Author Topic: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread  (Read 29259 times)

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Offline pinsanity

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #30 on: February 18, 2015, 01:40:57 AM »
On the flip side, anyone who has personally imported new Sterns to bypass the domestic monopoly would be wise not to enter any details of that machine into a publicly accessible database or they might find that their overseas supplier has suddenly and mysteriously been removed as a Stern distributor!

Offline Caveoftreasures

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #31 on: February 18, 2015, 07:24:30 AM »
Do u think Stern would bother going to those lengths over only a handful of machines.

Also, who's to say the Stern dealer didn't sell it to an American customer In the USA who later sold the game privately second hand. It's not like any of the Stern dealers Have to supply Stern HQ with the names and addresses of the people who buy machines. But I guess if u did buy five or six machines all from the same Stern agent and all those machines turned up in Australia to the same collector it would look like a pattern.

I don't think Stern would spend the time looking at the database, too many  machines and too many records to look at and then cross match for only a handful of machines plus they would lose sales if they lost a dealer and they need every sale they can get in this economy. ?
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Offline spiroagnew

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #32 on: February 21, 2015, 08:34:37 AM »
On the flip side, anyone who has personally imported new Sterns to bypass the domestic monopoly would be wise not to enter any details of that machine into a publicly accessible database or they might find that their overseas supplier has suddenly and mysteriously been removed as a Stern distributor!

Never thought of it that way!  The iron grip of the distributors is felt here in Canada, too.  Someone from our local Canadian community boasted about buying a Refinery Edition of the Walking Dead LE.  The Refinery guys are from the US.  It got back to the lone Canadian distributor for Ontario/Quebec who saw it as a loss of a sale.  They contacted Stern, who in turn contacted the Refinery guys, who in turn contacted the buyer and told him that Stern prohibited them from selling the game to someone across the border.  Stern may care more than you think.

Offline spiroagnew

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #33 on: February 21, 2015, 08:35:51 AM »
EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW (AND MORE) ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON AND PINBALL.  Not sure why the caps...I don't even particularly like Michael Jackson.  However, I do love when pop music intersects with other media.  Find out about the Michael Jackson/Pepsi pinball machine, Jackson's Neverland pinball lineup, and more.  Thanks Australia for your support!

Feature: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Michael Jackson and Pinball
http://creditdotpinball.com/2015/02/20/feature-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-michael-jackson-and-pinball/

Offline Homepin

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #34 on: February 21, 2015, 12:16:08 PM »
On the flip side, anyone who has personally imported new Sterns to bypass the domestic monopoly would be wise not to enter any details of that machine into a publicly accessible database or they might find that their overseas supplier has suddenly and mysteriously been removed as a Stern distributor!

I would suggest that Sterns efforts to prevent certain sellers from moving product to Australia is bordering on illegal, maybe not in the USA (I have no idea about their laws) but I would bet it is in Australia.

It could be argued that it is a form of price fixing and that brings very hefty corporate and individual fines - I would tread very carefully if I was Stern.

Stern might suggest they are only doing it as certain machines are not suitable for this market - that could be disproved in five minutes by sticking a 50/60 cycles mod board in a machine and playing it.

It is not smart these days to try these types of "tricks" to maintain a monopoly.
Replacement Pinball PCBs that remain faithful to the originals

Offline Caveoftreasures

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #35 on: February 21, 2015, 05:14:42 PM »
Its called "third line forcing" in Australia I am sure.
Behind every garage door could be a pinball collectors
"Cave of Treasures" 55 in my collection

Into  Stern -JJP - Cars , Road Bikes- Jet Skis - Star Trek n Sci-Fi & Electronics    
Beware of Stalkers & Walkers when playing The Walking Dead

My 7yr old son Hunter is my best mate in the world !

Offline pinsanity

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #36 on: February 21, 2015, 06:02:53 PM »
On the flip side, anyone who has personally imported new Sterns to bypass the domestic monopoly would be wise not to enter any details of that machine into a publicly accessible database or they might find that their overseas supplier has suddenly and mysteriously been removed as a Stern distributor!

I would suggest that Sterns efforts to prevent certain sellers from moving product to Australia is bordering on illegal, maybe not in the USA (I have no idea about their laws) but I would bet it is in Australia.

It could be argued that it is a form of price fixing and that brings very hefty corporate and individual fines - I would tread very carefully if I was Stern.

Stern might suggest they are only doing it as certain machines are not suitable for this market - that could be disproved in five minutes by sticking a 50/60 cycles mod board in a machine and playing it.

It is not smart these days to try these types of "tricks" to maintain a monopoly.

True, but the rub lies in the limitations of the legislation itself, the powers of the ACCC and obtaining a successful conviction. We all know in reality these kind of under the table "gentleman's agreement" style shenanigans go on everyday across a broad range of industries (take a look at the supermarket duopoly we have here in Australia as a perfect example).

Many companies would counter argue that suppliers and markets can change regularly in such an industry and that this is just part and parcel of a regular course of business conduct, not an intentional attempt to substantially lessen competition.

Not saying they are intentionally and directly preventing supply to Australia (I touched on this in a post a few weeks ago here when the High Court quashed an attempt by LAI to prevent this same thing happening back in the late '80s), but as I implied (and spiroagnew showed) there are alternative more subtle ways a company could undertake to exert indirect influence on a distributor to convince them that shipping NIB machines from time to time to a collector in an external market may not be in their best interests.  #@#

One of the fundamental truisms of law is that it isn't what you know, it is what you can prove.

Offline Caveoftreasures

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #37 on: February 21, 2015, 11:54:37 PM »
Totally agree.
The last line of your post was spot on.

The alternative to consider, is that if someone else came in and we had four or five people directly importing, the price wars would start, the prices would come down (great) but after a year or two, the profit margins might be crappy and before too long the whole import of BNIB might stop cause of no profits.

Sometimes it's a fine line. Competition needed versus too much competition.
I have seen this off and on in my electronic security industry. It's runs in a cycle of too much competition, profits are crap, the right amount of competition and everyone makes great coin, no competition and importers slow the import of products, raise prices and the market slows again. Fine line sometimes.

Just glad at the moment we have AMD. It could be worse with no dealer/importer at all.

Maybe prices will come down if sales slow right down at such high prices. Maybe Stern will step in and subsidise and do the smarter thing..... ?
Behind every garage door could be a pinball collectors
"Cave of Treasures" 55 in my collection

Into  Stern -JJP - Cars , Road Bikes- Jet Skis - Star Trek n Sci-Fi & Electronics    
Beware of Stalkers & Walkers when playing The Walking Dead

My 7yr old son Hunter is my best mate in the world !

Offline spiroagnew

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #38 on: March 03, 2015, 08:14:22 AM »
Anyone can explore the rules and history behind a Williams 90s-era DMD.  Instead, Credit Dot continues its appreciation of Gottlieb System 1 games.  This time: Charlie's Angels.

Featured Game: Gottlieb's CHARLIE'S ANGELS
http://creditdotpinball.com/2015/03/02/featured-game-gottliebs-charlies-angels/


Offline pinsanity

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #39 on: March 03, 2015, 01:13:43 PM »
Great read.

I always enjoy your articles SA. There are detailed, highly informative and have great perspective.

Thanks for posting them to AP. I hope you continue to do so. ^^^

Offline McKie1

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #40 on: March 03, 2015, 08:42:12 PM »
Thoroughly enjoyed the read

Offline spiroagnew

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #41 on: March 06, 2015, 03:30:28 PM »
Thanks for the kind words, guys!  Reading positive comments makes it all worthwhile!

Stop me if you heard this one: Stern is bad at releasing completed code for their games!  Head over to Credit Dot, if you feel like it, for a summary of what has happened with the #wheresthecode campaign up to this point.  A little editorializing, too.

FEATURE: Code-Breaker, the Rise of #WHERESTHECODE
http://creditdotpinball.com/2015/03/05/feature-code-breaker-the-rise-of-wheresthecode/

Offline pinsanity

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #42 on: March 06, 2015, 04:27:36 PM »
Another great read and one that is close to heart.

We need social gadflies like flashinstinct (and spiroagnew &&) to keep companies like Stern accountable, rather than the end consumer being forced to act like little more than lapdogs begging for table scraps when a code update is eventually released.

Sure the campaign didn't effect actual change within Stern (I wasn't expecting it to), but at the very least it got a message out to Stern that not every collector/enthusiast is willing to accept the manufacturing philosophy at Stern as it currently stands.

It shows a complete disrespect for a "significant leg" of Stern's three legged stool customer base to continue to ignore and dismiss in my mind reasonable requests for code updates that would enable originally advertised game functions to actually function years after the games were released!

And some of the memes that were produced were hilarious.  %.%


Offline Crashramp

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #43 on: March 06, 2015, 07:41:38 PM »
Great article, thanks for posting.

Offline spiroagnew

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Re: Credit Dot Pinball: The Update Thread
« Reply #44 on: March 16, 2015, 01:12:33 PM »
A little interview I did with Brett Davis from XPin (XPin being the pinball community's top choice for replacement displays for nearly five years).  Mr. Davis talks about business philosophy, his new 7Volution display sets and much more...

PEOPLE: Brett Davis from Xpin
http://creditdotpinball.com/2015/03/15/people-brett-davis-from-xpin/