By that argument EM machines should be included in the top 100, and they are not.
There is a separate list for those.

That’s total bullshit and goes against all the Stern banter you just spewed.
If sales and production numbers mark a machine as “the best machine of all times”, then its The Addams Family hands down (which it is not). Don’t get me wrong, it a great machine and has sold far more machines than anything else, but sales and production numbers is not the determining factor as to what’s the best. By that logic Terminator 2 is one of the top 10 machines ever made as they produced over 15k of them and it’s not even close. Stern isn’t making anywhere near what Bally and Williams were doing at their peak in the 90s. Nor does Stern even publish what their actual production figure are on modern machines (and have not for some time).

I do not disagree that comparing old games and new game against each other is not comparing apples to apples, but production numbers and sales are not the deterring factor as to what’s best.

Further, I challenge you to go read through the Pinside reviews of any small pinball companies machine that is not Stern. Set your filter to show rating without comments and look up all the bashing that occurs by Stern fan boys to other companies to boost Stern ratings. All you have to do is look at what games they have listed in their collection and see how they voted and it’s pretty clear what transpired. It’s huge and that shit works both ways.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, it just is what it is.

The problem with the EM top 100 is that hardly anybody rates them.
There is not a single EM pin in the entire system where the rating goes into the triple digits (100 or more ratings).
For that matter there’s a ton of them with single digit ratings (9 or fewer) and countless others that are not even listed because they have no ratings.

The entire list of top 100 EMs could be manipulated and changed if a few people went on there and rated a bunch of machines.
I suppose on a long enough timeline it would balance itself out (maybe).

The problem is a lot of people don’t get the opertunity to play a lot of the EM machines on location (at least out here).
Out of all the locations here in Phoenix that have pinball, I can only think of two (Electric Bat and Starfighters), that have them in their rotation. Most other locations are 90s and newer (emphasis on newer), or maybe at best have an 80s solid state or two in the mix.

Out here you basically have to go play them at other collectors houses or places like The Museum of Pinball or Pinball Hall of Fame.

Dude, good to see you posting on here.
I didn’t realize you were on this site.