What's left regarding "essentials"?

[Mark W**a]

What I mean by that is, games that are either extremely popular/amazing or historically significant that haven't been done yet?

A few come to my mind. Banzai Run, since it's Lawlors first, and it has a very unique backglass playfield. Earthshaker, Red and Ted's Roadshow, and maybe something like Safecracker since it's such a unique game.

Then I think of Highspeed/The Getaway: High Speed 2 as most definitely "essential".

8 Ball Deluxe is another essential, but that's coming. Centaur as well. Xenon I would love to see, first female voice, great art, good gameplay IMO, but unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen.

I really feel "Big Bang Bar" is also an essential. Like Cactus Canyon, it's a table most people will never get to ever play in real life. And if you've seen it in action it's a really "special" game

As far as licensed "essentials". T2 I feel qualifies. So do the Indiana Jones games, so do the Simpsons games, so does Family Guy... I feel Dracula would be a cheap license and I would love to see that one. Tales from the Crypt and RollerCoaster Tycoon, two of the rumored, are also good picks imo. I really like Monopoly... I might be a lone on that one...

And finally, the most essential of all: Adams Family. It will happen, I know it will. It should be the last game Farsight releases, the game that "completes" the Pinball Arcade...

What am I missing, fellas? Please add what you feel are "essentials" that simply must happen...

 

[DarkAkatosh]

TAF is next to impossible from what I'm hearing. Big Bang Bar is so rare that they'll probably have to script that one.

My most wanted is probably LOTR but that one is going to be another TAF-esque effort, I think.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Good picks.

I'd add White Water, Fish Tales, Champion Pub, BK 2000, Cyclone, Black Rose, Haunted House, F-14 Tomcat...

Here's a pretty good list:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/1585-TPA-Wishlist-The-Ultimate-100

 

[Rudy Yagov]

I really feel "Big Bang Bar" is also an essential. Like Cactus Canyon, it's a table most people will never get to ever play in real life. And if you've seen it in action it's a really "special" game

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Kingpin is every bit as deserving as Big Bang Bar. Even rarer than BBB, and it was the last Mark Ritchie game, as well as the last Capcom.

 

[Mark W**a]

They will never script a DMD game.. too daunting, too many quirks, getting the proper timing of DMD displays and having to recreate the animations from scratch... It would be a nightmare and the results would never be good, without an extrodinary (read: way, way too much time/budget) amount of work...

That said, BBB is not as rare as Cactus Canyon anymore, since they did the reproduction run a few years ago. Anything can happen.

Here's what I pulled up from doing a quick internet search: Top 50/100 both IPDB and Pinside as sources:

Non-Licensed DMD:

WhiteWater
The Getaway
Fish Tales
Pinball Magic
Big Bang Bar
RoadShow
JackBot
Champion Pub
Safe Cracker

Non-licensed System 11:

Black Knight 2000
Swords of Fury
Diner
Banzai Run
F-14 Tomcat
EarthShaker
Cyclone
High Speed

Licensed:
Terminator 2
Lord of the Rings
Adams Family
Spider-Man 2007
Family Guy
Indiana Jones 93
Tron
Simpsons Pinball Party
Tron
Dracula
Dr. Who

Just a quick rundown and I probably missed a few.

 

[CC13]

What I mean by that is, games that are either extremely popular/amazing or historically significant that haven't been done yet?

A few come to my mind. Banzai Run, since it's Lawlors first, and it has a very unique backglass playfield. Earthshaker, Red and Ted's Roadshow, and maybe something like Safecracker since it's such a unique game.

Then I think of Highspeed/The Getaway: High Speed 2 as most definitely "essential".

8 Ball Deluxe is another essential, but that's coming. Centaur as well. Xenon I would love to see, first female voice, great art, good gameplay IMO, but unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen.

I really feel "Big Bang Bar" is also an essential. Like Cactus Canyon, it's a table most people will never get to ever play in real life. And if you've seen it in action it's a really "special" game

As far as licensed "essentials". T2 I feel qualifies. So do the Indiana Jones games, so do the Simpsons games, so does Family Guy... I feel Dracula would be a cheap license and I would love to see that one. Tales from the Crypt and RollerCoaster Tycoon, two of the rumored, are also good picks imo. I really like Monopoly... I might be a lone on that one...

And finally, the most essential of all: Adams Family. It will happen, I know it will. It should be the last game Farsight releases, the game that "completes" the Pinball Arcade...

What am I missing, fellas? Please add what you feel are "essentials" that simply must happen...

How could you leave out Black Knight 2000? The game invented the wizard mode (or at least was the first to codify it into something modern players would recognize as such) and has one of the best sound packages ever, so there's no way you can consider TPA complete without it (besides, Steve Ritchie is still criminally underrepresented in TPA, even with 2 of his tables appearing in 4 months).

I also would like to see Jack*Bot (to round out the Pin*Bot trilogy), Balls-A-Poppin (because you can't leave out the first table ever with multiball, especially when Firepower got in on the strength of being the first SS with multiball), Checkpoint (first table with a DMD), Mystery Castle (the best small manufacturer table of the '90s–and yes, I'm including Big Bang Bar in that set), Congo (the inaugural WPC-95 title), Jurassic Park (one of three or four serious contenders for the title of "best Data East"), Catacomb (the most punishingly difficult table ever made and that bagatelle adds a whole new layer to the game–not to mention that we need at least one old-school Stern in the mix), Spectrum (the old-school Safe Cracker) and Stargate (Gottlieb's one shining moment in the DMD era).

Also, why do you think Xenon isn't going to happen? It's well-regarded, it doesn't have any ancillary licenses and 11,000 of them were made, so FS shouldn't have undue amounts of trouble getting their hands on one. Personally, it would be one of the first 5 old-school Ballys I'd put in if I ran TPA (but not before Spectrum, mind you).

 

[Mark W**a]

Farsight has a "short list" of early Ballys and unfortunately Xenon did not make the cut.

They were pretty explicit too, said they're only doing a few early Ballys and let us vote on the one we wanted first. Centaur won the voting.

So the games that made the cut are Centaur, 8 Ball Deluxe, and one other that I forget.

Anything can happen and who knows, maybe next year they'll consider more early Ballys and put it to a vote again.

Also thank you for mentioning Jack Bot. Absolutely essential would rock to have the complete trilogy. Fantastic table, no table yet has a Casino theme either.

 

[Bowflex]

Farsight has a "short list" of early Ballys and unfortunately Xenon did not make the cut.

They were pretty explicit too.

The games that made the cut are Centaur, 8 Ball Deluxe, and one other that I forget.

Anything can happen and who knows, maybe next year they'll consider more early Ballys and put it to a vote again.

Also thank you for mentioning Jack Bot. Absolutely essential would rock to have the complete trilogy. Fantastic table, no table yet has a Casino theme either.

I wouldn't count out Xenon or other early Bally SS tables. I love that period for the great art and really dark, twisted and racy themes. Fireball made the cut for that poll despite the fact that the EM version of it is probably the better table. Xenon does have historical significance to it. It is just nowhere near as popular as the three in that poll. I would love to see Fathom as well, which I enjoy more than Xenon. I do think that during the next year or so we will see Eight Ball Deluxe and maybe SS Fireball as well.

 

[Mark W**a]

I wish I could "thumbs up" your post bowflex. Well said.

8 Ball Deluxe is confirmed. It's a common misconception with that poll, we weren't voting which table we wanted we were voting which table we wanted first. All 3 are getting made.

 

[Bowflex]

I wish I could "thumbs up" your post bowflex. Well said.

8 Ball Deluxe is confirmed. It's a common misconception with that poll, we weren't voting which table we wanted we were voting which table we wanted first. All 3 are getting made.

Thanks! It's probably better we don't have the post feedback buttons but everyone here is respectful and generally offers great input.

Your response triggered a flashback. I remember when I voted, Centaur was way in the lead and instead of voting for it (which was my true number 1 for that poll) I voted for Fireball to try and get it a stronger showing and maybe have a voice in seeing it get released sooner than later.

Also, I was thinking of an outside of the box, another title that could be added is one of the prototypes or unfinished concepts. The difficult thing is how do you create the table if you can't digitally recreate it? They've mentioned a couple times that they have the rights and it may be a possibility to get something like that released down the road. Obviously it would be easier to work with Stern on something like that, especially if Stern wants more presence in the game since most of their stuff is licensed and that's not too feasible at this point.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

They will never script a DMD game.. too daunting, too many quirks, getting the proper timing of DMD displays and having to recreate the animations from scratch... It would be a nightmare and the results would never be good, without an extrodinary (read: way, way too much time/budget) amount of work...

Yeah, I'm starting to find this out with Sin. Dots are a lot of work.

That said, BBB is not as rare as Cactus Canyon anymore, since they did the reproduction run a few years ago. Anything can happen.

There are 191 Big Bang Bars in existence, counting prototypes, the licensed reproduction run, and the "extra parts" machines. There were 903 Cactus Canyons made.

Non-Licensed DMD:

WhiteWater
The Getaway
Fish Tales
Pinball Magic
Big Bang Bar
RoadShow
Champion Pub
Safe Cracker

High Speed II: The Getaway has ZZ Top's "La Grange" in it. Road Show uses the voice of (and I think part of a song by) Charlene Carter, a country-western singer.

 

[Mark W**a]

Sean: you are right about BBB, sorry I thought they made 1000 repros. I was off by a decimal lol.

Regarding Licensed music... What about Harley Davidson? It's full of licensed tracks.

 

[pseudokings]

Non-Licensed DMD:

WhiteWater
The Getaway
Fish Tales
Pinball Magic
Big Bang Bar
RoadShow
Champion Pub
Safe Cracker

Non-licensed System 11:

Black Knight 2000
Swords of Fury
Diner
Banzai Run
F-14 Tomcat
EarthShaker
Cyclone

Licensed:
Terminator 2
Lord of the Rings
Adams Family
Spider-Man 2007
Family Guy
Indiana Jones 93
Tron
Simpsons Pinball Party
Tron
Dracula
Dr. Who

Just a quick rundown and I probably missed a few.

List is excellent. Kudos, Mark. I might add or subtract a little here or there, but...

 

[shutyertrap]

Playing Devil's advocate here, but no love for the coaster trilogy of Comet, Cyclone, and Hurricane?

 

[BStarfire]

Comet is my all-time favorite solid-state game. Of the trilogy, I prefer them in that order... Comet, Cyclone, Hurricane. However, after Comet there are probably some other SS games I like better.

I did enjoy "Fire" back in the day, but haven't played it since about that time, so not sure what I'd still think about it. However, at the time it seemed unusual as it had no pop bumpers.

As far as other 'essentials,' no one's mentioned the top 100 EM list, of which Slick Chick consistently ranks at the top. And if you want other historic first games, Bank-a-Ball was the first with flipper return lanes, which certainly became a standard.

 

[Kolchak357]

Playing Devil's advocate here, but no love for the coaster trilogy of Comet, Cyclone, and Hurricane?

True!
I want all three!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Playing Devil's advocate here, but no love for the coaster trilogy of Comet, Cyclone, and Hurricane?

Cyclone was mentioned a couple times in this thread, but Comet and Hurricane aren't too bad either. I'd certainly like to see all three as well.

 

[Bowflex]

Cyclone was mentioned a couple times in this thread, but Comet and Hurricane aren't too bad either. I'd certainly like to see all three as well.

Definitely. They were all kind of a trilogy but they each felt pretty unique and all were fun. For the sake of thematic variety, I'm somewhat surprised not one of them has shown up as a confirmed table yet.

 

[spindown]

Non-Licensed DMD:

WhiteWater
The Getaway
Fish Tales
Pinball Magic
Big Bang Bar
RoadShow
Champion Pub
Safe Cracker

Non-licensed System 11:

Black Knight 2000
Swords of Fury
Diner
Banzai Run
F-14 Tomcat
EarthShaker
Cyclone

Licensed:
Terminator 2
Lord of the Rings
Adams Family
Spider-Man 2007
Family Guy
Indiana Jones 93
Tron
Simpsons Pinball Party
Tron
Dracula
Dr. Who

Just a quick rundown and I probably missed a few.

Very good list. I think that covers almost all of the "essential" tables that are still missing.

 

[karl]

It is a very good list but there is so many more tables I would like to see I find it really hard to narrow it down.
A good example is The Shadow, a table I would love to see(and probably before some of the others on the list) but is it essential? I guess it is to me