There are a few WMS games I still really like, but for the most part modern sterns all day. The game rules are just more interesting and can hold my attention far longer than some of the cooler older mechs.

Like I’ve played enough Medieval Madness in my life. I’m good. It’s a great game, but also…there’s nothing left for me to learn about it. Stern makes a few new games a year, some with very interesting rule sets that are exciting to learn.

Also Im relatively younger and have little nostalgia for a lot of 90s games, which is a factor for some.

Although truth be told, I’d probably prefer to play a tough as nails early solid state classic. Just pure pinball survival. I like either really quick games or ones with a lot of depth. (My favorite Spike 2 games: The Beatles and Batman 66)

Williams 90s every day and twice on Sunday.

Had you asked me this question 6 or so years ago, I would’ve said B/W.

Today, though, Stern has been absolutely killing it more often than not with amazing games. They might be familiar layouts and mechs, but the polish with code sets them apart. This is an amazing era for pinball.

I recently got rid of all my B/Ws and frankly don’t miss them. They’re classics, but I prefer the longer and deeper code in modern Sterns

Games from the mid 70s to early 90s
I like simple games. A game that takes 45 minutes to reach a wizard mode is a chore to play

Why choose? (If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing

So is doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again.

I would rather have a new Stern or 90s BW any day

I chose equal.
It's just hard for me to say, since I like both.

I will admit that if I were starting my collection all over or giving advice to a newer player I would have to recommend going towards more B/W games since they are a lot harder to find in the wild than newer stern games. It seems that every time I find a place with a pinball row, it is all newer sterns.

Pinballs are like anything else, the truly great ones that remain fun in the long term are rare. You gotta have a great designer who really knows his stuff and that doesn't guarantee it either. There are pretty simple games made before the 90s including EMs that I never get tired of but very few of those, too. They either have multiple objectives during the game, or yeah you're doing one basic sequence or whatever but the way the playfield is laid out it seems to work out differently every game. Same applies to modern machines with the long games and tons of modes, doesn't guarantee it will last. So I'm not voting for either Stern or BW, depends too much on which game it is. Color DMDs are a great update to the BW stuff though.

And at the moment, top of my want list is a Gotlieb Strange World
That game has a "I will beat it next time" appeal

Ha ha! Godzilla is good, but not as good as MM!

I’m going to have to review my collection before voting…

Godzilla is I hate to say more fun than MM. Video assets, SFX and lighting are all in another league. Interesting but fast and flowey layout is more varied than MM. Toys are equal I suppose. I think modern Sterns are good for expert players because of the deep rule set and good for beginner/intermediate because of the flashy quick fun and multiballs. Williams multiballs suck imo.

WMS, B/Ws whatever ya call them, are great. Wouldn’t replace them for anything; good luck replacing them in this market!

As TreyBo69 mentioned, the true classics are the early 80s solid states.

The pure, brutal pinball designs of the EM era, with rules and scoring of the burgeoning SS era.

I still have at least 1 early solid state out on location, and they still run with the big dogs!

New Stern’s are fun, but can’t help feeling like it’s not that “pinball” feel I crave. New games feel like video games, instead of like a raw, kinetic battle of man vs machine.
As times goes on, more pinheads will realize why this hobby really started with the Wedgehead collectors. Sometimes the answer is in front of you the whole time!!!

I like older games better, especially non-licence games. They are works of art, they have charm and humor. They reflected the times they were made in. Same is true today, though - people want merchandised products with video and music assets from their favorite band, movie etc - the association with the pop culture product has become a key feature of the fun factor, it would appear. They are not for me, though.

I like modern sterns for home and B/W for location play.

I’m a decent enough player that plays often enough that with only a small collection a B/W at home would get boring quite quickly but I’m not good enough to fully appreciate a modern stern just by playing it on location.

I can get an idea on if I like a layout by playing on location which helps me decide whether to buy a new game but I really can’t fully explore, enjoy or play well on a modern Stern unless it’s at home and I can set them up how I like; kept clean, flipper fans, Titan rubbers, outlane posts to the bottom, extra ball on replay and any little niggles sorted out to make it play its best.

Edit after reading other posts and someone mentioned multiballs - I do feel some of the recent sterns are getting too mb heavy, I actually enjoy single ball play more, especially for a wizard mode. Escape Nublar is my favourite wizard mode, so well done and single ball! I really don’t enjoy wizard modes that are mbs and just shoot all the shots enough until you light the sjp! It just has no story to it for me and doesn’t feel rewarding.

Years from now it'll still be Bally/ Williams that we talked about.

Looking at my collection and history: STTNG will be the last to leave my collection so Bally Williams. I love modern pins too but they don't tend to stay as long (but I can rotate/ temp trade them easily).

If I could only have 1? Bally Williams, but the Second Pin would be a modern Stern.

With that said... Viva Variety! I try to keep 1 from each decade.

I've owned some truly great B/Ws - Twilight Zone, Shadow, Theatre of Magic, Attack from Mars... all brilliant games. In fact I would put The Shadow in my top 10 games any day purely for the way it shoots. However some of the modern games have really been excellent. Stern have created some true masterpieces the last few years that raised the bar considerably. It's not just about the code - some of the simpler games are way more fun than the complex ones - but some of the recent releases really have been the full package. Deadpool for example - it's got a really interesting layout, it looks absolutely amazing, it sounds incredible, the rules are simple but have an extra few layers underneath and the retro themed animations are superb.

Quite honestly the B/W games were really ahead of their time they are amazing machines, but no contest for me the modern games have just gone that one step further by offering a more immersive experience.

Just the mere fact that we are even discussing this (Again and Again and Again) Tells you something... B/W of the 90s were and still are the best games ever created by a dream team of engineers and artists that are are still the best in the world! (alas, excepting the ones we have lost) It was those dream teams that created the best games ever to save a dying company (even though they were not successful in doing so) they still managed to save the craft and create games that hold their own against anything NIB.

I enjoy playing B/W far more than Sterns. I enjoy the game play challenge of having a good game of the early 80’s and the thrill of the all to infrequent wizard achievement of the 90’s. All without the repetitive multiballs and ball saves that sterns serve up to keep you trudging trough the never ending rules…

May I introduce you to Sorcerer...leave your self-respect behind.

I lean towards B/W and not the AFM/MM/TZ ones - there is gold in the supposed 2nd tier of B/W games
Also I do find the main ingredients of modern sterns consists of “start a mode and stack a Multiball with it” nearly all I have played have that basic formula
Don’t get me wrong, Stern is doing a great job overall and the depth of their games is great
There is also a B/W flavour to some games - Stranger Things is AFM on steroids and I love that, best of both worlds

I also feel the newer Sterns are a little multi-ball heavy.....it seemed like Metallica was just one flail-fest after the other. Don't really miss it.

I just got GZ a little while ago so jury is still out, but at least there is more going on in that game - those are also the only 2 "newer" Sterns I've ever owned.

I've had most of my 90s B/W games for at least 15 years and still enjoy them, probably why I still have them.

I get the most enjoyment playing pinball with others. While I can understand all the rule nuance in modern stern games, 99.9% of my friends can’t, or simply don’t want to.

My 90s (and 80s AND 70s) games though? Piece of cake.

“Yellow lights start a mode, red lights are jackpots, green lights are ball locks.” Shoot for blinking stuff.

Done.

I can explain the rules to literally anyone:

“You’re a storm chaser. Hit the flashing compass arrows to chase the storm away to win.”

“You’re not gonna believe this, but Dracula needs a ride in your taxi. Shoot him to pick him up, and while you’re at it, pick up others to win.”

“So get this, you’re trying to make your way down the River. Shoot the blinking orange arrows to advance your progress to the Wet Willie’s lodge.”

How in the world do I explain to someone how to play Stern’s Star Wars? I don’t even know what’s going on 70% of the time… it’s just so abstract, and I feel less like I’m part of the story, and more like someone just going along for the ride the game is presenting to me.

But that’s just me. I’m also a glutton for simple EMs, so maybe I’m not the best litmus test for game code understanding.

Equal for me. Some days I prefer the sterns; some days I prefer the simpler WPC’s. My collection is currently weighted towards WPC’s. I played a bunch of Fishtales this morning followed by a bunch of AIQ.

I think it's great to see B/W so far ahead in the poll. I would have expected Stern to be in the lead with all of the new pinheads that have much more access to Stern games than anything else. I mean, 5 of the top 10 ranked pins on this site are Stern games from just the last 4 years! There are plenty of games that I love and dislike from each manufacturer, but I definitely prefer the B/W platform and feel. There's just a special magic to those games that nobody else has quite been able to capture.

I like both. I will say that Stern has more themes I don’t like though, and also that Bally/Williams seemed to have more consistent quality.

My B/W games (TZ, IJTPA, CV) feel so much more solid than my two Sterns (LOTR and GZ). They are engineered to last. The optoelectronic flipper buttons alone are evidence that these were not subject to modern cost cutting (cough, Bond pops).

I think B/W...exception EHOH, but, would choose CGC overall..always looking to what is next.

No preference for me. All eras have great games, that's for sure.

I like modern sterns, but a bunch of the licensed themes have missed me. Just not really into Marvel or the bands they have chosen. I'm going for the 90's B/W if found on location. I'm not interested in playing most of the games at places with a modern stern lineup.

I also find it much easier to appreciate the fun clever DMD art over the usually crude video production for the LCD screens. CGC large DMD makes me miss that style so much. It's SO much better than any of the expensive video for LCD that companies put themselves in hell to develop for. Playing Bond recently, and the portrait art for the Bond ladies that pops-up is downright ugly, like low-poly amateur 3d art ugly. Lots of bad 3d art in modern Sterns, it's always rough looking 3d objects with like no textures. The kind of art an engineer would make.... It's so clearly not Stern's strength.

Bruh. Juicy spinners on Stern Electronics all day long. Never gets old.

I am a both kind of pinball player.

I love love love the new Stern JB007, Godzilla and Mando. I play them regularly.

I also love the Bally DMD games: TZ, Addams Family, Dr. Who, Creature.

It is funny to read that the Bally games of the DMD era had too hard of a rule set. Then I look at modern Sterns and the rule book is like a freaking novel.

Some days B/W's, some day Sterns!
Both have their attractions and both can be very enjoyable.
What I have found over the last several years for the most part tho, I collect B/W's and I buy, sell and trade my Sterns

With a few exceptions, Bally/Williams made a world under the glass, Stern just makes a game

It's a copout answer, and I won't vote in the poll, but I just like good games.

The good 90s games are still good. I played WH20, BSD, AFM, and TOTAN last night. All still fun!

The good 80s games are still good. I miss owning titles like Flash Gordon and Mystic, and the new Fathom remake looks hot. If they do Centaur next ... oof.

Stern makes good games, but I mostly only care about Keith Elwin's titles. And even then I'm not in love with some of the themes. I love Iron Maiden's play, kinda sick of band pins. Even wondering if I want to keep my Metallica because I'm tired of the whole music aspect. But if I sold it it would be to buy a Godzilla probably, because it's really good.

Just play good pinball. There's no point in cheerleading companies or eras.

A few years back, I would have said Williams, but Keith Elwin's games really have turned that around for me.

I have several friends with Godzillas. Two of them keep asking to buy my 1980 Flight 2000. It's a Stern, but pretty much Bally inside.

I lean toward previous comments regarding current games taking too long to play.

Some older Sterns are awesome and give me that quick satisfying game.

TWD with a colourDMD will make me feel just as satisfied as my AFM. DMD animations in LOTR and TSPP are just as good if not better than b/w.

And if you want a modern lcd used correctly. No contest - TBL and ALIEN. Both great immersion. And Alien has awesome 1 ball mini wizards, each mode feels different.

One of my favourite b/w is my beloved WCS. Still love it!

And modern sterns, Imdn is so good!

B/W all day. Don't see myself ever putting a modern LCD Stern in the house, but never say never. Partly because they are plentiful on location by me, but also because they lack giving me the true 90's nostalgia feel that a good DMD does. Also, I prefer straight forward rule sets and goals that lean more toward the achievable side when I'm playing.

I started as a WPC guy and will die that way. I have a few modern Sterns and they are a very great take of the modern approach with much richer theme integration and nice use of assets (where they can afford it).
A buddy was asking why I liked these old games, I showed him the bottom of the STTNG playfield and said one word: "mechs".
The BOM that was on WPC games, ingenuity with one-off designs (not recycled everything) and unique approaches (love the slam ramp in NGG) we will likely never see again.
Code is important, dots/video is important, theme integration/callouts/music is important, but for me, mechs and toys are top priority.

I have to lean towards 90’s BW as I have 11 of those and 3 LCD Sterns (also 3 pre lcd sterns) like gumnut01 above I also have WCS and IDMN

Well, I have 2 "new sterns"; 1 old stern; 2 old bally; 3 jjps and 9 B/W golden era. You know my answer. (And yes, they need a lot of love)

Seems like almost every WPC game had the budget for at least one unique/bespoke mech. There was always an element of “I wonder what the ball will do if I make that shot.”

BSD: Mist, FT: caster, TS: battlefield, WH2O: Bigfoot, TZ: clock, HS2: supercharger, Gilligan: Kona, ToM: Trunk, I mean, the list is forever long.

DW: MPF 3 levels of targets that raises and lowers. The other specific unique mech was the left trap door on the ramp.

I have 5 wpc games ans 3 newer sterns.
I'm selling the sterns. Wpc are staying!

Definitely Williams, Bally, and Gottlieb! I have 12 pins, 2em's, 3ss's, and 7dmd's. With all the vids as well, I'm out of space and just can't part with what I got!

I've bought a lot of newer Sterns and JJP games, but they don't tend to stick around like the B/W games do. So many B/W games just have that "IT" factor, though there are a few modern gems out there.