My own novelette...
In 3rd grade we had the option of bringing a record to play during lunch time. It got to the point that there was a KISS faction and a Barry Manilow faction. They fought about which record would play. The arguments grew heated over time. There was name calling, taunting, threatening words and ultimately, there were a tually plans to have a gang fight over it. Ridiculous, huh?

I was part of that THIRD GRADE conflict. I sure am glad I left that behavior sheepishly in my past. I am equally glad that I would NEVER witness my friends doing something similar in our adult lives over something trivial, you know, like a PINBALL MACHINE!!

Take care my friends...

Steve Ritchie's most popular game has zero ramps ! Flash followed by Firepower !

Not true.

Flash = 19,505 units

STTNG = 11,728 units

The KISS faction would have kicked the Manillow faction's ass.

Yeah, we KISS fans called him "Barely Manenough". Someone top that?

I don't get the hate at all; It plays differently from anything Stern has put out lately, so maybe people aren't getting what they expect in that regard.

I've really enjoyed it recently, though.

OMG! No Ramps! What are we all going to do?

can I use this in Centerflanks porn name thread?

I believe Tug McGibblets is the winner, so I declare.

love it! Calling you Tug from now on!

I finally got to play WOZ today. I must say, it played much faster than I thought it would and is even better looking in person than I thought too. I still don't want one (not a fan of the theme), but definitely not a game I would be bagging on. If I ever come across another one on location, you can be sure I'll be plunking a few bucks into that puppy.

Steve Ritchie's top 8

Flash = 19,505

Firepower = 17,410

High Speed = 17,080

T2 = 15,202

F-14 Tomcat = 14,502

Getaway: High Speed II = 13,259

Black Knight = 13,075

Star Trek: TNG = 11,728

Yes, Flash was his best selling and had no ramps, but that was a completely different era, when Pins ruled before video games took over. His most impressive feat, IMHO, is selling 17,080 High Speed machines in 1986. Pinball was in pathetic shape in 1986. To accomplish that is proof of his skill as a designer. The golden era of the 90's can trace its roots back to the success of High Speed......and yes Dorothy, it came with ramps!

So his top 2 have no ramps and his third was a game with how many ramps?

Case closed. Next person that brings up the single ramp BS is just showing how little they actually know.

Tugger.jpg

Wouldn't you think these numbers don't indicate what truly was the best machine just the best selling. I'm sure if you put dates to these you will see the numbers decline with the entire pinball sales in general as video started making huge inroads.

I was just fleshing out the earlier post about his sales.

As I mentioned, pinball sales have ebbed and flowed over time.They declined in the early 80's only to come back roaring in the late 80's and early 90's, only to decline again. Now we see a mini resurgence again...

As I stated.....those two games were at a peak time in pinball....and before ramps were used.

The most impressive number is High Speed's sales in 1986....considering the time.

Why are we even bringing this up? Nobody who knows anything about pinball would think that more ramps make a better game. However I can see how somebody may have been "surprised" that WOZ has only one ramp considering it has more magnets flippers and lights than most games being produced today.

If SR wasn't the shit, why did Jack try to hire him away? Has Gary ever tried to hire Alex?

Hmmmm............

Why would a company want to hire a guy that comes on here and constantly insults that companies potential customers?

He did? Was this before Steve went back to Stern the second time?

No. After. I don't remember the timing. Definitely before Lawlor. The story was recounted at TPF.

I never said SR wasn't good? What I said was one of his all time great games had exactly one ramp and people idolize it. The same people that complain about that in woz. Typical hypocrite BS.

And nope I'm happy about not working on sterns platform. I'd rather work on a platform that has scalability and capability. Not something that a t85 calculator could process.

However since you bring it up as some type of indictment on my skillset, I'm one of the best in the world at what I do. So much so that unless you are using a 15 year old flip phone you carry my code in your pocket every day. You are wasting your time here when there are so many ambulances to chase

...and so many Facebook accounts to stalk, jackwagon. Want to take a step back, Wolverine?

Me phucking too!! where's my cake ?

*snicker*

Not even sure what a jackwagon is. Jim, You actually are one of the best in the restoration field.

Not true.

Ramps were used by Williams starting in the 1950s

nine sisters.jpg

Playfield 9 sisters .jpg

I stand corrected!

But they weren't used in a modern sense...

Not talking about that. I am talking what I do for a living! People tell me all the time that someone sent them my way because I am the best. LOL Usually what the translates into, is they don't want to mess with it ! It is a nice way to pass the buck.

I can honestly say I have no idea what you do for a living In all the times we've spoken I've never asked LOL. I would imagine it has something to do with working with your hands? The skillset in restorations has to come from levels of experience related to your work field?

Nothing is modern about pinball.

Wood, paint, ball bearing.

A "modern" corkscrew ramp would be plastic and break.

image-A4.jpg

Isn't the pinbot ramp considered a corkscrew? I think that was plastic? I do know it's repro'd so probably the original wasn't that beefy?

This is a no brainer. A-title Bally Williams games can be bought for the same money or less! Why waste your $ on something not perfected and dropping in value?

Who specifically complained that WOZ has only one ramp and idolizes Steve Ritchie pins with one (or zero) ramps?

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering too. Alex seems a little bit irritated about it though.

No one said anything about SR, but there where plenty of upset people when they found out WOZ only had one ramp. I don't have the time to dig up old threads, but they are here. People talked it down before a ball even hit the wood just because it only had one ramp. Maybe someone here would be good enough to explain why?

Explain what? This may come as a shocking surprise to some people, but there actually are people out there that will complain if a pin only has one ramp. I'm a big fan of BBH, but when I have discussed that pin with others, a common criticism of the pin is, you guessed it: it only has one ramp. Didn't ever bother me, but people have their own opinions on stuff like that.

So if I criticized the gameplay of WOZ specifically because it has one ramp, yet I profess my love for BBH, it would be perfectly acceptable and relevant for Alex to point out my hypocrisy.

Apparently that's what he was trying to do with the Steve Ritchie one ramp comparison. The problem is that it actually appears to be more of a straw man argument than anything, since I don't know of anyone who said they don't like WOZ because it has one ramp, but who loves a SR design that has one ramp (and "line up to kiss his ass").

I see what you are saying Rob, I just can't see how some people wouldn't even give the game a fair shake and play the game before writing it off because it only has one ramp. I have my beliefs of why people like more ramps, I guess maybe I wanted to hear someone else's opinion, mainly from someone how is ramp happy.

In the corkscrew and spot one sista..........sheeet....sista please

Alex, irritated? no....

Are you a friend of Dorothy?

Flash and Firepower are from 1979 and 1980 and you are comparing them to games of today really wow.

People piss and moan every time Stern puts out a game with only two flippers as well.

Agreed.

Comparing sales stats from 2 completely different ERA's of pinball is useless. If you adjust them for the total pinballs made in those years - you'd get a more reasonable comparison.

In a reverse example- it's Kind of like saying the ford model T was a failure because they only sold 10,000 of them the first year. 10k is paltry sales today, but it 1905 (or whenever) there's was only like 200k TOTAL cars on the road.... 10k was massive.

But to the whole topic:
Measuring a game by the number of ramps it has?
That's almost as inane as simply counting the number of toys.

A pinball machine is not just a bill of materials, it's how those parts PLAY.

That was a cool pic by the way Vid, what game is that?

You too? OMG, I'da never guessed! But, then again, you do wear Italian shoes....

Williams Nine Sisters - corkscrew ramps way back in 1953.

Great backglass with giant purple cock and balls :

wms_ninesisters2s.jpg

Ha ha thats funny. Its crazy to see a ramp used so long ago, even if it is just a little cork screw. I wonder why it took so long for games to really adopt ramps as we know them to be today?