Williams Electronics broke out the budget for us pinball fanatics. !!!

Ummm, because they’re awesome!,,

All great games! Really the peak of pinball for me. If only JJP would release a few a year, i might have a new favorite era.

Business was good and they were really churning them out so they could load them up with features and still make money.

Also they didn't have to cater to the "My dream theme was a band or movie from 40 years ago" crowd because there was no pinside, so they had to be creative with theme or use mostly current licenses with a few exceptions.

The designers of these games were also fairly young and full of youthful enthusiasm and creativity.

I couldn’t agree more! I own a few on the list and have others from the list on my wishlist. I would rather bleep buying these then new pins ( even though I enjoy new pins as well)

I agree.... don’t forget last action hero!

Great time for the Bly/Wms games. I still have 6 of those with Creech and White Water being 2 of my favorite 5 ever.

Trying to forget. While I am not a big DE fan in general I would put TFTC, R&B and SW as the top 3 DE from then.

Golden age of Bally Williams!

I would say toss in 1994, too, with The Shadow and World Cup Soccer added to your list

DE had some really good games in 1993.

Demo man and Popeye weren’t terrible either!

1979-80 was pretty special..... Those early Bally ss pins were ground breaking.

because your closed minded?

WPC era is my current entire collection and probably always will be.

I would not sell DE short as their games packed a lot of unique features too even though their artwork looked like it was drawn by a kid using crayons

" I grew up playing video games in the 80s and was never really exposed to or cared about pinball until I first played Addams Family and Twilight Zone at the local bowling alley."

And the rest, as they say, is history...

Strike 1

Strike 2

...don't push it!

And a proud kid he is!

Agreed. Now, nearly every theme that comes out from "the big 2" needs either a complimentary AARP membership or a BluRay of Liberty Medical with Wilford Brimley addressing diabetes....

All great games! I currently own two of this list but will be adding a few more over the next couple of years.

The Addams Family happened.

...Yeah, that's literally what it boils down to.

Hey man, TFTC is a fun game.

That was also during a time where there were arcades, bowling alleys, and restaurants full of pinball machines and lots and lots of people loved pinball. Now you have a very small group of people that like pinball and there are no pinball machines on location in most places amd the small percentage of people who do like pinball are mostly older people that enjoyed it back in the 70's.

Those themes are marketed toward the age group that is buying them. I dont know why that is so damn hard for some people to understand. Us old phuks are the ones that have the expendable cash and the desire to buy the majority of these games, and besides that every theme is not directed toward older people either.

Also Pinside is hardly to blame for the themes that are being made, these themes are what the majority of us pinheads want!

I don’t necessarily agree w u, but gosh darn it was hilarious, thanks

What's funny about that is that several of those actually tanked on route and were hated by operators.

I remember as a child in the 80's how video arcades were popping up everywhere. My guess is that the draw of the new video medium essentially made pinball obsolete... but by the time the 90's rolled around, video games, were no longer a novelty and the home gaming market was starting up. This meant that arcades needed something new to bring in customers, which allowed pinball to make a comeback, with arcades throwing money at them to try to stay relevant... so my guess is there was a lot of money spent during this time... and when money flows, there is competition, and innovation follows.

I think we are in a new resurgence in pinball, with a good economy, and a combination of guys like me who played these games in the 90's now having the money to put them in our man caves, as well as millennial's trying to stand out from the crowd, people will remember games from these years as fondly as the games made back in the early 90's

Holy crap... I just realized that I need STTNG to complete that entire '92-'93 line-up.

I always loved the games from this era, as at the time it seemed like every new game was coming out with new and unique features, the themes were great whether licensed or original, the art was all hand drawn and beautiful (IMO), everything seemed packed with features, the then new DMDs were much cooler than the alphanumeric displays previously, and the rule sets were deeper than ever (but not nutty deep - you could get to the wizard modes in the arcades if you were good enough). Just all around good times.

1986 seems to be a turning point year as well... I think I've owned 7 1986 games recently.

High Speed was revolutionary.

What I understand is no matter how much money you have or how hard you try, there is no buying your youth back. If you can't be happy in the now, you might as well pack it up and die.

Its not about buying your youth back though, these are the themes that the people who are buying most of the games like.

In '92, I was driving around in a Mazda Miata. Chose that over a 5.0 Mustang. What was I thinking? An LX 5.0 notchback would of been the better choice.

Sure is a pricy way to relive the past. I get it for free watching re-runs on TV. Best part is when the show is over, I don't have the constant reminder sitting there.

A 5.0 Foxbody will be my generations '69 Camaro.

Indiana Jones was always broken and never working right. but still took your money anyway.

Sometimes there is a conjunction in one location of minds that change the world. For examples, the writers of the Declaration of Independence, the founders of whatever is your religion, or Thoreau/Emerson/Hawthorne in New England. Lots more examples out there. On the darker side, Hitler/Trotsky/Stalin and Freud all lived in Vienna in 1913.

It amazes me how many games actually got produced in just two years. These weren't just average games either but awesome games with great gameplay, great art, video modes, and great dots. Now some pinball companies struggle to get just one out in that time. Then it takes a few more years to get the code complete.

Games are much deeper and complex today. You also have to integrate color changing LED's, more music, more scenes, etc into the code.

Pinball is actually the cheapest hobby ive ever had. Ive lost my ass on cars, racecars, boats, women, partying, and motorcycles through the years......which i dont regret by the way. My pinball machines keep their value pretty good. Im also not buying them to relive my past, im buying them because i love pinball. I thought that you owned a bunch of games yourself o-din? Also, when you spend your money on a hobby that you love and it brings you happiness then its well worth the money that you are spending. You only get one life so you need to try and enjoy it as much as possible.

i'm in the same boat. Started playing right before addams. Was hardcore video game player, and when I first started collecting, i was only about DMD's.....But I learned to appreciate games from 1943-2018. All eras have something great to offer, and all eras have crap to offer. But you have to be open minded to see it. Can't be all about 1 manufacturer, or one era of game. There is great stuff all around.

So if you "like all pinball machines from 1992 and 1993" then I assume you have played and like all of these which have not been mentioned yet:

Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. Mushroom World
Black Rose
Lethal Weapon 3
Doctor Who
Cue Ball Wizard
Al's Garage Band Goes On A World Tour
Street Fighter II
Tee'd Off
Punchy the Clown
Gladiators
Wipe Out
U.S.A. Football
Dual Pool
Mystery Castle
Pistol Poker
Dinosaur Eggs
Michael Jordan
Aaron Spelling
Hook
Arnon Milchan
250 C.C.
Atleto
Metal Man
Bushido

To some degree but technology has improved a lot in 25 years. I have been doing programming for some time now and it's far different programming today than just 25 years ago. I also question that games are really that more complex today then back then. The TZ next to my MET pro looks far more advanced with more toys, more switches, subways, mini pf, etc JJP definitely more advanced but takes them many years to get one game made. B/W probably threw more resources at pins but still impressive to me that they could produce so many great games in a short period time.

simple rules, awesome themes/licenses, multiball, fan layout.
Thanks
Blake

Yeah, that's always a win there. Especially on games like Addams and TZ

Nah. I would assert that he just has great taste in pins. TZ and IJ are two of the greatest pins ever made. Period.

Bahahahaaha... That's so funny . Well done

Sure I do. I've spent more than my share on them too. Had 100s of them so far. But I'm long over trying to get some sort of nostalgic kick out of them.

If I want old, I'll buy old. But if I'm buying new, I want it to be new.

I remember walking into Aladins Castle and there sat brand new Addams Family and brand new High Speed 2 The Getaway. 4 hours flew by way too fast.