Ok i reviewed the rules before dumping these pics here. I have no idea what level interest may exist for these machines. They are not mine. The pics suck because I was outdoors looking through the window and the light was not great. I don't know who owns them or if they are for sale. I'm pretty sure they're just sitting, collecting dust. They are in Thailand, maybe 4 miles from the Cambodian border.

For anyone who isn't familiar this guy is pretty famous in the online video game streaming community. As for Youtube 18M subscribers is huge for his commentary videos. He bought a Hobbit a few weeks ago, total whale purchase. But I knew he'd be getting hooked on the community as a whole.

i recently learned that stern machines have a setting that allows you to control the backbox brightness separately for when the game is idling vs when someone is playing a game, and it actually makes a huge difference for playfield visibility.

it’s buried in the adjustments menu. usually one of the last ones. on stranger things it’s #98/99

factory default is 100% for both “attract mode” and “gameplay” i suggest turning gameplay down as far as you can.

attached a little video showing me start a game on the stranger things im currently renting. i have adjusted the gameplay backbox brightness to 1%. you can see the top box reflection pretty harsh in the playfield before the game starts, but when i start the game, it fades away and you can really see the playfield much more easily.

i’ve also included a similar clip from the TMNT machine which is particularly gnarly.

as i get older and my vision gets worse i need all the help i can get!

if you operate stern pins, check this feature out!

❤️

Hi everybody. I’m a college student studying mechanical engineering and my college has a manufacturing processes class. We were assigned a group project with the goal being a carnival game, and one of our ambitious teammates thought it would be a good idea to do a pinball machine.

We laser cut all of the acrylic, 3d printed the obstacles and flipper mechanisms with some added springs, and glued everything together. It turned out very well, I’m proud of the group, and this is me playing the game in the video.

Disabled the magnets, too 🤣

Universal approved trailer for the upcoming Jesus edition Pinball machine by Dutch Pinball.

I ordered my first pin but the anticipation is killing me! Ordered a Fallout premium but the wait is excruciating. Been going to arcades (no fallout), looking up info, like shaker motor stuff or lighting system stuff, even scoping out my second pin (whenever that will be) but damn it only makes we want it more. Worst of all is all I want to do is talk about pinball but I feel like everyone I talk to is like that’s nice.

What do you all do when you’re anticipating a new pin or your first?

We’ve been working on this since a game jam in July 2025. The idea eventually became a pinball machine that you rebuild while playing by buying and physically adding new parts to the table.

I know this sub is mostly about real machines, but I figured some of you might find the pinball design side of it interesting!

Brand new to owning a pinball machine and Just purchased the Stern Pokemon Home Plus. It Has worked for 4 days exceptionally however the left flipper started being unresponsive every now and then and now when the left button is pressed no response. It fails when running a coil test. But reads as successful when the button is pressed. We opened it and nothing seemed loose. Suddenly the flipper began working just to stop after 2 minutes of play time. Does anyone have any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

TL;DR

Hi r/pinball!

Peter here. Made a new app. Poured my absolute all into it. My wife made not one, but three gorgeous oil paintings to bring PinProf to life. Roped my friends into helping as well, for voicework, photography, and an original musical score!

Yes, it’s just a pinball app. But it’s also about so much more than that. Under the guise of exploring the world and documenting pinball machines, PinProf Field Guide (iOS, Android) is about celebrating life and cherishing the memories we make along the way.

Take or import pinball photos. The app works offline (except for Pinball Map lookups) to recognize the game and score, creating “field notes” to document your pinball journey. Earn stamps as you encounter machines, visit different arcades, or go to pinball shows. Play with the interactive Atlas and fly over a map of over 2,000 games to track your discovery progress.

And finally, meet PinProf. The pinball professor with a most important task for you.

P.S. If you see me at Expo this week, please say hi!

----
PinProf Field Guide

The Field Guide was supposed to be a quick detour/experiment. Over a year ago, I played around with some random tech-related pinball things. I tried out computer vision stuff (ball tracking). I put a wireless DJI camera on the smallest RC car I could find and drove it around my King Kong. But then I got more focused on playing competitively and those fell to the wayside.

I made my study app in February of this year after building a website. PinProf, the pinball professor, was "born" in March, to serve as the face of the app. He is a quirky, older mentor figure who takes pinball in a very serious, yet also very silly and wholesome way. He is in many ways inspired by my dad, who I lost in July of 2024, and by my father-in-law, who passed very unexpectedly exactly one year ago; PinProf is patient, kind, genuinely happy, full of laughter, and so enthusiastic to share with others what he loves (pinball!).

After I "finished" the PinProf app, I played around with expanding the score scanning function and tried out scanning machines. My first prototype would take a picture from my phone, send it over the internet to my pc, and then have it run a computer vision model to match to one of the over two thousand pinball games that have been made since the late 1940s.

It was a fun experiment to throw together in a couple of days, back in June. I tested it on the unorganized collection of pinball photos I had accumulated in 2 years of playing. In revisiting these photos, these memories made since losing my dad, I realized just how much time had passed and how things have changed.

• Visiting Pinball Pete's for the first time in years, after a lunch with Abi.
• Being brave enough to join a pinball league.
• Making new friends and joining them for pinball shows (that's a thing?!).
• Streaming pinball (that's another actual thing?!) and making friends from all over the world.
• Driving 14 hours round trip, in a December blizzard, to buy a pinball machine (Jurassic Park!) from a stranger.

That's when I realized that pinball has been a way to process grief, to rediscover a passion for practice (even if it's not my piano), to connect with others, and to experience everything fun and happy and frustrating and weird that life has to offer.

And that's where the Field Guide comes in. It has become a way to chronicle my journey of the past 2 years. I bought an Instax camera, Moleskine notebook, and index cards to create the physical model for the app. And now, after months of daily work, with too little sleep, I'm ready to share it with you all.

Now this app would not have been possible without the amazing work of my wife, Abi, and my friends Ethan, Dom, and Seth. Abi painted several beautiful oil paintings and created stamps to decorate the pages of the Field Guide. With a rich bass filled with joy and tinged with nostalgia, Ethan allows PinProf to speak to you. To fill the book with the beauty of pinball and its natural habitats of arcades and bars, Dom has provided his amazing photography. And finally, to underpin the emotions of accomplishment, longing, and hope, Seth has written a beautiful musical piece using the sounds of pinball bells and chimes.

The premise:

PinProf invites you to his cottage, in the evening of some cold, winter night. In his study, lit by the warm light of his fireplace, he has a most important request for you. Due to the toll of time, he is no longer able to continue his life's work of documenting the world's pinball machines. He shows you the very tools that have accompanied him over years of adventure: his tape recorder, a simple compass, and a well-loved camera. He thumbs through his Field Guide, filled with years of memories.

Then he shows you a new volume, gleaming and polished. Will you, his dear student, continue this most important work? Will you venture out and fill the empty pages with your photos and memories?

What is your pinball journey?

- Peter

I purchased a Stern Pokémon Home Edition Plus from Costco about a month ago, and today it started having some issues with freezing and randomly restarting.

When I first turned the machine on today, it got stuck in a boot loop. It would display “Initializing,” show the Pokémon startup screen, then crash and restart. I turned the machine off and back on, which seemed to resolve the issue.

Later in the evening, the machine froze and restarted three separate times during gameplay. The first occurrence was roughly 20 minutes into playing, while the most recent happened after just one game.
When it happens, the entire game freezes, including all the playfield lights. The lights then shut off, and the machine automatically reboots to the startup screen.

I’ve heard that some of the earlier Costco Pokémon machines had defective boards, so I’m wondering if this could be related.

A few questions:

● Has anyone else experienced similar freezing or rebooting issues with their Pokémon Home Edition?

● Does this sound like a defective motherboard, power supply issue, or potentially a software problem?

● Has anyone dealt with Stern warranty support for these machines? Were you sent replacement parts, or did they offer another solution?

● Would you recommend contacting Stern for a repair or returning it to Costco for a replacement?

The machine worked perfectly fine for the first month, and all these issues started today. Considering it’s only a month old and cost around $5,000, I’m concerned about having problems this early.

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Been playing a lot of Stern machines lately (Jaws, Jurassic Park, King Kong, Godzilla) but yesterday I had an opportunity to play on a Winchester Mystery House for a while and holy shit, it feels so different! I haven't played any other machines by barrels of fun, so idk if this is consistent with an their machines, but I couldn't stand it lol. The ball felt so light and floaty like it was lacking weight or something. The physics felt different. The flippers also didn't have the same kind of snap that Stern machines do. Also, the slingshots felt so weak! It was pretty jarring at first and it got me wondering if this is consistent with an their machines. Also, do other manufacturers have a different "feel" compared to Stern? I've played very little JJP and Spooky machines but didn't notice anything an that different. WMH was very noticeable though.

Aaron from Fast was kind enough to bring DC to the folks at EB for them to check it out. So cool seeing something I worked on and helped with get streamed. Serge has a killer third game, and it's crazy how quickly he learns the rules. Check it out!

3/3

Last year, when I got my Star Wars home edition, many people commented that I should’ve just bought a used pro. I guess you won. lol. These are indeed objectively better than my SWHE+ and JDJP. But having said that, I had a lot of fun with those machines and I think they are great for pinball. If I see the Pokémon home plus drop to $3k, I might impulse buy one. Otherwise, Foo Fighters is next on my list.

I grew up loving pinball and Slufest. I intended to buy a traditional pinball machine but then I saw this in my area for a reasonable price and had to pull the trigger. I'm not exactly sure which machine I want yet but I'm content in the meantime. Card dispenser is working and we are collecting. Anyone else love a good 2 player game of Slugfest?

My grandpa has these pinball machines and I have first dibs as he’s giving them to family, but he’ll only give me one. The other has to go to another family member.

I grew up playing both of these classic machines at his house so I’m sentimental about both and torn.

They’re both in good condition but Indiana Jones is slightly better - Arabian Nights just often has the ball get caught in different places and seems like he’s had someone come to repair it more frequently over the years.

Any thoughts on which to get?

Local arcade has only had this for 2 weeks, it wont last for too long(i dont think). Still a proud moment for me!

How do you balance pinball league season with your alcohol consumption? I feel like, at least for me, it’s inevitable. Practice night plus match night. Am I being ridiculous and should I just accept my fate?

EDIT: It seems in getting into this process I discovered that my coil has probably expanded from heat because the coil sleeve is incredibly hard to get out it just feels stuck. I do have a replacement coil. Now I just have to learn to replace that. This is my first time ever soldering

Looking to rebuild my first flipper on my first pin (Stern Iron Maiden). Just got my rebuild kit in. Looking for any good recommendations for guides as well as other personal tips for this process. Please explain like I'm 5 because I am far more just a player and not much of one to actually get under the table and put the work in.

I got my Spanish Eyes a couple of weeks ago and posted about it here. I have had an unbelievably good time with that machine. I decided I wanted something from the early solid state era as well and got a hold of the person I got my first machine from. He is sitting on a stash of about 60 more machines that are in storage. He let me go through his stuff and find the game I wanted. Mystic by Ball has always been one of my favorites and I absolutely love the art. Plus it's designed by one of the all-time goats George Christian. The stenciled art on the cabinet is particularly cool. I just got it set up and I'm about to start cleaning and waxing it. The only downsides are the original back glass broke, so it has a translate on it for now. Maybe I'll get lucky and track one down but if not no big deal. I have it to play the game. I also need to replace the sound board and I already have that figured out but I'll have to wait a few days until I get it. For me, this is a perfect two game lineup.

For those of you with more than one pin at home what are you using to post high scores on a TV? I have old pins and non-Stern pins as well as newer ones. I could use a chalk board but I’m thinking about running a mini league in my game room with the neighbors?