
Star Trek: The Next Generation ST: TNG is from the early 90s Williams line of “widebody” machines with a wider playfield. Best feature: The crate! There’s an interactive crate you can hit a bunch and then break into for a multiball. The objectives are all pretty simple to understand. for a release later this year! Like Monster Bash, newer players can easily learn Scared Stiff. Scared Stiff This is the second of three Elvira-themed pinball machines - the third one was announced by Stern Pinball Inc. Best feature: The greatest theme in pinball, ever - Monsters playing rock and roll. Ramps for The Bride, Loops for the Werewolf, a bash toy for Frankenstein… It’s easy to learn, and actually pretty easy to master. The rules are simple: Hit shots to light each member of the Universal Monsters band. This makes it a great starting machine for pinball players. Monster Bash Monster Bash is another favorite machine, but with perhaps an easier-to-learn ruleset compared to its contemporaries like Medeival Madness and Attack from Mars. Best feature: Shoot the bad guys that pop out of the playfield to start Showdown multiball. Due to an extremely limited run of games, you’ll rarely encounter one in the wild (and it’s super pricey, fetching well north of $10K), so this is a rare chance to really learn this deep, awesome game. Cactus Canyon Cactus Canyon has all of the great features of Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness - with a mediocre art package and theme. Best feature: Pinball players refer to “flow,” or the nature of ramps, loops and other things that return the ball to the flipper gracefully, and quickly. These are the Ocarina of Time and Half-Life 2 of pinball. Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness are so great that they were the subject of full-on remakes in the past few years. Here’s what I recommend you pick up before they're gone on June 30: Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness These two games from the late 90s represent peak Bally/Williams design - and they are pretty similar: They share a central bash toy, a satisfying fan pattern of ramps and loops, and deep, complex rulesets. You can purchase whole seasons (Season 1 is highly recommended, lots of hits.) or packs of two games to get just what you want. Here are some of the machines you should definitely pick up before they are gone. DMD (1991-Present)īut there are plenty of great games from the Solid State era you should also grab. The leftmost column generally will have the most value for players, as games from the DMD era, so-called for the orange dot-matrix displays capable of displaying video-game-like graphics, feature the most complex rules and playfield layouts. First of all, here are the games leaving The Pinball Arcade.
