After tracking down all 24 of the Stern Spike 2 pinball machines to play, there is an even greater challenge: playing each different version of them: pro, premium and LE (in some cases, SLE). I’ve played and even ranked all of them, but have not played each version of all of them. In this article, we’ll cover all the different Spike 2 versions and in the comments you can chime in on what you’ve played/not played to date as well as your interest level in tracking all of these down someday to play.
The list of Stern Spike 2 pins has been alphabetically sorted and of course will be out of date by the time some of you read this and/or when Stern releases more games. I’ll try to come back at the bottom and provide some updates as more of the unplayed pins are played or create a new article in the future and link back to here.
As pictured above in red are the versions of pins I haven’t played as of this writing. The pros and premiums should be the easiest to locate, the LEs, not so much. The column next to the highlights marked “made” is the number of machines produced by Stern. The IC/AC and “me” column are the number of Insider Connected achievements available and how many I’ve earned, again, as of this writing.
Before publishing, on our summer vacation 2024 with our grandchildren, we stopped by the Game Over Arcade in Lincoln City, Oregon which had *5* games on my previously unplayed list, all LE’s, including the following:
- Batman ’66 LE (only 240 in the world)
Deadpool LE- Godzilla LE
- Jurassic Park LE
- The Munsters LE
UPDATE 8/17/2024 @8:51am PST: I didn’t end up playing Deadpool LE as registered on IC, so removed that from the played list. Played the other five. Will get it next time, hopefully.
This knocked down my unplayed list from 16 to 11 machines out of 70.
In the list above, Elvira House of Horrors (Stern SLE 2019) of which only 50 were made? Yeah, I’m probably not going to find/play that anywhere. Is one of these even on location anywhere in the United States? Pinside will know (https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/elviras-house-of-horrors-se/owners)
Yes, there is one place in California which said they have an Elvira Signature edition.
I sure hope they have that Insider Connected! Definitely if we’re planning to go there, will call first and ask. Would be a shame to have such a rare Stern pinball machine and not have it be Insider Connected. Or worse, they do, but when you travel there, it’s not working correctly.
This shows how to track down the machines you haven’t played and where they might be that you can visit and play. Also, on my list of not played yet are Batman ’66 SLE (80). Does anybody have the LE or SLE on location?
Batman ’66 SLE? Yup, 1 location in North Carolina: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/batman-66-sle/owners
Here is part 2 of 3 of the spreadsheet:
Part 3 of 3:
There are 9 somewhat common machines on my list of 11 remaining machines that I should be able to play in hopefully the not-too-distant future:
- Aerosmith (Stern Pro 2017) – 327 public locations in USA – Pinside link: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/aerosmith-pro
- Aerosmith (Stern Premium 2017) – 47 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/aerosmith-premium
- Black Knight: Sword of Rage (Stern Premium 2019) – 53 public locations -Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/black-knight-sword-of-rage-premium
- Deadpool (Stern Premium 2018) – 105 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/deadpool-premium
- Guardians of the Galaxy (Stern Premium 2017) – 61 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/guardians-of-the-galaxy-premium
- Led Zeppelin (Stern Premium 2020) – 98 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/stern-led-zeppelin-premium
- Rush (Stern Premium 2022) – still in production – 81 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/stern-rush-premium
- Star Wars (Stern Premium 2017) – still in production – 182 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/star-wars-stern-premium
- Stranger Things (Stern Premium 2019) – 108 public locations – Pinside: https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/stern-stranger-things-premium
Once/if playing the above 9, this will leave me with only two machines: Batman ’66 SLE (only 80) and Elvira House of Horrors SLE (Only 50), both of those do have locations where they can be played in the United States but will have to travel to them, because they aren’t exactly close by. Not sure when or if I’ll be able to track down these two games and play and/or if I do if they will have IC on them. That last part is the trickiest, since neither of the machines had IC by factory default, it was necessary to add as an additional accessory from Stern.
Would be cool if there was an Insider Connected achievement badge for playing all 70 of these Spike 2 machines. I doubt seriously there would be many people in the world that would have this badge outside of Stern employees and collectors. Just guessing, but probably the number could be counted on your hands.
Your turn. How many of these 70 Stern Spike 2 pins have you played? What’s your desire/interest in tracking down and playing all of these someday in your travels?
For me, the hardest part has been trying to figure out how I want to track all the games I’ve played (beyond spike 2). Luckily I’m starting early enough in my journey that I can still recall where and when I’ve played a game. I’m still not sure I have a solution that I like. Ideally, I think I’d like to keep it on pinside, where most pinball enthusiasts interact, but the ipdb could be a viable option as well. Or I could use an app.
Wouldn’t count out using a spreadsheet of your own, of which you could use different tabs on the spreadsheet by manufacturer (Stern, Bally/Williams, JJP, etc). The problem with using any third party website, including Pinside, is you don’t really control the data unless they offer/allow an export option. Pretty certain that Pinside doesn’t, do they? Sure, you can crosspost what you want on Pinside, but keep your own records … just in case. Also, you can add your own personal notes on each pin, organized however you want.