Pinball machines (added a link to pinball emulators)

The death of pinball is really a shame, because any time I go to an arcade these days, most of my money gets pumped into some lonely pinball machine.

Lately I've been considering getting a Pin*Bot machine, partly for nostalgia (I grew up playing it at a local hole in the wall), but mostly because I still consider it to be the best pinball game I've played. I have enough money since I've been saving up for a top-of-the-line computer, but I figure I'll get more enjoyment out of this in the long run (I certainly won't be replacing it within a few years like I would with the PC).

Any other pinball fans? I'm interesting in knowing what tables everyone else likes.

Some may call it gimmicky, and granted, I never played a ton of pinball (despite a small love for it), but I really like the Addams Family table that seemed to be almost everywhere in the mid 90s.

Good luck on getting one.

I've got a half working pinball machine somewhere. I also have a Pachinko(sp) machine. The shit you will find.

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Originally Posted by Me in an old pinball thread

lmost all my faves are made by Williams, and they all share one quality: phenominal sound.

- Star Trek: TNG: The voice overs made this.
- Jurassic Park: Excellent sound.
- Street Fighter: Well, because it was Street Fighter.
- Theatre of Magic
- Tommy: "Cover me dolly!" Try playing it in blind "Tommy" mode.
- Apollo 13: 13 balls at once during the multiball!
- Rocky and Bullwinkle
- Super Mario Bros.: The worlds smallest pinball game, complete with authentic sound effcts!
- T2: Gotta love the skull.
- Mars Attacks 2000 update thingy: Man, this game was cheap as hell, you'd always have the ball go down the gutter, or straight down the middle. But man, it was fun to see all the little video clips. "MARS KNEADS WOMEN!", "HAPPY HOUR!", and who could forget the Abe Lincoln Mortal Kombat homage?

And my all time fave:

White Water: This game had it all, it was fun, had memoral music and sound clips, a nice design, a really cool marquee, and it was hard as hell. If you could make it all the way to Wet Willies then you're a pro.

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The last pinball machine that I fell in love with was NBA Fastbreak. This machine was a real fucking bastard. It was different from all other pinball games, because the main objective was to constantly shoot the ball up the middle of the playfield to land the ball in a basketball hoop. This design lends itself to the pinball rolling back down and going directly between the two flippers dead zone, which adds up to a ton of cheap losses. But the game is just so much fun, and the announcer is just like the one in NBA Jam, he makes the game so damn fun.

I loved the Twilight Zone pinball machine that used to be at a pizza place near my house. I would spend many loving hours playing with it, and listening to it chatter "YOU CAN OPEN THE DOOR OF THE MIND WITH THE KEY OF IMAGINATION!"

I've never been a big pinball fan but I did put a ton of money into the T2 machine in the mall on this side of town when I was a kid. I really miss that arcade, it was all dark & dingey and they didn't ever change any of the games (only added one every year or so). They had Punch-Out, Rastan, Contra, Gunsmoke, SW Arcade (sitdown), Pin*bot & some other goodies for years. It was more of a hallway (w/ a few shops & a Hills) than a mall so we always used to call it the Southland Hall Arcade.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

Some may call it gimmicky, and granted, I never played a ton of pinball (despite a small love for it), but I really like the Addams Family table that seemed to be almost everywhere in the mid 90s.

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I never really cared for it. I just don't like the layout of the targets at all, though at least it doesn't shoot the ball directly down the middle of the table for a cheap end like so many tables do.

Incidentally, for anyone who wants to play arcade pinball games emulated, click here. You need to download VPinMAME (to emulate the table roms) and Visual Pinball (to generate the actual tables), along with table files and the roms for each game. A little bit more to do than an average emulator, but it's worth it if you like pinball, and with Visual Pinball you can create your own tables if you're so inclined. You also have to sign up for the forums to download anything, but it's relatively painless.

And I checked with a mod before I posted this, so I don't think it goes against the rules. :chunobi:

My personal fave was Twilight Zone. I spent a fortune on it over the years. Would love to track down a real table but they are so damn expensive.

Other notable faves were Funhouse, where you had the talking head on the playfield that followed the ball around. And Circus Voltare.

I played vpinmame to death when someone posted about it here last year, and had one of those "In the zone" moments with Twilight Zone..See attached..

Midevil Madness was the best pinball game I ever played. And the No Fear table was pretty sick too. A talking skull was the centerpiece, some sick ramps and more lights than you could count (looked crazy in the dark).

The thing with purchasing a pinball machine that you have to be aware of is that maintenance costs are really expensive. Thats the main reason why theyve pretty much died the past few years. All those moving parts are just expensive.