Pinball machines
There was a time, back in the early '90s - the golden age of pinball - that Stern was assembly 300 machines a day. (Nope, they still wouldn't let me in.)įinally, they have a design that can be sent out for manufacturing. Once the two leads finish their work, the game branches out to the rest of the design team, including junior programmers, electrical engineers and mechanical engineers - and then it's tested by robots. "They might turn on the lights first," Dankberg said, "then add some Rube Goldberg action, then decide what type of game it is is it about scoring or spelling something out? How many different scenarios will there be when the ball is wild?" Once the board design is roughed out, it's hooked up to a CPU and the designer starts to build out the game. If they hit a homerun at first, how great is that? But a lot of times they like to change things. "The whitewood stage could be really short or really iterative. "We'll cut a table, make some prototype parts," Dankberg said. The initial board designs are build on a whitewood, or an unpainted wood playfield. Some people like to build it out and see how it plays first."
![pinball machines pinball machines](https://pinballandmore.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_8387.jpg)
"He's there with a ruler measuring angles, making sure everything fits. "Steve Ritchie is the king of flow," Dankberg said. Once the concept is roughed out, it goes to the designer who works on the layout and geometry of the board. "The take these concepts like what would make a fun toy, what would be a fun interactive thing or what would make it pinball," Dankberg said. The duo work together, brainstorming ideas of what a table should be. Stern has three design teams, including legendary designer, and "master of flow" Steve Ritchie.Įach team has two leads: the designer and a programmer. Once a title is selected, it has to be paired up with a designer. It has to include Slimer, the song and some of the original cast, or fans won't like it.
#Pinball machines license#
The license has to be something that's global, can make for a good game and that the license holder is willing to provide significant support.ĭankberg says getting the license for, say, Ghostbusters - and if Sony only allowed Stern to use the name and font - wouldn't be very good.
![pinball machines pinball machines](https://pinballsales.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Spiderman-Pinball-Machine-3.jpg)
The process of deciding what to turn a table into, more often than not, is tied to a license. "Our business depends on those three cornerstone titles doing relatively well to help us do other projects and grow the company, so we have to be really calculated in how we pick." "We make three cornerstone titles a year," Dankberg said. "Now designing and building a machine, that's about a year and a million dollars." Design "Each machine takes about 30 hours, or about four working days, by about 200 people to assemble," Dankberg said. Unfortunately, I could neither prove nor disprove this vision.)ĭankberg and the folks I run into during my tour all seem exceedingly proud of their work and the machines Stern puts out each year. (I can't help but imagine, when I'm told this, a T-1000 standing shoulder-to-shoulder with C-3PO grinding against the machine to pop a ball out of the center lane and into a flipper. While the machines are all tested by hand, they also test machines using robots.
![pinball machines pinball machines](https://pinballandmore.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IMG_9833.jpg)
We walk by one room that I'm not allowed in. To be able to have all of the inventory to do this and have the people to do this, it gets a little out of control." "The amount of detail, the amount of parts, the amount of logistics. "We can't really automate this stuff," he said. Among the titles buzzing and bumping away is Lazer Lord - Stern's first - a game designed not around the space wars and science fiction, but laser tag.Ībout 20 minutes and an embarrassing number of low scores later, Jody Dankberg, Stern's director of marketing and licensing, comes by to walk me through the assembly process.ĭankberg and I marvel at the process of turning reels of fine wires into the wiring harnesses that bring pinball machines to life.
#Pinball machines free#
The massive, open room echoes with the thumps of pinball kickers, flippers and the occasional jangle of a pinball working its way through a cluster of bumpers.Īlong one wall is Stern's employee "arcade." It includes a wide selection of nearly every machine Stern has ever manufactured, all set to free play. Someone walks me back to the assembly plant.
![pinball machines pinball machines](https://www.mancavesite.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Pinball3.jpg)
I arrive an hour early, thanks to the time difference and my inability to use Google Calendars. The office takes up a small part of Stern's new location, through the back, where the carpet turns to concrete, the cubicles are replaced by rows of assembly stations, nests of wire, tables, toys and lots of workers.