Retro Gaming- The Latest in Pinball Video Gaming

In 2012, Stern Pinball, the oldest pinball machine manufacturer in the world located near Chicago. The company creates its pinball machine prototypes and designs as well as tests their products all on the same site. They have created 99% of the pinball machines manufactured and sold in the past 20 years and are the chosen company of professional pinball players in competitions all over the world. This includes amateur enthusiasts who are just now garnering an interest in the retro gaming of pinball.
Stern Pinball has lasted this long and developed its reputation in the pinball industry as a monopoly on the market because it has continued to evolve with the ever-changing gaming culture. In 2012, it teamed up with gaming software developer FarSight Studios.

FarSight Studios is based in California and has been in the video game development business since nearly the beginning. FarSight has an eclectic portfolio of titles to its credit including a multitude of sports games including the NFL games all the way to plug-and-play toys for kids that are created for every platform that is available today in the gaming industry. The two companies’ combined to create The Pinball Arcade.
This video version of pinball simulations included a variety of tables with varying themes including Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation. With the success of this product on a number of platforms including iOS AND, Windows, PS3, PS4, X360, XBLA, Wii, and XONE, PSVita, to name a few, the two companies have teamed up again to create a new and improved version entitled, Stern Pinball Arcade.

Stern Pinball Arcade- Features and Platforms

The new and improved version offers 3D play that simulates an old-fashioned arcade game with neon lights, retro sounds, and other retro novelty in play but with 21st-century optics. The software configurations are compiled from actual pinball tables and the game is guaranteed to give 100% accuracy in play to every gamer that uses it.
Some highlights are:
• Opportunities for bragging rights on a global scale for each individual pinball table
• Single or multi-player game mode
• The option for professional upgrades
• New features released on a regular basis
• Table packs available
• Free one-table demo download available

There is also a mode called the Stern Challenge where the gamer has to attempt to achieve a specific score on each pinball table in order to earn additional points called Challenge points in order to continue to the next pinball table. This added challenge is a separate gaming experience that a player can choose to participate in.
Some of the pinball table themes that are included in this version are:
• Star Trek: Vengeance Premium
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• Starship Troopers
• Harley Davidson Third Edition
• AC/DC to name a few…

For anyone who may be a pinball aficionado or just wanting to try the retro feel of pinball, this game will challenge both types of gamers. The VR version, just recently released in June of this year, is said by gaming critics to be even more challenging and exciting than the latest version that was released on PlayStation 4.

All platforms available:
• Android
• iOS
• Microsoft Windows
• MacOS (Steam)
• XboxOne
• Playstation 4
• Samsun Gear VR (newly released in June 2016)
• Oculus Rift (coming soon)
• Wii U (coming soon) Find out more at http://www.farsightstudios.com/ and http://www.sternpinball.com/.
Jessica Kane is a writer for The Pinball Company, the best online source for new, used, and refurbished pinball machines, arcade cabinets, and more!