TWDLE, IJ a close second along with TFLE. WOZ attracted the ladies.
TZ being worked on, so out of commission.

IM and Rbion, but really all were played a lot.

When I had more pins; fgy, acdc, stle , tfle, LoTR in that order

I had a party last night. Frantically worked to get the T2 shop job done. Did a couple last minute repairs while people were here. Nobody other than myself played even one game of pinball.

It was a fight between TZ and AC/DC.

Family loved my new CV...and BW if you can believe it

Theatre of Magic is usually a huge hit in my lineup.

You guys will get a kick out of this report. We hosted a New Year's Eve party for friends from church last night. Probably north of 50 folks were there at one point or another during the evening. I have a good number of A list WPC games in my collection (MM, CC, AFM, Scared Stiff, TZ, TAF, MB, etc) for a total of 13 pins, which I mention not to brag but as a frame of reference. By far the most popular game in my basement yesterday... the freakin Skee Ball machine! There was typically a line waiting to play that one. A close second was the 4 player linked Daytona USA sit down driving games from 20 years ago. Third was the bowler. In a very distant fourth place would be all the pinball machines. I didn't pull audits but from observation I would say TSPP was probably being played the most, MB was up there as well. The MAME cabinet was also in constant use but honestly that was one guy that parked there after I showed him it would play Galaga....

I want a Skee Ball for sure in my room. Ball bowler would be great too but I don't think I want to spend the cash needed to get a really nice one.

At parties currently I'd say my air hockey table, ping pong and pool gets used more than most of the pins. I feel like that tide is turning a little as non-pinheads who have been over to my house on multiple occasions are starting to head up to my arcade loft more frequently. When pins are played, my STLE gets the most play. LOTR probably next. Tron gets played once and then folks move on as it is too fast and they don't understand what is going on.

Games that do good with everyone
Sopranos
FT

But probably the best is
Usa football

TWDLE has been stealing the show at my place. Newest game and all, but it is still the clear winner out of my collection on play with guests.

Slugfest.

Here are my audits from New Years Eve. 20 or so people with 5 kids. Skeeball wins by a landslide.

PotC - 39
Rollergames - 23
Corvette - 15
F-14 - 14
Monopoly - 10
TZ - 9
Hurricane - 8
Getaway - 8
Time Machine - 4
Fathom - 4
SkeeBall - 213

@ last nights new years party in order of most played by adults & teens:

Tron LE
TOM
TSPP
Defender
little bit of Q*bert & SMB
not TAF last night (surprised me. usually the Dad's hover around it.)

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ST LE and Xmen always seem to be the big winners when I have people over. People seem to dig the flashy new sterns.

GI and BBH, both simple fun basher games which are fantastic in multiplayer due to shorter ball times and wacky themes.

Anything new. A few people asked me if my TAF & TZ were from the 70's!??!? It's hard to explain to people that have no clue of WTF is going on in other people's lives besides their own. Sorry.... sad but true.

Despite the lack of IJ4 love here, it seems to attract a fair bit of attention from our guests. After that, Metallica and ACDC. All other machines get little play by guests unless we have a full house.

Lotr (by far), followed by woz, Tom, st, IM, sm, tf

Ball times are not very long on lotr with guests.

Been there.

I'd say 90%+ of the friends that come in our house never ask to play...our most recent party had about 9 couples over and no one even ventured in the game room.

But, for those that will play, AC/DC and ST have been big hits...as was The Getaway when we had it.
Super Chexx, however, buries pinball...hands down.

I added a MAME cabinet and it became an instant hit at my parties. While the pins were more popular with pinball folk, the MAME machine was used by the casual pin players more. I added a Jamma cabinet recently because people were waiting to play my single MAME cabinet. Now in addition to the pinball, the arcade games get just as much if not more play.

Had a New Years party. Iron man and Avatar got the most plays. Both are LED and I think that draws people in. LOTR and Metallica are on the other side of the room. LOTR got 1 play and Metallica got none!!! The winner by far though was the Megatouch. People played that all night.

Slugfest and WOZ. Third would be Sea Raider.

I love watching my (non-pinball playing) friends play and compete for high scores. Everybody loves a little competition.

I hope this is due to massive outlanes and over-sensitive tilt rather than a true reflection of your guests' skills...but at least they seem to recognise a great pinball machine when they see one.

Avatar is usually a hot title during parties and game nights. A few months ago, I posted here the stats of a pinball party...here's how they ranked:

Gilligan's Island: 64
CSI : 59
Iron Gaga: 58
ACDC Luci: 48
Super Mario Bros: 43
Rollercoaster Tycoon: 41
Theatre of Magic: 40
Jackbot: 39
Avatar: 34
Indiana Jones 4(Stern): 32
TRON LE: 30
Cirqus Voltaire: 29
Ripleys BION: 29
Pirates OTC: 25
Transformers LE: 23

My nieces and nephews were intrigued when I told them I had a pinball machine but did not want to play. None of the adults were interested except my brother.

I had family over for the holidays and out of my 3 pins, SM got a lot of love. Everyone visiting played at least 5 games on it. My dad used to play pinball in the 70s but hasn't touched a machine since. He got really into it and probably played 50+ games across my 3 machines. I watched my sister play "just one more game" 3 or 4 games in a row and I couldn't help but smile. All and all pinball was a hit!

Top Three:

1) Tron
2) Family Guy
3) TWD LE

yep...true reflection of non pinheads playing...but they sure had fun!

Top Pins@ Parties
WH20
CFTBL
Mousin Around (younger guests)
BSD
TAF
Bottom:
Any SS Pin
SI
DD
Xenon

Top Vids @ Parties
CarnEvil (non-stop lines)
Tetris
Galaga
Tapper
Toobin'
Tempest
Cruisin Exotica
Punchout!!
Centipede

Pins rarely get any play at my house during parties but when they do WOZ is the clear winner with SWE1/RFM coming in a close second. ACDC gets 0 love... When I had a more diverse lineup the megatouch and Shuffle bowler were the big hits, people liked the MAME but those two were the clear winners.

Shuffle bowl is really fun when you make it a gambling device...$1 a pin and the games get really intense

Same here - and it happens every time we have friends over. Funny, I have a bucket of quarters next to it because it doesn't support free play and yet the kids always ask what they can trade the tickets for!

-Rob
-visit http://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets

This is so selective, it could only be done right if we all had the same pins then what about demographic, no chance WOZ would be a hit at my gatherings. TWDLE with the topper was blowing peoples minds on New Years eve but the background music that night was a nice mix of Slayer, Pantera and Black Sabbath, that gives you an idea of why AC/DC didn't last to long. Even the chicks I know would not be very receptive to WOZ so its a relative.

Avatar
MB
AFM
Skateball

Had a bunch of USCG, Ex-military, & First Responders over.
WCS94 (most popular with the Ladies)
Baywatch
POTC
JP
Popeye (broke early during the party, would have been much higher)
LW3

I've wanted to add something like that to my lineup for a long time as I assumed it would be a hit with non-pinheads. Problem is I don't know which ones are good. I see working ones at auction go cheap and others will still bring a lot of cash and I've never pulled the trigger as I didn't want to end up with a dud.

If you have the same model of Skee Ball that I have I was able to convert it to free play with no permanent modifications to the game. On the right hand side where the coin reject push button is there is a carriage bolt just to the right. I bought a red momentary contact push button from Radio Shack and it will fit into that hole perfectly if you remove that bolt, then just solder the leads to the coin switch. Works perfectly and it would be easy to switch back if need be (I left the bolt and nut laying in the coin box).

I also wanted to say my STTNG played flawlessly all night thanks to your daughterboard mod, thanks again!!!

RFM is always a huge hit. My kids play ACDC more than anything else and stay away from Metallica.

^^ LOL ^^

I love that Conan clip.

The machine that gets the most play at my house is ST pro, then IM. People seem to like Black Hole too.

Out of my Mame machine, Pinbot, Funhouse, and whatever 3rd game I have (currently Bad Cats), the Mame machine gets 95% of the use for the night, followed by Pinbot at around 4%, then 1% on FH and BC by myself usually. Meow meow meow meoouch...

I usually have non-pinheads over, since I do a lot of theater work in the Twin Cities.
The favorite is usually:

Stellar Wars (SS)
Big Ben (EM)

With Gorgar close behind (the 666 edition)

We didn't have anyone over for New Years, but my husband's sister/husband/5 kids came to our house for the first time at Christmas. I showed them around the house and saved the basement for last, then left them there to play after a quick "how to" lesson. In about 5 minutes, they were all standing around upstairs again, totally in the way in the kitchen, and I could hear the machines still running. They loaded up 4-player games on all of them, played about 2 balls, got bored, and walked away. The kids are from 8-18, and not a one was interested at all.

When non-pin people come over, usually the most played of the 8 at my house are my Spiderman and Frankenstein. JP is down for now but is initially popular due to theme, but it's a mean game and people walk away from it pretty fast. The older crowd (my grandmother and her husband) like the Twin Win because "those others are way too fast."

I too love that line, especially put to music.

I was in the same boat. The one I got is actually a JVL Vortex. Touchscreen LCD. I basically got it for free with my Avatar pin. Did a package deal on it. It's a fun little toy. My wife has wanted one forever so I gave it to her on Christmas.

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