Ok so I've gotta dive in here and make some distinctions!
The history... Data East bought out by Sega in 1995 and then Stern in circa '99 or 2000 ish. Yes, that awful Striker Diarrhoea.
Sega, in my mind, is when the jewel that is Data East got ruined. They didn't change the hardware (much), so what you're getting, capability wise, from the board set was the same, but they did cut back on costs and ruin everything that Data East had built the brand up to.
Let's face it, Dara East *was* the poor-mans Bally/Williams but, actually, they had their hay day the same as WMS did.
Early-to-mid-ninetees DE produced some awesome pins, and using hardware that was way ahead of WMS, really tbh exclusively in the sound dept.
They had STEREO sound right back to late 80s which really kicked ass. My memory of '87 Robocop's multiball start will always keep me dropping coins into that pin, even if nowadays it's only ever at a show. "THE WRECKING CREW IS HERE!" ... followed by some seriously cool stereo phase effects.
You have to play it to know what I mean.
I would happily keep paying until I got there!
Data East have their place, and as time goes on people will realise, but if we're talking specifically "Sega" when, imho, they fked it all up, I'm not so fussed.
I own an ID4 which i basically treat as Data East (let's face it) and I'd put Twister and
A13 in the same bag. Great games.
Oh, LW3 and LAH too... just walk up to them and have an absolute blast. Keepers? Maybe not. Fun? Hellll yes.
The morel is: "Tread careful"... they had some great pins and also some howlers.
At the end of the day it's all down to personal taste, but I know which ones I'd take to my desert island... (yes dan, JP...)
Enjoy the discovery. It's the best part of becoming an addict!
Tim