With all the pins coming this year, I suspect this year will be full of spikes.

LTG : )

Nailed it !!

Steve had his A game going when he designed it.

If he brings the same effort into Star Trek, that game will be awesome.

LTG : )

You left High Speed off the list.

You skipped LOTR

If we are going to make lists like this then...

The caveman that cooked with fire
Thomas Edison
Steve Jobs
Me

I think AC/DC is going to break all the sales records Stern has made to date. It is an awesome game, no question. I actually like it more than my Tron LE (which I never thought I would say) and just have it sitting at No. 2 right now to see if it will stand the test of time with me.

I just scored a 99 mill point game on AC/DC last night at my buddies house. Great game; worthy of all the praise that is heaped on it. I would buy my own except that I am on strike from Stern till they get my XMen LE working . . . till then, I will only restore older games and have them added to the collection.

I wonder when Stern's ac/dc licensing expires?

There is absolutely nothing stunning or revolutionary about AC/DC. It's a pretty good pin, but I see nothing phenomenal about it's production, ranking or popularity on any site.

I don't agree with your list. It plain sucks. AC/DC premium LE is rated at 14 in the pinside ranking. There are 13 other machines ranked higher. And El Dorado? It's rated at 19 out of EMs on IPDB top 300 list and had a measely production number under 3000. It's ranked 18th on pinsides EM list. There's not a single 'historical' reason that should this pin should even be considered at all. I'm thinking of a lot more significant/popular EM games that could take the place of El Dorado.

however... I'll give you the Addams Family (significance: over 20K produced) even though I am not a big fan.

IMO that list should have these titles somewhere above the others you selected:

Medieval Madness - Over the top in my book, I don't really go for it but it's hype popularity and price put it in almost it's own class.

Attack from Mars - Popular A-lister and my personal fav.

High Speed - immensely popular during it's time and still sought after. Loaded with firsts:
First pinball to play a complete song.
First Williams pinball game to use alpha-numeric displays.
First use of Auto Percentaging (for replay scores).
First Jackpot available only during multiball.
First use of broken switch compensation programming.
First SS game with operator report.

Twilight Zone - "includes more features with patents pending than any other game in history!"

Another thread about lists.

Wayout doesn't really like MM but its his number one due to hype and popularity. Why would you say its the best if you don't like it? Because everyone else does? Why isn't AFM your number 1 like you say it is?

Let me know when you guys figure it out.

Gladiators stands a couple inches taller than all of these (less the topper on TAF)

Maybe.

Edison?? Haha the guy couldn't hold Nikola Tesla's jock strap. Without Tesla there is no AC in AC/DC...

For another example
1. Fireball
2. El Dorado
3. Joker Poker
4. Black Knight
5. High Speed
6. Medieval Madness

I like your list too, but the part about standing far above the rest? Everybody has their own opinion on that.

OP,
For full disclosure, are you an AC/DC owner?

I've had a chance to play Back in Black, and it is a fun pin, maybe Sterns best, but it's easy to call it miles above the rest when the rest bowed out years ago. So hats off to Stern for continuing to make cutting edge machines based on cutting edge material.

I personally have no love for AC/DC, and do not see it being one of the all time greats.

Cannot figure what you qualifications for the list are.

Stating that ElDorado was a popular theme because of re-themes, I will point out that Gottlieb was notorious for re-hashing playfield designs under new themes and not all are classics.

Fast Draw/Quick Draw morphed into Amazon Hunt!

I think we are all overlooking "Raven" on these lists, come on . . . .

Not to mention.................. Judge Dredd ........................

Wish we never sold our beloved Raven... She was an object of beauty!

I honestly think every historical landmark list should have Humpty Dumpty on it. Otherwise, we would all be just shooting the ball and watching it bounce around.

Good point!

maybe not a historical game (though it MIGHT have been a first for it's 'sniper' pop up drop targets, later used in cactus canyon), but does show, even modestly, jumps in prices/popularity. probably helps that there a folks putting out custom back glasses as well
though i haven't played it, i've heard it's one of the better gottliebs of the time, which would fit the criteria of standing above competitors.

On paper, sure. Nothing stunning or revolutionary. But after you play it enough, you realize just how complete a package it is. Theme, layout and rules are all perfect. If you don't get this yet, you haven't played one enough. No other recent game has nailed those three things as well as AC/DC does.

How old are you? I suspect you aren't old enough to have been around when El Dorado was new. Because if you had been around, you'd know that El Dorado (and all it's offspring) kicked ass on location. I was around and it was by far the most popular pin of it's day.

Agree 100% SR. Hope it isn't years, but the bar has been reset pretty friggin high.

I'm 47. You didn't even put Eight Ball on your list. Until recently, this machine held the all-time production record for flipper pinball machines--20,230 were built. It was pushed to second place a couple of years ago by The Addams Family. I am just not seeing any real facts to push El Dorado into any 'historical' equation other than the fact that you seem to have a hard on for this pin.

If we are going to say the criteria is "kick ass" on location according to personal experience... then we need to put Pinbot on the list too according to your weak criteria. In the eighties Pinbot was everywhere I played and kicked ass on location so maybe that should be on the top historical five.

True, very true!

I didn't number my list. I just said these titles should be included, due to overwhelming popularity, price, ratings or production figures. Some documentable substance to call it 'historical'

All I see here is an unsubstantiated personal favorites list from the poster.

He included 5 pins on his list as examples of high water marks. You seem to be arguing the thoroughness of his list when that wasn't the intention of the thread.

No, actually my first post argued that AC/DC has no particular merit to be considered 'historical'. I was just demonstrating why the list proposed was not a very good one to use as a benchmark. My 5 list historical pins would likely be different as others (some of those folks listed games described above) and I would not include AC/DC in the list - not because I don't like it, I really do. - but because there is no factual data to support it.

acdc rocks!

I remember hearing on this site from some of the big "insiders" when the game was released that Stern envisioned running AC/DC for a longer period of time then many of their other machines. Not sure what that meant, but it is conceivable that they secured the license for long term (it may expire only when no new machines are made in X number of months/years).

AC/DC has to be easier to deal with Disney and the like, so I am guessing Stern did okay with the license terms. Great game by the way; I know I want one.

I'm thinking with all the games being pumped into the market that it will keep the resale prices down. I'm looking forward to buying one some time down the road, just not at NIB or inflated resale prices.

I made a list and acdc was not on it. Sorry.

AC/DC great pin, historical?? ehh not too sure about that.
There older Bon Scott music much better, High Voltage, Powerage etc. The best rock n roll - timeless

I bet we are getting to best sales since (fill in stern game). Could ac/dc reach 20k sales worldwide? I mean at this point it sounds like half that is doable. At 10k units sold I would think that would be a milestone for post Williams pinball. And if it gets to 20k units well then Katie bar the door because pinball has come back.

Centaur to me is notable since it broke free of the EM-style of artwork, etc of machines. Voice samples, crazy sounds, multiball. It was ahead of its time. As for the opposite, look at Bounty Hunter. I felt like I was playing a 70s-era SS game, yet it was made 5 years after Centaur.

..............Let there be Rock.... Agreed.

You only need one argument for AC/DC to have a place in history:

"First Premium Version"

So...yeah. There you go.

I sure hope they hit 20K. Because that's the only way I'll ever be able to afford one on the resale market. Keep buying NIB rich people!