The 10 Best Pinball Machines Ever Made From 1980 - 1984
The 10 Best Pinball Machines Ever Made From 1980 - 1984
In the early 1980s pinball was booming and these pinball machines represent the best of the best of this exciting pinball era which brought tons of new innovations like multi-level playfields...
Highlights
- In 1980 there were 40 unique game releases; by 1984 that number dropped to 14 due to the video game crash of 1983
- Black Knight sold 13,000 units and changed the industry with features like speech, three-ball lock on upper playfield, and multiball
- Black Knight's upper playfield design became a widely-copied template, spawning inferior knockoffs like Split Second, Solar Fire, Jungle Lord, BMX, and Italian Zachariah games
- Keith Elwin re-educated Tim Sexton about Frontier's quality and hidden design depth
- Sea Witch was later remade by Stern Pinball as The Beatles, and Dean Grover added a special mode allowing players to play the original Sea Witch rule set on The Beatles game
- Space Shuttle sold 7,000 units in 1984 during the video game crash, which was considered miraculous at the time
- Stargazer by Stern Electronics had fewer than 1,000 units produced, making it a rare machine despite its quality
- Flash Gordon's design redeemed the upper playfield concept that had become oversaturated with poor clones
- Keith Elwin and Escher Loff played a famous Flash Gordon tournament final where Escher defeated Keith by 6,000 points on a game reaching 1.5 to 1.49 million points
- Time Fantasy's 'time shot' mechanic (spelling TIME at left target) was later copied by programmers including Lyman Sheets on The Walking Dead, Keith Elwin on Iron Maiden, and Tim Sexton on Rush
Notable quotes
“What happened was a little thing known as the video game crash of 1983.”
“When this game rolled into the bar or bowling alley, it blew the minds of hundreds of thousands of pinball players. No one had really ever seen something like this.”
“That's the Black Knight template. That's what everyone was copying off of.”
“That was until I was re-educated by none other than Keith Elwin to learn that this game is actually amazing.”
“Space Shuttle sold 7,000 units, which was an absolute miracle at the time.”
“Flash Gordon is the best game made during this time period in pinball.”
“Upper playfields were redeemed. At least they were in this one moment.”
Entities
- Bally· company
- Stern Electronics· company
- Williams· company
- Alien Poker· game
- Black Knight· game
- Centaur· game
- Eightball Deluxe· game
- Fathom· game
- Flash Gordon· game
- Frontier· game
- Iron Maiden· game
- Rush· game
- Sea Witch· game
- Space Shuttle· game
- Stargazer· game
- The Beatles· game
- The Walking Dead· game
- Time Fantasy· game
- Dean Grover· person
- Escher Loff· person
- Keith Elwin· person
- Lyman Sheets· person
- Tim Sexton· person
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