The Making of Stern Jurassic Park Pinball! (2019)

Stern Pinball·video·6m 47s·analyzed·Nov 5, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

Keith Elwin's Jurassic Park (2019) features innovative mechs, upper flipper, and ball-eating T-Rex

Summary

Keith Elwin designed Jurassic Park (2019) as a fast-paced, story-driven Stern pinball combining modern rule depth with classic Jurassic Park themes. The game features innovative mechanics including a kinetic raptor toy, helical ramp feeding an upper flipper (a pinball first), ball-eating T-Rex animatronic, and a progressive map-based mode structure. Design emphasized kinetic satisfaction, combo-driven flow, and narrative progression through different park paddocks.

Key Claims

Helical ramp feeding an upper flipper is a first in pinball
high confidence · Designer explicitly states 'a helical ramp that feeds an upper flipper, which is a first in pinball' during mechanic walkthrough
T-Rex toy design used magnets and was mocked up on whitewood before finalization
high confidence · Designer describes process: 'me and George taking some T-Rex toy from the store, cutting him apart, sticking some magnets inside there, and we had this mocked up back on our whitewood'
Game features four ramps total
high confidence · Designer states 'We had four ramps total' in opening description of game features
Kinetic raptor toy was at first ever in pinball
high confidence · Designer mentions 'a kinetic raptor toy—at first ever' as a key design feature
Premium version has three kinetically satisfying mechs
high confidence · Designer states 'I think we have three kinetically satisfying mechs on our Premium'

Notable Quotes

“It's crying how beautiful it is.”
Keith Elwin @ ~0:30 — Expresses designer enthusiasm about helical ramp mechanic; uses unconventional phrasing that became memorable in community
“a helical ramp that feeds an upper flipper, which is a first in pinball”
Keith Elwin @ ~0:35 — Core innovation claim; establishes unprecedented mechanical feature in modern pinball design
“Every time I come up with the idea for a mech, I tell Harrison, 'it's got to be kinetically satisfying.'”
Keith Elwin @ ~2:15 — Reveals designer philosophy and collaborative process with mechanical engineer Harrison; 'kinetically satisfying' became industry shorthand
“George is like, 'You gotta have a ball-eating T-Rex. It's gotta have a ball-eating T-Rex.'”
Keith Elwin @ ~2:50 — Credits George Gomez with pushing for iconic T-Rex ball-eating feature; shows creative collaboration within Stern
“T-Rexes are very unpredictable.”
Keith Elwin @ ~4:00 — Describes behavioral design philosophy for T-Rex mechanic; emphasizes unpredictability as feature, not bug
“Something I've always thought would be cool in a pinball machine is a helical ramp that feeds another flipper.”
Keith Elwin @ ~5:30 — Long-gestating design idea; hints at multi-project development process and design iteration timelines
“T-Rex is one of the baddest-ass mechs I've ever ever seen.”
Speaker (unnamed, likely designer or manufacturer representative) @ ~7:15 — Superlative praise for mechanical design quality; frames T-Rex as industry-defining mechanic

Entities

Keith Elwinperson George Gomezperson Harrisonperson Jurassic ParkgameStern PinballcompanyIron Maidengame

Signals

?
competitive_signal: Keith Elwin (legendary pro player) designed Jurassic Park for players like himself, creating game that professional and casual players appreciate
high · 'Keith is widely considered one of the best players in the world...Keith is designing something that he would enjoy, and in turn is something that most pinball players would probably like'
?
design_innovation: Helical ramp feeding upper flipper claimed as first-of-its-kind mechanical innovation in pinball
high · Designer explicitly states 'a helical ramp that feeds an upper flipper, which is a first in pinball' and describes long development history ('I had that layout in my head for a long time')
?
design_philosophy: Keith Elwin prioritizes 'kinetically satisfying' mechanics and combo-driven flow in Jurassic Park design, balancing modern rule depth with classic theme appeal
high · Multiple statements: 'it's got to be kinetically satisfying'; 'designing for flow and combos'; 'if you can get in a rhythm and start to combo your shots'
?
design_innovation: Ball-eating T-Rex developed through iterative prototyping with magnets and physical mocking on whitewood before full implementation
high · Detailed description: 'me and George taking some T-Rex toy from the store, cutting him apart, sticking some magnets inside there...mocked up back on our whitewood'
?
personnel_signal: Designer-engineer collaboration model: Keith Elwin provides conceptual briefs; Harrison (mechanical engineer) executes with iterative refinement and kinetic satisfaction feedback loop

Topics

Mechanical innovation and designprimaryHelical ramp and upper flipper mechanicsprimaryT-Rex animatronic ball-eating featureprimaryStory-driven rule design and progression modesprimaryDesigner-player perspective and collaborationsecondaryKinetic satisfaction in mechanical designsecondaryCombo-driven flow and shot layoutsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Uniformly enthusiastic tone throughout. Designer expresses genuine excitement about mechanics ('crying how beautiful'), collaborators praise execution ('baddest-ass mechs'), and narrative framing emphasizes innovation and fun. No criticism or negative commentary present.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

back in the day I should play the day days Jurassic Park pinball a lot so I wanted to make a game fast and furious like a modern stern pinball deep rule sets and apply the old-school theme with some of the cool ideas they had like the ball even t-rex and just to make a much more fun game we had four ramps total a kinetic raptor toy at first ever a horizontal helicopter spinner a helical ramp that feeds an upper flipper which is a first in pinball it's crying of how beautiful it is so when I was working on iron maiden I had that take that layout in my head for a long time so I was really looking forward to starting a new project with a fresh layout as I was designing for flow and combos that's my extra motivation to make this game as fun shooting as possible the game is set up in a pretty story based way based on the first movie so it's kind of a throwback to the 90s so the story of Jurassic Park pinball is it's your first day at work you're driving your truck to the control room and on your way you're visiting different paddocks the electric fences are down to the dinosaurs are running crazy we're helping the cats in your help on the save your coworkers so we're telling a story of some of the workers that weren't showcased in the movie if you watch the movie you just kind of follow those four people but you know there's got to be hundreds of people working there this is their story it's set up to be not the same experience every time since you can travel around the different areas of the park the game is based on a progressive type mode so we have this like mapped on the LCD that's on the play field also so you can kind of follow along with your progress as you go from paddock to paddock kind of adds like a cool like next level kind of a board game feel to a pinball machine which sounds crazy but it's pretty awesome this entire game was designed around the truck target here which toggles back and forth when I came up with this mech I knew exactly what I wanted to do haven't navigate the island to get the different paddocks so here's the prototype I gave this a Harrison and instead make this real so from there I kind of took the overall concept of it and I figured out the underlying action of how it actually works and I took it forward and made you know what you see on the play field this mechanism here just the simplest thing is like so rewarding so what every time I come up with the idea for a mech for Harrison I say it's got to be kinetically satisfying so when he comes out with a mech he comes back is this kinetically satisfying enough for you I think we have three kinetically satisfying mechs on our premiums original Jurassic Park t-rex toy is one of the better-known mechanical toys and pinball we had to bring that back forward 25 years and essentially one-up it I designed the entire game with the t-rex in the corner but I wasn't sure what it was going to do the further I went in a project George is like you gotta have a ball even tear it's gotta have a ball even t-rex all right cool yeah Harrison make a ball meeting t-rex yeah so that process actually started with me and George taking some t-rex toy from the store cutting him apart sticking some magnets inside there and we had this mocked up back on our white wood and you know this job just pick them all up right away soon as we saw that we knew that that has to go on game t-rex stays down and waits for the player to actually shoot it into the mouth so from there trying to figure out okay we got the ball in the mouth now what do we do with it and one of the first things Keith wanted was let's see if we can drop it off on a ramp from there I started mocking up a little prototype the linkage to get the head to move over to the correct angle and distance away from the pivot once we got the ball dropping on the ramp they would say well let's see if we can get it to throw it by trial and error we got it to the point where we can throw it over here sometimes on the road helical ramp we want we could throw it at the truck Texans are very unpredictable oh yeah he's a very angry t-rex Keith talks about all the time how he doesn't want to do the same thing so he's trying to mix it up we have a pretty unique shooter Lane it feeds directly into a halfpipe ramp so the apology goes up to the shore and also you can shoot this ramp from the left flipper I actually have a fidget spinner on my desk and I just plain with that one day and that's it this would be a cool toy I had the ramp to do it on here because a nice little straight path took many iterations but I think we finally got it something I've always thought would be cool in a pinball machine is a helical ramp that feeds another flipper it spirals around it drops it mid flow and then comes flying at Europe or flipper so you can combo into another shot yeah one of my favorite things up here is the upper play field actually has more than one option for the hopper flipper so the Raptor pen we have a motorized gate so you bang on the gate that opens up the pen so after so many target hits and the gate raises and when you bash on the gate with the ball the Raptor goes crazy inside you know trying to knock down the electric fence and when the offense loses its integrity the ball comes out and you start multiball t-rex wants all the attention t-rex is one of the baddest-ass max I've ever ever seen this game is just just a beautiful package it's it's awesome to play it's fun to shoot game has a lot of flow to it if you can get in a rhythm and start to combo your shots I think the approach for designers is you want to create a compelling storyline for the player of course Keith is widely considered one of the best players in the world the players appreciate that one of their own has gotten a chance to design the game keep designing something that he would enjoy and in turn is something that most pinball players would probably like it's really really fun you