If you can't make it to Chicago, it will be at the Houston Arcade Expo nov. 7-8. Everyone needs to check this machine out, it is super Rad.

The brilliant thing about the P3 is if you have a better idea for artwork, you can design your own, get the magnetic panels and translite printed fairly cheap, and you'll have a personalized machine that you can revert to the original art in seconds.

Lexi as a game is great, but the platform is brilliant in so many ways. I really don't understand why every pinhead who cares about the future of this hobby isn't super excited about the P3. Hopefully that changes after expo.

Actually, I had it in an earlier version of the timeline, however, for a pretty simple reason it didn't make the cut. It was bunched up by the ramp at 1979, and it was represented by bouncing audio meters that bounced along with the sound-clip "Gorgar!".

But the whole concept of this piece is that we cut in and out of "Bullet-time" where everything slows down as we pass each milestone. When you slow down audio, it's no longer recognizable and sounds completely different. It didn't make sense to me to have the audio playing at normal speed and the visual representation of everything else slowed down to 15-20% speed, so I cut it.

But, it had the side benefit of making the end sequence really tight and focused, and hopefully brought attention to the fact that after 1999, pinball hasn't advanced at all. It's all been slightly different twists on ideas from 20-30 years ago. That is what makes the P3 different.

I am really happy with how this thing turned out, as I put a ton of time into it. I am a firm believer that the P3 is the future of pinball. If pinball just stays exactly the same as it has been for 30 years, it's appeal won't stretch far beyond those of us who lived during the Arcade era, and when we die, there won't be anyone behind us to be enthusiastic about a fantastic class of games. I love the pinball we have had for 30 years, but pinball never would have appealed to me as a 80's-90's kid if it never advanced from the technology of the 50's-60's. It has to push forward to survive.

Back to the original question, as a history buff I loved researching this stuff. Anyone else have any ideas of other major milestones that should have made the cut? The spinner was a last minute addition, and I am really happy I put it in there, as it's my favorite part of the timeline.

As artwork opinions are mostly subjective, you aren't "Wrong" in disliking it, but it does accurately reflect the story of Lexi Lightspeed as envisioned by Dennis Nordman. I actually really love it as a fan of original themes, and this theme and story really has a great 90's feel to it. Getting through the swamp, breaking into the lab, Collecting parts for your crashed spaceship, all while trying to avoid government agents, to me, could have been a great theme for BW back in the day.

Which is a great thing about this machine! You can think up whole new ways of playing pinball, or you can design a game that would have fit in perfectly with the best of the 90's era games, only with the enhanced features you can only do on the P3! And again, if the artwork isn't your cup of tea, you can change it! Magnetic artwork kicks ass!

I happen to really like the artwork too. It looks great in person. But again, no one is "Right" or "Wrong" when it comes to that stuff, just differences of opinion.

The timeline fades out over time, but it wasn't meant to stop at 2009, it just appears that way as the more recent years get darker.

So in a way Usandthem is right that I did glide over JJP's contributions, as well as Stern's, as Pinballfantexas pointed out. But I also didn't include lots of incremental improvements along pinball's path. Small technical improvements happen all the time, but aren't remembered by history as great advances forward.

I didn't include JJP's lcd for the same reason I didn't include alphanumeric displays in addition to the first digital displays, despite being a vast improvement in regards to graphics and communication. It was an incremental improvement on an existing idea, not a game changer. I feel a higher resolution LCD in the back box is a great improvement over a low resolution monochrome DMD, but it's still working off the same basic idea as the DMD from 25 years ago. (As a video guy, I appreciate how much more work that screen is, but I don't view it as a game changer.)

Now it's cool if you don't agree with me. I love hearing people hash out what should and should not be included on a list of major achievements in the history of this game. But I do think that the P3 platform is the first truly fresh idea the hobby has seen since pinball2000, and I think pinball needs a game changer like that to survive to the next generation.

Tilt was a big deal, but not for players so much.

Dont forget Caveman!