GameArchive: Stern Pinball

Gary Stern has just recently aquired the Sega Pinball Division. Just in time too, since Williams has recently pulled out of the pinball industry completely. Not much is known about what will be happening with Stern Pinball tho. I will try and keep the page updated!

Stern pinball is usually pretty obscure to most people. Like other new pinball companies of the time (Game Plan, Atari), Stern wanted to add some creativity to the pinball market and also define themselves as a company. Although Stern only stayed in business about 8 years, they made their mark on the industry and also in the hearts of collectors.
I was 10 when I first saw a Stern pinball game, the game was Seawitch, and it was FAST! Stern games seemed to have an amazing ability to send the ball screaming into the flipper in-lanes and right over the flipper before your fingers could even react. While this was sort of a trade mark on all the non-widebody games from them, it defintely was not the only 'signature' of a Stern game. Another aspect of Stern games that I enjoyed so much was the ability of Stern's Drop Target banks to be swept down all at once with a ball approaching from the side. Many of their playfield designs took advantage of this setup (Quicksilver probably the most obvious).

While Stern pinball machines do not hold a major niche in pinball history... the games are definitely unique and fun to play. Many a collector has been 'bitten' by the Stern bug.

Tony Miller replied to a recent RGP thread with some good info, check it out.

Schematics

These will be filling in slowly. All are in .pdf format.

VSU-1000 Speech Synthesizer Board (300K)
MPU-200 Microprocessor Unit (325K)

Topics on Site:

Playmeter Magazine - Coinman of the Month: Sam Stern
Playmeter Magazine - Coinman of the Month: Gary Stern

The Games

Pinball!	Game Statistics - Released: August 1977 Production Run: 2288 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Stingray	Game Statistics - Released: December 1977 Production Run: 3006 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Stars	Game Statistics - Released: March 1978 Production Run: 5127 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Memory Lane	Game Statistics - Released: June 1978 Production Run: 2624 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: August 1978 Production Run: 2423 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: October 1978 Production Run: 2400 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: November 1978 Production Run: 2671 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Dracula	Game Statistics - Released: January 1979 Production Run: 3612 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Trident	Game Statistics - Released: March 1979 Production Run: 4019 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Hot Hand	Game Statistics - Released: June 1979 Production Run: 4117 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: September 1979 Production Run: 8362 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: January 1980 Production Run: 5150 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Magic	Game Statistics - Released: August 1979 Production Run: 2466 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: June 1980 Production Run: 1223 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Quicksilver	Game Statistics - Released: June 1980 Production Run: 1201 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Ali	Game Statistics - Released: March 1980 Production Run: 2971 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: March 1980 Production Run: 2713 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
	Game Statistics - Released: May 1980 Production Run: 2503 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Star Gazer	Game Statistics - Released: August 1980 Production Run: 869 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Flight 2000	Game Statistics - Released: October 1980 Production Run: 6301 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Nine Ball	Game Statistics - Released: November 1980 Production Run: 2279 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Free Fall	Game Statistics - Released: January 1981 Production Run: 1300 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Lightning	Game Statistics - Released: March 1981 Production Run: 2350 Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Split Second	Game Statistics - Released: August 1981 Production Run: ???? Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Catacomb	Game Statistics - Released: October 1981 Production Run: ???? Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Iron Maiden	Game Statistics - Released: October 1981 Production Run: ???? Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Viper	Game Statistics - Released: December 1981 Production Run: ???? Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Cue	Game Statistics - Released: 1982 Production Run: Prototype Only Game ROM Images (not available) Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)
Dragonfist	Game Statistics - Released: January 1982 Production Run: ???? Game ROM Images Playfield Parts Diagram (.pdf ~150K)

Quick Stats
Current:	3
Total:	353,093

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Stern Pinball

Some News....

Schematics

Topics on Site:

The Games

Pinball!

Stingray

Stars

Memory Lane

Dracula

Trident

Hot Hand

Magic

Quicksilver

Ali

Star Gazer

Flight 2000

Nine Ball

Free Fall

Lightning

Split Second

Catacomb

Iron Maiden

Viper

Cue

Dragonfist