With Stern Pinball attending IAAPA Europe 2024 in Amsterdam, the Dutch Pinball Museum jumped on the occasion to host a special evening with Gary Stern. Pinball Magazine was present to report on the events.
Considering that Amsterdam time is seven hours ahead of Chicago, the Stern Pinball delegation arrived the weekend before IAAPA Europe. The special evening with Gary Stern took place on Monday, September 23rd, 2024. Tickets for this special evening were limited to 100 and cost 30 euros. The doors of the Dutch Pinball Museum opened at 5:30 PM. The first part of the Stern Pinball delegation arrived at the museum just after 6:00 PM. It consisted of Doug Skor (Director of Export Sales), John Buscaglia (EVP / Chief Revenue Officer), Pat Powers (Director of Tech Support), and Lloyd Dortant (Marketing Europe). LJ Greene helped organize the event and welcomed them to the museum. About 15 minutes later, Gary Stern, CEO Seth Davis, and his wife Allison arrived.
The delegation was directed to two tables in the bar area of the museum where typical Dutch tomato soup with meatballs, croquettes on a bun, and Brabant sausage rolls were served. Following this supper, Gerard van de Sanden, founder of the Dutch Pinball Museum, took Gary and Seth to the museum’s attic, where Gary would give his talk. After a brief inspection, Gary and Seth approached two Stern Electronics pinball games: Orbitor 1 and Nugent. Seth had apparently never seen the Orbitor 1 and played the game while Gary signed it.
Next, Gerard took the two on a tour through his museum. At the Alvin G. dual-player soccer game, Gary explained the Total Recall prototype he had once built to Seth. When approaching a Bingo game, Gary also explained the economics to Seth. Gary and Seth both signed the Wall of Fame. At the Python Anghelo concept drawings for a Madonna-themed pinball game, Gary explained he once went after the Dick Tracie license, which would include Madonna as well. In the museum’s dinosaur room, Gary pointed out to Seth the ball-eating dinosaur on Data East’s Jurrasic Parc.
On his way to the next floor, Gary explains to Gerard how the ban on pinball was lifted in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Gary also describes how Stern Electronics’ Memory Lane is basically the same game as Bally’s Strikes’ n Spares.
Following the tour, Gary, Seth the rest of the team and all visitors headed upstairs for the main event: An Evening With Gary Stern. Below is the Dutch Pinball Museum registration of the event.
Gary’s talk focused initially on dishing up stories of his father, Sam Stern, and how grew from operating pinball machines, to distributing, on to manufacturing. Once Gary finished his ‘standard’ talk, a Q&A session started hosted by LJ Greene. Despite some original questions, Gary responded as he usually does by praising the latest game and Insider Connected. On occasion, Seth Davis jumped in with an interesting, albeit politically correct, response.
Once the session was concluded, part of the Stern Pinball management team left for their hotel. Gary and Seth stayed a little longer. Once back on the ground floor, museum owner Gerard van de Sanden took the opportunity to demonstrate a French pre-pinball game from 1853 to Gary and Seth.
This concludes Pinball Magazine’s coverage of An Evening With Gary Stern at the Dutch Pinball Museum.
The following day, the IAAPA Europe tradeshow started in the RAI Congress Center in Amsterdam. Stern Pinball had a booth with ten recent pinball machines. The games present were: Deadpool, Venom, Jaws, John Wick (Pro and Premium), The Uncanny X-Men (Pro and Premium), Godzilla, and Stranger Things.
IAAPA Europe had the European debut of recently launched The Uncanny X-Men. If you’re looking for a pinball game with the Wow factor, look no further. Jack Danger really threw everything and the kitchen sink in on his playfield design. The result is a fully packed game with the ball traveling in ways rarely seen in pinball. A great game!
As this is a business event, the Stern Pinball management usually has a private room somewhere in the building where they have meetings with visiting distributors and operators. While management is busy with these meetings, ‘local’ distributors are manning the stand. Flyers of recent games were available as well.
Stern Pinball was the only pinball company presenting themselves at IAAPA Europe. One other pinball distributor had a booth at the show as well, but only displayed Ice Cold Beer type of games.