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Stern Fully Reveals Their Jurassic Park Pinball: Overview and Thoughts

Cary Hardy·video·27m 5s·analyzed·Jul 27, 2019
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Cary Hardy analyzes Stern's Jurassic Park reveal, praising gameplay but questioning Premium pricing vs. features.

Summary

Cary Hardy provides a detailed technical breakdown of Stern's newly revealed Jurassic Park pinball, analyzing the Pro and Premium model differences shown in the official reveal trailer. He identifies specific mechanical features (animatronic T-Rex, motorized targets, up posts, helicopter blade), artwork quality, display capabilities, and potential design concerns (exposed hardware, pop bumper cap inconsistencies). Hardy concludes the game will be successful and heavily modded, but criticizes the $1,500 Pro-to-Premium price difference as unjustified for the features gained.

Key Claims

  • The T-Rex head animatronic is only on Premium and LE models, not Pro

    high confidence · Hardy cross-references the official Stern spec matrix and video evidence showing the T-Rex mechanism exclusively in Premium footage

  • There are exposed screws/bolts on the Newton Ball mechanism that could damage pinballs when hit by the pop bumper

    high confidence · Hardy explicitly identifies bare hardware without rubber protection in his frame-by-frame analysis of the Premium model video

  • The Pro model video shows mosquito-themed pop bumper caps, but the Stern spec matrix lists them as a Premium/LE-exclusive feature

    high confidence · Hardy pulls up the official Stern matrix and compares it directly to the reveal video, finding the discrepancy

  • Jurassic Park lacks significant actor likenesses from the film, with Dennis Nedry being the only character shown

    high confidence · Hardy reviews the cabinet artwork and notes the absence of other major actors/characters due to apparent licensing limitations

  • The $1,500 price difference between Pro and Premium is not justified by the features gained

    high confidence · Hardy's subjective assessment after itemizing all mechanical differences (T-Rex, motorized target, helicopter blade, one up post)

Notable Quotes

  • “It doesn't suck. I mean, let me just say that. It doesn't suck...it's just not at first glance immediately go, wow, art.”

    Cary Hardy@ 5:18 — Hardy's qualified but lukewarm assessment of the Pro model artwork, establishing his stance as critical but fair

  • “I don't see any kind of deterrence that they can do to basically keep this from happening...you have bare hardware with no protection like rubber or anything like that but you have a screw and nut right here completely open for hitting.”

    Cary Hardy@ 8:39 — Identifies a potential manufacturing defect/design oversight that could cause ball damage and playfield wear

  • “You would think it'd be the other way around. But okay. So there's that.”

    Cary Hardy@ 19:07 — Points out the counter-intuitive discrepancy where pop bumper caps appear to differ from the official spec matrix

  • “I don't see that as a $1,500 price difference from what you're not getting. I'm sorry. My opinion. Hate what you want. I don't agree with that.”

    Cary Hardy@ 22:26 — Clear statement of Hardy's primary criticism regarding Pro/Premium value proposition

  • “I think this will be one of the most heavily modded games to date...I guarantee you that eventually someone's going to have the actual Jurassic Park looking jeep that you could probably replace the one that they had.”

    Cary Hardy@ 22:56 — Predicts significant aftermarket customization activity driven by licensing constraints in the original design

  • “It's just going to be a hang back, have a good time, and it's just going to be a real blast to play...Versus a game like Black Knight, where you're playing it and you're on your toes, just it's going to be like an anxiety attack.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJurassic ParkgameCary HardypersonKeith ElwinpersonJack DangerpersonWayne KnightpersonDennis NedrypersonBlack Knight

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception for Jurassic Park across YouTube and Pinside; 193 upvotes vs. 6 downvotes on reveal video, 90%+ positive sentiment on forums

    high · Hardy reports YouTube metrics directly and states 'over 90% is positive when it comes to people and their opinions towards this game' on Pinside

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jurassic Park designed as casual, fun-focused gameplay experience contrasting with high-stress competitive titles like Black Knight

    medium · Hardy's characterization: 'it's just going to be a hang back, have a good time, and it's just going to be a real blast to play. Versus a game like Black Knight, where you're playing it and you're on your toes, just it's going to be like an anxiety attack'

  • $

    market_signal: Jurassic Park positioning as a heavily moddable game due to licensing constraints; community already creating custom components (mosquito puller knob, Jeep replacement artwork)

    high · Hardy predicts 'this will be one of the most heavily modded games to date' and notes 'we've already gotten video images revealed showing you a puller that has the mosquito inside of the amber'

  • ?

    event_signal: Upcoming Jack Danger-hosted stream from Stern factory featuring design team (designer, artist, sound) discussing Jurassic Park mechanics and gameplay

    high · Hardy states: 'We'll be streaming this more than likely from the Stern factory with the designer, artist, sound, basically the creative team for this game'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jurassic Park pinball lacks major actor likenesses and iconic IP elements (Jeep vehicle) due to licensing constraints; only Dennis Nedry character artwork visible

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.081

0:00
Baby! Carol! Have her come here real quick. Why me? Because I'm curious. What dinosaur is that? It's supposed to be a T-Rex. Here? Yeah.
0:19
Okay. That's a T-Rex. Alright. That's a pterodactyl. Alright. I'm done. You can go now. Alright. Oh god damn it.
0:43
What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. So first things first let's just go ahead and get this out of the way. my previous video which goes over the pictures that were leaked recently evidently I don't know what a T-Rex looks like so that is what I can gather from the pictures I mean granted the pictures weren't the best but I'm guessing I just don't know what the hell a T-Rex looks like so mistakenly I didn't know what to call it but in fact it was a T-Rex and whoever basically designed the T-Rex to go in the back of this machine, I apologize for not recognizing what species it was. With that being said, let's jump right into the reveal trailer that Stern released today, showing off the gameplay for their Pro and Premium models. Now, I'm willing to bet that anybody that's watching this video has already seen the trailer for it, But I'm going to play it anyways, just in case this is in fact your first time to see it. But let's play it, and then we're going to go through this and pinpoint some things that maybe you already did notice, or you did notice something that I'm pretty sure no one has noticed, and we'll discuss whether or not we should be getting this game.
2:19

Cary Hardy@ 23:52 — Characterizes Jurassic Park as casual/fun-focused gameplay versus high-stress competitive design

  • “Stern, it looks like you've done good.”

    Cary Hardy@ 24:50 — Overall positive verdict on the game despite specific criticisms

    • game
    Pinsideorganization
    YouTubeorganization
    Data Eastcompany
    Tales of the Arabian Nightgame
    Carolperson

    high · Hardy notes 'evidently there was not much I guess licensing available for the actors' and criticizes the absence of the iconic Jurassic Park Jeep: 'damn it they could have got something a little closer to resemble the actual jurassic park you know jeep'

  • $

    market_signal: Hardy disputes the $1,500 Pro-to-Premium price gap as unjustified given the feature additions (primarily the T-Rex animatronic and three supplementary mechanics)

    high · Direct quote: 'I don't see that as a $1,500 price difference from what you're not getting...you're missing the fourth up post and the Raptor...and the spinning helicopter blade, that's a little flare'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jurassic Park implements three-tier pricing (Pro/Premium/LE) with Pro lacking animatronic T-Rex, motorized target, helicopter blade, and one up post; Premium gains these features for $1,500 more

    high · Hardy cross-references official Stern spec matrix and video evidence, itemizing all mechanical differences between tiers

  • ?

    product_concern: Exposed screws/bolts on Newton Ball mechanism lack protective rubber covering, risking ball damage and playfield wear when struck by pop bumper

    high · Hardy's frame-by-frame analysis explicitly identifies 'bare hardware with no protection like rubber or anything like that but you have a screw and nut right here completely open for hitting'

  • ?

    product_concern: Official Stern reveal video shows mosquito-themed pop bumper caps on Pro model, but the official spec matrix lists this feature as Premium/LE-exclusive

    high · Hardy pulls up the matrix on screen and compares directly: 'Your video you show mosquitoes on your pop bumpers for the pro but not for your premium. Just something to note.'

    • Thank you. Okay, so there is the short, like, 40-second video that Stern has released. So let's go through the beginning and discuss what it is we see. I'm going to turn the volume down on this because we've already heard it once. So let's start from the beginning. So first off, if we're going to discuss the actual video of what the game is going to show us on the LCD display, this is the only thing that we can talk about, and that is this scene right here.
    3:28
    That's it. That's essentially all we get. Now we get a little bit up here in the far corner right here. I'm not sure if I can get any other kind of viewpoint from there, but it looks like all we're getting right there is probably some destinations on the map and the score but yeah i think that's the only time that we're going to get any kind of idea of what the the gooey is going to look like and um so that's all we got to go on on that so from so from if you want to just judge by what we've been shown so far let's rewind back a little bit i mean doesn't look too bad trying to see if there's any kind of waves in the water at all but i can't really tell let's try that again yeah i can't really tell i don't think the water is actually showing waves or anything i don't think it needs to be that artistic so i'm not putting anything negative on it i was just going to give it extra props if it was that artistic but uh so that's all we've got to go on right there on the display and I'm not sure if that is either due to I don't know why they would only show us that much honestly I'm pretty sure that any other releases we've seen more that the display can do so this is actually a little curious to me of why they're only showing so little of that so moving on let's talk about the artwork for this cabinet for their pro model now I've already discussed a little bit in my previous video when it comes to just the picture leaks that I'm not exactly excited about the artwork. It doesn't suck. I mean, let me just say that. It doesn't suck. And obviously, I'm not saying that I could do anything nowhere near what the artist has done for this. I mean, it's not bad art. It's just not at first glance immediately go, wow, art. so that is not to say that it's not good but it does it's not an immediate attraction to me and that's the first thing you notice about a pinball machine when walking up on it or seeing it in a video and the first thing they really immediately show you is the exterior so i mean art is subjective as all get out so there you go my opinion at least of the pro model artwork is it's it's it's okay that's all i could say about that let's move on Okay, so this shot up here, they want to show you basically the shots that they have for this upper flipper. Your upper right flipper, I want to say has got one, two, three.
    6:12
    Three primary shots for sure that I can see right now that you can make. The first one goes around, orbits, and feeds right back to the flipper again. So that's very similar to a lot of games. A lot of games. We're talking like Getaway.
    6:36
    That's a very reminiscent loop thing around for a lot of Steve Ritchie games. When I see that type of thing I always think of Steve Ritchie so that just me personally So then your next shot that you got so you have this entryway that feeds the guard tower that goes right back to the wire form to the left flipper You have this stand-up target, and you have the orbit.
    6:57
    And then you have the Newton ball right here that we'll go over later. So we're going to go forward again.
    7:06
    Like I said, feeds the guard tower, goes right back to the left flipper. now here we have the newton ball mechanism so if you're not familiar with newton balls these go back to many many games and everything you've seen them uh in a number of games like just for instance tales of the arabian night has a couple of them um it's essentially it's a pinball with a rod that goes into the playfield and whenever you hit that it gives enough force to basically kinetic force to hit the ball that's behind it and it's got a free roaming mech that just spins around from one side to the other this kind of is real reminiscent to the black knight flail and so when you hit this bam spins the jeep around bam and then it rests there in that new location so and it shows you right here another shot of it that you can hit with the upper flipper to spin it right back around to the other side so here's something that i don't think anybody's going to catch but i'm going to catch it for what i can see so far i don't see any kind of deterrence that they can do to basically keep this from happening they may have to switch to a different kind of hardware or it's going to happen so like it's not going to happen very often but here's something to take note of is that you have a i'm sure i'm hoping you can see this on the screen right here but you have bare hardware with no protection like rubber or anything like that but you have a screw and nut right here completely open for hitting. So then you have your pop bumper that could easily project it hitting that directly and that's going to damage your ball. I mean you don't like your pinballs hitting something other than at least a pinball or something with cushion. With a blunt object like a screw or a bolt that's going to cause nicks in your pinballs and that's going to tear into your play field. So that's something stern if you're watching this um you may want to do something about that just a heads up uh from what i can see i don't see any kind of protection to keep that from happening but that is something to take note of guys so your right ramp feeds directly into a turnaround loop wire form and right back to your right flipper so it's an immediate turnaround so it's Just a real quick turnaround. It's real nice and smooth.
    9:56
    Your left ramp goes behind the T-Rex's head and feeds into the wire form and feeds right back to your left flipper.
    10:09
    Now, here's a multiple shot where one goes up your left ramp. It's going to feed the wire form and then one going into the pops, which are located in the upper right of the play field. and that's going to bounce around and do its thing.
    10:26
    So here we have now the premium model. So this is where we start to pinpoint out what you're going to get in your premium versus your pro. So already, I like the premium artwork better.
    10:42
    This is much more Jurassic Park-like than the pro, where it's, I don't know, Maybe it's the colors used in this. It just seems much darker, and that may just be a personal preference to me. I like the darker graphical on this. And then you have the raptor, or hell, what I believe to be a raptor. I could be wrong. Don't trust me when it comes to dinosaurs. Evidently, I don't know Jack. All right, so here's another look at the display right there. So I'm right. You have what looks to be the island.
    11:13
    And I'm guessing each of these destinations on the map is going to be a mode. So there's something right there. let's go back to that artwork in the back glass yeah I like the premium artwork better and so the first thing obviously that everyone's gonna notice is that the premium has the t-rex head actually oscillating so it's going left and right and it does even more than that so this thing moves around and shakes his head opens his mouth let me go back to that real quick i'm trying to see if that is a okay so it's an optic sensor okay at least that's what i believe it to be and as an optic sensor that's going to be detecting whether or not the ball is inside the t-rex's head uh so we'll move on so you can feed the t-rex's head it's kind of like opposite of the monsters where the staircase would open up and you can feed spike basically this is where something lowers down on top of the staircase and you can feed this version of spike I mean seriously look at that does that really look like a t-rex from here come on so one of the options that this thing can do evidently it can throw a fit and they really show you that this t-rex can project the ball and it looks like i mean you can even see how it just like hits that wire form the way it does and then it slams down onto the where the pop area is at the play field something also to take note about that is that that's going to cause wear on your play field it hitting the play field the way it does but then that's reason why they have it on a premium is because it's not going to get as many plays as location pins obviously and the pros are designed to be on location that is what they are there for that's why there's less mechanisms because it's less maintenance so that being said just something else to think about is that ball falling about at least what five or six inches and you saw how it hit the wire form It caused the wire form to do what it did Imagine it hitting the wood So think about that
    13:37
    So something else to note is this right here. Everything's above the play field. I don't think we have any subways, any tunnels, or anything to go underneath the wood. Everything's above the play field in this game, so that's something to take note of. So you have your 180 right back, and this is kind of cool. It feeds that helicopter blade, and it causes the helicopter blade to spin as it feeds back to your right flipper.
    14:11
    Something else to note on your premium is that this Raptor is not plastic. Oh, it's plastic, but it's not just a piece of plastic with a picture on it. This is an actual Raptor toy. and when you hit it it moves so that's something that's not on the pro something else that's not on the pro is this right here that just locked in the ball a motorized raising target so that's going to keep your ball locked in a place that is not on your pro something else to take note of that is on your premium and not your pro is further up right here is a up post so that's going to be another way for the game to lock your balls for certain features so something else to take note of on that
    15:02
    so here's one of those up post I'm talking about this feeds on to your left flipper again I don't really know what these up posts do besides prepare you for a ball like right here it looks like it rests prepares you like hey you're fixing it had to make a shot probably something important and then right here again it shows you that the Raptor can catch a ball when you shoot it up there and then it can drop it onto the wire form and that'll feed back to your left flipper now and that is essentially the primary differences right there that I can see immediately is between the pro and the premium. So going over one more time, just besides showing the differences, if I have any kind of concerns that I want to highlight or things to think about or complaints.
    15:57
    And going over the play field, the artwork is okay. evidently there was not much I guess licensing available for the actors you know basically what they look like the only actual actor that's got his likeness on here is the actor Wayne Knight that played Dennis Niedry in the movie and he is above I'm not sure if they're going to show you on this picture we'll go into the actual pictures on Stern's website so yeah here we have there's Dennis Nidry right there, or, you know, why not, but the character Dennis Nidry is the only person that I have seen on this game that was a character in the movie, and something, I'm not sure they got a better image of him, but I think a really good funny thing that they could have done is not only include him in here, but give him the sausage fingers. Those of you with the Jurassic Park game from data east or know about this is that on his his hands are probably one of the worst drawn hands for data east games and or pinball in general they call it sausage fingers and his fingers are just really short and uppy um i'll see if i can find a picture and show it to you right here but i think that they could have incorporated that just a little bit where you can see sausage fingers that may be a pro or con to certain people but i think that would have been a major homage to the old school day to east jurassic park that would have been kind of funny so something else that i don't like is the fact that they couldn't get the licensing to the jeep for jurassic park really i mean they they went with this i mean that's crazy that they couldn't get i guess because it was a jeep cherokee is that i think that's what that model was in the first one and who knows what jeep wanted to have their likeness on a game but damn it they could have got something a little closer to resemble the actual jurassic park you know jeep or the van or the vehicle that they used for that that would have been i don't know that just would have been an extra thumbs up something else to note now that i see that is that um i want to say they're showing this off as the pro but this one's got the the pop caps uh the pop bumper caps actually have a um the mosquito huh i wonder if that's a mistake here let me see here because i thought for sure that they're saying the pro didn't have the mosquito on the pop bumpers let me see here so the mosquitoes are on the pop bumpers for the pro
    18:47
    And then when the Premium gets here... The Premium only has just regular old see-through pop bumper caps?
    19:00
    Really? Okay. You would think it'd be the other way around. But okay. So there's that. so just to make sure I'm not lying to you I have the matrix pulled up right here that shows you the major differences and what you will and will not be getting on the pro versus the premium I want to say the premium is pretty damn much the same thing as a limited edition only you're not getting all the fancy schmancy limited edition stuff autographed signed plated shaker motor the powder coating and stuff like that that's not for everyone that's for the hardcore fanatics that want to be in that limited edition range. Otherwise, what you're losing if you get the Pro is the animatronic T-Rex. You're going to be losing the motorized up and down target, which I specified in the Raptor Cage. You will also be losing the helicopter spinning blades over there next to the right end lane. You will be losing your fourth up post. You're going to be losing one of your up posts you still gonna have three up posts evidently on the premium but you not going to have the raptor pin up posts okay so here here a question here why is it showing me here that mosquito and amber pop bumper caps is unchecked for the probe but it's checked on the premium at LE. Interesting Stern. So your video you show mosquitoes on your pop bumpers for the pro but not for your premium.
    20:57
    Just something to note. All right and I want to say that's pretty much what you're not going to be getting versus a premium so it's time for my final thoughts and how i feel about this game in my opinions and i believe this game is going to do extremely well location home buyers all that you've got an ip that resonates with a lot of people especially those of us that watched the movie back in the day the the downside i see about this is the fact that it doesn't look like it's a lot of assets from the actual movie from what i've seen so far so but that aside i still think it's going to do well when it comes to what you're getting on the pro versus what you're getting on the premium once again they have a game price that's something that i don't feel what you're not getting on the pro is worth the 1500 price difference i don't see it you're okay so you have a T-Rex that moves around. Don't get me wrong. The T-Rex moving around and eating the ball, shooting the ball out. It's cool as hell. I'm not saying it's not a cool mech. It's obviously a cool mech. You've got that. You're missing the fourth up post and the Raptor above the Raptor cage, essentially. And the spinning helicopter blade, that's a little flare. Whoop-de-doo.
    22:24
    But I don't see that as a $1,500 price difference from what you're not getting. I'm sorry. My opinion. Hate what you want. I don't agree with that.
    22:34
    That aside, pricing set aside, you have the fact that I think this will be one of the most heavily modded games to date. I mean, we've already gotten video images revealed showing you a puller that has the mosquito inside of the amber that you can have as your puller knob, and that's already cool as hell. and I guarantee you that eventually someone's going to have the actual Jurassic Park looking jeep that you could probably replace the one that they had that game on with they're going to have so many cool things that I cannot wait to see what you mod developers out there are going to come up with for this game so I'm for me uh once again pro may be the way to go if you want to save your money that's only if you want to save your money not that you're gonna be you know missing out a huge deal by getting the pro because like i said you're gonna be able to mod the hell out of this game and you can make it look like a premium aside from missing the moving around t-rex head back there the game looks hella fun it looks like there's plenty of shots to make uh this game i want to say that it's going to be a game that you're just going to enjoy playing it's just going to be fun while you're playing it. Versus a game like, let's say, Black Knight, where you're playing it and you're on your toes, just it's going to be like an anxiety attack playing Black Knight versus this one where it's going to be a hang back, have a good time, and it's just going to be a real blast to play. So that's something that I'm looking forward to playing is definitely Jurassic Park, obviously. And that's something else. We can do a quick little browse to see what everybody else thinks so as of right now the jurassic park video on youtube has got 7700 views and it's got 192 upvotes versus only six down votes let me make 193 for upvotes and so yeah that's i think that's a good sign for you starting at least on youtube And if I peruse through Pennside, yeah, I'd say over 90% is positive when it comes to people and their opinions towards this game. So Stern, it looks like you've done good. What we have coming up next for this game is the stream with Jack Danger. We'll be streaming this more than likely from the Stern factory with the designer, artist, sound, basically the creative team for this game. will be on the video obviously talking and showing you the ins and outs of more than likely a premium edition possibly even an le i don't think they're going to just have a pro there at least that's not what they did with black knight they had a pro and an le so bring it on another thing i want to say to you stern is that during your stream or actually starting now all the way up into your stream I would highly recommend whomever is going to be playing this game start playing it now, get good at it those of us that watch this and watch the stream want to watch people that are good at pinball that are good at the game it just makes it a little bit more enjoyable and I know I'm sounding like a prick when I say that but it'd be the same way as anybody with any kind of product showing someone's not going to show off a brand new I don't know, four Taurus. Four's not going to have a crappy driver bumping into stuff as they're driving around. No, they're going to have a professional driver playing. So it's a good thing that you've got at least Jack Danger there. I'm sure he's already got his plays on there. He's going to have even more. So at least he's going to be there to be able to show us the, basically, the full mechanics and workings of this game. So hopefully everyone's got a good chance to play the game and get good at it to really show us the full potential of what this game can do. And that's going to wrap up this video guys uh if you like what you've seen please give me that thumbs up and if you haven't already do not forget to hit that subscribe button down below that way you can be notified of whenever i upload something for your viewing pleasure until next time peace out
    26:57
    Thank you.