Vaults, Flippers, and the Fat Man. Stern Pinball's Fallout Machine at PAX West

 

I was not expecting to find pinball machines at a PAX, at least not outside the usual retro arcade section. But there it was, a fully realized Stern booth with front and center the new Fallout pinball table. Making its debut to the public on the PAX show floor. Stern brought several other of their recent machines along for the ride, including their Pokémon and Transformers tables, but the Fallout machine was the clear star. We met up with Andrew Wilkening, a software developer with Stern,  to talk shop and try out these fantastic machines. We came away genuinely impressed, both by the machine itself and by just how sophisticated modern pinball has become.

Welcome to the Wasteland

Stern Pinball's Fallout machine is, to put it plainly, packed to the brim with features. It draws from both Bethesda's beloved video game series and Amazon Prime's hit TV show, a collaboration that involved direct input from show producers at Kilter Films, including executive producer Jonathan Nolan, and video game creators at Bethesda Game Studios, including director and executive producer Todd Howard,. Custom callouts were recorded by Johnny Pemberton, who plays Thaddeus in the series, and the soundtrack pulls those iconic pre-war tracks straight from Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout: New Vegas. 

"We've thrown in the kitchen sink too. There's everything in here, a vault door that leads to the lower playfield, the Fat Man, a shooting gallery, tons of cool music straight from the pre-war era of Fallout."

The physical features are remarkable. The Premium model (retailing at $10,699) includes a working vault door, a mechanical element that opens to reveal a lower playfield, complete with a Magna-Flip magnet system for ball control. The Fat Man launcher feeds the ball through a Pip-Boy display up to an upper playfield shooting gallery where you can take out Rad Scorpions, Raiders, and Ghouls. There's a sculpted Deathclaw bash toy with a kickback coil. The spinning Nuka-Cola cap in the center doubles as a skill shot timer. And a fully interactive Pip-Boy LCD, displays real-time gameplay information throughout.

The Pro model starts at $7,299 and is a more streamlined experience: no moving vault door, no lower playfield, no Fat Man. But Andrew was clear that the Pro still delivers the majority of the Fallout game experience, and for operators placing machines in bars and arcades, fewer mechanical components means less to maintain and a faster path to profitability. A Limited Edition model is also available at $13,999, featuring custom Vault-Tec yellow powder-coated hardware and additional cabinet lighting.

The Software Is the Soul

During our conversation with Andrew it became clear how central the software team has become to the modern pinball experience. Pinball isn't just a mechanical experience anymore, it's a full designed game with modes, progression systems, narrative structure, and now even live data collection.

"The mechanical is the heart of pinball, but it can't happen without the sounds, without the lights, and without the points. Everybody wants to see that number just go up and up and up, faster and faster."

The Fallout table translates familiar RPG mechanics into pinball language. There's a SPECIAL perk system, a shop where you spend Nuka-Cola caps (and can even attempt to steal from the Mr. Handy vendor if you're feeling lucky), a radiation health bar, Stimpacks, and modes structured around the show's three playable character perspectives: Lucy MacLean, The Ghoul, and Maximus. Each character unlocks a unique set of side modes and story features. It's genuinely impressive how much Fallout vocabulary has been mapped onto what is, fundamentally, a ball and a set of flippers.

The design process has been collaborative and iterative over a long runway. Andrew noted that software development typically begins six months before launch, while the mechanical team has been working for 18 months or more. And nothing is final until it's been played, extensively. The Fat Man launcher, he revealed, was originally positioned on the opposite side of the playfield before playtesting made it obvious the whole layout needed to mirror.

"Sometimes the physical thing just isn't fun, and software, we can be adaptable and change on the fly. But if something physically isn't fun, you've got a bigger problem."

The Insider Connection, pinball online.

The evolution of software in pinball machines has moved pinball into an more personal connected experience as well. Stern Pinball machines now have an online connection, and they're doing things with it that go well beyond score tracking. The Insider Connected App aggregates anonymous play data, which modes players engage with, which targets get hit most, which mechanics go ignored, and the software team uses all of it to inform post-launch updates.

"We can put in the basic vision of the game and get it out in front of people, and see how the world interacts with it. If this weird thing is happening to 10% of players that we never saw in-house, we have a chance to adapt to that."

For Fallout specifically, Insider Connected adds a junk collection system. As you play, you unlock in-game collectibles tied to the Fallout universe, bowling pins, baseball caps, and 64 total pieces of junk, that populate a personal inventory in the app and you can take them with you for when you play next time, even if it is at a different location. There are also Fallout 4 comic book issues to collect across ten editions. It's a layer of engagement that extends well beyond the machine itself, turning individual play sessions into part of a broader collecting meta. You don't have to engage with any of it if you don't want to, but it's there for the dedicated players who want to go beyond a quick game of pinball.

The Pinball Revival

I couldn't resist asking Andrew about the pinball renaissance that's been quietly happening over the past few years. Arcade bars are stocking more machines, home ownership of pinball tables has increased, and companies like Stern are clearly doing well. What drove this growth in the past few years?

"Covid changed the game with pinball a little. Operators started being clever and renting out games. Everyone needed a game in their home, and then you want another one."

It's a compelling theory. The pandemic created demand for home entertainment in many forms and it seems that operators capitalized on through rentals, which in turn introduced a whole new audience to the idea of owning a pinball machine. Stern has leaned into this with their home edition line, currently available through Costco, with Pokémon joining Star Wars as the marquee home edition titles at around $5,000 MSRP. These machines are full-size, same ball, same playfield, with some of the pricier mechanical elements swapped out for more economical alternatives to hit a lower price point. Though not cheap by any means, they are definitely more affordable then their premium counterparts. 

Playing the Wasteland

We did get our hands on the machine, And even if I am not a pinball wizard ( despite having played on and off for decades), the Fallout table is the kind of machine that makes even a casual player feel like something exciting is always happening. The synchronized music and video, the Vault Door creaking open, the Mr. Handy shop appearing mid-game, the thrill of successfully stealing from the vendor, the machine is packed with "moments" that keeps you engaged even when your ball skills leave something to be desired.  Andrew's personal favorite? The vault door, without hesitation.

"The first time I saw it, I was like, he's not going to make that work, is he? And then there it was, opening and closing. It's surreal."

Where to Find One

The Fallout pinball machine is available now in Pro ($7,299), Premium ($10,699), and Limited Edition ($13,999) models. Head to sternpinball.com to find a distributor near you, most have showrooms where you can play before you commit. And if you just want to experience it casually, keep an eye on your local arcade bars. Based on the buzz at PAX, this machine is going to be finding its way into a lot of venues very quickly.

After the interview, we also stopped by the other two machines on the floor, Pokemon and Transformers, They might have been a little overshadowed by Fallout, but are fantastic machines in their own right and also packed with amazing features. If you want to see more of that, then  you we invite you to watch the full interview and gameplay video below for more from our time with Andrew and the Stern Pinball team at PAX.