EM era, modern pins are rubbish and too complex not to mention too expensive!

Early SS for me, I love the 80's pins very good layouts and fabulous artwork hell I even love the quirky computer sounds.

I recently picked up a Stern PoTC and thought that one has rules that are in the sweet spot: not too simple, not too deep. The rules card is amusingly vague, but it reflects that you can learn the game by playing it. I appreciate that in a game. But I can also appreciate various depths of rules too.

rules (resized).jpg

I think an interesting question would be, how many times do you have to play the game to learn 90% of the rules. Difficult to say all rules, because getting to a wizard mode that has special rules would skew that too much. This is actually something that might not be that far-featched to measure as there's now AI-playing systems that pretty much do this.

System 11 through early DMD (taf/getaway) hit a sweet spot in approachability. Objectives have similar depth as early solid states. But better processors allowed multiple objectives and more variety on a single game.

The Lyman Era...

Without identifying era or system, how about any game you play and just know what to do without needing to look at the rules card? And not even counting the rules cards that need to have so much written on them that you can't see the font, lol. Simple is better in my opinion, like Pirates already mentioned. Not necessary a simple and shallow rule set. Just one that doesn't need a long winded explanation on what to do.

Space Station comes to mind for this as does White Water. Maybe this is a combination of the lights telling you what to shoot for as well as the sounds or voices? And shots that aren't impossible to hit. Always a good learning feedback when you need to do something, can actually do it, see the reward/result and then keep progressing like that.

I'd also vote for games that clearly show you your progress right on the playfield in front of the flippers. Lethal Weapon 3 comes to mind for this. The main modes you are trying to advance through are right there, getting lit as you do them. And doing them is pretty straightforward from hitting ramps or orbits or saucers. Similarly with World Poker Tour. All the main modes (which there are three significant ones in the game) are right in front of you. Now, advancing through them in what is a crazy long and deep rule set to get to all the different multiball modes and jackpots is another matter.

I can think of more than a couple games that I have played and still don't know what the heck I'm supposed to be doing (Monopoly and Wheel of Fortune, for example). Might be the environment or maybe condition too as having a weak upper flipper ruins any chance of liking a game (Simpson's Pinball Party was like this for me in the one I found to play not long ago. So too with a Baywatch). So condition is a factor as well.

Hard to compare due to technology advances over time.

I am getting into the simple but elegant rules on EM's and SS's. Take Gottlieb Volley and Lucky hand as examples in the EM category. The value of the drops changes with top inland's on Volley. The WOW calculations on Lucky Hand. As I play these games I just smile how a simple game to todays standards can be so much fun.

EM's are the best games to have friends over, bet a buck a game and drink beers. That does not happen with AIQ.

I am also leaning towards the Stern SS's as far as rules in the SS era ( Not counting EBD of course ). Stars is just a great game for scoring opportunities. Building up the bonus with the drops on Sea Witch is always fun as well.

The ultimate ruleset design for me is Lord of the Rings. What Keith Jonhson did with that game should be a template for modern rulesets. A good number of modern games have modes that are just "Hit the ramps 10x", "Hit the orbits 5x", etc. With LOTR Keith Johnson created a ruleset that works the playfield in interesting ways with shots timed to music, sounds, animations, etc. Combine that with multiple stages for the games multiballs and wizard modes along with meaningful rewards for completing the modes themselves (plus the Gift of the Elves shot required to collect them) and you have one of the best rulesets ever created.

WPC or mostly anything coded by Lyman

I think it comes down to personal preference in designer.

90s DM era. Not too many rules, not too few, just the right amount.

They're all good for their own reasons.

Lyman's era

90s pins hands down as they have rules that are mostly intuitive to understand; not too simple and not too many/complicated. Sweet spot!

Funny thing is DW was said to not sell well because the rules were to complicated. I owned one and WTF were people thinking? Not complicated at all.

I like it when the lights and call outs tell me where to shoot. That's all I need.

Pretty much 89 to 1998. I feel like this was zenith of pinball; games were fairly advanced, but had the perfect amount of complexity and scoring depth (mostly). The amount of creativity in both licensed pins and original designs were also unmatched. Bally/Williams from this era especially are still untouchable to this day. Even certain Sega and Data East tables were amazing.

Such as? And define "amazing."

I guess better than your average pin. South Park, Apollo 13, Batman Forever and Star Wars Trilogy. Even games like Space Jam and Twister were pretty damn fun. I would definitely put Batman Forever and Apollo 13 into that underrated category.

Yikes!

Oh come on! What's not to like about those pins? Have you played them, they're great.

The majority of the DE and Sega pins are, compared to the B/W of the same era, pretty boring and one-dimensional. Nowadays these pins are cult, retro, rare and somehow certainly fun!!!!
Owning and playing a Twister or Batman Forever is fun for a while for most and fun forever if you just love that 1 machine from your youth.
SWT and Spacejam are really horrible for home use, as are most other DE and Sega.
Sega made cult flippers. Great themes, poor execution.

No.

Yeah I've played them then & now.
90s Sega are for sure better than 90s Gottliebs; that's as positive as I can spin it.

I dont know how South Park is better than the average pin in any era.

DE GNR is simply one of the best machines ever made, from any manufacturer. If it had been made by B/W, it would be comparable to TOTAN/AFM/TAF/TZ pricewise.

For me DE alpha games are better than DMD; but GNfR was damn fine machine. Certainty take it over the new one easy.

To each their own I guess, but I love a big chunk of DE and Sega machines from the 90s. Overall, no, they aren't nearly as good as what B/W was releasing during that period, but I still thoroughly enjoy some of the Sega/DE tables I mentioned whenever I come across them.

TFTC and Tommy would get a good amount of play from me over some of the 90s WMS. DE GNR is great.

For the Sega pins, Batman Forever is the best of that group but nothing else there comes close, for me atleast.

I'm definitely a rah-rah 90's Williams Bally guy, but I did get to play a Sega GoldenEye recently and thought it was a lot of fun. Great Bond movie and nostalgic too for the N64 game back then. The satellite dish with the magnet in the middle you shoot it into to start multiball is friggin sweet lol.

IMG_7389 (resized).JPG

A friend that just got in to pinball casually a year ago went all in on a nib JJPGNR; had him over and he played the DE version, and he offered to straight trade. I still have the DE version.

As I’m sure you know, there’s a ton of strategy to the game, and you can secretly stack certain modes with multiball, or other modes. An early Lyman gem for sure.

I feel the ruleset on DE are very samey.

I really dislike the "MB is automatically ready on ball 3" rule.

Most of the games you can tweak a setting to disable the automatic multiball on ball 3. Typically it’s either changing to tournament mode or changing a feature from easy to medium. But your’re right on the rules being very similar game to game. That and lots of the same call outs