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Best Pinball Machine

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
As a teenager in the 70's I spent a fair bit of time in amusement arcades playing pinball machines. This is one of a handful I can recall and that I liked.

Bally - Fireball
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Wow! Great topic. Here are my Top 5:

1. Star Trek, The Next Generation
2. Cyclone
3. Fun House
4. Gorgar (I won my dorm's pinball contest on this machine in 1981)
5. Doctor Who, Master of Time

Honorable Mentions: Cueball Wizard, Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Eight Ball Deluxe, Jacks Open
 
Indeed! Wish I had one. "Hey Buddy, quit playing with the clock!"

My other top one would be "The Machine: Bride of Pinbot" for coming of age reasons. hahaha

"I thought we were pals."

"Bride" is a great game, too! Hysterically funny. Bride: "Now I can talk." Pinbot: "Oh, no."
 
My wife was in a pinball league when I started dating her. So my first serious gift to her after I had moved in was her favorite pin: The Twilight Zone (first generation). That was 20+ years ago, and we still play it frequently.

I have done some mods on it, but have kept it up pretty well.

I also love Simpsons Pinball Party, South Park, and Scared Stiff. And for newer pins, The Munsters and Guardians of the Galaxy.

And we are lucky to have a arcade that is nothing but about 40 pins in it about half an hour from us. Hoping it will be open and safe to go to soon!
 

Legion

Staff member
KISS was my favourite when I was a kid.

More recently I have enjoyed this one. Fish Tales.

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Wow! Great topic. Here are my Top 5:

1. Star Trek, The Next Generation
2. Cyclone
3. Fun House
4. Gorgar (I won my dorm's pinball contest on this machine in 1981)
5. Doctor Who, Master of Time

Honorable Mentions: Cueball Wizard, Terminator 2 Judgement Day, Eight Ball Deluxe, Jacks Open


I love Cyclone. The bar I worked at years ago had it. "Hey you with the face!"
 
WIZARD was my favorite all time from the mid 70's... you could really bump the machine and play a long time.
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Another good classic! "Will you fight the Black Knight again?"

An old friend had that back in the late 80s. We had a blast with that game!
 
Always loved pinball, was never particularly good but I'd like to have one in my house. I can see how much they are to buy but how much do they cost to maintain? If bought new or professionally rebuilt, is there much cost in maintenance? Do things break often?

Also, the newer tables have so much going on. Does anything think they're too busy, taking away from the game itself, or does all the extra and complicated stuff really make it better?
 
If you buy it "shopped" (pinball term for restored), and it's TRULY shopped (some places SAY it is, but it is just cleaned up), your maintenance should be very little. Especially if you can do some of the work yourself.

I have owned my TZ for a good 22 years, and I would say I have spent less then $500 on it in that whole time... only using a pinball repair guy twice, with the lions share of the work being done by myself. If you can solder and de-solder, you are good to go!

The bulk of the money is going to be in the initial purchase. It can be upward of $10,000 depending on the popularity and rarity of the pin.
 
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