Orbitor 1 is finally mine!

[Eddie]

I just won one of my dream machines on ebay will be arriving tomorrow.

I Was reading some reviews on it on the IPDB and check this out!


Orbitor is worth about three minutes of novelty. Like everyone else, when my friends and I first laid eyes on it we were wowed and had to play it right away. That quickly turned into head-scratching confusion, like maybe we just didn't "get it". By ball three it was clear that we did get it, and this is just one of the worst pins ever to get the green light for production.
This pin is so bad that when the three of us played omething else, the punishment for coming in last was to play a game of orbitor.

The flippers are almost unnecessary on this pin as the ball's movement is so erratic they'll help very little. When you're actually allowed a shot, where you shoot doesn't really matter. You just try to send it back up field. In a nutshell it has the depth of strategy of a pachinko machine.

The sounds are horrible. The ball in play sounds are similar to someone trying to tune in AM stations in the middle of nowhere. The synthesized speech is cute for a couple games and quickly grows annoying. "WHOA WHOA WHOA YOU ARE A VERY GOOD PLAYER." The worst is being in a room full of pins and having to hear this thing in the background all night.

I wouldn't be surprised if this pin requires very little maintenance. There's very few objects on the play field and none of them will be hit with any frequency. Likewise, the game will sit un-played the majority of the time, so there's that, too.

With novelty as its only saving grace, this is a pin for collectors only, not for players.


I guess he doesnt like Pachinkos either!

Anyway heres an old vid that I made of the machine when I saw it at the Pinball expo

YouTube - ‪Stern Orbitor 1‬‎

[pinball wizard]

i had one of those in my arcade back in 1984 .it was definately something different ,but after i had it for 2 weeks nobody played it anymore.i sold it because i couldn't have something taking up space and not make any money .it was fun while it lasted.it's too bad i couldn't have kept it.

[acesparky77]

I just won one of my dream machines on ebay will be arriving tomorrow.

I Was reading some reviews on it on the IPDB and check this out!


Orbitor is worth about three minutes of novelty. Like everyone else, when my friends and I first laid eyes on it we were wowed and had to play it right away. That quickly turned into head-scratching confusion, like maybe we just didn't "get it". By ball three it was clear that we did get it, and this is just one of the worst pins ever to get the green light for production.
This pin is so bad that when the three of us played omething else, the punishment for coming in last was to play a game of orbitor.

The flippers are almost unnecessary on this pin as the ball's movement is so erratic they'll help very little. When you're actually allowed a shot, where you shoot doesn't really matter. You just try to send it back up field. In a nutshell it has the depth of strategy of a pachinko machine.

The sounds are horrible. The ball in play sounds are similar to someone trying to tune in AM stations in the middle of nowhere. The synthesized speech is cute for a couple games and quickly grows annoying. "WHOA WHOA WHOA YOU ARE A VERY GOOD PLAYER." The worst is being in a room full of pins and having to hear this thing in the background all night.

I wouldn't be surprised if this pin requires very little maintenance. There's very few objects on the play field and none of them will be hit with any frequency. Likewise, the game will sit un-played the majority of the time, so there's that, too.

With novelty as its only saving grace, this is a pin for collectors only, not for players.


I guess he doesnt like Pachinkos either!

Anyway heres an old vid that I made of the machine when I saw it at the Pinball expo

YouTube - ‪Stern Orbitor 1‬‎

It's definitely a unique game. I can see where the guy rating it on the IPDB is coming from... To me, the erratic ball movements get old fast, and the "never ending" last ball is annoying (although you can now get a new ROM that stops the minimum ball in play time, on the final ball).

There's been one at Expo for the last couple of years, and I've put in a fair amount of time on it. My 8 year old son really likes the gameplay a lot, but I can't play more than a few games beofre I'm ready to move on.

All that being said, congrats on finally finding one. It's about what YOU like, not anyone else. I know how true that is, as alot of the pins I've collected over the years, are not A-list games to most people...but I've loved them all (well, maybe not a couple )

What other pins do you have? Currently, my pin line-up is as follows: Bram Stoker's Dracula, Airborne, Mystery Castle, Jolly Park, and Mephisto.

[candyflip]

I played this game back in the day.

One game was enough! totally frustrating!!!

[rubberratt]

GRATZ Enjoy it Eddie, I Love mine

[mr. fixx]

The Orbitor 1 at the expo was bought by my friend. As such, I got to play quite a few games of it. I somewhat agree with the reviewers about the game. The flippers almost do seem almost un-needed at times. The game is quite random at that. However, the "Novelty" didnt wear off so quickly for me. In fact, I still enjoy playing it when I can. Overall I think its a good choice for a pin.

Fixx..

[takethecastle57]

It is one of Gary Sterns challenging Pins before he sold the shop in the early 80's . Since then he bought the shop back and is Still producing some of the Great pinballs in the World today . I have played that pin and it it is a tough one to wrap your brain around and at the Pacific Pinball Expo 2009 there were people Waiting to Play it .

[acesparky77]

It is one of Gary Sterns challenging Pins before he sold the shop in the early 80's . Since then he bought the shop back and is Still producing some of the Great pinballs in the World today . I have played that pin and it it is a tough one to wrap your brain around and at the Pacific Pinball Expo 2009 there were people Waiting to Play it .

Well, that's sort of correct. Actually, Stern Electronics folded in 1984. They didn't sell, they completely went out of business.

Fast forward 2 years to 1986. Gary Stern wanted to try again...so he, Shelley Sax, and Joe Kaminkow started up Data East Pinball with financial backing from Data East of Japan.

In 1994, Data East Pinball was sold to Sega, and therefore became Sega Pinball. In 1999, Gary bought the company from Sega, and it became what we now know today as Stern Pinball...

[beachcat]