Arcade Collecting > Pinball
Interesting conversations with distributors regarding Stern
Xiaou2:
Yeah. A lot longer than I expected. But too many things mentioned to break it down now.
Personally, I didnt get the Bitterness at all. He was honest and direct. Some things he was on-point about... and others I felt he was not. An ego thing? People rarely like to admit when they make a bad call.
The main things being that he does not think Pinball can survive on home sales alone...
and that current machines are too complex "rule-wise" for the typical walk-up on-location player.
He mentions that mechanical stuff was good and a huge draw to people... and yet does not acknowledge that replacing those mechanical things with a video screen, was a bad idea (P2k). Thinks that only "robot builders" can appreciate mechanical things today... which is complete and utter BS.
He is correct that the home machines have to be different from the Location machines,
but, his assessment that there isnt enough money to do that extra development... IMOP, is off-base. Its a necessity. (And in fact, home software add-on packs, and add-on toys/mods could help add additional sales)
People asked for a headphone jack on the machines, because many times the games cant even be heard in a loud environment. Said the reason was that people might stick gum in the hole. Woop-tee-doo. They could easily stick gum in a coin slot too. Just a poor excuse overall - which he even admitted.
Xiaou2:
As for the rest of the thread... its BS too.
What is sold is sold off to zombies who dont have a clue. And what happens when these Zombies wake up and realize that the $4000 they spend was not even close to worth it? Do you think they will buy another Pile?
The sales they are getting are mere survival at best. And even with good licenses, wont continue to keep popping them out when people realize that the new stuff simply is not that fun. And or that they find out that machines made +20 yrs ago were made better, played better, looked better, and even sounded better.
Basically, they have no choice but to step up their game if they want to keep sales up.
BTW - I visit a VERY Busy Pizza place near my house that has a Spiderman in it. Its right next to the doorway & cashier/ordering area... and you cant miss it. Its pretty rare that I Ever see anyone play it, and there are people who are there sitting on the benches right next to it, waiting up to 15 min, who dont even give a care about it. That tells you how poor the draw of the game is.
Id bet if it was a simple BK2K, it would be getting played on a more regular and frequent basis. Better music, better artwork / awesome backglass, faster more furious gameplay. Simple, but very addictive, and highly charged. It has a Soul, where as SM is boring, slow. and lifeless.
Jeff AMN:
:laugh2:
He's serious, folks. He thinks that a BK2k would have more draw with today's kids/teens than Spider-Man. Game quality aside (and I do believe Spider-Man is much better due to it having four shots rather than one), kids would look at that knight and wouldn't give a rip about it. Theme draws the first quarter, quality draws in the second, third, and so on. If you can't get the first, the second isn't ever coming no matter how good or bad the game is.
RayB:
Ignoring the B2K closing statement, I agree with pretty much everything else Xiau2 said (to my shock). I didn't get the impression Pat was bitter, or a jackass. He was telling it like it is, from an insider's perspective.
Xiaou2:
Plenty of kids looked at the machine, and passed right by it without any interest.
Its horribly Generic looking... and not really all that captivating.
Had they gotten a Real Comic artists to do the artwork for the game... and
actually made a great layout for the game... those kids may have put some
quarters in. Heck, the soundtrack is also uninspired garbage compared to Bk2k.
The Black Knight is a symbolic thing. Its instant 'Halloween' like appeal.
Its dark, powerful, and pure awesome. Far more inspiring than Spiderman.
And if you knew anything about kids today... you would know they like things of a dark nature. Goth, steam punk, halloweenish stuff. But then again, who doesnt? Its a timeless thing.
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