Behind Stern Pinball’s new Transformers machine sits an increasingly complicated mix of mechanical engineering, software development, animation, lighting, audio, online connectivity and game balancing. Now we are making a pinball machine, a video game, and connecting it all over the internet. Comedy can work just as well, partly because a pinball game rarely allows a scene or piece of dialogue to play out without interruption. The Michael Bay films had already inspired Stern’s 2011 Transformers table, leaving the original cartoon era as the obvious choice. “The Bay movies had already been made into a pinball machine back in 2011, so that was out,” Lead Software Engineer Elizabeth Gieske said.