Its rating doesn't reflect its importance to pinball as a whole, it's a rating based on how much fun it is to play. Compared to newer games with deep rulesets and many modes no EM has the fun factor modern games have.

Many people can learn to love what EM games have to offer but it's a whole different experience than a modern pin.

At the TPF you could walk up to nearly any EM with no line. Most non-EMs had a line. That tells me EMs don't have the fun factor that modern games have.

EMs stand there unplayed most of the time at Pinballz in Austin too. Maybe it takes an aficionado to teach people the fun factor of EMs? I'd like to learn to like them but they generally bore me. There is a Fireball Classic at Pinballz that feels very floaty and uncontrollable. The Fireball in the TPF tournament wasn't any more fun to me.

I'd still like to find a fun EM with the manual shooter lane loader. I'm sure some of those would hold my interest.

I would also like to thank you for bringing a great example of Fireball to the TPF. My lack of enthusiasm for EMs in general doesn't lower my appreciation of the hard work done by owners who enjoy sharing them with a wider audience.