It's too easy to really deserve that high of a spot. Historical significance doesn't account for taste.

Before you jump on me, I've got one and am in the middle of a huge restore on it costing more than the machine is worth. It's a great title, but it has some issues that won't see it going higher.

Heh, for what I've dumped into it so far, I don't know if $2300 would allow me to turn a profit. Worst part - the display was working on it until I accidentally totally broke one of the score displays. I guess it had to happen with some machine sometime that I owned. But, I'm not restoring it to turn a profit. While I do think it is ridiculously easy, it is one of the machines that got me into pinball, and getting the opportunity to turn it into a perfect example was something I just couldn't let go by.

I don't know if you were meaning to reply to me or not. While I understand what you're saying, if you took out those games, it would be probably pretty close to the top 100. It's not ranked higher because as a game, it's got some serious gameplay issues.

I'll also say that it probably isn't ranked higher because:

1) It's not a DMD game, and there are a lot of collectors that don't mess with pre-DMD era machines.

2) Until the repro parts, they were nearly impossible to find in good shape. They got A LOT of use, but it means that those people who collect minty examples would almost never even think about adding a Space Shuttle to the line up.

3) Being one of the very few System 9 machines, parts for the boards were harder to find then most because of the rarity of that boardset.

All that stuff contributes to it not being as desirable, and that keeps it out of some of the rankings. I really appreciate everything that it is, but I will fully admit that it is a machine that I don't think I would consider a top machine either.

If you become decent at it, the ball locks are really easy to hit, so the strategy for points is plunge ball, lock ball, plunge ball, drop target, hit ramp to start multiball and then shoot balls past the spinner to build 7X bonus and then up the ramp for points. You can also shoot the ball up the other ramp to keep switching to "Extra Ball" as the SHUTTLE reward.

If you lose a ball, catch and lock the ball and repeat.

It's a really, really simple strategy, and if you have decent ball control skills, it makes it so that you can play for a really, really, really long time. And with the ruleset being so shallow, playing that long isn't so rewarding. There isn't really anything else to shoot for.

It doesn't help that the game has the Airlock thing that saves the ball and the up post in the middle of the game.

And again, lest anyone think I'm trashing their favorite game or whatever, I really like it for what it is. I am waiting for my new tumbler to arrive tomorrow for the playfield swap that I'm in the middle of to continue. But I also realize that Shuttle will be one of the games that I have in the collection because it is a looker and something nostalgic (it's the title after Jurassic Park that I credit with getting me into pinball), not because it is a great playing machine.