Today Stern Pinball officially announces the new Star Trek line of pinball machines which include three version, Pro, Premium and Enterprise Edition machine.

Read the press release below:

Stern Pinball Announces STAR TREK™ Game

The World’s Leading Maker of Arcade Quality Pinball Set to Launch Star Trek Pinball Machine

MELROSE PARK, IL – September 12, 2013 – Stern Pinball, Inc., the world’s leading maker of real pinball games and the American Amusement Machine Association (“AAMA”) Manufacturer of the Year, proudly announced today the availability of Star Trek pinball. Inspired by Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness films, the newest Stern machine puts players in Captain James Kirk’s chair of the U.S.S. Enterprise, embarking on a journey to protect and defend the planets of the Federation. 

Stern’s Star Trek pinball machine features all the bells and whistles a Star Trek fan would desire. With adrenalin-filled battles, high-definition artwork, cosmic LED lighting and classic musical scores, the Star Trek game will evoke the sensation of flying through space at Warp Speed to rescue Spock and defeat the U.S.S. Vengeance.  The newest game from Stern includes an animated battleship, three lightning fast ramps, three flippers, resettable memory drop targets and much more.

“The Star Trek pinball machine celebrates the much loved sci-fi franchise by bringing fans a whole new adventure right at their fingertips,” said Gary Stern, Chairman and CEO of Stern Pinball, Inc. 

Star Trek is Stern’s first all-LED Pro Model. The playfield features eight multicolored LED paths that lead gamers on easy-to-understand color-coded routes. There are six missions for casual players matched by 18 complex treks to immerse enthusiast players deeper in the game. As players attack an oncoming threat with three action-centered flippers, the all-LED playfield will captivate onlookers and enhance the player experience with features like phaser flashes and photon torpedoes.

Players will instinctively know exactly what to do when they approach Star Trek pinball – destroy the U.S.S. Vengeance, a key action-packed feature on the playing field. From the very start, players will have the chance to unlock special opportunities, collect tantalizing bonus features and win a series of accolades called The Captain’s Chair. Star Trek aficionados can expect the classic battle between the heroic Enterprise team and the villainous Khan as well as run-ins with Nero, Klingons and the Narada.

The Star Trek game, under license by CBS Consumer Products, continues both the Stern Pinball and the Stern family tradition of producing quality pinball machines for young and old. The company traces its lineage to Philadelphia in the 1930s when Sam Stern entered the business of operating pinball games. Sam Stern subsequently became part owner and president of Williams Manufacturing, a pioneer in the pinball industry, and passed his lifelong enthusiasm for the game and the business of pinball to his son Gary Stern who founded Stern Pinball. Today pinball remains one of America’s favorite pastimes. 

™  CBS Studios Inc. © 2013 Paramount Pictures Corporation. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Pricing and Availability:

Star Trek pinball is available through authorized Stern distributors and dealers.

Pro Version:  $5,395
Premium Version: $7,495
Limited Edition Version: $8,795

To learn more about the Star Trek pinball machine and Stern Pinball, visit www.sternpinball.com. 

About Stern Pinball, Inc. 

Stern Pinball, Inc., headquartered just outside Chicago, Illinois, is the leading producer of pinball games in the world. Stern’s highly talented creative and technical teams design, engineer and manufacture popular arcade-quality pinball games.  Recent popular Stern titles include Metallica, Avengers, X-Men, AC/DC, Tron, Transformers, Avatar, Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman and many more. All of Stern’s pinball games are crafted by hand and assembled by Stern’s expert team. Both pinball enthusiasts and casual players around the globe enjoy Stern’s games. For more information, please visit www.sternpinball.com. 
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All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

Without sight of a press release Stern pinball today leaked out a video for their new pinball machine based on the previous two Star Trek movies directed by JJ Abrhams that have been a huge commercial success. 

Designed by the legendary pinball designer Steve Ritchie who also designed the 1990's Williams Star Trek pinball this game has been a long anticipated title release. At this point there is no actual video gameplay footage of the game but rather still images cut into a pinball trailer. There is lots to be gleaned from the video so use the pause button frequently to see the details of the game.

You can also follow a thread on the pinside pinball forum if you desire more details and commentary.

Let us know what you think so far in the comments below.

Live long and prosper......

Our friends over at Pinballnews.com have a great article on the new P3-ROC board as well as news of custom games that will be shown at this years Pinball Expo.

Release: Sep. 7, 2013

The biggest hurdle any potential home pinball machine builder used to have to overcome was not finding a cool theme. Nor was it designing a killer playfield layout with interesting shots and ingenious toys. No, the hardest part - and this continues to affect commercial pinball manufacturers today too - used to be creating a control system to make everything work.

Getting flippers to flip and bumpers to bump may seem easy enough, but when you start adding complex lighting effects, display animations and deep rules, suddenly the task becomes far more complex. Complex enough to defeat many budding game builders.

But all that changed in 2009 when Pinball Controllers started selling the P-ROC board.

The P-ROC gave game developers a ready-made control system which provided the bridge between custom game designs and the sequence of instructions to drive them. Game builders could hook up their lamps, solenoids, displays and switches, sit down at a computer and tell the P-ROC what to do with them.

But if that wasn't exciting enough, the P-ROC could also take control of existing machines from Williams, Bally and Stern thanks to the multitude of connectors around the outer edges of the board.

Suddenly, everything other than the actual playfield layout was fair game for changing, because - let's face it - most games have room for improvement in one area or another.

So if you want better display animations, deeper rules, more interesting objectives, more balanced scoring, less-annoying quotes, funkier music, or even stereo sound, it was all possible by installing a P-ROC.

It still wasn't exactly a trivial task of course, since even rules or effects you wanted to keep from the original code had to be re-written for the P-ROC, and that's in addition to all the new features. But far more time could be spent developing the fun parts of the game, instead of working out how to design the basic framework of the underlying control system.

The pinball world really sat up and paid attention when Barry Driessen and Koen Heltzel revealed the work they had been doing to upgrade The Machine - Bride of Pinbot.

The most obvious feature was the addition of a dot matrix display to replace the original's alphanumeric variety, but below the surface they had completely rewritten the rules to make it less of a one-shot game, while adding amazing 3D animations to the display, numerous gameplay modes, and a brand new stereo soundtrack.

Several months later Dennis van de Pass began work on improving his Demolition Man, rectifying the deficiencies of the original rules by adding multiple modes, making the multiballs more varied, and adding a two-stage wizard mode.

Since then, many other game designers have either taken existing machines and re-themed them or built their own machines from scratch, using a P-ROC board to drive them.

To celebrate their achievements, this year's Pinball Expo will feature a special display of P-ROC-based games.

Gerry Stellenberg of Multimorphic (owner of Pinball Controllers) has arranged for eight custom games and their designers to come to Expo and display their machines on the Multimorphic stand alongside the company's P3 pinball platform which is also based on P-ROC technology.



Read the rest of the story here pinballnews.com

The CU Advocate has a nice little story on Lyons Classic Pinball along with a photo gallery of images.

Read below and follow the link for more details.

Ten years ago in March, Lyons Classic Pinball opened its doors for business here in Colorado. Fed up with working for other people and the stress that comes along with standard employment, owners Kevin and Carole Carroll decided to break free from the norm and open up their own arcade in the bustling mountain town of Lyons.

Despite its location nearly an hour away from the city, Lyons Classic Pinball still benefits from many national and international visitors every year, some from as far away as Belgium.

In this day and age, it seems that the stigma associated with pinball is that there are higher chances of the damn thing eating your money or the ball getting stuck than you actually having a good time.

With the proper maintenance and pride that the owners and employees put into the establishment, it is no wonder that Lyons has become the destination for those seeking quality pinball and general vintage charm.

The modest interior of the arcade is very appropriate considering the 1.2 square mile town that it calls home. Inside of Lyons Classic Pinball, one will find nearly 40 beautifully maintained and brightly lit pinball machines, ranging from the 1960s to 2013.

The kind people at Lyons Classic Pinball are pleased to offer monthly double elimination tournaments. There is even a pinball league for those looking to take their flipping to the next level.

Pinball is the lost art of the arcade game world. It’s great that Lyons Classic Pinball is keeping the memory of the game alive. If you are looking for a great time and a blast into the past, this is the place to be.

When John Greatwich recently closed up the Great Pinball Store on Quinpool Road, he was left with about 20 machines and nowhere to put them but back in his home.

"I was open for about eight months, but because of zoning I couldn't open a (full blown) arcade," he says of the store's demise.

But he won't let that get him down. Greatwich is as passionate as ever about pinball, and he definitely doesn't want to keep the fun all to himself.

For the past year, Greatwich has hosted monthly pinball parties at his home. The most recent took place on Aug. 31, and provides pinball owners and players the opportunity to enjoy their hobby with like-minded people. He charges a fee to those who don't own machines, and is still selling machines to interested buyers.

"We get up to 15 people who show up. Some are other collectors, some own their own machines, others just want to play," he explains. "Pinball machines are like campers, RVs and boats. There's a select market getting into it. It's good family entertainment, and people my age (49) or older remember the heyday of arcades when they came out."

Like anyone with a passion for their hobby, Greatwich knows the ins and outs of pinball. He became intrigued with the mechanics of the machines at a young age, and has never looked back.

"I think the reason people enjoy it is that it's more of a mechanical type of game, not a person against a computer. It's not rigged to a pattern, it's random and requires some skill," Greatwich says. "You see the balls in play, and you are still in control...A computer can cheat you with an algorithm."

He is more than happy to share his vast knowledge of the history of pinball and how it allowed the video game industry to develop. His voice takes on a melancholic tone as he describes how legalizing slot machines led to a dip in pinball manufacturing.

"WMS used to be Williams Pinball, and they were losing money for years on gambling and the pinball part of the business kept them alive," Greatwich says. "Slots took off, pinball was on the decline, so they closed it all down and walked away. Also, a lot of pinball designers and artists moved into the slot industry."

However, the climate is now changing and Greatwich believes pinball machines are on the verge of experiencing a major comeback.

"I think there's going to be a resurgence...There are builders coming on to compete against Stern Pinball, who were the world's only," he says. "Now there's Jersey Jack Pinball and other plants around the world starting up."

In addition, younger generations are being exposed to virtual pinball on their computers and portable devices. Greatwich said many now want a chance to play the "real McCoy."

They can do that during HalCon from Nov. 8 to 10, when Greatwich once again hosts the Eastlink free pinball arcade room.

"It draws huge interest, and this year I'm promoting new games I sell by having tournament play," he says.

Interested pinball owners or players can contact Greatwich via email,greatwichjohn@hotmail.com.

ydentremont@hfxnews.ca


Via halifaxnewsnet.ca

The gang over at cubed3spoke to Barnstorm Games on the Pro Pinball revival as well a working with Nintendo and Kickstarter.

Read the interview here cubed3.com

Infinity Amusements is ramping up its push to produce digital pinball machines.  The size, buttons and feel of a traditional cabinet, but with a huge video screen laid where the pinball once rolled.

We first saw the Digital Pinball machine at PAX AUS a couple of months back.  Since then the team at – the newly formed – Infinity Amusements has been hard at work attempting to get to market.

A number of variations of Digital Pinball Cabinets are in the works with the team dubbing them as Infinity Pinball Entertainment Systems.  Surely they will become known as iPES.

The team has announced a crowd funding campaign to help:

Instead of playing on your mobile, tablet or game console you will now be able to experience Digital Pinball the way it's meant to be played... In an authentic pinball cabinet. 

In less than 24 hours from now we will launch our crowd funding campaign on IndieGoGo. Our goal is to raise just $7,000. This will allow us to manufacture the two prototypes required as well as build an initial line up for those early backers.

We will be offering a limited amount of specials during this campaign such as $500 down and get $500 off the final product. There are many more perks starting from as little as $2. So even if you are simply interested in supporting us that would be very much appreciated. 

“I honestly had no idea that when I started this initial project that there would be so much support and interest from the general community.” Said Mark Libman, company head  “This is a very exciting time for those interested in Pinball that have fond memories from their youth. More importantly a new generation is about to enjoy this in ways that were never thought possible.”


Read more via www.itwire.com