What a load of nonsense. You may as well say LOTR and TSPP are rubbish as well. There are heaps of us that have old Bally games and want to have something different in our collection that brings a new experience. At its heart JJPOTC is feature laden but a quick brutal machine to many. I love all my machines but Pirates is not a gimmick and it rocks. Make people motion sick..... Hurt little tournament players handies..... ppppfffffffttt. Sick of the biased bullshit from some posters. Bally, Stern, AP, Spooky and JJP are all fantastic. Just enjoy.

And a mate of mine who has TZ, SS and IJ cannot stop talking about Pirates since he came over to play. He has been bitten by the bug. I should tell him he is not a real player.....

I quoted both of crazylevis comments. He clearly states in his first comment that pirates would only wow someone who hasn’t played pinball in over 20 years or ever. So he was not only saying the game is crap he was offending the people who liked it and own one. I agree that pirates is different to any other game and that’s why I bought one. The OP is not an operator, he wants it for his home. He is also after opinions on what will give him fun at home.

I quoted his second comment because he said the rocking ship would make viewers and players seasick. And that the action button would cause player injuries. Does anybody think this is credible? Watched heaps of streams from buffalo and SDTM have not chundered yet.

As I said all manufacturers are great and the variety of games on offer is fantastic. The best age in pinball. There are people who do not like the game that’s fine. But don’t put down people that do.

Bottom line: you can like fast stern games, Bally Williams games and pirates at the same time. There is no us and them. Play pirates and see if you like it.

To answer the OP, I have never played ST or GOT. But I do own an AFM which has similarities to ST. I would not sell my AFM to buy pirates ever. Having said that I would not sell pirates to buy AFM. They are completely different. I did go for a Pirates because I did want something a bit more complex to supplement AFM. But to choose between the 2 is impossible for me. Maybe if I can hold out an olive branch that’s what CrazyLevi was trying to say, that you can’t compare the 2.

Pirates is a fast game though, and can have some really quick games. I am not a tournament player, just a novice. The rule set once learned is not that difficult. It is Multiball heavy, it has 6 and they can all be kicked off at the same time. So that can be hectic. I actually find it non linear because anything (besides the wizards) can be started at any time and as I said multiballs can be concurrent with each other and chapters as well. It is multilayered. It does use Bally style flippers which feel a lot less clicky than my TSPP. Multi player is fantastic. The plunder mechanism is so much fun, can cause a real shit stir in our home!

I own an LE, I would miss the shaker and would advise on getting that. The external audio is handy, but not worth 1k. Star map is fun but ancillary.

I guess you could look at resale of other JJP machines, I cannot comment. Don’t think we will be getting rid of.

In terms of build quality, there have been a few issues all resolved. Again cannot see what 20 years will bring. The Pearl is on a shared rocking motor that I believe is used in WOZ, and most parts are Bally/Williams so should be ok. If a board goes? Who knows!!! I might have a brick. This can happen with pretty much every modern day pinball though.

Good luck!

I also see from your collection that you have MET an awesome game. I also see you used to own an WOZ. I have played WOZ and DI only about 5 times each but did not like them. Neither did the family. So I’m not a JJP fanboy. I think pirates would sit with MET just fine!