Which era of pinball machines do you gravitate towards?

[dewisp02 46]

Which era of pinball machines do you gravitate towards? Please make a selection so we can see which era is king!!

Edited January 4, 2020 by dewisp02

[kell 102]

While the old games are fun, I tend to enjoy the newer games with deeper rule sets.  Don't care about displays as I am usually too busy trying to keep the ball in play to look.

[DefaultGen 4,258]

Early 80s (and late 70s) Ballys for me. Pretty much anything is great, but new games are often too long/too easy/too multiball focused. I also don't like winning games via rules knowledge compared to flipper skills. You can tell someone how to play Meteor in like 2 sentences and have a competitive game. With Game of Thrones you can't even explain what house someone might want to choose in that time.

[RH 3,781]

I've always enjoyed pinball, but the machine for me as a kid was the ST:TNG one, so I'm going with that era.

Edited January 9, 2020 by RH

[LaytToTheParty 22]

I absolutely love the late 90s Bally Williams games and the early 2000s Stern stuff. Recently I really enjoyed Jurassic Park from Stern. The game just... works. Everything seemed to fall in place.

[Sumez 2,118]

Early and mid 90s DMD era pinball tables (Bally Williams specifically) were just something uniqe and magical, where the stars were aligned perfectly for creating some of the biggest classics.

The DMD display along with better sound hardware allowed the tables to better purvey the status and targets going on to the player, allowing for more complex rules with more long term goals, yet the designers knew to not rely overly on it (IMO a lot of modern Stern tables rely way too much on the display, which the player rarely has time to look at). The industry in general was going strong, and ensured both lucrative licenses, lots of creativity, and some of the highest quality hardware, and some of the best pinball designers were all working for Williams - Pat Lawlor, Steve Ritchie, Dennis Nordman, etc.
Nearly all of my favourite tables are from this period, though there are some really strong contenders from the 80s also, as well as a few of the more "recent" Stern ones.

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

To me, early solid state are the most iconic, and something about modern machines just feels cheap.

But I own a beat up 60's era EM machine (the original 8 ball) because my granddad left it to me.

Will make a good project with my kids when they get older.

[Sumer 221]

Agree with arch_8ngel above me.  I voted for early solid state.  Extremely iconic and nostalgic for me.

Elvira and the Party Monsters, Taxi, Cyclone...PIN BOT!  Man, love those mid-to-late 80s games.  Never saw them in an arcade, but would play them at bars when I would tag along with mom or dad...back when kids could go into bars and nothing was thought of it!  Smell of cheap, American, yellow beer...grease from the bar kitchen burners...crusty old men muttering as they walk by you and the pin...man!  Loved it!

I have Party Animal from 1987 in basement arcade.  Hoping to add one or two more pins from the 80s down the line.