I've had a few of them and my favorite was Wipeout. I hear Stargate is super deep with rules but I don't have much experience with it.

Stargate is probably the best one. After that, Cue Ball Wizard and Freddy are okay.

I own four of the system 3's and rate them

1) Stargate - Best rules and fun toys. Deep too!
2) Gladiators - Crazy four flipper fun with shaker!
3) Wipeout - Simple ruleset, but still fun and how can you not love the skilift?
4) Waterworld - Sink the Deez!! An interesting game.. but eh.

barbwire is okay.

I've owned a few and like:
Cactus Jack's
Stargate
Tee'd Off
Vegas
Cue Ball Wizard

Yeah Stargate is the best of sys3 games.

Stargate is fucking awesome and a top 8 pin for me. I like Tee'd off better than NGG. Wipeout is pretty fun as well. Gladiators, class of 1812, bonebusters all good stuff as well. I wouldn't mind owning all of them.

Big Hurt. At least it was last night.

Super Mario bros...not very deep, but pretty tough. More of a kid themed pin, though.

I currently have a gladiators and it is by far my favorite pin. 4 flippers that drive you crazy, a lot of ramps and things to do, and just overall great game play. I know it doesn't get a good review from most people, but I love it. Would like to try a Stargate though. I think that is on my 2015 wtb list

Operation Thunder is a great player. Very addictive gameplay.

None of them are any good. Go back to Bally/WMS!

Alright... Glad others are finally figuring out how fun some of these are to play.

Rescue 911 is pretty fun. So is Street Fighter II. Gladiators and Barb Wire were fun while I had them. Stargate and Waterworld didn't do much for me.

Stargate by far. It's really the only sys3 that has legs amongst the big boys of the 90s. There are some fun games, but when comparing to the best (ie b/w and some DE/Sega), they really fell short and tailed off due to the street level pin fiasco.

Having said that, Gladiators had a lot going for it, and was very innovative in a few ways. The combo'ing is amazing for this machine. If you can get the timing down for when the ball comes around from the upper ramp to the right flipper to hit the left ramp, you can continue to complete this insane combo sequence many times.

This game also has a multiball target that allows you to jack it up, and turn any normally timed mode into a two ball multiball mode that is no longer timed - awesome.

It is hampered by the overall lame art, sound, and kiddish theme. I enjoyed it briefly, but beat it too easily, something that I can say about SG as well.

I wouldn't mind trying gladiators and stargate owned smb and wipeout and while great starter pins they get boring very fast, just not much to do and no rules really

I agree gladiators isn't that hard to beat, and the kiddish theme would have been much better if they would have stuck with the original Zelda theme. I have heard they switched themes last minute because they thought american gladiators was going to be a huge show. Kinda shot themselves in the foot there, Zelda would have been much better, but the moving catapult target is great and the upper flipper combo shots are easy but fun. Still would love to have a Stargate and class of 1812, maybe a street fighter but I have never played that one

i really liked class of 1812, Freddy and Barb wire quite good fun.

I'd go Wipeout (like it that much I bought one), Big hurt, Tee'd Off.

I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I really like Streetfighter, have since I first saw it in the distributors showroom, and it's the only Sys 3 DMD game I own. Arts not great, but I've always enjoyed the gameplay and it does have some very tough/interesting shots. I also have a Surf N Safari that I like, and I'd buy a Lights, Camera, Action if I had the opportunity, same with Stargate or Barb Wire at the right price.

Its a toss up between Gladiators and Big Hurt for me, with the slight edge to Gladiators for its cheesy synth music and plaster-cracking shaker.

Have to throw my hat in the ring for Wipeout. While I have not played any other System 3 game, I do like Wipeout a lot. Was thinking about getting a Waterworld but settled on a Fish Tales. As far as depth of rule set, personally, I just like to go down and have fun and see how long I can keep the ball in play. Not so much worried about a physics lesson. Just my .02 worth.

G

Rescue 911 is pretty fun. It is the first one I have owned.

Stargate for me. I really like Big Hurt and Gladiators as well. Operation Thunder left a good impression on me as well the one time I played it.

$1800-$2250 ish around here.

This is what i've seen as well. Had several chances to buy very nice ones for $1800-2200.

I just picked up a big hurt, and I don't have a lot of playing time on it yet, it seems fun so far!

Rescue 911 Is fun! Exciting when you start the LifeForce mode. Makes this heartbeat sound, and has a good light show. Lots of cool shots.

Freddy is great street fighter is cool cue ball was yuck for me.mario seems like a good theme not very deep though,

I've played several system 3's but never Stargate yet...
Gladiators is a pretty fun game,if set up right it plays super fast.It also has pretty good ruleset.
It's a little underated I think.
Great bang for your buck pin.

Cactus Jack & Class of 1812 are both pretty cool but they are early System 3's. I like Super Mario Brothers. Freddy is ok too if you like horror themed pins. Stargate is nice also and fun too.

No love for Title Fight?

Title Fight is great, played one at a show recently, don't see it much here in Australia

I'd like to hear more about this deep rule set on stargate you folk speak of.

What do you mean? You don't believe the rules are deep?

Freddy now buy mine lmao

I am a believer and would like to one day be an achiever. Would like to know from those in the know about the depth and what it compares to.

Stargate has several games combined into one. Which has 2 different separate wizard modes for each. One is the gate. do all the physical objectives (like Cirqus voltaire) to gather all the gate code pieces. Then you get to that wizard mode. Or there is a mode based set (like tz or TAF). Do all the modes to see a different wizard mode. But there are other ways to score big besides those, as you have progressive drop targets, or jackpot buildups. So many other things packed in like hurry ups and combos.

I have been enjoying my BoneBusters for little bit now and agree stargate is a great game. Seems that a lot of these system 3 games you get good value for the money it takes to get one.

Two types of Sys3 pins - AN and DMDs

The ANs went from LCA to Operation Thunder. (Bone Busters is Sys80B unless it is a sample with a Sys3 boardset.) The DMDs started with Super Mario Brothers and finished with Barb Wire.

LCA is interesting in that it was supposed to be a card-themed game. It is also Gottlieb's first full-blown mode-based game.

Included in the AN list are the six "street level" games - simpler single level playfields built to be easier to maintain by ops - these generally didn't get a lot of love. They only built about 7300 total units for the six street level games, probably the most interesting of them all is Title Fight with the mechanical backbox ("let's make simpler games but put more complexity in the backbox" Huh?)

Probably the best Sys3 AN game is Class of 1812. This was originally based on a Joe Kaminkow design around the Porsche 911. It then evolved and was supposed to be "Monster Mash" but was changed to Class of 1812 to save on the licensing cost.

One of the big differences between Gottlieb and B/W is that the development at Gottlieb was parallel - rules, artwork and playfield were all worked on simultaneously, usually done in a 12 week window and all needed to be managed by the designer. In those instances where they had the luxury of one designer working on the playfield and artwork and another on the rules, you wound up with a game that shines like Stargate where Tanzer did the playfield and Norris did the ruleset. But that was more the exception than the norm and the reason why SG is arguably the best Sys3 DMD.

viperrwk

Big Hurt is a sweet game...great shots...great sports theme...if it was built in modern day it would cost a fortune.

teed' off

I have SMB and like the art a lot. The game is fun, but there is one killer setup that will destroy anything else in points. Getting SUPER, starting a 3-ball, and having Exclamation mode come up as a choice, and you just won the game (in a competition setting). Aside from that, doing the ramp shot, to the right flipper and getting in the rhythm is pretty enjoyable. Castles destroyed should at least have an option to reset after each game played.

Tee'd Off is a fun layout too, but I don't have enough time on it to understand what is the best strategy. I just liked shooting it around the right side and then getting it in the hole with the little flipper. There are some big points to be had there too. No idea how I did it though. Like I said, more time.

Freddy is a fun game, but a tough theme to sell. We have one at the local pinball place. It's got it's shots and is fun, but feels drain happy. The CLAW is pretty clever though. Easy 2-ball MB off each plunge is pretty cool, similar to Stargate in that respect. Going through the nightmare modes is enjoyable, but that's all I've ever understood in the game. It doesn't explain things very well.

Stargate is a very busy machine. It's like the TZ of Gottlieb in that aspect. Diverters, raise up molded targets, mini slingshot/kicker type targets, raising pyramid so gliders can pop out. Just a ton going on there. This one is the deepest IMO. I had one in my house for two months while a friend was making room. I was pretty consistant in the 100-250m range, but it was frustrating because I was getting familiar with the machine, but not getting 'better'. The upper flipper could make the ramp shot every time if timed right, actual success was in the 30-40% range. Nice shooting machine. Could stand to hear "shoot the pyramid" a little less often.

They could all use a ball save if they don't have one. Biggest frustration of machines of that era is that some companies had them, and others didn't. You catch a lame bounce right off the bat and you have a lot of work to do to make up for it in a competition environment.

From a pure fun to play perspective, it is hard to beat Surf'n Safari and Cactus Jack's. Not real deep games, but it doesn't matter because what is there is fun to hit. Getting 2x playfield on SnS is not easy to do and couple that with multiball leads to monster scores. Cactus Jack's is just campy fun with the dancing cacti and sound effects for throwing fruit and veggies.

Had Stargate, and while a very deep game I didn't find it as much fun to play. Owned other System 3 games over the years, too. Do yourself a favor and go to PAPA this spring. Lots of System 3 Gottliebs in the building. SnS was in the A bank last year as one of the qualifying games.

Most of the DMDs have some type of adjustable "Ball Time Safety" however, this setting does not apply to multiball. Honestly, for a game that pushes multiball as hard as SG, I'm glad it doesn't.

viperrwk

Count me in as another vote for Stargate. SMB gets a lot of love from non-pinhead guests who come over, but they are hardly "players."