In 1979 the major motion picture release Meteor starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood was bombing at the box office but in the arcades, the pinball machine inspired by the film was a hit and become an early Solid-State classic.
Judith Martin of The Washington Post called it “your standard ‘My God — here it comes!’ job, for those that like that sort of thing.”
So the movie “Meteor” was so-so if not forgettable. Thankfully you’d never really associate the pinball machine with the movie other than some similarities to the movie poster. There is no Sean Connery or any other actors on the backglass or playfield. Most players never even make the connection to the now mostly forgotten film.
Both the movie poster and backglass highlight action in space but from different perspectives. The movie poster highlights the danger coming from outer space while the pinball machine highlights the solution coming from the earth.
Movie poster = helpless earth doomed to be destroyed by asteroids.
Pinball machine = you the player can save the earth by launching nukes at the meteor.
Unlike the universally panned sounds from the pinball machine, the movie Meteor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound.
Stern’s Meteor was released in 1979 during a transitional period for pinball. The electrical mechanical (EM) era was coming to an end as machines started to transition to Solid-State (SS) computerized machines.
In 1975, the first solid-state electronic pinball machine, the “Spirit of 76,” was released by Micro, but it took the industry leaders a few more years to transition from EM machines to SS machines, often in the mid to late 70s they would release two versions of a machine EM and SS as operators and players were starting to get used the SS machines and the digital sounds and displays.
Often these early SS machines would not be much different than the old EM machines in gameplay and layouts but by the end of the 70s, machines like Meteor started to really take advantage of the capabilities of computer chips with more elaborate rules and gameplay.
Meteor is prized as a classic Stern machine and considered one of the best of these 80s era machines. Designed by pinball tournament designer Steve Kirk, it has well-regarded, balanced game rules which make it a favorite even today for tournament play. 7,839 units of Meteor were manufactured in the US plus another 423 knockdown games that were sent to Australia to be sold by Leisure & Allied Industries, of Perth, Australia.
The Stern Electronics (1977–1985) is a different company than the Stern Pinball (1999+) of today. Back in the day, Stern was producing pinball machines and arcade machines like Bezerk. Modern Stern Pinball Inc. concentrates solely on pinball machines but back in the time Meteor was made, they were starting to focus more intently on arcade games as the arcade business was heading towards the end of it’s Golden Age in the mid-80s.
In 1979 Stern released six pinball machine titles. The following year they would release nine pinball machines and three arcade machines including their best know title Berzerk. But by 1982, pinballs’ popularity was overtaken by video games and they were basically out of the pinball business with the release of their final pinball game, the novelty Orbitor with it’s moon crater-like playfield.
Meteor
I got lucky on my Meteor purchase. I just happened to flip on Craigslist one Saturday morning and spotted the listing in Massachusetts. The condition looked good and the price was decent. I knew the game because my friend John has one and I knew there was an upgrade for it that improves in the sound and the gameplay.
So I jumped on it not knowing how I’d move it if I actually got it. The listing was only 38 minutes old so I shot the guy a note. Thankfully the seller Ted was a great guy and honored my first-place position as he had another guy show up for a Data East Jurassic Park pinball machine he was selling and tried to buy the Meteor also.
This guy was a “professional” with a stair-climbing dolly and a seventy-five machine collection. Thank you Ted for letting a small-time collector have a shot at a Meteor!
Meteor was in Milford, MA, near my friend John’s house so it was a quick trip over. It even fit in my CX-3 with just enough room to still be able to drive. The dolly didn’t fit so we had to go back for that.
The seller had been collecting arcade cabinets and pinball machines for a while and they were enjoyed by the kids in the neighborhood but now they are in college and into computer games so the pinball machines were not getting used.
Stern Meteor Restoration
Hard to believe Meteor has only been home for a week. Initially, I put the game in the garage and started to do some cleaning. Looks like the game was brought home, put into a game room above the garage and just played for 10+ years. It was rather dirty and dusty.
- Vacuumed out the cabinet
- Touched up some cabinet paint
- Cleaned and waxed the playfield
- Ordered a playfield protector
- Soaked a few rusty parts including the coin box in Evapo-Rust
- Tumbled a few metal parts
Note on Classic Stern quality – the metal parts do not polish to a nice shine like on Gottlieb machines. They obviously used a cheaper plating method.
Also, the clear coat on machines of this era is basically gone. Luckily mine wasn’t missing any paint but it is just a matter of time. Getting the playfield protector down will keep it protected without having to spray on a new clear coat.
Setting It Up Inside
With winter coming, I decided to move Meteor from the garage workshop to the inside game room. The disadvantage is not being able to work on it when my wife is working. But I won’t be doing any messy cabinet work on it, so it might be fine. And my son was visiting and helped with the setup.
Got it up on the legs, attached the head, and reconnected all of the connectors. The game fired up and was playable. A few light bulbs were out and two or three light sockets appear to need work or replacement.
The star rollovers at the top needed work. The switch connections were cleaned and adjusted. Fixed.
The displays all work all although player four has some issues. Some worn-out sections. The center ball count unit flashes – probably will need some solder joint or connector help. The ribbon cable feeding these displays takes a beating.
As is typical with a lot of old machines, the ground plug on the cord is missing. This will be addressed right away with a new replacement plug.
Solving the flickering LED problem
LEDs last longer, produce less heat and use less electricity than the classic incandescent light bulbs that originally came with pinball machines back in 1979.
You can swap out the incandescent lightbulbs with LEDs (colored or white) but you most likely will experience “ghosting” or flickering of the LEDs because just the smallest amount of energy escaping can trigger the LEDs.
One solution is to add a transistor to each light bulb socket or buy LEDs with transistors wired in. This may or may not work or will take an incredible amount of time to solder in transistors to every socket.
Luckily there is a low-cost solution – the Seigecraft Bally/Stern Flicker Eliminator for $45.
This upgrade installs easily in minutes, and contains 3 adapters that connect to the lamp driver board and enable your machine to work flicker free with LED bulbs. No need to replace your lamp driver board, no need to buy special LED bulbs, and no soldering required for the easy installation.
Compatible with all Classic Bally & Stern pinball machines that use Lamp Driver boards AS-2518-14, AS-2518-23, or LDA-100 (typically all machines from 1977-1985).
Another solution is to replace the light board altogether. There are two replacement lamp driver boards for early Bally/Stern solid-state pinball machines on the market – the Ultimate LED Lamp Driver Board from Alltek Systems https://allteksystems.com/products/ultimate-led-lamp-driver-board and the Bally – Stern* Lamp Driver Board with LED support from barakandl available here: https://nvram.weebly.com/bally-stern-ldb.html