Mark sent us a link to a story that is simply too horrible to contemplate. In this day and age of economic trouble, where businesses are falling apart and the bottom line is falling out from underneath us all, certain things suffer.

RetroBlast.com has a post saying that Stern Pinball has laid off many of it’s line workers and a few designers as well. I guess with money being tight, the rich collectors and celebrities who buy their tables just had to make some cuts to their budget.

Stern Pinball is near and dear to our hearts here at Robot Panic and you can find a story we did on them here. Suffice it to say that Stern is the last bastion of true pinball in the world and that it’s loss would truly mean the end of pinball as we know it. And I mean the end.

My hope is that the company can see it’s way through this crisis. They’ve done it before when the videogame market crashed back in the 80′s. With plenty of market savy, Stern rose from those ashes. So let’s hope they can hang on.

You can find the story in it’s original form here.

We’ve posted a few articles here on Robot Panic that should give you all an indication that we’re big fans of pinball. From the Midwest Gaming Classic to awesome arcades like SS Billiards, our lives are blessedly filled with avenues in which to play them. Which makes it all the more sad when you notice just how few new pinball experiences there are these days. Sure, the classic games still hold all their power but it certainly is nice to get a new board to play on every once and awhile.

Those that continue to have an obsessive love for pinball all know that there still is one company (and I mean that. Only ONE) still holding the torch aloft. Despite the glory days of pinball going the way of the dinosaur, one company is still giving fans of the silver ball something to look forward to every year. And that company is Stern Pinball.
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The arcade, my friends, is not dead. A bold statement, considering the condition of arcades in places such as GameWorks or Dave & Busters. While those complexes may appear to be arcades, the corporate stench permeates them and the entertainment provided inside is more akin to a roller coaster ride than the arcades of our youth. The truth is, however, those neon lit rooms that rang with the sound of flipper hitting metal ball still exist. They are havens for those needing to spend a few precious minutes or hours dropping quarters into coin slots and challenging physics. They are rare, they are prized and they are sadly known only to a few.

Hiding away in a strip mall in the Minnesota suburb of Hopkins, SS Billiard is just such a place. It’s a room that is almost frozen in time. I had the privilege of visiting SS Billiards for the first time last week and the moment I stepped through the door, it was as if I were back in the arcades I loved as a kid. Pinball machines lined the walls from various generations. There were old favorites that I loved, such as The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone. New Stern pinball games such as The Dark Knight, Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings stood as the last men standing; champions of a classic genre too long beaten yet still fighting. Even some classic machines such as Eight Ball Deluxe and the rare Capcom machine, Big Bang Bar, were in attendance. Each stood, tempting with classic lights and sounds and the elegant beauty of a wooden surface worn from years of play. While there were a few video games in attendance, they felt strangely out of place in this pinball mecca. It’s as if SS Billiards has one love and video games are simply a token gesture, as if to harken back to the 80′s but not to relive them.
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