The Best of the Rest

[Mark W**a]

This thread is all about the best of the rest; the top tables that are amazing but didn't quite make the top 10 of each of their respective polls.

It's a shame too because the Williams and Bally official polls were jam packed with classic and amazing tables, it was literally impossible for all the best tables to make top ten. Since, well, there were more than 10 tables that were clearly top tier in each poll.

So this thread is best of the rest: tables that just missed the top 10, but are totally awesome radical and bodacious and worth doing. You can add in any table that you think is worthy, each one you list counts as a "vote" in an unofficial sense of course. The only criteria for listing a table that you feel is worthy of the main list is that it cannot have made the top 10 of our respective official polls.

So in other words, Black Rose, World Cup, Who Dunnit etc. aren't going to be part of this list since those all made top 10 in their respective official polls.

So far here are my pics, in order of what I feel is the best of the rest. You can follow this format and you can list as many as you like. Let's start:


1: Banzai Run
2: Jack*Bot
3: High Speed
4: Hurricane
5: No Fear
6: Fathom
7: Embryon
8: Swords of Fury
9: Big Guns
10: Bad Cats
11: Truck Stop
12: Comet
13: Hot Tip
14: Sorcerer

Bonus: Games from Manufacturers that aren't a part of Pinball Arcade:

Big Bang Bar
Breakshot
Kingpin
Pinball Magic
Al's Garage Band goes on a World Tour

For Reference, here are the top 10 lists from our official polls:

Electro-Mechanical

1) Wizard (Bally, 1975)
2) Spirit of 76 (Gottlieb, 1975)
3) Centigrade 37 (Gottlieb, 1977)
4-T) Atlantis (Gottlieb, 1975)
4-T) Royal Flush (Gottlieb, 1976)
6) Space Mission (Williams, 1976)
7) Surf Champ (Gottlieb, 1976)
8) Hokus Pokus (Bally, 1975)
9) Abra Ca Dabra (Gottlieb, 1975)
10) Fast Draw (Gottlieb, 1975)

Williams

1) Fish Tales (1992)
2) The Getaway : High Speed II (1992)
3) Red & Ted’s Road Show (1994)
4) Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1993)
5) Black Knight 2000 (1989)
6) Earthshaker (1989)
7) Diner (1990)
8) Junk Yard (1996)
9) F-14 Tomcat (1987)
10) Cyclone (1988)

Bally

1) Black Rose (1992)
2) World Cup Soccer (1994)
3) Judge Dredd (1993)
4) WHO dunnit (1995)
5) Safe Cracker (1996)
6) Xenon (1980)
7) The Party Zone (1991)
8) Corvette (1994)
9) Eight Ball Deluxe (1981)
10) Indianapolis 500 (1995)

Premium Licensed

1) Indiana Jones : The Pinball Adventure (Williams, 1993)
2) The Simpsons Pinball Party (Stern, 2003)
3) The Lord of the Rings (Stern, 2003)
4) Star Wars (Data East, 1992)
5) Doctor Who (Bally, 1992)
6) Jurassic Park (Data East, 1993)
7) The Shadow (Bally, 1994)
8) Back to the Future (Data East, 1990)
9) Guns ‘N Roses (Data East, 1994)
10) The Who’s Tommy Pinball Wizard (Data East, 1994)

Stern/Data East/Sega

1) Tales from the Crypt (Data East, 1993)
2-T) Monopoly (Stern, 2001)
2-T) Rollercoaster Tycoon (Stern, 2002)
4) Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (Data East, 1993)
5) High Roller Casino (Stern, 2001)
6) NASCAR (Stern, 2005)
7) Time Machine (Data East, 1988)
8) Sharkey’s Shootout (Stern, 2000)
9) Seawitch (Stern, 1980)
10) Viper Night Drivin' (Sega, 1998)

 

[Kolchak357]

I can probably list 50 games, but I shall limit myself to 5 that i feel strongly about.

Fathom - beautiful looking and crafty gameplay similar to Centaur in feel
Medusa - top zipper flippers are so much fun
Comet - this coaster themed pin has a simple yet addictive layout
Strikes and Spares - love the pin rollovers (this or Triple Strike is a must)
Buccaneer - this didn't even make the polls but I love getting all the numbers on the ships wheel lit (and oh that spinner!)

 

[Fungi]

Buccaneer - this didn't even make the polls but I love getting all the numbers on the ships wheel lit (and oh that spinner!)

Didn't that make it to PinballFX? I keeed, I keeed!

 

[Zorgwon]

[Buccaneer]

Didn't that make it to PinballFX? I keeed, I keeed!

Completely different. It would be interestung to see Zen make a real table, though.

Strikes and Spares - interesting pinball with focus on rollovers.

Fathom seems to be the prettier daughter of Seawitch which made it into the Stern poll list. Nice looping in Seawitch

 

[Fungi]

[Buccaneer]



Completely different.

Sorry. Must of lost something in the translation. "I keeed, I keeed!" meant I was kidding. I guess I'm supposed to use one of these. Explaining jokes. Always fun.

 

[netizen]

Another that didn't make the polls was Vector.

I personally think this collection will be incomplete without the likes of:
Paragon
Medusa
Stargate
Laser Wars
Spectrum
Catacomb/Big Game
Mars God of war
Stars
Big Hurt/Fast Break

 

[Tales from the Crypt !!]

Spirit and Flash Gordon

 

[Matt McIrvin]

Superman and Space Invaders.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

...AC/DC, if it's not too high-profile for this thread.

 

[superballs]

Triple Strike (I think it's so much better than SnS)
Big Buck Hunter
Jacks Open
Humpty Dumpty

That being said: If Triple Strike doesn't make it, I can stick with Rawd's amazing recreation in VP as it is one of the finest pins available for VP bar none. Other than that, even if they stuck with the top ten lists, we're in for an amazing collection.

 

[netizen]

Big Buck Hunter

I often find myself quite entertained by Big Buck Hunter, the pinball not the lightgun, but it's like Fish Tales for me in some ways. Either the game flows and is a good game, or it's just brutal and I want to go out and get a gun for realz

I would be interested to see how the moving buck target gets done in TPA

 

[superballs]

I often find myself quite entertained by Big Buck Hunter, the pinball not the lightgun, but it's like Fish Tales for me in some ways. Either the game flows and is a good game, or it's just brutal and I want to go out and get a gun for realz

When the 401 highway was my second home, I used to have a lot of fun playing it at a rest stop just north of London. I was initially bummed out when i found it was gone and replaced by a Whodunnit. Then I played Whodunnit and wasn't so bummed out anymore. The Big Buck Hunter had replaced a SW:Ep1 with a non-functioning screen.

 

[Arjan]

From your list I would only get excited with No Fear, high speed would be nice but rather have the Getaway....the rest is all crap to me...
I hope they stick to the 'official' polls, there are a lot more in that list that I definitely like to have in TPA!

 

[Mark W**a]

From your list I would only get excited with No Fear, high speed would be nice but rather have the Getaway....the rest is all crap to me...
I hope they stick to the 'official' polls, there are a lot more in that list that I definitely like to have in TPA!

I'm pretty sure everything from the official polls is coming. Barring licensing issues and whatnot.

The question now is what else . That's what this thread was made for.

 

[Mark W**a]

Assuming official poll games are a lock, I feel Banzai Run, High Speed, and No Fear need to happen if only for compete Lawlor/Ritchie collections. Jack Bot since it finishs the trilogy (and is the best of the 3 IMO). Swords of Fury, Bad Cats , Big Guns have great music, art, themes , and unique gameplay. Id also like Hurricane and I'm surprised it lost to Comet since Hurricane is DMD and comet is not. I guess DMD isn't everything. Also truck stop looks pretty cool. I'm just a sucker for anything system 11.