My second day at Pinburgh was a full day affair. I wanted to put as much time on as many games as possible. The match play tournament was heating up and there was a long list of pins I had really been looking forward to checking out.

Avatar was high on my list of pins to play as I had never played it before. Everything I heard about it was pretty negative. Looking at the machine, I’m digging the shades of blue, but I’m not a fan of the 3D backglass. It’s weird looking and a bit distracting. The biggest problem with this game is the actual layout and design. When the ball comes through the top rollovers and through the pop bumpers it drains SDTM I’d say close to 50% of the time. I can’t defend or understand how this design was acceptable through numerous test phases. Has a rough left outlane without rubber as well. The game would be pretty good without these flaws. The AMP suit is a pretty cool toy and it is a tight shot. The modes, audio and DMD animations are good too. I feel the same way about Avatar as I do Lord of the Rings. Saw the movie once, liked it, but that’s enough for me. If you loved the movie, you’ll like the game more. Take away the design snafus and this is a solid game, but the way it is, it’s like an ex-girlfriend. You might remember them fondly and want to see them again, but when you do, you know exactly why things didn’t work out. GRADE: C

The Six Million Dollar Man‘s biggest attraction is…you guessed it, the ability to have 6 players play at once. It also is one of the 1st machines to have a Television tie-in and since it is an early Solid State and all electronic, it’s one of the 1st machines to feature switch tests. Everything else about the machine is pretty average. Nothing stands out of note. Hit the drop targets, spinners, and center hole, advance the bonus and shoot for extra balls and specials. I never watched the Six Million Dollar Man on television so the them does nothing for me. Has a “play more” post in between the flippers. It’s a shame that the bionic score is 50,000 and not 6,000,000. GRADE: C

Speak Easy has a lot of interesting features. I don’t know how successful they were because I haven’t seen them on other games, but good for pinball designer George Christian for trying something different. The targets in the center of the playfield 10-J-Q-K-A are “flyaway targets” that when hit go up. The objective is to hit the targets in sequence. The game has a “sacrifice” feature where at the start of each ball you can hit an an extra button along the left side of the cabinet which allows the player to cancel any cards that were made out of sequence. The price is 25,000 points. This is specific to the 5-6-7-8-9 top rollover sequence. Making that in sequence adds 2 balls. It also features a spinning wheel under the playfield that rewards points and adds a ball and will even subtract a ball lady luck passes you by. The flyer for the game is shockingly creepy. The game play was just okay, but I liked the different innovations the game has to offer. GRADE: B-

WHO Dunnit is a really fun and unique experience when it comes to pinball. You’re a detective gathering evidence, solving cases trying to catch the killer. Once you pick the right suspect there’s an exciting chase on the roof. The game has a great layout (has an elevator ramp where when you hit it the ball can go one of three ways) and a unique feel to it. It features a slot machine and a roulette wheel where you can bet big chunks of your score (the murders happen in a casino, a nifty tie-in) WHO Dunnit really makes great use of the DMD and its audio as well. Might be a top 10 game of all time if it featured a wizard mode. It does have a midnight madness mode. If you haven’t played W?D I highly recommend it. GRADE: A-

Grand Slam is the only other game to feature “fly away” targets and it’s pretty amazing that I played the 2 games that have them (Grand Slam & Speak Easy) almost back to back. I really like the idea of them because you can get the ball up into the upper playfield easier and it opens it up. I don’t know why they didn’t catch on. Hit the H-O-M-E-R targets in order to score a home run. Hit different targets to score a triple, hit the spinner to advance the runners. Like most baseball games you score runs and points. The Zaxxon like audio is the only real fault with the game. GRADE: B+

CSI is based on the wildly popular television show Crime Scene Investigation which spawned two spin-offs (Miami, New York) and has been a fixture on television over the past decade. This game has some cool features one of which is the ball lock for the skull multiball. They lock in the eyes and the skull raises and dumps them for the start of the multiball. Very nice. There’s the centrifuge shot that spins the ball around similarly to the mix master in Dr. Dude. Enough hits in there will start the Centrifuge multiball. There’s a microscope multiball as well, and once you shoot the microscope you try to hit different shot to collect evidence. There’s no wizard mode, but there’s a wizard shot that becomes available once you get all three multiballs that is worth 50 million points. The photo shopped backglass and artwork on the playfield is a big let down, but the machine has a good overall look. Tough skill shot as well. It’s fun to play, but I don’t know if it would hold my interest for an extended period of time. GRADE: B-

Stingray is an early solid state from Stern and it stands out due to it’s colorful and exquisite artwork which features a bevy of bikini beauties. Hit the center kickout hole to light the spinner, get extra balls and score a double bonus. Knock down the drop targets once lights the special outlanes. Do it twice on the same ball to light the special target on the upper right of the playfield. It is a tight tough shot and rewarding when you hit it. Great chime audio as well. Good stuff. GRADE: B

Goldeneye was another game that was very high on my “pins to play” list and there’s a lot to like about it. I think it has possibly the nicest and most fitting cabinet artwork of any machine I’ve seen to date and I appreciate the original artwork by Paul Farris even if some of the people drawn look like zombies. The signature shot of the game is the satellite dish which is a fantastic addition. A ramp pops up on the playfield and you shoot the satellite dish for multiball. Another very cool feature is the ball save which is a magnet that hurtles the ball back onto the playfield. Another unique feature is “eject or die.” It lights in the outlanes and if you drain that way the ball gets flung back onto the playfield and you have 6 seconds to hit the “eject” target or you the flippers go dead and you lost the ball. The game features 3 ramps, 3 multiballs, 5 modes, 4 mini modes, and very cool wizard mode that I haven’t come close to. Goldeneye has some fun easter eggs as well. During the first ball and initial DMD animation of Bond turning pull the trigger to watch Bond get stripped down to his skivvies or a variety of other shenanigans. Can’t wait to play more Goldeneye in the near future. GRADE: B+

Pinball Champ ’82 is another game made by Zaccaria and they spared no expense when it came to vibrant colors. It looks like a rainbow exploded on the playfield. Note the hot pink cabinet. The pinball champs of Italy circa 1982 were a bit muscular than the Pinburgh pinball participants. The PAPA players have stronger flipper fingers. This Zacarria’s first game to feature 2 playfields. In this game it’s all about knocking down targets to earn time and them shooting the ball into the upper playfield via a scoop that is a tough shot. Then score big points in the timed upper playfield. This game has a 10X, 20X and even a 50X bonus scoring and don’t forget about the extra time/4 ball which seems to be standard on Zaccaria games. GRADE: B-

NASCAR by Stern is a solid game. When you shoot the ball out of the trough it makes laps around the playfield. A very cool feature which can get a bit annoying after a while. You start modes by hitting the ball into the garage which is blocked by a “test car” that looks like they got it from the dollar store. You try to pass different racers by shooting different shots completing the different modes, starting the multiball. The game is fast and there is a lot to do. Great racing sounds and original audio by Allen Bestwick, a NBA NASCAR analyst. The game also has songs like “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar. The DMD animations and video modes leave a lot to be desired. The international version is Grand Prix and they made a Dale Jr. version two years later. GRADE: B

Zig Zag is an EM made by Williams in 1964. There are 3 kickout holes in the center of the playfield that when lit rack colored balls into the back box. You can also do this by hitting the upper center rollover or the outlanes (both when lit) Get all 9 balls racked and light the center kickout hole for a special. Hit the A-B-C-D rollovers to light outlane specials. A lot of nudging going on here with the two huge bottom slings. Tough to get the ball back into the upper playfield. Decent, colorful artwork. GRADE: C+

Zag is a word that must have been popular in the 1960s that has since then gone out of fashion. Because the next game I played was MiniZag, an EM by Bally. The machine features hipster girls dancing a la American Bandstand. Has really nice retro artwork. The game features zipper flippers and a “zagger” lane which activates a captive ball which scores points. Enable this by hitting one of 2 “way out” saucers. Spelling G-R-O-O-V-Y lights different spotlights in the backbox. It has a good layout and is challenging, but I found it to be a drain monster due to the zipper flippers. Sometimes you don’t even get a chance to flip before the ball drains. GRADE: C+

300 is a bowling theme pin and not a pin based on King Leonidas and the Spartan army although that would make a pretty cool machine. Much like Zig Zag you rack balls in the backbox which turn into bonus. Hit the spinner in the center for points and balls are racked. Also hit the kickout holes for mystery bonus or to collect. Artwork leaves a lot to be desired, but a fun game to play. GRADE: C+

Back to a bank of Zaccaria machines, it was time to check out Devil Riders. The cyclist does a loop in the backbox every time you enter the upper playfield. There are drop targets that the upper ramp actually rests on, so when you knock down the targets, the ramp lowers and you can shoot the upper playfield. Another super colorful machine from Zaccaria, this one with hues of blue and purple. This also has the flippers built into the outlanes for saves, but it is not an easy thing to do. Your timing has to be perfect. Stuntbike theme is cool, but putting circus clowns on the machine is a detractor for me. GRADE: B-

Time Machine has the unique feature of a “rising playfield.” Once you hit a certain number of targets and hit the “time hole” the pop bumpers raise onto the playfield and there’s more targets and specials to hit. I found it extremely difficult to do and with out this part of the playfield, you just shoot at these numbered targets 1 through 7 at the very top of the playfield and it will tell you “to the left” and “to the right.” The rising playfield is cool, but I wish they did more with it and that the game played better when the playfield was down. Good looking backglass with lightning marred by creepy wizard. GRADE: C

Soccer Kings played the best out of all the Zaccaria pinball machines I had the good fortune of playing at Pinburgh. It features an upper playfield where you shoot on goal, a precursor to WCS94. The number of shots you get on goal is dependent on hitting the different drop targets on the playfield. Also hit the center scoop to light the team photo. Light all of the teammates for super scoring. The artwork is goofy and the sound of the speech is bizarre, but it plays really well. GRADE: B

The definition of a “Blue Chip” per the Websters dictionary is “a stock issue of high investment quality that usually pertains to a substantial well-established company and enjoys public confidence in its worth and stability.” Yes this artwork features a stock ticker, but it also shows scientists and welders without their shirts and surveyors and farms. INDUSTRY!!! It’s such a bizarre theme, but the game plays really great. The objective is to light 1 through 8 and build the bonus up as this is a bonus heavy game. Be careful with the 4-5-6 targets in the center of the playfield, they build the bonus but the shots can lead to center drains big time. Don’t let the theme deter you, Blue Chip is a player’s machine. GRADE: B+

Middle Earth was the first Atari pinball machine I had ever played. I never knew Atari made pinball machines as I was only familiar with their video game consoles. I was five years old when I got my Atari 2600 and it was actually a birthday gift for my father from my sister and me. He set it up and might have played Pac-Man once, and then it was mine. I still owe him a proper gift.

Middle Earth features some phenomenal artwork done by George Opperman (he designed the Atari Logo). The scoreboard is located on the lower left hand corner of the cabinet, which you can look at as you flip. It’s a widebody with a pretty poor design. Two sets of flippers, not symmetrical when you shoot the ball from the lower flippers, they hit the upper flippers most of the time. Two banks of drop targets advance bonus and light extra balls and specials. The ball just kind off floats around on this machine, no real flow. Flipper setup makes everything kind of random. I would love to make a coffee table of the playfield. GRADE: C

Right next to Middle Earth was another Atari pinball machine Time 2000 which amazingly has a worse layout than Middle Earth. It has two sets of flippers right next to each other! The theme is fantasy related with some sort of time element as you collect bonus via AM and PM on clocks. Nice color scheme, but bland artwork. A widebody should only be made if you can’t fit all of the stuff onto a regular playfield and this game is so wide open with very little to shoot for. Kudos for Atari trying something different with the flippers, but it does not work. GRADE: D+

Vegas is another one of 6 street level games made by Gottlieb (no ramps, cheap production, lower price). I’m not crazy about the hot pink cabinet and all over the playfield and this feels circa 1983, not 1990. The game has extremely unbalanced scoring as you want to shoot the left loop repeatedly to rack up the points and bonuses. Vegas has other features like a slot machine and drop targets, but if it’s a high score you want, left loop (which is a pretty easy shot) is all you’ll be shooting. GRADE: C

The Amazing Spiderman features gorgeous artwork that stays true to its comic book roots. It’s a shame Stern didn’t adopt the same philosophy instead of the photoshop. Spiderman is a widebody with 4 flippers and has standard play for its time, drop targets, rollovers advance the bonus etc. Sound is underwhelming beeps and boops. Artwork alone elevates this game and makes it more fun to play. GRADE: B

Throughout my academic career I received one F in 7th grade for band. I quit the band a couple weeks into the school year and it was an elective so I got an F. I never thought I would give a pinball machine an F, because I believe that they all have redeeming qualities. I was mistaken. Disco Fever by Williams is an F. It has these ridiculous banana flippers that make shots extremely difficult, but not in a challenging way. It’s more annoying. The ball is hard to cradle and make flipper passes. Time Warp was the only other game to feature them, and that’s good for pinball as a whole. The playfield is wide open with not much to shoot for and disco theme is dreadful. The worst pinball machine I have ever played. GRADE: F

Derby Day is similar to a game I played earlier called Winner where you shoot the targets 1-6 to advance the horses and try to win the race scoring replays if successful. This one has 4 mini flippers and is a drain monster with a huge center outlane. The smaller flippers make it harder to make shots, hit numbers and advance the horses. Derby Day was made in 1967, Winner in 1972, and in those 5 years they improved with better flipper technology. Still fun to play. GRADE: C+

Star Trek by Data East was the 2nd pinball machine based on franchise and the 2nd that I played and I liked a lot about it. Has a very cool backglass with the patented “Transporter Effect” which utilizes moving double layered semi-transparent pictures. Great artwork with a superb color scheme. While the game isn’t super deep, it has a good layout and it’s fun to play. Ramps are well placed, two banks of drop targets necessary to advance the game and a center sinkhole with a moving target. I was killing it at Pinburgh, getting my initials on the machine, so I was really enjoying it. GRADE: B

I used to know a girl in college who had a basement full of VCR tapes that her father taped from television. 1000’s of movies, sporting events and television shows. It took up most of the basement. The other thing she had in her basement was a Star Wars Trilogy pinball machine. I used to love to go her house. Star Wars Trilogy is a great looking machine with good audio and I’m a big fan of the Carbonite Han Solo. The layout and gameplay are not super involving although there are 2 multiballs, 6 modes and a Return of the Jedi wizard mode that I haven’t gotten to yet. It wasn’t a game that I left thinking about, but if you are a Star Wars fan like me, it’s hard not to like. Hopefully I’ll put some more time on it this year. GRADE: B-

I grew up greatly enjoying South Park and I still watch it to this day. When South Park was released in1999 by Sega it was wildly successful and added to the the short lived success of Pinball 2000. I think it is the funniest and best integrated commercially themed pinball machine ever. The audio, toys, DMD animations, artwork are all perfect for the machine. The 3rd pinball machine I’ve played with a toilet on the playfield (keep your eyes peeled for Mr. Hanky). It features the typical fan layout and shooting the different shots a number of times to start the modes (a la Monster Bash), standard pinball layout, but it’s fun to advance through the game. I would like to own one of these machines one day until I get sick of it. If you like South Park, I can’t see how you can dislike this game. GRADE: A-

When I turned 21 in 1998, my friend Craig and I used to frequent Atlantic City to play Texas Hold ‘Em at the Taj Mahal. My first trip to Las Vegas I stayed at the MGM Grand because the travel guide said it had the largest poker room in the world. When I went, they had closed it. Poker was not popular and the casinos made more $ on the slot machines. It wasn’t until 2003 when ESPN decided to provide blanket coverage to the WSOP $10,000 No-Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament and the most unlikely amateur Chris Moneymaker won. His book Moneymaker is a fascinating read and if you like poker you should definitely check it out. Poker rose from the ashes to be on television on some station any time of day. Baseball card companies made poker trading cards and they even went as far as to make WSOP air fresheners. “Have your car smell like that sweaty guy with the stogie!”

Poker and card games have always lent themselves to pinball, so Stern made World Poker Tour in 2006. The backglass is hideous and the playfield art is busy and forgettable. The playfield is extremely wide open with a ton of drop targets. The ramps are tough shots. The upper mini-playfield is bland and there isn’t much to do. Where the game shines is the game play. You start with a hand and there’s the flop, turn and river, just like in real Texas Hold ‘Em (all shown on the playfield via a digital screen) and it’s difficult to advance through the WSOP cities. Hitting certain drop targets to make hands is challenging and there are also 6 modes in the “Poker Corner” that you try to complete which add the jackpots for the Wizard mode (I haven’t sniffed the Wizard mode). I wish there was a little bit more going on playfield wise, but I think the game is deep, challenging, different and fun. If you like poker and pinball and can stand awful artwork, play a few hands of World Poker Tour. GRADE: B

I have a true love hate relationship with Stern’s Wheel of Fortune. I love the theme. I grew up watching the Wheel my entire life. I remember when they had to pick prizes out of showcases and when they would only have $250 left they would be stuck buying a ceramic giraffe. I have loved Vanna White my whole life. A true ageless beauty.

I’m so happy that Stern would make this machine. Unfortunately, they never finished the code and to me that is unforgivable. It shows right on the playfield the prize bank and the Wizard Bonus, but there is no Wizard mode and it doesn’t seem like there ever will be. People say, the game’s so deep, you’ll never get to the Wizard mode, but it would be like if I ripped out the last chapter of a book or took the steering wheel out of a car. They have updates for computers and GPS’, let’s have one for Wheel of Fortune.

Another that is extraordinarily disappointing is having Lonnie, Maria, and Keith guess the letters for the puzzles. The most fun about wheel of fortune is trying to solve the puzzles and there is no way this feature should be missing from the game. I want to solve the puzzle, not watch someone solve it.

I like the spinning money wheel and flow of the game. The ramps are fast, and they artwork and light show is so bright that this game would probably be banned in Japan just like that “Everyone Wang Chung” music video that gave everyone seizures during the mid 1980s. It does has a double center outlane which is a throwback to the old EMs, but I grew to like it and you can hone your nudging skills. Another cool feature is the you can earn free spins which light in the left and right outlanes. If you lose the ball but they are lit, you get the ball back.

Wheel of Fortune is fun and has some things going for it, but when you play it, all you really think is how this game could have been so much better. GRADE: C+

Varkon is a pinball machine that fits in a traditional arcade cabinet which I’m sure was designed to save space for the footprint of the arcades. Regular pinball machines take up more space meaning you can have less hence make less money. You use joysticks to operate the flippers. Due to some amazing optical illusion and a mirror it looks like the playfield is vertical but it is really flat. Only 90 of this game was made. There isn’t that much to do, but it’s interesting to play for a bit. I can see why it didn’t catch on. GRADE: C

Pharaoh is another one of the 4 double level pins Williams made in the early 1980s (Black Knight, Solar Fire, & Jungle Lord were the other 3) and this game has beautiful artwork and a great color scheme. The game play is decent, but I’m not the biggest fan of these split level games. Depending on the strength of the flippers it’s hard to get the ball back to the upper playfield and sometimes those metal ramps send the balls SDTM. The upper playfield has a decent amount to do (spell P-H-A-R-A-O-H hitting the captive ball, two banks of drop targets, a spot target and a kick-out hole). If two or more players play, the person with the high score gets a timed bonus ball. My favorite of the 4 is still Solar Fire, but Pharaoh looks the best and is pretty good. GRADE: B

The Cleopatra I played at Pinburgh was the 4 person solid-state version. There is also a 4 person EM version as well as a 2 person EM version which was called Pyramid. It has a beautiful backglass. The idea of the game is to hit the different colored rollovers and their corresponding drop targets to build the bonus. Nothing really to shoot for other than 5 drop target bank in the center which can lead to drains STDM. Average at best. GRADE: C

Straight Shooter is a challenging and fun woodrail from Gottlieb that was made in 1959. It features 4 flippers, two traditional lower ones and two in the upper part of the playfield which are perpendicular to the other ones. There is a matrix of three rollunders that you need to shoot with these flippers to advance the different colored lights. Light 3 in a row on the lamp matrix for specials. The A-B-C-D rollovers also light specials. One of the best from its time periods. GRADE: B+

Andromeda by Game Plan was the last game I played on a pinball packed Saturday and it’s a magnificent looking game. Busty alien women with 4 eyes, and pop bumper caps to match?! You can’t beat that! The machine has a great layout with a double right outlane and no outlane on the left side, but instead a 4th pop bumper. Two banks of drop targets with a tunnel shot in between. Features a multiball as well. Only 500 made. Would love to add one of these to my collection. GRADE: B+