Stern Pinball
 |
 Stern Pinball's Current Logo | |
| Stern Pinball | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing: 1986 - current | |
| Manufacturing Under Current Name: 1999 - current | |
| Titles 42 |
A Brief History of Data East/Sega/Stern Pinball
Data East was formed in 1976 as a company that designed a system to allow arcade operators to easily switch their games by utilizing magnetic tapes. They began publishing arcade games in 1978 and were very successful. The Data East pinball division was formed in 1985. Although Data East pinball was led by Gary Stern and employed many former Stern employees it was an independently formed division and was never a part of Stern Electronics.
The first pinball machine released under the Data East name was Laser War in March 1987. Although Data East hardware is very derivative of Williams System 11 they pioneered some technologies such as the dot matrix display, solid state flipper, and stereo sound. The prototype Laser War was produced using parts from a Williams' Road Kings. Some early software for Data East pinballs was written by Incredible Technologies, best known for producing Golden Tee Golf.
Machines were manufactured under the Data East name until late 1995. Sega Electronics bought Data East pinball and released its first game, Apollo 13, in October 1995. (While Maverick, the previous game, was produced with the Sega name, it was intended to be a Data East release.) Sega continued to manufacture machines for several years until Gary Stern repurchased the pinball division of Sega and formed Stern Pinball in the fall of 1999.