Subject: Re: Williams has no (pin)BALLS! GO SEGA GO!
From: [email-masked] (JonHey)
Date: 05 Oct 1999 06:00:21 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

Last Updated: Monday, October 4, 1999 -- 11AM

SEGA PINBALL BECOMES STERN PINBALL!

(posted on Monday, October 4, 1999 -- 11AM)

In a move that resonates with pinball history, Sega Pinball President Gary
Stern (through a corporate entity) has purchased the Melrose Park, Ill.,
pinball factory that he runs from Sega Enterprises and will rename the company
Stern Pinball Inc. Future products will bear the Stern name, while current Sega
Pinball games will continue to carry the Sega name pursuant to a short-term
license agreement. Stern Pinball will continue to make pinball and redemption
games and to manufacture under contract coin-op video games for Sega. "Although
pinball remains an important part of the coin-op business, pinball is not a
core business for Sega," said Al Stone, president of Sega Enterprises USA. "We
are sure that Gary and his staff will continue the success they have been
bringing to pinball with the last models." 

"We have appreciated the years we have been a unit of Sega," said Gary. "We
will continue in our development of and commitment to Mechanical Action
Pinball. I have grown up in the pinball business. I am thrilled with this
opportunity to continue plying the trade my father taught me." Gary Stern,
along with his late father (and pinball scion) Sam Stern, first opened Stern
Electronics around 1978 after purchasing the former coin-op factory Chicago
Dynamic Industries (Chi’ Coin). They made pinball machines and other coin-op
equipment, including a jukebox at one time. The company was later sold to Data
East and then to Sega, although Gary has remained at the helm since the
company’s founding. Through those years, private investors in the factory have
also included coin-op luminaries like Al Simon and Marty Bromley.
Congratulations, Gary, we wish you well as one of the true keepers of the
pinball flame!

Previous Instant RePlay Items (including AMOA/Fun Expo show coverage)

...for on-line news, check the pages from News Digest, Hot Off the Press, etc.
at our site, accessible through the Current Issue page. Watch this page for
news postings on a frequent and regular basis in between magazine editions.

© All contents of this page and the entire RePlay Magazine website at
http://www.replaymag.com and http://www.replaymagazine.com Copyright 1999
RePlay Magazine. All rights reserved.