People often praise the game for being one of the best flowing games of the mid-90s and of all time in general.

I bought one yesterday!

Great Flow/Combos & handles are nifty..

I am probably one of the biggest DM fanboys you will ever see. Here is what I love about this game:

1. FLOW!! holy hell dude. You can literally have an endless combo on this game. right loop, scoop shot with upper flipper (one of the best sounding shots in pinball), left ramp, center shot, scoop shot with right flipper, rinse and repeat and you can mix in right loop shots and right ramp shots if the claw is disabled for competition purposes. I have had a combo that went for 28 consecutive shots before. the sounds when you string together a huge combo are amazing.

Also, I have played some beat up versions of this that were not fun at all. Once you play one that is clean and waxed up, whoa baby, you will never look back!

2. The callouts and dots. I think the callouts for the multiballs, modes and various other shots in the game are so great and accompanied with great animations. Play this game with the volume cranked up, and try not to laugh at the Chase Simon mode, or the jackpot callouts for the second multiball.

3. The trigger buttons. A lot of people hate these, but I love them. If you can get good at playing with these, you can really get a leg up on your competition due to the extra points you get for combos made with those buttons instead of the regular flipper buttons. They also trigger lots of secret points in multiballs and some of the modes.

4. Getting to the final multiball is super cool. Instead of it just being the 4 multiball, its jackpots are based off of how you did in the previous multiballs to get there. there is opportunity for huge points if you get to the super jackpots on all the other multiballs.

5. Demo time is a sweet wizard mode too. Again, cool callouts and dots for that mode.

That being said, the claw is not the coolest thing in the world, but there are parts of all these super pins that seems like wasted space to me. Art is really not good at all, but I like it due to fact that the movie was one of my favorites growing up.

This and T2 are two of my absolute favorite games that you can get in the 2k range. This gets the edge for me as the flow is just so great. T2 has good flow too, but you cannot connect as many shots as you can in DM.

100% agree with the above post. The flow on DM is one of the best ever.

my mind is blown!!

I think the flow is overstated. There are lots of flow killing shots in the game. The nice one I had didn't last long.

I don't have tons to add, but I was recently in the market for a used pin to start my collection.

Demo Man was often brought up to me because of its flow. Additional points made to me by several folks included:

* Easy to learn how to fix this machine. Great machine to start with for a beginner like me.
* Lots of available parts available.
* Relatively easy to find great quality ones at a fair price.

Never having got it I am unsure how accurate these are, but I certainly heard it several times from various sources.

Its a wonderful game. Most important thing is to REBUILD THE FLIPPERS!!!

It's not so popular. It's a solid C+ Williams / Bally title just like it's always been.

I'd call it a good "bang for your buck" pin and should be on any short list in its price range.

I didn't know it was...

I like DM but I think JD is a better bang for buck pin. Can't go wrong with either in their price range though.

The rules of the lock freeze is very cool. Has that risk reward factor going for it. Do you cash in on multiball with one freeze, or try for more to have more balls in play during multiball? Some great music and call outs too. "Send a maniac to catch a maniac" DM is very unique with the handles. No other game plays like it.

Lets put it this way I got a DM 5 months ago and a Tron 4 months ago . I really liked them both a lot but when I needed room for a new pin Tron had to go because I liked DM a little more. This game should top 30 . It has more than most Sterns and B/W's. Flow and combo shots are amazing. Best deal out there period.

I had only planned to keep my DM for a few months. Get it in, play it to learn it, and sell it. That was the plan anyway. I think that was 3.5 years ago. It is just a fun game.

And as said above, it needs good flippers. If you have ever played a weak copy, it is horrible. Balls half way up the ramps coming back at you. Good honest 90s pinball. But if you don't care for it, there are plenty of other games. Judge Dredd lasted two weeks in my house, but others like JD better. Find one you like and have some fun!

DM is often panned for being a one trick pony. I wouldn't call it popular at all.

It is a low 2k game when in nice shape. That hardly seems like it is popular relative to the other super pins.

But JD is a $1400 game

It's not a $4k+ Bally/Williams game, and because it's not as deep as more expensive pins, it seems to change hands often.

A lot of people whose opinions I respect love the game. I don't really care for it, though. In fact, I could hardly wait to trade it.

In my opinion, it seems to be a shallow multiball fest, without much substance. The shots feel just OK to me, and I think there's a lot of wasted real estate on the left side of the playfield.

Better, flowier games in the same price range include Getaway and Judge Dredd. World Cup is better but has less flow.

I loved the stupid movie, so hearing the callouts and the theme music really gets me pumped when playing this game. Especially the "Send a maniac to catch a maniac" clip when Fortress(?) multi-ball starts.

I like the novelty of the claw (what other game has that?), 4 different multi-balls, the ramp shots, and what seems like a lot of variety and uniqueness not seen in other pins.

It's a fun and quick game, sort of like Iron Man.

Also the call out for a big bonus is cool too. "Glorious!" It's always great too when you have a great ball combined with 5x bonus, you can get damn near a billion from bonus.

My only real beef is like others have said that the left side is pretty slim on shots and the shots that are there are not very fun or safe to hit.

One of my favorites. I like that going multiball all day prevent you from getting Demo Time so you have to choose a path. The secret jackpots are great since they're not like VIP passes where you have to earn them, you get to use them all the time but only once per MB and have to decide whether to cash in a difficult jackpot or save it for more value. I like games that build up to huge points over time rather than grinding out at a constant pace, Cryo-prison MB, Demo JP, and Demo Time are definitely that. Lots of times in the game to press upper buttons for some secret bonus (My favorite being the Feel Great bonus if you press the buttons during U-Look-Gr8-2Day). The layout is unique, a couple things I like specifically are that the MB start shot is tough but you can start it via the claw if you have to (but you waste your claw) and it makes good use of one pop bumper in two areas of the playfield.

The theme isn't bad, just most of the art. Still frequently less than $2k for a game that would make everyone say holy shit at how loaded it is compared to many games these days, it's a killer deal IMO.

I'm not a big fan of Demolition Man. IMHO it is one of the worst modern DMD machine that Williams/Bally put out. A true Klunker! It just misses the mark and should rank as one of the most boring pins from the 90's. As for the artwork it is some of the worst ever for a pinball machine I'd rate the art a 2 in all seriousness. The novelty flipper handles are a joke! The movie was complete junk! This is one of the worst movie themed pinball machines ever made. however I'd hafta give the all-time worst award to X-files or Barb Wire though.

Way overrated pinball machine folks. There are much better pins out there! It's worth $1200-$1500 tops.

Two years ago, they would sit for $1500. I would not say they are popular.

DM is the best bargain in pinball IMHO. It's not the best game ever of course but it is a lot of fun.
It's all about combos and multiballs. Some people seem to think that is a negative as there is no depth but, to me, it's a welcome rest. I mean, I love a good 20 minute romp through LOTR as much as the next guy. But sometimes you just want to hit some loops and rack up a monster combo.

I love mine and don't see it going anywhere. I'm not a fan of the handles and the artwork is pretty crappy, but it's a really, really fun game. Is it deep like my Metallica.....no. Is it a blast to just bang the ball around stringing multiballs together.....Abso-freakin'-lutely!

Once you get decent at the shots, you can put together some pretty nice combos. That left orbit still kicks my ass sometimes. That's a tough shot.

Anyway, I haven't had one person come to my house, play the game and not say "wow, I really like that game". For me, it's a keeper.

I like DM for a lot of the reasons above. Some don't like the claw because they choose Lock Freeze every time. Some don't like it because it stops the game. Personally I like it and I always try to choose each mode so I can get to Demolition Time which has an awesome light show. LEDs are a must in this game, but so is a GI OCD board because of the many uses of the dimming effects in the GI. I say they're a must because with incandescents it looks very blah. I have mostly cool white in the GI, not rainbows and really think it makes the blues in the artwork look good.

I liked the movie too so that helps also.

DM is much better than Congo

I owned a DM for a couple years and enjoyed it. It was a fun game just to zone out and play some mindless pinball where you don't have to think or strategize too much. The games software and the left side of the playfield are the biggest weaknesses. You can basically ignore all the modes and just rock out on multiball modes all game. the game has great flow and is fun to nail combos on. I had the profanity ROMs in mine which added a cool touch. Overall I don't think it's in the same league as games like Shadow or JM, but it's a fun game for what it is. I kind of miss it.

^ this.

Its a SuperPin just like Sttng, IJ and TZ, but like the other Sly pin and fellow SuperPin JD, the machine runs for about HALF the price of the first 3 that are strong contenders to the top pins of all time.

Basically DM and JD are a strong value for the coin. Then toss on some decent modes, and if you really want to go nuts DM has alternate code to give you Videos modes, you have a fun fun machine.

Congo has been in my collection for two years, and is welcome to stay another two decades.

Demo Man wore out its welcome in two weeks.

It's cheap, which is nice but these get rotated out pretty quickly when you get bored and good at them.

No, it's not. NBA Fast Break, Jackbot, Fish Tales, and T2, to name a few, a far better games around the same price.

The biggest problems with the game come from a half-baked ruleset that both negates the Claw as an interesting toy, AND renders a full 1/3rd (far left) of the huge playfield as pointless.

Why aren't the eyeball or car crash a jackpot or Superjackpot shots in any of the multiballs? Would make this game far better. Those two shots are interesting but totally wasted by this ruleset.

The stop and go nature of the game doesn't really suit the layout, which has convinced people it's a "flow game" just because there are big ramps. In addition (subtraction?), the ugly art, and a general overbaked, less than the sum of its parts feel to Demo Man keep it from being a game I really can't resist coming back to. Even when I kick its ass, I don't get that usual WPC-style sense of accomplishment. I've owned several and would buy one again but even when they were going for 900 bucks I didn't like it as much as the others I've mentioned.

Honestly, I think this is the first time I've seen these words used in the same sentence. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, just not a great game. But never really even considered it 'popular' though.

You have nailed it. For a flow game, it sure does stop a lot.

Ditto and I've had my Congo since April 2011 and it isn't going anywhere. I've owned Demoman and it was my very first DMD pin so it will always have a special place for me which is why I have owned it 3x now in the past 5 years! For people who aren't very good at pinball like myself it is a great game as starting multiball is pretty easy and rewarding. The flow on the table is fantastic, the combos can be endless and my favorite is setting up the upper left flipper to the "thunk" scoop computer shot. There are other shots that make a similar satisfying "thunk" sound such as the STTNG center scoop shot or TAF vault shot.

I think if space permitted I wouldn't mind having another Demoman back in my collection again but there are other games I enjoy more such as JD and JM. Both of these are back in my line up for second time around and I don't see either leaving anytime soon.

OP - I feel the same. I only played one once and really wanted to like it. It seemed to have everything I like in pinball. Gameplay just didn't do it for me. The handles are an interesting idea but I hate them. They become very uncomfortable and did not make the game more fun. Side buttons have been in use for decades on pins for a reason. Artwork was very bland and none of the shots really did it for me. It's not the worst pin from that era but far from the best. I can see why people like it. It has a lot of cool features and you can find one cheap. I definitely want to play it again to give it another shot but no desire to ever own one.

That terrible multiball/EB shot also detracts from this game. So lame to nail that shot and not get credit for it - Jackbot-sample style frustration.

Is DM popular? I own one but have only played about 2 games on it, LOL. It has been at a friends house in exchange for him cleaning it up and rebuilding everything. I think he is getting done with it soon so looking forward to playing some games on it soon.

Sometimes you shoot up the center and get credit for the MB shot though, so that evens it out!

dm is a good cheap game and i would mind having one for a couple months

Maybe the scoop you hit broke at the weld like mine. I don't have a welder so I taped it up really tight with electrical tape and that shot counts a lot more compared to before I discovered the broken scoop wall (which caused the ball to bounce out). I need to find someone local with a welder.

I've owned over 250 machines in nearly two decades and right now I only own two WPC games - Attack from Mars and Demolition Man. DM plays smooth and doesn't require you to study rulesets to just play and enjoy. If it had better art and/or theme I think it'd be higher in the rankings.

That said, I also love other fast, shallow games like Getaway and BK2K. You don't always have four hours to spare, and also, not all of us are amazing players, so super deep and difficult games like LOTR are just frustrating.

I lost interest in DM faster than most pins I have had. That being said, its not bad for the price they go for.

Chuck's post nails it although I have to admit I'm a fanboy myself. It was my first game. I don't agree it's easy to "clean." This sucker is a real time consuming puzzle to properly shop.

Love Stallone shouting "REPLAY" when you have a great game.

Woof, bark, bark. Grrr...

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