Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977 until 1985, and was best known for '' Berzerk''. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1986 as Data East Pinball, is a manufacturer of pinball machines in North America.

Stern Electronics, Inc.

Stern Electronics was formed when Sam and Gary Stern bought the financially troubled

Chicago Coin Chicago Coin was one of the early major manufacturers of pinball tables founded in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 1932 by Samuel H. Gensburg and Samuel Wolberg to operate in the coin-operated amusement industry. In 1977, ...

in 1977. Sam had previously owned the amusements manufacturer Williams, purchasing half of the company in 1947 and selling it to the

Seeburg Corporation Seeburg was an American design and manufacturing company of automated musical equipment, such as orchestrions, jukeboxes, and vending equipment. Founded in 1902, its first products were Orchestrions and automatic pianos but after the arrival of g ...

in 1964. Gary had trained under his father at Williams, and from 1973-1977 the two ran the company. Stern Electronics, Inc. acquired their core inventory by purchasing Chicago Coin's assets at bankruptcy sales; as a separate company, they did not assume any of the debt Chicago Coin had amassed. The first two games made by Stern were ''Stampede'' and ''Rawhide'', both originally made by Chicago Coin, which only had changes made to their branding and logos. After a weak start, Stern Electronics' sales started picking up by the end of 1977. They produced the first solid-state pinball machine, called ''Pinball'' that year. By 1978, they had switched over to fully

solid-state electronics Solid-state electronics are semiconductor electronics: electronic equipment that use semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes and integrated circuits (ICs). The term is also used as an adjective for devices in which semiconductor elec ...

for their games. In 1979, Stern acquired the

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...

production assets of the bankrupt

, and the company became known as Stern / Seeburg. When arcade

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s became popular in 1980, Stern Electronics produced '' Berzerk''. They largely stopped producing pinball machines. In 1983, Stern became one of many victims of the Video game crash of 1983, amusement industry economic shakeout that occurred. In 1984, Sam Stern died and Stern Electronics closed in 1985. From 1985 to 1986, personnel from Stern Electronics formed a venture known as Pinstar that produced conversion kits for old Bally and Stern machines, with Gary Stern continuing to function as president. He then went on to help found Data East, Data East's pinball division and continued to lead there when it was acquired by List of Sega Pinball machines, Sega in 1994. While DataEast did operate out of the old Stern Electronics property, sources differ on whether they acquired the company or just the facilities. On March 16, 2023, Atari SA, Atari announced that it had acquired the intellectual property rights to 12 Stern Electronics titles, including ''Berzerk'' and ''Frenzy (1982 video game), Frenzy''.

Stern Pinball, Inc.

By 1999, the pinball industry was virtually dead. Sega left the pinball industry by spinning off their pinball division and selling it to Gary Stern, and Stern Pinball was born. Stern Pinball became the only commercial pinball manufacturer left, but continued to struggle in the 2000s, producing just 10,000 machines per year and selling the majority of them overseas. As of 2023, longtime designers Brian Eddy, John Borg, and George Gomez are designing pinball games at Stern Pinball, alongside top-ranking competitive player Keith Elwin and popular pinball streamer Jack Danger. Stern Pinball, Inc. is based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Some Stern pinball tables were also digitally released through ''The Pinball Arcade'' and ''Stern Pinball Arcade''.

Lists of machines and games

Stern Electronics

* ''Stampede'' (1977) * ''Rawhide'' (1977) * ''Disco'' (1977) * ''Pinball'' (1977) * ''Stingray'' (1977) * ''Stars'' (1978) * ''Memory Lane'' (1978) * ''Lectronamo'' (1978) * ''Wild Fyre'' (1978) * ''Nugent'' (1978) * ''Dracula'' (1979) * ''Trident'' (1979) * ''Hot Hand'' (1979) * ''Magic'' (1979) * ''Cosmic Princess'' (1979) (Produced in Australia by Leisure and Allied Industries under license from Stern Electronics Inc) * ''Meteor'' (1979) (Highest production of all Stern Electronics' Pinballs) * ''Galaxy'' (1980) * ''Ali'' (1980) * ''Big Game'' (1980) (First game to incorporate seven-digit scoring in the digital era) * ''Seawitch'' (1980) * ''Cheetah'' (1980) * ''Quicksilver'' (1980) * ''Star Gazer'' (1980) * ''Flight 2000 (pinball), Flight 2000'' (1980) (Stern's first game with multi-ball and speech) * ''Nine Ball'' (1980) * ''Freefall'' (1981) * ''Lightning'' (1981) * ''Split Second'' (1981) * ''Catacomb'' (1981) * ''Viper'' (1981) * ''Dragonfist'' (1982) * ''Iron Maiden'' (1982) (Unrelated to the Iron Maiden, British heavy metal band) * ''Orbitor 1'' (1982) (Featured a 3d-vacuum formed playfield with spinning rubber bumpers causing frenetic ball action; it was the company's last released game) * ''Cue'' (1982) (Six machines built) * ''Lazer Lord'' (1984) (One prototype built)

Stern Pinball

Arcade games manufactured by Stern

* ''Astro Invader'' (1980) (programmed by Konami) * '' Berzerk'' (1980) * ''The End'' (1980) (programmed by Konami) * ''Scramble (video game), Scramble'' (1981) (programmed by Konami) * ''Super Cobra'' (1981) (programmed by Konami) * ''Moon War'' (1981) * ''Turtles (video game), Turtles'' (1981) (programmed by Konami) * ''Strategy X'' (1981) (programmed by Konami) * ''Jungler'' (1981) (programmed by Konami) * ''Armored Car (video game), Armored Car'' (1981) * ''Amidar'' (1981) (programmed by Konami) * ''Frenzy (1982 video game), Frenzy'' (1982) * ''Tazz-Mania'' (1982) * ''Tutankham'' (1982) (programmed by Konami) * ''Pooyan'' (1982) (programmed by Konami) * ''Dark Planet'' (1982) (designed by Erick Erickson and Dan Langlois) * ''Rescue (1982 video game), Rescue'' (1982) * ''Calipso'' (1982) (developed by Stern, released by Tago Electronics) * ''Anteater (video game), Anteater'' (1982) (developed by Stern, released by Tago Electronics) * ''Mazer Blazer'' (1982) * ''Lost Tomb'' (1982) * ''Bagman (video game), Bagman'' (Le Bagnard) (1982) (programmed by Valadon Automation) * ''Pop Flamer'' (1982) (programmed by Jaleco) * ''Star Jacker'' (1983) (programmed by Sega) * ''Minefield'' (1983) * ''Cliff Hanger (video game), Cliff Hanger'' (1983) (laserdisc game using video footage from TMS Entertainment, TMS) * ''Great Guns'' (1984) * ''Goal to Go'' (1984) (laserdisc game) * ''Super Bagman'' (1984) (programmed by Valadon Automation)

References

External links

* {{official website, 1=http://www.sternpinball.com/, 2=Stern Pinball, Inc. official website
List of Stern Pinball Machines
at Kineticist Companies based in Chicago Companies based in Cook County, Illinois Pinball manufacturers Video game companies of the United States Elk Grove Village, Illinois Entertainment companies established in 1977 Video game companies established in 1977 Manufacturing companies established in 1977