I had JB and DW
Really liked both games but justified to myself that one of the two could go.
DW stayed
It was in nicer shape and I love the three flipper three ramp layout.

Good choice.

Buy it and organise a Barry Oursler event right away. I will. Except I have reached a state in which I love the pins I currently own, have no more space at home and will need to find creative solutions to host new ones.

DW is a good pin, excellent bang-for-buck choice, good to improve your skills... Finding one with the right cabinet color (red still red...) is kind of hard, but I could live without.

"Exterminate"!

I went ahead and bought a new Rottendog board and it fired right up (I tested it first with a working board I had from another game). It has only one switch error once it booted up. Playfield is in perfect shape the only other issue is the cabinet fade but I am not playing the cabinet lol. It plays great and I really enjoy it!

Great machine! I almost picked one up a few years ago (beautiful with working topper), but thought $1,200 was WAY too much.

Hah! Good idea! The machine is fun. Does it have the Topper?

It's a great machine, very fun to play. Barry Oursler is probably my favorite Bally/WMS designer. Unlike other popular designers, who often had playfield features carry over from game-to-game (like Steve Ritchie's steep ramps and Pat Lawlor's orbit-into-pop-bumbers designs), Barry was all over the place with his creative elements. Dr. Who is a fun game with a very well-integrated theme.

There are a few criticisms I have of the game however:

The time expander is very cool, but also, a certain shot at the wrong time, as it's closing with a ball getting stuck can render catastrophic damage to the entire assembly.

Like many Bally/WMS games, the video mode is not random, and therefore easily memorized. It's really a shame they "phoned it in" with the video mode and could have otherwise made the game a lot more exciting.

The ability to steal the other player's locked balls and the fact that there are different shots to lock balls for subsequent players means this game is a less-than-ideal table for competition.

The audio in this game really pushed the limit of the Bally/WMS system and it's a shame some of the speech is so low-fi and compressed.

On the plus side, there are some very satisfying shots.. the W-H-O combo is really cool. The different features each doctor gives you means there are different strategies and approaches you can make. Scoring is pretty well balanced.

Sweet!

who.gif

This isn't the case on mine, perhaps you are misreading it. The game remembers who has what place in multiball. Perhaps I need to go back and try this again but I've played it in competition and it was fine.

Just picked one up, after just missing a few I had been after over the years. Paid $1600 for it unshopped but the elevator motor needed to be replaced ($119 or $70 at mad) and I replaced the mini playfield ($89) flipper rebuilds, cliffy protector, etc. Wasn't too bad to replace and get that mini pf out to swap everything out and over.
Could use a new side ramp though it works fine (cracked at the trap door) but I don't see a single ramp, only the combo set available
Cabinet is nice, not fade blasted like many, has topper, board set looks good, good dmd..
I'll try and post some pics later.

There's a setting where locked balls get ejected after each ball (but the game remembers which were locked of course), so this isn't a problem for competition!

Never watched the show, have always enjoyed the gameplay and would own if price was right.

Ummm - I paid $400 for mine in 1998. It was a weak "B" title that nobody liked back then. I probably have $650 in it now though... Not for sale - been with me too long.

There were a lot of games back then that nobody liked, including Cactus Canyon...

I like how the two little red "ears" fall off on impact...it can fly through a metal gate without damage but it falls over and its ears are so delicate they fall off...ahh Dr Who production values...

At least the etheric beam locators are still intact.

I never cared for DW. Owned it about 10 years, sold it last year, don't miss it at all. Not hard, fairly simple rules, poor layout, weak theme. Family hated it. My time expander worked, but they are pains when they don't. I should have sold it much earlier.

Must not have used hot glue to keep those on....lol

why would you keep a game for ten years that you never cared for?

My topper flasher is working, but the 555 bulbs in a row under the topper do not seem to work- Does anyone know if these are suppose to be on constant or a mode/shot specific?

Because I wasn't into the hobby as much as I am now and didn't have interest in buying and selling, didn't know about pinside, or that prices had risen rapidly, including by more than 1k for my DW. I bought tspp and DW in 2003, and never did anything else until early last year. And then I hit the slippery slope.

I've owned Doctor Who as long as anyone (I've had it since September of 1992...) so I am super biased . . . but yes yes yes, if you like the theme the game does not disappoint at all.

Mine are on constant, not CPU controlled like the GI or inserts. The come on instantly when I power on the game.

^ thanks! Now i need to figure out why mine aren't

Personally DW isn't my favorite, but casual players really like it. I think the ruleset is engaging, yet simple enough to grasp that anyone can feel like they get the game.

Those lightning flippers suck though.

People are down on them so much, only about an 1/8" difference. I know that adds to 1/4 inch but a good game can be played with them.

+1 shimoda.... The center drain is not the issue with DW...it's the outlanes.
faz

Funny thing is my game is set to conservative on the outlanes and I still haven't changed them. What am I crazy? This IS an Oursler pin after all.

Change those batteries as soon as you can!

When I got my DW the Time Expander didn't work. So I spent a few days playing it just going for Sonic Booms. That loop ramp, WHO combos and Sonic Booms are fun enough that it didn't matter! Such a great game, I really miss mine.

You will be happy to have purchased. It took me a while to get mine to a 'good playing, no errors' stage big thanks to Faz and Cliffy (these 2 fellows are tops) Looking forward to seeing the pics. Enjoy!

How do you get a Sonic Boom?

Nine loops around the O ramp on the right. Then every ten extra.

Yeah every time you shoot the O ramp you'll see on the DMD 'x more for Sonic Boom'. When you get the tenth one you start a Sonic Boom combo. The trap door lowers and the ball gets diverted to the lower flipper to start a special Sonic Boom W-H-O combo. Every letter in W-H-O gives you one Sonic Boom, and you have the same time limit on this as a normal W-H-O combo (extended if you have Doctor 3). If you get all three in W-H-O you get the best sound effects ever. I didn't hook up a subwoofer to mine, but if you did I'm sure it would sound incredible!

Yes and No.

It was NOT designed with them, but added after-the-fact during production to shorten ball times.

Go figure.
faz

I personally prefer it with lightning flippers. The W 'Hang On' shot is much tougher to make with normal flippers. I liked the extra challenge.

I'd only put regular flippers on if I knew from the designer it was supposed to have them and not the lightning flippers.

The same is true for Fish Tales. Possibly others.
faz

Yes it is. Just the lower two. As others have said, it wasn't designed for them, but that is correct. Mine have always had Lightning flippers. I'm guessing I've owned mine longer than most people here (17 years).

Doctor Who's multiball mode is one of the best, most understandable multiball modes of any I know of - you are killing daleks, one in each zone and it is so obvious what the target is. It's also a great interaction between the DMD and the playfield. Very well thought out.

Agreed. It is a game that is easy for newbies to understand and achieve something meaningful.

In contrast, after Doctor Who I got a Road Show. Similar to Doctor Who, newbies can shoot straight up the middle to progress. But all that happens is they get to Friday, then you instruct them to make the difficult lock shot. Twice. And they can never pull it off. None of my non-pinhead friends and family have managed to start multiball in Road Show since I've owned it. And the modes can be overwhelming.

With DW just make sure you enable Feature Adjustment 21. It drops the balls out of the locks between players (but remembers they're achieved). If a ball is released from a lock and goes STDM there's a ball saver. But if there's a ball already in the lock, there isn't one and you're SOL. Feature Adjustment 21 eliminates this common occurrence and makes the game more fun to play multiplayer.

For sure kids get DW. I have four machines. Stargate, DW, Catacomb and Bally Star Trek.

The timid kids go for ST. It's crazy simple...no instructions needed.

Stargate gets play, but they don't know what they are doing. I spend a few moments explaining...they get it.

Catacomb ...forget it. I can't even explain it to people. It's my game and that's good enough for me

As for DW, everyone just gets it. Kids especially, they just know what to hit to get a decent score. Subtleties of loops and video mode push them way over the edge. It's one of those, "But wait...there's more!!!" moments.

But when they see the topper move...they lose their minds..
faz