Space Walk, August 1979 was the last EM. Gottlieb used up all their old stock!

MapleSyrup that Jungle Queen looks amazing. I hope to one day get a chance to play it at your place.

I played it the other day, it played great! Looks awesome in person too. I got beat on a slight technicality… kinda bs but I took it.

It would be cool if Pinside was able to create a ratings list just for EM games.

Congrats on the new game. I have owned Jungle Queen and loved it.

you mean like this?

https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100/em

Damn. The pinside guys are quick with requests.

Hey, these guys don't 'play'.

Well, not counting pinball, that is...

I can't tell you how much I have been enjoying our StratoFlite lately. Really cool art, and yes, the smell and sounds of a bygone era.

Much better than the sounds and smell of a bygone burrito.

"Top rater

User Caucasian2Step has rated the most machines: 693. It took him 17 hours, 37 minutes and 9 seconds to reach this impressive number of ratings."

DAMN! That is a ton of ratings and reviews!

I think the problem with pinside's list is there isn't enough reviews. Target Pool is not in the top 100? Really?

Now, I know that many of these games are hard to come by for the average player so that's why I don't put too much stock in this "top 100."

Note that I will put a review in for any EM that I get some serious time on.

That just means that you guys have your work cut out for you. i have been trying to get people to rate and reviews games for the past 2 years.

el toro is a top 10 game folks...

I had an EM in my collection (73' "Play Ball") that I gave to my son for his sports themed man cave. Big mistake. Whenever non-players came to my house they always played the only EM I had. The DMD pins intimidated them but the old Gottlieb was simple and the way they remembered pinball. My son is in his 30's and he's always texting late at night that he has a real completion going on with his friends or sending me pictures during the day of their kids standing on a step stool playing and enjoying themselves. Luckily I picked up a "Target Pool" that needs some TLC. After it's done , I have the feeling I won't make the same mistake twice and will be holding onto it. On second thought , maybe letting go "Play Ball" wasn't much of a mistake. After all, two generations after me are learning and enjoying pinball and now "Target Pool" will be saved.
Win/Win situation, I guess. And I still get to play it when I go over there to visit.

I've actually been meaning to focus on voting and reviewing machines. It's a good resource but it really relies on us to make it happen.

I haven't played many EM's lately. Maybe I should fix that?

I find the list pretty silly when I see only one Williams game from the early 60s in the top 50. That being Jungle. And it comes in at 45. One of the reasons I don't bother. But since according to that list it must be the best one they made, I may have to acquire one if it is better than all the other ones I have played.

But when i think about EM its just about Gottlieb,they were the King!

Well, you have your list then.

To be fair 60s Williams have lower production numbers. I'm a fan but there a bunch of I've never played. Lesser seen means fewer reviews which gives the false impression of a lesser game.

And there you go!

Lists are mostly for people that have never played the games they want.

Dude, that place was so good.

I'll get my rematch. Anytime, anyplace big bud!

Actually, that's how I feel. I'm a big fan of the 80's era solid state machines. I've sort of discounted EM's because many of the ones I've played have felt slow and kind of dorky. I know a lot of this is due to the condition of the machine - which have always seem a little out of shape.

But if I can find a couple EM titles with good game play, I'm open to getting them. Having a list of the "top" 20-30 at least gives me a starting point of what to consider.

Of course it is all relative on what makes a good game for each individual, but it helps research a title. If 20 people review a game and all say "this game is better suited as a work bench" I probably won't waste the sellers time to go look at it.

Those are the ones I look for.

the big problem with rating em machines has been alluded to a few times in this thread... for a long time, there were 3 big manufacturers (plus chicago coin, which was still "bigger" than any manufacturer today) cranking out machines.... and they were all cranking them out on pretty much a monthly basis... there are SO MANY em games...

and then there is the differences in gameplay... early 60's game plays a helluva lot different than a mid-70's one... neither is "better", but people have definite preferences...

also, and someone's post in this thread illustrates this, there is a "built in" bias for gtb machines that will likely skew the ratings... i'll admit to liking my wedgies... although there are any number of other machines that are just as fun as have great artwork...

etc.

rating games is hard, man...

That's why we have rat...He does all the dirty work.

a good place to start for "bang for your buck" would be "pointy people" williams machines... there are several that i have been told are fun, and they don't command nearly the price as a similar condition wedgehead would...

we thank mother nature for the rat... otherwise, the world would be overrun with trash...

Lets all thank that Rat-Bastard!

Ken

nothin' but rats and vultures over here in em land...

we LIVE to scavenge...

^^^^^^^^^

I'll only review an EM if I've fixed it and spent many games getting my butt kicked from, at least, four coats of wax and jacked up rear legs. Love running my knuckles across a finished playfield. You feel those imperfections from age but still, so smooth. Mmmmmm.

Score it like Bowling. We do this with ACD. you get 2 balls to knock down 10 targets. If you do it in one ball it's a strike, 2 it's a spare. We play 5 frames.

Makes it fun.

My dad likes my 72' Olympic Hockey where the goals are on a separate reel and whoever gets more goals wins. Points don't matter.

maplesyrup, welcome to the wonderful world of wagering on em games...

I just tell the new guy to my game room that we'll only play for a penny a point. That sucks them in!

Me and the kids have fun playing for dollar games but since they have no concept of money they usually end up leaving the money laying all over the pins when quit to play more minecraft or something.. win win for me

Hard to believe Target Alpha is not in the top 100. Seems like people who rate EMs are all over the board. For instance it seems like some people who think a game is great will give it a 9.5 rating, but others who think just as highly of the game based on the text will rate it a 7.5. With so few reviews for EMs compared to the DMD game this type of variance does not get averaged out.

My favorite EM doesn't even make the top 100, however the one I do have in the top 3, I could probably live without. What's that tell you?

Competing for something other than score happens in my house all the time!

Play a game on star trek, just going for total # of warp ramps
or jump on AC/DC, pick hells bells, and see who can get down to the lower playfield first (get behind/under a swinging bell!!!).
In lord of the rings, compete for total # of gifts of the elves. If you start a multiball without a mode running, just drain it.

thinking outside the box on stuff like that can make an otherwise stale (or LONG playing ) game pretty fun, especially with good players who know the game inside and out.

If that's the case,I wouldn't call what the iphone does an enhancement, but rather a f@&$ up.

There is one - https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100/em -Rate away.

EDIT - Just seen this link added above.

I just like the way they work. At 40 years old, still can be like new under the PF. Just about always repairable.

Now off to fix my Baywatch, again!!

Every now and then Ed from GPE gets on here and tells us about the shrinking availability of certain SS parts to keep a game running. I'd be willing to bet that many decades from now some of these SS games will be "down" forever while the EM's will keep clicking on.

We won't by trying to scrounge boards and transistors and chips and all that kind of stuff, but there are a few things on EMs that might become NLA that could cause a problem.

The good thing is, a lot of the stuff can be fabricated by someone to help keep the games going. And there are so many games and so much interchangeablility of parts that we can keep them playing on.

On the ratings stuff, I'm perfectly fine with people not rating Williams games high. It keeps the prices down for those of us who value them and want to get them. I like all of the manufacturers. They all put out winners. They all put out duds. Finding them is the game.

It's interesting, I think it's Baseball Tonight, or maybe the NBCSN, one of them in any case, who on their studio show has a pin as their break feature, it's obviously an electronic game but it has chimes for sounds.

No electronic game, no matter what sounds it makes, can every compare to the three tone chimes, especially Gottlieb three tones. On that point, I'll say Gottlieb chimes were the best ever made.