Depends what you like. I didn't really enjoy it at first but after playing it more it moved up for me and I think it is an enjoyable System 11 game. I'd say it isn't a great competitive game overall, but it does a decent job of encouraging you to shoot several things. Definitely need a well working Mixmaster toy to fully enjoy the game.

It's available on The Pinball Arcade video game if you're curious about learning the rules and trying it out. I've never owned it (we had one on location for a while so I've played it a number of times), and while I think it's fun it is not a game I've ever really wanted in my home.

Someone else can likely give better advice on pricing. I imagine sub $1500 would be seen as a decent/good deal for a buyer at this stage. I'd not go over that amount for this pin, personally (I think the average sale price here is $1700). I think there are too many better options at around the $2k mark to really want to spend such money on a Dr. Dude.

If you've got a list of pins you know you want more, I'd just wait. My personal approach is, if a game is a great deal, I'm willing to buy and try it out. If it is a fair deal, then I have to want it already, and if so I'd buy it (and if not I pass). And if it is an overpriced pin, I always pass, even if I really want it. Your mileage may vary, of course, but in your case, since you haven't played Dr. Dude and indicate you have other games you desire more, given the price you'd need to pay to get it (purchase + shipping) I would label the pin a fair deal but pass because it isn't a priority pin.

I think so. I've played it in tournaments, and I do not believe the Dude levels were carrying over. I, however, was thinking more about Bag of Tricks and the random awards from that (the one I played those were always different; don't know if that can be handled via settings). Some of them are pretty significant, and as with many Mystery Award games, I think that automatically negates it from being a great competitive game. But, if that can be standardized, I'm more than happy to revise my opinion.

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest it was not worth allowing in a tournament. Simply that it is not a "great" tournament game. It never bothered me to draw the game for competition, but if I were building a line-up with competition in mind it would not make the A list for consideration (if that makes sense). But that's really true for a lot of pre-90s SS games for a mix of reasons. I wasn't sure of the OP's goals with his collection, so I noted it.

Depending on your rules of competitive play, I'd say Extra Ball could be the most potent award. I think I only ever saw the tilt warning award once... not an award I really cared about; I wasn't as aggressive as I should be trying to save the ball on that one. I did survive a round in a strike-out tournament once thanks to the award lighting the ramp for 1 million points (I was totally outplayed otherwise but them's the breaks of mystery). But it really depends on how hard the pin is tuned, the rules of the tournament, and so forth.

Overall, for me Dr. Dude is a Top 10 System 11 pin, but not a Top 5. Granted, I've not tried them all, but what fun would it be for me to operate without a few assumptions.

Good to know (as I noted; I never owned it, these were the rules of the location I played it at). Thanks for the additional details!