Firepower!

Don't forget Stellar Wars! One of my favorite games.

GoT
Star Trek (either)
Getaway
Firepower

I think BK 2K is his only bad layout, really. Many of his others I don't like for code/theme reasons, but bk2k is just such a boring one shot game.

Love original BK and SW, they really get your blood pumping

Don't forget HyperBall. Not exactly a pinball but fun.

I own and love.
Star Wars
Flash
Black Knight.

Love his games.

Have you played much T3 because I would move it way up. Ritchie layout with Dwight Sullivan mode stacking. I would (and do) own a T3 over 75% of the list.

I've had all of them, I think. Right now, I have GoT, ACDC, BKSOR, T3, and Spidey
And I, too, love WPT.

In my opinion Steve Ritchie is the Steve McQueen of Pinball. Both of them are one of a kind, a class of their own. There are no movies like McQueen movies and no pinball-machines like Steve Ritchie's.
Steve McQueen sadly is gone for more than 40 years now but I still like his movies more than any other, and they all stood the test of time.
The first Ritchie-designs appeared at this time and they still are my favorite machines.

Ritchie's designs are equally timeless. While Bally-machines from 1979 meanwhile appear boring to me I still love FLASH and FIREPOWER exactly the same way it was in 1979 and 1980. Maybe it's insane but I still like FLASH and FIREPOWER the most. When they were new it was absolutely exciting in a way that can't be described in words. It was the start into a new world of pinball. definitely.

I also enjoy his titles and will agree with BK being better than BK2K. I like the 2K a lot but the staying power isn’t there.

I was actually really impressed with the newer Star Trek it plays a lot tighter than its super pin counterpart.

Stellar Wars, Firepower, Rollergames, T2, HSI and II and whatever else I’m missing that I own of his are all keepers.

I would like to get an Elvis sometime and would buy a spidey again.

He’s my favorite of all time. Legendary designer.

T2 is my fave pin ever. Everything about it is classic

No mention of Led Zeppelin yet. The game feels great when you make your shots and feels brutal when you miss them. I think it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s a lot harder than his more recent games, ST, GoT, BK SOR and Spider-Man.

Zepp his best effort, hands down.

Who raves over Black Knight 2000? Never met that person. I've recently begun to appreciate No Fear. Not that I would buy it but it gives you that Ritchie exhilerating experience while playing.

If it had deeper code it would be higher on a lot of people's lists. I absolutely love T3, layout is great, cool assets, RPG is fun, etc. But I'm an average player and I can routinely "beat" the game. Compare that to my other two pins, LOTR and JJP POTC, I haven't even sniffed Valinor or all 5 POTC wizard modes in a game.

That’s a fair assessment but you listed two of the deepest game of all time. I would just say depth doesn’t necessarily mean fun. For example, I don’t really like the hobbit and wouldn’t play a free credit walking by one.

That's very true!

Love the game and gave you an upvote for your bold statement. But my jury's out as to whether I agree at this point. ACDC and GOT are pretty epic as well, and SW is no slouch either (although it's infuriating because it's so hard).

I've owned acdc , its good, but not great. Have no desire to own again. GOT, I've only played a handful of times, just not into it. I'd put star trek above star wars tho. Its a great game, but the more I play LZ, the better it keeps getting.

Love Steve games. I own a HS and STTNG for many years. I have played all of them with the exception of Zep. I have also owned and sold quite a few such as :

AC/DC
BK SOR
Getaway
T2

I really enjoy playing the Stern version of Star Trek and T3. My buddy has a Stern ST close by and play it alot. I have a T3 on the way that I am looking forward to adding to my collection. We will see how that goes.

Mike

I had a HS for a LONG time and it was still a lot of fun to play even when I finally sold it after 20+ years. I'd like to own an HS2 at some point as that is a super-fun shooter too but I still think STTNG is his masterpiece. Dwight, the mechanical engineers like Biagi and the licensing folks deserve a ton of credit too but since he was the "director" he still deserves credit for the overall experience. I've played everyone of his games except for the Atari ones and I think SW is the only one I hate though GOT is close because the theme means I have no idea what the hell is going on.

These are in order of what I think is fun and worth owning:

THE BEST:

1- Getaway (HSII)
2- Star Trek (Stern)
3- Spider-Man

4- GOT
5- Firepower
6- World Poker Tour

[7- Star Wars]
8- HS 1

9- STTNG
10- T2
11- T3
12- AC/DC
13- LED Z.
14- Elvis
15- F-14 Tomcat
16- No Fear!
17- Rollergames
18- Superman (Atari) I know it's not great but for it's age, very fun.

This is where things start to fall apart...

19- 24 - So-so game and plays WAY too long!
20- Stellar Wars - Not bad for it's time but it's slow and wide
21- BK - This game is almost poop
22- BK 2K -This game is definitely poop

23- BK SOR -This is really bad. Such a shame.
24- Flash - More total poop gameplay

THE WORST

Flash is really underrated here. It's hard to fully appreciate just how important that design was. It helped saved Williams who hadn't had a sales hit in a while, I think it created the cross playfield plunge or at least really popularized it, it was an early example of a repeatable loop shot from an upper flipper that shows up on so many later Ritchie games (protip: upgrade your flippers to later system 11 designs to really pop off some loops), it introduced flash lamps and background noise to pinball, and is frankly still a pretty fun game overall. The only thing you can really ding it for is the art is very meh and the background noise did not age well (defaults to off for a reason)

Flash is one of those layouts that you can see it so many other games made later, like Skateball and Blackout. It really is one of his all time great layouts that influenced countless other games.

What about Star Wars?

My respect for you! I can't stand this permanent bashing of FLASH anymore. If one is too young to simply understand how important this machine was and still is than he should be quiet. A "poop-game" ? Gee-Whizz look at that boring and terrible sounding Four-Letter-Word-Bally-machine from the same year. (Of course, that machine sold 17.000 units too but in this case it was the name and a clever strategy that made big numbers - FLASH had nothing of that)
If FLASH really is that bad how could it be that it sold over 19.000 units?
And please no one should forget (Steve Ritchie confirmed this) that Williams stopped the production-run because they "wanted to leave the market still demanding" - so it is a fact that FLASH could be the most-produced Flipper-Game ever, topping Eight Ball and TAF. And when you keep in mind that there were also some FLASH-licensed machines in Brazil and Europe like Super-Zeus, Zeus and Storm, it will even be in fact the most produced machine of all time. A "poop-game"? Hahaha!

And as you said, Williams did not have a hit for a couple of years. Bally dominated the market in such a huge way that it became extremely boring in 1978. Who knows what could have happened to Williams' Pinball-department if they did not hire Steve Ritchie with his idea for FLASH, and the fantastic new sound-system ? Anyone who bashes that great new sound - compare it to Bally's from the same time!
Williams surely made tons of money with FLASH and that money helped Williams through the very bad years 83 and 84. There would have been no High Speed, no success, no DMD, no WPC, nothing. Pinball could have gone in a completely other direction if it wasn't for Williams and Steve Ritchie who invented High Speed in late 85. You must remember that in 85 most manufacturers were gone or built very cheap "Retro"-designs. Only Williams stood strong and invented new and up-to-date designs! And all this only happened because Steve Ritchie went to Williams and designed FLASH. So please give FLASH a break, OK?

BK SOR is really fun. Shoots great, looks great, sounds great!

I don't think I've ever really read about this game being such a big hit or a turning point for WMS at the time so thanks for the background on it.

Steve liked to cherry pick cool ideas from other games and I think he probably got that cross plunge from games like 4 million BC, but yes it certainly made it a popular feature.

Flash is a great game for sure and you still see plenty of new games that borrow its elements (even if most of them are Steve Ritchie games lol)

One of the best spinner rips in pinball. I also like to light the pop bumpers early in each ball with the lower left standup - an unexploited source of points that many people disregard.

I missed that one... All time, I'd say it's definitively better than STTNG.

Yes, compared directly to other titles he created, Flash is not so great. It just didn't age all that well. Was it one of the top 10 games when it came out? Possibly... but it's not really fair to rank games against each other like this, it was just for fun. Just because I refuse to own a game does not mean I don't appreciate it's historical significance. When I compared Flash to all the other Ritchie titles, it was last. Something has to be the worst so get off your high horses and put what you think is the worst if I'm wrong.

It's hard but you have to pretend that these are the only games that exist in order to rank them against each other. It's just for fun.. calling a game poop. Get a grip people.

Wow. Have to agree to disagree on that.. I often ponder about Flash, honestly, I think the only thing holding it back from aging better is the art package. I kind of question the example of this that you have played... there is something to be said for how Flash is set up.. ensuring the flippers are functioning well, drops are 100%, and that the guides are aligned is essential for this title.

I own flash , bk and sw. Love my Ritchie games.

Everyone has their own opinion
but Flash is a very fun shooter
for its age.

Are you talking about the premium/le? Because I’ve played he pro and found it boring. The layout is uninspired and the game is completely stripped down. Hopefully I’ll like the premium, because I love the band.

This thread reminds me of Steve's quote in the Getaway promo . . .

Untitled-1 (resized).jpg

Simpsons pinball party by Joe Balcer has the deepest code to date. Refer to the machine page on pinside.

Prem/LE

I agree the Prem LE is crazy fun to play.

When FLASH was brandnew and all features went and worked perfectly, EACH AND ANY example/machine was great fun to play.. As you can read in other posts or on the FLASH-splash-page it's no secret that Steve Ritchie had to use the old-style drop-target-banks and flipper-units. There simply was no time to invent new ones. FIREPOWER was the first one with new and powerful flipper-units but it did not get drop-targets because Williams knew about the drop-target-issues with FLASH on location.
But this has nothing to do with the game by itself. The machines were highly frequented on location and the drop-targets und flippers went out of order. It's not fair to damn the whole design because of that.

Yeah.. that's my point.. not sure if that is what you are stating or not.. Personally.. the OE flippers are fine as long as they are adjusted and clean... same with the drops, I just figured perhaps the original poster who ranked flash so low perhaps played one which was set up poorly.. as if the drops are not working, or the flippers are weak, then like most games.. you'll miss out on it. It's one of my favourite classic SS machines.. I was just saying if it had a different art package, I think it would have aged MUCH better.

FWIW, here's my set up recorded a while ago.. It was an old player machine.. but with the OE parts, I think I dialed it in pretty well. The loop is repeatable from the 3rd flipper, and the drops are like butter and can be strafed

Getaway, Spider-Man, BKSOR - all fantastic, liked a couple of them so much I brought them home. Definitely each a unique experience. Wasn’t a fan of Star Wars or LZ enough to own them, but still have fun playing on-location. Haven’t tried either Star Trek that everyone loves so much, I’ll have to make an effort to play them soon.

Then we agree, thank you. A machine must always be rated in its time, compared to its competitors, and when it was new and worked properly. And in 1979 FLASH was King. We stood there with tape-recorders so we could listen to the new sound at home in our chamber, believe it or not. The machines were in action from morning until late night. We loved the smooth gameplay, the fast flipper-lanes and everything, plus we all were absolutely fed-up with the Bally-chimes and the crude first-generation-Bally-sound either.

Here are 2 STEVE RITCHIE -Videos that I like very much. The master himself "doing" FIREPOWER - absolutely great. And hear his opinion on Atari-workmate Steve Jobs. In another toppic a Pinsider wrote that Steve Ritchie is the Steve Jobs of Pinball. He surely would NOT be happy with that comparison.

And here a german record-sleeve from the early 80ies, the time of the "german new wave"

Automatenheinz (resized).jpg

If I ever lost my left arm in an accident BK2K would be the machine I would buy, extremely 1 dimensional.

No doubt SR has designed some great games, and I've owned a fair few of them - but I feel that he recycles his designs more than other.

Barring a few tweaks:
HS = Getaway
SM = STTNG = ST
T2 = T3 = ACDC

Favourites of his:
GoT
WPT
F14
ACDC

Misses:
BK2K
SW
BK:SOR

He certainly does re-use certain elements but of your comparisons I have to say that I don't think T2, T3 and ACDC play at all alike. They have some similar shots for sure but that's about where it ends. I also think that ST, SM and STTNG play completely differently (I have STTNG and SM) mainly because the shot off the upper flipper goes somwhere different on each game and in the case of TNG it can go two different places with a diverter plus you have two other shot options off of it.

T2 & T3 have very minimal similarities (outside theme of course). Completely different layouts.

Paging thedarkknight77 so that Viggin900 can meet you

"Shoot here and here".

Lol, and the right orbit with increasing values.

I've re-imagined more Steve Richie pins than any other designer - STTNG, T2, F-14, 24, Star Trek, AC-DC, Firepower, Black Knight, High Speed and Spiderman. Learned a hell of lot about pinball game design from studying and reproducing his work.

Only Steve Richie pin I have no interest in is Led Balloon....I mean Zeplin. Thankfully, the layout can be salvaged with a re-theme.

Getaway is the one game I miss from selling. Love to see SR do a modern version.