Last pinball company.

[Creighton]

Sad it is down to one. Glad I don't have the job of bouncing balls off the targets :-)
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2011/06/30/t-tt-stern-pinball.cnnmoney/
Creighton

[Pat Pixley]

WOW !  It is kind of sad they are it .

[rayg]

I've been into pinball for a long time, and yes it's true that Sterns was the last pinball company, but this isn't news, Williams (2nd from the last pinball manufacturer) got out of the business around 2000, they still make gaming devices i.e. slot machines etc. But wait there is some news, a new pinball manufacturer has started up called Jersey Jack Pinball. It will be the first new pinball machine company to be established since 1987 when Data East was formed, (it then became Sega, and finally Sterns).  Their 1st machine will be Wizard of Oz Emerald City Limited Edition with a MSRP $7,000 vs  MSRP $5,699 for  Stern's Rolling Stones model.   Here's a link about it from Pinball News . http://www.pinballnews.com/news/jerseyjack.html

Ray

[Creighton]

Thanks for the update Ray. Sorry I posted old news. 7k for Wizard of Oz!! I wish them success, but that movie came out in the 30's.
Who cares?
Creighton

[Kilroy]

Yeah, i mean who in their right mind would want some old thing...

[briandr1]

Seems like now a days everything new is the same old thing esp tv and movies.

[rayg]

Hi Creighton NP.. & Sorry, if I came across as a "Smart A$$" ...Sterns announcements can be misleading, it's the way Sterns likes to word their them, they been doing it for years  ....  I think Jersey Jack went with the Wizard of OZ because the licensing fee was cheaper then some of the others. They said they want a game to appeal to everyone.  Also, what's cool is that the pinball head will have a 26" LCD screen instead of a  back glass and the user can change the programming play action. 
For me what's I'll be looking to do next will be to built a "virtual pinball machine". It consist of a convectional pinball cabinet , but the playing field and pinball head back glass will both LCD TV/monitors and it powered by a PC running emulation software to recreate over 300+ pinball games. To buy a good one it's about $7,000+, to built one it can be done for less the $3,000 and gets cheaper every day with the price of PC parts and LCD TV/monitors constantly dropping.  Here's a link of someone's  DYI   http://www.flippers.be/virtual_pinball.html

Ray

[cokemachinesandmore]

I  use to work at williams bally midway at roscoe and california.  the pay wasnt bad and they encouraged all employees to play the games on break and lunch.

[rayg]

 That had to be a cool job to have, did you get to keep  any souvenirs?

[cokemachinesandmore]

unfortunately no