I like:
Ali
Harlem G's
Elektra
EBD
Fathom
Spirit
Firepower
Sinbad
Joker Poker
Barracora
I don't consider anything after 1983 "early SS".
I also can't stand Xenon,
Playboy, Flash, Kiss, or Gorgar. They are just gimicky and don't contain the gameplay of other respected classics.
I also want to state that your favorite games from years past are probably not the best games from that time, just the ones you had access to when you were playing pins back then.
Quoted from snyper2099:I also want to state that your favorite games from years past are probably not the best games from that time, just the ones you had access to when you were playing pins back then.
Wow. Thanks for the insight.
Here’s a r.g.p. favorite old games poll from august 1994:
9 votes: Black Knight
5 votes: Centaur
4 votes: Haunted House
3 votes: Black Hole
Eight Ball Deluxe
Silverball Mania
2 votes: Eight Ball
Firepower
Flash
Gorgar
Hercules
Jungle Lord
Paragon
Playboy
Space Invaders
1 vote: Firepower II
Kiss
Mars
Meteor
Pac-Man
Sinbad
Spiderman
Vector
Xenon
No love for Fathom in the nineties.
No Order:
Six Million Dollar Man
8 ball Delux
Centaur
Dolly
Black Hole
Black Knight
Haunted House
Flight 2000
Genie
Xenon
Firepower - game play, multiball and sounds
Gorgar - speech
Time Warp - banana flippers
Black Hole - speed and lower pf
Playboy - theme and launch sound
Evil Knievel - art work
Strikes & Spares - colour and artwork
Phoenix - game play
Flash - drops
Galaxy - art and theme
I guess it depends on what you mean by early. I'm thinking like no later than 83, which would exclude sys 9 games like Space Shuttle. I haven't played all of them, but of the ones I have:
Centaur
Fathom
Eight Ball Deluxe
Xenon
Haunted House
Paragon
Black Knight
Black Hole
Flash
Firepower
I'd love to see a new game with a really crazy layout like Paragon or Haunted House. You don't necessarily need 10 flowing ramps and subways all over to make a game fun and flow well. Most of these games proved that point. And most of them took some big risks for the most part, either in art or layout.
My opinion is based on what I have played. Still a few great titles out there, especially some of the early Sterns, that I haven't had a chance to play yet (Star Gazer, Big Game, Seawitch, etc.), but I'm sure I'd love. In alphabetical order.
Andromeda - fantastic artwork and my favorite of the Game Plan era; love the saucer capture and multiball release; left pop near flippers keeps you on your toes and a tough, satisfying spinner shot.
Barracora - complicated and interesting scoring, resetting drop targets, and an awesome spinner to rip; what a beauty!
Embryon - big fan of the polarizing artwork and complete art package of this machine; great shots to the left and right that keep you coming back for more; love the "secret" passage under the left plastic, the flip save, and all of the captured ball shots
Fathom - incredible in-line drop targets, multiball, great spinner location, and probably the best art package to date; like playing a piece of pinball art
Flash Gordon - fast, nasty, and unforgiving; great spinner to ramp shots and fun moving all over the playfield to max out multipliers; probably my favorite single-ball SS
Frontier - great spinner, in-line drops, and incredible collection saucer placement; I'm probably in the minority as far as digging the art package and sounds, but there's just something endearing about them
Jungle Lord - multi-ball, bagatelle, and magna-save; love the upper playfield drops and the lower playfield horseshoe
Medusa - another great upper playfield drop target game; the art package is just incredible
Skateball - great art package and an amazing bonus collect system; love the mismatched outlanes, which keep you on your toes
Split Second - the table that made me appreciate widebodies. I played it along side of Embryon at PAPA and knew that I had to own both; two great machines to pair up.
The one thing in common all these machines have for the most part is amazing original (mostly, some borrowed) artwork.
My top 10 early solid state pins (the best era in my opinion)
1.) Firepower Williams
2.) Black hole Gottlieb
3.) Fathom Bally
4.) Superman Atari
5.) Flight 2000 stern
6.) Xenon. Bally
7.) Mars god of war gottlieb
8.) Blackout Williams
9.) Wild fyre stern
10.) Incredible hulk gottlieb
Quoted from fireball2:Also, if you look at the back glass art squinty-eyed it looks just like the female reproductive system. Look at it. Now you see!
Okay now I can't get on ipdb.org. Did you silly kids bring it down?
Too bad this thread did "semi-die" about 4 years ago.
With all of the new people here, I suppose that many haven't ever played many or those late EM's and early to mid-80's SS that are so fun...and also difficult to find either for sale or somewhere to play.
Robert
Big fan of early 80's Bally's
1. Flash Gordon
2. Centaur
3. Medusa
4. EBD
5. BMX
6. Elektra
7. Paragon
8. Viking
9. Skateball
10. Harlem Globetrotters
All right... I'll bite this zombie...
1. Fathom
2. Joker Poker
3. Centaur
4. Medusa
5. Black Knight
6. Harlem Globetrotters
7. Stars
8. Seawitch
9. Sinbad
10. Meteor
Quoted from Calipindave:I had Centaur for about 5 years.
Had one for like 3 months. Do-not-miss.
Quoted from brenna98:1. Stargazer
2. Quicksilver
Ick! Those games are both single shot objective bore-festivals. I mean, Skateball and Seawitch are better designed but even those have layout issues (Seawitch) and scoring exploits (Skateball).
I will however agree that Fathom is a better game than Centaur. 
I am a huge fan of early SS games.
I have: EBD, Seawitch, Farfalla, Genie and Joker Poker
I would like to round out the top 10 with: Quicksilver, Fathom, Centaur, Stargazer and Pinball Champ'82 (Zaccaria)
Unfortunately I am out of space, so that won't happen any time soon. I play those more than the modern day machines.
Quoted from snyper2099:Had one for like 3 months. Do-not-miss.
Ick! Those games are both single shot objective bore-festivals. I mean, Skateball and Seawitch are better designed but even those have layout issues (Seawitch) and scoring exploits (Skateball).
I will however agree that Fathom is a better game than Centaur.
Ha, it's funny how we all have differing opinions on these things. That's what makes it so cool and a community like this important. We need to hear that certain games are not universally loved an accepted but it also gives us some idea of the ones that get large scale acclaim.
Dave
1. Gorgar
2. Centaur
3. Black Knight
4. Fathom
5. Firepower
6. Space Shuttle
7. Eight Ball Deluxe
8. Black Hole
9. Xenon
10. Fireball II
I love me some early ss Bally! Future Spa and Skateball should get asterisks for being fun enough to overcome those bgs and make many people’s lists! Flash too, come to think of it...how did they sell 20,000 of those?
I've only owned Fathom of those listed, but if you extend the time-frame from 1984 to 1985...I owned a Comet also. Both of which I had for awhile and enjoyed while I owned them.
These games are so difficult to find in California, when I look in the marketplace they almost all seem to be east of the Mississippi.
The ones that I have played (up to 1984) and like: Laser Cue, Fathom, Black Pyramid, Centaur, EB Deluxe, Jungle Lord, Gorgar, Seawitch & Harlem Globetrotters.
Robert
I can't disagree with any of these you all have mentioned! I second these...
Flash (I own one and I love it! 19,500 of these speak for themselves)
Firepower (just solid all around - only downside - I always see them with torn up playfields - a good sign of popularity)
Flash Gordon (Good looking and tough - as a kid I hated it for stealing quarters, now I respect it)
Xenon (simply beautiful!... not groundbreaking etc. but her looks are amazing - 70s sci-fi!)
Paragon (arrrgh - this one just begs me to keep coming back over and over and I generally don't like widebody)
Medusa (simply gorgeous - I almost get sad when my ball isn't at the top)
I will add...
Galaxy (sorry, I had fun playing it)
Blackout (GI lights go out - how cool is that)
I didn't see these two machines listed and I haven't played them. Maybe someone had them listed and I missed it, but can anyone tell me how these 2 machines compare to the others on your lists? Andromeda & Nine Ball. They look pretty cool.
In no order
EBD
Joker Poker
Quicksilver
Star Gazer
Nine Ball
Stars
Cheetah
Barracora
Frontier
Flash Gordon
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