Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Episode 32 - Stern's 'Miracle' Year

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·57m 58s·analyzed·May 27, 2024
Buzzsprout-15123264
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Stern Electronics' 1980 'Miracle Year': nine hit games that defined solid-state pinball design.

Summary

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast explores Stern Electronics' 1980 output, dubbed the 'Miracle Year,' examining nine solid-state machines released that year. Hosts Alan and Alex, joined by guest Ty Palmer, analyze the design philosophy, gameplay mechanics, and lasting impact of iconic titles like Galaxy, Ali, Big Game, Sea Witch, and Quicksilver. The episode highlights Harry Williams' dominance as designer and discusses production rarity, collector appeal, and the superstition surrounding green-colored playfields in pinball history.

Key Claims

  • All nine machines produced by Stern in 1980 were successful hits, which the hosts characterize as exceptional for a single manufacturer in one year.

    high confidence · Alan states: 'All nine machines produced in 1980 all of them hit which is nuts.' Ty corroborates: 'the greatest run of games from a company in one year.'

  • Stern Electronics machines from 1980 are now highly sought after by collectors, with prices skyrocketing due to low original production runs compared to Bally and Williams.

    high confidence · Alan: 'Stern made some great games and nowadays they're highly sought after by the collector market. The prices have skyrocketed on these Stern Electronic solid state machines.'

  • Harry Williams designed the first three games released in 1980: Galaxy (January), Ali (March), and Big Game (March).

    high confidence · Directly stated multiple times: 'Galaxy January 1980, Ali March 1980, Big Game March 1980, all three done by Harry Williams.'

  • Sea Witch was heavily tweaked and later redesigned by George Gomez as The Beatles, making the game significantly easier to play.

    high confidence · Alan: 'George Gomez redesigned this and tweaked this layout and made it the Beatles which is a way worse theme. I do like his changes... Beatles all the things we're talking about where you're like it looks like you should be able to do this George Gomez took Sea Witch the layout and he basically just made it easier.'

  • Galaxy had production of approximately 3,000 units, making it one of the highest-produced machines on the 1980 list.

    medium confidence · Ty mentions Galaxy's high production relative to other games in the list, noting 'it's the highest selling here' which explains lower collector prices.

  • Quicksilver was designed by Joe Juice Jr. (JJJ) and only 1,200 units were produced.

    high confidence · Ty: 'Quicksilver by Joe Juice Jr., JJJ, the fucking man' and 'only 1,200 produced. So they're worth a lot.'

  • The 'green games bad luck' superstition in pinball originated around 1980 or the EM era, stemming from poor sales of well-designed green-colored games.

Notable Quotes

  • “All nine machines produced in 1980 all of them hit which is nuts.”

    Alan @ early in episode — Establishes the exceptional nature of Stern's 1980 output

  • “I'm on the record as this is my favorite solid state machine of all time. It's the machine that made me fall in love with games of this era. We wouldn't have Wedgehead without me playing this game.”

    Alan @ Big Game section — Personal testimonial about Big Game's influence on the host's career and venue

  • “Harry Williams saw things in pinball that nobody else saw, like truly a genius.”

    Ty Palmer @ Ali section — Recognition of design innovation and Harry Williams' unique vision

  • “This is a call to arms. This is now a player's podcast. Scream at your operators, get them on the fucking floor.”

    Ty Palmer @ Quicksilver section — Passionate call for operators to stock Quicksilver; shows community advocacy

  • “It only has one weakness and that's solved by the next game on the list but it needs one more digit on the score display it's too easy to roll over.”

    Waterboy (Alex) @ Ali section — Technical design flaw identification; proposes mod solutions

  • “It plays like a tight track for sure. It's fast it's kinetic and I love just like what Ty said when you start the game you're like anything... But then at a certain point, you start getting constricted.”

    Alan @ Big Game section — Articulates the dynamic rule progression that makes Big Game engaging

  • “There's not a single game that Data East made that holds a candle to Quicksilver.”

    Ty Palmer @ Quicksilver section — Strong comparative endorsement of Quicksilver's design quality

  • “Bally drop targets from this era are so bad. They're just they look cool. They're big chunks of plastic... but they don't work right.”

    Waterboy (Alex) — Technical criticism comparing Stern and Bally hardware quality

Entities

AlanpersonAlexpersonTy PalmerpersonHarry WilliamspersonJoe Juice Jr.personGeorge GomezpersonMike KubinpersonKeith Elwinperson

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Harry Williams demonstrated innovative mechanical design through unique spinner placement (center spinner on Galaxy), multi-stage rule progression (Ali, Big Game), and unconventional lane guide behavior (swoopy guides on Big Game). His use of exposed pops and tight shot geometry influenced machine playability and taught new players progressively.

    high · Multiple designers and hosts attribute Galaxy, Ali, and Big Game's exceptional quality to Williams' unique vision of playfield mechanics and rule design.

  • ?

    design_innovation: Stern Electronics developed more reliable drop target mechanics than Bally competitors in the same era. Stern drops reset properly when hit hard; Bally drops from Centaur stay up when hit directly. This hardware difference significantly impacts gameplay experience and machine reliability.

    high · Waterboy: 'if you smoke a drop on a Stern it'll go down. If you smoke a drop on fucking Centaur straight up they'll stay.' Hosts praise Stern's sweeping drop shots as a result of better mechanics.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern's 1980 games employed progressive rule complexity: early play rewards broad playfield coverage (filling bingo cards on Big Game), but mid-game requires precise shot selection and management (target-specific collections). This creates an addictive learning curve that teaches new players gradually.

    high · Alan on Big Game: 'at first you're like all these drops are good. But then at a certain point, you're like, I only need a handful of these numbers left on a certain card. So I got to get the card lit and then I got to hit the drop target while the card's still lit.'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Electronics 1980 machines are experiencing rising collector demand and secondary market pricing due to low original production numbers relative to Bally/Williams competitors. Games produced in lower quantities (e.g., Quicksilver: 1,200 units) command premium prices and are rarely seen on location.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.174

0:00
🎵 Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. I am Alan, your host, co-owner of the Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead. In the basement studio, my co-host Alex the Waterboy. Hello, we're joined today by our friend the great Ty Palmer. You might remember him from the Susan B. Anthony Bally Heavy episode we did. Today we're changing things up. What are we talking about Ty? Oh, we are talking about Stern's Miracle Year from 1980. Another solid state edition of the Wedgehead podcast. Stuff to talk about some of these machines. Oh, yeah. There are some phenomenal games from this year. How are we tying this into the miracle? There's two miracles that happened in 1980. One was the Miracle on Ice, where the U.S. defeated the Soviets 4-3 to move on to win a gold medal. It wasn't a gold medal match. It was the biggest upset, probably one of the best sporting moments in the 20th century. I would agree with that. Oh, yeah. Even if you're not a hockey fan, it was right in the middle of the Cold War. It solved the Cold War. No, because straight up, like, there's two things. There's cultural, like, touchdowns for, like, the Cold War, and it's the documentary Rocky IV, where he ends the Cold War with this sick-ass speech. And he's like, I mean, if I can change, you can change. We all remember that. And then there's the Miracle on Ice, where we defeated the Soviets. And that was it. That's what I saw in my history books. I don't know enough about sports dispute that it was the greatest event. I don't know too many sport events that got a Kurt Russell movie made based on them. So for that alone, I feel like it's obviously, you know, pretty good. Kurt Russell gives an amazing performance as Herb Brooks, the coach of the U.S. team. I think that's what we should start doing with the podcast is tie every episode we do into a Kurt Russell movie. That's a good idea. Yeah, just a nod. He's really not got any pinball machines. We've seen like what Lost in Space. Is that what I'm thinking of? What? What the shit? No, Stargate. I'm sorry, I'm getting those era games mixed up, not the actual movies. We've got to lobby at Stern.
2:28
Like, you waited how long to do Jaws? No, okay. Guess how many Kurt Russell movies you've adopted into the games. But anyway, getting back to 1980, the miracle year, Stern, to get into a little bit of history of this, should I do a little rundown on history here? Well, the history of Stern is like... In and out. It's always Gary Stern and his dad were kind of in and out of the coin-op business and in and out of owning pinball companies for a long time. They ended up buying the remnants of Chicago coin in the late 70s, and they started making games under their own name, Stern Electronics. They began with some EMs. I don't know how many they made, but they pretty quickly changed over to solid states. I think Pinball, the self-titled Pinball, Pinball was the first solid state they made, but I'm doing all of this off the dome. I think so. One was called Rawhide, and it was an EM. Yeah. I think there was only two EMs. Yeah, that was – I think Pinball was 1977. I just played that for the first time in a while this weekend. That game, not so hot. I don't want to disparage it. There maybe are some pinball fans. And it's just not anything to write home about. It's fine. You skip forward a couple of years and you get into like the greatest run of games from a company in one year. I mean, there's a reason we're talking about it and kind of putting it in the same league as those season three Anthony Bally's because these games are phenomenal. They're all bangers. all in nine machines produced in 1980 all of them hit which is nuts stern made some great games and nowadays they're highly sought after by the collector market the prices have skyrocketed on these stern electronic solid state machines yep because they made low runs of them especially when you're compared to the bally's and the williams of that era and even the got leaves from that era they really didn't sell that many of these games but now people are realizing how good they are late and we brought up after the susan b anthony bally episode where he talked about bally's greatest run of games in a previous episode rodes he chimed in and goes well stern electronics games are way better than those bally's were yeah he pulled me aside he's like no no no no these these are awesome these are just as good now i'm like if not better i'm like wait wait i'm like and then you know go to check the facts i'm like okay this is a really decent argument i can see where you're coming from roads but what's very interesting though is when you start looking at the list of the games all the best ones were in one year 1980 they ran the gauntlet in this year now before this year they had a couple good games that people will recall they had wildfire in 78 you have stars in 79 dracula hot hand you have meteor yeah those are all great games are all very good games so solid very very good but we're talking about the miracle year here oh yeah i think we should start with first game january 1980 the legend harry williams we did a whole episode on him you should check out if you want to know more about him but we're talking about galaxy a game that waterboy owned yeah i owned it for a long time it was actually my it was my first pre-alpha numeric solid state i guess and i owned it over most of covid and played a ton of games on it i really fell in love with it playing it out at next level and then when I was looking for a solid state. It was just one that kind of came up, and so it fell into my hands. But it's a cool game. It's got an awesome center spinner shot that feeds it back into the pops. It's got exposed pops, which is a very Harry Williams thing. It's got a cool little U-turn shot that collects. The rules, if you set it up friendly, it may be, I would say, looking at this list, what we're going to get into. It's the weakest on this list, but it's a cool game. And for a long time, I was running it with Ike Hamill's Modern. He did a little, like, Arduino add-on with new code. and I had it running on the new code, which kind of took care of a lot of the shortcomings of the original rule set. And that was a ton of fun. It's a cool game, cool art package on it. Name a harder working spinner. That thing, holy smokes. If it could, it would fly off the table. It's so sick. I love that spinner because it's like, you can go for like, when it lights, you only get a rip at once and then you have to get it re-lit or whatever. If you hit it, if you backhand it, it's kind of on the left. It's a center spinner, but it's kind of on the left side and if you hit it from a cradle on the left flipper you get kind of a weak rip so you always want to get one off the right flipper oh yeah but when you go off the right you're kind of winging it close to an exposed pop which you'll clip just barely often it's it's good it's a good harry williams spinner i like the um and he does this on wildfire a couple years before which we have on the floor at wedge and it's got the two in lanes with rubbers on the post and you'll get the ball that will come in at speed and hit the rubbers and kind of like climb themselves back out into the out lanes oh yeah like bounce and then just kind of like spin backwards up and out they will dance everywhere it's so unpredictable and rad and i love what we've done with the wildfire wedge because the the ball will just if it's spinning you can't see it it will dance the other side yeah it's unpredictable it's the same bottom as well it's the same bottom and it's interesting because it's got dead slings there it's i don't even know if you call them slings at that point it's got very small little rubbers in place of slings or whatever yeah no no slings but then that actually has slings up higher like above the outlanes so you still get side to side action on it that will like throw it into the outlanes it it's a cool bottom third something we definitely don't see anything like that today no harry used to mess around with some different shit in this era which is appreciated yep it's it's also interesting looking at this run of games we're into this is one of the most the highest selling here and i think that's more a reflection of the times because we're moving into 1980 and i know the arcade industry starts blowing up right as we get into this 81 is when galaga and pac-man come out and just destroy everything so i think it's necessarily it's not necessarily a reflection of this game but it is interesting to know and you'll see that in flight 2000 the other highest produced on this list are two of the more affordable games here yeah because there's more of them they're not rare yeah and so that's why for like the for the listener it's just interesting when you don't pay attention to production numbers you don't realize how much that impacts the prices of stuff stern also had a different focus of this era too they're making video games alongside pinball machines yeah so they're like maybe we just kind of uh put more of our eggs in this basket that's a good point i didn't think about that forgot they're making actual arcades the x game oh holly holly greatest so in march of 1980 they made almost 3,000 of these, designed again by Harry Williams, based on Muhammad Ali. Yeah. One of the more unique color theories for a game, you'll see. You'll see skin tones that are light purple and lavender and yellow. Really interesting for coloration of the play field. I haven't seen anything like that in his approach to design and color for a machine. Really cool. Yeah, the whole play field, it's beautiful. Yeah. Sterns. They're moles, light blues. It's stunning. in this era it's funny the sterns they have very much their own flavor with the hardware but with the art packages they did and the colors they did they look very different than the bally's and i don't know if it was just a reflection of like less budget like if they had less colors available when they made them or and so they kind of go with like bolder things for like the cabinet on ali is very perfect and it's like when you see like a bally game i guess they have bright colors and bold stuff it's just always the sterns look different it's a good way to stand out yeah and I see like with a lot of those um ballets from the era a lot of primary colors and I think um with sterns you see a lot of like um secondary or tertiary colors um from the forefront you see a lot more like green based games secondary colors with stern like quicksilver big game like green games and people thought like I don't know correct me if I'm wrong but um don't people think green games are bad luck yes it's a well-known superstition in pinball well it's because there's so many of these games that kicked ass they happen to be green and they sold like garbage. So there's a superstition in the pinball industry that persists to this day. And maybe if we get talk to Roger again on the show, Roger Sharp, we'll ask him more about it, because I'm sure he has some great stories about this. The one I remember hearing is that even recently, George Gomez was making sure that there's not green on his playfield for his games. You know, what's funny is one of the best selling modern games of all time is Godzilla. And they took a character that's not green, Godzilla, and made him green. So, you know, I guess to kind of shut that rumor down or that. And they sold a lot of Jurassic Parks and the Jurassic Parks are pretty green too. That's true. Yeah. Maybe Keith just likes green. And even in the 90s, I mean, the 90s Jurassic Park is pretty green. It's just a weird superstition that probably started around this time, maybe even beforehand in the EM era, but you'll see a lot of these great games coming up. Ty mentioned it, we'll talk about on this episode, but there's a lot of green color palettes and these games didn't sell very well. And people in the pinball industry, that used to be their one form of information that they would receive was, like, did the game sell? Atari doesn't use green. They're blowing the doors off of us.

medium confidence · Alan: 'It's because there's so many of these games that kicked ass they happen to be green and they sold like garbage. So there's a superstition in the pinball industry that persists to this day.'

  • Stern Electronics was simultaneously manufacturing arcade video games (like X-Game) alongside pinball machines in 1980, which may have diverted production capacity and focus.

    high confidence · Alex: 'Stern also had a different focus of this era too they're making video games alongside pinball machines.' Ty adds context about X-Game production.

  • Quicksilver's artwork was directly adapted from the cover of Heavy Metal Magazine Issue #3, Vol. 2 (July 1978) by artist Philippe Caza, with minimal changes beyond arm position and color.

    high confidence · Ty: 'it's the cover of the third issue. and Doug Watson was like that's dope and we all agree it is dope but you knocked it so hard bud you just threw you just changed posture on like one of her arms one of the alien lady's arms and that was it.'

    • @ Sea Witch section
    Philippe Caza
    person
    Roger Sharpeperson
    Doug Watsonperson
    Gary Sternperson
    Stern Electronicscompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Ballycompany
    Williamscompany
    Data Eastcompany
    Wedgeheadvenue
    Gottliebcompany
    Chicago Coincompany

    high · Alan: 'Stern made some great games and nowadays they're highly sought after by the collector market. The prices have skyrocketed.' Ty on Quicksilver: 'only 1,200 produced. So they're worth a lot. You don't see them on location at this point.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Ali has a design flaw where the six-digit score display overflows too easily, allowing players to roll the game frequently. This undermines the accomplishment and balance. A seven-digit display mod exists but is expensive, limiting adoption.

    high · Waterboy: 'It only has one weakness and that's solved by the next game on the list but it needs one more digit on the score display it's too easy to roll over.' Alan: 'if we were to get another one again i think i would install that. Yeah spend the money and do that.'

  • ?

    industry_signal: The 'green games are bad luck' superstition in pinball likely originated around 1980 or earlier in the EM era. Multiple well-designed green-playfield machines (Quicksilver, Big Game, others) sold poorly, creating a correlation that became industry folklore. Manufacturers began actively avoiding green to hedge against the superstition.

    medium · Alan: 'It's because there's so many of these games that kicked ass they happen to be green and they sold like garbage. So there's a superstition in the pinball industry that persists to this day.' Ty mentions George Gomez avoiding green on playfields.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern Electronics adopted a distinct visual identity using secondary/tertiary color palettes (pale blues, muted greens, earth tones) compared to Bally's saturated primary colors. This gave Stern machines a different aesthetic that some collectors view as more sophisticated or realistic.

    high · Multiple comments on color differentiation: 'Sterns a lot more like pale stuff... more like realistic color palettes on them and like earth tones.' 'The Sterns look different. It's a good way to stand out.'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Quicksilver's artwork was directly adapted from Heavy Metal Magazine Issue #3, Vol. 2 (July 1978) cover by Philippe Caza. Changes were minimal (repositioned alien arm, color shifts). This raises questions about licensing transparency and derivative IP usage in early pinball.

    high · Ty: 'it's the cover of the third issue... you knocked it so hard bud... you just changed posture on like one of her arms one of the alien lady's arms and that was it.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Electronics was simultaneously manufacturing arcade video games (e.g., X-Game) alongside pinball machines in 1980. This diversification may have split production focus and resources, potentially limiting pinball output despite strong design quality.

    medium · Discussion of Stern making arcade cabinets; Alex: 'Stern also had a different focus of this era too they're making video games alongside pinball machines... maybe we just kind of put more of our eggs in this basket.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Hosts and collectors are actively advocating for operators to stock rare, high-quality games like Quicksilver on location. This reflects a community effort to preserve playing access to rare machines and counter hoarding by venues.

    medium · Ty: 'This is a call to arms. This is now a player's podcast. Scream at your operators, get them on the fucking floor... they have them, they're hoarding them.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community perception of Stern Electronics games has shifted positively in recent years. Games initially overlooked due to low sales numbers are now recognized as design masterpieces comparable to or exceeding Bally's output. This late appreciation has driven collector demand.

    medium · Rodes (mentioned in content) argued Stern games are 'way better than those Bally's were' or 'just as good if not better.' Alan validated the argument after checking facts. This represents a historical reassessment.

  • ?

    design_innovation: Big Game uses four flippers with metal guides between them to prevent scissoring and ball loss. This design choice makes the game more accessible to new players on a fast, kinetic machine compared to stackable flipper games without guides.

    high · Alan: 'it's got the four flippers which allow for a different sort of play experience but unlike the other stacked flipper games these have metal guides in between them so you can't scissor and lose the ball between.'

    • 11:19
    Don't put green on the play fields. The kids hate green. It was clearly the green. Nobody likes green. Yeah, we've got to keep them in the arcades. They can't be on green grass. They've got to be inside with darkness. But we've got to talk about Ali a little bit more. Yeah, I agree. Like, this game is too good to just kind of gloss over. yeah sorry to jump into tons of color theory but um yeah the play on it excellent spelling greatest to light your extra ball in that spinner up top like uh the u-return spinner so sick that upper u-shaped spinner that he also does on his game dracula in a similar way is such a great spinner placement and it's unique and it's again just the mastermind that is harry williams like the guy saw Things in pinball that nobody else saw, like truly a genius. And I feel like this one, they really nail kind of like the addicting rule set where it's like, oh, just spell this thing. And they give you most of the targets. Nothing about it is necessarily easy. But then you get to the one. Is it the letter A? I can't remember what that one is in the top, right? Yeah. Oh, man, that one's so hard. Yeah. It makes you get creative and sit there and cradle up and think like, how the hell can I get this fed to the top of the pops so I can try to get this last letter? trying to bank you're trying to backhand it or bank it off of a shot and snake it through the pops to get that stand up that you need that game's just so much fun and then you can start like nailing those collects on the little right it i like that it only has so well balanced too yep it only has one weakness and that's solved by the next game on the list but it needs one more digit on the score display it's too easy to roll ollie and that's the only thing that sucks about the game now there's modifications like you can mod this game to have seven digit displays it's not cheap but if we were to have another ali we used to have one if we were to get another one again i think i would install that yeah spend the money and do that because it's the only thing about this game it's like sometimes rolling a game or thinking you can roll a game is super fun but not when you can do it all the time it kind of loses yeah one in 10 games you can roll it Yeah, for sure. All right, next game, also March of 1980. So if you're keeping track, these first three games, Galaxy 1980, Ali, March 1980, Big Game, March 1980, all three done by Harry Williams. Yeah, which is kind of nuts. Yep. Hat trick, first period. Yeah. Hat trick, first period. Bring it to the Miracle Team.
    13:42
    But Big Game, it's a game we talked about extensively on our Harry Williams episode with Roger Sharp. It's a game that me and Alan, I think, have said a lot about. It's awesome. I own one. There's one on the floor at Wedge. Almost always. It's been there for a long time, and it's one that always comes back when it leaves. But Ty, what do you got to say about Big Game? Oh, you have to put it all on the table, all one, or else it's over. Get a million on ball one. You want to get a score on that thing? Get a million on ball one. We've talked about the gameplay before. You've talked about another podcast. But talk about the theory of what you want to do when you play this thing. and at first you're like okay you want to bang out some drops you're going to start filling those cards and then just start collecting and then you have to snipe you really start from like kind of a painter perspective on how to like actually approach pinball you go from broad strokes to really fine strokes and you start just painting the play field and just knocking those things down and then you have to get into snipe territory and just it's so good that's what i love about the game i love the collect shot like the left hand side to a spinner and it curves around into a collect hole which is a very harry williams thing he has swoopy kind of lane guides that you'll shoot a shot and it'll kind of whip the ball around throw it into pops the pops will jump the ball into different sets of drop target banks the best part about big game is i love teaching it to players because you have the ball is so kinetic and jumps around the play field it's a wide body but it doesn't fucking play like a wide body no it plays like a tight track for sure it's fast it's kinetic and i love just like what ty said when you start the game you're like anything i have these three different bingo cards I need to fill out. I'm just filling it out. I have lanes to spell big game to light my extra balls. You're just trying to get stuff going. But then at a certain point, you start getting constricted. That's the beauty of the rule set and the layout is that at first you're like, all these drops are good. But then at a certain point, you're like, I only need a handful of these numbers left on a certain card. So I got to get the card lit and then I got to hit the drop target while the card's still lit to finish it and that is so addictive so hard to do that's the best part about those like the grid games love those rule sets because it's just like you kind of start and it's like just keep the ball alive and you'll make some good progress and then it's like once you kind of get the feel of the game it suddenly becomes a lot different yeah you can't sleep on the spinners either too and like xyz corresponding to all the different spinners on the play field and having those lit it's another thing to pay attention to it's another layer of depth that's great in that game yeah and then game yeah big game spell out big game and then like hit that spinner make sure it's lit collect that keep moving forward but yeah when you need a breather you actually have to hit the spinner which is kind of counterintuitive certain games you're like okay holy smokes i'm getting so many bounces back at me and get my butt kicked um what should i do shoot up thought and it's got the four flippers which allow for a different sort of play experience but unlike the other stacked flipper games these have metal guides in between them so you can't scissor and lose the ball in between yep which i think is much better way to get new players into a solid state on a game as fast as big game it would be brutal as a new player playing that if you could lose the ball between the flippers so easy to scissor on here yeah because it's like you do catches on the lower flippers constantly on it the way there's just a lot of feeds to them i feel like and it's like oh if you had to if you couldn't catch the ball on the lower flippers that game would be fucking mean it'd be fun it's got one of the best back glasses of all time just a tiger and his face is peering out of the leaves so good super fucking green yeah yeah i'm on the record as this is my favorite solid state machine of all time it's the machine that made me fall in love with games of this era we wouldn't have wedgehead without me playing this game so it's a special place in my heart i remember when you told me it was coming in and it was right before covid and you were bummed because we didn't get to play it when uh shutdown happened And you're like, oh, man, it's coming in. Yeah. Like and you're like, dude, wait till you play it, wait till you play it. And then shut down. I was like, oh, damn it. Well, it's funny because. We came back. Yeah. When you guys opened Wedge back up and for any listeners that weren't around during the COVID era or haven't been to Wedgehead, they did a little like private pod thing because of the limitations in Portland around COVID at the time. And there was the collector corner pod at the beginning and it had Big Game and Frontier in it. So sick. And I remember my wife and I would go in and we kind of just. gravitated towards it because it was one of the pods that was like a smaller lineup right so with two people it kind of made sense and very quickly those two games became my wife megan's favorite two games of all time and so it was like one of those ones i was like when a big game pops up we're gonna buy it it's a game that i still just love playing i remember you even named all the pods but that one was named the player's choice okay yeah it's just great it's for connoisseurs only dude yeah that's yeah there were a little description on it and it's like the tasteful pinball yeah you know it's for 10 pinball players will appreciate this one it's the 40 year old wine yeah think you out come on from there we're going to move on to the first non-harry williams game on this list see which in may of 1980 made 2500 of these it's designed by mike cuban cuban yep i don't know the pronunciation another rad game you might know it better or maybe worse as the beatles they kind of recycled this layout tweaked it pretty heavily it plays quite a bit different but this is really the only stern electronics layout that stern has gone back to yeah modern day stern has gone back to the well george gomez redesigned this and tweaked this layout and made it the beatles which is a way worse theme i do like his changes we don't need to get too into the weeds on the between the two but see which is a gorgeous game really cool art package on it so sick and it's fun i like that thing once i had the rules explained it's another one that's very addicting to me it needs to be set up hard if you play a friendly sea witch if you there is such a thing i think it would fall apart really quick but the shots they're tight and difficult and sometimes you swear to god that they're impossible when you're trying to collect riptide yeah but that's what makes it satisfying when you get them and it's just fun chasing like the lit drops around going for all your stand-ups it's cool yeah that riptide's a motherfucker especially coming off the uh left flipper it's the very to beth flipper and it is the the fraction of where you have to hit that on the flipper there's the margin for error zero it's so like yeah and that you swear that lane is the width of the ball yep and like you got to get up there with speed too there's that lane so you can feed it back into the shooter lane underneath the upper right flipper always clips it that one literally like it's like 101 the size of the ball like if you put a ball in there like if you take the glass off it's like does not look physically like the ball will make it through do it i sat there i've sat and tried because i swore to god i was like this is going to be easier than getting riptide the conventional ways and i was like i'm going to shoot into the launch lane and then plunge it up and collect my riptides that way and it is possible to make that shot but like by god it's like i don't know what mike coogan was thinking he just was like a sadist and he was like people are going to try this if it looks possible oh and the ruse that you think you can hit that loop with the lower right i keep trying i've been playing sea witch for fucking eight years and i'm like i'm gonna try it this time maybe a little bit of bounce maybe a little bit different and no no it's not gonna go through that way so dumb i do dumb shit sometimes and that's why i say like playing beatles all the things we're talking about where you're like it looks like you should be able to do this it looks like you should be able to do this george gomez took sea witch the layout and he basically just made it easier to the point where all the things that look like they should be possible are possible now and that's why it's like when you play it the first time you're like oh my god i'm the god of sea witch like this is how like it was meant to play but it's a completely different game it's so oh thank you for the training wheels on that one george oh no i do love beatles and that's a game that i i mean i'd pick up a sea witch if the price was right in the future but i would definitely pick up a beatles if the price is right i think we've always kind of like uh fantasized being like oh let's just put like reskin beatles yep as sea witch as sea witch yeah you know this was me and ty were out playing a lot of these games the other day and had the genius idea doing an all translate for beatles with like the beetle members as sea witches you know title together i'm feeling like that's the way to go if i get a beetles in the future giant marakuta that looks like yoko on it like dragon gone down and you're like oh no the band's suffering anyway great game alan did you have anything to add on that one and now i just think it's interesting too it's got an interesting cabinet and art package overall like ty was saying earlier it's blue in different shades of blue like blue and gray and blue and white like like a turbulent ocean yeah and again it just feels different than fathom like it looks different than that which is what i think you were alluding to is like yeah they pulled the blacks away where you look at fathom there's just so much black ink on the back glass and on the play field and then like yeah sea witch is just more eliminated with uh that muted sky blue against some greens beautiful color theory once again the ballys are all kind of like saturated in rich colors and the sterns are a lot you see a lot more like pale stuff you see kind of a lot more like realistic color palettes on them and like earth tones and stuff that you don't see so much of the ballys it's just different everything about them it feels like the whole thing might rattle itself apart at any point but it's like when you hit the drops it's like you lightly graze the drops and they'll pop down if you smoke the drops dead on they might stay up everything kind of has its own flavor and character and they play so different and they can be so fast speaking of drops they have to be praised for like drops that work better than bally's because if you smoke a drop on a stern it'll go down if you smoke a drop on fucking centaur straight up they'll stay i think we've talked about that in the previous podcast but it's like the bally drop targets from this era are so bad they're just they look cool they're big chunks of plastic yeah they're like i mean i have good graphics on them but they don't work right the beauty of the stern drops is sweeping them though which see which to bring it back to an actual game is like when you sweep that top bank from the or the middle bank from the upper flipper it's so sick it is and a better example of sweeping the drops is on the next game june 1980 this is a good one I don't want to say what's my favorite, but Quicksilver by Joe Juice Jr., JJJ, the fucking man. I don't know how many games he designed. If this is the only one he did, it still makes him one of the best designers of all time. Preach, brother. Because Quicksilver is phenomenal. Joe Juice Jr. has done more than just this game. No, no, it's just this one. That's all we're talking about. We're talking about this one game. He also then kept on working in pinball after his time at Stern Electronics, and he was a mechanical engineer. Oh, okay. That kind of makes sense. Should have got him away from the engineering tables back onto like the design. Yeah, we need some more J squared on some of these machines. Yeah, these games needed the juice. I think they had the juice with some of the stuff like... Quicksilver, there's not a single game that Data East made that holds a candle to Quicksilver. Quicksilver is phenomenal. Phenomenal. It's a game that I always wish I could play more of. You don't see them often because they're beautiful. They're really good and they're really rare with only 1,200 produced. so they're worth a lot you don't see them on location at this point if you do go play one like play it all day scream at your operators and get them on the floor this is a call to arms this is now a player's podcast scream at your operators get them on the fucking floor just protest you know you they have them they're hoarding them just let them know they have to be on the floor because this is a beauty and what uh water boy was referring to for like that sweeping drop shot This is a trick shot, which is nice, which you can do a backhand, backhand that like side row of drops and you can get it through the spinner. Nice little trick shot. It's so good. Two for one. Shots are close in or some of those drops are super close in. In lanes, light the drops too, which shats those bad boys and then go for spinners. Yep. And sometimes if the shot's too well, it will fuck you because the ball will have spin on it. It'll hit a rubber donut at the top of the lane and it'll spin to the out lane. I've seen that happen to you. I've had it happen to me. It's the worst, but the game is the best. It's the best. Another very green art package. Oh, it's so green. So green. And like, yeah, the art, it's amazing, but it is kind of a knockoff of something from Heavy Metal Magazine. Issue number three, volume two from July 1978. And the art was done by a French illustrator named Philippe Caza. Yeah, and it's the cover of that issue. It was not a subtle little thing he wrote. No, it was the cover of the third issue. and Doug Watson was like that's dope and we all agree it is dope but you knocked it so hard bud you just threw you just changed posture on like one of her arms one of the alien lady's arms and that was it yeah they changed the colors around a little bit a little bit yeah yeah made it greener because they knew green games are the best you rendered it a little bit more loosely but yeah you know whatever it is a very cool game though definitely cool game it's very rare game it's a very expensive game the game that came out later that same month i gotta say props to icebox for restoring their quicksilver to the immaculate condition it is oh yeah and they did such a killer job every time alan waterboy and i go to uh seattle have to stop at icebox have to play some quicksilver shout out to icebox which is an arcade in seattle it's rad they got a rad arcade and they have a classics kind of side room that's just full of classics that are immaculate yeah new play fields new like fully restored games like truly unbelievable condition uh works of art there that are just out to play and unfortunately for them but fortunate for us every time we go up there nobody's in the classic student playing so we just spend most of our time in there banging away on a drop 20 bucks and quarters in that room it's money well spent and they also have the game that's next on the list uh cheetah yeah cheetah same month like alan said june 1980 1200 produced again we're back to harry williams the goat another phenomenal game another one that rodsey needs to bring back to the floor of wedgehead because it rules it's coming back when this episode's out it should be back on the floor we got a new play field oh yeah we're rodsey and i are going to do a play field swap on that cheetah giving ourselves a ticking clock here so hopefully when this episode's out and you're listening to this, you can come play our Cheetah with a new play field. I carved my teeth on this bad boy, and it put me on the Wedginal Key Gator Trophy. Yep. I got one. Don't have as many as these boys. Yep. That's my one. That's a good one to have the high score on. Yeah. I've lost it three times, but I won it once, and that was a fucking cheetah, and that game rules. That game's so good. And it's funny looking at this. I didn't realize it was back-to-back. It was Harry Williams' next release after big game, and it's like he made one kick-ass wide body you know big cat themed game and he's like how do i follow it up another kick-ass wide body big cat themed game it's awesome instead of tigers as cheetahs yeah and now a woman they're like maybe this will help sell more it didn't they made like half of them as big games but uh it a fucking awesome game another great unique layout by harry I mean again this is a super rare game that you don really see out It not valued the same way as Quicksilver It's up there. Is it? It really is. It should be. It deserves to be because it's every bit as good, in my opinion. Yeah, a lot of the games on this list were kind of into the territory of expensive games now. Because Quicksilver, Cheetah, the one we're talking about next, are spendy. It's for a couple reasons. Rarity, and they're genuinely kick-ass games. and like cheetah is not a game cheetah i don't know you guys got a play field it's not made it to the level where people are building them from scratch so there's not like when you see them they're rare you don't see them at this point on location they did have one at icebox though yeah they do um yeah i swear like in every one of them i've seen looks a little bit different like whether it's the back glass got repainted or their play fields roached out you know there's There's some color fit, yeah, that people will want to hold onto them as long as they can. You can tell these games got played on location. They didn't sell a lot of them, but over the years they were well loved. They're great players. And she just got some really cool stuff, but you don't see it. It's like I love those drops way at the top that you've got time to lock in to get everything in place or lined up on the grid or whatever. It took me a while. It's a four count. You count four seconds off and then shoot the ball. you have to look at your flipper count one two three four go for it try to hit two drops in one and then time it out again but you try to light your yellow star i think yeah yellow and blue are the ones you want uh yeah yellow will uh like your far right one yep and that's where just tons of cash rolls in yep and so try to go for that right off the bat you know there's that other spinner so there's like the left you can shoot on the left side of the play field goes all the way feeds the ball up top if you really get a clean shot there and then there's also a shot on the left side of the playfield right above the upper flipper that's a spinner and it's interesting because it's a spinner that you like rip and it kind of goes into the pops and so a lot of the time you'll rip that spinner hit a pop and it'll come right back down and feed that flipper it's interesting there's some other interesting stuff because there's like that bonus collect or the i think it's a bonus collect maybe it's just like a score collect that you can only fall into on the right with kicker and the kicker feeds it back into the drops in the middle of the playfield it's just an interesting one harry williams did some goofy shit but he knew how to make it work It wasn't goofy for the sake of being different. It was just different for the sake of being fun. And these are comprehensive games, too. You're not leaning on one side of every shot counts. Yep. Everything counts. That's just a good game. Harry was the master. Master. For people in the Portland area, you'll be able to play a cheetah here pretty soon because we're getting it back together, doing a restoration on it, and it's going to be nice. Yeah, it's a kick-ass fucking game. The next game on the list in August of 1980 is also the rarest game on the list. They only sold 869.
    31:49
    Designed by Brian O'Clackley. O'Clackley? O'Clackley, yeah. Which is a very interesting name that I don't come across. So I don't know what the story is with him, really. Probably became a mechanical engineer, you know? I'm sure he was working at the factory and lull in the production schedule. which is hilarious to think about they're like oh shit we only are making nine games this year we need to round that number up they're like get the new guy on and brian comes to them with the wildest shit maybe for a lower third that i can think of i think this is your favorite of this list you introduced me to this one ron yeah he loves this love it it's stargazer and it's phenomenal and it's another game this is one that's expensive enough people are building them from scratch regularly at this point you see probably more reproduction stargazers come up for sale than originals now it's crazy good and it's just the simplicity to me is the beauty so it's got really unique situation with no in lanes you just kind of have these little half circles with a star roll over up above the flippers and then you have live slings above those and so you kind of do a lot of like you do a lot of live catches you want to roll it over those you do a lot of kind of it's not really a shats but you're passing to the other side or you're doing rollbacks because those rollovers will light your spinners and you just want to rip spinners and collect other stuff as a byproduct of ripping spinners it's like the ultimate light a spinner rip it game in my opinion and it's so it's just the most fun spinners to rip of any game ever when you play a stargazer that's playing right it's just i don't think it really gets like there's nothing better as far as ripping spinners than that you know you can live catch if you can live catch on this bad boy dude It's so fun. It's like live catch training wheels. Or not training wheels. It's like a live catch training session. That's the only way to get control of the ball. And there's so much stuff that feeds back to them. It's just great. Yeah, I think it's one of those games where this is a great game with an unbelievable art package. A woman covered in stardust. Yeah. And a back glass. Very blue. Very blue and silver. And it's kind of like, I can't remember the... Very celestial. But she's not going to do your horoscope, so it's not annoying. Yeah. and it is kind of horoscope themed it is yeah but she's not preachy you know okay what time of day were you born uh what house is your moon in this game to me is all about the lower third the flipper placement and the uniqueness of it that's what makes the game fun to me is like alex was saying you don't have the normal slings with the in lanes and the flippers in the same spot same orientation because you have sort of like these like little curved metal crescent guides and some star rollovers there just catching and controlling the ball is different the way the whole game plays because of that is different i think the upper half of the play field okay it's incidental yeah it's fine but the lower third makes that game feel dynamic and fun and different yeah make sure you want to like play with your pinkies like you're eddie van halen you know you're like oh man they're showing me something so different i gotta approach this way different the reason why people like this game so much now is that the art package is killer yep they made so few of them and that lower third flipper placement makes the game so different and fun to play yeah if this had a regular standard kind of italian bottom boring boring i would like to play with they would have sold way more of them it's one of those games that makes you wonder why did no one i mean they sold 800 of them despite having an awesome art package so people must have fucking hated it at the time but when I play it it just makes me wonder why did no one else copy this why has no one copied this again today these games are selling for like eight grand regularly why won't somebody make a game that plays as like fast and awesome and unique as this now and that's not like I don't want to bitch it's like I like I mean what you mean like stern well I'm like I like new games I love a lot of games that a lot of the guys on this podcast don't care for, I feel like. Yeah, nerds.
    35:54
    Nerd, you show up with the rule book, me and Ty are over there. Like, no, I don't need a spreadsheet. I just want to play the fucking game. Fine outsider smoking darts, dude, and fucking... We're ripping spinners on solid state, so you're over here like, oh, I'm eating Venom rolls. Like, oh, they introduced a new symbiote into Venom. Did you know that? It's a new mode. They just came out with it today. Did you download it? Yeah, if you guys check our Insider Connected accounts, ever you're going to see a difference between me and these guys you know i don't even have an insider connected account no no i have a laminated card with my photo on it says bally outsider took me 27 box tops calling marge on the hotline and improving my scores to get there you got to earn the bally out yeah you have to wait like three and a half world cups to get one you know it takes 13 and a half years worth it and you don't no qr code give me a break stargazer though I'm just saying, if they're going to do a Beatles, if they're going to do another fucking 20 grand single level kind of bullshit, you're like, do Stargazer for the love of God. Watch, they'll do Fish.
    37:04
    Oh, Fish needs a game. Everybody loves the jam band Fish. Their songs won't end and the game will last forever. Let's just resend fucking Stargazer.
    37:14
    Motherfucker. If they did that. I wouldn't be happy if they brought it back with a theme I didn't love, honestly. so maybe it's best anyway if there's a listener that has a stargazer that's like a you know a rough a real beater that you want to let go for a sweetheart deal send it uh send it my way because i would love to own a stargazer at some point and unfortunately i don't know when they're the expensive at some point i'll just have to cave and buy an expensive one they're good i love that game and there's not enough places to play them we're very lucky that we have one now in the area on location and next level there's one at icebox keep bringing icebox up this is another one if you see a stargazer go play it immediately it's awesome you literally don't need to know anything except for light spinner rip spinner and you'll think like holy shit you'll figure everything else out as you go it's just so good now on to the next game a much better game flight 2000 september 1980 6300 of these babies produced oh baby harry williams he got it back dude it's like they tried they doubled down on the cats it didn't work and they're like you know what kids fucking love space space and what they love more than that is a really complicated unnecessary system for locking balls oh no no no very cool system for locking balls it's the first multi-ball stern isn't it the first multi-ball stern game and they dedicated harry was like i'm gonna make one third of the play field dedicated to locking those balls like roger said when we were talking to roger sharp about Harry Williams. Harry was a single ball designer. He didn't really like multi-ball, but this was the era where games were starting to get multi-ball because a game came out called... What was it, Firepower? Firepower. Is Firepower the first multi-ball solid state? Yes. Some people will say that it's Fireball. Some people will say that it's Bally Starjet. Some people... There's other... There's EMs and stuff. It's the first game where you lock balls and then you get a multi-ball. Yeah. So it's generally considered Firepower is the first true modern multiball game.
    39:16
    And this is coming on the heels of that. And everyone saw what a massive hit that game was. Oh, yeah. So Stern was producing this game as like, oh, we have multiball. Like this is our multiball game designed by Harry Williams. And they sold the shit out of them. The game rules. Like my jokes aside, Flight 2K is awesome. It's got a big old bank of drop targets. it's kind of split up it's like one gigantic mech that people will bitch about because it just memory drops right so they're constantly cycling and it's like a foot and a half long there's only like eight drops which i can't remember how many because there's like one and then there's a gap and then there's two and then there's a gap but it's one big mech and it rattles itself apart and just constantly needs attention i think when it's on location but it's a really cool game not worse than the next game on the list but um that's good yeah it's a good point but yeah flight 2000 i think this is the only game on the list ty hasn't played yeah i was going to mention that oh god i have a feeling of okay i have like sunburn after saying this but i have never played flight 2000 yes and i blame portland i've played everywhere in the city i've never seen one on look actually not very common here for some for whatever reason it's only 6 000 of them come on guys yeah there's like more of these than probably stern jurassic parks in the world somehow i've played i've never seen one in portland quicksilver you know somehow i played stargazer and cheetah and yeah yeah everything else that they're like nine you add those three together you don't even get six thousand but there's six thousand flight two thousands it's not an exceptionally valuable game it's because once you get into the higher numbers you can actually get these things they're they're not cheap but i think you can get them under a few grand maybe like two or three and yeah they are cool they're really sweet the only issue i have with flight 2000 is after playing gamatron which is like the spanish version they bought the rights to the play field and they put it into a standard body cabinet instead. And that game's really cool. We talked about it briefly with Roger Sharp. That game's just sweet, but that's like unobtainium. Flight 2000 is awesome in its own right. It's just... I love Flight 2000. This is a game that I wish I could play more because it is weirdly rare for the production numbers that you see. Or maybe it's just rare on the West Coast. Maybe everyone... It's like stars where like they made... I don't know how many stars they made. It feels like they made a million stars and they're cheap. and you don't see them on location because everyone that bought one is like, this game rules, it's never leaving my home collection. Yeah, that's probably part of it. I think that's like the Flight 2000s. It's a cool game. People hang on to them. Which brings us to the last game, Nineball, December 1980, 2279 produced, designed by the enigmatic Steve Kirk. Steve finally gets a game in 1980. Yep. And it's a banger. It is. Hot off the heels three years later. of eight ball we have what's better than eight balls nine balls nine and we're gonna put all those drops in a row on the side but you gotta hit them in order but it's the other way it's uh it's on the left side instead of on the right side oh that's right yep and it's not related to the eight ball series like ties no no but it is wizard pool themed it's space wizard pool themed which is so sick and they also have the call it on the back glass tournament play which what is that mean it's tournament play baby you've seen that call out right it's got it all okay so steve kirk uh was a designer for stern electronics he made some of his more famous games earlier than this year this is the only game he made on this miracle run that we're highlighting but he did games like stars and meteor and he also did this nine ball but he was a tournament player and he was one of the first people to organize tournaments oh so roger sharp who we talked to he and steve Epstein started Papa, Steve Kirk had started a big organized pinball, competitive pinball thing before even Roger and Steve had done. Interesting. You know, it didn't have the lasting legs that Papa and now the IFPA have but it was sort of the predecessors to both to the point where he even got a lot of national attention for the biggest tournament that he threw because he was doing it in the late 70s It part of how he leveraged getting to work at Stern Electronics And so when he says tournament play, because he's a tournament player, the reason why a lot of tournament players really love these Stern Electronics games, they love Steve Kirk games in particular of all these games. Yep. He's one of them. It's sort of like in the same way you see today in the modern stern you see keith elwyn former multiple world champion pinball player you see tim sexton coder top 100 player you see raymond davidson top 100 player champion they're just hiring that you see that now you see big tournament players bow and karen's former world champion has worked with spooky is now working with barrels of fun on some games this is sort of like the beginning of that you have a tournament player you also saw it with roger sharp who we talk to right like he's he starts organizing tournaments he's a high level player back in his day but steve kirk that's how he got a start that's why i think it says tournament mode on it steve kirk also is sort of credited with he wanted his name to be on every game he designed yeah which is cool yeah that's why you see you'll see it on all these games they'll have the designers names on the play field as part of the art which continued on through you know till now right not every game nowadays has the designers and artists and stuff listed on them but the 90s games do and that was because steve demanded it by all accounts he was a weird guy a little bit hard to work with had a sad story at the end which we'll have to do in another episode i think steve probably does our own episode yeah um where we could dive deeper into this topic but nine ball is another game you don't see a lot because it has memory drops and what alex was saying about Flight 2000 is even more true about Nineball. That mech will tear itself apart because it's constantly firing up and down, up and down, up and down. Clearing drops, resetting drops. But this game has maybe my favorite spinner placement any game I've ever played. It's sick. It's on the right side. It's low on the right side. And there's two stretched rubbers that sort of create like an angle rubber. And it's exposed on one side. So it's like a hanging spinner bracket. And it's low. So you hit it off your left flipper to the right side and you hit the ball into the spinner, but it can bounce off of the lower rubber or the upper rubber and it will ricochet off and bounce towards the drops on the left hand side. And it's just a crazy feeling. It's so cool because it works. It's not as consistent as if it was like a ball guide or something like if you had a metal ball path, it would just be feeding it to the same place every time you rip that spinner. and so it keeps it way more wild than that. But it also works in a predictable enough way that like once you're playing the game for a while, you get lulled into like that false sense of security with it. You're like, oh, I know how this shot works. You rip this spinner, it just bounces. It's this exact drop every time. And then you have one suddenly do something different. You're like, oh my God, what just happened? Yeah, sometimes it's the only way to get the eight ball because that thing's protected against like a post. And so you have to bank it. And it's such a shot of skill. And it's right before that spinner that Alan was talking about. If you hit that, that's the angle. You get a little bit before the spinner, and you can have that thing. That's a sick game, dude. It's such a sick game. It's one of my favorites. I mean, we brought it through. This is the miracle year, 1980, height of the Cold War, nine machines, nine bangers. Nine bangers. Yep. There's not three hat tricks in one year. There's not a bad game in this whole list. Harry Williams machines. That is a lot of work. Yeah. It's a lot of work. because he's sitting around for so long just drawing stuff up, and then it's like when Stern gave him the chance, he probably was like, hell yeah, here we go. But I guess that's probably not true, because you look at it, and he pivoted. He made, like, Flight 2000. He made stuff with technology at the time, so he must have just been working his ass off. He had to just love that shit. Oh, dude, Harry Williams, from what we know about him, and again, we're talking about him a lot in this episode, because he did a lot of these games. He did more than half. If you're new to the podcast, go back and listen to our Harry Williams episode where we dive into it. The dude basically invented almost everything on a pinball machine for the first time, even stuff you didn't think he did, he did back in the fucking 50s. Oh, yeah. He worked for fun, you know? Yeah. His wife must have been screaming at him, like, oh, you know what, I've got to go back to work.
    47:51
    I'm going to make some more machines. I've got five to do this year. The term genius gets thrown around too much, but he was a genius. He was a true genius. Titan of the industry. Pioneer. absolute one of one harry williams was the fucking man build the statue yeah that's the end of 1980 after that stern electronics they didn't just up and die but they did kind of fizzle out not that long after they bled out quickly they had some really good games after this but they were kind of one of the big casualties of the rise of the arcade industry and and like ty mentioned earlier they were making arcade many good games did they really have one yeah after this yeah can't think of many others what are we yeah notable from 1981 to 1982 dragon fist and orbiter sick during this sick also very rare orbiter one not good at all people like to defend this in like the way people defend like you know like tommy was those the room or something and it's just like okay man like you don't have to like pretend like you can tell me like it's a shit game right and they're like no it's so cool and you're like just tell us you're stoned exactly it's cool you don't have to lie to kick it you're just orbiter one is the last in my machine that stern electronics ever made and it's for anyone that hasn't played it's vacuum molded it looks like terrain on like mars or something and the ball moves it's unique it's super fun to play for a couple okay what are you talking about are you serious you don't walk up to that game with childhood wonder the first time yeah the first laid one ball and then every time five ball game i hit ball three i launched ball four and i was like nope and i just walked away it doesn't have legs i've never gone back it doesn't have legs i will play it every single time i see it just because it's a wild swing i would bet you money that's not true i will take you to next level and you will not play that piece of shit that thing sucks dude i play it every time i played it for years you put i refused really yeah oh my god i would it's fun anything it's fun the game is the game is fun it's not really pinball it's a moped it's like what what mopeds are the motorcycles that's like hyperbole okay we're going on we're going out of the weeds sorry i have strong opinions on orbiter one because i hate that bell ringer's better you put bell ringer next to orbiter it's better i do blame i do blame orbiter one a little bit it's the way that people look at like flight 2000 and it's easy to blame flight or not sorry flight 2000 pinball 2000 the the bally williams i do want you to know that joe juice jr did orbiter one okay i fully understand why gary stern didn't let him design another that's a classic sophomore slump so much sense now you're like oh joe you know he also did dragon fist dragon okay so dragon fist which is from 81 which is cool that game is they made 300 of them yeah man it's super rare you can see why they did orbiter one and like i i understand it from a business perspective trying something new but it's just it is like i was saying it's like the star wars episode one and revenge from mars and you get to blame that for killing williams and you're like no williams was dying and that's why they did those and stern was dying and that's why they did orbiter one but it's like damn you couldn't have done like one more unfinished harry williams design as your swan song you had to put that thing out instead it's always just sad but that's the world of you know business and i want to say like joe juice jr also worked on the mechanics of ride a pin bot pin bot police force black knight 2000 jokers so cyclone he he was a great mechanical engineer that also did some designing you'll see that again again in pinball mechanical engineers end up becoming designers or helping with design and then sometimes they find their way back into their strong suit which is helping other people make their games come to life yeah like all of those games you just listed are incredible with like incredible mechanical pieces in them so you're kind of like oh he figured his fit out yeah yeah that's cool anyway miracle year miracle year i don't think anyone has made a run of games like this in one year yeah no i don't think any company has done let alone we won't see nine games from any pinball manufacturer ever again ever yeah like if pinball is around for another hundred years no one will ever do nine in a year they don't do that anymore software side is too intensive there's a lot of reasons now yeah yeah however if you go back in time when companies were making this many games nobody else did it in one year like this not a single dud it's just crazy it's crazy a lot of the games that people talk about why this era so good This 1980 hosts so many of them, and they're all killer. No bad games. No filler. All killer. Yeah. But I just want to thank everyone for listening to another episode of the Wedget Pinball Podcast. Thank you, Ty, for joining us once again, bringing your expertise on solid state history. Oh, thanks for having me. To the masses. Thanks once again to the Waterboy for hosting us in his basement studio. For all those listening, go out and find some of these Stern Electronics games. utilize the pinball map the best free resource in the entire world if you're a pinball player if you don't already know about it use it find it it'll find games near you on location that you can go and play seek out some of these games for anyone in the portland area you can come to and we will have some of these games we are getting cheetah we are getting we talked about it briefly but it was just a little bit before the perfect run here but we're gonna have a stars that we'll bring in as well. Ooh, nice. And we'll have our... Big game's not going anywhere. Big game's going to stick around for a little... It's hard to take that game off the floor because I love it so damn much. Hockey night, every Wednesday at Wedgehead. Yes. Watch the games. Ty hosts Hockey Night every single Wednesday night, which is a great time. If you're into hockey, you're into pinball, come see Ty, who's into both. We've got some specials. Answer the trivia question right. Win one of my hockey cards. And we've got the games going on. And if you need some help with your parlays, send me a DM. Ty's your man. It's gambling hockey. Let's make it interesting. Let's go. League's never been better, let's be honest. Yeah, this isn't a hockey talk podcast. No, but we'll just kind of tie it up right there. We're done. But, yeah, it's a great, fun night, middle of the week, chill atmosphere usually, lots more space on the games. I know Wedge has gotten busier in recent years, and so that pinball room can get crowded. But come see Ty on a Wednesday night, watch some hockey, play some pinball. It's a great time. Thanks for listening. Until next time, good luck. Don't suck. Great moments are born from great opportunity.
    54:47
    And that's what you have here tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played them ten times, they might win nine.
    55:00
    But not this game. Not tonight. tonight we skate with them tonight we stay with them and we shut them down because we can tonight we are the greatest hockey team in the world you were born to be hockey players every one of you and you were meant to be here tonight this is your time their time is done it's over I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have.
    56:06
    Screw them. This is your time. Now go out there and take it. Hell yeah, dude. Oh, I got goosebumps. All right. I've never seen Miracle. Oh, God. Oh, dude. I watch it like twice a year.
    56:25
    With Hockey Night at Wedget, I probably put it on, we've done i want to say 25 hockey nights so far yeah most of the end of the regular season so we've put it on i want to say uh about four or five times throughout that's what i think that i watched a decent chunk of it there at a hockey night once and that might have been like the only time i've actually seen any of it it's the best it's so well done and there's like what like three other documentaries surrounding the miracle eyes it's a great story great performance by kurt Speaking of, do we have a pun for is it just Stern's Miracle Year? We don't have like a miracle on nice or something? No, miracle with spice. Miracle on rice. Miracle, I don't have lice.
    57:08
    I'm more talking about eating pinball. No, I think it's just Stern's Miracle Year 1980. Yeah. All right. I'll do their introduction. We'll have some of this stuff for the B-roll here. Okay. Cool. All right. In three, two, one.
    57:23
    Thank you.