The IAAPA organzes several tradeshows and EAS is one of them. This year’s edition is held in Amsterdam. The show is mainly about stuff for amusement parcs, varying from inflatable objects, to water slides and what else you can think off. Gamecastle International was present with a large booth in which three of the latest Stern pinball machines were presented: Iron Man Vault Edition, Star Trek Pro and Stern’s newest: The Walking Dead Pro. Since this is the first public showing of the game, Pinball Magazine editor Jonathan Joosten headed to the show to capture some long awaited video footage:

Here’s a link to a video of Gary Stern playing two quick games on The Walking Dead:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152755394004171

 

Besides playing The Walking Dead, which is a very fast and fun game even with early software code, Jonathan also talked to both Gary Stern and Stern investor Dave Peterson. Dave had some interesting news. Since nothing was recorded, here are the highlights as Jonathan recalls them:

  • Stern has leased a new building in Elk Grove Village. They were originally looking to buy a new location, but ended up leasing as that turned out to be financially more interesting.
  • In their search Stern has looked at least at 100 vacant buildings within a two mile radius from their current location on Janice Street. Apparently there’s a lot of property available in that area.
  • Almost every State lobbied to get Stern to move their facility and labor from Illinois to their State. For now Stern stays in Illinois, but that may still change a couple of years from now if the conditions on other States are better than in Illinois.
  • The moving of the factory is scheduled for February 2015. The plan is to move the entire factory in 10 days, including two weekends, so only one working week will be ‘lost’.
  • The new facility is a lot larger than the current factory. Stern had already hired a second location to store some of their inventory as there was no room in the current factory.
  • In the new facility Stern is planning to build 4 assembly lines, including one for The Pin.

Last, but not least, Gary and Dave both posed with Santiago Ciuffo’s PINBALL book, of which Gary is a big fan.

Gary Stern with Santiago Ciuffos Pinball book small

Gary Stern with Santiago Ciuffo’s PINBALL book next to The Walking Dead pinball

Sternn investor dave Peterson shows Santiago Ciuffo's PINBALL book next to The Walking Dead pinball machine

Sternn investor dave Peterson shows Santiago Ciuffo’s PINBALL book next to The Walking Dead pinball machine