yes..

It would be gottlieb !

The 80's was such a trans-formative decade in the world of pinball, that I usually break the decade down into games made before System 11, and those made after it. I'm a huge fan of Bally games in the early 80s, but games made after 1983 they just lose their appeal. Trying to compare Whirlwind to Fathom is just unfair, even though they are both absolutely awesome games in their own right.

In my opinion, Williams owned the pinball market after High Speed, and had a darned strong showing for the rest of the decade with games like Black Knight.

Gottlieb had a few awesome games like Black Hole and Haunted House, but they never really recovered from the reputation that they earned from operators for being unreliable during the transition from EM to SS in the late 70s.

System 11 probably my favorite pin-era.

SYS11 isa good platform for sure..

So is the Gott platform with the ground mods done...its a shame gott didnt do those from the get go....

I think the Gott's woulda got a better rap then...

System 11 is absolutely awesome. It is the foundation for our modern games and gave excellent designers like Steve Ritchie and programmers like Larry DeMar enough horsepower to create fast, fun, comparatively deep games. High Speed in particular is a major milestone because it tries to tell a story (albeit a simple one). Without System 11 and High Speed, we could have lost pinball in the late 80s.

Combine that with the fact that by the mid-80s we had strong flippers, an evolution in ramps and excellent reliability and you had the catalyst for our modern pinball hobby. Many of us that are currently collectors (including myself) remember playing games like Big Guns as a kid and always wishing we could have one in our house. Now we usually have too many

Yea owning my first 80's got. I am amazed at the .. Uhh.. Electrical...

Zaccaria ! (OK, that's may be not the best... still a very good one)
Too bad they disappeared around 1987.

I might be biased, but there's probably a reason why Wililams is usually the comparison for modern pins.. There's 32 pins out of the top 100 that are Williams.

Ya Williams, not for there quality control though. I read where alot of people here and other forums complain about todays Sterns having issues out of the box new. Well Williams pins out of the box, most all machines needed tweeking, or adjusting of some sort. They also did not factory put on mylar. They just threw the sheet of mylar in the cabinet and it was owners responsibility to install it on the pf. Alot of OP's did not do this and this is why you see so many worn to wood PF's on High Speed. I know an old OP who operated only Williams pins and he told me this, as when he was out my house he mentioned oh the owner who bought this new did not put mylar on your pf. Also without internet back then, support for help was bad (we got it made today with sites like Pinside, where we are all here to help others with issues, etc). This guy I know said Williams had op's out to the facility in Illinois for repair classes. Thank goodness for the internet today, and Pinside and its knowledgable members! Other then those issues with Williams there System 11 pins were bullet proof. This old op still has a NIB High Speed in his garage and has never been opened.

50's and 60's - Gottlieb
70's - Bally
80's and 90's - Williams
00's - Duh
10's - Duh in the lead but things could still change.

IMO, the name "Williams" is synonymous with pinball.

I'd split the 1980s into two halves for this kind of analysis: 1980-1984 and 1985-1989. The first half it would be a tossup: the good games were spread out amongst the major manufacturers; but the second half would be Williams in a rout.

I think Stern really rocked the boat with games like Meteor and Flight 2000. But when Williams came on with Space Shuttle and High Speed, there was no looking back.

Once Williams took off the others were left in the dirt.

LTG : )

I voted for Williams but I still want an early Bally for my collection. I also wouldn't mind an early Stern either

All of my pins are 90s or newer , Bally / Williams or Sterns , but I do have one older Bally, a Captain Fantastic.

I just had to have one older Bally

1 vote for "other".. wonder if that was for alvin G? Chicago coin?

I do not think the voting pool reflects the gap between them but Williams first then Bally

I'll have to disagree on the 70's since it was mostly EM. Here is my edit:

70-78: Gottlieb
78-85: Bally
85-Cactus Canyon: Williams

Hey,

I think lumping the 80s all into one doesn't really work. You can't really compare Black Knight and Firepower to Whirlwind and Earthshaker. The games in the early 80s had more in common with EMs than they did with the late 80s games, and the late 80s games had more in common with DMDs than the early 80s games.

With that said, I'd say Williams had pretty strong games in that ten year span. After Space Shuttle came out, no one other than Williams released consistently good games across the board. Prior to that, I think it was anyone's market to blow open. Williams just happened to be the company that did.

Luke

Williams was the best, hands down.

I think the only non-williams game I would consider buying from the 80's is Elvira, and Bally may have already been merged by then. (not sure of those dates)

Probably someone that owns an Af-Tor.

After acquiring Bally/Midway, what was it that made Williams decide which name to release a pin under? I get the impression that the Bally name was reserved for the pins that were the best? It seems the Bally pins had higher proportion of excellent games than those sporting the Williams mark.

IMO, toss up between Bally and Stern in early 80s (although Black Knight kicks butt) and Williams after High Speed and through System 11. Picking one would be Williams for sheer number of great games.

I thought they just alternated each one on the line.

early 80's both Williams and Bally had some pretty good titles. Not to mention Gottlieb's Haunted house. After '84 Bally was innovative, but Williams was clearly market leader.

I have to go with Gottlieb then Williams.

I will have to agree with Mike here, but I think the William 80s games before 85 were pretty awesome as well Firepower, BK, Solar Fire, Pharaoh, Blackout, Cosmic Gunfight, Star Light (even though there were only 100 made is an awesome game) Barracora, Starting with FirepowerII I believe we got the 50V flippers and they started using ramps. Then in late 84 (early 85) Space Shuttle (system9) came out with Comet and Sorcerer (the other 2 sys.9s) at that point there was no going back... Then they came out with the sys. 11s starting in 86 like HS, Pin*Bot, F-14...just to name a few, and set the bar... Oh and technically WW is from 1990...so it doesn't count... as an 80s game that is!!!

Phoebe

Mine is the super-rare 1989 prototype!

Oh, wait. Maybe it isn't.