Episode 105 - Pinball Hindsight Awards 1991

1991 Pinball Hindsight Awards: DMD year sees Bride of Pinbot, T2 dominate legacy categories.

Synopsis

Wedgehead A Pinball Podcast third Pinball Hindsight Awards episode analyzes 1991 releases, a landmark year featuring DMD debuts (Checkpoint, Gilligan's Island), video modes, and licensed games. The hosts award honors across art, design, sound, mechanics, and software to games like Bride of Pinbot, Terminator 2, and Surf and Safari, establishing legacy-focused criteria distinct from contemporary popularity.

Highlights

• Checkpoint was the first pinball machine with a DMD (dot matrix display), though a smaller version; Gilligan's Island was the first with a full-size DMD
• Checkpoint was also the first game with an automatic ball launcher
• Terminator 2 was the first fan layout game in pinball
• Williams sued Data East over Lethal Weapon 3 for being too similar to Terminator 2's design
• Terminator 2 has a quirk where a ball sitting in the shooter lane produces repetitive bleeping that detracts from the sound design
• 1991 saw a shift toward more family-friendly pinball themes compared to the 1980s bar-oriented focus
• Bride of Pinbot's designer is John Trudeau, not Barry Oursler (who designed the original Pinbot)
• Terminator 2 sold over 15,000 units

Entities

• Bride of Pinbot· game
• Checkpoint· game
• Gilligan's Island· game
• Hoops· game
• Party Zone· game
• Star Trek· game
• Surf 'n Safari· game
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles· game
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day· game
• Barry Oursler· person
• Chris Granner· person
• Craig Beerwaltz· person
• Dan Forden· person
• Dwight Sullivan· person
• Harry Williams· person
• Joe Kaminkow· person
• John Crutch· person
• John Norris· person
• John Trudeau· person
• Kevin O'Connor· person
• Lyman F. Sheets· person
• Paul Ferris· person
• Python Angelo· person
• Steve Ritchie· person