I have a new level of respect for System 3 games. I own a "Lights...Camera...Action!" and in all honesty, it's one of the most popular games in my collection, even sitting next to Earthshaker and Whirlwind.
From a hardware standpoint, I feel like Gottlieb really hit a stride with the architecture. Extended switch and lamp matrices allow for 108 individual bulbs and switches is nice, even if they never really took advantage of all of them--I don't think that even WPC games had this many at their disposal. 25 controllable solenoids with built in "anti-machine gunning kickers" is smart, and their use of lower voltage DMDs and alphanumeric displays, and lithium batteries was forward thinking. I'm willing to overlook their grounding issues and shared strobes. I hear the System 3 boardset is pretty robust as well.
From a games standpoint, I wish Gottlieb took more of an advantage of the hardware. They always seemed behind the times, even though under the hood, they could easily outperform any William's System 11 title in terms of technical aspects. Awkward flippers, early "street level" designs, and lame licensed themes later set them back, imo. But the awkwardness in design is what makes them special to me. They're sorta the "anti-pinball" for when you want something good and unique that wasn't designed by Bally or Williams. Kind of like comparing the Sega Genesis to the Super Nintendo, this was the last era where pinball machines from different manufacturers truly had a different look and feel. Never have I wanted to own a Class of 1812 as much as I do now, and I'd love to stick a Cactus Jack's in my collection as well some day.