if audio on a game is lame, i wont play it or buy it.

I think soundtrack is very important. One of the reasons I couldn't keep METLE for very long. And also one of the reasons Batman is now in my collection. I have to enjoy whatever sounds are coming out of the machine to keep on wanting to play it.

You guys know you can swap songs with Pinball Browser right?

I chose somewhat.
Just because of the fact that don't really like Metallica music that much, but the pin more then makes up for that in the art, layout and rules department.
Same thing with F14. That jet sound annoys the hell out of me but I still find myself playing it.

I knew all the music. And they were one of my favorite bands back in the 80s. But a couple months owning that machine made me never want to hear them again.

I miss not having the sound working on my one pin. It really adds to the gameplay. Hasn't worked in a year. One of these days...

As long as all three chimes are working, I am happy

I used to think it didn't matter and then I played Dialed In. With the early code there are little to no call outs and I definitely miss them.

I love the when the music builds during a timed event. It adds to the pressure of nailing the shot!

The fact that the Lighting & Sound are mentioned in the same sentence with Gameplay is sad, but that's the times we live in

Sounds can help a game, but it can also kill a game. You have games like BOP that are just so goddamn boring, but the sound is top notch. Then you have game like TSPP or FGY that are probably good games but so irritating.
Anything in the middle is passable either way.
I'll go back to playing those EMs of mine with no soundtrack & flat lighting with awesome gameplay

I rated it high because annoying callouts can ruin a game for me.

Yep - feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions.

quick test, play with the volume turned off and see if you care about sound

huge! A big part of the reason I own games.

Tx Sector, RoboWar, Excalibur to name a few.

The only reason I miss BK2K.

Love games with distinct original sound tracks for doing things. i.e. mousin around.

BEST current soundtrack in the making >>> TOTAL ANNIHALATION!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the sound is incredibly important ESPECIALLY on licensed games. If the music is not recognizable or "good" (not licensed machines) then the game experience is degraded. If it is licensed and the voice actors are not the original or a VERY close approximation, it makes me really not like the game because it is not "right". For licensed games the callouts and sound make or break the nostalgia factor.

...why do you think the have dramatic sound for movies????

That's also a great way to see if you really care about the game. I played a NGG with the sound out and it was about the most boring table I ever stepped up to. Which shows me some games need sound to even be playable.

My RBION sound takes awHile to come on...played it muted just Sunday; great game.

Doesn't take that long with the sound to get there either.

I used to think it was somewhat important, if I play old SS immediately after playing modern games, I get bored with just the bings and bongs.

Then I was introduced to PinballShark's pinsound mix for Doctor Who and sound packages became very important, it can make such a huge difference, an already awesome game becomes exponentially more awesome with amazing sound.

Nothing like the sweet sound of several vintage EMs with all their bells dinging and donging at the same time. Just like what an old arcade sounded like back in the day.

I view pinball machines kinda like video games (home games, not arcade).

To me, the soundtrack and game should go hand in hand, so as long as the music matches the gameplay and theme, I can dig it.

The entire sound package is an integral part of the game for me. I think there are a couple of examples even recently that support that.

For example, having a David Thiel sound package for a game is seen as an advantage. The success of the Pin Sound stuff seems to support it as well.

Music and calls for me are VERY IMPORTANT. Of course gameplay is paramount, but after that I think music comes second. I enjoy creating soundtracks with Pinsound, and I put a lot of time into it and learned something. A good pinball soundtrack is not only made of catchy tunes. They also need to have a strong link to the ongoing mode/feature, and they do NOT have to sound like a jukebox. It's not easy at all to create a brilliant soundtrack. Then of course everybody has different musical tastes and prefer certain genres - that too has an influence. But a good soudtrack - regardless the music genre - shoud have proper tempo changes, vloume changes, contrasts, exciting emotional calls, proper sound effects, all mixed up in a coherent way.

Class of 1812 and Super Mario have awesome music and sound. So do some of their older ones like Gold Wings.

Hahaha. Oh well ... Audio package is extremely important to me - but it all comes down to taste. Very few games off the top of my head have sound that flat out turns me off. CFTBL & Freddy come to mind. Just terrible music that ruins the games for me. Stern has some games with terrible voices (Xmen, Spidey Vault, BDK, 24) but the music and Fx are usually good.