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2015 PinballInfo Awards (Results)

Wizcat

Registered
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
1,783
Location
Lancashire
Alias
Paul G
This is the first year we've tried this. It would have been nice to have more people voting, but I can't twist anyone's arm. I'll hope for more voters next year ;)

Top Pinball Machines of All Time
So all told there were 45 voters. Everyone submitted entries to 'best pinball ever', which created a list of 52 machines. I asked you to rank them in order, to which I awarded 5 points for your favourite, through to 1 point for your lowest entry. Any ties on score were split by number of votes (more votes = higher place).

My limiting you to top 5 was intended to keep this poll easy to participate in (I suspect a top 10 or top 20 would have been harder for people to make quickly), but it did have the consequence of bumping some classic games entirely off the list (Monster Bash placed suprisingly low, and many classic Bally titles didn't appear at all). I may reconsider this if we tackle it again next year.

There was an early and clear winner, but the spots immediately below that changed frequently as votes came in, and it was quite close in the end.
s16.postimg.org_qqtvq3vcl_awards_top10.png

Full list
Code:
Title                          Score Votes Rank
Attack From Mars                  76    22    1
Medieval Madness                  58    17    2
The Addams Family                 54    17    3
Lord of the Rings                 53    16    4
Twilight Zone                     51    13    5
Tron                              45    13    6
AC/DC                             40    14    7
Metallica                         36    11    8
White Water                       23     7    9
Spider Man                        22     9   10
Creature from the Black Lagoon    17    10   11
The Walking Dead                  13     6   12
The Simpsons Pinball Party        12     5   13
Star Trek The Next Generation     12     5   13
Flash Gordon                      10     3   15
Taxi                              10     2   16
Roadshow                           9     3   17
Indiana Jones (Williams)           9     2   18
Star Trek (Stern)                  8     5   19
Scared Stiff                       8     3   20
Circus Voltaire                    7     2   21
Wizard of Oz                       7     2   21
Centaur                            6     2   23
Tales of the Arabian Nights        6     2   23
Fish Tales                         6     2   23
Xmen                               5     2   26
Mystic Marvel                      5     1   27
Grand Prix (Williams)              5     1   27
Bride of Pinbot                    5     1   27
Monster Bash                       4     3   30
Judge Dredd                        4     1   31
Gigi                               4     1   31
Guns N Roses                       4     1   31
Iron Man                           3     1   34
The Shadow                         3     1   34
Captain Card                       3     1   34
Whirlwind                          3     1   34
Circus (Zaccaria)                  3     1   34
Torpedo Alley                      3     1   34
RollerGames                        3     1   34
Banzai Run                         2     1   41
Tommy                              2     1   41
Elvis                              2     1   41
Terminator 2                       2     1   41
Demo Man                           2     1   41
Wizard                             1     1   46
Batman The Dark Knight             1     1   46
High Speed 2                       1     1   46
Dirty Harry                        1     1   46
Fun House                          1     1   46
Night Moves                        1     1   46
Black Knight 2000                  1     1   46

Connecting all this data with more info from ipdb allows us to also generate other graphs, such as top 10 all time designers. No surprises then that Brian Eddy tops the list, despite only making two unquestionable classics
s8.postimg.org_gskwwuy85_designers.png

For the top manufacturers list I have consolidated (for example) the Bally/Williams titles into 'Williams' (ie, anything on the WPC platform). I did however keep Stern separate from Data East (different era, different platform). The only surprise in this graph is the low showing of classic Bally titles, but again, this is no doubt due to me limiting you to your top 5 games. Gottlieb would no doubt have placed higher had @JMP or @TYHO submitted an entry ;)

s22.postimg.org_o1vi05ne9_manufacturers.png

Putting these games into their years (by score) also lets us see the best era of pinball
s2.postimg.org_z9ule3lh5_years.png
The spikes in the graph are Lord of the Rings (2003), Attack from Mars in 1995 and Medieval Madness in 1997. 1993 had a number of classics, including Twilight Zone, WhiteWater, Star Trek Next Gen and Indy Jones (Williams), which I think easily allows it to be declared best year ever.

Just as interesting though is the resurgence we're seeing in the last few years. Titles such as Tron, ACDC and Metalica are all counting significantly here, and it makes an interesting case for a comeback, especially considering we're only half way through this decade
s17.postimg.org_m5q7d8psv_decade.png
 

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Best game of 2015

This caused a little controversy due to me including The Walking Dead. This was of course released in 2014 (and made it's first UK appearance at the NLP show in October of that year), but it appeared in the list because the Premium version of the game only appeared in 2015. I could also argue that the code updates have significantly altered the game (for the better) and that most UK people would only have seen the game for the first time in 2015. All excuses aside, take it or leave it. This is the first year, and we had to start the list somewhere.

The list also excludes one-off homemade rethemes, and also excludes BOP 2.0 (which you could consider a re-theme or a software update, but not a new machine). This is different to MMr or Whoa Nellie which you could argue are also re-themes, but these ship with new playfield, cabinet, software... I think the 'best this year' category is always going to be an awkward one. KISS for example has shipped this year, but I would guess the number of people able to fairly evaluate it (especially in it's early code form) is very low.

Aaaanyway.

37 people submitted an entry to 'best this year'. Again, entries were ranked, with your favourite scoring three points, down to 1 for lowest entry.
s24.postimg.org_dhvurlzxx_best2015.png

This is an impressive showing for Heighway and their first ever pin. Arguably the best this year if you exclude 2014's TWD release. As I said in the poll thread, in hindsight, it may have been interesting if TWD was excluded. Would FT then top the list, or would people have voted an alternative Stern in it's place? We'll never know!

One thing is certain though. Alien crushed the vote for most anticipated pin of 2016, over 50% of people that had an entry in this category, listed Alien. Hobbit was a distant second, and the Pat Lawlor pin (JJP's third release) third. Stern keep their upcoming releases close to the chest, which works to their detriment in this category, though some are speculating Ghostbusters, Star Wars and Sgt Bilko are on the way...
s4.postimg.org_sknzbeftp_2016.png
 
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The final category was 'best pinball event' of 2015. I asked you to choose up to three events or venues, and again ranked them with three points to your favourite, two points to your second place, and one to your last mention.

Northern Lights Pinball Show came out comfortably on top, appearing as the number 1 choice for almost everyone that listed the event. UK Pinball Party was a very worthy 2nd place.

s23.postimg.org_w11exdj7f_event2015.png

Honourable mentions to a few events that didn't make the graph, which include Phil's Christmas Cracker, the London Pinball League and Shine, which came just below Ely in the rankings.
 
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Nice Job Wiz :)

My hope is that we can get something bigger together sometime over the next few months - Would like your help on that if possible please?? :D

Cheers
Paul
 
No way is afm a better game than mm. The alien things look like they're going to snap off they're that flimsy. Never been a big fan of Christmas cracker toys in the playfield.
 
Thank you Wizcat - superb effort and very interesting results.

This is the first year we've tried this. It would have been nice to have more people voting, but I can't twist anyone's arm. I'll hope for more voters next year ;)
I wanted to join in but didn't feel qualified - too many machines I've never played. But hey, so what. If you do this again next year I'll vote

No way is afm a better game than mm. The alien things look like they're going to snap off they're that flimsy. Never been a big fan of Christmas cracker toys in the playfield.

Well I wouldn't agree! But they're both excellent pins.
 
great effort. I'm sure Andy will be chuffed to see Alien is a runaway winner for most anticipated game.
 
Good stuff, surprised and pleased to see Tron almost make the top 5.

Apart from MB being way down the list the top 5 is very similar to Pinside's.

Defo think you should go with top 10's next year, I struggled to limit my faves to 10 never mind 5!
 
Well done Wiz. Makes very interesting reading - thank you for compiling. Pinball is growing again so looking forward to see how this stakes up in 12 months time. Happy Christmas all.
 
Bit late I know for me to be replying now but great stuff - I know this kind of thing is a lot of work so thanks for taking the time to do it!
 
this was December 2015, so a 2015 poll

is it time for the 2016 census yet?
maybe this time round, all members can receive a pm notification with a link to your poll / questionnaire, for higher numbers of voters?
maybe we can use this thread for ideas of new stuff that could be added to the 2016 census?
 
Much too early to run the poll yet, it was December when we did it last year!

I'm very welcome to suggestions for anything that should be included or improved this year though. Last year we asked people to list their top 5 (all time) machines. That could be extended to 10 maybe, but I think much more than that and it becomes a bit random.
 
Definitely would prefer top 10...really hard to narrow it down to just 5!
 
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