=========================================================== The rec.games.pinball Semi-Annual Pinball Poll, Number Four =========================================================== This is the Fourth Semi-Annual Pinball Poll. Of course, you could say that the Semi- has been rather silent, but as I'm no longer quite so busy, the poll will certainly be twice yearly (I promise!). I have been looking forward to this poll for quite a while (and not entirely without trepidation), for it should be the biggest by far. More folk than ever are reading and posting on rec.games.pinball, and the manufacturers are releasing pinball machines faster than ever. It should be interesting to see how the big winners from the last poll fare in this one. Please show your support for rec.games.pinball and your favorite machines by voting. It doesn't matter whether you're a lurker or one of those who run off at the newsreader, your vote is important. Nothing will be done with the votes other than adding them up and posting the results to the net. Once the votes are counted, the ballots will be run through the electron shredder, so your anonymity is guaranteed. The purpose of this poll is to have a little fun, satisfy the curiosity of a lot of people, and to get a feeling for the general preferences of the r.g.p folk. I'm posting this on the 31st of January. I will collect votes until the 14th of February (Monday), and post results by the 25th (Friday). Please mail votes to me, instead of posting replies to the net. Just reply to this post, or you can mail me at: gleeson@unimelb.edu.au Feel free to add any comments to any of your answers, or to post comments to the net. If I get enough comments from these questions, I'll post summaries of those. Note: Previous polls and results are available by anonymous ftp from Kevin Martin's Pinball Archive, ftp.rahul.net (currently 192.160.13.1) in /pub/sigma/pinball/Polls. If people would like to see the previous polls and have problems accessing the ftp site, mail me and I'll send you the polls & results. So, without further ado, *********************************************************************** The Fourth rec.games.pinball Semi-Annual Pinball Poll *********************************************************************** Note: new questions are marked with an '*' -------------------- I. Favorite games -------------------- 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. Number of total votes will also be reported.) *2. What pinball game do you _dislike_ the most? (If you must list more than one, list them in order (most hated first, etc), and I'll assign points accordingly.) 3. What pinball machine do you play the most? (This may not necessarily be your favorite game, probably just the one that eats most of your money) 4. Of the new games released since Funhouse, *including* Funhouse, which one is your favorite? I decided to leave Funhouse as the point of reference for "recent" games. (please, no comments about "the first big plastic gimmick in the middle of the playfield"). Here is the list of games released since Funhouse: Williams Funhouse -------- Machine: The Bride of Pinbot Terminator 2: Judgment Day Hurricane (3rd in the Comet-Cyclone series) The Getaway (High Speed II) Fish Tales White Water Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure Star Trek: The Next Generation Bally Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball ----- Harley Davidson Gilligan's Island Party Zone The Addams Family Black Rose Doctor Who Creature from the Black Lagoon Twilight Zone Bram Stoker's Dracula Judge Dredd Data East Checkpoint --------- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Batman Star Trek 25th Anniversary Hook Lethal Weapon 3 Star Wars Rocky & Bullwinkle Tales from the Crypt Last Action Hero Jurassic Park Premier Title Fight ------- Car Hop Hoops Cactus Jacks Class of 1812 Surf 'n Safari Operation: Thunder Super Mario Bros. Mario Bros. Mushroom World Cue Ball Wizard Street Fighter II Gladiators Tee'd Off Wipeout Alvin G. & Co. World Cup Soccer (two way table) -------------- USA Football Al's Garage Band Goes On A World Tour Please Note: As I haven't seen some of the most recent pins, I may have the manufacturer wrong. So please tell me if I'm wrong or have left any machines out. 5. Which game do you think has the best use of a theme? In terms of integrating the theme into all aspects of the game. The theme doesn't have to be a licensed one. 6. Which pinball manufacturer do your prefer (past or present). 7. Which pinball manufacturers do you dislike (past or present). ------------------------------- II. Rec.games.pinball and you ------------------------------- 8. How closely do the reviews of pinball machines on r.g.p. reflect your own opinions of those games? 1) always disagree 2) usually disagree 3) about half and half 4) usually agree 5) always agree (Meaning the long-winded, full scale reviews, obviously designed to be reviews, *not* the one sentence review saying that some machine sucks or is awesome...) 9. After you read about a machine in r.g.p, how long does it take before you find it in your neighborhood? 1) 1-2 Weeks 2) 2-4 Weeks 3) 4-8 Weeks 4) 2-6 Months 5) 6-12 Months 6) 1-2 Years 7) Never? 10. How long have you been playing pinball? *11. How many pinball machines do you own? *12. How many pinball machines would you like to own? :-) 13. What would you like to see _more_ of in pinball? Replays? Big Scores? Shorter flippers? What do you think? 14. What would you like to see _less_ of in pinball? Replays? Big Scores? Shorter flippers? What do you think? ---------------------- III. Favorite sounds ---------------------- Note on sounds in general - recently sounds have come to be a much more integral part of the game. If you don't know what your favorite sound effects or soundtracks are, go out and play pinball tonight, and listen to the machine. You'll know what you like when you hear it, or when you go around whistling it... 15. What's your favorite sound effect produced by a machine? Please specify the machine (and how to create the sound, if I won't recognize your description of it). Any single contiguous sound effect counts. A sound effect is anything ranging from the "boink" of a bumper, a phrase spoken by a digitized voice, or the extended set of sounds generated when you do something awesome. You could think of this as "best pinball audio moment", as one responder suggested. 16. Which machine has the best soundtrack? If you really can't decide on your single favorite, list your multiple favorites. The soundtrack is either the background music that the machine plays, or the combination of all sounds that it makes, depending on how you feel about soundtracks. -------------------- IV. Favorite shots -------------------- 17. What is your favorite shot? (Define a 'shot' to be a single target, location, or route that you aim for. On The Addams Family, The Electric Chair is a shot, so is the advance X loop, even if it's not specifically a visible target.) *18. What is your favourite shot _sequence_? (A shot sequence is basically a combination of shots. Anything from a Combo in The Addams Family to repeated multiplier loops in Doctor Who.) *19. What is your favourite goal? (Do you dream of touring the Mansion? Or would you rather be LITZ? What pinball zenith are you thinking about when you should be studying/working/etc?) --------------------- V. Next time around --------------------- 20. What questions would you like to see in the next Semi-Annual Poll? *********************************************************************** Please send replies to gleeson@unimelb.edu.au If you want to update your answers during the poll, just send me your new copy, and mention that you had already voted once. The last date to reply to this is Monday, Feb 15th. Thanks for your participation! Marty.