Demolition man

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/91172

Jurassic Park, nba fastbreak, T2, T3, World Cup soccer, Baywatch are all good value

BSD, easy rules but hard to execute

Fish Tales remains one of my favorites. And with patience can still be found at a reasonable price imo.

Demolition Man.
Tough to shop, but awesome keeper.

BSD Bang for buck? Jesus is it that bad out there now?

Hmm...jackboy (sic), Fish Tales.

Johnny Mnemonic is great bang for the buck....can be had pretty easily for $2500-2600. If that thing wasn't based on a total turd movie and didn't have a backglass that makes me want to claw my eyes out, it'd be top 40, because the game play is really good.

I wouldn't say that Fish Tales plays anything like Taxi.... They just both happen to have crossing wireforms. That said, based on your collection, I'd be looking for a machine with a little longer ball times. Fish Tales has awesome theme integration, but I find the ball times to be really short and frustrating if you aren't on your game. BSD would fall into this exact same category.

I already mentioned JM, but for other machine options with longer ball times and still plenty to do, check out Doctor Who or World Cup Soccer.

World poker tour

Always found Dr Who under rated and a great game in its current price point.

The Shadow is the best bang for the buck. One of the best games ever made in my opinion.

If you have 4k to spend, the shadow and BSD are solid choices. If you need to be at 2500 or under, it gets tougher...but you can find JM, DM, baywatch, stargate, fish tales, nba fastbreak, Jurassic park, the getaway, last action hero, revenge from mars, world cup soccer, or terminator 2.

Some of those are easily under 2.5k and some you will really have to be patient on for a good price.

Budget is everything

I 500

fast play, lots of timed modes, great sound and call outs. Very difficult to master.

Yes

I don't think anyone has mentioned Jackbot, Road Show, or Lethal Weapon 3 yet - There is some value there!!

I agree that fish tales plays nothing like taxi. A couple others I would mention road show, world poker tour, no fear, and Frankenstein.

Capcom Breakshot

We are stretching the budget but Stern Star Trek and Star Trek TNG are both fantastic games and the cheapest way to get into the top 20. Either are a steal and the basic models go for $4200 to $4500. Stern's model is super fast and extremely reliable. STTNG has a great sound package, is great to shoot, but can be tricky to maintain. If you are comfortable "lifting the hood" you should be fine.

Other recommended cheaper DMDs are World Cup Soccer, Terminator, Baywatch, and Thunderbirds (JK).

Good luck!

With the way prices are, Shadow is trying to break that $4K soon. Once that happens.......another "days gone by" scenario

+1 on Fish Tales. Very simple game but challenging enough to keep it interesting. Nothing like Taxi imo. Decent examples can be still found for less than $3000 so best bang for classic dmd imo. Shadow close second. Diverters, cool ball lock feature, upper pf, several mb's, upper flipper, and wizard mode. Gameplay is very challenging, though.

Hard to beat a great classic but for a good bang, consider Stern games. Yes, some are a bit complex/deep with rules but still fun with lots to explore. MET is one of the best pins period and pro sometimes can be found cheap (low 4's). Rules not too complex for the most part and I still love mine. I would even argue JP pro best bang for buck for around $5000 used. Fantastic game. Same for Iron Maiden if you can tolerate the theme. Both those games have rules that are fairly easy to pick up on and just play great. Lots of these games out there so easier to find than a lot of older games.

I'm with this guy, except T3. Kind of a boring fan layout to me and a VERY repetitive call out "shoot here and here"
T2 is simple but fun and I love my Getaway.

Last Action Hero.

Maverick. Just got one for 1900 and it is fantastic.

JM, shadow, WCS, etc.. used to be but they are all heading in that $4k position. Every now and then you can catch a player for cheaper. There is a getaway and fish tales near me for 2800 which is pretty good.

The best choices are Getaway, Jackbot, World Cup Soccer 94, Doctor Who, Demolition Man, and Fish Tales. I own/have owned them all and Fish tales is my favorite. I do think it is rising fast in price and will stop being a value pin soon.

I'm also going to recommend Fish Tales . I've had mine for 20 years and still love it as much as the first day I got it . It's not about modes ( even though it has some cool ones) it's all about getting a high score and if you ever hear " jackpot " on fish tails you know you've earned it . Too many games today call out " jackpot " when you've done stuff all . It has the funnest video mode I've seen and one of the best toppers of all time . It also has some of the best dmd animations . Lots of people look down on fish tales but it is one of the most underrated games in my opinion , so that means you can get it at great price .

IMG20181016205939 (resized).jpg

judge dredd (I want one) and getaway. Demo man is probably up there too but I just can't get into it as much as I'd like

I would also recommend getaway

Fish tales is legit, Dredd, demo man, t2.. they’re probably all obtainable sub 3k. At least in player condition.

This right here. All of these are under 3k recently, and all have a market so you can easily trade/sell when you are done.

I feel like folks always think of 90s DMD games. What about used Stern DMDs? From a value standpoint, I think used TSPP, Star Trek Pro, Metallica Pros and Walking Dead Pros are a lot of game for the money.

All of the above titles listed are good ones. Dirty Harry as well.

Here was my geeky attempt at an answer:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/statistical-bang-for-your-buck#post-5331401

Below is a summary of that data from best to worst value within that range. It's difficult to compare between price ranges, and what this data is showing is essentially for the "X" dollars, you should expect a game with a ranking of "Y". The further above that curve a game is the better "value" relative to other games around that same price. The statistical DMD the highest above that curve was Metallica (Pro), but again you can't really compare between price ranges, so it really comes down to how much you want to spend.

under $2000 - Maverick, Lethal Weapon 3
$2,000 to $3,000 - Getaway, Judge Dredd, World Cup Soccer, Terminator 2, Black Knight 2000, Jurassic Park, Demolition Man
$3,000 to $4,000 - Shadow, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Fish Tales, Tales from the Crypt, Road Show, Indianapolis 500, Dirty Harry
$4,000 to $5,000 - Metallica (Pro), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Spider-Man, Star Trek (Pro), Iron Man, Congo
$5,000 to $6,000 - Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, Simpsons, White Water, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Attack From Mars

My personal answer would be to look for a High Speed II: The Getaway, Fish Tales, or World Cup Soccer.

Baywatch is an awesome pin for the price! But, you have to be able to tolerate the theme. I love the fact that there are color options to replace the large expensive DMD if necessary.

Demolition Man.

A ton of value at $2500 ish.

Lots of shots and ramps, easy to play, lots of things to shoot for. Fun call outs and modes.

Let's just sticky this b/c it's perfect.

My personal picks....grab a WCS now b/c that thing will continue to rise. It's super family friendly and deeper than it looks. TFTC is another and if you can stomach the theme, music, etc Road Show and STTNG.

Yeah...now that the "bang for the buck" B/W games have risen to the $3k range, it's hard to recommend them when you can get into some really good modern Sterns for ~$4k, especially if willing to buy routed machines. It seems like just yesterday it was an easy answer with JD, DM, JM, JP all being $1k games. That's probably still my list for best value DMDs, but now they are triple the cost. Get off my lawn...

Lots of great games, but I think Maverick is the best bang playwise for the lowest buck out of those listed. I also think LAH is a great game. It's got some stiff competition in the under $3000 category but it should be included in lpeters82's list. It would be my choice over DE JP or TFTC and is usually less than both of those. Demo Man and Fish Tales are also great choices.

I'll second Capcom Breakshot.

Also, I recently overhauled a Rocky & Bullwinkle for someone, and thought it was surprisingly good fun.

I've seen both go for around $2000.

Staying under $3000, having a DMD, and using bang for the buck as a qualifier (which to me means won't get old quick/repetitive, lots to do, and won't get annoying -call outs, music, etc.) Judge Dredd, World Cup Soccer, Demolition Man, Baywatch, Johnny Mnemonic, Last Action Hero, NBA Fastbreak, WPT all make the cut.

Honorable Mentions: T2, T3, Black Rose, WWF RR, Batman Forever, HS2, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Breakshot, NF, SST, PZ, NASCAR, Maverick, LW3, SW1, RCT, Hurricane.

Anything else, probably doesn't meet the criteria or good luck getting for sub $3k.

Far from perfect, but I couldn't think of a more scientific process.

Last Action Hero comes out to a .074, which means it's slightly above the trend line. What I believe tends to happen with some of the budget DMDs is they are driven down because the formula would tell you that buying a cheaper game with a digital display would be the better value. I personally hate that Hardbody is rated a -1.082. I think it's one of the best bangs for you bucks, but I, apparently, just like the game a lot more then it's current Pinside average.

This was the most accurate post of pinball prices compared to other posts and the prices stated are likely average or players condition games. Obviously paying more for better condition. I always see people who say a machine can be had for some low ball price there is an occasional steal out there and if you are first to a sale you can maybe get one. Of course if I buy a lotto and I get all the lucky numbers I could win millions too. I know people sometimes get deals and I always wonder how they find them but I think that is rare or they are old routed games.

But, there are some great middle value games in the $2500-4,000 price area that offer tons of fun and are long lasting in a collection.

Personally I think a very fun steal of a game is Getaway - add a Pinsound to it and it is great. I really thought that game would pass through my collection but for now I just love it. Those come up often in the $2500 range not where I live but on Pinside it seems like.

Sshhh...I should have remove that one. It very well could be the next game I'm targeting. Thankfully there are a good number of them out there.

You lost me here

That's why it didn't make the cut and was instead under "honorable mentions".

BBH is the only DMD game that offers bang for the buck.

JM has a ton packed into it if you can get passed the glove. It's one of the fasted pins too. Oh, and midnight madness.

Congo if you wanna go that expensive. I miss mine. Super cool pin and unique.

WCS94 is pretty fun to play too, if you like the theme. Amazing to look at as well.

Look into some of the 90's gottlieb titles too. They can be had for cheap.