Journalist Tool

Kineticist

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

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Exclusive: Stern Pinball All Access Factory Tour!

RetroRalph·video·21m 31s·analyzed·May 31, 2024
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Stern Pinball hosts exclusive factory tour for content creators, showcasing manufacturing processes and licensing insights.

Summary

RetroRalph attended an exclusive Stern Pinball factory tour organized by CMO Zach Sharp at their new 160,000 sq ft facility. The tour showcased manufacturing processes from cabinet assembly through final quality testing, with demonstrations of the historic Hannifin press, wire harness testing, and playfield assembly. George Gomez provided a detailed masterclass on IP licensing timelines (24 months) and approval processes, while the group played John Wick and attended a sponsored after-party at Logan's Arcade with an open bar.

Key Claims

  • Stern's facility is 160,000 square feet

    high confidence · Jon stated this directly during the initial tour walkthrough

  • A pinball machine contains approximately half a mile of wire

    medium confidence · Gary Stern mentioned this stat during the tour; Jon noted uncertainty ('I want to say')

  • The Hannifin press is one of only two in existence and was originally purchased by Alvin Gottlieb in 1957

    high confidence · Dwight Sullivan provided this historical detail during the tour

  • IP development and approval takes approximately 24 months from start to finish

    high confidence · George Gomez stated this during licensing masterclass; detailed timeline was shown to the group

  • License holders must approve every detail of a pinball machine design

    high confidence · George Gomez emphasized that 'everything' needs approval and license holders 'have the full say' during masterclass

  • The 007 Aston Martin mech required redesign because license holder wanted a roof on the car

    high confidence · George Gomez shared this specific example during the licensing masterclass

  • John Wick Avatar Limited Edition will receive new speaker light features (muzzle flash simulation with shaker motor)

    high confidence · Tim Sexton demonstrated this upcoming feature during code breakdown in the showroom

  • Avatar Limited Edition back glass design was unexpectedly approved and became the most popular choice

    high confidence · Tim Sexton shared story that this design 'didn't think would get approved' but 'everyone liked the most'

Notable Quotes

  • “This is one of only two of these Hannifin presses that exist in the world. It was originally purchased by Alvin Gottlieb in 1957”

    Dwight Sullivan@ 4:26 — Historical context about equipment; emphasizes manufacturing heritage and continuity

  • “It takes about 24 months from start to finish. So about two years. So if you think about something and someone says, oh, this game is gonna come out or they're making this game in reaction to this, probably not.”

    George Gomez@ 17:33 — Clarifies misconceptions about game development timeline and reactive development claims

  • “Every little piece of that pinball machine needs to be approved by that license holder and they really have the full say.”

    George Gomez@ 17:10 — Demonstrates extent of IP holder control over game design decisions

  • “It was the license holder's decision, like it is on all these things... it was just blown out of proportion, quite frankly, and it's just weird that people will basically make stuff up out of thin air.”

    George Gomez@ 17:51 — References 'gun gate' controversy; addresses community speculation about design constraints

  • “They said, look, we're not perfect at this. I think they're probably the best at it for sure. But they're not perfect.”

    Stern Pinball representatives (via Jon)@ 8:35 — Demonstrates humility about manufacturing process; commitment to continuous improvement

  • “The back glass is so stunning. It's one of those things where I can show you pictures and video like I am right now, but it does not do it justice.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyZach SharppersonGary SternpersonSeth DavispersonGeorge GomezpersonDwight SullivanpersonTim Sextonperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Pinball completed new 160,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, demonstrating capacity expansion; facility not yet fully built out with plans for additional specialized areas

    high · Jon stated facility is 160,000 sq ft; noted that building structure is complete but interior build-out ongoing; Dwight Sullivan mentioned future improvements to entryway area

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern Pinball CMO Zach Sharp organized exclusive factory tour for content creators and YouTube personalities, demonstrating proactive community engagement and media relations strategy

    high · Tour was officially organized by Zach Sharp; multiple content creators invited; personalized swag bags provided with signed merchandise

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern Pinball provided comprehensive hospitality to invited content creators including sponsored transportation (party bus), open bar at venue, branded swag (signed backglass, merchandise), and formal factory tours

    high · Tour group provided wristbands for open bar at Logan's; given swag bags with signed merchandise, branded apparel, and quarters; transported via party bus; Stern staff remained present throughout evening

  • ?

    design_philosophy: George Gomez addressed 'gun gate' controversy as overblown speculation, clarifying that design constraint was license holder's decision not Stern's creative choice; characterized community claims as 'made up out of thin air'

    high · George Gomez statement: 'It was the license holder's decision... it was just blown out of proportion, quite frankly, and it's just weird that people will basically make stuff up out of thin air'

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.065

0:00
Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. Last week I got to share an awesome experience with a bunch of other pinball and arcade content creators touring Stern Pinball's new facility. The invite came from CMO Zach Sharp and I was so stoked when I got it because I didn't really know what we were actually in store for. He said it was a Stern tour of the manufacturing facility but it ended up being so much more than that. So in this video I'm going to share with you my experience. I'm going to give you some of my feedback based on what I saw and hopefully you guys enjoy it. So let's get started.
0:45
Okay so the event kicked off at about 1 p.m. We were greeted by Gary Stern, the founder, Seth Davis, the CEO, and George Gomez, the Chief Creative Officer. So they kind of gave us an idea of what we were doing and of course we're getting super excited at every second that goes by they're telling us all the cool stuff that we're gonna experience. Now in that entryway area they had a bunch of John Wick premium set up and those were John Wick machines that had just come off the line and those were all put there in anticipation of our arrival because this building's probably like 90% built out it's not quite all the way done like the building itself is done, but they haven't finished every single area. So they have some cool plans for this entryway area in the future. Now, this is when we were introduced to Dwight Sullivan, who's going to take us on the tour of the facility. Now, keep in mind, this tour is something that you can experience at Pinball Expo. Now, we were actually given access to certain areas that they don't show during Pinball Expo, but for the most part, it's pretty much the same tour. So I would encourage you to go to Pinball Expo. It's one of my favorite shows of the year. and you'll be able to see a lot of the stuff you're going to see in this very video. And even though I'm going to show you and it's really cool, some of this stuff you just got to see to experience it in person.

Jon@ 7:21 — Emphasizes experiential value of physical presence vs. video documentation

  • “The guy is brilliant... I'll call him one of the godfathers really. So he covers both arcade games and pinball.”

    Jon (about George Gomez)@ 13:53 — Establishes George Gomez's industry stature and cross-category expertise

    • Elliot Eisman
    person
    John Wickgame
    Avatargame
    RetroRalph (Jon)person
    Logan's Arcadecompany
    Jason Knappperson
    Alvin Gottliebperson
    Kyleperson
    Don's Pinball Podcastorganization
    Annperson
    Hannifin pressproduct
    Pinball Expoevent
    Electric Bat Arcadecompany

    design_philosophy: Avatar Limited Edition back glass design was submitted without expectation of approval but became most popular choice among team, indicating organic creative process and stakeholder consensus

    high · Tim Sexton shared story that design 'didn't think would get approved' but 'everyone liked the most'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Specific example: 007 Aston Martin mech required complete redesign when license holder insisted car include roof (historically accurate), necessitating re-approval from both Aston Martin company and movie IP holder

    high · George Gomez shared detailed example of 007 Aston Martin roof approval issue during licensing masterclass

  • ?

    licensing_signal: IP license holders exercise extensive approval authority over pinball machine design details, with ability to delay projects through slow approval processes affecting timeline (24-month development cycle)

    high · George Gomez detailed licensing masterclass explaining that 'everything' requires approval and holders 'have the full say'; emphasized timeline impact of approval delays

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern Pinball uses standardized cabinet design across all product tiers (Pro/Premium/LE) for manufacturing efficiency despite different tier specifications

    high · Dwight Sullivan explained efficiency rationale for single cabinet type used across AC/DC and other title variants

  • ?

    announcement: John Wick Avatar Limited Edition receiving new feature development: speaker light muzzle flash effects synchronized with shaker motor to simulate gunfire

    high · Tim Sexton demonstrated and explained this feature during code breakdown; described as upcoming implementation

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern Pinball implements multi-stage quality testing: wire harness testing pre-assembly, playfield component testing outside cabinet, and final individual machine play-testing by lead developer before shipping

    high · Jon documented testing stations and processes; Elliot Eisman conducts final play testing on each Limited Edition unit; Dwight Sullivan explained multiple quality checkpoints

    • 2:07
    All right, the tour has begun. When we walk through this door, you can't help but notice how massive this facility is. it's 160,000 square feet. So this thing is really big and it puts into perspective, at least for me, how large Stern Pinball has become as a company. So the first thing I saw when I looked forward was a bunch of black cabinets, like a stack of black cabinets. Now that's the standard cabinet that Stern uses to build their pinball machines. Pro, premium, limited edition, it doesn't matter. And Dwight kind of gave us a little bit of overview as why that standard cabinet type, just for efficiency reasons and it makes it a lot easier in the manufacturing process to use one standard cabinet type. When we looked over a little bit more to the right we saw a bunch of premiums and limited editions being built and you can see they're putting on the artwork on the cabinet. They're using the wet method. They water it down a little bit or wet it down and then they apply the artwork and that's so you can kind of maneuver it if there's any problems and they squeegee the water out. Similar to if you install art blades on a pinball machine like I've done the wet method on all these back there and it makes the process a whole lot easier. Now as we move further I saw what looked like a sea of John Wick LE playfields. It was cool as hell and those are all about to be tested outside of the game before they're actually put inside and then they get tested again. So there's a bunch of checks and balances at Stern. The one thing I wasn't able to film was the wiring station where they're assembling the wire harnesses and putting on the Molex connectors. I'm not really sure why. I don't think there's really anything proprietary in how they do it, although it looked really efficient. They had this really cool machine that they put on the connectors and do all this. They also have a bunch of these test benches. Now, Dwight told us the reason why this piece is so critical with the wiring is that they want to make sure that later on when they're putting the wire harness on the play field and all the components that there's no chance they're going to have a bad cable at that point. So they thoroughly test the heck out of the cables to make sure that everything is clean and everything is in fully working order. Up next on the tour, the legendary Hannafin press. What the heck is this thing? It looks super industrial. I have no idea what it does, but Dwight did a really good job breaking it all down for us.
    4:26
    Okay, this is one of only two of these Hannafin presses that exist in the world. It was originally purchased by Gottlieb in 1957, another major pinball maker around that time. It's been used in every Data East, Sega, and Stern playfield since 1986 to help mount hardware, ramps, and posts by pressing holes on the underside of the playfield. It's an integral part of the process and it's still used to this day. Even though the Hannafin press is used, it's not perfect. So the playfield is taken to another station where they ensure every hole is drilled out perfectly. This is so every component will fit on the playfield without any issues.
    5:22
    This next part is pretty awesome and it where the play field finally starts to come to life All the components are put on it, the wire harness is put on, and again I don't know why we weren't able to film the wire harness section, but this is when Gary Stern interjected and was like, this is how much wire is in a pinball machine. I want to say the stat was like a half a mile or something. It's an insane amount of wire that's put into a pinball machine. And like I said earlier, they go through thorough testing to make sure there's no issues with the wire harness. It's impressive in itself. If you've ever worked on an arcade game or an old game and had to redo a wire harness, it's a complete pain in the ass. So it's definitely cool to see how they do this at scale and with such precision.
    6:14
    By this part of the tour, I'm already super geeked out, but this is when they started doing playfield testing. So they're testing every sensor, coil, and switch, and everything else on the playfield that's mechanical or electrical. It's very, very cool, and it all happens outside of the cabinet on this really cool test bench setup that they have. I gotta admit, I was so nerded out by this point. But they do this testing process multiple times, not just on this section, to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch and they don't have any hiccups as the game moves throughout the process.
    6:56
    We were lucky enough to see some John Wick LEs at the final stages on the production line. So these are actually going to international buyers and this is where the final play testing is going on. So Elliot Eisman, the lead developer on the project, is actually going and play testing each individual one to make sure it's working flawlessly. I will say the overall design of the LE is beautiful. The back glass is so stunning. It's one of those things where I can show you pictures and video like I am right now, but it does not do it justice. Even the back glass has a texture to it, just like real stained glass. And Tim Sexton, one of the coders, actually told a story that this design was one they submitted and didn't think would get approved, and it was the one that everyone liked the most. So I'm so glad that he shared that story for one, and that this is the one they landed on, because I'm telling you, I can't wait for all of you guys to see it, because it looks absolutely awesome. The other LEs that are going to North America, we're on the line right now, so if you purchased an LE, I'm imagining you'll probably be getting it in the next few weeks.
    8:10
    At this stage of the tour, the games are boxed up and ready to be sent out to their final destination. The crazy thing about this is just the sheer magnitude of boxes, it's tons of boxes, sea of games, if you will, And it was pretty damn cool to see. Now, I will say they have this thing down pat. This process is kind of crazy. Now, they did admit they're always making improvements to the process. And they said, look, we're not perfect at this. I think they're probably the best at it for sure. But they're not perfect. And they say every, you know, so often they're adding and tweaking things really all the time to make sure they can add efficiencies where they can. So just very impressive sight to see from, you know, the whole start of the game just being a black box to what you see here, boxed up and ready to go for someone to enjoy.
    9:09
    At this stage of the tour, we were pretty much wrapped up in the manufacturing facility and we came back out to that main sort of lobby area with all the John Wick games. This is when the groups were split in two. One group went into this area where Tim Sexton was breaking down the code while we hung out and waited for our turn and played John Wick. I played with Kale from Electric Bat, myself, and Nap Arcade. I did really well on my first ball and then it all kind of went downhill from there. I was like really hoping I could maybe beat Kale somehow, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. He's just too good. I figured I could definitely beat Nap, but he had like a good second and third ball, so whatever. Better luck next time, but now it's our turn to go check out that room in the back.
    10:06
    Okay, so it's finally our turn to go into what I'm calling the showroom. I don't know what the official name for this room is, but you walk through this door and there's these really cool lit up pinball play fields that kind of like line the wall as you walk in. And then when we walked in, you could immediately see John Wick, L.E. was right there and Tim Sexton was ready to kind of give us the breakdown. The room itself was just awesome. It had this brick accent wall. It had a lounge area. There was like a wall of some of the shooter rods and stuff like that. It was a really cool room and it kind of makes me feel like what I wish this room looked like It was like the Ultimate man cave game room type of thing Very very cool And if you watched Stern livestreams recently they actually doing it from that room So it might look familiar, but I think being in there looks a lot cooler than how you see it on livestreams. So anyways, so we jump over to the John Wick LE, and Tim Sexton's giving us kind of like a code breakdown of how the game plays currently, but also showcased a couple of new features for us. The one that stood out for me is on the back box you have the speaker lights on the LE. Now Stern has full control of those speaker lights so one of the things they're gonna implement is whenever John Wick fires his gun you're gonna get like a muzzle flash from the speaker lights, but at the same time the shaker motor will go off. So that'll all happen at the same time to kind of simulate the gunshot. Very very cool. He also shared some of the other things around the AI and how the AI can block your shots and stuff like that I'm not I didn't fully grasp all that. It's probably cuz I was like so excited for everything else I wasn't fully sometimes I kind of check out. I wasn't checked out, but I was like ADD like there's too much stuff going on I was super excited. So Tim's breaking down the code but in the middle of all this Gary Stern comes in He's like guys. I got some pizza out in the hallway for you guys kind of back with those John wick games were at and some cake so we all kind of were ready when we were done to break out of that room they had some swag bags for us that we could take they had a signed back box or a signed back glass translate a fanny pack a I don't know I don't know if I call it a fanny pack anymore but I guess those are like back in style but it's like a fanny pack type thing a roll of quarters for Logan's arcade which is where we were all headed after this there was also a t-shirt and a really cool like vintage-y stern pinball sort of shiny jacket which I was really digging. It was pretty cool. But anyway so really really cool they did that. I think it made all of us feel really special. But at this point we're ready to get the heck out of here and head over to Logan's.
    12:47
    Okay at this point of the night we are heading on the party bus over to Logan's Hardware. What I didn't realize is that Stern was paying for us to have an open bar So when we got there we got wristbands and it was drink as much alcohol as you want Which was really cool, we had a good time and that was much appreciated by everyone They happened to be live streaming John Wick so I got in on that a little bit I played okay, I've had better games of John Wick But it was really neat to be on the live stream while we were there Considering a large portion of the day was geared toward learning more about John Wick So it was cool to get more games in on that and then my highlight of the night was probably talking with George Gomez. I'm not going to share the conversation here for this video. I'm going to save it for a podcast that I'll do in the future but I really enjoyed speaking with him. The guy is brilliant. It was me and Ian from Nudge Magazine totally geeking out on all these really cool stories that George had but George was also asking a lot about how we got into the hobby and our interests and passions so it was really a great two-way conversation between us and a guy who's very well known in the industry and one of the, I'll call him one of the godfathers really. So he covers both arcade games and pinball. So he's someone that I truly enjoyed talking to and I appreciate the time that he spent with us. But I gotta admit, I dropped the ball a little bit on filming at Logan's. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment and that's exactly what I did. But at this point, it's time to wrap up and head back over to Stern. Okay, so now we are back at Stern Pinball and I'm thinking it's the end of the road. The night is over. But Rupert, who was assigned to us as sort of a chaperone to keep us in line over at Logan's to make sure we were all accounted for, was like, why don't you come back in and play a little bit more before the night is over? Which that was super cool of him to do. He didn't have to do that. He could have just went home. So we got to play John Wick a little while longer, and everyone was just so amped up from the whole experience that, I don't know, we were just like, let's charge right through it. But at this point, the night has to be over, right?
    15:06
    Alright, so you could say at this stage we're all really tired, but this is sort of the after-after party. So Don from Don's Pinball Podcast was like, hey, why don't you guys come back to my room? We'll record a podcast right now. Most people just dispersed and went to bed. But the ones that remained got a chance to be on Don's Pinball Podcast. It was myself, Caelan Rachel from Electric Bat, Jason Knapp, Erica's Pinball Journey, obviously Don, the Loser Kid Podcast, and Ann from Nudge Magazine. We had a good time. I felt like you had to really keep Don on track. Don was on some other planet, but we got him focused, and I think the outcome was a pretty decent podcast. If you're interested in listening to the whole thing, I'll have a link in the description of the video to Don's Pinball Podcast, where you can listen to it. You have to subscribe. He uses Patreon. But I will have an excerpt from it right now so you can get a little taste of my time on Don Pinball Podcast I actually could see you doing that It so ridiculous I missed most of the tour because I was watching Don take selfies in front of every box every mech, every thing. It wasn't just a selfie, but it was like... He took more selfies than a 16-year-old girl. It was like a... Definitely. It was like a skater boy sort of like street selfie, which was nice. I took a lot of pictures of him taking those selfies. You know, one out of 50 are gold, so I'd only need like two and I'm good, man. So there should be a kiss to some of the bunch there.
    16:42
    Okay, we're going to flash back to the tour real quick before we wrap up. There was a part of the tour where we broke away as a group to be with George Gomez for about an hour. And I'd say this was sort of the George Gomez masterclass on licensing. He gave us the full gamut from start to finish of what it takes for Stern Pinball to work with an IP holder and the process from start to finish. And it was pretty interesting how much of that process needs to be approved by the license holder. It's really everything. Every little piece of that pinball machine needs to be improved by that license holder. and they really have the full say. So much so that if they decide to drag their feet and take a long time to approve something, that can affect Stern's entire project timeline. And they showed us the entire timeline. It takes about 24 months from start to finish. So about two years. So if you think about something and someone says, oh, this game is gonna come out or they're making this game in reaction to this, probably not. The game would be in development for 24 months. It takes a long time from start to finish, and some of the stuff really is time-consuming working with the license holder. He did address the gun gate thing, and it was just blown out of proportion, quite frankly, and it's just weird that people will basically make stuff up out of thin air. It was the license holder's decision, like it is on all these things. He shared a really fun one about 007. He shared some other stories that we weren't allowed to share, just in confidence with the group. They were really funny. There were some really funny ones. But the Aston Martin on 007 was very hard to get approved because originally that Aston Martin car didn't have a roof. It would just shoot the ball up and the license holder's like, but the Aston Martin has a roof. So they had to redesign the whole thing and then hopefully go through the approval process, not only with Aston Martin, the car company themselves, but with the license holder for the 007 movies as well. So it's kind of crazy, but I really appreciated him going into that level of detail with us. I had a little bit of knowledge from my days covering Arcade 1UP in 2019. I had a relationship with John D, the VP of Licensing at the time, and he shared a lot of the behind-the-curtain stuff of why, like I'd ask, why can't Arcade 1UP do this? Because I'm a hardcore arcade guy. I'm like, hey, this isn't arcade accurate. It's like, well, we can't do it. The license holder won't let us, or someone else owns the license now, and they won't let us do this or that. So really cool that he went into that level of detail. and honestly I really appreciate it and I think the rest of the group did because it gave us some perspective on what it really takes to work with a license holder from the start of the project all the way to the end. Well guys that about wraps up this video. I wanted to give a special thanks to Zach Sharp over at Stern Pinball. Man, thank you so much for the invite. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to get this exclusive look behind the curtain at Stern Pinball, and I know my fellow content creators really appreciated it too. It was a blast. The hospitality was off the charts. Literally everyone at Stern was just awesome to work with, to talk to, to share our love for pinball and I got to meet a lot of cool people that I watch and listen to as fans of theirs so I'm just gonna name them all off I don't want to miss anybody Triple Jane podcast Erica's pinball journey Don's pinball podcast arcade Matt loser kid connect to connect I always forget Colin man you got to make your name easier kinetic tis connect to sis you guys know me it's No disrespect, Colin. I just can't say it.
    20:29
    Hup Challenge, Nap Arcade. Also, I can't forget my boy, Ann, over at Nudge Magazine. And Electric Bat, my local arcade. You guys were so fun to hang out with. We had such a good time. I don't know what else to say. I just really appreciated this. This was a very fun trip. And I think, you know, if you get a chance to go to Pinball Expo, what you should do is experience the same thing that I did. There are Stern Factory tours that happen. I can't remember what day it is, but if you go to Pinball Expo's website, you can get that all figured out. And I hope to see you there. That's it for now, guys. I am off to play pinball, and we will see you on the next one.
    21:24
    you