Recommended order of tables for a complete beginner

[PhoenixDream]

I'm not really a complete beginner, but I'd love to hear your recommendations.
Can you help me draft a list of all Season 1 & 2 Pinball Arcade tables from the easiest to the hardest?
I listed all of them here. Haven't played many, only marked as "easy / normal / hard" the ones I played enough to get at least the standard goals.

Attack from Mars
Big Shot
Black Hole
Black Knight
Cactus Canyon
Centaur
Central Park
Cirqus Voltaire
Class of 1812
Creature from the Black Lagoon - Normal
Cue Ball Wizard
Dr. Dude & HIs Excellent Ray
El Dorado: City Of Gold
Elvira and the Party Monsters
Firepower
Flight 2000
FunHouse
Genie
Goin' Nuts
Gorgar - Easy
Harley-Davidson, 3rd Edition
Haunted House
Medieval Madness
Monster Bash - Normal
No Good Gofers
PIN•BOT
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Scared Stiff
Space Shuttle
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Tales of the Arabian Nights - (Friggin') Hard
Taxi
Tee'd Off
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Champion Pub
The Machine: Bride of Pin•Bot
Theatre of Magic
Twilight Zone
Victory
Whirlwind
White Water

I know difficulty is subjective, I just want your opinion so I can devise an order of play for myself so I won't get discouraged too soon.
Thank you!

 

[TomL]

A suggestion? Play them chronologically by when the physical tables were released.

 

[JPelter]

Both of the elvira tables are probably the easiest in the game to get into. I'd probably start with Scared Stiff. Lots of extra balls and ramps you could drive a truck through.

 

[Extork]

Theater of Magic is a good place to start. Don't really have time to make a whole list, but maybe later

 

[MWink]

Attack from Mars - medium
Big Shot - hard
Black Hole - easy (very easy once you get the hang of it)
Black Knight - medium
Centaur - medium
Central Park - hard
Cirqus Voltaire - easy-medium
Class of 1812 - hard
Creature from the Black Lagoon - easy or hard, depending on playstyle
Cue Ball Wizard - medium
Dr. Dude & HIs Excellent Ray - medium
El Dorado: City Of Gold - hard
Elvira and the Party Monsters - medium
Firepower - hard
Flight 2000 - medium
FunHouse - easy
Genie - medium-hard
Goin' Nuts - don't care
Gorgar - medium
Haunted House - hard
Medieval Madness - medium
Monster Bash - medium
No Good Gofers - easy
PIN•BOT - medium
Ripley's Believe It or Not! - medium
Scared Stiff - easiest!
Space Shuttle - medium
Star Trek: The Next Generation -hard (till you get the hang of it)
Tales of the Arabian Nights - medium
Taxi - easy
Tee'd Off - medium
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - easy-medium
The Machine: Bride of Pin•Bot - easy
Theatre of Magic - medium
Twilight Zone - easy or hard, depending on playstyle
Victory - medium
Whirlwind - hard
White Water - easy-medium

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

If you don't mind my occasional editorial comments, I've rated the difficulty of all the tables up through DLC # 18 in various posts in the Lost in the Zone blog I used to keep here.

Recommended TPA Tables for Beginners and Beyond (Core Tables and DLC Packs 1 - 4)
More Recommended TPA Tables for Beginners and Beyond (DLC Packs 5 - 7)
Even More Recommended TPA Tables for Beginners and Beyond (DLC Packs 8 - 11)
Yet More Recommended TPA Tables for Beginners and Beyond (DLC Packs 12 - 14)
Still More Recommended TPA Tables for Beginners and Beyond (DLC Packs 15 - 18)

TL;DR Version: Start with Theatre of Magic or Scared Stiff.

 

[PhoenixDream]

Awesome, thanks for the quick replies! I'll integrate all answers into the first post of this topic and sort all tables by difficulty. Also sort all tables by release date, good idea!

 

[Dedpop]

Scared Stiff / Elvira / Attack From Mars / Medieval Madness

 

[TomL]

I believe this is mostly accurate. (dates from ipdb.org)

Date(mfr) Name
1966/04 Central Park
1973/08 Big Shot
1979/11 Genie
1979/12 Gorgar
1980/02 Firepower
1980/10 Flight 2000
1980/11 Black Knight
1981/10 Black Hole
1981/10 Centaur
1982/06 Haunted House
1983/02 Goin’ Nuts
1984/09 El Dorado: City of Gold
1984/12 Space Shuttle
1986/01 High Speed
1986/10 Pin*Bot
1987/10 Victory
1988/08 Taxi
1989/02 Earthshaker
1989/04 Black Knight 2000
1989/10 Elvira and the Party Monsters
1989/12 Lights Camera Action
1990/01 Phantom of the Opera
1990/01 Whirlwind
1990/09 Diner
1990/11 Dr. Dude
1990/11 Funhouse
1991/02 The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot
1991/07 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991/08 Class of 1812
1991/08 The Party Zone
1992/03 The Addams Family
1992/07 Black Rose
1992/10 Cue Ball Wizard
1992/10 Fish Tales
1992/12 Creature from the Black Lagoon
1993/01 White Water
1993/04 Bram Stoker's Dracula
1993/04 Twilight Zone
1993/05 Tee’d Off
1993/11 Star Trek: The Next Generation
1995/03 Theatre of Magic
1995/09 Who Dunnit
1995/12 Attack from Mars
1996/05 Tales of the Arabian Nights
1996/09 Scared Stiff
1996/12 Junkyard
1997/06 Medieval Madness
1997/10 Cirqus Voltaire
1997/12 No Good Gofers
1997/12 Starship Troopers
1998/04 The Champion Pub
1998/07 Monster Bash
1998/10 Cactus Canyon
2001/01 High Roller Casino
2002/11 Harley-Davidson (3rd Edition)
2004/03 Ripley's Believe It or Not

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I believe this is mostly accurate.

Date (mfr) Long Name
1989/07 Monster Bash

Bzzt! Should be 1998

 

[TomL]

Bzzt! Should be 1998

Ooops, a transposition tpyo. Fixed. Thanks.

 

[Dedpop]

I understand the chronological suggestion but I'm not sure Central Park / Big Shot / Genie are really beginners friendly.

 

[TomL]

I understand the chronological suggestion but I'm not sure Central Park / Big Shot / Genie are really beginners friendly.

I think chronologic lets you focus on fundamentals first without all the distractions of bells and whistles.

Besides, each "new" table will have a new industry revolutionary feature.

Ability to change lit rollover lanes
ballsavers
multiball
autoplunge

Wow!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I think chronologic lets you focus on fundamentals first without all the distractions of bells and whistles.

Besides, each "new" table will have a new industry revolutionary feature.

Ability to change lit rollover lanes
ballsavers
multiball
autoplunge

Wow!

Of these tables...
Firepower has the first lane-change feature. And the first multi-ball. And the first kickback.
BK has a magna-save and "last chance" ball-saver feature. (The first game on the list with a "true" ball-saver feature is T2.)
Centaur is the first with an auto-plunge feature though implemented slightly differently to "modern" auto-plungers - the ball is fired out from a trap door halfway up the plunger lane. Goin' Nuts is the first true auto-plunger game on that list.

 

[TomL]

In the context of when these tables were each released, they were vying for attention (revenue). They try to stand out from predecessors by using deeper gameplay, flashier gimmicks, new audio/visuals, etc.

Playing the tables in year order allows one to see the "new" innovations as they progressed.

And to judge the merits of the tables with their recent contemporaries. It wouldn't be fair to play Genie and Ripley back to back. One pin would feel either too simple or the other too gimmicky. But comparing Monster Bash to Champion Pub would be a valid pairing.

I think it, of course, is a matter of taste. And to have such a breadth of real life pinball recreated on a platform is amazing.

 

[Fungi]

Firepower did NOT have the first multiball. It was just the first digital machine with multiball. Nor did it have the first kickback.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Firepower did NOT have the first multiball. It was just the first digital machine with multiball. Nor did it have the first kickback.

In TPA tables chronological order, it has the first multiball and kickback. I'm pretty sure Fireball had both multiball and a kickback, and there are far older EM tables (Balls-a-Poppin' for instnace) that had multiball.

Look back at the number of "firsts" in digital/CPU-controlled tables, and the name "Steve Ritchie" crops up an awful lot.

 

[Fungi]

In TPA tables chronological order, it has the first multiball and kickback.

If that's your criteria, then Theatre of Magic and RBION had the first lane change feature.


Edit: Nevermind. I figured out what Eldar was saying. Move along. Move along.

 

[TomL]

If that's your criteria, then Theatre of Magic and RBION had the first lane change feature.

Of the tables available in TPA, chronological order by physical table release, not TPA digital table release.

edit: cheers

 

[Espy]

In my opinion, if you're new to TPA, just look around the available tables and enjoy discovering them. If one is too hard, you'll know that soon enough. You'll eventually find one to obsess over. Just enjoy exploring the library. That's how I started my pinball addiction (admittedly it was with Zen as TPA wasn't out then).