Stern factory tour + Gary Stern interview covering manufacturing, company history, and technology innovations.
Summary
Jack Danger provides an exclusive 2020 behind-the-scenes factory tour of Stern Pinball's Chicago facility, documenting the complete manufacturing process from parts inspection through final packing. The video concludes with an informal interview between Jack and Gary Stern, where Gary discusses the company's 73-year history in pinball, the evolution from electromechanical to modern electronic games, and Stern's recent innovations including bus systems, LED technology, and LCD screens.
Key Claims
Every Stern pinball machine contains over 3,500 parts
high confidence · Jack Danger during parts department tour states: 'every stern pinball machine has over 3 500 parts in it'
Stern keeps stock for up to 10 machines at any given time in parts department
high confidence · Parts department tour: 'we keep stock for up to 10 machines that we're making at any given time'
All parts are hand-inspected before assembly
high confidence · Inspection area tour: 'every single part that goes into a pinball machine here at stern is hand inspected'
The Gotley press tool (for pilot hole punching) has been used on every playfield produced at Stern
high confidence · Assembly line tour: 'every single playfield that has come through this factory has gone through this press'
Gary Stern's father Sam purchased half of Williams in 1947 from Harry Williams
high confidence · Gary Stern: 'so in 1947 when i was two uh he came to chicago uh to see harry williams his uh uh his supplier so sam sat behind harry's desk kidding around put his feet up and said why don't you sell me the company'
Gary Stern started working at Williams in the stockroom at age 16
high confidence · Gary Stern: 'i started in the stockroom with the williams when i was 16'
Gary Stern has been involved in pinball manufacturing for 73 years
high confidence · Jack Danger to Gary: 'you've been in pinball for a very long time 73 years' (Gary confirms)
Stern is increasing production capacity due to strong demand
high confidence · Gary Stern: 'we're increasing our production capacity right now our back order is' [incomplete statement but indicates strong backlog]
Stern has introduced a new 'bus system' for electronic architecture that is scalable and LED-based
high confidence · Gary Stern: 'the first thing is that we have a whole new kind of electronic system it's very simple it's called a bus system something i knew that we had to have but i didn't know why and george came up with a scalable system that uh is all leds more reliable'
Notable Quotes
“every stern pinball machine has over 3 500 parts in it and we keep stock for up to 10 machines that we're making at any given time”
Jack Danger (during parts department tour) @ ~2:10 — Sets scale and complexity of Stern manufacturing operation
“we have to custom make every single testing tool that we have here in the factory for every game that we produce”
Jack Danger (wiring/testing area) @ ~6:30 — Highlights bespoke tooling requirements and manufacturing complexity
“this gentleman's job to play pinball and make sure it's working the way it's supposed to”
Jack Danger (final assembly quality control) @ ~23:45 — Demonstrates QA process involves actual gameplay testing
“i have a quotation for a taxidermist oh no and i got a quotation and when i'm no longer here in live action i will be stuffed with moving eyes in the conference and watching everything that everybody does just looming and judging”
Gary Stern @ ~27:00 — Humorous commentary on his legacy planning and personality
“why don't you sell me the company and um ballsy yeah and uh so harry went up in his airplane flew around yeah for three hours came down”
Gary Stern (recounting 1947 Williams acquisition) @ ~33:15 — Key historical account of Stern family entry into pinball manufacturing
“the ball is wild yeah buddy and so that”
Gary Stern (quoting Harry Williams philosophy) @ ~57:00 — References fundamental pinball design philosophy and randomization principle
“we like pinball i really like pinball i like pimple and somebody's gotta gotta do it”
Gary Stern @ ~32:00 — Core statement of Gary's passion and company mission
“today everything's so specialized not just in pinball but in the world in general and so we need people who are specialized in different things”
Gary Stern — Reflects on evolution of game design from single designers (Harry Williams era) to modern specialized teams
business_signal: Stern is increasing production capacity and reports significant backorder, indicating strong market demand
high · Gary Stern: 'we're increasing our production capacity right now our back order is'
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event_signal: Chicago Pinball Expo 2020 featured exclusive Stern factory tour and intimate interview with Gary Stern about company strategy
high · Video title and content structure showing organized expo access to factory and executive
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design_philosophy: Gary Stern emphasizes that modern pinball design requires specialized teams (playfield designers, ramp designers, graphic artists, video artists, animators) versus historical single-designer approach
high · Gary Stern: 'today everything's so specialized not just in pinball but in the world in general and so we need people who are specialized in different things... we got playfield designers and and ramp designers... graphic artists and graphic video artists oh yeah you got the animators'
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sentiment_shift: Gary Stern indicates pinball has been 'rediscovered' by both older and younger demographics, with pandemic-driven home entertainment demand benefiting 'rec room buyers'
high · Gary Stern: 'we've been rediscovered and discovered rediscovered by you know older people and not as old as me maybe but and discovered by younger people today' and 'the upside was what we call the rec room buyer and that buyer is buying right now uh because he's staying home more'
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technology_signal: Manufacturing shift from screen-printing to direct printing on playfields and decals for improved detail and finish
Topics
Stern manufacturing process and quality controlprimaryStern company history and family legacyprimaryTechnology innovations (bus systems, LED, LCD screens, printing techniques)primaryPinball game design evolution and specializationsecondaryCurrent production capacity and market demandsecondaryGary Stern's personal background and motorcycle hobbymentionedGameplay and competitive pinball performancesecondaryPinball industry resurgence and market dynamicssecondary
Sentiment
positive(0.82)— Consistently celebratory tone about Stern's manufacturing excellence, quality control, and innovation. Gary Stern comes across as proud but self-deprecating. No critical commentary or negative industry sentiment expressed.
Transcript
youtube_auto_sub · $0.000
hey chicago pinball expo what's going on jack danger here i'm currently standing in the stern arcade inside the stern factory and we're going to give you an exclusive behind the scenes look at how these awesome games were made so we're going to jump right into it and head over to the parts department see what they got going on let's go all right all right so here we are in the parts department so every stern pinball machine has over 3 500 parts in it and we keep stock for up to 10 machines that we're making at any given time and you can see every part is hand serialed unique i mean who knows what you could find in here we've got metallica decals for the cabinet they got they got backup of everything game of thrones i might actually have to take this home all right well now we're gonna go see how all 3 500 plus parts are inspected by hand to make sure you get the quality you expect out of a stern pinball machine let's go is it possible for me to take one of these sure thank you all right so here we are in the inspection area and every single part that goes into a pinball machine here at stern is hand inspected this is a start button they're putting together and it's all about quality control and making sure that these are correct and fit right before they go back into that parts department that we just came out of and here you can see we've got a bunch of approved parts for games like star trek lord of the rings we've got some accepted dudes over here for wwe anything that comes in here is hand inspected with calipers to make sure it all fits the way it's supposed to we are measuring out to make sure all of these leaf switches are exactly how they're supposed to be before they go into a game at your house or bar or wherever you're buying and putting these pinball machines but yeah get a close-up of those rails man i got a mask on all right so that was the inspection cage now we're going into wiring so you may have heard the stories about how much wire goes into a pinball machine and it is a lot and we're gonna see how all of that is put together right now here we go more wire than a toyota corolla or whatever car gary said all right so here we are in cable assembly every pinball machine has its own unique wiring schematics that have to be gone through and wrapped around just so we're not wasting wire there's not too much hanging down in the cabinet and again it's all done by hand you can see here it's very labor intensive you have to meticulously go through every little wire every little curve it's hurting my brain just looking at what's going on here but she's got this down to a science and uh let's keep moving it looks like arteries here is the cardiovascular system of a stern pinball machine after the harnesses are done there's still a lot of work that goes into this wiring so you can see here there's still more hand inspection that needs to go on we're still stripping wires we're still putting on connectors still very labor intensive throughout this entire process after all the connectors and such are added to the harnesses now we come over here to test what's happening we got to make sure all of these are working because if one wire is out of place we got to send it all the way back because we don't want that showing up in your game all right here we have one of our testing boards and if this looks homemade that's because it is we have to custom make every single testing tool that we have here in the factory for every game that we produce and uh look at this you can't just buy this we made this remember what i said about a bunch of wires a sea of cables all tested ready to go into your pinball machine it's wild it's wild the ball is wild the wires are wild everything's wild bro all right so that's wiring let's head over to the wood shop to see how they cut these playfields let's go just between you and me internet this is stuff you don't normally get to see going inside of the wood shop we're gonna see how they cut up these playfields to put in your games so here we have a cnc machine this is a computer assisted cutting tool that is taking the schematics of the playfield and cutting it out precisely so you can put your mechanisms and your inserts into the game all right here you can see one of the computers that they're using to get the cnc machine dialed in just right so that the cuts are clean they're accurate all the mechs are going to fit properly the inserts are going to slide right in all computer driven this gentleman is making sure that everything's running as smoothly as possible and then we also have a planer over here that is carving down the play field to the precise width that needs to be thickness so that we can put it into the cnc and everything is as precise as possible the router is cutting out the perimeter of the playfield because it's done cutting out all the inserts so after it's done making this outline they can pop it out and start putting in the inserts this is a pretty exciting part for me here we're putting in the inserts into the freshly cut playfields we're adding the glue hammering them in you can see she's got a piece of wood to safely hammer the inserts down once these are placed they come over here where we fanned the entire playfield to make sure the entire thing is level and this is the preparation to bring it to where we're clear coating them in this back room that we're not going to show you i think we have a very finished product right here you can see it's sort of shimmery they've sanded it cleared it it made all the inserts clear again this i believe is ready to start having some art and some mechs put on top of it we're here in the decal department this is where we're putting on all the art for the outside of the cabinets and my guy over here is putting on the art blades for the interior limited edition avengers infinity quest games this i believe is a finished product already we've got the front to set yeah this is this is done thanos where are you baby there he is this is the cabinet department you can see we have some limited edition avengers going out this is the game getting put together being ready for the play field to be put inside of it look at all these cabinets look it look at it all all right we're still in the cabinet department here we've got some armor here for the ellie avengers it looks like all lined up this is where we take the cabinet that was put together in decal and start adding the sub assemblies it's where we're putting in our coin doors we're putting in our plungers our back boxes are being put on we got the boards in here we're just putting everything in here before we drop the playfields in and start wiring everything up you can see it's all protected and just ready to go down the line all right we're in sub-assembly this is the heart of the assembly line here at stern pinball everything that goes into a game is being assembled right here from the aprons to the toys to ramps we actually have the sling ring from avengers infinity quest being assembled here right now can i grab this really quick do you mind if i just feel this awesome this is the spinning disc assembly from an le premium avengers infinity quest all hand assembled right here in stern pinball how do they come up with this stuff i don't i don't all right understand this has to be one of the coolest tools here at stern pinball this was acquired by stern from gotley back in the day and every single playfield that has come through this factory has gone through this press what this is doing is depending on the machine that they're doing at the time it's punching pilot holes for all your screws so that there's no guesswork in pushing your tools into that in fact i can show you a play field right now we have avengers infinity quest and you can see all these little punch marks for where the screws need to be so that when it's going down the line they just push it right through pinball while we look at all these playfields next here you can see one of the custom tools we made so that we can get the drilling as precise as possible and work it on down the line let's walk down the assembly line and see how these games are put together all right here we are on the assembly line this is where we're adding everything onto the playfields you can see the mechanisms all the light boards the node boards are on here we're putting all of our bulbs in all the major mix are being assembled and put on the playfields here and it just goes down the line and then after everything is screwed in you can see the hoods here this is where all of the soldering is going on so all those wires and mechanisms that we talked about are all being soldered in place here again all by hand every single wire every single connector being soldered under this hood to make sure it stays where it needs to stay and works how it needs to work pretty cool here you can see this part of the assembly line we're putting on all the stuff on top this is all the assemblies all the ramps you can see just the here's the avengers tower that's been placed on here the flippers are going in uh the thanos glove has been procured and placed onto the playfield she's also putting in the the wire forms and the habitrails pretty rad here you can see all of the finished playfields that have been assembled and these are ready to be tested on the rest of the assembly line inside of the cabinets so that they can get put out and ready to go now that the playfields are assembled we bring them over here to our rotisseries where we test absolutely everything on the game all the diagnostics that we run here you can actually do on your machine at home but we're just making sure all the coils the switches the lights everything's working properly on this playfield before it moves its way down the assembly line and into a cabinet well here we are folks final assembly this is where the rubber hits the road we are putting our playfields in the cabinets and what's cool is we ship games all over the world as you can see here these games are actually going to australia but before these are done there's one final test that needs to happen so all the tests that we did on the rotisseries over there are happening one more time on the game they're going through all the diagnostics making sure all the switches are working and they're actually going to play it briefly to make sure everything is as it should be so what's cool about what's going on here is this is literally this gentleman's job to play pinball and make sure it's working the way it's supposed to i say i'm jealous but i kind of have the same job all right so this is final inspection all these games are ready to go they're getting one final look at to make sure all the qc has been done and it's ready to pack which happens right over there all right here it is final packing we're finally putting this finished product into the box it's got all of its instructions it's been properly foamed wrapped taped everything to keep it secure and safe we're gonna close it up and send it off to you you get it here you can see the stamps for all of the places that we ship our pinball machines mexico finland denmark everything is laid out here this is to signify where it needs to go once it's all packed up well there it is folks thank you for joining me on this exclusive tour of stern pinball we even showed you some stuff we normally don't show on these tours that buzzer means it's time for us to go find gary stern and see what he's up to let's go uh what's going on chicago pinball expo i'm here with the legendary can i call it legendary gary stern of stern pinball and we're going to sounds like i died we'll all remember him dearly yes um this is a hologram uh by the way we spent a lot of money on this seriously i have i have a quote they'll probably cut this out but i had a quotation for a taxidermist oh no and i got a quotation and when i'm no longer here in live action i will be stuffed with moving eyes in the conference and watching everything that everybody does just looming and judging so we're going to play some pinball right this is uh this is your new game high score buys oh frick okay wait no okay yeah high score buys sounds fine he's much better than i i'm an okay pinball player um gary the avengers this is your game absolutely correct i heard that you had this game in your house for a while god i wish you hadn't said that and the reason i wish you hadn't said that is you're really going to beat me bad and uh and uh and but i do i take uh used to years ago i started again a pre-production game i take home pro version because that's what we have first and just to learn the game uh learn a little of the play a lot of what's on the game uh the playfield plus that it looks damn good oh yeah so you're like you're helping betta test at the same time then yeah i found a couple ball traps things like that my man all right well let's see if those ball traps got solved huh oh i know they have okay good i know um so folks if you haven't played this game it's the newest game to come out of stern you probably have played it gary gary he just took he just took the the one of the three skill shots he took the the interim one down the there's a roll over there star roll over so he glops it in there but if he was really good he would have hit the post and lob back down because he was really good really good all right we've already i on the other hand i'm gonna go all the way up the ramp uh-huh but wait why would you go up all the way around because i'm that kind of player i'm a casual player casual player you like to play for the for the casual guy yeah let's talk a little pinball here why why the heck is stern making pinball machines why aren't you making like slot machines and jukeboxes and stuff we like pinball i really like pinball i like pimple and somebody's gotta gotta do it where uh it's something i've done most my life if not all my life my father started as a game operator in philadelphia and then became a game distributor or seller to other operators and so in 1947 when i was two uh he came to chicago uh to see harry williams his uh uh his supplier so sam sat behind harry's desk kidding around put his feet up and said why don't you sell me the company and um ballsy yeah and uh so harry went up in his airplane flew around yeah for three hours came down as you do when you own a pinball company and no i don't do that oh sure you don't care nobody would fly in a plane that's another store that i don't know my sales people said that to me years ago any event uh so we came down and sold sam half of uh williams and uh so since i've been two the family was making pinball i started in the stockroom with the williams when i was 16. oh wow and uh you know i worked there in the summers and so forth but um uh and then i i'll let you play in a second don't worry practice law for a little while that's right i just enjoy watching you it's sort of like you know they say you should always play golf or which i don't or or any sport with somebody better than you are you saying i'm better at pinball whoa oh i got my glasses on no i don't i meant i can't see all right so uh you got your start in the stockroom you're 16 years old yep in the summers yep uh and then i did pretty much everything you could at that company uh okay you got another ball after you listen i got two more balls after this this is true you're gonna have to edit this pretty good folks at people because now we're doing it we're just riffing we're doing it live yeah all right well so okay you you've been in pinball for a very long time 73 years yeah so have you ever wanted to design your own game have you designed your own game and no i haven't i've you know i'm a i'm a good critic okay i can remember sitting on the the living room floor with harry williams and sam stern and they talk about a play field and so forth and uh he he would he would critique and harry would change to to match what he wanted sort of that's awesome sort of harry tricked him you know it was a simpler world yeah you had electromechanical pinballs with with step up units and relays and what have you and he could design the and come up with a concept he could draw the play field he could design the circuits he could design the mechanical parts he could make the white wood he could build the whole thing up now today everything's so specialized not just in pinball but in the world in general and so we need people who are specialized in different things and of course the games are more complex so you got playfield designers and and rural designers you know that they all interact but uh and you got graphic people and graphic artists and you got video artists oh yeah you got the animators i mean we have a video game in here just you know in addition to opinion absolutely these are so sweet aren't they sweet so where are we at here uh i'm kicking your butt by a factor of 10 right here 10 times you know that's you're buying frick you're buying you know what i i'm happy to buy you some uh cheap lager from a grocery store somewhere do they have anything with high alcohol in it it's awesome yeah please no bar too far gary yeah yep what's what's the future of stern hold um oh we've got a lot of uh a lot more great games a lot more great titles uh and some technological changes that are very very cool i missed it great and you're going to explain what those are right now yes yes but they're running out of film so otherwise i would if they weren't out i know yeah film is so expensive these days it probably is patience is a verb patience is a version well gary you lost oh is it over so i think i'll let you start the next game okay that puncher feels weird right yeah yeah it's feeling weird to me too no it's not strong enough yeah i had to change the spring in mine and i think that is this one's probably not no it isn't it's not lined up right just just launch with the uh the action button on the lock bar oh that's no fun i don't like that yeah that's fair i really don't like that oh so gary pinball is like it's it's getting popular again okay and i want to know what has stern done to make it come back as like strongly as it has well first of all great games that's that's a giveaway great games great games but you know a lot of events social media uh tournaments uh uh all kinds of promotions promotion promotion all kinds of promotions somebody's promoting themselves he's promoting himself god damn it we've been rediscovered and discovered rediscovered by you know older people and not as old as me maybe but and discovered by younger people today a lot of people are staying at home uh one day they'll be out back again in the bar caves and the arcades and the bars and they'll need pinball machines there and they are some of those already going there these games in particular um the upside was what we call the rec room buyer and that buyer is buying right now uh because he's staying home more uh yeah and uh the enthusiast of course is still interested as we make great games no don't death save in front of gary he'll punch you we we have we have growth more growth to come so we're increasing our production capacity right now our back order is i should have pushed the button got to push it yeah i just don't like doing that so i noticed how i let it go at that time skillful skillful keep doing that how come we have no volume on this thing it's hard to play let me turn it up i can turn it off but then they won't be able to hear us gary's actually winning ladies and gentlemen this wasn't that shocking listen without saying the game we're playing do you have a favorite pinball machine you know what i'm gonna say yeah i'm gonna say i went out today i looked in the factory and i saw we were making avengers so that's my favorite game of the year yeah two months ago i would have said tourists and ninja turtles yeah absolutely that's yeah which i also had in my apartment do you have like a collection at home or do you only keep you don't know i just had the one i know i i used to have you know you know a 50s williams and uh when we made the games for the lake placid olympics a couple uh meteors and a couple of galaxies uh steve kirk harry williams and they were done all white but except for the black line i think i played one of those at expo like one year ago the galaxy we have here somewhere and um yeah you're losing gary yeah what games do i have in my office ask me that gary what games do you have in your office i have you made me lose the ball i i need a play over there's no there's no there's no redos in pink no no mulligans no mulligans all right so any event no i have a uh uh a pinball by stern which was the first pinball of the game by stern yeah of the other company and then uh the game the game pinball yeah the title yeah and i have uh a laser war in there the laser war laser the first one the first one uh internet i don't know if you know but gary and i are both motorcycle enthusiasts yeah as soon as i said boots i knew you were gonna say that i do have harley's and uh uh actually hold on before you continue the first time you saw my bike was at a charity event we went to it was in the hospital yes at the hospital and you're like that was your bike out there yeah yeah now you gotta understand that that the handlebars that are real higher called apache yeah and he's up like this but for him they're about here for me i would be able to to steer the thing yeah you said you have several bikes that's right you don't do you keep them around the country because anytime i go to an event you're on a freaking motorcycle um california i rent bikes there was one event that i know you went to where you rode from l.a to san diego or something as a comic-con yeah my daughter granddaughter son-in-law live in l.a so i would rent a bike up there and ride down and ride back up and park under the hotel that was cool right at the event so like what are some of the innovations that we have come out with that have been like huge for starting the first thing is that we have a whole new kind of electronic system it's very simple it's called a bus system something i knew that we had to have but i didn't know why and george came up with a scalable system that uh is all leds more reliable and scales up so that we have a lcd screen uh in its same system uh just to add a little add-on to it and uh better sound involved in it and now we have some more things we're gonna do with it some other things that we've done you know the production techniques are quite different it's um printing playfields and and decals instead of uh screen it is oh screening right onto the cabinet yeah that type of thing and all the things that make it look like a more finished and complete product with greater detail to it what's really amazing is what they do with this lcd screen now okay uh you know they do different kind of games sometimes they're like batman used uh the tvs video oh yeah the footage from the show yeah whereas this is all created here so each one's a little different there's so much more we can do with that but the play the game is still on the platform absolutely you're still hitting a physical ball at other physical things causing that chaos feeling that tactile it's a ball and bat game falling back keep your eye on the ball and uh which i'll try and do talking to you and i try and uh and uh and that ball is uh you know it's a randomizer it is uh as harry williams would say the ball is wild yeah buddy and so that come on isn't that ramp cool i mean really you got it that thing the ramp you you know you can make with any of the three flippers any flipper well uh gary thank you tomorrow's friday i have to work so yeah don't you work yeah i work i do things this is work this is my job's work huh this is work huh gary buying me beer okay i think you lost gary i mean one so you lost son of a okay what you like was that what i didn't qualify i have to spell iron iron yeah you're throwing yeah yeah i wasn't paying i'm not paying attention i'm busy i'm so interested in talking with you jack thanks gary uh try not to show them how bad it's what's your score they can't they can't quit that you're winning and we're good well i am winning now you owe me what oh i guess yeah in that regard you are definitely the winner in this you want to know the score i don't think you want to show that okay all right you ready we've played three games three games in the last game player one was 29 30 million player two was four and a half million and one of us was player one and one of us was player two that's how it works he owes me beer always and forever
Stern has shifted from screen-printing to direct printing for playfields and decals
high confidence · Gary Stern: 'the production techniques are quite different it's um printing play fields and and decals instead of uh screen it is oh screening right onto the cabinet'
high · Gary Stern: 'the production techniques are quite different it's um printing play fields and and decals instead of uh screen it is oh screening right onto the cabinet'
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technology_signal: Stern has implemented new 'bus system' electronic architecture based on LEDs with scalable design allowing LCD screen integration
high · Gary Stern: 'we have a whole new kind of electronic system it's very simple it's called a bus system... george came up with a scalable system that uh is all leds more reliable and scales up so that we have a lcd screen uh in its same system'