Quoted from o-din:

I'll take your 7 numbers and raise you to 10 on Big Daddy.

Quoted from markmon:

Every EM is the same stupid game. Put 3 pop bumpers in the center on the flattest possible surface with a bunch of misc targets and some crappy targets and add some chime sounds and you have a winner. Need another game? Change the artwork a little and call it a totally *different* game. I imagine EM's might work well to gut out for a virtual pinball cabinet. Or maybe you could lay some padding on them and use them for a bed. Who knows.
Of course you get people that claim that they require the ultimate skill etc. I guess people need to convince themselves that there is some reason to like them. EM's only existed because technology didnt exist to do better.

Quoted from mof:

I'm in my mid 40's and I grew up playing vids, and *never* pinball. I found pinball 2 years ago. The nostalgia in pinball for me comes from the art and sounds -- not from a specific title.
I have different views on EMs: As a fan of art history, as a player, and as a restorer.
I. I love the art and sounds of EMs -- the art represents its time, and the sounds are very good at creating a "time-travel" ambience of antiquity. (I'm not holding out hope that modern Sterns will help me time travel back to 2010-2015 when I play them in 20 years -- we'll see.)
II. Having professed my love of EM's from an art and history point of view, I have three big issues with EMs as a player.
1. Flipper strength. I cannot get past the weak flipper strength compared to solid states.
I'm used to powerful flippers in all my games, and that responsiveness is attractive to me -- when you take that away, it's like asking a 16 year old to turn off the car ignition to his dad's V8, and go back to riding a rickety 10-speed. I can't deal with that calibration to "being ok with slower"
2. EMs have a simpler playfield design. One aspect of this design that is difficult for me is the commitment to symmetry. I really appreciate how most solid states from 1980 forward have strong asymmetry. You simply get less predictable action from an asymmetrical table.
3. Playfield pitch and speed. I'm guessing some of you have applied fast clear coats to your EMs... I have never played one with a clear coat (to my knowledge) and so I've never seen an EM that plays fast (regardless of weak flippers.) Having a playfield at 6.5' instead of 4.0' moves the ball to the flippers quicker and creates more action for the player. I call 4.0' pitched tables, "grandpa mode" -- it's so much slower, and the ball travel is much more lateral. ZZZzzz...
III. As someone who is rapidly learning how to restore pinball machines, I see learning EM's as a whole 'nother frontier, that I may not find the time to learn this lifetime.
I'm most pleased that older folks are ok with the symmetry and speeds of playing in 'grandpa mode.' It's just not something I expect to ever get involved with. If someone was willing to juice up their EM with some stronger flippers and a 6.0' pitched, and cleared playfield, please let me know because I might be interested in giving it a go -- the art and sounds are the BEST there is.
-mof