By Todd Russell
If you missed our enlightening PGM Interview #2 live with Stern Pinball programmer Elizabeth Gieske during our (No) Blue Monday special on 3/3/2025, we’ll be sharing a transcript of that in a future article here, perhaps publishing on a future Wednesday, that is undecided at this moment.
In the meantime, before Twitch auto archives it, you can jump over to PlayGamesMoredotcom Twitch archives here https://www.twitch.tv/playgamesmoredotcom/videos and watch the one hour interview in full. You might want headphones, because my sound was low in the first half or so, sorry about that, but you can hear Elizabeth very clearly throughout the interview and she’s the intended focal point here.
Once this archived video is gone, the plan is to republish, but there is currently no plan for when that will appear. The idea behind this interview was for a future article here at PGM, and we are currently 3+ months into the future, so that might give some kind of future timeline, but you just never know around here.
Anyway, for those in any way curious of what it’s like being a programmer for Stern Pinball actively working on games today — Elizabeth worked on the code for Jaws last year and is working on Dungeons & Dragons right now — then you should find this interview worthwhile. I think she brought up some very interesting points about working at Stern Pinball that haven’t been made anywhere else. Consider this a PGM exclusive!
My Son Sold his Atgames Legend Pinball HD, Atgames Legends 1.1 and iiRcade on Facebook Marketplace
Over the weekend I listed on Facebook Marketplace for my son three home arcade systems he barely played anymore for sale and happy to report they sold within two days. We delivered the games to the new buyer about 20 minutes away and he was so happy to receive.
Here’s a pic of what they looked like all shrink-wrapped in the garage before we loaded them into the truck for delivery. It was raining earlier in the day — Washington weather this time of year — but when we delivered it was dry as a bone.
I did take a picture of what the Atgames Legends Pinball HD looks like next to a Stern pinball machine and, yeah, the Stern just towers over it.
I have a lot more to say about this, maybe enough for a future PGM article. I do remain grateful to Atgames in a historical way at least for getting me back into pinball a few years ago with their virtual pinball product.
I didn’t honestly think I’d ever buy another pinball machine again, but have always enjoyed playing pinball and you don’t have to own the to enjoy playing them. It can be a much different experience owning a pinball machine, especially when your games have problems and/or if you enjoy the process of maintaining them. We had that Eight Ball for like 10 years and it was such a miserable experience, that I was extremely soured on the idea of owning a pinball machine again, vowing “never” to buy another. Fast forward to modern pinballs and last year with my son’s Jaws purchase (Our Son Bought a New In Box Jaws Stern Premium – The First 40 Days of Ownership – What’s the Experience Really Like?). This time experience has, so far anyway, been a much better experience. I continue to diary the experience of the three games we have and will report on this second experience: good, bad and indifferent.
As for Atgames? I still own all my Atgames stuff, but my son is mostly out. He kept his Legends Gamer Pro and pedestal. He’s not a big fan of that either — he doesn’t like the lag in some games — so that might be sold in the future as well. Jury out for me, but I probably should do what he did. Just take the money. He got $1,560 selling all three systems. That’s less than he paid for them, but not a lot less. It ends happy because the buyer was excited. The games will be played. A new happy gaming home! There is not really any point keeping games that aren’t being played, but letting them go can be … tough.