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[Prospero]

I took a look at Stern's pinball site, and it made me want to go find a good pinball machine in a bar somewhere and throw ten dollars' worth of quarters into it. I haven't played pinball in ages.

This one looks sweet:

Featuring Tony Soprano, his immediate family and business "family", THE SOPRANOS® pinball machine challenges the player to rise through the ranks to Boss. THE SOPRANOS® pinball also has elements from the show, including the dancing girls of the Bada Bing!; Tony Soprano's boat, The Stugots, with a classic multi-ball feature; a safe that cracks open after being whacked by the ball; and the talking fish from Season Two that always jokes around with the player.

THE SOPRANOS® pinball features the real voices of many characters on the show, including Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), Silvio (Steven Van Zandt), Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco), Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), and Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore). The pinball machine also plays THE SOPRANOS® classic theme song, "Woke Up This Morning," during game play. Pinball Hall of Fame artist Kevin O'Connor arted the playfield, while the cabinet and backglass artwork are taken directly from original HBO promotional art.

This one looks nice as well (although it looks like it'll malfunction at the drop of a hat, with all the mechanical stuff on the playfield):

ELVIS® sings and dances! A mechanical Elvis with shaking hips and gesturing hands moves forward and back in perfect sync with real Elvis tunes, bringing the microphone to The King Of Rock & Roll's® lips every time he sings a phrase! This incredible effect of Elvis dancing and singing is highlighted with re-mixed high quality sound tracks that draw people into the game. ELVIS® IS THE MOST MUSICAL PINBALL EVER CREATED!

In addition to the mechanical Elvis, the mechanical-action toys on the pinball include: a jailhouse (Jailhouse Rock); a Hound Dog that the player sends up a pole when hit; a five bank of drop target; and a Heartbreak Hotel with an opening front door on a clear Lexan second-level playfield.

Someday I'm going to buy a pinball machine, when I have a few thousand dollars lying around.

 

[dog$]

Can we make this a visual thread? I'll roll in with some of my faves:

The Who's Tommy

(extra, extra! Read all about it! Extra ball!!)

Medieval Madness

(Like, oh my God, that dragon is like, so big.)

Viper Night Driving

(An alien? Pick it up, pick it up!)

Pin·Bot

(PIN BOT CIRCUITS: ACTIVATED)

Funhouse

That thing always frightened me as a kid.

Addams' Family

Magnets? WTF

Whirlwind

Those discs are spinning! Wow! What's with that fan blowing in my face?

Plus I always had a soft spot for any tables that had a general car/driving theme (there's more than a few of these..)

 

[Meantime]

I was going to say this thread needs some Pin Bot, but you beat me to it. Terminator 2 was good as well.

 

[Spencerr]

There's a cool arcade here in Portland, Oregon. I think it's called Ground Kontrol. It only has the old classic arcade games in there. They have an upstairs, which is just devoted to old pinball machines. Good times.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Hell yea. I don't have anything of the collector or historical interest to add, but Pinball machines kick ass. Screw the Big N talk about accessible games, everyone loves them some pinball. I think every family member I have would play a game of that.


As a side-note, any of those recent console takes on collecting virtual replicas of pinball machines worth a damn?

 

[GamerzXtreme]

The only pinball games that mattered..

 

[darscot]

Pinbot is a great table. A little on the easy side but still on of my favs. I used to play a lot of Phantom of the Opera as it was at the corner store by my house. High Speed is another good one. The thing that sucks about Pinball is it was so great. I've been trying to get a decent Multiball table for a few years but just can't manage to drop the cash on one. There still such a hot item to collectors.

 

[AstroLad]

My favorite pinball game ever:

 

[Father_Brain]

Star Trek: The Next Generation was awesome. BTW, was the South Park pinball game any good?

 

[ToxicAdam]

Can someone help me with the name of a machine?


It was out in the mid-90's and had a "Trucker" theme to it. It had a male and female "southern" voice, and the object was to make it from location to location.

I loved that machine, and would like to track one down.

 

[Prospero]

Star Trek: The Next Generation was awesome.

During my first couple of years of graduate school, my campus had three ST:TNG machines within a fifteen-minute walk of my dorm. Even if two of them had been abused, one was usually working. Finally the student union gave up on trying to maintain them, though, and they were replaced with quarter-eating arcade games like Gauntlet Legends.

My dorm also had Super Mario Bros. Pinball, but that game was far too easy. There were always a few free games sitting on it, with the unspoken rule that if you used one of them, you had to play until you replaced the free game.

 

[Speevy]

And I thought...

 

[fennec fox]

Can someone help me with the name of a machine?


It was out in the mid-90's and had a "Trucker" theme to it. It had a male and female "southern" voice, and the object was to make it from location to location.

I loved that machine, and would like to track one down.

This was Red & Ted's Road Show, and it was a really good machine, although extremely hard (way harder than Twilight Zone, even, I think).

 

[Vgamer]

Ya the Star Trek TNG one is where its at! I love that one used to play it a ton. In fact an Arcade nto to far from me still has it and on the rare occasions I go to it I play this more then any other game there! I would love to own one.

 

[fennec fox]

As a side-note, any of those recent console takes on collecting virtual replicas of pinball machines worth a damn?

Pinball Hall of Fame is an extremely professional and well-made production, but looking back, none of the actual tables on the disc is any interesting for the casual pinballer (i.e. someone not interested in the pre-solid state era).

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Favorites:

Eight-Ball Deluxe (finest machine ever)
Addams Family
Twilight Zone
ST:TNG (I dominated this machine)
High Speed ("Suspect ran a red light, over!")
The Getaway
White Water (soooo rare to find one in good working condition)
Terminator
Genie
Haunted House
Pinbot
Cyclone
Hurricane


Most of these machines I could keep going after starting with a single credit, back when I was in paractice. I used to play every day, and I got very, very good.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Star Trek: TNG owned. Another favorite:

Edit: smaller pic

 

[Dave Long]

You guys need to get visual pinball and vpinmame.

Do some searches. You can thank me later. Most of those tables are playable and some of them are damn near perfect.

 

[Sho Nuff]

I have NEVER seen a pinball machine in Japan.

EVER.

(Cries)

 

[Parallax Scroll]

You guys need to get visual pinball and vpinmame.

Do some searches. You can thank me later. Most of those tables are playable and some of them are damn near perfect.

It's not even remotely the same.

 

[DarienA]

Over the years I was in to Pinbot, High Speed, and one that hasn't been posted yet called Black Knight.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Yeah, pinball is something you can't do with a fucking video game.

Oh sure, you can pretend it's good. Just like paint chips go well with bean dip.

Nothing will ever beat a good old pinball machine.

I played the heck out of Black Knight, Terminator 2, and The Addams Family.

Good times.

 

[belgurdo]

God, I miss pinball.

I was even tempted to go to the local Big Lots and grab one of those LCD pinball dealies recently (since I used to play the shit out of one as a kid.) maybe I should look into building my own?

 

[Zelda-Bitch]

My friends dad just bought The "Lord of the Rings" pinball machine. I've been playing so much lately my forearms hurt!! Pinball = PURE UNTAINTED FUN!

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Oh wow.

That's cool.

I wonder if any place around here has one?

I've got to go to the mall arcade and spend some time with South Park pinball. I never really got a chance to play it when it was released due to poor maintenance, and it's just good fortune that some place around here has one.

 

[Dave Long]

I know some folks don't like playing pinball on a PC, but when it looks as good as this and plays just like the real thing physics-wise, I sure as heck am not going to complain.

I play the real thing plenty as there's a classic arcade here in Reading, but at home, this will do nicely.

 

[Naked Snake]

Kind of off topic: Anyone played Akira Psycho Pinball for PS2? How is it?

 

[kumanoki]

I second the Twilight Zone Pinball machine. It's my favorite.

 

[Flynn]

I really got into Theater of Magic when I was in college:

 

[Parallax Scroll]

The arcade my hometown used to have was fantastic for pinball. It had 8 or so games at a time (they were cycled pretty frequently), and all of them were set to 5 balls per play. Plus, games came out to 10-20 cents each when you bought tokens $5 at a time. Also the owner kept every game in near-perfect working order.

Yeah, I miss that place.

 

[koam]

 

[LakeEarth]

(clicks thread)
(looks for Fun House)
(mentioned on second post)

(exits thread)

 

[MattKeil]

My favorite pinball game ever:

Amen. This is by far the greatest pinball table I've ever played. If I had the room in my apartment, I'd have a Twilight Zone table in it.

 

[VALIS]

As a side-note, any of those recent console takes on collecting virtual replicas of pinball machines worth a damn?

Takes, plural? There's been more than Pinball Hall of Fame? What are they called?

Pinball HoF is a damn fine title for $20. Interesting extras/gallery items, the tables look great, the physics seem pefect... it's just like nearly every other pinball video game I've ever played, none of the camera angles are ideal. Plenty of credit for trying, though, as there's six angles per table.

 

[SickBoy]

(clicks thread)
(looks for Fun House)
(mentioned on second post)

(exits thread)

Heh.. I feel the same way about Addams Family. So far and away my favourite machine it's not even funny.

A lot of other pretty good ones in this thread, although I must say I'm a fan of the busy up-front tables over the wide opens a la Terminator 2, etc.

Another (older) favorite of mine was Police Force, which a friend of mine got me hooked on in the absence of Addams Family at the university arcade.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

True, videogame pinball is nto the real thing. But is can be a very fun experience.

Is pinmame available for Mac?

 

[VictimOfGrief]

WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE ADAMS FAMILY PICTURES?! THIS IS NOT A PINBALL THREAD WITHOUT THAT MACHINE!

 

[fennec fox]

Yeah, pinball is something you can't do with a fucking video game.

Wah wah wah. Pinmame is still fun, and it certainly beats no pinball, which prevails in most arcades nowadays.

If you are anywhere near San Jose, I encourage you to visit the California Extreme show around September, where you pay an admission fee and play all the pinball (and classic arcade games) you want all weekend.

 

[dog$]

WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE ADAMS FAMILY PICTURES?! THIS IS NOT A PINBALL THREAD WITHOUT THAT MACHINE!

THEY WERE IN THE FIRST REPLY TO THIS THREAD!