GONK GONK

(screaming and eating sounds)

Welcome back to Classic Game Room for the show’s surprise 27th year here in 2026. I wasn’t expecting this either, but I can think of worse things to do on a Friday afternoon than drink a beer and play Star Wars: Fall of the Empire Pinball.

So join me for the first new game review in quite some time as we discover how Lando this Star Wars machine is. And by the way, it’s very Lando.

So Lando's right there front and center with the cape and everything. I’m the administrator of this pinball machine along with Boba Fett, the Sarlacc pit… it’s got Leia on there twice, which is nice. No bikini layer though. Falcon, AT-AT, Snow Monster, Imperial Probe Droid surrounded by fire, it’s a beautiful art design. Loving it. Can I offer you a refreshment? Yes.

You know it’s gotta be good if it’s got a disco ball.

Hey Doug… it’s my favorite Godzilla machine.

Back in action and bringing all the professionalism you’ve come to expect from Classic Game Room over the years, celebrating Star Wars and 27 years of Classic Game Room this year. It’s the Star Wars: Fall of the Empire Pinball Machine review, the premium edition from Stern, playing it here at Vellum Fermentation in Pittsburgh.

And this game is operated by my friend Doug from Pittsburgh Pinball.

Hey Doug, can I just pop the Millennium Falcon off of here and take it with me?

…Just a second…
…I can’t take it?
No? It’s a really good bottle though…
That’s why... can’t I have it?
What if I get a high score?

I’m here with Doug from Pittsburgh Pinball, who’s hooking me up with some glass of play today so I can put the camera into the playfield, which is a lot of fun.

So how you doing, Doug?
Doing good, how have you been?
Busy, but good.

What’s the hottest pinball machine right now?

The hottest pinball machine? You’re looking at it. Fall of the Empire.

Okay… does this do better than Pokémon?
It does not.

This is like when I found out they made a Jar Jar comic book and I’m like, it’s not selling, right? And they’re like, actually it sold really well—it’s the best comic book selling of all time. Well… hopefully not that.

Got one camera here. Start this one. OK. Got a beer here. Cheers.

To Lando.

Honestly, the rest of you can just be eaten by the Sarlacc.

The Schwartz is strong with this game, beautiful art design, great music of course, and I like this Star Wars game more than Stern’s 2017 release. It’s somewhat similar, but better. It makes more sense, the layout is better, the cutscenes are incredible, and the whole flow of the game is just fun.

Whether you’re good at pinball or terrible at pinball, like me, you can get into this game. You don’t even need to be a Jedi… but it helps.

And when it comes to playing pinball with a beer in my hand, I am a Jedi Master.

Given the state of the world, maybe we’d all like a good pinball machine review. That’s not a very good review... but still fun to watch.

Do please hurry…

That’s like the whole review, the rest of this is just going to be nonsense.

And yes, this game features a Jedi Ball save. If you can’t have fun with that, then you kinda suck. Did not save my balls that time.

My balls have been lost forever.

That's what it takes to produce a stupid show like this.

Doesn’t this game look like fun? It is fun.

Basically you just hit the shots over and over and over again, start missions, get the multi-ball by locking the ball either in the Death Star or over on the left. Doing something activates the Jedi Ball Save, which is like a magnetic Jedi Force power that locks the ball in place and then flings it out if you hit it just right with the action button.

Cheers.

As I’ve always said, if the show was fun, I could continue it in some fashion. As long as it wasn’t bleeding money and it was still fun, I could continue it.

Thanks to those of you who are taking the challenge and watching this on ClassicGameRoom.com using your Sega Saturn NetLink.

This game has hyperspace, just smack the ball up that center ramp and send it hurling through hyperspace back in time to 1977 when Star Wars was new and short-form video content didn’t exist… because people still had brain cells.

Now if you look closely, sharp eyes might notice a few things missing from this game, namely most of the Star Wars nonsense that sucks.

So instead of Jar Jar Binks and all the goofy stuff from the Disney Plus shows, we get AT-ATs, Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, and the original John Williams Star Wars music.

If you can quote every line from the original Star Wars trilogy before they bastardized it and you like pinball, then you’ll love Star Wars: Fall of the Empire. This is the pinball machine I’m looking for.

As usual for a Classic Game Room review, the pinball footage in this video is terrible because I’m doing like six things at once, but it is possible to get a great game once you feel the Force flow and just smack that multi-ball over and over again.

Now this is the Pro machine, but look what I did…

High School Wooo!

Has anyone ever tried to drag a GoPro through hyperspace?

You can’t tell me with certainty that you know what’s in hyperspace. You don’t know.

So it’s on. Everyone see that? We’re not making this up. This is focus.

There we go. So we are going to take this cheap off-brand GoPro and put it through hyperspace.

Using science for the first time—see what’s in hyperspace.

Alright, you ready? Here we go. It’s your machine, Doug. If someone’s going to break it, it should be you.

Oh… it’s going through… I think it’s gonna get stuck…

Oh, shit.

Now I think I’ve got the camera stuck in your game.

Now I’ve done it.

For the first time, we are looking inside hyperspace.

There’s a cheap off-brand GoPro in hyperspace.

Wait… you didn’t tell me this thing came apart. I didn’t have to stick a camera back here—it could have just gone from there.

But look—that’s what’s in hyperspace.

And there’s the camera. Am I going to electrocute myself if I put my hand in here? I can’t reach the camera—it’s stuck in there forever now.

I’m sorry. I think we have permanently damaged Doug’s $20,000 pinball machine.

My bad.

You know what? I’m going to leave.

See you later.

It lives! This is like Event Horizon—just imagine what this thing has seen.

That would be amazing.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and play some Star Wars pinball.

And thanks to everyone who stopped scrolling through A.I. slop long enough to watch a brand new Classic Game Room video on an old-fashioned website using your Sega Saturn NetLink.

You rhuman body... you weren't fast enough.

So I’ve just completed the Star Wars: Fall of the Empire pinball machine review and I want to give a big thank you to Doug from Pittsburgh Pinball and to Vellum for letting me film here.

Doug, where can people find your games?

We are all over the place. There’s an app called Pinball Map—check that out. It’ll show you wherever you live where the pinball machines are around you.

We’re in Pittsburgh. Doug runs machines at Coupe de Ville, Shorty’s North Shore, Phoenix Theaters, and here at Vellum. Lots of locations.

Down at Shorty’s waterfront location—what do we have? X-Men, Venom, Ninja Turtles, Jersey Jack, Guns N’ Roses, 007… lots of good ones.

A lot of people ask what happened to the old machines. They’re still around—just tougher to keep running. These things are 40–50 years old.

They break down more often, but we rotate them out and mix them in so people can try different things.

That’s what makes pinball great it’s a real, physical experience. You can’t replicate it on your phone.

See? After 27 years, you finally learned something on Classic Game Room.

It’s been 27 years.

Classic Game Room. Classic Game Force. EDF was great… but I like classic games force.

Can’t we all agree that Predator is better than Pokémon?

Would you rather watch a bunch of cute bouncing animals… or Jesse Ventura blow everything up with a minigun?

I mean—it’s not really a choice for me.

This is what we talk about.