Stern - Avengers Pinball (late 2012)

[Cow Corner]

Perfect example of where pricing should be -

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181081982691?nma=true&si=hRkKphX3%2Fv7mo9clIdATEFWAsdc%3D&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2557&orig_cvip=true

Yep someone did well !

Someone paid what it should be sold for.
9k for a LE is robbery of the highest order.

Did they all sell at 9k. If customers are prepared to pay premium price for LE, someone will keep making.

I still can't believe I paid 6k for a pro, easy to get caught up in hype...love the game but 6k.... I wont be making that mistake again.

[Freiherr]

Perfect example of where pricing should be -

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181081982691?nma=true&si=hRkKphX3%2Fv7mo9clIdATEFWAsdc%3D&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2557&orig_cvip=true

Yep someone did well !

Someone paid what it should be sold for.
9k for a LE is robbery of the highest order.

Did they all sell at 9k. If customers are prepared to pay premium price for LE, someone will keep making.

I still can't believe I paid 6k for a pro, easy to get caught up in hype...love the game but 6k.... I wont be making that mistake again.

Tonyt hit the nail on the head. The Aussie dollar will go to 75c sooner than later. GM in the US knows that as they are sourcing their Chevs ala Commodores from OZ over the next few years. Unless Stern can assemble pinnies in OZ you will not buy much for 6K the way things are heading.
Might be the luckiest mistake you ever made.

[Caveoftreasures]

$6600 is cheap for a Brand New in Box Stern when u consider people pay anything between $2,000 and $6,000 regularly for older DMD machines with birthdates as far back as 1990.  

So if u get the latest n greatest, delivered with a shaker motor, and it is brand new, for $6600, I believe it is outstanding value for money.

Also, people pay $5,000 regularly for 3 and 5 yr old Sterns on a regular basis, so again, something only an extra $1600, and its brand new, the value speaks for itself. I would rather spend $6000 plus on a brand new title, than $6,000 on a much older title. There is no comparison in my opinion, the latest machines for 6 grand are amazing, and you get to keep it forever with little or no maintainence til it gets many many thousands of games on it, where a older game will need a full refurbishment sooner or later which will cost many hundreds of dollars and 20 or 30 hours to strip, clean and resto.

Brand new in Box is still excellent value for what u are getting. Thats the way i see it.....I am sure other Brand new in Box buyers will probably feel the same, or they wouldnt be buying new Sterns, but each to their own....whether u buy a New Avengers or a older machine, its all fun.

[swinks]

I would agree with Cavey on the value of a new Pro at $6.6k as I bought a pimped out 18 month IM for $5.5k, but do question the LE's at $9k as I think they are not worth that and think that AMD might be taking a slightly bigger slice of the pie compared to a Pro but while people keep paying it the prices will be up there.

If new pins go up to $12k for a le stern I can't imagine many people getting one and that will make a JJP around the $13-$14 - man I will settle at a gamesroom of 6 x $2.5k pins please. For these businesses to keep getting sales they will have to reduce there margins - plus I don't think AMD's prices have changed for many years so I think after the dollar changed a few years ago they have been enjoying a bit more profit - but I am guessing on this.

[Freiherr]

I would agree with Cavey on the value of a new Pro at $6.6k as I bought a pimped out 18 month IM for $5.5k, but do question the LE's at $9k as I think they are not worth that and think that AMD might be taking a slightly bigger slice of the pie compared to a Pro but while people keep paying it the prices will be up there.

If new pins go up to $12k for a le stern I can't imagine many people getting one and that will make a JJP around the $13-$14 - man I will settle at a gamesroom of 6 x $2.5k pins please. For these businesses to keep getting sales they will have to reduce there margins - plus I don't think AMD's prices have changed for many years so I think after the dollar changed a few years ago they have been enjoying a bit more profit - but I am guessing on this.

Stern and JJP are capitalising on a wave of baby boomers and retirees with plenty of disposable cash. These are the guys who fueled the pinball golden era in the 1970s and are now stocking their own home pinball parlours. You will not see too many of these guys selling their LEs in the short term however, when the boomers start to die off in 20 to 30 years time, their children will probably start selling all those lovely looked after gems. The only LEs that you see come up will be from speculators wanting a fast buck or guys getting wed and needing quick cash.

[Retropin]

Aussie dollar is very strong and is better value than it US conterpart having been over parity for well over a year now.

ACDC in AUS retailed for $6600... ACDC in US can be bought for $5000 with free shipping to your door and thats through a distributor who is buying at UNDER $5K and managing to make a good profit on top.
So why $6600 in Aus?

http://www.monkeysarcades.com/New_Pinball_Machines_s/83.htm

[Caveoftreasures]

Apparently, there is apx $400 GST to pay for the Aust Distributor, and apx $400 per machine when freighted by sea, and a few more bucks for additional costs. Maybe 1 grand tops......?

[Ant68]

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEED

[Caveoftreasures]

 

People have to pay for staff n commercial leases, plus nice cars n nice homes somehow.lol

and with Juliar Gillard in charge, I would be trying to make every cent i possibly could as well. 

but cheaper new toys would be nice, i certainly wouldnt say No to any discounts on any BNIB machines.....

[Retropin]

$4695 with FREE delivery... its getting better!

Im only guessing here but id take a stab at the retailer paying maybe $3500 tops to STERN for the machine... thats $3391 AU$ if bought today.. exchange is worse that it was when ACDC would have been paid for.

Add container shipping..GST etc and its a cool $2K thereabouts profit... remember that with the $6600.. the $600 part is GST and not profit.
Still a better profit margin than the US distributors

[coon82]

Avengers in depth review has been added to Pinball news:

http://www.pinballnews.com/games/avengers/index5.html

[Freiherr]

Check the DS at 7:40 on the last of the multi balls followed by a nice shot into the Hulk saucer.
Interesting title and look forward to a play.

[Caveoftreasures]

check out the game code updates made for the Avengers titles > this should make a great game even greater with more code to come.

if u liked it before, u will like it even more now !

This huge download will probably take a good hour to update the original code.

V1.4 - February 11, 2013
=======================

- First pass of the redemption system.
    see http://www.sternpinball.com/downloads/Stern_Pinball_Redemption_System_Software_Manual.pdf
    for details.
- added logic to stop inadvertent hulk movement during hulk multiball start.
- Added up and down movement to the jet in the background of Thor VS Hulk background display effect.
- renamed the VS timer adjustments.
- added installs.
- VS completion and award sounds can now co-exist.
- fixed Avenger mode difficulty. i.e. easy/medium settings were not working properly.
- Tesseract shot arrows can now co-exist with other rules that use the same arrow lamp(s).
- added a redemption ticket(s) displap/lamp effect.
- added loki speech, lightshows & dot effects to loki advance (lock lit), lock, multiball.
- fixed a problem where the Tesseract would score points at game/ball start.
- added new speech narrative to Assault on the Helicarrier.
- added sounds to VS modes.
- add-a-ball awarded during S.H.I.E.L.D. will now resurrect a recently finished multiball.
- added skill shot for Captain America.
- changed bonus scores.
- fixed a bug where tech alert reported broken switches incorrectly.
- added new jackpot display effects to Assault on the Helicarrier.
- adjusted jackpot display effects in the Assault on the Helicarrier.
- Fixed a problem with displaying the number of shots left in the Captain America VS mode.
- Fixed a problem with the Thor background effect in Assault on the Helicarrier.
- added scores to the Captain America vs Loki jackpot display effect.
- changed the ironman jackpot 3 display effect during Assault on the Helicarrier.
- added number of shots remaining to the Captain America vs Loki background effect
- added more VS sound assets
- Fixed the Assault on the Helicarrier super jackpot clouds.
- Changed the Assault on the Helicarrier rotor background so that each jackpot makes the rotor spin faster in the background.
- added VS sound assets
- added more Captain America VS jackpots and super jackpot
- added all Assault on the Helicarrier display effects.
- added more Captain America vs Loki display effects.
- Added more Assault on the Helicarrier dot's to the game.
- Added Ironman jackpot 1 and jackpot 2 to the Ironman vs mode.
- Added background, jackpot 1, jackpot 2, and super jackpot to Hawkeye VS mode.
- added Black Widow VS jackpot animations.
- added Thor VS jackpot and super jackpot animations.
- added new dots for the hulk multiball start display effect.
- added loki lit, loki double jackpot sound f/x
- fixed audit text that overlapped the display screen
- fixed LE/Pro Thor target lamps.
- fixed Captain America pop bumper display/sounds.
- added enemy bar to Captain America

- speech/display f/x now match as each Avenger advances towards mode start.
- Added Black Widow VS jackpot 1 and 2 dots.
- Added Thor VS jackpot 1 and 2 dots.
- tweaked polishing the Ironman VS super jackpot display effect.
- Added a progress bar to the Ironman VS background effect.
- tweaked Captain America Highlight sounds
- added new Loki Level 2 jackpots to game.
- added the super jackpot dots for Ironman VS Thor.
- changed left inner loop score award for Captain America Highlight Mode.
- changed captain america highlight award animation.
- added mode start sounds to the VS modes.
- cleaned up VS mode start/award display effects
- added logic to handle ball passing through the Loki locks during VS modes.
- Shoot Again was not blinking in the attract mode, this has been fixed.
- Added a VS logo to each VS start animations
- removed unnecessary frames at the end of the VS intro movies
- Added two more Loki Level 1 jackpot animations
- Added 1 loki level 2 jackpot animation.
- changed the behavior of the Hulk drop targets/lamps when the Hulk advance rule is not available.
- changed the behavior of the Hulk drop targets during Black Widow VS Hulk.
- add more synced Hulk speech
- mystery now awards 3X
- added Hulk f/x to Black Widow VS Hulk.
- added light shows to VS start/awards
- added Loki double/super JP sound f/x
- Added new sounds for COSMIC letters and super jackpot award during tesseract mode.
- fixed pro->le merge problem with right orbit switch logic.
- Changed Tesseract attract mode lamp strings.
- Added new super jackpot artwork.
- added more light shows.
- Added new COSMIC art for the tesseract mode.
- Added audits for COSMIC during tesseract mode.
- Added a display effect for COSMIC letter during tesseract mode.
- Added more loki dots to game.
- Added black widow vs dots to game.
- Added Black Widow VS background animation to game
- Added Thor vs dots to game.
- Added Thor VS background animation to game
- added new Hawkeye, Iron Man sound f/x
- added sound effects to Black Widow, Iron Man, Hawkeye modes.
- removed unused speech phrases.
- Created entries for each avengers vs speech call.
- Moved/Added speech calls to modes and awards.
- Tesseract mode timer now held at 0 seconds while the cube is spinning.
- Cube spin awards are now NOT awarded during the tesseract mode grace period.
- The Tesseract timer will not time down if the ball is in a multiball device or if the playfield is not valid.
- The Avenger modes are now available during Loki Multiball
- Loki Multiball scoring has changed based upon the number of active Avenger modes.
- added more synced f/x to match, bonus, hulk, game start
- Fixed tesseract switch states to accurately describe the spin direction (these were backwards based on the whitewood).
- Added an adjustment for the number of spins needed for a COSMIC letter during TESSERACT mode.
- Tesseract cube revolutions with super jackpot lit now move the super jackpot from shot to shot.
- Once the tesseract mode super jackpot is lit, it will stay lit until it is collected, or until the player drains the ball.
- Cleaned up the tesseract mode background display effect.
- Added difficulty defines to the tesseract COSMIC letter extra ball adjustments.
- Tesseract mode shot lamps now SOLID ON when available so as not to conflict with Loki multiball lamps.
- Added extra ball for spelling COSMIC.  1st extra ball is lit for spelling COSMIC 3 times, the 2nd, 25 times.  These values are on adjustments.
- Added instant info module.
- Tesseract mode super jackpot was not being reset after it was collected.  This has been corrected.
- Misc. tesseract fixes.
- Super jackpot was being awarded off of the tesseract targets.  This has been removed.
- Changed the super jackpot shot from the left loop to the left ramp (for now).
- Added a light show for super jackpot.
- Added tesseract explode and pinwheel lamp + flasher strings for big light shows.
- Fixed some numbering in the coil table (benign).
- added several full playfield lamp strings/fx
- started work on Hulk multiball full playfield lamp f/x
- added rbg GI lamps to the VS modes.
- added strobing lamps to the VS available shots.
- Added some speech to the tesseract mode super jackpot award.
- Fixed sound/display for tesseract mode super jackpot.
- Added super jackpot state to tesseract mode.
- Added audits for COSMIC letter and super jackpot award for tesseract mode.
- First pass super jackpot award scoring and display effect.
- Cleaned up the tesseract letter award display effect.  It now shows the animation for the last letter correctly.
- removed a choreography check to fix a display issue.
- Added Tesseract super jackpot and showing bonus for completing spins for COSMIC letters to light it.
- added sound f/x for Battle for Earth, Assault on the Helicarrier, VS fight modes.
- added different tesseract end music.
- added background gi lamp effects to Thor, Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Widow, Iron Man and the Tesseract.
- Hulk Jackpots scores are now based on Active Avengers.
- added speech to Assault on the Helicarrier.
- changed synced speech testing.
- GIE objects now have a function to determine background GIE.
- Added super jackpot scoring to tesseract mode.
- Fixed an issue where the player's last score was showing poorly behind captain america during his battle mode
- Modified Captain America battle award to space the pop values apart more and have them use images rather that font.
- Added an better initialization for the pop value system
- Added a check to ensure we don't go overbounds for the pop value score.
- Modified the duration the Captain America battle award, now it waits for the animation to complete.


V1.12 - December 12, 2012
=======================

- added additional Tesseract functionality.
- Fixed the "COSMIC" display effect so it will restart if it is interrupted by another effect.
- Added background instructions.
- Added standup target scoring.
- Added "COSMIC" spellout for a larger award during the Tesseract MODE.
- Fixed a problem in the captain america scoring pop bumper display effect.
- Fixed an issue where multiple sound requests were being made instead of a single one.
- fixed a silence problem at the start of some tunes.
- added hulk eject explode lamp string(s)  
- Changed tesseract mode scoring.  The shot scores are based on how much the value was built up when spelling "COSMIC".
- Added background for Ironman vs mode
- Added speech to the AOTH and BFE wizard modes.
- Added tesseract speech.
- fixed a problem where ironman was scoring after a left inner loop shot (LE only).
- added new Helicarrier music.
- added new VS fight music.
- added new Terminate music.
- Avenger advance lamps now light properly when the associated rule(s) is disabled.
- bridge ball search now follows Hulk ball search to avoid a collision (LE only).
- Hulk Speech can now be synced to any sound/speech event.
- added hulk throwing bridge (LE only).
- added green lamps only to Hulk Multiball background (LE only).
- added left drop target logic (LE only)
- changed Loki Jackpot flash lamp sequence
- added additional rules/logic to when the ball will pass thru the loki locks.
- Added new tesseract sounds for main play.
- Added in tesseract speech.
- Modified Captain America Highlight mode display to show multiple enemies, rising digits, and a moving background.
- Added tesseract target sounds.
- added LE switch compatibility
- Raised the auto-redemption target score from 10M to 30M (based on how the game scores at the moment).
- added updated extraball art work
- Added Hulk scream and Hulk scream with broken glass jackpots
- added crashing sounds to match effect
- fixed a slight bug with ironman spelling
- Fixed skill shot so text fits no matter the language
- Fixed Random award text that didn't fit on screen in other languages
- changed lamp resources in Black Widow VS mode.


V1.11 - December 4, 2012
=======================

- fixed Hawkeye display f/x spell-out that was off by 1 letter.
- added sound fx from D. Thiel 13/14 .zip submissions
- score awards are now shown for Avenger "Highlight" modes
- There are now 4 wizard mode award levels.
  1st is Extra ball lit
  2nd is Assault on the Helicarrier
  3rd is Special lit
  4th is Battle for Earth
- Avengers now advance correctly from Highlight->VS->AOTH->BFE.
- Added new black widow jackpot animations
- fixed broken pop bumper art/animation
- Modified the pop bumper animation to display message scores rather than images.
- Modified the pop bumpers display effect to be more process efficient.


V1.10 - November 30, 2012
=======================

- Changes will be documented after the Holidays.
- Modified some speech calls labeled as fx.
- Modified VS mode speech to randomize properly
- Added VS mode total speech
- Pop bumper Display effects now run faster.
- Added speech to VS modes
- Fixed an issue where arrow inserts weren't flashing correctly during Black Widow VS.
- Added more ironman animations.
- Added more Hawkeye animations.
- fixed a Hawkeye bug where a letter was spotted on the first shot
- Added Black Widow animations.
- added a dossier of Hawkeye with an intelligence header and an intelligence meter for the 3rd advance
- changed the pop bumper scoring rule (now pops go up in value .5K after each session)
- changed debounce on right ramp exit switch
- added/fixed collected/completed speech
- added enter initials music
- added loki lock sounds
- added missing thor lines.
- added bonus x lightshow during bonus
- added mystery sound f/x
- added more hulk multiball sound f/x
- added Tesseract target lit/unlit sounds.


V1.0 - November 28, 2012
=======================

- Initial release.

[Strangeways]

There's over 100 changes. You would think for the price you paid, that there would be some decent testing / QA. There are some additions, but the amount of "fixes" or changes is astounding.

[Freiherr]

I picked up my Hulk from AMD yesterday and had a few games last night.
I will post more detail later on but first impressions are positive. Game came with 1.4 upgrade.
Some bad points are evident as raised in other forums. With some minor adjustements I must say, this game is addictive. Definite keeper. All my detailed impressions will be posted when I get  more time.