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.
Full list
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
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
Putting these games into their years (by score) also lets us see the best era of pinball
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
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.
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
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
Putting these games into their years (by score) also lets us see the best era of pinball
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