Random Thoughts & Pictures
This machine didn't actually belong to me. But I like making webpages, so here it is. A friend of mine put this Stern Stars in my gameroom because he was temporarily out of space in his own gameroom. The game arrived on March 29, 2019 and departed on April 22, 2022.
This was my first up-close experience with a classic Stern. But all the game's inner workings looked familiar to me because Stern had mostly cloned Bally's contemporary architecture. In fact, the game had a Bally solenoid driver board and Bally six digit displays. There was also an Alltek MPU board. Only the credit display, the lamp driver board and the rectifier board were original Stern parts. Stars still had mechanical chimes which was one of my favorite features.
A hodgepodge of Stern, Bally and Alltek boards.
The cosmetic highlight of this game was the playfield. For some reason there were there distinct wear marks at the bonus ladder, but the rest of the playfield looked great. The backglass was flaked, but it was a fine evenly distributed sort of flaking. Instead of big cracks and missing chunks, the glass had more of a worn thin look to it. Stars was a great artistic example of a mirrored backglass. The cabinet was okay with some scratches, patched corners and a partially repainted head that wasn't quite the same shade of blue. The inside of the cabinet looked like it had absorbed quite a few beverages over the decades.
Under the playfield.
Chime unit. Neat!
Promotional flyer. Click image for larger picture.