<![CDATA[Kotaku: stern]]> http://tags.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: stern]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/stern http://kotaku.com/tag/stern <![CDATA[Travel Channel Features Pinball Wizards]]> Stern Pinball, the only manufacturer of coin-op pinball machines still in business, got the documentary treatment a while back from Travel Channel show John Ratzenberger's Made In America. The kids at Arcade Heroes just put out a reminder that the show is going to air tomorrow for any pinball fans who might have missed it.

According to them the show was filmed while Stern was knee deep in production on their Elvis Presley pinball table so expect to see that game heaviliy featured.

With the recent Xbox Live Arcade release of Pinball FX and an upcoming collection from Crave, plus the release of the Pinball 2000 documentary Tilt!, this is looking like a year of pinball ecstasy. I just tilted in my pants, I'm so jazzed.

John Ratzenberger's Made In America [Travel Channel via Arcade Heroes]

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<![CDATA[Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Moon War]]>

Moon War:
In 1981, Stern released "Moon War" as a conversion for Scramble and a few other scrolling shooter games. Much like the other games of this ilk, the player manned a spaceship over the Moon's terrain, shooting targets. Each of the 16 targets had it's own point value that you would earn for destroying them. Using your shields to deflect enemy ships would cause your fuel to decrease, requiring you to stop at a "refueling base" to restore your energy. Stopping at these bases would earn you points and increase the difficulty of the game. Moon War featured a "top down" view of the game rather that the traditional "side scroll" view and featured a 2 player control layout with a "steering wheel" (a sort of spinning disc reminiscent of a trackball) and three buttons: Fire Missile, Warp Drive and Shields.

Once again, we have here a game that doesn't quite live up to the pure awesomeness of the flyer. The 1940's Buck Rogers style illustrations provide an interesting counterpoint to the pure eighties-ness of the model. I particularly love her sort of half-assed attempt at those Hooters-esque shorts that give full meaning to the words "The Ultimate Moon Shot" hovering right underneath. This "ass to the camera" pose was a very popular one for arcade flyers at this time. It's really a shame that companies don't advertise games like this anymore.

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