Stern's latest table is Star Trek, I spoke about it in a post when the table was first announced.
The first of the Pro tables have been shipped out and a few Star Trek tables have been reported in the wild around North America. I would also like to report that I've located a Star Trek table right here in the city!
DANG DOES THAT THING GLOW OR WHAT? Star Trek is the first table where the Pro version is completely outfitted with LEDs and boy is it beautiful! Another innovation by Stern is that the backglass is somewhat tilted as to reduce the glare on the playfield from the backglass. I like it most because it makes taking pictures that much easier!
Oh yeah, I suppose I should mention where this table is located. OK it is now residing at California Sandwiches! That's on Claremont just off of Dundas West. The table was recently placed on location and is in near-new condition. Go check it out!
Not only is Star Trek now at California Sandwiches, The Sopranos has taken the place of Batman! I had a strange feeling about this table when I returned to California Sandwiches and saw the new line-up. I got a bit of deja vu... that's because this table used to be at Leisure Lanes in Whitby!
I was hoping that since the table got shuffled, it was going to get fixed up but it's the same as it was when it was back at Leisure Lanes; the saucer hole that is for the mystery award, extra ball and episode mode is still as finicky as before and rarely activates, the playfield is still pretty dirty and the safe sometimes doesn't acknowledge hits... All that and MJS is the Grand Champion. Shane and I have a feeling it is just MJB with different initials but who knows.
During my trip to California Sandwiches to grab some photos of Star Trek, I happened to catch sight of these two tables sitting in a bar on Dundas West....
YEP! Stern's TRON Legacy and Duotron have taken up residence at Mây!
May is a great little bar on Dundas West just a bit west of Euclid Ave. It's a pretty neat bar with some asian decorations and influnece as well as a real chill vibe. When I stepped in to check the pinball machines, the fellow working the bar, who I believe was the owner, chatted with me a bit about the pinball machines and offered me the free credits that were on the machines. I made sure to pay it forward and put some change in the machines as well as earned some replays to give some credits to the next person to play. ANYWAYS, both tables are in great shape and are a lot of fun to play. I've spoken of TRON Legacy before when it was found at Pegasus Bar down near Church and Wellesley. It has a really nice flow but some really tight shots, especially the bumper cluster shot.
If you aim well, you can get the ball moving awfully fast. There's also about 3 multiball modes that I was able to activate, that being Lightcycle, Quorra and Disc Multiball. They're all pretty easy to activate and make the gameplay frantic as all get out.
DUOTRON, a great companion to TRON by the way, is a fun little Electro-Mechanical by Gottlieb.
EM tables don't move at as crazy a speed as later tables do and are easier to just bump around without requiring cat-like reflexes. During the era of EM's, Gottlieb was king; they had the knack for making some great tables during that period. Duotron is a great example and has a pretty neat little gimmick, the captive ball that changes place after each hit.
Gottlieb's art packages were always outstanding around this time and Duotron is no slouch. The detail of the backglass is pretty wild.
The playfield artwork doesn't stand out too much but its bold colours and simple shapes are pleasing to the eye.
The guy at May told me the current high score is 72,000 and is held by him. The closest I got is about 37,000. These EMs can be tough sometimes with the drains as the balls don't have as much momentum that they get on modern tables and so it's hard to make some heavy nudges without tilting. You have to be much more precise and gentle with your nudging in order to save your ball from draining.
Boo Radley's has a couple of new machines in their game room now which were documented in my report of the Pinball Crawl. Stern's Wheel of Fortune and Family Guy are now at Boo Radley's.
Speaking of Family Guy, it has also shown up at Leisure Lanes! It has replaced The Sopranos table that is now at California Sandwiches.
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| This is the only picture I have from the table. I didn't bother taking a full table picture. |
OH BY THE WAY I set up a tumblr page. I just post pictures of pinball every day... or at least, I try to post one picture a day but I've missed a few days here and there. OH WELL. You'll see some pictures from here on Bright Lights Bumper City as well as whatever else I can find on my phone. Click the logo below to go to the tumblr!
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