IMO i would say the High Speed series, both are awesome, and remind me of my childhood. High speed is a grail machine for me personally.

High Speed or Black Knight.

for me, high speed.

I would have to say SM is easily his crowning achievement to date. There are other classics like BK, BK2000, & STTNG (the list goes on). But I would have to say IMO SM is his best but I am biased as SM is my all time favorite pin.

SM

BK2K - it just shouts 'Ritchie' from the rooftops. The game has loads of flaws but you know exactly who made it.

Ritchie
Black Knight 80's, STTNG 90's, SM 00's,

Lawlor
Funhouse because it really began the toy as a selling point feature, Addam's family next because without it selling as great as it did, probably no green light to do a Twilight Zone.

Can you imagine if he ever did a 3rd Black Knight?

I'm probably in the minority. But I'd say T2.

Haven't played Spider-Man, so I gotta go with the game that got me in to pinball, T2...

Agree

Ac/dc

Hahahhahahahaha

My holy grail pin, and favorite Ritchie pin is STTNG. For me, it is the perfect mix of theme and gameplay. Spiderman is runner up.

STTNG is easily my favorite Ritchie pin, but BK and HS are without a doubt his two most important games from a historical perspective. I still remember the first time I came across a BK when I was a kid and saw that dual level playfield. It was a truly revolutionary concept at the time. BK was also the first game with Magna-Save.

HS not only contained a ton of innovations, but it is universally recognized as the game that ushered in pinball's modern golden age. There were over 17,000 of them made, and no game had shown those kind of numbers since Firepower (of course, another Ritchie pin).

Yep, Ritchie is "the man"!

He sure has come a long way from Airborne Avenger and Superman, that's for sure.

High Speed since it actually saved pinball and without it, we would never have had T2, STTNG, No Fear, SM, and so on.

+1

In one of clays TOP podcasts he interviews Pat Lawlor. Pat gives a lot of credit to Steve for this very thing and goes on to say (If I am remembering correctly...) that high speed and it's clearly defined rule set influenced him in many ways. So we could even go so far as adding some of the classic lawlor games to that list as well. Who knows where pinball would be without HS?

I'd say High Speed as well, Steve makes awesome games, I really hope his next one is up to par too..

I don't look much on production runs when judging succesful and important designs in this hobby. The numbers build is also a matter of era, brilliant timing and company strategy.

This topic is kinda easy for me. As I see High Speed the beginning of the second generation CPU games, and The Addams Family the beginning of the third generation CPU games. So when speaking about Richie and Lawlor, that kinds of settles it.

High Speed speaks for it self. The Addams Family is a bit more debatable, as the "mode/wizard-mode thing" kind of started on Whirlwind. And the "toy thing" started on Funhouse. But TAF nailed it all together. Along with progress on the DMD/light show/speech/sound effects stuff.

Interesting. These two games lifting pinball to new heights, coincides with the transistion to a new CPU platform along control and some sound systems. And they have an additional thing in common, Mr. Larry Demar.

Have a nice weekend, all.

I find it difficult to pick just one as SR continually pushes boundaries. Ones not mentioned are Firepower, the first game to use lane change. F14 which is still one of the fastest and most aggressive games out there and the first to fire the ball back towards the flippers and the first with autosave.

What is amazing is that he is still producing fantastic games like Spiderman. The way he gets the ball to flow across the upper playfield on Elvis is amazing, that scores for me as well and I'm not even an Elvis fan.
Elvis review here:http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/elvis/stories/elvis-retro-review-and-tips
I'm expecting some more advances and innovations on his next game for Stern. If recent form is anything to go by then his crowning game may well be his next!

if anyone interested I found the spot in the interview I mentioned, he starts speaking bout this around 53:45. he actually calls HS a watershed moment for pinball.

http://www.pinrepair.com/topcast/topcast_64.mp3

Personally id take his brothers top 2 efforts over Stevies top anyday of the week!
Actually id also take Taxi and Diner over Blackkight or highspeed too! I do really love T.2 though

HS2 is may favourite and that is why I bought it

I'm biased with my No Fear, I play it pretty constantly.

This did get me thinking, clearly he's the one with the most sequel games. I didn't start thinking about sequels until HS/HS2, but theres Firepower 2 and 3 as well, BK + 2000, T2 + T3.

Who else has notable sequels?

My favourite is probably T3 or HS2.
But I think his crowning achievement is HS, purely from a innovation standpoint.

I have those 3 pins!

high speed. but honorable mention for firepower,black knight,t2,and flash. sttng is also an awesome game.

Have an SM and a BK. Would love a HS to make a wonderful Ritchie trifecta

Guys it is Firepower ! First multiball and lane change .. Firepower, final answer, FIREPOWER!

Jim

Define "crowning achievement"? If your def means "what game do you think of when you hear his name" it's definitely a tie between BK & HS for me. if you mean "best game" i'd have to say hs2 for me.

In regards to lawlor, i don't think i can consider tz his greatest game just because of those pop bumpers above the left outhole. I watched my son play a whole game where all three balls went straight to them and then out without him even touching the ball.

I'd say SM but I wasn't into the hobby upon release of Firepower, BK or HS, so I probably haven't experienced those in the way others have.

STTNG. But I am not a huge Ritchie fan. I respect him greatly, but not in my top five designers. I prefer, Nordman/Gomez/Eddy based flow, but that's just me.

It's spiderman for me.

For its time BK is the most impressive.

I haven't played Spider-Man yet, but for me he had three games that really broke through: Firepower for really bringing speed to pinball, High Speed for first making the ramp the main focus, and Black Knight 2000 for putting together the whole package of multi-level, speed, awesome music, and the first 'everything is lit'. IIRC Black Knight 2000 won a special award for the best music ever in the history of pinball, at that time.

bk2k hands down, but that's mostly due to the great music

Crowning game?
I bet he still has a few tricks up his sleeve for us!
So I vote, "NOT MADE YET!"
However as far as "greatest hits" go...
BK, Firepower, HS, F-14, BK2K, T2, HSII, STTNG and SM are all excellent examples of the man's flowy legacy.
Heck, I will even throw in 'Rollergames' as one of my guilty Ritchie pleasures.
Honorable "tweaking" for EATPM too!
I can't wait to see what comes after the supposed "AC/DC" pin.

Good luck Steve!

Star Trek 2013!!!

SM is going to be really hard to top,but Steve just might do it!!

Probably STTNG...HS coming a short second. HS2 & BK s do nothing for me.

High Speed.

My Top 5 SR pins

1. HS
2. STTNG
3. Black Knight
4. SM
5. F-14

STTNG is easily my favorite Ritchie pin, but BK and HS are without a doubt his two most important games from a historical perspective. I still remember the first time I came across a BK when I was a kid and saw that dual level playfield. It was a truly revolutionary concept at the time. BK was also the first game with Magna-Save.
HS not only contained a ton of innovations, but it is universally recognized as the game that ushered in pinball's modern golden age. There were over 17,000 of them made, and no game had shown those kind of numbers since Firepower (of course, another Ritchie pin).
Yep, Ritchie is "the man"!

Agree and don't forget if you paid for two games you got the free battle the knight.
Brilliant, I always play mine with 2 players.
When PotC came out and was being touted as the greatest before anyone had seen it I bought one of JJ's NIB BK's when he opened the TT warehouse.

Steve played it and he liked it.

673255495_6p9VW-M.jpg 673255412_9vanP-M.jpg

I say IJ. The OP did say "Ritchie"

I say Spider-Man, but there's plenty of other great experiences that he's responsible for. I've owned several of his games, but Spider-Man is the one I will probably never let go.

Duh, Rollergames!

Spiderman Greatest Game Of All Time!

SM followed by STTNG.

It should have been Mystic Roller Maidens from Outer Space or Rollergirls, the theme not the gameplay killed this one.

flash for me. the game that got me into pinball when i was a kid. honerable mention goes to bk,firepower and high speed. sm is ok but fan layouts are getting kind of old.