In a response to your thread title, imho it goes like this:

Gottlieb made the top em's

Early SS Bally games were built with care, fit and finish. Many are incredible pins.

Williams made a splash with BK and later, Space Shuttle, then pulled ahead for the win until they left the business. RFM/SWE1 are incredibly smooth, and solidly built machines. I know a lot of people dog on SWE1, but if you played a new or freshly shopped one, I'm not sure there has been one built as tight and smooth to play from a build stand point.

In the mid 80's Gottlieb became Premier, and they made low cost, cheap machines. Some people love them, many hate them. I have never been able to fall in love with these pins, and I have owned one (my first) for over 20 years.

Bally in the mid 80's fell asleep, later becoming another brand of Williams (which was great)

Data East in the late 80's pounded home the stereo sound and impressive light shows, and made some fun pins, but missed the mark in some way.

Data East acquires impressive licenses (bttf, simps, batman, jurassic) and hits and misses with many. Just when they get their shit together (GNR, TOMMY), sell to Sega. Sega then makes a line of impressive feature pins, but largely forgettable games. Meanwhile, Gottlieb goes under, trying to make weird pins such as ''Brooks and Dun'' At this time, Bally/Williams rules the table, sega gets bought out by Stern in the late 90's, Bally/Williams end their pinball division, and the rest is history. Sort of. Well thats how I see it anyway.

Williams FTW!

You can Bank on Bally.

I am with solid state Bally/Williams all the way. Beware, everyone has their own opinion

I have a soft spot for some Data East (i'm not even sure why) Maybe it's because my second machine back in 2000 was a Torpedo Alley, and I grew up heavy on DESIMPS and Phantom of the Opera back in the day when they were new, and they all pretty much play similar.

With that said, I'm a Williams guy. I'm also a big fan of new stern and early SS Bally pins. I like some Gottliebs, like the ones you have pictures above, and a few system 3's, like SMB, Freddy an Stargate. The rest is for the birds.
For me it all comes down to the experience, the total package- art, fit and finish and gameplay. A lot of Gottlieb pins lack many of those things.

For example. 1988 Gottlieb Hot Shots, 1988 Black Water 100 and 1988 TAXI- All pins I have owned at one time.

Starting with TAXI, it's like boom. THAT backglass is unforgettable, the gameplay is classic ramp/ramp action with great flow, sounds and jackpots. It's a staple of the 80's, and instant classic.

Then Bally Blackwater 100- Decent concept, funky cabinet, weird playfield, but interesting to play, art is very decent (love the backbox art)

Now Gottlieb Hot Shots. Where to begin. The art on the cabinet is terrible. The backglass photo art is so bad, it's not even good. The playfield has lots of drops, but what are we doing? While it could be considered cute for kids, the backglass spoils this. Top this off with alpha numeric displays that look like they came out of a casio watch, it personifies the 80's in a bad way. Can you imagine if Gottlieb stuck to making more games like Volcano, bh, hh, Spirit??

Sometimes I will just stare or marvel at an 80's Williams classic, and thank god I can lol. As silly as that may sound, I have a deep appreciation for what direction they went, in art, quality and game play.