I have a friend who is ready to enter the pinball hobby with a $1,000 (approx.) budget for his first pin. I have already given him my advice, but looking for other ideas. He does enjoy depth, multi-ball, and multiple flippers. Any advice? Dave

Update with the current list of the best thousand dollar games (in alphabetical order):

Alien Poker
Atlantis
Barracora
Baywatch
Big Guns
Big Hurt
Black Hole
Black Knight
Breakshot
Centaur II
Comet
Escape from the Lost World
F-14
Fire
Fire Power
Flash
Flash Gordon
Gladiators
Grand Lizard
High Speed
Joker Poker
Jokerz
Laser Cue
Lethal Weapon 3
Lights Camera Action
Mars Trek
Meteor
Operation Thunder
Paragon
Pin-Bot
Road Kings
Roller Games
Shaq Attaq
Sorcerer
Space Invaders
Space Shuttle
Spy Hunter
Street Fighter II
Taxi
Tee'd Off
Waterworld
Wipe Out

Jim, I already tried him on EFTLW, but he wanted a bit more depth. Would love to find a $1K PinBot around here - that might work.

Thanks guys - there were a few games here I had not considered. Adding my thoughts to the "best game for $1,000 list" and taking off the games that cost way more than $1,000 today - here's what we have so far...

List moved to the first post of this thread...

Thanks for the help guys - we'll go through the list, and hopefully be ready to purchase soon - local to CT...

Done, thanks again!

List is updated in the first post of the thread. This is kinda fun...

Just to put a lid on this thread - my buddy purchased the Tee'd Off from 96Stang, and he's really enjoying it so far. Great entry into pinball, right around the $1K mark... Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help.