aesthetic rather than movie theme; includes innovative mechanical systems and 12+ character integration |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer developing X-Men pinball; recently completed AC/DC LE; Gomez serves in creative leadership |
| AC/DC LE | game | Recent Stern Pinball Limited Edition game; described as completely full with more content than recent games |
| Marvel | company | IP licensor for X-Men; provided style guides and assets to Stern design team |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Theme selection (comic book vs. movie), Mechanical design and innovation, Character integration and representation, LE vs. Pro feature differentiation
- **Secondary:** Game accessibility and depth, Art direction and visual aesthetic, Development process and team structure

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Team expresses strong enthusiasm for the project, design choices, and mechanical innovations. John Borg explicitly states 'There's nothing that I don't like about it.' No criticisms or concerns voiced. Video is promotional in nature but team members appear genuinely excited about the product.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Game designed with explicit dual appeal: casual/novice players able to access multiball quickly, experienced players able to pursue strategic character collection for double jackpots (confidence: high) — Designer discusses layered difficulty approach and multiball timing strategy
- **[competitive_signal]** X-Men positioned as unique in modern pinball landscape due to exclusive comic book aesthetic rather than movie theme, described as potentially not done in pinball for a long time (confidence: medium) — Designer claims 'I don't believe has been done in quite a long time, if ever' regarding comic-only pinball machines
- **[design_innovation]** Novel mechanical features including metal truck section on Iceman ramp (described as never seen in pinball before) and spinning disc Magneto multiball technology (confidence: high) — Borg describes metal truck modification as innovation and Magneto disc mechanics in detail
- **[design_philosophy]** Deliberate strategic choice to base X-Men on comic books rather than movies due to richer source material (10x more assets, 50+ years of content) and timeless appeal beyond film releases (confidence: high) — Team consensus that comic books offer more dynamic story, richer characters, and longevity compared to movies
- **[personnel_signal]** X-Men project began with Borg solo on layout/design, expanded with two new programmers (Chang, Kizatte), and received mechanical support from John Rothel weeks into development after AC/DC LE completion (confidence: high) — Team introduces themselves and describes project timeline and resource allocation
- **[product_strategy]** X-Men LE explicitly designed with more mechanisms than any previous Stern LE, including moving Iceman ramp and enhanced Wolverine/Magneto systems (confidence: high) — John Borg: 'The LE is going to have more mechanisms in it than any other LE game I've made before'
- **[licensing_signal]** Marvel provided extensive style guides and assets for X-Men comic book IP; team chose famous comic book artists, particularly prominent Kirby work, for artwork direction (confidence: high) — Team discusses receiving assets from Marvel and selecting artists based on comic book prominence

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## Transcript

Uh, my name is John Borg. My name is John Rother. My name is uh Mark Galvez. My name is Mike Kizette. I'm Wson. The entire team was working on the AC/DCLE. As you know, many of you have seen um the game is just completely full. It's It's got more stuff on it than anything we put on a game in a long time. So, I started the X-Men project by myself and I I started the layout, completed the design. and he actually did a lot of the mechanical design and I got through a pretty good portion of it and then just a few weeks ago John Rothl I'm the mechanical engineering manager. I oversee all the mechanical design came in and started to give me some support. I actually uh started out the project with uh two new programmers. We've got Chang along with Mike Kizvat. I'm a programmer/ designer and I'm one of the programmers on the X-Men pinball game. And there's also Mark of course who does all the dots. I'm a dot animator, dot matrix animator. And then we have an outside engineer, uh, Mike Reovel. He's doing one of the mechanisms for the LA game. Of course, there's John who designed the game. Well, we originally intended on theming the game um over the three movies and then the fourth movie, The First Class. We did start artwork for the movie theme. We weren't really crazy about it. There wasn't a lot of action shots. Then we also had the option of going with the comic book. There's probably 10 times more material in the comic book style guide than there was in the movie style guide. The artwork is just so colorful and brilliant and the characters are so menacing. We just decided to go the other way and do something a little different this time. We thought it would be a departure. We figured that the comic book itself is much more dynamic. The story is richer. There's only three movies, but there's 50 or 60 years of comic books. Why not do something from the original source? Way and Mike and Mark and George was a big, you know, X-Men comic book fan when he was young. The last dozen games we've done have been all movie titles and you're limited in what you can do. Otherwise, it's all going to look like a movie poster. It's timeless. You know, after the movies are gone, you know, comic books are going to keep reissuing and will be forever. Hardcore X-Men fans that have read the comic books, this is for you. The most difficult part of working on this project is trying to make something new, something different that doesn't offend the traditional pinball sense. Oh, that's an easy one. Uh, the Wolverine mechanism. This area right here, the game started out pretty much as the layout you see today, but this area right here where Wolverine has changed five or six times. I had a lot of fun working in that area for the same reason that John was talking about because of the different things that we tried. X-Men has been around for a good 50 years. There's a lot of story arcs, a lot of characters. Trying to cram everything in for the pinball machine was tough. There's so many different comic book artists, so we kind of went with the most famous. Constantly his artwork is most prominent. When we decided to go with the comic book, we actually sculpted Wolverine. It's got a magnet out in front of it, so when you hit it, it moves a little bit and then the magnet grabs the ball and flings it back at you. You feel like you're battling Wolverine. We hope we've captured major highlights, major stories, major characters. We're going to see a lot of villain characters and a lot of the X-Men. Just on the playfield, we've got shots for Beast, Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Rogue, Iceman, Storm. Of course, you got Magneto, Phoenix, Cyclops, Nightcrawler. Gambit is kind of a secondary feature. Lady Death Strike and Juggernaut. Even if they don't have a shot on the playfield, they'll be hidden within the dot matrix display. It tells the X-Men story by highlighting what the X-Men are about, and ultimately the epochs of the comic story line. We kind of showcase the story arcs that came from the actual comic books. Right off the bat, you fight Magneto. You have to shoot the X-Men shots on the playfield to collect your X-Men. We're starting several modes based on each character and we're just exploiting their mutant powers. You want to collect all the X-Men feature to try to get to a final mode which is a wizard mode in the game. We have also villain modes that tell some of the stories. There's a villain mode with Saber-tooth where Wolverine and Saber-Tooth battle it out. We're trying to layer it very much so that novice player can get to the multiball and play and have fun, but an experienced player will say, you know, I don't want to start the multiball yet. I want to collect the X-Men first so that I can get that that double jackpot. The most fun I had working on the project was when I got the first whitewood in. I had no mechanical support. I had mechanical drawings. Instead of sending all these parts out and having them all made, I actually fabricated everything myself and I built the whole entire first Whitewood game. But just making all those parts and having time to sit back and tweak the playfield, my time frame was a little greater on this project and I really enjoyed that. It's crazy to have Whitewood like months and months and months before. Being able to go through all the X-Men lore, the assets, the stuff that Marvel sent us was just amazing. It's kind of like revisiting my childhood. All the X-Men comics I used to collect. The coolest feature, Magneto. Great sculpture by uh Dave Lynn. When you're playing the game, you're locking balls underneath Magneto in the middle of the playfield towards the back. When it's time to start Magneto multiball, these balls come out one by one out of this lock area and they stop on a magnet that is also a spinning disc. We actually be able to represent Magneto's powers. The magnet will grab the ball, spin it around and whip the balls around. The center ball stays at the center of the magnet and then the other balls are whizzing in a circle around that one. On the dummy, Magneto will throw the balls at you. The balls will be scattered across the uh playfield. The artwork is going to set it apart from some of the other games we've made in the past. It's not photo realistic. You've got hard lines, crisp colors. There's not a lot of pinball machines that are based solely on the comic. I don't believe has been done in quite a long time, if ever. It has a uniqueness to it. The LE is going to have more mechanisms in it than any other LA game I've made before. Maybe any LA game that we've made at the company. There is a ramp for Iceman that will actually move from one side to the other. It's going to be arted to look as if it's covered with ice to let the ball go to the other side of the ramp and drain on the opposite side. I cut a section off of the plastic ramp and I've added a metal truck which I think is a really cool idea and I've never really seen that done in a pinball machine before. You can keep shooting the right ramp back to the left flipper and shoot the right ramp repeatedly for a time period. Nightcrawler, he's going to pop out of the playfield in a couple of different areas. Teleporting back and forth from one side of the playfield to the other. Anything action is going to fit in pinball. Great characters. They all have their own special mutant powers. They're going to be able to really do something with that in the game display-wise, mechanically, graphically. For example, we have the pop bumpers as Gambit because it's a lot of like boom boom explosions which is his power to kinetically charge and throw. Magneto fits really well. We can represent that on pinball field. Lends itself just very well. It's just a fantastic title for pinball. Hopefully for the X-Men fans, they'll get a sense that this is a real true X-Men pinball machine. Something part of the X-Men lore. For pinball fans, we're hoping that the entertainment value, the depth of the game itself, and the shots that it has will engross you into the atmosphere that we're creating. The game shoots fantastically well. I hope they have a lot of fun, especially the people that don't know a lot about EXO. Maybe they'll even learn something. The game is going to appeal to the hardcore players as well as the novice player. There's nothing that I don't like about it. If that's the case, I think majority of the people that buy it are going to really like it a lot. I think it's just going to be an all round great game for everybody to play. Anything? What a loaded question. If I was going to be a mutant, I would probably go with Magneto's powers. I think that would have to be Storm. She can control the Carl Weathers. So, I think I could get some good good money for it. Actually, I would cross between Magneto and Wolverine. Magneto's powers, you know, and Wolverine's claws. Always got to throw me. Wow. The power to manipulate my DNA is that I could be any X-Men. Well, shape-shifting is pretty cool. My favorite mutant. That was a tough one. I've always liked Beast. He's not only strong and agile, but he's smart as well. Magneto is just totally awesome. And Wolverine is just a badass. I do like Wolverine. When I was a kid, it was Wolverine, but uh kind of grew out of it. My favorite X-Men is uh Psylock. I'm a really big X-Men fan. I actually really enjoy X-Men as a whole. It's my probably my favorite comic book.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 7562e010-ea82-487d-94d4-6dd60862ed54*