The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 21
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Great British Pinball Podcast, Neil McRae and Scott Rundle discuss their recent experiences in the world of pinball collecting, including the challenges of moving machines, the intricacies of game mechanics, and the evolution of pinball technology. They share personal anecdotes about their collections, including a Metallica LE and an Indiana Jones machine, and delve into the technical aspects of modern pinball machines, such as audio and visual enhancem...
Kineticist’s take
UK pinball operators discuss recent acquisitions, Stern code delays, and hardware reliability issues.
Synopsis
Scott Rundell and Neil McRae discuss recent pinball acquisitions and experiences, including Scott's new Metallica (LE) and Indiana Jones machines. They dive into technical issues affecting recent Stern releases (John Wick, X-Men, Dungeons & Dragons code updates), hardware reliability concerns with Spike 2 boards, and practical tips on moving pinball machines safely. The conversation covers game mechanics, customizations like lightning flippers, and frustrations with code development cycles at Stern.
Highlights
- Metallica LE is the best Stern game Scott has played recently, with excellent mechs and lighting system
- Stern likely received a discounted Metallica license compared to John Wick, X-Men, or Venom
- John Wick hasn't received a code update since September, frustrating the community
- X-Men was rushed to production and started at similar code maturity to Jaws but hasn't progressed as quickly
- Dungeons & Dragons Premium LE dragon fire-breathing feature had a critical node board issue caused by overly tight cable ties
- Spike 2 hardware (from 2016 Batman) is struggling under current game load after ~10 years, showing video slowdown on content-heavy games
- Stern is using node boards from multiple manufacturers (green, blue, red versions) to address supply chain and reliability issues
- Lightning flippers on Indiana Jones make the game harder but players adapt to them after initial difficulty
Entities
- Stern Pinball· company
- Dungeons & Dragons· game
- Elvira· game
- Foo Fighters· game
- Indiana Jones· game
- Jaws· game
- John Wick· game
- Metallica LE· game
- X-Men· game
- Pinball Republic· organization
- Carlos· person
- Davey Stumbler· person
- Di· person
- George Gomez· person
- Holly· person
- Kevin· person
- Laser Loss· person
- Matt· person
- Neil McRae· person
- Ray· person
- Rick· person
- Scott Rundell· person
- Sturge· person
- Wason· person
- Spike 2· product