Spooky

The silverball game lured me in 1986 and hasn’t let go since!

Have you ever stopped to think what you love most about the hobby you are really into? I must admit, I have never done that, but upon reflection, when I think about why I love pinball, it is of course the fun that it generates – there is nothing like flipping that shiny silverball into targets on the playfield, and the adrenaline rush you get when multi-ball kicks in – there is nothing quite like it! I have also loved (and still do) the pinball machine aesthetic – it is a work of art even when it sits there begging to be played. Equally, it is the people that you meet that have a mutual love for the same hobby you are into – I have made countless friends due to pinball, which makes it darn priceless to me. Oh yeah, the competition to get a high-score is another boon for pinball, but being a mediocre player, I tend to enjoy the socialising side of competition/tournament play.

Part of being into pinball is the ever difficult question of, “what are your favourite pinball games?”. This question is difficult as there are hundreds of games I enjoy on any given day, and with new releases coming out every year, it makes it even harder to pinpoint a favourite pinball machine.

As difficult as it is, I did promise Colin (Kineticist) that I would wrangle a top 5 list of games I really enjoy coming back to.

Here are my current top 5 pinball machines (which can change on whim!):

5. Star Trek LE (Stern)

As a Trekkie fan, I loved Steve Ritchie’s The Next Generation (Williams) widebody pinball machine, but with it becoming harder to find and play, it was Steve’s second bite at the Trek cherry with his 2013 Stern incarnation. The LE in particular was a stunning piece of art and more importantly, an absolute banger of a game. They don’t call Steve The Master of Flow for nothing!

4. Star Wars Premium (Stern)

Yep, another Steve Ritchie pinball game – do you see a pattern here? Star Wars (Prem/LE) isn’t particularly a flow-fest, and some don’t like it due to it being a drain monster, but the integration with the original movie trilogy with all of your fave scenes and characters are all there. The lightsaber battle with Vader, where all the playfield RGBs glow red (Vader) and blue (Obi-Wan) always get the heart racing. Oh yeah, I still reckon the hyperloop habitrail is still one of the best mechs in modern-day pinball (and hence why I only prefer the Prem/LE edition of this game)!

3. Dialed In (JJP)

Original themes aren’t as popular as back in the day (look at our number 2 fave game below!), but I still think Jersey Jack Pinball’s Dialed In is an amazing machine to play. Designed by the legendary, Pat Lawlor, this machine is full of innovations that (at the time) were well ahead of the competition, from the first-ever pinball machine to feature Bluetooth connectivity, a camera, to the additional player capabilities through a smart phone – which you could wreak havoc on your friends by taking control of the flippers with your mobile phone! I honestly still don’t get the theme (is it a city disaster you must avert), but I don’t care, Dialed In is one superlative pinball machine.

2. Medieval Madness (Williams)

I could have easily loaded this top 5 list with Brian Eddy games, from Medieval Madness, to Attack From Mars, The Shadow, Stranger Things and The Mandalorian, but that would constitute cheating.

When combining Brian Eddy’s design with the late (and great) Lyman F. Sheats Jr.’s coding prowess, you know you have a special pinball game. Brian and Lyman also worked on Attack From Mars, so you understand why these two machines in particular are still in many player’s top 5 lists. Medieval Madness has it all – an amazing flowing game with plenty to do and hit, some very cheesy dialogue and that amazing feeling you get when destroying the castle. Each shot on MM has purpose and doesn’t seem like a waste or like you are chopping wood, which is quite hard to say for many other pinball games.

1. The Walking Dead Pro (Stern)

TWD is Lyman F. Sheats Jr. magnum opus. The John Borg designed machine integrates the TWD theme quite well, with a unique look and feel playfield straight out of the first few seasons of the hit AMC series. But it is Lyman’s code that brings this beast to life – TWD is so deep, you probably need to own it for years and years before you get to see and experience every bit of Lyman’s amazing code. The machine isn’t the easiest to play (plenty of ways to drain), but it is balanced just right to keep you coming back to slay more Walkers! Having owned this machine since 2016, it is never going to leave our collection.

Just to be sneaky, if this was a top 10 list, then I would have also included America’s Most Haunted (Spooky), Haggis Pinball’s Celts, Spider-Man Vault Edition (Stern), Theatre Of Magic (Bally) and Monster Bash (Williams).

To say I can’t wait to play the latest games, like Labyrinth and Pulp Fiction would be a massive understatement. Pinball is in a good place right now (if only they could be cheaper). Now someone please make a Masters Of The Universe machine for me!

Long live the silverball game!!

title image: Liberty Games UK

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

When I was a kid, there was a bowling alley near my house that always had the best pinball machines. One day, I walk in with my friends, and there is Gottlieb Premier’s Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street, right next to the men’s bathroom entrance.

I’ve always been a Freddy Kruger fan. Some of the films are better than others; the third and the fourth instalments of the franchise are my favourites. What Renny Harlin did with “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master” should be studied in film schools on how to jolt new life into a successful franchise. I find the Rialto cinema scene when Alice is getting sucked into the movie screen to be a stunning and haunting visual.

Freddy was everywhere when I was a kid. He even had his own television series “Freddy’s Nightmares.” Most of the episodes were poorly produced, but it was always fun seeing Freddy introduce or close every anthology story. Some of them were really bad. The show had a short run and it had little to do with the films other than Freddy’s short appearances.

The Gottlieb pinball machine was like an extension of my Freddy fandom. When I wasn’t in school, I would watch one of the films and then go to the bowling alley to play the machine. I would save up my allowance and get my dollar bills converted to quarters at the front counter.

The sound effects of the machine were terrific. I liked how the film’s score played when you put your quarters in and throughout play. My favourite part of the machine was the large, plastic Freddy head that the game balls would come rolling out of. A friend, years later, who loved the machine as much as I did, told me that the Freddy head was the first thing to go. He said that the plastic would erode after a few years. The machine at the bowling alley already had some wear and tear, but it didn’t make me enjoy it any less. The Freddy glove artwork along the side of the machine was a nice, scary touch.

If I could ever afford a fully restored pinball machine, Gottlieb’s Freddy: A Nightmare on Elm Street would be the one that I would buy. Perhaps because of simple childhood nostalgia? That, and it’s such a fun interactive pinball machine connected to my favourite horror property.

After a few months, the Freddy machine just vanished. I asked the manager of the bowling alley where the machine went; he told me that it didn’t make any money. He added, “That machine was giving people the creeps when they went to wizz.”

The Freddy pinball machine was a little creepy, but on my play alone, I know it made money.