I hope every pinball company keeps pushing the envelope so when I buy my Sterns that I like, I will continue to get a great product.
Also, like Ford and Mercedes, I am a loyal customer who sticks with a brand.
I like the guys at Stern like Borgy and the King, Steve Ritchie. Sometimes buying a product is also about rewarding the people you have a lot of respect for. The customer service from Stern has always been outstanding.
I am sure JJP, Dutch Pinball or whoever will get the same loyal following when they look after their customers etc.
As times go past, hopefully the pinny world will have more NEW legends from some of these newer pinball companies.
That will be good for pinball. The more companies the better. This will drive competition, drop prices perhaps, and give the end consumer a better product. We all win.
One word of caution about highly engineered toys on games like that bowling alley on TBL, one always remembers a lot of pinball machines from the past with very intricate moving toys and the various mechanisms which failed over time.
Its good to have very complex toys, but it's no fun if they fail or break over time or need lots of servicing....
Sometimes safe and basic is literally hat, safe and basic maintainence.
Nothing worse than a pinball that's broken down. That bowling lane looks impressive, but it looks like its extremely complex. If it breaks down, it might be a nightmare to fix. I did say IF, cause it might also run fine forever, but history is against complex toys on pinballs staying 100 percent working.
Anyway, exciting times ahead. I wish I had a time machine to go 5 years ahead into the future to see the worldwide pinball industry. That would be exciting and a blast for those who are passionate about the pinball hobby and industry.
Im not sure how the bowling alley works yet. But I can tell you that my WMS Ten Strike remake looks like it would be complicated for the bowling pins but its actually really bloody simple.
Each pin has a magnet on the bottom and each place on the PF for them a small metal disc... this makes sure they rest to the correct positions and stay there. Each pin has a line to it from thin string and when the ball hits, it beaks the bond with the magnet and a tiny weight on the other end of the string pulls the pin up into the housing. When the pins reset a cam comes over from a stepping motor and pushes the weights back into position which then lowers the pins again. Really simple and effective... only part that can break down is the 12V stepping motor and weve had those in pinballs for many years now
