Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies: Stern Electronics, Inc. and Stern Pinball, Inc.

Stern Electronics' history dates back 1946, when Harry E. Williams founded Williams Electronics. Sam Stern was a Philadelphia area distributor and operator who purchased half of Williams Electronics in the early 1950s. He served as president of Williams Electronics for several years. Stern Electronics was formed when the Stern family bought the financially-troubled Chicago Coin in 1977.

The first two games made by Stern were Stampede and Rawhide, both originally made by Chicago Coin only had changes made to their branding and logos. After a weak start, Stern Electronics' sales started picking up by the end of 1977. By 1978 they had switched over to fully solid state electronics for their games. Although not as successful as rivals Williams and Bally (Gottlieb had been purchased in 1977 by Columbia Pictures but was still a formidable competitor as well), Stern managed to produce its share of moderately successful pinballs as well. Also, in 1979, Stern acquired jukebox maker Seeburg Corporation, and the company became known as Stern / Seeburg. Coincidentally, Seeburg also owned Williams in the 60s, when Sam Stern was its president.

George Gomez is an industrial designer, video game designer, and pinball designer who has worked for Bally, Williams, and Stern Pinball, among other companies. He worked on the team that created the Tron video game, and headed the team that created Spy Hunter. In 1984 after the 1983 video game crash, he left Midway to invent toys at the consulting firm Marvin Glass & Associates. After Glass he worked on numerous projects through the contract manufacturer Grand products, including the Battletech Centers and several Sega video games of the late 80's. In '93 he went to Williams Electronics and designed several pinball machines including Monster Bash and was one of the lead developers of the revolutionary Pinball 2000 system. As a consultant he designed several games for STERN pinball including The Lord of the Rings, and Batman. Along with his recent work in pinball, he was also one of key designers of the street basketball video game series NBA Ballers for Midway. Gomez enters his latest endeavor with a "second chance" to save pinball becoming the VP of game development at Stern Pinball on July 12th, 2011.