Liberty Bell is awesome, it is basically a grand prix retheme or maybe grand prix was liberty bell retheme.

Love my argosy. So it gets my vote.

4 Aces isn’t on here! I picked one up because of the magnet feature. Never seen or played another EM with magnets in it!!! Very very cool.

Hey where’s my Gay 90s

It does have some cool features — swinging target, gate, kickback, up post.

I'm partial to my 1970 Jive Time.
It's slow and that's what I like about it. Plus, it's a funky theme and orange. The random spinner on the head, is unique, too. It's a keeper in my collection for when I just wanna chill and hit a ball around.

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I miss my Skylab, Doodlebug and Dealer's Choice.

Where is the magnet? I couldn’t find a list of EMs that use magnets. At least the IPDB doesn’t denote any others using it.

My top three Williams EMs are all Gottliebs

If I was forced to own a Williams EM I would say Klondike Special (specifically for the artwork with the stinky bear), Honey (love the artwork for some reason) and that's it. The 60s Williams EMs were much prettier and more fun in my opinion. Never played a Williams EM that did anything for me gameplay wise, and the artwork is just so clearly inferior Gottlieb games.

Any reason you specifically are looking at 70s?

Dealers Choice, Space Mission/Odyssey, Grand Prix

So far the survey is spot on. Spanish Eyes and Grand Prix are the best one player and multiplayer games hands down in my opinion. I once had a Liberty Bell because it looks a lot like Grand Prix, but the gameplay is nowhere near as good.

Teachers Pet is my favorite 60s Williams...

I wanna say that the general consensus that if you're going for gameplay, Argosy, Dealer's Choice, and Spanish Eyes.

Dealer's choice looks like a dog, but has at least an INVENTIVE gameplay.

Honey, Superstar, and Triple Action. We had several Triple Actions on our route back in the day and they made good money.

From memories playing on these games when they were around in the 1970's, and also playing them more recently at shows, my three are:

Triple Strike - One of my favourite EM games. Enjoyed trying to make all those ten roll-overs without draining.

Grand Prix - My favourite multi-player EM. Great ripping those spinners!

Spanish Eyes - A rather unusual and different backglass, and a good playing EM too, love the horseshoe and the bumper between the flippers!

Space Mission
Big Deal
Triple Strike

This one brings back some memories...Really caught the pinball bug back in 1974-75. People here that played on location in those days will remember that there was always a new game at your arcade every month. Be it Williams, Gottlieb, or Bally, and sometimes Chicago Coin. In that time period, Satin Doll was the game my friends and I would try and find as it was easy for us to master and play for a long time on a quarter. Followed closely by Toledo as we would smack that long bank of stand up targets with the upper flippers. I found out later that the stand up target bank on Toledo used flipper buttons for target faces instead of the flat stand up faces. Triple Action was fun, too. Of course, when Grand Prix came out it ran to the top of the list for us.

Always enjoyed the clink, clink, clink of the Williams games when rolling over a row of lit 1000 point buttons!

Great topic chuckwurt ! I’d like to add a couple EMs to the collection one of these days but have been a little overwhelmed with the quantity of them and want to make sure it’s a good one. I’ve had my heart set on a Segasa Prospector but haven’t had much luck finding one.

Grand Prix is definitely a good tournament game. We've used it many times here in Florida. Aside from being one player, Spanish Eyes is also a popular tournament game.

To me I think of drop targets when I think of Gottlieb EMs, even though there are some great ones with no drop targets. For Williams I think of spinners, super strong pop bumpers and flippers. The action from the Williams pop bumpers is superb when they are rebuilt and tweaked. Apologies to the people suggesting Space Mission, but the Williams games I really don't like are the ones with the moving center target and the shooter holes in the slings. Those also don't make good tournament games. Further apologies, as I also don't like bowling games with the obligatory ten rollover targets representing pins.

The other nice thing about Williams EMs is they are much easier to repair and troubleshoot issues than Gottliebs.

Satin Doll was another good earner for us but is not on your poll.

Funny I have never seen or played that game. It looks really great. Dang, now I have a game to hunt for!

This is a great thread @chuckwurt. Thanks for starting it.

I’ve had a Hot Tip, Argosy, Space Odyssey, and Aztec. They’re all really good for the most part. I think Hot Tip might be the best?

I really like Space Odyssey besides how easy the extra ball is and how the game doesn’t have 5 score reels. It’s not that hard to roll over 199, especially with the extra balls. Favorite art package for sure. Also the clear favorite of novice players and non-pin head guests at my house. We need more swinging target games!

Argosy is a unique layout. I think the upper left corner is a bit of a wasted space, but it’s solid overall. I really like shooting the gate open with an alley pass as a pro move that can advance the drops from the lowest value. And it’s classic whenever the ball goes up the roll over, closes the gate, and drains lol.

Aztec is a super solid spinner game and the right kick out can be worth decent points if you luck into some letters. If the letters were worth more points they’d be worth shooting (besides the ones to lit double bonus and the spinner). That center target blows. Lite the EB, shoot it and it is SDTM. The DC pops and slings are great on this game. I have some issues with the artwork on the game.

Hot Tip is a great loaded playfield. I’ve been working on a P3ROC retheme of it because the layout is so good IMO. It gets a bit dull after the spinner gets lit.

I love Grand Prix for the most part although I don’t like games so symmetrical. Would like one in my collection though

I’d love a Spanish Eyes. Holes under the flippers? That’s the kind of savagery I want.

I also had a Pat Hand and Dealers Choice at one point. Can barely even remember having them lol

Im happy to see Im not the only person to like OXO. I think its a great game!

I currently own space mission an have played it a lot in 4 years.
I owned a stratoflite that was fun as well.
Not sure they are top games but definately lots of fun.

I've always considered myself a Williams fan but mostly focused on the 60s games. There are a bunch of 70s games I've never played. I'd love to put some time on a Rancho, Argosy, Hot Tip, Wild Card or Big Deal.

I had Space Mission and Grand Prix. Both seem to get a fair amount of respect. With that said I wasn't a huge fan of the slot kickers on Space Mission. I think it would be so much better without them. Grand Prix is fast and fun but so spinner heavy it can get a little repetitive after some time.

Right now I seem to like 50s Gottliebs, 60s Williams and 70s Ballys the best.

Grand Prix
Space Mission / Odyssey
Gulfstream / Tropic Fun

Only 3 votes for Hot Tip?! Really?! I have owned alot of EMs and Hot Tip crushes them all. It's the only keeper (EM pins) besides Spooksville in my collection. Spinner,
6 drop targets, captive ball, 2 kick out holes.

I played a lot of Triple Strike, but I don’t remember if it was a first choice or something to play when a more popular game was occupied.

Rolling over lit orange buttons was fun.

I loves me some Argosy and Grand Prix - but I might put Wild Card up there too.

Grand Prix is a lot of fun, especially when you have multiple players, competing, but I love the progressive drop target scoring on my EM hot tip, along with the bonus building and captive ball and It is one of my keepers. I've noticed that the SS version seems to get less love.

Phoenix

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OXO is a fun game. Very fast, lots to shoot for, and some pretty good strategies. We like the Christian Marche artwork, but not everybody does.

I have never heard of or seen argosy before, I love when that happens. Did they make a lot of them ? Why is it in the top 3 ?

Aztec is by far the best Wms pin I've ever played. Out of a fairly large line up
here, its my wifes fave ad gets played a lot. Fast, lots of features and nice
artwork too. My other votes go to Spanish Eyes (great artwork) and OXO.
Steve

I kept looking for Sound Stage, then I realized it’s a Chicago Coin. I love any spinner EM, but I fell in love with Argosy at PAPA many years ago.