Here at the resort I'm staying they happen to have a Harley-Davidson pinball machine. It's the 3rd edition Stern. A bit of an easy game but fun nonetheless. The game room has a good little selection of games, including the obligatory Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga machine.

But I still have issues with Stern itself. The problem with many arcades is that Stern is freaking everywhere. Yes, they are new, and parts are more readily available, but that isn't the concern; that would be the fact that they use almost exclusively licensed properties on their machines. Dear Stern: we are aware that you think people are stupid and will approach a pinball machine because it has a huge name slapped on it. Quite aware. But seriously, how the hell do you make a Big Buck Hunter pinball machine? Really? It seems like they grabbed the short straw on that one. My issues lie with Stern Pinball, not Stern Electronics who made many older machines. New Stern and old Stern are night and day.

And It's not like pre-1999 "new IP" machines are out of vogue, either. One of my favorite amusement parks got an Avatar machine which was moved into the same room where Theatre of Magic used to be. Brokenhearted, I checked in the park's other arcade and, sure enough, there was Theatre, they just moved it. While casually chatting with one of the staff I found that they wouldn't get rid of Theatre because it earned too much.


During production Theatre was going to be based upon David Copperfield, which would make it a licensed machine, but Copperfield pulled out of the deal extremely close to the deadline, and they had to improvise. The "magic trunk" is actually a remnant of one of Copperfield's bigger tricks. But the challenge lay in the team trying to make something completely original by the deadline and this is what they came up with! It was presented in such a way that it still has earning power 16 years later. This is an example of creative power at work and how great ideas come about through hard thought. They could've dropped the project entirely and didn't, instead transforming it into what is now my favorite pinball machine and the favorite pinball machine of many others.

(For another example of an ingenious original IP, check out Cirqus Voltaire, but good luck finding/playing that one outside of an emulator, as it is extremely rare out in the wild, and hats off to the lucky bar/business that happens to have one. It's a completely original property with no licenses and it tends to rank higher than and sells for more than Theatre. Sometimes the two machines are considered sisters.)

Some of the best machines of all time are licensed. The Twilight Zone and The Addams Family are the two best examples in this respect. Even Stern has the phenomenal Lord of the Rings and the excellent Family Guy and Pirates of the Caribbean machines under their belt. But at least WMS and Gottlieb (while they were around) mixed it up a little between original and licensed ideas. There is no creativity with Stern.

This is Stern's track record:
Out of all that, only three original properties exist, Striker Xtreme, Sharkey's Shootout, and High Roller Casino. Despite this, the fact that these machines are original does not make them good in and of themselves (I played Sharkey's Shootout. It sucks.) You've got big names like Steve Richie and Pat Lawlor behind these machines, but the ultimate result is something that is bland and dreadfully boring to play much of the time (and I have given them many chances).

Then again, this raises another question: is this the fault of Stern? The pinball industry today is on its way out in favor of console games and big names. Let's face it. Everywhere I go I see machines like "Guitar Hero Arcade" and feel like smashing it in. First of all, Guitar Hero Arcade was made and perfected a looooong time ago. It's called GUITARFREAKS. Being a big DrumMania player, I have always felt dismayed that the Bemani series played second fiddle to the americanized portrayal of "rawk" that is Guitar Hero. 

But I digress. The mentality of today's consumer is different than the mentality of the consumer in pinball's golden years. Today it's "if I don't know what it is, I'm going to stay far away from it and if it bores me, I'm going back to Call of Duty." Sad but true. Taking this into consideration, it might actually hurt Stern commercially to produce an original machine. They would probably lose more than they would make. But I'm just so sick of having to see these licensed names on pinball machines just to have people play them. It's sad, really, both on the part of Stern for not taking some kind of risk and just grabbing up licenses, and the intended demographic for its ignorance of pinball. In a couple of generations, our children will probably be asking us "what's pinball?" and we'll be dismayed by having to explain it to them.

While looking around at some CV soundboards, I happened to find this Castlevania prank call.

It's hilarious. We need some more of these.

Personal note: the third guy (corporate office, the first one who Richter speaks to) is a complete asshole. If I had someone like that representing my company, even if it was a prank call and it wasn't "Richter" who was doing the pranking, he'd find his stuff in a box on his desk the next day. But you have to love Richter's scream after that guy finishes with his "threat."

Okay folks, I'm starting fresh.

The last time I had one of these things, it was when I was in the fifth grade and nobody but a friend and I even knew what it was. Now you can ask anyone, anywhere, and they've all heard of it. I feel so...old.

Now that I'm more actively involved in internet activities, decided to finally develop my long-time interest in Castlevania, and because I needed one of these things again anyway, I have decided to start up yet another LJ. Expect everything. Expect nothing. And even then, your expectations might be laid to waste.