I am an admitted system 3 fan...

Sherman tank reliability for the most part, quirky layouts/rules/art/themes.

However...

They were seemingly 10 years behind everyone else at the time, there is a monopoly on parts and manuals, quirky layouts/rules/art/themes, and let's face it: put an "A" list sys 3 (is there such a thing as an "A" list sys 3 ?) next to a "B/C" list B/W from the same era, and tell me which one you ae going to play every time? They aren't even in the same league.

Carguments aside, I've heard the comparison made that if B/W was Cadillac, then DE would be Hyundai...but what would Gottlieb be? I'm not going to say Yugo, but I would say 80's General Motors C-10 trucks; rock solid, but otherwise, spartan.

Oh yeah, no doubt.

Again, I love me some system 3, but they are priced accordingly on the collector's/player's market when compared to their contemporaries. Maybe even a little high, but the same could be said for pinball as a whole.

Now that we are down this rabbit hole, take the arguably most coveted system 3, Stargate, and put it next to Fish Tales or The Getaway. While the latter 2 have less "features", they have significantly more polish in their artwork, rules, music, and overall execution. All 3 are priced pretty similarly on the used market, but I can almost guarantee that the majority of people would rather play or own FT or HS2. While system 3's usually had lots of stuff on the playfield, they just weren't as well integrated into the overall theme of the particular game.

Even compared to a lot of B/W system 11's, I think most people would still rather have and play an older, mid-level game like Mousin' Around or Taxi to most newer Gottlieb System 3's.

All that said, I still really enjoy all of the system 3's, especially the street level games!