PAF Top Ten Most Wanted Table Poll Series : #1 - Electro-Mechanical (Closed)

This poll is now CLOSED! Thank you for showing your support by participating and voting for your Top Ten Most Wanted Tables!

Welcome to the first poll in the PAF Top Ten Most Wanted Table Poll Series featuring 30 carefully selected electro-mechanical tables from an era dominated by Gottlieb. This poll will be active from June 9, 2013 - June 22, 2013 with the poll standings hidden from the public. The current poll standings will be visible to the public on Saturday June 15th, after which, the poll standings will be hidden once again for the remainder of the entire poll series. The Top Ten Most Wanted Electro-Mechanical Tables, as voted by the pinball community, will be revealed on Friday September 6, 2013.

The PAF Top Ten Most Wanted Table Polls are run exclusively by the Pinball Arcade Fans Forum and are not official FarSight Studios polls.

NOTE : Voting is open to forum members only, so if you haven't signed up yet, please take a minute to join the forum and begin casting your votes.

Below you will find links to gameplay videos and playfield pics of each table in this poll, so take your time and check out some of the tables you may have never seen or heard of before you proceed to select your Top Ten Most Wanted Electro-Mechanical Tables. Remember, you will have two weeks to make your choices, so no need to rush.

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Abra Ca Dabra (Gottlieb, 1975) Gameplay | Playfield
Apollo (Williams, 1967) Gameplay | Playfield
Atlantis (Gottlieb, 1975) Gameplay | Playfield
Buckaroo (Gottlieb, 1965) Gameplay | Playfield
Centigrade 37 (Gottlieb, 1977) Gameplay | Playfield
Dimension (Gottlieb, 1971) Gameplay | Playfield
Fast Draw (Gottlieb, 1975) Gameplay | Playfield
Flip a Card (Gottlieb, 1970) Gameplay | Playfield
Gigi (Gottlieb, 1963) Gameplay | Playfield
High Hand (Gottlieb, 1973) Gameplay | Playfield
Hokus Pokus (Bally, 1975) Gameplay | Playfield
Jacks Open (Gottlieb, 1977) Gameplay | Playfield
Jet Spin (Gottlieb, 1977) Gameplay | Playfield
Jumping Jack (Gottlieb, 1973) Gameplay | Playfield
King of Diamonds (Gottlieb, 1967) Gameplay | Playfield
King Pin (Gottlieb, 1973) Gameplay | Playfield
North Star (Gottlieb, 1964) Gameplay | Playfield
Royal Flush (Gottlieb, 1976) Gameplay | Playfield
Royal Guard (Gottlieb, 1968) Gameplay | Playfield
Sky-Line (Gottlieb, 1965) Gameplay | Playfield
Slick Chick (Gottlieb, 1963) Gameplay | Playfield
Space Mission (Williams, 1976) Gameplay | Playfield
Space Time (Bally, 1972) Gameplay | Playfield
Spin-A-Card (Gottlieb, 1969) Gameplay | Playfield
Spirit of 76 (Gottlieb, 1975) Gameplay | Playfield
Stardust (Williams, 1971) Gameplay | Playfield
Star-Jet (Bally, 1963) Gameplay | Playfield
Surf Champ (Gottlieb, 1976) Gameplay | Playfield
Wizard! (Bally, 1975) Gameplay | Playfield
World Fair (Gottlieb, 1964) Gameplay | Playfield

Hot Tip would've been perfect.

Voted again!

PiN WiZ, how'd you select the tables here - was it an ipdb/pinside EM ranking of some sort? (Just curious)

In any case, I'll still submit my write-in vote:

Volley (Gottlieb, 1976) Gameplay | Playfield

...for nostalgia's sake, and because I like the drop target-focused gameplay.

Thanks PiN WiZ for putting these polls together. It's a lot of work and most appreciated.

atlantis looks interesting.

Hard a hard time choosing just ten. But here is what I went with.
1. Atlantis - 10 drops, serial rollovers, game over tilt (top pick IMO)
2. Surf Champ - nostalgic summer fun art, great spinner & drops
3. Centigrade 37 - great art, no slingshots, thermometer in backglass
4. King of Diamonds - cool roto target and animated cards in the backglass
5. Royal Flush - lots of drops, deceptively hard, lots of them made (popular)
6. Wizard! - based on Tommy, cool flip flags, Daltry on the backglass?
7. Hokus Pokus - three greatly satisfying spinner shots on one pin!
8. Abra Ca Dabra - cool art and low positioned bumpers make it fun
9. High Hand - great use of card theme, 4 well placed sets of drop targets
10. Spirit of 76 - during the bicentennial everything was red white & blue including this classic. Over 10,000 made.

One down (for me), five more to go!


- Centegrade 37
- Jet Spin
- Star-Jet
- Space Mission
- Fast Draw
- King of Diamonds
- Hokus Pokus
- Wizard!
- High Hand
- North Star


I love that 6 of my Top 10 were already on my personal wish list. I was hoping to see Fireball, Jungle Queen, Big Indian, Aztec, and Big Hit. Oh well... save 'em for another poll. Looking forward to the Williams Poll in 2 weeks. As a matter of fact, I have a few "suggestions" for the Williams Top 10 Poll right here:


- Flash (1979)
- Laser Ball (1979)
- Black Out (1980)
- Scorpion (1980)
- Alien Poker (1980)
- Jungle Lord (1981)
- Pharaoh (1981)
- Solar Fire (1981)
- Barracora (1981)
- Cosmic Gunfight (1982)
- Grand Lizard (1986)
- Space Station (1987)
- Big Guns (1987)
- Jokerz (1988)

I'm glad to hear that El Dorado is on its way. Centigrade 37 was my top choice in this group, it looks interesting.

Abra Cadabra
Atlantis
Centigrade 37
High Hand
Jacks Open
Jet Spin
Jumping Jack
King Pin
Space Time
Surf Champ

So my criteria was this...none of those little flippers, drop targets are more fun than stand ups, shots have to look like you can actually aim for them, ball return lanes are a must.

The exceptions were Space Time, because I am really curious about that center area and what goes on, and Atlantis which is asymmetrical yet looks interesting all the same. I honestly can't get excited for any of these, but that's not to say I can't have fun on them.

Yeah, I also purposefully avoided all 2" flippers. Gigi had 2" flippers with a 3" gap. That's a machine I would never play IRL. Even on freeplay.

Would have loved to have Skylab/Spacelab on this list, but glad to see Apollo. #1 most wanted on that list, though, is Surf Champ. Great table, perfect retro vibe to it.

Big gaps between flippers are a pain, but don't write off 2" flippers entirely. On a well-designed table, they're not frustrating.

Voted again!

Zoku Gojira said:

Would have loved to have Skylab/Spacelab on this list, but glad to see Apollo. #1 most wanted on that list, though, is Surf Champ. Great table, perfect retro vibe to it.

Big gaps between flippers are a pain, but don't write off 2" flippers entirely. On a well-designed table, they're not frustrating.

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Very true. King of Diamonds has short flippers, but you hardly notice it. Such a well designed table.

I love seeing these electromechanical tables just for the sake of seeing how pinball evolved. Obviously a lot of the older games may seem dull compared to the ones most people want and some will be understandably biased against them for that reason, but I love the 'time-travel' appeal of playing the kind of pinball table that my Dad would have played. I like the relatively straightforward gameplay in those unusual 'let's-see-if-this-works' formats (like Atlantis) and cute artwork as a casual break from the more complex and faster modern games. I usually buy the two-game packs, and am perfectly happy to get one really exciting, flashy 80's or 90's game bundled with another one that shows me a little bit of pinball history. It's worth the price. I for one think it's a shame Humpy Dumpty, Triple Action and Spot Bowler weren't on the list as innovative games that (eventually) changed the face of pinball. As long as they come with something like Addams Family in the pack, that's fine by me.

Thanks for this poll, I'm just a little puzzled as to why the results aren't made public after the poll ends, but more then 2 months after. How unofficial is this poll when you're going to be sitting on the results for that long?

"First and foremost, these polls will be run exclusively by the Pinball Arcade Fans Forum and are not official FarSight Studios polls"

I guess this is what confuses me, why are these unofficial?

Atlantis - proto rule set, relay logic <3 that
Buckaroo - Elton John played it in Tommy
Centigrade 37 - similar to Atlantis, seems a logical progression of the layout
Hokus Pokus - Spinners!!
Jet Spin - roto-target, and left special shot sold me + it has jet-boards on the playfield
Royal Flush - mandatory card theme?
Space Mission - Good Times
Spirit of 76
Stardust - looks like the underdog
World Fair - big giant spinny thing

Voted again.

Atlantis
Centigrade 37
Fast Draw
Hocus Pokus
Jumping Jack
Space Mission
Space Time
Spirit Of 76
Surf Champ
Wizard!

Animator_pin_fan said:

I guess this is what confuses me, why are these unofficial?

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We've run a few official polls for FarSight. They supply us with the choices, and the winning table is made in the game. This is unofficial because FarSight didn't supply us with the table names, and there's no guarantee that any if these tables will be released in the game, but the hope is FarSight will consider the top tables for any future releases.

Hope that makes sense.