Cactus Canyon Remake.

LTG : )

We've spent the holiday week visiting the Cidercade in Dallas. Over 20 of the newer machines, most Sterns.

Godzilla is a great pin. We spent a ton of time on it (LE version). So much fun. Even ended up doing a Godzilla movie marathon to catch up with the references in the machine. We all disliked GNR with it's dribble out plunge and constant multiballs. Mando - too much stuff on it, hard to see what's going on.

Other machines we liked Monster Bash, Pirates of the Caribean, Guardians of the Galaxy . Wonka had a broken toy. Jurassic Park (Pro) is fun but the Nerdly bit gets tidieous. Avengers, probably need more time on it to form an option. Spiderman seemed a bit kiddish. If you like fast action, you can't beat Star Trek.

I appreciate you knowing at least something about pins, it’s refreshing! Most the newbies come in and want their hand held. I will say that you are talking big money and you’ve gotten into the hobby at one of the most cutthroat expensive time humanly possible. Delays on everything and games going for thousands over MSRP.
Wonka is definitely a fantastic game. Ignore the haters, it is a complex game.
GNR is just endlessly multiball with no real thought of strategy. If you’re a causal you’d like it. If you want depth, it will bore you quickly. It looks beautiful, but is shallow and extremely easy.
Godzilla is great, but JJPs are on another level.

Great on you for keeping EMs in mind! You can get great titles for less than 2k. Usually you find them in the 1k range. I would recommend a Gottlieb Wedgehead, but they are single player. The Add-A-Balls (AAB) are very strategic and “slow” yet they can easily kick your ass. EMs can really teach you and your family to appreciate the history of pinball, and how advanced modern games have become. They teach you many concepts that are completely foreign to the “modern-only” types. You will become a better player learning on the classics!

Punchy The Clown !

LTG : )

Godzilla. Its just such a great pin. It gets a lot of attention. I hate to say this because some of the EM guys may want to break my legs.....but I say skip the EM....if you only have room for 3 pins. I have a few and honestly they sit and nobody plays them.

willy wonka LE, has been fabulous!!!! 140 plays in 6-weeks time, 0-issues, JJP killing it on the latest run of the sweetest pinball on Earth

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Any thoughts on grabbing an Addams? It’s as good as any game now.

As for moderns, Gz, Deadpool and Jurassic Park are all A+. There’s no wrong choice. Pick a theme your family likes best and don’t look back

Good luck in your search

You can't go wrong with wonka, especially with kids. AC / DC is awesome, but I'd maybe pass with younger kids as the game can be demoralizing. Outlanes are brutal. I think spiderman, star trek and guardians are good for families. Ghostbusters too, but maybe a bit tough to find right now.

Godzilla or Star Trek!

I would say get what's available in stock if you're buying nib even if it's not a killer theme to ya that's the beauty of starting out. Your going to be able to enjoy the hell out of it and probably sell it for more than what you paid. Just don't do anything crazy like trying to chase down an Addams or a Midevil right now and you'll be just fine! Sounds like you already got your 90s pin anyway so happy hunting good luck!

Go with Theme + art…. Very important to a game room.

I’m surprised people are going back to Stern Star Trek, I love that game. Iron Man is fun for kids and easy to work on, if you can find one for a decent price. Deadpool is also fun for kids, good music and colorful too.

I'd go Godzilla, Jurassic Park and your Addams Family. No reason to put an EM in there over either Godzilla or Jurassic Park.

Is your Wonka Bar Champ and Gumball Champ the same guy .

Wonka sure is fun to play and shoot - it was my teenage sons go-to game and he used to tear it up.

Good input so far. Maybe consider Metallica? Not crazy priced and excellent game. I have a pro. Yes, le and premium are nicer with physical ball lock but certainly an option.

Godzilla is way awesome. Avengers Infinity Quest is beautiful and i enjoy mine but harder to understand what is going on. Attack from Mars family favorite but prices going high currently.

Yeah, Pirates is a great game but very expensive now. Like high teens or 20k.

I played a bunch of the newer pins at an arcade last week. Godzilla Premium was by far the best. Wish I could afford one right now. Rocky and Bullwinkle is a plenty fun 90s game. As for the EM, I would go for an early Bally or Stern SS with some drop targets and spinners instead.

Welcome to the club!

I've broken it down by eras before and would recommend the following with a few extra thoughts.

Modern LCD Pin: I would recommend something deep and family friendly from this era. If you are getting back into pinball the odds of seeing the end of these machines are extremely low. Godzilla and Jurassic Park are made by the same designer and have a similar feel. Both are highly desirable and hard to come across right now. If you want one new it is going to be 9 months plus for one. Deadpool (family friendly) is another strong contender here. All of these games have easy to achieve small multiballs but objectives that will take a seasoned player 30+ minutes to achieve. Mando is fun and you may be able to get a relatively good deal on one now. It is too easy for the big pinball nerds and many folks are unloading them. If you are not an expert it is still a fantastic and fun game.

DMD Era: So many games to choose from. If you want something new-old Chicago Gaming Company has been remaking some games from the mid 90s with new electronics. Medieval Madness, Attack From Mars, Monster Bash, and now Cactus Canyon are in that category. Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars in particular are noted as having great toys, easy to follow objectives, being noob friendly, and having difficult to achieve wizard modes that keep pinball nerds happy. Early 2000s DMD games worth mentioning include Lord of the Rings and The Simpsons Pinball Party. Family loves... extremely deep and only pinball wizards will fully beat. Stern Star Trek is the newest on this list, really deep, really flowy, and a good bang for the buck. For kids I would recommend World Cup Soccer 94 as a fantastic kid friendly game with great toys, and put Data East Jurassic Park as a personal favorite in the (Formerly) budget category with a really cool toy.

Alpha/Numeric: If you like the Addams Family, the same guy that designed that game made Funhouse (currently really expensive due to an add on kit just released), Whirlwind (great game with great toys), and Earthshaker. Swords of Fury, Taxi, and for the non-pinball Wizard Black Knight 2000 are also great choices. In the earlier (numbers only) era Black Knight is a solid choice.

E.M.
The Gottilieb games from the late 70 with chimes are where it's at with these. I would recommend El Dorado (or it's twins... knock down 15 standups), or sure shot (roll over all the targets to complete the pool rack).

Extra thoughts. I live in pinball dense area (Maryland). Pinball machines are in high demand and have been so for years. You can ALWAYS find someone to trade machines with around here. Don't think of your machines as permanent. When you get tired of a machine you can put it up for trade and someone will trade you something else.

If I were choosing games for you based off of your written criteria and had a limitless bank account I'd go:

1. Godzilla (you'll never finish it) with honorable mentions Jurassic Park and Deadpool
2. Medieval Madness (super approachable) or your free game.
3. El Dorado (simple to understand, difficult to master, chimes sound great)

Welcome to the hobby!

That was a well thought out detailed reply. My only disagreement would be to swap the MMr with an Attack from Mars remake. However, this is purely based on theme preference for me.

Agree with this statement, you will be waiting a while for Godzilla or paying extra $$$. If your teenage kids love this theme, it will be more likely for them to play and a better chance of them liking pinball for the long haul.

Super fun, 90's era with modern features.

Any with a lot of knock down targets will be good. I like my EMs but many don't. More popular in the game room, early SS (Black Knight is a good one) or maybe something a little later (Space Shuttle or Pinbot).

If you're choosing between Wonka and GnR I would go for Wonka for your situation. I've got both and I can easily say GnR is a very difficult game - it can be super frustrating for newer players. Wonka is very approachable and though it has some frustrating times (drains after coming out of the pop bumpers), it is always a fun game for a variety of skill levels. Also look at Dialed In for another fun JJP.

Mandalorian pro is a great game for everyone. New code is great. Its also at a great price point now. The most popular game in our home is Stranger Things premium with Cleland code. Think AFM updated and more edge. I recommend a good used one that's dialed in, but if you find new there's a ton of support to get it right. GOTG and Met are essentially the same game, just comes down to theme. Ive been trying to snag a GZ premium but lack of production and hype have it overpriced. My family prefers newer pins because of code depth and surprises. Older Bally Williams are cool, but in a small collection it seems like rinse and repeat. And the fact that nice examples are as much or more than stern pros its hard to pull the trigger on older games. Fun problem to have. Just keep playing pins, you'll find 3 for you and the family.

Since you have kids that are 12 and 14 I'd recommend getting a Chexx bubble hockey in place of one of the pins. I have a gameroom with 9 pins and my Chexx gets played 10 to 1 over the pins by my kids and their friends. Easy to pickup and more than 1 can play at a time.

For the pins I'd recommend something with an easier shot layout and preferably 2 flippers. A couple years ago I recommended to my brother in law to get a Stern Jurassic Park as a first pin but it is too difficult of a layout for his kids to get into, so he's the only one that plays it. I should have steered him towards a Deadpool. Mando would probably be a good choice for a modern pin since that middle shot is easy to hit and progress with and is probably easier to find one in the current market than something like Godzilla. Godzilla is great but that left ramp shot is rather difficult to hit and is needed to do anything in the game.

For older games I'd just be patient and wait for a fair price on something fun that has spinners and drops. It's easy to overpay in the current market so it's better to not be too selective.

You have clearly put some thought into it, and that's a great first step. You are already ahead of most. Here are my recommendations on where to go from there:

1. Play the games first:
I would first suggest you make mention on here of where you are located. It will help others connect with you and help you seek out places to play pins. It may also get you into private collections otherwise unaccessible. This is valuable because playing a game is massively important when deciding on what you (and your family) will like. If possible, go to nearby tournaments and shows for even more exposure. Your next best bet would be to watch gameplay of them online, but this is a distant second to playing them live.

2. Go for what YOU like:
As a family man myself (I have 3 kids), I can tell you that children have very different interest levels than you will. They may lose interest quickly, play one game a month, or not even play at all. This applies to spouses and friends as well. Buy for yourself first, but try to make it as accessible to loved ones as possible. If you do this and your family loses interest...you will still have something you can enjoy.

3. Don't worry about what others say:
If you like unpopular pins...so what? If you want an E.M., go for it. Find what works best for you.

4. Price and availability trump all:
I probably should have put this at #1 (not that these are in order). Unless you have limitless funds, the dollar amount will come into play at some point. There are certainly better values in some areas than in others, even by just sweeping over the pinside market a few minutes ago. You will also have to consider what is available. Some pins come up a lot, but some VERY RARELY come to market. Your patience level could be tested in some cases.

Final thoughts on specifics:

SantaEatsCheese gave a really well thought out answer. I would go back and read it again. My thoughts would be pretty similar.

For a newer pin, there are some fantastic family-friendly choices. Willy Wonka, Deadpool, Batman 66, Stern Star trek, JJP pirates of the Caribbean, Godzilla, Dialed In, etc. Your mention of WW would make me inclined to say go with that one, but I would take a little extra time to check out some of the others just in case you missed something.

For the DMD era, I really have a tough time not suggesting getting an Addams family. You really seem to have some fond memories of it, and it is a great game. I know you have a rocky and Bullwinkle coming, but you should at least consider it. Others options could be Lord of the rings, the Simpsons pinball party, or even a remake (medieval madness, attack from Mars, monster bash, cactus canyon).

As far as EMs go, I prefer drop Target games, so el dorado or joker poker would be pretty high on my list. You should also give consideration to early solid state or possibly even alpha numeric games in this spot. Early classic Bally's are incredible. Williams system 11 games are tons of fun for AN games. I can't say what you would like more, but I would definitely recommend looking into things like eight ball deluxe, fathom, flash Gordon, paragon...or pinbot, whirlwind, high speed, taxi, or even funhouse for alpha numerics.

One thing to keep in mind is kids will most likely lose interest in playing shortly. I would focus on buying pins you like to play.

If your new, definitely try and pick up a NIB stern pro- try a few distributors and see what is available (but you may have a bit of a wait depending on title). With current pricing, NIB is best bang for your buck in my opinion. DMD games will run you similar pricing and you will most likely get your feet wet really quick learning servicing and repair. If you can add an older title (solid state perhaps) with a newer title, you have one solid machine with modern rules and also a game you can learn service work on (replacing coils, flippers, further trouble shooting).

Being new to the hobby I’d suggest buying a new stern. Of the current production titles I really enjoy Deadpool, Godzilla and avengers IQ. I’d also recommend a Simpsons Pinball Party for depth as a more recent production option with good gameplay and deep rules.

The new Sterns will more reliable than older games so you can learn the maintenance and repair aspects of the hobby gradually. Plus new games will hold their value so you can always sell and refresh the lineup later.

I own an EM but that era is not overly appealing to me. I would much rather own an 80’s SS or system 11. Fairly simple rules, but games from those eras are great for quick action and are great at pulling in for one more game.

Maybe hot wheels is something to consider……. Family friendly, people seem to be enjoying it a ton. I have not had the chance to play that one yet…. But I want to.

Welcome to the hobby!
Instead of an EM, you might consider an early Solid State game from Bally or Stern, from the late 70's or early 80's. There are readily available replacement modern circuit boards for these. Look under the playfield at EM games and it is a whole different animal. There is a saying in pinball..."If it ain't broke, it ain't pinball!"
Be prepared to learn some basic pinball repair and/or find a reliable pinball tech.

Monster Bash is always a favorite in my collection when people come over. It is a relatively easy game, very funny and there is a modern remake out.
For most recent games, the new Stern Rush game looks like a winner (I hope). Also, Black Knight Sword of Rage is a lot of fun. For both of these, definitely try to check out the difference between the Pro and the Premium.

I definitely think cactus canyon, Wonka, or Godzilla would be best for your family. They are all great choices.

Congratulations!!