#88 Stern Stars - The Classic Pinball Podcast
This episode features John Day, a friend and local restorer who built a customized Stern Stars. We talk about the installed arduino and Beehive Pinball alternative playfield. They then play a game. The second part of todays podcast starts at 38 minutes. George and Dave then discuss several topics: Stranger Things repair, Queen, Twilight Zone and Medieval Madness repairs. Bonus Feature: PJ phone call. theclassicpinballpodcast1@gmail.com
Kineticist’s take
John Day showcases a radical Arduino-modded 1978 Stern Stars with custom playfield and modernized ruleset/sound.
Synopsis
George, Dave, and John Day discuss a deeply customized 1978 Stern Stars pinball machine that John restored for Mike. The restoration involved a custom silk-screened playfield from Beehive Pinball (featuring reimagined artwork blending Galaxy, Stars, and other classic Stern designs), upgraded flipper mechanics, and crucially, a Ballystern OS Arduino-based control system that replaces the original MPU with modern code, sound synthesis, and dynamic lighting: transforming the game from early solid-state to mid-1980s complexity. The episode documents the technical implementation, gameplay improvements, and the broader community of Arduino conversions for classic games.
Entities
- Beehive Pinball· company
- CPR (Classic Pinball Restoration)· company
- Pinball Life· company
- Attack from Mars· game
- Firepower· game
- Flash Gordon· game
- Galaxy· game
- Knight Rider· game
- Mata Hari· game
- Meteor· game
- Pinbot· game
- Stern Stars· game
- The Classic Pinball Podcast· organization
- Dave· person
- Dick Hamill· person
- George· person
- John Day· person
- Maureen· person
- Mike· person
- Mike Lund· person
- Scott· person
- Ballystern OS· product
- GitHub· website
- Pinside· website/community