Stern’s AC/DC Premium, released in 2012 and designed by Steve Ritchie, takes the Master of Flow’s thunderous rock tribute and loads it with the showpiece toys that fans covet. Where the Pro keeps things lean, the Premium adds a lower mini-playfield, a rotating ball cannon, and the full mechanical spectacle — a swinging bell with a mounted pinball, a TNT detonator with a moving handle, and moving band members — all backed by a setlist of AC/DC’s biggest hits.
The scoring is a deep jukebox of strategy. Every multiball — Tour, Jam, and Album — is launched off the right ramp, while the cannon lets you aim at the bell or the AC/DC targets, and the “Hell”-titled songs drop the ball down to that lower mini-playfield for special scoring. Treating the bell as a points engine, shooting it to ignite stacked 2X and 3X windows, is the route to a big game, and disciplined players ride “Hells Bells,” alternating the bell with everything else.
There’s depth everywhere, from the Devil’s Horns shot sequence to combo-counting that lights extra balls, to inlane and outlane multipliers that double your shots and bonus. The super skill shot — plunge and hold the right flipper to swing the ball to any of the five major shots — rewards a player in command. Loud, lavish, and bursting with rock spectacle, the AC/DC Premium is the fullest expression of Ritchie’s tribute — a machine that turns the playfield into a stadium concert. Let there be rock.