Finally, here it is - the long awaited result to the Rec.Games.Pinball 1991 Semi-Annual Pinball Poll! There were a total of 52 respondents. I think that's a fairly large response. I'm certainly glad there weren't more... :) Thanks to all that responded. Thanks in particular to Edward Oliveri, Curt Sampson, John Yeates (Lord Yak Da Hairy), and Bill Adoerfer for their help with the designer/artist question. Summarizing responses on most of the questions was interesting. Many posters included extra information and opinions, and I tried to give as many of those credit as possible. For example, when someone said, "Well, I really like Funhouse and The Simpsons, but if forced to choose, I'd take The Simpsons", then I gave credit for both Funhouse and The Simpsons. (No one actually said that, by the way... :) Keep in mind that the poll went out in mid-April, which was before Gilligan's Island, The Machine Bride of Pinbot, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were widely distributed. There were no big surprises, but there's lots of interesting info. See for yourself.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. What are your favorite three pinball games? (In order of preference, most favorite first.) (Scoring - 3 points for your 1st favorite, 2 points for your next favorite, and 1 point for your 3rd favorite. If you really can't decide on three, include the other(s) and they will each get 1/2 a point.) The results are listed both with total points, and total number of votes. Interestingly, either way puts the machines in very similar order. | # of votes: Total Points | 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Funhouse 69.5 13 13 4 1 31 Black Knight 2000 29.5 7 3 2 1 13 Whirlwind 21.5 2 5 5 1 13 Black Knight 17.5 2 4 3 1 10 Earthshaker 15 3 1 4 0 8 Elvira 14.5 4 1 0 1 6 Taxi 11.5 2 1 3 1 7 Comet 10 2 1 2 0 5 High Speed 9 1 1 4 0 6 Fire Power I 9 2 1 1 0 4 Paragon 8 2 1 0 0 3 Diner 8 0 3 0 2 5 Pinbot 7 1 2 0 0 3 Swords Of Fury 6 0 2 2 0 4 F14 Tomcat 6 1 1 1 0 3 Cyclone 5.5 1 0 2 1 4 Space Station 5 1 0 2 0 3 Dr. Dude 5 1 1 0 0 2 Phantor of the Opera 4.5 1 0 1 1 3 Wizard 3 1 0 0 0 1 Torpedo Alley 3 1 0 0 0 1 Space Shuttle 3 0 1 1 0 2 Space Invaders 3 0 1 1 0 2 Pop-A-Card 3 1 0 0 0 1 Flash Gordon 3 1 0 0 0 1 Fire 3 0 1 1 0 2 Black Out 3 1 0 0 0 1 Banzai Run 3 1 0 0 0 1 Back to the Future 3 1 0 0 0 1 Eight Ball Deluxe 2.5 0 0 2 1 3 Silverball Mania 2 0 0 2 0 2 Pro Pool 2 0 1 0 0 1 Laser War 2 0 1 0 0 1 Heavy Metal Meltdown 2 0 1 0 0 1 Firepower II 2 0 1 0 0 1 Checkpoint 2 0 1 0 0 1 Black Hole 2 0 1 0 0 1 Varkon 1 0 0 1 0 1 Sing Along 1 0 0 1 0 1 Party Animal 1 0 0 1 0 1 Millionaire 1 0 0 1 0 1 Hollywood Bowl 1 0 0 1 0 1 Harlem Globetrotters 1 0 0 1 0 1 El Durado 1 0 0 1 0 1 And with 1 vote each in the 4th place category (total points .5): Xenon, Stellar Wars, Seawitch, Old Chicago, Night Rider, Lights Camera Action, Haunted House, Genesis, Flash, Centaur, Captain Fantastic. 2. What pinball machine do you play the most? (This isn't necessarily your favorite game - I can't even *find* my favorite game.) Name # of votes ----------------- --------- Funhouse 23 Whirlwind 4 High Speed 3 Black Knight 2000 2 F14 Tomcat 2 And with one vote apiece: Black Knight, Earthshaker, Fire Power I, Paragon, Swords Of Fury, Dr. Dude, Cyclone, Fire, Banzai Run, Checkpoint, Time Machine, The Simpsons, Rollergames, Power Play, Hot Hand, Four Aces, El Dorado, Deadly Weapon, City Slicker. 3. Which pinball manafacturer do your prefer (past or present). Manafacturer Votes ------------ ----- Williams 41 Bally 10 Gottlieb 5 Data East 1 Stern 1 Interestingly, this prompted many respondents to name companies that they can't stand... Manafacturer Can't Stand ------------ ----------- Data East 5 Gottlieb 3 Williams 1 Keep in mind that these votes weren't even asked for, so these are fairly strong opinions. 4. Who is your favorite pinball designer? This turned out to be a hard question to judge, simply because I didn't know enough to put all the votes together. This is the question that made the results so late. I still don't have all the data together, but here's what I've got. Many respondents didn't answer this question at all. However, those that did tended to *really* answer it... Designer Votes Machines designed --------------- ----- ------------------------ Steve Ritchie 19 Black Knight 2000, Black Knight, Firepower, High Speed, F-14 Tomcat, Rollergames, Flash Superman Pat Lawlor 18 Funhouse, Whirlwind, Earthshaker, Banzai Run Python Anghelo 7 The Machine Bride of Pinbot, Diner, Bad Cats, Police Force, Pinbot, Taxi, Cyclone, Comet, Big Guns Barry Oursler 5 Cyclone, Pinbot Mark Ritchie 4 Taxi, Fire, Diner, Police Force Greg Kmiec 3 Paragon, Wizard, Captain Fantastic, Xenon, City Slicker, Power Play... The Elvira Team 2 (Nordman, Freres, Penacho, Grannes, Pugh, Patla and Ritchie) The Dr. Dude Team 1 ??? Design Team #28 1 (Kaminkow, Fernandez, Rudolph, Thorne) Data East Harry Williams 1 *The* Williams - over 600 games. Also, 1 vote for Krutsch, who did Mechanix on most recent Williams, and 1 vote for Pfutz who seems to have done software on nearly everything Williams... Comments - "Whomever designed Firepower should be enshrined as High Lord of Pinball". Well, looks like he was... Most of Steve Ritchie's votes were from people who knew who he was. Most of Pat Lawlor's were for "the guy who did Whirlwind". Any errors in the above lists are my fault. Please let me know if you have more information. 5. Who is your favorite pinball artist? I had basically the same problem here as with number 4, although there were less responses. Again, I don't have all the data, so I'll present what I've got. The list of machines for each artist, is by no means comprehensive. I'd like to find out who did what, so if anyone has more info, let me know. Artist Votes Machines done by artist --------------- ----- ------------------------ Paul Faris 10 Paragon, Phantom of the Opera, Centaur, Space Invaders, Lost World, Xenon, Viking Playboy (Bally). Doug Watson 5 Black Knight 2000, Barracorra, Pool Sharks, Swords of Fury, Cybernaut. John Youssi 5 Whirlwind, Police Force. Python Anghelo 3 Police Force, Bugs Bunny. Dave Christansen 3 Fireball, Nitro Groundshaker, Wizard, ... Jim Elliot 3 Earthshaker. Hudson Graphics 3 Funhouse, Playboy (Data East). O'Connor Assoc. 2 Funhouse. Pat Mahon 1 City Slicker. ?? 1 Elvira. ?? 1 Embryo. ?? 1 Mata Hari. 6. Which pinball game do you like the least (hate the most)? Machine Votes ------------- ----- The Simpsons 16 Bugs Bunny 2 Fire 2 High Speed 2 And with one vote each: Arena, Back to the Future, Big Guns, Checkpoint, Comet, Cyclone, Dr. Dude, F-14, Flash, Funhouse, Harley, Heavy Metal Meltdown, Jokerz, Lazer War, Middle Earth, Monday Night Football, Pac Man Jr., Pinbot, Silver Slugger, Solar Ride, Stratoflite, Torpedo Alley, Travel Time, Tri Zone, Truck Stop, X's & O's. 7. How many pinball machines do you own? Number of machines owned number of people ------------------------ ---------------- 121 1 40 1 20 1 15 1 6 1 5 2 4 1 3 1 2 3 1 7 0 32 In other words, most people who own a machine only own one. Most of those people want at least one more... 8. How many pinball machines would you like to own? Number of machines wanted people ------------------------- ------- all of them 2 (I guess they'll have to share...) 1250 1 (is this all of them? :) 120 1 50 2 10 4 7 2 6 3 5 2 4 7 3 9 2 11 1 1 0 2 Interesting points - Only one person would be satisfied with just one machine. Everyone who said they had a machine for question 7 said they would like to own more... it's a never-ending cycle, folks! Most people gave a range, say from 2 to 4. I put the average in. The actual average, (excluding the guys who own warehouses), is right around 3. 9. Do you prefer solid-state or electro-mechanical games? Solid state: 30 Electro-mechanical: 11 And, from comments given in the responses - Prefer to play SS, but work on EM: 4 Prefer *not* to work on EM: 3 The answers here indicate that we have a number of pinball players who have been around pinball for a long time, and new players who haven't even seen an electro-mech. This is good - it makes for interesting discussions. 10. (Cheap Shot Question) Do you like Data East's "Solid State Flippers"? No: 33 No opinion: 6 Yes: 4 Who cares?: 3 Some interesting comments given by various responders: The phrase "putrescent garbage" comes to mind. Wretched, evil, and totally wrong. Other than that, they're not bad! Only when they're sitting in the used parts box, having been replaced by real flipper mechanisms. Lots of variances on "good idea, really really bad implementation". 11. What questions would you like to see added to the next Semi-Annual Pinball Poll? Most of the suggestions here would provoke interesting discussion, but aren't really appropriate for a poll format. These include topics like "most memorable save", and "what do you think of free games being removed". Most of these are very good questions, and I encourage people to post them - rec.games.pinball seems to be fairly slow lately. Others seem very operator-dependent, like "What is the hardest game to play?" "What is your highest score?" A few questions that were suggested several times, and would make good sense to ask: 1. Which game has the best music? 2. Which game has the best sound effects? And others, that I would like to hear other people's opinions on, as to their suitability or answerability: 1. Best use of a theme? (Funhouse, Comet, Cyclone, for example) 2. How long have you been playing pinball? 3. What type of place do you play at the most? (arcade, bar, home...) 4. Which pinball machines do you own? 5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how nice are you to machines (11= don't actually touch it to play it, 0=flip the machine over your shoulder every time it drains.) 6. Favorite feature? 7. Favorite shots? And then, the purely humourous questions: 1. Have you ever lost a quarter between the metal and the glass? 2. Have you ever lost *another* one? 3. Have you ever injured yourself while playing pinball? That's it. Thanks to all who responded. Let's do it again sometime... -r'm Re'my Evard Overworked Grad Student, CS Dept, U of Oregon remy@cs.uoregon.edu Systems Staff evard@mcs.anl.gov